Nikolai Nikolev
Encyclopedia
Nikolay Petrovich Nikolev , (21 November 1758 – 5 February 1815), was a Russia
n poet and playwright
.
He was brought up and educated in the family of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, his distant relation. As President of the Russian Academy
, Dashkova secured his admission into the academy and helped popularize his tragedies and folk songs among the Russian elite. The poet went blind at the age of 20, after which his popularity soared and he came to be sentimentally styled a Russian Milton
. Emperor Paul also treated Nikolev kindly and referred to him as "L'aveugle clairvoyant". Five volumes of his works were published during Paul's reign. Nikolev had a theatre of serf actors
at his estate near Moscow
, where he staged his own plays.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n poet and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
.
He was brought up and educated in the family of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, his distant relation. As President of the Russian Academy
Russian Academy
The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example of the Académie française...
, Dashkova secured his admission into the academy and helped popularize his tragedies and folk songs among the Russian elite. The poet went blind at the age of 20, after which his popularity soared and he came to be sentimentally styled a Russian Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
. Emperor Paul also treated Nikolev kindly and referred to him as "L'aveugle clairvoyant". Five volumes of his works were published during Paul's reign. Nikolev had a theatre of serf actors
Russian serfdom
The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin , is translated as serf.-...
at his estate near Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he staged his own plays.