Ivan Savvich Nikitin (1824-1861) was born and raised in a very prosperous merchant family. The young boy learned to read and write quite early - the love of reading and walking in the picturesque surroundings will later manifest itself in brilliant poems in the style of landscape lyrics.

Eight years old in 1833, Ivan enters the theological school, which he successfully completes, but he will not be able to finish the seminary - due to difficult family circumstances(the death of his mother, drunkenness and ruin of his father) the boy is forced early to be the sole breadwinner of his family. After working a little in a candle shop, Ivan sells the family candle factory and becomes the owner of an inn, the wandering people and the common people of which will subsequently lead to populist motives in his work.

The first serious attempts at poetic creativity were noticed while still studying at the theological seminary, although the first publication of poems took place only in 1853, in the newspaper Voronezh Provincial News. The first printed poem "Rus" immediately brought young poet Ivan Nikitin fame and popularity, he was deservedly compared with famous poet A.V. Koltsov. Also in the seminary, everyone noted the special musicality of the poet, subsequently more than 60 poems will be set to music (“Hello, winter guest”, “The nightingale fell silent in a dark grove”, “Noisy, cleared up”, etc.).

Religious and philosophical motifs are very clearly visible in the writer's work, their echo is present both in landscape lyrics (“Meeting Winter”, “Morning”), and in works describing the hard life of ordinary people (“Plowman”, “Beggar”, “Mother and daughter"). Being a deeply believing Christian, the author has repeatedly turned in his work to the gospel-spiritual theme (“Prayer”, “The sweetness of prayer”, “ New Testament»).

Not bypassed the work of the poet and love lyrics("The candle burned out"). A year before his death, the poet falls in love with a beautiful educated girl Natalia Antonovna Matveeva, a true connoisseur of his bright and at the same time deep talent.

The creative path of the poet was far from cloudless - the first collection of poems was subjected to a devastating review by N. Chernyshevsky, which inflicted severe mental trauma on the poet. The heyday of creativity was very short-lived - release latest collection poems dates back to 1859. Further, the poet is working on the end of the poem "Taras" and the story "Diary of a seminarian". In 1861, A. Nekrasov was offered cooperation on any terms in literary magazine"Contemporary". This event was a great creative victory for a young, but already experienced writer, but, due to a serious illness, he did not succeed in realizing himself to the end.

On November 16, 1861, the 37-year-old poet dies from a severe form of consumption. He will be buried next to the grave of the poet A. Koltsov at the Novo-Mitrofanevsky cemetery.

An ardent patriot, a sad man of the Russian people, a sincerely believing Christian - Ivan Savvich Nikitin was not only a role model for his contemporaries, but also the inspirer of a host of followers of his brilliant work - Pleshcheev, Surikov, Minaev, Yesenin, Tvardovsky.

In the difficult pre-reform period, the biography of Nikitin Ivan Savvich as a poet began, so his work was filled with the suffering of a bonded, enslaved people. The motives of need, exhausting labor, hopeless grief, eternal longing characterized each of his works.

Christian

The poet knew how to empathize, sympathize and help the suffering, which is why Nikitin's biography contains many manifestations of a purely Christian attitude towards one's neighbor. Most of his poems and poems have a religious or philosophical content. These are the poems "Fist" and "Taras", the poems "Prayer for the Chalice", "Prayer of a Child", "Prayer". His landscape lyrics are close to the modern reader, many poems are known by heart, and this does not depend on age. Everything suggests that Nikitin's biography was written by fate forever, since the motives native nature, health, beautiful people and pure feelings are enduring and will be in demand in all ages.

Ivan Savvich Nikitin was born in September 1824 in the family of a poor Voronezh merchant, the owner of a small, almost handicraft factory. For eight years he was sent to a theological school, after which he set out to become a priest and entered the Voronezh Theological Seminary. Already at a young age, Ivan Savvich Nikitin felt a burning interest in literature, read many books of poetry and tried to compose himself. Koltsov, Zhukovsky and Pushkin became his favorite poets.

