Leskov. Biography - Biographies of famous and famous people

N ikolay Leskov began his career as a government employee, and his first works - journalistic articles for magazines - wrote only at the age of 28. He created stories and plays, novels and tales - works in a special artistic style, the founders of which are now considered Nikolai Leskov and Nikolai Gogol.

Scribe, clerk, provincial secretary

Nikolay Leskov was born in 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol district. His mother, Marya Alferyeva, belonged to a noble family, paternal relatives were priests. The father of the future writer, Semyon Leskov, entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, where he received the right to hereditary nobility.

Until the age of eight, Nikolai Leskov lived with relatives in Gorokhov. Later, the parents took the boy to them. At the age of ten, Leskov entered the first grade of the Oryol provincial gymnasium. He did not like studying at the gymnasium, and the boy became one of the lagging students. After five years of study, he received a certificate of completion of only two classes. It was impossible to continue education. Semyon Leskov placed his son as a scribe in the Oryol Criminal Chamber. In 1848 Nikolai Leskov became assistant to the clerk.

A year later, he moved to Kiev to live with his uncle Sergei Alferyev, a famous professor at Kiev University, a practicing therapist. In Kiev, Leskov became interested in icon painting, studied the Polish language, and attended lectures at the university as a volunteer. He was assigned to work in the Kiev Treasury Chamber as an assistant clerk on the recruiting table. Later Leskov was promoted to collegiate registrars, then received the post of clerk, and then became the provincial secretary.

Nikolai Leskov retired from service in 1857 - he "I became infected with the then fashionable heresy, for which I later condemned myself more than once ... I gave up the rather successfully started government service and went to serve in one of the newly formed trading companies"... Leskov began working for the Scott & Wilkens company, the firm of his second uncle, the Englishman Sckott. Nikolai Leskov often went on business "wandering around Russia", on trips he studied dialects and the way of life of the country's inhabitants.

Anti-nihilist writer

Nikolai Leskov in the 1860s. Photo: russianresources.lt

In the 1860s, Leskov first took up the pen. He wrote articles and notes for the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti newspaper, the Modern Medicine and Economic Index magazines. Leskov himself called his first literary work "Essays on the distillery industry", published in the "Notes of the Fatherland."

At the beginning of his career, Leskov worked under the pseudonyms M. Stebnitsky, Nikolai Gorokhov, Nikolai Ponukalov, V. Peresvetov, Psalmist, Man from the crowd, Lover of watches and others. In May 1862, Nikolai Leskov, under the pseudonym Stebnitsky, published an article in the newspaper "Severnaya Beelya" about the fire in Apraksin and Shchukin dvors. The author criticized both the arsonists, who were believed to be nihilistic rioters, and the government, which cannot catch the perpetrators and put out the fire. Authority blame and wish, "So that the sent teams come to the fires for real help, and not for standing.", angered Alexander II. To save the writer from the tsarist wrath, the editors of the "Northern Bee" sent him on a long business trip.

Nikolay Leskov visited Prague, Krakow, Grodno, Dinaburg, Vilna, Lvov, and then left for Paris. Returning to Russia, he published a series of publicistic letters and essays, among them - "Russian Society in Paris", "From a travel diary" and others.

The novel "At the Knives". Edition of 1885

In 1863 Nikolai Leskov wrote his first stories - "The Life of a Woman" and "Musk Ox". At the same time, his novel Nowhere was published in the Library for Reading magazine. In it, Leskov, in his characteristic satirical manner, talked about the new nihilistic communes, the life of which seemed strange and alien to the writer. The work provoked a sharp reaction from critics, and the novel predetermined the place of the writer in the creative community for many years - anti-democratic, "reactionary" views were attributed to him.

Later, the novels "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" and "The Warrior" with vivid images of the main characters were published. Then a special style of the writer began to take shape - a kind of skaz. Leskov used the traditions of folk tale and oral tradition in his works, used jokes and colloquial words, stylized the speech of his heroes for different dialects and tried to convey the special intonations of the peasants.

In 1870 Nikolai Leskov wrote the novel At the Knives. The author considered the new work against the nihilists to be his "worst" book: in order to publish it, the writer had to edit the text several times. He wrote: "In this publication, purely literary interests were diminished, destroyed and adapted to serve interests that have nothing to do with any literature."... However, the novel "On Knives" became an important work in Leskov's work: after him, representatives of the Russian clergy and the local nobility became the main heroes of the writer's works.

"After the evil novel" At the Knives ", Leskov's literary work immediately becomes a vivid painting or, rather, icon painting - he begins to create an iconostasis for Russia of its saints and righteous people."

Maksim Gorky

"Cruel works" about Russian society

Valentin Serov Portrait of Nikolai Leskov. 1894 g.

Nikolay Leskov. Photo: russkiymir.ru

Nikolay Leskov Drawing by Ilya Repin. 1888-89

One of the most famous works of Leskov was "The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea" in 1881. Critics and writers of those years noted that the “storyteller” in the work has two intonations at once - both laudatory and caustic. Leskov wrote: “Several other persons supported that in my stories it is really difficult to distinguish between good and evil and that sometimes you cannot even figure out who is hurting the cause and who is helping him. This was attributed to some innate insidiousness of my nature ".

In the fall of 1890, Leskov completed the novel "Midnosters" - by that time, the writer had radically changed his attitude towards the church and the priests. The preacher John of Kronstadt fell under his critical pen. Nikolai Leskov wrote to Leo Tolstoy: “I will keep my story in the table. It is true that no one will print it at the present time "... However, in 1891, the work was published in the journal "Vestnik Evropy". Critics scolded Leskov for "incredibly bizarre, distorted language" that "sickened the reader."

In the 1890s, the censorship almost did not release Leskov's witty works. The writer said: “My latest works about Russian society are very cruel. "Corral", "Winter Day", "Lady and Fefela" ... These things are not liked by the public for their cynicism and righteousness. And I don’t want to be liked by the public ”. The novels "Falcon Flight" and "Invisible Trail" came out only in separate chapters.

In the last years of his life Nikolai Leskov prepared a collection of his own works for publication. In 1893 they were published by the publisher Aleksey Suvorin. Nikolai Leskov died two years later - in St. Petersburg from an asthma attack. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery.

Nikolai Leskov is a Russian writer, publicist and memoirist. In his works, he paid great attention to the Russian people.

In the later period of his work, Leskov wrote a number of satirical stories, many of which have not been censored. Nikolai Leskov was a profound psychologist, thanks to which he skillfully described the characters of his heroes.

Most of all he is known for the famous work "Levsha", which in an amazing way conveys the peculiarities of the Russian character.

There were many interesting events in Leskov, with the main of which we will introduce you right now.

So in front of you short biography of Leskov.

Biography of Leskov

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was born on February 4, 1831 in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province. His father, Semyon Dmitrievich, was the son of a priest. He also graduated from seminary, but chose to work in the Oryol Criminal Chamber.

In the future, the stories of the seminarian father and priest grandfather will seriously affect the formation of the writer's views.

Leskov's father was a very gifted investigator, able to unravel the most difficult case. Thanks to his merits, he was awarded the title of nobility.

The writer's mother, Maria Petrovna, came from a noble family.

In addition to Nikolai, four more children were born in the Leskov family.

Childhood and youth

When the future writer was barely 8 years old, his father had a serious quarrel with his leadership. This led to the fact that their family moved to the village of Panino. There they bought a house and began to lead a simple life.

Having reached a certain age, Leskov went to study at the Oryol gymnasium. An interesting fact is that in almost all subjects the young man received low marks.

After 5 years of study, he was issued a certificate of completion of only 2 classes. Leskov's biographers suggest that the teachers were to blame for this, who treated students harshly and often physically punished them.

After graduation, Nikolai had to get a job. His father assigned him to the criminal ward as a clerical officer.

In 1848, a tragedy occurred in Leskov's biography. The father died of cholera, as a result of which their family was left without support and breadwinner.

The next year, at his own request, Leskov got a job in the government chamber in Kiev. At that time, he lived with his own uncle.

