Biography
Nikolai Kun is a historian and a writer who studied the religions of the peoples of the world. Most Russians know the enlightener as the author of the book "Legends and myths of ancient Greece."Childhood and youth
The scientist was born in May 1877 in Moscow. Nikolai Albertovich's ancestors in the father's line had German and British roots.
Fallen relatives of the historian from the mother - Pianists Antonina Nikolaevna Ignatiev was the Minister of Internal Affairs of Tsarist Russia Nikolai Ignatiev, his son - Minister of Enlightenment Pavel Ignatiev, Actor Anatoly Ignatiev, who played a major role in the film "Alexander Matrosov", and his granddaughter - Soviet goodwill ambassador Katya Lyscheva.
At 26, Nikolai graduated from the Historical and Philology Faculty of Moscow University. At the Department of Kuna did not leave due to his participation in student movement.
Personal life
Wife Kuna Elena Francen Rooper was older Nikolai Albertovich for 6 years and lived 90 years. The elderly parents of the girl objected to marriage with a young scientist, and to reunite with her beloved, the bride crossed in Orthodoxy and refused the inheritance.The historian was happy in his personal life until 1924, then for 8 years, death took three of the four children Nikolai and Elena: at first a 16-year-old sonya was drowned, then 28-year-old Zhenya died from tuberculosis, then the 27-year-old died as a result of an accident Hippolyte. Only the youngest son, named after the Father, was able to survive Nikolai Albertovich, but he died at 31 to the front injury.
Sons of Kuna managed to get families. Nicholas had two daughters, Lyudmila and Marina, and Ippolita - Daughter Inna, subsequently preserved the archive of his grandfather and family photos and published articles about the biography of a scientist ancestor.
The writer was fond of astronomy, was an artistic and needleful man - the furniture for the office carried out his own furniture, made the air coils, painted perfectly. To how Nikolai Albertovich read his works aloud, artists of Mkat admired.
Science and books
The first book of Nikolai Albertovich is a translation from the German "letters of dark people", a satirical composition, anonymously published by European humanists at the beginning of the 16th century and directed against the clergy and scholasticism. Among the following works of the historian - the analysis of the folklore of various ethnic groups, from Gypsy to the inhabitants of Oceania.
The main work of Nikolai Albertovich was written in 1914 and published in 1922 under the title "What ancient Greeks and Romans were told about their gods and heroes." The book was addressed to high school students, because Kun historian was primarily a teacher and had extensive experience in teaching the gymnasists and their teachers.
The popularity of the work is explained by both the use of antique mythology by writers and politicians and the availability of the language of the narrator. After coming to power in Italy, the fascists led by Benito Mussolini from the name of the book disappeared mention of ancient Romans.
Nikolai Albertovich edited articles on ancient history in a large and small Soviet encyclopedia. The scientist taught in Moscow State University, Moscow Pedagogical Institute, Music Technical School named after Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov.
Death
Nikolai Albertovich died at the end of 1940. The cause of the death of a man during the preparation of a lecture on the religious policy of the first Ptolemyev was a heart attack.The grave of the scientist is located on Cherkizovsky cemetery. They also buried the spouses and children of Nikolai Albertovich, as well as members of the family of Mitrofanovy, the former owners of the Klajazmin Dacha Kunov, on whose daughters - Ksenia - Nikolai Nikolayevich married.
Bibliography
- 1907 - "Letters of Dark People"
- 1910 - "Fairy Tales of African Peoples"
- 1914 - "What ancient Greeks and Romans were told about their gods and heroes"
- 1915 - "Magomet and Magomethanism"
- 1915 - "Italy in 1914"
- 1921-1922 - "Tales of Gypsy"
- 1922 - "Predecessors of Christianity (Eastern Cultures in the Roman Empire)"
- 1922 - "Primitive Religion"
- 1922 - "Tales of the Peoples of the Great Ocean"