Literary Blog: From Simbirsk to Poor Liza: The City Where Nikolai Karamzin’s Journey Began
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is one of the pivotal figures of late 18th and early 19th-century Russian literature. A writer, poet, journalist, and historian—author of the monumental 12-volume History of the Russian State—he entered history as one of the founding fathers of Russian Sentimentalism. His name is inextricably linked with Simbirsk (known today as Ulyanovsk), the city where he spent his childhood and youth, and which played a crucial role in his intellectual formation. The exact date and place of Karamzin’s birth remain a subject of academic debate. The Great Russian Encyclopedia cites several versions connecting his birth to the Simbirsk [...]
