1. Anti-nihilist writer

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 fairy tales - works in a special artistic style, the founders of which today are considered Nikolai Leskov and Nikolai Gogol.

Scribe, chief 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; his paternal relatives were priests. The father of the future writer, Semyon Leskov, entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, where he received the right to hereditary nobility.

Until the age of eight, Nikolai Leskov lived with relatives in Gorokhov. Later, the parents took the boy to live with them. At the age of ten, Leskov entered the first grade 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 assigned his son as a scribe to the Oryol Criminal Chamber. In 1848, Nikolai Leskov became assistant to the head of the office.

A year later, he moved to Kyiv to live with his uncle Sergei Alferyev, a famous professor at Kyiv University and a practicing therapist. In Kyiv, Leskov became interested in icon painting, studied the Polish language, and attended lectures at the university as a volunteer. He was assigned to work in the Kyiv Treasury Chamber as an assistant to the head of the recruitment desk. Later, Leskov was promoted to collegiate registrar, then received the position of head of the office, and then became a provincial secretary.

Nikolai Leskov retired from service in 1857 - he “he became infected with the then fashionable heresy, for which he condemned himself more than once later... he quit his rather successfully started government service and went to serve in one of the newly formed trading companies at that time.”. Leskov began working at the company "Schcott and Wilkens" - the company of his second uncle, the Englishman Schcott. Nikolai Leskov often went on business to “travel around Russia”; on his trips, he studied the dialects and way of life of the country’s inhabitants.

Anti-nihilist writer

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

In the 1860s, Leskov first put pen to paper. He wrote articles and notes for the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti, the magazines Modern Medicine and Economic Index. Leskov himself called his first literary work “Essays on the distillery industry,” published in Otechestvennye zapiski.

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 newspaper “Northern Bee” about a fire in the Apraksin and Shchukin courtyards. The author criticized both the arsonists, who were considered nihilistic rebels, and the government, which could not catch the violators and put out the fire. Blaming the authorities and wishing “so that the teams sent come to the fires for actual assistance, 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 went to 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.

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 magazine “Library for Reading”. In it, Leskov, in his characteristic satirical manner, talked about new nihilistic communes, the life of which seemed strange and alien to the writer. The work caused a sharp reaction from critics, and the novel predetermined the writer’s place in the creative community for many years - he was credited with anti-democratic, “reactionary” views.

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

In 1870, Nikolai Leskov wrote the novel “On Knives.” The author considered the new work against the nihilists his “worst” book: in order to publish it, the writer had to edit the text several times. He wrote: “In this publication, purely literary interests were belittled, destroyed and adapted to serve interests that had nothing in common with any literature.”. However, the novel “On Knives” became an important work in Leskov’s work: after it, the main characters of the writer’s works were representatives of the Russian clergy and the local nobility.

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

Maksim Gorky

“Cruel works” about Russian society

Valentin Serov Portrait of Nikolai Leskov. 1894

Nikolai Leskov. Photo: russkiymir.ru

Nikolay 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” of 1881. Critics and writers of those years noted that the “storyteller” in the work has two intonations at once - both laudatory and sarcastic. Leskov wrote: “Several more people supported that in my stories it is really difficult to distinguish between good and evil and that sometimes it’s even impossible to tell who is harming the cause and who is helping it. This was attributed to some innate cunning of my nature.".

In the fall of 1890, Leskov completed the story “Midnight Owls” - by that time the writer’s attitude towards the church and priests had radically changed. The preacher John of Kronstadt came under his critical pen. Nikolai Leskov wrote to Leo Tolstoy: “I will keep my story on the table. It’s true that no one will publish it nowadays.”. However, in 1891 the work was published in the journal “Bulletin of Europe”. Critics criticized Leskov for his “incredibly bizarre, distorted language” that “disgustes the reader.”

In the 1890s, censorship almost did not release Leskov’s sharply satirical works. The writer said: “My latest works about Russian society are very cruel. “The Corral”, “Winter Day”, “The Lady and the Fela”... The public does not like these things for their cynicism and righteousness. And I don’t want to please the public.” The novels “Falcon Migration” and “Invisible Trace” were published only in separate chapters.

