Alexander Ivanovich Odoevsky (Алекса′ндр Ива′нович Одо′евский, November 26 (December 8), 1802

1802 in literature

The year 1802 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* 4 October - William Wordsworth marries Mary Hutchinson....

, 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...

, Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 – October 10 (22) or August 15 (27), 1839

1839 in literature

The year 1839 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Washington Irving begins contributing regularly to The Knickerbocker, and will publish thirty new pieces in the magazine — including "The Creole Village," in which he will coin the phrase "the almighty dollar" — through March...

, Psezuape, now Lazarevskoe, Sochi

Sochi

Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...

, Russia) was a 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

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, one of the leading figures of the 1825 Decembrist revolt

Decembrist revolt

The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...

. One single Odoyevsky's line, "A spark will start a flame" (Iz i′skry vozgori′tsa pla′mya) came down in history as a long-lasting slogan of the Russian revolutionary movement. Its been chosen as a motto (signed: "Decembrists' reply to Pushkin") to the Lenin-founded newspaper, and has given it its title: Iskra

Iskra

Iskra was a political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Initially, it was managed by Vladimir Lenin, moving as he moved. The first edition was published in Stuttgart on December 1, 1900. Other editions were...

(Spark).

Biography

Alexander Odoevsky was born in Saint Petersburg, to an old family of Russian aristocrats. He received high quality home education and in 1821 joined the military. One of his best friends and the major influence was Aleksander Griboyedov, his relative. By 1825 Odoevsky has been writing poetry already, but very few of his works remained, The Ball (1825), a high society life critique, being one of them.

In the late 1824 Odoyevsky joined the secret Northern Society to become part of its most radical flank. On December 13, 1825, he supported Kondraty Ryleev who expressed his will to "give their lives to the first ever attempt to bring freedom to Russia". On the day of December 14 (25) Odoyevsky was one of the mutineers' commanders in the Senate Square where 3 thousand military men gathered to refuse to swear allegiance to the new tsar, Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

, proclaiming instead their loyalty to Constantine Pavlovich

Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia

Constantine Pavlovich was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823...

 and the Constitution

Russian constitution

Russian constitution* Constitution of Russia* Russian Constitution of 1906* Russian Constitution of 1918* Russian Constitution of 1978* Judiciary of Russia...

. After the coup's failure he's been arrested, sent to the Petropavlovskaya fortress, later convicted to hard labour and deported to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

. Odoevsky's best-known poems, including Prophetic strings igniting sounds (Strun ve′shchikh pla′mennye zvu′ki) where his famous "A spark will start a flame" line has come from, were written in the late 1820s-early 1830s, first in the Petersburg prison, then at a Siberian factory he's been sent to labour at.

In the early 1833 Odoyevsky was relieved from the hard labour sentence and sent to a settlement, first in Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...

, then Tobolsk

Tobolsk

Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...

. In August 1837 he found himself amongst several Decembrists who, by the special Nikolai I decree, have been transferred to serve at the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. As a Nizhegorodsky dragoon regiment sentry, he forged great friendship with Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...

, an officer there. It was the latter who responded to the news of Odoyevsky's death in 1839 with a tribute Knew him. We wandered side by side… that has become famous in its own right.

In Odoyevsky's lifetime only the play Saint Bernard has been published (in Sovremennik

Sovremennik

Sovremennik was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in St. Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that...

1838, Vol.X). In 1862 in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

the first book of his poetry collection came out. Its fuller version, including the author's biography, was published in 1883 in Saint Petersburg.