K. Bolshakov was born in Moscow into a family of the administrator of the Old Ekaterina Hospital. Bolshakov began writing poems early, at about age 14 or 15. Around that same time, he met V. Bryusov. While still a student in the gymnasium, he published his first book— a collection of poetry and prose "Mosaic" (1911), in which the influence of K. Balmont was clearly felt. In 1913, after graduating from the 7th Moscow gymnasium, Bolshakov entered the law faculty of Moscow University, and no later than September of that same year, he published a small poem "Le futur" (with illustrations by M. Larionov and N. Goncharova), which was confiscated.