Nikolai Leskow

Nikolai Leskov (1831–1895) was a Russian writer. He was orphaned at an early age and began working as a civil servant in Kyiv at eighteen. He later left government service and spent ten years traveling throughout Russia as a representative of an English company. This work gave him extensive knowledge of the regions and social worlds of his country. In 1861, he published his first stories, which portrayed a wide range of themes and characters from Russian life.