Lev Nikulin

(pen name of Lev Vladimirovich Ol’konitskii). Born May 8 (20), 1891, in Zhitomir; died Mar. 9, 1967, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU from 1940.

Nikulin studied at the Moscow Commercial Institute from 1911 to 1917. His works were first published in 1910. His first book was Fourteen Months in Afghanistan (1923). During the 1920’s and 1930’s he wrote revolutionary-adventure and chronicle novels, including Not by Accident (1924), The Secret of the Safe (1925), and The Adjutants of God (1927). His autobiographical novel Time, Space, and Motion (vols. 1–2, 1933) enjoyed great popularity.

Nikulin later turned to the historical novel. His works in this genre include True Sons of Russia (1950; State Prize of the USSR, 1952), which describes the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813–14; Moscow Dawns (books 1–2, 1954–57); and The Swell (1965).

Nikulin wrote books about outstanding figures in Russian literature and art, including Notable People in Russian Art (1947), Fedor Chaliapin (1954), and Chekhov, Bunin, and Kuprin (1960). He was also the author of travel essays, as well as the book of memoirs People and Wanderings: Reminiscences (1962). Some of his works have been translated into foreign languages. Nikulin received two orders and a number of medals.