Nikolay Ivanovich Gretsch (

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 ...

: Николай Иванович Греч; 1787–1867) was a

grammarian Grammarian may refer to: * Alexandrine grammarians, philologists and textual scholars in Hellenistic Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE * Biblical grammarians, scholars who study the Bible and the Hebrew language * Grammarian (Greco-Roman ...

of the 19th century. Although he was primarily interested in

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

, it is as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

that he is primarily remembered. He was from the Russian Empire. Gretsch came from a noble

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

family.

Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg Peter Jakob Freiherr Clodt von Jürgensburg (; 5 June 1805 – 25 November 1867) was a Russian sculptor. He was well regarded by Nicholas I of Russia. Biography Born in Saint Petersburg, Klodt belonged to a distinguished family of Baltic Ger ...

was his wife's nephew. He attended the

Imperial School of Jurisprudence The Imperial School of Jurisprudence () was, along with the Page Corps, a school for boys in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. The school for would-be imperial administrators was founded by Duke Peter of Oldenburg in 1835. T ...

and travelled widely in Europe, producing no less than five volumes of travel writings as well as several novels. He introduced the Lancasterian system of education into Russia (1820), organized several innovative schools for soldiers and penned a number of textbooks for them. His

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...

were published in 1886. At the time of

Napoleon's invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continent ...

Gretsch started publishing '' The Son of the Fatherland'', a periodical that expressed liberal views that had much in common with those of the

Decembrists The Decembrist revolt () was a failed coup d'état led by liberal military and political dissidents against the Russian Empire. It took place in Saint Petersburg on , following the death of Emperor Alexander I. Alexander's brother and heir ...

.Русские писатели. 1800—1917. Биографический словарь. Т. 2: Г — К. Москва: Большая российская энциклопедия, 1992. С. 18—21. During Nicholas I's reactionary reign he crossed over to the conservative camp and joined forces with

Faddei Bulgarin Faddei Venediktovich Bulgarin (; – ), born Jan Tadeusz Krzysztof Bułharyn, was a Russian writer, journalist and publisher of Polish ancestry. In addition to his newspaper work, he rejuvenated the Russian novel, and published the first theat ...

in feuding with

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

's circle. Grech old russian censorship

Gretch and Bulgarin were the editors of ''

Northern Bee ''Northern Bee'' () was a semi-official Russian political and literary newspaper published in St. Petersburg from to . It was an unofficial organ of Section Three (the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery) – the secret police ...

'', a popular political and literary newspaper that championed the Official Nationality theory. According to

Nicholas V. Riasanovsky Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky (born Nicolai Valentinovitch Riasanovskiy;. (December 21, 1923 – May 14, 2011) was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of numerous books on Russian history and European intellectua ...

, the newspaper "strikes a modern reader as deficient in interpretation, weak intellectually, and devoted almost entirely to factual, quasi-official summaries of events".Quoted from: N. V. Riasanovsky. ''Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825-1855''. University of California Press, 1959. . Page 275.

References

External links

Works by N. I. Gretsch online

Detailed biography, in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gretsch, Nikolay Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Newspaper publishers (people) from the Russian Empire 19th-century journalists from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire Philologists from the Russian Empire 19th-century educators from the Russian Empire Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire 1787 births 1867 deaths 19th-century memoirists from the Russian Empire Privy Councillor (Russian Empire)