View source for Nikolai Tikhonov (writer)

{{Short description|Soviet writer (1896–1979)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
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| name = Nikolai Tikhonov
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| image = Писатель Николай Семёнович Тихонов.jpg
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| birth_name = Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov
| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|4 December|1896|22 November}}
| birth_place = [[St. Petersburg]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1979|2|8|1896|12|4}}
| death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Soviet Union|USSR]]
| occupation = Poet, writer, humanitarian
| nationality = Russian
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'''Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Никола́й Семёнович Ти́хонов}}; {{OldStyleDate|4 December|1896|22 November}} – 8 February 1979) was a Soviet writer, poet and public figure.

==Biography==

Born of parents who were petty tradesmen of [[serf]] descent, Tikhonov trained as a clerk and graduated from the Petersburg School of Commerce in 1911.<ref>{{cite book| author = Victor Terras| title = Handbook of Russian Literature| url = https://archive.org/details/handbookofrussia00terr| url-access = registration| year = 1985| isbn = 978-0-300-04868-1| page = [https://archive.org/details/handbookofrussia00terr/page/474 474] | publisher = Yale University Press}}</ref> He volunteered for the [[Imperial Russian Army]] at the outbreak of [[World War I]] and served in a [[hussar]] regiment. In 1918, he entered the [[Red Army]], fought in the [[Russian Civil War]], and was demobilized in 1922. 
{{Serapion Brothers|size=200px|align=left}}
He began writing poetry at an early age. His first collection, ''Orda'' (''The Horde'', 1922), "shows startling maturity" and "contains most of the few short poems which have made him famous."<ref>R.R. Milner-Gulland in A.K. Thorlby (ed.), ''[[The Penguin Companion to Literature|The Penguin Companion to Literature: European]]'' (Penguin, 1969), p. 762.</ref> After 1922, he devoted himself to traveling and writing, and his later work, both verse (the collection ''Ten' druga'', or ''The Shadow of a Friend'', 1936) and prose (many adventure stories and the novel ''Voina'', or ''War'', 1931) reflects his delight in what he found in his travels, particularly in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. His cycle of war stories ''Voennye koni'' (''Military Horses'', 1927) is "perceptive and well constructed."<ref>Oulanoff, op. cit.</ref>
[[File:Тихонов Николай Семенович.jpg|thumb|Tikhonov during the Siege of Leningrad]]
Tikhonov served on the Finnish front in the [[Winter War]] and was in Leningrad for the [[Siege of Leningrad|Siege]]. In 1944, he became chair of the [[Union of Soviet Writers]], but was dismissed by [[Joseph Stalin]] in 1946 for being too tolerant of [[Mikhail Zoshchenko|Zoshchenko]] and [[Akhmatova]].<ref>Milner-Gulland, op. cit.</ref> However, he remained an important figure in Soviet literary circles, and was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] in 1957.

Some of his well-known ballads are "Ballada o gvozdyakh" ("Ballad About Nails"), "Ballada o sinem pakete" ("Ballad of the Blue Parcel"), and "Dezertir" ("The Deserter").

Tikhonov was the first chairman of the [[Soviet Peace Committee]], serving from 1949 to 1979.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.sovlit.net/bios/tikhonov.html Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers]
* {{Find a Grave}}
{{1964 Shevchenko National Prize}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikhonov, Nikolay Semenovich}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Soviet short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian poets]]
[[Category:Soviet novelists]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:People of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Shevchenko National Prize]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian translators]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:Deputies of Mossoviet]]