alexander pushkin biography

Alexander Pushkin

Great Russian poet and playwright

"Better the illusions that exalt us than ten thousand truths"

Date and place of birth: June 6, 1799, Moscow Date and place of death: February 10, 1837, St. Petersburg Occupation: poet, prose writer, playwright, literary critic, translator, publicist, historian. Movement: romanticism, realism. Genre: poem, novel (historical novel, novel in verse, robbery novel), play, story, fairy tale Years of oeuvre: 1814-1837

Alexander Pushkin began to write his first works at the age of seven. During his years in the Lyceum he became famous when he read his poem to Gavriil Derzhavin. Pushkin was the first Russian writer who began to earn his living by literary work. He created not only lyric poems, but also fairy tales, historical prose and works in support of revolutionaries – the poet was even sent into exile for his freethinking.

From one extreme to the other

Alexander Pushkin was born into an impoverished noble family on June 6, 1799. In his early childhood he was a taciturn and sedentary child – his elder sister Olga recalled that until the age of six the boy “was just a laggard. Initial education Pushkin was at home. His upbringing was no different from the customary system then in noble families: his parents hired governesses and teachers from France, Germany, England and Russia.

Education was given Pushkin hard, and teachers noted that he was not diligent. Soon, however, the boy was fond of reading. “Spent sleepless nights and secretly devoured books one after another in his father’s study,” his younger brother Lev later recalled.

“I don’t know what my eldest grandson will turn out to be. The boy is clever and eager for books, but he studies poorly, rarely when he gives his lesson in order – then you do not shake him up, do not drive him to play with children, then suddenly so turns and disperses, that nothing can not calm him: from one extreme to another rushes, he has no middle ground” – Maria Hannibal

His love of reading grew into attempts to create his own texts. Already at the age of seven, Pushkin was composing little comedies in French, imitating Moliere. Later, after reading the works of La Fontaine, the young author wanted to write fables. And after getting acquainted with Voltaire’s Henriade, Pushkin conceived a poem in six songs: all the books he read inspired the novice author.

The Frenchman at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

In 1811 Pushkin’s parents decided to send their son to the Jesuit College, but their plans changed when a lyceum for noble children opened in Tsarskoye Selo. On the protection of friends the Pushkins placed their 12 year old son in an elite institution. Initially it was intended to prepare children of the imperial family and their peers for higher civil ranks. But the status of the Lyceum lowered: Pushkin studied in a privileged and closed institution, but among the equals of the children of impoverished families. Within the walls of the Lyceum, many became close friends. Three friends – Ivan Pushchin, Anton Delvig, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker – remained friends of Pushkin for life.

The Lyceum was taught by the famous lawyer Alexander Kunitsyn, philosopher Alexander Galich and philologist Nikolai Koshansky. It was the professors who had a great influence on the intellectual and moral development of the Lyceum pupils – their relatives could only visit their children on weekends. On weekdays the lessons started at 7 am and lasted until late at night. During his studies Alexander Pushkin saw his alma mater as a “monastery” and dreamed of the freedom that would come with the graduation of the Lyceum.

Pushkin studied not very well, especially hard for a young writer given logic and mathematics. With a brilliant memory he lacked diligence and attention. However, the teachers noted the erudition of pupils. In the Lyceum, he continued to read and write many texts in French. Lyceum student Sergei Komovsky recalled that because of his love for this language Pushkin “was called… in mockery the Frenchman, and by the physique and some habits of the monkey and even a mixture of monkey and tiger.

In Russian Alexander Pushkin composed small epigrams and messages, and outlined the structure of his future autobiography. The young author was so fond of literary creativity that the ideas of works were born one after another for several months ahead: “Yesterday I wrote the third chapter of Fatham, or the Mind of Man. I began a comedy – I do not know whether I will finish it. On the third day I wanted to write an ironic poem “Igor and Olga”. In the summer I will write “A Picture of Tsarskoye Selo”. Pushkin wrote poems. In 1814 he first published one of them – “To a friend, poet” – under the pseudonym of Alexander N.K.S.P. in the magazine “Herald of Europe”.

