Leskov additional information. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was born February 4 (16), 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province. Russian writer, publicist, literary critic. Leskov's father is an assessor of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, his mother is a hereditary noblewoman.

Leskov's childhood passed in Orel and in the Oryol province; the impressions of these years and the grandmother's stories about Orel and its inhabitants were reflected in many of Leskov's works. In 1847-1849. Leskov served in the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court; in 1850-1857. held various positions in the Kyiv Treasury Chamber. In May 1857. entered an economic and commercial company headed by an Englishman A.Ya. Shkot, Aunt Leskov's husband. FROM 1860. began to contribute to the St. Petersburg newspapers, publishing liberal articles about abuse and social vices in modern Russia. In 1861. moved to St. Petersburg. Leskov's arrival in literature from an environment far from the professional writing community, as well as the impression of provincial life, alien to the metropolitan way of life, largely determined the originality of his social and literary position.

In 1862 Leskov published the first works of art: the stories "Extinguished Business" (in a revised edition - "Drought"), "The Robber" and "In the Tarantass" - essays from folk life, depicting the ideas and actions of ordinary people, strange and unnatural from the point of view of an educated reader . In the first stories of Leskov, there are already features that are characteristic of his later works: documentaryism, objectivity of narration.

Since 1862 Leskov is a regular contributor to the liberal newspaper Severnaya Pchela: in his journalism he was an adherent of gradual, evolutionary changes, criticizing the revolutionary ideas of the writers of the Sovremennik magazine and considering the anti-government sentiments of the radical democratic intelligentsia harmful to society. Leskov was alien to the socialist ideas of property equality: the desire for violent changes in the social and political system seemed to him as dangerous as the restriction of freedom by the government. On May 30, 1862, Leskov published an article in the Severnaya Pchela newspaper in which he demanded that the government openly confirm or refute the rumors that students were involved in the fire in St. Petersburg. The democratic and liberal intelligentsia misunderstood the article as a denunciation containing an allegation of arson organized by radical students. Leskov's reputation was stigmatized as a political provocateur who supported the authorities in the fight against freedom-loving and free-thinking.

1864. - anti-nihilistic novel "Nowhere".

1865 . - the novel "The Bypassed", the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District".

1866. - novel "Islanders".

1867. - the second edition of the essays "Russian Society in Paris".

1870-1871. - the second anti-nihilistic novel "Knives".

1872 . - The novel "Cathedrals".

1872-1873. - The Enchanted Wanderer.

1873 . - the story "The Sealed Angel".

1876 . - The story "Iron Will".

1883 . - "The beast".

1886 . - a collection of Christmas stories.

1888. - the story "Kolyvan husband".

1890 . - an unfinished novel-allegory "Damn's Dolls".

In stories late 1870s - 1880s Leskov created a gallery of righteous characters who embody the best features of the Russian folk character and at the same time are singled out as exceptional natures:

1879. - "Odnodum".

1880 . - "Non-lethal Golovan".

Fairy tale motifs, the interweaving of the comic and the tragic, the moral duality of the characters are the features of Leskov's work, which are fully characteristic of one of his most famous works - the tale "Lefty" ( 1881 .).

In the mid 1880s. Leskov became close to L.N. Tolstoy, sharing many of the ideas of his teachings: self-improvement of the individual as the basis of a new faith, opposition of the true faith to Orthodoxy, rejection of existing social orders. The late Leskov spoke extremely harshly about the Orthodox Church and sharply criticized modern public institutions. In February 1883. Leskov was dismissed from the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Public Education for the review of books published for the people in which he served since 1874. His writings were difficult to pass through censorship. In the later works of Leskov, criticism of social norms and values ​​comes to the fore: the story "Winter Day" ( 1894 ), the story "Hare Remise" ( 1894, publ. in 1917).

Leskov's work is a fusion of various stylistic and genre traditions: an essay, everyday and literary anecdote, memoir literature, grassroots popular literature, church literature, a romantic poem and a story, an adventurous and moralistic novel. Leskov's stylistic discoveries, his deliberately incorrect, "tangible" word, brought by him to the virtuoso technique of the tale, anticipated many experiments in the literature of the 20th century.

Keywords: Nikolai Leskov

Aliases: M. Stebnitsky

Occupation: prose writer, publicist

Direction: realism

Genre: novel, short story, short story, essay

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

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

He received his education 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 Kyiv. In Kyiv Leskov attended lectures at the university as a volunteer, studied the Polish language, 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 outlook 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, which give a broad panorama of Russian life ("Extinguished Case", 1862; "Stinging", "The Life of a Woman", both 1863; "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", 1865. ; "The Warrior", 1866; the play "The Spender", 1867).

