Alexander Pushkin

http://pushkin.ellink.ru/english/pushkin/push1.asp

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин (June 6 [O.S. May 26] 1799–February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1837), was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many 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. He also wrote historical fiction. His The Captain's Daughter provides insight into Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great.

Born in Moscow, Russia, 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 Tsarskoye 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 could not publish it until years later. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832. Due to his 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. In 1937, the town of Tsarskoe Selo was renamed Pushkin in his honour.

Life and career

Pushkin's father Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848) descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility which traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkin's mother Nadezhda (Nadja) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836) descended through her paternal grandmother from German, Scandinavian nobility, and a great-grandfather from central Africa, probably Cameroon. She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife Maria Aleksejevna Pushkina (1745–1818). Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, i.e., Pushkin's great-grandfather, was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), a black page raised by Peter the Great who was born a prince of Lagon, an African tribal sultanate in present-day Cameroon. After education in France as a military engineer, Abram 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 fifteen. 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 Chisinau, 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 Chisinau 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 Mikhailovskoe (near Pskov) 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 could not gain permission to publish it until five years later. The drama's original, uncensored version would not receive a premiere until 2007.

In the year 1831, during which Pushkin's growing lliterary influence was by then well known, he met one of Russia's other greatest early writers, 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, his brother in-law Georges d'Anthès, to a duel which left both men injured, Pushkin mortally. He died two days later. His last home is a museum now.

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.

Honours

• The Pushkin Trust was established in 1987 by the Duchess of Abercorn to commemorate the creative legacy and spirit of her ancestor Alexander Pushkin and to release the creativity and imagination of the children of Ireland by providing them with opportunities to communicate their thoughts, feelings and experiences.
• 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 honour.

List of works

Poems

• 1820 – Ruslan i Lyudmila (Руслан и Людмила); English translation: Ruslan and Ludmila
• 1820-21 – Kavkazskiy plennik (Кавказский пленник); English translation: The Prisoner of the Caucasus
• 1821 - Gavriiliada (Гавриилиада) ; English translation: The Gabrieliad
• 1821–22 – Bratya razboyniki (Братья разбойники); English translation: The Robber Brothers
• 1823 – Bakhchisaraysky fontan (Бахчисарайский фонтан); English translation: The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
• 1824 – Tsygany (Цыганы); English translation: The Gypsies
• 1825 – Graf Nulin (Граф Нулин); English translation: Count Nulin
• 1829 – Poltava (Полтава); English translation: Poltava
• 1830 – Domik v Kolomne (Домик в Коломне); English translation: The Little House in Kolomna
• 1833 - Andjelo (Анджело); English translation: Angelo
• 1833 – Medny vsadnik (Медный всадник); English translation: The Bronze Horseman

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
  • Kamenny gost (Каменный гость); English translation: The Stone Guest
  • Motsart i Salyeri (Моцарт и Сальери); English translation: Mozart and Salieri
  • Skupoy rytsar (Скупой рыцарь); English translations: The Miserly Knight, The Covetous Knight
  • Pir vo vremya chumy (Пир во время чумы); English translation: A Feast in Time of Plague

Prose

• 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, short story
  • Metel (Метель); English translation: The Blizzard, short story
  • Grobovschik (Гробовщик); English translation: The Undertaker, short story
  • Stanzionny smotritel (Станционный смотритель); English translation: The Stationmaster, short story
  • Baryshnya-krestyanka (Барышня-крестьянка); English translation: The Squire's Daughter, short story
• 1834 - Pikovaya dama (Пиковая дама); English translation: The Queen of Spades, short story
• 1834 - Kirdzhali (Кирджали); English translation: Kirdzhali, short story
• 1834 - Istoriya Pugacheva (История Пугачева); English translation: A History of Pugachev, study of the Pugachev's Rebellion
• 1836 - Kapitanskaya dochka (Капитанская дочка); English translation: The Captain's Daughter, novel
• 1836 - Puteshestvie v Arzrum (Путешествие в Арзрум); English translation: A Journey to Arzrum, travel sketches
• 1836 - Roslavlev (Рославлев); English translation: Roslavlev, unfinished novel
• 1837 - Arap Petra Velikogo (Арап Петра Великого); English translation: Peter the Great's Negro, unfinished novel
• 1837 - Istoriya sela Goryuhina (История села Горюхина); English translation: The Story of the Village of Goryukhino, unfinished short story
• 1837 - Yegipetskie nochi (Египетские ночи); English translation: Egyptian Nights, unfinished short story
• 1841 - Dubrovsky (Дубровский); English translation: Dubrovsky, unfinished novel

Tales in verse

• 1830 - Сказка о попе и о работнике его Балде; English translation: The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda
• 1830 - Сказка о медведихе; English translation: The Tale of the Female Bear (was not finished)
• 1831 - Сказка о царе Салтане; English translation: The Tale of Tsar Saltan
• 1833 - Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке; English translation: The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
• 1833 - Сказка о мертвой царевне; English translation: The Tale of the Dead Princess
• 1834 - Сказка о золотом петушке; English translation: The Tale of the Golden Cockerel

-------------------- Russisk forfatter, regnet som den største dikter og grunnlegger av moderne russiske litteratur. Pusjkin var banebrytende med sin bruk av folkelig språk i verkene sine, og han la grunnen for en ny fortellerteknikk som blandet drama, romantikk og satire, og som siden har vært et karakteristisk trekk for russiske forfattere og russisk litteratur. Pusjkins far stammet fra en av Russlands eldste adelsfamilier, som kunne spore anene sine tilbake til 1100-tallet. Moren hans var sønnedatter av Ibrahim Petrovitsj Gannibal (også kjent under navnet Abram Hanibal), en afrikaner som i barndommen ble tatt som slave og senere gitt i gave fra Konstantinopel, og ble Peter den stores adoptivsønn -------------------- Russlands nasjonalpoet -------------------- Note: The hypothesis that Alexander Pushkin was the great grandfather of Leon Trotsky, is disputed.