Alexander Pushkin: The Russian Poet
a dynamic, liberating challenge to Russia's cultural identity. His story has promised national
coherence and meant artistic integrity in its seemingly purest form.
Two hundred years after his birth, Alexander Pushkin still issues a dynamic,
liberating challenge to Russia's cultural identity. His story has promised national coherence and
meant artistic integrity in its seemingly purest form. Irreverent and polemical responses to Pushkin
abound, but Russians retain a deep investment in Pushkin's image.
liberating challenge to Russia's cultural identity. His story has promised national coherence and
meant artistic integrity in its seemingly purest form. Irreverent and polemical responses to Pushkin
abound, but Russians retain a deep investment in Pushkin's image.
Commemorating Pushkin argues that the emotional complexity of Russia's relationship with
Pushkin has informed both large-scale cultural institutions and the writings of talented individuals.
It assesses twentieth-century museums, anniversary rituals, and films that keep the poet alive.
It shows how Pushkin's self-fashioning was exemplary for Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva,
Andrei Bitov, and Andrei Sinyavsky. And it goes beyond well-known figures to give names and
histories to poets, novelists, actors, filmmakers, scholars, and museum workers who have
sustained Russia's myth of a national poet.
Pushkin has informed both large-scale cultural institutions and the writings of talented individuals.
It assesses twentieth-century museums, anniversary rituals, and films that keep the poet alive.
It shows how Pushkin's self-fashioning was exemplary for Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva,
Andrei Bitov, and Andrei Sinyavsky. And it goes beyond well-known figures to give names and
histories to poets, novelists, actors, filmmakers, scholars, and museum workers who have
sustained Russia's myth of a national poet.
The LENINGRAD, U.S.S.R. -- The Soviet people, have find time for poetry even in the worst of times,
eased their woes Thursday by celebrating the birth of Alexander Pushkin, the national bard lionized
as the Shakespeare of Russia. Lovers of Pushkin, the early 19th-century poet who remains a
towering figure in Russian culture, recited his verse and visited the flat on Leningrad's Moika Canal
where he died in 1837 at the age of 37 two days after a French nobleman wounded him in a duel
over Pushkin's wife.
eased their woes Thursday by celebrating the birth of Alexander Pushkin, the national bard lionized
as the Shakespeare of Russia. Lovers of Pushkin, the early 19th-century poet who remains a
towering figure in Russian culture, recited his verse and visited the flat on Leningrad's Moika Canal
where he died in 1837 at the age of 37 two days after a French nobleman wounded him in a duel
over Pushkin's wife.
'I come here every year on Pushkin's birthday,' said Natasha Yurchinka, a 42-year-old machinist,
as she stood before a bronze statue of the poet in the quiet courtyard outside his flat, now a museum.
as she stood before a bronze statue of the poet in the quiet courtyard outside his flat, now a museum.
'I am simply drawn here,' Yurchinka said. 'I just want to feel the atmosphere. I can't even find the
words to say exactly why. I work nearby, and I just come over on my lunch break.'
words to say exactly why. I work nearby, and I just come over on my lunch break.'
Festivities marking the 192nd anniversary of Pushkin's birth on June 6, 1799,
included poetry recitals, concerts, and church services at sites in and around Leningrad, Moscow,
southern Russia, the Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and other places he lived or roamed during his
short, dramatic life.
included poetry recitals, concerts, and church services at sites in and around Leningrad, Moscow,
southern Russia, the Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and other places he lived or roamed during his
short, dramatic life.
'Pushkin's birthday is one of the most blessed holidays for our people,' said the Sovetskaya Rossiya
newspaper. 'A tradition has long been established to go on this day to Mikhailovskoye, Bernovo,
Bondino (places where he lived), or to Pushkin's monument in Moscow, where people come in
endless streams, where the verses of this great Russian poet are read.'
newspaper. 'A tradition has long been established to go on this day to Mikhailovskoye, Bernovo,
Bondino (places where he lived), or to Pushkin's monument in Moscow, where people come in
endless streams, where the verses of this great Russian poet are read.'
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