Ivan Bunin
Prominent Russian writer and translator. The first Slav writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1933).
In 1891 Bunin came to Poltava to see his brother Yuli who headed the Bureau of Statistics at Poltava Governorate Zemstvo. Ivan irregularly lived here for about four years. He worked as a librarian at the Zemstvo, then a statistician like the brother.
Born in town of Voronezh, Russia. The years of his stay in Poltava were brimful in ideological, spiritual, emotional and creative respects.
This is in Poltava where his stormy love affair with Barbara Pashchenko who became the prototype for the female character of his novel “Dark alleys” was ended. This city inspired him to write fiction. Poltava and that time were described by him in his novel “Life of Arsenyev”. It is Poltava where Bunin began his career in Great Literature. Not only Bunin’s nature but also the social atmosphere of the early 19th century has contributed to that. New shops were opened, lectures were delivered, and concerts were staged. He participated in the latter ones by all means.
The writer worked in the newspaper “Poltava Governorate News” for some time. Beauty of local nature enchanted him. Bunin enthusiastically studied folklore heritage of Ukrainian people. Together with his brother, he was involved in statistical surveys of the land. Then he lived in many cities of Russia. During the Russian revolution 1917, Bunin left it for Paris he lived up to the last days in and was buried there.
