Alexander Kuprin (1870-1938), an iconic Russian writer, who was also a pilot, journalist, actor, circus worker and adventurer. Kuprin is best known for The Duel, a novel, conceived in his second year in the army, and commenting on the “horror and tedium of army life”. He is considered one of the last proponents of the great tradition of Russian critical realism. Like most Russian patriots of the time, Kuprin did not “welcome” Bolsheviks and probably remained an anti-Communist throughout his life. In June 1918, Kuprin was arrested for a short time for an article in the paper Molva (Rumor) critical of the regime, resulting in Kuprin’s exile in 1919 – for him a difficult and tragic time. Following this tragic ordeal, very ill when, in 1937, one year before his death, he returned to the USSR.
