Vsevolod Garshin

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (1855–88) was a Russian writer of short stories. After university, he went into the army at the start of the Russian-Turkish War in 1877 as an ordinary soldier. He was wounded and became an officer because he was so brave. But he decided to leave the army after the war to be a professional writer. His time as a soldier was useful for his first stories though. Although Garshin was quite successful, he sometimes suffered from mental illness. At the age of 33, Garshin committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of his apartment and died five days later. He only published twenty short stories in his short career.