Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bruni was a Russian poet, painter, musician, pilot, priest, and aircraft designer. Before World War I, he seriously intended to devote himself to art, but miraculously survived during the crash of an airplane, he decided to take the holy orders. Due to material difficulties, he became an aircraft designer. Repressed in 1934 and posthumously rehabilitated.
Background
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bruni was born on April 16 (28), 1891, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation in an artistic family. His father, Alexander Alexandrovich, and his grandfather, Alexander Konstantinovich, were academicians of architecture. Mother, Anna Alexandrovna, was the daughter of the academician of painting. Nikolai had a younger brother, Lev, who became an artist.
Education
In 1909, Nikolai Alexandrovich graduated from Tenishev School and, due to his talent for music, was immediately enrolled in the third year of the Petersburg Conservatory. Due to the outbreak of WWI, he stopped his studies, volunteering for the front. In 1916, Nikolai Alexandrovich graduated from theoretical aviation courses at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute and continued his studies at the Sevastopol Military Aviation School, from which he graduated as a military pilot.
Nikolai Alexandrovich, born in a creative family, had an outstanding talent for painting, literature, and music. The training he received at the school allowed him to be enrolled straight to the third year of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Along with his studies, he continued to publish his poems in literary magazines.
When the war began, Nikolai Alexandrovich volunteered for the front and became a corpsman. At the front, he wrote Notes of the Corpsman Volunteer, as well as several short stories. For courage and bravery, he was transferred to military service in aviation.
After training in Petrograd and Sevastopol, Nikolai Alexandrovich was sent to the front in the 3rd Army Aviation Squad. During the war he was awarded three St. George's orders. In September 1917, Bruni's plane was shot down. The shooter, who was on board with him, died, while Nikolai himself survived only by a miracle, escaping with injuries. Having recovered, Nikolai Alexandrovich returned to the army, becoming the commander of the 1st Air Force detachment of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. He trained new pilots and flew sorties himself, but in 1919 he could not go through a medical examination and was demobilized.
In gratitude for the salvation in the plane crash, Nikolai Alexandrovich decided to devote himself to God. In July 1919 he was imposed first to the rank of deacon, and a little later - to the priest. Father Nikolay received a parish in a village in the Kharkiv region (Ukraine) and a few years later was transferred to a church in Moscow. In 1921, it was Nikolai Alexandrovich who served a memorial service for A. Blok. In the same year, he left his parish. To earn a living, Nikolai worked as a stove-maker and a carpenter but soon was transferred to a parish in the Moscow province. In 1928 he resigned.
Nikolai Alexandrovich got a job as a translator at the Air Force Research and Testing Institute. A little later, he was transferred to the translation department of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, where he worked with foreign technical literature. Since the summer of 1932, he moved to the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he was engaged in the construction of aircraft. When the famous French pilot Jean Pointisse arrived in the USSR, it was Nikolai Alexandrovich, who was fluent in foreign languages and was involved in his escort.
In December of that year, Nikolai Alexandrovich was accused of spying for France and arrested. He was sentenced to 5 years in forced labor camps and sent to serve his sentence in Chibyu, Komi Republic. There he became a camp artist. In 1937 he created a monument to Pushkin from brick and concrete on the centenary of the poet's death. In 1937, Nikolai Alexandrovich was again arrested, that time for counter-revolutionary activity, and sentenced to death.
Achievements
Religion
In 1919, Nikolai Alexandrovich was ordained Holy orders. He decided to devote himself to God after surviving a plane crash during the First World War. Nikolai served in the churches of Kharkiv and Moscow. He defrocked in 1928.
Despite the hard life in the labor camp, Nikolai Alexandrovich did not give up his faith in God. According to eyewitnesses, before his execution, he sang a prayer.
Politics
Nikolai Bruni's party affiliation is not known. During the Civil War, he joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, supporting the new government.
Membership
Poets Workshop
,
Russian Federation
Connections
On December 22, 1918, Nikolai Alexandrovich married Anna Alexandrovna Polievktova. Despite the severe times, their wedding was a hilarious celebration. It was held in the house of Konstantin Balmont. The couple had six children. After the arrest of Nikolai Alexandrovich in 1935, his family was expelled from Moscow.