Aleksandr Abramovich Drakokhrust (Russian: Алекса́ндр Абра́мович Дракохру́ст, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕ drəkɐˈxrust] ^ⓘ; November 11, 1923 – November 14, 2008) ^[1] was a Russian language poet, journalist and translator from the Soviet Union.

Drakokhrust was born in Moscow, into the Jewish family of Rachel Karachunskaya and Abram Drakokhrust, a soldier. ^{[2] [3]}

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was conscripted into the Soviet Army and served until the very end of the war in sapper ( combat engineering) troops, including taking part in the Battle of Berlin. Although he was a young able-bodied conscript, he was not allowed to serve in arms, being a family member of a "traitor to the motherland"; his father was repressed in 1937, accused of being a Trotskyite, and shot. His mother served nine years in the Karlag gulag labor camp for the same reason. ^[3]

For his service, he was awarded two Orders of the Patriotic War, two Orders of the Red Star and a number of medals. In 1945, he graduated from the Moscow Mititary Engineering School. From 1946 he became a military correspondent, first in Germany, later in the Russian Far East, and finally in Belarus. In 1962, he graduated from Khabarovsk Pedagogical Institute. ^[2]

He published his first poem in 1939, in an Odessa newspaper Molodaya Gvardiya. His first book of poems was published in 1951 in Vladivostok. During 1950-1990 he published 16 books of poems. He also translated a number of Belarusian poets into the Russian language. ^[2]

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