Culai Neniu (Russian: Кулай Неню; born Nikolai Semyonovich Nenev, Николаи Семёнович Ненев, also N. S. Nenev-Potynga, Н. С. Ненев-Потынга; 1905–1939) was a Moldovan folklorist, dramatist, and schoolteacher.
With Ekaterina Lebedeva, Neniu put out in 1935 the anthology Cîntece poporane moldovenești ("Moldavian Folk Songs"), noted as the only work of its kind to coincide with the Latinization of Soviet scripts.
[4] Also employed by the Moldavian Scientific Center in 1930–1937, Neniu was in contact with writer Pavel Chioru, who advised him to begin work as a folklorist.
[5] Neniu's creative period overlapped with the adoption of Latin script for the Soviet Union's national languages, including "Moldavian".
[3] In his subsequent review, the exile anti-communist Nichita Smochină argued that Neniu and Lebedeva had produced a biased sample, which fully omitted religious folklore—colinde, bocete, and wedding songs.
[7] Neniu's downfall was related to the conflicting visions of proletarian internationalism, as espoused by the Soviet government, and Moldovenism, as embraced by Leonid Madan and his followers within the MASSR.
[11] Neniu's work reportedly included an unfinished political play, Grozescu, which depicted Moldavian outlaws (haiduci) in a modernized setting, using folklore as the main inspiration.