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Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ?????????, Riga, 1892 – September 10, 1937) was a Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda. He graduated 1916 from the department of law at Moscow University. He began to publish in 1913 and just before the Russian Revolution he became associated with the ego-futurists. Soon after the publication of Iron Pause, he became heavily involved in the Siberian futurist movement known as Creation along with artists such as Nikolay Aseyev and David Burlyuk. Perhaps his most famous play at the time was Roar China!, which attacked Western imperialism.

In 1924 Sergei Tretyakov made a lengthy visit to China where he taught Russian literature and collected materials for some of his later publications. Tretyakov also wrote the controversial "I Want a Baby" ("I Want a Child") (1926) , which has seen recent performances in Europe and America. He was a key contributor to the constructivist journal LEF, (1923-1925) and co-edited the Novyi LEF (New LEF) magazine (1927-1928). Between 1930 and 1931 he travelled in Germany, Denmark, and Austria. Before he fell foul of the authorities he translated and popularised other European writers such as Bertolt Brecht. Brecht was also familiar with Tretyakov's literary work, and even mounted an adaptation of Tretyakov's "I Want a Baby" .

Tretyakov was arrested by Stalin's NKVD on July 27, 1937 and charged with espionage. He was eventually executed later that year as part of the USSR's Great Purge. However, in the introduction to the English publication of 'I Want a Baby', Robert Leach says it seems that in a last act of defiance he threw himself to his death down the stairwell at Butyrka prison. During the 1960's, Tretyakov was posthumously rehabilitate along with many other victims of Stalin's purge.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sergei Tretyakov", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0