Vsevolod Vladimirovich Krestovsky , February 23, 1840 – January 30, 1895, was a Russian writer.

Biography

Krestovsky came from an old family of Ukrainian gentry. In 1857 he enrolled in the Historico-Philological faculty of St Petersburg University

Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....

. At the University he became friends with the radical critic Dmitry Pisarev, and wrote for the magazine Russian Word.

After his short association with the radical camp, he joined a group of moderate slavophile

Slavophile

Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...

s which included Apollon Maykov

Apollon Maykov

Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov was a Russian poet.He was born into the artistic family of Nikolay Apollonovich Maykov, a painter and an academic. In 1834 the family moved to Petersburg. In 1837-1841 Maykov studied law at Saint Petersburg University. At first he was attracted to painting, but he soon...

, Lev Mei and others, and began publishing his works in Notes of the Fatherland

Otechestvennye Zapiski

Otechestvennye Zapiski was a Russian literary magazine published in St Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers, known as the intelligentsia...

, Time

Vremya (magazine)

Vremya was a monthly magazine published by Fyodor Dostoyevsky under the editorship of his brother Mikhail Dostoyevsky, as Fyodor himself, due to his status as a former convict, was unable to be the official editor.-Publication history:...

and Epoch

Epoch (Russian magazine)

Epoch was a Russian literary magazine published in 1864-65 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his brother Mikhail.-Publication history:The first two combined numbers of Epoch, for January and February, 1864, were published in March,1864, containing the opening chapters of Notes from Underground by Fyodor...

. In 1860 he left the University to become a professional writer. His novel The Slums of Saint Petersburg (1864), a product of many hours of personal observation, gained him considerable popularity.

In 1863 he traveled to Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 to take notes for his novel The Flock of Panurge (1869), about the January Uprising

January Uprising

The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

. In 1874 he wrote another novel, The Force, on the same subject. Both novels were reactionary

Reactionary

The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...

 in nature. In the 1880s Krestovsky became frankly and openly anti-Semitic

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 in his political and social views. His blatantly anti-Semitic trilogy The Jews are Coming was published between 1888 and 1892. He died in Warsaw in 1895.

English translations

• Knights of Industry, from Mystery Tales, The Continental Classics, Volume 17, Harper and Brothers, NY and London, 1909. from Archive.org

Sources