And Kuprin is a short biography for children. A.I

Very short biography (in a nutshell)

Born on September 7, 1870 in the city of Narovchat, Penza region. Father - Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin (1834-1871), official. Mother - Lyubov Alekseevna (1838-1910). In 1880 he entered the Moscow Cadet Corps, and in 1887 - the Alexander Military School. On February 3, 1902, he married Maria Davydova. Since 1907 he began to live with Elizabeth Heinrich. He had three daughters from two marriages. In 1920 he emigrated to France. In 1937 he returned to the USSR. He died on August 25, 1938 at the age of 67. He was buried in St. Petersburg on the Literary bridges of the Volkovsky cemetery. Main works: "Duel", "Pit", "Moloch", "Garnet Bracelet", "Wonderful Doctor" and others.

Brief biography (detailed)

Alexander Kuprin is an outstanding Russian realist writer of the late 19th century. The writer was born on September 7, 1870 in the county town of Narovchat, Penza region, in the family of a hereditary nobleman. The writer's father, Ivan Ivanovich, died shortly after the birth of his son. Mother, Lyubov Alekseevna, was from the family of Tatar princes. After the death of her husband, she moved to Moscow, where Alexander was sent to an orphanage at the age of six. In 1880, he entered the Moscow Cadet Corps, and in 1887, the Alexander Military School. About the years spent in this school, he will later write in the story "At the Break" and in the novel "Junkers".

The first literary experience of the writer manifested itself in poems that were never published. Kuprin's work was first published in 1889. It was the story "The Last Debut". The writer collected rich material for his future works while serving in the Dnieper Infantry Regiment in 1890. A few years later, his works “Russian Wealth”, “Overnight”, “Inquiry”, “Campaign” and others were published. It is believed that Kuprin was a very greedy person for impressions and liked to lead a wandering lifestyle. He was interested in people of various professions, from engineers to organ grinders. For this reason, the writer could equally well describe various subjects in his books.

The 1890s were fruitful for Kuprin. It was then that one of his best stories, Moloch, was published. In the 1900s, the writer met such literary geniuses as Bunin, Gorky, Chekhov. In 1905, the most significant work of the writer appeared - the story "Duel". This story immediately brought the writer great success, and he began to speak with readings of its individual chapters in the capital. And with the advent of the stories "The Pit" and "Garnet Bracelet", his prose became a significant part of Russian literature.

The turning point in Kuprin's life was the revolution that broke out in the country. In 1920, the writer emigrated to France, where he spent almost seventeen years. It was a kind of quiet period in his work. However, after returning to his homeland, he wrote his last essay, "Moscow is dear." The writer died on the night of August 25, 1938 and was buried on Literatorskie mostki in St. Petersburg.

Video short biography (for those who prefer to listen)

The life experience and work of AI Kuprin are extremely closely related to each other. The autobiographical element occupies an important place in the writer's books. For the most part, the author wrote about what he saw with his own eyes, experienced with his soul, but not as an observer, but as a direct participant in life's dramas and comedies. What was experienced and seen was transformed in different ways in creativity - these were both cursory sketches, and an accurate description of specific situations, and a deep socio-psychological analysis.

At the beginning of his literary activity, the classic paid much attention to everyday color. But even then he showed a penchant for social analysis. In his entertaining book "Kyiv Types" there is not only a picturesque everyday exotic, but also a hint of the all-Russian social environment. At the same time, Kuprin does not delve into the psychology of people. It was not until years later that he began to carefully and scrupulously study diverse human material.

This was especially clearly manifested in such a theme of his work as an army environment. It is with the army that the first realistic work of the writer is connected - the story "Inquiry" (1894). In it, he described a type of person who suffers at the sight of injustice, but is spiritually restless, devoid of strong-willed qualities and unable to fight evil. And such an indecisive truth seeker begins to accompany all of Kuprin's work.

Army stories are notable for the writer's faith in the Russian soldier. She makes such works as "Army Ensign", "Night Shift", "Overnight" truly spiritualized. Kuprin shows the soldier as resilient, with a rude but healthy humor, intelligent, observant, inclined to original philosophizing.

The final stage of creative searches at an early stage of literary activity was the story "Moloch" (1896), which brought real fame to the young writer. In this story, at the center of the action is a humane, kind, impressionable person, reflecting on life. Society itself is shown as a transitional formation, that is, one in which changes are brewing that are not clear not only to the actors, but also to the author.

A great place in the work of A. I. Kuprin was occupied by love. The writer can even be called a singer of love. An example of this is the story "At the junction" (1894). The beginning of the story does not portend anything sublime. A train, a compartment, a married couple - an elderly boring official, his young beautiful wife and a young artist who happened to be with them. He is interested in the official's wife, and she is interested in him.

At first glance, the story of a banal romance and adultery. But no, the skill of the writer turns a trivial plot into a serious topic. The story shows how a chance meeting illuminates the lives of two good people with honest souls. Kuprin so psychologically verified built a small work that he was able to say a lot in it.

But the most remarkable work dedicated to the theme of love is the story "Olesya". It can be called a forest fairy tale, drawn with the authenticity and precision of details inherent in realistic art. The girl herself is a whole, serious, deep nature, there is a lot of sincerity and spontaneity in her. And the hero of the story is an ordinary person with an amorphous character. But under the influence of a mysterious forest girl, he brightens his soul and seems ready to become a noble and whole person.

The work of AI Kuprin conveys not only the concrete, everyday, visible, but also rises to symbolism, which implies the very spirit of certain phenomena. Such, for example, is the story "Swamp". The overall color of the story is heavy and gloomy, similar to the swamp fog in which the action takes place. This almost plotless work shows the slow death of a peasant family in a forest lodge.

The artistic means used by the classic are such that there is a feeling of a fatal nightmare. And the very image of a forest, dark and sinister swamp acquires an expanded meaning, creates the impression of some kind of abnormal swamp life, smoldering in the gloomy corners of a vast country.

In 1905, the story "Duel" was published, in which the methods of psychological analysis indicate Kuprin's connection with the traditions of Russian classics of the 19th century. In this work, the writer showed himself to be a first-class master of the word. He once again proved his ability to comprehend the dialectics of soul and thought, to paint typical characters and typical circumstances artistically.

A few words should also be said about the story "Staff Captain Rybnikov". Before Kuprin, no one in Russian and foreign literature created such a psychological detective story. The fascination of the story lies in the picturesque two-dimensional image of Rybnikov and the psychological duel between him and the journalist Shchavinsky, as well as in the tragic denouement that occurs under unusual circumstances.

The poetry of labor and the aroma of the sea are fanned with the stories of "Listrigons", which tell about Balaklava Greek fishermen. In this cycle, the classic showed in all its beauty the original corner of the Russian Empire. In the stories, the concreteness of the descriptions is combined with a kind of epic and ingenuous fabulousness.

In 1908, the story "Shulamith" appeared, which was called a hymn to female beauty and youth. This is a poem in prose, combining sensuality and spirituality. There is a lot of bold, bold, frank in the poem, but there is no falsehood. The work tells about the poetic love of the king and a simple girl, ending tragically. Shulamith becomes a victim of dark forces. The sword of the killer slays her, but he cannot destroy the memory of her and her love.

I must say that the classic has always been interested in "small", "ordinary people". Such a person he made a hero in the story "Garnet Bracelet" (1911). The meaning of this brilliant story is that love is as strong as death. The originality of the work lies in the gradual and almost imperceptible increase in the tragic theme. There is also a touch of Shakespeare. She breaks through the quirks of a funny official and conquers the reader.

The story "Black Lightning" (1912) is interesting in its own way. In it, the work of A. I. Kuprin opens from another side. This work depicts provincial provincial Russia with its apathy and ignorance. But it also shows those spiritual forces that lurk in provincial cities and from time to time make themselves felt.

During the First World War, from the pen of the classic came such a work as "Violets", glorifying the springtime in a person's life. And the continuation was social criticism, embodied in the story "Cantaloupe". In it, the writer draws the image of a cunning businessman and a hypocrite who profits from military supplies.

Even before the war, Kuprin began to work on a powerful and deep social canvas, which he called gloomily and briefly - "The Pit". The first part of this story was published in 1909, and in 1915 the publication of The Pit was completed. The work created true images of women who found themselves at the bottom of life. The classic masterfully portrayed individual character traits and gloomy nooks and crannies of the big city.

Finding himself in exile after the October Revolution and the Civil War, Kuprin began to write about old Russia, as about an amazing past that always pleased and amused him. The main essence of his works of this period was to reveal the inner world of his characters. At the same time, the writer often turned to the memories of his youth. This is how the novel "Junker" appeared, which made a significant contribution to Russian prose.

The classic describes the loyal moods of future infantry officers, youthful love, and such an eternal theme as motherly love. And of course, the writer does not forget nature. It is communication with nature that fills the youthful soul with joy and gives impetus to the first philosophical reflections.

The "Junkers" masterfully and competently describe the life of the school, while it is not only informative, but also historical information. The novel is also interesting in the gradual formation of a young soul. The reader unfolds a chronicle of the spiritual formation of one of the Russian youths of the late XIX - early XX century. This work can be called an elegy in prose with great artistic and cognitive merits.

The skill of the realist artist, sympathy for the ordinary citizen with his everyday worldly concerns were extremely clearly manifested in the miniature essays dedicated to Paris. The writer united them under one name - "Paris at Home". When the work of AI Kuprin was in its infancy, he created a cycle of essays about Kyiv. And after many years in exile, the classic returned to the genre of urban sketches, only the place of Kyiv was now taken by Paris.

French impressions were reunited in a peculiar way with nostalgic memories of Russia in the novel Janet. The state of restlessness, spiritual loneliness, unquenched thirst to find a close soul was soulfully conveyed in it. The novel "Janeta" is one of the most masterful and psychologically subtle works and, perhaps, the saddest creation of the classic.

Witty and original in its essence, the fabulously legendary work "The Blue Star" appears before the readers. In this romantic tale, the main theme is love. The action of the plot takes place in an unknown fantasy country, where an unknown people live with their own culture, customs, and mores. And a brave traveler, a French prince, penetrates this unknown country. And of course, he meets a fairy princess.

Both she and the traveler are beautiful. They fell in love with each other, but the girl considers herself an ugly girl, and all the people consider her ugly, although she loves her for her good heart. And the thing was that the people who inhabited the country were real freaks, but considered themselves handsome. The princess did not look like her compatriots, and she was perceived as an ugly woman.

A brave traveler takes the girl to France, and there she realizes that she is beautiful, and the prince who saved her is also beautiful. But she considered him a freak, like herself, and was very sorry. This work has entertaining good-natured humor, and the plot is somewhat reminiscent of good old fairy tales. All this made the "Blue Star" a significant phenomenon in Russian literature.

In exile, the work of A. I. Kuprin continued to serve Russia. The writer himself lived an intense fruitful life. But every year it became more and more difficult for him. The stock of Russian impressions was running out, and the classic could not merge with foreign reality. The concern for a piece of bread was also important. And therefore it is impossible not to pay tribute to the talented author. Despite the difficult years for himself, he managed to make a significant contribution to Russian literature..

Russian writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin (1870-1938) was born in the city of Narovchat, Penza province. A man of difficult fate, a professional military man, then a journalist, an emigrant and a "returner" Kuprin is known as the author of works included in the golden collection of Russian literature.

Stages of life and creativity

Kuprin was born into a poor noble family on August 26, 1870. His father worked as a secretary in the regional court, his mother came from a noble family of the Tatar princes Kulunchakovs. In addition to Alexander, two daughters grew up in the family.

The life of the family changed dramatically when, a year after the birth of his son, the head of the family died of cholera. Mother, a native Muscovite, began to look for an opportunity to return to the capital and somehow arrange the life of the family. She managed to find a place with a boarding house in the Kudrinsky widow's house in Moscow. Three years of little Alexander's life passed here, after which, at the age of six, he was sent to an orphanage. The atmosphere of the widow's house is conveyed by the story "The Holy Lie" (1914), written by a mature writer.

