Alexander Ivanovich Odoevsky (, November 26 (December 8),

1802 Events January–March * January 5 – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the Ott ...

– October 10 (22) or August 15 (27),

1839 Events January–March * January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre. * January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years. * January 9 – ...

) was a Russian poet and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, one of the leading figures of the 1825

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist revolt () was a failed coup d'état led by liberal military and political dissidents against the Russian Empire. It took place in Saint Petersburg on , following the death of Emperor Alexander I. Alexander's brother and heir ...

. One of Odoevsky's lines, "Iz iskry vozgoritsa plamya" (Из искры возгорится пламя, One spark will start a flame), has come down in history as a long-lasting slogan of the Russian revolutionary movement. It was chosen as a motto (signed as: the "Decembrists' reply to

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

") for the

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

-founded newspaper ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

'', also giving the magazine its title, which means "spark".

Biography

Alexander Odoevsky was born in Saint Petersburg, to an old family of Russian aristocrats. He received a high quality home education and in 1821 joined the military. One of his best friends and a major influence was his relative, the playwright

Aleksander Griboyedov Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (; 15 January 179511 February 1829) was a Russian diplomat, playwright, poet, and composer. His one notable work is the 1823 verse comedy '' Woe from Wit''. He was Russia's ambassador to Qajar Persia, where he and ...

. By 1825 Odoevsky had begun writing poetry, but few of his early works remained, ''The Ball'' (1825), a critique of high society life, being one of them. In late 1824 Odoevsky joined the secret Northern Society and became part of its most radical contingent. On December 13, 1825, he supported Kondraty Ryleev who expressed the Society members' will to "give their lives to the first attempt at bringing freedom to Russia". On December 14 (25) Odoevsky was one of the commanders of the mutineers in the Senate Square where three thousand military men gathered to refuse to swear allegiance to the new Tsar,

Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...

, proclaiming instead their loyalty to Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich and the

Russian Constitution The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections ...

. After the coup's failure he was arrested, sent to the Petropavlovskaya fortress, later convicted, sentenced to hard labour, and deported to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Odoevsky's best-known poems, including ''Fiery sounds of prophetic strings'' (Strun véshchikh plámennye zvúki) where his famous line "One spark will start a flame" comes from, were written in the late 1820s - early 1830s, first in prison in Petersburg, then at a Siberian factory he was sent to work in. In the early 1833 Odoevsky was relieved from his sentence of hard labour and sent to a settlement in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, then moved to

Tobolsk Tobolsk (, ) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1587, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and was the historic capita ...

. In August 1837 he found himself amongst several Decembrists who, by a special decree of Nicholas I, had been transferred to serve in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

. As a sentry in a Nizhegorodsky dragoon regiment, he forged close friendship with

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...

, an officer there, who responded to the news of Odoevsky's death in 1839 with a tribute ("I knew him. We wandered side by side...") that became famous in its own right. In Odoevsky's lifetime only the play ''Saint Bernard'' was published (in ''

Sovremennik ''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...

'' 1838, Vol.X). In 1862 a volume of his collected poetry was published in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. Its expanded version came out in 1883 in Saint Petersburg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odoevsky, Alexander Ivanovich 1802 births 1839 deaths Russian male poets Writers from Saint Petersburg 19th-century poets from the Russian Empire 19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire Decembrists Prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress