Mikhail Artsybashev

Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev (; ; ; November 5, 1878 – March 3, 1927) was a Russian writer and playwright, and a major proponent of the literary style known as naturalism. He was the great-grandson of Tadeusz Kościuszko and father of Boris Artzybasheff, who emigrated to the United States and became famous as an illustrator. Following the Russian Revolution, in 1923 Artsybashev emigrated to Poland, where he died in 1927.

Biography

Early life

Artsybashev was born in khutor Dubroslavivka, Okhtyrka county, Kharkov Governorate (currently Sumy Oblast, Ukraine). His father was a small landowner and a former officer. His mother, who was Polish, died of tuberculosis when he was only three years old. His other ethnic roots included French, Georgian and Tatar. He attended school in Okhtyrka until the age of 16. From 1895 to 1897 he was an office worker. He studied at the Kharkov School of Drawing and Art (1897–98). During this time he lived in poverty, and was often unable to buy art supplies. In 1897 he attempted suicide. In 1898 he married Anna Vasilyevna Kobushko, with whom he had his son Boris. The couple separated in 1900. "Common sense, consistency, argumentation, a clear and concrete idea of one's subject that constitutes the plot of the work, a thoughtful evaluation of the phenomena introduced in the novel, clarity and concreteness—these are the things I demand of a literary work."

He made this comment concerning Friedrich Nietzsche: "It is often thought here (in Russia) that Nietzsche exercised a great influence over me. This surprises me, for the simple reason that I have never read Nietzsche. This brilliant thinker is out of sympathy with me, both in his ideas and in the bombastic form of his works, and I have never got beyond the beginnings of his books. Max Stirner is to me much nearer and more comprehensible."

Later life The grave of M. Artsybashev in Warsaw, 2023; fot. Ivonna Nowicka Artsybashev moved to Moscow in 1912. In 1917–18 he published his anti-Bolshevik work Notes of a Writer. In 1923 he emigrated to Poland as an optant (his mother was Polish), where he edited the newspaper For Liberty! (За свободу!). He was an irreconcilable enemy of the Bolshevik regime, and Soviet critics dubbed the novels of his followers saninstvo and artsybashevchina (both terms are considered derogatory). He died in Warsaw on March 3, 1927, from tuberculosis and was buried at the Orthodox Cemetery in Warsaw.

English translations The Millionaire, Ivan Lande, and Nina, (stories/short novels), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1915. from Archive.org The Revolutionist, (story), from Best Russian Short Stories, Boni and Liveright, 1917. from Archive.org Tales of the Revolution, (stories/short novels), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1917. from Archive.org The Jew, (story), from The Shield, Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1917. from Archive.org War, (play), Grant Richards LTD, London, 1918. from Archive.org Breaking Point, (novel), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1920. from Archive.org Sanin, (novel). from Gutenberg.org