Konstantin Balmont was born at his family's estate, Gumnishchi, Shuya (then Vladimir Governorate, now Ivanovo Oblast), the third of seven sons of a Russian nobleman, lawyer, and senior state official, Dmitry Konstantinovich Balmont, and Vera Nikolayevna (née Lebedeva) who came from a military family. The latter knew several foreign languages, was enthusiastic about literature and theater, and exerted a strong influence on her son. Balmont learned to read at the age of five and cited Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Nekrasov, Aleksey Koltsov, and Ivan Nikitin as his earliest influences. Later he remembered the first ten years of his life spent at Gumnishchi with great affection and referred to the place as 'a tiny kingdom of silent comfort'.