Afanasy Fet

Afanasy Fet (1820-1892), born at the estate of Novosyolki, near Mtsensk, the son of the landowner Afanasy Shenshin and of a German woman from Darmstadt, lost the name Shenshin at the age of fourteen: his parents' marriage, celebrated in Germany, had no validity in Russia, and he had to bear the name of his mother's first husband. He served for many years in the army, then turned his estate of Stepanovka into a prosperous farm. In 1873, a ukase restored to him the name Shenshin and the rights of the nobility. Yet he signed his verses with the name Fet to the end.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryВечерние огниAfanasy Fet · 1891not translated into EnglishLiteraturePublic domain