Nikolai Piksanov

Born Mar. 31 (Apr. 12), 1878, in the village of Dergachi, now in Dergachi Raion, Saratov Oblast; died Feb. 10, 1969, in Leningrad. Soviet literary scholar. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1931).

Piksanov graduated from the faculty of history and philology at the University of Iur’ev (Dorpat) in 1902. He became a professor at the University of Saratov in 1917, at Moscow University in 1921, and later at Leningrad University. Piksanov’s chief works deal with the history of Russian literature, social thought, utilization of sources, textual criticism, and the methodology of literary scholarship, as well as with the work of Griboedov, Pushkin, Goncharov, Turgenev, and Gorky. Piksanov also edited many works by Russian writers. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and several medals.