The fate of the Russian historian of art and literature Viktor Alexandrovich Nikolsky (1875-1934) was not easy. The two-volume work of V. A. Nikolsky on Russian art was planned to be published in one of the best printing houses of I. D. Sytin in 1915. But if the author managed to finish his manuscript when the fire of the First World War was already flaring up all over the world, Russian publishers could not release it in full. The 1917 revolution set its priorities. V.N. Nikolsky did not become a supporter of the new government, he was imprisoned in Butyrki, then exiled to Siberia, and then to a settlement in Saratov.