(AFANASYEV-CHUZHBININ), Russian novelist and ethnographer: b. Poltava, 1817; d. St. Petersburg, 6 Sept. 1875. Graduating from a gymnasium in 1836 he entered military service but left it with disappointment and the rank of lieutenant (1843). In 1847 he took a civil service position in the office of the governor of Voronezh. Two years later he gave it up and devoted himself entirely to literary work. His first poem Ring' appeared in 1848 under the pseudonym In 1856 the government sent him, together with a few other writers, to study the life of the people on Russian sea-coasts. He chose the region of the Dnieper and expounded the result of his studies in his work in Southern Russia> (Saint Petersburg 1861) which is a good description of Ukranian life. He wrote a great deal and contributed almost to all Russian periodicals. Not counting his poems, news paper articles and correspondence, his produc tions amount to 60 works. He founded in 1864 the newspaper Saint Petersburgski Listok.
In the seventies he edited Magazin inostran noi literaturui (Journal of Foreign Literature) and the paper Novosti (1875). He had also been editing minor periodicals for a period of a few months each. During the last years of his life he was inspector of the museum of Saint Petersburg. His most valuable contribu tions are his ethnographical works. Besides the work named above, he started a (Dictionary of the Ukranian Dialect.' He wrote several very successful Ukranian poems ((Tell me the truth, my good Cossack' ). His Russian poetry is much inferior. Of his novels those are best which describe military and provincial life. They are written in an interesting style and contain good character sketches of Russian officers. Some of his works besides those men tioned are: (Recollections about T. G. Shev chenko' (Saint Petersburg 1861) ; 'Fanya' (ib., 1872) ; (Petrograd Gamblers' (ib. 1872).