Mikhail Kheraskov

Patronized by his Freemason friends, Mikhail furthered his education abroad and was appointed dean of the Moscow University in 1763 at the age of 30.

The Rossiad's only rival for the title of the longest poem in the Russian language is Kheraskov's Vladimir Reborn (1785), concerned with the baptism of Kievan Rus.

Matei Herescu changed his name to Matvei Andreevich Kheraskov and received an estate near Pereiaslav in Left-bank Ukraine (along with 5,000 serfs, by some accounts).

He attained the rank of major in the newly formed Chevalier Guard Regiment and eventually became commandant of the Pereiaslav fortress.

[2] In November 1735, Anna married Prince Nikita Yurievich Trubetskoy, a seasoned officer who was then serving as the general-krigs-komissar in the Ukrainian fortress town Izium, where Mikhail spent his earliest years.

Because of his ancestry and the connections his stepfather afforded him, Kheraskov enjoyed the privileges of the highest ranks of the Russian nobility.

In September 1743, he reported to the Office of Heraldry that his biological children and stepchildren were able to "read and write Russian, and are being taught the French and German languages, geography, arithmetic and geometry."

Modeled on the "Knight academies" of West European states, Kheraskov received an excellent education in the humanities.

In addition to active literary circles, theatrical performances were staged by students with the assistance of figures such as Alexander Sumarokov, who is credited with introducing classical theater to Russia.

Having served as an officer for about four years, Mikhail Kheraskov entered state service in 1755, and was enrolled in the Collegium of Commerce.

Kheraskov's activities were extremely diverse: in 1759 he became a supervisor of the mineralogical cabinet, and in 1761 he was made head director over Russian actors in Moscow.

Kheraskov not only directed, but also played a role in the successful debut of his tragedy, The Venetian Nun, reviews of which appeared even in German journals.

Kheraskov's circle included a number of young writers (the majority poets) whose writings were featured in these and other university publications.

Professor Johann Gotfried Reichel edited Collection, whose material consisted of translations made by students, including those by the future Russian playwright Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin.

In 1760 Kheraskov married Elizabeth Vasilevna Nerovnaya, who also wrote poetry; their home became a recognized center for literature in Moscow.

Along with Fyodor Volkov, a celebrated Russian actor, and Sumarokov, he prepared "Triumphant Minerva," a three-day pageant in the style of the Carnival of Venice that took place in the summer of 1763.

As Reichel wrote to Miller in St. Petersburg:The new director is at odds with the curator, with whom it appears the Chancellery holds the final word.

Scholarship, it seems, is something insignificant.Over the years, the conflict between the curator (Vasily Adodurov), Kheraskov and the university professors reached a boiling point.

In May 1765, Adodurov, while examining the affairs of the university gymnasium, questioned the competency and teaching ability of a German law professor named Philipp Dilthey.

Adding to the rift between Kheraskov and Adodurov were the latter's attempts to establish a new university framework, which called for greater censorship of professors and strict discipline of students.

[3] In February 1770 Kheraskov traveled to St. Petersburg and in that summer was named the vice president of the Collegium of Mining and promoted to the civil rank of State Councillor.

Struggling to balance his civil duties with his literary and theatrical activities, Kheraskov wrote a letter of resignation to Grigory Potemkin, but requested that he keep his salary in order to enter into "...a new kind of service to Her Majesty."

Soviet scholar Alexander Zapadov considered the resignation a disgrace; he suggests that the Empress denied his request because of his enthusiasm for Freemasonry.

The boarding school produced some of the most prominent Russian literary figures of the early nineteenth-century, such as Vasily Zhukovsky, Mikhail Lermontov, and Fyodor Tyutchev.

In 1779, Kheraskov leased the university printing house to Nikolay Novikov for a period of ten years, which allowed him to greatly increase his publishing activity.

The Moscow commander-in-chief, Alexander Prozorovsky, informed the Empress that Kheraskov arranged secret Masonic rituals and gatherings at Ochakovo.

However, after Novikov was arrested in 1792 and his printing house was confiscated, a report written by Prozorovsky informed the Empress that Nikolai Trubetskoy and Kheraskov had destroyed incriminating papers and other materials at Ochakovo.

Following Paul's murder in 1801, Kheraskov was briefly dismissed as curator due to a misunderstanding, but he was restored to his position shortly thereafter by Alexander I.

The Russian memoirist Yuri Nikitich Bartenev noted that Kheraskov was modest in dress and diet, and abstained from most luxuries.

Bartenev describes a "sullenness" that Kheraskov was known for when there were newcomers to his literary circle, but around those he knew well he was admired for his eloquence, and "his jokes were always very amusing and reflected his ingenuity and wittiness."