Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov was a Russian poet who has been called a Russian Burns.
Background
Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov was born on October 3 (15), 1809 in Voronezh to the family of prasol (a buyer and a cattle trader), reputed to be an honest partner and strict householder in the whole district. The father of the poet Vasily Petrovich Koltsov (1775-1852) was a man of a sharp temper, passionate and enthusiastic, not limited to prasolstvo, he rented land for sowing grain, bought forests for log houses, traded firewood, engaged in cattle breeding. Mother Praskovya Ivanovna (1784–1861) is a kind but uneducated woman who did not even possess a diploma. In the family of peers Koltsov did not have: his sister was much older, and his brother and other sisters were much younger.
Education
Having studied for less than two years at a local school (1818-1820), Aleksey quit at the insistence of his father who wanted his help with his business. Koltsov moved, bought and sold cattle; and in the meantime, wrote poems secretly from his father.
Career
In 1830, became close with A.P. Serebryansky, who became his literary mentor. Of exceptional importance for the creative fate of Koltsov was acquaintance with N.V. Stankevich (1830).
The first serious introduction of his poetry occurred in 1831, when Nikolai Stankevich, a poet and philosopher from Moscow, published several poems in "Literaturnaya gazeta" (Literary newspaper) with a short introduction. In 1835, his first collection of poetry was published. Koltsov often traveled on business to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he met Belinsky, who became his mentor, as well as Vasily Zhukovsky, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Vladimir Odoevsky, and Aleksandr Pushkin, who published one of Koltsov's poems in his journal "Sovremennik".
Koltsov's father constantly and cruelly controlled his life, suppressing Aleksey's creative writing and his personal life. Weakened by depression and a year-long tuberculosis, Koltsov died in 1842 at the age 33. He was buried in Voronezh.