Today, the Free For All celebrates the birthday of the Shakespeare of Russian Literature, would-be revolutionary, and all-round romantic, Alexander Pushkin!

Pushkin was born on this day in Moscow, 1799.  His parents were part of the extensive Russian nobility, but his great-grandfather was Abram Gannibal, a slave who had been brought to Russia from what is now Cameroon, and had been freed by Peter the Great, and who had grown up within the Tsar’s household.  Pushkin would attribute not only his love of freedom to his great-grandfather, but also his dark, curly hair.

From a young age, Pushkin knew he wanted to be a poet, as well as a social reformer.  He was inspired by the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire (the same revolution in which Byron died), and, though a civil servant, eagerly wrote and spoke out on the most radical of issues, including revolution, which quickly got him transferred to all the backwater areas of Russian government.  Though bored out of his wits by his work, and increasingly lonely without the balls and parties of Russian high society, these isolated posts gave Pushkin plenty of time to write, to join the Freemasons (in 1820), and to become good friends with the Decembrists (not the musical group…the revolutionary group that was plotting to overthrow the Tsar.

Pushkin never took part in the 1825 Decembrist Uprising (legend says as he was leaving to join them, a black cat crossed his path, and the highly superstitious Pushkin decided it was an omen and stayed home).  However, his comrades within the Decembrists kept handwritten copies of many of his political poems, and when they were arrested, Pushkin’s name was immediately linked to the group.  Though he was allowed to return to St. Petersburg after having a face-to-face meeting with Tsar Nicholas I, Pushkin was placed under police watch, was unable to travel, and could publish nothing without extensive police censorship for the next five years.

Nevertheless, Pushkin’s star was on the rise.  His plays and poems were winning him fame across Russia, and his charming wit, ribald jokes, and shameless flirting made him the first person to be invited to any event in Russian society.  It was at one of these parties, in 1828, that Pushkin met Natalya Goncharova, then 16-years-old, and reportedly one of the most beautiful women in Moscow (one of Pushkin’s sketches of her is to the left).  He fell in love immediately (granted, he seemed to have done that fairly often), but it took a great deal to convince the very hesitant Natalya to marry him, in 1831.

Like all good 19th century artists, Pushkin was falling deeper and deeper into debt, and his frequent clashes with the Powers That Be made his life a bit of a topsy-turvy one.  He was willing to deal with it all with his customary charm, style, and bawdy good humor.  But the one thing he couldn’t tolerate was his wife’s unhappiness–even when it came as a result of a potential affair with another man.

Romantics say that there is no one more devoted than a reformed rake, and Pushkin is the man who proves that saying.  Though he called Natalya his “113th love”, and wasn’t above gently mocking her in his letters, she was his muse, and the person he held above all others.  “Without you,” he wrote Natalya, “I would have been unhappy all my life.”

So when Natalya’s heart was broken by Georges D’Anthes, her brother-in-law, and reportedly one of the best shots in the Russian Army, Pushkin very publicly challenged him to a duel.  D’Anthes fired first, hitting Pushkin in the abdomen.  Pushkin–who had already fought a few duels in his time–managed to get up and fire, but only lightly wounded D’Anthes in the shoulder.  Though honor may have been served, Pushkin’s wound was a fatal one, and he died after two days of agony.

Even in death, Pushkin proved to be a threat to the establishment–his funeral, and the public mourning over his death was so strong and widespread that the government feared widespread unrest, and abruptly moved his funeral into a smaller church in order to discourage the crowds.  It wasn’t until 1880 that a statue to the great man was unveiled in Moscow.

Today, though, we get to celebrate all of Pushkin’s genius, from his deeply romantic side, embodied in Eugene Onegin, perhaps the most famous poem in Russian literature, to his love for the dark, gothic, and mystical, to his prolific and utterly enchanting letters.  I, personally, cannot recommend Pushkin highly enough (I was a Russian major in college because I had…have…an enormous literary crush on the man), but there is plenty of pleasure to be found, even for the uninitiated.  Here are some super places to get started:

Eugene Onegin:  I know I have brought up this book one too many times around here already, but seriously….it’s wonderful.  Onegin is a jaded, cynical, self-absorbed Byronic hero who wins the heart of Tatiana, an innocent, but fiercely independent and free-spirited young woman (Pushkin writes some darned good heroine, particularly considering the time period in which he was writing).  Their meeting becomes a catalyst for tragedy and self-revelation in rhyme that is so emotional and so smart and so moving that you’ll get swept away by it.  Also, thanks to a passage in this poem that gave rise to a long-standing rumor that Pushkin had a foot fetish.  You’ll have to read it to judge for yourself!

Collected Stories: Pushkin was a gifted story-teller no matter the medium, and his short stories still have the power to captivate, to intrigue, and to scandalize to this day.  Some of these stories deal with elements of Russian folklore and mythology, some make fun of Russian society in Pushkin’s day, particularly the hypocrisy of the upper classes and government (and many of which still ring true today), and some are out-and-out, NSFW romps that gave a number of people in my Russian language classes fits of hysteria.  The really fascinating part is that even these ribald tales are so well-written and clever and funny that it’s impossible not to cherish them.