Ognev, Rozanov and Nikpetozh: On Personal Names and Pen Names of The Diary of a Communist Schoolboy’s Author
Abstract
Ol’ga Vinogradova’s article, “Ognev, Rozanov and Nikpetozh: On Personal Names and Pen Names of The Diary of a Communist Schoolboy’s Author” introduces new biographical insights into Ognev’s life and work. The biography of N. Ognyov (1888–1938) was never deeply explored. The present article contains information about the novelist’s family background and childhood, as well as his literary and pedagogical career before and after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The biography is based on archival documents of N. Ognyov and his brother S. G. Rozanov (both archives are kept in Russian State Archive of Literature and Art). The article describes the life of the writer until 1929, the year when the second part of the novel (The Diary of a Communist Undergraduate) was published. The autobiographical details revealed in the novel and its sequel illustrate how the composition’s and the characters’ development reflects the author’s changing attitude to the transforming Soviet society of 1920–the 1930s.
Keywords: N. Ognyov, M. G. Rozanov, Kostya Ryabtsev, The Diary of a Communist Schoolboy, The Diary of a Communist Undergraduate, children’s literature of the 1920s, school novella, Dalton plan.
