Gavrila Derzhavin

Poet, writer, playwright, statesman. Born at the family estate in the village of Karmachi near Kazan in the family of Major Roman Derzhavin and Fyokla Kozlova (1743). Studied at Kazan Grammar School (1762–77). Secretary of state (1791), senator (1793), minister of justice, member of the State Council (1802–03). Combined military and civil service with a literary career. Wrote Ode to Felitsa (1782), God (1784) and The Waterfall (1791–94). Befriended such members of the Nikolai Lvov circle as Vasily Kapnist, Ivan Chemnitzer, Pyotr Velyaminov and Mikhail Muravyov (1779). Published works in The Pleasant and the Useful, Muse and Aonides. Wrote such works of drama as Dobrynya and Pozharsky. Helped to found the Society of Lovers of the Russian Language (1811). Died at his country estate of Zvanka near Novgorod and buried at the Khutyn Monastery in Novgorod (1816), reburied in the Novgorod Kremlin (1959) and reinterred at the Khutyn Monastery (1993).