Background
Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov was born on April 18, 1787, in Vologda, Russian Federation. He spent the first four years of his life in Vologda.
1810
Portrait by unknown artist
1815
Portrait by Orest Kiprensky
Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov was born on April 18, 1787, in Vologda, Russian Federation. He spent the first four years of his life in Vologda.
From 1797 to 1800 Konstantin Nikolayevich studied at the Pensionnat directed by O.P. Jacquinot. It was a rather expensive school for children from good families. The curriculum included Russian, French, German, divinity, geography, history, statistics, arithmetic, chemistry, botany, calligraphy, drawing and dancing. In 1801 he entered a Pensionnat run by an Italian, I.A. Tripoli. He graduated in 1802. It was here that Batyushkov began to study Italian. His first literary offering, however, was a translation into French of Metropolitan Platon's Address on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander I of Russia.
1802 is considered to be the beginning of his poetic career. Konstantin Nikolayevich began to write poetry seriously in 1804. The journals, in which Batyushkov's first poems were published, are easy to link to his personal contacts. His first poetic offering was the satirical "Poslanie k stikham moim". In January 1805 it appeared in "Novosti russkoi literatury".
On 13 January 1807 Konstantin Nikolayevich, with the civil rank corresponding to the twelfth class, was attached to General Nikolai Nikolaevich Tatishchev's staff. On 22 February he enlisted in the Petersburg battalion of the Militia as sotennyi (a junior officer), and immediately set out for the West. On 2 March he was in Narva, on the 19 March in Riga. On 29 May Konstantin Nikolayevich was seriously wounded at the battle of Heilsberg. (A year later, on 20 May 1808, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class, for bravery.) After the battle, he was transported to the hospital and then to Riga where he was convalescing during June and July 1807.
On 22 April 1812, Konstantin Nikolayevich became an Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the Imperial Public Library. His colleagues included Gnedich, Krylov, and Uvarov. On 29 March BKonstantin Nikolayevich entered military service, with the rank of junior captain.
In the first half of 1815, Konstantin Nikolayevich came to meet the young Aleksandr Pushkin at Tsarskoe Selo. From December 1820 to May 1821 he lived in Rome, then went to Teplitz for convalescence; in November he moved to Dresden.
Konstantin Nikolayevich died on 7 July 1855 from typhus.