Alexander Pushkin has pioneered the use of…
February 1837 CE
Alexander Pushkin has pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems and plays, creating a style of storytelling—mixing drama, romance, and satire—associated with Russian literature ever since and greatly influencing later Russian writers.
He had met Nikolai Gogo in 1831l, and after reading Gogol's 1831-2 volume of short stories Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Pushkin had supported him critically and later in 1836, after starting his magazine, The Contemporary, began to feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories.
Pushkin’s most famous works of this era include the Stone Guest, a poetic dram written in 1830 and based on the Spanish legend of Don Juan, and Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse, published in serial form between 1825 and 1832.
The latter, more loved for its style of storytelling than for what is actually told, will become a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist will serve as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes.
Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he had married in 1831, have become regulars of court society.
When the Tsar gave Pushkin the lowest court title, the poet had become enraged: he felt this occurred not only so that his wife, who had many admirers—including the Tsar himself—could properly attend court balls, but also to humiliate him.
In 1837, falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenges Georges d'Anthès, a man who has insulted his wife, to a duel which leaves both men injured, Pushkin mortally.
He dies two days later.
The government fears a political demonstration at his funeral, which it moves to a smaller location and makes open only to close relatives and friends.
His body is spirited away secretly at midnight and buried on his mother's estate.
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