April 4, 1878(1878-04-04) (aged 41) Serdobsk, Russia
Occupation
Novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist
Nationality
Russian
Period
1861—1878
Notable work
Hard Times
Vasily Alekseyevich Sleptsov (Russian: Васи́лий Алексе́евич Слепцо́в, July 31, 1836 – April 4, 1878), was a Russian writer, playwright, journalist and social reformer.
Biography
Sleptsov was born in Voronezh into a noble family. His father Alexey Vasilyevich was a military man, his mother Josefina Adamovna, née Welbutovich-Paplonska, belonged to the Polish szlachta. He studied at the First Moscow Gymnasium and later, when the family moved to their county estate in Saratov Governorate, at the Penza Institute for Nobility.[1] Sleptsov attended the medical school at Moscow University in 1855-56. He then went to Yaroslavl to try being an actor. He soon returned to Moscow, where he was in government service from 1857 to 1861-62.[1]
In the early 1860s Sleptsov organized a women's commune in Saint Petersburg and set up a society for female translators. He wrote fiction for several magazines including Otechestvennye Zapiski, Russkaya Rech, and Sovremennik, where he published his novel Hard Times in 1865. Sleptsov's works were praised by Leo Tolstoy; especially his story "The Ward" (1863).[2][3]
In 1866 he was arrested for political activities, and for his association with Dmitry Karakozov, a man who had attempted to assassinate Tsar Alexander II. Upon his release, he helped to create the magazine The Women's Herald. His works were widely read in the 1860s, but his popularity began to decline in the 1870s. The novel A Good Man was left unfinished at his death in 1878.[2][3]
"The Ward", (story), from In the Depths, Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1987.
Hard Times: A Novel of Liberals and Radicals in 1860s Russia, transl. by M. R. Katz; with an introduction by W. C. Brumfield. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016
References
^ abNosock, A. СЛЕПЦОВ, Василий Алексеевич at the Russian Writers Dictionary // А. А. Носок. "Русские писатели". иобиблиографический словарь. Том 2. М-Я. Под редакцией П. А. Николаева. М., Просвещение, 1990
^ abHandbook of Russian Literature, Victor Terras, Yale University Press 1990.
^ abIntroduction to The Ward from In the Depths, Raduga Publishers, 1987.
Bibliography
Brumfield, William С. (2014), "Sleptsov Redivivus", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 11 (2), archived(PDF) from the original on 13 September 2014, retrieved 24 September 2014.