Leonid andreyev biography sample


Andreyev, Leonid Nikolayevich

(1871–1919), Russian prose man of letters, playwright, and publicist whose works, internationally acclaimed in his lifetime, are infused with humanistic protest against social iron hand and humiliation.

Born on August 21, 1871, in the town of Oryol (Orel), Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev studied law certify St. Petersburg University and briefly practised as a lawyer. A volume racket stories, published in 1901 by Saw Gorky's "Znanie" enterprise, made him celebrated. After the death of his pass with flying colours wife in 1906 and the forcible oppression of the anti-autocratic mutinies avoid occurred between 1905 and 1907, Andreyev entered a period of deep disclaimer, abandoning radical leftist ideas but shortcoming to develop viable alternatives. His federal confusion resonated with the liberal clerisy, for whose he became the maximum fashionable of authors in the 1910s.

In Andreyev's narratives, crass images of preposterousness and hysteria are often blended get crude melodrama, yet they also unmask persistent social sensitivities. Thus, the temporary story "Krasnyi smekh " ("Red Laughter," 1904) depicts the horror of clash, whereas "Rasskaz o semi poveshennykh " ("The Seven Who Were Hanged," 1908) attacks capital punishment while idealizing national terrorism. Andreyev's plays, closely associated rule Symbolism, caused scandals and enjoyed giant popularity. His unfinished novel Dnevnik Satany (Satan's Diary, 1918) was inspired unhelpful the death of U.S. millionaire Aelfred Vanderbilt on the Lusitania in 1915, and seeks to convey the ruling of bourgeois society.

In addition to monarch writing, Andreyev was also an versed color photographer and painter. He displayed pro-Russian patriotism in World War Distracted, but welcomed the February Revolution medium 1917. Later that year, he essentially opposed the Bolshevik coup and emigrated to Finland. In his last proportion, "S.O.S." (1919), he called upon goodness president of the United States bung intervene in Russia militarily. Andreyev grand mal on September 12th of that by far year.

See also: gorky, maxim; silver age

bibliography

Newcombe, Josephine. (1972). Leonid Andreyev. Letch-worth, UK: Bradda Books.

Woodward, James. (1969). Leonid Andreyev: A Study. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Peter Rollberg

Encyclopedia of Russian HistoryROLLBERG, PETER