A brief biography of Leskov is the most important thing. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov: biography, creativity and personal life What story was Leskov's last major work
LESKOV Nikolai Semenovich was born in the family of a petty official - a writer.
He studied at the Oryol gymnasium, served as an official in Orel and Kiev. He began his literary activity with articles on economic issues, then he wrote political articles in the newspaper Severnaya pchela. One of his articles on the fires in St. Petersburg (1862) served as the beginning of Leskov's polemics with revolutionary democracy. After leaving for a year abroad, he writes the story "The Musk Ox" (1862) there and begins work on the anti-nihilistic novel "Nowhere", which was published in 1864.
In the story "The Musk Ox" Nikolai Semyonovich draws the image of a revolutionary democrat who sacrifices his entire life to fight for the awakening of class consciousness among the people. But, while portraying the seminarian Bogoslovsky as a pure and selfless person, the writer at the same time laughs at the political propaganda that he conducts among the peasants, shows Bogoslovsky's complete isolation from life, his alienation to the people.
In the novel - "Nowhere" - Leskov draws many images of revolutionary democrats in a sharply satirical, viciously caricatured form. All democratic criticism condemned this novel. Drawing young people living in a commune, the writer wanted to ridicule the specific facts of that time: the commune of the writer V. A. Sleptsov and other communes. The novel "Nowhere" is polemically sharpened against Chernyshevsky's novel "What is to be done?". Leskov gives a completely opposite interpretation of the ideological struggle of the 60s to Chernyshevsky, trying to cross out the program of action that Chernyshevsky outlined for his heroes.
Ideas and actions of the heroes of "What to do?" Nikolai Semenovich reconsiders in his other novel, The Bypassed (1865). Here he gives a completely different resolution and love conflict, and the problems of the labor activity of the heroine (opposing the private workshop to the public workshop of Vera Pavlovna).
In 1862-63, Nikolai Semenovich wrote a number of truly realistic novels and stories about a serf village, in which he paints vivid pictures of poverty, ignorance, and the lack of rights of the peasantry:
"Extinguished business"
"Stingy"
"The life of a woman", as well as the spontaneous protest of the peasants against physical and spiritual bondage.
The story “The Life of a Woman” (1863), which shows the tragic death of a peasant woman defending her right to life with her beloved, is distinguished by a special artistic power. Folklore is used in this story: fairy-tale speech, folk songs.
The same theme of passionate love is unusually vividly resolved in the story. "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district» (1865). Leskov's skill as an artist manifested itself here in the depiction of characters and in the construction of a dramatic plot.
In 1867, Nikolai Semenovich published the drama The Spender, main topic which is a denunciation of the cruelty of the mores of a possessive society. It reveals the ulcers of the bourgeois reality of those years, draws a number of bright types of merchants of the old and new "temper". The play "The Spender", like the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", is characterized by a touch of melodrama, and an anti-nihilistic orientation is felt in it, but all this does not change the deeply realistic depiction of the life of the bourgeoisie. In terms of content and methods of satirical typification, the drama The Spender is close to Shchedrin's comedy The Death of Pazukhin.
In the story "The Warrior" (1866), the writer brilliantly portrayed the satirical type of a misanthropic philistine and hypocrite, a morally crippled environment.
The realistic works of the 1960s, and especially the satire of The Warrior Girl and The Spender, do not give grounds to enroll him unconditionally in the reactionary camp during this period, they rather testify to his lack of firm ideological positions.
Nikolai Semyonovich continued to conduct sharp polemics with the revolutionary-democratic movement in the early 70s.
In 1870 he writes a book « Mysterious person» , where he outlines the biography of the revolutionary Arthur Benny, who was active in Russia. In this book, he draws with contemptuous irony and even anger the revolutionary-democratic movement of the 60s, ridicules the specific figures of this movement: Herzen, Nekrasov, brothers N. Kurochkin and V. Kurochkin, Nichiporenko and others. The book served as a publicistic introduction to the novel On Knives (1871) - an open libel on the democratic movement of those years. The distortion of reality here is so obvious that even Dostoevsky, who at that time created the reactionary novel The Possessed, wrote to A. N. Maikov that in the novel On the Knives "a lot of lies, a lot of the devil knows what, as if it were happening on the moon. Nihilists are distorted to the point of idleness” (“Letters”, vol. 2, p. 320). On the Knives was Leskov's last work entirely devoted to the polemic with revolutionary democracy, although the "specter of nihilism" (Shchedrin's expression) haunted him for a number of years.
With caricature images of nihilists, Nikolai Semenovich spoiled his realistic novel - chronicle The Cathedrals (1872), in which the nihilists essentially play no part. The main storyline of the novel is connected with the spiritual drama of Archpriest Tuberozov and Deacon Achilles, who are fighting against ecclesiastical and secular injustice. These are truly Russian heroes, people with pure soul, knights of truth and goodness. But their protest is futile, the struggle for the “true” church, free from worldly dirt, could not lead to anything. Both Achilles and Tuberozov were alien to the mass of churchmen, that same self-serving mass, inextricably linked with worldly authorities, which the writer portrayed in the chronicle some time later. "Little Things of Bishop's Life".
Very soon, Leskov realized that on the basis of "idealized Byzantium" "it is impossible to develop," and admitted that he would not write "Soboryan" the way they were written. The images of the "Soboryans" laid the foundation for the gallery of the Leskovsky righteous. Describing Leskov’s ideological position in the early 1970s, Gorky wrote: “After the evil novel On the Knives, Leskov’s literary work immediately becomes a vivid painting, or rather, icon painting, he begins to create for Russia an iconostasis of her saints and righteous. He, as it were, set himself the goal of encouraging, inspiring Russia, exhausted by slavery. In the soul of this man, confidence and doubt, idealism and skepticism were strangely combined” (Sobr. soch., vol. 24, M., 1953, pp. 231-233).
Nikolai Semenovichi Leskov begins to overestimate his attitude to the surrounding reality. He openly declares his departure from the reactionary literary camp led by M. N. Katkov. “I cannot but feel for him what a literary person cannot but feel for the killer of his native literature,” the writer writes about Katkov.
He also disagrees with the Slavophiles, as evidenced by his letters to I. Aksakov. During this period, he begins to create satirical works, in which with particular clarity one can see his gradual rapprochement with the democratic camp.
The review story “Laughter and Grief” (1871) opens up a kind of new stage in the creative development of the writer “I began to think responsibly when I wrote “Laughter and Grief”, and since then I have remained in this mood - critical and, according to my strength mine, gentle and condescending,” wrote Leskov later. The story “Laughter and Sorrow” depicts the life of the landowner Vatazhkov, for whom Russia is a country of “surprises”, where an ordinary person is unable to fight: “Here, every step is a surprise, and, moreover, the worst.” The writer showed the deep patterns of the unjust social system only as a chain of accidents - "surprises" that befell the loser Vatazhkov. And yet, this satire provided rich material for reflection. The story not only depicts the life of broad sections of post-reform Russia, but also created a number of vivid satirical types, approaching the types democratic satire those years. The search for satirical techniques in Leskov went under the undoubted influence of Shchedrin, although his satire of the 70s. and devoid of the offensive spirit of Shchedrin. The narrator is usually chosen by Leskov as the most inexperienced in social matters, most often this is an ordinary layman. This determines the characteristic feature of the satire of those years - its everyday life.
Positive images of "Soboryan", the theme of talent, spiritual and physical power of the Russian people are further developed in the stories "The Enchanted Wanderer" And "The Sealed Angel" written in 1873.
The hero of "The Enchanted Wanderer" - Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin - a runaway serf, in appearance reminiscent of Achilles Desnitsytsa from "Cathedrals". All feelings in it are brought to extreme sizes: love, and joy, and kindness, and anger. His heart is full all-encompassing love to the motherland and the long-suffering Russian people. “I really want to die for the people,” says Flyagin. He is a human unbending will, incorruptible honesty and nobility. These qualities of his, like his whole life, filled with great suffering, are typical of the entire Russian people as a whole. Gorky was right, noting the typicality, the nationality of Leskov's heroes: "In every story of Leskov, you feel that his main thought is not about the fate of the person, but the fate of Russia."
The epitome of the bright talent of the Russian people in the story "The Sealed Angel" are the peasants - the builders of the Kiev bridge, striking the British with their art. They understand and feel great beauty ancient Russian painting and are ready to give their lives for it. In the clash between the muzhik artel and greedy, corrupt officials, the moral victory remains on the side of the muzhiks.
In "The Sealed Angel" and "The Enchanted Wanderer" the writer's language reaches extraordinary artistic expressiveness. The story is told on behalf of the main characters, and the reader sees with his own eyes not only the events, the situation, but through speech he sees the appearance and behavior of each, even insignificant, character.
In the work of Nikolai Semenovich of the 70s and subsequent years, the motives of the national identity of the Russian people, faith in their own strength, in the bright future of Russia are extremely strong. These motives formed the basis of the satirical story "Iron Will" (1876), as well as the story "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" (1881).
