Alexander Bestuzhev

Writer, critic, revolutionary. Wrote under the pseudonym of Marlinsky. Born in St Petersburg (1797) in the family of publisher Alexander Bestuzhev (1761–1810). Studied at the Corps de Mining (1810–15). Cadet (1816) and captain (1827) of the Dragoons Life Guards Regiment. Published his own feuilletons, historical tales and poems in the St Petersburg Journal (1810s). Wrote annual reviews of literature in Polar Star, corresponded with Alexander Pushkin (1820s). Led a Guards regiment from Moscow onto Senate Square in St Petersburg during the Decembrist Revolt (1825). Imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, sentenced to death, commuted to permanent exile in Yakutsk (1826). Transferred to the Caucasus as a private (1829), promoted to the rank of officer (1836). Killed in a skirmish with Circassians near the fort of Holy Spirit (now Adler in Sochi) in the North Caucasus (1837).