The boy was accepted to study at the Razumovsky orphanage, then, after graduation, he continued his studies at the Second Moscow Cadet Corps. Fate, it seems, ordered him to be a military man. And in the early work of Kuprin, the theme of army everyday life, relationships among the military rises in two stories: "Army Ensign" (1897), "At the Turn (Cadets)" (1900). At the peak of his literary talent, Kuprin wrote the story "Duel" (1905). The image of her hero, Lieutenant Romashov, according to the writer, was written off from himself. The publication of the story caused a great discussion in society. In the military environment, the work was perceived negatively. The story shows the aimlessness, petty-bourgeois limitations of the life of the military class. A kind of completion of the dilogy "The Cadets" and "Duel" was the autobiographical story "Junker", written by Kuprin already in exile, in 1928-32.

Prone to rebellious Kuprin, army life was completely alien. Resignation from military service took place in 1894. By this time, the first stories of the writer, not yet noticed by the general public, began to appear in magazines. After leaving military service, wanderings began in search of earnings and life experiences. Kuprin tried to find himself in many professions, but the experience of journalism acquired in Kyiv became useful for starting professional literary work. The next five years were marked by the appearance of the best works of the author: the stories "The Lilac Bush" (1894), "The Picture" (1895), "The Overnight" (1895), "The Watchdog and Zhulka" (1897), "The Wonderful Doctor" (1897), " Breguet" (1897), the story "Olesya" (1898).

The capitalism that Russia is entering has depersonalized the working man. Anxiety in the face of this process leads to a wave of workers' revolts, which are supported by the intelligentsia. In 1896, Kuprin wrote the story "Moloch" - a work of great artistic power. In the story, the soulless power of the machine is associated with an ancient deity who demands and receives human lives as a sacrifice.

"Moloch" was written by Kuprin already on his return to Moscow. Here, after wandering, the writer finds a home, enters the circle of writers, gets acquainted and closely converges with Bunin, Chekhov, Gorky. Kuprin marries and in 1901 moves with his family to St. Petersburg. His stories "Swamp" (1902), "White Poodle" (1903), "Horse Thieves" (1903) are published in magazines. At this time, the writer is actively engaged in public life, he is a candidate for deputies of the State Duma of the 1st convocation. Since 1911 he has been living in Gatchina with his family.

Kuprin's work between the two revolutions was marked by the creation of the love stories Shulamith (1908) and The Garnet Bracelet (1911), which differ in their light mood from the works of literature of those years by other authors.

During the period of two revolutions and a civil war, Kuprin was looking for an opportunity to be useful to society, collaborating either with the Bolsheviks or with the Socialist-Revolutionaries. 1918 was a turning point in the life of the writer. He emigrates with his family, lives in France and continues to work actively. Here, in addition to the novel "Junker", the story "Yu-yu" (1927), the fairy tale "The Blue Star" (1927), the story "Olga Sur" (1929), more than twenty works were written.

In 1937, after an entry permit approved by Stalin, the already very ill writer returned to Russia and settled in Moscow, where Alexander Ivanovich died a year after returning from exile. Kuprin was buried in Leningrad at the Volkovsky cemetery.

The work of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin was formed during the years of the revolutionary upsurge. All his life he was close to the theme of the insight of a simple Russian man who eagerly sought the truth of life. Kuprin devoted all his work to the development of this complex psychological topic. His art, according to contemporaries, was characterized by a special vigilance in seeing the world, concreteness, and a constant desire for knowledge. The cognitive pathos of Kuprin's creativity was combined with a passionate personal interest in the victory of good over all evil. Therefore, most of his works are characterized by dynamics, drama, excitement.

Kuprin's biography is similar to an adventure novel. In terms of the abundance of meetings with people and life observations, it was reminiscent of Gorky's biography. Kuprin traveled a lot, did various jobs: he served in a factory, worked as a loader, played on stage, sang in a church choir.

At an early stage of his work, Kuprin was strongly influenced by Dostoevsky. It manifested itself in the stories "In the Dark", "Moonlight Night", "Madness". He writes about fatal moments, the role of chance in a person's life, analyzes the psychology of human passions. Some stories of that period say that the human will is helpless in the face of elemental chance, that the mind cannot know the mysterious laws that govern a person. A decisive role in overcoming the literary cliches coming from Dostoevsky was played by direct acquaintance with the life of people, with real Russian reality.

He starts writing essays. Their peculiarity is that the writer usually had a leisurely conversation with the reader. They clearly showed clear storylines, a simple and detailed depiction of reality. G. Uspensky had the greatest influence on Kuprin the essayist.

