Shoe a flea, you can get acquainted with an enchanted wanderer only when you plunge into the artistic world of the famous writer Nikolai Semenovich. A brief biography of Nikolai Leskov allows you to understand what he talks about in his works.

Nikolai was born in the Oryol province in the small village of Gorohovo in February 1831. His mother came to this area to visit relatives, but it turned out that this visit also served as the birth of the future writer. Relatives were rich and prosperous people. It is worth noting that the Leskov family belongs in its origin to the clergy. So, all the men on the paternal side were priests in the village of Leska, which belongs to the Oryol region. Hence the name of the writer Nikolai Semenovich - Leskovy.

Leskov's parents are pious people, but they have a title of nobility. So, the father of the future writer Leskov Semyon Dmitrievich was a servant of the chamber of the criminal court, for such service he was granted the title of a nobleman. The mother of Nikolai Semenovich, Marya Mikhailovna, bore the surname Alferyev as a girl, and belonged to a family where the noble family was passed down from generation to generation.

Born in the village of Gorokhovo, in the house of a close relative, Nikolai spent the first years of his life with the Strakhovs. Until the age of 8, he lived and was brought up with his cousins ​​and brothers, of whom he had 6 people. To teach children in this family, teachers were hired, both of Russian origin and German, as well as a Frenchwoman.

But soon Nikolai showed his talents and began to do much better in his studies than his cousins ​​and brothers. Of course, this state of affairs did not please the parents of the children, so very soon the future writer was disliked. Grandmother, the mother of Nikolai's father, wrote a letter to her son asking him to take the boy home. So, at the age of 8, the future writer finally got to the house of his parents, who at that time lived in Orel. But Nikolai Semenovich did not have to live long in this city, because the family soon moved to the Panino estate. So, his father was engaged in farming and farming, and Nikolai was sent to study at the Oryol gymnasium. The future writer at that time was 10 years old.

Nikolai Semenovich studied at the gymnasium for five years and proved himself to be a talented and gifted student, who was very easy to study. But in the 4th grade, he did not pass the exam well, and suddenly, unexpectedly for the teachers, he refused to retake it. As a result of this situation, he was issued a certificate instead of a certificate. It was impossible to continue his studies without a certificate, so he was forced to go to work.

Father helped Nikolai Semenovich find a position as a scribe in the Oryol Criminal Chamber. At the age of 17, he held the position of assistant clerk in the same chamber. But in 1848, Nikolai's father suddenly dies and another relative, Alferyev, wants to help in the future fate of the young man. The professor at Kiev University was the husband of his mother's sister, and he offers Nikolai Semenovich to move to him in Kiev.

Nikolai Semenovich accepted the invitation of a relative and already in 1849 he moved to Kiev, where already in the Kiev chamber he occupied the position of assistant clerk, but already on the recruiting table. And here, quite unexpectedly for all relatives, Leskov decides to marry. Parents try to dissuade him, but to no avail. His fiancee was the daughter of a well-known merchant in Kiev, and besides, he was also a rich man. But the interests of the spouses, as it turned out later, turned out to be completely different, and the death of the first child only increased the gap between them. And already in 1860 this marriage practically did not exist.

But at the same time, his promotion begins: 1853 - a collegiate registrar, then a clerk. In 1856 he was provincial secretary. 1857 - an agent of the Schcott and Wilkins company, which was headed by Leskov's aunt's husband, an Englishman who came to Russia. On the business of this company, Nikolai Semenovich had to travel a lot, so he managed to visit many cities. He spent three years in this service and decided to try his hand at literary work. He enjoyed writing very much. But he did not want to publish his works under his real name, so he used the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. But then he came up with other pseudonyms: Nikolai Gorokhov, V., Peresvetov, Freishits and others. For example, there were such interesting ones as the Watch Lover, or the Man from the Crowd.

In 1861, Nikolai Semenovich moved to St. Petersburg. He publishes his articles in the most popular magazines of the time. But, only after leaving his homeland, Leskov begins to write novels.

