Arkady Averchenko

Arkady Averchenko (Sevastopol, 1881 – Prague, 1925) was a Russian satirist, playwright and theatre critic. He wrote in Russian during the final years of the tsarist empire and the first years of Soviet rule, and his sharp humour made him one of the most widely read voices in satirical journalism of his time.

Born into a family of modest merchants, he left school early because of poor eyesight and completed much of his education on his own. As a young man he worked for a transport company and at a coal mine in the Donbas, an experience that supplied material for several stories. After a spell in Kharkiv, he reached Saint Petersburg in 1908 and joined the satirical magazine Dragonfly, later renamed Satyricon, of which he became editor. Under his guidance it became the most important humour magazine in the country. His stories, which focus on the middle class, its pretensions and its grotesque characters, earned him the nickname “the king of laughter.”

His style relies on absurd situations and biting observations of everyday life. He also wrote theatre reviews and plays, many inspired by his stories. At first he welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, but the Bolshevik seizure of power in October left him appalled. In 1918 the authorities suppressed Satyricon, and after the Red Army took Sevastopol in November 1920 he fled to Constantinople.

He later settled in Sofia and Belgrade before making Prague his permanent home in 1922, where he continued writing for an emigré readership. His stories from exile reflect uprootedness and longing for his homeland. He died in Prague in 1925 after a heart and kidney illness. His legacy lies mainly in the tradition of Russian satirical humour in the early decades of the twentieth century.