At the same time, one of Leskov's early articles - about the fires in St. Petersburg (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" bred 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 educator trying to improve the social system with the help of moral persuasion, propaganda of the gospel ideals of goodness and justice.

In the mid 70s. Leskov created images of Orthodox righteous men, mighty in spirit (the novel "Soboryane", 1872; novels and stories "The Enchanted Wanderer", "The Sealed Angel", both 1873; "Non-Deadly Golovan", 1880; 1883; Odnodum, 1889).

The motives of the national identity of the Russian people are strong in the writer's work (the story "Iron Will", 1876; "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea", 1881). The theme of the death of folk talents in Russia is revealed in the story "Dumb Artist" (1883).

In the mid 80s - 90s. The writer is occupied by a new type for Russia - the bourgeois ("Chertogon", 1879, another name is "Christmas Evening at the Hypochondriac"; "Selective Grain", 1884; "Robbery", 1887; "Midnights", 1891. ).

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

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

Biography

Literary career

Pseudonyms of N. S. Leskov

Article on fires

"Nowhere"

First stories

"On knives"

"Cathedrals"

1872-1874

"Righteous"

Attitude towards the church

Later works

last years of life

Publication of works

Reviews of critics and contemporary writers

Personal and family life

Vegetarianism

Addresses in St. Petersburg

Geographic names

Some works

stories

Bibliography

Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov(February 4 (16), 1831, the village of Gorohovo, Orlovsky district of the Oryol province, now the Sverdlovsk district of the Oryol region - February 21 (March 5), 1895, St. Petersburg) - Russian writer.

He was called the most national of the writers of Russia: “Russian people recognize Leskov as the most Russian of Russian writers and who knew the Russian people more deeply and broadly as they are” (D. P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, 1926). In his spiritual formation, a significant role was played by Ukrainian culture, which became close to him during the eight years of his life in Kyiv in his youth, and English, which he mastered thanks to many years of close communication with his elder relative from his wife, A. Scott.

The son of Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Leskov, worked for many years on the biography of the writer, finishing it before the Great Patriotic War. This work was published in 1954. In the city of Orel, School No. 27 bears his name.

Biography

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on February 4, 1831 in the village of Gorohovo, Orel district. Leskov's father, Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), a native of the spiritual environment, according to Nikolai Semyonovich, was "... a big, wonderful smart guy and a dense seminarian." Having broken with the spiritual environment, he entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, where he rose to the ranks that gave the right to hereditary nobility, and, according to contemporaries, gained a reputation as a shrewd investigator capable of unraveling complex cases. Mother Maria Petrovna Leskova (nee Alferyeva) was the daughter of an impoverished Moscow nobleman. One of her sisters was married to a wealthy Oryol landowner, the other to an Englishman who managed several estates in different provinces.

Childhood

N. S. Leskov’s early childhood passed in Orel. After 1839, when his father left the service (due to a quarrel with his superiors, which, according to Leskov, incurred the wrath of the governor), the family - spouses, three sons and two daughters - moved to the village of Panino (Panin Khutor) near the city of Kromy. Here, as the future writer recalled, his acquaintance with the folk language took place.

In August 1841, at the age of ten, N. S. Leskov entered the first class 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, B. Bukhshtab suggests: “In both cases, obviously, they acted - on the one hand, neglect, on the other, an aversion to cramming, to the routine and carrion of the then state-owned educational institutions, with an avid interest in life and a bright temperament.”

In June 1847, Leskov entered the service in the same chamber of the criminal court where his father worked, as a clerk of the 2nd category. After the death of his father from cholera (in 1848), Nikolai Semyonovich received another promotion, becoming assistant 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 Kyiv Treasury Chamber. He moved to Kyiv, where he lived with his uncle S.P. Alferyev.

In Kyiv (in 1850-1857), Leskov attended lectures at the university as a volunteer, studied the Polish language, 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 influence on the outlook of the future writer.

In 1857, Leskov retired from the service and began working in the company of his aunt's husband A. Ya. Shkott (Scott) "Shkott and Wilkens". In the enterprise, which (in his words) tried to “exploit everything that the region offered any convenience to,” 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 “travels 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,” N. S. Leskov later recalled.

During this period (until 1860) he lived with his family in the village of Raisky, Gorodishchensky district, Penza province.

