Post n with fishing lines. Nikolai Leskov - biography, information, personal life

Russian writer and publicist, memoirist

Nikolai Leskov

short biography

Born on February 16, 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol district (now the village of Staroe Gorokhovo, Sverdlovsk district, Oryol region). 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 to the ranks that gave the right to hereditary nobility, and, according to contemporaries, gained a reputation as a shrewd investigator, able to unravel 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

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 governor's wrath), the family - his wife, three sons and two daughters - moved to the village of Panino (Panin Khutor) not far from the city Chrome. 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, 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 greedy interest to life and bright temperament.

Service and work

In June 1847, Leskov joined the Orel Criminal 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 conveniences 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.

I ... think that I know the Russian person in his very depths, and I do not put myself in any merit for this. I did not study the people from conversations with St. 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 coat, and on the Panin’s swaying crowd behind circles of dusty manners ...

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

During this period (until 1860) he lived with his family in the village of Nikolo-Raysky, Gorodishchensky district, Penza province and in Penza. Here he took up the pen for the first time. In 1859, when a wave of "drinking riots" swept through the Penza province, as well as throughout Russia, Nikolai Semyonovich wrote "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. This work is not only about distillery production, but also about agriculture, which, according to him, in the province is “far from being in a flourishing state”, and peasant cattle breeding is “in complete decline”. He believed that distilling hinders 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 Kyiv in the summer of 1860, where he took up journalism and literary activities. 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, placing several notes in the newspaper "Saint Petersburg Vedomosti" (1859-1860), several articles in the Kyiv editions of "Modern Medicine", which was published by A. P. Walter (the article "On working class”, a few notes about doctors) and “Index economic”. Leskov's articles, which denounced 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 (Penza Province), which Leskov himself called his first work, 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 his trip to 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 novel - politically a radical debut - for many years that 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 Section. 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 tale, the founder of which - along with Gogol - he later began to be considered. Elements of the literary style that made Leskov famous are also found in the story “Kotin Doilets and Platonida” (1867).

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"

On knives. 1885 edition

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 taking shape 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 Maxim Gorky noted, “... 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.” 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 epic, “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 success."

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, "did not finish writing the 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 Lefty ("The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea", 1881). Subsequently, critics noted here, on the one hand, the virtuosity of the embodiment of Leskovsky's "tale", saturated with wordplay and original neologisms (often with mocking, satirical overtones), on the other hand, the multi-layered narrative, the presence of two points of view: "where the narrator constantly holds the same views, and the author inclines the reader to completely different, often opposite. N. S. Leskov himself wrote about this “cunning” of his own style:

A few more persons supported that in my stories it is really difficult to distinguish between good and evil, and that even sometimes you can’t make out at all who is harming the cause and who is helping it. This was attributed to some innate deceit of my nature.

As critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted, such “treachery” manifested itself primarily in the description of the actions of ataman Platov, from the point of view of the hero - almost heroic, but the author is secretly ridiculed. "Lefty" was subjected to devastating criticism from both sides. According to B. Ya. Bukhshtab, liberals and democrats (“leftists”) accused Leskov of nationalism, reactionaries (“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:

I cannot say exactly where the first tale of the steel flea was born, that is, whether it started in Tula, on Izhma, or in Sestroretsk, but, obviously, it came from one of these places. In any case, the tale of a steel flea is a special gunsmithing legend, and it expresses the pride of Russian gunsmiths. It depicts the struggle of our masters with the English masters, from which our masters came out victoriously and the English were completely shamed and humiliated. Here, some secret reason for the military failures in the Crimea is revealed. I wrote down this legend in Sestroretsk according to a local tale from an old gunsmith, a native of Tula, who moved to the Sestra River back in the reign of Emperor Alexander the First.

1872-1874

In 1872, N. S. Leskov's story "The Sealed Angel" was written, and a year later it was published, telling about a miracle that led the schismatic community to unity with Orthodoxy. In the work, where there are echoes of ancient Russian "walking" and legends about miraculous icons and subsequently recognized as one of the best works of the writer, Lesk's "skaz" received the strongest and most expressive incarnation. “The Captured 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.”

