Chuzhak Nikolay Fyodorovich (real surname — Nasimovich; August 20, 1876, Nizhny Novgorod — September 3, 1937, Leningrad) was a Russian Soviet literary critic, publicist, journalist, and editor, one of the theorists of the Left Front of the Arts. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod into the family of an artisan (according to other sources, a violinist).[1][2]
Revolutionary Activity and Editorial Work
After graduating from a technical secondary school (realschule), he worked as a teacher in Yaroslavl Governorate. He had been involved in the revolutionary movement since 1896, at first among the Narodovoltsy, and from 1904 in the RSDLP (Bolsheviks).[1] In 1904 he emigrated; in Geneva he worked on the editorial staff of the newspaper "Proletary." From late 1905 he joined the military organization under the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP and edited the newspaper "Kazarma" ("The Barracks"). In 1906 he was a delegate to the 1st Conference of the Military and Combat Organizations of the RSDLP in Tammerfors, and was arrested the same year; until 1908 he was held in St. Petersburg's Kresty Prison, then exiled to settle in Irkutsk Governorate.[2]
In Siberia he contributed to the newspaper "Vostochnaya Zarya" ("Eastern Dawn") and edited Irkutsk periodicals, including "Molodaya Sibir" ("Young Siberia"), "Novaya Sibir" ("New Siberia"), "Sibirsky Zhurnal" ("Siberian Journal"), and others.[1] After the February Revolution of 1917 he became a member of the Irkutsk Committee of the RSDLP (United) and editor of the magazine "Rabochaya Sibir" ("Workers' Siberia").[2]
In the Far East and Siberia (1918–1922)
From 1918 to 1922 he edited the newspapers "Krasnoye Znamya" ("Red Banner," Vladivostok), "Dalnevostochny Put" ("Far Eastern Way") and "Dalnevostochnaya Pravda" ("Far Eastern Truth," Chita), and "Vlast Truda" ("Power of Labor," Irkutsk); he headed the press department of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). During the Kolchak period he was in the Bolshevik underground in Vladivostok.[2] He initiated and edited the Futurist magazine "Tvorchestvo" ("Creativity") and headed the Far Eastern literary group of the same name.[1]
In 1921, together with other members of the group, he moved to Chita. There his books were published: "Toward a Dialectics of Art" (1921), "The Siberian Motif in Poetry: From Baldauf to Our Day" (1921), "On Painful Themes" (1922), and "Over the Heads of the Critics" (1922); he also compiled several collections and took an active part in literary debates, promoting the work of Mayakovsky and Futurism.[1]
The Moscow Period. LEF and the Theory of "Life-Building"
From late 1922, Chuzhak worked in Moscow: he joined LEF, where he represented the so-called "production wing." His theory of "art as life-building" reduced the artist's function to the production of "things," rejected psychological prose, and was oriented toward "literature of fact." A collection titled "Literature of Fact" (1929) was published under his editorship; together with S. Tretyakov and V. Pertsov, he signed the declaration of the "fact-oriented publicists," "Neither LEF nor REF" ("Literaturnaya Gazeta," 1929).[2] Chuzhak's works influenced the development of the Soviet essay (ocherk).[2]
From 1926 to 1932, he edited publications of the All-Russian Society of Former Political Prisoners. In the last years of his life, he worked on his memoirs.[2]
Nizhny Novgorod Connection
Nizhny Novgorod is Nikolay Chuzhak's birthplace: he was born here on August 20, 1876.[1][2] The available sources contain no information about Chuzhak's studies or activities in Nizhny Novgorod after his childhood years.
Links
- Wikidata (Q21029020 — entry in the free knowledge base)
- VIAF (76850605 — Virtual International Authority File)
- ISNI (000000010990213X)
- GND (108099229 — German National Library catalog)
Sources
- ez.chita.ru — Encyclopedia — Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia
- az.lib.ru — Lib.ru/Classics: Chuzhak, Nikolay Fyodorovich. N. F. Chuzhak: Biographical Note
- ruslib.3dn.ru — Russian Literature — Chuzhak, Nikolay Fyodorovich