Alexander Serafimovich (born Alexander Serafimovich Popov; ; O.S. January 7 ( N.S. January 19), 1863 – January 19, 1949) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

writer and a member of the Moscow literary group Sreda.

Biography

He was born in a

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

village on the

Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

. His father served as a paymaster in a Cossack regiment. He attended a grammar school, then studied in the Physics and Mathematics faculty of

St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

. During his time at the university, he became friends with

Aleksandr Ulyanov Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov (; – ) was a Russian revolutionary and political activist who was executed for planning an assassination against Alexander III of Russia. He was the elder brother of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union; ...

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's older brother, who introduced him to

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. He was later exiled to Mezen, a town in northern Russia, for spreading revolutionary propaganda. While in exile he wrote his first story, which was published in ''

Russkie Vedomosti ''Russkiye Vedomosti'' () was a Russian liberal daily newspaper, published in Moscow from 1863 till 1918. Founded in Moscow in 1863 by Nikolai Pavlov, it was edited by Nikolai Skvortsov (1866-1882) and by Vasily Sobolevsky, in 1882–1912. Aft ...

''. It was then that he began using the pseudonym "Serafimovich".In the Depths: Russian Stories, Raduga Publishers, 1987. After his exile ended, he spent many years living under

police supervision Police supervision or police monitoring is a form of additional punishment and crime prevention. The regulations vary for various countries. A common feature was restriction and control of the place of residence of the supervised person. In certain ...

. In 1902, he moved to Moscow and became a member of the literary group " Sreda" (Wednesday). During World War I, he was a war correspondent for ''Russkie Vedomosti''. At the start of the

1917 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a civil war. It ...

he joined the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

, and became a member of the Russian Communist Party (b). In 1918, he became the literary editor of ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

''. His best known work of this time is the novel ''The Iron Flood'' (1924) set during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and based on a real incident of the Red Taman Army escaping encirclement by the enemy

Whites White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...

. He also wrote a stage adaptation of ''The Iron Flood'', which was produced by Nikolay Okhlopkov at the in Moscow and was the subject of several film proposals by

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

. ''The Iron Flood'' was widely translated into a variety of languages, such as Korean and used to advance Soviet and Communist ideology. After ''The Iron Flood'', he published stories, sketches and plays about the building of the

state and the growth of Soviet culture. From November 1926 to August 1929 Serafimovich was the editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Oktyabr''. In 1927 he was the first to read the manuscript of

Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...

's novel ''

And Quiet Flows the Don ''And Quiet Flows the Don'' (''Quiet Flows the Don'' or ''The Silent Don'', ) is a novel in four volumes by Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov. The first three volumes were written from 1925 to 1932 and published in the Soviet magazine '' Okty ...

'' and published the book in the magazine in 1928. In 1934, he was elected to the governing board of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

. He died in Moscow in 1949.

Legacy

Serafimovich's works were praised by many of his fellow writers.

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

especially appreciated his talent, introducing him into the Sreda group in Moscow and publishing his works in the '' Znanie'' collections.

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

liked his short novel ''Sand''. The Nobel Laureate

said of him:

"Serafimovich was a great man, a real artist whose stories are near and dear to us; he was one of that generation of writers from whom we learned in our youth."Introduction to ''Sand and Other Stories'' by Serafimovich, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow.

Vladimir Korolenko Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (, ; 27 July 1853 – 25 December 1921) was a Russian writer, journalist and humanitarian of Ukrainian origin. His best-known work includes the short novel '' The Blind Musician'' (1886), as well as numerous shor ...

said of Serafimovich's first story ''On the Ice'' (1889):

"Splendid language, full of imagery, terse and powerful, the descriptions bright and lucid."

Awards and honors

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1933) * Stalin Prize, 1st class (1943) - for long-term excellence in literature *

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

(1939) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(1943) *

Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" The Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" () was a World War II civilian labour award of the Soviet Union established on June 6, 1945 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to recognise the valian ...

According to Alexander Serafimovich article at Ru.wikipedia.

English translations

*''The Iron Flood'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1956. *''Sand and Other Stories'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1956. *''Nikita'', ''The Little Miner'' and ''Bombs'', from ''In the Depths'', Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1987.

References

External links

SovLit, encyclopedia of Soviet writers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serafimovich, Alexander 1863 births 1949 deaths 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century Russian male writers People from Don Host Oblast Saint Petersburg State University alumni Members of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Bolsheviks Socialist realism writers Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet magazine editors Soviet male writers Soviet Marxists Soviet novelists Soviet short story writers Writers from the Russian Empire Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery