Nikolai Karamzin

Nikolay Karamzin
Portrait of Karamzin by Vasily Tropinin, 1818.
Born	Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin 12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1766 Znamenskoye, Simbirsk Governorate, Imperial Russia
Died	3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1826 (aged 59) Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia
Occupation	Writer, historian, poet

Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (Russian: Никола́й Миха́йлович Карамзи́н; IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kərɐmˈzʲin]; 12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1766 – 3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1826) was a Russian writer, poet, historian and critic. He is best remembered for his History of the Russian State, a 12-volume national history.

Karamzin was born in the village of Znamenskoye, in Simbirsk Governorate on 1 December (old style) 1766. His father was an officer in the Russian army. His background was Tatar. He was sent to Moscow to study under Swiss-German teacher Johann Matthias Schaden; he later moved to St Petersburg, where he made the acquaintance of Ivan Dmitriev, a Russian poet of some merit, and occupied himself with translating essays by foreign writers into his native language. After residing for some time in St Petersburg he went to Simbirsk, where he lived in retirement until induced to revisit Moscow. There, finding himself in the midst of the society of learned men, he again took to literary work.

In 1789, he resolved to travel, visiting Germany, France, Switzerland and England. On his return he published his Letters of a Russian Traveller, which met with great success. These letters, modelled after Irish-born Poet, Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, were first printed in the Moscow Journal, which he edited, but were later collected and issued in six volumes (1797–1801).

In the same periodical, Karamzin also published translations from French and some original stories, including Poor Liza and Natalia the Boyar's Daughter (both 1792). These stories introduced Russian readers to sentimentalism, and Karamzin was hailed as "a Russian Sterne".