Nikolaeva, Olesya Aleksandrovna

He writes poems from the age of seven, prose from fifteen, printed from 1972. In 1979 she graduated from the Literary Institute. Gorky (Department of Poetry; seminar Eugene Vinokurova ). The first poetic collection was the book of poems Garden of Miracles (1980), published when Nikolaeva was 25 years old. In 1988 - 1989 in the Literary Institute she gave a course of lectures “History of Russian religious thought” ^[2] , since 1989 she has been conducting a poetry seminar (she is a professor in the department of literary creativity) ^[2] . In 1998 she was invited to the Theological University of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian to read the course “Orthodoxy and Creativity” and head the department of journalism.

It is periodically printed in magazines, literary collections, almanacs and anthologies, as well as in literary newspapers and weeklies ^[3] . A member of the Writers' Union of the USSR since 1988 ( Bulat Okudzhava , Yury Levitansky , N. William-Vilmont) gave a recommendation on the entry of Nikolaeva ^[3] . Member of the Pen Center since 1993. In the 2000s, she broadcast on the Basics of Orthodox Culture and Direct Speech on the Spas channel.

Works Olesya Nikolaeva translated into many languages ​​of the world. She represented Russian poetry at international festivals and congresses in France , USA , Mexico , Italy , Switzerland , Cuba , Germany . Winner of the " Poet " (2006), the Patriarchal Literary Award (2012).

Some features of Nikolaeva’s poetics: descriptiveness and enumeration as a narrative principle, interest in “long” irregular dimensions and even the genre of prose poem (“Graphomaniac”), aestheticization of numerous everyday details and an attempt to see the metaphysical beginning in them the time of the first book, Garden of Miracles (1980) ^[4] .

In her second book of poems "On the Ship of Winter" (1986), the genesis of her work goes back not only to the traditions of Russian poetry of the Silver Age (early Pasternak, Mandelstam ), as well as folklore , but also to church liturgical poetry. "Nikolayeva prefers preference not classical meters, but mostly - to the accent verse: dolnik , tact, accentum ^[5] .

In 1990, the third book of poems by Nikolaeva “Here” was published, which included works (poems and poems) written in 1987-1989. In the same year, the author’s first prose work, Keys to the World, was published. According to Vladimir Slavetsky , "Christian enlightenment, ideas about the aesthetic persuasiveness of Orthodoxy and church life, to a large extent determined the originality of the style of the mature Nikolayeva, and the themes and poetics of her poems and prose of the 1980s and 1990s are associated with the conscious and active defending of Christian values ​​in society; not only religious consciousness is naturally dissolved in her work, it also corresponds to external themes, scenes, and so forth. This, apparently, is the same origin as KN Leontyev's aestheticism - “opposition to the vague formlessness of secularism” ^[3] .

The central themes of the lyric collections “On the Ship of Winter”, “Here”, “Amor fati” (1997) are the striving for religiously transforming and enlightened perception of modernity, the skills of Christian and non-Christian consciousness, which determine the type of life behavior and attitude to fate. Verse Nikolaeva, sometimes close to rhythmic prose, freely combines colloquial and biblical vocabulary . In 2004, the collection “Spanish Letters” was published, for which Nikolaeva was awarded the Anthologia award established by the New World magazine ^{[6] [7]} .

As for prose, then, as N. Volkova remarks, “the style of Olesya Nikolaeva’s narration is often and appropriately compared with Dovlatov and Leskov . The fact that ideological critics call the author’s “non-political correctness” is more correctly called a “point of view” sincerely experienced, strictly reflected and stylistically brilliantly given ” ^[3] . In the novels “The Disabled of Childhood” (2003) and “Mene, Tekel, Fares ...” (2003) narrate about the life of the monks and the church ^[8] ; the latter received the prize for the Best Prose of the Year magazine in 2003 ^[9] . For the book “Nothing terrible” (2007), which included the novel of the same name and the novel “Mene, Tekel, Fares ...”, Nikolaev received the award “Nestor the Chronicler” in 2008; for the book "Corfu" (2011) received the award "Enlightenment through the book" in the nomination "Fiction".

The essay book by Olesya Nikolaeva “The Kiss of Judas” (2007) is devoted to the phenomenon of “rehabilitation” of the image of Judas in popular culture ^[10] . The collection of 500 poems and poems (2009) ^[11] includes works from 17 books that could be published, but were censored differently for censorship or other reasons, which distorted the original author's intent ^[12] . The collection was awarded the National Prize “The Best Books and Publishers” in 2009 and the “ Book of the Year ” award in the same year in the “Poetry” nomination ^[13] . Yevgeny Yevtushenko noted that “after the stunning book“ 500 poems and poems, ”showing the spiritual power and temperament of the bogatyrs, [Nikolaeva] implicitly entered the category of the best women poets of Russia” ^[14] .

The book-collection of stories "Heavenly Fire" and other stories "(2012) continues the theme of the Providence of God in human life, started by the book of archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) " Unholy saints "and other stories ", which became a revelation in literary life in 2011 and an absolute bestseller in the fiction genre of 2012 ^{[15] [16]} . Archimandrite Tikhon called the writer a “pioneer of Russian Orthodox prose” ^[17] .

Irina Rodnyanskaya called the aesthetics of Olesya Nikolaeva "the aesthetics of medieval" realism ", where every vital circumstance of time and place is highlighted, according to the laws of reverse perspective, a ray" from there ", where every actual" here "is provided with meaningful" there ", where all local nodes are untied in the next morning of eternity " ^[5] .

Born in Moscow in the family of the front-line writer Alexander Nikolaev . On the maternal line in her family were Don Cossacks. Husband - Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky ; three kids. Brother - director Dmitry Nikolaev .

• Medal of the City of Grenoble (France, 1990)
• Pushkin Prize - Alfred Topfer Scholarship (1998)
• Boris Pasternak Prize (2002)
• "For the best prose of the year" magazine " Banner " (2003)
• "Antologia" - "for the highest achievements of modern Russian poetry" (2004)
• Diploma " Moscow Account " (2004)
• Russian National Prize "Poet" (2006)
• Award "Nestor the Chronicler" for the book "Do not worry" (2008)
• “The best poetic book of the year” (XXII MIBF, 2009)
• "The best book of the year" (RSL, 2009)
• New World Magazine Prize "For the Best Poetic Selection of the Year" (2010)
• Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga for current educational activities (2010)
• The prize of the film festival " Radiant Angel " "For the best script of the film" (2010)
• Order "Cultural Heritage" of the International Federation of Russian-speaking writers (2011)
• Patriarchal Literary Award (2012)
• Arion Poetry Magazine Prize (2019)

Poetry

• "Garden of Miracles" ("Soviet Writer", Moscow , 1980)
• “On the Ship of Winter” (“Soviet Writer”, Moscow, 1986)
• The Fig Tree (Merani, Tbilisi , 1989)
• “Here” (“Soviet Writer”, Moscow, 1990)
• “Rien d'autre que la vie” (“Clemance Hiver”, Paris , 1991)
• “The Apology of Man” (“Publishing House of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Compound”, Moscow, 2004)
• "AMOR FATI" ("Ina-press", St. Petersburg , 1997)
• "Spanish Letters" ("Mainland", Moscow, 2004)
• “Sixteen poems and a poem. In honor of the award of the Russian National Prize "Poet" "(" Time ", Moscow, 2006)
• “200 horses of heaven” (“The World of Encyclopedias Avanta +”, “Astrel”, Moscow, 2008)
• “500 poems and poems” (“Art House Media”, Moscow, 2008)
• “Before heavenly Jerusalem” (“ Lenizdat Publishing Group”, St. Petersburg, 2013)
• “Hero” (“Time”, Moscow, 2013)

Artistic Prose

• "Keys to the world" (Moscow Worker, Moscow, 1990)
• "L'infirme de naissance" ("Gallimard", Paris, 1993)
• “Mene, Tekel, Fares” (“Eksmo”, Moscow, 2003)
• “Nothing terrible” (“Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church”, Moscow, 2007)
• “Tutti” (“AST”, “Astrel”, Moscow, 2009)
• "Captured Cherub" ("Publishing House of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University ", Moscow, 2010)
• “Cooks from the kind of seraphim” (“Publishing House of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University ”, Moscow, 2010)
• Corfu (Publishing House of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University , Moscow, 2010)
• “The Disabled Childhood” (“Publishing House of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University ”, Moscow, 2011)
• “Wonderful stories” (“The publishing house of the church of the holy martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University ”, Moscow, 2011)
• Heavenly Fire and Other Stories (Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, Moscow, 2012)
• Heavenly Fire and Other Stories (Native Word, Simferopol , 2012)
• “Mene, Tekel, Fares ...”, novel (“Veche, Lepta”, Moscow, 2012)
• Childhood Disabled, novel (Veche, Lepta, Moscow, 2012)
• “It hurts and light”, prose (“Veche, Lepta”, Moscow, 2012)
• “Love proofs”, short stories (“Veche, Lepta”, Moscow, 2012)
• “Fulfillment of desires”, short stories (“Veche, Lepta”, Moscow, 2012)
• “God gave - God took”, prose (“Borisova Publishing House”, Voronezh , 2013)
• Patron, novel ("Publishing House of the Sretensky Monastery", Moscow, 2013)
• "Master Class", a novel ("Publishing House Sretensky Monastery", Moscow, 2014)
• "Georgian Rhapsody", a collection of short stories ("Publishing House Sretensky Monastery", Moscow, 2016)
• “Out of spite. Women's portraits in prose, a collection of short stories (Nikea, Moscow, 2017)
• “Lord, what will happen to us?”, A collection of short stories (“Publishing House of the Sretensky Monastery”, Moscow, 2017)
• “Double bottom”, a collection of stories (“Veche”, Moscow, 2017)

Essay

• "Modern Culture and Orthodoxy" ("Publishing House of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra", Moscow, 1999)
• “Contemporary Culture and Orthodoxy” (“The Pokrov Bogorodiches Foundation”, Sofia , 2000)
• “Orthodoxy and Freedom” (“Compound Publishing House of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra”, Moscow, 2002)
• “The Kiss of Judas” (“Publishing House of the Sretensky Monastery”, 2008)
• “Orthodoxy and Creativity”, a collection of articles (Nikea, Moscow, 2012)
• "Direct speech. About faith and the Church ", a collection of articles (" Danilov Monastery Publishing House ", Moscow, 2015)

• Olesya Nikolaev on the website of the Journal Hall
• Olesya Nikolaev on Facebook
• Olesya Nikolayeva on the TV show School of Gossip
• "With a common prayer." An article about poems Olesya Nikolaeva, dedicated to the war in the Donbass