The article examines the literary heritage of the Tomsk poet and fiction writer Valentin Vladimirovich Kuritsyn, the author of adventure novels, satirical works, and poems. Biographical information about Kuritsyn is very scarce. It is known that he was born in the city of Barnaul, Tomsk province on July 28, 1879, was educated at the Barnaul Mining School, then worked in private gold mines, due to health problems he moved to Tomsk for permanent residence, where he began to work in the management of the Siberian Iron roads. On January 18, 1911, he died of consumption at the age of just over 30.
In Tomsk, Kuritsyn was published in local newspapers and magazines: “Sibirskii nablyudatel”, “Sibirskie otgoloski”, “Sibirskii Vestnik”, as well as in satirical magazines of the period of the First Russian Revolution. Fame and success brought him adventure novels, which he signed with the pseudonym “Ne-Krestovsky”. This pseudonym and the title of the first novel – “Tomskie trushchoby” – referred the reader to the famous novel “Peterburgskie trushchoby” by Vsevolod Krestovsky. But “Tomskie trushchoby” was not a parody or a continuation: it is an independent work that described the everyday life of the Tomsk criminal world, the life of swindlers, criminals, thieves, and fallen women.
Kuritsyn’s novel was published in 1907–1908 in the newspaper “Sibirskie otgoloski”, and then was released as a separate book, the circulation of which was immediately sold out. After that, the same newspaper published novels in which all the same heroes acted: “Chelovek v maske” and “V pogone za millionami.”
The novels of “Ne-Krestovsky” opened a new page in the history of Siberian literature. They represented a new kind of Siberian “newspaper novel” – criminal, adventure, adventurous, with elements of mysticism.
These novels were extremely popular among the general public. At the same time, the novels were heavily criticized by leading Siberian writers and journalists. modern literary discourse allows one to take a fresh, unbiased look at the novels of Ne-Krestovsky, to open in them a connection with the world literary tradition of the adventure novel, with great success deployed on local Siberian material.
Kuritsyn was not appreciated by his contemporaries, but after a century it becomes clear that he can rightfully be attributed to the large-scale literary figures of Siberia, worthy of research attention.
Ch. V. dʼArlincourt: On the «fashionable» writer of the 1820s
