Sergey Nikolayevich Terpigorev (russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Терпиго́рев; May 24, 1841 – June 25, 1895) was a Russian Empire writer.

Biography

Terpigorev was born on May 24, 1841, in the village of Nikolsky in the Usmansky Uyezd of

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate was an administrative unit of the Russian Empire, Russian Republic, and later the Russian SFSR, centred around the city of Tambov. The governorate was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north and between 38°9' and 43°38' east ...

(now

Dobrinsky District Dobrinsky District (russian: До́бринский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #382-OZ and municipalLaw #114-OZ district (raion), one of the eighteen in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast. The area of t ...

Lipetsk Oblast Lipetsk Oblast (russian: Липецкая область, Lipetskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Lipetsk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,173,513. Geography Lipets ...

) into an impoverished noble family. He attended grammar school, and in 1861-62, studied at

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. For his involvement in student unrest he was exiled and sent to the family estate of his mother, where he lived for five years under police surveillance. During this period he decided to gather material for essays on social topics. He sent them to the magazine ''Russian Word'' (Russkoye Slovo) and the St. Petersburg newspaper ''The Voice'' (Golos). These essays denounced fraud and embezzlement, and showed the hard life of the common people. In 1867, when his term of exile ended, Terpigorev again went to St. Petersburg. He published a series of essays on life in the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

in the popular magazine ''

Notes of the Fatherland ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lite ...

'', which he signed with the pseudonym "Sergey Atava". In these essays he commented on the poor state of affairs after the

Emancipation reform of 1861 The emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia, also known as the Edict of Emancipation of Russia, (russian: Крестьянская реформа 1861 года, translit=Krestyanskaya reforma 1861 goda – "peasants' reform of 1861") was the first ...

. In January 1880 he published a series of essays about poverty in ''Notes of the Fatherland''. He then published ''Disturbed Shadows'', a collection of essays which brought him literary fame. Subsequent collections included ''The Yellow Book'' (Uzorochnaya Pestryad) and ''Historical Stories and Memories''. In his later years he worked on his novel ''The Ice Broke'', but was unable to finish it. He died in St. Petersburg on June 25, 1895. {{DEFAULTSORT:Terpigorev, Sergey 1841 births 1895 deaths People from Dobrinsky District People from Usmansky Uyezd Russian untitled nobility Short story writers from the Russian Empire Essayists from the Russian Empire Novelists from the Russian Empire 19th-century essayists Internal exiles from the Russian Empire Saint Petersburg State University alumni