Karonin, S

(pseudonym of Nikolai Elpidiforovich Petropav-lovskii). Born Oct. 5 (17), 1853, in the village of Voznesenskaia, in present-day Orenburg Oblast; died May 12 (24), 1892, in Saratov. Russian writer.

Karonin was educated in a theological seminary and in the 1870’s participated in the movement of “going to the people,” which resulted in police repressions. His first work to appear in print was the short story “Voiceless” (1879). His early writing (1879–87) dealt primarily with the problems of the countryside; later (1888–92) he wrote about the fate of the populist intelligentsia. Karonin did not idealize life in the village commune and recognized the lack of perspective in the illusions of the liberal populists, but he believed in the moral strength of the people and the soundness of the democratic ideals of the progressive intelligentsia. In one of his best tales, “From the Bottom to the Top” (1886), he portrayed the move of a young peasant from the village to the city and his transformation into a conscious proletarian as a positive phenomenon.