Aleksey Koltsov
Russian poet (1809–1842)
Aleksey Vasilievich Koltsov (Russian: Алексе́й Васи́льевич Кольцо́в; October 15, 1809 – October 29, 1842) was a Russian poet who has been called a Russian Burns. His poems, frequently placed in the mouth of women, stylize peasant-life songs and idealize agricultural labour. Koltsov earnestly collected Russian folklore which strongly influenced his poetry. He celebrated simple peasants, their work and their lives. Many of his poems were put to music by such composers as Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Biography
He was born in Voronezh as a son of a cattle merchant. Having studied for less than two years at a local school (1818–1820), Aleksey quit at the insistence of his father who wanted his help with his business. Koltsov moved, bought and sold cattle; and in the meantime, wrote poems secretly from his father.
The first serious introduction of his poetry occurred in 1831, when Nikolai Stankevich, a poet and philosopher from Moscow, published several poems in "Literaturnaya gazeta" (Literary newspaper) with a short introduction. In 1835, his first collection of poetry was published.
“Aleksey Koltsov” enters the record as russian poet (1809–1842). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Aleksey, Koltsov and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q444969. VIAF identifies the subject as 30332861. The Library of Congress control number is n84095598. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1809, 1842, 1818 and 1820.
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This entry incorporates text from “Aleksey Koltsov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.