Navrotskii, Aleksandr

(pen name, N. A. Vrotskii). Born Mar. 1 (13), 1839, in St. Petersburg; died May 28 (June 10), 1914. Russian writer.

Navrotskii was a military officer who retired in 1891 with the rank of lieutenant general. From 1879 to 1883 he published the conservative journal Russkaia rech’ (Russian Word).

Navrotskii’s first literary attempt was the weakly written novel The Tarskii Family (1869). Navrotskii was the author of several historical plays written in the spirit of moderate liberalism. He also wrote verses, in which he employed artistic devices of the romantic ballad and the folk song. His poem “The Cliff of Sten’ka Razin” (1870), an example of free Russian poetry, was set to music by the author and became a popular folk song. His chronicle play Sten’ka Razin (1871) was revised by the Narodniks (Populists) and used in their revolutionary propaganda.