Mikhail Sushkov
Encyclopedia
Mikhail Vasilyevich Sushkov (Russian: Михаил Васильевич Сушков) (1775–1792) was a young Russian nobleman and writer of a small body of prose and poetry, notable for his autobiographical suicide
novel. He committed suicide by gunshot at age 17 after writing four suicide notes, one of which was to his uncle Alexander Khrapovitsky, at that moment personal secretary of empress Catherine the Great. Empress Catherine is said to have told Khrapovitskiy: "I am sorry for his parents, who lost such a fine son. But most of all I am sorry for himself. If he had stayed alive, he soon would have outshone Voltaire
". Sushkov’s suicide notes, the report on his death by the Moscow police, and reactions by contemporaries, not only document the suicide
in great detail, but give a rare close-up of a phenomenon that was seen as a highly significant ‘sign of the time’.
Sushkov is the author of the short epistolary novel The Russian Werther (published posthumously in 1801) in which the main character commits suicide. The death of Sushkov's hero is regarded an example of the so-called Werther effect, the wave of copycat suicide
s following the literary success of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther
(1774). However, unlike its German namesake, the Russian Werther is plagued by boredom
. In this respect Sushkov’s novel is significant, as his character precurses the literary heroes of Russian romanticism, like Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
and Lermontov's Pechorin.
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
novel. He committed suicide by gunshot at age 17 after writing four suicide notes, one of which was to his uncle Alexander Khrapovitsky, at that moment personal secretary of empress Catherine the Great. Empress Catherine is said to have told Khrapovitskiy: "I am sorry for his parents, who lost such a fine son. But most of all I am sorry for himself. If he had stayed alive, he soon would have outshone Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
". Sushkov’s suicide notes, the report on his death by the Moscow police, and reactions by contemporaries, not only document the suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in great detail, but give a rare close-up of a phenomenon that was seen as a highly significant ‘sign of the time’.
Sushkov is the author of the short epistolary novel The Russian Werther (published posthumously in 1801) in which the main character commits suicide. The death of Sushkov's hero is regarded an example of the so-called Werther effect, the wave of copycat suicide
Copycat suicide
A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media....
s following the literary success of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary and loosely autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774; a revised edition of the novel was published in 1787...
(1774). However, unlike its German namesake, the Russian Werther is plagued by boredom
Boredom
Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any activity or is not interested in their surroundings. The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852, in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a...
. In this respect Sushkov’s novel is significant, as his character precurses the literary heroes of Russian romanticism, like Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin.It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes . It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832...
and Lermontov's Pechorin.