 Born into a noble family of Baltic Germans, he was brought up in Estonia and attended the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum together with Alexander Pushkin and Anton Delvig, with whom he became friends.In 1821 he went to Paris to deliver courses in Russian literature, but his activity was deemed too liberal by the Russian administration and Küchelbecker had to return to Russia.He served in the Caucasian War under General Yermolov (with whose nephew he fought a duel) before launching the miscellany "Mnemozina" along with Vladimir Odoevsky in 1824.