His father was a farmer, a former non-commissioned officer of the Life Guard Lancers who later withdrew from the village and served as a doorman in the city.

He graduated after three years of study with a diploma which gave him the qualifications of an elementary school teacher.

In his third year in Ozerkino he published his first story in The Temperance Messenger, a St Petersburg newspaper.

During the Revolution he became friendly with members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, but in 1919 joined the Bolsheviks, and held significant positions in various institutions of Samara.

He was one of the founders of the local folk theater, and in 1919 he wrote his first plays, one of which, "Baba", won first place in a contest in Moscow.