Dreams and reality

In his dreams, Ivan Nikitin, the poet, saw himself as a student at the capital's university, where he had the opportunity to see legendary writers. However, his father went bankrupt, the factory had to be sold in order to buy a collapsing inn and for a long, long time to pay off the accumulated debts. The future poet had to manage this hotel in order to help his family. Therefore, not only the university remained in distant dreams, but the seminary had to be left.

About these years, filled with work and worries, he left many letters to his descendants. It heartily describes the love that Ivan Nikitin had for poetry. His poems are filled with heartache for the people, forced to live in hopeless need, but at the same time, the nightingale Russian speech sings in every letter, admires the surrounding world, free spaces. The soul of the poet remained pure, attached to the beautiful, comforted by the word of space.

First verses

Ivan Nikitin began to write poetry very early, as soon as he learned to add letters, which he himself mentions in letters. But, unfortunately, not all of them survived. The earliest dates back to 1849. The very first publication immediately showed others that he had come into the world real poet. This poem by Ivan Nikitin - "Rus" - has become a textbook. It is from that galaxy of few masterpieces that to this day schoolchildren are happy to learn by heart. Nikitin Ivan Savvich always wrote poems for children, he has quite a few works that would not be understandable to them.

And the first published poem was instantly reprinted by almost all newspapers published in Russia, and the poet became famous. However, the first collection of poems appeared only in 1856. Three years later in Voronezh opened book Shop- a stronghold of youth education, and Ivan Savvich Nikitin became its owner. Interesting Facts from the life of the poet were collected by those people who made up the color public life Voronezh, and which this Cultural Center provincial town - a bookstore. Unfortunately, this happiness did not last long. "In the dark thicket, the nightingale fell silent ..." - Nikitin's biography turned out to be very short.

Consumption

The poet lived a short, extremely difficult life, full of never-ending troubles with many sorrows, since his father, after ruin, fell into an incessant hard drinking. But he devoted every free minute to poetry - reading or writing. However, the forces were running out. The life and work of Ivan Savvich Nikitin was cut short by consumption, which he fell ill from overwork and the inability to pay attention to own health. He died in the year that collapsed serfdom(in 1861).

He was waiting for the liberation of the peasants all his life, and with every line he hurried this event. As the owner of an inn, he saw many of the dirtiest scenes, talked with the most different people belonging to the most different classes. His poems were passed from mouth to mouth even by those who could not read, and the Voronezh intelligentsia called him "the second Koltsov." In fact, he was never the second, and Nikitin's poetics is quite different from Koltsov's poetics even in his earliest poems, although Chernyshevsky once reproached him for imitation.

Poems and poems

Nikolai Dobrolyubov highly appreciated Nikitin's poem "The Fist" for its originality, noting the creative growth that the poet has received since previous publications. In 1855, the poems "Street Meeting", "The Coachman's Wife" were published, after which the poet thought about introducing something new into his style of presentation.

And therefore, two years later, poems came that were significantly different from the previous ones: "Plowman", "Overnight in the Village", "Spinner", "Beggar", then "Mother and Daughter" and the famous "Commemoration". Social motives appeared in the lines. This is especially true of the poems Dead body"," The Old Servant "and others created in his last years. In 1860, the already terminally ill Nikitin wrote his only prose work- "Diary of a seminarian", where they found a place for the memories of his youth.

Music

All his poems are so melodious that they themselves ask for a song. About the bright moments of life, the poet wrote: "The world clear soul will dawn..." More than sixty songs and romances were written in different time Russian composers on Nikitin's verses. And until now, composers are interested in the poetry of Ivan Savvich. For example, in 2009 Alexander Sharafutdinov recorded a whole album called "Joy and Sorrow".

Nikitin's poems are always saturated with music, they absorbed that folk life, like a groan, which forced the poet, who had cried all night over a poetic line, to destroy it at dawn, because she did not truthfully convey the state that made the night sleepless. The poet painstakingly searched for the truth - if not in life, but in poetry. The important thing is that he found it.

