Aleksandr Kuprin (Russian: 袗谢械泻褋邪薪写褉 袠胁邪薪芯胁懈褔 袣褍锌褉懈薪; 7 September 1870 in the village of Narovchat in the Penza Oblast - August 25, 1938 in Leningrad) was a Russian writer, pilot, explorer and adventurer who is perhaps best known for his story The Duel (1905). Other well-known works include Moloch (1896), Olesya (1898), Junior Captain Rybnikov (1906), Emerald (1907), and The Garnet Bracelet (1911) (which was made into a 1965 movie). Vladimir Nabokov styled him the Russian Kipling for his stories about pathetic adventure-seekers, who are often "neurotic and vulnerable."
Kuprin was a son of Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin, a minor government official who died of cholera during 1871 at the age of thirty-seven years. His mother, Liubov' Alekseevna Kuprina, Tatar princess (of the Kulunchakovs), like many other nobles in Russia, had lost most of her wealth during the 19th century. Kuprin attended the Razumovsky boarding school during 1876, and during 1880 finished his education in the Second Moscow Military High School (Cadet Corps) and Alexander Military School, spending a total of ten years in these elite military institutions. His first short story, The Last Debut, was published during 1889 in a satirical periodical. "In February 1902, Kuprin and Maria Karlovna Davydova were married, their daughter Lidia born in 1903." Kuprin's mother died during 1910.
Kuprin ended military service during 1894, after which he tried many types of job, including provincial journalism, dental care, land surveying, acting, circus performer, church singer, doctor, hunter, fisher, etc. Reportedly, "all of these were subsequently reflected in his fiction." His first essays were published in Kiev in two collections. Reportedly, "although he lived in an age when writers were carried away by literary experiments, Kuprin did not seek innovation and wrote only about the things he himself had experienced and his heroes are the next generation after Chekhov's pessimists."
Although the 1896 short story Moloch first made his name known as a writer, it was his novel The Duel (1905) which made him famous. "Kuprin was highly praised by fellow writers including Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Nobel Prize-winning Ivan Bunin" and Leo Tolstoy who acclaimed him a true successor to Chekhov. After publication of The Duel he paid less and less interest to fancy literature and began to spend time in pubs and brothels. His sensationalist novel about the lurid life of prostitutes, The Pit (1915), was accused by Russian critics of excessive Naturalism.
Although not a conservative, he did not agree with Bolshevism. While working for a brief time with Maxim Gorky at the World Literature publishing company, he criticized the Soviet regime. During spring 1919, from Gatchina near Petrograd, Kuprin left the country for France. He lived in Paris for most of the next 17 years, succumbing to alcoholism. He wrote about this in much of his work. He eventually returned to Moscow on May 31, 1937, just a year before his death, at the height of the Great Purge. His return earned publication of his works within the Soviet Union.
Kuprin died during the spring of 1938 in Leningrad and is interred near his fellow writers at the Literaturskiye Mostki in the Volkovo Cemetery (Volkovskoye Memorial Cemetery) in Leningrad. A minor planet 3618 Kuprin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him.
Reportedly, "even today, Alexander Kuprin remains one of the widest read classics in Russian literature", with many films based on his works, "which are also read over the radio", partly due to "his vivid stories of the lives of ordinary people and unhappy love, his descriptions of the military and brothels, making him a writer for all times and places."
This novel is all about confrontation between human nature, which longs for air and life, and industry, which promotes structure and profit. And in case you're intersted, it's inspired after factory based in on Donets Coal Basin, Eastern Ukraine.
Engineer Andrei Ilyich Bobrov - the main character - is described as 'fragile', who dislikes his job, but finished the education so his mother won't be upset.
We see the inside of 1890s factory through Bobrov's eyes: he knows how everything functions, although he's intimidated by it's force:
"And do you know anything," Bobrov went on, with even greater vehemence, "about another statistical table which enables you to compute with devilish accuracy the price in human lives of each step forward of your damnable chariot, the invention of each paltry winnowing-fan, seeder, or rail-mill? A fine thing is your civilization, whose fruits are figures, the units being steel machines, and the ciphers human lives!"...
Throughout the story we learn about the relationship between factory workers and higher authorities, which are divided by opposing interests. And it's a fair critizm on Russian Empire at the end of XIX century - the time when the economy was on the rapid rise.
As the story progresses, we see Bobrov chasing after a phantom of love interest: Nina Grigoryevna Zinenko , a daughter of a warehouse manager, is significantly more pragmatic and at the same she's got boundaries of a young girl - her family belongs to lower social class and she acts accordingly. At the same time Bobrov has the audocity to ask her, why sometimes she meets his standarts (which a suitable for a lady, not a young girl with little knowledge of outside world) and sometimes she doesn't. Basically, he fell for a version he created himself, thus his anxiety grows and he simply can't let the matter rest. Nina here is as much as villain as anyone in this story, which makes her more human.
And finally, among many side characters, we meet Bobrov's friend and companion Dr. Goldberg who helped him with his addiction in the past - Bobrov lets him come to his house announced and trusts him with most intimate secrets, for example, how scared he is of the factory, calling it Moloch - an acient god, which demands human sacrifices. Dr. Goldberg is a rather fascinating figure in this novel, far more interesting than many side characters.
For further reading, you might want to check out , , and also a play which portarays the rapiness of industry grouth in Russian Empire.
RUS 袟写械褋褜 褍 薪邪褋 懈褋褌芯褉懈褟, 锌褉芯褌懈胁芯锌芯褋褌邪胁谢褟褞褖邪褟 褔械谢芯胁械褔械褋泻褍褞 薪邪褌褍褉褍 泻芯屑屑械褉褔械褋泻芯泄 胁褘谐芯写械.
Totally perfect, though, not the best. A great little story about Russia, progress, love and people. A couple of interesting questions are asked through the book: - whether the progress is a good subject or not? - whether the price we are paying for progress is fare or not? - whether the money is the most important characteristics of the man or maybe something else?
And a great allegory in the title which refers us to the Bible-time god-like creature named Moloch, whom demanded a sacrifices of humans (mostly babies). Kuprin's Moloch is a metallurgical factory - a source of a progress - whom also demands sacrifices of humans (working here is highly harmful for health and salary is too small) to do the progress, which actually doesn't affect all those factory workers in any part of their poor life.
Very nicely written, a topic is on point, although I wish it would be revealed a little bit more. Regular people are always used and have to sacrifice themselves for "a bigger purpose". So many people died or gave their healths for a better quality of life, but they never were the ones who benefited from it. They were just gone unnoticed, like invisible dust that forms the stones of our civilization.