The Presidential Library portrays Nikolay Nekrasov

Nikolay Nekrasov, known to modern readers as the "most peasant" poet in Russia, one of the first to speak about the tragedy of serfdom and the spiritual world of the Russian peasantry, was born on December 10, 1821. He was an idol of youth, a friend and colleague of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, as well as a successful publicist and publisher.

The childhood of the future poet passed in the family estate of his father Greshnevo near Yaroslavl among thirteen brothers and sisters. His father, a retired military man, was a cruel man, and the boy often saw his mother crying, whom he pitied and loved very much. He showed her his first poems at the age of seven, he recalled her in his last poems. The Presidential Library’s collections contain a rare edition of 1909 Nikolay Nekrasov, where the biography of the writer is described in detail. Often the boy, after some kind of trouble or in the absence of a formidable father at home, had sincere conversations with his mother, which were forever imprinted in his memory. 

The poet's sister recalled that a crowd of peasant boys playing on the far side of the manor's garden attracted Nikolay like a magnet. At every opportunity, he ran to them in the village.

When Nekrasov, already a schoolboy, came to the village for the holidays, the meetings with peasant comrades continued. For days on end, they wandered through the woods together or went fishing. Even later, when he was already coming from St. Petersburg (since 1844), the same friends took him hunting. The poet learned from them various stories from peasant life and himself observed the life of the village.

Nekrasov moved to Petersburg at the age of seventeen. The father wanted to see his son in the military, and he became a volunteer at the Faculty of Philology. For disobedience, the father deprived Nikolay of money, and he was left completely without a livelihood. Nekrasov later recalled that for three years he felt constantly, every day hungry.

The young man brought to the capital a notebook of his poems, which he hoped to publish. Being engaged in various part-time jobs, Nekrasov saved up a small amount and made his dream come true. But the public accepted his poems coldly. After a devastating review by the famous critic Belinsky, Nekrasov, in desperation, bought up almost the entire unsold edition of his first book and burned it.

However, this was only the beginning of their "acquaintance". At a personal meeting in 1842, Belinsky highly appreciated the extraordinary mind of Nekrasov, communication gradually grew into a strong friendship. Belinsky contributed to the development of Nekrasov's talent, introducing him to the interests that the progressively thinking part of the Russian intelligentsia lived in those years, introduced him to literary circles and introduced him to the Panaev family. The wife of the critic and writer Ivan Panaev, Avdotya Yakovlevna, left memories of that period. Her book was published several times as a separate edition, and the Presidential Library has the very first publications of her memoirs, not yet edited and the least official. They were published in the historical and literary journal Istorichesky Vestnik. n 1889. Memoirs were read by contemporaries. The text shows how fellow writers at the beginning of their careers helped Nekrasov, in whom, undoubtedly, the commercial streak was strong, and someone, on the contrary, took advantage of his difficult position and tried to manipulate. “Nekrasov conceived the idea of publishing the Petersburg Collection. He had already bought articles from some writers. Belinsky took an ardent part in this publication, begged Panaev to write something for the collection”, - writes Panaeva. - Belinsky found that those writers who have the means should not take money from Nekrasov. He preached that it was the duty of every writer to help the needy". Then follows the story that Herzen, Panaev, Odoevsky and Sologub gave away their articles for free. Nekrasov paid some writers in need. Turgenev gave him his Landlord in verse, but, according to Panaeva, "it cost him (Nekrasov) much more". Turgenev spent the money sent to him from home and now borrowed money from Nekrasov, constantly reminding him of his noble deed. Tom, of course, was embarrassed to refuse, and he himself borrowed money to give Turgenev a loan ... Happy Ivan Turgenev went with the money he received to show off at the Dusso restaurant.

However, nothing human was alien to Nekrasov himself either. Over time, colleagues began to call him a "literary horse dealer". By the age of 35, Nekrasov had become an influential person in St. Petersburg. And soon Turgenev could not forgive Nekrasov for buying the Hunter's Notes from him for 1,000 rubles. and immediately resold for 2,500 rubles.

He was an avid card player. This was recalled by the famous lawyer and writer Anatoly Koni, who knew the poet personally and left a book of memoirs Nekrasov. Dostoevsky (1921).

By the way, Nekrasov sent the money he won to good deeds - he published magazines for them.

On January 1, 1847, Nekrasov, together with Panaev, bought the Sovremennik magazine, which was unprofitable at that time, and truly breathed new life into it. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and other famous writers were published on the pages of this magazine, Sovremennik under his editorship became the best progressive magazine of its time.

At the same time, Nekrasov settled in the Panaevs' apartment. The wife of a friend and colleague, Avdotya Panaeva, the soul of the Sovremennik literary circle, was a beauty with whom many fell in love, even the modest and nervous Dostoevsky. Nekrasov could not resist either. Panaev, who by that time was living his own life, did not object.

Nekrasov works hard, gives all his strength to the magazine, writes poetry about the hard lot of the people. Relations with Panaeva were difficult, one after another, the children born in this civil marriage died. These relationships opened a lyric poet in Nekrasov. His "Panaev’s cycle" of poems became one of the best examples of lyrical Russian poetry.

Meanwhile, clouds were gathering over the magazine, especially after the assassination attempt on Alexander II. The fact is that during a search of Dmitry Karakozov, who shot at the emperor, among other things, an issue of Sovremennik was found. Nekrasov made a desperate attempt to save the magazine, to avert suspicion from it, by speaking with a laudatory poem dedicated to General Muravyov-Vilensky. The same one who was nicknamed "the hangman" for the brutal suppression of the Polish uprising and who was now assigned to investigate the assassination attempt and the prerequisites for it. Nekrasov, according to Koni, "relied too gullibly on the softening effect of his act on the harsh "suppressor"". He was gravely mistaken. “Their own” considered him a traitor, they still failed to save the Sovremennik” - in May 1866, the publication of the magazine was stopped by the “highest command”.

Subsequently, Nekrasov rented Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine from the publisher Andrey Kraevsky. At the same time, the poet worked on one of his most ambitious works - the peasant poem Who is Happy in Russia?, which he did not have time to finish.

Nekrasov died at the age of 56, in January 1878. Several thousand people came to the Novodevichy Cemetery in St. Petersburg to see him off. Anatoly Koni recalled: “The death of Nekrasov made a strong impression in St. Petersburg, and in many places in Russia, it made many love for the extinct and caused a genuine feeling of pain, forcing the slanders of enemies and malicious jokes of hypocritical friends to fall silent for a while.

The Presidential Library’s portal features the collection Nikolay Nekrasov (1821–1878) which includes texts of his works, documents, studies of creativity, the journals Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski the editor-in-chief of which was the poet himself.