Family

Ivan Savvich was more like a mother - a meek woman, compassionate, deeply religious, even pious. She, like the poet himself, patiently waited all her life for a better fate, suffering immensely from the tough character of her husband. Father knew the whole of Voronezh. The merchant is enterprising, but a heavy drinker, the first fist fighter in the city, which his family knew better than others. Ivan Nikitin loved his father very much for his strength, for his seriousness, for his practical acumen, for his efficiency.

But as a poet, his mother gave him much more. This is an exceptional, immeasurable sensitivity of the soul, a subtle poetic ear, dreaminess and deep faith. From birth, he communicated with wanderers, pilgrims, pilgrims who visited the Mitrofanevsky monastery in Voronezh. They all came to the factory shop to buy candles.

People

From all over the country people flocked here, folk dialect different areas heard and noted Nikitin, while still a little boy. He was very fond of the stories of pilgrims, willingly read the lives of the saints and other spiritual books. That is precisely why the poet's attitude to Russian nature turned out to be so reverent, almost religious.

Subsequently, meeting and seeing off coachmen and cabbies, merchants and wanderers, peasants and wandering artists, being the manager of an inn, Nikitin just as willingly communicated with travelers of all the diversity of the estates of Russian society. With him, people were always extremely frank, because the poet is sensitive and kind. Although their stories for the most part were very bitter and heavy on the heart. Rest was only poetry. It was bad form in those days to publish poems under one's own name, and manuscripts were not accepted anonymously in the Voronezh newspaper. That is why the first publication of the poet's poems took place so late.

Friends

Members of the Voronezh circle of reading lovers, among whom was the editor of the local newspaper Vtorov, immediately fell in love with both Nikitin's poems and himself. some liked social protest and democratic notes in his poems, and the rest reveled religious motives and harmony in poetic landscapes.

In 1854, Nikitin was also recognized in the capital - his poems were published in Fatherland Notes, and Kukolnik wrote an article about Nikitin in the Library for Reading. Then a lover of literature and a high-ranking official, Count Tolstoy, became interested in the poet, after which a separate book by Nikitin was published with verses personally selected by Tolstoy and a preface written by him.

About borrowing and imitation

Nikitin's early work really went through some literary school, since in his poems of the first period one can hear Pushkin ("Forest"), and Koltsov ("Rus", "Spring in the Steppe"), and Lermontov ("In the West the Sun", "Key"), and Maykov ("Evening "), and Nekrasov ("Street meeting", "Coachman's story").

However, this is more like a single aesthetic support, since all of the above poets relied on folklore sources. There is always a common prototype. With Nikitin, this is not apprenticeship, but the folklore of poetic thinking, the innocence of folk ways, habits and attitudes towards creativity, which even at that time was largely oral. Nikitin is not even a poet, he is a storyteller who must live through collective creativity.

The work of Ivan Nikitin arouses sincere interest among admirers of real deep poetry.

Nikitin Ivan Savvich is a nugget poet who loved nature since childhood and sang of its beauty. Ivan Savvich's compositions withstood big number publications and sold out in huge number copies.

The original poet vividly describes the spirit of that distant time. In poetic creativity, the poet seeks to comprehend his existence, expresses a feeling of dissatisfaction with his own being and suffers greatly from the inconsistency of the existing reality. The poet found solace in nature and religion, which reconciled him for a while with life.

From the biography of Nikitin Ivan Savvich:

Ivan Savvich Nikitin was born on October 3 (September 21), 1824 in the city of Voronezh. His father, Savva Evstikhievich Nikitin, came from a clergy, was a wealthy tradesman, traded in a candle shop and kept a candle factory.

Ivan Nikitin's childhood and youth were spent surrounded by pilgrims who bought candles in a shop.

Little Ivan mastered reading and writing early. A neighbor who was a shoemaker helped him in this. Only after learning how to fold letters, Ivan began to compose his first poems. He never found support and approval of creativity from his father, who was an adherent of petty-bourgeois views. As a child, Vanya read a lot and loved to be in nature, with which he felt unity from birth.

