People from the Backwoods: A Novel

"We were poor, we came from the pug-faced, modest, simple people, and I was the first in our family whom father had the nerve to send to secondary school, to sit in the same classroom as the young masters," wrote Alexander Malyshkin (1892-1938). Next came the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg University, participation in the First World War, the Great October Revolution and the Civil War. Malyshkin served on the staff of M.V. Frunze, the legendary Soviet military leader, and took part in the storming of Perekop, one of the most brilliant episodes in the history of the Civil War.

Recognition came to Malyshkin with his novella, "The Fall of Dair" (1923), an attempt typical of the literature of those years to embrace the popular character of the revolution, and with his novel "Sevastopol" (1931).

In "People from the Backwoods", Malyshkin's most important work, he paints a picture of provincial life and of the profound social changes occurring as a result of the revolution. The action takes place in the 1930s, on the construction site of a mammoth industrial project where the new socialist world is being born and new relations between people are developing and taking root.