In 1853 at the opening of the Crimean war, his patriotic hymn, “To Russia,” appeared in the Woronisher Times.  This was received with applause and a circle of intelligent men gathered about him who were friendly and helpful in their disposition toward him.  In 1856 Count Alexis Tolstoy, the great poet, prepared a volume of his poems for publication and the imperial family sent him costly gifts.  His condition became improved and by 1859 he had amassed a capital of two thousand roubles, with which he opened a book-shop, hoping to enlighten the darkness of his country.  To this ideal he gave all his strength and his money.  In 1860 Nikitin went to Petersburg and Moscow to establish connections with the leading publishing houses; from which no small literary acquaintance arose.  In the Spring of 1861 he suffered from a throat trouble which developed into bronchial tuberculosis of which he died on October 16, 1861.  His trials with his father and those caused by his father’s extreme intemperance were considered to have greatly hastened his lamented death.

CONSTANTINE MICHAILOWITSCH FOFANOW was born at Petersburg, May 30, 1862.  He is not a highly educated man, and is now living, after a series of misfortunes, happily surmounted, at Gatschina.

SEMIJON JAKOLOWITSCH NADSON was born at Petersburg, December 26, 1862.  On his father’s side he was of Hebrew extraction.  His grandfather had formerly embraced the orthodox faith, and his father, from whom he inherited his musical talent, died in an asylum, in the extreme youth of the poet.  His mother, after contracting a second marriage, which ended unhappily, died at the age of thirty-one, of consumption.  The boy learned to read and write at the age of four, from an old servant.  At nine he had read widely.  In 1875 he suffered from religious doubts, and even lost his faith in humanity, but his violin and Nature were still of unfailing support even in this crisis.  Before her death his mother had placed him in the second Cadet Corps as a “pensionnaire.”  At first he did well, but soon he began to neglect his school work for poetry.  A poem of his soon appeared in print, and that same year he fell in love with a girl of sixteen who died with rapid consumption; the M.D.B. of his poems.  Smitten by this blow, he left the school and went to the Pawlonische Military School.  Here he contracted a lung trouble and was sent to the Caucas.  He remained there a year, but was always haunted by thought of the military career before him, for which he was morally and physically unfit.  His dear dream of the University could not be realized, and on his return he went again to the military school for two years of camp life and maneuvres.  In September, 1882, he was made second lieutenant of a Caspian regiment and stationed at Kronstadt.  Already the young poet was making himself known through the journals, and in 1884 he left off his hated military service.  For a short time he was connected with