While in a new workplace, Nikolai Leskov became seriously interested in reading books. He soon began attending the university as an auditor.

Unlike most of the students, the young man listened attentively to the lecturers, eagerly absorbing new knowledge.

During this period of his biography, he was seriously interested in icon painting, and also made acquaintance with various Old Believers and sectarians.

Then Leskov got a job at the company "Scott and Wilkens", owned by his relative.

He was often sent on business trips, in connection with which he managed to visit different ones. Later, Nikolai Leskov will call this period of time the best in his biography.

Leskov's creativity

For the first time, Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov wanted to take up the pen while working at Scott and Wilkens. Every day he had to meet different people and witness interesting situations.

He originally wrote articles on everyday social topics. For example, he denounced officials of illegal activities, after which criminal cases were opened against some of them.

When Leskov was 32 years old, he wrote the story "The Life of a Woman", which was later published in a St. Petersburg magazine.

He then presented several more stories that were well received by critics.

Inspired by his first success, he continued his writing career. Soon from the pen of Leskov came out very deep and serious essays "Warrior" and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district".

An interesting fact is that Leskov not only skillfully conveyed the images of his heroes, but also decorated the works with intellectual humor. They were often sarcastic and cleverly disguised as parody.

Thanks to these techniques, Nikolai Leskov developed his own and unique literary style.

In 1867 Leskov tried himself as a playwright. He wrote many plays, many of which were staged in theaters. The play "The Prodigal", which tells about the life of a merchant, gained particular popularity.

Then Nikolai Leskov published several serious novels, including "Nowhere" and "At the Knives". In them, he criticized all kinds of revolutionaries, as well as nihilists.

Soon, his novels caused a wave of discontent from the power elite. The editors of many publications refused to publish his works in their magazines.

Leskov's next work, which is now included in the compulsory school curriculum, was "Levsha". In it, he described in paints the masters of the arms business. Leskov managed to present the plot so well that they began to talk about him as an outstanding writer of our time.

In 1874, by decision of the Ministry of Public Education, Leskov was approved for the position of censor of new books. Thus, he had to determine which of the books had the right to go to press and which did not. For his work, Nikolai Leskov received a very small salary.

During this period of his biography, he wrote the story "The Enchanted Wanderer", which no publishing house wanted to publish.

The story differed in that many of its plots deliberately did not have a logical conclusion. Critics did not understand Leskov's idea and responded very sarcastically about the story.

After that, Nikolai Leskov published a collection of short stories "The Righteous", in which he described the fate of ordinary people who met on his way. However, these works were also received negatively by critics.

In the 1980s, signs of religiosity began to appear in his works. In particular, Nikolai Semenovich wrote about early Christianity.

At a later stage in his career, Leskov wrote works in which he denounced officials, military personnel and church leaders.

Such works as "The Beast", "Scarecrow", "Dumb Artist" and others belong to this period of his creative biography. In addition, Leskov managed to write a number of stories for children.

It is worth noting that he spoke of Leskov as “the most Russian of our writers,” and they considered him one of their main teachers.

He spoke about Nikolai Leskov as follows:

“As an artist of words, NS Leskov is quite worthy to stand next to such Russian creators as L. Tolstoy, Turgenev,. Leskov's talent in strength and beauty is slightly inferior to the talent of any of the named creators of the sacred scriptures about the Russian land, and in the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the depth of understanding of its everyday mysteries, a subtle knowledge of the Great Russian language, he often exceeds the named predecessors and companions of his. "

Personal life

In the biography of Nikolai Leskov, there were 2 official marriages. His first wife was the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur Olga Smirnova, whom he married at the age of 22.

Over time, Olga began to develop mental disorders. Later, she even had to be sent to a clinic for treatment.

In this marriage, the writer had a girl, Vera, and a boy, Mitya, who died at an early age.

Left virtually without a wife, Leskov began to cohabit with Ekaterina Bubnova. In 1866 their son Andrey was born. Having lived in a civil marriage for 11 years, they decided to leave.

An interesting fact is that Nikolai Leskov was a staunch vegetarian for almost his entire biography. He was an ardent opponent of killing for food.

Moreover, in June 1892, in the newspaper Novoye Vremya, Leskov published an appeal entitled “On the need to publish in Russian a well-composed and detailed kitchen book for vegetarians”.

Death

Throughout his life, Leskov suffered from asthma attacks, which in recent years began to progress.

He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery.

Shortly before his death, in 1889-1893, Leskov compiled and published by A. Suvorin "Complete Works" in 12 volumes, which included most of his works of art.

For the first time, a truly complete (30-volume) collection of the writer's works began to be published by the Terra publishing house in 1996 and continues to this day.

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Russian writer and publicist, memoirist

Nikolay Leskov

short biography

Born on February 16, 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol district (now the village of Staroye Gorokhovo, Sverdlovsk district, Oryol region). Leskov's father, Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), who came from a spiritual environment, according to Nikolai Semyonovich, was "... a great, wonderful clever man and a dense seminarian." to the ranks that gave the right to hereditary nobility, and, according to contemporaries, acquired a reputation as an astute investigator capable of unraveling complex cases. Mother, Maria Petrovna Leskova (nee Alferyeva) (1813-1886) was the daughter of an impoverished Moscow nobleman. One of her sisters was married to a wealthy Oryol landowner, the other to a wealthy Englishman. The younger brother, Alexei, (1837-1909) became a doctor, had a doctorate in medical sciences.

N. S. Leskov. Drawing by I. E. Repin, 1888-89

Childhood

NS Leskov's early childhood was spent in Orel. After 1839, when his father left the service (due to a quarrel with his superiors, which, according to Leskov, incurred the governor's anger), the family - his wife, three sons and two daughters - moved to the village of Panino (Panin Khutor) near the city Cromy. Here, as the future writer recalled, his knowledge of the people began.

In August 1841, at the age of ten, Leskov entered the first grade of the Oryol provincial gymnasium, where he studied poorly: five years later he received a certificate of completion of only two classes. Drawing an analogy with N. A. Nekrasov, the literary critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab suggests: “In both cases, apparently, neglect, on the one hand, and aversion to cramming, to the routine and carrion of the then state educational institutions with greedy interest, to life and bright temperament ".

Service and work

In June 1847, Leskov entered the service in the Oryol Criminal Chamber of the Criminal Court, where his father worked, as a clerical officer of the 2nd category. After the death of his father from cholera (in 1848), Nikolai Semyonovich received another promotion, becoming an assistant to the clerk of the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court, and in December 1849, at his own request, he was transferred to the staff of the Kiev Treasury Chamber. He moved to Kiev, where he lived with his uncle S. P. Alferyev.

In Kiev (in 1850-1857) Leskov attended lectures at the university as a volunteer, studied Polish, became interested in icon painting, took part in a religious and philosophical student circle, communicated with pilgrims, Old Believers, and sectarians. It was noted that the economist D.P. Zhuravsky, an advocate of the abolition of serfdom, had a significant impact on the worldview of the future writer.

In 1857, Leskov resigned from the service and began working in the company of the husband of his aunt A. Ya. Schkott (Scott) “Sckott and Wilkens”. In the enterprise, which, according to him, tried to "exploit everything for which the region presented any convenience", Leskov acquired vast practical experience and knowledge in numerous areas of industry and agriculture. At the same time, on the business of the company, Leskov constantly went on "wanderings around Russia", which also contributed to his acquaintance with the language and life of different regions of the country. "... These are the best years of my life, when I saw a lot and lived easily," - later recalled NS Leskov.

I ... think that I know a Russian person in the very depths of him, and I do not take any credit for this. I did not study the people by talking to Petersburg cabbies, but I grew up among the people, on the Gostomel pasture, with a cauldron in my hand, I slept with him on the dewy grass of the night, under a warm sheepskin sheepskin coat, and in the panin's wicked crowd behind circles of dusty habits ...

Stebnitsky (N. S. Leskov). "Russian Society in Paris"

During this period (until 1860) he lived with his family in the village of Nikolo-Rayskoye of the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza province and in Penza. Here he first took up the pen. In 1859, when a wave of "drinking riots" swept across the Penza province, as well as throughout Russia, Nikolai Semyonovich wrote "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", published in the Otechestvennye zapiski. This work is not only about distilling production, but also about agriculture, which, according to him, in the province "is far from flourishing", and peasant cattle breeding "in complete decline." He believed that distilling interferes with the development of agriculture in the province, "the state of which is bleak in the present and cannot promise anything good in the future ...".

Some time later, however, the trading house ceased to exist, and Leskov returned to Kiev in the summer of 1860, where he took up journalism and literary activity. Six months later, he moved to St. Petersburg, staying with Ivan Vernadsky.

Literary career

Leskov began to publish relatively late - at the twenty-sixth year of his life, having placed several notes in the newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti (1859-1860), several articles in the Kiev editions of Modern Medicine, which was published by A.P. Walter (article "On working class ", a few notes on doctors) and" Economic Index ". Leskov's articles, exposing the corruption of police doctors, led to a conflict with colleagues: as a result of a provocation organized by them, Leskov, who was conducting an official investigation, was accused of bribery and was forced to leave the service.

At the beginning of his literary career, N. S. Leskov collaborated with many St. Petersburg newspapers and magazines, most of all published in Otechestvennye zapiski (where he was patronized by a familiar Oryol publicist S. S. Gromeko), in Russkaya Rech and Severnaya Beele ... The Otechestvennye Zapiski published Essays on the Distillery Industry (Penza Province), which Leskov himself called his first work, considered his first major publication. In the summer of the same year, he briefly moved to Moscow, returning to St. Petersburg in December.

Pseudonyms of N. S. Leskov

V the beginning creative activity Leskov wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. The pseudonymous signature "Stebnitsky" first appeared on March 25, 1862 under the first fictional work - "The Extinguished Business" (later "Drought"). She held on until August 14, 1869. From time to time the signatures “M. C "," C ", and finally, in 1872," L. C "," P. Leskov-Stebnitsky "and" M. Leskov-Stebnitsky ". Among other conventional signatures and pseudonyms used by Leskov are known: "Freyshits", "V. Peresvetov "," Nikolay Ponukalov "," Nikolay Gorokhov "," Someone "," Dm. M-ev "," N. "," Member of the Society "," Psalmist "," Priest. P. Kastorsky "," Divyank "," M. P. "," B. Protozanov "," Nikolay - s "," N. L. "," N. L. - v "," Lover of antiquity "," Traveler "," Lover of watches "," N. L. "," L. "

Fire article

In an article about the fires in the magazine "Severnaya Beelya" dated May 30, 1862, about which rumors were spread as about arson carried out by revolutionary students and Poles, the writer mentioned these rumors and demanded that the authorities confirm or deny them, which was perceived by the democratic by the public as a denunciation. In addition, the criticism of the actions of the administrative authorities, expressed by the wish “that the sent commands come to the fires for real help, and not for standing,” aroused the anger of the tsar himself. After reading these lines, Alexander II wrote: "You shouldn't have skipped it, especially since this is a lie."

As a result, Leskov was sent by the editorial board of Severnaya Beelya on a long business trip. He traveled around the western provinces of the empire, visited Dinaburg, Vilna, Grodno, Pinsk, Lvov, Prague, Krakow, and at the end of his business trip he also visited Paris. In 1863 he returned to Russia and published a series of publicistic essays and letters, in particular, "From a travel diary", "Russian society in Paris."

"Nowhere"

From the beginning of 1862, N. S. Leskov became a permanent employee of the newspaper "Northern Bee", where he began to write both editorials and essays, often on everyday, ethnographic topics, but also - critical articles directed, in particular, against the "vulgar materialism "and nihilism. His activities were highly appreciated on the pages of the then Sovremennik.

NS Leskov's writing career began in 1863, his first stories "The Life of a Woman" and "Musk Ox" (1863-1864) were published. At the same time, the magazine "Library for Reading" began to publish the novel "Nowhere" (1864). “This novel bears all the signs of my haste and ineptitude,” the writer himself later admitted.

"Nowhere", which satirically depicted the life of a nihilistic commune, which was opposed by the diligence of the Russian people and Christian family values, caused the displeasure of the radicals. It was noted that most of the "nihilists" depicted by Leskov had recognizable prototypes (the writer VA Sleptsov was guessed in the image of the head of the commune Beloyartsev).

It was this first novel - a politically radical debut - that for many years predetermined Leskov's special place in the literary community, which, for the most part, was inclined to ascribe to him "reactionary", anti-democratic views. The left-wing press was actively spreading rumors that the novel was written "at the request" of the Third Section. This "vile slander", according to the writer, spoiled his entire creative life, depriving him of the opportunity to publish in popular magazines for many years. This predetermined his rapprochement with MN Katkov, the publisher of the Russian Bulletin.

First stories

In 1863, the story "The Life of a Woman" (1863) was published in the Library for Reading magazine. During the life of the writer, the work was not republished and then came out only in 1924 in a modified form under the title “Cupid in Little Paws. Peasant Novel "(publishing house" Time ", edited by P. V. Bykov). The latter claimed that Leskov himself presented him with a new version of his own work - in gratitude for the bibliography of works he compiled in 1889. There were doubts about this version: it is known that NS Leskov, already in the preface to the first volume of the collection "Stories, Essays and Stories by M. Stebnitsky", promised to publish in the second volume "the experience of a peasant novel" - "Cupid in Little Paws", but then the promised publication did not follow.

In the same years, Leskov's works, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1864), "Warrior" (1866) were published - stories, mostly of tragic sound, in which the author brought out vivid female images of different classes. Almost ignored by modern criticism, they subsequently received the highest marks from specialists. It was in the first stories that Leskov's individual humor manifested itself, for the first time his unique style began to take shape, a kind of tale, the ancestor of which - along with Gogol - he later began to be considered. Elements of the literary style that made Leskov famous are also present in the story "Kotin Doilets and Platonida" (1867).

Around this time, N. S. Leskov made his debut as a playwright. In 1867, the Alexandrinsky Theater staged his play "The Waste", a drama from merchant life, after which Leskov was once again accused by critics of "pessimism and antisocial tendencies." Of the other major works of Leskov of the 1860s, critics noted the story "Bypassed" (1865), which polemicized with the novel "What to do?" ...

"At knives"

On knives. Edition of 1885

In 1870, N. S. Leskov published the novel At the Knives, in which he continued to make fun of the nihilists, representatives of the revolutionary movement that was taking shape in Russia in those years, in the writer's view of fighting criminality. Leskov himself was dissatisfied with the novel, later calling it his worst work. In addition, the writer was left with an unpleasant aftertaste by constant disputes with M. N. Katkov, who repeatedly demanded to redo and edit the finished version. “In this publication, purely literary interests were diminished, destroyed and adapted to serve interests that had nothing to do with any literature,” wrote NS Leskov.

Some contemporaries (in particular, Dostoevsky) noted the intricacy of the adventure plot of the novel, the tension and implausibility of the events described in it. After that, NS Leskov never returned to the genre of the novel in its pure form.

"Cathedrals"

The novel "On Knives" was a turning point in the writer's work. As Maxim Gorky noted, "... after the evil novel" At the Knives ", Leskov's literary work immediately becomes a vivid painting or, rather, icon painting - he begins to create an iconostasis for Russia of its saints and righteous men." The main heroes of Leskov's works were representatives of the Russian clergy, partly of the local nobility. Scattered passages and sketches gradually began to take shape in a large novel, which eventually received the name "Soboryane" and was published in 1872 in the "Russian Bulletin". As the literary critic V. Korovin notes, the positive heroes - Archpriest Savely Tuberozov, Deacon Achilles Desnitsyn and Priest Zakhary Benefaktov - are narrated in the traditions of the heroic epic, “from all sides are surrounded by figures of the new time - nihilists, swindlers, civil and church officials new type ". The work, the theme of which was the opposition of "true" Christianity to the government, subsequently led the writer to conflict with the church and secular authorities. It also became the first "to have significant success."

Simultaneously with the novel, two "chronicles" were written, consonant with the theme and mood of the main work: "The old years in the village of Plodomasovo" (1869) and "A weary family" (full title: "A weary family. Family chronicle of the princes Protazanovs. From the notes of Princess V. D.P. ", 1873). According to one of the critics, the heroines of both chronicles are "examples of enduring virtue, calm dignity, high courage, and reasonable philanthropy." Both of these works left a feeling of incompleteness. Subsequently, it turned out that the second part of the chronicle, in which (according to V. Korovin) “the mysticism and hypocrisy of the end of the reign of Alexander was sarcastically depicted and social non-embodiment in the Russian life of Christianity was affirmed,” displeased M. Katkov. Leskov, disagreeing with the publisher, "did not begin to finish the novel." "Katkov ... during the publication of" A weary family "said (to an employee of the" Russian Bulletin ") Voskoboinikov: We are mistaken: this person is not ours!" - the writer later argued.

"Lefty"

One of the most striking images in the gallery of Leskov's "righteous" was Levsha ("The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea", 1881). Subsequently, critics noted here, on the one hand, the virtuosity of the embodiment of Leskov's “tale”, saturated with puns and original neologisms (often with a mocking, satirical subtext), on the other, the multilayered narrative, the presence of two points of view: “where the narrator constantly holds the same views, and the author inclines the reader to something completely different, often opposite. " NS Leskov himself wrote about this "insidiousness" of his own style:

Several other people supported that in my stories it is really difficult to distinguish between good and evil, and that sometimes you cannot even figure out who is hurting the cause and who is helping him. This was attributed to some innate cunning of my nature.

As the critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted, such "deceit" was manifested primarily in the description of the actions of Ataman Platov, from the point of view of the hero - almost heroic, but the author secretly ridiculed. "Levsha" has received crushing criticism from both sides. According to B. Ya. Bukhstab, liberals and democrats ("leftists") accused Leskov of nationalism, reactionaries ("rightists") considered the depiction of the life of the Russian people to be overly gloomy. NS Leskov replied that "belittling the Russian people or flattering them" was not part of his intentions.

When published in "Rus", as well as in a separate edition, the story was accompanied by a preface:

I cannot say exactly where the first fable about the steel flea was born, that is, whether it started in Tula, Izhma or Sestroretsk, but, obviously, it came from one of these places. In any case, the tale of the steel flea is a special weapons-making legend, and it expresses the pride of Russian gun-makers. It depicts the struggle of our masters with the English masters, from which ours emerged victoriously and the British were completely shamed and humiliated. Here, some secret reason for the military failures in the Crimea is clarified. I wrote down this legend in Sestroretsk according to a tale there from an old gunsmith, a native of Tula, who moved to the Sister River during the reign of Emperor Alexander the First.

1872-1874 years

In 1872, NS Leskov's story "The Sealed Angel" was written, and a year later published, which narrated about the miracle that led the schismatic community to unity with Orthodoxy. In the work, where there are echoes of Old Russian "walks" and legends about miraculous icons and subsequently recognized as one of the best things of the writer, Leskov's "tale" received the most powerful and expressive embodiment. "The Sealed Angel" turned out to be practically the only work of the writer that was not edited by the "Russian Bulletin", because, as the writer remarked, "went after their lack of time in the shadows."

In the same year, the novel The Enchanted Wanderer was published, a work of free forms that did not have a complete plot, built on the interweaving of disparate plot lines. Leskov believed that such a genre should replace what was considered to be a traditional modern novel. Subsequently, it was noted that the image of the hero Ivan Flyagin resembles the epic Ilya of Muromets and symbolizes "the physical and moral resilience of the Russian people amid the suffering that falls to its lot." Despite the fact that The Enchanted Wanderer criticized the dishonesty of the authorities, the story was successful in official spheres and even at court.

If until then Leskov's works were edited, then this was simply rejected, and the writer had to publish it in different numbers of the newspaper. Not only Katkov, but also the "left" critics took the story with hostility. In particular, the critic N.K. Mikhailovsky pointed to "the absence of any kind of center", so that, in his words, there is "... a whole series of plots strung like beads on a string, and each bead itself can be very conveniently removed and replaced with another, or you can string as many beads as you like on the same thread. "

After the break with Katkov, the financial situation of the writer (who had married a second time by this time) worsened. In January 1874, NS Leskov was appointed a member of a special department of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Public Education for the consideration of books published for the people, with a very modest salary of 1,000 rubles a year. Leskov's duties included reviewing books on the subject, whether they could be sent to libraries and reading rooms. In 1875 he went abroad for a short time, without stopping his literary work.

"The righteous"

The creation of a gallery of bright positive characters was continued by the writer in a collection of stories published under the general title "The Righteous" ("Figure", "The Man on the Clock", "Non-Lethal Golovan", etc.) As critics later noted, Leskov's righteous are united by "straightforwardness, fearlessness , heightened conscientiousness, inability to come to terms with evil. " Answering critics in advance to accusations of some idealization of his characters, Leskov argued that his stories about the "righteous" are mostly in the nature of memories (in particular, what his grandmother told him about Golovan, etc.), tried to give the story a background of historical accuracy , introducing descriptions of real-life people into the plot.

As the researchers noted, some of the eyewitness accounts referred to by the writer were genuine, others were his own fiction. Often Leskov processed old manuscripts and memoirs. For example, in the story “Non-lethal Golovan” we used “Cool Helicopter City” - a 17th century medical book. In 1884, in a letter to the editorial office of the newspaper "Warsaw Diary", he wrote:

In the articles of your newspaper it is said that for the most part I copied living persons and passed on real stories. Whoever the author of these articles is, he is absolutely right. I have observation and maybe some ability to analyze feelings and motives, but I have little imagination. I invent hard and hard, and therefore I always needed living persons who could interest me with their spiritual content. They took possession of me, and I tried to embody them in stories, the basis of which, too, very often based on the actual event.

Leskov (according to the memoirs of A. N. Leskov) believed that, creating cycles about "Russian antiques", he was fulfilling Gogol's testament from "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends": "Exalt in the solemn hymn of an inconspicuous worker." In the preface to the first of these stories (Odnodum, 1879), the writer explained their appearance as follows: “It is terrible and unbearable ... to see one 'rubbish' in the Russian soul, which has become the main subject of new literature, and ... I went to look for the righteous,<…>but wherever I turned,<…>all answered me in the same way that they had not seen righteous people, because all people are sinners, and so, both of them knew some good people. I began to write it down. "

In the 1880s, Leskov also created a series of works about the righteous of early Christianity: the action of these works takes place in Egypt and the countries of the Middle East. The plots of these stories were, as a rule, borrowed by him from the "prologue" - a collection of the lives of saints and edifying stories compiled in Byzantium in the X-XI centuries. Leskov was proud that his Egyptian sketches "Skomorokh Pamphalon" and "Aza" were translated into German, and the publishers preferred him over Ebers, the author of "The Daughters of the Egyptian King."

At the same time, the writer creates a series of works for children, which he publishes in the journal "Heartfelt Word" and "Toy": "Christ is visiting a peasant", "Unchangeable ruble", "Father's Testament", "Lion of the Elder Gerasim", " The languor of the spirit ", originally -" Goat "," Fool "and others. In the last journal it was eagerly published by A.N. Peshkova-Toliverova, who became in 1880-1890. close friend of the prose writer. At the same time, the satirical-denunciatory line ("The Stupid Artist", "The Beast", "Scarecrow") intensified in the writer's work: along with officials and officers, priests began to appear more and more often among his negative heroes.

Attitude towards the church

In the 1880s, N. S. Leskov's attitude towards the church changed. In 1883, in a letter to L. I. Veselitskaya about the Soborians, he wrote:

Now I would not write them, but I would gladly write "Notes of the Uncut" ... Allow vows; bless knives; weaning through the power to consecrate; divorce marriages; enslave children; give out secrets; keep the pagan custom of devouring body and blood; forgiving offenses made to another; to protect the Creator or curse and do thousands more vulgarities and meanness, falsifying all the commandments and requests of the "righteous man who was hanged on the cross" - that's what I would like to show people ... But this is probably called "Tolstoyism" the teaching of Christ is called "Orthodoxy" ... I do not argue when it is called by this name, but it is not Christianity.

Leskov's attitude to the church was influenced by the influence of Leo Tolstoy, with whom he became close in the late 1880s. “I am always in agreement with him and there is no one on earth who is dearer to me than him. I am never embarrassed by what I cannot share with him: I cherish his common, so to speak, the dominant mood of his soul and the terrible penetration of his mind, ”Leskov wrote about Tolstoy in one of his letters to V. G. Chertkov.

Perhaps Leskov's most notable anti-ecclesiastical work was the story "Midnosters", completed in the fall of 1890 and published in the last two issues of 1891 of the "Vestnik Evropy" magazine. The author had to overcome considerable difficulties before his work was published. “I will keep my story in the table. It is true that no one will publish it at the present time ", wrote N. S. Leskov to L. N. Tolstoy on January 8, 1891.

A scandal was also caused by NS Leskov's essay "Pop's leapfrog and parish whim" (1883). The supposed cycle of essays and stories "Notes of an Unknown" (1884) was devoted to ridiculing the vices of the clergy, but work on it was stopped under pressure from the censorship. Moreover, for these works, N. S. Leskov was dismissed from the Ministry of Public Education. The writer again found himself in spiritual isolation: the "right" now saw in him a dangerous radical. Literary critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted that at the same time "liberals are becoming especially cowardly - and those who previously treated Leskov as a reactionary writer are now afraid to publish his works because of their political harshness."

Leskov's financial situation was corrected by the publication in 1889-1890 of a ten-volume collection of his works (later the 11th volume and the 12th volume were added posthumously). The publication was quickly sold out and brought the writer a significant fee. But it was precisely with this success that his first heart attack was associated, which happened on the stairs of the printing house, when it became known that the sixth volume of the collection (containing works on church topics) was detained by the censor (it was later reorganized by the publishing house).

Late works

N. S. Leskov, 1892

In the 1890s, Leskov in his work became even more sharply publicistic than before: his stories and stories in the last years of his life were sharply satirical in nature. The writer himself said about his works of that time:

My last works about Russian society are very cruel. "Corral", "Winter Day", "Lady and Fefela" ... These things are not liked by the public for their cynicism and directness. And I don’t want to be liked by the public. Let her even choke on my stories, but read. I know how to please her, but I don't want to be liked anymore. I want to scourge and torment her.

The publication of the novel "Devil's Dolls" in the magazine "Russian Thought", the prototypes of the two main characters of which were Nikolai I and the artist K. Bryullov, was suspended by the censors. Could not publish Leskov and the story "Hare remiz" - neither in the "Russian thought", nor in the "Bulletin of Europe": it was published only after 1917. Not a single major later work of the writer (including the novels "Falcon Flight" and "Invisible Trail") was published in full: the chapters rejected by the censors were published after the revolution. The publication of his own works for Leskov has always been a difficult task, and in the last years of his life it turned into constant torment.

last years of life

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on February 21, 1895 in St. Petersburg from another asthma attack that tormented him for the last five years of his life. Nikolai Leskov was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Publication of works

Shortly before his death, in 1889-1893, Leskov compiled and published by A.S. Suvorin "Complete Works" in 12 volumes (republished by A.F. Marx in 1897), which included most of his works of art (moreover, in the first edition, the 6th volume was not passed by the censor).

In 1902-1903, AF Marx's printing house (as a supplement to the Niva magazine) published a 36-volume collection of works, in which the editors also tried to collect the writer's journalistic legacy and which caused a wave of public interest in the writer's work.

After the 1917 revolution, Leskov was declared a "reactionary, bourgeois-minded writer", and his works for many years (with the exception of the inclusion of 2 of the writer's stories in the 1927 collection) were consigned to oblivion. During the short Khrushchev thaw, Soviet readers finally got the opportunity to get back in touch with Leskov's work - in 1956-1958, an 11-volume collection of the writer's works was published, which, however, is not complete: for ideological reasons, the sharpest in tone was not included in it. anti-nihilistic novel "At the Knives", and journalism and letters are presented in a very limited volume (volumes 10-11). During the years of stagnation, attempts were made to publish short collections of works and separate volumes with Leskov's works, which did not cover the area of ​​the writer's work related to religious and anti-nihilistic themes (the Soboryane chronicle, the Nobody novel), and which were supplied with extensive tendentious commentaries. In 1989, Leskov's first collected works - also in 12 volumes - were republished in the Ogonyok Library.

For the first time, a truly complete (30-volume) collection of the writer's works began to be published by the Terra publishing house in 1996 and continues to this day. In addition to well-known works, this edition is planned to include all found, previously unpublished articles, stories and novellas of the writer.

Reviews of critics and contemporary writers

LN Tolstoy spoke of Leskov as "the most Russian of our writers", AP Chekhov considered him, along with I. Turgenev, one of his main teachers.

Many researchers noted Leskov's special knowledge of the Russian spoken language and the virtuoso use of this knowledge.

As an artist of words, NS Leskov is quite worthy to stand next to such creators of Russian literature as L. Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov. Leskov's talent, in its strength and beauty, is only slightly inferior to the talent of any of the above-named creators of the sacred scriptures about the Russian land, and in the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the depth of understanding of its everyday mysteries, and a subtle knowledge of the Great Russian language, he often exceeds the named predecessors and companions-in-arms.

Maksim Gorky

The main claim of literary criticism to Leskov in those years consisted in what seemed to her to be "the excessiveness of superimposed colors", the deliberate expressiveness of speech. This was also noted by contemporary writers: Leo Tolstoy, who highly appreciated Leskov, mentioned in one of his letters that in the writer's prose "... a lot that is superfluous, disproportionate." It was about the fairy tale "The Hour of God's Will," which Tolstoy highly appreciated, and about which (in a letter dated December 3, 1890) he said: would be better. "

Leskov was not going to "improve" in response to criticism. In a letter to VG Chertkov in 1888, he wrote: “I cannot write as simple as Lev Nikolaevich. This is not in my gifts. … Take mine the way I can do it. I'm used to finishing works and I can't work easier. "

When the journals Russkaya Mysl and Severny Vestnik criticized the language of the novel Midnoschniki ("excessive refinement", "an abundance of invented and distorted words, in places strung into one phrase"), Leskov replied:

I am reproached for ... "mannered" language, especially in the "midnight". But don't we have few mannered people? All quasi-scholarly literature writes its scientific articles in this barbaric language ... Is it surprising that some bourgeoisie speaks it in my "Midnosters"? She, at least, has a funny and funny language.

NS Leskov considered the individualization of the language of the characters and the speech characteristics of the heroes to be the most important element of literary creativity.

Personal and family life

In 1853, Leskov married the daughter of a Kiev merchant Olga Vasilievna Smirnova. In this marriage, a son Dmitry was born (died in infancy) and a daughter, Vera. Leskov's family life was unsuccessful: his wife Olga Vasilievna suffered from a mental illness and in 1878 was admitted to St. Nicholas Hospital in St. Petersburg, on the Pryazhka River. Its chief physician was the well-known psychiatrist OA Checott at one time, and the famous S.P.Botkin was its trustee.

In 1865, Leskov entered into a civil marriage with the widow Ekaterina Bubnova (née Savitskaya), in 1866 their son Andrei was born. His son, Yuri Andreevich (1892-1942) became a diplomat, together with his wife, nee Baroness Medem, after the revolution settled in France. Their daughter, the only great-granddaughter of the writer, Tatyana Leskova (born 1922) is a ballerina and teacher who made a significant contribution to the formation and development of Brazilian ballet. In 2001 and 2003, having visited Leskov's house-museum in Oryol, she donated family heirlooms to his collection - her father's lyceum badge and lyceum rings.

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism influenced the life and work of the writer, especially from the moment of his acquaintance with Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy in April 1887 in Moscow. In a letter to the publisher of the newspaper Novoye Vremya, A.S. Suvorin, Leskov wrote: “I switched to vegetarianism on the advice of Bertenson; but, of course, with my own attraction to this. I have always resented [the carnage] and thought it shouldn't be like this. "

In 1889, the newspaper "Novoye Vremya" published a note by Leskov entitled "About vegetarians, or compassionate people and meat doughs", in which the writer described those vegetarians who do not eat meat for "hygienic reasons", and contrasted them with "compassionate" - those who follow vegetarianism out of "their feelings of pity." Among the people, only "compassionate people" are respected, - wrote Leskov, - who do not eat meat food, not because they consider it unhealthy, but out of pity for the animals they kill.

The history of the vegetarian cookbook in Russia begins with NS Leskov's call to create such a book in Russian. This appeal of the writer was published in June 1892 in the newspaper "Novoye Vremya" under the title "On the need to publish in Russian a well-compiled comprehensive kitchen book for vegetarians"... Leskov argued for the necessity of publishing such a book by the "significant" and "constantly increasing" number of vegetarians in Russia, who, unfortunately, still do not have books with vegetarian recipes in their native language.

Leskov's appeal caused numerous mocking remarks in the Russian press, and the critic V. P. Burenin in one of his feuilletons created a parody of Leskov, calling him "the benevolent Avva." Responding to this kind of slander and attacks, Leskov writes that "absurdity" is not animal flesh "invented" long before Vl. Solovyov and L.N. Tolstoy, and refers not only to a "huge number" of unknown vegetarians, but also to names known to everyone, such as Zoroaster, Sakia Muni, Xenocrates, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Epicurus, Plato, Seneca, Ovid, Juvenal, John Chrysostom, Byron, Lamartine and many others.

A year after Leskov's call, the first vegetarian cookbook in Russian was published in Russia. It was called "Vegetarian cuisine. Instruction for the preparation of more than 800 dishes, breads and drinks for a killing-free diet with an introductory article on the importance of vegetarianism and cooking meals in 3 categories for 2 weeks. Compiled from foreign and Russian sources.... - M .: Mediator, 1894.XXXVI, 181 p. (For intelligent readers, 27).

The harassment and ridicule from the press did not intimidate Leskov: he continued to publish notes on vegetarianism and repeatedly turned to this phenomenon of the cultural life of Russia in his works.

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov is the creator of the first vegetarian character in Russian literature (the story of Figure, 1889). Leskov also addresses various aspects of vegetarianism, food ethics and animal welfare in his other works, such as the story "Robbery" (1887), which describes the slaughter of young bulls by a wealthy butcher, who, standing with a knife in his hands, listens to nightingales trills.

Later, other vegetarian characters appeared in Leskov's work: in the story "Midnosters" (1890) - the girl Nastya, a follower of Tolstoy and a strict vegetarian, and in the story "Salt Pillar" (1891-1895) - the painter Plisov, who, telling about himself and to his entourage, he says that they "ate neither meat nor fish, but ate only plant foods" and found that this was enough for them and their children.

Leskov in culture

Composer Dmitry Shostakovich created the opera of the same name based on Leskov's novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the first production of which took place in 1934.

In 1988, RK Shchedrin, based on the story, created a musical drama of the same name in nine parts for a mixed choir a cappella.

Screen adaptations

1923 - "Comedian"(directed by Alexander Ivanovsky) - based on the story "Dumb Artist"

1926 - "Katerina Izmailova"(director Cheslav Sabinsky) - based on the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

1927 - "Woman's Victory"(director Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky) - based on the story "The Old Years in the Village of Plodomasovo"

1962 - "Siberian Lady Macbeth"(directed by Andrzej Wajda) - based on the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" and the opera by Dmitry Shostakovich

1963 - "The Enchanted Wanderer"(director Ivan Ermakov) - TV show based on the story "The Enchanted Wanderer"

1964 - "Lefty"(director Ivan Ivanov-Vano) - cartoon based on the tale of the same name

1966 - "Katerina Izmailova"(director Mikhail Shapiro) - adaptation of Dmitry Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

1972 - "Drama from an Old Life"(director Ilya Averbakh) - based on the story "Stupid Artist"

1986 - "Lefty"(director Sergei Ovcharov) - based on the tale of the same name

1986 - "Warrior"(director Alexander Zeldovich) - based on the story "Warrior"

1989 - (director Roman Balayan) - based on the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

1990 - "The Enchanted Wanderer"(director Irina Poplavskaya) - based on the story "The Enchanted Wanderer"

1991 - "Lord, hear my prayer"(in TV version "Ask, and it will be for you", director Natalia Bondarchuk) - based on the story "The Beast"

1992 - "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"(it. Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, director Pyotr Weigl) - adaptation of the opera by Dmitry Shostakovich

1994 - "Moscow Nights"(director Valery Todorovsky) - modern interpretation of the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

1998 - "At knives"(director Alexander Orlov) - mini-series based on the novel "At the Knife"

2001 - "Interesting men"(director Yuri Kara) - based on the story "Interesting Men"

2005 - "Chertogon"(directed by Andrey Zheleznyakov) - a short film based on the story "Chertogon"

2017 - "Lady Macbeth"(directed by William Oldroyd) - British drama film based on the essay "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk"

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• Autumn 1859 - 05.1860 - IV Vernadsky's apartment in the apartment building Bychenskaya - Mokhovaya street, 28;
• late 01. - summer 1861 - IV Vernadsky's apartment in the Bychenskaya apartment building - 28 Mokhovaya street;
• beginning - 09.1862 - IV Vernadsky's apartment in the apartment building Bychenskaya - Mokhovaya street, 28;
• 03. - autumn 1863 - Maksimovich's house - Nevsky prospect, 82, apt. 82;
• autumn 1863 - autumn 1864 - Tatski's tenement house - Liteiny prospect, 43;
• autumn 1864 - autumn 1866 - Kuznechny lane, 14, apt. 16;
• autumn 1866 - early 10.1875 - the mansion of S. S. Botkin - Tavricheskaya street, 9;
• beginning 10.1875 - 1877 - IO Ruban's apartment building - Zakharyevskaya street, 3, apt. 19;
• 1877 - I.S.Semenov's tenement house - 15 Kuznechny Lane;
• 1877 - spring 1879 - apartment building - Nevsky prospect, 63;
• spring 1879 - spring 1880 - courtyard wing of AD Muruzi's tenement house - Liteiny prospect, 24, apt. 44;
• spring 1880 - autumn 1887 - tenement house - Serpukhovskaya street, 56;
• autumn 1887 - 02.21.1895 - the building of the Community of Sisters of Mercy - Furshtatskaya street, 50.

Memory

• In 1974, in Oryol, on the territory of the literary reserve "Noble Nest", the house-museum of NS Leskov was opened.
• In 1981, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the writer, a monument to Leskov was erected in Oryol.
• In the city of Oryol, School No. 27 bears the name of Leskov.
• The Gostoml school of the Kromsky district of the Oryol region is named after Leskov. Next to the school building there is a house-museum dedicated to Leskov.
• Creative society "K. R. O. M. A. " (Kromskoye Regional Association of Local Authors), created in Kromskoye region, in January 2007, by the chairman of TO, as well as the founder, editor-compiler and publisher of the almanac "KromA" Vasily Ivanovich Agoshkov, bears the name of NS Leskov. ...
• The son of Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Leskov, has been working on the biography of the writer for many years, having finished it even before the Great Patriotic War. This work was published in 1954.
• An asteroid (4741) Leskov, discovered on November 10, 1985 by an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Lyudmila Karachkina, is named in honor of N. S. Leskov

Geographic names

Named after Nikolai Leskov:

• Leskova street in the Bibirevo district (Moscow),
• Leskova street in Kiev (Ukraine) (since 1940, earlier - Bolshaya Shiyanovskaya street, the scene of the events described in the "Pechersk Antiques"),
• Leskov street in Rostov-on-Don
• Leskov street and Leskov lane in Oryol,
• Leskov street and two Leskov passages in Penza,
• Leskov street in Yaroslavl,
• Leskov street in Vladimir,
• Leskov street in Novosibirsk,
• Leskov street in Nizhny Novgorod,
• Leskov street and Leskov lane in Voronezh,
• Leskov street in Saransk (until 1959, Novaya street),
• Leskov street in Grozny,
• Leskov street in Omsk (before 1962, Motornaya street),
• Leskov street in Chelyabinsk,
• Leskov street in Irkutsk
• Leskova street in Nikolaev (Ukraine),
• Leskov street in Almaty (Kazakhstan),
• Leskov street in Kachkanar,
• Leskova street in Sorochinsk
• Leskov street and lane in Khmelnitsky (Ukraine)
• Leskov street in Simferopol

other.

