On May 26 (June 6) 1799 in Moscow, in the German quarter was born the Great Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, publicist, critic, founder of the new Russian literature, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

On May 26 (June 6) 1799 in Moscow, in the German quarter was born the Great Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, publicist, critic, founder of the new Russian literature, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

Father of Alexander S. Pushkin, Sergei Lvovich, descended from a distinguished noble family; his mother, Nadezhda Osipovna, born Hannibal, was a granddaughter of Abram Petrovich Hannibal — “Peter the Great’s Negro”.

Alexander Pushkin received his elementary education at home. In 1811 he entered the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo — a privileged educational institution, which following a special program prepared statesmen from children of the nobility. At the lyceum the future poet was noticed by G. R. Derzhavin, N. M. Karamzin, K. N. Batyushkov, V. A. Zhukovsky.

Already in 1814 the Moscow magazine “Europe’s bulletin” (“Vestnik Evropy”) published the first poem by Alexander Pushkin “To the Friend-poet”, and in 1815 about 18 poems by the young poet came out in the magazine “Russian Museum”.

In 1817 Alexander Sergeevich graduated from the Lyceum, moved to St. Petersburg and got a position at the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. The major poem “Ruslan and Ludmila”, published in 1820, arouse much controversy about its subject and style. Political poems by A. S. Pushkin (“Liberty”, “To Chaadaev”, “The Village”) became the reason of dissatisfaction of Alexander I and in May 1820, the poet was exiled from the capital. Pushkin travelled to the Caucuses, later to the Crimea, he lived in Kishinev and Odessa, where he met with future Decembrists – V. F. Raevsky, P. I. Pestel, M. F. Orlov and many others. During the “south” exile Pushkin wrote such romantic poems like “The Captive of the Caucasus”, “The Robber Brothers”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”; in 1823 he started his work on the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”.

In July 1824 due to complicated relations with the Count Vorontsov, who supervised Pushkin’s exile in Odessa, Pushkin was forced from the city, fired from the government service and exiled to his mother’s estate in Mikhailovskoe (near Pskov) “to the supervision of local authorities”. During the “north” exile Alexander Sergeevich continued his work on “Eugene Onegin”, wrote “Boris Godunov”, and many poems. It was in the Mikhailovskoe estate that Pushkin learnt about the Decembrist Uprising and Decembrists’ execution.

On September 8 1826 following the imperial command, Pushkin was delivered to Moscow and granted an audience with Emperor Nicholas I. The Emperor returned the poet from an exile and himself started censoring his works.

In 1830 Pushkin, who had been dreaming about the family, made a proposal to a young Moscow beauty Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova. Before the wedding he had to go to the Boldino estate (Nizhny Novgorod) to deal with property issues, where he was detained due to the threat of cholera epidemic. During three months of the “Boldino autumn” (September 3 - November 30 ноября) the poet created about 50 works of different genres and completed “Eugene Onegin”.

O n December 5 (17) 1830 Alexander Pushkin returned to Moscow, and on February 18 (March 2) 1831 took place his wedding ceremony with N. N. Goncharova. In May 1831 Pushkin’s family moved to Tsarskoe Selo.