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Russia

Author · Russia

Gavrila Derzhavin

Died in 1816

Gavrila Derzhavin (1743-1816) was born in the province of Kazan, into an impoverished family of minor nobility that claimed descent from a Tatar murza who had entered Moscow's service in the fifteenth century. Entering the Guards in 1762 as a simple soldier, he remained there for a long time without promotion, then distinguished himself during the Pugachev revolt. In the civil service, he was governor of Olonets and then of Tambov, secretary to the empress in 1791 and, in 1802, first Minister of Justice, dismissed the following year. Retired to Zvanka, near Novgorod, he wrote idylls and Anacreontic verse there.

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