The populist writer Pavel Vladimirovich Zasodimsky was born into a poor noble family. Brought by circumstances face to face with the life of the rural and urban poor, Zasodimsky was imbued with an ardent love for those - in his words - “gloomy people living in cold and hand to mouth, for whom life in this world seems no more fun than eternal hard labor.” In the story “Dark Forces,” Zasodimsky depicts the gray everyday life of provincial craftsmen, oppressed by cruel exploitation and everyday poverty. In another story, “The Sinner,” there is an image of a peasant girl who tragically dies in the capital among the outcast population of the “St. Petersburg corners”—beggars, prostitutes, tramps, and artisans. Ordinary people and their suffering - this is the content of Zasodimsky’s stories and stories. Defining his attitude to reality, he wrote: “For me, all of humanity was divided into two unequal groups: on the one hand, millions of hungry, ragged, miserable poor people, on the other, an insignificant but brilliant group of rich, self-satisfied, happy... All my sympathies are with me.” gave to the first, all hostile feelings to the second.” These humane principles permeate the entire work of the writer.