Nicholas Kalashnikoff

Nicholas A. Kalashnikoff was born in Siberia. During the 1900s, he studied philosophy and history at Moscow University before joining the 1905 Russian Revolution. He spent four years of his adult life under political exile and during that period, he participated in an expedition to the far north, where he encountered the setting for his most popular book, The Defender. He then became an Army captain for Russia during World War I and a Siberian general throughout the Russian Civil War. After a few years living in China, Kalashnikoff became an American citizen in 1930, and in 1939, he published his autobiography They That Take the Sword. From there, he began writing children’s books and additional adult literature during the 1950s. The Defender was named a Newbery Honor in 1952.