Origins & Early Life

Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (Russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский; 9 February [O.S. 29 January] 1783 – 24 April [O.S. 12 April] 1852) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century. He held a high position at the Romanov court as tutor to the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna and later to her son, the future tsar Alexander II.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Zhukovsky is credited with introducing the Romantic movement into Russia. The main body of his literary output consists of free translations covering an impressively wide range of poets, from ancients like Ferdowsi and Homer to his contemporaries Goethe, Schiller, Byron, and others. Many of his translations have become classics of Russian literature, regarded by some to be better written and more enduring in Russian than in their original languages. Zhukovsky was born on 9 February [O.S. 29 January] 1783 in the village of Mishenskoe in the Tula Governorate of the Russian Empire.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He was the illegitimate son of a landowner named Afanasi Bunin and his Turkish housekeeper Salkha, who had been captured during the siege of Bender in 1770 and brought to Russia as a slave. The...

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