Evgeny Chirikov

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Evgeny Chirikov
Born(1864-08-05)August 5, 1864
Kazan, Russia
DiedJanuary 18, 1932(1932-01-18) (aged 67)
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Genrefiction, drama
Notable worksThe Jews
The Life of Tarkhanov

Evgeny Nikolayevich Chirikov (Russian: Евге́ний Никола́евич Чи́риков; 5 August 1864 – 18 January 1932), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, and publicist.

Biography

Chirikov was born in

Nizhni Novgorod. He was arrested in January 1888 for writing and publicly performing an antimonarchist poem, and in 1892 for his involvement in a group of young followers of Narodnaya Volya.[1] He lived in several cities during this time, always under police surveillance.[2][3]

His first articles appeared in the Kazan newspaper Volga Herald in 1885. He published his first story Red in January 1886, in the same paper. That same year, he met

Nikolai Chernyshevsky. He continued to publish his works in the provincial papers until 1894, when one of his stories was accepted by Nikolay Mikhaylovsky for publication in the Saint Petersburg magazine Russkoye Bogatstvo. This publication allowed Chirikov to begin publishing in other major magazines, including Vestnik Evropy and Severny Vestnik.[1]

In the 1890s he moved to

Alexander Levitov. His works of the late 1890s and early 1900s began to be critical of the Populist movement, drawing negative criticism from Mikhaylovsky and fellow Populist Alexander Skabichevsky, and breaking Chirikov's connection with Russkoye Bogatstvo. In 1900-1901 Chirikov contributed to the magazine Life, which also published works by Gorky and Vladimir Lenin.[1]

Ilia Repin
, 1906

After the closing of Life in 1901, he was drawn into the Znanie Publishing Company (Knowledge), by Gorky, which published his collected works in 1908. Chirikov also became a shareholder in Znanie.[2][3] His most important play The Jews (1903), was directed against national oppression and repression, and the autocratic Tsarist regime. The value of this play, which gained praise from Maxim Gorky, was determined not so much by its artistic qualities, as the relevance of its issues. Its journalistic sharpness, clear demarcation of social characters, and progressive ideological outlook demonstrated an affinity with the dramatic works of Gorky. The play was banned from production on the Russian stage, but was widely performed abroad (Germany, Austria, France and other countries).[1]

The significant ideological and creative growth that Chirikov experienced in the period of the

Revolution of 1905 testified to his powerful concern for the social and political problems of the time. In the story "The Rebels" (1905), the drama The Guys (1905), and the story "Comrade" (1906), he was able to faithfully capture the widespread growth of the revolutionary struggle, and the confusion of the authorities under the onslaught of a powerful popular movement.[1]

In the years after the 1905 Revolution, Chirikhov began to disagree with the various changing positions of the revolutionary period: these ideological fluctuations had a negative impact on the writer, leading to his alienation from the revolutionary movement. Chirikov left Znanie and began to publish in decadent journals and collections. This move was regarded by his Marxist friends Gorky, Anatoly Lunacharsky, and Vatslav Vorovsky as an ideological apostasy. Chirikov's departure from the realist tradition started with the publication of his plays Red Lights and Legend of the old castle (both 1907), written under the strong influence of Leonid Andreyev. He next published a series of stories on religious themes ("Temptation", "Devi mountains", etc.), and the play Forest Secrets (1911), styled after the works of Aleksey Remizov. However, Chirikov did not give up his attempts at realism, publishing an autobiographical trilogy of novels entitled The Life of Tarkhanov (1911 - 1914), which included the novels Youth, Exile, and The Return (he later wrote a fourth part, Family).[1]

The

Russian Revolution of 1917. He died in Prague in 1932.[2][3]

English translations

Chirikov at his desk by Ivan Kulikov, 1904.
  • "Faust", from Short Story Classics (Foreign) Volume 1, P.F. Collier, 1907. from Archive.org
  • "The Past", from The Russian Review, Vol 3, No 1, January 1917.
  • Marka of the Pits, Alston Rivers, London, 1930.
  • "Bound Over", and "The Magician", from Eight Great Russian Short Stories, A Premier Book, Fawcett Publications, 1962.
  • "Faust", and "Strained Relations", from Russian Short Stories, Senate, 1995.

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Nikolayev, A. (1990). "Bibliographic Dictionary of Russian Writers, Vol 2" (in Russian). lib.ru. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia". The Gale Group. 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  3. ^ . Retrieved June 26, 2012.