Andrei Bely (1880-1934) was a foremost Russian symbolist poet known equally well for his novel Petersburg and his criticism as for his poetry. Born into the Muscovite intelligentsia, he grew interested in Buddhism and mysticism as a youth, and, studying mathematics and physics at Moscow State University, he tried to find a way to blend them with poetry. He started publishing poetry in 1902, followed by Petersburg, a symbolist depiction of the 1905 revolution, in 1913, almost foretelling the revolution to follow, then turned to criticism of Pushkin and Gogol, publishing a trilogy of memoirs before his death from sun stroke suffered on a trip to the Crimea.