[1] Chapygin was born in Kargopolsky Uyezd, Olonets Governorate.

[1] His first book of stories, Those Who Keep Aloof, and his novel The White Hermitage, describing northern life, were published before the Russian Revolution of 1917.

[2] He is best known for his two novels about peasant uprisings in the 17th century, Itinerant Folk (1934–37) and Stepan Razin (1926–27).

The Soviets excused this modernization of history as a justifiable polemic against the negative portrayal of Razin in 19th-century Russian literature.

[1] Stepan Razin was published in the magazine Red Virgin Soil.