Background
Boleslav Markevich was born and died in Saint St. Petersburg, a member of a noble Russian family of Polish descent.
journalist literary critic author
Boleslav Markevich was born and died in Saint St. Petersburg, a member of a noble Russian family of Polish descent.
In 1836 the family moved to Odessa where the boy studied first in the Richelieu Lyceum"s gymnasium, then at the Lyceum"s law faculty.
He spent his early years in Kiev and Volynskaya gubernia and received good home education. lieutenant was there that he first started to write poetry, critical essays and translations from French, some of which were published by the Odessky Vestnik newspaper. Markevich started his state official career in Saint St. Petersburg, the in 1843 he moved to Moscow to join the local governor Arseny Zakrevsky"s office.
He became a stalwart at both St. Petersburg and Moscow"s aristocracy saloons and, reportedly, had immense success, with women especially, due to good looks, sense of humour, penchant for showmanship and a considerable dramatic talent.
Praised by conservatives (among them Konstantin Leontiev who compared his trilogy to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy) and hated by revolutionary democrats (whom he made a point to paint in the blackest possible tones, insisting that for the "progressivist" disease "the whip is the best cure"). He"s found himself at the center of at least two scandals, the first caused by his highly publicised row with Ivan Turgenev, the second having to do with alleged bribery (which he denied).
Markevich"s literary gift, though, has never been doubted. His books, which were widely read in Russia (notably by members of the monarch"s family) and translated into many languages, contain, according to the 1990 Russian Writers dictionary, "priceless documentary material and are still in need of objective analysis.".