Nikolay Glazkov

• Born — 30 January 1919 • Birthplace — Lyskovo, Russian SFSR • Birth Name — Nikolay Ivanovich Glazkov • Died — 1 October 1979 • Place of death — Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union • Education — Moscow State Pedagogical University Maxim Gorky Literature Institute

Glazkov was born in the village of Lyskovo, in what is now Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a teacher of German language. The family moved to Moscow in 1923. Glazkov began writing poetry at a very early age. As a student, he attended the literature faculty of Moscow State Pedagogical University. In 1938 his father was repressed during the Great Purge, and in 1940 Glazkov was thrown out of university as a relative of an enemy of the people. Soon afterwards, however, he was allowed to attend Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, from which he graduated in 1942. Upon graduation he worked as a village teacher, but in 1944 he returned to Moscow. He worked odd jobs such as loading trucks and sawing lumber, all the while publishing poetry both officially and unofficially. Parodying the ceremonious names of the official printing organs of the Soviet Union, he printed his poetry under the publishing house name of Samsebyaizdat (which literally translates as something like self-publishing house). This was later shortened to samizdat, a term now known to any student of Soviet literature. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Glazkov continued to be published with and without the consent of the Soviet authorities. He made a cameo appearance as the peasant in the hot air balloon at the beginning of Tarkovsky's 1966 film Andrei Rublev. He died on 1 October 1979 in Moscow.