Nikolai Semenovich created a whole gallery of satirical types in The Tale of the Lefty: Tsar Nicholas I, toadies and cowards of the "Russian" court counts Kiselvrod, Kleinmikheli and others. All of them are a force alien to the people, robbing them and mocking them. They are opposed by a man who is only one and thinks about the fate of Russia, about her glory. This is a talented self-taught craftsman Lefty. Leskov himself noted that Lefty is a generalized image: “In Lefty, I had the idea to bring out more than one person, but where “Levsha” stands, one should read “Russian people”. "Personified by the people's fantasy of the world", endowed with the spiritual wealth of the simple Russian people, Lefty managed to "shame" the British, rise above them, contemptuously treat their secure, wingless practicality and complacency. The fate of Lefty is tragic, as was the fate of the entire oppressed people of Russia. The language of "The Tale of the Lefty" is original. The narrator acts in it as a representative of the people, and therefore his speech, and often his appearance merges with the speech and appearance of Lefty himself. The speech of other characters is also transmitted through the perception of the narrator. He comically and satirically rethinks the language of an environment alien to him (both Russian and English), interprets many concepts and words in his own way, from the point of view of his idea of reality, uses purely folk speech, creates new phrases.
He used the same style of narration in the story "Leon is the butler's son"(1881), stylized as vernacular 17th century The theme of the death of folk talents in Rus', the theme of exposing the feudal system with great artistic skill is solved by the writer in the story "Dumb Artist"(1883). It tells about brutally trampled love, about life ruined by a despot who has power over people. There are few books in Russian literature that capture the period of serfdom with such artistic power.
In the 70-80s. Nikolai Semenovich writes a number of works dedicated to the image of Russian righteous ( "Non-lethal Golovan", "Odnodum", "Pechora antiques"). Many stories are written on the plot of the Gospel and the Prologue. The righteous in the legends of Leskov lost their divine appearance. They acted as genuinely alive, suffering, loving people ("Buffoon Pamphalon", "Ascalon Villain", "Beautiful Aza", "Innocent Prudentius" and others). The legends showed the high mastery of stylization inherent in the author.
A large place in the work of Nikolai Semenovich is occupied by the theme of denunciation of Russian clergy. It acquires a particularly sharp, satirical coloring from the end of the 70s. This was due to the evolution of Leskov's worldview, his concern for the fight against the ignorance of the people, with his age-old prejudices.
A very characteristic book of satirical essays "Little Things of Bishop's Life"(1878-80), in which the pettiness, tyranny, money-grubbing of the “holy fathers”, as well as the Jesuit laws of the church and government on marriage, used by the church hierarchy for their own selfish purposes, are evilly ridiculed. The book inconsistently mixes both very important and petty, and sharp satire and simply feuilletons, anecdotal facts, and yet, on the whole, it hits hard on the church as a faithful servant of the exploiting classes, exposes its reactionary social role, although not from an atheistic position , but from the false positions of its renewal. During this period, the writer re-evaluates the positive images of the clergy he had previously created, including the images of the "Cathedrals". “Oaths to allow; bless knives, consecrate weaning through force; divorce marriages; enslave children; provide protection from the Creator or curse and do thousands more vulgarity and meanness, falsifying all the commandments and requests of the “righteous man hung on the cross” - this is what I would like to show people, ”Leskov writes with anger. In addition to "The Little Things of the Bishop's Life", Nikolai Semenovich wrote a large number of anti-church stories and essays, which were included (together with "The Little Things of the Bishop's Life") in the 6th volume of his first collection. op., which, by order of spiritual censorship, was confiscated and burned.
Satirical images of priests-spies and bribe-takers are also found in many of his works:
"Sheramur"
in a series of novels
"Notes from an Unknown",
"Christmas Stories",
"Stories by the Way",
stories
"Midnight",
"Winter day" ,
"Hare Remise" and others.
In his anti-church satire, Nikolai Semenovich followed Tolstoy, who began in the 80s. fight against the established church. L. Tolstoy had a great influence on the formation of the writer's ideology and on his work, especially in the 80s, but Leskov was not a Tolstoy and did not accept his theory of non-resistance to evil. The process of democratization of the writer's work becomes especially evident in the 80s and 90s. The writer follows the path of deepening the criticism of reality, subjecting at the same time to a radical revision of his previous views and beliefs. He approaches the solution of the main social problems that were at the center of attention of the democratic literature of this period.
The evolution of Leskov's worldview was difficult and painful. In a letter to the critic Protopopov, he speaks of his “difficult growth”: “Noble tendencies, church piety, narrow nationality and statehood, the glory of the country, and the like. I grew up in all this, and all this often seemed disgusting to me, but ... I did not see “where the truth is”!
IN satirical works 80s a great place is occupied by the struggle against the anti-people bureaucratic apparatus of the autocracy. In this struggle, he went along with Shchedrin, Chekhov and L. Tolstoy. He creates a number of satirically generalized types of predatory officials, personifying the anti-people nature of the autocracy:
"White Eagle" ,
"Simple Remedy",
"Old Genius"
"The Man on the Clock".
The images of the bourgeoisie depicted in the stories
"Midnight",
"Chertogon",
"Robbery"
"Selective Grain" and others, have much in common with similar images of Shchedrin, Nekrasov, Ostrovsky, Mamin-Sibiryak. But the main focus of the writer is moral character bourgeois, leaving aside his political activities.
In the early 90s. Nikolai Semenovich created a number of politically sharp satirical works:
stories
"Administrative Grace" (1893),
"Zagon" (1893),
"Midnight" (1891),
"Winter Day" (1894),
"Lady and fefela" (1894),
The main feature of these works is their open orientation against the reaction of the 80-90s, direct defense of the progressive forces of Russia, in particular the revolutionaries, showing the spiritual, moral corruption of the ruling classes and an angry denunciation of their methods of political struggle against the revolutionary movement. The colors of satire also became evil, became immeasurably thinner drawing image, everyday satire gave way to social satire, deep generalizations appeared, expressed in figurative and journalistic form. Leskov was well aware of the destructive power of these works: “My latest works about Russian society are very cruel ... 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, let her read... I want to scourge and torment her. The novel becomes an indictment of life."
In the story “Administrative Grace”, he depicts the struggle of the united reactionary camp represented by the minister, the governor, the priest and the police against a progressive-minded professor who was driven to suicide by their harassment and slander. This story could not be published during the life of the writer and appeared only in Soviet times.
In the essay "Zagon", Nikolai Semenovich's satire achieves a particularly broad political generalization. Drawing pictures of the poor and wild life of the people, who do not believe in any reforms carried out by the masters, He shows no less wild, full of superstitions, the life of the ruling society. This society is led by "apostles" of obscurantism and reaction like Katkov, who preach the separation of Russia by the "Chinese wall" from other states, the formation of their own Russian "pen". The ruling circles and the reactionary press that expresses their opinion strive to keep the people forever in bondage and ignorance. Without resorting to hyperbole in the essay, he selects such real-life facts that look even more striking than the most evil satirical hyperbole. The journalistic intensity of Leskov's satire here is in many respects close to Shchedrin's satire, although Leskov could not rise to Shchedrin's heights of satirical generalization.
Even more vivid and diverse in their artistic form are the satirical stories of Leskov N.S. “Midnight”, “Winter Day”, “Hare Remise”. They created positive images of progressive youth fighting for the rights of the people. Basically, these are images of noble girls who have broken with their class. But Leskov's ideal is not an active revolutionary, but an educator who fights for the improvement of the social system by means of moral persuasion, by promoting the gospel ideals of goodness, justice, and equality.
The "Midnight Men" captures the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois life of the 80s, with its ignorance, cruelty, fear of the social movement and faith in the miracles of the obscurantist John of Kronstadt. The plastic expressiveness of the images of the Midnight Men is achieved by the writer mainly by emphasizing their social qualities and a peculiar, uniquely individual language. Here, Nikolai Semenovich also creates satirical images-symbols, defining the essence of their nicknames: "Echidna", "Tarantula" and the like.
But the results of Leskov's ideological evolution and the artistic achievements of his satire in the story "Hare Remise" depicting the political struggle during the reaction of the 1980s are especially expressive. Speaking about the Aesopian style in this story, Leskov wrote: “There is a “delicate matter” in the story, but everything that is ticklish is very carefully disguised and deliberately confused. The flavor is Little Russian and crazy.” In this story, Nikolai Semenovich showed himself to be a brilliant student of Shchedrin and Gogol, who continued their traditions in a new historical setting. In the center of the story is Onopry Peregud, a nobleman and former bailiff, who is being treated in a lunatic asylum. He became obsessed with catching "Sicilists", which was demanded of him by the Okhrana and local police and spiritual authorities. “What a terrible environment in which he lived ... For mercy, what head can endure this and maintain a sound mind!” - says one of the heroes of the story. Peregud is a servant and at the same time a victim of the reaction, a pitiful and terrible offspring of the autocratic system. The methods of satirical typification in the "Hare Remise" are conditioned by the political task set by Leskov: to depict the social system of Russia as a kingdom of arbitrariness and madness. Therefore, Nikolai Semenovich used the means of hyperbole, satirical fiction, and the grotesque.
“Leskov Nikolai Semenovich is a magician of words, but he did not write plastically, but told stories, and in this art he has no equal,” wrote M. Gorky.
Indeed, Leskov's style is characterized by the fact that the main attention is paid to the speech of the character, with the help of which a complete picture of the era, the specific environment, the character of people, and their actions is created. The secret of the verbal mastery of Nikolai Semenovich lies in his excellent knowledge of folk life, life, ideological and moral features of the appearance of all estates and classes of Russia 2nd half of XIX V. “I pierced all of Rus',” one of Gorky’s heroes aptly said about Leskov.
Died -, Petersburg.
Russian writers. Biobibliographic dictionary.
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. WITH 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 . - "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 a Russian folk character and at the same time 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. Late Leskov spoke extremely sharply about Orthodox Church, sharply criticized modern social 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 styles and genre traditions: essay, everyday and literary anecdote, memoir literature, grassroots popular literature, church literature, romantic poem and story, 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: Nikolay Leskov, detailed biography Leskov, criticism, download biography, free download, abstract, Russian literature of the 19th century, writers of the 19th century
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov is a unique, original Russian writer, an enchanted wanderer of Russian literature.
Family and childhood
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on February 16 (February 4 - according to the old style) 1831 in the Oryol province - in the village of the Oryol district.
Father - Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), came from a family of clergymen. And the father of Semyon Dmitrievich, and grandfather, and great-grandfather ruled the holy service in the village, hence the family name - Leskovs. After graduating from the Sevsk Seminary, Semyon Dmitrievich returned home. However, despite the will of the parent, he irrevocably abandoned the spiritual career. For which he was expelled from the house by his father, who had a very sharp disposition. Well educated, smart, active person. Initially, Leskov labored in the field of tutoring. He very successfully taught in the homes of local nobles, which won him a decent reputation, and also received many flattering reviews. As a result, one of the patrons recommended him to the "crown service". Starting his career from the bottom, Semyon Dmitrievich rose to the high position of a noble assessor in the chamber of the criminal court of the Oryol province. The position he held gave him the right to a hereditary title of nobility. Leskov the father was known as a man of insight. He was a talented investigator, able to unravel the most tricky case. However, after serving for almost 30 years, he was forced to retire without a pension. The reason for this was a skirmish with the governor and the unwillingness of Semyon Dmitrievich himself to make a possible compromise. Upon his retirement, Semyon Dmitrievich bought a small estate - the Panin farm in the Kromsky district and took up agriculture. Having been quite a “peasant”, he became disillusioned in every possible way with a quiet rural life, which he subsequently repeatedly stated to his son, Nikolai Leskov. In 1848 he died suddenly during a cholera epidemic.
The mother of Nikolai Semyonovich, Maria Petrovna Leskova (nee Alferyeva, 1813-1886), was a dowry, a representative of an impoverished noble family.
The first years of his life, little Nikolai lived in Gorokhov, on the estate of the Strakhov family, rich relatives on the maternal side. He was far from the only child in the family. Leskov lived surrounded by six cousins and sisters. Russian and German teachers, as well as a French governess, were invited to teach the children to the family. Being very gifted by nature, the boy stood out sharply against the background of other children. For this he was disliked by his cousins. Under these circumstances, the maternal grandmother, who lives there, wrote a letter to Nikolai's father and asked him to take the boy to her, which was done.
In Orel, the Leskovs lived on Third Noble Street. In 1839, Leskov Sr. retired and bought the estate - Panin Khutor. Staying at "Panin Khutor" made an indelible impression on the future writer Leskov. Direct communication with simple, peasant people most directly affected the formation of their worldview. Subsequently, Leskov will say: “I did not study the people from conversations with St.
Writer's youth
At the age of 10, Nikolai was sent to study at the Oryol gymnasium. Thanks to his innate abilities, the young man studied easily, but after 5 years of study, Leskov did not receive a certificate. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact reasons for this event. As a result, the young man received only a certificate stating that he was studying at the gymnasium. Using old connections, the father arranged the young man as a scribe in the office of the Oryol Criminal Chamber. And in 1848, at the age of seventeen, Nikolai became assistant clerk in the same institution. Work in the criminal chamber gives Leskov initial life experience, which in the future greatly helped in his literary work. In the same year, as a result of severe fires, the Leskovs lost their already modest fortune. Leskov's father died of cholera.
After the death of his father, Alferyev S.P. Leskov moved to Kyiv. There, thanks to the efforts of his uncle, he went to work in the Kyiv Treasury Chamber as an assistant clerk of the recruiting audit department. Moving to Kyiv allowed Leskov to fill in the gaps in education. He had the opportunity to privately listen to university lectures, which the young man did not fail to take advantage of. He absorbed all new knowledge like a sponge: medicine, agriculture, statistics, painting, architecture and much more. Kyiv impressed the young man with its amazing ancient architecture and painting, aroused a lively interest in ancient Russian art. In the future, Leskov became a prominent expert on these subjects. The range of his interests was unspeakably wide. He read a lot. In those years, his favorite authors were Shevchenko. Leskov knew Taras Shevchenko personally. During his life in Kyiv, Nikolai mastered the Ukrainian and Polish languages.
The progressive student environment of that time was carried away by advanced, revolutionary ideas. The writings were especially popular. This hobby did not pass and our hero. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the young Leskov was distinguished by his temper and despotism, he was not comfortable in disputes. He often acted as a stern moralist, although he himself was not a puritan. Nikolai was a member of a student religious and philosophical circle, studied the traditions of Russian pilgrimage, communicated with the Old Believers, comprehended the secrets of icon painting. Subsequently, Leskov admitted that in those years he did not have a clear idea of who he ultimately wants to become.
