REMIZOV, ALEKSEY MIKHAYLOVICH

born July 6 [June 24, Old Style], 1877, Moscow died Nov. 26, 1957, Paris Symbolist writer whose works had a strong influence on Russian writers before and after the 1917 Revolution. Born into a poor family of merchant ancestry, Remizov gained his early experiences in the streets of Moscow. He attended the University of Moscow but was expelled in 1897 for participation in student riots, put in prison, and exiled to the provinces. In 1905 he settled in St. Petersburg, where he immediately began to frequent literary circles, particularly the Symbolist group. His works had begun to appear in various modernist periodicals, but his fame and popularity did not come until the publication in 1909 of Istoriya Ivana Semyonovicha Stratilatova (The Story of Ivan Semyonovich Stratilatov). This story of provincial life is among his best works, and it embodies many of the characteristics often found in his writing: elements of the weird, the grotesque, and the whimsical. He produced many stories of city and provincial life, others based on folklore and legend, and some using dreams, memoirs, and diaries. Remizov's prose, unlike that of many other Symbolist writers, was primarily colloquial; he strove to write in a homespun Russian, eliminating foreign influences such as Latin and French. Remizov remained aloof from politics, though his works during the Revolution and civil war showed deep emotional involvement, as in Slovo o pogibeli zemli Rossii (1921; The Lay of the Destruction of the Land of Russia). In 1921 he was permitted to leave the U.S.S.R. because of ill health. He went first to Berlin and then, in 1923, to Paris, where he continued to write until his death.