In the last years of his life, Nikolai Leskov was preparing a collection of his own works for publication. In 1893 they were released by the publisher Alexey Suvorin. Nikolai Leskov died two years later - in St. Petersburg from an asthma attack. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery.

Leskov Nikolay Semenovich- Russian writer-ethnographer was born on February 16 (old style - February 4), 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, where his mother stayed with rich relatives, and his maternal grandmother also lived there. The Leskov family on the paternal side came from the clergy: Nikolai Leskov’s grandfather (Dmitry Leskov), his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were priests in the village of Leska, Oryol province. From the name of the village of Leski the family surname Leskov was formed. Nikolai Leskov's father, Semyon Dmitrievich (1789-1848), served as a noble assessor of the Oryol chamber of the criminal court, where he received the nobility. Mother, Marya Petrovna Alfereva (1813-1886), belonged to a noble family of the Oryol province.

In Gorokhov - in the house of the Strakhovs, Nikolai Leskov's maternal relatives - he lived until he was 8 years old. Nicholas had six cousins. Russian and German teachers and a French woman were taken for the children. Nicholas, gifted with greater abilities than his cousins ​​and more successful in his studies, was not liked and, at the request of the future writer, his grandmother wrote to his father asking him to take his son. Nikolai began to live with his parents in Orel - in a house on Third Noble Street. Soon the family moved to the Panino estate (Panin Khutor). Nikolai's father himself sowed, looked after the garden and the mill. At the age of ten, Nikolai was sent to study at the Oryol provincial gymnasium. After five years of study, the gifted and easy-to-learn Nikolai Leskov received a certificate instead of a certificate, since he refused to re-examine for the fourth grade. Further training became impossible. Nikolai's father managed to assign him to the Oryol Criminal Chamber as one of the scribes.

At seventeen and a half years old, Leskov was appointed assistant to the chief of the Oryol Criminal Chamber. In the same year, 1848, Leskov’s father died and his relative, the husband of his maternal aunt, a famous professor at Kyiv University and practicing therapist S.P., volunteered to help in arranging Nikolai’s future fate. Alferyev (1816–1884). In 1849, Nikolai Leskov moved with him to Kyiv and was assigned to the Kyiv Treasury Chamber as an assistant to the head of the recruitment desk of the audit department.

Unexpectedly for his family, and despite advice to wait, Nikolai Leskov decides to get married. The chosen one was the daughter of a wealthy Kyiv businessman. Over the years, the difference in tastes and interests between the spouses became more and more evident. The relationship became especially complicated after the death of the Leskovs’ first-born, Mitya. In the early 1860s, Leskov's marriage actually broke up.

In 1853, Leskov was promoted to collegiate registrar, in the same year he was appointed to the post of mayor, and in 1856 Leskov was promoted to provincial secretary. In 1857, he began serving as an agent in the private firm Shcott and Wilkins, headed by A.Ya. Schcott is an Englishman who married Leskov's aunt and managed the estates of Naryshkin and Count Perovsky. On their affairs, Leskov constantly made trips, which gave him a huge stock of observations. (“Russian Biographical Dictionary”, article by S. Vengerov “Leskov Nikolai Semenovich”) “Soon after the Crimean War, I became infected with the then fashionable heresy, for which I condemned myself more than once later, that is, I abandoned the government service that had begun quite successfully and went to serve in one from the newly formed trading companies at that time. The owners of the business where I got a job were English. They were still inexperienced people and spent the capital they brought here with the stupidest self-confidence. I was the only Russian among them.” (from the memoirs of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov) The company conducted business throughout Russia and Leskov, as a representative of the company, had the opportunity to visit many cities at that time. Three years of wandering around Russia were the reason why Nikolai Leskov took up writing.

