Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev was born in Koshtugi Village (nowadays the Vytegorsk District of the Vologda Region). In youth the poet took part in revolutionary movement. He had his first verses published in 1904. From 1907 to 1915 he kept correspondence with Alexander Blok. His first collection of poetry (Chime of Pines) came out in 1911. Klyuev founded a poetic trend, which came to be known as “new peasant poetry” (Nikolai Klyuev, Sergei Yesenin, Sergei Klychkov, etc.). In 1922 the Soviet critics announced him “a strong literary master” but after the publication of his poems "Village" and "Lamentation for Sergei Yesenin" (1927) he was claimed to be “a brutal kulak” (i.e. rich peasant exploiting others) and “the father of modern kulak literature”. Klyuev’s last book published in his lifetime was “A Hut in the Field” (1928). In 1934 the poet was accused of “kulak propaganda”, arrested in Moscow and exiled to Tomsk.

In June 1937 Nikolai Klyuev was arrested again, taken to Tomsk prison and executed.