Leonid Andreyev Mugs

Russian expressionist Leonid Andreyev was often called Russian Edgar Allan Poe and poet of despair. His books are dark, moody, sweetly depressing.

Russian expressionist Leonid Andreyev was often called Russian Edgar Allan Poe and poet of despair. His books are dark, moody, sweetly depressing.

At his birth, his mother died. His father, famous writer Leonid Andreyev, gave the boy to his wife's sister. She raised him in her religious household. Daniil Andreev wrote spiritual poetry and prose that was never published during his life. But it was read by State Security. And, it was destroyed! His wife Alla was sentenced to 25 years of labour camp, while he got 25 years of prison. They did not serve entire sentences because the political climate had changed. Still, it ruined their lives. And all of that for poems that were never published! Roza Mira or The Rose of the World is the most famous Andreyev's work, published decades after his death.

Ivan Bunin was once a member of the Sreda literary group with such luminaries as Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev. He was the first Russian writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature.