Nikolai Leskov

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (16 February [O.S. 4 February] 1831 – 5 March [O.S. 21 February] 1895) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist, who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held in high esteem by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others, Leskov is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society using mostly short literary forms. His major works include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865) (which was later made into an opera by Shostakovich), The Cathedral Folk (1872), The Enchanted Wanderer (1873), and "The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" (1881).

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.

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: 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. The story "Yudol" is based on his own memories of the famine in Russia in 1840.

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, 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 ".

Work

In June 1847, Leskov joined the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court, where his father worked until 1839, as a clerk (2nd category - from June 30, 1847, 1st category - from July 28, 1848). In July 1848, in the village of Panin, Leskov's father died of cholera. At the end of September 1848, N. S. Leskov received the post of assistant clerk of the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court. After serving there for a year, on September 7, 1849, he receives a two-month vacation and leaves for Kiev, where on September 28 he submits a request for transfer to the staff of the Kiev State Chamber. "Moved to the staff of the Kiev State Chamber" December 31, 1849. In Kiev he lived with his uncle S.P. Alferyev. He served in the Kiev State Chamber as an assistant clerk at the recruiting desk of the revision department from February 24, 1850. He was promoted to collegiate registrar on June 11, 1853, and on October 9, 1853 he was appointed head of the Kiev State Chamber, serving in this position until September 1857. In July 1856 he was promoted to provincial secretary.

In Kiev (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.

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, Leskov wrote "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", which were published in Otechestvennye Zapiski (1861, No. 4). This work is not only about distillery production, but also about agriculture, which, according to Leskov, is “far from being in a flourishing state” in the province, and peasant cattle breeding is “in complete decline.” He believed that distillation interferes with the development of agriculture in the province, "the state of which is bleak in the present and cannot promise anything good in the future ...".

Some time later, however, the trading house ceased to exist, and Leskov returned to Kiev in the summer of 1860, where he took up journalism and literary activities. Six months later, he moved to St. Petersburg,[8] staying with IV Vernadsky.

Pseudonyms of N. S. Leskov

At the beginning of his 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. S.", "S.", 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 ”,“ Psalmist ”,“ Priest. P. Kastorsky”, “Divyank”, “M. P., B. Protozanov", "Nikolay - - ov", "N. L., N. L. - - in", "Lover of antiquity", "Traveler", "Lover of watches", "N. L.", "L.".

Article on fires

In an article about the fires in the newspaper "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 come to the fires for real help, and not for standing" - aroused the wrath of the emperor himself. After reading these lines, Alexander II wrote: “It should not have been skipped, especially since it is a lie”.

"Nowhere"

From the beginning of 1862, N. S. Leskov became a permanent contributor to the Severnaya Pchela newspaper, where he began to write 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, when 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 marks 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 - 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. There were rumors that the novel was written "on order" of the Third Division. This "heinous slander", according to the writer, ruined his entire creative life, making it impossible for many years to publish in popular magazines. This predetermined his rapprochement with M. N. Katkov, the publisher of ''Russkiy vestnik''.

"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 Leskov's "narrative", 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: "where the narrator constantly holds the same views, while the author inclines the reader to completely different, often opposite”. N. S. Leskov himself wrote about this “cunning” of his own style.

As the critic B. Ya. Bukhshtab noted, 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 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.

Leskov was a vegeterian. 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."

last years of life

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 spoke 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 don't 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 Karl 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 works about “a man without direction”, such as the novel “Falcon Flight”) was published in full: the chapters rejected by the censorship appeared after the revolution. The publication of his own works for Leskov has always been a difficult matter, and in the last years of his life turned into unceasing torment[46]. The story "Yudol" about the famine in Russia in 1840 was first published in the magazine "Nedeli" in 1892.

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov died on February 21 [March 5], 1895 in St. Petersburg from another attack of asthma, which tormented him for the last five years of his life. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.