×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

Poetry or prose? Russian literary dispute ends in stabbing death

by Reuters
Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:39 GMT

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The lesson from a stabbing death in Russia: Alcohol and literature can be a lethal mix.

A former schoolteacher killed his friend after a drunken argument over which is superior, poetry or prose, investigators in the Sverdlovsk region said on Wednesday.

"The literary dispute soon grew into a banal conflict, on the basis of which the 53-year-old admirer of poetry killed his opponent with the help of a knife," the regional branch of the federal Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The suspect fled his home in the town of Irbit, where the 67-year-old victim was killed after the argument on Jan. 20, and hid at another friend's house in a nearby village before he was found and detained, it said.

The killing came four months after an argument over the theories of 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant ended in a man being shot in a grocery store in southern Russia. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->