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

Literary career

Leskov began to publish relatively late, at the twenty-ninth year of his life, placing several notes in the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti (1859-1860), several articles in the Kyiv editions of Modern Medicine, which was published by A. P. working class”, a few notes about doctors) and “Index economic”. Leskov's articles, which exposed the corruption of police doctors, led to a conflict with his colleagues: as a result of a provocation organized by them, Leskov, who conducted the internal 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 Russian Speech and Northern Bee . Otechestvennye zapiski published Essays on the distillery industry, which Leskov himself called his first work, which is considered his first major publication. In the summer of that year, he briefly moved to Moscow, returning to St. Petersburg in December.

Pseudonyms of N. S. Leskov

AT early creative activity Leskov wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. The pseudonymous signature "Stebnitsky" first appeared on March 25, 1862 under the first fictional work - "Extinguished Case" (later "Drought"). She held out until August 14, 1869. At times, the signatures “M. C, C, and finally in 1872. "L. S", "P. Leskov-Stebnitsky" and "M. Leskov-Stebnitsky. Among other conditional signatures and pseudonyms used by Leskov, the following are known: “Freishits”, “V. Peresvetov”, “Nikolai Ponukalov”, “Nikolai Gorokhov”, “Someone”, “Dm. M-ev”, “N.”, “Member of the Society”, “Psalm Reader”, “Priest. P. Kastorsky”, “Divyank”, “M. P., B. Protozanov”, “Nikolai-ov”, “N. L., N. L.--v”, “Lover of antiquities”, “Traveler”, “Lover of watches”, “N. L., L.

Article on fires

In an article about the fires in the journal "Northern Bee" dated May 30, 1862, which were rumored to be arson carried out by revolutionary students and Poles, the writer mentioned these rumors and demanded that the authorities confirm or refute them, which was perceived by the democratic public as a denunciation. In addition, criticism of the actions of the administrative authorities, expressed by the wish "that the teams sent to the fires for real help, and not for standing" - aroused the anger of the king himself. After reading these lines, Alexander II wrote: "It should not have been skipped, especially since it is a lie."

As a result, Leskov was sent by the editors of the Northern Bee 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 the business trip - in Paris. In 1863 he returned to Russia and published a series of journalistic 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 contributor to the Severnaya pchela newspaper, 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 work was highly appreciated on the pages of the then Sovremennik.

The writing career of N. S. Leskov began in 1863, his first stories “The Life of a Woman” and “The Musk Ox” (1863-1864) were published. At the same time, the novel Nowhere (1864) began to be published in the Library for Reading magazine. “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 industriousness of the Russian people and Christian family values, caused displeasure of the radicals. It was noted that most of the “nihilists” depicted by Leskov had recognizable prototypes (the writer V. A. Sleptsov was guessed in the image of the head of the Beloyartsevo commune).

It was this first politically radical debut that for many years predetermined Leskov's special place in the literary community, which, for the most part, was inclined to attribute to him "reactionary", anti-democratic views. The leftist press actively spread rumors that the novel was written "on order" of the Third Division. This "heinous 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 M. N. Katkov, the publisher of Russkiy Vestnik.

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 reprinted and then came out only in 1924 in a modified form under the title “Cupid in paws. A Peasant Romance (Vremya publishing house, edited by P. V. Bykov). The latter claimed that Leskov himself gave him a new version of his own work - in gratitude for the bibliography of his works compiled by him in 1889. There were doubts about this version: it is known that N. S. Leskov already in the preface to the first volume of the collection “Tales, Essays and Stories by M. Stebnitsky” promised to publish in the second volume “the experience of a peasant novel” - “Cupid in lapotochki”, but then The promised publication did not follow.

In the same years, Leskov’s works, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” (1864), “The Warrior Girl” (1866), were published - stories, mostly of a tragic sound, in which the author brought out vivid female images of different classes. Almost ignored by modern critics, 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 "skaz", the founder of which - along with Gogol - he later began to be considered. .

Around this time, N. S. Leskov also made his debut as a playwright. In 1867, the Alexandrinsky Theater staged his play The Spender, a drama from a merchant's life, after which Leskov was once again accused by critics of "pessimism and antisocial tendencies." Of Leskov's other major works of the 1860s, critics noted the story "The Bypassed" (1865), which polemicized with N. G. Chernyshevsky's novel "What to Do?", and The Islanders (1866), a moralistic story about the Germans living on Vasilyevsky Island .

"On knives"

In 1870, N. S. Leskov published the novel “On the Knives”, in which he continued to ridicule the nihilists, representatives of the revolutionary movement that was developing in Russia in those years, which, in the writer’s mind, merged with criminality. Leskov himself was dissatisfied with the novel, subsequently calling it his worst work. In addition, the writer was left with an unpleasant aftertaste by constant disputes with M. N. Katkov, who over and over again demanded that the finished version be redone and edited. “In this edition, purely literary interests were diminished, destroyed and adapted to serve interests that have nothing to do with any literature,” wrote N. S. Leskov.

