Dmitri Furmanov
Dmitri Furmanov was born in Russia in 1891. During the Civil War he joined the Red Army and served as a Bolshevik commissar. His first novel, Chapayev (1923) was based on his experiences fighting under General Chapayev. The book was highly praised by the critics and is considered a major classic of Soviet literature.
Issac Babel commented: "Chapayev, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies, didn't fully satisfy Furmanov. He was growing rapidly. Each month his talent as a writer expanded. Remember what his life was - he never chose the line of least resistance. Before the Revolution he fought against the Tsarist regime; after the Revolution he went to the front; after the front he picked for himself the most dangerous sector - the sector where the battle over poetry and art was being fought."
Furmanov died in 1926.
Primary Sources
(1) Issac Babel, Moskva (1936)
Chapayev, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies, didn't fully satisfy Furmanov. He was growing rapidly. Each month his talent as a writer expanded. Remember what his life was - he never chose the line of least resistance. Before the Revolution he fought against the Tsarist regime; after the Revolution he went to the front; after the front he picked for himself the most dangerous sector - the sector where the battle over poetry and art was being fought.