History knows many disgraced writers who have suffered because of their views. The famous publicist Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko occupies a rather prominent place among them. Because of his views, which strongly differed from the opinion of those in power, he was fairly injured, and his life could hardly be called happy. Now, a century after his death, interest in his work is experiencing a new flourishing.
The grandfather of the future writer was a Cossack. Vladimir Korolenko’s childhood passed on the territory of modern Ukraine. His mother was from Poland, so as a child, Vladimir mastered this language along with his own. His father, a strict, incorruptible and principled man, had a serious influence on the formation of the personality of the writer. Vladimir Korolenko inherited these features of his character to the full. In his youth, he wanted to learn to be a lawyer, but his family did not have enough money to study. While studying in Moscow, Korolenko imbued with the ideas of the Narodniks movement. He took part in revolutionary student organizations, for which he would be expelled from the university and sent to Kronstadt.
The literary activity of Vladimir Korolenko is marked by his numerous publications, in which he ardently defended the common people who were somehow affected by the actions of the authorities. After coming to power of Emperor Alexander III, he refused to sign the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign. As a result, he was exiled to Siberia, where he spent some time in prison, and subsequently sent to a settlement in Yakutia. Despite the support of revolutionary ideas, the writer did not support the Bolsheviks and protested against the repressions they had organized after coming to power. In Yakutia, the writer spent three years, after which he received permission to move, and moved to Nizhny Novgorod.
The famous story by Vladimir Korolenko “Children of the Underground” is in fact a strongly abridged version of his work “In a Bad Society”. The general public knows exactly the abbreviated version, which the writer has always been unhappy with. Ivan Bunin once said that he could live in peace in Russia, knowing that there is such a person as Vladimir Korolenko. After the revolution, V.I. Lenin was surprised at the lack of support from the writer, as he expected loyalty from a man who was persecuted and badly affected by royal power. However, Korolenko said that he did not support either the red or the white terror. Korolenko received the title of honorary academician at the Academy of Sciences, but two years later he refused it. The reason was that when he put forward Maxim Gorky as academician, the emperor demanded that the decision be reversed. In protest, Korolenko refused the honorary title. A. P. Chekhov did the same.
He has repeatedly taken part in investigations in which ordinary people were accused when the investigation did not give them enough attention. Thus, the writer was able to save a lot of people from undeserved punishment. One day, after a process in which, thanks to Korolenko, the defendant was acquitted, a jubilant crowd in his arms delivered a cart with him to his hotel. During his visit to the US, Korolenko gave interviews in which he criticized the tsarist government in Russia. Upon his return, he was searched and sent to the police station, where he was interrogated for a long time, but eventually released. During the years of the Civil War, the writer organized the collection of food and other assistance for street children. Once he had to defend the collected with arms in his hands, when the looters broke into his house. The literary critic Gornfeld after the death of Vladimir Korolenko wrote that his very existence was the best work of the writer.
