Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky

Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (born February 22 (March 5, New Style), 1703, Astrakhan, Russia—died August 6 [August 17], 1768, St. Petersburg) was a Russian literary theoretician and poet whose writings contributed to the classical foundations of Russian literature. The son of a poor priest, Trediakovsky became the first Russian not of the nobility to receive a humanistic education abroad, at the Sorbonne in Paris (1727–30). Soon after his return to Russia he became acting secretary of...