Yan Larri

{{Short description|Soviet writer}}

Yan Leopoldivich Larri ({{langx|ru|Ян Леопольдович Ларри}}; February 15, 1900 – March 18, 1977) was a Soviet children's writer of Latvian descent. He is best known for children's science fiction novel {{ill|The Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Valya|ru|Необыкновенные приключения Карика и Вали}}.Евгений Викторович Харитонов, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090312234141/http://lib.rin.ru/doc/i/131034p1.html Ларри Ян Леопольдович - Приключения писателя-фантаста в "Стране счастливых"], Detskaya Literatura, 2001, no. 4, pp. 101-105[https://web.archive.org/web/20080407213052/www.belousenko.com/wr_Dicharov_Raspyatye1_Larri.htm Ян Леопольдович Ларри][https://prodetlit.ru/index.php/Ларри_Ян_Леопольдович Ларри Ян Леопольдович][https://archivsf.narod.ru/1900/yan_larry/index.htm Ларри Ян Леопольдович]

In 1941 he was arrested and imprisoned for an unusual act. Larri started writing a science fiction novel A Guest from the Sky ({{lang|ru|Небесный гость}}) and sending its chapters directly to Joseph Stalin. In the novel an alien visits the Soviet Union and his naive questions and commentaries constitute the criticism of the Soviet life.