Kataev, Valentin Petrovich (1897–1986)

Russian writer. His work divides into three distinct periods. In his first phase, Kataev wrote mainly parody and humour; for example, the picaresque novel Raztratchiki/The Embezzlers 1926 and a play about housing shortages, Kvadratura kruga/Squaring the Circle 1928. After 1930, his work conformed to the principles of socialist realism. From 1964 onwards, he wrote in a new idiom of associative recollections, as in Trava zabveniia/The Grass of Oblivion 1967.

His socialist realist works include the novel Vremia, vpered/Time, Forward 1932, about a Soviet workforce's efforts to fulfil a five-year plan, and the partly autobiographical Beleet parus odinokii/Lone White Sail 1936, portraying a childhood in Odessa, Ukraine, where Kataev was born and educated. He was the brother of the humorist Evgeni Petrov.