House in Voronezh, where I. S. Nikitin lived with his father

When Ivan was eight years old, his father sent him to the Voronezh Theological School. After graduating from college (1839), he expressed a desire to be a priest and entered the seminary. (1839), from which he was expelled for absenteeism (1843). Nikitin, as the son of well-to-do parents, was a freelance seminary student and retained his independence and broad-mindedness. Seminary played big role in the development of the poet, but he was not satisfied with the existing system of education and the orders adopted there. He would later write about this in The Diaries of a Seminarian (1861), where he would reflect his unhappy impressions of being in the seminary. Ivan Nikitin dreamed of studying at the university.

Seminary Ivan Nikitin never managed to finish. Heavy character and his father's drinking eventually ended in ruin. Then his mother Praskovya Ivanovna died, the means of subsistence dried up, dreams of entering the university turned out to be unrealistic, and Nikitin was forced to first trade in a candle shop, then maintain an inn (since 1844), which was bought instead of the sold candle factory.

Ivan also had to do menial work, including sweeping the yard. Then more for a long time had to pay off the accumulated debts. But in spite of everything, the aspiring poet did not abandon his passion for literature and continued to write poetry.

For more than ten years, he constantly spends in communication with visiting people who represented different social groups and estates.

The difficulties of being Nikitin, who worked at the inn as a janitor, his difficult monotonous life, her difficult circumstances did not break the young man, he did not sink spiritually, in any free moment he tried to read books, compose poems that asked out of his heart.

While still studying at the seminary, Nikitin became seriously interested in poetry and composed a lot himself. Passion for literature opened up new horizons for him, he managed to break out of the limits of the petty-bourgeois worldview and gain inner freedom. Nikitin closely communicated with the people, grew up in the atmosphere of folk dialects of different places in Russia, listened to the stories and tales of wanderers, the lives of saints and spiritual poems. In his youth, he was fond of Pushkin, Zhukovsky and other classics. From the church walls, he brought a reverent attitude to nature. Despite the fact that by that time there were no wonderful teachers in the seminary - A.V. Koltsov and A.P. Serebryansky, the seminarians fed on the memories of their circle. Nikitin wrote the first poems precisely in imitation of Koltsov.

Since 1853, Nikitin's rapprochement with the historian, ethnographer and public figure N. I. Vtorov and his circle, which brought together representatives of the Voronezh intelligentsia. It was Vtorov who inspired Ivan Nikitin for the first publication in the Voronezh Gubernskiye Vedomosti on November 21, 1853 of the poem "Rus", written during the beginning of the Crimean War, and its patriotic content was very topical.

Fascinated by the work of Nikitin, N. I. Vtorov introduced him to the circle of the local intelligentsia, 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 edition (1856).

The popularity of the poet at that time was growing, but he still lived hard. Father drank soundly, however, family relationships slightly improved; the atmosphere of the inn was no longer so depressing for the young man, who was spinning in a circle intelligent people sincerely disposed towards him.

But Nikitin began to be overcome by illness. In 1855, Ivan Nikitin fell seriously ill after catching a cold while swimming. The disease dragged on and developed into consumption.

In 1856, Nikitin became interested in the governess of the landowners Plotnikovs. The girl's name was M.I. Junot. The feelings were mutual, the girl was of an ebullient nature, developed and sensitive to poetry. They did not advertise their feelings.

Bookshop I. S. Nikitin

In 1859, thanks to the assistance of friends, the poet takes a loan in the amount of three thousand rubles, since his own fees were not enough to realize his plan. Being a man of action, I. Nikitin in February 1859, with this money, he opened a bookstore in Voronezh, and with it a shop and a library. Soon, the store turned from an ordinary outlet into a noticeable center of culture, which was not in the city. This allowed him to become one of the main centers of culture in Voronezh. + In 1861, Nikitin visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, took part in local cultural work, in the formation of a literacy society in Voronezh, and also in the establishment of Sunday schools.

