Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (; October 25, 1852 – November 2, 1912) was a Russian writer. He is most well known for his novels and short stories about life in the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

Biography

Early life

Mamin-Sibiryak was born in Visim,

Perm Governorate Perm Governorate (), also known as the Governorate of Perm, was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR from 1781 to 1923. It was located on both slopes of the Ural Mountains, and its admi ...

in the Urals (in present-day

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblastʹ, p=svʲɪrdˈlofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the c ...

), into the family of a factory priest. He was first educated at home, and then studied in the Visim school for worker's children. He later attended the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary (1866–1868) and the Perm Theological Seminary (until 1872). In 1872 he entered the veterinary section of the

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Medical Academy. In 1876, not having finished the academy, he transferred to the Law Faculty of St Petersburg University. He studied there for one year and then left, due to health (the beginning of tuberculosis) and financial difficulties. In the summer of 1877, he returned to his family in the Urals. His father died the following year and all the difficulties of the family fell on Mamin-Sibiryak.The Cambridge History of Russian Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1996. In order to find work and educate his brothers and sister the family moved to the large cultural center of Yekaterinburg. There, he married Maria Alekseeva who became his literary adviser as well as his spouse and friend. During these years, he made numerous trips around the Ural region and studied its history, economics, ethnography, and daily life. From the beginning of the 1880s, he was occupied with literary work. In 1890, he divorced his first wife and married the actress Maria Abramova from the Yekaterinburg Dramatic Theatre and moved to St Petersburg. Abramova died a year later in childbirth, leaving a sick daughter, Alyonushka, in the arms of a distraught father.

Career

A series of travel sketches ''From the Urals to Moscow'' (1881–1882) were published in the Moscow newspaper ''Russkie Vedemosti'' (Russian News). Then his sketches ''In the Mountains'' and stories ''At the Border of Asia'' and ''In Bad Souls'' were published in the journal ''Delo''. Many were signed with the pseudonym D. Sibiryak. Sibiryak means "Siberian" in Russian. Dmitry later explained how his friends gave him the name:

"I first tried out the names 'Rasskazov' (from the word rasskazy, meaning story) and 'Tomsky' (from the word tom, meaning volume), but they weren't right! My name was an object of fun to my fellow
ordinands Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform vari ...
. Why were we 'Mamin' (momma's boys) and not 'Tyatin' (daddy's boys)? They decided the best pseudonym was Sibiryak. After all, Yekaterinburg is the other side of the Urals, and Russians regard everything beyond the Urals, including Siberia, as all one!"

His first major work was ''The Privalov Fortune'' (1883) which was serialized to great success in the journal ''Delo''. The publication of the novel ''Mountain Nest'' in 1884 in the journal ''

Otechestvennye Zapiski ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lit ...

'' (Notes of the Fatherland) cemented the reputation of Mamin-Sibiryak as an accomplished realist. Repeated trips to the capital (1881–2, 1885–6) extended Mamin-Sibiryak's literary contacts. He became acquainted with

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Gleb Uspensky Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (; October 25, 1843 April 6, 1902) was a Russian writer and a prominent figure of the Narodnik movement. Biography Early life Gleb Uspensky was born in Tula, Russia, Tula, the son of Ivan Yakovlevich Uspensky, a senior o ...

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 ...

and others. During these years, he wrote and published many short stories and sketches. From 1899 until his death, he was associated with the Sreda literary group, and the Znanie publishing company, ran by fellow Sreda member

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 ...

.A Writer Remembers, Nikolay Teleshov, Hutchinson, NY, 1943. His last major works were the novels ''Traits from the Life of Pepko'' (1894), ''Falling Stars'' (1899) and the story "Mumma" (1907). In his novels and stories he portrayed the life of the Urals and Siberia in the reform years of the development of capitalism in Russia and the consequent rifts in public consciousness, legal norms and morals. His most well known works are ''The Privalov Fortune'' (1883), ''Mountain Nest'' (1884), ''Gold'' (1892), ''Bread'' (1895), the novella ''Okhonna's Brows'' (1892) and the collections ''Ural Stories'' (1895) and ''Siberian Stories'' (1889). His widely known children's books included ''Tales for Alyonushka'' (1894–1896), ''Grey Neck'' (1893), and ''Summer Lightning'' (1897).

Notes

English translations

*''The Privalov Fortune'', (novel), Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow. *''Misgir'', and ''The Father Elect'', (stories), from Little Russian Masterpieces, Vol 2, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1920. *''Verotchka's Tales'', (children's stories), E.P. Dutton & Company, New York, 1922
from Archive.org
*''Wintering Station on Chill River'', (story), from A Bilingual Collection of Russian Short Stories, Vol 1, Random House, 1965. *''Tales For Alyonushka'', (children's stories), Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978. *''A Gold Nugget'', (story), from In the Depths: Russian Stories,

Raduga Publishers Raduga Publishers (, English: "rainbow") was a Soviet publishing house of innovative children's books, which has been described as "one of the most important book publishers of its type" during the early twentieth century.Andrea Immel"Cotsen Chil ...

, Moscow, 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamin-Sibiryak, Dmitry 1852 births 1912 deaths People from Sverdlovsk Oblast People from Verkhotursky Uyezd Children's writers from the Russian Empire Novelists from the Russian Empire Short story writers from the Russian Empire Saint Petersburg State University alumni