Nikolay Punin edited several magazines, such as Izobrazitelnoye Iskusstvo among others, and was co-founder of the Department of Iconography in the State Russian Museum.
21 Facts About Nikolay Punin
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Nikolay Punin was born in Helsingfors, Grand Duchy of Finland, into the family of Nikolay Mikhaylovich Punin, a Medical Doctor of the Imperial Russian Army stationed in Helsingfors.
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Nikolay's younger brother Leonid Punin was later to become a commander in the White armies.
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From 1907 to 1914, Nikolay Punin attended the St Petersburg University, studied history of art under professor Dmitry Aynalov, graduating in 1914, as an art historian, and began a career as an art critic and editor.
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Nikolay Punin was among the first art critics who focused on the emerging new trends and styles.
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Nikolay Punin was nicknamed a "Futurist" and a "Leftist" by both artists and historians.
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In 1917, Nikolay Punin married Anna Arens, a physician; they had one daughter, Irina.
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In 1918, Nikolay Punin was appointed by Anatoli Lunacharsky to several important positions, such as the Head of the Petrograd Committee for Education, People's Commissar of the Russian Museum and the Hermitage Museum.
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Nikolay Punin was in a civil union with poet Anna Akhmatova during the 1920s and 1930s.
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At that time, Akhmatova was married to Nikolay Gumilev, and Punin was a regular guest in their home during the 1910s.
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Nikolay Punin eventually moved in with Punin, and their relationship lasted fifteen years until his arrest and exile in GULAG.
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Nikolay Punin was released only after Anna Akhmatova's written petition to Joseph Stalin, but later he was arrested again.
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Nikolay Punin was twice arrested and imprisoned by the Soviet secret service under the dictatorship of Stalin.
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In November of 1941, during the Second World War Akhmatova was one of the few writers chosen to be flown out from the Siege of Leningrad by the order of Stalin, so she and Nikolay Punin were saved from starvation and death, and transferred from besieged Leningrad to Tashkent and Samarkand for three years until 1944.
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In 1949, Nikolay Punin was arrested on accusations of "anti-Soviet" activity, because he said that many thousands of Lenin's portraits are tasteless.
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Nikolay Punin was known as "savior of art collections" because he protected many valuable paintings of western artists, which were labeled "decadent bourgeois art" by the communist propaganda.
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In doing so, Nikolay Punin took many risks by raising his voice in opposition to the Soviet officials.
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Nikolay Punin was severely attacked by the Soviet communists for his efforts in preservation of "Western" art in Soviet museums.
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Nikolay Punin was respected by artists and intellectuals as a key figure in Russian art history.
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Nikolay Punin was a remarkable lecturer; his lectures were extremely popular among open-minded members of the Soviet Academia, and among his numerous students.
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The Life and Times of Nikolay Punin, written by art historian Natalia Murray, was published by Brill.