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Aleksey Chapygin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aleksey Chapygin
Born(1870-10-17)October 17, 1870
Kargopolsky Uyezd, Olonets Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedOctober 21, 1937(1937-10-21) (aged 67)
Leningrad, USSR

Aleksey Pavlovich Chapygin (Russian: Алексе́й Па́влович Чапы́гин; 17 October [O.S. 5 October] 1870 - 21 October 1937) was a Russian writer, and one of the founders of the Soviet historical novel.[1]

Biography

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Chapygin was born in Kargopolsky Uyezd, Olonets Governorate. His northern peasant origins are reflected in his works.[1] His first book of stories, Those Who Keep Aloof, and his novel The White Hermitage, describing northern life, were published before the Russian Revolution of 1917.[2] He is best known for his two novels about peasant uprisings in the 17th century, Itinerant Folk (1934–37) and Stepan Razin (1926–27). Stepan Razin is considered a classic of Soviet literature.[1]

Chapygin drew upon Russian folklore for both the style of Stepan Razin and the positive and romanticized portrait of Razin himself. The Soviets excused this modernization of history as a justifiable polemic against the negative portrayal of Razin in 19th-century Russian literature.[1] Stepan Razin was published in the magazine Red Virgin Soil.[3]

English translations

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  • Stepan Razin, Hutchinson International Authors, Ltd., London, 1946.
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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Bédé, Edgerton, Columbia University Press, 1980.
  2. ^ 25 Years of Soviet Russian Literature (1918-1943), Gleb Struve, Taylor & Francis, 1944.
  3. ^ Red Virgin Soil: Soviet Literature in the 1920s, Robert A. Maguire, Northwestern University Press, 2000.