Kondraty Ryleev

Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, also spelled Kondraty Feodorovich Ryleev (Russian: Кондра́тий Фёдорович Рыле́ев, September 29 (September 18 O.S.), 1795 – July 25 (July 13 O.S.), 1826) was a Russian poet, publisher, and a leader of the Decembrist Revolt, which attempted to overthrow the Russian monarchy in 1825.

Ryleyev was born in the village of Batovo, now part of Gatchinsky District, Leningrad Oblast. His father, Fyodor Ryleyev, was an impoverished nobleman, a small landowner, who was later employed as the manager of one of Prince Golitsyn's estates.

In spite of his family's pecuniary difficulties, Ryleyev was able to study at the Corps des Pages, an elite military academy attended only by members of the nobility, in Saint Petersburg. After his graduation, Ryleyev was awarded a commission in the First Cavalry Company of the First Reserve Artillery Brigade. He participated in the foreign campaigns of 1814 and 1815, seeing action in Poland, Germany and France, during the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1818, Ryleyev resigned his commission, and for a time was employed tutoring the children of a wealthy landowner named Tevyashev. A year later he married the landowner's daughter, Natalya Tevyasheva, and went on to father two children.

He gained recognition in literary circles in 1820, for penning a satirical ode To the Favorite, addressing an unpopular Tsarist official, Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev. That same year he joined a Masonic lodge in Saint Petersburg, where he became acquainted with several future members of the Decembrist uprising.

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