Profile of a Poet-Pushkin.

At this current moment in time, my blog has had 68 page views....34 of which are from Russia! If you're Russian and you know it, clap your hands woop woop! This has inspired me to write about someone a little more Russian; Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin.

Name- Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin
Date of Birth-6th June 1799
Place of Birth-Moscow, Russia
Time Period- Romantic/Golden age of Russian poetry 
Date of Death-29th January 1837
Occupation-Poet, novelist and playwright
Parents-Sergei and Nadezhda Pushkin
Siblings-Lev Sergeyevich Pushkin, Nikolai Pushkin and Olga Pavlishcheva
Children- Natalya Pushkina, Grigory Pushkin, Maria Pushkina, Alexander Pushkin

When he was born, Pushkin's parents had already lost most of their previous aristocratic wealth. His father was a descendant of an ancient noble family was the great granddaughter of Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Gannibal was a black African page who was kidnapped and brought to Russia as a present for Peter the Great.

Nadezhda Pushkin didn't really care for her son's upbringing, instead he mostly became the nanny's responsibility. His nanny was Arina Rodionovna, and he loved her like a mother.

In  1811, Aleksandr became part of the Imperial Lyceum which was an exclusive school for the nobility in Tsarskoe Selo. By the age of fifteen, Aleksandr had published his first poem. In 1814 his first publication appeared in the journal The Messenger of Europe. His peers and teachers admired his poetic talents and the journal's audience loved the poem, which was, 'Recollections about Tsarskoe Selo.' It was even praised by Gavriil Derzhavin, who was the most important poet at that time. Aleksandr had many friends at the school, they became known as his 'Lyceum Brotherhood' and he would never forget them.

In 1817, he graduated from the Lyceum and spent the next three years living a fulfilled life as a famous poet, partying and being adored. He became associated with a radical movement which was responsible for the Decembrist uprising in 1825, but he was never in on the planning of the uprising, he was just part of the movement. In these years he wrote 'revolutionary' poetry, such as, 'The Village' and 'Ode to Liberty' and also 'Ruslan and Ludmila', a fairytale written in poetic form.

However, Aleksandr's 'Ode to Liberty' was not a hit with everyone. It infuriated the Russian emperor so much that he banished Aleksandr from St. Petersburg for six years. Aleksandr traveled to Ekaterinoslav, where he explored Caucasus and the Crimea. He was transferred to Chisinau, Moldova for a further three years. He greatly admired the work of George Byron, and it influenced him so much that he became the leader of the Russian Romantic Movement. He also wrote a lot of narrative poems including, 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus', 'The Bandit Brothers' and 'The Fountain of Bakhchisaray'.

In July 1823, Pushkin was transferred again, this time to Odessa, Ukraine, where he spent his time visiting the theatre and having love affairs. He began writing, 'The Gypsies' and the first chapter of, 'Eugene Onegin' which was a great success.

In spite of his successes, he was found out as an atheist in August 1824 when a letter containing his views was intercepted by postal officials, and he was exiled to his mother's estate in Mikhaylovskoye. He lived under surveillance for the next two years, but was still successful in his work. He completed, 'The Gypsies', 'Count Nulin' and 'Boris Godunov' (a tragedy about the Russian Tsar Boris Godunov, published in 1831) and the second chapter of, 'Eugene Onegin'.

In 1826, the new Emperor Nicolas the First allowed Aleksandr to finally leave Mikhaylovskoye. This came after a petition by Aleksandr himself, thorough interviewing by the Emperor and the agreement that the Emperor would personally censor all of his work thereafter. This is because of Aleksandr's membership in the radical movement referred to earlier, as the Decembrist uprising had sent a lot of members to their executions, and the Emperor needed to be sure that Aleksandr had not been involved. Aleksandr still continued to be questioned by police about his poetry later in life. He was not allowed to publish or publicly read any of his pieces, or take a trip anywhere without getting permission first.

In 1829, he met the beautiful Natalya Goncharova. The couple were betrothed on the 6th May, 1830, and Aleksandr was allowed to publish 'Boris Godunov' as a wedding gift, four years after asking for permission. They finally married on the 18th February 1831 in Moscow.

However, after their engagement, Aleksandr had to visit the estate of Boldino because of financial arrangements connected to the recent acquirement of part of the family stead. He was stranded there by an Asiatic cholera outbreak for three months, a lot longer than the few days he had originally planned to go for. Whilst trapped here he used his time to write five short stories, many poems and the last chapter of 'Eugene Onegin'.

In May 1831, three months after their marriage, Natalya and Aleksandr moved to Tsarskoe Selo. They wanted a tranquil and peaceful life, but in , a cholera outbreak in St. Petersburg forced the Emperor to move to Tsarskoe Selo in July 1831. In October that year, the couple moved into an apartment in St. Petersburg. This was to be their final home. In 1832, Natalya gave birth to their  first daughter, Maria. Then in 1833, their first son, Alexander, was born.

Everyone, including the Emperor, thought that Natalya was beautiful. This forced Aleksandr to stay in St. Petersburg for longer than he had hoped. On the 30th December, Emperor Nicolas the First made Aleksandr a Kammerjunker (a low rank in court, given to young members of aristocratic families). Aleksander was offended, embarrased and angry at this. He was sure that the only reason he was given the title was so that Natalya would spend more time at court balls.

In 1834, Natalya's two unmarried sisters came to live with the couple, and Aleksandr took over as manager of his father's estate. He also had to settle his brother's debts and couldn't afford the necessary ball gowns for Natalya. All of these small money worries joined together and forced Aleksandr to take out a loan. His loan was approved in 1836, and he was also allowed to publish a quarterly literary journal, which was not a financial success and also got him into a lot of trouble regarding censorships.

In the 1830s, audiences began to find Aleksander's work as outdated, which obviously depressed him to hear. Also, the French Royalist Young d'Anthes succeeded after two years of pursuing Natalya since 1834. He was so openly in love with her, that this scandal caused Aleksandr to proposition a duel between Young and himself in 1836, a year after the birth of Aleksandr's second son, Grigory. However, Aleksander later took his proposal back, as he learnt that Young was 'actually' in love with one of Natalya's sisters; Ekaterina Goncharova. Also in 1836, Aleksandr's second daughter, Natalya, was born.

Young and Ekaterina married on the 10th January 1837, but Aleksandr wanted nothing to do with the couple, and they certainly weren't welcome around his home. On the 27th January 1837, Aleksandr and Young finally did duel after the French Royalist ignored the poet and continued to pursue Natalya. Young fired first and severely wounded Aleksandr. Russia's greatest Romantic poet later died on the 29th January, 1837.

Thousands of people came to his apartment to mourn him. The authorities worried that there would be public outcry over his death, and so they told everyone that his funeral would be in St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and that only members of the court and diplomatic society would be allowed to attend. The real funeral actually happened in secret, a day before it was declared. Aleksandr Pushkin's body was smuggled out of St. Petersburg in the middle of the night.  

Helpful Pushkin websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/literature/aleksandr-pushkin/