Biography

Arkadiy Averchenko is a Russian writer, satirist, playwright, theater critic. Arkadiy did not receive any primary education, as he could not study for long due to poor eyesight and poor health. But the lack of education was compensated for over time by his natural intelligence. He began working at the age of 15. In 1896-1897, he served as a junior clerk in the Sevastopol transport office. He did not last long there, just over a year, and later described this period of his life in an ironic 'Autobiography'. In 1897, he went to work as a clerk in Donbass, at the Bryansk mine - he worked there for four years, later writing several stories about life at the mine.

In the early 1900s, he moved with the mine management to Kharkov, where on October 31, 1903, his story "How I had to insure my life" appeared in the newspaper 'Yuzhnyy Kray'. During the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, discovering his journalistic talent, Averchenko published essays, feuilletons and humorous pieces in periodicals.

In 1908 he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated with the satirical magazine 'Strekoza', later transformed into 'Satirikon'. Then he became a permanent editor of this popular publication. During Averchenko's time at Satirikon, the magazine became extremely popular; plays based on Averchenko's stories were staged in many theaters across the country. For Averchenko, work in this publication became a central milestone in his creative biography.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bazza the Beast

His first story, "The Ability to Live," was published in 1902 in the Kharkov magazine 'Dandelion'.

In total, the number of stories and feuilletons written by Averchenko exceeds a thousand.

Averchenko's last work, "The Joke of Maecenas", was written in 1923 in Zoppot (now Sopot) and published in Prague in 1925, after the writer's death.