Nikolai Nekrasov is one of the most complex figures in the history of Russian literature. Some put his poems higher than Pushkin's, others considered them “unpoetic.” The author of “folk poems” and poetic feuilletons, “The Poet and the Citizen” and an ode in honor of General Muravyov, the “hangman,” was the idol of several generations of readers and the object of constant suspicion of hypocrisy. “The singer of the people’s grief,” who wrote about men, a soldier’s mother, and peasant children, who glorified ascetics who sacrificed everything for the happiness of their neighbors, never despised “momentary blessings”: he played cards for big money, loved hunting, supported a French actress, communicated with ministers and courtiers, knew a lot about gastronomy. The editor and publisher of the most popular literary magazines of the 19th century was the first to recognize the enormous talents of Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Doctor of Philological Sciences Mikhail Makeev, not afraid to discuss “compromising” circumstances, reveals unknown episodes from the life of the poet, the title of whose work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became sacramental question.

[Adapted for AlReader]