Garshin V.M. (1855-1888), writer

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
GARSHIN Vsevolod Mikhailovich (1855-1888, St. Petersburg), writer. In St. Petersburg from 1863. Studied in the Institute of Mines (1874-77). When the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78 broke out, he volunteered for the Army without finishing the course. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, devoted himself to literature. A regular contributor of Otechestvennye Zapiski journal. The main character of Garshin's short stories is a man of shaken conscience, possessed by the idea of national duty (Four Days, Coward), powerless in the face of social injustice and people's indifference. The collision of such a character and the evil in its regular shapes is developed in Petersburg short stories of Garshin (An Incident, Artists, Nadezhda Nikolaevna). In 1880 mental illness of Garshin was aggravated by the unsuccessful attempt to take up the cudgels for I.O. Mlodetsky, who attempted M.T. Loris-Melikov's life and shortly afterwards was executed. In 1883-85 lived at 22 Ninth Rozhdestvenskaya (today Ninth Sovetskaya) Street (memorial plaque). Committed suicide by throwing himself in flight of stairs (5 Povarskoy Lane). Buried at Literatorskie Mostki. Funerals of Garshin became a prominent event in the life of St. Petersburg: his death provoked wide public resonance, and its reasons were explained by the sores of the modern life, that had predetermined Garshin's fate.

References: Латынина А. Н. Всеволод Гаршин: Творчество и судьба. М., 1986; Порудоминский В. И. Грустный солдат, или Жизнь Всеволода Гаршина. 2-е изд. М., 1987.

A. B. Muratov. Garshin Vsevolod Mikhailovich
Loris-Melikov Mikhail Tarielovich, Count
Mlodetsky Ippolit Osipovich
9th Sovetskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 22
Povarskaya Lane/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Латынина А. Н. Всеволод Гаршин: Творчество и судьба. М., 1986
Порудоминский В. И. Грустный солдат, или Жизнь Всеволода Гаршина. 2-е изд. М., 1987 Otechestvennye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), journal
Literatorskie (Literary) Mostki, the museum-necropolis