Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich (1867-1945), real name - Smidovich, Russian prose writer, literary critic, poet-translator. Born on 4 (16) January 1867 into a family of famous Tula devotees.
Father, doctor V.I.Smidovich, the son of a Polish landowner, a participant in the uprising of 1830-1831, was the founder of the Tula city hospital and sanitary commission, one of the founders of the Society of Tula doctors, a member of the City Duma. The mother opened the first kindergarten in Tula in her home.
What is life? What is its meaning? What is the purpose? There is only one answer: in life itself. Life itself is of the highest value, full of mysterious depth ... We do not live in order to do good, as we do not live in order to fight to love, eat or sleep. We do good, we fight, we eat, we love, because we live.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
In 1884 Veresaev graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium with a silver medal and entered the history and philology faculty of St. Petersburg University, after which he received the title of candidate. The family atmosphere, in which the future writer was brought up, was imbued with the spirit of Orthodoxy, active service to others. This explains the fascination of Veresaev with the ideas of populism, the works of N.K. Mikhailovsky and D.I. Pisarev.
Under the influence of these ideas, Veresaev entered the medical faculty of the University of Dorpat in 1888, considering medical practice the best way to learn the life of the people, and medicine - the source of knowledge about man. In 1894 he practiced at home in Tula for several months, and in the same year, as one of the best graduates of the university, he was hired at the Petersburg Botkin Hospital.
Veresaev began to write at the age of fourteen (poetry and translations). He himself considered the publication of the story Riddle (magazine "World Illustration", 1887, no. 9) as the beginning of his literary activity.
In 1895 Veresaev was carried away by more radical political views: the writer struck up close contacts with revolutionary working groups. He worked in Marxist circles, meetings of the Social Democrats were held in his apartment. Participation in political life determined the themes of his work.
Veresaev used fictional prose to express socio-political and ideological views, showing in his stories and stories a retrospective of the development of his own spiritual quest. In his works, the predominance of such forms of narration as a diary, confession, disputes of heroes on topics of social and political structure is noticeable. Veresaev's heroes, like the author, were disappointed in the ideals of populism. But the writer tried to show the possibilities of further spiritual development of his characters. So, the hero of the story Without a Road (1895), the Zemsky doctor Troitsky, having lost his previous beliefs, looks completely devastated. In contrast to him, the protagonist of the story At the Turn (1902) Tokarev finds a way out of his mental impasse and escapes from suicide, despite the fact that he did not have definite ideological views and “walked into the darkness, not knowing where”. Veresaev puts into his mouth many theses criticizing idealism, bookishness and dogmatism of populism.
Having come to the conclusion that populism, despite its declared democratic values, has no ground in real life and often does not know it, in the story Poetrie (1898) Veresaev creates a new human type: a revolutionary Marxist. However, the writer sees shortcomings in the Marxist doctrine: lack of spirituality, blind submission of people to economic laws.
real surname - Smidovich
russian writer, translator, literary critic
Vikenty Veresaev
short biography
Vikentiy Vikentievich Veresaev (real surname - Smidovich; January 16, 1867, Tula - June 3, 1945, Moscow) - Russian writer and translator, literary critic. Laureate of the last Pushkin Prize (1919) and the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1943).
Vikenty Veresaev is a student at St. Petersburg University.
Photo, 1885
Father - Vikenty Ignatievich Smidovich (1835-1894), a nobleman, was a doctor, founder of the Tula city hospital and sanitary commission, one of the founders of the Society of Tula doctors. Mother organized the first kindergarten in Tula in her home.
The second cousin of Vikentiy Veresaev was Pyotr Smidovich, and Veresaev himself is a distant relative of Natalya Fedorovna Vasilyeva - the mother of Lieutenant General V.E. Vasiliev.
Vikenty Veresaev and Leonid Andreev, 1912
The family lived in Tula on Gogolevskaya Street in their house number 82, where the House-Museum of V.V. Veresaev is now located.
He graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium (1884) and entered the history and philology faculty of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1888.
