Vasilii Ivanovich Maikov

Born 1728; died June 17 (28), 1778, in Moscow. Russian poet.

Maikov was the son of a Yaroslavl landowner. He served in the Semenovskii Regiment (1747-61) in St. Petersburg and became close friends with A. P. Sumarokov. In 1761, Maikov settled in Moscow. He contributed to literary journals and wrote a mock-epic poem entitled The Cardplayer (1763). During the years 1766-67 his Morally Instructive Fables were published. In 1771, Maikov’s best work, the mock-epic poem Elisei, or Bacchus Infuriated, was published; in this work satirical expose was combined with literary and political parody and a vivid and a precise depiction of the mores of St. Petersburg’s urban poor. In the early 1770’s, Maikov became a Mason; this action was reflected in his morally instructive odes and his versifications of the Psalms, which called for moral self-improvement.