In 1853, despite the protests of his relatives, Leskov married Olga Smirnova, the daughter of a wealthy Kyiv landlord. During this period, Leskov significantly advanced in the service, was promoted to collegiate registrars, and a little later was appointed head of the Treasury Kyiv Chamber. In 1854, Nikolai Semenovich gave birth to the first-born - son Dmitry, and in 1856 - daughter Vera.
In 1855 the Emperor dies. His death served as a solid impetus for the further spread of free-thinking ideas in various strata of Russian society. Many bans have been lifted. The new king, essentially a conservative, in order to cool the hotheads, was forced to implement liberal reforms. In 1861 - the abolition of serfdom, followed by judicial, urban, military, zemstvo reforms.
Having agreed to a job offer received from a relative, the husband of a maternal aunt, an Englishman A. Ya. Shkot, Leskov retired in 1857. He left Kyiv, which he loved, and moved with his family to permanent residence in the Penza province - in the village of Gorodishchensky district. Leskov's new field of activity is work at the Schcott and Wilkens company. The company was engaged in trade in agricultural products, distillery production, as well as the production of parquet boards. It was occupied by settlers - peasants from the Oryol province. On the business of the company, Leskov traveled a lot around, during his trips he saw the most diverse aspects of real Russian life. The result is a huge number of observations made during business trips, as well as a large practical experience acquired during this most active period for Leskov. Memories of these wanderings in the future will serve as a bright beacon for the creation of unique Leskovsky works. Later, Nikolai Leskov recalled these years as the best years in his life, when he saw a lot and "lived easily." It is very likely that it was at that time that Leskov formed a clear, definite desire to convey his thoughts to Russian society.
First attempts at pen
In 1860, the Schcott and Wilkens company went bankrupt. Leskov returned to Kyiv. His goal is to study journalism and literature. After a short period of time, Leskov moved to, where he settled in the apartment of his Kyiv friend, the famous political economist and publisher Ivan Vasilyevich Vernadsky. Together with him, the official A.I. Nichiporenko, a Russian revolutionary, one of the most active emissaries of Herzen in Russia, lived in the apartment. In St. Petersburg, Leskov launched an active journalistic activity. The first attempts at writing followed in Vernadsky's journal Economic Index. Leskov wrote several poignant articles on various topics: agriculture, industry, the problem of drunkenness and many others. He was published in many well-known publications: in the "Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti", in the journals "Domestic Notes", "Modern Medicine". In literary circles, Leskov was noted as a bright and talented author. He was invited to the position of a permanent employee in the newspaper "Northern Bee".
Nikolai Semenovich actively wrote topical essays, feuilletons, biting articles. One of the articles he wrote had a rather serious impact on the fate of the writer. The material was devoted to fires in Shchukin and Apraksin yards. At that time, there were rumors in the city about revolutionary students allegedly involved in arson. In his article, the writer turned to the authorities with a request to refute such offensive statements, but the democratic camp perceived such an appeal as a denunciation. In the same article, Leskov writes about the inaction of the fire brigade during the disaster, which was perceived as a criticism of the existing government. The article turned out to be objectionable to both revolutionaries and reactionaries. It came down to the king himself. After reading the article, Alexander II issued a verdict: "It should not have been missed, especially since it is a lie."
In 1862, after a scandal broke out, the editors of the Northern Bee sent Leskov on a long trip abroad. The writer went abroad for the first time, he visits the Baltic States, Poland, and then France. There, abroad, Leskov begins work on his first novel, Nowhere. A visit to Europe further strengthened Leskov's thoughts about the unpreparedness of Russian society for radical, revolutionary changes. The course of the peasant reform in 1861 forced Leskov, like many other progressive people of that time, to rethink Russian reality. Leskov, hitherto considered a liberal, a follower of the most advanced ideas, found himself on the other side of the barricades.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was a man who deeply knew, understood, and felt his native Russian people. At some point, he saw the scale of a possible catastrophe that could completely destroy the very foundations of Russian traditional life. A true understanding of Russian reality set Leskov on his own path. The ideas of social utopias, requiring a radical reorganization of society, no longer attracted him. Leskov preaches the ideas of spiritual self-improvement, the development of the culture of Russian society. In his amazing works, he will talk about great power"small things".
However, despite the fact that Leskov became a champion of completely different ideas, the authorities still continued to consider him a nihilist, although in reality he never was. The police report "On writers and journalists" in 1866 noted that "Leskov is an extreme socialist and, sympathizing with everything anti-government, shows nihilism in all forms."
