Aleksandr Pushkin
~Russian Poet~
Birth: June 6, 1799, Moscow, Russia
Death: February 10, 1837, St. Petersburg, Russia, from a pistol shot in a duel
Early Influences:
- Born into an upper-class literary family
- Entered an elite school called the Lyceum at age 12 where he made influential friends
- Began working in the foreign office of St. Petersburg, Russia soon after graduating from the Lyceum
- While in St. Petersburg, joined upper-class literary societies, attended the theater, and worked on his first romantic narrative poem
- Charged with writing subversive poetry in 1820 and was transferred
- Friends introduced him to the poetry of Lord Byron
- Had affairs with two married women while working in the foreign office
Education:
- Entered the Lyceum in 1811 which was only open for 'select' noblemen's' sons
- Graduated from the Lyceum in 1817
- Taught by the great poet Vasily Zhukovsky
Major Accomplishments:
- Wrote his first published poem, To a Poet Friend at the age of 14
- Wrote Freedom in 1817, but wasn't published until his death
- Ruslan and Ludmila, written in 1820 was his first major poem
- Wrote several dramas including Boris Godunov in 1831
- Wrote his masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, in 1823-31 which later became a Tchaikovsky opera
Significance:
- Worked for the liberation of literature from the old ways
- His work, Eugene Onegin, is the standard by which Russian literature of the 18th and 19th centuries is measured
- Some compare his talent and influence in Russia to Shakespeare
Contemporaries:
- Victor Hugo - French Poet
- Napoleon Bonaparte - French Emperor and Conqueror
- Michael Faraday - English Physicist
For Further Information About Aleksandr Pushkin
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