History Creator / AlexanderPushkin

* DownerEnding: ''The Bronze Horseman''. And ''The Little Tragedies'' called "tragedies" for a reason.

* DrivenToMadness: Protagonist in [[spoiler: ''The Bronze Horseman'']].

* TheMusical: A surprising number of Pushkin's stories, plays, and poems have operatic equivalents. These operas include (deep breath) ''Eugene Onegin'', ''Boris Godunov'', ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' (the first Russian opera), ''Tale of Tsar Saltan'', ''The Golden Cockerel'', ''The Captain's Daughter'', ''Aleko'' (based on ''The Gypsies''), ''Rusalka'', "Mozart and Salieri", ''The Miserly Knight'', ''The Queen of Spades'', ''The Stone Guest'', ''Mazeppa'', and ''Dubrovsky''. That's not even mentioning the ballet versions.

* TheMusical: A surprising number of Pushkin's stories, plays, and poems have operatic equivalents. These operas include (deep breath) ''Eugene Onegin'', ''Boris Godunov'', ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' (the first Russian opera), ''Tale of Tsar Saltan'', ''The Golden Cockerel'', ''The Captain's Daughter'', ''Aleko'' (based on ''The Gypsies''), ''Rusalka'', ''The Miserly Knight'', ''The Queen of Spades'', ''The Stone Guest'', ''Mazeppa'', and ''Dubrovsky''. That's not even mentioning the ballet versions.

** It should be noted, that the author himself never exactly accuses Boris of murder. Several characters do, but even the most trustworthy ones are just recounting rumors. Boris himself has visions that might indicate his guilt; however, it might not be guilt of murder, but simply of benefiting (big time) from someone else's death.

* CargoEnvy: He has a short poem dedicated to a tobacco sniffing girl. In the end, he states he wishes to be that tobacco, for her to spill a bit over herself.

* CircassianBeauty: In the narrative poem "A Prisoner of the Caucasus", a compassionate and pretty Circassian girl falls for the captive Russian protagonist and frees him from captivity. Because he initially rejected her affections, she [[SpurnedIntoSuicide drowns herself]] in a river afterwards.

* PyrrhicVillainy: In the [[DownerEnding end]] of ''Mozart and Salieri'', the latter poisons the former but is left with even more doubts about his own genius.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Pushkin's poem ''I Loved You''. He expresses his affections to a woman who does not reciprocate his feelings, and he decides to let her find someone else who possesses that love for her.

Pushkin's personality is a subject of never-ending [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism discussion]]. Over time, his public image has shifted from [[LovableRogue talented rascal]] to [[HonorBeforeReason noble victim of evil machinations]] to [[IncorruptiblePurePureness perfect manifestation of Russian soul]] to the more "realistic" [[GentlemanSnarker morally weak]] person and an extremely talented poet.

Pushkin is probably the most notable African-Russian: his great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, was an African prince from Cameroon or Ethiopia, a former slave adopted as a godson by Peter the Great. Gannibal later became a general and married into Russian nobility, and is often credited with having given Imperial Russia its greatest general, having convinced Alexander Suvorov's father to allow him to enter the military.

Pushkin was a [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether classmate]] of many notable characters of his generation, including future participants of the Decemberist rebellion of 1825. He was also a friend of several older military officers. His school nickname was "Frenchman", a reflection of his very confused cultural affiliation. As a young aristocratic man, he held a number of civil service positions and performed miserably in all of them, to the point of open mockery of the public good. As a poet and writer, however, he managed to carve himself a professional field that did not previously exist in Russia. Before Pushkin (and a few contemporaries), poetry was either an aristocratic hobby or a part of formal ceremonies. His writings alone managed to move written Russian from templates of Latin and classical German with their heavy and lengthy way of expression, to lively and flexible language to rival French and Spanish. He managed to introduce the previously scorned folk motives and humor, and to show patriotism without the obligatory worship of the state and royal family.

Pushkin did not participate in major political events of his time -- he was either carefully kept out of seditious talk by his friends or was thought to be too irresponsible and fragile to be trusted with secrets. The fact that due to the perceived seditiousness of his writings he was one of the people the government watched most closely did not exactly help. In 1820 he was told to leave the capital and forced to a kind of glorified exile first in the Caucasus, then in Odessa, and finally on his family estate at Mikhailovskoye near Pskov. He was only allowed to return after the Decembrist uprising had been put down, one important condition being that he would submit anything he wanted to publish in future to Czar Nicholas I beforehand for personal censorship. He married a very attractive woman, participated in social life and entertainment far above his income level, and left thousands of rubles of debt after his death (later to be paid by the imperial family he despised). Seriously obsessed with duels, he met his death in one, shot by one Georges Danthes. The formal reason was husband's jealousy: Danthes was rumored to be involved with Pushkin's wife. Probably not true and not relevant, since the lady in question was suspected of having affairs before, just not with the people Pushkin could hope to harm and survive the experience. The fact that Danthes (another [[AmbiguouslyGay sensitive]] young aristocrat living above his means and largely useless in civil service) was Pushkin's usual target for insults and harassment probably had more to do with it.

Pushkin was a [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether classmate]] of many notable characters of his generation, including future participants of the Decemberist rebellion of 1825. He was also a friend of several older military officers. His school nickname was "Frenchman", a reflection of his very confused cultural affiliation. As a young aristocratic man, he held a number of civil service positions and performed miserably in everyone, to the point of open mockery of the public good. As a poet and writer, however, he managed to carve himself a professional field that did not previously exist in Russia. Before Pushkin (and a few contemporaries), poetry was either an aristocratic hobby or a part of formal ceremonies. His writings alone managed to move written Russian from templates of Latin and classical German with their heavy and lengthy way of expression, to lively and flexible language to rival French and Spanish. He managed to introduce the previously scorned folk motives and humor, and to show patriotism without the obligatory worship of the state and royal family.

Pushkin was a [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether classmate]] of many notable characters of his generation, including future participants of the Decemberist rebellion of 1825. He was also a friend of several older military officers. His school nickname was "Frenchman", a reflection of his very confused cultural affiliation. As a young aristocratic man, he held a number of civil service positions and performed miserably in every one, to the point of open mockery of public good. As a poet and writer, however, he managed to carve himself a professional field that did not previously exist in Russia. Before Pushkin (and a few contemporaries), poetry was either an aristocratic hobby, or a part of formal ceremonies. His writings alone managed to move written Russian from templates of Latin and classical German with their heavy and lengthy way of expression, to lively and flexible language to rival French and Spanish. He managed to introduce the previously scorned folk motives and humor, and to show patriotism without the obligatory worship of the state and royal family.

Pushkin did not participate in major political events of his time -- he was either carefully kept out of seditious talk by his friends, or was thought to be too irresponsible and fragile to be trusted with secrets. The fact that due to the perceived seditiousness of his writings he was one of the people the government watched most closely did not exactly help. In 1820 he was told to leave the capital and forced to a kind of glorified exile first in the Caucasus, then in Odessa, and finally on his family estate at Mikhailovskoye near Pskov. He was only allowed to return after the Decembrist uprising had been put down, one important condition being that he would submit anything he wanted to publish in future to Czar Nicholas I beforehand for personal censorship. He married a very attractive woman, participated in social life and entertainments far above his income level, and left thousands of rubles of debt after his death (later to be paid by the imperial family he despised). Seriously obsessed with duels, he met his death in one, shot by one Georges Danthes. The formal reason was husband's jealousy: Danthes was rumored to be involved with Pushkin's wife. Probably not true and not relevant, since the lady in question was suspected of having affairs before, just not with the people Pushkin could hope to harm and survive the experience. The fact that Danthes (another [[AmbiguouslyGay sensitive]] young aristocrat living above his means and largely useless in civil service) was Pushkin's usual target for insults and harassment probably had more to do with it.

** It should be noted, that the author himself never exactly accuses Boris of murder. Several characters do, but even the most trustworthy ones are just recounting rumors. Boris himself has visions that might indicate his guilt; however, it might not be a guilt of murder, but simply of benefiting (big time) from someone else's death.

* BlatantLies: At the end of ''Boris Godunov'' Mosalskiy with the soldiers enters Godunov's house. Then the sound of fighting and woman's scream are heard. Then Mosalskiy returns and proclaims to the crowd that Godunov's widow and son poisoned themselves before his visit...

** ''The Bronze Horseman'' is perhaps the most egregious example, only being published in its intended complete form in the early 20th century. Most notably, Yevgeni's remonstrations against Peter were cut and the descriptor "idol" (in the sense of "false god") was replaced by "giant" in all 19th century editions.

*** And, funnily, again in 21st century, due to Russian Orthodox Church rise to power.

* DuelToTheDeath: Dueling comes up in the story ''The Shot'', among other works. As it turned out, Pushkin himself participated in 28 duels, and was killed in his 29th duel. This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT4Dl60_iag documentary]] (the title translates to ''A. Pushkin: The 29th Duel'') explores Pushkin's fascination with duels and also analyses some of his own duels.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Pushkin wrote a short play called ''Mozart and Salieri'' loosely based off of the life of the two composers. This was [[RippedFromTheHeadlines sparked off by news reports at the time]] that Salieri had confessed to murdering Mozart on his deathbed. This did much to promote the (false) notion that Mozart and Salieri were lifelong rivals and enemies (as repeated much later in the play and film ''Theatre/{{Amadeus}}'').

* CombatBreakdown: Ruslan and Rogdai's duel in ''Ruslan and Lyudmila''.

* HappilyEverAfter: In the ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' even the BigBad lives happily ever after.

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: averted with Chernomor. ''"Karla"'' was the standard Russian word for a fantasy dwarf before there was Tolkien. Chernomor is a wizard (a very non-standard class for a dwarf) as well as evil (a quite non-standard alignment for a dwarf).

* StealthParody: ''Ruslan and Liudmila'' (of chivalric romances and narrative poems).

* WeirdAlEffect: ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' contain large parts that invoked referencing to and parodying Vasiliy Zhukovsky's ballad "The Twelve Sleeping Maidens" (Zhukovsky, apparently, loved the parody). One guess which is better known today.

* DressHitsFloor: In ''Ruslan and Ludmila''.

* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Lampshaded and averted in ''Ruslan and Ludmila''.

* BeardOfEvil: Chernomor, BigBad in ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' can be the most triumphant example, as his magical power is actually in his beard.
* BigBad: Chernomor in ''Ruslan and Ludmila'', Troekurov in ''Dubrovsky''.

->''"The unusual thing about Russia is that it reached cultural maturity in the nineteenth century. Russia didn’t have the Middle Ages of Dante and Chaucer, the Renaissance of the Italians, or the Elizabethan age of the British. They weren’t even sure what language to write in. Pushkin more or less created the Russian literary language, and Pushkin was born in 1799. They were doing for the first time what other cultures had been doing for hundreds of years."''

Pushkin is probably the most notable African-Russian: his great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, was an african prince from Cameroon or Ethiopia, a former slave adopted as a godson by Peter the Great. Gannibal later became a general and married into Russian nobility, and is often credited with having given Imperial Russia its greatest general, having convinced Alexander Suvorov's father to allow him to enter the military.

* SalieriSyndrome: ''Mozart and Salieri'', naturally.

Pushkin is probably the most notable African-Russian: his great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, was an Ethiopian prince from present-day Eritrea, a former slave adopted as a godson by Peter the Great. Gannibal later became a general and married into Russian nobility, and is often credited with having given Imperial Russia its greatest general, having convinced Alexander Suvorov's father to allow him to enter the military.