This study is devoted to the life and work of Nikolai Yakovlevich Vygodsky (1900–1939), an outstanding musicologist and culturologist, public figure and musician, whose name is almost forgotten today and whose heritage has not been studied at all. The author, N.Y. Vygodsky brother's great-grandson, consulted various archives, open sources and family memories to draw at least the most general outlines of the biography of a talented and dedicated individual who fell a tragic victim to the turbulent political events of the 30 s of the twentieth century. At the same time, the author of the paper makes an attempt to outline the links between the individual destiny of an extraordinary individual and the cultural context of his contemporary era.
Nikolai Vygodsky; Mark Vygodsky; David Meychik; Dmitri Shostakovich; Sergei Rachmaninoff; Dimitri Gachev; The Great Terror.