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

1956, 40 kopecks denomination

1956, 1 ruble denomination

Some works

Novels

• Nowhere (1864)
• Traversed (1865)
• The Islanders (1866)
• Knives (1870)
• Soborians (1872)
• The Weedy Family (1874)
• Devil's Dolls (1890)

Stories

• The Life of a Woman (1863)
• Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864)
• Warrior (1866)
• Old years in the village of Plodomasovo (1869)
• Laughter and Grief (1871)
• The Mysterious Man (1872)
• The Sealed Angel (1872)
• The Enchanted Wanderer (1873)
• At World's End (1875) based on a true case of missionary work by Archbishop Nile.
  • Its early handwritten edition "Dark" has survived.
• Unbaptized Pop (1877)
• Lefty (1881)
• Zhidovskaya somersault college (1882)
• Pechersk Antiques (1882)
• Interesting Men (1885)
• Mountain (1888)
• Insulted Neta (1890)
• Midnighters (1891)

Stories

• Musk ox (1862)
• Peacock (1874)
• Iron Will (1876)
• Shameless (1877)
• Odnodum (1879)
• Sheramur (1879)
• Chertogon (1879)
• Non-lethal Golovan (1880)
• White Eagle (1880)
• Ghost in the Engineering Castle (1882)
• The Darnter (1882)
• Traveling with a Nihilist (1882)
• Beast. The Yule Tale (1883)
• A Little Error (1883)
• Dumb Artist (1883)
• Selected Grain (1884)
• Part-timers (1884)
• Notes of an Unknown (1884)
• Old Genius (1884)
• Pearl Necklace (1885)
• Scarecrow (1885)
• Old-Time Psychopaths (1885)
• The Man on the Watch (1887)
• Robbery (1887)
• Buffoon Pamfalon (1887) (the original title "God-loving buffoon" was not missed by the censorship)
• The Bastards (1892)
• Administrative Grace (1893)
• Rabbit Heal (1894)

Plays

• The Waster (1867)

Articles

• A Jew in Russia (A Few Remarks on the Jewish Question) (1883) (foreword by Lev Anninsky)

• Saturation with Nobility (1888)

Essays

• Tramps of the clerical rank - a historical essay written at the dying request of Ivan Danilovich Pavlovsky.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov is one of the most amazing and original Russian writers, whose fate in literature cannot be called simple. During his lifetime, his works evoked a negative attitude and were not accepted by most of the advanced people of the second half of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, even Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy called him "the most Russian writer", and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov considered one of his teachers.

We can say that Leskov's work was truly appreciated only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the articles of M. Gorky, B. Eikhenbaum and others were published. L. Tolstoy's words that Nikolai Semenovich is a "writer of the future" turned out to be truly prophetic.

Origin

Leskov's creative destiny was largely determined by the environment in which he spent his childhood and adult life.
He was born in 1831, on February 4 (16 in a new style), in the Oryol province. His ancestors were hereditary servants of the clergy. Grandfather and great-grandfather were priests in the village of Leska, from where, most likely, the writer's surname came from. However, Semyon Dmitrievich, the father of the writer, broke this tradition and received the title of nobleman for his service in the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court. Marya Petrovna, the writer's mother, nee Alferieva, also belonged to this class. Her sisters were married to wealthy people: one to an Englishman, the other to an Oryol landowner. This fact in the future will also have an impact on the life and work of Leskov.

In 1839, Semyon Dmitrievich had a conflict in the service, and he and his family moved to Panin Khutor, where his son's real acquaintance with the original Russian speech began.

Education and beginning of service

The writer NS Leskov began his studies in the family of wealthy relatives of the Strakhovs, who hired German and Russian teachers for their children, a French governess. Even then, the extraordinary talent of little Nikolai was fully manifested. But he never received a "big" education. In 1841, the boy was sent to the Oryol provincial gymnasium, from which he left five years later with two classes of education. Perhaps the reason for this lay in the peculiarities of teaching, built on cramming and rules, far from the lively and inquisitive mind that Leskov possessed. The biography of the writer further includes service in the treasury chamber, where his father served (1847-1849), and transfer at his own request after his tragic death as a result of cholera to the treasury chamber of the city of Kiev, where his maternal uncle S.P. Alferyev lived ... The years of staying here gave a lot to the future writer. Leskov, a free listener, attended lectures at Kiev University, independently studied the Polish language, for some time was fond of icon painting and even attended a religious and philosophical circle. Acquaintance with Old Believers, pilgrims also influenced the life and work of Leskov.

Work at Scott & Wilkens

A real school for Nikolai Semenovich was work in the company of his English relative (aunt's husband) A. Shkott in 1857-1860 (before the collapse of the trading house). According to the writer himself, these were the best years when he "saw a lot and lived easily." By the nature of his service, he had to constantly wander around the country, which gave a huge amount of material in all spheres of the life of Russian society. “I grew up among the people,” Nikolai Leskov wrote later. His biography is an acquaintance with Russian life firsthand. This is being in a truly popular environment and personal knowledge of all the hardships of life that befell a simple peasant.

In 1860, Nikolai Semyonovich returned to Kiev for a short time, after which he ended up in St. Petersburg, where his serious literary activity began.

Leskov's creativity: becoming

The first articles of the writer on corruption in medical and police circles were published in Kiev. They caused a stormy response and became the main reason that the future writer was forced to leave the service and go in search of a new place of residence and work, which became for him Petersburg.
Here Leskov immediately declares himself as a publicist and is published in Otechestvennye zapiski, Severnaya Beele, Russkaya Rechi. Over the course of several years, he signed his works with the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky (there were others, but this one was used most often), which soon became quite scandalous.

In 1862, a fire broke out in Shchukin and Apraksin dvors. Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov responded vividly to this event. A brief biography of his life also includes such an episode as an angry tirade on the part of the king himself. In an article about fires, published in "Northern Bee", the writer expressed his point of view regarding who could be involved in them and what purpose he had. He blamed the nihilistic youth, who had never been respected by him, to blame. The authorities were accused of not paying enough attention to the investigation of the incident, and the arsonists were not captured. The criticism that immediately fell upon Leskov from both the democratic circles and the administration forced him to leave Petersburg for a long time, since no explanations from the writer about the written article were accepted.

The western borders of the Russian Empire and Europe - these places were visited by Nikolai Leskov during the months of disgrace. Since then, his biography has included, on the one hand, the recognition of absolutely no one like a writer, on the other - constant suspicions, sometimes reaching insults. They were especially vividly manifested in the statements of D. Pisarev, who considered that Stebnitsky's name alone would be enough to cast a shadow both on the magazine publishing his works and on the writers who found the courage to publish together with the scandalous author.

Novel "Nowhere"

Little did the attitude to Leskov's tarnished reputation change and his first serious work of fiction. In 1864, The Journal for Reading published his novel Nowhere, which had begun two years earlier on a Western trip. It satirically depicted representatives of the nihilists, quite popular at that time, and in the appearance of some of them, the features of people who actually lived were clearly guessed. And again attacks with accusations of distorting reality and the fact that the novel is the fulfillment of the "order" of certain circles. Nikolai Leskov himself was critical of the work. His biography, primarily creative, was predetermined by this novel for many years: the leading magazines of that time refused to publish his works for a long time.

