Narezhny, Vasilii

Narezhny, Vasilii or Narizhny, Vasyl [Нарежный, Василий or Наріжний, Василь; Narežnyj, Vasilij or Narižnyj, Vasyl'], b 1780 in Ustyvytsia, Myrhorod county, Little Russia gubernia, d 3 July 1825 in Saint Petersburg. Russian writer of Ukrainian descent, and a representative of the Ukrainian school in Russian literature at the beginning of the 19th century. He first published his work in 1804 (the tragedy Dimitrii Samozvanets [Dimitrii the Impostor]). His most noteworthy work on a Russian theme was Rossiiskii Zhil' Blaz (The Russian Gil Blas, 1814). But Narezhny wrote mainly on Ukrainian themes: Aristion (1824), Zaporozhets (The Zaporozhian, 1824), Bursak (The Seminarist, 1824; Ukrainian translation by Volodymyr Doroshenko published in 1928), Dva Ivana (Two Ivans, 1825; Ukrainian translation by H. Bili, 1931), and Garkusha (1825; Ukrainian translation by P. Nimchenko, 1931). Narezhny’s works, characterized by an interest in social problems and rich in Ukrainian folklore, inspired the work of Nikolai Gogol.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]