Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak

Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (real surname Mamin) was a Russian prose writer and dramatist.

He was born into the family of a priest. He graduated from the Perm Theological Seminary. His first literary attempts date from his stay there.

In the spring of 1871, Mamin moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Medico-Surgical Academy, in the veterinary department, and then transferred to the medical department. In 1874, Mamin passed the university entrance examination and, after spending about two years in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, in 1876 transferred to law, but did not complete the course there either. Leading the life of a literary bohemian, Mamin worked as a reporter and wrote short stories. Mamin’s first fictional work, “The Secrets of the Green Forest,” was published unsigned in the magazine Krugozor in 1877 and was devoted to the Urals. The beginnings of talent, a good knowledge of the nature and life of the region, are also evident in this work.

Mamin’s first steps in literature, together with bouts of acute need and moments of mute despair, are described by Mamin himself in the novel “Features from Pepko’s Life,” one of his characteristic and vivid works, of great autobiographical significance, clearly expressing the writer’s worldview, the dogmas of his faith, the views and ideas that later formed the basis of his best works: profound altruism, aversion to man’s devouring of man, to brute force, pessimism, love of life and, at the same time, sorrow over its imperfections, over the “measure of sorrow and tears,” where there is so much horror, cruelty, and falsehood. “Can one really be satisfied with one’s own life? No, to live a thousand lives, to suffer and rejoice with a thousand hearts—that is life and true happiness!” Mamin says in “Features from Pepko’s Life.” He wants to live for everyone, to experience everything and feel everything. The thoughts and questions that troubled the writer then and were reflected in “Features from Pepko’s Life” run almost entirely through Mamin’s later, fully mature works.

In a little-known magazine, Mamin published a large novel, “In the Whirlpool of Passions,” under the pseudonym E