Nika Turbina

Nika Georgievna Turbina (17 December 1974, Yalta — 11 May 2002) was a Soviet and Russophone Ukrainian poet. She became famous for her profound and emotional poems which she wrote at an early age. She started writing poetry at the age of 6 and published her first book in 1984, at the age of 10. A recording of her recitations sold over 30,000 copies in the then Soviet Union. 

Nika wrote her first complete poem at age of 4. Two years later, she was discovered by writer Yulian Semyonov who spent part of the year in her hometown of Yalta. Turbina's talent set her apart from her classmates in school, where she was learning ahead of her grade. She studied the piano and her favorite subject was mathematics, which she seen as akin to verses.

At the age of 10, Turbina published her first book, First Draft, with an introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko in 1984. Translations of her First Draft have been published in France, Italy and Britain.

She died at the age of 28 after accidentally falling down from a window.