Nikolai Zabolotsky (1903-1058) was a major Soviet poet. Fame came to him with the publication of his book of verse entitled “Columns” (1929). The main theme of Zabolotsky’s poetry is Nature and its ties with Man, approached from a philosophical point of view. At first (until the 1930s) lie seemed most strongly aware of the destructive character of Nature, perceiving it in a pantheistic and mythological light. Then a new theme appeared: reason bringing harmony into the sanguinary contradictions of blind Nature. In the middle of the 1960s (his best poems of this period are "Peasant Spokesmen”, "The Opposition of Mars”, "TIte Ugly Girl" and "Last Love”) Zabolotsky turned to socio-psyehological problems and strove for classic lucidity and better balanced imagery. His Russian translations of Georgian poetry also earned him high praise.