Sergei Ivanovich Gusev-Orenburgskii

(pseudonym of S. I. Gusev). Born Sept. 23 (Oct. 5), 1867, in Orenburg; died June 1, 1963, in New York. Russian writer. Born into the family of a merchant.

In 1893, Gusev-Orenburgskii became a village priest; in 1898 he left the priesthood. He began to publish his works in 1890. Gusev-Orenburgskii was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with M. Gorky and by his participation in the Znanie (Knowledge) collections, which published his best works, including the novellas In the Parish (1903), The Land of the Fathers (1905), The Knight Lancelot (1910), and In a Remote District (1912). Gusev-Orenburgskii wrote about the impoverishment of the Russian countryside and criticized the church and its ministers. The Land of the Fathers depicts the development of revolutionary events in the city and countryside and creates the image of the peasant-revolutionary. In the period of reaction following the Revolution of 1905–07, Gusev-Orenburgskii paid tribute to the mood of decadence (Tales of the Land, 1908, and others). After the October Revolution he emigrated and lived in New York. In 1928 he published the novel A Country of Children.