Pleshcheev A.N. (1825-1893), poet

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PLESHCHEEV Alexey Nikolaevich (1825-1893), poet, prose writer, playwright, translator. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1839. Studied at the School of Guard Sergeants and Cavalry Cadets (1840-42), later - at the Oriental Department of Historical-Philological Faculty of Petersburg University (1843-45; didn't graduate). His works were published from 1844 in the Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski journals; edited Petersburg Chronicles section of Russky Invalid (1846-48). His first collection of poems, Poems of 1845-1846, was published in St. Petersburg in 1846. Took a great interest in socialist ideas and from 1845 attended Fridays of M.V. Petrashevsky, in 1849 Pleshcheev was arrested and sentenced to death (At the last moment the death penalty was commuted to four years of penal servitude, he was stripped of all ranks and exiled to Orenburgskaya Province). In 1859 - returned to Moscow; from 1872 was again in St. Petersburg, served as a secretary at Otechestvennye zapiski (from 1878 also headed the Poetical Department of the journal). Lived at 1 Spasskaya Street (today Ryleeva Street), where the journal's editorial office was quartered during the last two years of its existence. From 1885 he headed the Literary Department of Severny Vestnik. In the last decade of his life he was recognised as a living embodiment of the ideal of democratic traditions in Russian literature and as a writer who had devotedly served these ideals all his life.

Reference: Кузин Н. Г. Плещеев. М., 1988.

A. B. Muratov. Petrashevsky (Butashevich-Petrashevsky) Mikhail Vasilievich
Pleshcheev Alexey Nikolaevich
Ryleeva St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Кузин Н. Г. Плещеев. М., 1988 Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Otechestvennye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), journal
Russky Invalid (The Russian Invalid), newspaper
Severny Vestnik (Northern Herald), journal, 1885-1898