Birth Date: | 17 October 1870 |
Birth Place: | Kargopolsky Uyezd, Olonets Governorate, Russian Empire |
Aleksey Pavlovich Chapygin (Russian: Алексе́й Па́влович Чапы́гин; - 21 October 1937) was a Russian writer, and one of the founders of the Soviet historical novel.[1]
Chapygin was born in Kargopolsky Uyezd, Olonets Governorate. His northern peasant origins are reflected in his works.[1] His first book of stories, Those Who Keep Aloof, and his novel The White Hermitage, describing northern life, were published before the Russian Revolution of 1917.[2] He is best known for his two novels about peasant uprisings in the 17th century, Itinerant Folk (1934–37) and Stepan Razin (1926–27). Stepan Razin is considered a classic of Soviet literature.[1]
Chapygin drew upon Russian folklore for both the style of Stepan Razin and the positive and romanticized portrait of Razin himself. The Soviets excused this modernization of history as a justifiable polemic against the negative portrayal of Razin in 19th-century Russian literature.[1] Stepan Razin was published in the magazine Red Virgin Soil.[3]