Krylov occupies a special place in Russian literature. His popularity is comparable to Aleksandr Pushkin's, for even during his own lifetime he achieved nationwide fame. Krylov's works simultaneously belong to two historical and cultural epochs. Entering literature early in life, Krylov established himself as a brilliant dramatist and a talented satiric journalist at the end of the 1780s and the beginning of the 1790s. However, Krylov attained even greater fame in the nineteenth century as a fabulist. His fables were immensely popular, and contemporary readers considered them to be a genuine embodiment of the Russian national spirit.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov was born in Moscow on 2 February 1769 to the family of Staff Captain Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov, who had begun as a simple soldier and risen to officer's rank by dint of long service in the army. During the Pugachev peasant uprising of 1773-1775, Krylov's father commanded a garrison in...