politicians. Intermediaries, especially Boris Savinkov, a former Socialist Revolutionary terrorist who was now the assistant minister of war, tried to convince Kerensky and Ko-rnilov that the salvation of the country rested on their cooperation.
During August, tensions surrounding Kor-nilov’s presumed intentions grew. Leftist newspapers and orators warned that he was a potential
KOROLENKO, VLADIMIR GALAKTIONOVICH
counterrevolutionary military dictator, while conservative newspapers and speakers hailed him as the prospective savior of Russia. People looking to break the power of the soviets and change the political structure began to organize around him. The degree of his knowledge and approval of these efforts remains unclear, but he clearly saw himself as a key figure in the regeneration of Russia and the reconstruction of Russian politics, perhaps by force.
By September political tensions in Petrograd were high. Kerensky and Kornilov groped toward some sort of agreement, despite mutual distrust. An exchange of messages, mostly through intermediaries (Kornilov was at military front headquarters), explored restructuring the government and discussed the respective roles of the two men. These also revealed their suspicions of each other. Kerensky became convinced that the general planned a coup and, on September 9, he suddenly dismissed Kornilov. Outraged, Kornilov denounced Kerensky and launched army units toward Petro-grad. This quickly collapsed as delegates from the Petrograd Soviet convinced the soldiers that they were being used for counterrevolution. By September 12 the Kornilov revolt had foundered, and Kornilov and some other generals were arrested.
The Kornilov Affair had enormous repercussions. Kerensky, the moderate socialists, and the liberals were discredited because of their earlier support of Kornilov. The Bolsheviks and radical left, in contrast, had warned against the danger of a military coup and now seemed vindicated. Their political stock soared, and they soon took over the Petrograd and other soviets, preparing the way for the October Revolution. See also: FEBRUARY REVOLUTION; KERENSKY, ALEXANDER FYODOROVICH; OCTOBER REVOLUTION; PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ascher, Abraham. (1953). “The Kornilov Affair.” Russian Review 12:235-352. Asher, Harvey. (1970). “The Kornilov Affair: A History and Interpretation.” Russian Review 29:286-300. Munck, J. L. (1987). The Kornilov Revolt: A Critical Examination of the Sources and Research. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press. White, James D. (1968-1969). “The Kornilov Affair: A Study in Counter Revolution.” Soviet Studies 20: 187-205.
(1853-1921), noted Russian short-story writer, publicist, and political activist. When Korolenko was arrested in 1879 for alleged populist activities and exiled to Siberia, he used the time to write many lyrical tales, exceptional for their descriptions of human sadness and desolate nature. His existential sufferings in Yakutsk, during which he often contemplated suicide, find expression in his writings.
One of Korolenko’s famous short stories, “Makar’s Dream” (1885), is also set in Siberia. In it, Makar, a poor little peasant who has become half-savage by his association with the Yakutsk people, dreams of a better future. Normally he has no time for dreaming; his days are consumed by hard physical labor-chopping, ploughing, sowing, and grinding. He only dreams when he is drunk. One Christmas Eve, Makar drifts off in a drunken sleep and dreams that the god of the woods, Tayon, has judged him harshly for his former deeds and has decided to transform him into a post-horse. Makar ends up convincing Tayon of his innate goodness.
In another famous story, “The Blind Musician” (1886), a blind youth overcomes his painful self-pity to become a sensitive violinist whose music takes on universal resonance. As his uncle watches the captivated audience, he thinks about his nephew. “He understands suffering. He has had his share, and that is why he can change it into music for this happy audience.” Korolenko’s talent thus lies in his expressions of the emotional and sentimental dimensions of life, his compassion for the downtrodden, as well as his masterful depictions of nature, which have much in common with Turgenev’s.
Like many Russian writers, Korolenko felt that literature should play a leading role in advancing human progress; that a writer should not stand idly by in the face of injustice. He sought to create works that would unite realism and romanticism. In one historical story about the revolt of the Jews against the Romans (“A Tale about Florus, Agrippa, and Menachem, the Son of Jehudah”), Korolenko rebuts Tolstoy’s doctrine of nonviolent resistance to evil. In works such as “The Day of Atonement” (first entitled “Iom-Kipur,” 1890) and later in “House Number 13,” Korolenko also took issue with anti-Semitism. Korolenko condemned the Bolshevik regime and the Red Terror he witnessed in
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indignant letters that he wrote to Anatoly Lu-nacharsky, the People’s Commissar for Education. See also: INTELLIGENTSIA; SIBERIA
Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich. (1972). The History of My Contemporary. New York: Oxford University Press. Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich. (1971). Makar’s Dream, and Other Stories. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press. Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich, and Antony Lambton. (1986). Bad Company and Other Stories. London: Quartet.
Founded in 1882 by entrepreneur F. A. Korsh (1852-1923), this was the first successful private, commercial theater established after the repeal of the government’s monopoly on theaters in the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Built in the heart of Moscow’s bustling theater district, the Ko-rsh Theater was designed to meet four professional objectives: to respond to audiences’ changing aesthetic demands; to increase performance opportunities for provincial actors; to present productions of new plays, which led to special Friday night performances of experimental works; and to make both the Russian and the international dramaturgy available to students, which Korsh accomplished by offering free Sunday morning performances. The playwrights whose works played in Russia first at the Korsh included Hermann Sudermann, Edmond Rostand, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, and, perhaps most significantly, Anton Chekhov. Performers who advanced their careers here included comedian Vladimir Davydov, heartthrob Alexander Lensky, and light opera celebrities Lidia Yavorskaya and Maria Blyumen-tal-Tamarina. The theater itself, designed by nationalist architect M. N. Chichagov, was the first to use electric lighting.
Korsh could afford his artistic innovations because of the extent to which he catered to the crowd, exemplifying the “dictatorship of the box office.” The most popular, and prolific, playwright in his employ was I. I. Myasnitsky (Baryshev), who kept Korsh supplied with farces, comedies of topical issues with protagonists from all social backgrounds, such as “The Old Woman Makes a Fool of Herself.” The theater’s most famously popular production was the 1892 staging of Victorien Sardou’s comedy about Napoleon’s ex-washer woman, Madame Sans-Gene, translated by Korsh himself, and featuring the latest fashions directly from Paris.
Until its incorporation by the Soviet government in 1925, the Korsh Theater offered a central locale where new ideas about Russian culture were contested, reshaped, sometimes vulgarized, but always celebrated. See also: CHEKHOV, ANTON PAVLOVICH; THEATER
BIBLIOGRAPHY
McReynolds, Louise.(2003). Russia at Play: Leisure Activities at the End of the Tsarist Era. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
The Koryaks (Koryaki) are an indigenous Paleo-Asi-atic people living in northeast Siberia, on the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula and on the adjoining mainland from the Taigonos Peninsula to the Bering Sea (a total of 152,000 square miles, or 393,680 square kilometers). The traditional roaming area of the nomadic Koryaks has been west of the Kamchatka Central Range, up to the Itelmen settlements. In addition to Koryaks, Itelmens, Chukchi,
