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Article: Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich (1744–1818)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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NOVIKOV, NIKOLAI IVANOVICH (1744
–
1818)
NOVIKOV, NIKOLAI IVANOVICH
(1744
–
1818), for about three decades one of the defining figures of the Russian Enlightenment. Born into a middling noble family, he was part of the earliest cohort of students at the noble boarding school of the newly opened Moscow University (founded in 1755). He continued on to the university, although, like most of the literati of his age, he left well before completing his course of study. Commissioned as a lieutenant in a guards' regiment, he left the service quite early (an act made possible in 1762 by a law freeing the nobility from compulsory service). Thereafter he devoted his energies to letters ...