The first creative searches of Kuprin ended with the largest thing that reflected reality. It was the story "Moloch". In it, the writer shows the contradictions between capital and human forced labor. He was able to capture the social characteristics of the latest forms of capitalist production. An angry protest against the monstrous violence against man, on which the industrial flourishing in the world of “Moloch” is based, a satirical demonstration of the new masters of life, the exposure of the shameless predation in the country of foreign capital - all this cast doubt on the theory of bourgeois progress. After essays and stories, the story was an important stage in the writer's work.

In search of moral and spiritual ideals of life, which the writer opposed to the ugliness of modern human relations, Kuprin turns to the life of vagabonds, beggars, drunken artists, starving unrecognized artists, children of the poor urban population. It is a world of nameless people who form the mass of society. Among them, Kuprin tried to find his positive heroes. He writes the stories “Lidochka”, “Lokon”, “Kindergarten”, “In the Circus” - in these works the heroes of Kuprin are free from the influence of bourgeois civilization.

In 1898 Kuprin wrote the story "Olesya". The scheme of the story is traditional: an intellectual, an ordinary and urban person, in a remote corner of Polissya meets a girl who grew up outside of society and civilization. Olesya is distinguished by spontaneity, integrity of nature, spiritual wealth. Poetizing life, unlimited by modern social cultural framework. Kuprin sought to show the clear advantages of the “natural man”, in whom he saw the spiritual qualities lost in a civilized society.

In 1901, Kuprin came to St. Petersburg, where he became close to many writers. During this period, his story “The Night Shift” appears, where the main character is a simple soldier. The hero is not a detached person, not a forest Olesya, but a very real person. Threads stretch from the image of this soldier to other heroes. It was at this time that a new genre appeared in his work: the short story.

In 1902, Kuprin conceived the story "Duel". In this work, he shattered one of the main foundations of autocracy - the military caste, in the lines of decay and moral decline of which he showed signs of the decomposition of the entire social system. The story reflects the progressive aspects of Kuprin's work. The basis of the plot is the fate of an honest Russian officer, whom the conditions of army barracks life made him feel the illegality of people's social relations. Again, Kuprin is not talking about an outstanding personality, but about a simple Russian officer Romashov. The regimental atmosphere torments him, he does not want to be in the army garrison. He became disillusioned with the army. He begins to fight for himself and his love. And the death of Romashov is a protest against the social and moral inhumanity of the environment.

With the onset of reaction and the aggravation of public life in society, Kuprin's creative concepts also change. During these years, his interest in the world of ancient legends, history, and antiquity intensified. In creativity, an interesting fusion of poetry and prose, the real and the legendary, the real and the romance of feelings, arises. Kuprin gravitates toward the exotic, developing fantastic plots. He returns to the themes of his early novel. The motives of the inevitability of chance in the fate of a person sound again.

In 1909, the story "The Pit" was published from the pen of Kuprin. Here Kuprin pays tribute to naturalism. He shows the inhabitants of the brothel. The whole story consists of scenes, portraits and clearly breaks up into separate details of everyday life.

However, in a number of stories written in the same years, Kuprin tried to point out the real signs of high spiritual and moral values ​​in reality itself. “Garnet Bracelet” is a story about love. This is how Paustovsky spoke about him: this is one of the most “fragrant” stories about love.

In 1919 Kuprin emigrated. In exile, he writes the novel "Janet". This is a work about the tragic loneliness of a man who lost his homeland. This is a story about the touching attachment of an old professor, who ended up in exile, to a little Parisian girl - the daughter of a street newspaper woman.

The emigrant period of Kuprin is characterized by withdrawal into himself. A major autobiographical work of that period is the novel "Junker".

In exile, the writer Kuprin did not lose faith in the future of his homeland. At the end of his life, he still returns to Russia. And his work rightfully belongs to Russian art, the Russian people.

