Yuri Andreyevich Adrianov (June 18, 1939, Gorky — August 12, 2005, Nizhny Novgorod) was a Nizhny Novgorod poet, prose writer, publicist, and local historian, a member of the USSR Writers' Union, and one of the most prolific literary figures of the region in the second half of the 20th century. He authored around 40 Books about the Nizhny Novgorod Region; his poems were translated into German, Hungarian, and Bulgarian.[1]
Life and Early Career
He was born into a family of Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia. His grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Adrianov, was a mathematician and one of the founders of Russia's first Nizhny Novgorod Astronomical Society, as well as chairman of the academic council that established the People's University in Nizhny Novgorod in 1916.[2] His father — a junior lieutenant in the Marines — went missing during the defense of Sevastopol; what remained of him were frontline letters addressed directly to his young son. Adrianov graduated from School No. 8 in the city of Gorky and an Nizhny Novgorod Art School, then enrolled in the history and philology faculty of Gorky University. After graduating, from 1957 to 1962, he worked at the television studio.[1]
He began publishing poetry in 1957. His first poetry collection, "Count the Years by Springs," came out in 1963; that same year he took part in the All-Union Conference of Young Writers (Yaroslav Smelyakov's seminar), and two years later was admitted to the USSR Writers' Union.[1]
Creative Work
In the 1960s he traveled throughout the Soviet Union on assignments from the Central Committee of the Komsomol — from Murmansk to the Pamirs and from Belorussia to the Commander Islands. He traveled abroad to England and the Netherlands, and visited Hungary with Andrei Voznesensky on behalf of the Writers' Union. From 1967 onward he lived exclusively by his literary work.[1]
One after another, his books appeared at the country's largest publishing houses: "Meridians" (1965), "Northern Dedications" (1967), "Kerzhenets" (1969), "Bratina" (1972), "Links of Time" (1974), "Partings Along the Way" (1975), and others. By the mid-1970s, Adrianov's poems were appearing in more than 100 journals, anthologies, and collected volumes. In all, he received fourteen literary prizes. In particular, he was four times named a laureate of the Nizhny Novgorod Prize — in 1993, 2001, and 2005 (the last posthumously) — and also received the Nizhny Novgorod Maxim Gorky Prize (2002).[3][1]
Among his works of local history, a special place is held by the three-volume "Nizhegorodskaya Otchina" ("Nizhny Novgorod Patrimony"), published by the Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House in separate volumes in 1971, 1984, and 1989.[1] From 1990, Adrianov headed the Nizhny Novgorod Culture Fund.[1]
For the poet's 65th birthday in 2004, a two-volume collection of his poetry was published. After Adrianov's death, his wife Natalya Andreyevna prepared books of verse and an album of painting and poetry for publication; books of prose, journalism, and local-history essays from his creative archive were also being readied for release. Adrianov is buried at the Bugrovskoe Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod; a memorial plaque in his memory has been installed on the building of the Institute of Philology and Journalism at Lobachevsky University (37 Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street).[3][1]
The first educational institution he completed was a children's art school; he carried a paint box with brushes and oil paints everywhere he went, alongside his notebook.[2]
Sources
- livelib.ru — Yuri Adrianov — biography, books, reviews, quotes
- museumnn.ru — Adrianov Yuri Andreyevich — Museum of Gorky-Nizhny Novgorod Television and Radio on the Internet — Adrianov possessed an exceptional gift as an artist: the first educational institution he completed was… (archive)
- names52.ru — Adrianov Yuri Andreyevich — Adrianov was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Region" (April 11, 2002) and acknowledged himself that this title meant more to him than any other… (archive)