Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837), the greatest Russian poet of the 19th century, established the modern Russian literary idiom in such works as Boris Godunov (1831) and his masterpiece Eugene Onegin (1823-31). His efforts to break with literary classicism and to present a panorama of Russian society profoundly influenced the novels of Turgenev and TolstoiAleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, b. June 6 (N.S.), 1799, d. Feb. 10 (N.S.), 1837, was Russia's greatest poet. His use of the vernacular as the language of poetry freed Russian writing from the constraints of tradition and set new literary standards for novelists and poets, and his preference for subjects from history and folklore brought fresh vitality to Russian literature.
Born in Moscow, Pushkin was descended from a family of cultured but impoverished aristocrats. He was taught by his family to love literature, and from an early age he showed great promise as a poet. Pushkin studied at the Lyceum in the town of Tsarskoye Selo, later renamed Pushkin, and after graduating (1817), was appointed to a post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital city of Saint Petersburg. Here Pushkin indulged in the glittering social life available to a well-born Russian youth of his day--the life he would eventually satirize in Eugene Onegin (1823-31), a verse novel that describes a shallow, pleasure-loving man's insensitivity to the love of a noble woman. Despite the somewhat frivolous nature of his social pursuits, Pushkin remained deeply committed to social reform and gained the reputation of spokesman for literary radicals. As a result he angered the government and was transferred from the capital, first to Kishinev (1820-23) and then to Odessa (1823-24).