Military career

Born in the family of a petty official who died when his son was in his second year. A mother from a Tatar princely family, after the death of her husband, was in poverty and was forced to send her son to an orphanage for minors (1876), then a military gymnasium, later transformed into a cadet corps, from which he graduated in 1888. In 1890 he graduated from the Alexander Military School. Then he served in the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment, preparing for a military career. Not enrolling in the Academy of the General Staff (this was prevented by a scandal associated with the violent, especially drunk, disposition of the cadet who threw a policeman into the water), Lieutenant Kuprin resigned in 1894.

Life style

The figure of Kuprin was extremely colorful. Greedy for impressions, he led a wandering life, trying different professions - from a loader to a dentist. Autobiographical life material formed the basis of many of his works.

Legends circulated about his turbulent life. Possessing remarkable physical strength and explosive temperament, Kuprin greedily rushed towards any new life experience: he went down under water in a diving suit, flew an airplane (this flight ended in a disaster that almost cost Kuprin his life), organized an athletic society ... During the First World war in his Gatchina house was arranged by him and his wife a private infirmary.

The writer was interested in people of various professions: engineers, organ grinders, fishermen, card sharpers, beggars, monks, merchants, spies ... In order to more reliably know the person who interested him, to feel the air that he breathes, he was ready, not sparing himself, the wildest adventure. According to his contemporaries, he approached life like a true researcher, seeking the fullest and most detailed knowledge possible.

Kuprin was willingly engaged in journalism, publishing articles and reports in various newspapers, traveled a lot, living either in Moscow, or near Ryazan, or in Balaklava, or in Gatchina.

Writer and revolution

Dissatisfaction with the existing social order attracted the writer to revolution, so Kuprin, like many other writers of his contemporaries, paid tribute to revolutionary sentiments. However, he reacted sharply negatively to the Bolshevik coup and to the power of the Bolsheviks. At first, he nevertheless tried to cooperate with the Bolshevik authorities and even planned to publish the peasant newspaper Zemlya, for which he met with Lenin.

But soon he unexpectedly went over to the side of the White movement, and after its defeat, he left first for Finland, and then for France, where he settled in Paris (until 1937). There he actively participated in the anti-Bolshevik press, continued his literary activity (the novels The Wheel of Time, 1929; Junkers, 1928-32; Janet, 1932-33; articles and stories). But living in exile, the writer was terribly poor, suffering both from lack of demand and isolation from his native soil, and shortly before his death, believing in Soviet propaganda, in May 1937 he returned with his wife to Russia. By this time he was already seriously ill.

Sympathy for the common man

Almost all of Kuprin's work is imbued with the pathos of sympathy, traditional for Russian literature, for the "little" person, doomed to drag out a miserable lot in a stagnant, miserable environment. In Kuprin, this sympathy was expressed not only in the depiction of the "bottom" of society (the novel about the life of prostitutes "The Pit", 1909-15, etc.), but also in the images of his intelligent, suffering heroes. Kuprin was inclined precisely to such reflective, nervous to the point of hysteria, characters not devoid of sentimentality. Engineer Bobrov (the story "Moloch", 1896), endowed with a quivering soul responsive to someone else's pain, worries about the workers who waste their lives in overworking factory labor, while the rich live on ill-gotten money. Even characters from the military environment like Romashov or Nazansky (the story "Duel", 1905) have a very high pain threshold and a small margin of mental strength to withstand the vulgarity and cynicism of their environment. Romashov is tormented by the stupidity of military service, the debauchery of the officers, the downtroddenness of the soldiers. Perhaps none of the writers threw such a passionate accusation against the army environment as Kuprin. True, in the depiction of ordinary people, Kuprin differed from the populist writers prone to popular worship (although he received the approval of the venerable populist critic N. Mikhailovsky). His democratism was not limited to a tearful demonstration of their "humiliation and insult." A simple man in Kuprin turned out to be not only weak, but also able to stand up for himself, possessing an enviable inner strength. Folk life appeared in his works in its free, spontaneous, natural course, with its own circle of ordinary concerns - not only sorrows, but also joys and consolations (Listrigons, 1908-11).

At the same time, the writer saw not only its bright sides and healthy beginnings, but also outbursts of aggressiveness and cruelty, easily directed by dark instincts (the famous description of the Jewish pogrom in the story Gambrinus, 1907).

