Aleksandr Volkov

Alexander Melentyevich Volkov (Russian: Александр Мелентьевич Волков [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr mʲɪˈlʲenʲtʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈvolkəf]; 14 June 1891 – 3 July 1977) was a Soviet novelist, playwright, university lecturer. He was an author of novels, short stories, plays and poems for children, mostly remembered for the Magic Land series of books, based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Volkov was born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk Oblast, Russian Empire (now Oskemen, Kazakhstan). At the age of 12 he graduated from the Ust-Kamenogorsk town school as valedictorian, where he would later teach. In 1907 he entered the Tomsk Teachers Institute. In 1909 he graduated with right to teach all subjects of the school curriculum, except for the Law of God.

He began to work as a teacher in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Starting in 1910, he worked as a mathematics teacher in the village of Kolyvan. In the 1920s he moved to Yaroslavl, where he worked as a school principal. He graduated in absentia from the mathematical faculty of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute.

In 1929 he moved to Moscow, where he worked as the head teacher of the rabfak. He completed coursework and passed the external examinations at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University in seven months.

Starting in 1931 he worked as teacher, and later as Docent of the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.