In 1894 he graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Dorpat and began medical work in Tula. Soon he moved to St. Petersburg, where in 1896-1901 he worked as a resident and head of the library in the City Barracks Hospital in memory of S.P. Botkin, and in 1903 he settled in Moscow.
In the years of disappointment and pessimism, he adjoins the literary circle of legal Marxists (P. B. Struve, M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, P. P. Maslov, Nevedomsky, Kalmykova and others), enters the literary circle "Sreda" and collaborates in magazines : "New Word", "Beginning", "Life".
In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, he was drafted into military service as a military doctor, and he went to the fields of distant Manchuria.
In 1910 he made a trip to Greece, which led to a fascination with ancient Greek literature throughout his later life.
During the First World War he served as a military doctor. He spent the post-revolutionary time in Crimea.
In 1921 he returned to Moscow. In 1941 he was evacuated to Tbilisi.
Literary activity
Vikenty Veresaev became interested in literature and began writing in his gymnasium years. The beginning of Veresaev's literary activity should be considered the end of 1885, when he published the poem "Meditation" in the "Fashionable Journal". For this first publication, Veresaev chose the pseudonym “V. Vikentiev ". He chose the pseudonym "Veresaev" in 1892, signing his essays "Underground Kingdom" (1892), dedicated to the work and life of Donetsk miners.
Field hospital soldier Vikenty Veresaev in the active army during the Russian-Japanese war.
The photo. Manchuria, 1904-1905
The writer developed on the verge of two eras: he began to write when the ideals of populism collapsed and lost their charming power, and the Marxist worldview began to stubbornly take root in life, when the noble-peasant culture was opposed to the bourgeois-urban culture, when the city was opposed to the countryside, workers to the peasantry.
In his autobiography Veresaev writes: “New people have come, cheerful and believing. Rejecting the hopes of the peasantry, they pointed to a rapidly growing and organizing force in the form of the factory worker, welcomed capitalism, which creates the conditions for the development of this new force. Clandestine work was in full swing, there was agitation in factories and plants, circle classes were held with workers, tactical issues were vividly debated ... Many who were not convinced by theory were convinced by practice, including me ... In the winter of 1885, the famous Morozov strike of weavers broke out numerousness, consistency and organization ”.
The work of the writer of this time is the transition from the 1880s to the 1900s, from closeness to the social optimism of Chekhov to that which was later expressed in "Untimely Thoughts" by Maxim Gorky.
Vikenty Veresaev (left), poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin (center) and landscape painter Konstantin Bogaevsky.
The photo. Crimea, Koktebel, 1927
In 1894, the story "Without a Road" was written. The author gives a picture of the painful and passionate searches of the young generation (Natasha) for the meaning and ways of life, turns to the older generation (doctor Chekanov) for the solution of the "damned questions" and waits for a clear, firm answer, and Chekanov throws at Natasha words, heavy as stones: “ After all, I have nothing. Why do I need an honest and proud outlook, what does it give me? It's been dead for a long time. " Chekanov does not want to admit “that he is lifeless mute and cold; however, he is unable to deceive himself ”and dies.
During the 1890s, events took place: Marxist circles were created, "Critical Notes on the Economic Development of Russia" by P. B. Struve appeared, G. V. Plekhanov's book "On the Development of a Monistic View of History" was published, the well-known strike of weavers broke out in Petersburg, the Marxist "New Word" is published, then "Beginning" and "Life".
In 1897 Veresaev publishes the novel "Poetrie". Natasha no longer languishes in "restless searches", "she has found a way and believes in life", "she still breathes with cheerfulness, energy, happiness." The story sketches a period when young people in their circles pounced on the study of Marxism and went with the propaganda of the ideas of social democracy to the masses of the workers - to factories and factories.
All-Russian fame came to Veresaev after the publication in 1901 in the magazine "Mir Bozhiy" "Notes of a Physician" - a biographical story about experiments on humans and the encounter with their monstrous reality of a young doctor. "A doctor - if he is a doctor and not a medical official - must first of all fight for the elimination of those conditions that make his activity senseless and fruitless, he must be a public figure in the broadest sense of the word." Then in 1903-1927 there were 11 editions. The work, which condemned medical experiments on humans, also showed the moral position of the writer, who opposed any experiments on humans, including against social experiments, whoever conducted them - bureaucrats or revolutionaries. The resonance was so strong that the emperor himself ordered to take action and stop medical experiments on humans.
