Bedny, Demian (1883-1945)

Soviet poet and propagandist. He was a member of the Bolshevik party from 1912. His simple verses, in the form of pithy slogans and satirical attacks on class enemies, were very popular during the Civil War and in the 1920s. Bedny came to be regarded as the unofficial poet laureate of the revolution by Lenin and Trotsky, although his opera libretto Bogatyri/The Warriors 1936 was criticized.