Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog (the First Nizhny Novgorod Prison Castle on Freedom Square) figures prominently in the novel *The Life of Tarkhanov* by Yevgeny Chirikov — a multi-part work whose first part, "Youth," was published in 1911 in the St. Petersburg journal *Vestnik Evropy* (*Herald of Europe*), while the complete edition of the novel appeared in 2023 through the efforts of the writer's great-grandson, Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia, M. A. Chirikov.[1]
The Ostrog as a Setting
The complex of the First Nizhny Novgorod Prison Castle on Freedom Square was one of the landmark sites of pre-revolutionary Nizhny Novgorod: at various times it held professional revolutionaries — Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky — as well as representatives of the creative intelligentsia deemed "unreliable" by the authorities: Vladimir Korolenko, Gorky), Petrov), and others. Their time within the prison castle's walls left its mark on their work — in memoirs as well as in literary compositions.[1] Chirikov's novel belongs to this tradition: the chapters dealing with the ostrog form part of the first book, "Youth."[1]
The Novel and Its Fate
The first publication of "Youth" across five issues of *Vestnik Evropy* in 1911 drew a lively response from readers: surviving copies of the journal bear penciled annotations in the margins — "Splendid" and "Most interesting indeed, and I recommend reading it." In 1932, after Chirikov had already died in emigration, a Russian refugee from Havana published an impassioned letter about "Youth" in the American newspaper *Novoye Russkoye Slovo*.[1] M. A. Chirikov himself has said that he considers *The Life of Tarkhanov* superior to his great-grandfather's other novels for its "pure, sincere, and luminous" feelings, language, and psychological depth, though the modern reader may find the novel somewhat naive and sentimental in places.[1]
The 2023 publication is accompanied by an article by M. A. Chirikov that prefaces the excerpts from the novel devoted to the ostrog. Related to the Nizhny Novgorod prison theme is also the recently published novella *To a Fairytale Land* by N. S. Vlasov-Oksky — a native of Dudenevo — brought out through the efforts of V. M. Guryev.[1]
Portrait of the Writer
Reproduced alongside the publication is a portrait of Ye. N. Chirikov painted by I. Ye. Repin in 1906 at Penaty. At the time of publication on the *Otkryty Tekst* (*Open Text*) website, the portrait was held in the collection of USSR, conductor G. N. Rozhdestvensky.[1]
Sources
- opentextnn.ru — The Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog in Yevgeny Chirikov's novel *The Life of Tarkhanov* — OPEN TEXT