Some contemporaries (in particular, Dostoevsky) noted the intricacies of the adventurous plot of the novel, the tension and implausibility of the events described in it. After that, N. S. Leskov did not return to the genre of the novel in its purest form.

"Cathedrals"

The novel "On the Knives" was a turning point in the writer's work. As M. Gorky noted, “... after the evil novel“ On Knives ”, Leskov’s literary work immediately becomes a bright painting or, rather, icon painting, he begins to create an iconostasis of her saints and righteous for Russia.” The main characters of Leskov's works were representatives of the Russian clergy, partly the local nobility. Scattered passages and essays began to gradually 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 goodies - Archpriest Saveliy Tuberozov, deacon Achilles Desnitsyn and priest Zakhary Benefaktov - the narration of which is sustained in the traditions of the heroic epos, "are surrounded from all sides by the 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 official Christianity, subsequently led the writer into conflict with church and secular authorities. It was also the first to have significant public outcry.

Simultaneously with the novel, two “chronicles” were written, consonant in theme and mood with the main work: “Old Years in the Village of Plodomasovo” (1869) and “The Seedy Family” (full title: “The Seedy 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 persistent virtue, calm dignity, high courage, reasonable philanthropy." Both of these works left a feeling of unfinished. 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 Alexander’s reign was caustically depicted and the social non-embodiment of Christianity in the Russian life was affirmed”, caused dissatisfaction with M. Katkov. Leskov, having disagreed with the publisher, simply did not finish writing what could develop into a novel. “Katkov ... during the printing of The Seedy Family, he said (to an employee of the Russkiy Vestnik) Voskoboinikov: We are mistaken: this man is not ours!” - the writer later stated.

"Lefty"

One of the most striking images in the gallery of Leskov's "righteous" was Levsha ("The Tale of the Tula Oblique Left-hander 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 mocking, satirical overtones), on the other hand, the multi-layered narrative, the presence of two points of view: open (belonging to a simple-minded character) and hidden , author's, often opposite. N. S. Leskov himself wrote about this “cunning” of his own style:

As noted by the biographer B. Ya. Bukhshtab, such "treachery" manifested itself primarily in the description of the actions of the ataman Platov, from the point of view of the hero - almost heroic, but hiddenly ridiculed by the author. "Lefty" was subjected to devastating criticism from both sides. Liberals and "leftists" accused Leskov of nationalism, "rightists" considered the depiction of the life of the Russian people to be excessively gloomy. N. S. Leskov replied that “belittling the Russian people or flattering them” was by no means part of his intentions.

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

1872-1874

In 1872, N. S. Leskov's story "The Sealed Angel" was written and published a year later, telling about a miracle that led the schismatic community to unity with Orthodoxy. In the work, where there are echoes of ancient Russian “journeys” and legends about miraculous icons and subsequently recognized as one of the best works of the writer, Leskovsky’s “tale” received the strongest and most expressive incarnation. "The Sealed Angel" turned out to be practically the only work of the writer that did not undergo editorial revision of the "Russian Messenger", because, as the writer noted, "passed behind their lack of time in the shadows." The story, which contained criticism of the authorities, nevertheless resonated in the official spheres and even at court.

In the same year, the story The Enchanted Wanderer was published, a work of free forms that did not have a complete plot, built on the interweaving of disparate storylines. 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 stamina of the Russian people in the midst of the suffering that falls to their lot."

If until then Leskov's works were edited, then this was simply rejected, and the writer had to publish it in different issues of the newspaper. Not only Katkov, but also "leftist" critics took the story with hostility. In particular, the critic N.K. Mikhailovsky pointed to the “absence of any center whatsoever”, so that, in his words, there is “... a whole series of plots strung like beads on a thread, and each bead in itself can be very conveniently taken out and replaced by 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 (by this time he had married a second time) worsened. In January 1874, N. S. 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 1000 rubles a year. Leskov's duties included reviewing books to see if they could be sent to libraries and reading rooms. In 1875 he went abroad for a short time without stopping his literary work.

"Righteous"

The creation of a gallery of bright positive characters was continued by the writer in a collection of short stories, published under the general name “The Righteous” (“The Figure”, “The Man on the Clock”, “The Non-Deadly Golovan”, etc.) , heightened conscience, inability to reconcile with evil. Responding in advance to critics on accusations of some idealization of his characters, Leskov argued that his stories about the "righteous" were mostly in the nature of memories (in particular, what his grandmother told him about Golovan, etc.), tried to give the narrative a background of historical authenticity , introducing descriptions of real people into the plot.