It is no coincidence that the writer received the Stalin Prize in 1943, in the midst of the struggle against the monstrous experiments of the Nazis. But this work received worldwide fame only in 1972. Indeed, over the years, the relevance of Veresaev's position increases - if we bear in mind those scientific research and those new technologies that in one way or another affect human health, well-being, dignity, and safety. Such research in our time is carried out far beyond the scope of proper medical and biomedical science. In a polemic with opponents, Veresaev showed the squalor of supporters of the right of the strong to experiment allegedly "in the interests of the public good" over "useless members of society", "old women-usurers", "idiots" and "backward and socially alien elements."
By the beginning of the century, a struggle was unfolding between revolutionary and legal Marxism, between orthodox and revisionists, between "politicians" and "economists". In December 1900, Iskra began to appear. Osvobozhdenie, the organ of the liberal opposition, is published. The society is fond of the individualistic philosophy of F. Nietzsche, and partly reads out the cadet-idealist collection "Problems of Idealism".
These processes were reflected in the story "At the Turn", published at the end of 1902. The heroine Varvara Vasilievna does not put up with the slow and spontaneous rise of the labor movement, it annoys her, although she realizes: "I am nothing if I do not want to recognize this spontaneous and its spontaneity." It does not want to feel like a secondary, subordinate force, an appendage to the working class, which the Narodniks were in their time in relation to the peasantry. True, theoretically Varya remains the same Marxist, but her worldview has broken down, has changed. She suffers deeply and, like a person of great, deep sincerity and conscience, commits suicide, deliberately becoming infected at the patient's bedside. In Tokarev, psychological decay is more pronounced, brighter. He dreams of an elegant wife, an estate, a cozy office, and “so that all this can be covered by a broad public affair” and does not require great sacrifices. In him there is no inner courage Vary, he philosophizes that in the teachings of Bernstein "there is more real realistic Marxism than in orthodox Marxism." Sergei - with a touch of Nietzscheanism, he believes in the proletariat, "but he wants to believe in himself first of all." He, like Varya, angrily attacks spontaneity. Tanya is full of enthusiasm, selflessness, she is ready to fight with all the ardor of her young heart.
Closer to 1905, society and literature were embraced by revolutionary romanticism and the song "to the madness of the brave" sounded; Veresaev was not carried away by "uplifting deception", he was not afraid of "the darkness of low truths." In the name of life, he values \u200b\u200bthe truth and, without any romanticism, draws the paths and roads along which various strata of society went.
The Russo-Japanese War and 1905 were reflected in the stories and essays that compiled the collection "On the Japanese War" (fully published in 1928). After the 1905 revolution, a reassessment of values \u200b\u200bbegan. Many of the intelligentsia withdrew from revolutionary work in disillusionment. Extreme individualism, pessimism, mysticism and churchliness, eroticism have colored these years. In 1908, in the days of the triumph of Sanin and Peredonov, the story "To Life" was published. Cherdyntsev, a prominent and active Social Democrat, at the moment of disintegration, having lost the value and meaning of human existence, suffers and seeks consolation in sensual pleasure, but everything is in vain. Inner confusion occurs only in communication with nature and in communication with workers. The acute question of those years was raised about the relationship between the intelligentsia and the masses, “I” and humanity in general.
In 1922, the novel "At a Dead End" was published, which shows the Sartanov family. Ivan Ivanovich, a scientist, a democrat, understands nothing at all about the unfolding historical drama; his daughter Katya, a Menshevik, does not know what to do. Both are on the same side of the barricade. Another daughter, Vera, and nephew Leonid are communists, they are on the other side. Tragedy, collisions, disputes, helplessness, dead end.
Veresaev also writes about workers and peasants. In the story "The End of Andrei Ivanovich", in the essay "On the Dead Road" and in a number of other works, the writer portrays a worker.