In the early 60s, N. A. Nekrasov invited the poet to collaborate in the Sovremennik magazine. This was a real recognition, but I. Nikitin could no longer take advantage of the invitation. A serious illness undermined the strength of the poet.

In May 1861, the poet again caught a bad cold, which caused an exacerbation of the tuberculosis process and sharp deterioration general condition health. Tuberculous process has accelerated significantly. The level of medicine of those years practically did not leave hope for recovery.

The poet died on October 16 of the same year at the age of only 37 years. They buried him in Voronezh, at the Novo-Mitrofanevsky cemetery, where the poet lived all his life. short life.

The creative heritage of I. S. Nikitin and his contribution to Russian literature:

The remarkable Russian poet lived in times tsarist Russia in the nineteenth century in the difficult pre-reform period. This circumstance has a huge impact on the development of his talent and on all his creativity.

Ivan began to write poetic lines while still in the seminary, and he decided to give his creations to print only in 1853. Their publication took place in the Voronezh Gubernskie Vedomosti, when young man was 29 years old. Patriotic pathos poems were reprinted in other newspapers and magazines, they were very helpful, as it was Crimean War. The author's works were copied and passed from hand to hand, began to be printed in the "Notes of the Fatherland", "Library for Reading".

In the summer of 1855, Nikitin fell ill after catching a cold while swimming. Faith saved him, many poems with religious themes appeared. The theme of human faith runs like a red thread through everything poetic creativity Ivan Nikitin: "New Testament", "Prayer", "The Sweetness of Prayer", "Prayer for the Chalice". Seeing the holy grace in everything, Nikitin became the most soulful singer of nature (“Morning”, “Spring in the steppe”, “Meeting of winter”) and enriched Russian poetry a large number masterpieces of landscape poetry.

Soon the first collection of poems was published (1856) and Nikitin began to be compared with Koltsov.

Then Nikitin wrote the poem "The Fist", which was completed in 1857. He showed in the poem a type of person who strongly resembled his own father. The Voronezh tradesman Karp Lukich, the hero of the poem, lived by petty deceit, miscalculation and measurement. He is a dealer, himself a penniless and ruined merchant, he cannot get out of severe poverty. As a result of this life, he drank and tyrannized everyone in the house. The poem was received favorably by critics and the book sold out in less than a year, bringing the poet a good income. Despite his illness and depressed mood, Nikitin continued to closely follow Russian literature in 1857-1858. From abroad I read Shakespeare, Cooper, Goethe, Hugo, Chenier. Also began to study German, translating Heine and Schiller. In 1857-1858 he worked in the "Notes of the Fatherland", "Russian Conversation". At this time, the inn began to generate income, the family came out of poverty. Father did not stop drinking, but relations in the family improved, work was no longer so burdensome for Nikitin.

Nikitin received Dobrolyubov's excellent review of his poem. The poet was introduced to Count D.N. Tolstoy, who helped him publish.

The second collection appeared in 1859. Nikitin became a master of the Russian landscape and the successor of Koltsov, a hymnologist of hard peasant labor, the life of the urban poor and the injustice of the world order. Nikitin's name thundered, but life was still hard.

In the second half of 1860, Nikitin worked hard. Soon, in 1861, his prose Diary of a Seminarian was published.

The original and essential feature of Nikitin's poetry is truthfulness and simplicity, reaching the strictest direct reproduction of worldly prose. Almost all of Nikitin's poems fall into two large blocks: some are devoted to nature ("South and North" (1851) "Morning" (1854)), others to human need, people's suffering ("Plowman" (1856), "Coachman's Wife" ( 1854)). In both those and others, the poet is completely free from any effects and idle eloquence.

