The book ‘Lika’ is the fifth part of the novel ‘The Life of Arseniev’. It was published in 1939 by the publishing house ‘Petropolis’ in Brussels. Prior to that, some chapters were published in the journal ‘Sovremennye zapiski’ (‘Contemporary Papers’) in 1933. Vera Muromtseva-Bunina wrote:

Bunin began to work on ‘The Life of Arseniev’ in the summer of 1927, a turning point in his life: a few months before that he had met writer Galina Kuznetsova, who later moved into his house. Kuznetsova kept a fairly detailed chronicle of his work on the ‘Arseniev’ in her diary: from her notes we know that on November 9, 1927, the first part of the novel was completed. In 1933, the final, the fifth part, was written. It was about Arseniev’s relationship with his beloved Lika. However, researchers agree that the work on the book began much earlier.

According to the author’s wife Vera Muromtseva, Bunin first confessed on his birthday, when he turned 50, that he wanted to write about his life. And in 1921, the first drafts for the novel appeared — ‘Untitled Notes’ and ‘The Book of My Life’. The short story ‘Cicadas’ written in 1926 can be considered the first step in the creation of the novel.

Writer Mikhail Roshchin, author of a novel about Bunin, drew a parallel between ‘Lika’ and the writer’s own love life:

Varvara Pashchenko was Bunin’s first love — they both worked together for the newspaper ‘Orlovsky Vestnik’, where the writer worked as an assistant editor and the young woman as a proofreader. A deep feeling arose between them, but their paths quickly separated. The novel also takes place in the editorial office of an Orel newspaper, and the heroes separate after a strong mutual affection.

However, Vera Bunina believed that the image of Lika was not ‘copied’ only from Varya Pashchenko. Lika’s features can be found in different women, whom the writer loved throughout his life.