Gleb Uspensky

Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (; October 25, 1843 April 6, 1902) was a Russian writer and a prominent figure of the Narodnik movement.

Biography Early life Gleb Uspensky was born in Tula, the son of Ivan Yakovlevich Uspensky, a senior official in the local government Office of State Property, and Nadezhda Glebovna Uspenskaya (née Sokolova). He was named after his grandfather on his mother's side, Gleb Fomich Sokolov who served as the head of the Office of State Property in Tula (up until 1848) and Kaluga (from 1848 onwards). Gleb Uspensky received his early education in the homes of his parents and grandfather. In 1853 Gleb entered the Tula gymnasium where he excelled, "his name never leaving the so-called 'golden desk' there", according to a fellow student's memoirs. In 1856 he moved with his family to Chernigov. While studying in the local gymnasium, Uspensky devoted much of his time to reading the Russian classics and participated in the school's literary almanac "Young Stems".

In September 1861 he enrolled in the Law Faculty at Saint Petersburg University, only to be expelled three months later as the university temporarily closed due to student unrest. In 1862 he entered Moscow University but soon left due to a lack of money. Ivan Uspensky's death on January 9, 1864, left Gleb with the added responsibility of supporting his family. He travelled back to Chernigov and succeeded in getting a grant of 400 rubles in assistance. In May 1870 he married Alexandra Barayeva, a teacher from Elets. In 1878 two of his collections, "From Memory Book. Sketches and Stories" and "From New and Old (Miscellaneous)", came out in Saint Petersburg. The novella Small Children appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1880. In March of that year Uspensky organized a literary meeting for Ivan Turgenev to be joined by a group of young authors, including Nikolai Zlatovratsky, Nikolai Naumov, Alexander Ertel and Sergey Krivenko. Soon after that Uspensky moved to Novgorod region to stay at A.V.Kamensky's estate and wrote there "Peasant and Peasant's Labour" (Otechestvennye Zapiski, October–December), an essay which impressed Turgenev a lot. Another book by Uspensky, "The People and the Ways of Contemporary Village" came out in Moscow. The term "chastushki" (ditties) was first used by Gleb Uspensky in his book about Russian folk rhymes published 1889.

Major works Manners of Rasteryayeva Street (Нравы Растеряевой улицы, sketches, 1866) Desolation (Разоренье, a trilogy of short novels, 1870-1871) A Very Small Man (Очень маленький человек, 1874) "The Backwater: Sketches from the Province and from the Capital" (Глушь. Провинциальные и столичные очерки, 1875, sketches) Small Children (Малые ребята, 1880) The Village Troubles (Деревенские неурядицы, 1882) The Power of the Land (Власть земли, 1882) "Straightened Out" (Выпрямила, 1885, an essay about "art for art's sake")

English translations "The Steam Chicken" and "A Trifling Defect in the Mechanism" (stories), from The Humor of Russia, Trans. E.L. Voynich. Introduction by Stepnyak. Illustrations by Paul Frenzeny. London: Walter Scott, Ltd./New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. from Archive.org "Ivan Petrov" (sketch from The Power of the Land), from Anthology of Russian Literature, Leo Wiener, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1903. from Archive.org "Inspecting the Bride" (sketch), from Little Russian Masterpieces, Vol 2, Ragozin, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.