In 1860, his articles were published in Modern Medicine, Economic Index, and St. Petersburg Gazette. At the beginning of his literary activity (1860s), Nikolai Leskov published under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky; later he used such pseudonyms as Nikolai Gorokhov, Nikolai Ponukalov, V. Peresvetov, Protozanov, Freishits, priest. P. Kastorsky, Psalmist, Watch Lover, Man from the Crowd. In 1861 Nikolai Leskov moved to St. Petersburg. In April 1861, the first article “Essays on the distillery industry” was published in Otechestvennye zapiski. In May 1862, in the transformed newspaper “Northern Bee,” which considered Leskov one of the most significant employees, under the pseudonym Stebnitsky, he published a sharp article about the fire in the Apraksin and Shchukin courtyards. The article blamed both the arsonists, whom popular rumor referred to as nihilistic rebels, and the government, which was unable to either put out the fire or catch the criminals. Rumor spread that Leskov connected the St. Petersburg fires with the revolutionary aspirations of students and, despite the writer’s public explanations, Leskov’s name became the subject of offensive suspicion. Having gone abroad, he began writing the novel Nowhere, in which he reflected the movement of the 1860s in a negative light. The first chapters of the novel were published in January 1864 in the “Library for Reading” and created unflattering fame for the author, so D.I. Pisarev wrote: “Is there now in Russia, besides Russky Vestnik, at least one magazine that would dare to print on its pages anything coming from the pen of Stebnitsky and signed with 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 Stebnitsky’s stories and novels?” In the early 80s, Leskov was published in the Historical Bulletin, from the mid-80s he became an employee of Russian Thought and Week, in the 90s he was published in the Bulletin of Europe.

In 1874, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was appointed a member of the educational department of the Academic Committee of the Ministry of Public Education; The main function of the department was “the review of books published for the people.” In 1877, thanks to Empress Maria Alexandrovna’s positive review of the novel “Soborians,” he was appointed a member of the educational department of the Ministry of State Property. In 1880, Leskov left the Ministry of State Property, and in 1883 he was dismissed without a request from the Ministry of Public Education. He accepted the resignation, which gave him independence, with joy.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on March 5 (old style - 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 Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

• Biography

Nikolai Leskov Portrait of Nikolai Leskov by Valentin Serov, 1894. Birth name... Wikipedia

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov- 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 Leski there was... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

Nikolay Leskov N. S. Leskov. Drawing by I. E. Repin, 1888-89. Birth name: Nikolai Semenovich Leskov Aliases: M. Stebnitsky Date of birth: February 4 (16), 1831 (18310216) ... Wikipedia

Nikolai Mikhailovich Lyubimov (November 20, 1912, Moscow December 22, 1992) famous Soviet translator, mainly from French and Spanish. State Prize (1978) for participation in the publication of the Library of World Literature in 200 volumes ... Wikipedia

- (November 20, 1912, Moscow December 22, 1992) famous Soviet translator, mainly from French and Spanish. State Prize (1978) for participation in the publication of the Library of World Literature in 200 volumes. Lyubimov translated more... ... Wikipedia

An outstanding writer, at the beginning of his literary career known under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Genus. February 4, 1831 in the Oryol province, in a poor, semi-spiritual, semi-noble family. His father was the son of a priest and only because of his service... Large biographical encyclopedia

Nikolai Semenovich (1831 1895) Russian writer. R. in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province. in the family of a person from the clergy who had served the rank of nobility. In 1847, after the death of his father and the destruction of all his small property from a fire, he left the gymnasium and entered... Literary encyclopedia

Leskov, Nikolai Semenovich- Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov. Leskov, Nikolai Semenovich LESKOV Nikolai Semenovich (1831 95), Russian writer. Anti-nihilistic novels (“Nowhere”, 1864; “On Knives”, 1870 71); chronicle novels about the Russian province (about the clergy “Soboryan”, 1872; about ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Leskov, Nikolai Semenovich, is an outstanding writer, at the beginning of his literary career known under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Born on February 4, 1831, died on February 21, 1895. His father, the son of a priest, served as a noble assessor... ... Biographical Dictionary

Books

• , Nikolai Leskov. “He perfectly felt that elusive thing that is called the soul of the people,” said M. Gorky about the author of the famous “Lefty”, “The Enchanted Wanderer”, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. Original…
• Nikolai Leskov. Small collected works, Nikolai Leskov. He perfectly felt that elusive thing called the soul of the people, M. Gorky said about the author of the famous Lefty, The Enchanted Wanderer, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk...

