Pyotr Alexandrovich Kologrivov served in the cavalry guard as a warrant officer from 1786 to 1793, then became a flag officer, and from 1795, a general adjutant. In 1796, he was transferred to the horse grenadier regiment, with which he participated in the Persian campaign. In 1800, he retired with the rank of colonel. Kologrivov possessed significant wealth and a large estate, which included 1,757 souls in the village of Mescherskoye, Serdobsky district, Saratov province.

His wife, Praskovya Yuryevna Trubetskaya, was born in 1762 and died in 1848. Before marrying Kologrivov, she was married to Major General F.S. Gagarin, who died in 1794 during the storming of the suburbs of Warsaw, Prague. In 1812, the Kologrivovs lived in Penza, and then for a long time in Mescherskoye, where guests often gathered. Praskovya Yuryevna became known for her participation in a home theater and organizing spiritualist sessions.

Before the Patriotic War of 1812, she made a daring flight in a hot air balloon, which landed in the Moscow estate of P.A. Vyazemsky, Ostafyevo. Poems were dedicated to her by I.M. Dolgorukov and N.M. Karamzin, and A.S. Griboedov portrayed her in the play "Woe from Wit" under the name of Tatyana Yuryevna.

The daughter of Praskovya Yuryevna from her first marriage, V.F. Gagarina, later became the wife of P.A. Vyazemsky. While in Mescherskoye, Vyazemsky wrote the poems "Winter Caricatures," "For the New Year 1828," "Bareheaded Little Head," "Salovka," as well as the satire "Russian God." His "Notebooks" contain descriptions of life in Penza and the village of Mescherskoye.