Alexander Pushkin

(1799-1837)

He was born June 6, 1799, in Moscow, into a noble family. He took particular pride in his great-grandfather Hannibal, a black general who served Peter the Great. Educated at the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarkoye Selo, Pushkin demonstrated an early poetic gift. In 1817 Pushkin was taken into the ministry of foreign affairs in Saint Petersburg; there he mingled in the social life of the capital and belonged to an underground revolutionary group. In 1820 his "Ode to Liberty" came to the attention of the authorities, and the young poet was exiled to the Caucasus; nonetheless, Pushkin continued to hold official posts.

That same year Pushkin published his Ruslan and Ludmila, a long romantic poem based on folklore, which earned him a reputation as one of Russia's most promising poetic talents. The influence of Lord Byron shows itself, along with Pushkin's own love of liberty, in his next major poems.

He began his most famous work, Eugene Onegin, in 1823; a Byronic love story with a realistic contemporary setting that has been described as the first of the great Russian novels (although in verse), it was not completed until 1831.

Pushkin provided a literary heritage for Russians, whose native language had hitherto been considered unfit for literature.

He died in 1837 from wounds that he received at duel.?