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

Nikolai Leskov's childhood years were spent in Orel and on the estates of the Oryol province belonging to his parents. Leskov spends several years in the house of the Strakhovs, wealthy relatives on his mother’s side, where he was sent due to the parents’ lack of funds to homeschool their son. The Strakhovs hired a Russian, a German, and a French teacher to raise their children. Leskov studies together with his cousins, and is far superior to them in abilities. This was the reason for sending him back to his parents.

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

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

In 1857 Leskov began serving in the private company of a distant relative, the Englishman A. Ya. Schcott. The commercial service required incessant travel, life “in the most remote backwaters,” which gave “an abundance of impressions and a supply of everyday information,” which was reflected in a number of articles, feuilletons, and notes with which the writer appeared in the Kiev newspaper “Modern Medicine” and in St. Petersburg magazines "Domestic Notes" and "Economic Index" (his printed debut took place here in 1860). Leskov's articles dealt with practical issues and were primarily revealing in nature, which created many enemies for him. During the same period, the Leskovs’ first-born, named Mitya, dies in infancy. This breaks the relationship between spouses who are not very close to each other.

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

1862 – trip abroad as a correspondent for the newspaper “Northern Bee”. Leskov visits Western Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, and France.

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

In 1864, under the name M. Stebnitsky, Leskov’s novel “Nowhere” was published in the popular St. Petersburg magazine “Library for Reading”. The novel perfectly depicted nihilists who cover up their rotten insides with revolutionary ideas and, in fact, only want to live at the expense of others and do nothing. Nihilism was a very fashionable topic at that time, many wrote about it in different ways, but not a single writer even tried to encroach on the shrines of commoners so evilly and accurately. Naturally, Leskov’s authorship quickly became known, and he was ranked among the reactionaries and agents of the Third Section.

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

In 1874, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was appointed a member of the educational department of the Academic Committee of the Ministry of Public Education; The main function of the department was “the review of books published for the people.” In 1877, thanks to Empress Maria Alexandrovna’s positive review of the novel “Soborians,” he was appointed a member of the educational department of the Ministry of State Property.

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

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

In 1881, Nikolai Leskov published his famous “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Left-Hander and the Steel Flea,” which was considered by critics to be a simple recording of an ancient legend.

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

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

Vegetarianism plays a significant role in Nikolai Leskov’s biography. After meeting L. Tolstoy, Leskov became a convinced vegetarian and published notes on vegetarianism. Nikolai Leskov is the creator of the first vegetarian character in Russian literature (the story “Figure”, 1889), later introducing them into his other works.

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

Russian literature of the 19th century

Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov

Biography

1831 - 1895 Prose writer.