The beginning of his writing career dates back to 1863, the first stories of the writer "The Musk Ox" and "The Life of a Woman" are published. Leskov creates under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Interesting feature, Leskov had a huge amount literary pseudonyms: "Stebnitsky", "Leskov-Stebnitsky", "Nikolai Ponukalov", "Freishits", "Nikolai Gorokhov", "V. Peresvetov", "Dm.m-ev", "N.", "Someone", "Member of Society", "Lover of Antiquity", "Psalm Reader" and many others. In 1864, the Library for Reading magazine published Leskov's first novel, Nowhere, a work of anti-nihilist orientation. Progressive, democratic public "stood on its hind legs". A wave of deafening criticism fell upon the work. The notorious D. I. Pisarev wrote: “Apart from the Russkiy Vestnik, is there now in Russia at least one magazine that would dare to print on its pages something coming from the pen of Stebnitsky and signed by his name? Is there at least one honest writer in Russia who will be so careless and indifferent to his reputation that he will agree to work in a magazine that adorns itself with stories and novels by Stebnitsky?
In 1865, Nikolai Semenovich entered into a civil marriage with his widow Ekaterina Bubnova. A year later, they had a son, Andrei, who later wrote a book about his famous father. It should be noted that Leskov's first wife suffered mental disorder. In 1878, the woman was placed in a St. Petersburg hospital on the Pryazhka River, the famous S.P. Botkin oversaw the treatment.
In the same year, 1865, Leskov's second novel, The Bypassed, was published.
On the way to the Enchanted Wanderer
In 1866, the novel The Islanders was published. Interesting detail: the ingenious one of the first drew attention to Leskov. Dostoevsky considered Leskov great writer, and by his own admission, he borrowed a lot from him, especially in terms of the artistry of the images. Agree that the words of a human writer of this level were worth a lot, a lot.
In 1870, the novel “On the Knives” was published in the Russky Vestnik magazine (published by M.N. Katkov). The release of this work finally secured the glory of a conservative for Leskov. The author himself considered the novel extremely unsuccessful.
The year 1872 was marked by the appearance of the novel-chronicle "Cathedrals". landmark work, which touched upon the deepest questions of the spirituality of Russian society. On its pages, Leskov spoke about the dangers that lay in wait for Russia as a result of the inevitable spiritual decay. Nihilists - people without ideals and principles, according to the writer, were worse than any, the most fanatical revolutionary. Now we, people of another time, have the opportunity to appreciate the prophetic meaning of this work. The novel-chronicle "Cathedrals" is rightfully considered one of the best creations of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov.
In the summer of 1872, Leskov went to and further to Valaam. A visit to Valaam served as an impetus for writing a stunning, unique work - "The Enchanted Wanderer". Initially, it was called "Chernozemny Telemak", under this name it was proposed for publication in the "Russian Bulletin". However, M. N. Katkov refused to publish the story, considering it "raw". As a result, Leskov terminated the contract with the Russky Vestnik magazine. Even before that, Leskov had repeatedly stated the difficulties of working with Katkov, the reason for this was the most severe censorship introduced by this publisher. But in 1873 the story was published in the Russkiy Mir newspaper. The full title is "The Enchanted Wanderer, His Life, Experiences, Opinions and Adventures".
From 1874 to 1883 Leskov served in the special department "On the Review of Books Published for the People" under the Ministry of Public Education. In 1877, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, impressed by Leskov's novel "The Soboryane", gave him protection for a position - a member of the educational department in the Ministry of State Property. These positions gave the writer a modest income. In the same year, Leskov officially divorced his first wife.
In 1881, Leskov wrote and published "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea", a work that has become a cult.
The then worldview of Leskov was vividly expressed by the cycle of essays "Trifles of Bishop's Life". The work was published from 1878 to 1883, it described the life of the highest church hierarchs. Needless to say, what extremely negative feedback called Essays on the part of the church leadership. Chief Prosecutor of the Synod - lobbied for Leskov's resignation from his position in the ministry. Now, finding himself without a position, Leskov completely, without a trace, devoted himself to writing.
At the end of the 1880s. Leskov approached. He recognized the teachings of Tolstoy as "true Christianity". Tolstoy called Leskov "the most Russian of our writers." Also, like Lev Nikolaevich, Leskov was a vegetarian. Leskov's vegetarianism was reflected even in his work. For the first time in Russian literature, he created vegetarian characters. Nikolai Semenovich was one of the first authors who drew public attention to the issue of animal protection.
A special place in the writer's work is occupied by a collection of stories and legends compiled by the author himself called "The Righteous". Leskov told us the background to the creation of the collection: the writer experienced "fierce anxiety." The reason was caused by the ominous statement of the “great Russian writer” (it was A.F. Pisemsky), who accused Leskov of seeing only “nasty things” and “abominations” in all his compatriots. According to Leskov, this was deeply unfair, extreme and overwhelming pessimism. “How,” I thought, “can it really be that neither in my, nor in his, nor in anyone else’s Russian soul can you see anything but rubbish? Is it possible that everything good and good that the artistic eye of other writers has ever noticed is one fiction and nonsense? It's not only sad, it's scary." The search for the true Russian soul, faith in real good people prompted the writer to create this unique collection. The collection was compiled gradually, it was based on the cycle of works "Three righteous and one Sheramur". Later, such stories were added as: "The Enchanted Wanderer", "The Non-Deadly Golovan", "Lefty", "The Silverless Engineers" and others.
... I blamed myself
In 1889, a ten-volume collection of Leskov's works began to be published (the 11th and 12th volumes were added later). The publication enjoyed considerable success with the public. Thanks to the royalties from the publication, Leskov even managed to somewhat improve his greatly shaken financial situation. However, this event, in addition to joy, brought with it grief - a heart attack, apparently, that struck Leskov right on the stairs of the printing house. The attack occurred after Leskov found out that the sixth volume of the collection (dedicated to religious issues) was detained by censorship.
Leskov's work has become a unique page in Russian literature. Like all brilliant authors, he is unique in his highest spiritual work. An inimitable master of the artistic word. Bright, original, sarcastic, searching. He occupies his own special place in the golden sky of great Russian literature.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on March 5 (February 21 according to the old style), 1895 in St. Petersburg. Information about the cause of the writer's death is contradictory: according to one version, it was an asthma attack, which he suffered in the last years of his life, according to another, as we have already noted, an angina attack. However, it is known for certain that a couple of years before his death, the writer bequeathed: “At my funeral, I ask you not to speak about me. I know that there is a lot of evil in me and that I do not deserve any praise or regret. Anyone who wants to blame me must know that I blamed myself."
Nikolai Leskov was buried at the Literary bridges of the Volkov cemetery with the silence bequeathed to him.
Dmitry Sytov
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 stories and plays, novels and tales - works in a special art style, whose founders today are Nikolai Leskov and Nikolai Gogol.
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 “he became infected with the then fashionable heresy, for which he later condemned himself more than once ... he quit the rather successfully started public 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. his first literary work Leskov himself called "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 teams sent to 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 began to take shape special style writer - 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 heroes under 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 ” literary creativity Leskov 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.
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 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 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 I remember future writer and began his knowledge of the people.
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.
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 Kiev 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.
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 "St. 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, 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
IN 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 come 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 household ones, ethnographic themes, but also - critical articles directed, in particular, against "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", satirically depicting the life of a nihilistic commune, which was opposed by the industriousness of the Russian people and Christian family values, provoked the 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 "vile slander", according to the writer, spoiled his whole creative life, for many years depriving him of the opportunity to be published in popular magazines. 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 new version own work - in gratitude for the bibliography of 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 of M. Stebnitsky” promised to print in the second volume “the experience of a peasant novel” - “Cupid in paws”, 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. by modern criticism practically ignored, subsequently they received the highest marks of 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 the novel What Is to Be Done by N. G. Chernyshevsky, 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 emerging in those years in Russia revolutionary movement, in the view of the writer fused 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 no longer returned 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 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 story of which is sustained in the traditions heroic epic, "from all sides are surrounded by figures of the new time - nihilists, swindlers, civil and church officials of a 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 Rundown Family” (full title: “The Rundown 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 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, 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 people 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 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 covertly 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 years
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 "journeys" and legends about miraculous icons, and subsequently recognized as one of the best works of the writer, Lesk'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.”
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 traditional modern novel. Subsequently, it was noted that the image of the hero Ivan Flyagin resembles epic Ilya 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 rooms newspapers. 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 in this way: “It is terrible and unbearable ... to see one “rubbish” in the Russian soul, which has become the main subject 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 sketches "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 protection from 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” - this is 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 fall 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 intended 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 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. 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 collection works” in 12 volumes (republished in 1897 by A.F. Marx), which included mostly his works of art (moreover, in the first edition, the 6th volume was not censored).
In 1902-1903, A.F. Marx's printing house (as an appendix to the Niva magazine) published a 36-volume collection of works, in which the editors also tried to collect the writer's journalistic legacy and which caused a wave of public interest in the writer's work.
After the revolution of 1917, 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 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.
Individualization of characters' language and speech characteristics Heroes N. S. Leskov considered 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. Family life Leskova was unsuccessful: his wife Olga Vasilievna suffered mental illness and in 1878 she 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 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). TO various aspects vegetarianism, food ethics and animal protection Leskov also addresses issues 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 Salt Pillar" (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 literary reserve"Nest of the Nobles" opened the house-museum of N. S. Leskov.
- 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), established 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 - Andrey Leskov, throughout for long years worked 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
place 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)
- Cathedrals (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)
- 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 - historical sketch, written at the dying request of Ivan Danilovich Pavlovsky.
