In infancy, he was shown for money as a curiosity. He grew up and surprised the Russian reader with his work. After the revolution, he shocked his comrades, preferring Japan to the Soviet Union.
The Far East has long been perceived as a land inhabited by not the best representatives of the human race. In previous centuries, convicts were exiled there, only a service person could freely go there. For our hero, these distant lands were the homeland, he glorified it in his work.
Childhood
The birth of Kolya was already an unusual event - he was the first Russian to be born in Japan. It happened in December 1865 in the city of Hakodate. His father served in the navy as a cantonist, then received a medical education and went to Kamchatka. There he married a local resident and moved with her to the land of the Rising Sun.
The city of Hokadate, in which Nikolai Matveev was born
For his son, the doctor hired a nanny, Yoshiko. This woman was greedy and inventive, she soon disappeared from home with her child. When she was caught, the adventurer admitted that she made money traveling through the villages and showing a child with an outward appearance for money. The victim of her scam did not receive any mental injuries or other negative health consequences. Our hero until the end of his life was sincere in his attitude towards the Japanese and respected their culture.
Youth
Parents sent to Russia to study a young man. He settled in Vladivostok. There he graduated from the Port Personnel School and got to work. A place for Nikolai Matveev was found in the foundry of the workshops of the military port. Memories of his father's house and harsh everyday life gave the craftsman interesting thoughts about life. He wrote down some of them and sent them to local print media.
In Vladivostok, Nikolai met with Maria Popova. Her ancestors were pioneers, they settled in the first Russian outposts in the Far East. The heiress of a glorious surname was reputed to be the first beauty in the city. Matveev liked the girl, the wedding took place. The couple built their personal lives according to the patriarchal covenants: the husband worked and was active in public life, his wife was engaged in the household and children, of whom 12 were born.
Vladivostok
Writer
The owner of one of the largest publishing houses of the Russian Empire, Ivan Sytin, was looking for talented young authors. Once he fell into the hands of periodicals, where there were articles by a certain Nikolai Amursky. The entrepreneur was able to find out that this is the pseudonym of Matveev. In 1904, the reader was presented a collection of works by the writer "Ussuri stories." Russian prose lovers were able to learn more about the life and customs of the inhabitants of the outskirts of the state, and the debutant received the title of Honorary Citizen of Vladivostok.
Cover of the first book of Nikolai Matveev
Popular respect for our hero allowed him to make a career. He was elected to the city duma and to the post of chairman of the local public library. Matveev founded the popular science magazine "Nature and People of the Far East" and became its editor in chief. To replicate the publication needed its own power - the writer became the owner of the printing house. Nikolay became interested in local history, made a significant contribution to the work of the Society for the Study of the Amur Region, of which he became a member.
Freethinker
The active popularization of the culture of the native land attracted local intelligentsia to Nikolai Matveev. Among those with whom the writer became friends were adherents of the vanguard and opponents of the autocracy, and exiles. The Matveyevs' house was often visited by Nikolai Aseev and David Burliuk. In addition to the opportunity to openly express their thoughts on what was happening in the country, they could print propaganda leaflets and brochures with their friend. In early 1907, the secret police came to our hero.
Nikolai Matveev was found guilty of propagating social democratic ideas. His journal was banned from publishing, and the editor and writer were sent to jail. There was no sedition in the periodical issued by the accused; the court was reinsured. A year later, the freethinker was released and given permission to resume local history and revive the media. This was no longer interesting to the former prisoner; he took up journalistic activities.
Big changes
An unfair sentence outraged not only Nikolai Matveev. The whole city was talking about it. In 1910, he was entrusted with the printing of the first book on the history of Vladivostok for the half-century anniversary of the city. Before World War I, the writer published several translations into Russian of Japanese literature. He organized excursions for schoolchildren of the Far East to the country of the Rising Sun.
Nikolay Matveev
And without getting into the lists of unreliable, the publisher continued to help revolutionaries. After the overthrow of the king, his life was in danger. In Russia, other states have made claims. Interventionists appeared in Vladivostok. They brutally cracked down on representatives of the cultural elite, especially if there was cooperation with the Bolsheviks in the biography of a person. Hiding from them, Nikolai Matveev and his family left for Japan in 1919.
