Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin is Russia’s Shakespeare.
He holds the unassailable position of the father of Russian literature, raising it to a new height in the early 19th century, and all Russian authors since his time acknowledge his influence and supremacy.
His work is not well known in the West, other than through certain musical interpretations*. The reason for this is that he brought a new subtlety of expression to the Russian language which is very difficult to translate. I have read translations, enjoyed them immensely, and fretted that in not knowing the Russian language I am missing so much of his genius. I particularly enjoyed his humour.

He was born in Moscow (to the pride of this city’s intellectual community) but spent much of his life in what was then the capital: St Petersburg. He was of aristocratic parentage and, interestingly, his great-grandfather was a page in the court of Peter the Great and had been brought to St P. from Cameroon. The African blood can be seen in his dark skin and curly hair. As a radical political thinker he upset the authorities frequently and was sometimes ‘exiled’ from the capital. His greatest work, the play ’Boris Godunov’, was disapproved of by the state and was not produced in its original, uncensored form until 2007!!! We thought the Soviet Communists were repressive but their historical predecessors were just as bad, if not worse.

His memory is celebrated in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and in Pushkinploshad (square), the second best known square in Moscow after Red Square. There you will find his statue, clean and unspoiled and always honoured with a few bouquets at his feet, left by the adoring Moscow public.

He was killed in 1837, most romantically, in a duel fought over the honour of his wife. He was 37. Just like Mozart, the world lost one of its greatest geniuses before he had hardly started.

Do svedanya,

Graham

ps I had a picture ready to insert but the Blogger won't let me!

*Musical works based on Pushkin:
Ruslan and Ludmilla – Glinka
Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky
Mozart and Salieri – Rimsky Korsakov (and the play ‘Amadeus’ by Peter Shaffer)