The essay "Lizar" depicts the arrogant stupidity of a cabby advocating birth control. Several more essays are devoted to this topic.
Of great interest is the work about F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy and Nietzsche, entitled "Living Life" (two parts). This is the theoretical justification for the story "To Life"; here the author, together with Tolstoy, preaches: “The life of mankind is not a dark pit from which it will get out in the distant future. This is a bright, sunny road, ascending higher and higher to the source of life, light and integral communication with the world! .. "" Not away from life, but into life, - into the very depths of it, into the very depths. " Unity with the whole, connection with the world and people, love - this is the basis of life.
In the first years after the 1917 revolution, Veresaev's works were published:
- "In his youth" (Memoirs);
- "Pushkin in Life";
- translations from ancient Greek: "Homeric hymns";
In 1928-1929 he published in 12 volumes the complete collection of his works and translations. Volume 10 includes translations from the ancient Greek Hellenic poets (excluding Homer), including Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony, which were then reprinted several times.
Veresaev is a realist in the manner of his writing. What is especially valuable in the writer's work is his deep truthfulness in the display of the environment, persons, as well as love for everyone who is rebelliously seeking a solution to "eternal questions" from the standpoint of love and truth. His heroes are given not so much in the process of struggle, work, as in the search for ways of life.
Artworks
Novels
- Dead End (1923)
- Sisters (1933)
Dramas
- In the sacred forest (1918)
- The Last Days (1935) in collaboration with M. A. Bulgakov
Stories
- No Road (1894)
- The Fever (1897)
- Two ends: The End of Andrei Ivanovich (1899), The End of Alexandra Mikhailovna (1903)
- At the Bend (1901)
- In the Japanese War (1906-1907)
- Alive (1908)
- Isanka (1927)
Stories
- Riddle (1887-1895)
- Rush (1889)
- To the Hurry (1897)
- Comrades (1892)
- Lizard (1899)
- Vanka (1900)
- On the stage (1900)
- Meeting (1902)
- Mother (1902)
- Star (1903)
- Enemies (1905)
- Execution of the Earth (1906)
- Occasion (1915)
- The Contest (1919)
- Dog Smile (1926)
- Princess (19)
- Fictional stories about the past.
- Granddad
Literary criticism
- Live life. About Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy (1910)
Documentary
- Pushkin in life (1925-1926)
- Gogol in life (1933)
- Companions of Pushkin (1937)
Memories
- Doctor's Notes (1900)
- In his youth (1927)
- In his student years (1929)
- Literary memories
Awards
- Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences (1919) - for translations of ancient Greek poetry
- Stalin Prize, First Degree (1943) - for outstanding achievements over many years
- Order of the Red Banner of Labor (01/31/1939)
- Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" (1945)
Memory of Veresaev
In 1958, a monument to the writer was erected in Tula, and in 1992 the Veresaev Museum was opened. In January 2017, in honor of the 150th anniversary of V.V. Veresaev, the State Enterprise "Post of Donbass" (DPR) introduced an artistic postage stamp "Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich 1867 - 1945".
Vikentiy Vikentievich Veresaev (pseudonym; real name Smidovich) - Russian writer, literary critic, translator - was born 4 (16) January 1867 in Tula in the family of a doctor who was very popular both as a doctor and as a public figure. There were eight children in this friendly family. Veresaev studied at the Tula classical gymnasium, teaching was easy, he was "the first student". Most of all succeeded in ancient languages, read a lot. At the age of thirteen he began to write poetry.
In 1888 Veresaev graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, and in 1894 - Faculty of Medicine, University of Dorpat. In 1894 receives a medical degree and practices in Tula under the guidance of his father for several months, then goes to St. Petersburg and enters the Barachnaya hospital as a supernumerary resident.
The first publications of V. Veresaev - the poem "Reflection" ( 1885 ), the story "Riddle" ( 1887 ). Since 1903 V. Veresaev lived in Moscow, was a member of the Sreda literary group. He combined literary activity with medical practice, as a doctor he participated in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. In 1917 Veresaev was the chairman of the Khudprosvetkomissii under the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies. September 1918 leaves for Crimea, intending to live there for three months, but is forced to stay in the village of Koktebel, near Feodosia, for three years. In 1921 the writer returned to Moscow.
