Russian Writers

Fyodor Sologub

Symbolist writer, playwright, poet. Born in St Petersburg in the family of a tailor from Poltava Province called Kuzma Teternikov (1863).Collaborated with the Northern Herald periodical (1890s) and p...

Vasily Zhukovsky

Poet, translator, draughtsman, engraver, painter. Born as the illegitimate son of a landowner called Afanasy Bunin and his Turkish housekeeper Salkha in the village of Mishenskoe in Tula Province (17...

Taras Shevchenko

Ukrainian poet, artist. Born in the family of Hryhoriy Shevchenko and Kateryna Boiko in the Ukrainian village of Moryntsi (1814). Emancipated from serfdom with the help of Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexei Ve...

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Poet, graphic artist, painter. Born in the family of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Alexandra Pavlenko in the village of Baghdati in Georgia (1893). Studied at the studio of Stanislaw Zukowski in Moscow and...

Pyotr Chaadayev

During the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Moscow was the centre of intellectual life in Russia. Moscow was further away from officialdom and had a university with a tradition of free thought. Writers, art...

Denis Fonvizin

Nikolai Gogol ’s The Night before Christmas tells the story of Vakula, a village blacksmith, who flies to St Petersburg on the back of the devil. He enters the imperial palace and asks Catherine the ...

Nikolai Kostomarov

Historian. Born in the village of Yurasovka in Voronezh Province in the family of Ivan Kostomarov (1817). Nineteenth-century Russian historian whose writings combined a breathtaking literary style wi...

Alexander Sumarokov

Poet, playwright. Born in Moscow in the family of Pyotr Sumarokov (1717). Wrote comedies, fables, lyrical songs and the tragedies Chorev (1747) and Sinav and Truvor (1750). Died in Moscow and buried ...

Vladimir Solovyov

Philosopher, theologian, poet, mystic. Born in Moscow (1853) in the family of historian Sergei Solovyov (1820–1879) and Polyxena Romanova (1828–1909). Attempted a synthesis of religious philosophy, sc...

Prince Pavel Vyazemsky

Diplomat, writer, literary historian. Son of Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky. Born in Warsaw (1820). Chairman of the St Petersburg Foreign Censorship Committee (1860s–70s) and head of the Board of Printing (1...

Random articles