Russian poetry-lover 'stabs' prose champion 
 
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 A drunken row over the merits of literary forms in Russia ended in a poetry-lover stabbing a champion of prose to death, investigators say. 
 
 A 53-year-old man in Irbit, a town in the Sverdlovsk region of the Urals, has been charged with the murder of another man, 67, said to have been a friend. 
 
 They were drinking spirits in the friend's flat when he reportedly said only prose was "real literature". 
 
 The accused, a former teacher, allegedly stabbed him before fleeing. 
 
 Police found him hiding at an acquaintance's house in a nearby village. 
 
 According to a local police report, the accused has confessed to the murder and faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. 
 
 The victim of the attack, which took place on 20 January, had had pieces of his own prose published in a local newspaper. 
 
 He was described as someone who had led an "anti-social lifestyle and abused spirits". 
 
 The alleged killer had apparently been lodging with him for several months before the fatal dispute. 
 
 In September, in the south Russian town of Rostov-on-Don, a reported argument about the philosopher Immanuel Kant ended in an air pistol being fired and one man being injured. 

 MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) – Poetry can kill after all. 
 
 A former teacher was detained in Russia’s Urals after being accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death in a dispute about literary genres, investigators said Wednesday. 
 
 The 67-year-old victim insisted that “the only real literature is prose,” the Sverdlovsk Region’s branch of the Investigative Committee said. 
 
 The victim’s assertion outraged the 53-year-old suspect, who favored poetry, and the dispute ended with the ex-teacher stabbing his friend to death, investigators said. 
 
 Both of the men were purportedly drunk at the time. 
 
 The incident took place last week, but the suspect fled the scene and was not tracked down until days later. 
 
 The man, whose name has been withheld, was placed under arrest and charged with murder, punishable with up to 15 years in prison. 
 
 This is not the first time high-brow disputes have led to bloodshed in Russia. In September, a man was shot in a line for beer in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don after enraging a fellow beer drinker with his views about the work of Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.
– A Russian man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing and killing his friend, because that friend preferred prose to poetry, police revealed today. You will be shocked to learn that both men were drunk. The alleged killer, a 53-year-old former teacher, had been lodging in the 67-year-old victim's home for several months, the BBC reports. On the night of Jan. 20, the two were drinking when they got into a fight about literature, and the victim proclaimed that "the only real literature is prose," authorities tell RIA Novosti. The dispute so enraged the poetry-loving ex-teacher that he allegedly stabbed his host to death. He then fled the scene. Police found him some days later, hiding at another friend's house, according to the AFP. Scholarly violence is apparently a trend in Russia; in September, a one man shot another in the head with an air gun during a fight over Immanuel Kant.