Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin
Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin (1804-1856) was a notable Russian literary critic, publicist, and scholar, recognized for his broad-minded approach to literature and culture. Born in the Riazan' province, he was deeply influenced by his father, a deacon, which fostered his early interest in reading and education. Nadezhdin studied at the Riazan' Seminary and later at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he became proficient in multiple languages and developed a keen interest in German philosophy.
He defended a doctoral dissertation advocating for literature as a reflection of national consciousness and served as a professor at Moscow University. Nadezhdin founded the journal Teleskop and contributed significantly to the aesthetic discourse surrounding Realism in Russian literature. His career was interrupted by government censorship, leading to his exile in Siberia, where he pursued research in archaeology and ethnography. After his exile, he continued his scholarly work in Odessa and later St. Petersburg, engaging with various ethnographic societies and publishing extensively on topics related to Russian and Slavic culture. Nadezhdin’s legacy includes a rich body of criticism that merged Classical and Romantic elements, profoundly influencing the field of ethnography and literary thought in Russia.
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Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin
Nonfiction Writer
- Born: October 5, 1804
- Birthplace: Nizhny-Beloomut, Riazan', Russia
- Died: January 11, 1856
- Place of death: St. Petersburg, Russia
Biography
A broad-minded literary critic, publicist, and scholar, Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin was born in the village of Nizhnyi- Beloomut, in the Riazan’ province, on October 5, 1804, to Ioann Ioannovich Nadezhdin, a deacon who inspired him to read. Nadezhdin studied at the Riazan’ Seminary from 1815 to 1820, and then at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he learned English, French, German, Greek, and Hebrew, and became interested in German philosophy. Upon his graduation in 1824, he worked as a teacher, as a librarian, and as a house tutor for a wealthy Moscow family.
He matriculated to Moscow University and defended his doctoral dissertation, which argued that literature should be an articulation of national consciousness, in 1830. From 1831 to 1835, Nadezhdin was a professor at Moscow University; he also taught at the Moscow Theatrical School. Simultaneously, he published a number of poems, contributed to the journals Vestnik Evropy (the messenger of europe) and Moskovskii Vestnik (Moscow herald), and—in 1831—founded the monthly journal Teleskop (telescope), which included the newspaper supplement Molva (rumor).
In his articles for Teleskop, Nadezhdin helped to develop the aesthetics of Realism and to create a theoretical underpinning for Russian literary thought. In “Dlia g. Shevyreva: Poiasneniia kriticheskikh zamechanii na ego Istoriiu poezii” (for G. Shevyrev: an explanation of critical observations of his “history of poetry,” 1836), Nadezhdin encouraged the perception of disparate energies both in thinking and in being. He also endorsed the novel and the novella as the most important literary genres.
In 1836, Teleskop and Molva were shut down by government censors and Nadezhdin was exiled to Siberia. There he became interested in archeology, historical ethnography, and linguistics. He wrote dozens of essays on aesthetics, geography, philosophy, Russian and Slavic ethnography, and Russian history for Adol’f Aleksandrovich Pliushar’s Èntsyklopedicheskii Leksikon (encyclopedic lexicon, 1835-1841).
After his exile ended in 1838, Nadezhdin lived in Odessa, where he studied the history of southern Russia for the Odessa Society of Lovers of History and Antiquity. He also traveled through Slavic countries and published an essay on Russian dialects. In 1842, Nadezhdin moved to St. Petersburg and took a job as editor of Zhurnal Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del (journal of the ministry of internal affairs), where he remained until his death.
He became the chairman of the Ethnographic Society and the editor of Geograficheskie Izvestiia (geographic news) in 1848 and the editor of Ètnograficheskii Sbornik (ethnographic collection) in 1853. Nadezhdin’s meticulous approach to ethnographic research influenced future ethnographers, while his literary criticism promoted a thoughtful literature that integrated elements of Classicism and Romanticism.