Salem Press

Great Lives from History: The 19th Century offers worldwide coverage of important men and women in all areas of achievement who flourished between 1801 and 1900. Below is an excerpt from the Great Lives's essay on Alexander Pushkin.

Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Pushkin (PEWSH-kyihn) was the son of a tenant of a ministerial steward and a mother who was descended from an Abyssinian who had become the adopted godson and personal secretary of Peter the Great. Sergey Lvovich, Alexander’s father, was more interested in drawing rooms and theaters than in his estate, which he left to the mismanagement of his wife, Nadezhda Osipovna Hannibal.

With curly, chestnut-colored hair, Alexander was a sallow, thick-lipped, and dreamy-eyed child. Neglected by his parents, who preferred his younger brother Leo and his elder sister Olga, he turned to his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, who regaled him with legends and songs about wizards, princesses, knights-errant, and elves. He also enjoyed the company of his maternal grandmother, Marya Hannibal, and it was at her country estate that Pushkin learned to love his native language.

As soon as he was old enough to read, he had a number of tutors, but he was a poor student. In 1811, he entered the lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo, a school instituted and sponsored by imperial decree, where he studied everything from religion and philosophy to swimming and horsemanship. At the age of fourteen, Pushkin published his first poem, “To a Poet-Friend,” in the well-respected European Herald. His official entry into the literary world occurred on January 8, 1815, when, as part of his qualifying examination for the upper school, he recited his own poem “Recollections of Tsarskoye Selo” before distinguished guests. His remarkable use of language, rhythm, onomatopoeia, and references to myth established him as a prodigy.

- Keith Garebian