(12.2.1756 – 28.10.1823)
Kapnist Vasily Vasilyevich (12.2.1756 – October 28, 1823), poet, translator, playwright, cultural and educational figure, State Counselor (1801), member of the Russian Academy (1785). From the genus Kapnistov. He studied at a private boarding house in St. Petersburg. In 1770 he joined the Guards (in Izmailovsky, from 1772 in the Preobrazhensky Regiment), where he entered the circle of poets (NS Lvov, GR Derzhavin, II Chemnitser, etc.). In 1775 he received the first officer’s rank and retired. In 1782 he was elected the leader of the nobility of Mirgorod Uyezd in the Poltava province, since August 1782 he was the controller of the Main postal administration (under Count AA Bezborodko). In 1783 he left the service and went to his native land (he lived in the village of Obukhovka). Since 1784 the Kiev provincial leader of the nobility, since 1787 the chief overseer of the Kiev silk factory. In 1787 he came to St. Petersburg for a serious
business; at the request of LA Naryshkin, was assigned to the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters for the post “to review all plays…” (October 1799 – August 1801)). Kapnist contributed to the production of Russian plays by his activities, attracted famous actors (AE Ponomarev, ND Sakharov, Ya. E. Shusherin) to the Petersburg stage. He was a member of the literary circle of A. N. Olenin. Since 1802 the general judge of the 1st department of the Poltava general court. Being in the service at the Department of the Ministry of National Education (March 1812 – February 1818), Kapnist appealed through the Ministry of Public Education A. Golitsyn with the draft of the urgent destruction of serfdom. In 1820-1822 Poltava provincial leader of the nobility. Kapnist first appeared in print in 1774. His fame was brought by the poem “Satire I” (1780), which caused a broad polemic in connection with the brief remarks about contemporary writers. In “Ode for Slavery” (1783, published in 1806), he opposed the enslavement of peasants in the Kiev, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky governorships.
His “Ode to the extermination in Russia of the title of slave” (1786, published in 1787, written in connection with the decree of the empress on the name of the petitioner is not “slave” and “loyal”) Kapnist sent Catherine II with an inscription on the cover: “Liberator of Russia.” Kapnist is a supporter of the gradual liberation of the peasants; These views were reflected in “Ode for piety flattery”, “To the risen Greek people,” etc. The author of the opera “Clorida and Milo” (1800), the tragedies “Guinevere” (1809), “Antigone” (1814), translations including comedy by Moliere ” Sangarelle, or The Imaginary Cuckold “(1806) The comedy” The Yabed “(1798, the first edition titled” Yabednik, “1793, is forbidden by censorship) – an acute satire on the bureaucracy and the court, banned for staging after the first performances (1798, was shot in 1805, the play was on stage until 1840. In 1814 he participated in the compilation of the Dictionary of the Academy of the Russian (Kapnistu is entrusted with the choice of words from the “Russian Truth” and “The Lay of Igor’s Shepherd.”) Honorary member of the Conversations of the Lovers of the Russian Word “(1811), in her” Readings “published his poems, as well as articles on versification, etc. Kapnist collaborated in” St. Petersburg com Gazette “(1780-ies.),” Moscow Journal “(1792),”
(1796-1797), The Northern Herald, The Journal of Ancient and New Literature, Otechestvennye Zapiski, Vestnik Evropy, etc. The last years of his life were mainly devoted to the translations of Horace’s works.
The materials of the book were used: Sukhareva O. V Who was who in Russia from Peter I to Paul I, Moscow, 2005