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

Leskov (according to the memoirs of A. N. Leskov) believed that by creating cycles about "Russian antiques", he was fulfilling Gogol's testament from "Selected passages from correspondence with friends": "Exalt the inconspicuous worker in a solemn hymn." In the preface to the first of these stories (“Odnodum”, 1879), the writer explained their appearance in this way: “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 where am I I didn’t address, everyone answered me in the way that they didn’t see righteous people, because all people are sinners, and so, both of them knew some good people. I started writing 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 10th-11th centuries. Leskov was proud that his Egyptian studies "Pamphalon" and "Azu" were translated into German, and the publishers gave him preference over Ebers, the author of "The Daughter of the Egyptian King."

At the same time, the satirical and accusatory line intensified in the writer’s work (“Dumb Artist”, “The Beast”, “Scarecrow”): along with officials and officers, clergymen 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 "Cathedrals", he wrote:

Leskov's attitude towards the church was affected 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 would be dearer to me than him. I am never embarrassed by what I cannot share with him: I cherish his common, so to speak, 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-church work was the story Midnight Occupants, completed in the autumn of 1890 and published in the last two issues of 1891 of the journal Vestnik Evropy. The author had to overcome considerable difficulties before his work saw the light. “I will keep my story on the table. It’s true that no one will print it at the present time, ”wrote N. S. Leskov to L. N. Tolstoy on January 8, 1891.

The essay by N. S. Leskov “Priestly leapfrog and parish whim” (1883) also caused a scandal. The proposed cycle of essays and stories, Notes of an Unknown Man (1884), was devoted to ridiculing the vices of the clergy, but work on it was stopped under pressure from censorship. Moreover, for these works, N. S. Leskov was fired from the Ministry of Public Education. The writer again found himself in spiritual isolation: the “rightists” now saw him as a dangerous radical, and the “liberals” (as B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted), before “Leskov as a reactionary writer, now print 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 was added and posthumously - the 12th). 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 connected, 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 censorship (later it was reorganized by the publishing house).

Later works

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

The publication of the novel "Devil's Dolls" in the journal "Russian Thought", the prototypes of the two main characters of which were Nicholas I and the artist K. Bryullov, was suspended by censorship. Leskov could not publish the story "Hare Remise" - either in "Russian Thought" or in "Bulletin of Europe": it was published only after 1917. Not a single major later work of the writer (including the novels The Falcon Flight and The Invisible Trail) was published in full: the chapters rejected by the censorship were published after the revolution. N. S. Leskov said that the process of publishing his works, always difficult, at the end of his life became unbearable for him.

last years of life

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on March 5 (old style - February 21), 1895 in St. Petersburg, from another attack of asthma that tormented him for the last five years of his life. Nikolai Leskov was buried at the Volkov 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 in 1897 by A. F. Marx), which included mostly his works of art (moreover, in the first edition of the 6th volume was not passed by the censors). In 1902-1903, A.F. Marx's printing house (as an appendix to the Niva magazine) published a 36-volume collected works, in which the editors also tried to collect the writer's journalistic heritage 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 stories of the writer in the collection of 1927) were forgotten. During the short Khrushchev thaw, Soviet readers finally got the opportunity to come into contact with Leskov's work again - 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 the anti-nihilistic novel "Knives", while journalism and letters are presented in a very limited volume (volumes 10-11). During the years of stagnation, attempts were made to publish short collected works and separate volumes with Leskov's works, which did not cover the writer's area of ​​\u200b\u200bcreativity related to religious and anti-nihilistic themes (the chronicle "Soboryane", the novel "Nowhere"), and which were supplied with extensive tendentious comments. In 1989, the first collected works of Leskov - also in 12 volumes - were republished in the Ogonyok Library. For the first time, a truly complete (30 volume) collected works of the writer began to be published by the publishing house "Terra" since 1996 and continues to this day. In this edition, in addition to well-known works, it is planned to include all found, previously unpublished articles, stories and stories of the writer.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (1831 - 1895) - prose writer, the most popular writer of Russia, playwright. The author of famous novels, short stories and short stories, such as: "Nowhere", "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", "On the Knives", "Cathedrals", "Lefty" and many others, the creator of the theatrical play "Spender".

early years

He was born on February 4 (February 16), 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, in the family of an investigator and the daughter of an impoverished nobleman. They had five children, Nikolai was the eldest child. The childhood of the writer passed in the city of Orel. After the father left the position, the family moved from Orel to the village of Panino. Here the study and knowledge of the people by Leskov began.

