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1821
Born on country estate northeast of Moscow to Russian father
and Polish mother (a fact long-hidden). Learns love of poetry
and awareness of the plight of the peasant from mother
1840
While living hand-to-mouth (tutoring and hack-writing) publishes
first collection of romantic poems Dreams and Sounds,
which was roundly criticized, most notably by Belinsky
1842
Becomes critic for Notes of the Fatherland where
he impressed Belinsky with his work and received encouragement
to pursue more social and political themes
1844
Writes his first "civic" poems, demonstrating
concern for the Russian peasant. Works include "On
the Road," and "Homeland"
1845
Edits and publishes A Physiology of Petersburg, which,
along with the following year's A Petersburg Miscellany,
become the best examples of the Natural School
1846
Purchases, with friend Ivan Panev, the journal The Contemporary
(founded by Pushkin in 1836) and becomes chief editor.
The radically-oriented "thick" journal becomes
the most respected of the time, publishing Dostoevsky, Tolstoy,
Turgenev, and Chernyshevsky, among others; Writes "Riding
to the Hounds," a satiric idyll that is critical of
the violence of the hunter
1854
Writes "The Unreaped Row" and "Vlas"
which speak without sentimentality of the hard life of the
common people
1855
Writes "A Forgotten Village" and "Poet and
Citizen"
1860
Writes "On the Volga" and "Knight for an
Hour"
1861
Writes The Peddlers, the best example of his use
of Russian folklore, both in language and content, as it
resembles a Russian folksong in its sound quality. He generally
uses ternary meters and dactylic rhymes which serve to reproduce
the "lilt" of a song
1863
Writes Red-Nose Frost, which lyrically and realistically
presents peasant life, a topic he pursues even after the
liberation of the serfs; begins the work Who's Happy
in Russia which he nearly finished before he died. The
work functions as an encyclopedia of peasant life and stands
out among his lesser later works, written in a stylized
folk verse style
1866
The government, unhappy with the poem "The Railroad"
(1864), which was critical of the quality of life among
workers on the Russian railroad, shuts down The Contemporary
1867
Acquires Notes of the Fatherland and becomes editor-in-chief
1870
Writes "Grandfather," which deals with the Decembrists,
as does "Russian Women," written two years later
1875
Writes Contemporaries, a collection of pieces on
Russian financiers
1877
Publishes final collection Last Songs, a more lyrical
collection than his previous work, a quality embodied by
the poems "Muse of vengeance and grief"
1878
Dies, eulogized by Dostoevsky, who compared him to Pushkin
and Lermontov
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