Korniichuk, Oleksandr

Oleksandr Yevdokymovych Korniychuk (Russian: Алекса́ндр Евдоки́мович Корнейчу́к; Ukrainian: Олександр Євдокимович Корнійчук; 25 May [O.S. 12 May] 1905 – 14 May 1972) was a Soviet and Ukrainian playwright, literary critic and state official. His plays include The Death of the Squadron (1933), Platon Krechet (1934), Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1938), his pro-collectivization comedy In the Steppes of Ukraine (1940), and The Front (1942). Korniychuk was a five-time Stalin Prize laureate (1941; 1942; 1943; 1949; 1951) and is regarded as a major proponent of Socialist Realism in Soviet drama. Korniychuk served as the head of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR from 1943 to 1945. He was also a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1952–1972), and the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1947–1953; 1959–1972).