Vasily Trediakovsky

Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (; – ) was a Russian poet, essayist and playwright who helped lay the foundations of classical Russian literature.

Biography The son of a poor priest, Trediakovsky became the first Russian commoner to receive a humanistic education abroad, at the Sorbonne in Paris (1727–1730) where he studied philosophy, linguistics and mathematics.

In 1748, his A Conversation on Orthography appeared, which was the first study of the phonetic structure of the Russian language. He continued his advocacy of poetic reform in On Ancient, Middle, and New Russian Poetry in 1752.

Trediakovsky was also a prolific translator of classical authors, medieval philosophers, and French literature. His translations frequently aroused the ire of the censors, and he fell into disfavour with his Academy superiors and conservative court circles. In 1759, he was dismissed from the Academy. His last major work was a translation of François Fénelon's (1766; ), which he rendered in Russian hexameters. His works marked the transition from syllabic versification to metric verse, more suited to the sound of the Russian tongue.