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See also: Russian poet, was See also: born at Moscow, on the 7th of See also: June 1799
.
He belonged to an See also: ancient See also: family of boyars; his maternal See also: great-grandfather, a favourite See also: negro ennobled by See also: Peter the Great, bequeathed to him See also: curly hair and a somewhat darker complexion than falls to the See also: lot of the ordinary Russian
.
In 1811 the future poet entered the newly founded See also: lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo, situated near St See also: Petersburg
.
On quitting the lyceum in 1817 he was attached to the See also: ministry of See also: foreign affairs, and in this See also: year he began the composition of his Ruslan and Ly'udmila, a poem which was completed in 1820
.
Meanwhile See also: Pushkin mixed in all the gayest society of the capital, and it seemed as if he would turn out a See also: mere See also: man of fashion instead of a poet
.
But a very daring Ode to Liberty written by him had been circulated in See also: manuscript in St Petersburg
.
This production having been brought to the See also: notice of the governor, the See also: young author only escaped a journey to See also: Siberia by accepting an official position at Kishinev in See also: Bessarabia, in See also: southern See also: Russia
.
If we follow the See also: chronological See also: order of his poems, we can trace the See also: enthusiasm with which he greeted the ever-changing prospects of the See also: sea and the regions of the Danube and the See also: Crimea
.
At this See also: time Pushkin was, or affected to be, overpowered by the Byronic " Weltschmerz." Having visited the See also: baths of the See also: Caucasus for the re-establishment of his See also: health in 1822, he felt the inspiration of its magnificent scenery, and composed The Prisoner of the Caucasus, narrating the See also: story of the love of a Circassian girl for a youthful Russian officer
.
This was followed by the Fountain of Bakhchisarai, which tells of the detention of a young See also: Polish See also: captive, a Countess Potocka, in the palace of the khans of the Crimea
.
About the same time he composed some interesting lines on Ovid, whose place of banishment, Tomi, was not far distant
.
To this See also: period belongs also the Ode to See also: Napoleon, which is inferior to the See also: fine poems of See also: Byron and Manzoni, or indeed of Lermontov, on the same subject
.
In the See also: Lay concerning the Wise See also: Oleg we see how the influence of Karamzin's See also: History had led the Russians to take a greater See also: interest in the early records of their country
.
The next long poem was the See also: Gipsies (Tzuigani), an See also: Oriental tale of love and vengeance, in which Pushkin has admirably delineated these nomads, whose See also: strange mode of See also: life fascinated him
.
During his stay in southern Russia he allowed himself to get mixed up with the secret See also: societies then rife throughout the country
.
He also became embroiled with his chief, Count Vorontzov, who sent him to report upon the damages which had been committed by locustsin the southern See also: part of Bessarabia
.
Pushkin took this as a premeditated insult, and sent in his resignation; and Count Vorontzov in his official report requested the See also: government to remove the poet, " as he was surrounded by a society of See also: political and See also: literary fanatics, whose praises might turn his See also: head and make him believe that he was a great writer, whereas he was only a feeble imitator of See also: Lord Byron, an See also: original not much to be commended." The poet quitted See also: Odessa in 1824, and on leaving wrote a fine Ode to the Sea
.
Before the close of the year he had returned to his See also: father's seat at Mikhailovskoe, near See also: Pskov, where he soon involved himself in trouble on all sides
.
In his retirement he devoted a great See also: deal of time to the study of the old Russian popular See also: poetry, the builinas, of which he became a great admirer
.
Recollections of Byron and See also: Andre See also: Chenier gave the inspiration to some fine lines consecrated to the latter, in which Pushkin appeared more conservative than was his wont, and wrote in a spirit antagonistic to the French Revolution
.
In 1825 he published his tragedy Boris Godunov, a bold effort to imitate the See also: style of See also: Shakespeare
.
Up to this time the traditions of the Russian stage, such as it was, had been French
.
In 1825 the conspiracy of the Dekabrists broke out
.
Many of the conspirators were See also: personal See also: friends of Pushkin, especially Kuchelbecker and Pustchin
.
