Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak
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Dmitri Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (Russian: Дмитрий Наркисович Мамин-Сибиряк) (October 25, 1852 - November 2, 1912) was a Russian author most famous for his novels and short stories about life in the Ural Mountains.
[edit] Biography
Mamin-Sibiryak was born into the family of a factory priest. He was at first educated at home, and then studied in the Visim school for workers’ children, then later at the Ekaterinburg Theological Seminary (1866-1868) and at the Perm Theological Seminary (until 1872). In 1872 he entered the veterinary section of the Saint Petersburg Medical Academy. In 1876, not having finished the academy, he transferred to the Law Faculty of St Petersburg University. He studied there for one year and then left, due to health (the beginning of tuberculosis) and financial difficulties.
In the summer of 1877 he returned to his family in the Urals. His father died the following year and all the difficulties of the family fell on Mamin-Sibiryak. In order to find work and educate his brothers and sister the family moved to the large cultural center of Ekaterinburg. There he married Maria Alekseeva who became his literary advisor as well as his spouse and friend. During these years he made numerous trips around the Ural region and studied its history, economics, ethnography and daily life.
From the beginning of the 1880s he was occupied with literary efforts.
In 1890 he divorced his first wife and married the actress M. Abramova from the Ekaterinburg Dramatic Theatre and moved to St Petersburg. Abramova died a year later, leaving a sick daughter Alenushka in the arms of a distraught father.
[edit] Works
A series of travel sketches “From the Urals to Moscow” (1881-1882) were published in the Moscow newspaper Russkie Vedemosti. Then his sketches “in the Mountains” and stories (At the Border of Asia” and “In Bad Souls” were published in the journal Delo. Many were signed with the pseudonym D. Sibiryak.
The first major work of the writer was “The Privalov Fortune” (1883) which was serialized to great success in the journal Delo. The publication of the novel “Mountain Nest” in 1884 in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski cemented the reputation of Mamin-Sibiryak as an accomplished realist.
Repeated trips to the capital (1881-2, 1885-6) extended Mamin-Sibiryak’s literary contacts. He became acquainted with V.G. Korolenko, N.N. Zlatovratsky, V. A. Gol’tsev and others. During these years he wrote and published many short stories and sketches.
The last major works were the novels “Traits from the Life of Pepko (1894) and Falling Stars (1899) and the story Mumma (1907).
In his novels and stories the writer portrayed the life of the Urals and Siberia in the reform years of the development of capitalism in Russia and the consequent rifts in public consciousness, legal norms and morals. His most well known works are The Privalov Fortune (1883), Mountain Nest (1884), Gold (1892) Bread (1895) the novella Okhonna’s Brows (1892) and the collections “Ural Stories” (1895) and “Siberian Stories” (1889).
His widely-known children's books included “Tales for Alyonushka” (1894-1896), “Grey Neck” (1893) and “Summer Lightning” (1897)
