Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born in Zhytomyr (Poltava) on July 15, 1853 (old style July 27) in the family of a poor official of noble origin. After graduation, Vladimir became a student of the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, and in 1874 he went to study at the Petrovsky Academy of Agriculture in Moscow. Two years later, he was expelled from the academy for participating in a student protest and exiled to Kronstadt under police supervision. After his release in 1877, he entered
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Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born in Zhytomyr (Poltava) on July 15, 1853 (old style July 27) in the family of a poor official of noble origin. After graduation, Vladimir became a student of the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, and in 1874 he went to study at the Petrovsky Academy of Agriculture in Moscow. Two years later, he was expelled from the academy for participating in a student protest and exiled to Kronstadt under police supervision. After his release in 1877, he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
His first story, “Episodes from Life”, was published in 1879 in the magazine “The Word”. The next years of his life Korolenko spent in exile and prisons. In 1881 he was exiled to Yakutia for refusing to take the oath to Alexander III. In 1885 Korolenko moved to permanent residence in Nizhny Novgorod. While still in prison, he wrote the stories “Wonderful”, “The False City”, “Yashka”, “The Killer”, “Dream of Makar”, etc. In his works, Korolenko is completely free from illusions about the people, he refutes the assertions of those times, the fundamental dogmas of “revolutionaries without a people.”
His trip to America in 1893 gave new material for a number of works of art, the most significant of which is the novella Without a Tongue. A series of articles “Multanic Sacrifice” nominated the writer among the most advanced Russian publicists. His most famous works are: “Paradox”, “Sokolinets” “What is it?”, “Fyodor Unholy”, “At-Davan”, “Cherkes”, “In a bad society”, “Forest makes noise”. In the period from 1896 to 1900 Korolenko lived in St. Petersburg, where he worked in the editorial office of the liberal magazine Russian Wealth. In 1900 he moved to Poltava.
Korolenko actively participated in all the unrest of the Russian people (agrarian unrest in Poltava region, Jewish pogroms), he described all these events in his books: “House No. 13”, “Sorochinsk fair”, “household phenomenon”, “Features of military justice”, etc. Korolenko personified the conscience and honor of Russian democratic literature. His attitude towards the revolution was contradictory. Korolenko called himself a “non-party socialist” and was criticized by Lenin for “misunderstanding the aims of the revolution as a whole.”
The great Russian writer died in Poltava on December 25, 1921. In 1928, a literary and memorial museum was opened in Poltava region, theaters, institutes, ships were named after Korolenko. Many streets of Russian cities bear the name Korolenko, and in 1977 his name was named minor planet number 3835.