19 June 1786
В Smolensk province was born Fyodor Glinka - poet, writer, participant in the war with Napoleon, Decembrist.
How many wounded! How many fleeing! We are now beggars, with noble spirits, wandering dejectedly through the ruins of our fatherland. (1812)
At 17 he graduated from the cadet corps and began his service as an ensign. He was an adjutant to Mikhail Miloradovich (a general who would die during the Decembrist uprising).
He took part in the war with Napoleon and the Battle of Austerlitz.
At 22, after retiring, he published “Letters of a Russian Officer” about the military campaigns of 1805-1806.
At 26, after returning to service, participation in Battle of Borodino During his military and foreign campaigns, he wrote a continuation of the "Letters" in 8 volumes. After their publication, he became famous in literary circles.
The daring Napoleon, relying on his countless army, is breaking straight into the breast of our Fatherland. Our people are unaccustomed to hearing about the enemy's approach. Long convoys are already stretching out; everyone is scouting out the safest places. No one wants to fall into enemy hands. (July 1812, Smolensk)
The earth groaned and awakened the sleeping warriors. The fields trembled, but hearts were calm. Thus began the unprecedented Battle of Borodino on August 26th. I witnessed this incredibly brutal battle, and I had never seen anything like it in my life, never heard of anything like it, and had barely read about it. I was at Austerlitz, but that battle was a mere clash in comparison! You'd have to have Michelangelo's brush, depicting the Last Judgment, to dare to imagine this terrible carnage.
From his youth he combined military service with poetry.
Should we now slumber in peace, loyal sons of Russia?! Let us go, let us form a military line, Let us go, and in the horrors of war, For friends, for the fatherland, for the people, Let us find glory and freedom, Or shall we all fall on our native fields! Which is better: life, where the bonds of captivity lie, Or death, where the Russian banners stand? To be heroes or slaves? (1812)
After the war, he edited the "Military Journal" and was chairman of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature." He headed Miloradovich's chancery, who was already Governor-General of St. Petersburg.
He was a member of the Decembrist "Union of Salvation" and one of the founders of the "Union of Welfare." After its dissolution in 1821, he gradually distanced himself from the Decembrists—he attended their meetings but did not join the secret "Northern Society." During interrogations, he denied plotting a revolution and was never on Senate Square.
Alas, the harsh days of captivity do not give life to the organs: Slaves, dragging in shackles, do not sing high songs! (1822)
In 1826 he was arrested (for the second time after the Decembrist uprising). He spent three months in the Peter and Paul Fortress and was exiled to Petrozavodsk under police supervision. He spent his exile as an advisor to the Olonetsk provincial government. In correspondence, he complained of being cold and that "compared to St. Petersburg, everything here is three times more expensive and six times worse."
Oh, my God! Must I really die in a foreign land, in this country where even spring itself, flying by like a frightened bird, won't have time to warm the graves or grow a flower on them? At this thought, some inner chill tears the skin from the bones. (during exile in Petrozavodsk)
While in exile, he wrote the lines: “Burning with love for the Tsar, let us glorify the wisdom of Nicholas!”After a couple of months, he was transferred from Petrozavodsk to a warmer place. Tver
In 1854, already during the Crimean War, he composed the patriotic poem "Hurrah! Let's strike three at once!" (Russia was fighting against a coalition of Turkey, England, and France).
In his later years, he became interested in spiritualism and lapsed into mysticism. He studied archaeology and founded the Tver "Voluntary Kopeyka" charitable society, which ran a soup kitchen for the poor and a vocational school.
In 1875, at 88, he was elected as a member of the Tver City Duma.
He lived to be 93 years old. He died in Tver in 1880.
