Novikov-Priboi, Aleksei Silych

(pen name of A. S. Novikov). Born Mar. 12 (24), 1877, in the village of Mat-veevskoe, Tambov Province, present-day Sasovo Raion, Riazan’ Oblast; died Apr. 29, 1944, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer.

The son of a peasant, Novikov-Priboi was a seaman in the Baltic Fleet from 1899 to 1906. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 he fought in the battle of Tsushima. His first works were published in 1906. His first collection, Sea Stories, was withdrawn from the typesetter’s in 1914 and was not published until 1917. Novikov-Priboi was persecuted by the tsarist authorities for his revolutionary activity. From 1907 to 1913 he lived abroad.

Novikov-Priboi’s works were influenced by M. Gorky. Part of the mainstream of Russian realistic literature, they carried on the tradition of classical “seafaring” literature (the novella The Call of the Sea [1919] and the novels The Submariners [1923] and The Salty Font [1929]).

Novikov-Priboi’s best work is the historical epic Tsushima (parts 1–2, 1932–35; 4th ed., 1940; State Prize of the USSR, 1941). It deals with the heroism of Russian sailors and the better elements among the officers, depicts the awakening of revolutionary consciousness among the common people, and exposes the criminal negligence of the tsarist naval command.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Novikov-Priboi published essays and articles about the Soviet navy and worked on the novel Captain First Class (parts 1–2, 1942–44; unfinished). Some of Novikov-Priboi’s works have been translated into foreign languages and adapted for the screen. He received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a number of medals.