Vikenty Veresayev

Vikenty Vikentyevich Smidovich (16 January 1867 – 3 June 1945), better known by his pen name Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev, (russian: Вике́нтий Вике́нтьевич Вереса́ев) was a Russian and Soviet writer, translator and medical doctor of Polish descent.

Early life

Veresaev was born in Tula, where his father was a doctor and noble of Polish origin. Veresaev was a cousin of the later prominent Soviet politician, Pyotr Smidovich. After graduating from the Tula gymnasium in 1884, he attended Saint Petersburg University, taking a master's degree in history in 1888. He then enrolled in University of Dorpat/Yuryev and successfully completed a course in medicine. His first work to appear in print was a collection of poems in 1885. His first short story, "The Puzzle", was published in 1887. In 1890 he toured the coal mines of Donetsk with his brother, gathering material for a collection of sketches called ''The Underground Kingdom'', detailing the struggles and hardships of the exploited miners, which he published in 1892.

Literary career

During the 1890s, Veresaev joined a group known as the Legal Marxists, and he published works in such journals as ''New Word'', ''Inception'' and ''Life''. During this period he wrote a cycle of works concerning the intelligentsia’s frame of mind at the turn of the 20th century, including the novella ''Without a Road'' (1895), the short story "The Craze" (1898) and the novella ''At the Turning Point'' (1902). He also wrote about the difficult position of the Russian peasantry, such as in the short story "Lizar" (1899) which was praised by Vladimir Lenin. His short story "On a Dead-end Road" (1896) and the novella ''Two Ends'' (1899–1903) were devoted to the life of the workers.

During the first decade of the 20th century Veresaev was a member of the Sreda (Wednesday) literary group and published his works in Maxim Gorky's Znanie collections. He published his most successful book, the semi-autobiographical ''Memoirs of a Physician'' in 1901, in which he sharply criticized the system of Russian medical education. In April 1901 he was dismissed from the hospital where he'd been working because of his political views, and was forbidden to live in Moscow or Saint Petersburg for a period of two years.

In 1904, at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, he joined the army as a doctor. He told of his experiences in his book ''In the War'', published in 1906. In this work he showed the heroism of Russian soldiers and officers and, at the same time, the corruption of the tsarist army.

Veresaev also wrote a long critical and philosophical work entitled ''Vital Life'', the first book of which (1910) was devoted to a comparative analysis of Fyodor Dostoevsky (''Man Accursed'') and Leo Tolstoy (''Long Live the Whole World!''); the second book, ''Apollo and Dionysius'' (1915), was a critique of Friedrich Nietzsche's views. In 1911 Veresaev established the Pisately v Moskve Publishing House which he headed until 1918.

Later life

After the October Revolution, which he welcomed, he devoted much of his time to cultural development and education. He also completed his cycle of works about the intelligentsia, including the novels ''The Deadlock'' (1922) and ''The Sisters'' (1933). Despite that ''The Deadlock'' was frequently published during 1920s, these two novels were banned by the Soviet censors in 1930s and not republished until the Perestroika. He published his reminiscences ''In the Years of My Youth'' in 1927 and ''In My Student Years'' in 1929. He also translated works by ancient Greek and Roman authors, including Homer’s Hymns, Sappho, Archilochus and others. At the end of the 1930s he began to translate the Iliad (published in 1949) and the Odyssey (published in 1953).

For his outstanding achievements in the field of literature Veresaev was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1945. He was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. He died in Moscow in June 1945.

Works

Novels

* ''The Deadlock'' (1922)
* ''The Sisters'' (1933)

Short stories

* ''The Salt Pit'' (collection)

Memoirs and autobiographical works

*''Memoirs of a Physician'' (1900)
*''In the War'' (1908)

English translations

*''Memoirs of a Physician'', (autobiography), Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1916
from Archive.org
*''In the War'', Mitchell Kennerley, New York, 1917
from Archive.org
*''The Deadlock'', Faber & Gwyer, 1927.
**''The Deadlock'', Hyperion Press, 1974.
*''The Sisters'', 1933
**''Sisters'', Hyperion Press, 1974.
* "In the Steppe", (story), from ''The Salt Pit'', Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1988.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veresaev, Vikenty
1867 births
1945 deaths
People from Tula, Russia
People from Tulsky Uyezd
Male biographers
Military writers from the Russian Empire
Physicians from the Russian Empire
Translators of Homer
Russian biographers
Russian Marxists
Russian male novelists
Russian male short story writers
Russian male writers
Russian medical writers
Russian memoirists
Russian translators
Soviet male writers
Soviet Marxists
Soviet novelists
Soviet short story writers
Soviet translators
19th-century pseudonymous writers
19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century translators from the Russian Empire
20th-century pseudonymous writers
20th-century Russian male writers
20th-century Russian short story writers
20th-century Russian translators
Saint Petersburg State University alumni
University of Tartu alumni
Stalin Prize winners
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War
Russian military personnel of World War I
Military doctors of the Russian Empire