Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov

Born in 1821, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov became one of Russia’s best-known poets, as well as a writer, critic, and publisher. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes his work as centered on compassion for the sufferings of the peasantry, while Wikipedia notes that his poems were deeply concerned with the lives of ordinary people and helped shape his reputation as a powerful social voice.

Nekrasov was also an important literary editor. He is especially remembered for his long association with the influential journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary), which gave him a major role in Russian literary life beyond his own writing.

Readers often come to Nekrasov for both his feeling and his range: he could be sharply critical, lyrical, and humane at once. Among his best-known works is Who Is Happy in Russia?, and his place in Russian literature rests on the way he brought social reality, folk energy, and emotional directness into poetry.