Nikolai Nikolaevich Nikitin
Nikolai Nikolaevich Nikitin was a Russian writer born on July 27, 1895, in St. Petersburg, which was then the capital of czarist Russia. His early aspirations to pursue a technical career were hindered by the outbreak of World War I and his poor eyesight, which prevented him from serving in the military. He instead enrolled in St. Petersburg University, where he developed a passion for Russian philology, leading to an interest in the history and literature of Russia. After the Russian Revolution, he became involved as a political officer during the Civil War and began writing stories reflecting the conflicts and social changes of the time.
Nikitin was associated with the Serapion Brothers, a group of writers known for their avant-garde approach, and he experimented with narrative structures that often challenged readers. However, as the political climate evolved, he adapted his writing to align with the tenets of Socialist Realism, which helped him navigate the oppressive literary environment of the Stalin era. His notable achievements include receiving the Stalin Prize in 1951 for his novel "Severnaia Avrora." Despite later attempts to distance himself from his early experimental works, Nikitin's contributions remain significant in the landscape of Russian literature, illustrating the complexities of artistic expression under varying political pressures.
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Nikolai Nikolaevich Nikitin
Writer
- Born: July 27, 1895
- Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia
- Died: 1963
- Place of death:
Biography
Nikolai Nikolaevich Nikitin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 27, 1895, and grew up in that city, then the capital of czarist Russia. Little is known about his family and his childhood remains persistently obscure. One of the few things that is known about his youth is his intent to enter a polytechnic institute and follow some kind of technical career. The outbreak of World War I put an end to this dream, but when he sought to enlist in the czar’s army, he was rejected because of poor eyesight. In 1915, he enrolled in St. Petersburg University, where his studies of Russian philology awakened a love for the history of his native language and, by extension, the earliest recorded Russian history and literature.
After the Russian Revolution, Nikitin tried to enter the Red Army but was rejected for a combat position because of his eyesight. The only way he was able to get involved in the fighting was to serve as a political officer responsible for instructing the troops in Marxist principles. By the end of the Russian Civil War, he was beginning to correspond with the Serapion Brothers, a Leningrad-based group of writers who were critical in making the 1920’s a golden age in the Soviet Union, filled with bright possibilities that could be achieved through cooperation. Their name came from a hermit character in the writings of German author E. T. A. Hoffmann. While they disavowed overt ideological content in their art, their ideas were heavily influenced by Soviet thought.
Almost all of Nikitin’s early stories that he began writing in the 1920’s dealt with the Russian Civil War, particularly with its effects upon people in the Russian hinterland. His characters often have a certain crudity to them that was a marked contrast to the intellectuals who were usually favored as major characters in previous Russian literature. He also experimented with narrative structure, to the point that some of his stories became so fractured they could be followed only by deliberate effort on the part of the reader. However, as time went by and Soviet critics began to demand visible positive traits in major literary characters, Nikitin’s characters began to lose their rough edges and became more socially polished. By 1934, he had transformed himself as a writer to adapt to the demands of Socialist Realism, thus avoiding the repression many writers faced during the Great Terror of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
During World War II, Nikitin set aside his fiction in favor of articles that could serve the war effort, but he quickly returned to writing fiction when the war was over. In 1951 he received the Stalin Prize for his novel, Severnaia Avrora, although its transparently political elements deprived the book of any lasting value. In his later years, he spent a great deal of his energy justifying his earlier experimental prose, often referring to it as though it were nothing but a youthful indiscretion. Yet, that early work earned him a place in Russian literature and was far better than the conformist and compromised writing he produced in his later years.