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." Despite the fact that The Enchanted Wanderer criticized the dishonesty of the authorities, the story was a success 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 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 review 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:

The articles in your newspaper say that I mostly wrote off living faces and conveyed real stories. Whoever the author of these articles is, he is absolutely right. I have powers of observation and maybe some ability to analyze feelings and impulses, but I have little imagination. I invent hard and difficult, and therefore I have 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, which, too, very often were based on a real event.

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 as follows: “It is terrible and intolerable ... 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 go<…>everyone answered me in the way that they did not 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 "Buffoon Pamphalon" and "Aza" were translated into German, and the publishers preferred him over Ebers, the author of "The Daughter of the Egyptian King."

At the same time, the writer creates a series of works for children, which he publishes in the magazine "Sincere Word" and "Toy": "Christ is visiting a peasant", "Fixable ruble", "Father's Testament", "The Lion of Elder Gerasim", " The languor of the spirit ", originally -" Goat "," Fool "and others. In the last journal, it was willingly published by A.N. Peshkova-Toliverova, who became in 1880-1890. close friend of the prose writer. 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:

Now I would not write them, but I would gladly write “Notes of the Uncut” ... Oaths to allow; bless knives; weaning through force to sanctify; divorce marriages; enslave children; give out secrets; keep the pagan custom of devouring the body and blood; forgive wrongs done to another; provide patronage to the Creator or curse and do thousands more vulgarities and meanness, falsifying all the commandments and requests of the “righteous man hung on the cross” - that’s what I would like to show people ... the teachings of Christ, is called "Orthodoxy"... I do not argue when it is called by this name, but it is not Christianity.

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 supposed 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. Literary critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted that at the same time, "liberals are becoming especially cowardly - and those who previously interpreted 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 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

N. S. Leskov, 1892

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:

My latest writings about Russian society are very cruel. "Zagon", "Winter Day", "Lady and Fefela" ... The public does not like these things for their cynicism and directness. Yes, I do not want to please the public. Let her at least choke on my stories, but read. I know how to please her, but I no longer want to please. I want to whip her and torture her.

The publication of the novel Devil's Dolls in the Russian Thought magazine, 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" - neither in "Russian Thought" nor 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. The publication of his own writings for Leskov has always been a difficult matter, and in the last years of his life turned into unceasing torment.

last years of life

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on February 21, 1895 in St. Petersburg from another attack of asthma, which tormented him for the last five years of his life. Nikolai Leskov was buried at the Volkovsky 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", 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 collected works and separate volumes of Leskov's works, which did not cover the writer's areas of work 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.

Reviews of critics and contemporary writers

L. N. Tolstoy spoke of Leskov as "the most Russian of our writers", A. P. 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 the word, N. S. Leskov is quite worthy to stand next to such creators of Russian literature as L. Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov. Leskov's talent, in strength and beauty, is not much inferior to the talent of any of the named creators of the sacred writings about the Russian land, and in the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the depth of understanding of its everyday mysteries, and the subtle knowledge of the Great Russian language, he often exceeds his named predecessors and associates.

Maksim Gorky

The main complaint of literary criticism against Leskov in those years was what seemed to her to be “excessive superimposed colors”, deliberate expressiveness of speech. This was also noted by contemporary writers: L. N. Tolstoy, who highly appreciated Leskov, mentioned in one of his letters that in the writer’s prose “... there is a lot of 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: "The fairy tale is still very good, but it's a shame that, if it weren't for an excess of talent, would be better."

Leskov was not going to "correct" in response to criticism. In a letter to V. G. Chertkov in 1888, he wrote: “I can’t write as simply as Lev Nikolayevich. This is not in my gifts. … Take mine as I can make it. I’m used to finishing work and I can’t work easier.”

When the journals Russkaya Mysl and Severny Vestnik criticized the language of the story Midnight Men (‘excessive artificiality’, ‘an abundance of invented and distorted words, sometimes strung together in one phrase’), Leskov replied:

I am reproached for ... "mannered" language, especially in the "midnight clerks". Do we have a few mannered people? All quasi-scholarly literature writes its learned articles in this barbaric language... Is it any wonder that some petty-bourgeois woman speaks it in my Midnight Offices? At least she has a cheerful and funny tongue.

