Pyotr Nikolayevich Petrov (Russian:Пётр Николаевич Петров; 1 July 1827, inSaint Petersburg,Imperial Russia – 10 April 1891, in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia) was aRussian writer, arts historian and critic,genealogist,bibliographer, an honourable member of theImperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Russian Archeological Society.^[1]

Pyotr Petrov
Portrait byPyotr Borel,Vsemirnaya Illustratsiya, 1891
Born	Пётр Николаевич Петров (1827-07-01)July 1, 1827 Saint Petersburg,Imperial Russia
Died	April 10, 1891(1891-04-10) (aged 63) Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia
Occupation(s)	writer, arts historian, art critic, genealogist

Petrov co-edited theBrockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, contributed more than 300 articles on art, history andtopography to the Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary edited at the time by professorIlya Berezin and authored a host of biographical essays on Russian artists (likePavel Fedotov andKarl Bryullov, among others) published byIllyustratsii magazine in 1861—1866. He also edited the Materials for the Hundred Years' History of the Imperial Academy of Arts. He authored the History of the Russian Nobility (1886, in two volumes), as well as the History of Saint Petersburg (1882). ForVsemirnaya Illyustratsia he compiledThe Album of Russian Fairytales and Bylinas (1875),The Album for Peter the Great's 200th Jubilee (withSergey Shubinsky, 1872), and the biography ofPeter the Great (1873).

Petrov wrote several historical novels, among themSemya Volnodumtsev (Семья вольнодумцев, Freethinkers' Family, 1872, withViktor Klyushnikov),Balakirev (Балакирев, 1881) andTsarsky sud (Царский суд, The Tsar's Judgement, 1877). He completed the unfinishedNestor Kukolnik's novelIoann III.^[2][3][4]