Nikolaev, Sergei

Born Mar. 10 (23), 1908, in the village of Abdaevo, present-day Mork Raion, Mari ASSR. Soviet Mari playwright. People’s Writer of the Mari ASSR (1958). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

In 1936, Nikolaev graduated from the department of literature at the Mari Pedagogical Institute. His first play, The White Moth, which dealt with the Civil War, was published in 1930. Nikolaev has written dramas and comedies focusing on the past and on the contemporary experience of the Mari people. His best-known work is the musical comedy Salika (1938). In his plays Nikolaev makes extensive use of Mari folklore and presents uniquely Mari characters.

Nikolaev has translated L. N. Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness, I. Ia. Franko’s Stolen Happiness, and a number of plays by Soviet playwrights into the Mari language. He has received three orders and a number of medals.