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

Personal and family life

In 1853, Leskov married the daughter of a Kyiv merchant, Olga Vasilievna Smirnova. In this marriage, a son Dmitry (died in infancy) and a daughter Vera were born. Leskov's family life was unsuccessful: his wife Olga Vasilievna suffered from a mental illness and in 1878 was placed in the St. Nicholas Hospital in St. Petersburg, on the Pryazhka River. Her chief physician was the once well-known psychiatrist O. A. Chechott, and her trustee was the famous S. P. Botkin.

In 1865, Leskov entered into a civil marriage with the widow Ekaterina Bubnova (nee Savitskaya), in 1866 their son Andrei was born. His son, Yuri Andreevich (1892-1942) became a diplomat, together with his wife, nee Baroness Medem, settled in France after the revolution. 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, visiting Leskov's house-museum in Orel, she donated family heirlooms to his collection - a lyceum badge and lyceum rings of her father.

Vegetarianism

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

In 1889, Leskov's note was published in the Novoye Vremya newspaper under the title "About Vegetarians, or Serious Patients and Meat Pusts", in which the writer characterized those vegetarians who do not eat meat for "hygienic reasons", and contrasted them with "compassionate people" - those who follow vegetarianism out of "their feeling of pity". The people respect only "compassionate people," Leskov wrote, "who do not eat meat food, not because they consider it unhealthy, but out of pity for the animals being killed.

The history of a vegetarian cookbook in Russia begins with N. S. Leskov's call to create such a book in Russian. This appeal of the writer was published in June 1892 in the Novoye Vremya newspaper under the title "On the need to publish in Russian a well-composed detailed kitchen book for vegetarians". Leskov argued the need to publish 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 pious Abba." Responding to this kind of slander and attacks, Leskov writes that "absurdity" is not the flesh of animals "invented" long before Vl. Solovyov and L. N. Tolstoy, and refers not only to the "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. She was called "Vegetarian cuisine. Instructions for the preparation of more than 800 dishes, breads and drinks for a kill-free diet with an introductory article on the importance of vegetarianism and with the preparation of dinners in 3 categories for 2 weeks. Compiled according to foreign and Russian sources. - M.: Intermediary, 1894. XXXVI, 181 p. (For intelligent readers, 27).

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

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov - the creator of the first vegetarian character in Russian literature (figure's story, 1889). Leskov also addresses various aspects of vegetarianism, food ethics and animal protection in his other works, such as the story “Robbery” (1887), which describes the slaughter of young bulls by a rich butcher, who, standing with a knife in his hands, listens to nightingale trills.

Later, other vegetarian characters appeared in Leskov's work: in the story "Midnight Occupants" (1890) - the girl Nastya, a follower of Tolstoy and a strict vegetarian, and in the story "The Pillar of Salt" (1891-1895) - the painter Plisov, who, telling about himself and his surroundings, reports that they “ate neither meat nor fish, but ate only vegetable food” and found that this was enough for them and their children.

Leskov in culture

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

In 1988, R. K. 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"(director 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"(directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky) - based on the story "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"(directed by Ivan Ermakov) - a teleplay based on the story "The Enchanted Wanderer"

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

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

1972 - "Drama of Old Life"(directed by Ilya Averbakh) - based on the story "Dumb Artist"

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

1986 - "Warrior"(directed by Alexander Zeldovich) - based on the story "The Warrior"

1989 - (directed by 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"(on TV "Ask and you shall have", director Natalya Bondarchuk) - based on the story "The Beast"

1992 - "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"(German Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, directed by Pyotr Veigl) - adaptation of the opera by Dmitry Shostakovich

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

1998 - "On knives"(director Alexander Orlov) - mini-series based on the novel "On the Knives"

2001 - "Interesting Men"(directed by Yuri Kara) - based on the story "Interesting Men"

2005 - "Chertogon"(directed by Andrei 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 the Mtsensk District"