The first major success awaited Pushkin in 1815 during the winter transfer exam – 15-year-old high school student read his poem “Memories of Tsarskoye Selo. Gavriel Derzhavin was present at the exam, he was shocked by a creation of a young poet. Pushkin later wrote: “I do not remember how I finished my reading; I do not remember where I ran away. Derzhavin was delighted; he demanded me, wanted to embrace me … I was looked for, but could not find.

Pushkin’s service and career

In 1817 Alexander Pushkin graduated from the Lyceum. In terms of academic achievement he was 24 out of 29 graduates. Pushkin was sent to the College of Foreign Affairs – an official X class. But it was only listed: civil service is little attracted to the young man. After six years of study Pushkin plunged into the social life of the capital and, as a famous and distinguished author, got into the St. Petersburg society of writers. While still in the Lyceum he became a member of the literary circle “Arzamas” which fought against the archaic linguistic traditions.

In 1819 Pushkin joined the literary and theatrical society “The Green Lamp” under the Decembrist Union of Welfare. Its members promoted freedom-loving ideas. At the meetings, they recited poems, discussed theater premieres, criticized journalistic articles. Here were conducted not only secular disputes, but also political conversations. All this was reflected in Pushkin’s work: he wrote several epigrams on the statesmen of the time, the ode “Liberty”, the poems “To Chaadayev” and “The Village”.

These sharp political works provoked the wrath of Alexander I, and the emperor decided to send Pushkin to Siberia or to the Solovetsky monastery. However, Nikolai Karamzin interceded for the poet: the service of Pushkin was transferred from the capital to the South. Before his departure, in 1820, Alexander Pushkin finished his poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila. Vasily Zhukovsky highly appreciated this work and gave the poet his portrait with the signature “To the victorious pupil from the defeated teacher.

Southern Link

In the spring of 1820 Alexander Pushkin went to Kishinev, to the office of the chief trustee of the colonists of the Southern region. On the way to the new place of service the poet became very ill. To improve his health, Pushkin went first to the Caucasus, then – in the Crimea. Traveling impressions of the south of the empire was later reflected in some of his works. Finally, in September 1820 Pushkin arrived in Kishinev.

The new chief lieutenant-general Ivan Inzov related to the service of his subordinate indulgently and did not assign him any official matters. Pushkin used his time as he pleased: he communicated with members of the Union of Welfare, joined the Masonic lodge “Ovid”. In his spare time, he still wrote. During this period appeared “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Gavriiliada”, “The Robber Brothers”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”, “The Song of Oleg the Veschem”. Pushkin also began work on the novel in verse, Eugene Onegin.

At this time in St. Petersburg began to come out the poet’s books – Ruslan and Lyudmila, The Prisoner of the Caucasus, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai. They also began Pushkin’s professional activity: he was the first writer in Russia who began to earn money by literary work.

In 1823 Pushkin moved to Odessa. Here he got a job in the office of Count Vorontsov. Soon, however, official and personal conflicts led Pushkin to ask for his resignation.

Pushkin in Mikhailovsky

In Mikhailovskoye Pushkin led a secluded life. His parents, along with his sister Olga and brother Leo left the estate, so that the exile did not adversely affect the family. The poet was initially happy with the peace and quiet, but with the onset of autumn coldness depressed. The only entertainment for Pushkin was talking with his nanny Arina Rodionovna. Her tales, as the poet said, corrected the shortcomings of the French upbringing. He wrote down the plots of magical stories, and later used them in his works.

The reclusive way of life did not become destructive for Pushkin, rather the opposite: the writer read a lot, worked, reflected on his work. In the first autumn of Mikhailovsky he began to write “Boris Godunov.” This tragedy was an important stage in the poet’s work: he moved from romanticism with its heroics to a realistic embodiment of the characters.

The exoticism and abstractions left the poet’s work, and contemporary realities came to the fore. Pushkin finished the poem “To the sea” he started in Odessa, resumed work on his autobiographical notes, wrote a mock poem “Count Nulin”, a love poem-dedication “To ***”.

I want to publish or publish myself

On December 1, 1825, Alexander I died. The emperor left no heirs, and the presumed emperor Constantine, the next oldest brother, abdicated the throne. Nicholas Pavlovich became the pretender to power. Members of the Northern Secret Society decided to take advantage of the interregnum. On the morning of December 26, an uprising was scheduled. The participants planned to take troops to Senate Square and force the senators to sign a manifesto to the Russian people on the convening of the Constituent Assembly instead of oathing to Nicholas. A constitutional monarchy or republic was to be established in Russia. However, the coup attempt failed.

Pushkin learned about the Decembrist uprising while in exile. The investigation of the case did not promise anything good: the poet’s poems were found at all of those arrested. The writer had to give a receipt that he was not in secret societies, of their existence did not know. Pushkin, though worried about his situation, but hoped that the new emperor would forgive him and release him from exile.

“I have already written to the tsar, immediately after the end of the investigation, concluding my petition exactly in your words. I am waiting for a reply, but I have little hope. Rebellion and revolution have never pleased me, it is true; but I have been in touch with almost everyone and in correspondence with many of the conspirators. All the outrageous manuscripts went under my name, as all the lewd ones went under Barkov’s. If I had been demanded by the commission, I would of course have been excused, but I was left alone, and it does not seem to be for good. However, hell knows” – from Alexander Pushkin’s letter to Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky.

In 1826 the first collection Poems of Alexander Pushkin was published. It was a huge success: the volume was sold out in a few weeks. That year Pushkin wrote the following chapters of Eugene Onegin, but he did not hurry to publish them, as well as other works. In response to the publisher Peter Pletnev, he sharply replied: “I myself want to publish or give out in the light” – that is, be released from exile.

September 20, 1826 Pushkin was summoned to an audience with Tsar Nicholas I. After the brutal massacre of the Decembrists, the emperor wanted to win over society, so he returned from exile, a favorite of all the famous poet. The monarch not only released Pushkin, but guaranteed the highest patronage and offered to become his personal censor.

After a conversation with Nicholas I, the writer hoped to be completely free to create. But the tsar had other plans: Pushkin was to become a poet at court. The calculation did not pay off. In 1827 Pushkin wrote the poem “Arion”, in which he expressed his loyalty to the ideas of liberation. And through the Decembrist’s wife, Alexandra Muravyeva, sent to the Siberian penal colony the poem “In the depths of the Siberian ore” – a message to the revolutionaries.

Censorship intensified, the personal correspondence of the poet looked through, about his every step reported to the chief of the Third Department of the Gendarmes Alexander Benkendorf. Pushkin was even forbidden to travel freely around the country and read his works in public. Despite the strict controls, he continued to defend the freethinking ideas and devoted to this subject the poems “The Poet and the Crowd”, “The Poet.

Pushkin’s personal life

In 1829, Alexander Pushkin met Natalia Goncharova at one of the balls. The girl was 16 years old at that time, while the poet was almost 30. The first beauty of Moscow immediately captivated Pushkin, and a few months later he made a proposal to Goncharova. But her mother referred to the girl’s young age and did not give her consent at once. Upset, the writer left Moscow to join his brother in the Caucasus, where the war was going on at the time.

“When I saw her [Natalia Goncharova] for the first time, her beauty was just beginning to be noticed in society. I fell in love with her, I got dizzy, I asked for her hand. Your answer, with all its vagueness, almost drove me mad; the same night I left for the army. You will ask me why? I swear, I do not know how to tell myself; but involuntary melancholy drove me from Moscow: I could not bear the presence of yours and hers in it” – from Alexander Pushkin’s letter to the mother of Natalia Goncharova.

In the Caucasus Pushkin wrote a cycle of poems dedicated to this land: “The Caucasus”, “On the hills of Georgia lies the night gloom”, “Landslide”, “Delibash” and “The monastery on Kazbek”. In 1830 the writer returned to Moscow and once again proposed to Natalia Goncharova. This time the parents blessed the couple.

However, the wedding prevented the fact that Pushkin had no property. Then the poet’s father allocated to his son part of the family estate Boldino in Nizhny Novgorod province, the village of Kistenevo, together with two hundred peasants. In the summer of 1830 Pushkin went there to settle legal matters.

Boldin Autumn

The writer expected to stay in Boldino for no more than a month, but the cholera epidemic changed his plans. It was impossible to leave the village, so the writer spent three months here.

Boldino Autumn is a period of unprecedented creative flight. In Boldin Pushkin finished “Eugene Onegin,” wrote “The Tale of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin,” “The Story of the Village Goryukhin,” “Little Tragedies,” drama “Mermaid,” poem “Little House at Colomna” and many poems.

