“Now they read me just for the intricacies of my stories, but in fifty years”
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Nikolai Leskov
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist, who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held in high esteem by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others, Leskov is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society using…
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culture · Russian writer and novelist (1831–1895) · writer · journalist · novelist · playwright · prose writer · opinion journalist · short story writer · librettist · also Nikolai Leskov, M. Stebnitsky, Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov, Leskov
Born 4 February 1831 · Died 21 February 1895 · Q209004
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2026· 5 entries
“it slipped through, in the shadows, what with them being so busy.”
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“s treatment of the character ataman Platov, whose actions, even as they are described in a grotesquely heroic manner by the simple-minded protagonist, are openly ridiculed by the author. What would later come to be seen as one of the gems of Russian literature was fiercely attacked both from the left (who accused Leskov of propagating jingoistic ideas) and the right, who found the general picture of the common people”
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“From this trunk. Here pictures from the six or seven years of my commercial career are being kept, from the times when I travelled across Russia on business trips. Those were the best years of my life. I saw a lot and life was easy for me.”
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Observer: Nikolai Leskov
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2020· 1 entry
Washington Examiner: Nikolai Leskov, the forgotten Russian master
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2013· 2 entries
The Daily Beast: The Forgotten Russian: The Genius of Nikolai Leskov
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SFGate: 'The Enchanted Wanderer,' by Nikolai Leskov
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2002· 1 entry
And Moshkov's On-line Library gathered a significant part of Leskov's legacy, including his most controversial novels and essays
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1996· 1 entry
The Terra publishing house in Russia started a 30-volume Leskov series, declaring the intention to include every single work or letter by the author, but by 2007 only 10 volumes of it had come out
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1991· 1 entry
Book two (letters and articles) – in 2000; both were incomplete, and the volume six material, which had been banned a century ago and proved to be too tough for the Soviet censors, was again neglected
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1989· 1 entry
Ogonyok re-issued the 12-volume Leskov collection in which At Daggers Drawn appeared for the first time in the USSR
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1981· 1 entry
It was re-issued in two volumes by Prioksky publishers in Tula
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1953· 1 entry
The Complete Gorky series featured his 1923 essay on Leskov, which became the object of lively academic discussion
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1931· 1 entry
On the 100th anniversary of Leskov's birth, critics wrote of the "scandalous reputation which followed Leskov's literary life from beginning to the end," by 1981 Leskov, according to the critic Lev Anninsky, was regarded
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1929· 1 entry
Ivan Shyshov's opera The Toupee Artist (after Leskov's story of the same name) had been published and successfully staged
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1928· 1 entry
Deploring the fact that after the 1917 Revolution Leskov was still failing to gain ground in his homeland as a major classic
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1923· 1 entry
Three volumes of Nikolai Leskov's selected works came out in Berlin, featuring an often-quoted rapturous preface by Maxim Gorky (who called Leskov "the wizard of wording"), and was re-issued in the USSR in early 1941
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1897· 1 entry
The Adolf Marks publishing house re-issued the 1889–1893 12-volume series and in 1902–1903 released the 36-volume version of it, expanded with essays, articles and letters
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1895· 2 entries
Died 1895-02-21.
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Leskov "had few friends in literary circles but a great many readers all over Russia," according to Mirsky
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1891· 2 entries
Polunochniki (Night Owls), a thinly veiled satire on the Orthodox Church in general and Ioann Kronshtadsky in particular, was published in Severny vestnik and caused an uproar
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After Mikhail Protopopov's article "The Sick Talent" was published, Leskov responded with a letter of gratitude, pointing out: "You've judged me better than those who wrote of me in the past
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1889· 1 entry
Alexei Suvorin's publishing house began publishing the Complete Leskov in 12 volumes (which contained mostly fiction)
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1881· 1 entry
“The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea”
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1874· 2 entries
Leskov began writing Wandering Lights: A Biography of Praotsev which was soon halted and later printed as Early Years: From Merkula Praotsev’s Memoirs
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“The second part of A Decayed Family which appeared in god-awful shape, became the last straw for me.”
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1873· 1 entry
The Sealed Angel came out, about a miracle which caused an Old Believer community to return to the Orthodox fold
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1872· 2 entries
Had for its major theme the intrinsic, unbridgeable gap between the "down to earth", Christianity of the people and the official, state-sponsored corrupt version; it riled both the state and church authorities, was widel
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Is a compilation of stories and sketches which form an intricate tapestry of thinly drawn plotlines
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1870· 1 entry
Leskov published the novel At Daggers Drawn, another attack aimed at the nihilist movement which, as the author saw it, was quickly merging with the Russian criminal community
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1866· 1 entry
Bubnova gave birth to their son, Andrey (1866–1953)
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1865· 1 entry
Ekaterina Bubnova (née Savitskaya), whom he met for the first time in July 1864, became Leskov's common-law wife
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1864· 1 entry
And, according to Mirsky, "Leskov owed his latter popularity to the good taste of that segment of the reading public who were beyond the scope of the 'directing' influences"
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1863· 1 entry
Leskov published several essays and letters, documenting his trip
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1860· 2 entries
About the 1859 anti-alcohol riots and first published in a local Odessa newspaper, then in Otechestvennye Zapiski (April 1861), to be his proper literary debut
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His articles started to appear regularly in the Saint Petersburg-based paper Otechestvennye Zapiski where he found a friend and mentor in the Oryol-born publicist S
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1857· 2 entries
Leskov quit his job as a clerk and went to work for the private trading company Scott & Wilkins owned by Alexander Scott, his aunt's Scottish husband
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Leskov quit his job in the office and joined the private trading company Scott & Wilkins (Шкотт и Вилькенс) owned by Alexander Scott, his aunt Polly's Scottish husband
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1853· 1 entry
Leskov married Olga Smirnova; they had one son, Dmitry (who died after only a year), and a daughter, Vera
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1847· 1 entry
Leskov joined the Oryol criminal court office, later transferring to Kiev, where he worked as a clerk, attended university lectures, mixed with local people, and took part in various student circles
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1839· 1 entry
Semyon Leskov lost his job through a row and intrigue, having brought upon himself the wrath of the governor himself
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1831· 1 entry
Born 1831-02-04.
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