Russian poet and writer, author of folk tale The Humpbacked Horse

Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov was born in Siberia (Bezrukovo Village, under Ishim town, now of the Tymen Region). After graduating from St. Petersburg University he returned to his native land. For many years he worked as a teacher in a classical school of Tobolsk town.

Yershov became famous due to his fairy tale The Humpbacked Horse (Konyok-Gorbunok) that he wrote when a student yet. It was first time published as a fragment in the Third Volume of Reading Library of 1834, accompanied with a favourable review of Senkovsky.

It is noteworthy that the first four verses of the poetic tale were sketched by Alexander Pushkin who had read it as a manuscript yet. The fairy tale was then published as a separate book and withstood seven editions yet in the author’s lifetime.

General public is hardly familiar with his works of other genres, such as poems, dramas, epigrams, and the cycle of short stories Autumn Evenings.

Pyotr Yershov died on 18 (30) August 1869 in Tobolsk and was laid to rest at Zavalnoe Cemetery in Tobolsk. The inscription on his grave reads: Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov, the author of the folk fairy tale The Humpbacked Horse.