WITH early childhood he was familiar with the life of ordinary people and serfs filled with hardships and suffering. All his creations fully reflect the lack of rights, hopelessness, need and hard work of people from lower classes, to which an overwhelmingly large share belonged Russian population. The poet sincerely sympathized with the representatives of these estates and treated them in accordance with Christian traditions, supporting those in need not only kind word, but also giving them real help. The main part of the writer's work is a poetic landscape lyrics, which, among other things, contains a religious bias and has a philosophical focus. In terms of his creative style, he is the successor to the traditions laid down by Koltsov.

His ability to feel subtly is amazing. the world, to sing the refined shades of colors. He was able with just a stroke of the pen to describe the world around him with inspiration and piercing sensitivity. In his poems true love to nature, in his work the poet showed himself as a talented landscape painter. Love for the people is one of the main themes in Nikitin's work.

A significant place in the work of the poet, who sincerely worried about his people and let his troubles through own heart, are occupied by poems describing the life of an ordinary commoner ("Coachman's Wife", "Plowman", "Mother and Daughter", "Beggar", "Street Meeting"). They show a deep true love to his people, ardent sympathy for their plight and a great desire to improve their situation.

At the same time, Nikitin did not idealize the people, looking at them with sober eyes, he painted them truthfully, without hiding the gloomy sides and negative traits folk character: family despotism, rudeness ("Corruption", "Stubborn father", "Delezh").

Nikitin's panoramic vision embraced all aspects of Russian life.

In the work of Nikitin there is a lot of autobiographical element with prevailing sad tones, sadness and grief, which are also caused by a protracted illness. The source of such poignant sadness was not only personal adversity, but also surrounding life with human suffering, social contrasts, constant drama. + Nikitin was a member of the circle of the local Voronezh intelligentsia, it was the circle of Nikolai Ivanovich Vtorov. But Vtorov soon left Voronezh. The second friend of Nikitin was Mikhail Fedorovich De-Poulet. It was he who, after the death of Nikitin, became his executor, he published his legacy, wrote a biography and edited Nikitin's writings.

During his short life, Nikitin wrote about two hundred beautiful poems, three poems and a story.

Nikitin's works perfectly fit the music and have served as a source of inspiration for many Russian composers. Over 60 wonderful songs and romances were composed to Nikitin's poems, many of which became popular. There are songs that have become folk songs. Perhaps the most famous of them is "Ukhar-merchant". Here, however, it should be noted that the text of the folk version of the song has undergone significant changes that influenced the original semantic content.

Nikitin was and remains an unsurpassed singer of Russian nature. The name of Ivan Nikitin entered the musical culture of Russia, his name outlived many, larger, but forgotten poets.

Memory of an original Russian poet:

* In 1924 in Voronezh, in the house where Ivan Nikitin had lived since 1846, the Nikitin Literary and Memorial House-Museum was established.

* One of the gymnasiums in Voronezh is named after the poet.

* In the USSR produced stamps with the image of Nikitin.

*Streets in Voronezh, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk are named after Ivan Nikitin.

* A monument to the poet was opened on Nikitinskaya Square in Voronezh in 1911, the project of which was developed by the sculptor I.A. Shuklin.

*In 2011, the Russian Post issued a circulation of postcards depicting the above-mentioned monument to the poet in Voronezh.

The remarkable Russian poet lived during the time of Tsarist Russia in the nineteenth century in a difficult pre-reform period. This circumstance had a huge impact on the development of his talent and on all his work. From early childhood, he was familiar with the life of ordinary people and serfs filled with hardships and suffering. In all his creations, the lack of rights, hopelessness, need and hard work of people from the lower classes, to which an overwhelmingly large proportion of the Russian population belonged, are fully reflected.

The poet sincerely sympathized with the representatives of these estates and treated them in accordance with Christian traditions, supporting those in need only with a kind word, but also providing them with real help. The main part of the writer's work is a poetic landscape lyrics, which, among other things, contains a religious bias and has a philosophical orientation. In terms of his creative style, he is the successor to the traditions laid down by Koltsov.

