Agniya Barto

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Agniya Lvovna Barto, (February 17 [O.S. February 4] 1906 Moscow - April 1, 1981 Moscow), was a Soviet Jewish poet and children's writer. Agniya was born Getel Leybovna Volova to the jewish family of a Moscow veterinarian named Lev Nikolaevich Volov. She studied at a ballet school. She liked poetry very much and soon started to write her own, trying to imitate Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Mayakovsky. At her graduation ceremony from the ballet school she read her poetry, among the guests was the Minister for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who pronounced that instead of the career of a ballerina she should be a professional poet.