Nikolai Semenovich dies in early March 1895 in St. Petersburg. His death was not a surprise, because he had been suffering from asthma attacks for 5 years and he died from her next attack.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on February 16 (Old Style 4) February 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, in the family of an official (the son of a priest); his mother was a noblewoman. The writer's childhood years were spent in the Orel estate of his mother's relatives, and then in Orel. The future writer studied at the Oryol gymnasium, but the death of his father and the fire that destroyed almost all the property of the family did not give him the opportunity to complete the course. Since 1847, he was in the service, first in the Oryol criminal, then in the Kiev state chamber. He replenished the lack of education by reading, attended lectures on agronomy, criminalistics, state law, and anatomy as a volunteer at Kiev University.
In 1853, Leskov married the daughter of a Kiev merchant, Olga Vasilievna Smirnova. In 1857, he retired and entered the private service of his relative, who managed large estates. Working as his assistant, he travels a lot around the country, accompanying the migrant peasants.
In 1861, Leskov parted with his wife and moved to St. Petersburg to devote himself entirely to literary creativity. Shortly before that, his essays and articles appeared in St. Petersburg magazines. One of these articles - about the fires in St. Petersburg (the author demands either to refute the rumors that the fires were organized by students, or to find and punish those responsible) - served as the beginning of his long polemic with the revolutionary democrats. Leskov became the object of insulting suspicions. Undeserved resentment prompted him to go abroad (as a correspondent for the newspaper Severnaya pchela), and most importantly, to change his views on progress and the path to it, on the revolutionary movement.
In the 60s, Leskov wrote novels and stories, mainly devoted to the life of provincial Russia; the most famous of them are “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, “The Life of a Woman”, “Warrior”. Many of his works are published under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. In the second half of the 60s - early 70s. anti-Hilistic novels “Nowhere”, “On Knives” appear. The latter brought the writer scandalous fame and became a kind of crisis, which ended with Leskov settling scores with the revolutionary movement of the 60s.
In 1865, Ekaterina Stepanovna Bubnova became Leskov's common-law wife; in 1866 their son Andrey (the future biographer of the writer) was born.
Since the beginning of the 70s. the second half of Leskov's activity begins, almost free from the topic of the day. The great success of the novel "Soboryane" allowed both the readers and the author himself to determine his main talent and vocation - to see and show the bright colors of the most gray, at first glance, positions and layers of Russian life. One after another, excellent novels and stories appear: “The Sealed Angel”, “The Enchanted Wanderer”, “The Non-Deadly Golovan”, which made up a special volume in Leskov's Collected Works under the general title “The Righteous”. In 1881, the famous "Lefty" was presented to readers.
In the late 70s, in the 80s. the writer's relations with the liberal press are improving. According to this reconciliation, Leskov's attitude towards the "conservatives" changed significantly, which was reflected in his official career. He is fired from the ministries (Public Education and State Property, in the educational departments of which he managed to work for a very short time). The writer, however, gladly accepted the resignation, seeing in it a confirmation of his independence.
Leo Tolstoy, whom they met in 1887, had a great influence on Leskov. Partly under this influence, the writer devoted himself almost exclusively to the interests and questions of religious and moral, which always worried him.
In the last 12–15 years of his life, Leskov's literary position was ambivalent. Despite the big name, he was lonely, did not constitute a literary center. Criticism did little for him. This did not prevent, however, the great success of his complete works. Censorship bans are imposed on some of Leskov's works, which affects both his health and his psychological state.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died in St. Petersburg on March 5 (February 21, according to the old style), 1895.

Writing

1. The origins of Leskov's folk art.
2. Debut in literature.
3. History in the works of the writer.

I did not study the people ... I grew up among the people in 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 in the Panin's hustle and bustle. I was my own person with the people.
N. S. Leskov

N. S. Leskov was born in 1831 in the family of a poor judicial employee, in the village of Gorokhov in the Oryol region. The family lived in the rich estate of M. Strakhov - his wife was Nikolai's own aunt. Until the age of eight, he traveled with his grandmother on a pilgrimage to the monasteries, under her supervision the boy was raised. With cousins, Nikolai received an education and a secular upbringing. From the Leskov estate they moved to a house in Orel, next to the monastery settlement - Nikolai was interested in the "spiritual", met with them. In 1839, his father retired, and the family, having sold the house, moved to the Panino farm. Since childhood, the boy was fascinated by his native nature, Russian antiquity, folk beliefs awakened his imagination. In the village he lived, enjoying absolute freedom, he knew the life of the people in all its manifestations. Folk art, communication with peasants gave the future writer an understanding of the spirituality of the people.

After five years of study at the Oryol gymnasium, in 1846 he refused to re-examine and was fired, which he later regretted. His father gave him as a scribe to the criminal chamber, where thousands of human destinies passed before his eyes. In 1848, Nikolai's father died of cholera. The family was sheltered in Kiev by a maternal uncle, professor of medicine S.P. Alferyev. Nikolai was enrolled as an assistant clerk at the recruiting desk of the Kiev Treasury. In 1857, Leskov left Kiev to serve another uncle in the Penza province - the Englishman A. Ya. As a trustee from the company, Leskov traveled all over Russia in three years! His written reports attracted attention and soon Leskov was published in Kiev newspapers. He entered literature quite late, at the age of thirty. He is invited to the Moscow newspaper "Russian speech", where he gains a reputation as a talented publicist.

Living in St. Petersburg, he writes essays, feuilletons, literary-critical reviews, journalistic articles, such as "On the working class", "On the hiring of working people", "Consolidated marriages in Russia", "Russian women and emancipation". The police consider him an "extreme socialist and nihilist", while he, on the contrary, writes a series of anti-nihilistic novels and earns a reputation as a spy among the revolutionary democrats. This and the devastating performance of D. I. Pisarev complicates the fate of Leskov as a writer - the magazines do not want to cooperate with him. The writer tried in vain to justify himself, then went abroad, created a historical pamphlet - the novel "Nowhere". Democrats declared the novel hostile. But Leskov continued - in 1866 he wrote the novel "Bypassed", where he contrasts new people and ordinary ones. Anti-nihilistic motifs can also be traced in his novel On the Knives (1870), which speaks of "nihilistic swindlers". So, in the heat of the Disputes, many works of those years went unnoticed - "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", "Warrior Girl", "Old Years in the Village of Plodomasovo", "The Seedy Family".

