For many years in a row, the Soviet and Russian writer Boris Nikolsky introduced children to army life, and adults to the modern literary process. He helped compatriots gain freedom of speech, but did not have high hopes for the future of the homeland.
How did you live your life?
Boris Nikolayevich Nikolsky was born in Leningrad in 1931. During the war years was evacuated in Tashkent. He graduated from school in Leningrad, received a higher education at the Gorky Moscow Literary Institute. After graduation, he worked in a newspaper in the city of Kalinin (today Tver). In 1954-56 he served military service in Transbaikalia, rose to the rank of sergeant. Demobilized, returned to Leningrad, resumed his activities in the press (monthly "Aurora", "Bonfire").
As a writer, Boris Nikolsky made his debut with the story "The Tale of Private Smorodin, Sergeant Vlasenko and Myself," which was published in 1962 on the pages of Yunost magazine. In December 1984, he took over as editor-in-chief of the Neva magazine, where he remained until 2006. It was when Nikolsky was the chief editor that the Soviet reader first became acquainted with such works as Conquest's Great Terror, Koestler's Blinding Darkness and Dudintsev's White Clothes.
The writer died in his hometown in January 2011.
What and for whom he wrote
Books of Boris Nikolsky are designed for audiences of different ages. Primarily known as the author of children's books on the life of the army. Among them are collections of "Funny soldier stories", "Army alphabet" and others.
Among children's books that are not related to army topics, the novels Three write, two in the mind, Children under sixteen, a collection of science fiction, The Password of the 20th Century, and others.
Among the works intended for an adult reader, the novels “White balls, black balls”, “I wait and hope”, “Formula of memory” and others, as well as stories and short stories. The author’s latest work is a collection of the holy simplicity based on real events short stories. In total, he wrote more than twenty books.
People's Deputy and the "moderate pessimist"
Nikolsky also participated in the political life of the country - he managed to visit the People's Deputy of the USSR. In addition, he was deputy chairman of the Committee of the Supreme Council of the USSR on publicity issues and one of the drafters of the law "On the Press and Other Mass Media", which proclaimed freedom of the media.
In 1998, at a lecture at the Humanitarian University of Trade Unions, the writer noted the side effects of the abolition of censorship. According to Nikolsky, thriving in the free information space "obscene language" is not at all harmless, because any literature has a moral influence on the reader. In the same lecture, the writer described his views on the future of Russia as "moderate pessimism."