Savinov, Theodosius Petrovich

Theodosius Savinov was born in Totma in the family of an employee of the Totem district police department. My father died when Theodosius was only 8 years old. The mother, who had three more children, remarried a man, also with children, tyrannical in nature.

In 1872 - 1882 - studied at the gymnasium . While studying in high school, he severely ridiculed the Vologda provincial leadership (the governor and director of the gymnasium) in the manuscript poem Saviniada, which was a success in Vologda. For this misconduct, he was expelled from the gymnasium with a “ wolf ticket ”. He spent about a year at the cadet school, then he entered Moscow University . Leaving him, he returned to Vologda.

He served as a petty official, but poetry became the main content of life. The first publication was the poem "On Native Soil", published in No. 13 of the Moscow magazine "Wave" for 1885 . The same poem, but under the name "Native" was published in 1889 in the Vologda collection, and in 1890 it was published in Moscow .

The young man was published in the Vologda Provincial Gazette, since 1885 in Moscow and St. Petersburg magazines: Russia , Picturesque Review , Russian Review , Russian Thought , Russian Bulletin , etc.

In Moscow, he worked as a freelance newspaper reporter. Later he got a job as a proofreader in the magazines " Russian Review " and " Russian Thought ".

In 1887, in Vologda, he published the book Poems.

In the early 1890s he moved to Moscow . He worked as a small employee in private notary offices; subsequently a regular contributor to the magazines Alarm Clock and Entertainment .

In 1900, in Moscow, he released the 2nd, significantly expanded edition of the collection of Poems. The collection was not successful, the print run was not sold. However, some poems attracted the attention of composers: two songs on them were written by P. A. Petrov-Boyarinov , and three stanzas of the poem “Native” by composer-arranger A. N. Chernyavsky and A. S. Samoilov turned into a popular song “I See a Wonderful Freedom ", Some time considered popular. Later, a more capacious and precise title was assigned to the song - “Homeland”.

In the last years of his life, he suffered from alcoholism , progressive paralysis and severe mental disorder.

He died in a psychiatric hospital near Vologda .

• Poetry of Moscow University: from Lomonosov to ...
• Songs of Russian poets. In two volumes. Volume 1 - Leningrad: Soviet writer, 1988 - 664 pp. ISBN 5-265-00225-1 ISBN 5-265-00236-7