Vasilii Alekseevich Sleptsov
Vasilii Alekseevich Sleptsov was a Russian writer and theater enthusiast born in 1836 in Voronezh, into a family of notable wealth and Polish Catholic heritage. His academic journey included studies at the First Moscow Gymnasium and later the Noblemen's Institute in Penza. Initially pursuing medicine at Moscow University, he shifted his focus to acting, joining a theater company in Iaroslavl'. Sleptsov gained recognition for his literary works that blended theater elements with short fiction, notably his sketches on the Vladimir region and his investigations into social issues.
His writings, including the acclaimed short story "Pitomka," reflect a deep concern for the rights of women and the socio-economic conditions of Russia's lower classes. A proponent of female emancipation, he also played a role in founding the Znamenskaia commune, aimed at supporting women through literary endeavors. Although his works were celebrated in the early 20th century, particularly by Maxim Gorky, Sleptsov's legacy diminished following the Russian Revolution. He passed away from intestinal cancer in 1878, leaving behind a complex body of work that foreshadowed themes later explored in Socialist Realism.
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Vasilii Alekseevich Sleptsov
Writer
- Born: July 17, 1836
- Birthplace: Voronezh, Russia
- Died: March 23, 1878
- Place of death: Serdobsk, Russia
Biography
The eldest of six children, Vasilii Alekseevich Sleptsov was born in Voronezh, Russia, in 1836, to Aleksei Vasil’evich Sleptsov, a wealthy landowner, and Zhozefina Adamovna Sleptsova (née Vel’butovich-Paplonskaia), a Polish Catholic. Sleptsov’s early education was by private tutor. In 1847, he entered the First Moscow Gymnasium, and transferred to the Noblemen’s Institute in Penza, after his family moved from Moscow to Aleksandrovka two years later.
In 1853, Sleptsov entered the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University; however, by the following year he was pursuing his interest in the theater, as an actor in a Iaroslavl’ company. Sleptsov’s survey of the Aleksandrinskii Theater in St. Petersburg during the 1865-1867 seasons was published as “Tip noveishei dramy” (on recent drama) in Otechestvennye zapiski (notes of the fatherland) in 1868. Sleptsov first married in 1856; his wife, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Tsukanova, a Moscow ballet dancer, died the next year. In 1858, he married Elizaveta Nikolaevna Iazykova, with whom he had a son and a daughter. By 1865 the couple was separated.
Sleptsov worked in the Moscow governor’s office from 1857 to 1862, during which time the Ethnographic Section of the Geographical Society dispatched him to the Vladimir region to collect information on local folklore. Just as elements of the theater, including dialogue and stage directions, found their way into Sleptsov’s short fiction, so did his trip through Vladimir. A series of eight sketches called Vladimirka i Kliaz’ma (the road to Vladimir and the Kliaz’ma River, 1861) appeared in Russkaia rech’ (Russian speech) and Moskovskii vestnik (the Moscow messenger).
Subsequently, Sleptsov was commissioned by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov to investigate the affluence of the town of Ostashkov. Sleptsov’s controversial “Pis’ma ob Ostashkove” (letters about Ostashkov) was published in Sovremennik (the contemporary) in 1862 and 1863. His interest in and understanding of Russia’s lower classes is further evident in “Pitomka” (a foster child, Sovremennik, 1863). The acclaimed short story, which addresses the rights of an unmarried woman to raise her own child, garnered Sleptsov many female admirers.
A believer in female emancipation, Sleptsov was instrumental in founding the short-lived Znamenskaia commune (1863-1864) in St. Petersburg. The group, predominantly female, attempted to support itself apart from government structures, through literary work. The commune’s failure informed Sleptsov’s important work Trudnoe vremia (hard times), which was written in 1865 but was not published as a book until 1922.
Maxim Gorky ensured Sleptsov’s fame in the early twentieth century when he heralded Trudnoe vremia as the forerunner of Socialist Realism. Sleptsov’s works have not, however, fared well since the Revolution. Late in his life, Sleptsov served as an editor at Zhenskii vestnik (the women’s messenger) and as a secretary at Otechestvennye zapiski. He also worked as a director for amateur theater groups in St. Petersburg and Tbilisi, Georgia, between 1869 and 1874, before his premature death from intestinal cancer in 1878.