Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov was born in
1757 in Saint Petersburg, into a respected family of Russian aristocrats, the origins of which can be traced back to the 13th century. He received a fine education at home, studied in a private boarding-school, and then at
Moscow University. In 1772 Khvostov joined the prestigious
Preobrazhensky regiment (where he, admittedly, "rarely mounted a horse, save
Pegasus"). After retirement in 1779 Khvostov served as an official in the
Russian Senate 2nd department, where he later translated
The Study on Finance by the French Finance minister
Jacques Necker, for Prince Alexander Vyazemsky. In 1789 Khvostov married Princess A. I. Gorchakova,
Alexander Suvorov's niece, and it was Suvorov, first a mentor, then a close friend and confidante, who in 1799 asked the
King of Sardinia to grant the title of Count to his relative who three years later received official permission to use it and became Count Khvostov.
Vasily Zhukovsky devoted the whole of his Arzamas inception speech to Khvostov's
Fables. Pyotr Vyazemsky, Vasily Zhukovsky,
Anton Delvig,
Ivan Dmitriev,
Alexander Voeykov,
Nikolay Yazykov and
Alexander Izmaylov all wrote epigrams on Khvostov. In a satire called
A Singer in a Colloquy Konstantin Batyushkov presented Khvostov as the
cossack ataman Platov, "a reader's tyrant" whose poetry was "his drum, unbearable for the ears." Pushkin in his "Ode to His Highness Count Dm. Iv. Khvostov" made fun of the latter's tendency to produce countless footnotes (which made the commentary pages longer than the verses themselves), warning
Wilhelm Küchelbecker and
Kondraty Ryleyev against falling into the same ode-ish stylistic trap. Konstantin Batyushkov wrote of Khvostov: "Generations will come and go, and simply for being so infamous, he will become quite famous." ==References==