Nikolai Pomyalovsky

Nikolai Pomyalovsky
Pomyalovsky by Nevrev 1860
Born	(1835-04-23)April 23, 1835 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died	October 17, 1863(1863-10-17) (aged 28) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Period	1850s-1860s
Genre	Fiction
Notable works	Seminary Sketches
Signature

Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomyalovsky (Russian: Никола́й Гера́симович Помяло́вский), (23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1835 – 17 October [O.S. 5 October] 1863), was a Russian novelist and short story writer.

Pomyalovsky was born in Saint Petersburg in 1835. His father was a deacon in the Orthodox Church in Malaya Okhta, a village on the bank of the Neva River, across from Saint Petersburg. Pomyalovsky studied at the Alexander Nevsky Theological School (1843–51), where his lifelong problem with alcoholism began, and at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy (1851–1857). His work Seminary Sketches is a harrowing description of his years in these schools. Though a talented student, he graduated next to last in his class, and wasn't recommended for a deaconship.

Upon leaving the seminary, he earned a living by serving at funerals, singing in choirs, and giving private lessons. He also attended lectures at Saint Petersburg State University. His story Vukol: A Psychological Sketch was published in the Journal for Education in 1859. The story tells of the progress of an intelligent but awkward orphan boy under the abuse and mistreatment of guardians and educators before he finally finds a teacher whose fatherly love he can respond to. In 1860 he started teaching at the largest of Saint Petersburg's Sunday schools, which were staffed by volunteers, and designed to educate the children of the working class. He had high expectations for the usefulness and influence of the Sunday schools, but when these expectations went unrealized he turned to drinking again.

He published his first novel Bourgeois Happiness in Sovremennik (The Contemporary). He also became friends with the editor of Sovremennik, Nikolay Nekrasov, and with its guiding spirit Nikolai Chernyshevsky. As a result of this success, he attended many parties, and drank heavily, which eventually landed him in the hospital with delirium tremens. His novel Molotov (1861- also published in Sovremennik), the sequel to Bourgeois Happiness, secured his reputation, and brought him into the company of writers like Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The two novels tell the story of a poor young intellectual's search for self-realization and his place in the world. The protagonist Molotov, an orphan raised by a university professor, doesn't feel that he belongs anywhere or to any particular social class. The gentry family whose children he tutors are alien to him, and he's not seen by them as an equal, even though he's a college graduate. Molotov won't become a civil servant because he feels it would take away his freedom. His girlfriend Nadya must break all ties with her family, who want her to marry a middle-aged general, in order to be with Molotov. In the end Nadya chooses to be with Molotov as they try to enjoy a simple "bourgeois" lifestyle.