Kozma Petrovich Prutkov (Russian: Козьма́ Петро́вич Прутко́в) is a fictional author invented by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and his cousins, the brothers Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov (1821-1908), Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov (1830-1884) and Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov (1826-1896), during the later part of the rule (1825-1855) of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia.
The four distinguished satirical poets used this pseudonym as a collective pen-name to publish parody aphorisms, fables, and epigrams, as well as satiric, humorous and nonsense verses in the 1850s and 1860s, most notably in the literary magazine Sovremennik (The Contemporary).
According to the (fictional) Biographical data on Kozma Prutkov,[1] Prutkov, allegedly born on April 11, 1803, died on January 13, 1863. He worked for the government of the Russian Empire his entire adult life, and in 1820 entered military service as a hussar only for the uniform. He worked at the Assay Office (Пробирная Палата[2]) from 1823 until his death, ending up as its director.
- ^ (in Russian) Биографические сведения о Козьме Пруткове, (Biographical data on Kozma Prutkov), first printed in the Full Collection of Works, 1884 (lib.ru)
- ^ Здание Пробирной палаты