Punin, N. N. (Nikolaĭ Nikolaevich)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin was born on 28 Nov. 1888 into the family of a Russian army medical officer stationed in Helsinki. After graduating from the classical gymnasium at Tsarskoe Selo he attended St. Petersburg University from 1907 until 1914. Punin began a career as an art scholar and critic, writing for major St. Petersburg periodicals and co-founding the Department of Iconography in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg.

In 1917 N. N. Punin married Anna Arens, a physician; they had one daughter, Irina. After the Bolshevik Revolution he continued his work as a scholar and critic in St. Petersburg, editing as well the journals Iskusstvo Kommuny and Izobrazitel'noe Iskusstvo . Punin's life from 1920 on was marked by repeated investigations and arrests by the Soviet secret police, but even so he was able to maintain his career with some success.

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