10 Facts About Leonid Andreyev

Leonid Andreyev is regarded as one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age literary period.

Leonid Andreyev's mother hailed from an old Polish aristocratic, though impoverished, family, while she claimed Ukrainian and Finnish ancestry.

Leonid Andreyev became a police-court reporter for a Moscow daily, performing the routine of his humble calling without attracting any particular attention.

Leonid Andreyev eventually gave up his law practice, fast becoming a literary celebrity, and the two writers remained friends for many years to come.

Leonid Andreyev completed his most well-known work, the play He Who Gets Slapped, in August 1915, just two months before its world premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre on 27 October 1915.

Leonid Andreyev later supported the February Revolution of 1917, but foresaw the Bolsheviks' coming to power as catastrophic.

Leonid Andreyev finished his last novel, Satan's Diary, a few days before his death.

Leonid Andreyev was married to Alexandra Veligorskaia, a niece of Taras Shevchenko.

In 1908 Leonid Andreyev married Anna Denisevich, and decided to separate his two little boys, keeping the elder son, Vadim, with him and sending Daniil to live with Aleksandra's sister.

Leonid Andreyev's work was extensively translated in book form, for instance as The Crushed Flower, and other stories ; The Little Angel, and other stories ; When The King Loses Leonid Andreyev's Head, and other stories.