Education and career

In 1841, at the age of 10, Leskov entered the Oryol Gymnasium. The future writer did not work out with his studies - in 5 years of study he graduated from only 2 classes. In 1847, thanks to the help of his father's friends, Leskov got a job as a clerical clerk in the Oryol Criminal Chamber of the court. When Nikolai was 16 years old, his father died of cholera, and all his property burned down in a fire.
In 1849, with the help of his uncle, a professor, Leskov transferred to Kyiv as an official of the Treasury, where he later received the post of clerk. In Kyiv, Leskov developed an interest in Ukrainian culture and great writers, painting and architecture of the old city.
In 1857, Leskov left his job and entered the commercial service in the large agricultural company of his uncle, an Englishman, on whose business he traveled most of Russia in three years. After the closing of the company, in 1860 he returned to Kyiv.

creative life

1860 is considered the beginning of Leskov's creative path, at this time he writes and publishes articles in various magazines. Six months later, he moves to St. Petersburg, where he plans to engage in literary and journalistic activities.
In 1862, Leskov became a permanent contributor to the Severnaya Pchela newspaper. Working in it as a correspondent, he visited Western Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland. He was close and sympathetic to the life of Western twin nations, so he delved into the study of their art and life. In 1863 Leskov returned to Russia.
Having studied and observed the life of the Russian people for a long time, sympathizing with their sorrows and needs, Leskov wrote the stories “Extinguished Business” (1862), the stories “The Life of a Woman”, “Musk Ox” (1863), “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” (1865).
In the novels Nowhere (1864), Bypassed (1865), On Knives (1870), the writer revealed the theme of Russia's unpreparedness for revolution.
Having disagreements with the revolutionary democrats, Leskova refused to publish many magazines. The only one who published his work was Mikhail Katkov, editor of the Russky Vestnik magazine. It was incredibly difficult for Leskov to work with him, the editor ruled almost all of the writer's works, and some even refused to print at all.
In 1870 - 1880 he wrote the novels "Cathedrals" (1872), "The seedy family" (1874), where he revealed the national and historical issues. The novel "The Seedy Family" was not completed by Leskov due to disagreements with the publisher Katkov. Also at this time, he wrote several stories: "The Islanders" (1866), "The Sealed Angel" (1873). Fortunately, "The Sealed Angel" was not affected by the editorial revision of Mikhail Katkov.
In 1881, Leskov wrote the story "Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea)" - an old legend about gunsmiths.
The story "Hare Remise" (1894) was the last great work of the writer. In it, he criticized the political system of Russia at that time. The story was published only in 1917 after the Revolution.

Writer's personal life

Leskov's first marriage was unsuccessful. The writer's wife in 1853 was the daughter of a Kyiv merchant Olga Smirnova. They had two children - the firstborn, son Mitya, who died in infancy, and daughter Vera. My wife fell ill with a mental disorder and was treated in St. Petersburg. The marriage broke up.
In 1865 Leskov lived with his widow Ekaterina Bubnova. The couple had a son Andrei (1866-1953). He divorced his second wife in 1877.

Last years

The last five years of Leskov's life were tormented by asthma attacks, from which he later died. Nikolai Semenovich died on February 21 (March 5), 1895 in St. Petersburg. The writer was buried at the Volkovo cemetery

The Enchanted Wanderer ( 1873 )

Summary of the story

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On the way to Valaam on Lake Ladoga, several travelers meet. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a “typical hero,” says that, having “God’s gift” to tame horses, he, according to his parents’ promise, died all his life and could not die in any way. At the request of the travelers, the former koneser (“I am a koneser,<…>I am a connoisseur in horses and was with repairmen to guide them, ”the hero himself says about himself) Ivan Severyanych, Mr. Flyagin, tells his life.

