The Created Legend (Dodo Press)

Feodor Kuzmitch Chernikov/Teternikov (1863-1927), who also wrote under the pseudonym Fyodor Sologub, was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, playwright and essayist. He was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of fin de siècle literature and philosophy into Russian prose. In 1882 he began his literary career with the 1884 publication in a children's magazine of his poem The Fox and the Hedgehog. He continued writing as he moved to new posts in Velikiye Luki (1885) and Vytegra (1889). In 1894 his first short story, Ninochkina Oshibka (Ninochka's Mistake), was published in Illustrirovanny Mir. In 1896 he published his first three books: a book of poems, a collection of short stories, and his first novel, Tyazhelye Sny (Bad Dreams). He continued to publish books of poetry, and in 1902 he finished The Petty Demon, which was partially published in serial form in 1905. In 1914 he started a magazine, Dnevniki Pisatelei. During 1918 he spoke on behalf of the Union of Artists and published Slepaia Babochka (The Blind Butterfly), a collection of new short stories.