Antony Pohorilskyi is a famous writer, representative of the Ukrainian cultural movement in Starodub region, grandson of Hetman Kyrylo Razumovsky, brother of statesmen Counts Lev and Vasyl Perovsky, uncle of Oleksii Tolstoy and brothers Oleksii and Volodymyr Zhemchuzhnikov. In 1807 he graduated from Moscow University.

Antony Pogorelsky's set of stories "The Double, or My Evenings in Little Russia (Ukraine)" (1828) was closely related to the German fantastic tradition ("Serapion Brothers" by Hoffman) and anticipated the famous "Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka" by Mykola Gogol and "Russian Nights" by Vladimir Odoevsky. In 1829 Pogorelsky published the book that brought him real fame: it was the fairy tale "Black Hen, or Living Underground" written for his nephew, the first book about childhood in literature of Russian Empire. His novel "Monastyrka", a “moral-descriptive novel” combining both sentimental and romantic elements was very well accepted by public and critics.