a Russian poet, translator, writer, and political activist. A member of the Petrashevsky Circle and later the leader of his own underground group of intellectuals, Durov was arrested in 1849, spent 8 months in the Petropavloskaya Fortress, followed by 4 years in Omsk prison. In 1857 Durov returned from Siberia, and the ban on his literary activity was lifted in 1862. But, broken physically by his long ordeal, he fell critically ill soon after and died at the age of 54.
