Yevdokia Petrovna Rostopchina, (December 23, 1811 - December 3, 1858) was one of the early Russian women poets.

After losing her mother at the age of six, Yevdokia Sushkova grew up in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in the family of her maternal grandfather, Ivan Alexandrovich Pashkov. The young girl was very fond of reading and quickly learned German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

In 1831 her friend Pyotr Vyazemsky

Pyotr Vyazemsky

Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky or Petr Andreevich Viazemsky was a leading personality of the Golden Age of Russian poetry.- Biography :...

 published her first poem, "Talisman", in his almanac "Severnye Tsvety" (Northern Flowers

Northern Flowers

Northern Flowers was a Russian language literary almanac published yearly in Saint Petersburg from 1825 to 1832. The full title in Russian was Северные цветы, собранные бароном Дельвигом Northern Flowers was a Russian language literary almanac published yearly in Saint Petersburg from 1825 to 1832....

). In 1833 she married count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 Andrey Fedorovich Rostopchin, a rich son of the former Moscow commander-in-chief, Fyodor Rostopchin

Fyodor Rostopchin

Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin was a Russian statesman, who served as governor of Moscow during French invasion of Russia.Rostopchin was born in Orel, son of Vasily Fyodorovich Rostopchin, Lord of Livna and ... Krakova...

.

In 1836 the family moved to Petersburg, where the countess was well-received in the high intellectual society of the capital. Her literary work was supported by such poets as Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...

, Pushkin

Aleksandr Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature....

, Zhukovsky

Vasily Zhukovsky

Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century...

. Ogarev

Nikolay Ogarev

Nikolay Platonovich Ogarev , was a Russian poet, historian and political activist. He was deeply critical of the limitations of the Emancipation of the Serfs claiming that the serfs were not free but had simply exchanged one form of serfdom for another.Ogarev was a fellow-exile and collaborator of...

, Mey

Lev Mey

-Biography:Mei was born on 13/25 February 1822, in Moscow. His father was a German officer who was wounded in the Battle of Borodino and died young. His mother was Russian. Mei completed his studies in Moscow in 1841 and served in the office of the Governor for 10 years. He became part of the...

, and Tyutchev

Fyodor Tyutchev

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev is generally considered the last of three great Romantic poets of Russia, following Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.- Life :...

 devoted their poems to her. Her popular literary salon hosted such famous guests of its literary salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 were Vyazemsky, Gogol

Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...

, Myatlev, Pletnev, and others.

Poems about the unrequited love comprised a large part of her poetry. In 1839 she published a book "Descriptions of High Society", which was ignored both by the readers and by critics. Although Rostopchina also wrote prose and comedy, these works did not enjoy any particular success.

During her trip abroad in 1845 the poet wrote an allegorical

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 named "Forced Marriage" , in which she condemned Russia's relationship with Poland. On the orders of enraged Nicholas I

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

, Rostopchina was forbidden to appear in the capital; and till the death of the tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

she lived in Moscow.

Rostopchina continued to write poems, plays, and translations, but public interest in her work already decreased. In the last years of her life, she ridiculed various literary movements in Russia; as the result, she found herself in complete isolation.

Almost forgotten by the public and succumbing after two years of sickness, Rostopchina died on December 3, 1858.