Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin[a][b] (6 June [O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [O.S. 29 January] 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of theRomantic era.[3] He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet,[4][5][6][7] as well as the founder of modernRussian literature.[8][9]
Pushkin was born into theRussian nobility in Moscow.[10] His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers wasAbram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by theOttomans, then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor's court household as hisgodson.
He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from theTsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty", one of several that led to his exile by EmperorAlexander I. While under strict surveillance by theEmperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play,Boris Godunov. His novel in verseEugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in aduel with his wife's alleged lover (her sister's husband),Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with theChevalier Guard Regiment.
Coat of arms of the Pushkin familyPushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin
Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848), was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century.[11] Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda (Nadya) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836), was descended through her paternal grandmother fromGerman andScandinavian nobility.[12][13] She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife, Maria Alekseyevna Pushkina (1745–1818).
Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather, wasAbram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), an Africanpage kidnapped and taken toConstantinople as a gift for theOttoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift forPeter the Great. Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of "Lagon", largely on the basis of a mythical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirch.
Vladimir Nabokov, when researchingEugene Onegin, cast serious doubt on this origin theory. Later research by the scholarsDieudonné Gnammankou andHugh Barnes eventually conclusively established that Gannibal was instead born in Central Africa, in an area borderingLake Chad in modern-dayCameroon.[14][15] After education in France as amilitary engineer, Gannibal became governor ofReval and eventuallyGénéral en Chief (the third most senior army rank) in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia.
Born in Moscow, Pushkin was entrusted to nursemaids and French tutors, and spoke mostly French until the age of ten. He became acquainted with the Russian language through communication with household serfs and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was more attached than to his own mother.
He published his first poem at the age of 15. When he finished school, as part of the first graduating class of the prestigiousImperial Lyceum inTsarskoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg, his talent was already widely recognized on the Russian literary scene. At the Lyceum, he was a student of David Mara, known in Russia asDavid de Boudry [fr], a younger brother of French revolutionaryJean-Paul Marat.[16] After school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg, which was then the capital of theRussian Empire. In 1820, he published his first long poem,Ruslan and Ludmila, with much controversy about its subject and style.
While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by theKantianliberal individualist teachings ofAlexander Kunitsyn, whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem19 October.[17] Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of the FrenchEnlightenment, to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especiallyVoltaire, whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history".[18][19]
Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820.[20] He went to theCaucasus and toCrimea and then toKamianka andChișinău in Bessarabia.
He joined theFiliki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrowOttoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by theGreek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of the national uprising.
In Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Novorossiya'sGeneral-Governor.[22] Then Pushkin worked on his verse-novelEugene Onegin.
In Mikhailovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poemTo***. It is generally believed that he dedicated this poem toAnna Kern, but there are other opinions. Poet Mikhail Dudin believed that the poem was dedicated to the serf Olga Kalashnikova.[23]Pushkinist Kira Victorova believed that the poem was dedicated to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseyevna.[24] Vadim Nikolayev argued that the idea about the Empress was marginal and refused to discuss it, while trying to prove that poem had been dedicated to Tatyana Larina, the heroine ofEugene Onegin.[23] During that same year (1825) Pushkin also wrote what would become his most famous play, the dramaBoris Godunov, while at his mother's estate. He could not, however, gain permission to publish it until five years later. The original and uncensored version of the drama was not staged until 2007.
Authorities summoned Pushkin to Moscow after his poemOde to Liberty was found among the belongings of the rebels from theDecembrist Uprising (1825). After his exile in 1820[25] Pushkin's friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meetingEmperor Alexander I and thenEmperor Nicholas I on the heels of the Decembrist Uprising. Many of the Decembrists were his friends and fellow writers; Pushkin was known widely for his belief in freedom from political and moral oppression, but the Decembrists did not trust him because “he had a big mouth” and was known to be impulsive and egotistical.[26]
Upon meetingEmperor Nicholas I Pushkin obtained his release from exile and began to work as the emperor's Titular Counsel of the National Archives. However, because insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of Pushkin's earlier political poems, the emperor retained strict control of everything Pushkin published and he was banned from travelling at will.
Pushkin’s conversation with Nicholas I is not known to us, and it can only be restored from Pushkin’s later statements. After this conversation Pushkin became a supporter of Nicholas I. It was not the betrayal of Pushkin’s social ideals, it was his confidence that in the personality of Nicholas I Russia had a conductor of those events that put it forward in the direction dictated precisely by these social ideals, joined by a feeling of personal gratitude to Nicholas, who had freed the poet from exile. This attitude was vividly expressed in the stanzas: “No, I am not a flatterer when I compose free praise to the Tsar”.[27] Pushkin's patriotic poemTo the Slanderers of Russia written during the1830–1831 Polish uprising aroused hostility among some of the Russian liberals.[28]
Around 1825–1829 he met and befriended the Polish poetAdam Mickiewicz, during exile in central Russia.[29] In 1829 he travelled through the Caucasus toErzurum to visit friends fighting in the Russian army during theRusso-Turkish War.[30] At the end of 1829 Pushkin wanted to set off on a journey abroad, the desire reflected in his poemLet's go, I'm ready.[31] He applied for permission for the journey but received negative response fromNicholas I on 17 January 1830.[32]
Around 1828 Pushkin metNatalia Goncharova, then 16 years old and one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow. After much hesitation Natalia accepted a proposal of marriage from Pushkin in April 1830, but not before she received assurances that the Tsarist government had no intention of persecuting the libertarian poet. Later Pushkin and his wife became regulars of court society. They officially became engaged on 6 May 1830 and sent out wedding invitations. Owing to an outbreak ofcholera and other circumstances, the wedding was delayed for a year. The ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 (Old Style) in theGreat Ascension Church onBolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.
Pushkin's marriage to Goncharova was largely a happy one, but his wife’s characteristic flirtatiousness and frivolity would lead to his fatal duel seven years later, for Pushkin had a highly jealous temperament.[33]
In 1831, during the period of Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met one of Russia's other influential early writers,Nikolai Gogol. After reading Gogol's 1831–1832 volume of short storiesEvenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Pushkin supported him and would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories in the magazineThe Contemporary, which he founded in 1836.
By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and faced scandalous rumours that his wife was having a love affair. On 4 November, he sent a challenge to a duel toGeorges d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern.Jacob van Heeckeren, d'Anthès' adoptive father, asked that the duel be delayed by two weeks. With efforts by the poet's friends, the duel was cancelled.
On 17 November, d'Anthès proposed to Natalia Goncharova's sister, Ekaterina. The marriage did not resolve the conflict. D'Anthès continued to pursue Natalia Goncharova in public and rumours circulated that d'Anthès had married Natalia's sister just to save her reputation.
On 26 January (7 February in the Gregorian calendar) 1837 Pushkin sent a "highly insulting letter" to Gekkern. The only answer to that letter could be a challenge to a duel, as Pushkin knew. Pushkin received the formal challenge to a duel through his sister-in-law, Ekaterina Gekkerna, approved by d'Anthès, on the same day through the attaché of the French Embassy, Viscount d'Archiac.
Pushkin askedArthur Magenis, then attaché to theBritish Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg, to be his second. Magenis did not formally accept but on 26 January (7 February) approached Viscount d'Archiac to attempt a reconciliation; however d'Archiac refused to speak with him as he was not yet officially Pushkin's second. Magenis, unable to find Pushkin in the evening, sent him a letter through a messenger at 2 o'clock in the morning declining to be his second, as the possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the traditional first task of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation.[34][35]
The pistol duel with d'Anthès took place on 27 January (8 February) at theBlack River, without the presence of a second for Pushkin. The duel they fought was of a kind known as a "barrier duel".[c] The rules of this type dictated that the duellists began at an agreed distance. After the signal to begin, they walked towards each other, closing the distance. They could fire at any time they wished, but the duellist that shot first was required to stand still and wait for the other to shoot back at his leisure.[36]
D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen. D'Anthès was only lightly wounded in the right arm by Pushkin's shot. Two days later, at 2.45 pm on 29 January (10 February), Pushkin died ofperitonitis.
InFyodor Dostoevsky's novelThe Idiot, a character suggests that the shot was accidental: ‘The bullet hit so low that d’Anthès was probably aiming somewhere higher, the chest or the head; nobody aims where that bullet hit, that means it probably hit Pushkin by chance, a fluke. I’ve been told that by people who know.’[37]
At Pushkin's wife's request he was put in the coffin in evening dress, not in chamber-cadet uniform, the uniform provided by the emperor. The funeral service was initially assigned to St Isaac's Cathedral but was moved to Konyushennaya church. Many people attended. After the funeral the coffin was lowered into the basement, where it stayed until 3 February, when it was removed to Pskov province. Pushkin was buried in the grounds of Svyatogorsky monastery in present-dayPushkinskiye Gory, near Pskov, beside his mother. His last home is now amuseum.
Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, Countess of Merenberg
Only the lines of Alexander and Natalia still remain. Natalia's granddaughter,Nadejda, married into the extended British royal family, her husband being the uncle ofPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and is the grandmother of the presentMarquess of Milford Haven.[38] Descendants of the poet now live around the globe in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United States.
Pushkin is also known for his short stories. In particular his cycleThe Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, including "The Shot", were well received. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas,
"the narrative logic and the plausibility of that which is narrated, together with the precision, conciseness – economy of the presentation of reality – all of the above is achieved inTales of Belkin, especially, and most of all in the storyThe Stationmaster. Pushkin is the progenitor of the long and fruitful development of Russian realist literature, for he manages to attain the realist ideal of a concise presentation of reality".[40]
Pushkin himself preferred his verse novelEugene Onegin, which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus.