Coming from the yard people of Count K. from the Oryol province, Ivan Severyanych has been addicted to horses since childhood and once “for fun” beats a monk to death on a wagon. The monk appears to him at night and reproaches him for taking his life without repentance. He also tells Ivan Severyanych that he is the “promised” son of God, and gives a “sign” that he will die many times and will never die before the real “death” comes and Ivan Severyanych goes to Chernetsy. Soon, Ivan Severyanych, nicknamed Golovan, saves his masters from inevitable death in a terrible abyss and falls into mercy. But he cuts off the tail of the owner's cat, which drags pigeons from him, and as punishment he is severely flogged, and then sent to "an English garden for a path to beat stones with a hammer." The last punishment of Ivan Severyanych "tormented", and he decides to commit suicide. The rope prepared for death is cut off by the gypsies, with whom Ivan Severyanych leaves the count, taking horses with him. Ivan Severyanych breaks up with the gypsy, and, having sold a silver cross to an official, he receives a leave of absence and is hired as a "nanny" to the little daughter of a gentleman. For this work, Ivan Severyanych is very bored, leads the girl and the goat to the river bank and sleeps over the estuary. Here he meets the lady, the mother of the girl, who begs Ivan Severyanych to give her the child, but he is relentless and even fights with the current husband of the lady, an officer-lancer. But when he sees the angry approaching owner, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. The officer sends the passportless Ivan Severyanych away, and he goes to the steppe, where the Tatars drive horse shoals.

Khan Dzhankar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for horses: they sit opposite each other and whip each other with whips. When a new handsome horse is put up for sale, Ivan Severyanych does not hold back and, speaking for one of the repairmen, traps the Tatar to death. According to "Christian custom", he is taken to the police for murder, but he runs away from the gendarmes to the very "Ryn-Sands". The Tatars "bristle" Ivan Severyanych's legs so that he does not run away. Ivan Severyanych moves only by crawling, serves as a doctor among the Tatars, yearns and dreams of returning to his homeland. He has several wives "Natasha" and children "Kolek", whom he regrets, but he admits to the listeners that he could not love them, because they are "unbaptized". Ivan Severyanych completely despairs of getting home, but Russian missionaries come to the steppe "to establish their faith." They preach, but refuse to pay a ransom for Ivan Severyanych, arguing that before God "everyone is equal and it's all the same." Some time later, one of them is killed, Ivan Severyanych buries him according to Orthodox custom. He explains to the listeners that "the Asian must be brought to faith with fear," because they "will never respect a humble god without a threat." The Tatars bring two people from Khiva who come to buy horses in order to "make war." Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafy, but Ivan Severyanych discovers a box with fireworks, introduces himself as Talafy, converts the Tatars to Christianity and, having found “caustic earth” in the boxes, heals his legs.

In the steppe, Ivan Severyanych meets a Chuvash, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously reveres both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russians come across on the way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but drive away the "passportless" Ivan Severyanych. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him for three years from communion, but the count, who has become devout, releases him “for quitrent”, and Ivan Severyanych settles in the horse department. After he helps the peasants to choose a good horse, he is famous as a magician, and everyone demands to tell the "secret". Including one prince, who took Ivan Severyanych to his post as a koneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken “exits”, before which he gives the prince all the money for the purchases to be safe. When the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanych is very sad, "makes a way out", but this time he keeps the money to himself. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, where he meets an “over-empty-empty” person who claims that he drinks because he “voluntarily took weakness on himself” so that it would be easier for others, and Christian feelings do not allow him to stop drinking. A new acquaintance imposes magnetism on Ivan Severyanych to free him from "zealous drunkenness", and at the same time gives him extra water. At night, Ivan Severyanych finds himself in another tavern, where he spends all his money on the beautiful gypsy singer Grushenka. Having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her out of the camp and settled in his house. But the prince is a fickle person, he gets bored with the “love word”, he gets sleepy from “yakhont emeralds”, besides, all the money ends.

Having gone to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the prince's conversation with his former mistress Evgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and wants to marry the unfortunate and sincerely loved Grushenka to Ivan Severyanych. Returning home, he does not find the gypsy, whom the prince secretly takes to the forest to the bee. But Grusha escapes from her guards and, threatening that she will become a "shameful woman", asks Ivan Severyanych to drown her. Ivan Severyanych fulfills the request, and in search of an imminent death he pretends to be a peasant son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a “contribution for Grushin’s soul”, goes to war. He dreams of dying, but "neither earth nor water wants to accept", and having distinguished himself in business, he tells the colonel about the murder of a gypsy. But these words are not confirmed by the sent request, he is promoted to an officer and dismissed with the Order of St. George. Using the colonel's letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanych gets a job as a "reference officer" at the address desk, but falls on the insignificant letter "fit", the service does not go well, and he goes to the artists. But the rehearsals take place during Holy Week, Ivan Severyanych gets to portray the “difficult role” of the demon, and besides, stand up for the poor “gentlewoman”, he “pulls the whirlwinds” of one of the artists and leaves the theater for the monastery.

