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 serviceman could freely go there. For our hero, these distant lands were the Motherland, he glorified it in his work.
Childhood
Kolya's birth 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 degree and left for Kamchatka. There he married a local woman and moved with her to the land of the Rising Sun.
For his son, the doctor hired a nanny, Yoshiko. This woman turned out to be greedy and resourceful, she soon disappeared from the house with her child. When she was caught, the adventurer admitted that she earned money by traveling through the villages and showing off a child with an outlandish appearance for money. The victim of her scam did not receive any mental trauma or other negative health consequences. Until the end of his life, our hero had a sincere attitude towards the Japanese and respected their culture.
Youth
The parents sent the young man to Russia to study. He settled in Vladivostok. There he graduated from the Port Personnel School and began work. A place for Nikolai Matveyev was found in the foundry of the naval port workshops. Memories of his father's house and harsh everyday life gave the artisan interesting reflections about life. He wrote down some of them and sent them to local print media.
In Vladivostok, Nikolai met Maria Popova. Her ancestors were pioneers, they settled the first Russian outposts in the Far East. The heiress of the glorious surname was known in the city as the first beauty. Matveyev liked the girl, the wedding took place. The couple built their personal life according to patriarchal precepts: the husband worked and was active in public life, his wife was engaged in the household and children, whom they had 12 people.
Writer
The owner of one of the largest publishing houses in the Russian Empire, Ivan Sytin, was looking for talented young authors. Once he came across a periodical, where there were articles by a certain Nikolai Amursky. The entrepreneur managed to find out that this is the pseudonym of Matveev. In 1904, readers were presented with a collection of works by the writer “Ussuriyskie 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.
People's respect for our hero allowed him to make a career. He was elected to the city council and to the post of chairman of the local public library. Matveev founded the popular science journal "Nature and People of the Far East" and became its editor-in-chief. To replicate the publication, we needed our own capacities - the writer became the owner of the printing house. Nikolai 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 the local intelligentsia to Nikolai Matveyev. Among those with whom the writer became friends were supporters of the avant-garde and opponents of autocracy, exiles. Nikolai Aseev and David Burliuk often visited the Matveyevs' house. In addition to the opportunity to openly express their views on what was happening in the country, they could print campaign leaflets and brochures with their friend. At the beginning of 1907, the secret police came to our hero.
Nikolai Matveev was found guilty of promoting social democratic ideas. His magazine was banned from publishing, and the editor and writer were sent to jail. There was no kramola in the periodicals published by the accused, the court was reinsured. A year later, the freethinker was released and given permission to resume local history activities and revive the media. The former prisoner was no longer interested in this, he took up journalistic activities.
Big changes
The unjust verdict outraged not only Nikolai Matveyev. The whole town was gossiping about it. In 1910 he was commissioned to print the first book on the history of Vladivostok for the half-century anniversary of the city. Before the First World War, the writer published several Russian translations of Japanese literature. He organized excursions for schoolchildren of the Far East to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Without getting into the lists of unreliable, the publisher continued to help the revolutionaries. After the overthrow of the king, his life was in danger. Other states have filed claims on the territory of Russia. The intruders appeared in Vladivostok. They cruelly dealt with representatives of the cultural elite, especially if the person's biography included cooperation with the Bolsheviks. Hiding from them, Nikolai Matveev, together with his family, left for Japan in 1919.
last years of life
When the danger was over, the fugitive began to correspond with his friends. It turned out that their views on the future of the Fatherland are very different. The new order was supported by several of Matveyev's children, but not himself. Despite ideological differences, in 1920 the famous orientalist opened in the city of Kobe, where he settled, the Mir publishing house, which introduced the Japanese to Russian culture. After 4 years, it was closed. Nikolai Matveev died in 1941.