Onegin is a work of such complexity that, though it is only about a hundred pages long, translatorVladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning into English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers such asHenry James.[41]Pushkin wroteThe Queen of Spades, a short story frequently anthologized in English translation.
Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers.Glinka'sRuslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music.Tchaikovsky's operasEugene Onegin (1879) andThe Queen of Spades (Pikovaya Dama, 1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of the same name.
The Desire of Glory, which has been dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, was set to music byDavid Tukhmanov, as well asKeep Me, Mine Talisman – byAlexander Barykin and later by Tukhmanov.[citation needed]
Pushkin is considered by many to be the central representative of Romanticism in Russian literature; however, he was not unequivocally known as a Romantic. Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path fromNeoclassicism through Romanticism toRealism. An alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but are ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including the Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic".[3]
Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. He is seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, and he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Whenever he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devisedcalques. His rich vocabulary and highly-sensitive style are the foundation for modern Russian literature. His accomplishments set new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in the 19th century, marking the highest achievements of the 18th century and the beginning of literary process of the 19th century. He introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers. He brought natural speech and foreign influences to create modern poetic Russian. Though his life was brief, he left examples of nearly every literary genre of his day: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, the novel, the short story, the drama, the critical essay and even the personal letter.
Stylized popular speech by combining the famous three styles (low, medium elevation, high) dear to the pseudoclassical archaists and adding the ingredients of Russian romanticists with a pinch ofparody.[44]
His work as a critic and as a journalist marked the birth of Russian magazine culture which included him devising and contributing heavily to one of the most influential literary magazines of the 19th century, theSovremennik (The Contemporary, orСовременник). Pushkin inspired thefolk tales and genre pieces of other authors:Leskov,Yesenin andGorky. His use of Russian formed the basis of the style of novelistsIvan Turgenev,Ivan Goncharov andLeo Tolstoy, as well as that of subsequent lyric poets such asMikhail Lermontov. Pushkin was analysed byNikolai Gogol, his successor and pupil, and the great Russian criticVissarion Belinsky, who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance.
In the centennial year of Pushkin's death in 1937, a mass renaming of streets across the entireSoviet Union occurred in his honour.[45] Prior to 2022, Pushkin was the third most common historical figure represented in Ukraine’s streets; however,his monuments were removed and streets bearing his name were renamed following theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[45][46] These monuments, along with anytoponymy named after him, are now illegal inUkraine following the implementation ofa law that bans symbols "dedicated to persons who publicly, including … in literary and other artistic works, supported, glorified, or justifiedRussian imperial policy".[45]
The centennial of Pushkin's death in 1937 was one of the most significant literary commemorations of the Soviet era, second only to the 1928 centennial ofLeo Tolstoy's birth. Although Pushkin's image was prominently displayed in Soviet propaganda, from billboards to candy wrappers, it conflicted with the ideal Soviet persona. Pushkin was reputed as alibertine with aristocratic tendencies, which clashed with Soviet values and led to a form of repressive revisionism, akin to the Stalinist reworking of Tolstoy'sChristian anarchism.[47]
Shortly after Pushkin's death, contemporary Russian romantic poetMikhail Lermontov wrote "Death of the Poet". The poem, which ended with a passage blaming the aristocracy being (as oppressors of freedom) the true culprits in Pushkin's death,[48] was not published (nor could have been) but was informally circulated in St. Petersburg.[49] Lermontov was arrested and exiled to a regiment in the Caucasus.[50]
Montenegrin poet and rulerPetar II Petrović-Njegoš included in his 1846 poetry collectionOgledalo srpsko (The Serbian Mirror) a poetic ode to Pushkin, titledSjeni Aleksandra Puškina.
In 1929, Soviet writer, Leonid Grossman, published a novel,The d'Archiac Papers, telling the story of Pushkin's death from the perspective of a French diplomat, being a participant and a witness of the fatal duel. The book describes him as a liberal and a victim of the Tsarist regime. In Poland the book was published under the titleDeath of the Poet.
In 1937, the town ofTsarskoye Selo was renamed Pushkin in his honour.
There are several museums in Russia dedicated to Pushkin, including two in Moscow, one in Saint Petersburg, and alarge complex in Mikhailovskoye.
Pushkin's death was portrayed in the 2006 biographical filmPushkin: The Last Duel. The film was directed byNatalya Bondarchuk. Pushkin was portrayed on screen bySergei Bezrukov.
His life was dramatised in the 1951 Australian radio playThe Golden Cockerel
The Pushkin Trust was established in 1987 by theDuchess of Abercorn to commemorate the creative legacy and spirit of her ancestor and to release the creativity and imagination of the children of Ireland by providing them with opportunities to communicate their thoughts, feelings and experiences.
