View source for Mikhail Artsybashev

{{short description|Russian writer and playwright}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Mikhail Artsybashev
| image       = Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev 2.jpg
| imagesize   = 200px
| caption     =
| pseudonym   =
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1878|11|5}}
| birth_place = [[Kharkov]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1927|3|3|1878|11|5}}
| death_place = [[Warsaw]], Poland
| occupation  =
| period      = 1900s-1920s
| genre       = Fiction, drama
| subject     =
| movement    = [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]]
| spouse      =
| partner     =
| children    = [[Boris Artzybasheff]]
| relatives   =
| signature   =
| website     =
| footnotes   =
}}

'''Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev''' ({{langx|ru|Михаи́л Петро́вич Арцыба́шев}}; {{langx|pl|Michał Arcybaszew}}; {{langx|uk|Михайло Петрович Арцибашев}}; November 5, 1878 – March 3, 1927) was a Russian writer and playwright, and a major proponent of the literary style known as [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalism]]. He was the great-grandson of [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]]<ref>{{cite journal |last= |first= |author= |authorlink= |title= Z literatury i sztuki. Potomek Kościuszki |url= https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/Content/320971/PDF/NDIGCZAS014415_1909_195.pdf |archiveurl= |archivedate= |journal= Naprzód |location= Kraków |publisher= Ignacy Daszyński |date= 14 July 1909 |volume= XVIII |issue= 195 |page= 3 |language= PL |doi= |pmc= |pmid= |issn= |id= |accessdate= 1 October 2023 |quote= }}</ref> and father of [[Boris Artzybasheff]], who emigrated to the United States and became famous as an illustrator. Following the [[Russian Revolution]], in 1923 Artsybashev emigrated to Poland, where he died in 1927.

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Artsybashev, c. 1905.]]
Artsybashev was born in [[khutor]] Dubroslavivka, [[Okhtyrka]] county, [[Kharkov Governorate]] (currently [[Sumy Oblast]], [[Ukraine]]). His father was a small landowner and a former officer. His mother, who was [[Polish people|Polish]], died of tuberculosis when he was only three years old.<ref name="Bio">Biographical note by Artsybashev, from ''The Millionaire'', B.W. Hubsch, 1915.</ref> His other ethnic roots included [[French people|French]], [[Georgians|Georgian]] and [[Tatar people|Tatar]].<ref>Michael R. Katz in Mikhail Art︠s︡ybashev, ''Sanin: a novel'', Cornell University Press (2001), p.&nbsp;261</ref> He attended school in [[Okhtyrka]] until the age of 16. From 1895 to 1897 he was an office worker.<ref name="Guide">''Reference Guide to Russian Literature'', Taylor & Francis, 1998.</ref> He studied at the ''Kharkov School of Drawing and Art'' (1897–98). During this time he lived in poverty, and was often unable to buy art supplies. In 1897 he attempted suicide. In 1898 he married Anna Vasilyevna Kobushko, with whom he had his son Boris. The couple separated in 1900.<ref name="Guide"/>

===Career===
In 1898 he relocated to [[Saint Petersburg]], where he worked as a [[freelancer|freelance]] journalist, and published humorous stories. In 1901 he was expelled from the city for taking part in a demonstration.
He wrote his first important work of fiction, the story ''Pasha Tumanov'' in 1901, but was unable to publish it until 1905 due to its being banned by the censor.<ref name="Bio"/><ref name="Guide"/>

He considered his novel ''The Death of Ivan Lande'' (1904) to be his best work, but his major success was the novel ''[[Sanin (novel)|Sanin]]'' (1907), which scandalized his Russian readers and was prohibited in many countries. He wrote ''Sanin'' in 1903, but was unable to publish it until 1907, again due to censorship.<ref name="Bio"/> The protagonist of the novel ignores all social conventions and specializes in seducing virgin country girls. In one notorious scene, a girl tries to wash embarrassing white stains off her dress after sexual intercourse with Sanin, an incident omitted from the 1914 English version. The novel was written under the influence of the philosophy of [[Max Stirner]], and was meant to expound the principles of [[Individualist anarchism]].<ref name="Bio"/>

Artsybashev said the following in regard to his development as a writer:<ref name="Bio"/>
<blockquote>"My development was very strongly influenced by [[Leo Tolstoy]], although I never shared his views on non-resistance to evil. As an artist he overpowered me, and I found it difficult not to model my work on his. [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], and to a certain extent [[Anton Chekhov]], played almost as great a part, and [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] were constantly before my eyes. These five names are those of my teachers and literary masters."</blockquote>

In a 1913 interview he gave his views on literature:<ref>Introduction, ''Sanin: a Novel'', Cornell University Press, 2001.</ref>
<blockquote>"Common sense, consistency, argumentation, a clear and concrete idea of one's subject that constitutes the plot of the work, a thoughtful evaluation of the phenomena introduced in the novel, clarity and concreteness—these are the things I demand of a literary work."</blockquote>

He made this comment concerning [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]:<ref name="Bio"/>
<blockquote>"It is often thought here (in Russia) that Nietzsche exercised a great influence over me. This surprises me, for the simple reason that I have never read Nietzsche. This brilliant thinker is out of sympathy with me, both in his ideas and in the bombastic form of his works, and I have never got beyond the beginnings of his books. Max Stirner is to me much nearer and more comprehensible."</blockquote>

===Later life===
[[File:PL Wwa, Cmentarz Prawoslawny - praw - Arcybaszew, 2023.09.29, fot Ivonna Nowicka (10) CORR 2.jpg|thumb|The grave of M. Artsybashev in Warsaw, 2023; fot. [[Ivonna Nowicka]]]]
Artsybashev moved to Moscow in 1912. In 1917–18 he published his anti-[[Bolshevik]] work ''Notes of a Writer''.<ref name="Guide"/> In 1923 he emigrated to Poland as an optant (his mother was Polish), where he edited the newspaper ''For Liberty!'' (''За свободу!''). He was an irreconcilable enemy of the Bolshevik regime, and Soviet critics dubbed the novels of his followers ''saninstvo'' and ''artsybashevchina'' (both terms are considered derogatory). He died in [[Warsaw]] on March 3, 1927, from [[tuberculosis]] and was buried at the [[Orthodox Cemetery in Warsaw]].

==English translations==
*''The Millionaire'', ''Ivan Lande'', and ''Nina'', (stories/short novels), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1915. [https://archive.org/search.php?query=artsybashev%20millionaire from Archive.org]
*''The Revolutionist'', (story), from ''Best Russian Short Stories'', Boni and Liveright, 1917. [https://archive.org/details/bestrussianshor00seltgoog from Archive.org]
*''Tales of the Revolution'', (stories/short novels), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1917. [https://archive.org/search.php?query=artsybashev%20tales from Archive.org]
*''The Jew'', (story), from ''The Shield'', Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1917. [https://archive.org/details/shield00gork from Archive.org]
*''War'', (play), Grant Richards LTD, London, 1918. [https://archive.org/search.php?query=artsybashev%20war from Archive.org]
*''Breaking Point'', (novel), B.W. Huebsch, NY, 1920. [https://archive.org/search.php?query=artsybashev%20breaking from Archive.org]
*''[[Sanin (novel)|Sanin]]'', (novel). [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9051 from Gutenberg.org]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{EB1922 Poster|Artsibashev, Mikhail Petrovich|Mikhail Artsybashev}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/mikhail-artsybashev}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2955| name=Mikhail Artsybashev}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1372}}
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9009723 Encyclopædia Britannica on Artsybashev]
* [http://www.online-literature.com/artzybashev/ Article at online-literature.com]
* [http://az.lib.ru/a/arcybashew_m_p/ Works of Artsybashev] - in Russian

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artsybashev, Mikhail}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sumy Oblast]]
[[Category:Novelists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Short story writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Journalists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Russian anti-communists]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to Poland]]
[[Category:Non-fiction writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Newspaper editors from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:People from the Russian Empire of French descent]]
[[Category:People from the Russian Empire of Tatar descent]]
[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Poland]]
[[Category:Russian people of Tatar descent]]