Dmitry Furmanov made famous the film about Chapaev, released a few years after the death of the writer. Sometimes they try to present Furmanov as a thoughtless executor of the will of the Bolshevik party. However, an attentive researcher of his work will see the most diverse facets of his personality.
From the biography of Dmitry Furmanov
The proletarian writer was born in 1891 in the village of Sereda, in the Kostroma province. His father was a simple peasant, although he had an inherent business acumen. When the boy was eight years old, the family moved to Ivanovo-Voznesensk, where Dmitry's father opened a pub. Subsequently, the writer compared the environment surrounding him in childhood with a "drunken whirlpool": it is easy to get into it, but not everyone can get out.
In 1903 Furmanov graduated from the city school. After that, his father assigned Dmitry to a trading school. From 1909 to 1912 Furmanov lived in Kineshma.
From an early age, the future writer starts a useful habit: he systematically keeps a diary. In it, Dmitry enters life impressions, describes what he read, mentions the people he met. Many years later, Furmanov's diary entries were published and highly praised by critics. Furmanov, through his diary, managed to collect extensive and rich material of a historical and literary nature.
First steps in literature
The first publication, signed with the surname "Furmanov", was a poem in the newspaper "Ivanovsky leaf", dedicated to a school teacher. Over the years of his life, Furmanov created many poems, although he never considered himself a poet. Over time, Furmanov's desire to engage in literary creativity grew stronger. Driven by this desire, Dmitry is transferred from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University to the Faculty of History and Philology.
But with the outbreak of the imperialist war, studies for Furmanov became a secondary matter. Furmanov begins his service as a warrant officer of a medical train. In 1915, he finds himself at the front. Observing the development of political events, Furmanov is getting stronger in the opinion that Russia is on the verge of a great turning point.
In 1917, the autocracy fell. Furmanov finds himself in the ranks of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, then joins the maximalists. He believes that building a new world allows the use of violence against the reactionary strata of society. Furmanov actively works in the Councils of People's Deputies. Furmanov's political views became Bolshevik after meeting Mikhail Frunze. An experienced Bolshevik dispelled Furmanov's anarchist illusions.
In 1919 Dmitry went to the front together with Frunze's detachment. Here he becomes the commissar of the legendary 25th division.
Roman Furmanova about Chapaev
Dmitry Furmanov created his most famous work, the novel Chapaev, in 1923. This essay is based on the author's diary entries. The book differs significantly from the film adaptation, which appeared in 1934. The novel became a reflection of the author's personal communication with the hero of the Civil War, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. Furmanov was a commissar in the division of the legendary commander.
Critics immediately noted the main features of Furmanov's work: a combination of mature realism and broad romantic generalizations. Maxim Gorky, in a letter to Furmanov, noted the original approach to the creation of the book. The work is written with a skill worthy of the pen of an experienced prose writer, not a beginner writer.
The last years of Furmanov's life
Subsequently, Furmanov created a number of stories and novels, which became major events in the proletarian literature of the 1920s. Furmanov considers his main task to be the struggle for a high ideological level of literature. Dmitry Andreevich is actively trying to find new topics that are not directly related to the events of the Civil War. The series of his essays "Seashore" (1925) was published. The writer also creates a number of publicistic works and critical articles. The pages of his diaries retained sketches of topics that he wanted to reflect in his works.
However, fate decreed otherwise. In the spring of 1926, newspapers reported that Furmanov had passed away. The cause of death was illness: Furmanov died from complications of the flu. According to other sources, death came from meningitis.
