The Little Humpbacked Horse

Yershov Pyotr Pavlovich (1815-1869) - a Russian poet and prose writer, a gymnasium teacher.
He was born into a government official's family in Siberia, in one of the districts of the Tobolsk province. He received his education at the Imperial St. Petersburg University, Faculty of History and Philology. It was there, at the age of 19, that Yershov wrote a poetic fairy tale about a magical horse that spoke in human voice. This fairy tale was introduced by Professor of Russian Literature Pyotr Pletnev, who was enthralled by the student's talent, at the beginning of one of his lectures, and then pointed to the blushing author sitting in the audience.
For a long time, it was believed that the first four lines were written by Alexander Pushkin, to whom Pletnev, a close friend of the poet, showed "The Little Humpbacked Horse." Later it was concluded that Pushkin, who warmly received the poem, only made slight edits to it, but after that, Yershov changed it himself 4 times.
"The Little Humpbacked Horse" is written in iambic tetrameter with paired rhyme. The folkloric melodic quality, gentle and precise humor, and remarkable lightness of verse make this nearly two-hundred-year-old fairy tale popular even today - it was published in 1834; since then, it has been reprinted over 150 times and translated into 27 languages.