Personal experience formed the basis of journalistic works, in which acute social criticism is combined with humanistic pathos: "Notes of a Doctor" ( 1901 ), "Tales of War" ( 1913 ), "At war. (Notes) "( 1907-1908 ), "In the Japanese War" ( 1928) ... The main theme of Veresaev's fictional prose, sustained in realistic traditions, is the spiritual quest of the Russian intelligentsia during periods of social upheaval: the story "Without a Road" ( 1895 ), "At the turn" ( 1902 ), the novel "In a Dead End" ( 1923-1924 ) and etc.
Veresaev's philosophical views are set forth in the book "Living Life" (1st part - "About Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy", 1910 ; 2nd - “Apollo and Dionysus. (About Nietzsche) ", 1914 ), where Veresaev, accepting the artistic experience of Leo Tolstoy and rejecting the world of F.M. Dostoevsky, affirms the "intrinsic value of life" and opposes its wealth to the "dead" truths of reason. The books "Pushkin in Life" ( 1925-1926 ), "Gogol in Life" ( 1933 ), "Pushkin's Companions" ( 1937 ). Veresaev is the author of memoirs ("Memories" ( 1936 ), "Fictional stories about the past" ( 1941 ), "Notes for myself" (published in 1968 )), translations from ancient Greek poetry (Homer, Sappho, Hesiod, Homeric hymns). In 1943 was awarded the USSR State Prize.
Artworks
Russian writer Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev (Smidovich) occupies a special place in the galaxy of Russian prose writers. Today he is lost against the background of his outstanding contemporaries L.N. Tolstoy, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, I. Bunin, M. Sholokhov, but he has his own style, his highest services to Russian literature and a number of excellent works.
Family and childhood
Veresaev Vikentiy Vikentievich was born, whose biography was associated with two vocations: a doctor and a writer, on January 4, 1867 in Tula. The family of the future writer had many nationalities mixed in. The mother's parents were a Ukrainian and a Greek from Mirgorod; on the paternal side, there were Germans and Poles in the family. The family name of the writer - Smidovich, belonged to an ancient Polish noble family. His father was a doctor, he founded the first city hospital in Tula, initiated the creation of a sanitary commission in the city, stood at the origins of the Tula Society of Physicians. Vincent's mother was a highly educated noblewoman, she was the first in the city to open a kindergarten in her house, and then an elementary school. The family had 11 children, three died in childhood. All the children were given a high-quality education, representatives of the local intelligentsia were constantly in the house, they talked about the art of politics, the fate of the country. In this atmosphere, the boy grew up, who in the future himself will become a prominent representative of the Russian educated nobility. From childhood, Vincent was reading books, he was especially fond of the adventure genre, especially Mine Reed and Since adolescence, the future writer actively helped the family every summer, he worked on a par with the peasants: he mowed, plowed, hauled hay, so he knew the severity of agricultural work firsthand ...
Study
Vikenty Veresaev grew up in a family where education was compulsory for everyone. The boy's parents were themselves enlightened people, had an excellent library and instilled in their children a love of learning. Veresaev had very good natural humanitarian inclinations: excellent memory, interest in languages \u200b\u200band history. At the gymnasium he studied very diligently, and finished each class with an award among the first students, he achieved special success in the knowledge of ancient languages \u200b\u200band from the age of 13 he began to engage in translations. Graduated from the Veresaev gymnasium with a silver medal. In 1884 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated with a PhD in History. But his fascination with the ideas of populism, the influence of the views of D. Pisarev and N. Mikhailovsky prompted him to enter the University of Dorpat (Tartu) at the Faculty of Medicine in 1888. The young man rightly believed that the medical profession would allow him to "go to the people" and benefit him. While still a student, in 1892 he traveled to the Yekaterinoslav province, where he worked as the head of a sanitary barrack during the cholera epidemic.
