Nikolai Pogodin

Pogodin, Nikolai Fedorovich [ Nikolai Fedorovich Stukalov] (1900–62), prolific Soviet dramatist, writing mostly in the style of Socialist Realism. He was originally a journalist, and his first play Tempo (1930) was a documentary on building. His best-known work Aristocrats (1934), dealing with the regeneration of a number of petty criminals engaged on the construction of a canal from the Baltic to the White Sea, was produced at the Realistic Theatre. Both plays were published in English translations and Aristocrats was produced in London at Unity Theatre in 1937. Of his other plays the most successful was Poem about an Axe (1931), produced by Popov, as was My Friend (1932). Two war plays, Moscow Nights (1942) and The Ferryboat Girl (1943), were also well received. He wrote a trilogy based on the life of Lenin—The Man with a Gun (1937), The Kremlin Chimes (1942), and The Third, Pathétique (1958). A revised version of The Kremlin Chimes was produced in 1956 and performed in London by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1964. His other works include A Petrarchan Sonnet (1957), somewhat more critical of the regime, and The Little Student (1959).

Nikolai Pogodin , pseud. of Nikolai Feodorovich Stukalov , 1900-1962, Russian dramatist. Pogodin wrote many colorful, optimistic, and popular plays generally dealing with the theme of man's conquest of the machine. In Tempo (1930, tr. 1936), a play concerning the Five-Year-Plan period, an American engineer helps speed up tractor production. In The Aristocrats (1935, tr. 1937) Pogodin depicts the rehabilitation of criminals in a labor camp. All of his plays are noted for their hearty good humor and reverence for the common man.