Innocent Annensky (1855-1909) was one of the most educated people of his time, a talented poet and playwright, a renowned critic, translator, and expert on the history of the Russian language and literature. His biography was linked to writing from an early age, and his work became a precursor to symbolism.

Annensky was born in Omsk in 1855 into the family of an important state official. In 1860, his father received a new appointment, and the family moved to St. Petersburg.

Due to poor health, Annensky initially studied at a private school, then at the second St. Petersburg gymnasium, and later returned to a private school. He entered university with the help of his older brother Nikolai Annensky, a prominent encyclopedist and economist.

In 1875, he began studying at the historical and philological faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated with honors in 1879, after which he took up teaching. Annensky worked in both state and private schools, teaching Russian literature, history, and ancient languages. Even then, it was evident that he was a great admirer of pure classicism.

Annensky taught Russian language, literature, history, and ancient languages in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev, but in 1896 he became the director of a gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo. His students adored him, although they considered him an oddball, but the authorities deemed him too lenient and dismissed him in 1906. Annensky was deeply affected by this, as he loved his job very much.

He was a great admirer of ancient Greek playwrights and sought for his students at the gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo to master the ancient Greek language well.

After his dismissal, Annensky worked as a district inspector but continued to translate from ancient Greek and French (he translated Euripides, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud), published collections of poetry, and wrote critical articles. His contemporaries highly valued his work, considering him one of the best translators in St. Petersburg and an expert in Russian literature. He was a recognized authority in the field of classicism and classical education.

Annensky died of a heart attack in 1909 and was buried in Tsarskoye Selo (now the city of Pushkin). His son, also a well-known poet, did everything possible to publish his father's poems and dramatic works, as well as to release a brief biography of Annensky and his brother Nikolai.

Interestingly, Annensky's close friends were unaware of his plays in the spirit of Euripides and his poetry for a long time, as he concealed his talents. Contemporaries remembered him as a modest person, although many classics of Russian literature considered him a genius. Anna Akhmatova and Boris Pasternak admired him.

Annensky's poem "Bells" is considered the first Futurist poem in Russian. His work "Among Worlds," one of the best in domestic literature, was set to music by Alexander Vertinsky.