Culai Neniu

Culai Neniu (Russian: Кулай Неню; born Nikolai Semyonovich Nenev, Николаи Семёнович Ненев, also N. S. Nenev-Potynga, Н. С. Ненев-Потынга; 1905–1939) was a Moldovan folklorist, dramatist, and schoolteacher. Of a Bessarabian Bulgarian background, he left the Kingdom of Romania to settle in the Soviet Union, making his way into the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR). He published several volumes of "Moldavian" folklore, generally professional in nature, but also tinged by the effects of Soviet historiography. With Ekaterina Lebedeva, Neniu put out in 1935 the anthology Cîntece poporane moldovenești ("Moldavian Folk Songs"), noted as the only work of its kind to coincide with the Latinization of Soviet scripts. The collection was criticized in Romania for excluding religious folklore, but was also in contradiction with the MASSR's state ideology. This resulted in Neniu's execution by the NKVD, four years after publication.

Early life

The future folklorist was a native of the Bessarabia Governorate, who rejected union with Romania and emigrated to the MASSR. Romanian author Sergiu Grossu notes that both Neniu and Dmitrii Milev were ethnic Bulgarians "who came over from Romania"; he opposes them to other MASSR writers, such as Nistor Cabac and Filimon Săteanu, who were ethnic Romanians, and therefore held in lower regard by the communist establishment. Born Nikolai Semyonovich Nenev (Romanian: Nicolae Nenev), in 1905, "Culai Neniu" was educated at the Pedagogical School in Balta, which then employed him as a music teacher (1928–1930).

Musical career

In 1928, he established a chamber choir in Tiraspol, also serving as its first conductor. In 1930, the activity drew attention from the MASSR government, who invested in enlarging and improving the choir.