Sergei Nikolayevich Sergeyev-Tsensky (Russian: Серге́й Николаевич Сергеев-Ценский, September 30 [O.S. September 18] 1875 – December 3, 1958) was a prolific Russian and Soviet writer and academician. According to the opinion of Sergei Sossinsky, although "Sergeyev-Tsensky does not belong to Russia's top classical authors, he might have [been] if he had not had the misfortune of living half his life under Communist rule."[1]
Early life
Sergei Sergeyev was born on September 30 [O.S. September 18] 1875, in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, Rasskazovsky District, Tambov Governorate. His father was a teacher and a retired veteran of the Crimean War of 1853–1856.[1][2] At four, Sergeyev learned how to read and at five he already knew by heart many poems by Pushkin and Lermontov, as well as Krylov's fables, beginning to write his own poems at seven.[1] At this time, his family had moved to Tambov where Sergei's father received a post in the government.[1]
During his stay in the city of Tambov, Sergeyvev enrolled in preparatory education course at the Ekaterininskii Teachers' Institute in Tambov. However, after the death of his parents in 1891, he could no longer continue his course and earned a living by teaching private lessons. In 1892, the future writer entered the Glukhov Teachers' Institute (Chernigov province) at the expense of the state, from which he graduated with honors in 1895.[2][3]
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out and he was drafted into the Army.[1][3] He served in Kherson and Odessa before being placed under house arrest and discharged from the army for political activities in 1905. He had spoken out against the pogroms in Simferopol in 1905, testifying in a court inquiry about the role of the police and army in these pogroms.[2]
Career
He published his first works in 1898, and his first book Thoughts and Dreams in 1901. The latter contained poems with strong civic undertones.[1]
In 1907, he published the novel Babayev, where he described revolutionary events in a provincial town. It was reportedly "later discovered that the story of the officer hero of the novel was actually the author's own experience in the revolution."[1]
During World War I, the author was again drafted into the army, but was put into the reserve because of his age. Little was heard from the writer during World War I and the following Russian Civil War with lean times forcing Sergeyev to sell off his possessions for food. A story goes that a neighbor who helped him milk a newly acquired cow soon became his wife, Khristina – a college graduate and a gifted pianist.[1]
The author turned to historical subjects in 1923, but with the communist rule, it became harder to write freely on any topic. With the rise of Maxim Gorky, however, who admired Sergeyev, things gradually improved.[1]
The work of his life was Russia's Transfiguration which consisted of 12 novels, 3 stories and 2 studies.[1] This work is reportedly comparable with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Red Wheel. Both are monumental works dealing with the period before, during and after the revolution.[1]
He died on December 3, 1958, in Leningrad, aged 83.[4]
