Ivan Yermolayevich Velikopolskiy (also known as Ivel'yev) was born on December 27, 1797 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation. He was the son of a major general, a wealthy landlord of the Kazan Governorate (now Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation).
Ivan Yermolayevich studied in Kazan University (1812-1814), subsequently retained ties with the Kazan cultural environment.
Joining the military service (from 1815 - podpraporshchik, in - 1819 podporuchik of Semenov lifeguard regiment in Saint Petersburg), his works began to be actively published in the "Blagonamerenny": elegy, messages, fables, songs, experiments in "easy poetry" (1819-1822, 1825), and in the "Sorevnovatel" ("Zaunno. Madagascar story", 1820).
From 1818 Ivan Yermolayevich was a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, from 1819 a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts, included in Saint Petersburg literature circles. From 1821 he was a staff captain of the Old-Ingria infantry regiment (in the vicinity of Pskov), all his leisure filled with literature activities. His works were published in "Severny tsvety" by A.A. Delvig (1826-1827), to whom the verse "To baron A. A. Delvig" (1826) was dedicated. In Pskov he met with A.S. Pushkin. In 1826 their meetings are spent at the card table (Ivan Yermolayevich was a passionate, but unlucky player).
In 1827 Ivan Yermolayevich in the rank of major, retired and started to live in Chukavin and Moscow, where he published his composition "To Erast. (Satire on the players)" (Moscow, 1828), with autobiographic subbase, reflecting, in particular, the episode of the game with Pushkin.
In the middle of 1830s Ivan Yermolayevich were living in Moscow for a long time, leading an open lifestyle. He was familiar with the Aksakovs, M.P. Pogodin, E.A. Bartynskiy, N.V. Gogol, N.F. Pavlov, I.I. Panayev, V.G. Belinsky. In 1838-1839 he financially supported Gogol and Belinsky. The main Ivan Yermolayevich’s hobby at that time were - theater and dramatic art. He wrote or planned dozens of dramas, tragedies, melodramas, historical dramas, etc.
In 1850s Ivan Yermolayevich has already lost his significant part of his estate in an attempt to introduce a new method of flax processing developed by him into state practice; several of his economic and publishing ideas also failed.
Ivan Yermolayevich spent his last years almost in poverty.
