Background
Alexander Serafimovich (born Alexander Serafimovich Popov) was born on January 7, 1863 in the Tsimlyansky District, Rostov Oblast, Russian Federation. His father served as a paymaster in a Cossack regiment.
Alexander Serafimovich (born Alexander Serafimovich Popov) was born on January 7, 1863 in the Tsimlyansky District, Rostov Oblast, Russian Federation. His father served as a paymaster in a Cossack regiment.
Alexander Serafimovich attended a grammar school, then studied in the Physics and Mathematics faculty of St. Petersburg University. During his time at the University he became friends with Aleksandr Ulyanov, Lenin's older brother, who introduced him to Marxism. He was later exiled to Mezen, a town in northern Russia, for spreading revolutionary propaganda. While in exile he wrote his first story, which was published in Russkiye Vedomosti. It was then that he began using the pseudonym "Serafimovich". After his exile ended, he spent many years living under police supervision.
In 1902, Alexander Serafimovich moved to Moscow and became a member of the literary group "Sreda" (Wednesday). During World War I, he was a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti.
At the start of the 1917 Russian Revolution Alexander Serafimovich joined the Bolsheviks, and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1918, he became the literary editor of Izvestia. His best known work of this time is the novel The Iron Flood (1924) set during the Russian Civil War and based on a real incident of the Red Taman Army escaping encirclement by the enemy Whites. He also wrote a stage adaptation of The Iron Flood, which was produced by Nikolay Okhlopkov at the Realistic Theatre in Moscow and was the subject of several film proposals by Sergei Eisenstein.
After The Iron Flood, he published stories, sketches and plays about the building of the Soviet state and the growth of Soviet culture. In 1934, he was elected to the governing board of the Union of Soviet Writers.
Alexander Serafimovich died in Moscow in 1949.
Quotes from others about the person
The Nobel Laureate Mikhail Sholokov said of him: "Serafimovich was a great man, a real artist whose stories are near and dear to us; he was one of that generation of writers from whom we learned in our youth."
Vladimir Korolenko said of Serafimovich's first story On the Ice (1889): "Splendid language, full of imagery, terse and powerful, the descriptions bright and lucid."