Nikita's Childhood

In the novella by the outstanding Russian writer Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, created in the post-revolutionary years under harsh conditions of emigration, the serene life of a noble family living on an estate is revived nostalgically. The author managed to convey with extraordinary accuracy that instinctive happiness and enjoyment of life that can be found only in childhood. These feelings are experienced by the novella’s main hero—a boy, Nikita. His name was also that of Tolstoy’s son from his second wife, Natalia Krandievskaya, a talented poetess who sacrificed her literary career for her husband’s success and the well-being of their family. Nikita grew up before his father’s eyes, and although this happened not in a Russian estate, but in emigrant communities in Paris and Berlin, the novella can be considered partly autobiographical.