{{Short description|Russian writer and journalist (1836–1921)}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | image = Pyotr Dmitryevich Boborykin.jpg | imagesize = 220px | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1836|8|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhegorodsky Uyezd, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1921|8|12|1836|8|27|df=y}} | death_place = Lugano, Switzerland | signature = Boborykin Signature.jpg }} '''Pyotr Dmitriyevich Boborykin''' ({{langx|ru|Пётр Дми́триевич Боборы́кин}}; {{oldstyledate|27 August|1836|15 August}} &ndash; 12 August 1921) was a Russian writer, playwright, and journalist.

==Biography== Boborykin was born into the family of a landowner. He studied at Kazan State University and the Dorpat University, but he never completed his education. He made his debut as a playwright in 1860. In 1863–1864 he published an autobiographical novel, ''The Pathway''. He was the editor-publisher of the journal ''Library for Reading'' (1863–1865), worked for the theatre magazine ''Russian Stage'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boborykin |first=P. D. (Petr Dmitrievich) |url=http://archive.org/details/teatralnoeiskuss00bobo |title=Teatralnoe iskusstvo |date=1872 |publisher=S.-Peterburg |others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> and was "Paris correspondent of several Russian newspapers".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McNair |first=John |date=1985 |title=A Russian European: Boborykin in England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4209170 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=540–559; quote on 541 |issn=0037-6795}}</ref> He spent a long period abroad in the 1890s, where he met Émile Zola, Edmond de Goncourt and Alphonse Daudet. In 1900 he was elected an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He married Sophia Zborzhevskaya or Zborzewska (1845-1925), an actress and translator, in 1872. He died in 1921, in Switzerland.

==Works== Boborykin worked on the journals ''Notes of the Fatherland'', ''The European Herald'', ''The Northern Herald'', ''Russian Thought'', ''Artist'' and other publications. He was the author of numerous novels, novellas, short stories,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boborykin |first=Petr Dmitrievich |url=http://archive.org/details/poviestiirazskaz00bobo |title=Poviesti i razskazy |date=1872 |others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> plays, and works on the history of Western European and Russian literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boborykin |first=P. D. (Petr Dmitrievich) |url=http://archive.org/details/evorpeskiromanvd01bobouoft |title=Evorpeski roman v deviatnadtsatom stolietii |date=1900 |publisher=S.-Peterburg Tip. M.M. Stasiulevicha |others=Robarts - University of Toronto}}</ref> His most famous works were the novels ''Evening Sacrifice'' (1868), ''Dealers'' (1872–1873), ''Half a Life'' (1873),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Layton |first=Susan |date=2022 |title=Shades of Boborykin in ''Anna Karenina'': Adultery, Agriculture, and Tourism in Italy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48792854 |journal=The Slavic and East European Journal |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=392–410 |issn=0037-6752}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Boborykin |first=Petr Dmitrievich |url=http://archive.org/details/polzhizni00bobo |title=Polzhizni |date=1874 |others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> ''Kitay-Gorod'' (1882),<ref>{{Cite book |last=P.D. Boborykin |url=http://archive.org/details/completecollecti0012pdbo |title=Complete Collection of the Works of P.D. Boborykin |date=1897 |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> ''Vasily Tyorkin'' (1892), ''Thirst'' (1898), the story ''Wiser'' (1890), and the comedy ''The Scale'' (1899). His great volume of writing was mocked by his peers; "Few writers have taken themselves more seriously, yet few have attracted more ridicule and ribaldry from their contemporaries."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McNair |first=John |date=1994 |title=Persecution by Parody: the Literary Trial(s) of Piotr Boborykin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40921506 |journal=New Zealand Slavonic Journal |pages=113–126 |issn=0028-8683}}</ref>

The wide use of the term "intelligentsia" in Russian culture began in the 1860s, when Boborykin first used it in the press.<ref>{{Citation |last=McNair |first=John |title=Boborykin and his Chronicles of the Russian Intelligentsia |date=1992 |work=The Golden Age of Russian Literature and Thought: Selected Papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990 |pages=149–167 |editor-last=Offord |editor-first=Derek |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22310-7_11 |access-date=2026-03-07 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-22310-7_11 |isbn=978-1-349-22310-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He explained that the term was borrowed from German culture, where it was used to describe the part of society which is engaged in intellectual activity. He added a special meaning to the term: the definition of intellectuals as representatives of "high intellectual and ethical culture," and not simply "knowledge workers". In his view, the Russian intelligentsia was a special moral and ethical phenomenon. Intellectuals in this sense were representatives of different professional groups, different political beliefs, but with a common spiritual and moral foundation. The use of the term "intelligentsia" in this sense was regarded as purely Russian by westerners.

The novel ''Kitay-Gorod'' was one of Boborykin's most famous works. It was originally conceived as a study on the life and mores of the inhabitants of Kitay-gorod. This work is interesting not only from an artistic, but also from a historical point of view. In the novel, he describes with almost scientific precision the details of merchant life; culinary preferences, daily duties, and the customs of merchants and nobles against the backdrop of anticipated social and political change. His main task is the treatment of the historical role of Moscow in the last third of the nineteenth century.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Wikisource|ru|Василий Теркин (Боборыкин)|Vasily Tyorkin in Russian}} *[http://az.lib.ru/b/boborykin_p_d/ Boborykin's works from Lib.ru] (Russian)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boborykin, Pyotr}} Category:1836 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Writers from Nizhny Novgorod Category:People from Nizhegorodsky Uyezd Category:Untitled nobility from the Russian Empire Category:19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire Category:Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire Category:Short story writers from the Russian Empire Category:Journalists from the Russian Empire Category:Russian male novelists Category:Male dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire Category:Russian male short story writers Category:20th-century Russian novelists Category:20th-century Russian short story writers Category:Russian male journalists Category:Russian magazine publishers (people) Category:Magazine editors from the Russian Empire Category:Sreda Category:University of Tartu alumni Category:Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Category:Kazan Federal University alumni