The poet came from a merchant family

Ivan Savvich Nikitin was born on October 3, 1824 in Voronezh into a poor but well-to-do merchant family. His father was the owner of a small candle factory, which would be more properly called a handicraft workshop. He had a shop where he sold candles.

A shoemaker taught him to read and write

Little Ivan mastered reading and writing early. A neighbor who was a shoemaker helped him in this. Only after learning how to fold letters, Ivan began to compose his first poems.

Seminary studies

When Ivan was eight years old, his father sent him to a religious school. After graduating from college, he expressed a desire to be a priest and entered the seminary. The seminary played a big role in the formation of the poet, but he was not satisfied with the existing education system and the rules adopted there. He would later write about this in The Diaries of a Seminarian.

While studying at the seminary, Nikitin became seriously interested in poetry and composed a lot himself. Passion for literature opened up new horizons for him, he managed to break out of the petty-bourgeois worldview and gain inner freedom.

Inn owner

Seminary Ivan Nikitin never graduated. His father's heavy temper and drunkenness eventually ended in ruin. Then his mother died. The circumstances forced Ivan to abandon his studies and start maintaining the inn, which was bought instead of the sold plant. For more than ten years he has been constantly communicating with visiting people who represented different social groups and classes.

He also had to do menial work, including sweeping the yard. Then for a long time it was necessary to pay the accumulated debts. But in spite of everything, the aspiring poet did not abandon his passion for literature and continued to write poetry. He never found support and approval of creativity from his father, who was an adherent of petty-bourgeois views.

First publications

For the first time Ivan Nikitin decided to publish his poems in 1853. They were published in the newspaper "Gubernskiye Vedomosti" published in Voronezh. Soon patriotic poems appeared on the pages of other publications, which was very important, since in those years there was the Crimean War. In 1856, the first collection of Nikitin's poems was published. The next collection comes out in 1859. Critics put Nikitin's work on the same level as Koltsov and saw in him a master of landscape and a singer of the hard lot of the common people.

In 1857, the poet completed work on the poem "The Fist", which enjoyed great success with readers and received recognition and recognition. high marks critics. Her main character, the tradesman Karp Lukich, was a ruined merchant, lived off petty deceit and could not get out of poverty. In the family, he was a real despot and a deep drunkard. The hero of the poem strongly resembled Father Nikitin in terms of character.

Opening of a bookstore by Nikitin in Voronezh

In 1859, thanks to the assistance of friends, the poet takes a loan in the amount of three thousand rubles, since his own fees were not enough to realize his plan. With this money, he opens a bookstore in Voronezh. A reading room was organized at this store, which allowed it to become one of the main centers of culture in Voronezh.

Illness and death

In 1855, Ivan Nikitin fell seriously ill after catching a cold while swimming. The disease dragged on and developed into consumption. In the spring of 1861, he again caught a serious cold, which caused a sharp deterioration in his general health. Tuberculous process has accelerated significantly. The level of medicine of those years practically did not leave hope for recovery. The poet died on October 16 of the same year at the age of only 37 years. They buried him in Voronezh, where the poet lived his entire short life.

Reflection of the poet's work in musical culture

His works perfectly fit the music and have served as a source of inspiration for many Russian composers. More than 60 songs and romances were composed to Nikitin's poems, many of which became popular. There are songs that have become folk songs. Perhaps the most famous of them is "Ukhar-merchant". Here, however, it should be noted that the text of the folk version of the song has undergone significant changes that have affected the original semantic content.

memory of a poet

• Streets in Voronezh, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk are named after Ivan Nikitin.
• In 1911, a monument to the poet was opened on Nikitinskaya Square in Voronezh, the project of which was developed by the sculptor I.A. Shuklin.
• In 1924, in Voronezh, in the house where Ivan Nikitin had lived since 1846, the Nikitin Literary and Memorial House-Museum was established.
• One of the gymnasiums in Voronezh is named after the poet.
• In the USSR, postage stamps with the image of Nikitin were issued, and in 2011 the Russian Post issued a circulation of postcards, which depict the above-mentioned monument to the poet in Voronezh.