caption death_date birth_place image_size birth_date image article_title name
portrait modern art , tokyo -lrb- 1920 -rrb- by nakamura tsune at the national museum of 23 december 1952 obukhovka , belgorod oblast , russia 200px 12 january 1890 portrait , oil on canvas - national museum of modern art of , tokyo - dsc06549.jpg vasilii yaroshenko by tsune nakamura , 1920 vasili eroshenko
 vasily eroshenko
vasili eroshenko

vasili yakovlevich eroshenko -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- january 12 , 1890 -- december 23 , 1952 -rrb- was an anarchist writer , esperantist , linguist , and teacher .
at the age of four , he contracted measles and as a result , became blind .
from 1907 to 1914 he worked as a violinist for the moscow orchestra for the blind .
around this time he studied esperanto , as well as english .
he travelled to britain in 1912 and studied in a school for the blind .
there he met the anarchist peter kropotkin , who must have influenced his anarchistic views .
later he went back to moscow via paris and resumed his work in the orchestra .
there he began studying the japanese language .
in april of 1914 eroshenko , due to contacts with the japanese esperantists , left for japan .
he studied massage in a school center for the blind in tokyo , after learning their reputation in the practice .
there he promoted esperanto among the blind students .
his first novels , in japanese , were published there .
after two years he went to siam and tried to establish a school for the blind .
but owing to the bureaucrats he did not succeed .
he went to burma , in moulmein , and established a school for the blind .
in november 1917 , upon learning about the russian revolution , he went to india and hoped to return to russia from there .
unfortunately he was arrested in calcutta , as a russian bolshevik .
in 1918 he went back to burma and continued his work in moulmein .
in hopes of returning to russia for the second attempt he went back to india .
british authorities then forbade him exit to his country and was placed under house arrest in calcutta .
he escaped arrest and went to bombay , but later was caught and sent back to calcutta .
he provoked his departure from india .
under arrest he was boarded in a warship to be deported to japan .
he escaped from the ship when in shanghai and from there successfully returned to russia .
during the summer of 1919 , he went back to japan through shanghai .
with a good grasp on the japanese language , eroshenko wrote numerous children stories in that language and became famous among the japanese literary community .
he became a member of the japanese socialist league .
in may 1921 , due to active participation in socialist protests and his participation in the second convention of the japanese socialist league , eroshenko was beaten up by the police and was arrested .
a month later he was deported , and went to vladivostok , soviet union .
from 1921 to 1923 , eroshenko went to china and lived in harbin for more or less three months , then stayed in beijing , china , where he taught esperanto .
from october 1921 to february 1922 he worked for the institute of languages in shanghai .
he was in contact with the chinese writer lu xun , who translated a play and a collection of fairytales by eroshenko in chinese .
eroshenko features in lu 's short story ` the comedy of the ducks ' .
he gave lectures to a university and a teacher 's training school for women in beijing on russian literature and other themes .
in 1922 , he participated in the 15th esperanto congress in helsinki , finland .
in 1923 eroshenko left china and spend his remaining time in europe .
in 1924 he participated in the 16th esperanto congress in paris and the congress of blind esperantists in vienna .
from 1924 to 1927 he worked as a translator in the communist university for the working people in the east .
he translated works of marx , engels and lenin into japanese .
in 1929-1930 he traveled to chukotko and established a school for blind children .
due to a few number of enrollees this venture did not succeed .
from 1930 to 1932 he worked in a school for blind brush-makers in nizhni novogrod as a teacher in mathematics , braille and the russian language .
a year later he went back to moscow to work as proof reader in a printing house .
in 1935 he founded the first school for blind children in kushka , turkmenistan , where he remained until 1945 .
in 1946-1948 he worked as an english language instructor in a school for the blind children in moscow .
in 1949-1951 he lived and worked in an evening school for the blind in tashkent .
in 1952 he went back to obukhivka , his birthplace , and worked on his last book .
he died on december 23 , and was buried in a country cemetery .
