it was still far from ideal I kept working hard and trying over and over. No matter how strong is the man's will and his commitment to the goal, no matter how great is his effort, the true success is never guaranteed. Poetry, like any kind of arts, requires talent, gift, sense of mission. And it is quite hard to evaluate your own poems because your sight here is the most biased one.... I will never forget that first of May 1948, and the extent of my happiness as I held in my hand an issue of Ogonyok magazine which I bought by the House of Scientists and which had my poems typed on its pages. That's it, MY poems, not anyone else's! Celebrating marchers were passing by me and still I was probably more celebrating than anyone in Moscow!" In 1946 Eduard entered the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, from which he graduated with honour in 1951. In the same year his first collection of poems named "Path of Light" was published. Subsequently, Asadov became a member of the Communist Party of the USSR and the Union of Writers. He later lived in the writers' village Krasnovidovo. He died in Odintsovo on 21 April 2004. His tomb is in Moscow's Kuntsevo Cemetery. The poet's will specified that his heart was to be buried in the Sapun Mountain in Sevastopol, but according to representatives of the Sapun Mountain Museum his will was never fulfilled because of the family's objections. References External links Eduard Asadov. Love Poems Eduard Asadov poetry at Stihipoeta.ru Collection of Poems by Eduard Asadov (English Translations) Eduard Asadov. http://grani.ru/Culture/Literature/m.67885.html http://www.lib.ru/POEZIQ/ASADOW/ Russian male poets 1923 births 2004 deaths Russian blind people Russian people of Armenian descent Soviet poets 20th-century Russian poets Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Blind writers Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni