The biography of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin is the most important thing. The life and work of Kuprin: a brief description

Ivan Bunin was one of the greatest writers in Russian literature.

The writer, who was born in Voronezh in 1870, spent his childhood on the Butyrki farm, near Yelets. Due to his complete inability to do arithmetic and general ill health, Ivan was unable to study at the gymnasium and, after spending 2 years in the 3rd grade, he was educated at home. His teacher was an ordinary student at Moscow University.

From the late 1880s he began to publish his provincial poems. The very first story sent to the magazine “Russian Wealth” delighted the publisher Mikhailovsky, the author of one of the classic articles about Leo Tolstoy. Bunin again studied at the gymnasium, but in 1886 he was expelled for not being able to keep up. For the next 4 years he lives on his estate, where he is taught by his older brother. In 1889, fate brought him to Kharkov, where he became close to the populists. In 1891, his first work, “Poems 1887-1891,” was published. And at the same time, I began publishing his works, which gained enormous popularity. In 1900, the story “Antonov Apples” appeared, which depicts Russian estates with their way of life. This work has become a masterpiece of modern prose. Literally 3 years later, Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Having been unsuccessfully married twice, the writer meets Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva in St. Petersburg, who was his wife until his last breath. The honeymoon, which took place in eastern countries, was the result of the release of the series of essays “Shadow of the Bird”. When Bunin became a famous and wealthy gentleman in literary circles, he began to travel constantly and spent almost the entire cold season of the year traveling around Turkey, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, and Syria.

1909 became a special year for Ivan Alekseevich. He was elected an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A year later, his first serious work, “The Village,” appeared, where the writer tragically spoke about catastrophic modernity. Having had a hard time surviving the October Revolution, the Bunins went to Odessa and then emigrated to Constantinople. At first, the writer’s life was not going well. He gradually experienced a shortage of money. In 1921, the work “Mr. from San Francisco” was published, where Bunin shows the meaninglessness of material human existence. But there were also bright days in his life.

Literary fame in Europe was growing, and when the question once again arose about which Russian writer would be the first to join the ranks of Nobel laureates, his name surfaced by itself. On November 9, 1933, Bunin received this award. The financial problem has disappeared. Reissues followed. Before the war, the writer lived quietly, but in 1936 he was arrested in Germany and was soon released. In 1943 his famous “Dark Alleys” were published. In the last years of his life, Ivan Alekseevich worked on the book “Memoirs”. The writer never finished this work. Bunin died on November 8, 1953 in Paris.

Very briefly

On September 7, 1870, the remarkable writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin was born. Immediately after birth, he was left without a father, who died of a terrible disease. After 4 years, my mother is forced to move to Moscow. Despite her strong love, she sends him to a school for orphans due to his difficult financial situation.

Later, Kuprin was accepted into a military gymnasium, and he remained to live in Moscow. His talent for writing began to emerge during his school years, and he released his first work in 1889, entitled “The Last Debut,” but not everyone approved of it and he received a reprimand.

In In 1890-1894. he goes to serve near Podolsk. Having finished, he begins to move from city to city and stops at Sevastopol. He didn’t have a job, so very often there was nothing to eat, despite his service and rank. Despite this, Kuprin was developing as a writer at this time, thanks to good relations with I. A. Bunin, A. P. Chekhov and M. Gorky. And he writes several stories that are in great demand and he is awarded the Pushkin Prize.

When the war began, he volunteered without hesitation. In 1915 he was forced to leave due to poor health. But even here he managed to do something useful by organizing a hospital at home. Afterwards he supported the revolution in 1917 and collaborated with the Socialist Revolutionary Party. But for unknown reasons, he decides to leave for France and continues his activities there. Then he returns back to the USSR, where he was not received so well. August 25, 1938 dies in Leningrad.

For children

Biography of Kuprin Alexander Ivanovich

Alexander Kuprin, one of the most famous writers in Russia, was born into a family far from literature and from the capital. His father, a minor official, died when his son was barely a year old. Together with his mother, the family moved to Moscow, where the future prose writer spent his childhood and youth.

St. Petersburg glory of Kuprin

In St. Petersburg, Alexander Kuprin was too late for this city to fall at his feet. The writer was a little over 30. He had a not very successful military career behind him, which ended with the rank of lieutenant, and seven years of ordeal in Kyiv. There Kuprin, who did not have any civilian specialty, tried many professions and settled on literature.

Kuprin practically did not write large works in terms of the number of pages. But he always managed to depict the whole world in a story from a couple of book pages. The writer’s plots are original and dramatically structured: no unnecessary words or characters. The reading public immediately noticed the accuracy in everything: in descriptions, epithets, meaning. And St. Petersburg instantly accepted Kuprin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, people called him everywhere, just to recite his stories. And the enthusiastic audience filled the stage with flowers, where Alexander Ivanovich read his stories. Kuprin became a literary star. His Petersburg seems simple and ordinary, but in Kuprin’s stories the city is just a scene of action. The people who live and operate in the northern capital come to the fore.

The main hit of the St. Petersburg literary salons of the early 20th century was the spy story “Staff Captain Rybnikov.” Kuprin read this work as an encore everywhere: in salons, restaurants, student audiences. Current themes and an impeccable dramatic plot attracted the attention of the public. Kuprin was especially happy. It was at this time that the writer, who lived in St. Petersburg for almost a week, became a candidate for deputy of the first State Duma of the Russian Empire.

Relations with Kuprin's authorities

Kuprin loved his homeland. But the world war that began in 1914 changed him. Now patriotism became the meaning of his whole life. In the newspapers the writer campaigned for war loans. And in his Gatchina house, he opened a small military hospital. Kuprin was even drafted into the war, but his health was already weak then. Soon he was commissioned.

Returning from the front, Kuprin again began to write a lot. There was more St. Petersburg in his stories. Alexander Kuprin did not accept the Bolsheviks. They, with their animal desire for power and bestial cruelty, were disgusting to him. In his views, Kuprin was close to the Social Revolutionaries: not to those who were part of militant organizations, but to peaceful socialist-revolutionaries.

Kuprin worked as a journalist in Gatchina, but often visited Petrograd. He came to see Lenin with a proposal to publish a special newspaper for the village called “Earth”. However, the problems of the village were of interest to the Bolsheviks only in words. The newspaper was not founded, and Kuprin was sent to prison for 3 days. Having been released, they were included in the list of hostages, that is, they could put a bullet in the forehead any day. Kuprin did not wait and went to the whites.

Emigration of Kuprin

He did not fight there, but was engaged in journalism. But he never stopped writing stories. He settled his characters in Petrograd, which was close to him. Kuprin did not accept the new government at all, called it the Soviet of Deputies, and ultimately was forced to emigrate.

Soviet propaganda destroyed the emigrant Kuprin. Political literary critics close to the Kremlin wrote that abroad the once talented Russian writer had fallen into disrepair: he did nothing but drink and write nothing. This was not true. Kuprin wrote just as much, but the St. Petersburg scenery in his stories became less and less.

After 15 years, he wrote a petition to be allowed to return to the USSR. Stalin gave his consent, and Kuprin returned to the places from which he fled during the civil war. In 1937, Kuprin, suffering from cancer, returned to his homeland to die. He died a year later, and the government of the country of Soviets began to posthumously make the writer one of their own.

It wasn't easy. Kuprin's Petersburg with its people did not superimpose like a transparent tracing paper on the appearance of the city of three revolutions with the name of Lenin. These were two different cities. It is difficult to say for sure whether he recognized Soviet power. But Kuprin could not live without Russia.

Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.

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Alexander Kuprin is the greatest Russian writer, famous for his novels, translations and short stories.

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin was born in the small town of Narovchat on September 7, 1870 into a noble family. At an early age he moved with his mother to Moscow due to the death of the boy's father. He received his secondary education in a regular boarding school, which was also a boarding school for street children. After 4 years of training, he is transferred to the cadet corps, also located in Moscow. The young man decides to pursue a military career and, after graduation, becomes a student at the Alexander Military School.

Having received his diploma, Kuprin goes to serve in the Dnepropetrovsk Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant. But after 4 years he quits his service and visits several cities in the western provinces of the Russian Empire. It was difficult for him to find a permanent job due to lack of qualifications. Ivan Bunin, whom the writer met quite recently, pulls him out of a difficult financial situation. Bunin sends Kuprin to the capital and gets him a job in a large printing house. Alexander remained to live in Gatchina until the events of 1917. During the First World War, he voluntarily set up a hospital and helped treat wounded soldiers. Over the entire period of the early 20th century, Kuprin created several novels and short stories, the most famous of which were “White Poodle” and “Garnet Bracelet”.

In the last years of the Russian Empire, Kuprin adhered to communist views, ardently supporting the Bolshevik Party. He reacted positively to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas 2 and accepted the arrival of the new government in a good tone. A few years later, the classic became very disappointed in the new government and began to give speeches criticizing the new political system of Soviet Russia. In this regard, he had to take up arms and join the White movement.

But after the Red victory, Alexander immediately migrates abroad to avoid persecution. He chooses France as his place of residence. In exile, he is actively involved in literary activities and writes his next masterpieces: “The Wheel of Time”, “Junker”, “Zhaneta”. His works are in great demand among readers. Unfortunately, the enormous popularity of his work did not bring the writer a huge amount of financial resources. As a result, over 15 years he was able to accumulate an incredible list of debts and loans. The “money pit” and the inability to feed his own family forced him to become addicted to alcohol, which significantly derailed his life.

A few years later, his health rapidly begins to deteriorate. Suddenly, at the end of the 30s of the last century, Kuprin was invited back to Russia. Alexander returns. But due to alcoholism and worsening illnesses, the classic’s body could no longer create or work. Therefore, on August 25, 1938, Alexander Kuprin dies in Leningrad of natural causes.

The life and work of the writer Alexander Kuprin

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin is a famous Russian writer and translator. His works were realistic, and thus gained fame in many sectors of society.

Childhood and parents

Kuprin's childhood years are spent in Moscow, where he and his mother moved after his father's death.

Education

In 1887, Kuprin entered the Alexander Military School.

He begins to experience various difficult moments, about which he writes his first works.

Kuprin wrote poetry well, but did not try to publish them or did not want to.

In 1890 he served in the infantry, where he wrote the works “Inquiry” and “In the Dark”.

Creativity flourishes

After 4 years, Kuprin leaves the regiment and begins his journey through different cities of Russia, looking at nature, people and acquiring new knowledge for his further works and stories.

Kuprin’s works are interesting because he described his experiences and feelings in them or they became the basis for new stories.

The very dawn of the writer’s creativity was at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1905, the story “The Duel” was published, which received enormous recognition from society. Then the most important work, “The Garnet Bracelet,” appeared, which made Kuprin famous.

It is impossible not to highlight such a work as the story “The Pit,” which became scandalous and was not published due to pornographic scenes in the book.

Emigration

During the October Revolution, Kuprin emigrated to France because he did not want to support communism.

There he continues his activity as a writer, without which he could not imagine his life.

Return to Russia

Gradually, Kuprin begins to yearn for his homeland, to which he returned in poor health. After returning, he begins work on his latest work, entitled “Native Moscow.”

Personal life

Kuprin had two wives: with the first, Maria Davydova, the marriage ended after 5 years, but this marriage gave him a daughter, Lydia. The second wife was Elizaveta Moritsovna Heinrich, who gave him two daughters - Ksenia and Zinaida. The wife committed suicide during the siege of Leningrad, unable to survive such a terrible time.

Kuprin had no descendants, because his only grandson died in World War II.

Last years of life and death

The government benefited from Kuprin’s return to his homeland, because they wanted to create from him the image of a man who regretted his action, that he left his native land.

However, there were rumors that Kuprin was very ill, so there was information that his work “Native Moscow” was not written by him at all.

Message 3

The writer was born on September 7, 1870 in the Penza province in the city of Narovchat. Very early, my father passed away due to cholera. In 1874 his mother moved to Moscow and sent Alexander to a school where orphans studied. From 1880 to 1888 goes all the way to the Alexander Military School.

He began to become interested in literature during his cadet training. The story “The Last Debut” appeared in 1889. and the writer was punished with a reprimand. Having received the rank of second lieutenant in 1890-1894. was sent to serve in Kamenets-Podolsky. In 1901 retired. Lived in Kyiv, Petrograd, then in Sevastopol. All this time, the writer was haunted by poverty, poverty, he did not have a permanent job. These hardships contributed to the development of Kuprin as an outstanding writer. Made friends with Chekhov A.P., Bunin I.A. , these writers left an indelible imprint on the writer’s work. Stories and novellas are published: “The Duel”, “The Pit”, “Garnet Bracelet”.

1909 came, the year of recognition. Alexander Kuprin receives the Pushkin Prize. In addition to writing, he helps rebel sailors escape from the police. 1914 One of the most terrible events in human history begins - the First World War. Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin goes to the front as a volunteer, but does not stay there for long. He is being commissioned for health. In order to participate at least somehow in the fate of the country, he opens a soldier’s hospital in his house. But it didn't last long. Changes have begun in the country.

1917 time of revolution. Kuprin becomes close to the Socialist Revolutionaries and greets the revolution with joy. But its consequences did not live up to his hopes. The civil war that followed the revolution plunged him into depression. Decides to join N.N. Yudenich’s army.

1920 comes. Time for a change. Kuprin moves to France and writes his autobiography. The world saw it under the name "Junker". In 1937, the desire to see his homeland forces him to return home. The new country, the USSR, accepted Alexander Ivanovich calmly, without consequences. But the great writer did not have long to live.

The writer died at the age of 68 from esophageal cancer in 1938. August 25, in St. Petersburg, at that time Leningrad. He was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery, near the grave of I.S. Turgenev, now this is the Frunzensky district of St. Petersburg.

Report 4

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin is a man with an interesting destiny, a realist writer whose images are taken from life itself. The time of his creations fell on a difficult period for Russian history. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries affected the fate and works of the author.

Alexander Ivanovich, born in 1870, was a native of the Penza province of Narovchate. The future writer’s mother had Tatar roots, which Kuprin was later very proud of. Sometimes he dressed up in a Tatar robe and wore a skullcap, going out in such clothes.

The boy was not yet a year old when his father passed away; his mother was forced to send her son to an orphanage, moving to Moscow, where she was a native. For little Alexander, the boarding house was a place of despondency and oppression.

After graduating from college, Kuprin entered a military gymnasium, after which in 1887 he continued his studies at the Alexander Military School. The writer described the events of the period of his life in the work “Junker”. It was during his studies that Alexander Ivanovich tried to write. The first published story, “The Last Debut,” was written in 1889.

After graduating from college in 1890. Kuprin served for four years in an infantry regiment. The rich life experience acquired in the service more than once became the theme of his works. At the same time, the writer publishes his works in the magazine “Russian Wealth”. During this period, the following films were released: “Inquiry”, “In the Dark”, “Moonlight”, “Hike”, “Night Shift” and many others.

Having completed his military service, Kuprin lives in Kyiv and is trying to decide on his future profession. The writer tried many works. He was a factory worker, a circus wrestler, a small-time journalist, a land surveyor, a psalm-reader, an actor, and a pilot. In total, I tried more than 20 professions. Everywhere he was interested, everywhere he was surrounded by people who became heroes of Kuprin’s works. Alexander Ivanovich's wanderings brought him to St. Petersburg, where, on the recommendation of Ivan Bunin, he got a permanent job in the editorial office of the Magazine for Everyone.

The writer's first wife was Maria Karlovna, whose wedding took place in the winter of 1902. A year later, a daughter, Lydia, appeared in the family, who later gave Kuprin a grandson, Alexei.

The story “The Duel,” published in 1905, brought enormous success to Alexander Ivanovich. Reveler, an adventurer by nature, was always the center of attention. Perhaps this was the reason for the divorce from his first wife in 1909. In the same year, the writer remarried Elizaveta Moritsovna, from whom two girls were born, the youngest of whom died at an early age. Neither the daughter nor the grandson left children, so there are no direct descendants of the writer.

The pre-revolutionary period was distinguished by the publication of most of Kuprin's works. Among the written works: “Garnet Bracelet”, “Liquid Sun”, “Gambrinus”.

In 1911 moves to Gatchina, where during the First World War he opens a hospital for wounded military personnel in his house. In 1914 was mobilized and sent to serve in Finland, but was dismissed for health reasons.

Initially, Kuprin greeted with joy the news of Tsar Nicholas II's abdication from the throne. However, faced with the dictatorship of the authorities, he was disappointed. During the Civil War he joined the White Guards and after the defeat was forced to leave for Paris.

Poverty and a tendency toward alcoholism forced Kuprin to return in 1937. to the homeland. By this time, the writer was already very ill and could not engage in creative work. Alexander Ivanovich died in 1938.

Message about Kuprin

Popular Russian authors are different from any other authors, since they are usually adherents of the classical direction of literature. It is not for nothing that these writers have become one of the most recognizable faces, both in their homeland and far abroad. Usually these are writers who, from childhood, developed their writing talent throughout their lives, while meeting the key people of their time, which also brought them considerable popularity, which made them even more successful. Thus, such people became famous and successful, but their immense talent also played an important role in their development. An excellent example of such an author is the writer Kuprin.

Alexander Kuprin is a very famous author, who at one time was widely read, both in Russia and far abroad. This author wrote quite unique and interesting works, in which the author revealed the most interesting topics, through which the author also conveyed his point of view, which he shared with his readers. Kuprin’s works also contained various artistic techniques that amazed their readers with their genius, because Kuprin was a true master of words who wrote in a way that no other author, a classical author, to be more precise, could write. Even his classic works were filled with quite an interesting plot.

Alexander Kuprin September 7 in the city of Narovchat. He was born, like most famous classical writers, into a noble family, in which the boy was very much loved and cared for from childhood. And from childhood, the boy was noticed to have a strong penchant for literature. From childhood, he began to show quite good skills in literature, as well as in writing various works and poems. Later he went to get an education, which he successfully received and began to work on himself and his creativity. While working on it, he was able to develop his own style of writing, and thus he became one of the most read authors of his time, if not the most read. He lived a good life, writing a huge number of works, he finished it in Leningrad on August 25, 1938. His entire family mourned his loss, but he died of natural causes, or, more simply, of old age.

Yuri Pavlovich Kazakov (1927-1982) is one of the writers of the Soviet period of Russian history. Kazakov is a native of Moscow and his childhood years in an ordinary simple family pass

Unfortunately, such a problem as a fire is inevitable. Sometimes, even when all safety rules are followed, accidents occur. In such cases, special people are needed, daredevils who

The life experience and creativity of A. I. Kuprin are extremely closely related to each other. The autobiographical element occupies an important place in the writer’s books. For the most part, the author wrote about what he saw with his own eyes, experienced in his soul, but not as an observer, but as a direct participant in life’s dramas and comedies. What he experienced and saw was transformed in different ways in his work - there were cursory sketches, an accurate description of specific situations, and a deep socio-psychological analysis.

At the beginning of his literary activity, the classic paid a lot of attention to everyday color. But even then he showed a penchant for social analysis. His entertaining book “Kyiv Types” contains not only picturesque everyday exoticism, but also a hint of the all-Russian social environment. At the same time, Kuprin does not delve into the psychology of people. Only as years passed did he begin to carefully and scrupulously study a variety of human material.

This was especially evident in such a theme of his work as the army environment. The writer’s first realistic work, the story “Inquiry” (1894), is associated with the army. In it, he described the type of person who suffers at the sight of injustice, but is spiritually restless, devoid of strong-willed qualities and unable to fight evil. And such an indecisive truth-seeker begins to accompany all of Kuprin’s work.

Army stories are notable for the writer's faith in the Russian soldier. She makes such works as “Army Ensign”, “Night Shift”, “Overnight” truly spiritual. Kuprin shows the soldier as cheerful, with rough but healthy humor, intelligent, observant, and prone to original philosophizing.

The final stage of creative quest at the early stage of literary activity was the story “Moloch” (1896), which brought real fame to the young writer. In this story, at the center of the action is a humane, kind, impressionable person who reflects on life. Society itself is shown as a transitional formation, that is, one in which changes are brewing that are unclear not only to the characters, but also to the author.

Love occupied a large place in the work of A. I. Kuprin. The writer can even be called a singer of love. An example of this is the story “On the Road” (1894). The beginning of the story does not foreshadow anything sublime. A train, a compartment, a married couple - an elderly boring official, his young beautiful wife and a young artist who happened to be with them. He becomes interested in the official's wife, and she becomes interested in him.

At first glance, it is a story of a banal romance and adultery. But no, the writer’s skill turns a trivial plot into a serious topic. The story shows how a chance meeting illuminates the lives of two good people with honest souls. Kuprin constructed his little work with such psychological precision that he was able to say a lot in it.

But the most remarkable work dedicated to the theme of love is the story “Olesya”. It can be called a forest fairy tale, drawn with the authenticity and precision of details inherent in realistic art. The girl herself is an integral, serious, deep nature; she has a lot of sincerity and spontaneity. And the hero of the story is an ordinary person with an amorphous character. But under the influence of a mysterious forest girl, his soul brightens and, it seems, is ready to become a noble and integral person.

The work of A. I. Kuprin conveys not only the concrete, everyday, visible, but also rises to symbolism, implying the very spirit of certain phenomena. Such, for example, is the story “Swamp”. The overall coloring of the story is heavy and gloomy, similar to the swamp fog in which the action takes place. This almost plotless work shows the slow death of a peasant family in a forest lodge.

The artistic means used by the classic are such that there is a feeling of a disastrous nightmare. And the very image of a forest, dark and ominous swamp takes on an expanded meaning, creating the impression of some kind of abnormal swamp life smoldering in the gloomy corners of a huge country.

In 1905, the story “The Duel” was published, in which the methods of psychological analysis indicate Kuprin’s connection with the traditions of Russian classics of the 19th century. In this work, the writer showed himself to be a first-class master of words. He once again proved his ability to comprehend the dialectics of soul and thought, to artistically draw typical characters and typical circumstances.

A few words should also be said about the story “Staff Captain Rybnikov.” Before Kuprin, no one in Russian or foreign literature had created such a psychological detective story. The fascination of the story lies in the picturesque two-plane image of Rybnikov and the psychological duel between him and the journalist Shchavinsky, as well as in the tragic denouement that occurs under unusual circumstances.

The poetry of labor and the aroma of the sea pervade the stories “Listrigons”, which tell about Balaklava Greek fishermen. In this series, the classic showed the original corner of the Russian Empire in all its beauty. In the stories, the concreteness of the descriptions is combined with a kind of epicness and simple-minded fabulousness.

In 1908, the story “Shulamith” appeared, which was called a hymn to female beauty and youth. This is a prose poem that combines sensuality and spirituality. There is a lot of bold, daring, frank in the poem, but there is no falsehood. The work tells about the poetic love of a king and a simple girl, which ends tragically. Shulamith becomes a victim of dark forces. The killer's sword kills her, but he is unable to destroy the memory of her and her love.

It must be said that the classic always had an interest in “little”, “ordinary people”. He made such a person a hero in the story “The Garnet Bracelet” (1911). The message of this brilliant story is that love is as strong as death. The originality of the work lies in the gradual and almost imperceptible increase in the tragic theme. There is also a certain Shakespearean note. She breaks through the quirks of the funny official and captivates the reader.

The story “Black Lightning” (1912) is interesting in its own way. In it, the work of A.I. Kuprin is revealed from another side. This work depicts provincial, provincial Russia with its apathy and ignorance. But it also shows those spiritual forces that lurk in provincial cities and make themselves felt from time to time.

During the First World War, such a work as “Violets” came out from the pen of a classic, glorifying the spring season in a person’s life. And the continuation was social criticism, embodied in the story “Cantaloupe”. In it, the writer paints the image of a cunning businessman and hypocrite who profits from military supplies.

Even before the war, Kuprin began working on a powerful and deep social canvas, which he called darkly and briefly - “The Pit”. The first part of this story was published in 1909, and in 1915 the publication of “The Pit” was completed. The work created true images of women who found themselves at the bottom of their lives. The classic masterfully depicted individual character traits and the dark corners of the big city.

Finding himself in exile after the October Revolution and the Civil War, Kuprin began to write about old Russia as an amazing past that always pleased and amused him. The main essence of his works of this period was to reveal the inner world of his heroes. At the same time, the writer often turned to the memories of his youth. This is how the novel “Junker” appeared, which made a significant contribution to Russian prose.

The classic describes the loyal mood of future infantry officers, youthful love, and such an eternal theme as maternal love. And of course, the writer does not forget nature. It is communication with nature that fills the youthful soul with joy and gives impetus to the first philosophical reflections.

“The Junkers” skillfully and knowledgeably describes the life of the school, while it provides not only educational, but also historical information. The novel is also interesting in the gradual formation of a young soul. The reader is presented with a chronicle of the spiritual development of one of the Russian youths of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. This work can be called an elegy in prose with great artistic and educational merits.

The skill of a realist artist and sympathy for the ordinary citizen with his everyday everyday worries were extremely clearly manifested in the miniature essays dedicated to Paris. The writer united them with one name - “Paris at home”. When A.I. Kuprin’s work was in its infancy, he created a series of essays about Kyiv. And after many years in exile, the classic returned to the genre of urban sketches, only the place of Kyiv was now taken by Paris.

French impressions were uniquely reunited with nostalgic memories of Russia in the novel “Zhaneta”. It soulfully conveyed the state of restlessness, mental loneliness, and unquenched thirst to find a loved one. The novel “Zhaneta” is one of the most masterful and psychologically subtle works and, perhaps, the saddest creation of the classic.

The fabulous and legendary work “The Blue Star” appears to readers as witty and original in its essence. In this romantic tale, the main theme is love. The plot takes place in an unknown fantasy country, where an unknown people live with their own culture, customs, and morals. And a brave traveler, a French prince, penetrates this unknown country. And of course, he meets a fairytale princess.

Both she and the traveler are beautiful. They fell in love with each other, but the girl considers herself ugly, and all the people consider her ugly, although they love her for her kind heart. But the fact was that the people who inhabited the country were real freaks, but considered themselves handsome. The princess was not like her compatriots, and she was perceived as ugly.

A brave traveler takes the girl to France, and there she realizes that she is beautiful, and the prince who saved her is also beautiful. But she considered him a freak, just like herself, and felt very sorry for him. This work has entertaining, good-natured humor, and the plot is somewhat reminiscent of good old fairy tales. All this made “Blue Star” a significant phenomenon in Russian literature.

In emigration, the work of A. I. Kuprin continued to serve Russia. The writer himself lived an intense, fruitful life. But every year it became more and more difficult for him. The stock of Russian impressions was drying up, but the classic could not merge with foreign reality. Taking care of a piece of bread was also important. And therefore one cannot help but pay tribute to the talented author. Despite his difficult years, he managed to make a significant contribution to Russian literature.

Russian writer, translator

Alexander Kuprin

short biography

Born on September 7, 1870 in the county town of Narovchat (now Penza region) in the family of an official, hereditary nobleman Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin (1834-1871), who died a year after the birth of his son. Mother - Lyubov Alekseevna (1838-1910), nee Kulunchakova, came from a family of Tatar princes (a noblewoman, did not have a princely title). After the death of her husband, she moved to Moscow, where the future writer spent his early years and adolescence. At the age of six, the boy was sent to the Moscow Razumov School, from where he graduated in 1880. In the same year he entered the Second Moscow Military Gymnasium.

In 1887 he was enrolled in the Alexander Military School. Subsequently, he described his military youth in the stories “At the Turning Point (Cadets)” and in the novel “Junkers”.

Kuprin's first literary experience was poetry that remained unpublished. The first published work was the story “The Last Debut” (1889).

In 1890, Kuprin, with the rank of second lieutenant, was released into the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment, stationed in the Podolsk province, in Proskurov. He served as an officer for four years; military service gave him rich material for future works.

In 1893-1894, the St. Petersburg magazine “Russian Wealth” published his story “In the Dark,” the stories “Moonlit Night” and “Inquiry.” Kuprin has several stories on an army theme: “Overnight” (1897), “Night Shift” (1899), “Hike”.

In 1894, Lieutenant Kuprin retired and moved to Kyiv, without any civilian profession. In the following years, he traveled a lot around Russia, trying many professions, greedily absorbing life experiences that became the basis of his future works.

During these years, Kuprin met I. A. Bunin, A. P. Chekhov and M. Gorky. In 1901 he moved to St. Petersburg and began working as secretary of the “Magazine for Everyone.” Kuprin's stories appeared in St. Petersburg magazines: “Swamp” (1902), “Horse Thieves” (1903), “White Poodle” (1903).

In 1905, his most significant work was published - the story "The Duel", which was a great success. The writer’s performances reading individual chapters of “The Duel” became an event in the cultural life of the capital. His other works of this time: the stories “Staff Captain Rybnikov” (1906), “River of Life”, “Gambrinus” (1907), the essay “Events in Sevastopol” (1905). In 1906, he was a candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the first convocation from the St. Petersburg province.

In the years between the two revolutions, Kuprin published a series of essays “Listrigons” (1907-1911), stories “Shulamith” (1908), “Garnet Bracelet” (1911), etc., and the story “Liquid Sun” (1912). His prose has become a notable phenomenon in Russian literature. In 1911 he settled with his family in Gatchina.

After the outbreak of World War I, he opened a military hospital in his house and campaigned in newspapers for citizens to take out war loans. In November 1914, he was mobilized and sent to the militia in Finland as commander of an infantry company. Demobilized in July 1915 for health reasons.

In 1915, Kuprin completed work on the story “The Pit,” in which he talks about the life of prostitutes in brothels. The story was condemned for excessive naturalism. Nuravkin’s publishing house, which published “Yama” in the German edition, was brought to justice by the prosecutor’s office “for distributing pornographic publications.”

Kuprin met the abdication of Nicholas II in Helsingfors, where he was undergoing treatment, and accepted it with enthusiasm. After returning to Gatchina, he worked as editor of the newspapers “Free Russia”, “Liberty”, “Petrogradsky Listok”, and sympathized with the Socialist Revolutionaries.

In 1917, he completed work on the story “The Star of Solomon”, in which, creatively reworking the classic story of Faust and Mephistopheles, he raised questions about free will and the role of chance in human destiny.

After the October Revolution, the writer did not accept the policy of war communism and the terror associated with it, Kuprin emigrated to France. He worked at the World Literature publishing house, founded by M. Gorky. At the same time, he translated F. Schiller’s drama “Don Carlos”. In July 1918, after the murder of Volodarsky, he was arrested, spent three days in prison, was released and added to the list of hostages.

In December 1918, he had a personal meeting with V.I. Lenin on the issue of organizing a new newspaper for peasants, “Earth,” who approved the idea, but the project was “cut down” by the chairman of the Moscow Soviet, L.B. Kamenev.

On October 16, 1919, with the arrival of the Whites in Gatchina, he entered the North-Western Army with the rank of lieutenant and was appointed editor of the army newspaper “Prinevsky Krai,” headed by General P. N. Krasnov.