According to Ivan Severyanych, monastic life does not bother him, he stays there with horses, but he does not consider it worthy to take senior tonsure and lives in obedience. To the question of one of the travelers, he says that at first a demon appeared to him in a “seductive female form”, but after fervent prayers only small demons, “children”, remained. Once Ivan Severyanych kills a demon with an ax, but he turns out to be a cow. And for another deliverance from demons, he is put in an empty cellar for a whole summer, where Ivan Severyanych discovers the gift of prophecy in himself. Ivan Severyanych ends up on the ship because the monks let him go to pray in Solovki to Zosima and Savvaty. The Stranger admits that he expects an imminent death, because the spirit inspires him to take up arms and go to war, and he “wants to die for the people.” Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, again feeling the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit, which is revealed only to babies.

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

Scribe, clerk, provincial secretary

Nikolai 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 Orel Criminal Chamber, where he received the right to hereditary nobility.

Until the age of eight, Nikolai Leskov lived with relatives in Gorokhovo. Later, the parents took the boy to their place. At the age of ten, Leskov entered the first class 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 attached his son as a scribe to the Oryol Criminal Chamber. In 1848, Nikolai Leskov became assistant clerk.

A year later, he moved to Kyiv to live with his uncle Sergei Alferyev, a well-known professor at Kyiv University and a practicing therapist. In Kyiv, Leskov became interested in icon painting, studied the Polish language, attended lectures at the university as a volunteer. He was assigned to work in the Kyiv Treasury Chamber as an assistant clerk at the recruiting desk. Later, Leskov was promoted to collegiate registrars, then received the post of head of the clerk, and then became 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 left the rather successfully started civil service and went to serve in one of the newly formed trading companies at that time”. Leskov began working at the Schcott and Wilkens company, the company of his second uncle, the Englishman Schcott. Nikolai Leskov often went on business to "travel around Russia", on trips he studied the dialects and life of the country's inhabitants.

Anti-Nihilist Writer

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

In the 1860s, Leskov took up a pen for the first time. He wrote articles and notes for the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper, Modern Medicine and Economic Index magazines. Leskov himself called his first literary work "Essays on the distillery industry", published in "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, Watch Lover and others. In May 1862, Nikolai Leskov, under the pseudonym Stebnitsky, published an article in the Severnaya Pchela newspaper about a fire in Apraksin and Shchukin yards. The author criticized both the arsonists, who were considered nihilist rebels, and the government, which cannot catch the violators and put out the fire. The accusation of the authorities and the wish, “so that the sent teams come to the fires for real help, and not for standing”, angered Alexander II. To protect the writer from the royal wrath, the editors of the "Northern Bee" sent him on a long business trip.

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

The novel "On knives". 1885 edition

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, whose life seemed strange and alien to the writer. The work caused a sharp reaction from critics, and the novel for many years predetermined the writer's place in the creative community - he was credited with anti-democratic, "reactionary" views.

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

In 1870, Nikolai Leskov wrote the novel On 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 edition, 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 local nobility became the main characters of the writer's works.

“After the evil novel “On the Knives”, Leskov’s literary work immediately becomes a bright painting or, rather, icon painting, he begins to create an iconostasis of her saints and righteous for Russia.”

Maksim Gorky

"Cruel works" about Russian society

Valentin Serov Portrait of Nikolai Leskov. 1894

Nikolay Leskov. Photo: russkiymir.ru

Nikolai Leskov Drawing by Ilya Repin. 1888-89

One of Leskov's most famous works was "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" in 1881. Critics and writers of those years noted that the "narrator" in the work has two intonations at once - both laudatory and caustic. Leskov wrote: “Several more people supported that in my stories it is really difficult to distinguish between good and evil, and that even sometimes you don’t even make out who harms the cause and who helps him. This was attributed to some innate deceit of my nature ".

In the autumn of 1890, Leskov completed the story "Midnight Occupants" - by that time, the writer's attitude towards the church and priests had radically changed. The preacher John of Kronstadt fell under his critical pen. Nikolai Leskov wrote to Leo Tolstoy: “I will keep my story on the table. By today's standards, it's true that no one will print it". However, in 1891 the work was published in the journal Vestnik Evropy. Leskov was scolded by critics for his "incredibly bizarre, mangled language" that "sickens the reader".

In the 1890s, the censorship almost did not release Leskov's sharply satirical works. The writer said: “My latest works about Russian society are very cruel. "Zagon", "Winter Day", "Lady and Fefela" ... The public does not like these things for their cynicism and correctness. And I don't want to please the public." The novels "Falcon Flight" and "Imperceptible Trail" were published 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 Alexei Suvorin. Nikolai Leskov died two years later - in St. Petersburg from an asthma attack. He was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.