Nikolai Vladimirovich Nekrasov (russian: Николай Владимирович Некрасов) (18 December 1900 – 4 October 1938) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...

writer, translator, and critic.

Biography

Nekrasov was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. A journalist, he worked in the publishing house ''Moscow worker''. He learned Esperanto in 1915.

Esperanto activity, editorial work, and articles

In 1918–19, he was president of the ''Tutrusia Ligo de junaj esperantistoj'' (All-Russia League of Young Esperantists), and editor and typesetter of ''Juna Mondo'' (''Young World''). On 1 June 1922 Nekrasov together with Gregory Demidyuk founded the cultural review '' La Nova Epoko'' (''The New Epoch''), which became one of the organs of

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

. In 1923 he became a member of the Central Committee of Sovetlanda Esperantista Unuiĝo (SEU) (ru: Soyuz Esperantistov Sovetskikh Stran), then under the leadership of Ernest Drezen. He was especially concerned with the history and criticism of Esperanto literature, the ideology of the proletarian revolutionary Esperanto movement, the nationality problem and cosmoglottics. In ''La Nova Epoko'' he published several essays on

Esperanto literature Literature in the Esperanto language began before the first official publication in Esperanto in 1887: the language's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, translated poetry and prose into the language as he was developing it as a test of its completeness an ...

(about Baghy, Bulthuis,

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phil ...

, Hohlov, Mikhalski, Devkin, Schulhof, and others). His critiques set out mainly from an original sociological viewpoint, but he simultaneously paid much attention to the use of language in the works. In the early 1930s he actively participated in the compilation and preparation of material on literature for the '' Enciklopedio de Esperanto''. He also published many of Zamenhof's letters. In 1931 he was one of the cofounders of IAREV (''International Association of Revolutionary Esperanto Writers''), and edited its first newspaper, '' La Nova Etapo'' (''The New Stage'').

Arrest, execution, and rehabilitation

Nekrasov was arrested in 1938, and accused of being "an organizer and leader of a fascist, espionage, terrorist organization of Esperantists". For this crime he was shot to death on 4 October 1938. His archive and library were obliterated; presumably many of his unpublished works and translations thus perished. He was posthumously rehabilitated as innocent on 26 November 1957.

Works

Translated poetry

*''Kupra rajdanto'' (''Copper rider'') by

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

. *''Eŭgeno Onegin'' (''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is a novel in verse written by Al ...

'') by

Aleksandr Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

, 1931. *''Dekdu'' (''Twelve'') and ''Najtingala ĝardeno'' (''Nightingale garden'') by

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

. *''Blanka cigno'' (''White swan'') and ''La mortaj ŝipoj'' (''The dead ships'') by Konstantin Bal'mont. *''Nubo en pantalono'' (''Cloud in pants'') and ''Suno'' (''Sun'') by Vladimir Majakovskij. *''Monna Liza'', by

Gerasimov Gerasimov (russian: Герасимов) or Gerasimova (feminine; Герасимова) is a Russian surname, derived from the given name Gerasim. Notable people with the surname include: * Aleksei Gerasimov (disambiguation), multiple people * Aleks ...

. *''Socialismo'' and ''Patrino'' (''Mother'') by Bezimenskij.

Translated prose

*''Ruĝa Stelo'' (''The Red Star''), by Aleksander Bogdanov,

, 1929. (with others) *''La Vojo de formiĝo kaj disvastiĝo de la lingvo internacia'' (''The way of formation and spread of the international language''), by Ernest Drezen,

, 1929 *''Historio de la mondolingvo'' (''History of the world Language'', by Drezen, EKRELO.

Original poetry

*''Fablo pri ĝilotinŝraŭbeto'' (''Fabel of a little gelaten-screw''), appeared in '' Sennacieca Revuo'' *''Testamento de Satano'' (''Testament of Satan'') *''Verda flamo'' (''Green flame'') *''Krono de sonetoj pri Esperanto'' (''Crown of Sonnets''), a commection of poems *''Mi moskvano'' (''I, a Muscovite''), appeared in '' Internacia Literaturo''

Original prose

*''Bibliografio de Esperantaj presaĵoj en USSR dum 12 jaroj de la revolucio 1917-1928'', Moscow, 1928 (A bibliography of esperanto material in print in the USSR during the 12 years of the revolution 1917–1928) *''Tra USSR per Esperanto'' (Through the USSR by means of Esperanto) * Several essays on Esperanto-literaturo in '' La Nova Epoko'' (in Esperanto) Nekrasov believed that in his original poems he followed the Russian symbolist poets, especially Bryusov, and so he took special care with the purity of his language style. It is known that the largest of his original works was the grand poem "Kazanovo" (en:''Casanova'') — which according to the impressions of those who read the manuscript, was at a very high level poetically. At least one copy of the manuscript still existed in the beginning of the 1960s, but later disappeared without a trace.

Quotes

"Art is a hammer to beat the world, not a mirror to reflect it."

Works readable on line

Sennaciismo... burĝa?
from '' Sennacieca Revuo'' (''Non-national review''), 1924

External links

Nekrasov: Datreveno de talenta poeto
(Nekrasov: Anniversary of a talented poet), NikSt, ''Esperanto'', 06.03.91

, ''Esperanta antologio: poemoj 1887–1981'' (''Esperanto Anthology: poems 1887–1981) — Rotterdam, 1984, pp. 207–208.

Sources

The original version of this article is a translation of the corresponding Esperanto language article in Vikipedio.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nekrasov, Nikolao 1900 births 1938 deaths Writers of Esperanto literature Russian male poets Translators to Esperanto Great Purge victims from Russia Russian critics Symbolist writers Russian Esperantists Soviet rehabilitations 20th-century translators 20th-century Russian poets