LEONID ANDREYEV (1871-1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history. In the years between 1898 and 1905 Andreyev published numerous short stories on many subjects, including life in Russian provincial settings, court and prison incidents (where he drew on material from his professional life as a police-court reporter for a Moscow daily newspaper), and medical settings. His particular interest in psychology and psychiatry gave him an opportunity to explore insights into the human psyche and to depict memorable personalities. He soon turned to the theater, writing numerous, well-received plays. Andreyev’s style combines elements of realist, naturalist and symbolist schools in literature. Fate and Chance are the two dark, unknown, at times brutal forces which dwelt ever before his mind’s eye. His symbols are full of horror and at times unbending atrocity. Copies of his novels THE RED LAUGH (1904) and THE SEVEN WHO WERE HANGED (1908) were found in the library of H. P. Lovecraft. He supported the February Revolution, but foresaw the Bolshevik’s coming to power as catastrophic. In 1917, he moved to Finland where he spent his last years in bitter poverty, and his premature death from heart failure may have been hastened by his anguish over the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. His last novel, SATAN’S DIARY, was left uncompleted.