Aleksey Novikov-Priboy

Aleksey Silych Novikov-Priboy (Russian: Алексей Силыч Новиков-Прибой; real name Aleksey Silantyevich Novikov, Russian: Алексей Силантьевич Новиков; 24 March 1877 – 29 April 1944) was a Russian and Soviet writer and marine artist, noted for his stories with a nautical theme.

Biography

Novikov-Priboy was the second son of a peasant family from Matveyevskoye village of the Spassky Uyezd. His mother, of Polish descent, had hoped that he would enter the church as a monk, but he was attracted to the thought of adventure by hearing stories from travelling sailors, and volunteered for the Imperial Russian Navy instead. He served as a seaman with the Russian Baltic Fleet from 1899 to 1906. He became involved with revolutionary activities from an early age and after publishing an article in a Kronstadt newspaper in 1903, was arrested from spreading "subversive propaganda". However, due to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, he was soon released, and with his records marked "unreliable" was transferred to the 2nd Pacific Squadron's battleship Oryol, on which he participated at the climactic Battle of Tsushima.

Taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese, while in prison camp he began gathering stories from fellow survivors. After the war, he returned to his hometown and began writing, and his first works describing the war in highly critical terms were published in 1906. He soon fell foul of the tsarist authorities however, who banned his works, and Novikov-Priboy was forced to go into hiding. He fled to Finland in 1907, and between 1907 and 1913 lived in England, visiting France, Spain, North Africa and Capri, where he befriended the exiled Maxim Gorky, who provided him with advice on his writing.