Aleksandr Kuprin Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin ( ) , ( in the village of Narovchat in the Penza Oblast – August 25 , 1938 in Leningrad ) was a Russian writer , pilot , explorer and adventurer who is perhaps best known for his story " The Duel " ( 1905 ) . Other well - known works include " Moloch " ( 1896 ) , " Olesya " ( 1898 ) , " Junior Captain Rybnikov " ( 1906 ) , " Emerald " ( 1907 ) , and " The Garnet Bracelet " ( 1911 ) ( which was made into a 1965 movie ) . Vladimir Nabokov styled him the Russian Kipling for his stories about pathetic adventure - seekers , who are often " neurotic and vulnerable . " Early life . Kuprin was a son of Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin , a minor government official who died of cholera in 1871 at the age of thirty - seven years . His mother , Liubov ' Alekseevna Kuprina , Tatar princess ( of the Kulunchakovs ) , like many other nobles in Russia , had lost most of her wealth during the 19th century . Kuprin attended the Razumovsky boarding school in 1876 , and in 1880 finished his education in the Second Moscow Military High School ( Cadet Corps ) and Alexander Military School , spending a total of ten years in these elite military institutions . His first short story , " The Last Debut " , was published in 1889 in a satirical periodical . " In February 1902 , Kuprin and Maria Karlovna Davydova were married , their daughter Lidia born in 1903 . " Kuprin ' s mother died in 1910 . Literary career . Kuprin left military service in 1894 , after which he tried many types of job , including provincial journalism , dental care , land surveying , acting , circus performer , church singer , doctor , hunter , fisher , etc . Reportedly , " all of these were subsequently reflected in his fiction . " His first essays were published in Kiev in two collections . Reportedly , " although he lived in an age when writers were carried away by literary experiments , Kuprin did not seek innovation and wrote only about the things he himself had experienced and his heroes are the next generation after Chekhov ' s pessimists . " Although the 1896 short story " Moloch " first made his name known as a writer , it was his novel " The Duel " ( 1905 ) which made him famous . " Kuprin was highly praised by fellow writers including Anton Chekhov , Maxim Gorky , Leonid Andreyev , Nobel Prize - winning Ivan Bunin " and Leo Tolstoy who acclaimed him a true successor to Chekhov . After publication of " The Duel " he paid less and less interest to fancy literature and began to spend time in pubs and brothels . His sensationalist novel about the lurid life of prostitutes , " The Pit " ( 1915 ) , was accused by Russian critics of excessive Naturalism . Although not a conservative , he did not agree with Bolshevism . While working for a brief time with Maxim Gorky at the World Literature publishing company , he criticized the Soviet regime . In spring 1919 , from Gatchina near Petrograd , Kuprin left the country for France . He lived in Paris for most of the next 17 years , succumbing to alcoholism . He wrote about this in much of his work . He eventually returned to Moscow on May 31 , 1937 , just a year before his death , at the height of the Great Purge . His return earned publication of his works within the Soviet Union . Kuprin died in the spring of 1938 in Leningrad and is interred near his fellow writers at the Literaturskiye Mostki in the Volkovo Cemetery ( Volkovskoye Memorial Cemetery ) in Leningrad . A minor planet 3618 Kuprin , discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him . Reportedly , " even today , Alexander Kuprin remains one of the widest read classics in Russian literature " , with many films based on his works , " which are also read over the radio " , partly due to " his vivid stories of the lives of ordinary people and unhappy love , his descriptions of the military and brothels , making him a writer for all times and places . "