After the defeat of the North-Western Army, he was in Reval, from December 1919 - in Helsingfors, from July 1920 - in Paris.

In 1937, at the invitation of the USSR government, Kuprin returned to his homeland. Kuprin’s return to the Soviet Union was preceded by an appeal from the USSR Plenipotentiary Representative in France V.P. Potemkin on August 7, 1936 with a corresponding proposal to J.V. Stalin (who gave the preliminary “go-ahead”), and on October 12, 1936 - with a letter to the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs N. I. Ezhov. Yezhov sent Potemkin’s note to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which on October 23, 1936 decided: “to allow the writer A. I. Kuprin to enter the USSR” (voted “for” by I. V. Stalin, V. M. Molotov, V. Y. Chubar and A. A. Andreev; K. E. Voroshilov abstained).

Soviet propaganda tried to create the image of a repentant writer who returned to sing about a happy life in the USSR. According to L. Rasskazova, in all the official notes of Soviet officials it is recorded that Kuprin is weak, sick, incapacitated and unable to write anything. Presumably, the article “Native Moscow” published in June 1937 in the newspaper Izvestia, signed by Kuprin, was actually written by the journalist assigned to Kuprin, N.K. Verzhbitsky. An interview was also published with Kuprin’s wife Elizaveta Moritsevna, who said that the writer was delighted with everything he saw and heard in socialist Moscow.

Kuprin died on the night of August 25, 1938 from esophageal cancer. He was buried in Leningrad on the Literary Bridge of the Volkovsky Cemetery next to the grave of I. S. Turgenev.

Bibliography

Works by Alexander Kuprin

Editions

• A. I. Kuprin. Complete works in eight volumes. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house of A. F. Marx, 1912.
• A. I. Kuprin. Complete works in nine volumes. - St. Petersburg: Edition of A.F. Marx, 1912-1915.
• A. I. Kuprin. Favorites. T. 1-2. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1937.
• A. I. Kuprin. Stories. - L.: Lenizdat, 1951.
• A. I. Kuprin. Works in 3 volumes - M.: Goslitizdat, 1953, 1954.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 6 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1957-1958.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 9 volumes. - M.: Pravda, 1964.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 9 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1970-1973.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 5 volumes. - M.: Pravda, 1982.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 6 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1991-1996.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 11 volumes. - M.: Terra, 1998. - ISBN 5-300-01806-6.
• A. I. Kuprin. Paris is intimate. - M., 2006. - ISBN 5-699-17615-2.
• A. I. Kuprin. Complete works in 10 volumes. - M.: Sunday, 2006-2007. - ISBN 5-88528-502-0.
• A. I. Kuprin. Collected works in 9 volumes. - M.: Knigovek (Literary supplement “Ogonyok”), 2010. - ISBN 978-5-904656-05-8.
• A. I. Kuprin. Garnet bracelet. Stories. / Comp. I. S. Veselova. Entry Art. A. V. Karaseva. - Kharkiv; Belgorod: Family Leisure Club, 2013. - 416 pp.: ill. - (Series “Great Masterpieces of World Classics”). - ISBN 978-5-9910-2265-1
• A. I. Kuprin. Voice from there // “Roman-newspaper”, 2014. - No. 4.

Film incarnations

• Garnet Bracelet (1964) - Grigory Gai
• The Aeronaut (1975) - Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
• White Snow of Russia (1980) - Vladimir Samoilov
• Kuprin (2014) - Mikhail Porechenkov

Memory

• 7 settlements and 35 streets and alleys in cities and villages of Russia are named after Kuprin in Russia, 4 of them in the Penza region (Penza, Narovchat, Nizhny Lomov and Kamenka).
• In the village of Narovchat, Penza region, in Kuprin’s homeland, on September 8, 1981, the world’s only house-museum of Kuprin was opened and the first monument to the writer in Russia was erected (a marble bust by sculptor V. G. Kurdov). The writer’s daughter, Ksenia Aleksandrovna Kuprina (1908-1981), took part in the opening of the museum and monument.
• In the Vologda region, in the village of Danilovskoye, Ustyuzhensky district, there is a museum-estate of the Batyushkovs and Kuprin, where there are several authentic things of the writer.
• In Gatchina, the central city library (since 1959) and one of the streets in the Marienburg microdistrict (since 1960) bear Kuprin’s name. Also in 1989, a bust-monument to Kuprin by sculptor V.V. Shevchenko was erected in the city.
• In Ukraine, major streets in the cities of Donetsk, Mariupol, Krivoy Rog, as well as streets in the cities of Odessa, Makeevka, Khmelnitsky, Sumy and some others are named after A.I. Kuprin.
• In Kyiv, at house number 4 on the street. Sagaidachny (Podol, former Alexandrovskaya), where the writer lived in 1894-1896, a memorial plaque was unveiled in 1958. A street in Kyiv is named after Kuprin.
• In St. Petersburg, on the site of the “Vienna” restaurant, which A.I. Kuprin often visited, there is a mini-hotel “Old Vienna”, one of the rooms of which is entirely dedicated to the writer. There are also rare pre-revolutionary editions of his books and many archival photographs.
• In 1990, a memorial marker was installed in Balaklava in the area of ​​Remizov’s dacha, where Kuprin lived twice. In 1994, Balaklava Library No. 21 on the embankment received the name of the writer. In May 2009, a monument to Kuprin by sculptor S. A. Chizh was unveiled.
• A memorial plaque was erected to the writer in Kolomna.
• In 2014, the series “Kuprin” was filmed (directed by Vlad Furman, Andrey Eshpai, Andrey Malyukov, Sergey Keshishev).
• One of the lanes in the city of Rudny (Kustanay region, Kazakhstan) is named after Alexander Kuprin.

Objects associated with the name of A. I. Kuprin in Narovchat

Family

• Davydova (Kuprina-Iordanskaya) Maria Karlovna(March 25, 1881-1966) - first wife, adopted daughter of cellist Karl Yulievich Davydov and publisher of the magazine “World of God” Alexandra Arkadyevna Gorozhanskaya (the wedding took place on February 3, 1902, divorce in March 1907, but officially the divorce documents were received only in 1909). Subsequently - the wife of statesman Nikolai Ivanovich Jordansky (Negorev). She left memories “Years of Youth” (including about the time she lived together with A.I. Kuprin) (M.: “Khudozhestvennaya literatura”, 1966).
  • Kuprina, Lidia Alexandrovna(January 3, 1903 - November 23, 1924) - daughter from her first marriage. Graduated from high school. At the age of sixteen she married a certain Leontyev, but divorced a year later. In 1923 she married Boris Egorov. At the beginning of 1924, she gave birth to a son, Alexei (1924-1946), and soon separated from her husband. When her son was ten months old, she died. Alexey was raised by his father, later participated in the Great Patriotic War with the rank of sergeant, and died of heart disease, which was a consequence of a shell shock received at the front.
• Heinrich Elizaveta Moritsovna(1882-1942) - second wife (since 1907, married on August 16, 1909). Daughter of Perm photographer Moritz Heinrich, younger sister of actress Maria Abramova (Heinrich). She worked as a nurse. She committed suicide during the siege of Leningrad.
  • Kuprina Ksenia Alexandrovna(April 21, 1908 - November 18, 1981) - daughter from her second marriage. Model and actress. She worked at the Paul Poiret Fashion House. In 1958 she moved from France to the USSR. Played in the theater

The work of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin was formed during the years of revolutionary upsurge. All his life he was close to the theme of the epiphany of a simple Russian man who greedily sought the truth of life. Kuprin devoted all his work to the development of this complex psychological topic. His art, as his contemporaries put it, was characterized by a special vigilance in seeing the world, concreteness, and a constant desire for knowledge. The educational pathos of Kuprin's creativity was combined with a passionate personal interest in the victory of good over all evil. Therefore, most of his works are characterized by dynamics, drama, and excitement.

Kuprin's biography is like an adventure novel. In terms of the abundance of meetings with people and life observations, it was reminiscent of Gorky’s biography. Kuprin traveled a lot, did a variety of work: he served at a factory, worked as a loader, played on stage, sang in a church choir.

At an early stage of his work, Kuprin was strongly influenced by Dostoevsky. It manifested itself in the stories “In the Dark,” “On a Moonlit Night,” and “Madness.” He writes about fateful moments, the role of chance in a person’s life, and analyzes the psychology of human passions. Some stories of that period say that the human will is helpless in the face of natural chance, that the mind cannot comprehend the mysterious laws that govern man. A decisive role in overcoming literary cliches coming from Dostoevsky was played by direct acquaintance with the lives of people, with the real Russian reality.

He begins to write essays. Their peculiarity is that the writer usually had a leisurely conversation with the reader. Clear plot lines and a simple and detailed depiction of reality were clearly visible in them. The greatest influence on Kuprin the essayist was G. Uspensky.

Kuprin's first creative quests culminated in the largest thing that reflected reality. It was the story “Moloch”. In it, the writer shows the contradictions between capital and forced human labor. He was able to grasp the social characteristics of the newest forms of capitalist production. An angry protest against the monstrous violence against man, on which the industrial flourishing in the world of “Moloch” is based, a satirical demonstration of the new masters of life, an exposure of the shameless predation in the country of foreign capital - all this cast doubt on the theories of bourgeois progress. After essays and short stories, the story was an important stage in the writer’s work.

In search of moral and spiritual ideals of life, which the writer contrasted with the ugliness of modern human relations, Kuprin turns to the lives of vagabonds, beggars, drunken artists, starving unrecognized artists, and children of the poor urban population. This is a world of nameless people who form the mass of society. Among them, Kuprin tried to find his positive heroes. He writes the stories “Lidochka”, “Lokon”, “Kindergarten”, “At the Circus” - in these works Kuprin’s heroes are free from the influence of bourgeois civilization.

In 1898, Kuprin wrote the story “Olesya”. The plot of the story is traditional: an intellectual, an ordinary and urban person, in a remote corner of Polesie meets a girl who grew up outside of society and civilization. Olesya is distinguished by spontaneity, integrity of nature, and spiritual richness. Poetizing life unconstrained by modern social cultural frameworks. Kuprin sought to show the clear advantages of the “natural man,” in whom he saw spiritual qualities lost in civilized society.

In 1901, Kuprin came to St. Petersburg, where he became close to many writers. During this period, his story “Night Shift” appears, where the main character is a simple soldier. The hero is not an aloof person, not the forest Olesya, but a completely real person. From the image of this soldier, threads stretch to other heroes. It was at this time that a new genre appeared in his work: the short story.

In 1902, Kuprin conceived the story “The Duel.” In this work, he undermined one of the main pillars of the autocracy - the military caste, in the features of the decomposition and moral decline of which he showed signs of the decomposition of the entire social system. The story reflects the progressive sides of Kuprin’s work. The basis of the plot is the fate of an honest Russian officer, whom the conditions of army barracks life made him feel the illegality of people's social relations. Once again, Kuprin is not talking about an outstanding personality, but about a simple Russian officer Romashov. The regimental atmosphere torments him; he does not want to be in the army garrison. He became disillusioned with military service. He begins to fight for himself and his love. And the death of Romashov is a protest against the social and moral inhumanity of the environment.

With the onset of reaction and the aggravation of social life in society, Kuprin’s creative concepts also change. During these years, his interest in the world of ancient legends, history, and antiquity intensified. An interesting fusion of poetry and prose, the real and the legendary, the real and the romance of feelings arises in creativity. Kuprin gravitates toward the exotic and develops fantastic plots. He returns to the themes of his earlier novella. The motives of the inevitability of chance in a person’s fate are heard again.

In 1909, the story “The Pit” was published from the pen of Kuprin. Here Kuprin pays tribute to naturalism. It shows the inmates of a brothel. The whole story consists of scenes, portraits and clearly breaks down into individual details of everyday life.

However, in a number of stories written in the same years, Kuprin tried to point out real signs of high spiritual and moral values ​​in reality itself. “Garnet Bracelet” is a story about love. This is what Paustovsky said about it: this is one of the most “fragrant” stories about love.

In 1919, Kuprin emigrated. In exile, he writes the novel “Zhanette”. This work is about the tragic loneliness of a person who has lost his homeland. This is a story about the touching affection of an old professor, who found himself in exile, for a little Parisian girl - the daughter of a street newspaper girl.

Kuprin's emigrant period is characterized by withdrawal into himself. A major autobiographical work of that period is the novel “Junker”.

In exile, the writer Kuprin did not lose faith in the future of his Motherland. At the end of his life's journey, he still returns to Russia. And his work rightfully belongs to Russian art, the Russian people.

