Garin, N

(pseudonym of Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailov-skii). Born Feb. 8 (20), 1852, in St. Petersburg; died there Nov. 27 (Dec. 10), 1906. Russian writer. Born into a military family. Graduated from the Institute of Communications in St. Petersburg in 1878.

Garin, a talented engineer, worked on the construction of major railroads, such as the Great Siberian Line. Becoming enthusiastic about Narodnichestvo (Populism), he established himself on his own property in Samara Province in the early 1880’s. Trying to show the vitality of the “communal way of life,” he occupied himself with social reforms, which however ended in failure. Disappointed in Narodnik ideas, he collaborated in Marxist publications and helped the Bolshevik Party financially.

Garin in his literary works was a realist and democrat. His stories of the 1890’s reflected the process of the stratification of the countryside, and he depicted the patterns of the technological intelligentsia and the workers. His most significant work is a tetralogy: Tema’s Childhood (1892), Schoolboys (1893), Students (1895), and Engineers (published in 1907), all illuminating the fate of the young generation of the intelligentsia of the “time of the great change.” Appearing as a result of his travels were his travel sketches, including Through Korea, Manchuria, and the Liaotung Peninsula (1899). In 1898, being in Korea, he put together a collection called Korean Short Stories (published 1899). In the early 1900’s he collaborated in Gorky’s publishing house, Znanie (Knowledge).