Leonid
Andreyev
Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev
(Russian: Леонид Николаевич Андреев, 21
August [O.S. 9 August] 1871 – September
12, 1919) was a Russian playwright and
short-story writer who led the
Expressionist movement in the national
literature. He was active between the
revolution of 1905 and the Communist
revolution which finally overthrew the
Tsarist government.
Biography
Born in the Oryol province of
Russia, Andreyev originally studied law
in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but
abandoned his unremunerative law
practice to pursue a literary career. He
became police-court reporter for a
Moscow daily, performing the routine of
his humble calling without attracting
any particular attention. His first
story published was About a Poor
Student, a narrative based upon his own
experiences. It was not, however, until
Gorky discovered him by stories
appearing in the Moscow Courier and
elsewhere that Andreyev's literary
career really began.
Andreyev, by Ilya Repin, 1904
From that day to his death he was one of
the most prolific writers in Russia,
producing short stories, sketches,
dramas, etc., in frequent succession.
His first collection of stories appeared
in 1901, and sold a quarter-million
copies in short time. He was hailed as a
new star in Russia, where his name soon
became a by-word. He published his short
story, "In the Fog" in 1902. Although he
started out in the Russian vein he soon
startled his readers by his
eccentricities, which grew even faster
than his fame. His two best known
stories may be "The Red Laugh" (1904)
and "The Seven Who Were Hanged" (1908).
His dramas include the Symbolist plays
The Life of Man (1906), Tsar Hunger
(1907), Black Masks (1908), Anathema
(1909), and He Who Gets Slapped (1915).
The Life of Man was staged by both
Stanislavski (with his Moscow Art
Theatre) and Meyerhold (in Saint
Petersburg), the two giants of Russian
theatre of the twentieth century, in
1907.
Idealist and rebel, Andreyev spent
his last years in bitter poverty, and
his premature death from heart failure
may have been hastened by his anguish
over the results of the Bolshevik
Revolution. Unlike his friend Maxim
Gorky, Andreyev could not make peace
with the new order. From his house in
Finland he addressed manifestos to the
world at large against the excesses of
the Bolsheviks.
Aside from his political writings,
Andreyev published little after 1914. A
play, The Sorrows of Belgium, was
written at the beginning of the War to
celebrate the heroism of the Belgians
against the invading German army. It was
produced in the United States, as were
the plays, The Life of Man (1917), The
Rape of the Sabine Women (1922), He Who
Gets Slapped (1922), and Anathema
(1923). A popular and acclaimed film
version of He Who Gets Slapped was
produced by MGM Studios in 1924.
