Alexander Mezhirov

Who was Alexander Mezhirov?

Alexander Petrovich Mezhirov was a Soviet and Russian poet, translator and critic.

Mezhirov was among what has been called a "middle generation" of Soviet poets that ignored themes of communist "world revolution" and instead focused on Soviet and Russian patriotism. Many of them specialized in patriotic lyrics, particularly its military aspects. According to G. S. Smith, Mezhirov and a number of other "middle generation" poets "were genuine poets whose testimony, however well-laundered, to the tribulations of their times will endure at least as long as their generation." Some of Mezhirov's lyrical poems based on his wartime experience belong with the best Russian poetical works created in the Soviet 1950s-1960s.