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

Don Host Oblast Don Host Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Russian Empire which consisted of the territory of the Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with present-day Rostov Oblast in Russia. Its administrative center was Cherkassk, and later Nov ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

– June 23, 1905 in Kislovodsk,

) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

writer and historian.

Biography

Mordovtsev was born in

Danilovka, Volgograd Oblast Danilovka () 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 country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the li ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Mordovtsev's father was a Don Cossack 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 (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

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

Narodnik The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...

s and their cause, and with the position of

raznochintsy (; ; ) was an official category introduced in the Digest of Laws of the Russian Empire in the 17th century for a Social estates in the Russian Empire, social estate that included the lower royal court, court and governmental ranks, children of pe ...

intellectuals, as did the novel ''Signs of the Times'' (1869), although Mordovtsev 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 Mordovtsev's democratic leanings. He served for more than thirty years as an official in

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

and was the editor of the ''Saratov Provincial News''. He contributed to several popular journals, including ''Russian Word'', '' Notes of the Fatherland'', and ''Affairs''. Mordovtsev 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 (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

and Nikolay Chernyshevsky. 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 Historians from the Russian Empire Russian male short story writers Russian historical novelists 19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire 19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century memoirists from the Russian Empire People from Don Host Oblast Saint Petersburg State University alumni People from Saratov Russian newspaper editors