The engraving by Yegor Osipovich Skotnikov, based on a drawing by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, portrays Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (1800–1844), a Russian poet and translator.

The future poet, having lost his father at an early age, was admitted to the Page Corps through the efforts of his mother. This was one of the most prestigious educational institutions in St. Petersburg, and it had a significant impact on Baratynsky’s future. In 1816, while reading Schiller’s “The Robbers, ” Baratynsky and some of his friends formed a “society of avengers”. Their game once went too far: the “avengers” stole 500 rubles and a gold-rimmed snuffbox from a father of one of the pages, Chamberlain Priklonsky. Alexander I himself made the decision on punishment, expelling the future poet from the Page Corps and prohibiting him from joining any other service except the military. Despite the efforts of his family, it was impossible to obtain a pardon. In 1819, Baratynsky became a private in the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment stationed in St. Petersburg.

As a nobleman, Baratynsky enjoyed greater freedom than ordinary members of the lower ranks. He was allowed to wear a tailcoat when off-duty and did not reside in communal barracks. At one point, he rented a small apartment with Anton Antonovich Delvig, who became his closest friend. Delvig introduced him to several members of Pushkin’s literary circle, including Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, and Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov, as well as to Alexander Pushkin himself. Later, Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky described them as follows,

In 1828, the poem “The Ball” by Baratynsky was published under the same cover as Pushkin’s “Count Nulin, ” demonstrating their mutual recognition of each other’s talent. Pushkin regarded Baratynsky’s poetry as impeccable, stating that he was “unique as he is a thinker.” Pushkin read him “Boris Godunov”, performed a reading at the wake of Delvig with him, and invited him to his bachelor party on the eve of Pushkin’s wedding to Natalia Nikolayevna Goncharova. Baratynsky in turn valued Pushkin’s opinion of his work, believing that the Russian language had been “created for Pushkin and Pushkin was created for it.” He admired Pushkin’s works such as “Poltava”, “Boris Godunov”, and “The Belkin Tales”.