Nikolay Fyodorovich Shcherbina - Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n poet of 19th century.

Nikolay Shcherbina was born on December 2, 1821 in Mius district of Don Cossack Host in the mansion of his mother. His father was of Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 descent, and his mother of Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 descent. The parents of Shcherbina moved into the city of Taganrog

Taganrog

Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...

, populated by Greek and Italian colonists. This influenced his aesthetic feelings and acquainted him with Greek way of life and popular legends. Nikolay Shcherbina studied at the Taganrog Boys Gymnasium (Chekhov Gymnasium

Chekhov Gymnasium

The Chekhov Gymnasium in Taganrog on Ulitsa Oktyabrskaya 9 is the oldest gymnasium in the South of Russia. Playwright and short-story writer Anton Chekhov spent 11 years in the school, which was later named after him and transformed into a literary museum...

), where he fell in love with Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 lessons and wrote the poem Sappho at the age of thirteen.

In 1838, his work To the Sea was published for the first time at the magazine Sin Otechestva (Motherland's Son). In 1850, the collection of his poems The Greek Verses was published in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, which was very well received by public. Shcherbina moved to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 the same year, where he worked as assistant to the chief editor of Moskovskie Vedomosti

Moskovskie Vedomosti

Moskovskiye Vedomosti was Russia's largest newspaper by circulation before it was overtaken by Saint Petersburg dailies in the mid-19th century.The newspaper was established by the Moscow University a year after its own foundation, in 1756...

and published poems in various journals of Moscow and Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. In 1854, he moved to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, where he was appointed official for special missions at the Ministry of Public Education. In the capital, he published Pchela (Bee), a collection of verses for popular reading, which was approved by the Ministry and thus improved his financial means. In 1857, complete works of Nikolay Shcherbina in two volumes and Collection of the Best Russian Poems were published. In 1860-1869, he served at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Nikolay Shcherbina died on April 10, 1869.