BOGROV, GRIGORI ISAACOVICH:

By: Herman Rosenthal

Russian writer; born March 13, 1825, in Poltava; died May 10, 1885, at Derevki, government of Minsk. He received his early education from his father, who was a Hebrew scholar and who left in manuscript a Hebrew work on astronomy. Grigori devoted himself exclusively to the study of the Talmud and rabbinical literature until his marriage at the age of seventeen. He then without a teacher studied Russian, German, and French, and also learned to play the violin with a certain amount of skill. Being unhappy in his family life, he separated from his wife.

In his first work, "Zapiski Yevreya" (Memoirs of a Jew), Bogrov portrays the vicissitudes of his life and his surroundings. This was published in the "Ote Chestvennyya Zapiski," 1871-73, and in book form in 1874. Although by reason of its style and its descriptions of Russian and Russo-Jewish life his work is considered a valuable contribution to Russian literature, yet the author's undignified revelations of his family affairs called forth severe criticism.

Having established his reputation as a writer, Bogrov moved from South Russia to St. Petersburg, where he occupied himself entirely with literature. In the last years of his life Bogrov joined the Greek Orthodox Church, and married again.

Besides the above-mentioned work he published: "Yevreiski Manuskript," St. Petersburg, 1876; "Nyezhny Bratetz," St. Petersburg, 1878; "Zhit' ili ne Zhit' Yevreyam Povsemyestno v Rossii," in "Slovo," 1872, No. 2; "Lassall's Tovo Svyeta," in the same journal; and many other novels and sketches from Russo-Jewish life, which appeared in the periodicals "Razsvyet," "Yevreiskaya Biblioteka," "Russki Yevrei," and "Voskhod," from 1879 to 1883.

H. R.