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• Autumn 1859 - 05.1860 - the apartment of I.V. Vernadsky in the apartment building of Bychenskaya - Mokhovaya Street, 28;
• late 01. - summer 1861 - I. V. Vernadsky's apartment in the apartment building of Bychenskaya - Mokhovaya street, 28;
• beginning - 09.1862 - I. V. Vernadsky's apartment in the apartment building of Bychenskaya - Mokhovaya street, 28;
• 03. - autumn 1863 - Maksimovich's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 82, apt. 82;
• autumn 1863 - autumn 1864 - Tatsky's apartment building - Liteiny Prospekt, 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 - profitable house of I. O. Ruban - Zakharyevskaya street, 3, apt. 19;
• 1877 - profitable house of I. S. Semenov - Kuznechny lane, 15;
• 1877 - spring 1879 - tenement house - Nevsky Prospekt, 63;
• spring 1879 - spring 1880 - courtyard wing of A. D. Muruzi's apartment building - Liteiny Prospekt, 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 Orel, on the territory of the literary reserve "Noble Nest", the house-museum of N. S. Leskov was opened.
• In 1981, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the writer's birth, a monument to Leskov was erected in Orel.
• In the city of Orel, School No. 27 bears the name of Leskov.
• The Gostoml school of the Kromsky district of the Orel region is named after Leskov. Next to the school building is a house-museum dedicated to Leskov.
• Creative society "K. R.O.M.A.” (Kromskoye Regional Association of Local Authors), created in Kromskoy district, in January 2007, by the chairman of the TO, as well as the founder, editor-compiler and publisher of the almanac "KromA" Vasily Ivanovich Agoshkov, is named after N. S. Leskov. .
• 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 honor of N. S. Leskov, the asteroid (4741) Leskov, discovered on November 10, 1985 by Lyudmila Karachkina, an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, is named

Geographic names

In honor of Nikolai Leskov are named:

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

and others.

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

1956, denomination 40 kopecks.

1956, denomination 1 ruble

Some works

Novels

• Nowhere (1864)
• Bypassed (1865)
• Islanders (1866)
• On Knives (1870)
• Cathedral (1872)
• Seedy kind (1874)
• Devil's Dolls (1890)

Tale

• The Life of a Woman (1863)
• Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1864)
• Warrior Girl (1866)
• Old years in the village of Plodomasovo (1869)
• Laughter and Sorrow (1871)
• The Mysterious Man (1872)
• The Sealed Angel (1872)
• The Enchanted Wanderer (1873)
• At the End of the World (1875) is based on a true case of the missionary work of Archbishop Nile.
  • Its early handwritten version "Temnyak" has been preserved.
• Unbaptized Pop (1877)
• Lefty (1881)
• Jewish somersault college (1882)
• Pechersk antiques (1882)
• Interesting Men (1885)
• Mountain (1888)
• Offended Neteta (1890)
• Midnighters (1891)

stories

• Musk Ox (1862)
• Peacock (1874)
• Iron Will (1876)
• Shameless (1877)
• Odnodum (1879)
• Sheramour (1879)
• Chertogon (1879)
• Non-lethal Golovan (1880)
• White Eagle (1880)
• The Ghost in the Engineering Castle (1882)
• Darner (1882)
• Traveling with a Nihilist (1882)
• The beast. Christmas Story (1883)
• Little Mistake (1883)
• Toupee Artist (1883)
• Selected Grain (1884)
• Part-timers (1884)
• Notes of an Unknown (1884)
• Old Genius (1884)
• Pearl necklace (1885)
• Scarecrow (1885)
• Vintage Psychopaths (1885)
• Man on the Clock (1887)
• Robbery (1887)
• Buffoon Pamphalon (1887) (original title "God-pleasing buffoon" was not censored)
• Waste Dances (1892)
• Administrative Grace (1893)
• Hare Remise (1894)

Plays

• Spender (1867)

Articles

• Jew in Russia (Several remarks on the Jewish question) (1883) (foreword by Lev Anninsky)

• Satiation with nobility (1888)

Essays

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

Russian writer Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was born on February 16 (February 4 according to the old style) 1831 in the village of Gorohovo, Oryol province. His grandfather was a clergyman in the village of Leski, Karachevsky district, Oryol province. From the name of the village of Leski, the family surname Leskovs was formed. The father of Nikolai Leskov, Semyon Dmitrievich (1789-1848), served as an assessor of the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court and received hereditary nobility by seniority. Mother - Marya Petrovna Alferyeva (1813-1886) belonged to a noble family.

