Ariana Rodionovna was born on April 21, 1758 (April 10 in the old style) in the village of Lampovo. Her parents were Lukerya Kirillova and Rodion Yakovlev, hence her patronymic, Yakovleva. However, as linguists note, serfs did not have surnames.

Pushkin affectionately referred to his nanny, Ariana Rodionovna, as "mama" or "mamushka," and she, in turn, addressed him as "my Angel," "dear friend," and "father." The image of the nanny, "the confidante of magical antiquity," was one of the brightest in the poet's life.

Ariana Rodionovna was born in 1758 into a family of serfs in the village of Suida in the Gatchina district of the St. Petersburg province. At the age of 23, she married a peasant, Fyodor Matveev, and began to serve in the house of Osip Hannibal, Pushkin's grandfather, where she became the nanny of Nadezhda Osipovna, the poet's mother, and later of his children, Lev, Olga, and Alexander. After the early death of her husband, she had to raise her four children. Pushkin's mother repeatedly offered her freedom, but Ariana Rodionovna refused.

From early childhood, the nanny introduced the future poet to the wisdom of Russian traditions through fairy tales and beliefs. These "tales of deep antiquity" became the foundation of his creativity. Pushkin embodied the image of the nanny in his works, such as the nanny of Tatyana Larina in "Eugene Onegin" and the female characters in "The Negro of Peter the Great."

In the mid-1820s, Ariana Rodionovna supported the poet in his solitude during his exile in the village of Mikhailovskoye. "She is my only friend, and with her, I am not bored," he wrote in a letter to Knezhevich. The importance of the nanny in Pushkin's life was emphasized by his friend Yazykov, who dedicated a poem to her, calling her "the light Rodionovna" and "gracious hostess."

Ariana Rodionovna passed away from a serious illness in the summer of 1828. Pushkin often remembered her with tenderness: "the old woman is no more, already behind the wall, I do not hear her heavy footsteps, nor her meticulous watch."