Ivan Ivanovich Varakin was born in Perm Oblast', Russian Federation. The ancestors of Varakin were peasants. His father was turned into serfdom around 1750 and managed the estates of the Counts Stroganovs and Golitsyns in the Perm Governorate. He was at the head of more than 1,200 armed serfs and participated in the suppression of the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev.
From a young age, Ivan Ivanovich helped his father. Later in Novgorod, he was in charge of the affairs of patrimonies, ironworkers of factories, and saltworks. In the early 90's he lived in Petersburg, then returned to the Urals. Since 1806, apparently, he spent a long time in Petersburg.
Varakin’s first appearance in the press were two poems in the Krylov's journal Spectator entitled To the dear son of my true benefactor and Valley. In 1806, a separate publication was published dedicated to Derzhavin Madrigal to the patron saint of the unfortunate and the collection Triumphant Petrograd on the birthday of ... Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna. November 3rd day. A collection of poems The Desert Lyre of the Forgotten Son of Nature I.V. is dedicated to Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, and the poem Voice of Truth to the Prideful, Unhappy in Ties were both written in 1812.
In his earlier verses of the 1790s, Ivan Ivanovich idealized the policy of Paul I, which limited noble freedom. The emperor and his former law teacher, Metropolitan Platon (Levshin), seemed to him an ideal of the sovereign and high priest (the poem Russian Truth in the Reign of Emperor Paul I, 1797).
Ivan Ivanovich wrote in his autobiography that at various times Derzhavin, Uvarov, Novosiltsov, Tutolmin, Lanskoy turned to the Golitsins with a proposal to redeem Varakin. Despite the high position of the intercessors and the importance of the ransom (12 thousand rubles), they received a refusal.
In 1810, Ivan Ivanovich became close to V.G. Anastasevich, who greatly appreciated him. Anastasevich published several poems by Varakin in his journal The Hive. In the years of 1812-1817, Ivan Ivanovich was in correspondence with him. Strojnoveky’s anti-serfdom book (1811) provoked Poems for the case of the publication of the book by the wise Count Strojnovekiy "On the Conditions of Landowners and Peasants by Ivan Ivanovich Varakin. It was published for the first time with additions and under the editorship of Anastasevich under the title To the friend of people V. S in the magazine The Hive.
