Remizov A.M. (1877-1957), writer

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
REMIZOV Alexey Mikhailovich (1877-1957), writer. In 1896-97 he studied at the department of natural sciences of the Mathematical Faculty of the University of Moscow. He was expelled for the participation in a student’s demonstration and was exiled. He lived in St. Petersburg from 1905. Remizov was a founder of a comic secret society Great and Free Apish Chamber (Obezvelvolpal) which was of the same importance in its caricaturing the literary conventions of the time as was Arzamas in the early 19th century. Remizov appeared in St. Petersburg almanacs, such as Severnie Tsvety, Shipovnik, Voprosy Zhizni, Zavety, and Birzhevye Vedomosti. He constantly visited the literary salons of the second half of the 1900s - early 1910s (those of D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius, Vyach.I. Ivanov, V.V. Rozanov, F. Sologub). Remizov invented an original type of narrative, by enriching the literary language of his time with dialectal and archaic lexis. One of the essential peculiarities of Remizov's prose consisted in the universal use of stylisation, play with various literary traditions, mostly Old Russian ones. His novel Sisters of the Cross (1910) represents a deliberate play with the literary expectations of a reader, connected with the traditions of the so-called "St. Petersburg text" commenced by N.V. Gogol and F.M. Dostoevsky. In 1917-18 he took part in the edition of the Scythians collection, where The Tale of the Ruin of Russian Land, his response to the revolutionary events in Russia, was published. In 1919 he was arrested in connection with Leftist Socialist Revolutionaries, but was soon afterwards released. He emigrated in 1921. Remizov displayed a vast panorama of the artistic life of the city in the 1900s - 1910s in his memorial book entitled Petersburg Gully (some parts of it were published in 1981; the entire version came out in 2003). Remizov repeatedly changed addresses while living in St. Petersburg - Petrograd. In the 1910s he lived at 7 Tavricheskaya Street; in 1916-20 he dwelled at 31 Fourteenth Line of Vasilievsky Island.

References: Доценко С. Н. Петербургский миф А. М. Ремизова: Заметки к теме // De Visu. 1994. №3/4. С. 60-66; Слобин Г. Н. Проза Ремизова 1900-1921. СПб., 1997; Царь Асыка и его подданные: Обезьянья Великая и Вольная Палата А. М. Ремизова в лицах и документах. СПб., 2001.

D. N. Akhapkin. Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna
Ivanov Vyacheslav Ivanovich
Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeevich
Remizov Alexey Mikhailovich
Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich
Sologub Fedor (real name Teternikov Fedor Kuzmich)
14th Line Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 31
Tavricheskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Доценко С. Н. Петербургский миф А. М. Ремизова: Заметки к теме // De visu, 1994
Царь Асыка и его подданные. Обезьянья Великая и Вольная Палата А. М. Ремизова в лицах и документах. СПб., 2001
Слобин Г. Н. Проза Ремизова 1900-1921. СПб., 1997 Arzamas, Literary Circle
Severnye Tsvety (Northern Flowers), almanac
Brier, publishing house, 1906-22
Zavety (Behests), journal, 1912-1914
Birzhevye Vedomosti (The Stock-Exchange Gazette), 1880-1917
Merezhkovsky Salon
Salon of Sologub
Skify (Scythians), almanac