Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov (1815, 1869) was a renowned Russian poet, writer, and educator. He gained widespread fame for his poem fairy tale "The Humpbacked Horse," which became a classic of Russian literature. Yershov was also a teacher of the famous chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.

Pyotr Yershov was born on February 22 (March 6) 1815 in the village of Bezrukovo in the Tobolsk province to a civil servant and a merchant's daughter. Due to his father's job, the family moved frequently, and in the first eight years of his life, Pyotr lived in various cities and Cossack settlements.

In 1827, his parents sent Pyotr and his brother Nikolai to Tobolsk to study at the gymnasium. The director of the gymnasium, Ivan Mendeleev, father of Dmitri Mendeleev, played an important role in shaping Yershov's personality. He organized literary Sundays for high school students, where they could read their works. Pyotr Yershov later became a friend and support for Dmitri Mendeleev, who lost his father at the age of 13.

In 1830, the Yershov family moved to St. Petersburg, and the brothers continued their studies at the Imperial University. Pyotr chose the historical and philological faculty but studied mediocrely and did not master any foreign languages after graduation.

During his studies at the university, Yershov began to engage in literature. In the magazine "Snowdrop," he published his first poems and opera librettos on themes from Ancient Russia. The fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin had a significant influence on his work, and he wrote a children's fairy tale "The Humpbacked Horse," which received approval from Pushkin and Zhukovsky, bringing Yershov popularity and access to the creative society of St. Petersburg.

Yershov later tried his hand in various genres, but his main work remained "The Humpbacked Horse." In 1836, he returned to Tobolsk and began working as a teacher at the local gymnasium, where he later became the director. One of his students was Dmitri Mendeleev, who later became related to Yershov: Yershov's stepdaughter married the scientist.

Yershov contributed to the establishment of women's schools and the creation of an amateur gymnasium theater, where he acted as a director. Yershov's personal life was complicated. His first wife was the widow Serafima Leshcheva, who had four children; she died in childbirth five years into their marriage. His second marriage to Olympiada Kuzmina also ended with the death of his wife. For the third time, Yershov married Elena Cherkasova, with whom he lived until the end of his life. He had fifteen children, but only four lived to adulthood.

Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov passed away on August 30, 1869, at the age of 54.