Ravich, Nikolai Alexandrovich

Nikolai Ravich was born in Moscow in the family of a doctor ^[1] . The elder brothers Sergey and Mikhail took part in the revolutionary events of 1905 , for which one was expelled from the university, and the other from the gymnasium ^[2] .

Nicholas himself volunteered to join the Red Army , participated in the October Revolution and the Civil War. He served as a commissar on the Ukrainian front , threw himself into Belarus occupied by the Poles as a scout, after being arrested by the Polish counterintelligence and exchange of prisoners of war, he was distributed to the South-Western Front as head of the secret information department under F.E.Dzerzhinsky .

At the end of 1920 he was sent to Central Asia . From 1921 to 1926 was in the diplomatic service, served as consul general in Herat (Afghanistan), Samsun and Artvin (Turkey). This period of life is described in detail in the autobiographical book "Youth of the Century" ^[2] . Since 1926, he worked in the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR and the Main Repertoire Committee (the head of the Theamuzsektsiya, then senior political editor; removed from work while cleaning the apparatus in 1931: he was accused of promoting foxtrot and jazz ^[3] ). Member of the editorial board of the journal " Art ".

As a teenager, he began to publish stories in magazines. He was the first to translate the memoirs of Mustafa Kemal Artaturk into Russian, and also compiled a fundamental note to them. The author of plays on historical topics (The Sixth of the World, Tomorrow and others ^[1] ). He made the script for two pre-war films: “ Merchants of Glory ” (1929) and “ Suvorov ” (1940). The latter was removed after the arrest of Ravich. For her, the directors and the lead actor were awarded the Stalin Prizes .

He was twice repressed. The first time he was arrested in 1937. From 1938 to 1946 he was serving time in the camp. In the summer of 1948 he was again convicted, among other "repeaters" (previously convicted political prisoners), and sent to the village of Taseevo, Krasnoyarsk Territory, by order of the CCA under the NKVD . Released at the request of the Writers' Union in 1954. In exile years, he was supported by Dmitry Shostakovich , who was trying to organize the transfer of Ravich from Taseev to the city of Kansk .

After his release, he was closely engaged in literary activity. He is the author of memoirs and documentaries on work in Turkey, Afghanistan, on the struggle of intelligence in the East, on travels in European countries and meetings with prominent figures. He was engaged in translations of books from French and Polish. In addition, he wrote two historical works about Russia of the 18th century : the biography of Mikhailo Lomonosov “The Tale of the Great Pomor” and the historical chronicle of the times of Catherine the Great “Two Capitals”. Both works were repeatedly reprinted ^[4] .

In the late 1960s. created and headed the Commission of the Union of Writers on Historical and Fiction - a joint commission of historians and writers ^[5] .

Wife - Nina Dmitrievna Stepanova-Ravich.

Member of the RCP (b) since 1919. He died in 1976.

• Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Memoirs of the President of the Republic of Turkey. - M .: Ogonyok , 1927 (abbr. Per. And comm.).
• Kazarinov A. Around the world for fifty dollars: Traveling in Germany, France, America and Japan on a winning ticket. - M .; L., 1928 (ed.).
• Raised curtain: (The struggle in Afghanistan during the imperialist war) // Star . 1933. No. 10. P. 139-156.
• The story of the great coast. - M., 1947 // M .: Soviet writer , 1955. - 228 p. (reprint: M., 1961, 1969, 1976, 1986; 2011 in the collection "Tales of Lomonosov").
• Two capitals. - 1947-1950s // M .: Soviet writer , 1962. - 360 p. (reprint: M., 1964, 1975, 1982; 1995, 1996 and 2003 in the collection "Catherine the Great")
• On the roads of the East: (From the memoirs of a Soviet diplomat about his stay in Afghanistan and Turkey. 1922-1926) // Friendship of Peoples . 1958. No. 6. S. 195-214.
• Youth of the century. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1960 .-- 348 p. - (War memoirs). (reprint: M., 1966, 1967).
• In the centre of Europe. Czechoslovakian sketches. - M .: Geogrfgiz, 1962 - 88 p.
• On the roads of Europe. - M .: Soviet Russia , 1964 .-- 272 p.
• War without a front. - M. Soviet Russia , 1968 .-- 310 p.
• Eternal light. - M.: Soviet writer , 1971. - 272 p.
• Youth of the century. War without a front. - M.: Fiction , 1972. - 610 p.
• Portraits of contemporaries. - M .: Soviet Russia , 1977 .-- 174 p.

• The Sixth of the World (verses by Alexander Zharov , 1931)
• Tomorrow (1932)
• Tea (1933)
• “The mistake of Professor Voronov” (1935, jointly with George Nikiforov )
• “Snow and Blood” (“The Ukhtomsky Engineer”, 1934)
• The Price of Life (1954)
• The Glow Over Moscow (1955)
• The Typhoon (1960s)

• 1929 - Merchants of Glory
• 1940 - Suvorov

• RAVICH (pseudo: N. Arkhipov et al.) Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1899-1976) on the official website “People and Fates. Network version, 2004-2006. " Reproduced by: People and Fate. Bibliographic dictionary of Orientalists - victims of political terror in the Soviet period (1917-1991) . Ed. prepared by Y. V. Vasilkov , M. Yu. Sorokin . - St. Petersburg: Petersburg Oriental Studies , 2003 .-- 496 p. - ISBN 5-85803-225-7
• Ravich Nikolai Alexandrovich (1899-1976) - writer in the archives of the Russian State Archives of History, website of the Library of Historical Information
• Nikolai Ravich on the Internet Movie Database