The Joy of Being In many of Kuprin's works, the presence of an ideal, romantic beginning is clearly felt: it is both in his craving for heroic plots and in his desire to see the highest manifestations of the human spirit - in love, creativity, kindness ... It is no coincidence that he often chose heroes that fell out, breaking out of the habitual rut of life, seeking the truth and seeking some other, more complete and living being, freedom, beauty, grace ... but who in the literature of that time, so poetically, like Kuprin, wrote about love, tried to restore her humanity and romance. "Garnet Bracelet" (1911) has become for many readers just such a work, where pure, disinterested, ideal feeling is sung.

A brilliant depicter of the mores of the most diverse strata of society, Kuprin described the environment, life in relief, with special intentness (for which he got criticized more than once). There was also a naturalistic tendency in his work.

At the same time, the writer, like no one else, knew how to feel the course of natural, natural life from the inside - his stories "Barbos and Zhulka" (1897), "Emerald" (1907) were included in the golden fund of works about animals. The ideal of natural life (the story "Olesya", 1898) is very important for Kuprin as a kind of desired norm, he often highlights modern life with it, finding sad deviations from this ideal in it.

For many critics, it was precisely this natural, organic perception of Kuprin's life, the healthy joy of being, that was the main distinguishing quality of his prose with its harmonious fusion of lyrics and romance, plot-compositional proportionality, dramatic action and accuracy in descriptions.

Literary skill Kuprin is an excellent master not only of the literary landscape and everything connected with the external, visual and olfactory perception of life (Bunin and Kuprin competed who would more accurately determine the smell of a particular phenomenon), but also of a literary nature: portrait, psychology, speech - everything is worked out to the smallest nuances. Even the animals that Kuprin liked to write about reveal complexity and depth in him.

The narration in Kuprin's works, as a rule, is very spectacular and is often turned - unobtrusively and without false speculation - precisely to existential problems. He reflects on love, hatred, the will to live, despair, the strength and weakness of man, recreates the complex spiritual world of man at the turn of epochs.

A.I. Kuprin on August 26 (September 7, according to the new style) in the city of Narovchatov, in a poor family. He lost his father. When the boy was 6 years old, their family knew the feeling of hunger, and as a result, the mother had to send her son to an orphanage in 1876, which was abandoned at the age of 10, then had to study at a military school in the same year, which then became known as like a cadet corps.

In 1888, Kuprin unlearned and continued to gain knowledge at the Alexander School (from 1888-90), in which he described everything that happened to him in the story "At the Turn (Kadetstvo)" and in the novel "Junkers". After that, he took the oath of allegiance to the Dnepropetrovsk regiment and later dreamed of entering such an honorable place as the Academy of the General Staff, but there was a failure due to a disagreement with a policeman, whom he, without thinking, threw into the water, which turned out to be a return coin for his deed. Frustrated by this incident, he retired in 1894.

The first work that was released was the story "The Last Debut", published in 1889. From 1883 to 1894 such novels as "In the Dark", "Moonlight Night" and "Inquest" were written. From 1897 to 1899, stories called “Night Shift”, “Overnight” and “Hiking” come to life, also in the list of his work are: “Moloch”, “Yuzovsky Plant”, “Werewolf”, “Forest Wilderness”, “Ensign army, the well-known "Duel", "Garnet Bracelet" and many other writings that are worthy of being read by our modern generation. In 1909 he was awarded the Academic Prize. In 1912, the complete collection of the work was published, which can only be proud of.

Kuprin was strange in his behavior, as he tried to master various professions that attracted him and was interested in a wide variety of hobbies that even threatened his health (for example, he flew an airplane, which led to an accident, where he miraculously survived). He carefully studied life, conducting his research, trying to learn as much as possible in this world of various information.

In 1901, in St. Petersburg, the writer marries Maria Davydova, their daughter Lida is born.

He loved to travel to different parts of our planet, such as St. Petersburg, where at that time his name sounded in every circle, Finland, from where he returned to the beginning of the First World War, France - he went here at the beginning of the revolution, as he saw the whole the chaos that was taking place was hostile to Lenin, and in this country he lived all the full 17 years, yearning for his homeland. After being informed that he is seriously ill, he asks the government to allow him to return, and on May 31, 1937 he arrives in Leningrad. On the night of August 25, 1938, he passed away due to cancer.