Pushkin returned to Moscow in December 1830, and a few months later married Natalia Goncharova. The poet dreamed of solitude, a quiet family life and quiet work on books. However, his wishes were not destined to come true.

The Duel and Death of a Poet

In 1831 Alexander Pushkin was hired as a historiographer to write the History of Peter. But the writer was more fascinated by the biography of the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev. Pushkin planned to create an epic novel about this era. First, he gathered information in the archives, then traveled to the areas of the Pugachev rebellion – the Volga and the Urals – to reliably describe the events of that time.

After the expedition, Alexander Pushkin went to Boldino. On his family estate he worked on a scholarly work “The History of Pugachev”, wrote “The Bronze Horseman”, “Angelo”, “The Queen of Spades”, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” and “The Tale of the Dead Tsarevna and the Seven Bogatyrs”. The second Boldino Autumn was twice as short as the previous one, but no less productive for Pushkin.

Nicholas I bestowed upon Pushkin a junior court rank – the rank of gentleman of the bedchamber. Now the four Pushkins could officially invite the court balls. This position the poet considered insulting for his age. The writer wanted to reject the new title, but had to put up with it.

In the 1830s Pushkin was already writing only realistic works. But his contemporaries were not ready for the new literary direction, which described social inequality, historical phenomena and other complex aspects of life. Fellow writers did not accept the new works of the writer, in court circles he also did not meet the support. In St. Petersburg there was gossip about Pushkin’s wife and her admirers, the poet received anonymous letters. The poet could not remain cold-blooded and put up with insulting rumors.

February 8, 1837 Alexander Pushkin had a duel with Georges Dantes – the main intrigue, defaming the reputation of Natalia Pushkina. During the duel the poet was seriously wounded and died two days later. Alexander Pushkin was buried on the territory of Svyatogorsky monastery in Pskov province.

• World Biography

Aleksandr Pushkin Biography

Born: May 26, 1799 Moscow, Russia Died: January 29, 1837 St. Petersburg, Russia Russian author

Aleksandr Pushkin is ranked as one of Russia's greatest poets. He not only brought Russian poetry to its highest excellence, but also had a great influence on all Russian literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Early years

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was born to Sergei and Nadezhda Pushkin on May 26, 1799. On his father's side he was a descendant of Russian nobility. On his mother's side he was related to an African lord. But by the time Aleksandr was born, the family had gradually lost most of their wealth and influence, and they were lowered to the position of minor nobility. Aleksandr's family life was far from ideal. His father was domineering and easily irritated, and his mother often left the young child alone in pursuit of her social ambitions.

Between 1811 and 1817 Pushkin attended a special school for privileged children of the nobility. Pushkin was not a very good student in most subjects, but he performed brilliantly in French and Russian literature.

Early works, 1814–1820

After finishing school, Pushkin led a wild and undisciplined life. He wrote about 130 poems between 1814 and 1817, while still at school. Most of his works written between 1817 and 1820 were not published because his topics were considered inappropriate.

In 1820 Pushkin completed his first narrative poem, Russlan and Ludmilla. It is a romance composed of fantastic adventures but told with the humor of the previous century. However, even before Russlan and Ludmilla was published in June 1820, Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia because of the political humor he had expressed in his earlier poems. Pushkin left St. Petersburg on May 6, and he would not return for more than six years.

South of Russia

Pushkin spent the years from 1820 to 1823 in various places in the southern part of Russia, including the Caucasus and in the Crimea. He was happy there at first, but later, he felt bored by the life in small towns and took up again a life of gambling and drinking. He was always short of money. He worked as a civil servant (government worker), but did not make much money and his family refused to support him.

Mikhailovskoye, 1824–1826

When Pushkin arrived at Mikhailovskoye, his relations with his parents were not good. His father was angry at him. The family left the estate about mid-November, and Pushkin found himself alone with the family nurse. He lived alone for much of the next two years, occasionally visiting a neighboring town and infrequently entertaining old Petersburg friends. At this time the nurse told Pushkin many folk tales, and it is believed that she gave him a feeling for folk life that showed itself in many of his poems.

