City En

It is difficult to talk about Leonid Ivanovich Dobychin (1894–1936) outside of the sadly familiar expressions: "tragic figure", "undeservedly convicted", "disappeared", "forgotten"... He was a modest statistician from the Bryansk Regional Statistics Bureau, preferring that his name not be revealed in print: "Only 'L. Dobychin', and not 'Leonid', as some scoundrels practice for unknown reasons". The prose talent was especially believed in by Korney Chukovsky, who published his stories and helped him get acquainted with other writers. Following Dobychin's rise in Soviet literature, there was harsh condemnation for formalism: in 1936, a campaign against his first and only novel 'City En' began, which offended and hurt the author. Presumably, he took his own life shortly after the meeting on March 25 in the Leningrad House of Writers, "went off to distant lands". Austrian researcher Elizabeth Markstein said that his syntax is the syntax of absurdity. "Infantilism" can be regarded as Dobychin's main psychological attitude in 'City En'. It is a coming-of-age novel, "destroying the mono-rhythm of 'adult' consciousness with its discreteness". The collection also includes the author's main stories, such as 'Meetings with Liz', 'Dorian Gray', 'Yerygin', and some others.