N. M. Nikolsky, outstanding Soviet Belarusian historian and orientalist, Member of the BSSR Academy of Sciences and Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was born in Moscow in a family of Russian Assyriologist Mikhail Nikolsky. In 1900 he graduated from the Moscow University and began to teach in gymnasium.
He gathered a group of translators (V. N. Pertsev was among them) for publication of the books series «Religion and the Church in the light of scientific thought and free criticism». This one had included works by major scientists: W. Wrede, A. Harnack, J. Wellhausen and others.
At that time N. M. Nikolsky studied the history of Ancient Israel. His first scientific publications were connected with it: «King David and Psalms» (1906), «Israel and Babylon» (1910), «The Ancient Israel» (1911).
Interest in Mesopotamia went with historian throughout all his life. His last work was also devoted to this region: «The Culture of Ancient Babylon» (1959).
Another area of scientific interests of N. M. Nikolsky was the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. For the first time he addressed this topic in 1909– 1912. He wrote five chapters for 5-volumes «Russian History», all devoted to the history of the Church.
N. M. Nikolsky’s publications made his name well-known in scientific community of the early XX cent. As a result of his reputation, he was invited to the post of Professor of the History of Religion in the Smolensk University in 1918.
In 1922, Professor N. M. Nikolsky was invited to the Belarusian State University. He worked as Professor of the Ancient History Department of the Pedagogical Faculty there and as its Dean as well.
Professor N. M. Nikolsky visited Germany in 1925 and 1928. Three of his books were published in German.
In 1931 one of the most famous books by N. M. Nikolsky, «History of the Russian Church», was published. The book became, probably, the most impartial research on history of the church ever written by a soviet author. The same year N. M. Nikolsky was elected an Academician of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. In 1934 the Faculty of History was organized in the BSU. Professor N. M. Nikolsky chaired the Ancient History Department. In 1938 he became the director of the Institute of History at the BSSR Academy of Sciences.
After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War N. M. Nikolsky stayed in occupied Minsk. Occupying authority proposed N. M. Nikolsky to cooperate and write the History of Belarus in a way favorable for the occupants. Professor M. N. Nikolsky rejected decisively. In 1943 N. M. Nikolsky and his wife were evacuated to partisans. While in partisan unit, he continued scientific work. N. M. Nikolsky always brought to the fore fulfillment of his scientific obligations. He believed in victory will come and Belarus will be liberated. In 1944 he was departed by airplane to Moscow.
In 1944 Professor N. M. Nikolsky returned to Minsk and continued his scientific activity in the BSU and the BSSR Academy of Sciences. Understanding the Faculty of History will lack qualified scientific staff, Professor N. M. Nikolsky facilitated the transfer of the Assistant Professor F. M. Nechay from the Chuvash Pedagogical Institute to the BSU.
In 1946 N. M. Nikolsky was elected as Correspondence Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
N. M. Nikolsky’s health deteriorated. In April 1953 he left his post of the director of the Institute of History of the BSSR Academy of Sciences. In 1954 he retired from heading the Ancient History Department.
Nevertheless N. M. Nikolsky continued his scientific work. He completed his book «The Origin and History of the Belarusian wedding ceremonies» and published it in 1956. He wrote in the preface to this book: «That firmness with which working Belarusian people... kept its language, manners, customs and rituals, including wedding, shows the strength of its national identity, its solid and unchanging will to fight for its human and national rights, of its hatred for the oppressors».
