Early Life
Ryleyev was born in the village of Batovo, now part of Gatchinsky District, Leningrad Oblast. His father, Fyodor Ryleyev, was an impoverished nobleman, a small landowner, who was later employed as the manager of one of Prince Golitsyn's estates.
In spite of his family's pecuniary difficulties, Ryleyev was able to study at the Corps des Pages, an elite military academy attended only by members of the nobility, in Saint Petersburg. After his graduation, Ryleyev was awarded a commission in the First Cavalry Company of the First Reserve Artillery Brigade. He participated in the foreign campaigns of 1814 and 1815, seeing action in Poland, Germany and France, during the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1818, Ryleyev resigned his commission, and for a time was employed tutoring the children of a wealthy landowner named Tevyashev. A year later he married the landowner's daughter, Natalya Tevyasheva, and went on to father two children.
Read more about this topic: Kondraty Ryleyev
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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