Nikolai Leskov's childhood years were spent in Orel, and in 1839, when his father retired and bought the Panino farm in the Kromsky district of the Oryol province, the whole family left Orel for their tiny estate. Leskov received his initial education in Gorokhovo in the house of the Strakhovs, wealthy maternal relatives, where he was sent by his parents due to a lack of his own funds for home education.

In 1941, Nikolai Leskov was sent to study at the Oryol provincial gymnasium, but he studied unevenly and in 1846, unable to pass the transfer exams, he was expelled. His father arranged for him to serve as a scribe in the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court. In those years, he read a lot, rotated in the circle of the Oryol intelligentsia. The sudden death of his father in 1848 and the "disastrous ruin" of the family changed the fate of Nikolai Leskov. At the end of 1949 he moved to Kyiv, where he lived with his uncle, a university professor.

From 1949 to 1956 he served in the Kyiv Treasury in various positions: first as assistant clerk at the recruiting desk of the revision department, from 1853 - collegiate registrar, then clerk, from 1856 - provincial secretary. During these years, Leskov did a lot of self-education. As a volunteer, he attended lectures at Kiev University on agronomy, anatomy, criminalistics, state law, studied the Polish language, participated in a religious and philosophical student circle, communicated with pilgrims, sectarians, and Old Believers.

In 1930-1940. Andrei Leskov (1866-1953), the writer's son, compiled a biography of Nikolai Leskov, published in 1954 in two volumes.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources.

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 were mostly negative and were not accepted by most of the progressive people of the second half of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy called him “the most Russian writer,” and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov considered him one of his teachers.

It can be said that Leskov's work was truly appreciated only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when articles by 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

The creative fate of Leskov was largely determined by the environment in which he spent his childhood and adult life.
He was born in 1831, on February 4 (16 according to the new style), in the Oryol province. His ancestors were hereditary ministers of the clergy. Grandfather and great-grandfather were priests in the village of Leska, from which, most likely, the name of the writer came. However, Semyon Dmitrievich, the writer's father, 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 Alferyeva, also belonged to this estate. Her sisters were married to wealthy people: one - for an Englishman, the other - for 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 early service

The writer N. S. Leskov began to study in the family of wealthy relatives of the Strakhovs, who hired German and Russian teachers for their children, a French governess. Even then, the outstanding 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 includes further service in the state chamber, where his father served (1847-1849), and transfer of his own free will after his tragic death as a result of cholera to the state chamber of the city of Kyiv, where his maternal uncle S. P. Alferyev lived . The years of stay here gave a lot to the future writer. Leskov, as 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 the Old Believers, pilgrims also influenced the life and work of Leskov.

Work at Schcott & Wilkens

A real school for Nikolai Semenovich was the 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 a stay in a truly popular environment and personal knowledge of all the hardships of life that have fallen to the lot of a simple peasant.

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

Creativity Leskov: formation

The writer's first articles on corruption in medical and police circles were published back in Kyiv. They evoked stormy responses 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 was what St. Petersburg became for him.
Here Leskov immediately declares himself as a publicist and is published in Otechestvennye Zapiski, Severnaya Pchela, Russkaya Speech. For several years he signed his works with the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky (there were others, but this one was used most often), which soon became rather scandalous.

In 1862, there was a fire in the Shchukin and Apraksin courtyards. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov responded vividly to this event. A brief biography of his life includes such an episode as an angry tirade on the part of the king himself. In an article about the fires published in the Northern Bee, the writer expressed his point of view on who could be involved in them and what purpose he had. He blamed the nihilistic youth, who had never enjoyed his respect, to blame. The authorities were accused of not paying enough attention to the investigation of the incident, and the arsonists were not caught. The criticism that fell immediately on Leskov, both from democratically inclined circles and from the administration, forced him to leave St. Petersburg for a long time, since no explanations of the writer about the written article were accepted.

