Vera Inber

Vera Mikhailovna Inber (10 July 1890 – 11 November 1972) was a Soviet writer, poet, translator and playwright.

Biography Early life and family background Inber was born as Vera Moiseevna Shpenster on July 10, 1890 to a middle-class Jewish family in Odesa. Her mother, Fanni Solomonovna, served as the head of a state school for Jewish girls.

Inber obtained her early education in Odesa, having attended the Sholp Gymnasium, followed by the Pashkovskaya Gymnasium. Her career began around the time she published her first poetry collection in Paris, "Melancholy Wine" (1914). She joined the Literary Center of Constructivists in 1924,

Inber’s travels to Scandinavia in 1934 further displayed her image as a Soviet writer promoting the achievements of socialism abroad. However, she was the subject of a prominent 1939 literary controversy surrounding her "lyrical diary" which documented her travels to Georgia in a poetic voice.

World War II and the Siege of Leningrad

On August 24, 1942, Inber recorded in her diary the hardships of life in besieged Leningrad, where she had endured hunger, cold, and bombardment for a year.

English translationsMaya, from Such a Simple Thing and Other Stories, FLPH, Moscow, 1959. from Archive.orgThe Death of Luna, from Soviet Short Stories: A Penguin Parallel Text, Penguin, 1963.Leningrad Diary, Hutchinson, UK, 1971.Lalla's Interests, from Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida'', Penguin Classics, 2005.