Nikolai Leonidovich Meshcheryakov (

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 ...

: Николай Леонидович Мещеряков; 9 March O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February1865, Ryazan Governorate –3 April 1942, Kazan) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet Union, Soviet historian of literature, newspaper editor and head of the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press, Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs (Glavlit) under the Ministry of Education (Soviet Union), People's Commissariat for Education of Russian SFSR in the 1920s. Meshcheryakov's political career started off in Narodnya Volya where he learnt conspiratorial techniques, before turning to

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialec ...

and becoming a member of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist po ...

and later becoming aligned with its

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

wing. He was an old Sunday School friend of Nadya Krupskaya and introduced her to Social democracy and passed on his knowledge of illegal work. He spent some time in exile in Liège,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. He was the editor of ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...

'' of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee and member of the editorial board of ''Izvestia'' of the Moscow Provincial Soviet during the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

. From 1918 he was a member of the editorial board of ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...

''. He was also a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. In 1924 he joined

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, stat ...

in the group drawing up the outline of the ''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

''. Meshcheryakov was the chief editor of the first two editions of the ''

Small Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Small Soviet Encyclopedia'' (Russian: Малая советская энциклопедия) was a general encyclopedia published in the Soviet Union. The encyclopedia was published in three editions: * 1st edition, 10 volumes (betwee ...

''. Meshcheryakov was a member of the Presidium of the

Krestintern The Peasant International (russian: Крестьянский Интернационал), known most commonly by its Russian abbreviation Krestintern (Крестинтерн), was an international peasants' organization formed by the Communist ...

and served as the chief editor of the organization's magazine "The Peasant International". Zaraisk secondary school No. 1, as well as one street 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 ...

, in the Tushino district, was named after N. L. Meshcheryakov.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meshcheryakov, Nikolai Russian publishers (people) 1865 births 1942 deaths Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers Russian Marxists Russian revolutionaries Soviet publishers (people) Old Bolsheviks Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members University of Liège alumni Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Russian Constituent Assembly members Pravda people Soviet newspaper editors Censorship in the Soviet Union Soviet literary critics Russian literary critics