Nikolai Minsky and Nikolai Maksimovich Minsky () are pseudonyms of Nikolai Maksimovich Vilenkin (Виле́нкин; 1855–1937), a mystical writer and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

of the

Silver Age of Russian Poetry Silver Age (Сере́бряный век) is a term traditionally applied by Russian philologists to the last decade of the 19th century and first two or three decades of the 20th century. It was an exceptionally creative period in the history o ...

Early life and education

Born in Glubokoe (now

Hlybokaye Hlybokaye or Glubokoye (; ; ; ; ) is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Hlybokaye District. As of 2024, it has a population of 17,746. The town is located on the international road from Polotsk to Vilniu ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

) to poor Jewish parents, he was orphaned early. He was brought up, and finished his schooling, in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. He took his pseudonym from the city he grew up in. He completed his law degree at the University of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1879.

Personal life and death

He was married to Zinaida Vengerova, a noted literary critic in 1925. She was his third wife. Minsky died in Paris in 1937,Slonimsky, Nicolas (2012). ''Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow''. Rochester, NY: University Rochester Press. p. 7. . and is buried at the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

Works

Minsky's career as a poet began in 1876, when he wrote poems on "civil topics". His poem, ''A Slav's Dream'', for instance, was written in support of

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

's struggle against the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

. In 1889, he began work on the book ''With the Light of Conscience'', employing a deliberately pompous tone to present its theory of "meonism" (''me on'' being Greek for "nonexistent"). The objective of the work is to show that the main purpose of humanity is "nonexistence itself". In 1900,

Dmitri Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky ( rus, Дми́трий Серге́евич Мережко́вский, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪrʲɪˈʂkofskʲɪj; – December 9, 1941) was a Russian novelist, poet, religious thinke ...

, Minsky,

Zinaida Gippius Zinaida Nikolayevna Gippius (; – 9 September 1945), a Russian poet, playwright, novelist, editor and religious thinker, became one of the major figures in Russian symbolism. She began writing at an early age, and by the time she met Dmitry ...

Vasily Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov (; – 5 February 1919) was one of the most controversial Russian writers and important philosophers among the symbolists of the pre-revolutionary epoch. Views Rozanov tried to reconcile Christian teachings with ...

, and others founded the Religious-Philosophical Society in Saint Petersburg. Minsky, like the majority of intellectuals, sympathized with the revolution and social democracy. He was the nominal editor of the legal

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

newspaper '' New Life''. After the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

was defeated in 1905, Minsky became one of the leaders of Russian

decadence Decadence was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, ...

and

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

. These ideas represented the cult of beauty and enjoyment and declared war on the public tendencies that threatened to damage the "cleanliness" of artistic creation. A minor scandal was recorded involving Minsky after he instigated a ritual on May 2, 1905 at his home in Saint Petersburg. It involved drinking the "donated" blood of Zinaida Vengerova, which was intended as a protoecumenical bonding ceremony. It was criticized for the perceived

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...

and

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

overtones. After 1905, he lived abroad. A religious-philosophical concept is presented in the treatises ''With the Light of Conscience'' (1890) and ''The Religion of the Future'' (1905). Other publications include the collection of verses ''From the Gloom to the Light'' (1922) and various dramas and

translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

References

An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: 1801-1953

External links

* Russian male poets Belarusian Jews Symbolist dramatists and playwrights 1855 births 1937 deaths Russian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian poets Saint Petersburg State University alumni {{Russia-poet-stub

Early life and education

Personal life and death

Works

See also

References

External links