The Pushkin Hills[52] and Pushkin Lake[53] were named in his honour inBen Nevis Township, Cochrane District, in Ontario, Canada.
UN Russian Language Day, established by the United Nations in 2010 and celebrated each year on 6 June, was scheduled to coincide with Pushkin's birthday.[54]
TheAlexander Pushkin diamond, the second largest found in Russia (Russia was at the time part of the USSR), was named after him.
On 28 November 2009, a Pushkin Monument was erected inAsmara, capital ofEritrea.[56]
In 2005 a monument to Pushkin and his grandmotherMaria Hannibal was commissioned by an enthusiast of Russian culture Just Rugel in Zakharovo, Russia. Sculptor V. Kozinin
^Лихауг [Lihaug], Э.Г. [E.G.] (November 2006). "Предки А.С. Пушкина в Германии и Скандинавии(предположительно): происхождение Христины Регины Шёберг (Ганнибал) от Клауса фон Грабо из Грабо [Ancestors of A.S. Pushkin in Germany and Scandinavia: Descent of Christina Regina Siöberg (Hannibal) from Claus von Grabow zu Grabow]".Генеалогический вестник [Genealogical Herald].27. Saint Petersburg:31–38.
^Lihaug, Elin Galtung (2007). "Aus Brandenburg nach Skandinavien, dem Baltikum und Rußland. Eine Abstammungslinie von Claus von Grabow bis Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin 1581–1837".Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung.11:32–46.
^New Statesman. New Statesman Limited. 2005. p. 36. Retrieved7 January 2015.
^Schapiro, Leonard (1967).Rationalism and Nationalism in Russian Nineteenth Century Political Thought. Yale University Press. pp. 48–50.Schapiro writes that Kunitsyn's influence on Pushkin's political views was 'important above all.' Schapiro describes Kunitsyn's philosophy as conveying 'the most enlightened principles of past thought on the relations of the individual and the state,' namely, that the ruler's power is 'limited by the natural rights of his subjects, and these subjects can never be treated as a means to an end but only as an end in themselves.'
^Kahn, Andrew (2008).Pushkin's Lyric Intelligence. OUP Oxford. p. 283.
^Pushkin, Alexander (1967).The Letters of Alexander Pushkin. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 164.
^Images of Pushkin in the works of the black "pilgrims". Ahern, Kathleen M.The Mississippi Quarterly p. 75(11) Vol. 55 No. 1ISSN0026-637X. 22 December 2001.
^(in Russian) P.K. Guber. Don Juan List of A. S. Pushkin.Petrograd, 1923 (reprinted inKharkiv, 1993). pp. 78, 90–99.
^Pushkin, A.S. (1974).Sobranie sochinenii. Vol. 2. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. p. 581.
^Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich; Пушкин, Александр Сергеевич (1998).Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings. London: Penguin Books. pp. X.ISBN0-14-044675-3.
^Simmons, Ernest J. (1922)."Pushkin". p. 412. Retrieved28 January 2020.
^Kvas, Kornelije (2020).The Boundaries of Realism in World Literature. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books. p. 26.ISBN978-1-7936-0910-6.
^Taruskin R. Pushkin inThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London & New York, Macmillan, 1997.
^Cohen, Aaron I. (1987).International encyclopedia of women composers (Second edition, revised and enlarged ed.). New York.ISBN0-9617485-2-4.OCLC16714846.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Feinstein, Elaine (ed.) (1999)After Pushkin: versions of the poems of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by contemporary poets. Manchester: Carcanet Press; London: Folio SocietyISBN1-85754-444-7
Galgano Andrea (2014).The affective dynamics in the work and thought of Alexandr Pushkin, Conference Proceedings, 17th World Congress of the World Association for Dynamic Psychiatry. Multidisciplinary Approach to and Treatment of Mental Disorders: Myth or Reality?, St. Petersburg, 14–17 May 2014, In Dynamische Psychiatrie. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychotherapie, Psychoanalyse und Psychiatrie – International Journal for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and Psychiatry, Berlin: Pinel Verlag GmbH, 1–3, Nr. 266–68, 2015, pp. 176–91.
Jakowlew, Valentin. "Pushkin's Farewell Dinner in Paris" (Text in Russian) Koblenz (Germany): Fölbach, 2006,ISBN3-934795-38-2.
Pogadaev, Victor (2003)Penyair Agung Rusia Pushkin dan Dunia Timur (The Great Russian Poet Pushkin and the Oriental World). Monograph Series. Centre For Civilisational Dialogue. University Malaya. 2003,ISBN983-3070-06-X
Телетова, Н.К. (Teletova, N.K.) (2007)Забытые родственные связи А.С. Пушкина (The forgotten family connections of A.S. Pushkin). Saint Petersburg: DornOCLC214284063
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