Staniukovich, K.M.: Maksimka

Title

Maksimka, Sankt-Peterburg 1898

Maksimka

Keywords

Summary

This children’s adventure novella centres on the rescue of a black boy from the wreck of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean by Russian sailors. A victim of the slave trade, the boy was en route to the Americas when the shipwreck occurred. Thanks to the Russian sailors, he not only avoided such a fate, but also became integrated into Russian society – a successful example of the domestication of the ‘savage’ in the Russian context. The book was a commercial success and was adapted for the screen in Soviet times (1953).

Bio

Konstantin Staniukovich was a Russian author who frequently wrote about sea adventures and the Russian Imperial Navy. Born in Sevastopol, he spent a few years in the navy before resigning to pursue a career in writing. A liberal, he spent three years in Siberia after being sentenced for associating with political exiles. A prolific writer who gained wide notoriety during his lifetime, he was also reprinted several times during the Soviet period. He died in Naples, where he is buried, after a long illness.

Sources

V. Vil’chinskii, Konstantin Mikhailovich Staniukovich, Moskva-Leningrad 1963;

“Staniukovich, Konstantin Mikhailovich”, in Russkie pisateli. 1800-1917, t. 6, Sankt-Peterburg 2019, p. 38-43.

A.F.