Vladimir Shuf: The main milestones of his life

Abstract

The article uncovers and details new and known facts about the life and work of Vladimir Shuf (1865-1913), a Russian poet, writer and journalist active in the 19th - early 20th cc. Information from the questionnaire filled out by the poet in March 1905 is published for the first time. The researcher puts an end to the confusion about Shuf's date of birth and shows it to be the 22nd of January, 1865 (old style). The questionnaire contains a number of precise biographical facts about Shuf: his becoming infected with tuberculosis, which marked the poet's future; the work at the newspaper Novoe Vremya; his travels in France, Germany, Egypt, and Palestine; a list of principal works, as selected by the author, as well as a list of periodicals that published his output. The document also serves as a sort of psychological photograph of Shuf's personality: it shows a writer of a versatile talent, who had his work published by leading periodicals of pre-revolutionary Russia, loved the Crimea and the Orient, took a lot of pride in his family and his trade as a poet, and travelled extensively.