Reading the biography of Innokenty Annensky, one is involuntarily amazed at how much this amazing person managed to do in his life. Being a famous writer and literary critic, he excelled in everything – prose and poetry, drama and translations of foreign literature, language and literary studies. He really was a man of many talents!
He was born in Siberia, where he spent the first five years of his life. Then his father, a high-ranking official, got a place in St. Petersburg, where he moved with his family. In childhood, Innokenty Annensky was notable for poor health; he was often ill and suffered from ailments. Young Annensky practically did not communicate with peers, preferring their books to the society around him. He had to interrupt his studies at a private gymnasium due to financial difficulties. After a stroke, his father was forced to resign, and his pension was not enough to maintain a decent standard of living for his family. Innokenty Annensky was fluent in ancient Greek, German and French.
The future writer graduated from the historical and philological faculty of St. Petersburg University. His elder brother, an extremely educated and well-read man, helped him prepare for the exams. At one time, I.F. Annensky worked as a teacher of ancient languages and Russian literature in the gymnasium. Also, for several years, he served as the director of the famous Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium for men, but soon he was removed from her “because of his excessive gentleness”. Annensky translated into Russian many works of ancient Greek authors, in particular, the famous playwright Euripides. Among other works, he himself created several magnificent tragedies, taking as a basis the work of the aforementioned Euripides and adapting it to modern realities. The biography of Innocent Annensky was largely compiled thanks to the recollections of his son, Valentin Krivich-Annensky.
The writer and playwright died right on the steps of the Tsarskoye Selo station in St. Petersburg from a heart attack that suddenly overtook him. Some of Annensky’s works were posthumously published by his son, who also became a philologist and poet. Over the course of his life, Innocent Annensky translated 17 ancient Greek tragedies and one drama into Russian, and he also wrote 4 plays and many other works. His poem “Bells” is considered the first poem in the futurism genre, written in Russian. Annensky never published his poems during his lifetime. We would never have known about them if it were not for his son, who, after the death of his father, allowed them to be published in print.
