Everything about Pushkin totally explained
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (
Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин,, ) (–) was a
Russian
Romantic author who is considered to be the greatest Russian
poet and the founder of modern
Russian literature. Pushkin pioneered the use of
vernacular speech in his poems and
plays, creating a style of storytelling—mixing
drama,
romance, and
satire—associated with Russian literature ever since and greatly influencing later Russian writers.
Born in
Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the
Imperial Lyceum in
Tsarskoe Selo. Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals; in the early 1820s he clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. While under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous play, the drama
Boris Godunov, but couldn't publish it until years later. His
novel in verse,
Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832.
Pushkin and his wife
Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, later became regulars of court society. In 1837, while falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover,
Georges d'Anthès, to a
duel. Pushkin was mortally wounded and died two days later.
Because of his liberal political views and influence on generations of Russian rebels, Pushkin was portrayed by
Bolsheviks as an opponent to bourgeois literature and culture and a predecessor of
Soviet literature and poetry Her paternal grandfather, for example Pushkin's great-grandfather, was
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a page raised by
Peter the Great, who originated from
Africa. One theory is that he came from an area in northern
Ethiopia, (then was known as
Abyssinia) and today part of the nation of
Eritrea, on the banks of the Mareb River in a town called Logon. More recent research, however, indicates that he came from the Sultanate of Logone-Birni south of
Lake Chad in
Cameroon. After education in France as a
military engineer, Gannibal became governor of
Reval and eventually General-en-Chef for the building of sea forts and
canals in Russia.
Born in
Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fourteen. By the time he finished as part of the first graduating class of the prestigious
Imperial Lyceum in
Tsarskoe Selo near
Saint Petersburg, the Russian literary scene recognized his talent widely. After finishing school, Pushkin installed himself in the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital,
Saint Petersburg. In 1820 he published his first long poem,
Ruslan and Lyudmila, amidst much controversy about its subject and style.
Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. This angered the government, and led to his transfer from the capital (1820). He went to the
Caucasus and to the
Crimea, then to
Kamenka and
Kishinev, where he became a
Freemason. Here he joined the
Filiki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule over
Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the
Greek Revolution and when the war against the
Ottoman Turks broke out he kept a diary with the events of the great national uprising. He stayed in
Kishinev until 1823 and wrote there two
Romantic poems which brought him wide acclaim,
The Captive of the Caucasus and
The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823 Pushkin moved to
Odessa, where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile at his mother's rural estate in north Russia from 1824 to 1826. However, some of the authorities allowed him to visit
Tsar Nicholas I to petition for his release, which he obtained. But some of the insurgents in the
Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of his early political poems amongst their papers, and soon Pushkin found himself under the strict control of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will. He had written what became his most famous play, the drama
Boris Godunov, while at his mother's estate but couldn't gain permission to publish it until five years later. The drama's original, uncensored version wouldn't receive a premiere until 2007.
In 1831, highlighting the growth of Pushkin's talent and influence and the merging of two of Russia's greatest early writers, he met
Nikolai Gogol. After reading Gogol's 1831-2 volume of short stories
Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Pushkin would support him critically and later in 1836 after starting his magazine,
The Contemporary, would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories. Later, Pushkin and his wife
Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, became regulars of court society. When the
Tsar gave Pushkin the lowest court title, the poet became enraged: He felt this occurred not only so that his wife, who had many admirers—including the Tsar himself—could properly attend court balls, but also to humiliate him. In 1837, falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover (correction: man who insulted his wife),
Georges d'Anthès, to a
duel which left both men injured, Pushkin mortally. He died two days later.
The government feared a political demonstration at his funeral, which it moved to a smaller location and made open only to close relatives and friends. His body was spirited away secretly at midnight and buried on his mother's estate.
Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalya: Alexander, Grigory, Maria, and Natalia (the last of whom married,
morganatically, into the royal house of
Nassau and become the
Countess of Merenberg).
Literary legacy
Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as the poem
The Bronze Horseman and the drama
The Stone Guest, a tale of the fall of
Don Juan. His poetic short drama "Mozart and Salieri" was the inspiration for
Peter Shaffer's
Amadeus. Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel
Eugene 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, while only about a hundred pages long, translator
Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning in English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so, Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers like
Henry James.
Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers.
Glinka's
Ruslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music.
Tchaikovsky's
operas
Eugene Onegin (1879) and
The Queen of Spades (1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of the same name, while
Mussorgsky's monumental
Boris Godunov (two versions, 1868-9 and 1871-2) ranks as one of the very finest and most original of Russian operas. Other Russian operas based on Pushkin include
Dargomyzhsky's
Rusalka and
The Stone Guest;
Rimsky-Korsakov's
Mozart and Salieri,
Tale of Tsar Saltan, and
The Golden Cockerel;
Cui's
Prisoner of the Caucasus,
Feast in Time of Plague, and
The Captain's Daughter;
Tchaikovsky's
Mazeppa; and
Nápravník's
Dubrovsky. This isn't to mention
ballets and
cantatas, as well as innumerable
songs set to Pushkin's verse.
Some attention has also been given to Pushkin's apparent
anti-Semitism in his writings, as well as those of his contemporaries,
Fyodor Dostoevsky and
Nikolai Gogol.
Influence on the Russian language
Alexander Pushkin is usually credited with developing literary Russian. Not only is he seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, but he's also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Where he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised
calques. His rich vocabulary and highly sensitive style are the foundation for modern literary Russian. Alexander Pushkin played an absolutely unique role in the Russian literature. Russian literature virtually begins with Alexander Pushkin. His talent set up new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in 19th century, marking the highest achievements of 18th century and the beginning of literary process of 19th century. Alexander Pushkin 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. From him derive the folk tales and genre pieces of other authors: Esenin, Leskov and Gorky. His use of Russian language formed the basis of the style of novelists
Ivan Turgenev,
Ivan Goncharov, and
Leo Tolstoy. Pushkin was recognized by
Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol, his successor and pupil, the great Russian critic Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky, who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance. Alexander Pushkin became an inseparable part of the literary world of the Russian people. He also exerted a profound influence on other aspects of Russian culture, most notably in opera. Translated into all the major languages, his works are regarded both as expressing most completely Russian national consciousness and as transcending national barriers. Pushkin’s intelligence, sharpness of his opinion, his devotion to poetry, realistic thinking and incredible historical and political intuition make him one of the greatest Russian national geniuses.
Works
Poems
Verse novel
1825-32–Yevgeny Onegin (Евгений Онегин); English translation: Eugene Onegin
Drama
1825–Boris Godunov (Борис Годунов); English translation: Boris Godunov
1830–Malenkie tragedii (Маленькие трагедии); English translation: The Little Tragedies
Prose
1827–Arap Petra Velikogo (Арап Петра Великого); English translations: The Negro of Peter the Great, The Moor of Peter the Great
1831–Povesti pokoynogo Ivana Petrovicha Belkina (Повести покойного Ивана Петровича Белкина); English translation: The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
- Vystrel (Выстрел); English translation: The Shot
- Metel (Метель); English translation: The Blizzard
- Grobovschik (Гробовщик); English translation: The Undertaker
- Stanzionny smotritel (Станционный смотритель); English translation: The Station Master
- Baryshnya-krestyanka (Барышня-крестьянка); English translation: The Squire's Daughter
1833 Пиковая дама (The Queen of Spades)
1834 Istoriya Pugacheva (История Пугачева); English translation: A History of Pugachev, a historical study of the Pugachev's Rebellion
1834 Кирджали (Kırcali) short story
1835 Египетские ночи (Egyptian Nights) unfinished
1836 Kapitanskaya dochka (Капитанская дочка) (The Captain's Daughter)
1837 История села Горюхина (The Story of the Village of Goryukhino) unfinished
1837 Сцены из рыцарских времен (Scenes from the Age of Chivalry)
1841 Дубровский (Dubrovsky) unfinished novel
Tales in verse
1830 Сказка о попе и о работнике его Балде (The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda)
1831 Сказка о Царе Салтане (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
1833 Сказка о мертвой царевне и семи богатырях (The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights)
1834 Золотой Петушок (The Golden Cockerel)
1835 Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке (The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish)
Honors
A minor planet, 2208 Pushkin, discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after him. A crater, Pushkin, on Mercury is also named in his honor.
Hoaxes and other attributed works
In the late 1980s, a book entitled Secret Journal 1836–1837 was published by a Minneapolis publishing house (M.I.P. Company), claiming to be the decoded content of an encrypted private journal kept by Pushkin. Promoted with little details about its contents, and touted for many years as being 'banned in Russia', it was an erotic novel narrated from Pushkin's perspective. Some mail-order publishers still carry the work under its fictional description. In 2006 a bilingual Russian-English edition was published in Russia by Retro Publishing House.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pushkin'.
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