{{Short description|Russian writer, editor and journalist (1841–1892)}} {{Infobox person | name = Viktor Klyushnikov | image = Klushnikov VP.jpg | image_size = 180px | caption = | birth_name = Клюшников Виктор Петрович | birth_date = {{Birth date|1841|3|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Gzhatsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate, Imperial Russia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1892|11|19|1841|3|22|df=y}} | death_place = Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia | occupation = writer, editor, journalist | years_active = | spouse = | website = | awards = | alma_mater = Imperial Moscow University (1860) }} '''Viktor Petrovich Klyushnikov''' ({{langx|ru|Клю́шников Ви́ктор Петро́вич}}, 22 March 1841 – 19 November 1892) was a Russian writer, editor and journalist, whose debut novel, ''Marevo'' (Марево, Haze, ''Russky Vestnik'', 1864), was considered by contemporary Russian critics to be one of the four 'great anti-nihilist' novels of the time, alongside ''Troubled Seas'' by Alexey Pisemsky, ''No Way Out'' by Nikolai Leskov and ''Demons'' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Both Ivan Turgenev and Alexey K. Tolstoy reacted positively, hailing the arrival of the original, even if erratic literary talent, "who [was playing] with his gift in acrobatic fashion," according to Tolstoy.<ref name="hrono">{{cite web | author = | date = | url = http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_k/klyushnikov_vp.html|title = Клюшников, Виктор Петрович| publisher = / www.hrono.ru| accessdate = 16 November 2015}}</ref>
None of Klyushnikov's later works, among them ''Bolshiye korabli'' (Большие корабли, Big Ships, 1866), ''Tsygane'' (Цыгане, Gypsies, 1869), ''Drugaya zhizn'' (Другая жизнь, Another Life, 1865), ''Pri Petre'' (При Петре, In the Times of Peter the Great, 1872, co-authored by Vasily Kelsiyev), ''Semya volnodumtsev'' (Семья вольнодумцев, Free-Thinkers' Family, 1872, co-authored by Pyotr Petrov), ''Gosudar-otrok'' (Государь-отрок, The Young Tsar, 1880), have come even close to repeating the success of his debut.<ref name="hrono"/>
According to the modern literary historian O. Mayorova, Klyushnikov was continuously dogged by financial troubles which might have accounted for the fact that most of his novels and novelets, bear the mark of utter haste, boasting stilted characters and improbable twists of plots. The critic lauded, though, his fine, lively language and occasionally brilliant observations of real life. In retrospect, she argued, Klyushnikov's major achievement was his work (in 1870–1876, then 1887–1892) as the editor-in-chief of the popular and influential ''Niva'' magazine, to which he devoted himself totally. He also published his own ''Krugozor'' magazine (1876–1878) which proved to be a financial disaster, and edited the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Science between 1877 and 1886.<ref name="hrono"/><ref>Boris Glinsky. [http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/brokgauz_efron/132434/%D0%9A%D0%BB%D1%8E%D1%88%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2 Клюшников, Виктор Петрович] at the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Vol. XV, p. 446</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Klyushnikov, Viktor}} Category:1841 births Category:1892 deaths Category:People from Gzhatsky Uyezd Category:19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire Category:Russian male journalists Category:Imperial Moscow University alumni Category:19th-century journalists from the Russian Empire Category:Graduates of the 4th Moscow Gymnasium