Ludmila Azarova

Ludmila Azarova (11th of April 1935, Moscow, Russian SFSR – 22nd of May 2012, Riga, Republic of Latvia)  – a poet, a translator and an editor.

She was born in Moscow. From 1945 had lived in Latvia. In 1957 Ludmila Azarova graduated from the faculty of history and philology of the Latvian State University and began to work in the editorial office of the newspaper “Rigas Balss” as a translator from Latvian. In 1960s she was a special correspondent of a number of Moscow newspapers in Latvia, including “Literaturnaya gazeta”, which was noted among intellectuals. In 1974-1990 she had been working as an editor in the publishing house “Liesma”.

Ludmila Azarova published her poems in 1960s, which appealed to the readers with their lyric, exciting mood and poetic language.

L. Azarova gained popularity not only due to her collections of poetry, but also as a translator from Latvian to Russian, including the works of her spouse, a famous Latvian poet Ojārs Vācietis.

She also translated other famous Latvian poets: Jānis Rainis, A. Čaks, M. Kempe, I. Ziedonis.

At the end of 1980s Ludmila Azarova got involved into the social life of our republic, participated in the struggle for the state independence of Latvia.

Ludmila Azarova was awarded the Order of Three  Stars (1995), was elected an honorary member of  Latvian Academy of Sciences and also received other awards.