Military career

He was born into the family of a minor official who died when his son was in his second year. The mother, from a Tatar princely family, became poor after the death of her husband and was forced to send her son to an orphan school for minors (1876), then a military gymnasium, later transformed into a cadet corps, which he graduated from in 1888. In 1890 he graduated from the Alexander Military School. Then he served in the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment, preparing for a military career. Without entering the Academy of the General Staff (this was prevented by a scandal associated with the violent, especially drunk, temper of a cadet who threw a policeman into the water), Lieutenant Kuprin resigned in 1894.

Life style

Kuprin was an extremely colorful figure. Greedy for impressions, he led a wandering lifestyle, trying different professions - from a loader to a dentist. Autobiographical life material formed the basis of many of his works.

There were legends about his turbulent life. Possessing remarkable physical strength and an explosive temperament, Kuprin greedily rushed towards any new life experience: he went underwater in a diving suit, flew in an airplane (this flight ended in a disaster that almost cost Kuprin his life), organized an athletic society... During the First World War During the war, he and his wife set up a private hospital in his Gatchina house.

The writer was interested in people of various professions: engineers, organ grinders, fishermen, card sharpers, beggars, monks, businessmen, spies... In order to get to know the person he was interested in more reliably, to feel the air he breathed, he was ready, without sparing himself, to go into the most unimaginable adventure. According to his contemporaries, he approached life as a real researcher, seeking the most complete and detailed knowledge possible.

Kuprin also willingly practiced journalism, publishing articles and reports in various newspapers, and traveled a lot, living in Moscow, near Ryazan, in Balaklava, and in Gatchina.

Writer and revolution

Dissatisfaction with the existing social order attracted the writer to revolution, so Kuprin, like many other writers, his contemporaries, paid tribute to revolutionary sentiments. However, he reacted sharply negatively to the Bolshevik revolution and the power of the Bolsheviks. At first, he still tried to cooperate with the Bolshevik authorities and even intended to publish the peasant newspaper “Earth,” for which he met with Lenin.

But soon he unexpectedly went over to the side of the White movement, and after its defeat he left first for Finland and then for France, where he settled in Paris (until 1937). There he actively participated in the anti-Bolshevik press and continued his literary activities (novels “The Wheel of Time”, 1929; “Junker”, 1928-32; “Zhaneta”, 1932-33; articles and stories). But living in exile, the writer was terribly poor, suffering both from lack of demand and isolation from his native soil, and shortly before his death, believing Soviet propaganda, in May 1937 he returned with his wife to Russia. By this time he was already seriously ill.

Sympathy for the common man

Almost all of Kuprin’s work is imbued with the traditional Russian literature pathos of sympathy for the “little” person, doomed to drag out a miserable fate in an inert, wretched environment. In Kuprin, this sympathy was expressed not only in the depiction of the “bottom” of society (the novel about the life of prostitutes “The Pit”, 1909-15, etc.), but also in the images of his intelligent, suffering heroes. Kuprin was inclined precisely to such reflective, nervous to the point of hysteria, characters not devoid of sentimentality. Engineer Bobrov (story “Moloch”, 1896), endowed with a trembling soul, responsive to the pain of others, worries about the workers wasting their lives in back-breaking factory work, while the rich are fattening on ill-gotten money. Even characters from a military environment like Romashov or Nazansky (the story “The Duel”, 1905) have a very high pain threshold and a small reserve of mental strength to withstand the vulgarity and cynicism of their environment. Romashov is tormented by the stupidity of military service, the depravity of the officers, and the downtroddenness of the soldiers. Perhaps none of the writers made such a passionate accusation against the army environment as Kuprin. True, in his portrayal of ordinary people, Kuprin differed from the popular-worshipping writers of the populist orientation (although he received the approval of the venerable populist critic N. Mikhailovsky). His democracy was not limited to a tearful demonstration of their “humiliation and insult.” Kuprin’s simple man turned out to be not only weak, but also capable of standing up for himself, possessing an enviable inner strength. People's life was presented in his works in its free, spontaneous, natural flow, with its own circle of ordinary worries - not only sorrows, but also joys and consolations ("Listrigons", 1908-11).

At the same time, the writer saw not only its bright sides and healthy beginnings, but also outbursts of aggressiveness and cruelty, easily guided by dark instincts (the famous description of the Jewish pogrom in the story “Gambrinus”, 1907).

The Joy of Being In many of Kuprin’s works, the presence of an ideal, romantic principle is clearly felt: it is both in his craving for heroic plots and in his desire to see the highest manifestations of the human spirit - in love, creativity, kindness... It is no coincidence that he often chose heroes who were outliers, breaking out of the usual rut of life, seeking the truth and seeking some other, more complete and living being, freedom, beauty, grace... and who in the literature of that time, wrote so poetically, like Kuprin, about love, tried to restore its humanity and romance. “The Garnet Bracelet” (1911) has become for many readers just such a work, where a pure, unselfish, ideal feeling is glorified.

A brilliant portrayer of the morals of various strata of society, Kuprin vividly, with particular attention, described the environment and everyday life (for which he received criticism more than once). There was also a naturalistic tendency in his work.

At the same time, the writer, like no one else, knew how to feel from the inside the flow of natural, natural life - his stories “Barbos and Zhulka” (1897), “Emerald” (1907) were included in the golden fund of works about animals. The ideal of natural life (the story “Olesya”, 1898) is very important for Kuprin as a kind of desirable norm; he often highlights modern life with it, finding in it sad deviations from this ideal.

For many critics, it was precisely this natural, organic perception of Kuprin’s life, the healthy joy of being, that was the main distinguishing quality of his prose with its harmonious fusion of lyricism and romance, plot-compositional proportionality, dramatic action and accuracy in descriptions.

Literary mastery Kuprin is an excellent master not only of literary landscape and everything related to the external, visual and olfactory perception of life (Bunin and Kuprin competed to see who could more accurately determine the smell of a particular phenomenon), but also of a literary nature: portrait, psychology, speech - everything is worked out to the smallest nuances. Even the animals that Kuprin loved to write about reveal complexity and depth in him.

The narration in Kuprin’s works, as a rule, is very spectacular and is often addressed - unobtrusively and without false speculativeness - specifically to existential problems. He reflects on love, hatred, the will to live, despair, strength and weakness of man, and recreates the complex spiritual world of man at the turn of eras.