Nikolai Rubtsov was called the "poet of the Russian North," but during his lifetime only four collections of poems were published. After his death, more than 30 editions were released. Rubtsov claimed that poems gain strength and longevity when they go through personal experiences, but they must also be grand in scale.

Nikolai Rubtsov was born on January 3, 1936, in the village of Emetsk in the Arkhangelsk region. At the age of nine, he wrote his first quatrain "Winter." After serving in the Northern Fleet in 1959, he took a job as a laborer at the Kirov factory, while not abandoning his passion for literature. In the early 1960s, he sent his poems to a magazine's editorial office, but they were not accepted. Then his friend, writer Boris Taigin, suggested that he independently publish a small collection. In 1962, Rubtsov published his first book "Waves and Rocks," consisting of 38 poems, printed by hand on a typewriter.

In 1962, Rubtsov enrolled in the first year of the Gorky Literary Institute. Two years later, he decided to publish a new collection of poems, creating a typescript layout over several nights. A publishing house in Arkhangelsk accepted it, including it in their plan for the following year.

In 1965, the book "Lyric" was published in Arkhangelsk, the first printed collection by Rubtsov. He began to be invited to literary evenings in Vologda, and local newspapers requested permission to publish his poems.

In 1967, Rubtsov's second collection "Star of the Fields" was released in Moscow, including 44 poems, most of which he wrote in Vologda. The rector of the Literary Institute, Nikolai Sidenko, noted that this was the manuscript of a true and outstanding poet. The book became Rubtsov's graduation work, and in July of that year, he graduated from the institute, receiving his diploma. A few months later, he got a job as a correspondent for the newspaper "Vologodsky Komsomolets."

In 1968, Nikolai Rubtsov became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. In 1970, he released his last collection during his lifetime, "The Noise of Pines." The secretary of the board of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR, Sergey Orlov, noted that Rubtsov reveals the traditional and timeless essence of human character, shaped by communication with the nature of the Russian North, with natural simplicity.

That same year, the poet met Lyudmila Derbina and soon proposed to her. However, shortly before the wedding, their relationship deteriorated, and on January 19, 1971, Rubtsov died during a domestic quarrel. He was 35 years old. The poet was buried in Vologda. In 2004, a monument was erected in his honor in his native Emetsk.