The western borders of the Russian Empire and Europe - Nikolai Leskov visited these places during the months of disgrace. Since then, his biography has included, on the one hand, the recognition of an absolutely unlike writer, on the other hand, constant suspicions, sometimes reaching insults. They were especially pronounced in the statements of D. Pisarev, who considered that the name of Stebnitsky alone would be enough to cast a shadow on the magazine publishing his works, and on writers who found the courage to publish together with the scandalous author.

Novel "Nowhere"

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

The origin of the tale form

In the 1860s, Leskov wrote several stories (among them, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”), in which the features of the new style are gradually defined, which later became a kind of hallmark of the writer. This is a tale with amazing, unique 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 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 ignored, as they were still under the impression of his previous publications. The staging of the play "The Spender" about Russian merchants at the Alexandria Theater and the novel "On the Knives" (all about the same nihilists), because of which Leskov entered into a sharp polemic with the editor of the magazine "Russian Messenger" M. Katkov, caused negative criticism, where most of his works were published.

The manifestation of true talent

Only after going through numerous accusations, sometimes reaching direct insults, was N. S. Leskov able to find a real reader. His biography takes a sharp turn in 1872, when the novel "Cathedrals" is printed. Its main theme is the opposition of the true Christian faith to the official one, and the main characters are the clergy of the old time and the nihilists and officials of all ranks and areas, including the church, opposed to them. This novel was the beginning of the creation of works dedicated to the Russian clergy and local nobles who preserve folk traditions. Under his pen, a harmonious and original world arises, built on faith. Present in the works and criticism of the negative aspects of the system that has developed in Russia. Later, this feature of the writer's style will 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 Lefty, drawn in a work whose genre - a workshop legend - was determined by Leskov himself during the first publication. The biography of one has forever become inseparable from the life of another. Yes, and the writing style of the writer is most often recognized precisely by 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 stating 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.

Late creativity

In the 1870s, Leskov was an employee of the educational department of the Scientific 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 accepted his resignation in 1883 as an opportunity to become independent. The main thing for the writer has always been literary activity. “The Enchanted Wanderer”, “The Captured Angel”, “The Man on the Watch”, “The Non-Deadly Golovan”, “The Stupid Artist”, “Evil” - this is a small part of the works that Leskov N. S. writes in the 1870-1880s. Stories and stories unite the images of the righteous - the heroes of the straightforward, fearless, unable to put up with evil. Quite often, memoirs or surviving old manuscripts formed the basis of the works. And among the heroes, along with fictional ones, there were also prototypes of real people, which gave the plot a special authenticity and truthfulness. Over the years, the works themselves acquired more and more satirical and revealing features. As a result, the stories and novels of later years, including The Invisible Trace, The Falcon Flight, The Hare's Remise and, of course, The Devil's Dolls, where Tsar Nicholas I served as the prototype for the protagonist, were not printed at all or were published with big censorship edits. According to Leskov, the publication of works, always rather problematic, in his declining years became completely unbearable.

Personal life

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

In 1865, Nikolai Semenovich got along 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 brief biography is interesting to every connoisseur of Russian classical literature.

In the footsteps of the great writer

N. S. Leskov died on February 21 (March 5, according to the new style), 1895. His body rests at the Volkovskoye 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.

Truly, the memory of the original writer, who often returned to his native places in his works, was immortalized in the Oryol region. Here, in his father's house, the only Literary and Memorial Leskov Museum in Russia 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 items, valuable documents and manuscripts, letters, including the writer's class journal and watercolors depicting Nikolai Semenovich's home and relatives.

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

Russian ethnographer. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was born on February 16 (February 4, according to the old style), 1831, in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, where his mother was visiting rich relatives, and his maternal grandmother also lived there. The Leskov family on the paternal side came from the clergy: the grandfather of Nikolai Leskov (Dmitry Leskov), his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were priests in the village of Leska, Oryol province. From the name of the village of Leski, the family surname Leskovs was formed. The father of Nikolai Leskov, Semyon Dmitrievich (1789-1848), served as a noble assessor of the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court, where he received the nobility. Mother, Marya Petrovna Alferyeva (1813-1886), belonged to the noble family of the Oryol province. Nicholas had six cousins ​​and sisters.

