Maykov V.I. (1730-1778), poet, playwright

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MAYKOV Vasily Ivanovich (1730-1778) poet, playwright, brigadier (1775). He received no systematic education. He lived in St. Petersburg in 1747-61 (he served in the Semenovsky Life-guards Regiment) and in 1768-75. He participated in the work of the Free Economic Society and of the Commission for Compiling New Regulations; he was a public prosecutor at the Military Collegium. He became a friend of A. P. Sumarokov in St. Petersburg and one of the most remarkable representatives of his school from which position he actively participated in the literary polemics. The poem by Maykov Elisey or Irritated Bacchus (1771) directing against V. P. Petrov became the peak of Russian ironical-comic genre. It was a considerable step in the development of "the amusing Russian style" along with the comic opera by Maykov Lover-Sorceror (performed in St. Petersburg in 1772).

References: Майков Л. Н. О жизни и сочинениях В. И. Майкова // Майков В. И. Очерки из истории русской литературы XVII и XVIII столетий. СПб., 1889. С. 252-309.

V. A. Kuznetsov, D. N. Cherdakov. Maykov Vasily Ivanovich
Petrov Vasily Petrovich
Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich
Майков Л. Н. О жизни и сочинениях В. И. Майкова // Майков В. И. Очерки из истории русской литературы XVII и XVIII столетий. СПб., 1889 Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment