In Moscow, on May 26, 1799, Alexander S. Pushkin is born as the second son of Sergei Lvovich Pushkin, retired officer, man of letters and amateur poet, and Natalia Ossipovna Hannibal, granddaughter of the «negro of Peter the Great», Abyssinian hostage bought for the Tsar in Constantinople and became General-in-Chief Abraham P. Hannibal.
Raised by preceptors, imbued with French culture thanks to his father’s rich library, he was soon noticed for his poetic gifts among the writers his parents frequented.
Solemn inauguration of the Tsarskoye Silo High School created by Alexander I, on October 19, 1811 on the model of the Napoleonic high schools, intended to give a thorough general training (where the teaching of French and German occupies an important place) to an elite of future servants of the state, called to perform the highest functions. Richly endowed, with a high-quality teaching staff, the Lyceum is housed in an annex building of the Imperial Palace of Tsarskoye Sielo, whose park was open to high school students.
Admitted in September 1811, together with a first batch of thirty students, Pushkin formed strong friendships there, acquired a reputation as a born poet from an early age, and kept the memory of a warm community of talents and aspirations, which he celebrated in several poems dedicated to the anniversary of the inauguration. In the magazine Le Messager de l’Europe, he published his first poem «A l’ami-versificateur» in 1814. The reading of his poem «Memories in Tsarskoye Sielo» (published on January 8, 1815) at a public examination session in the presence of the patriarch of Russian poetry Gabriel Derjavin impressed the invited guests. In 1816, he attended the literary circle «Arzamas» gathering anti-traditionalist writers claiming to be Nicolas Karamzine, reformer of the literary language, where he was officially received in the autumn of 1817.
After graduating from high school, (June 13, 1817) Alexander Pushkin was appointed an official at the College of Foreign Affairs. The ode «Freedom» circulates under the mantle. The poem «The village» denouncing serfdom, in 1819, circulates behind the scenes. Pushkin attends the meetings of the «Green Lamp», a literary circle led by members of secret societies, the future «Decembrists». For his anti-government verses, Pushkin was sent on May 6, 1820 into exile in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Ukraine, under the orders of the governor of the province, General Inzov. From May to September, Pushkin accompanied General Nicholas Rayevsky (1771–1829), his son Nicholas (1801–1843), a friend of the poet and his two youngest daughters, Marie (1805–1863) and Sophie (1806–1881), on a journey that took him to visit the Don steppes, the Caucasus and Crimea, where he wrote three of his «Southern poems» inspired by Byron: «The prisoner of the Caucasus» (published in 1822), «The robber brothers» (published in 1825), «Bakhchisarai Fountain» (published in 1824). At the end of July-beginning of August, the verse tale «Ruslan and Ludmila» appeared, Pushkin’s first major bookstore success.
He arrived in Kichinev, Bessarabia (Moldavia) on September 21, where General Inzov was appointed, and where Pushkin lived until July 1823. In November, stay in Kamenka, near Kiev, where some of the future «decembrists» gather, who keep Pushkin away from the conspiracy.
Pushkin wrote the poem «Gabrieliad», a frivolous parody of the Gospel account of the Annunciation that began to circulate. In 1823, Pushkin began to write Eugene Onegin (chap. I and II).
In July: new assignment in Odessa, under the orders of Count Mikhail Vorontsov (1782–1856), governor of New Russia. Pushkin courted his wife Elisabeth, née Countess Branicka (1792–1880).
On June 8, 1824, begged the Tsar asking for his retirement. In July, Pushkin was placed under house arrest in Mikhailovskoye (Pskov government) in his father’s property and under his authority. He wrote the last of his «Southern poems», «Gypsies», inspired by Byron and set in Bessarabia and began the chapter III of Eugene Onegin and the historical drama «Boris Godunov». On December 14, 1825, after the death of Alexander I, Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg where there was an attempted coup fomented by members of the secret societies (the Decembrists) Executed on July 13, 1826, by hanging the five main conspirators.
The news reaches Pushkin on July 24. Pushkin was summoned by an imperial courier on September 3. He is received by Nicholas I who has just been crowned in Moscow. Having recognized his sympathy for the Decembrist movement, Pushkin obtained from the Tsar the end of his exile and the promise that he would be its only censor. He moved to Moscow. He wrote chap. V and VI of Eugene Onegin.
Pushkin was interrogated by the chief of the Moscow police in 1827 about his poem «Andre Chénier», which circulated under the cloak. He completes chapter VI of Eugene Onegin.
The military governor of St. Petersburg in August 1828 asked Pushkin about the» Gabrieliad», a copy of which reached the authorities. Pushkin writes Eugene Onegin’s chapter VII and the historical poem «Poltava».
On December 31, Nicholas I ended the investigation of the «Gabrieliade». On May 1, 1829, Pushkin asks for the hand of Natalia Goncharova (1812–1863). The answer " is not a refusal «.
May-July, he accompanied the Caucasian army and witnessed the capture of Arzrum (Erzeroum in Armenia).
The engagement with Natalia Goncharova takes place on May 6, 1830. From August 31 to December 5, 1831, Pushkin spent a particularly fruitful autumn in Boldino. He wrote the «little tragedies», chapters VIII and X of Eugene Onegin.
His prose debut begins with the «Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Bielkin».
On February 18, 1831, Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova in Moscow. May 25 move to Tsarskoye Sielo. In October, moving to St. Petersburg.
On October 14, Pushkin was readmitted to the archive department of the Foreign Affairs College
He begins a series of «popular tales» in verse. In 1832, he finished a novel: Doubrovsky. First draft (January 31, 1833) of the plan of the " Captain’s Daughter «, with the «historical» character of Shvanvich (the future Shvabrin) as the main hero.
On 9 February 1833, he wrote to the Minister of War Chernyshov requesting permission to consult archives concerning Marshal Suvorov, including those concerning his participation in the operations against Pugachov.
September 2–23: he travels to Kazan and Orenburg to document the Pugachov uprising. Pushkin was appointed to the imperial court on 30 September to the rank of «kammerjunker» (ordinary valet), a title generally given to young men (and not kammerherr, " gentleman of the chamber «, reserved for members of the aristocracy).
In that year he wrote the poem «The Bronze Horseman», Pugachov’s Story, and continued the series of folk tales in verse.
In a fit of discouragement, on June 25, 1834, Pushkin submitted his resignation to Count Benkendorf, chief of the political police, under whose orders he was placed by Nicholas I, but, reprimanded by his friend the poet Zhukovsky, and he withdrew his request on July 3. Publication of «The Lady of Spades». On April 11, 1836, the first issue of the magazine he founded, " Le contemporain " (the Contemporary).
On November 4, he received an anonymous pamphlet implying that he was a deceived husband. On November 5, Pushkin challenged the French immigrant Georges Danthès (1812–1895) to a duel. A few days later, Danthès, who had asked for the hand of Pushkin’s sister-in-law, Catherine Goncharova (1809–1843), renounced the challenge.
This is how the journey of this Russian writer and poet, reformer of the modern Russian language, ends on earth. In Russia, not without reason, it is still said today: «Pushkin is our everything!»
