Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev (; December 19, 1830 in Danilovka,

Don Host Oblast The Province (Oblast) of the Don Cossack Host (, ''Oblast’ Voyska Donskogo'') of Imperial Russia was the official name of the territory of Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with the present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia. Its site of admini ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– June 23, 1905 in

Kislovodsk Kislovodsk (russian: Кислово́дск, lit. ''sour waters''; ; krc, Ачысуу) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas. Population: History ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

writer and historian.

Biography

Mordovtsev was born in

Danilovka, Volgograd Oblast Danilovka (russian: Дани́ловка) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Danilovsky District of Volgograd Oblast, Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Mordovtsev's father was a

Don Cossack Don Cossacks (russian: Донские казаки, Donskie kazaki) or Donians (russian: донцы, dontsy) are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (russian: До ...

and an estate manager. Mordovtsev spent his childhood in

, where he learned in school. He graduated from the faculty of history and philology at

St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter t ...

in 1854. Mordovtsev's literary debut came in the mid-1850s. His first work was the poem ''The Cossacks and the Sea'' (1854, published 1859). He began writing in Russian in the 1860s his first novels. His novella ''New Russian People'' (1868) dealt with the Narodniks and their cause, and with the position of

raznochintsy (or ; russian: разночинцы; ; ), ). was an official term introduced in the Digest of Laws of the Russian Empire in the 17th century to define a social estate that included the lower court and governmental ranks, children of personal '' ...

intellectuals, as did the novel ''Signs of the Times'' (1869), although Mordovets did not share the views of the Narodniks. His historical novels were widely read; (''The False Dmitry'', 1879; ''Tsar Peter and the Regent Sophia'', 1885; ''The Tsar and the Hetman'', 1880; ''Lord Novgorod the Great'', 1882; ''For Whose Sins?'', 1890); these novels demonstrated Mordovets's democratic leanings. He served for more than thirty years as an official in

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...

and was the editor of the ''Saratov Provincial News''. He contributed to several popular journals, including ''Russian Word'', ''

Notes of the Fatherland ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lite ...

'', and ''Affairs''. Mordovets also published many historical works, such as ''Impostors and the Freemen of the Lower Reaches'' (1867), ''The Haidamak Uprising'' (1870), ''Political Movements of the Russian People'' (2 vols, 1871), and ''On the Eve of Freedom'' (1872, published 1889), and his memoirs, ''From My Past and Experiences'' (1902, written in Ukrainian), in which he tells of his meetings with

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...

and

Nikolay Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky ( – ) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism. He was ...

. His historical works were received favorably in St. Petersburg academic circles, and he was even considered for a position on the faculty of St. Petersburg University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mordovtsev, Daniil 1830 births 1905 deaths Novelists from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire Historians from the Russian Empire Russian male short story writers Russian historical novelists Russian memoirists Ukrainian male writers 19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire 19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers 19th-century memoirists