Ivan Novikov

Born Jan. 1 (13), 1877, in the village of Il’kovo, Orel Province; died Jan. 10, 1959, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer.

Novikov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Agriculture in 1901. His first works were published in 1899. Novikov wrote many novels, novellas, short stories, poems, plays, and screenplays. His most important works are devoted to Pushkin—for example, the novels Pushkin in Mikhailovskoe (1936) and Pushkin in the South (1943), which were eventually combined into one book, Pushkin in Exile (1947).

Novikov wrote several books on literary history, including “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and Its Author (1938), Pushkin and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (1951), and The Writer and His Work (1956). Novikov’s works have been translated into several foreign languages. He was awarded four orders and a number of medals.