The childhood years of Nikolai Leskov were spent in Orel and on the estates of the Oryol province owned by the parents. Leskov spends several years in the house of the Strakhovs, wealthy relatives from his mother's side, where he was given due to the lack of funds from his parents for homeschooling his son. The Strakhovs hired a Russian, a German teacher, and a Frenchwoman to raise their children. Leskov studies together with his cousins, and far surpasses them in abilities. This caused him to be sent back to his parents.

In 1841, he entered the Oryol gymnasium, but his studies were uneven, and in 1846, unable to pass the transfer exams, he began serving as a scribe in the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court. In those years, he read a lot, rotated in the circle of the Oryol intelligentsia. The sudden death of his father and the "disastrous ruin" of the family changed the fate of Leskov. He moved to Kyiv, under the tutelage of his uncle, a university professor, and began to serve in the Kyiv State Chamber. The influence of the university environment, acquaintance with Polish and Ukrainian cultures, reading A. I. Herzen, L. Feuerbach, L. Buchner, G. Babeuf, friendship with the icon painters of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra laid the foundation for the writer's versatile knowledge.

1850 - Leskov marries the daughter of a Kyiv merchant. The marriage was hasty, the relatives did not approve of it. However, the wedding took place.

In 1857, Leskov began to serve in the private company of a distant relative, the Englishman A. Ya. Shkott. The commercial service required constant traveling, life "in the most remote backwoods", which gave "an abundance of impressions and a supply of everyday information", reflected in a number of articles, feuilletons, notes with which the writer appeared in the Kyiv newspaper "Modern Medicine", in St. Petersburg magazines "Domestic notes" and "Index economic" (here in 1860 he made his printed debut). Leskov's articles dealt with practical issues and were mostly revealing in nature, which created many enemies for him. In the same period, the first-born Leskovs, named Mitya, dies in infancy. This breaks the relationship and so not very close to each other spouses.

In 1860, Schcott and Wilkens went bankrupt, and Leskov had to return to Kyiv. During commercial trips, Leskov accumulated a huge amount of material, which makes it possible to engage in journalism. He began to implement this project in Kyiv, but ambitions pushed him to a wider field of activity, and Leskov went to St. Petersburg.

1862 - a trip abroad as a correspondent for the newspaper "Northern Bee". Leskov visits Western Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, France.

In 1863, Nikolai Leskov's story The Life of a Woman was published in the Library for Reading magazine, then Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1864) and The Warrior Woman (1866). A little later, Leskov made his debut as a playwright. In 1867, the Alexandrinsky Theater staged his play The Spender.

In 1864, under the name of M. Stebnitsky, Leskov's novel Nowhere was published in the popular St. Petersburg magazine Library for Reading. The nihilists were superbly written in the novel, covering their rotten insides with revolutionary ideas and really only wanting to live at someone else's expense and mess around. Nihilism was then a very fashionable topic, many people wrote about it in different ways, but so evil and exactly no writer even tried to encroach on the shrines of the raznochintsy. Naturally, the authorship of Leskov quickly became known, and he was ranked among the reactionaries and agents of the Third Section.

1866 - the birth of his son Andrei. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was he who for the first time compiled a biography of his father.

In 1874, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was appointed a member of the educational department of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Public Education; the main function of the department was "to review the books published for the people." In 1877, thanks to the positive feedback from Empress Maria Alexandrovna about the novel The Cathedral, he was appointed a member of the educational department of the Ministry of State Property.

Since the 70s, the topic of nihilism has become irrelevant for Leskov. If she still sounds strongly in The Cathedral, then in the following things - The Sealed Angel, The Enchanted Wanderer, At World's End and others - Leskov's interest is directed almost entirely towards church-religious and moral issues.

In 1880, Leskov left the Ministry of State Property, and in 1883 he was fired without a petition from the Ministry of Public Education. The resignation, which gave him independence, accepted with joy.

In 1881, Nikolai Leskov published his most famous "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Left-hander and the Steel Flea", which was considered by criticism for a simple recording of an old legend.

