Yuz Aleshkovsky, one of the Soviet Union's best-known dissident writers, has died in the United States at the age of 92.
Aleshkovsky's son, Aleksei Aleshkovsky, said on March 21 that his father had died in Tampa, Florida.
Generations of Soviet citizens knew Aleshkovsky's popular songs, such as Comrade Stalin, You Are Big Scholar, even though they were not officially allowed to be performed.
Aleshkovsky was born in Siberia and was sentenced to four years in prison in 1949 while serving in the Soviet Army on a charge of car hijacking. Aleshkovsky drew from his years of experience in the Soviet prison system to write his songs and books.
Although his works about life in Soviet prisons were not allowed to be officially staged, they became very popular across the country. People learned them by heart and distributed them via audiotapes, even though few knew who the author was.
Later, Aleshkovsky became known for several children's books, as well as for scripts he wrote for movies for teenagers in the 1970s.
After his verses about the gulag system were published in an underground samizdat publication, Aleshkovsky was forced to emigrate to Austria and then eventually to the United States.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Aleshkovsky would visit Russia and take part in various television projects. In 1995, he and a popular Russian rock musician, Andrei Makarevich, recorded an album titled Okurochek (A Little Cigarette Butt).
Aleshkovsky also participated in dozens of radio programs for RFE/RL's Russian Service.