GARSHIN, Vaevolod Mikhailo vich, Russian man of letters; b. Yekaterinoslav, 2 Feb. 1855, of an ancient noble family; d. 1888. His childhood was not at all joyous; he was surrounded by unhappiness, his earliest antici pations of life were dark. This state of pes simism in a child was aggravated by his un usual precocity. At the age of seven he read Hugo's 'Notre-Dame de Paris' and his youth ful soul was strangely impressed and his only desire was to perish in war. Therefore he tried to join the volunteer corps for Serbia (Serho-Turkish War 1876),but, not being of mili tary age, he was not allowed to go. When next year, however, Russia declared war on Turkey he threw his examination papers in a gym nasium where he was studying and immediately joined Bolkousi's regiment. In a battle on 11 Aug. 1877 he distinguished himself for bravery, receiving a serious wound in the leg. After the war he studied philology at the University of Saint Petersburg and wrote his war memo ries under the title 'Four Days,' published in 1877 and attracting immediate attention. But his soul was growing darker and darker and it was difficult for the best psychi atrists to establish in him where the high de gree of his soul ended and where insanity began. After long wanderings he went to Yasnaya Polyana where Count Leo Tolstoi re ceived him amiably and spent a whole night with him in a discussion as to "how to make all mankind happy?) Partly Tolstoi's powerful logic .and partly Garshin's happy marriage con tributed to an improvement of the author's mental state, but in 1888 he jumped to death from the fourth floor of a building. The un
usually human views on life and the necessity for struggle against evil as expressed in his 'Four Days' are in striking contrast to the author's mad wish for his own death. He con siders the extermination of men by men in wars as most hopelessly vulgar and cruel, while he, himself, sought salvation in a war, justifying his action with his desire to free the brother Serbians from the barbarian Turkish yoke. In his 'Hodozhniki' ("Artists))) he, as a very subtle critic and admirer of arts, demonstrates that a moral-sensitive man cannot peacefully abandon himself to the aesthetic enthusiasm of creation in art when he is so cruelly surrounded by the suffering of mankind. His ever-burning wish to exterminate all the evil from the earth and his poetic thoughts about the ideal life have found expression in his remarkable story 'The Red Flower,' which is in some measure the author's autobiography. However, in the depth of his heart and soul Garshin did not believe in the triumph of good over evil, nor that the very annihilation of evil could ever constitute man's complete happiness. His other works 'From the Diary of the Private Ivanov,' 'At tala Princeps,' Nikolaevna,' 'The Proud Aggei etc., show mani festly the author's powerful talent and bring home to the reader his passionate humane feel ing and the softness and sincerity of his soul.