Serge Poltoratzky

Serge Poltoratzky (alternate spellings: Sergei or Sergey and Poltoratsky, Poltoratskii or Poltoratskiy), (1803-1884), was a Russian literary scholar, bibliophile and humanitarian.

According to Yuri Druzhnikov, Poltoratzky was the first to introduce Pushkin's work to a western European audience, in the October 1821 issue of Revue encyclopedique (published in Paris).

Serge was primarily educated by tutors at the family home, Avchurino, on the east bank of the Oka River in Kaluga Province (Kaluzhskaya Oblast), but he also spent a year at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa.

His parents were deeply interested in improving the material and social conditions of Russian serfs and peasants, and Serge inherited their commitment.

Druzhnikov relates that after Poltoratzky's 1921 article, which mentioned Pushkin's poems Liberty and The Village and their criticism of Russian social conditions, appeared in France, he "was fired from his job and sent to live in the country under police supervision".

All this wealth had been accumulated in a mere two generations, as both his grandfathers were commoners ennobled to the rank of potomstvenniy dvorianin (hereditary untitled gentleman), Piotr Khlebnikov for service to Russian literature, and Mark Poltoratzky for his singing voice.

His mother's brother emigrated to the US, and the family lost touch with him during the 1796-1801 reign of Tsar Pavel I, who banned all foreign correspondence.

The men were tried and convicted, which might have enabled Poltoratzky to gain legal redress from the debts incurred on his behalf, but he did not pursue this possibility.

While this was perhaps technically legal, so soon after the Crimean War it was utterly unacceptable socially, and in imperial Russia, social-political favor would have been essential to the family's economic recovery.

Poltoratzky liquidated his assets in Russia, paid off his debts, and prepared to emigrate to France, where he had some untouched funds.