Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov (November 28, 1821 - January 8, 1878 {O.S.: December 28,1877}) is a Russian poet, best remembered as the long standing publisher of Современник (The Contemporary) (from 1846 until July 1866, when the journal was shut down by the government in connection with the arrest of its radical editor, N.G. Chernyshevsky).

Nekrasov was born the son of a petty Russian officer and a Polish gentrywoman. He grew up on his father's estate, Greshnevo, Yaroslav province, near the banks of Volga river, where he observed the hard labor of the burlaki ("barge haulers"). This image of social injustice, so similar to Dostoevsky's childhood recollection of a beaten-upon courier, was compounded by the behavior of his tyranical father. The latter's drunken rages against both his peasants and his wife determined the subject matter of Nekrasov's major poems -- a verse portrayal of the plight of the Russian peasant, using his language and ideas.

Early Life and Career

Nekrasov was a poor student, reaching only the fifth grade at the local gynasium. In 1838 his father, bent on a military career for his son, sent the 16-year-old Nekrasov to Petersburg for officer training. Instead he came in contact with students there, including a friend from his school days, and was encouraged to study for the university entrance exams. Though failing to score high enough be admitted as a full time student, he was able to audit classes, which he did from 1839 to 1841. Having quit the army in favor of his studies, Nekrasov's father stopped sending him money, and Nekrasov lived in extreme want, briefly living in a homeless shelter. Shortly thereafter Nekrasov authored his first collection of poetry, Dreams and Sounds, published under the name "N. N.". Though the poet V. A. Zhukovsky expressed a favorable opinion of the beginner's work, it was promptly dismissed as Romantic doggerel by V. G. Belinsky, the most important Russian literary critic of the first half of 19th century, in Отечественные Записки (Notes of the Fatherland). Nekrasov personally went to the booksellers and removed all the copies of the failed collection.

Career as Publisher

Ironically, Nekrasov joined the staff of NoF in the early 1840's and became close friends with Belinsky. From 1843-46 Nekrasov published various collections of his poetry for the journal, one of which, "A Petersburg Collection," included Dostoevsky's first novel, Poor Folk. At the end of 1846, Nekrasov acquired The Contemporary from P. A. Pletnev. Much of the staff of NoF, including Belinksy, abandoned N. A. Dobrolyubov, two of the most radical and unabashedly revolutionary writers of the time, became the major critics for the journal. Nekrasov was attacked by his old friends for allowing his journal to become the vehicle for Chernyshevsky's sloppy and often poorly written broadside attacks on polite Russian society. By 1860 I. S. Turgenev, the naysayer of nihilism, refused to have any more of his works published in the journal.

After the Contemporary?s closure in 1866, Nekrasov obtained from his old enemy Kraevsky ownership of NoF. He achieved new success with the journal. In 1877 Nekrasov, never very healthy, became ill for the last time. Here he composed his Last Songs, filled with the agony of the shrivelled and now dying poet. Despite biting frost, his funeral was attended by many. Dostoevsky gave the keynote eulogy, saying that though Nekrasov was the greatest Russian poet since Pushkin, he was not greater than him nor Lermontov. A section of the crowd, youthful followers of Chernyshevsky who connected the verse of the deceased poet with the revolutionary cause (indeed, expressing the same sympathetic opinion shared with Soviet writers and editors) chanted "No, he was greater than Pushkin and Lermontov!"

Who in Russia lives Well?

Nekrasov's most important work is Кому на Руси жить хорошо? (Who in Russia lives well?) (1873-1876), which no M.A. Russian reading list is without. It tells the story of seven peasants who set out to ask various elements of the rural population if they are happy, to which the answer is never satisfactory. The poem preserves the speech and idiom of the peasants around Nekrasov's home on the Volga, which, for the folklorist, makes it one of the prime works of 19th century Russian literature.

Sources

"Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov", .