Gradually, Leskov, in his own words, "breaks with the church." At the same time, his worldview continued to be deeply religious. Leskov's sympathy for non-church religiosity, for Protestant ethics and sectarian movements especially intensified in the second half of the 1880s and did not leave him until his death. Against this background, Leskov draws closer to L.N. Tolstoy. As a result of the publication of a number of artistic and journalistic anti-church works, Leskov falls into final disfavor with censorship.

Soon, on the basis of plots extracted from the Prologue (an ancient Russian collection of lives and legends), Leskov wrote a series of "legends" from the life of the first Christians ("The Tale of the God-pleasing Woodcutter", 1886; "Buffoon Pamphalon", 1887; "Zeno the Goldsmith", 1890), turning them into an artistic sermon of the "well-read gospel". These works, along with many later novels and stories, permeated with rejection of "church piety, narrow nationality and statehood," strengthened Leskov's reputation as a writer of broad humanistic views.

Vegetarianism occupies a considerable share in the biography of Nikolai Leskov. After meeting L. Tolstoy, Leskov became a staunch vegetarian and published notes on vegetarianism. Nikolai Leskov is the creator of the first vegetarian character in Russian literature (the story "The Figure" in 1889), later introducing them into his other works.

March 5 (February 21), 1895 - Nikolai Semenovich Leskov dies in St. Petersburg. The cause of death is an asthma attack, which tormented the writer for the last 5 years of his life. Buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.

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

In the late period of his work, Leskov wrote a number of satirical stories, many of which were not censored. Nikolai Leskov was a deep psychologist, thanks to which he masterfully described the characters of his heroes.

Most of all, he is known for the famous work “Lefty”, which surprisingly conveys the features of the Russian character.

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

So in front of you short biography of Leskov.

Leskov's biography

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

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

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

The writer's mother, Maria Petrovna, was 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 management. This led to the fact that their family moved to the village of Panino. There they bought a house and began to live 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 teachers were to blame for this, who treated students harshly and often punished them physically.

After studying, Nikolai had to get a job. His father sent him to the criminal chamber as a clerk.

In 1848, a tragedy occurred in Leskov's biography. His father died of cholera, leaving their family without support and a breadwinner.

The following year, at his own request, Leskov got a job in the state chamber in Kyiv. At that time, he lived with his own uncle.

Being at a new workplace, Nikolai Leskov became seriously interested in reading books. He soon began attending the university as a volunteer.

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

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

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

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

Creativity Leskov

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

Initially, he wrote articles on everyday social topics. For example, he denounced officials for 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 short stories, which were positively received by critics.

Inspired by the first success, he continued writing. Soon, very deep and serious essays “The Warrior” and “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” came out from Leskov’s pen.

An interesting fact is that Leskov not only skillfully conveyed the images of his heroes, but also decorated the works with intellectual humor. They often contained sarcasm and skilfully disguised 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 Spender", which tells about the merchant's life, gained particular popularity.

Then Nikolai Leskov published several serious novels, including Nowhere and On Knives. In them, he criticized various kinds of revolutionaries, as well as nihilists.

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

Leskov's next work, which today is included in the compulsory school curriculum, was "Lefty". In it, he described the masters of weapons in paints. 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 was eligible for publication and which was 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 publisher wanted to publish.

The story was different in that many of its plots deliberately did not have a logical conclusion. Critics did not understand Leskov's idea and were very sarcastic about the story.

After that, Nikolai Leskov released 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 negatively received by critics.

In the 80s, signs of religiosity began to clearly appear in his works. In particular, Nikolai Semenovich wrote about early Christianity.

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

This period of his creative biography includes such works as "The Beast", "Scarecrow", "Dumb Artist" and others. 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 the word, N. S. Leskov is quite worthy to stand next to such creators of Russian as L. Tolstoy, Turgenev,. Leskov's talent, in strength and beauty, is not much inferior to the talent of any of the named creators of the sacred writings about the Russian land, and in the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the depth of understanding of its everyday mysteries, and the subtle knowledge of the Great Russian language, he often exceeds his named predecessors and associates.

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 have 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 Andrei 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 Novoe Vremya newspaper, Leskov published an appeal entitled “On the need to publish in Russian a well-composed 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 the Complete Works of A.S. Suvorin in 12 volumes, which included most of his works of art.

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

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