Born on February 4 (16 NS) in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, in the family of an official of the criminal chamber, who came from the clergy. His childhood years were spent on the estate of the Strakhov relatives, then in Orel. After his retirement, Leskov’s father took up farming in the Panin farmstead he acquired in Kromsky district. In the Oryol wilderness, the future writer was able to see and learn a lot, which later gave him the right to say: “I did not study the people from conversations with St. Petersburg cab drivers... I grew up among the people... I was one of the people with the people... I was closer to these people than all the priests...” In 1841 - 1846, Leskov studied at the Oryol gymnasium, from which he failed to graduate: in his sixteenth year he lost his father, and the family’s property was destroyed in a fire. Leskov entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber of the Court, which gave him good material for future works. In 1849, with the support of his uncle, Kyiv professor S. Alferyev, Leskov was transferred to Kyiv as an official of the treasury chamber. In the house of his uncle, his mother’s brother, a professor of medicine, under the influence of progressive university professors, Leskov’s ardent interest in Herzen, in the great poet of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko, in Ukrainian culture was awakened; he became interested in ancient painting and architecture of Kyiv, later becoming an outstanding connoisseur of ancient Russian art. In 1857, Leskov retired and entered private service in a large trading company, which was engaged in the resettlement of peasants to new lands and on whose business he traveled almost the entire European part of Russia. The beginning of Leskov's literary activity dates back to 1860, when he first appeared as a progressive publicist. In January 1861, Leskov settled in St. Petersburg with the desire to devote himself to literary and journalistic activities. He began publishing in Otechestvennye zapiski. Leskov came to Russian literature with a large stock of observations on Russian life, with sincere sympathy for the needs of the people, which was reflected in his stories “The Extinguished Cause” (1862), “The Robber”; in the stories “The Life of a Woman” (1863), “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (1865). In 1862, as a correspondent for the newspaper “Northern Bee”, he visited Poland, Western Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. He wanted to get acquainted with the life, art and poetry of the Western Slavs, with whom he was very sympathetic. The trip ended with a visit to Paris. In the spring of 1863 Leskov returned to Russia. Knowing the province well, its needs, human characters, details of everyday life and deep ideological currents, Leskov did not accept the calculations of “theorists” divorced from Russian roots. He speaks about this in the story “Musk Ox” (1863), in the novels “Nowhere” (1864), “Bypassed” (1865), “On Knives” (1870). They highlight the theme of Russia's unpreparedness for the revolution and the tragic fate of people who connected their lives with the hope of its speedy implementation. Hence the disagreements with the revolutionary democrats. In 1870 - 1880 Leskov overestimated a lot; acquaintance with Tolstoy has a great influence on him. National-historical issues appeared in his work: the novel “The Cathedral People” (1872), “A Seedy Family” (1874). During these years, he wrote several stories about artists: “The Islanders”, “The Captured Angel”. The talent of the Russian man, the kindness and generosity of his soul always admired Leskov, and this theme found its expression in the stories “Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea)” (1881), “The Stupid Artist” (1883), “The Man on hours" (1887). Satire, humor and irony occupy a large place in Leskov’s legacy: “Selected Grain”, “Shameless”, “Idle Dancers”, etc. The story “Hare Remiz” was the last major work of the writer. Leskov died in St. Petersburg.

In the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, Nikolai Leskov was born on February 4 (16 NS), 1831. He was the son of an official of the criminal chamber. Nikolai grew up on the Strakhov estates, and then in Orel. The father resigns from the chambers and buys the Panin farm in Kromsky district, where he begins to engage in agriculture. In 1841 - 1846, the young man studied at the Oryol gymnasium, but due to the death of his father and a fire on the farm, Nikolai was unable to graduate. The young man goes to serve in the Oryol criminal chamber of the court. In 1849 he was transferred to Kyiv as an official of the treasury chamber at the request of his uncle S. Alferyev. At his uncle's house, the writer's interest in Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian literature flares up. In 1857, Leskov, having retired, got a job in a large trading company that was engaged in the resettlement of peasants.

In 1860, Leskov acted as a progressive publicist, which gave rise to his activities. In January 1861, Nikolai moved to St. Petersburg and began publishing in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Observing the difficult life of the people, the author gave birth to the stories “The Extinguished Cause” (1862), “The Robber”, the story “The Life of a Woman” (1863), “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District” (1865). In 1862 he visited Poland, western Ukraine, and the Czech Republic, working as a correspondent for the newspaper “Northern Bee”. At the end of the trip I visited Paris. In the spring of 1863 Leskov returned to Russia. Nikolai diligently took up writing and after a while the world saw the story “Musk Ox” (1863), the novels “Nowhere to Go” (1864), “Bypassed” (1865), “On Knives” (1870). In 1870 - 1880 Leskov rethinks everything; communication with Tolstoy greatly influences him, as a result of which national-historical issues emerge: the novel “The Cathedral People” (1872), “A Seedy Family” (1874). Over the years, stories about artists have also been written: “The Islanders”, “The Captured Angel”. Admiration for the Russian man, his qualities (kindness, generosity) and soul, inspired the poet to write the stories “Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Sideways Lefty and the Steel Flea)” (1881), “The Stupid Artist” (1883), “The Man on the Clock” ( 1887). Leskov left behind many satirical works, humor and irony: “Selected Grain”, “Shameless”, “Idle Dancers”, etc. The author’s final major masterpiece was the story “The Hare Remise”.