Vasily Sleptsov


Vasily Alekseyevich Sleptsov,, was a Russian writer, playwright and social reformer.

Biography

Sleptsov was born in Voronezh into a noble family. His father Alexey Vasilyevich was a military man, mother Josefina Adamovna, née Welbutovich-Paplonska, belonged to the Polish szlachta. He studied at the :ru:1-я Московская гимназия|First Moscow Gymnasium and later, when the family moved to their county estate in Saratov Governorate, at the Penza Institute for Nobility. 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.
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 Annals of the Fatherland, Russian Speech, and The Contemporary, where he published his novella Hard Times in 1865. Sleptsov's works were praised by Leo Tolstoy; especially his story The Ward.
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 found 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.

English translations