Journalist 1895-1921
In 1895, Korolenko became the editor of the periodical Russkoe Bogatstvo (Russian Wealth) and used this position to criticise alleged injustices occurring under the tsar. He also used his position to publish reviews of important pieces of literature such as Chekhov's final play The Cherry Orchard in 1904.
Vladimir Korolenko was a lifetime opponent of Czarism and reservedly welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917. However, he soon opposed the Bolsheviks as their despotic nature became evident. During the Russian Civil War that ensued, he criticised both Red Terror and White Terror.
He worked on an autobiography История моего современника (Istoria moego sovremenika The History of My Contemporary.
Korolenko advocated for human rights and against injustices and persecutions on the basis of social class by his essay В Голодный год (During The Starving Year, 1891–1892), nationalism in his article Мултанское дело (The Multanskoye Affair, 1895–1896), and criticised the anti-Semitic Beilis trial (in his Call to the Russian People in regard to the blood libel of the Jews, 1911–1913).
He died in Poltava in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on December 25, 1921.
Read more about this topic: Vladimir Korolenko
Famous quotes containing the word journalist:
“The dominant and most deep-dyed trait of the journalist is his timorousness. Where the novelist fearlessly plunges into the water of self-exposure, the journalist stands trembling on the shore in his beach robe.... The journalist confines himself to the clean, gentlemanly work of exposing the griefs and shames of others.”
—Janet Malcolm (b. 1934)