He later attended the cheap private Aimee and Kestner pensions, as well as the St. Petersburg city school, but left before completing the second form after his father went bankrupt and became a mystic.

He made up for his lack of education by the constant reading of magazines and books, sometimes messy, but extremely diverse.

His reading was clearly on an ad hoc basis, but he was fascinated by books, becoming addicted to poetry at the age of thirteen, and beginning to write his own verses.

After this Fofanov published Shadows and Mystery (1892), a novella in verse The Baron Clasco (1892) and Poems (in five parts, 1896).

His talent was praised by fellow poets Yakov Polonsky and Apollon Maykov and writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov.