Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Holy Scriptures, particularly the Gospels.
Persuaded by influential intercessors such as the
poet Vasilii Zhukovskii, who later became a tutor
to the future
ALEXANDER II
, Sheremetev agreed to
give Nikitenko his freedom in 1824. In 1828, he
graduated from St. Petersburg University and six
years later began a long career on the faculty of
literature that lasted until 1864. In 1855 he was
elected academician. Nikitenko began writing in
1826, while still a student, publishing works of
criticism and the history of Russian literature
that, while eclectic in their conception, met with
mixed reviews. In 1833, Nikitenko began work-
ing for the government's censorship office,
where he gained a reputation as a lenient censor
whose main concern was to produce quality lit-
erature within the guidelines of Russia's censor-
ship laws in the conservative reign of
NICHOLAS I
.
Radical authors like Aleksandr
HERZEN
sought
him out, knowing that Nikitenko approached his
task from the vantage point of a writer. He wrote
various essays on censorship and, under Alexan-
der II's more liberal regime, served as a member
of the Main Censorship Directorate from 1860 to
1865. Nikitenko's main literary contribution are
the diaries he kept from 1826 until his death, in
which readers gain a unique insight into the
world of a cultured man of peasant background
and moderate views. The diaries were first pub-
lished in 1889-92, and a scholarly edition
appeared in three volumes in 1955-56. An
abridged English edition was published as
Diary
of a Censor.
around the Arabian Sea, and arrived in India.
While in India, he kept a record of the lives of its
peoples, their occupations, social structure, gov-
ernment, and religions. On his return trip he
sailed again on the Arabian Sea, the eastern coast
of Africa, crossed the Arabian Sea once more,
traveled from Hormuz through Tebriz and Trebi-
zond, across the Black Sea, and landed in Cafu
(Feodosiia) in 1471. A literate and sophisticated
man, Nikitin left a clear account of his journeys
in his book
Khozhdenie za tri moria
(Journey over
three seas), which portrays with great equanim-
ity for the era the various religious faiths and cus-
toms of the regions he visited. Scholars have seen
Nikitin as an example of broader humanist, cos-
mopolitan currents that, although not a coherent
movement as in western Europe, found individ-
ual representatives in 15th-century Muscovy.
Nikon
(1605-1681)
ecclesiastical leader
Patriarch of
MOSCOW
and all Russia from 1652 to
1658, Nikon initiated liturgical reforms that led
to a major schism within the Russian Orthodox
Church in the 1660s. Of Mordvinian back-
ground, Nikon was born to a peasant family near
the Volga River town of Nizhnii Novgorod. In
1626 he became a priest and married, settling
down at Makariev Zheltovodsky Monastery. In
1636, he briefly traveled to Moscow, before
being assigned to the Anzerskii Monastery, on
the Solovetskii Islands of the White Sea. Back in
Moscow in 1646, after living in other distant
monasteries, Nikon was installed as abbot of
Novospasskii Monastery. He befriended the
young czar Aleksei and was named patriarch in
1652. As patriarch, Nikon created a court remi-
niscent of his predecessor
FILARET
, the father of
Czar
MICHAEL ROMANOV
, who had ruled with his
son as great sovereign from 1619 to 1633. Fol-
lowing in Filaret's spirit, Nikon also advanced
ideas that placed the church on a level superior
to the state. His
PATRIARCHATE
witnessed the con-
struction of several monasteries, most notably
the Resurrection monastery outside Moscow,
Nikitin, Afanasii
(unknown-1472)
merchant
A 15th-century merchant from Tver, Nikitin
journeyed to India, and left for posterity one of
the first extended descriptions of the region and
its people available in any European literature.
Nikitin left his hometown of Tver in 1466 on
business, sailing down the Volga River to the
Caspian Sea to Derbent and Baku. After crossing
the Caspian he arrived in Persia, where he spent
almost one year. In 1469, he left Persia, sailed
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