Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (1871-1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of Expressionism in Russian literature. Andreyev's style combines elements of realist, naturalist, and symbolist schools in literature. His world view was nurtured by Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. His literary mentors were Dostoevsky and Poe. His writing is described as haunting and disturbing, boiling with despair, pessimism and dark beauty.

Anathema, a drama by Leonid Andreyev (1909). Anathema is the Devil, the tempter of man. In the prologue he stands outside the gates of eternity, and calls on the silent Guardian to open them for an instant that he may have a glimpse of the mysteries to illumine the way for the Devil and for man, alike groping in darkness. The Guardian bars the way, and in anger Anathema swears to return to earth and ruin the soul of David Leizer. David Leizer is not a Faust or a Job, but an insignificant Jewish shopkeeper dying of poverty in a Russian town. Anathema appears to him as a lawyer to announce that...