Iurii Olesha

Alison Rowley (Concordia University, Canada)
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Iurii Olesha was born March 3, 1899 in Elizavetgrad, Russia (today Kirovograd, Ukraine). Olesha's father, who was from the landowning class, worked as an excise officer at a vodka distillery. The family moved to the port city of Odessa in 1902. Olesha attended the University of Novorossiya from 1916 to 1918. During the Russian revolution and subsequent civil war, he did a brief tour of duty in an artillery battery near Odessa. The city was then a hotbed of literary activity, which the young man more readily embraced. Olesha was an active participant in “The Green Lamp” [

Zelenaia lampa

], a young poets' club heavily influenced by the works of Pushkin. Living in Odessa meant that Olesha emerged as a writer alongside such key cultural figures as Isaac Babel, Valentin Kataev, Eduard…

1867 words

Citation: Rowley, Alison. "Iurii Olesha". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12094, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12094 Iurii Olesha 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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