WRITER

Leonid Andreyev

1871 - 1919

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Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev (Russian: Леони́д Никола́евич Андре́ев, 21 August [O.S. 9 August] 1871 – 12 September 1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of Expressionism in Russian literature. He is regarded as one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age literary period. Andreyev's style combines the elements of realist, naturalist, and symbolist schools in literature. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Leonid Andreyev has received more than 240,746 page views. His biography is available in 44 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 41 in 2019). Leonid Andreyev is the 1,101st most popular writer (down from 1,058th in 2019), the 386th most popular biography from Russia (down from 377th in 2019) and the 43rd most popular Russian Writer.

Leonid Andreyev is most famous for writing the short story "The Red Laugh" in which he explores the idea of how laughter can be a sign of madness and evil.

Memorability Metrics

  • 240k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.96

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 44

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.47

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.80

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

He who gets slapped
1912
The Red Laugh
Fiction
The Red Laugh, originally published in 1904, has been described as "..a ghastly delineation of the horrors of war."Between the two Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 Leonid Andreyev was without a doubt the foremost writer in Russia. His name was always spoken with veneration, in mysterious whispers, as a grim portentous magician who descended into the ultimate depths of the nether side of life and fathomed the beauty and tragedy of the struggle. Born Leonid Nickolayevitch in the province of Oryol, in 1871, he studied law at the University of Moscow. Those were the days of suffering and starvation; he gazed into the abyss of sorrow and despair. In January 1894 he made an unsuccessful attempt to kill himself by shooting, and then was forced by the authorities to severe penitence, which augmented the natural morbidness of his temperament. As a lawyer his career was short-lived, and he soon abandoned it for literature, beginning as a police-court reporter on the Moscow Courier. In 1902 he published the short story In The Fog, which for the first time brought him universal recognition. He was imprisoned during the revolution of 1905, together with Maxim Gorky, on political charges. Such are the few significant details of his personal life, for the true Andreyev is entirely in his stories and plays.
1905
The Crushed Flower and Other Stories
Russian fiction
1916
The Seven Who Were Hanged
1909
The seven that were hanged
1918
Anatema
1910

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Leonid Andreyev ranks 1,101 out of 7,302. Before him are Michael Connelly, Jean Moréas, Alfred Brehm, Cees Nooteboom, Yosano Akiko, and John William Polidori. After him are Andrei Bely, Bhāsa, Bernard Cornwell, Robert Merle, Hélène Cixous, and Claudius Aelianus.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1871, Leonid Andreyev ranks 29. Before him are Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, Stjepan Radić, Émile Borel, Maurice Garin, William Stern, and Cordell Hull. After him are Ernst Zermelo, Walter Bradford Cannon, Nicolae Iorga, Princess Hélène of Orléans, Lyonel Feininger, and Willem Mengelberg. Among people deceased in 1919, Leonid Andreyev ranks 26. Before him are Ismail Qemali, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, L. Frank Baum, Kurt Eisner, Johannes Rydberg, and Terauchi Masatake. After him are Habibullah Khan, Prince John of the United Kingdom, Guido von List, Madam C. J. Walker, Loránd Eötvös, and Henry Gantt.

Others Born in 1871

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Others Deceased in 1919

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Leonid Andreyev ranks 386 out of 3,761. Before him are Basil Fool for Christ (1468), Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (1822), Vladimir Kryuchkov (1924), Nathalie Sarraute (1900), Nikolay Semyonov (1896), and Viktor Tsoi (1962). After him are Andrei Bely (1880), George Ostrogorsky (1902), Velimir Khlebnikov (1885), Catherine Pavlovna of Russia (1788), Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890), and Valery Leontiev (1949).

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Among WRITERS In Russia

Among writers born in Russia, Leonid Andreyev ranks 43. Before him are Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia (1858), Vasily Zhukovsky (1783), Fyodor Tyutchev (1803), Henri Troyat (1911), Nikolai Leskov (1831), and Nathalie Sarraute (1900). After him are Andrei Bely (1880), Velimir Khlebnikov (1885), Bulat Okudzhava (1924), Sophia Tolstaya (1844), Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817), and Daniil Kharms (1905).

Russian born Writers

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