Life twists and turns
In 1894, after graduating from the university, Veresaev returned to Tula, where he began to work as a doctor. Vikenty Veresaev, whose biography is henceforth associated with medicine, during his medical practice carefully observed the lives of people and made notes, which then became literary works. So in his life, the two most important affairs of life intertwined. Two years later, Veresaev moved to St. Petersburg, he was invited as one of the best graduates of the medical faculty to work in the Petersburg barrack (future Botkin) hospital for acutely infectious patients. For five years he has been working there as a resident and head of the library. In 1901, he set off on a great trip to Russia and Europe, he communicates a lot with the leading writers of that time, observes the life of people. In 1903 he moved to Moscow, where he intends to devote himself to literature. With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Vikentiy Vikentievich was mobilized as a doctor, and he became a junior resident at a mobile field hospital in Manchuria. Impressions of that time would later become the theme of several of his works. During the First World War, he was also a military doctor in Kolomna, was involved in organizing the work of the Moscow military sanitary detachment.
The progressive-minded Veresaev accepted both Russian revolutions, he saw a benefit for the country in them. After the October Revolution, he became chairman of the Artistic and Educational Commission under the Soviet of Workers' Deputies in Moscow. From 1918 to 1921 he lived in the Crimea and was an eyewitness to fierce battles between whites and reds, this period of hardships and hardships will also become a source of plots for literary works. Since 1921, the writer has lived in Moscow, writes and actively participates in educational and organizational activities.
During World War II, the already elderly writer was evacuated to Tbilisi. He managed to see the victory of the USSR in the war and died on June 3, 1945 in Moscow.
The first literary experiments
Veresaev Vikenty begins to write at the school age, initially the young man saw himself as a poet. His first publication was the poem "Thought", published under the pseudonym V. Vikentiev in the magazine "Fashionable Light and Fashion Store" in 1885. Two years later, in the magazine "World Illustration" under the pseudonym Veresaev, he published the story "Mystery", in which he gives his answers to the main questions of life: what is happiness and what is the meaning of life. Since that time, literature has become a constant occupation of Vikenty Vikentyevich.
Becoming a master
Vikenty Veresaev, from the very beginning of his career in literature, defined his direction as a path of quest, in his works he reflected the painful throwing of the Russian intelligentsia, which he himself experienced, going from a passion for populism and Marxism to moderate patriotism. He almost immediately realized that poetry was not his path, and turned to prose. At first he tries himself in small forms: he writes stories, short stories. In 1892, he published a series of essays "Underground Kingdom" about the life and hard work of Donetsk miners. Then he first uses the pseudonym Veresaev, which became his literary name. In 1894 he published the story "Without a Road", in which he figuratively tells about the search for the path, the meaning of life by the Russian public and the intelligentsia. In 1897, the novel "Poetrie" continues the same theme, fixing the acquisition of the leading social democratic idea by the young generation.
Glory years
In 1901, Veresaev's "Notes of a Doctor" were published, which brought him fame throughout the country. In them, the writer talks about the path of a young doctor, about those realities of the profession that were usually hushed up, about experiments on patients, about the moral burden of this work. The work showed the great literary talent of Veresaev, the subtle psychology and observation of the author. Since that time, he has been included in the galaxy of leading writers of the country, along with Garshin and Gorky. The writer's progressive views did not go unnoticed, and the authorities send him under supervision in Tula to curtail his activity.
In 1904-1906, his notes on the Japanese War were published, in which he almost directly spoke about the need to confront the power of the autocracy. Veresaev Vikentiy is also engaged in book publishing, is a member of various literary associations. After the revolution, he actively participates in educational work, participates in the publication of new magazines. After the revolution, Vikentiy Vikentievich Veresaev also turned to large forms and literary criticism. Works in the form of "critical research" about Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche became a new word in literary and artistic prose. The author has always sought to "educate young people", to broadcast lofty ideals and educational ideas. From under his pen there are excellent critical and biographical sketches about I. Annensky, A. Chekhov, L. Andreev,
The writer devotes a lot of time to translation activities; in his presentation, many works from ancient Greek poetry were published. For them Veresaev was even awarded the Pushkin Prize. Even on his last day, Vikenty Vikentievich edited the translation of Homer's Iliad.
