Piotr Ershov (1815-1869)

A poet and a fairy-teller, the author of a famous poem ‘The Hunchback Horse’, Piotr Ershov was born on February 22, 1815, in the Ishym district. In 1824 the Ershovs family moved to Tobolsk. The town had a great impact upon creativity of the future folklore fairy-teller. Ershov went to the gymnasium, of which Director was Ivan Mendeleev, the farther of the future famous scientist.

In 1830 the Ershovs family moved to St.-Petersburg, and Piotr Ershov entered the Petersburg university, the department of philosophy and law. Soon the first works of a young writer were published: ‘The History of Ivan the Fool and His Devoted Friend’, the poem ‘A Siberian Cossack’, the play ‘Suvorov and a Postmaster’ and some others.

In 1836 Ershov came back to Tobolsk to work as a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium. Ershov would introduce advanced methods of teaching, would organize an amateur theatre to stage plays of his own, published research works ‘A Course of the Russian Philology’, and ‘Some Reflections on a Gimnasium Curriculum’. At the beginning of the 40th years Ershov suffered a mental crisis provoked by complexity of creativity in province, and by moral and financial difficulties.

In 1845 Ershov wrote the fairy-tale ‘The Hunchback Horse’ that was at first forbidden by the censorship. The first edition of the fairy-tale only came to life in 1856.

In 1857, when the poet was 42 significant changes occurred in his life. Ershov was appointed Director of the colleges in the Tobolsk region. On his initiative the first female schools were opened in Tyumen, Kurgan, and Ishym. Untill his last days Ershov would strive for development of public education in the Tobolsk region, would write new poems and novels.