Izmailov, Aleksandr Efimovich

Born Apr. 14 (25), 1779, in Vladimir Province; died Jan. 16 (28), 1831, in St. Petersburg. Russian writer of fables and prose fiction; journalist.

The son of an impoverished landowner, Izmailov graduated from the Mining Cadet Corps in 1797. From 1826 to 1828 he served as deputy governor in Tver’ and Arkhangel’sk. In 1802, Izmailov joined the Free Society of Amateurs of Literature, the Sciences, and the Arts, serving as its chairman from 1816 to 1825. In 1809–10, Izmailov published the journal Tsvetnik, in 1812 the newspaper Sankt Peterburgskii vestnik, and from 1818 to 1826 the journal Blagonamerennyi. Izmailov’s most important works were his fables, which he began to publish in 1805. The best of them portray the daily lives of civil servants, merchants, and raznochintsy (intellectuals of no definite class). V.G. Belin-skii noted that some of Izmailov’s fables “are marked by genuine talent and charm the reader with their rustic originality” (Poln. sobr. soch. , vol. 4, 1954, p. 148).