Writing method
Veresaev Vikentiy connected his literary fate with the "new life", in this he echoes with M. Gorky. His writing style is distinguished not only by vivid realism, but also by the subtlest psychological observations of his own experiences. Autobiography has become a hallmark of his work. He expounded his impressions of life in a series of essay notes. World outlook searches found their expression in the stories for which Vikenty Veresaev became famous. "Competition", "Eytimiya" and some other stories became his narrative about his personal life and reflections on the female ideal.
The most vividly creative essence of Veresaev was expressed in such works as the novels "At a Dead End" and "Sisters".
Criticism and reviews
During his lifetime Veresaev Vikentiy was quite favorably received by criticism, he was noted as a topical and progressive author. Modern literary critics rarely turn to the work of the writer, which, however, does not mean that he has no creative finds and talented works. Reviews of modern readers are also rare, but very supportive. Modern connoisseurs of Veresaev note his magnificent style and consonance with the worldview searches of modern youth.
Private life
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentyevich was constantly absorbed in his work. In life he was a simple and very benevolent and affable person. He was married to his second cousin Maria Germogenovna. The couple did not have children. In general, he lived a prosperous life filled with work and participation in organizing the educational and creative process in the country.
, Literary critic, Translator
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich (1867-1945), real name - Smidovich, Russian prose writer, literary critic, poet-translator. Born on 4 (16) January 1867 into a family of famous Tula devotees.
Father, doctor VI Smidovich, the son of a Polish landowner, a participant in the uprising of 1830-1831, was the founder of the Tula city hospital and sanitary commission, one of the founders of the Society of Tula doctors, a member of the City Duma. The mother opened the first kindergarten in Tula in her home.
What is life? What is its meaning? What is the purpose? There is only one answer: in life itself. Life itself is of the highest value, full of mysterious depth ... We do not live in order to do good, as we do not live in order to fight to love, eat or sleep. We do good, we fight, we eat, we love, because we live.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
In 1884 Veresaev graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium with a silver medal and entered the history and philology faculty of St. Petersburg University, after which he received the title of candidate. The family atmosphere, in which the future writer was brought up, was imbued with the spirit of Orthodoxy, active service to others. This explains the fascination of Veresaev for the years with the ideas of populism, the works of N.K. Mikhailovsky and D.I. Pisarev.
Under the influence of these ideas, Veresaev entered the medical faculty of the University of Dorpat in 1888, considering medical practice the best way to learn the life of the people, and medicine - the source of knowledge about man. In 1894 he practiced at home in Tula for several months, and in the same year, as one of the best graduates of the university, he was hired at the Petersburg Botkin Hospital.
Veresaev began to write at the age of fourteen (poetry and translations). He himself considered the publication of the story Riddle (magazine "World Illustration", 1887, No. 9) as the beginning of his literary career.
There is no need to burden people with your grief if they cannot help.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
In 1895 Veresaev was carried away by more radical political views: the writer established close contacts with revolutionary working groups. He worked in Marxist circles, meetings of the Social Democrats were held in his apartment. Participation in political life determined the themes of his work.
Veresaev used fictional prose to express socio-political and ideological views, showing in his stories and stories a retrospective of the development of his own spiritual quest. In his works, the predominance of such forms of narration as a diary, confession, disputes of heroes on topics of social and political structure is noticeable. Veresaev's heroes, like the author, were disappointed in the ideals of populism. But the writer tried to show the possibilities of further spiritual development of his characters. So, the hero of the story Without a Road (1895), the Zemsky doctor Troitsky, having lost his previous beliefs, looks completely devastated. In contrast to him, the protagonist of the story At the Bend (1902) Tokarev finds a way out of his mental impasse and escapes from suicide, despite the fact that he did not have definite ideological views and “walked into the darkness, not knowing where”. In his mouth Veresaev puts many theses criticizing the idealism, bookishness and dogmatism of populism.
Having come to the conclusion that populism, despite its declared democratic values, has no ground in real life and often does not know it, in the story Poetrie (1898) Veresaev creates a new human type: a revolutionary Marxist. However, the writer sees shortcomings in the Marxist doctrine: lack of spirituality, blind submission of people to economic laws.
One must enter life not as a merry reveler, as in a pleasant grove, but with reverent awe, as in a sacred forest, full of life and mystery.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
Veresaev's name was often mentioned in the critical press of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The leaders of the populists and Marxists used his works as a pretext for public polemics on socio-political issues (the journals Russkoe Bogatstvo 1899, No. 1–2, and Beginning 1899, No. 4).
Not limiting himself to the artistic depiction of ideas widespread among the intelligentsia, Veresaev wrote several stories and stories about the terrible life and joyless existence of workers and peasants (the story of the End of Andrei Ivanovich, 1899 and Honest Labor, another name is the End of Alexandra Mikhailovna, 1903, which he later reworked into the story Two ends, 1909, and the stories of Lizar, To the haste, In a dry fog, all 1899).
At the beginning of the century, society was shocked by Veresaev's Notes of a Doctor (1901), in which the writer depicted a terrifying picture of the state of medical practice in Russia. The release of the Notes drew numerous critical reviews in print. In response to accusations of unethical presentation of professional medical problems to a public court, the writer was forced to issue an exculpatory article Regarding the "Doctor's Notes". Answer to my critics (1902).
A doctor can have tremendous talent, be able to grasp the most subtle details of his appointments, and all this remains sterile if he does not have the ability to conquer and subdue the soul of the patient.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
In 1901 Veresaev was exiled to Tula. The formal reason was his participation in the protest against the suppression of the student demonstration by the authorities. The next two years of his life were busy with numerous trips, meetings with famous Russian writers. In 1902 Veresaev went to Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland), and in the spring of 1903 - to the Crimea, where he met Chekhov. In August of the same year, he visited Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. After receiving the right to enter the capital, he moved to Moscow and entered the literary group "Wednesday". Since that time, his friendship with L. Andreev began.
As a military doctor, Veresaev participated in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, the events of which in his characteristic realistic manner he depicted in the stories and essays that compiled the collection On the Japanese War (fully published in 1928). He combined the description of the details of army life with reflections on the reasons for the defeat of Russia.
The events of the 1905-1907 revolution convinced Veresaev that violence and progress are incompatible. The writer became disillusioned with the ideas of a revolutionary reorganization of the world. In 1907-1910 Veresaev turned to the comprehension of artistic creation, which he understood as the protection of man from the horrors of life. At this time, the writer is working on the book Living Life, the first part of which is devoted to the analysis of the life and work of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and the second - Nietzsche. Comparing the ideas of great thinkers, Veresaev strove to show in his literary and philosophical research the moral victory of the forces of good over the forces of evil in creativity and in life.
The eyes are the window to the soul. What nonsense! The eyes are a deceiving mask, the eyes are screens that hide the soul. The mirror of the soul is the lips. And if you want to know the soul of a person, look at his lips. Wonderful, light eyes and predatory lips. Virginly innocent eyes and lecherous lips. Companionably welcoming eyes and dignified pursed lips with obnoxiously lowered corners. Watch out for your eyes! Because of the eyes, it is so often that people are deceived. The lips will not deceive.
Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich
Since 1912 Veresaev was the chairman of the board of the "Book publishing of writers in Moscow" organized by him. The publishing house united the writers who were members of the Wednesday circle. With the outbreak of World War I, the writer was again mobilized into the active army, and from 1914 to 1917 he led the military-sanitary detachment of the Moscow railway.
After the revolutionary events of 1917, Veresaev completely turned to literature, remaining an outside observer of life. The range of his creative aspirations is very wide, his literary activity is extremely fruitful. He wrote the novels In a Dead End (1924) and Sisters (1933), his documentary studies Pushkin in Life (1926), Gogol in Life (1933) and Pushkin's Companions (1937) opened a new genre in Russian literature - a chronicle of characteristics and opinions. Veresaev owns Memories (1936) and Diary Notes for Himself (publ. 1968), in which the life of the writer appeared in all the wealth of thoughts and spiritual searches. Veresaev made numerous translations of ancient Greek literature, including Homer's Iliad (1949) and Odyssey (1953).
