Alexander Pushkin: Life, Exile, and Literary Legacy

The Childhood Years of the Great Poet

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799, in the capital city of Moscow. His family belonged to an old but impoverished noble lineage. His father, Sergey Lvovich, came from the ancient Pushkin family, and his mother, Nadezhda Osipovna, was the granddaughter of the legendary Abram Petrovich Gannibal—an African who became a ward and close associate of Emperor Peter the Great. In addition to Alexander, the family included an elder sister, Olga, and a younger brother, Lev. Early childhood of the future genius was spent at the country estate of Zakharovo near Moscow, which belonged to his grandmother. It was there that a fateful meeting took place with his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, who forever became a dear person to the boy and instilled in him a love for Russian folklore, folk tales, and songs. Alexander’s home education was typical for noble families of that time—European tutors and teachers instructed him in various sciences and languages. The boy developed an interest in literature very early, becoming acquainted with French classics from his father’s library. As early as the age of seven, he tried composing comedies and fables in French, and later even began working on a poem. Literary salons in his parents’ home, where well-known writers, poets, and artists gathered, contributed to the early development of the child’s creative abilities.

Years at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

In 1811, twelve-year-old Alexander entered the newly established Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum—an elite educational institution for children of the nobility. Patronage was provided by a family friend, Alexander Turgenev. Six years of study proved challenging for the future poet: despite an outstanding memory, remarkable intellect, and excellent erudition, he lacked perseverance and attentiveness. Mathematics and logic were especially difficult for him. His first publication appeared in 1814, when the journal “Vestnik Evropy” printed the young author’s poem “To a Poet-Friend.” That same year, the fifteen-year-old poet was admitted to the literary society “Arzamas,” which opposed conservative traditions in art. True triumph came to Pushkin in 1815 at a winter examination, when he recited the poem “Memories in Tsarskoye Selo.” The famous poet Gavriil Derzhavin, who was present, was delighted by the young man’s talent. The works of Fonvizin, Radishchev, Zhukovsky, and Batyushkov had a significant influence on the formation of the young Pushkin’s poetic style. He graduated from the Lyceum in 1817 with the rank of collegiate secretary, placing only 24th out of 29 graduates in academic performance. He was assigned to service in the College of Foreign Affairs, but a bureaucratic career did not attract the talented man of letters.

The First Southern Exile

After graduating from the Lyceum, Pushkin plunged into the turbulent life of the capital. From 1817 to 1820, he worked on the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” which combined elegant language with deep knowledge of Russian folklore. In 1819, the poet joined the literary and theatrical society “The Green Lamp,” where not only creative but also political issues were discussed. Free-thinking was reflected in his work: Pushkin wrote caustic epigrams about influential dignitaries, the ode “Liberty,” and the poems “To Chaadaev” and “The Village.” Having become acquainted with these works, Emperor Alexander I was angered. Only the intercession of Karamzin and Chaadaev saved the poet from exile to Siberia or the Solovetsky Monastery. In 1820, Pushkin was sent to serve in Chisinau. On the way to his new place of service, the poet visited the Caucasus and Crimea. During nearly four years in the south, he began work on the novel “Eugene Onegin” and created the poems “The Prisoner of the Caucasus,” “The Robber Brothers,” “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai,” “Gavriliada,” “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg,” and “The Gypsies.” In 1823, Alexander Sergeyevich obtained a transfer to Odessa, to the office of Count Mikhail Vorontsov. Personal relations with his superior did not work out, and a letter was also discovered in which Pushkin spoke critically of religion. The result was dismissal from service and a new exile—to the family estate of Mikhailovskoye in the Pskov province.

Mikhailovskoye Seclusion

In August 1824, after a quarrel with his father, who had agreed to secret supervision of his son, Pushkin remained in Mikhailovskoye almost alone. Only his faithful nanny Arina Rodionovna was with him, and communication with her saved him from melancholy. Contrary to the fears of his friends, the seclusion proved creatively fruitful. In Mikhailovskoye, the poet wrote about a hundred works, including the tragedy “Boris Godunov,” the poem “Count Nulin,” the poems “I Remember a Wondrous Moment…,” “Once Again I Visited…,” “The Prophet,” “The Village,” and new chapters of “Eugene Onegin.” After the Decembrist uprising of 1825, Pushkin found himself in an ambiguous situation: he was personally acquainted with many of the conspirators and sympathized with them, as evidenced by the poem “Deep in the Siberian Mines.” However, he was skeptical about the ideas of revolutionary transformation of Russia. In July 1826, concerned about his fate, Pushkin wrote a penitential letter to the new emperor, Nicholas I, promising not to condemn the existing order. The tsar summoned the poet to St. Petersburg for a personal audience.

Return from Exile

The meeting with the sovereign in September 1826 ended with the lifting of the exile and the highest patronage of Nicholas I, who declared himself the poet’s personal censor. Reconciliation with the authorities placed Pushkin in an ambivalent position. The autumn of 1826 became the peak of the poet’s lifetime fame. Experiencing enthusiasm for the new emperor, he wrote the poems “Stanzas,” “To Friends,” and “The Hero.” However, the personal guardianship of the tsar did not free him from censorship pressure. “Boris Godunov” was permitted to be published only several years later, and Pushkin was not allowed to recite his poems without prior imperial permission. Melancholy and reflections on his creative fate resulted in the poems “Premonition,” “Recollection,” “A Gift in Vain, a Gift Accidental,” “The Poet,” and “The Poet and the Crowd.” In 1829, Alexander Sergeyevich traveled to the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, impressions of which he summarized in essays and poems of the Caucasian cycle.

The Boldino Autumn of 1830

In the summer of 1830, Pushkin went to his father’s estate in Boldino to settle property matters. A cholera epidemic and quarantine forced the poet to remain there for three months. The Boldino autumn became a time of extraordinary creative upsurge. In forced seclusion, Pushkin completed “Eugene Onegin,” wrote “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin,” “The History of the Village of Goryukhino,” “The Little Tragedies,” “The Tale of the Priest and of His Worker Balda,” the drama “The Mermaid,” the poem “The Little House in Kolomna,” the poems “Elegy,” “Forgiveness,” “Demons,” and many other works.

State Service and New Plans

In the summer of 1831, the poet again entered state service in the College of Foreign Affairs with the right of access to the state archive. He was assigned to write “The History of Peter,” but Pushkin was more captivated by the theme of the Pugachev Rebellion. He collected information in archives and then traveled to the Middle Volga region and the Urals, recording the recollections of eyewitnesses. After the trip, Alexander Sergeyevich again secluded himself in Boldino. There he refined “The History of Pugachev,” wrote “The Bronze Horseman,” “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights,” “Angelo,” and began work on “The Queen of Spades.” The second Boldino autumn was shorter, but no less productive.

Court Rank

After returning to the capital, Nicholas I in 1833 conferred upon Pushkin the lowest court rank of kamer-junker, usually given to young men. This insulted the poet and led to a new creative crisis. Some works were blocked by censorship, others failed to resonate with readers. In 1836, Alexander Sergeyevich began publishing the literary journal “Sovremennik.” He set a high artistic standard, publishing works by Gogol, Vyazemsky, Turgenev, Zhukovsky, and other outstanding authors. It was in “Sovremennik” that Pushkin’s last novel, “The Captain’s Daughter,” was published. However, the journal failed to attract public interest and brought only losses.

Family Life

In December 1828, at a ball, Alexander Pushkin met sixteen-year-old Natalia Goncharova and fell in love at first sight. On February 18, 1831, their wedding took place in Moscow. At first, the newlyweds lived in Tsarskoye Selo, and in May 1832 their daughter Maria was born. Over the next four years, three more children were born into the family—Grigory, Natalia, and Alexander.

Tragic Denouement

In the final years of his life, Pushkin acquired many influential enemies, including the Minister of Public Education Count Sergey Uvarov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Karl Nesselrode. The social successes of Natalia Goncharova were accompanied by gossip and anonymous letters. The refined harassment of the poet, who possessed a passionate and hot-tempered character, led to tragic events. On February 8, 1837, a duel took place between Pushkin and the Frenchman Georges d’Anthès, during which the poet was mortally wounded by a shot to the abdomen. Two days later, on February 10, 1837, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin died of peritonitis. Before his death, he asked the emperor to take care of his family, confessed to a priest, and said goodbye to his loved ones. Nicholas I fulfilled his promise.

Secret Funeral

Fearing a mass gathering of people and possible unrest, Nicholas I ordered the poet’s body to be secretly removed from St. Petersburg. The censor Alexander Nikitenko bitterly noted in his diary: the people were deceived by announcing the funeral service at St. Isaac’s Cathedral, while the body was secretly transferred at night to the Konyushennaya Church. The university was strictly ordered that professors and students were not to leave their classes. Only a gendarme officer, the servant Nikita Kozlov, and a family friend Alexander Turgenev accompanied the coffin to the burial place. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was buried at the cemetery of the Svyatogorsky Monastery, next to his mother, who had passed away several months earlier.

The Legacy of the Great Poet

Pushkin’s contribution to Russian and world literature is immense. He became the true creator of the modern Russian literary language, based on a combination of elevated bookish style and living colloquial speech. According to philologist Yuri Belchikov, it was precisely in Pushkin’s language in the 1820s–1830s that a nationwide norm of literary expression took shape, serving as the foundation for the further development of literary vocabulary, grammar, and phonetic structure up to the present day. Literary scholar Dmitry Ivinsky notes that Pushkin canonized the form of the Russian romantic elegy and narrative poem, created experimental forms, and achieved genuine originality. The artistic system he created is open to various cultural contexts, incorporating elements of classicism, sentimentalism, and romanticism, and anticipating the discoveries of realism. Pushkin’s work became the principal subtext of Russian literature of the 19th–20th centuries, the entire space of which is permeated with explicit and implicit quotations from his works. Russian poets of all schools and movements turned to Pushkin’s legacy.

Memory in Culture

The works of Alexander Pushkin are constantly republished, translated into many languages, staged in theaters, and repeatedly adapted for film. Poets, writers, and musicians turn to his work. Museums have been established in many places associated with the poet’s name. In various cities around the world, monuments to Pushkin have been erected. The most famous of them, created by sculptor Alexander Opekushin, is located in Moscow on Pushkin Square. In May 1997, Pushkin Day of Russia was established, celebrated annually on June 6—the birthday of the great poet.