Sign up
You have successfully registered, a confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided.
Mikhail Kuzmich Sespel
About museum
Mishshi Sespel (Mikhail Kuzmich Kuzmin) – a Chuvash poet, playwright, prose writer, statesman and public figure. He was born in the village of Kazakkassy-Shugurovo (now Sespel) into a large peasant family. In 1911, after finishing primary school, he worked as a copyist, and at the beginning of World War I he voluntarily went to the front.
In 1917 Sespel enrolled in the teachers' seminary in Tetyushi. In 1918 he took part in the creation of the Union of Working Youth, joining the RKSM and later the party. Shortly after joining the party he was sent to Moscow for courses for propagandists and agitators, where he heard V. I. Lenin speak several times. At twenty, Sespel became chairman of the revolutionary tribunal, and then head of the justice department of the Chuvash Autonomous Region. He was arrested on a false charge but was soon released.
Because of bone tuberculosis in 1921 Sespel went to Evpatoria for treatment, and then enrolled in the Kyiv Art School. After serving in the Red Army and being discharged, he moved to the village of Volchya Gora, worked in the land department and helped settlers from the famine-stricken regions of the Volga. On June 15, 1922, Sespel committed suicide, which is explained by the worsening of his illness and a conflict with his superiors over a Chuvash refugee woman with two children. Later his remains were reburied in Ostre and a monument was erected. Sespel is considered the founder of syllabo-tonic versification in Chuvash poetry.
Date of birth
16 November 1899
Date of death
05 June 1922
Occupation
Poet