Nikolai Leskov
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was a Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and journalist who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held in high esteem by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others, Leskov is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society using mostly short literary forms. His major works include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , The Cathedral Clergy , The Enchanted Wanderer , and The Tale of Crosseyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea .
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born onFebruary 1831, in Gorokhovo, Oryol Gubernia, to Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov , a respected criminal investigator and local court official, and Maria Petrovna Leskova , the daughter of an impoverished Moscow nobleman, who first met her future husband at a very young age, when he worked as a tutor in their house. Leskovs ancestors on his fathers side were all clergymen in the village of Leska in Oryol Gubernia, hence the name Leskov. Semyon Dmitrievich was a welleducated man friends referred to him as a homegrown intellectual. One of Nikolais aunts on his mothers side was married to a rich Oryol landlord named Strakhov who owned the village of Gorokhovo another was the wife of an Englishman, the chief steward for several local estates and a large trade company owner. Leskov spent his first eight years in Gorokhovo, where his grandmother lived and where his mother was only an occasional guest. He acquired his early education in the house of Strakhov,
Source: Wikipedia