Vikenty Veresaev

Vikenty Vikentyevich Smidovich (16 January 1867 – 3 June 1945), better known by his pen name Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev, was a Russian and Soviet writer, translator and medical doctor of Polish descent.

Early life Veresaev was born in Tula, where his father was a doctor and noble of Polish origin. Veresaev was a cousin of the later prominent Soviet politician, Pyotr Smidovich. After graduating from the Tula gymnasium in 1884, he attended Saint Petersburg University, taking a master's degree in history in 1888. He then enrolled in University of Dorpat/Yuryev and successfully completed a course in medicine. His first work to appear in print was a collection of poems in 1885. His first short story, "The Puzzle", was published in 1887. In 1890 he toured the coal mines of Donetsk with his brother, gathering material for a collection of sketches called The Underground Kingdom, detailing the struggles and hardships of the exploited miners, which he published in 1892. In April 1901 he was dismissed from the hospital where he'd been working because of his political views, and was forbidden to live in Moscow or Saint Petersburg for a period of two years.

Works

Novels The Deadlock (1922) The Sisters (1933)

Short stories The Salt Pit (collection)

Memoirs and autobiographical works Memoirs of a Physician (1900) In the War (1908)

English translations Memoirs of a Physician, (autobiography), Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1916. from Archive.org In the War, Mitchell Kennerley, New York, 1917. from Archive.org The Deadlock, Faber & Gwyer, 1927. The Deadlock, Hyperion Press, 1974. The Sisters, 1933 Sisters, Hyperion Press, 1974. "In the Steppe", (story), from The Salt Pit, Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1988.