Petrov V. P. (1736-1799), poet

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PETROV Vasily Petrovich (1736-1799) poet, translator, collegiate counsellor (1786). Graduated from the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow (1760). He became popular owing to the Ode to a Carrousel - the poetic description of the knights' gala performance in St. Petersburg on 16 June 1766. He lived in St. Petersburg with breaks in 1769-80. He was under the patronage of G. A. Potemkin and Empress Catherine II. He acted as a librarian at the Hermitage Library and a reader to the Empress having become "Catherine's pocket poet". Petrov continued Lomonosov's tradition in developing the solemn ode but strengthened the lyrical stream and complicated the form in it. He acted as a translator from Latin and English.

References: Зорин А. Л. Кормя двуглавого орла...: Литература и гос. идеология в России в послед. трети XVIII - первой трети XIX в. М., 2001.

V. A. Kuznetsov, D. N. Cherdakov. Catherine II, Empress
Petrov Vasily Petrovich
Potemkin Grigory Alexandrovich, Gracious Prince of Tauride
Зорин А. Л. Кормя двуглавого орла...: Литература и гос. идеология в России в послед. трети XVIII - первой трети XIX в. М., 2001