Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ivan Krylov's first collection of fables, containing 23 pieces, appeared in 1809. Its enthusiastic reception led him to abandon drama permanently and devote the rest of his career to fable-writing, eventually completing some 200 fables in total.
By the time of Krylov's death in 1844-77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia. His work remained popular well beyond his death.
Krylov is called the Russian La Fontaine because, while not the first Russian fabulist, he became the most prominent and enduring one, much as La Fontaine defined the French fable tradition. Both men also produced their best work in maturity after long incubation, though Krylov invented more original fables than La Fontaine did.
Krylov worked at the Imperial Public Library from 1812 to 1841, beginning as an assistant and rising to head of the Russian Books Department. The position was undemanding and left him ample time to write.
Pushkin adapted the phrase "an ass of most honest principles" from Krylov's fable "The Ass and the Peasant" to create the famous opening line of Eugene Onegin, "My uncle, of most honest principles." Readers familiar with Krylov recognized the allusion immediately.
The most notable statue of Krylov stands in the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg, erected in 1854-55. Sculptor Peter Clodt placed his massive seated figure on a tall pedestal surrounded by relief panels designed by Alexander Agin depicting scenes from the fables. It was regarded as the first monument to a poet erected in Eastern Europe.