PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER (1799-1837), Russian poet, was born at Moscow on June 6, 1799. He belonged to an ancient family of boyars ; his maternal great-grandfather was an Abys sinian general in the Russian service, ennobled by Peter the Great. In 1811 the future poet entered the newly founded lyceum of Tsarkoe Selo, situated near St. Petersburg. On quitting the lyceum in 1817 he was attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, and in this year he began to write his Ruslan and Ly'udmila, a romantic epic in six cantos, which was completed in 182o. Meanwhile Push kin mixed in all the gayest society of the capital, and it seemed as if he would turn out a mere man of fashion instead of a poet. But a very daring Ode to Liberty written by him and circulated in manuscript in St. Petersburg came to the notice of the governor, and the young author was exiled to the south of Russia where he held official positions at Ekaterinoslav and at Kishinev.
In company with General Rayevsky he visited the baths of the Caucasus for the re-establishment of his health in 182o. The Rayeyskys introduced him to the poetry of Lord Byron, and the magnificent scenery of the Caucasus kindled his own poetic genius. The first fruit of the Caucasian visit was The Captive of the Caucasus (1822), narrating the story of the love of a Circassian girl for a Russian officer. This was followed by the Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1827) which tells of the detention of a young Polish captive in the palace of the khans of the Crimea. About the same time he composed the lines on Ovid, whose place of banishment, Tomi, was not far distant, and the Ode to Napoleon. The next long poem was the Gipsies (Tsygany) (1827). During his stay in southern Russia he mixed with the secret societies then rife throughout the country. In 1823 he was allowed to leave Kichinev, where the life was hateful to him, and was transferred to Odessa where he was once more on real Russian soil, and on the coast of the sea which delighted him. But he came into conflict with his official superior, and was dismissed from the service, because of an intercepted letter in which he spoke favourably of atheism. He was ordered to reside at Mikhailovskoe, near Pskov, where he soon involved himself in trouble on all sides. In his retirement he studied old Russian popular poetry. Recollections of Byron and Andre Chenier gave the inspiration to some fine lines consecrated to the latter, in which Pushkin appeared more conservative than was his wont. In 1825 he wrote his tragedy Boris Godunov, not published till 1831, a bold effort to imitate the style of Shake jpeare, thus breaking with the French traditions.
In 1825 the conspiracy of the Dekabrists broke out. Many of the conspirators were personal friends of Pushkin, especially Kiichelbecker and Pustchin. The poet himself was to a certain extent compromised, but he succeeded in getting to his house at Mikhailovskoe and burning all the papers which might have been prejudicial to him. The emperor, to whom he was presented at
Moscow soon after his coronation, summoned him to Moscow and assured him of pardon and "protection." The story goes that Nicholas said to Count Bludov on the same evening, "I have just been conversing with the most intelligent. man in Russia." In i 1829 appeared Poltava, a spirited narrative poem, in which the expedition of Charles XII. against Peter and the treachery of the hetman Mazeppa were described. In 1829 Pushkin again visited the Caucasus on this occasion accompanying the expedition of General Paskevich, which is described in A Voyage to Arzrum (pr. 1836). The lyrics are delightful. In 1831 Pushkin married Natalia Goncharov, and in the following year was again attached to the ministry of foreign affairs, with a salary of 5,000 roubles. He now began his History of the Revolt of Pugachev of 1773 (pr. 1834) an admirable piece of historical writing. While engaged upon this he wrote The Captain's Daughter (1836), one of the best of his prose works. In 1832 was completed the poem Evgeni Onegin (1825-33), again influenced by Byron.
In 1837 the poet, who had been long growing in literary reputa tion, fell mortally wounded in a duel (Feb. 8) with Baron George Heckeren d'Anthes, the adopted son of the Dutch minister who had married a sister of the poet's wife. Pushkin died on Feb. Io. D'Anthes was tried by court-martial and expelled from the coun try. In 188o a statue of the poet was erected at the Tver Barrier at Moscow. He left four children ; his widow married an officer named Lanskoi; she died in 1863.
Pushkin's poetical tales are full of drama. Boris Godunov and Evgeni Onegin are the basis of operas by Mussorgsky and Tschai kowsky respectively. Pushkin's lyrical pieces are the finest in the language. Interspersed among his minor works will be found many epigrams. He was one of the earliest Russian novelists. Indeed most of his work after 1831 was done in prose. In 1831 he published a small volume of tales under the pen name of Ivan Belkin. These all show great narrative powers. The one long novel finished is The Captain's Daughter, a tale of the times of Catherine II., which exercised a great influence on later Russian novelists. The most famous of all his short stories is The Queen of Spades (1834). In the History of the Manor of Goryukhino (1857), Pushkin parodied Polevoy's History of the Russian Peo ple, and presented an amusing picture of the fictitious author of his own Tales, Ivan Petrovich Belkin.
See Prince D. S. Mirsky, Pushkin (1926), which contains a bibliog raphy ; and the bibliography in the editions of Gennadi (7 vols., St. Petersburg, 1861), and Annenkov (6 vols. St. Petersburg, 1855).