Background
Shmelev, Ivan was born on September 21, 1873 in Moscow. Son of a merchant.
Shmelev, Ivan was born on September 21, 1873 in Moscow. Son of a merchant.
Graduated in law from Moscow
University, 1898. Became widelyknown for his novel Chelovek iz Restorana, published in Znanie in 1910 (a film of the same title was made later). In Russia and even more in emigration (he left in 1922 for Berlin, and then Paris), he became famous for his colourful and evocative descriptions of traditional Russian life, especially the life of merchants.
In Leio Gospodne (1933-1948), he gave a picture of the yearly cycle of Orthodox church festivals as they affected the life of the people. Wrote one of the most harrowing accounts of the Bolshevik terror in the Crimea, Solntse Mertvykh, 1923. (After the defeat of the Whites, his only son, a young officer with the Whites, was shot and he himself went into hiding in Alushta expecting the same fate).
During World War II, published some stories in a German-sponsored Russian newspaper in Paris, which caused difficulties after the war. Later he was republished in the Soviet Union (Povesti i Rasskazy, Moscow, 1960), where, though not mentioned, he had not been forgotten, and managed to retain his popularity. A powerful, conservative publicist in the emigre press between the wars, his articles were republished in Paris under the title Dusha Rodiny, 1967.
Other books include: Kulikovo Pole. Staryi Valaam, Paris, 1958. Inostranets, Paris, 1963.
Svet Vechnyi, Paris, 1968.