Poet Yevtushenko Hospitalized in Russia After Fall

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who achieved a rock-star level of fame during the Soviet era, was hospitalized on December 14 after a fall during a visit to the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

The 81-year-old Yevtushenko, who divides his time between the United States and Russia, has arrived in Rostov on December 13 for a reading.

The region's senior health official said on December 14 that Yevtushenko was in stable condition and that the state of his health "corresponds to his age."

Yevtushenko's poems have been translated into several languages and sold millions of copies.

A member of the outspoken "shestidesyatniki" generation, he criticised Soviet actions such as the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

But he was criticized by fellow poet Joseph Brodsky, who said in 1987 that Yevtushenko "throws stones only in directions that are officially sanctioned and approved."

Yevtushenko has spent much of the past two decades in the United States and has been teaching at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

Based on reporting by TASS and AFP