In August


In The August was a short story by a Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Ivan Bunin first published in Russkaya mysl 1901, #8, August issue.

History

Bunin was working upon the story for a long time. After the magazine publication he prepared the text for Pereval anthology, and in it cut several fragments, notably description of a provincial town at noon. The story contained autobiographical elements. A visit to Tolstoyans, a walk over an old Malorossia town, in which Poltava can easily be guessed, a romantic relations with a girl. Tolstoyans described here had their prototypes; Pavlovsky mentioned there was Drozhin, a village teacher who died in 1892 after serving in a disciplinarian battalion for his refusal to serve in the army
Several scenes and details of the story Bunin used in Chapter 27 of Part V of The Life of Arseniev.