Ivan Nikitin, whose biography is of genuine interest to admirers of true deep poetry, is a Russian original poet of the 19th century. His work vividly describes the spirit of that distant time.
Nikitin Ivan Savich: biography for children
Ivan Savvich was born in the city of Voronezh on October 3, 1824 in the family of a prosperous tradesman who was selling candles. Literacy learned early thanks to a cobbler neighbor, in childhood he read a lot and loved to be in nature, the unity with which he felt from birth. At the age of eight, he entered a theological school, then continued his studies at the seminary. The sudden graduation caused the ruin of his father, his addictive passion for alcohol and the death of his mother, which forced the young man to take care of his relatives. Ivan, expelled due to his frequent absence from class and poor performance, instead of his father began to work in a candle shop, which was then sold together with a candle factory for debts, and with this money a dilapidated coaching inn was purchased.
Difficulties of being
The biography of Nikitin, who worked in the inn as a janitor, describes his difficult, monotonous life. But in spite of difficult circumstances, the young man did not go down spiritually, in any free minute he tried to read books, compose poems, asking outward from his heart. Ivan began to write poetic lines in the seminary; he decided to give his creations to the press only in 1853. Their publication took place in the "Voronezh Provincial Gazette" when the young man was 29 years old. The author’s works were copied and transferred from hand to hand, and began to be published in Domestic Notes, and in the Library for Reading. The nugget poet, who loved nature from childhood and praised its beauty, is Nikitin Ivan Savvich. A brief biography for children conveys his ability to subtly feel the world around him, to sing the refined shades of colors. He was able to describe the world around him with inspiration and piercingly with the stroke of a pen. Ivan Nikitin, whose biography describes his true love for nature, proved to be a talented landscape painter in his work.
Love for the people is one of the main topics in creativity
A short biography of Ivan Nikitin for children tells us that a significant place in the work of the poet, who sincerely worried about his people and let his troubles pass through his own heart, is occupied by poems depicting the life of an ordinary commoner ("The coachman's wife", "Plowman", "Mother and daughter "," Beggar "," Street meeting "). They express deeply sincere love for his people, a warm sympathy for his hard fate and a great desire to improve his situation. At the same time, Nikitin did not idealize the people, looking at him with sober eyes, painted him truthfully, without hiding the gloomy sides and negative traits of a national character: family despotism, rudeness ("Corruption", "Stubborn father", "Divide"). Nikitin, in the full sense of the word, was a city dweller, although he visited the vicinity of Voronezh, but he stayed at the rich landowners' estates, in a real village, in a peasant house, never visited and did not feel the life of an ordinary person. Nikitin received material for describing the living conditions of ordinary people from cabmen who stopped at his inn and came to Voronezh to peasants. However, Ivan Savvich, who had some limitations in observing people's life, for this reason was not able to fully draw a comprehensive broad picture of the life of the people, but only fragmentary information was obtained.
Ivan Nikitin: a brief biography of the poet-nugget
Fascinated by the work of Nikitin, N. I. Vtorov (local historian) introduced him to the local intelligentsia circle, introduced him to Count D. N. Tolstoy, who published the poet’s poems in The Moskvityanin and published his first collection in St. Petersburg as a separate publication (1856). Ivan Nikitin, whose biography for children talks about the growing popularity of the poet at that time, still lived hard. Father drank soundly, though family relationships improved a bit; the atmosphere of the inn was not so depressing for a young man who was spinning in the circle of intelligent people who were sincerely disposed towards him. In addition, as the biography describes, Nikitin began to overcome diseases. In the summer of 1855 he caught a cold while swimming, became very weak and did not get out of bed for a long time. In such difficult moments, faith came to the rescue, prompting the appearance of poems with religious themes.
Religious motifs in Nikitin's poetry
The theme of human faith runs through a red thread through the entire poetic work of Ivan Nikitin: “New Testament”, “Prayer”, “Sweetness of Prayer”, “Prayer for the Chalice”. Seeing holy grace in everything, Nikitin became the most soulful singer of nature (“Morning”, “Spring in the Steppe”, “Meeting of Winter”) and enriched Russian poetry with a large number of masterpieces of landscape lyrics. More than six dozen wonderful songs and romances have been written on the poems of Ivan Nikitin. In the years 1854-1856, the poet worked on his own self-education, studied French and read a lot. After the departure of Voronezh in 1857, Vtorov, who became a close friend to him, and also after the collapse of the Second Circle, the poet felt the severity of family and life conditions with a pang, and his pessimistic mood captured him with greater force.
Bookstore of Ivan Nikitin
In 1858, Nikitin’s great poem, The Fist, vividly describing philistinism, sympathetically received by critics and having success with the public, was published. The circulation of the work sold out in less than a year, bringing the poet a good income. Despite the painful state and depressed mood, Nikitin continued to closely monitor Russian literature in 1857-1858, from Shakespeare, Cooper, Goethe, Hugo, Chenier, read from abroad. He also began to study German, translating Heine and Schiller. In 1857-1858 he worked in the "Domestic Notes", "Russian Conversation." The fees from publishing poetry, the savings accumulated over several years, and a loan of 3,000 rubles from V.A. Kokorev allowed him in 1859 to purchase a bookstore, which became a favorite meeting place for city residents, a kind of literary club. Further, new hopes and plans, a creative upsurge, a new collection of poems, met somewhat cool, but the vitality was already running out.
The last years of the poet's life
The biography of Nikitin was very difficult: the poet was constantly ill, especially acutely in 1859. His health was constantly alternating, a short improvement was followed by a continuous deterioration. In the second half of 1860, Nikitin worked a lot, from under his pen came the work "Seminar's Diary", written in prose. In 1861 he visited Petersburg and Moscow, took part in local cultural work, in the formation of a literacy society in Voronezh, as well as in the establishment of Sunday schools.
In May 1861, the poet caught a cold, which caused an exacerbation of the tuberculosis process. On October 28, 1861, Nikitin Ivan Savich died of consumption. The biography for children is interesting by the fact that during the short life the poet wrote about two hundred beautiful poems, three poems and a story. He was 37 years old. He was buried at the Novo-Mitrofanievsky cemetery, near Koltsov.
The contribution of Ivan Nikitin to Russian literature
The life and biography of Ivan Nikitin are vividly conveyed in his work, where the poet seeks to comprehend his existence, understands the feeling of dissatisfaction with his own being, and suffers greatly from the discrepancy between the existing reality of the concept; he found solace in nature and religion, reconciling him for a while with life. Nikitin’s work has a lot of autobiographical element with prevailing sad tones, sadness and sorrow, caused by the ongoing protracted illness. The source of such a painful sadness was not only personal adversity, but also the surrounding life with human suffering, social contrasts, constant drama. The biography of Nikitin today is interesting to the young generation who want to feel the spirit of the bygone time and at least touch the poet through the poet’s word. The works of Ivan Savvich withstood a large number of publications and dispersed in a huge number of copies.