Ivan Pnin
Ivan Petrovich Pnin was a Russian poet and political writer. In accordance with Russian Illegitimacy custom, Pnin's surname was the abbreviation of that of his father, Prince Nicholas Repnin.Biography
Born out of wedlock, he famously deplored the status of illegitimate children in his 1802 petition to Alexander I of Russia
Pnin's liberal Essay on the Enlightenment in Russia attacked serfdom and therefore was banned in the Russian Empire.
The titles of Pnin's best-known poems, Man and God, mirror Derzhavin's on purpose, as he sought to refute the great poet's idealism by taking up the Deist stance of Radishchev, Volney, and d'Holbach.
