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Vasily Trediakovsky

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Vasily Trediakovsky was a very important Russian writer. He wrote many kinds of things like poems and plays. He also wrote essays to share his ideas. His work helped start classical Russian literature. This means he helped build the foundation for future writers. People in Russia still study his big ideas today.

He worked hard to change how people wrote poems. In 1735, he published a book about making Russian verses. This book was very theoretical, which means it explained the rules of writing. He talked about new styles of poetry for the first time. These styles included the sonnet and the ode. He also wrote about the rondeau and the madrigal. These were new ways to shape words and sounds.

Vasily had a very interesting life journey. He was the son of a poor priest. He became the first commoner to study in a foreign land. He went to the Sorbonne in Paris from 1727 to 1730. While he was there, he studied math and philosophy. He also studied linguistics, which is the study of how languages work. This education helped him when he returned to Russia.

He held many important jobs in his home country. He was the acting secretary of the Academy of Sciences. He was also a poet for the imperial court. In 1748, he wrote a study on how Russian sounds. This was his first study of phonetic structure. He also translated many books from French writers. Some leaders in the court did not like his work. They even dismissed him from the Academy in 1759.

His writing changed the way the Russian language felt in poems. He helped move writing from syllabic verse to metric verse. Metric verse uses a steady beat. This new way matched the natural sound of the Russian tongue much better. He even translated works by François Fénelon using hexameters. These were special rhythmic lines used in old poetry. His work helped pave the way for later writers like Mikhail Lomonosov.

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