Pushkin's two years at Mikhailovskoye were extremely rich in poetic output. Among other works, he wrote the first three chapters of Eugene Onegin, and composed the tragedy Boris Godunov. In addition, he composed many important lyrics (poetic dramas set to music) and a humorous tale in verse entitled Count Nulin.

His maturity

Pushkin was eventually forgiven by the new czar (Russian ruler), Nicholas I (1796–1855). The czar promised Pushkin that all of his works would be censored (edited for approval) by the czar himself. Pushkin promised to publish nothing that would harm the government. After some time this type of censorship became a burden for Pushkin.

Pushkin continued to live a wild life for awhile, but wanted to settle down. He proposed to Nathalie Goncharova in 1830. He asked his future in-laws for money and convinced them to provide him with land and a house. He continued to work on Eugene Onegin, wrote a number of excellent lyrics, and worked on, but did not finish a novel.

Eugene Onegin was begun in 1824 and finished in August 1831. This is a novel in verse (poetry) and most regard it as Pushkin's most famous work. It is a "novel" about life at that time, constructed in order to permit digressions (the moving away from the main subject in literary works) and a variety of incidents and tones. The heart of the tale concerns the life of Eugene Onegin, a bored nobleman who rejects the advances of a young girl, Tatiana. He meets her later, when she is greatly changed and now sophisticated. He falls in love with her. He is in turn rejected by her because, although she loves him, she is married.

Marriage, duel, and death

After 1830 Pushkin wrote less and less poetry. He married Nathalie Goncharova in 1831. She bore him three children, but the couple were not happy together. His new wife had many other admirers. He challenged one of her admirers to a duel that took place on January 26, 1837. Pushkin was wounded and died on January 29. There was great mourning at his death.

Many of Pushkin's works provided the basis for operas by Russian composers. They include Ruslan and Ludmilla by Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857), Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881), and The Golden Cockerel by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908).

For More Information

Feinstein, Elaine. Pushkin: A Biography. New York: Ecco Press, 2000.

Magarshack, David. Pushkin: A Biography. London: Chapman & Hall, 1967.

Simmons, Ernest. Pushkin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1937, revised edition 1971.

Vickery, Walter. Pushkin: Death of a Poet. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

Vitale, Serena. Pushkin's Button. Edited by Ann Goldstein. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998.

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References ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Feinstein, Elaine, ed. After Pushkin: Versions of the Poems of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by Contemporary Poets. Manchester, UK: Carcanet Prees; London: Folio Society, 1999. ISBN 1-857-54444-7
• Pushkin: a biography London: HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN 0-00-215084-0 (U.S. edition: New York: Knopf, 2003. ISBN 1-4000-4110-4 )
• Vitale, Serena. Pushkin's Button. Translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998. ISBN 0-374-23995-5

External links

All links retrieved July 18, 2023.

• Complete works (Russian) — FEB-web's Digital Scholarly Edition (DSE) of A.S. Pushkin
• Complete works in ten volumes (Russian) From the Russian Virtual Library.
• Works by Pushkin from Project Gutenberg.
• The family history of Aleksandr Pushkin

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Alexander Pushkin Biography

by Janice Campbell · Published May 25, 2021 · Updated May 19, 2021

Alexander (or Aleksándr) Sergeyvich Pushkin  (1799—1837) was a Russian poet born in Moscow, on the 7th of June 1799. He belonged to an ancient family of boyars; his maternal great-grandfather, a favourite negro ennobled by Peter the Great, bequeathed to him curly hair and a somewhat darker complexion than falls to the lot of the ordinary Russian. In 1811 the future poet entered the newly founded lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo, situated near St Petersburg. On quitting the lyceum in 1817 he was attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, and in this year he began the composition of his Ruslan and Ly’udmila , a poem which was completed in 1820.

Portrait of Alexander Pushkin by Vasily Andreevich Tropinin. 1827. Oil on canvas. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Meanwhile Pushkin mixed in all the gayest society of the capital, and it seemed as if he would turn out a mere man of fashion instead of a poet. But a very daring Ode to Liberty written by him had been circulated in manuscript in St Petersburg. This production having been brought to the notice of the governor, the young author only escaped a journey to Siberia by accepting an official position at Kishinev in Bessarabia, in southern Russia. If we follow the chronological order of his poems, we can trace the enthusiasm with which he greeted the ever-changing prospects of the sea and the regions of the Danube and the Crimea.

At this time Pushkin was, or affected to be, overpowered by the Byronic “Weltschmerz.” Having visited the baths of the Caucasus for the re-establishment of his health in 1822, he felt the inspiration of its magnificent scenery, and composed The Prisoner of the Caucasus , narrating the story of the love of a Circassian girl for a youthful Russian officer. This was followed by the Fountain of Bakhchisarai , which tells of the detention of a young Polish captive, a Countess Potocka, in the palace of the khans of the Crimea. About the same time he composed some interesting lines on Ovid, whose place of banishment, Tomi, was not far distant. To this period belongs also the Ode to Napoleon , which is inferior to the fine poems of Byron and Manzoni, or indeed of Lermontov, on the same subject. In the Lay concerning the Wise Oleg we see how the influence of Karamzin’s History had led the Russians to take a greater interest in the early records of their country. The next long poem was the Gipsies (Tzuigani), an Oriental tale of love and vengeance, in which Pushkin has admirably delineated these nomads, whose strange mode of life fascinated him. During his stay in southern Russia he allowed himself to get mixed up with the secret societies then rife throughout the country. He also became embroiled with his chief, Count Vorontzov, who sent him to report upon the damages which had been committed by locusts in the southern part of Bessarabia. Pushkin took this as a premeditated insult, and sent in his resignation; and Count Vorontzov in his official report requested the government to remove the poet, “as he was surrounded by a society of political and literary fanatics, whose praises might turn his head and make him believe that he was a great writer, whereas he was only a feeble imitator of Lord Byron, an original not much to be commended.” The poet quitted Odessa in 1824, and on leaving wrote a fine Ode to the Sea . Before the close of the year he had returned to his father’s seat at Mikhailovskoe, near Pskov, where he soon involved himself in trouble on all sides. In his retirement he devoted a great deal of time to the study of the old Russian popular poetry, the builinas , of which he became a great admirer. Recollections of Byron and André Chenier gave the inspiration to some fine lines consecrated to the latter, in which Pushkin appeared more conservative than was his wont, and wrote in a spirit antagonistic to the French Revolution.

In 1825 he published his tragedy Boris Godunov , a bold effort to imitate the style of Shakespeare. Up to this time the traditions of the Russian stage, such as it was, had been French. In 1825 the conspiracy of the Dekabrists broke out. Many of the conspirators were personal friends of Pushkin, especially Küchelbecker and Pustchin. The poet himself was to a certain extent compromised, but he succeeded in getting to his house at Mikhailovskoe and burning all the papers which might have been prejudicial to him. Through influential friends he succeeded in making his peace with the emperor, to whom he was presented at Moscow soon after his coronation. The story goes that Nicholas said to Count Bludov on the same evening, “I have just been conversing with the most witty man in Russia.” In 1828 appeared Poltava , a spirited narrative poem, in which the expedition of Charles XII. against Peter and the treachery of the hetman Mazeppa were described. In 1829 Pushkin again visited the Caucasus, on this occasion accompanying the expedition of Prince Paskevich. He wrote a pleasing account of the tour; many of the short lyrical pieces suggested by the scenery and associations of his visit are delightful, especially the lines on the Don and the Caucasus. In 1831 Pushkin married Natalia Goncharov, and in the following year was again attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, with a salary of 5000 roubles. He now busied himself with an historical account of the revolt of the Cossack Pugachev, who almost overthrew the empire of Catherine and was executed at Moscow in the latter part of the 18th century. While engaged upon this he wrote The Captain’s Daughter , one of the best of his prose works. In 1832 was completed the poem Eugene Onyegin , in which the author modelled his style upon the lighter sketches of Byron in the Italian manner. Yet no one can accuse Pushkin of want of nationalism in this poem: it is Russian in every fibre.

In 1837 the poet, who had been long growing in literary reputation, fell mortally wounded in a duel with Baron George Heckeren d’Anthès, the adopted son of the Dutch minister then resident at the court of St Petersburg. D’Anthès, a vain and frivolous young man, had married a sister of the poet’s wife. Notwithstanding this he aroused Pushkin’s jealousy by some attentions which he paid Natalia; but the grounds for the poet’s anger, it must be confessed, do not appear very great. Pushkin died, after two days’ suffering, on the afternoon of Friday the 10th of February. D’Anthés was tried by court-martial and expelled the country. In 1880 a statue of the poet was erected at the Tver Barrier at Moscow, and fêtes were held in his honour, on which occasion many interesting memorials of him were exhibited to his admiring countrymen and a few foreigners who had congregated for the festivities. Pushkin left four children; his widow was afterwards married to an officer in the army, named Lanskoi; she died in 1863.

Pushkin’s poetical tales are spirited and full of dramatic power. The influence of Byron is undoubtedly seen, in them, but they are not imitations, still less is anything in them plagiarized. Boris Godunov is a fine tragedy; on the whole Eugene Onyegin must be considered Pushkin’s masterpiece. Here we have a great variety of styles—satire, pathos and humour mixed together. The character-painting is good, and the descriptions of scenery introduced faithful to nature. The poem in many places reminds us of Byron, who himself in his mixture of the pathetic and the humorous was a disciple of the Italian school. Pushkin also wrote a great many lyrical pieces. Interspersed among the poet’s minor works will be found many epigrams, but some of the best composed by him were not so fortunate as to pass the censorship, and must be read in a supplementary volume published at Berlin. As a prose writer Pushkin has considerable merits. Besides his History of the Revolt of Pugachev , which is perhaps too much of a compilation, he published a small volume of tales under the nom de plume of Ivan Byelkin. These all show considerable dramatic power: the best are The Captain’s Daughter , a tale of the times of Catherine II.; The Undertaker , a very ghostly story, which will remind the English reader of some of the tales of Edgar Poe; The Pistol Shot ; and The Queen of Spades .

The academy of St Petersburg has recently issued a complete edition of the works of Pushkin, including his letters. See the bibliography in the editions of Gennadi (7 vols., St Petersburg, 1861) and Annenkov (6 vols., St Petersburg, 1855).

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Biography of Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, short-story writer, novelist, and dramatist. He is widely considered to be the founder of modern Russian literature.

Born into an aristocratic family, Pushkin attended school at the prestigious Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo from 1811 to 1817, where, at age 15, he published his first poem. Pushkin followed the traditional aristocratic career path by taking a post in the foreign service office in St. Petersburg after his graduation.

In 1820 Pushkin was exiled from the capital due to his politically subversive poems. Pushkin went south to the area now known as Ukraine, and was later exiled again to Mikhailovskoe, his mother's estate. The year after the 1825 Decembrist Revolt, Pushkin was pardoned by Tsar Nicholas I and allowed to return to Moscow. Within a few years, he received a court position and reentered government service. Despite the pressures of censorship, mounting debts, and personal attacks, Pushkin remained prolific throughout his life. In 1837, Pushkin fought a duel with Georges d'Anthès, his wife's alleged lover, and died of his wounds.

Pushkin's is credited for his rejuvenation of the Russian language and literary forms. From a wide, international reading and an intimacy with traditional Russian culture, Pushkin produced a distinctly new idiom which, as twentieth-century novelist Vladimir Nabokov wrote, combined the profundity of Church Slavonic (the classical Russian language), the flavor of the French which was popular among Russian aristocracy, and the realism of colloquial speech from all rungs of Russian society. By opening the quotidian topic of contemporary society to literature, Pushkin paved the path for the nineteenth-century Russian realist novels of Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Study Guides on Works by Alexander Pushkin

Eugene onegin alexander pushkin.

Pushkin, already an established poet, began writing Eugene Onegin in 1823 while exiled from the capital to southern Russia. He published parts of each chapter in serialization as he wrote them before printing each complete chapter in booklet form....

• Study Guide

The Queen of Spades Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades" is a short story about Hermann, a calculating officer in the Army Engineers whose extreme greed leads him to obsess over finding out an old countess's magic formula to winning at the gambling game faro....

• Lesson Plan

Tales of Belkin Alexander Pushkin

Prose series "Tales of Belkin" was written by Pushkin during the famous "Boldin Autumn" in 1830 and then published anonymously. These series consist of a preface ("From the Publisher") and five novels: "The Shot", "The Blizzard", "The Undertaker",...