Vasily Evgrafovich was a Russian poet and translator. By profession, he was an army officer, later he became an official of the 3rd division, and then he served as a chairman of Governor's Treasury Chamber. He was famous for his translations of Horace's and Byron's works and his own poems.
Background
Vasily Evgrafovich Verderevsky was born about 1801 in the village of Chernobaevo of the Pronsky Uyezd of the Ryazan Governorate (now Chernobaevo, Ryazan Oblast, Russian Federation). In addition to Verderevsky, there were two brothers and three sisters in the family.
Education
In 1819, Vasily Evgrafovich graduated from the Moscow University Noble Boarding-School, and then taught there until the end of 1819.
In the 1820s, Vasily Evgrafovich was going to publish a literary magazine with V.S. Filimonov and N.A. Polev. In 1820-1824, he served in the Life Guards, and then in the Borodino Infantry Regiments. In the years 1824-1827, Vasily Evgrafovich was retired as a lieutenant. Since 1827, he changed many places of service, and in 1836 he received the post of the ruler of the chancellery of the Commissariat Department of the Ministry of War, thanks to which he quickly became rich. He attended The Fridays of Voyeykov and The Thursdays of Grech at the time.
In the 1838-1840s, Vasily Evgrafovich served in Poland. Since 1842, he was an official of the 3rd division, and since 1858 he served as a chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Governor's Treasury Chamber. At this time, his fame as a bribe-taker and a cheater was expanding. At the beginning of 1867, huge shortages of breech salt, secretly sold at the direction of Verderevsky, were discovered in Nizhny Novgorod. After a long investigation, by the decision of the Senate, in 1869, Vasily Evgrafovich was deprived of all state rights and exiled to Siberia. Soon, thanks to connections, he received permission to settle in the estate of his daughter.
Until the mid-1830s, Vasily Evgrafovich was actively engaged in literary work. His debut was the poem Image of Thoughtfulness, published in the Calliope almanac. He published numerous poems and translations (including translation of Horace's works, using French translations and freely handling the originals) in magazines, such as Severnaya Pchela (1827), Vestnik Evropy (1818, No. 1), Blagonamerenniy (1820, No. 15; 1821, No. 2; 1822, 22 No. 6, 17, 50), Syn Otechestva (1827, No. 5), Literaturnaya Gazeta (1830, No. 63), Literary Supplement to the "Russky Invalid" Newspaper" (1831, No. 28, 94), as well as in almanacs.
Vasily Evgrafovich was best known for his translation of the poem by G. Byron Parisine (Saint Petersburg, 1827), which provoked numerous conflicting responses (1828-1829, Sankt-Peterburgskiy Zritel).
Achievements
Connections
Vasily Evgrafovich married N. Petrovna Verderevskaya (nee Gurova), the sister of his fellow student F.P. Gurov, who in the future became a member of the secret anti-government association Sungurov's Circle. Around 1825, the couple had a daughter, Maria Vasilievna Verderevskaya, who in the future became a well-known Russian singer of romances.