As President of the Russian Academy, Dashkova secured his admission into the academy and helped popularize his tragedies and folk songs among the Russian elite. The poet went blind at the age of 20, after which his popularity soared and he came to be sentimentally styled a Russian Milton.
Dashkova, as President of the Russian Academy, ensured the poet’s admission and popularized his works among the Russian elite. At age 20, the poet went blind but gained widespread recognition and affectionately came to be known as a Russian counterpart to Milton.