Mamin-Sibiryak’s novel “Traits from the Life of Pepko” was first published in 1894, in the magazine “Russian Wealth” [“Russkoye Bogatstvo”]. The collection of the house-museum includes the first edition of the work. The book is displayed opened on an antique shelf.
The writer had been working on the text for ten years. Literary researchers believe that “Traits from the Life of Pepko” is not like other novels by Mamin-Sibiryak and has a “confessional character”. The work is connected with a popular theme at the time: a hero from the province goes to the capital for fame and money. The story is based on the events of the writer’s youth in St. Petersburg: he was a student, worked as a reporter and researched information for his notes.
Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak’s journalist career began in St. Petersburg, when he studied at the Medical and Surgical Academy (the previous name S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy). The student did not have enough money, so he looked for ways to make money. In 1874, Mamin accidentally met a member of the reporters group, which was headed by the authors Julius Schreyer and Nikolay Volokitin. They suggested the writer to collect reports about the meetings of scientific societies in St. Petersburg and send them to the newspapers “Russian World” [“Russky Mir”], “Saint Petersburg Page” [“Peterburgsky Listok”], “News” [“Novosti”].
Dmitry Mamin was the prototype of the novel protagonist — a young student Vasily Popov. He was engaged in literature and was busy creating an “ideological” novel. Vasily Popov meets Agafon Popov, a member of the reporters’ association, nicknamed Pepko.
In the story, Vasily Popov, like the young Mamin, wrote reports from scientific meetings of the Entomological Society. In the novel, the friends with the same last name articulated the goal of young writers coming to the capital:
The writer had been working on the text for ten years. Literary researchers believe that “Traits from the Life of Pepko” is not like other novels by Mamin-Sibiryak and has a “confessional character”. The work is connected with a popular theme at the time: a hero from the province goes to the capital for fame and money. The story is based on the events of the writer’s youth in St. Petersburg: he was a student, worked as a reporter and researched information for his notes.
Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak’s journalist career began in St. Petersburg, when he studied at the Medical and Surgical Academy (the previous name S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy). The student did not have enough money, so he looked for ways to make money. In 1874, Mamin accidentally met a member of the reporters group, which was headed by the authors Julius Schreyer and Nikolay Volokitin. They suggested the writer to collect reports about the meetings of scientific societies in St. Petersburg and send them to the newspapers “Russian World” [“Russky Mir”], “Saint Petersburg Page” [“Peterburgsky Listok”], “News” [“Novosti”].
Dmitry Mamin was the prototype of the novel protagonist — a young student Vasily Popov. He was engaged in literature and was busy creating an “ideological” novel. Vasily Popov meets Agafon Popov, a member of the reporters’ association, nicknamed Pepko.
In the story, Vasily Popov, like the young Mamin, wrote reports from scientific meetings of the Entomological Society. In the novel, the friends with the same last name articulated the goal of young writers coming to the capital:
