Boris Ruchyov

Boris Krivoshchyokov was born on June 15 [O.S. June 2] 1913, in Troitsk, Troitsky Uyezd, Orenburg Governorate, Russian Empire. His father, Alexander Ivanovich Krivoshchyokov [ru] (1882-1957), was a teacher.

After a not very successful start as a young poet, in 1930 he decides to become a construction worker at Magnitostroy, the constriction project of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. While working there, he continued his poetic works, now at the pen name, Boris Ruchyov. Soon he started gaining recognition. In 1937 he was falsely accused of a counter-revolutionary crime and in 1938 sentenced to 10 years of Gulag labor camps in accordance with Article 58. He served his time in Sevvostlag. He is one of the poets thought to be the author of the "unofficial Gulag anthem", Vaninsky port. After the release he was forbidden to settle in major cities. In 1956 he was rehabilitated, in 1957 he was restored in the rights of a poet and returned to the city of his youth, Magnitogorsk. After a while he became a recognized Soviet poet.

• Order of the October Revolution (1973)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice (1963, 1967)
• Maxim Gorky RSFSR State Prize [ru] in literature (1967)
• Honorary citizen of Magnitogorsk (1969)