The poet himself was to a certain extent compromised, but he succeeded in getting to his See also: house at Mikhailovskoe and burning all the papers which might have been prejudicial to him
.
Through influential friends he succeeded in making his See also: peace with the emperor, to whom he was presented at Moscow soon after his See also: coronation
.
The story goes that See also: Nicholas said to Count Bludov on the same evening, " I have just been conversing with the most witty man in Russia." In 1828 appeared See also: Poltava, a spirited narrative poem, in which the expedition of See also: Charles XII. against Peter and the treachery of the
See also: hetman Mazeppa were described
.
In 1829 Pushkin again visited the Caucasus, on this occasion accompanying the expedition of See also: Prince Paskevich
.
He wrote a pleasing account of the tour; many of the See also: short lyrical pieces suggested by the scenery and associations of his visit are delightful, especially the lines on the See also: Don and the Caucasus
.
In 1831 Pushkin married Natalia Goncharov, and in the following year was again attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, with a See also: salary of 5000 roubles
.
He now busied himself with an See also: historical account of the revolt of the Cossack See also: Pugachev, who almost overthrew the See also: empire of See also: Catherine and was executed at Moscow in the latter part of the 18th century
.
While engaged upon this he wrote The Captain's Daughter, one of the best of his See also: prose See also: works
.
In 1832 was completed the poem See also: Eugene Onyegin, in which the author modelled his style upon the lighter sketches of Byron in the See also: Italian manner
.
Yet no one can accuse Pushkin of want of nationalism in this poem: it is Russian in every fibre
.
In 1837 the poet, who had been long growing in literary reputation, See also: fell mortally wounded in a duel with Baron See also: George Heckeren d'Anthes, the adopted son of the Dutch See also: minister then See also: resident at the See also: court of St Petersburg
.
D'Anthes, a vain and frivolous young man, had married a See also: sister of the poet's wife
.
Notwithstanding this he aroused Pushkin's jealousy by some attentions which he paid Natalia; but the grounds for the poet's anger, it must be confessed, do not appear very great . Pushkin died, after two days' suffering, on the afternoon of Friday the loth ofSee also: February
.
D'Anthes was tried. by court-See also: martial and expelled the country
.
In 188o a statue of the poet was erected at the See also: Tver Barrier at Moscow, and fetes were held in his honour, on which occasion many interesting memorials of him were exhibited to his admiring countrymen and a few foreigners who had congregated for the festivities
.
Pushkin See also: left four See also: children; his widow was afterwards married to an officer in the army, named Lanskoi; she died in 1863
.
Pushkin's poetical tales are spirited and full of dramatic power
.
The influence of Byron is undoubtedly seen in them, but they are not imitations, still less is anything in them plagiarized
.
Boris Godunov is a fine tragedy; on the whole Eugene Onyegin must be considered Pushkin's masterpiece
.
Here we have a great variety of styles—satire, pathos and See also: humour mixed
together
.
The character-See also: painting is See also: good, and the descriptions of scenery introduced faithful to nature
.
The poem in many places reminds us of Byron, who himself in his mixture of the pathetic and the humorous was a See also: disciple of the Italian school
.
Pushkin also wrote a great many lyrical pieces
.
Interspersed among the poet's minor works will be found many epigrams, but some of the best composed by him were not so fortunate as to pass the censorship, and must be read in a supplementarySee also: volume published at Berlin
.
As a prose writer Pushkin has considerable merits
.
Besides his History of the Revolt of Pugachev, which is perhaps too much of a compilation, he published a small volume of tales under the nom de plume of See also: Ivan Byelkin
.
These all show considerable dramatic power: the best are The Captain's Daughter, a tale of the times of Catherine II.; The Undertaker, a very ghostly story, which will remind the See also: English reader of some of the tales of Edgar See also: Poe; The See also: Pistol Shot; and The See also: Queen of Spades
.
The See also: academy of St Petersburg has recently issued a See also: complete edition of the works of Pushkin, including his letters
.
See the bibliography in the See also: editions of Gennadi (7 vols., St Petersburg, 1861) and Annenkov (6 vols., St Petersburg, 1855)
.
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