Yury Neledinsky-Meletsky

Yury Aleksandrovich Neledinsky-Meletsky (Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Неле́динский-Меле́цкий; 1751–1828) was a Russian poet, soldier, senator and a cabinet secretary during the reign of Paul I of Russia.

In 1770, he entered the Russian army, participating in the siege of Bender and the Crimea campaign in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774.

With the accession of his childhood friend as Paul I in 1796, Neledinsky was given the rank of state councillor, but due to a court intrigue he was removed from office and two years later made senator in Moscow.

He is not now remembered as a great Russian author of his time; the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary calls him a "gifted amateur", judging that his works are now only of interest to literary historians, while emphasizing his popularity among his contemporaries; he was praised by Pushkin, and Konstantin Batyushkov called him "the Anacreon and Chaulieu of our time", setting him above Ippolit Bogdanovich.

Among his works that remain known in modern Russia is the "folk style" poem Песня ("A Song", 1796; incipit Выду ль я на реченьку "When I go down to the river").