Pyotr Boborykin | |
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| Born | (1836-08-15)15 August 1836 Nizhny Novgorod,Nizhegorodsky Uyezd,Nizhny Novgorod Governorate,Russian Empire |
| Died | 12 August 1921(1921-08-12) (aged 84) Lugano,Switzerland |
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Pyotr Dmitryevich Boborykin (Russian:Пётр Дми́триевич Боборы́кин; 27 August [O.S. 15 August] 1836 – 12 August 1921) was a Russian writer, playwright, and journalist.
Boborykin was born into the family of a landowner. He studied atKazan State University and theDorpat University, but he never completed his education. He made his debut as a playwright in 1860. In 1863-1864 he published an autobiographical novel,The Pathway. He was the editor-publisher of the journalLibrary for Reading (1863–1865), and simultaneously worked for the theatre magazineRussian Stage. He spent a long period abroad in the 1890s, where he metÉmile Zola,Edmond de Goncourt andAlphonse Daudet. In 1900 he was elected an honorary member of theRussian Academy of Sciences.He married Sophia Boborykina (1845-1925), a Russian and French translator, writer, and actress in 1872.
Boborykin worked on the journalsNotes of the Fatherland,The European Herald,The Northern Herald,Russian Thought,Artist and other publications. He was the author of numerous novels, novellas, short stories, plays, and works on the history of Western European and Russian literature. His most famous works were the novelsEvening Sacrifice (1868),Dealers (1872–1873),Kitay-Gorod (1882),Vasily Tyorkin (1892),Thirst (1898), the storyWiser (1890), and the comedyThe Scale (1899).
The wide use of the term "intelligentsia" in Russian culture began in the 1860s, when Boborykin first used it in the press. He explained that the term was borrowed from German culture, where it was used to describe the part of society which is engaged in intellectual activity. He added a special meaning to the term: the definition of intellectuals as representatives of "high intellectual and ethical culture," and not simply "knowledge workers". In his view, the Russian intelligentsia was a special moral and ethical phenomenon. Intellectuals in this sense were representatives of different professional groups, different political beliefs, but with a common spiritual and moral foundation. The use of the term "intelligentsia" in this sense was regarded as purely Russian by westerners.
The novelKitay-Gorod was one of Boborykin's most famous works. It was originally conceived as a study on the life and mores of the inhabitants ofKitay-gorod. This work is interesting not only from an artistic, but also from a historical point of view. In the novel, he describes with almost scientific precision the details of merchant life; culinary preferences, daily duties, and the customs of merchants and nobles against the backdrop of anticipated social and political change. His main task is the treatment of the historical role of Moscow in the last third of the nineteenth century. Boborykin was also credited with inventing the snack salad "Erundopel" (Ерундопель),[1] first introduced in the pages ofKitay-Gorod.