The origin of the fantastic form

In the 1860s, Leskov wrote several stories (among them "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"), which gradually determined the features of a new style, which later became a kind of visiting card of the writer. This is a tale with an amazing, uniquely inherent humor and a special approach to depicting reality. Already in the twentieth century, these works will be highly appreciated by many writers and literary critics, and Leskov, whose biography is constant clashes with the leading representatives of the second half of the nineteenth century, will be put on a par with N. Gogol, M. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov. However, at the time of publication, they were practically not paid attention to, since they were still under the impression of his previous publications. Negative criticism was caused by the production in the Alexandria theater of the play "The Waster" about the Russian merchants, and the novel "At Knives" (all about the same nihilists), because of which Leskov entered into a sharp controversy with the editor of the magazine "Russian Bulletin" M. Katkov, where mostly his works were published.

The manifestation of true talent

Only after going through numerous accusations, sometimes reaching the level of direct insults, was N. S. Leskov able to find a real reader. His biography makes a steep turn in 1872, when the novel "Soboryane" is published. Its main theme is the opposition to the true Christian faith of the state, and the main characters are the clergy of the old times and opposed to them nihilists and officials of all ranks and regions, including church ones. This novel was the beginning of the creation of works dedicated to the Russian clergy and local noblemen keeping folk traditions. Under his pen, a harmonious and distinctive world emerges, built on faith. Criticism of the negative aspects of the system that has developed in Russia is also present in the works. Later, this feature of the writer's style would nevertheless open the way for him to democratic literature.

"The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander ..."

Perhaps the most striking image created by the writer was Levsha, depicted in a work whose genre - a guild legend - was determined by Leskov himself at the first publication. The biography of one has forever become inseparable from the life of another. Yes, and the writing style of a writer is most often recognized precisely from the story of a skilled craftsman. Many critics immediately seized on the version put forward by the writer in the preface that this work is just a retold legend. Leskov had to write an article that in fact "Lefty" is the fruit of his imagination and long observations of the life of an ordinary person. So briefly Leskov was able to draw attention to the giftedness of the Russian peasant, as well as to the economic and cultural backwardness of Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Later creativity

In the 1870s, Leskov was an employee of the educational department of the Academic Committee at the Ministry of Public Education, then an employee of the Ministry of State Property. The service never brought him much joy, so he took his resignation in 1883 as an opportunity to become independent. Literary activity has always remained the main thing for the writer. "The Enchanted Wanderer", "The Captured Angel", "The Man on the Clock", "Non-lethal Golovan", "The Dumb Artist", "Evil" - this is a small part of the works that Leskov wrote in the 1870-1880s N. S. Leskov Stories and the stories unite the images of the righteous - the heroes of the straightforward, fearless, unable to put up with evil. Quite often, the basis of the works was made up of memories or preserved old manuscripts. And among the heroes, along with the fictional ones, there were also prototypes of people who actually lived, which gave the plot a special reliability and truthfulness. Over the years, the works themselves acquired more and more satirically-revealing features. As a result of the story, the novels of later years, including "An Invisible Trail", "Falcon Flight", "Rabbit Remise" and, of course, "Devil's Dolls", where Tsar Nicholas I served as a prototype for the protagonist, were not printed at all or were published since big censorship edits. According to Leskov, the publication of works, always quite problematic, in his declining years became completely unbearable.

Personal life

Leskov's family life was also not easy. The first time he married in 1853, O. V. Smirnova, the daughter of a wealthy and well-known businessman in Kiev. From this marriage two children were born: daughter Vera and son Mitya (died in infancy). Family life was short-lived: the spouses were originally different people, they were increasingly moving away from each other. The situation was aggravated by the death of their son, and in the early 1860s they parted. Subsequently, Leskov's first wife ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where the writer visited her until his death.

In 1865, Nikolai Semenovich became friends with E. Bubnova, they lived in a civil marriage, but the common life did not work out with her either. Their son, Andrei, after the separation of his parents, remained with Leskov. He later compiled a biography of his father, published in 1954.

Such a person was Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, whose short biography is interesting to every connoisseur of Russian classical literature.

In the footsteps of the great writer

NS Leskov died on February 21 (March 5, new style), 1895. His body rests in the Volkovo cemetery (on the Literary stage), on the grave there is a granite pedestal and a large cast-iron cross. And Leskov's house on Furshtadskaya Street, where he spent the last years of his life, can be recognized by a memorial plaque installed in 1981.

A truly memory of the original writer, who repeatedly returned to his native places in his works, was immortalized in the Oryol region. Here, in the house of his father, the only Russian literary and memorial museum of Leskov was opened. Thanks to his son, Andrei Nikolaevich, it contains a large number of unique exhibits related to the life of Leskov: a child, a writer, a public figure. Among them are personal belongings, valuable documents and manuscripts, letters, including a cool journal of the writer and watercolors depicting the home and relatives of Nikolai Semenovich.

And in the old part of Oryol on the anniversary date - 150 years from the date of birth - a monument to Leskov was erected by Yu. Yu. And Yu. G. Orekhovs, AV Stepanov. A writer sits on a sofa pedestal. In the background is the Church of Archangel Michael, which was mentioned more than once in Leskov's works.

Aliases: M. Stebnitsky

Occupation: prose writer, publicist

Direction: realism

Genre: novel, novella, story, sketch, skaz

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov is one of the best masters of Russian prose, "the most Russian of Russian writers", "Russian genius", according to I. Severyanin.

Born on February 16, 1831 in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, into the family of a minor official.After 1839, the family moved to the village of Panino, where his knowledge of the people began.

Educated at the Oryol gymnasium, where he studied poorly: forfive years he received a certificate of completion of only two classesFrom the age of 16 he served as an official in Orel, then in Kiev. In Kiev Leskov attended lectures at the university as a volunteer, studied Polish, became interested in icon painting, took part in a religious and philosophical student circle, communicated withpilgrims, Old Believers, sectarians. It was noted that the economist had a significant impact on the worldview of the future writer D.P. Zhuravsky, champion of the abolition of serfdom.

In 1861 he moved to St. Petersburg. He began his writing career with articles and feuilletons.

In the 60s. Leskov created a number of realistic stories and novellas, in which a wide panorama of Russian life is given ("The Extinguished Business", 1862; "Sardonic", "The Life of a Woman", both 1863; "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", 1865 ; "The Warrior", 1866; the play "The Prodigal", 1867).

At the same time, one of Leskov's early articles - on the St. Petersburg fires (1862) - served as the beginning of his long polemic with the revolutionary democrats. The story "Musk ox" (1863), the novels "Nowhere" (1864; under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky) and "Bypassed" (1865) are directed against the "new people" introduced in the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky What to do?".

The writer creates caricatured types of nihilists (the story "The Mysterious Man", 1870; the novel "On Knives", 1870-1871). Leskov's ideal is not a revolutionary, but an enlightener trying to improve the social order with the help of moral conviction, the propaganda of the evangelical ideals of goodness and justice.

In the mid 70s. Leskov created images of Orthodox righteous people, powerful in spirit (the novel "Soborians", 1872; novels and stories "The Enchanted Wanderer", "The Sealed Angel", both 1873; "Non-lethal Golovan", 1880; "Pechersk Antiques", 1883; "Odnodum", 1889).

In the writer's work are strong motives of the national identity of the Russian people (the story "Iron Will", 1876; "The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea", 1881). (1883).

In the mid 80s - 90s. the writer takes a new type for Russia - the bourgeois ("Chertogon", 1879, another name is "Christmas party at the hypochondriac's"; "Selected grain", 1884; "Robbery", 1887; "Midwives", 1891 ).

The fusion of the literary and folk language forms Leskov's uniquely bright and lively fairy-tale style, when the image is revealed mainly through speech characteristics. So, in "Lefty" the hero rethinks comically and satirically the language of an alien environment, interprets many concepts in his own way, creates new phrases.

Died March 5, 1895 in St. Petersburgfrom another asthma attack that tormented him for the last five years of his life.