Biography

Boris Shergin is Russian and Soviet writer, folklorist, publicist and artist, known mainly for stories from the life of Pomors.

He was born in Arkhangelsk. Shergin's father, a hereditary seaman and ship master, passed on to his son the gift of a narrator and a passion for all "art"; his mother introduced him to the folk poetry of the Russian North. Since childhood, comprehended the moral order, life and culture of Pomerania. He drew ornaments and headpieces from old books, learned to paint icons in the Pomeranian style, painted utensils; even in his school years he began to collect and record northern folk tales, epics, songs. He studied at the Arkhangelsk male provincial gymnasium (1903-1912); studied at the Stroganov Central School of Industrial Art (1913-1917). He worked as a restorer, managed the art part of the craft workshop, contributed to the revival of the northern crafts (in particular, the Kholmogory bone carving technique), was engaged in archaeographic work.

In 1922, he finally moved to Moscow; he worked at the Institute for Children's Reading of the People's Commissariat for Education, spoke with stories about the folk culture of the North with the fulfillment of fairy tales and epics in front of a diverse, mainly children's, audience. Since 1934 - at a professional literary work, at the same time joined the Union of Writers of the USSR.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bazza the Beast

In Arkhangelsk there is a sculpture of the writer with bare feet, with which he seems to absorb the power of the Pomeranian land.