In his early articles and feuilletons there are characteristic signs of the time, of national history. Leskov's life experience and "stock of everyday information" constantly grew, he studied all religions to the subtleties, and one could meet a representative of any of them visiting him. He expresses his opinion about serfdom, about the heroic character of the people in "The Life of a Woman", "The Toupee Artist", "Yudoli". Eccentrics and righteous people from the people become his heroes in "Odnodum", "Cadet Monastery", "Non-death Golovan". In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" Leskov describes the characters, revealing in them the features of the Russian national character.

Leskov paints the "Russian expanse", its beauty and diversity in a well-aimed colorful language. He prefers the form of a tale, which frees him from the observance of literary canons, allows him to freely handle the plot. Its narrator is a Russian Orthodox person who appreciates the beauty of life. The Imprinted Angel (1872) and The Enchanted Wanderer (1873) were written in a fairy-tale manner. "Lefty" (1881), "Dumb Artist" (1883).

The heroes of Leskov are Russian Orthodox people, the righteous, with a disinterested and contemplative attitude to life. The components of the Russian character for the writer are wisdom, faith in God and goodness, a sense of beauty, emotional openness, moral intuition, love for life and living beings, concern for others, and the ability for spiritual achievement. The righteous do not wait for recognition, they seek the ideals of justice. These people, according to the author, make history. History and modern reality are intertwined in the writer's works. The turning point in his work was the chronicle "Soboryane" about the "inhabitants of the Stargorod popovka", in fact, a generalized picture of Russian national life, shown through the private life of people. After this work, the attitude towards Leskov changes for the better.

In 1874, he got the opportunity to serve and got a job in a special department of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Public Education for the review of books published for the people, where he worked until 1883. The writer lived until his death in St. Petersburg, almost never leaving. He was buried in 1895 in complete silence, as he bequeathed.

Very short biography (in a nutshell)

Born February 16, 1831 in the village of Gorohovo, Oryol province. Father - Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), investigator. Mother - Maria Petrovna (1813-1886). From 1841 to 1846 he studied at the Oryol provincial gymnasium. In 1854 he married Olga Vasilievna Smirnova. In 1865 he entered into a civil marriage with Ekaterina Bubnova. Had two sons (one died in infancy). Died March 5, 1895 years, at the age of 64 in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. Main works: “Lefty”, “Cathedrals”, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, “The Enchanted Wanderer”, “Old Genius” and others.

Brief biography (detailed)

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov is a Russian writer of the 19th century, according to many, the most national writer of Russia. Leskov was born on February 16, 1831 in the village of Gorohovo (Oryol province) in a spiritual environment. The writer's father was an official of the criminal chamber, and his mother was a noblewoman. Nikolai spent his childhood years in the family estate in Orel. In 1839 the Leskov family moved to the village of Panino. Life in the village left its mark on the writer's work. He studied the people in everyday life and conversations, and also considered himself one of his own among the people.

From 1841 to 1846 Leskov attended the Oryol Gymnasium. In 1848 he lost his father, and their family property burned down in a fire. Around the same time, he entered the service of the criminal chamber, where he collected a lot of material for his future work. A year later he was transferred to the state chamber of Kiev. There he lived with his uncle Sergei Alferyev. In Kiev, in his free time, he attended lectures at the university, was fond of icon painting and the Polish language, and also attended religious and philosophical circles and talked a lot with the Old Believers. During this period, he developed an interest in Ukrainian culture, in the works of Herzen and Taras Shevchenko.

In 1857, Leskov retired and entered the service of Scott, his aunt's English husband. While working for Schcott & Wilkens, he gained vast experience in many sectors, including industry and agriculture. For the first time, as a publicist, he showed himself in 1860. A year later, he moved to St. Petersburg and decided to devote himself to literary activity. His works began to appear in the Notes of the Fatherland. Many of his stories were based on the knowledge of Russian original life, and were saturated with sincere participation in the needs of the people. This can be seen in the stories "Extinguished Business" (1862) and "Musk Ox" (1863), in the story "The Life of a Woman" (1863), in the novel "The Bypassed" (1865). One of the most popular works of the writer was the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1865).

In his stories, Leskov also tried to show the tragic fate of Russia and the unpreparedness for the revolution. In this regard, he was in conflict with the revolutionary democrats. Much has changed in the writer's work after meeting Leo Tolstoy. In his works of 1870-1880, national-historical issues also appeared. During these years he wrote several novels and short stories about artists. Among them are "Islanders", "Cathedrals", "The Sealed Angel" and others. Leskov always admired the breadth of the Russian soul, and this theme was reflected in the story "Lefty". The writer died in St. Petersburg on March 5, 1895 at the age of 64. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.