Ivan andreevich krylov biography of martin

(1769–1844), writer, especially of satirical fables, who is often called the "Russian Aesop."

The son of a provincial army captain who died when he was ten, Krylov had little formal education but significant artistic ambitions.

Entering the civil service in Tver, Krylov was subsequently transferred to the imperial capital of St. Petersburg in 1782, which gave him access to the most prominent of cultural circles. Although he began his literary career penning comic operas, when he joined Nikolai Novikov and Alexander Radishchev on the editorial board of the satirical journal Pochta dukhov (Mail for Spirits) in 1789, he became recognized as a leading figure in Russia's Enlightenment.

When the French Revolution made enlightened principles particularly dangerous during the last years of the reign of Catherine the Great, Krylov left St. Petersburg to escape the more severe fates suffered by his coeditors. He spent five years traveling and working in un