Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomialovsky
Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomialovsky (1835–1863) was a Russian writer known for his critical depiction of social issues and educational systems in 19th-century Russia. Born in Malaia Okhta, near St. Petersburg, he experienced a challenging upbringing, marked by his father's low-status position as a minor cleric. Pomialovsky's formal education began at a seminary school, which he described as harsh and punitive, leading him to develop cynicism towards the Orthodox Church. He graduated in 1857 and began a literary career that included his first published work, "Vukol," in 1859, which highlighted the loss of innocence in a brutal environment.
His notable novellas, "Meshchanskoe schast'e" and "Molotov," published in 1861, explored themes of social mobility and class struggle. Pomialovsky also gained recognition for his "Ocherki bursy," a series of sketches that provided a shocking critique of seminary life, drawing comparisons to Fyodor Dostoevski's works. Despite his literary success and contributions to social education through the Sunday School movement, Pomialovsky struggled with alcoholism, which ultimately limited his productivity. He passed away in 1863 due to a gangrenous infection, but his influence extended to future writers, notably Ivan Turgenev.
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Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomialovsky
Writer
- Born: 1835
- Birthplace: Malaia Okhta, outside St.Petersburg, Russia
- Died: 1863
Biography
Nikolai Pomialovsky was born in 1835 in Malaia Okhta, outside St.Petersburg, Russia, to Gerasim and Ekaterina Alekseeva Pomialovsky. His father was a minor cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church, serving as deacon in a cemetery church. The status of such minor clerics was very low; they were viewed as being open to drunkenness and corruption. Nikolai, however, had a happy boyhood in the Russian countryside, receiving little formal education. However, in 1843, at the age of eight, he was sent to St. Petersburg to a seminary school attached to the Alexander Nevsky monastery. By his own account it was a brutal, reactionary place, where mindless rote learning was interspersed with violent physical punishment. Pomialovsky claimed to have received four hundred beatings.
Pomialovsky seems to have become resilient to this regime, though it deprived him of any religious faith he had and made him cynical about the Orthodox church. He did start and edit a school journal, but it quickly collapsed when eight of the student journalists were expelled. By this time, Pomialovsky was already having problems with alcoholism. He drank copious amounts of vodka. He finally graduated in 1857.
Pomialovsky drifted into a series of jobs, reading widely to catch up with what was going on in Russian literature at the time. His first publication was in 1859, a sketch titled “Vukol” appearing in Zhurnal dlia vospitaniia (journal for education), about the loss of innocence through physical punishment and a coarse environment. This tone became typical of his accounts of childhood, which stood in contrast to idyllic portrayals by older contemporaries. His first significant literary productions were two novellas: “Meshchanskoe schast’e” (bourgeois happiness) and “Molotov,” both appearing in 1861 in the magazine Sovremennik. They tell the story of a lower-class hero who received education and employment, finally managing to win the hand of a girl from a higher class. The novellas show both the limitations and possibilities in the highly structured Russian society of the mid-nineteenth century.
The novellas were well received and Pomialovsky began to gain entry into literary circles. At the same time he became social active, especially in the early Sunday School movement, helping educate poor children in St. Petersburg. His best-known work was “Ocherki bursy” (sketches of seminary life), published in the journal Vremia (time) edited by novelist Fyodor Dostoevski and also in Sovremennik. Besides being a shocking exposé of seminaries, these sketches extended the genre to a new social awareness. They were well received and compared to Dostoevski’s The House of the Dead. Pomialovsky completed five of a proposed fifteen.
His final publication was the unfinished Brat i sestra (brothers and sisters), planned to be a sweeping examination of urban life from top to bottom. By this time, alcoholism seriously inhibited his work. He died of an infected wound turned gangrenous in 1863. His influence on later writer Ivan Turgenev was significant.