𝓐𝓵𝓮𝔁𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓬𝓱 𝓟𝓾𝓼𝓱𝓴𝓲𝓷~

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (May 26 (June 6), 1799, Moscow – January 29 (February 10), 1837, St. Petersburg) was a Russian poet, playwright, novelist, literary critic, translator, publicist, and historian. He was one of the most influential literary figures of the first third of the 19th century.

Brief biography:

1. Education: from 1811 he studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum near St. Petersburg, graduating with the first graduating class in 1817.
2. The beginning of creativity: he began writing poetry while still at the Lyceum, and was a member of the literary societies “Arzamas” and “Green Lamp”.
3. Exile: For his free-thinking poems (the ode "Liberty" and some epigrams), he was sent into "southern exile"—a forced assignment to the southern regions of the empire. He lived in Chisinau, Odessa, Crimea, and the Caucasus until 1824.
4. Exile to Mikhailovskoye: from 1824 he was in exile on his mother’s estate in the village of Mikhailovskoye near Pskov.

Personal life (briefly): On February 18 (March 2, old style), 1831, Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova were married in Moscow. In May 1832, a daughter, Maria, was born, and over the next four years, three more children were born into the family: Grigory, Natalia, and Alexander.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (May 26 [June 6], 1799, Moscow – January 29 [February 10], 1837, St. Petersburg) was a Russian poet, playwright, and prose writer who laid the foundations of the Russian realistic movement, a literary critic and literary theorist, historian, publicist, journalist, editor, and publisher. One of the most influential literary figures of the first third of the 19th century, Pushkin's reputation as the greatest national Russian poet was established even during his lifetime. He is considered the founder of the modern Russian literary language.

Nicknames: Alexander NKShP, Ivan Petrovich Belkin, Feofilakt Kosichkin (magazine), P., Art. Arz. (Old Arzamasets), A. B.

Date of birth: May 26 (June 6), 1799 Place of birth: Moscow, Russian Empire Date of death: January 29 (February 10), 1837 (age 37) Place of death: Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire Place of burial: Svyatogorsk Monastery Education: Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1817) Occupation: poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, publicist, historian Years of creativity: 1814-1837 Direction: romanticism, realism Genres: poem, novel (historical novel, novel in verse, robber novel), play, story, fairy tale Language of works: Russian, French Debut: "To a Friend the Poet" (1814)

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin's lineage traces back to the extensive, untitled noble family of the Pushkins, which, according to genealogical legend, traces its origins to the "honest man" Ratsha. Pushkin wrote about his ancestry repeatedly in poetry and prose; he saw his ancestors as a model of true "aristocracy," an ancient lineage that had served the fatherland honorably but had not found favor with the rulers and had been "persecuted." He also repeatedly invoked (including in artistic form) the image of his maternal great-grandfather, the African Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who became a servant and protégé of Peter the Great, and later a military engineer and general. In the 17th century, Pushkin's paternal ancestors did not rise above the court rank of stolnik. My great-grandfather, Alexander Petrovich Pushkin, who lived during the reign of Peter the Great, was a sergeant of the guard and in 1725, in a fit of madness, he killed his wife. Grandfather, Lev Alexandrovich, was an artillery colonel, captain of the guard. Father - Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1770-1848), a secular wit and amateur poet. Pushkin's mother was Nadezhda Osipovna (1775-1836), the granddaughter of Hannibal. His paternal uncle, Vasily Lvovich (1766-1830), was a famous poet of Karamzin’s circle. Of the children of Sergei Lvovich and Nadezhda Osipovna, in addition to Alexander, the surviving children were daughter Olga (married Pavlishcheva, 1797-1868) and son Lev (1805-1852). Childhood: Pushkin was born on May 26 (June 6), 1799, in Moscow, in the German Quarter. The church register of the Epiphany Church in Yelokhovo, dated June 8 (19), 1799, contains, among other entries, the following: "May 27. In the courtyard of the collegiate registrar Ivan Vasiliev Skvartsov, a son, Alexander, was born to his tenant, Moyer Sergei Lvovich Pushkin. He was baptized on June 8. The godfather was Count Artemy Ivanovich Vorontsov, and the godmother was the mother of the said Sergei Pushkin, the widow Olga Vasilievna Pushkina."

That summer, his parents took their son to Mikhailovskoye, and then, until the spring of 1801, the family lived in St. Petersburg with his mother-in-law, Maria Alekseyevna Gannibal (1745–1818, née Pushkina, from a different branch of the family). It was during this period that Pushkin's oft-mentioned meeting with Paul I, about which he writes in the lines "I saw three tsars…," could well have taken place. The future poet usually spent the summer months of 1805–1810 with his maternal grandmother, the same Maria Alekseyevna, in the village of Zakharovo, near Zvenigorod, near Moscow. These early childhood impressions were reflected in Pushkin's first attempts at poems, written somewhat later ("The Monk," 1813; "Bova," 1814), and in his lyceum poems, "Message to Yudin" (1815) and "Dream" (1816). His grandmother wrote the following about her grandson: "I don't know what will become of my eldest grandson. The boy is smart and a bookworm, but he studies poorly, rarely does he complete his lessons in order; sometimes you can't stir him up, you can't send him out to play with the children, but then he suddenly turns on his heels and gets so carried away that nothing can calm him down: he rushes from one extreme to the other, there is no middle ground for him." Pushkin spent six years (1811–1817) at the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, which opened on October 19, 1811. Here, the young poet experienced the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. Here, his poetic gift was first discovered and highly appreciated. Memories of his years at the Lyceum and of the Lyceum's brotherhood remained forever etched in the poet's soul. Among Pushkin's lyceum teachers was Professor of Moral and Political Sciences A.P. Kunitsyn, who had studied at the University of Göttingen and was close to many of the future Decembrists. Pushkin retained a lifelong gratitude to Kunitsyn. He is the only lyceum teacher to whom Pushkin repeatedly addressed poetry.

During his time at the Lyceum, Pushkin wrote many works of poetry. He was inspired by the French poets of the 17th and 18th centuries, whose work he became acquainted with as a child, reading books from his father's library. The young Pushkin's favorite poets and writers are listed in his poem "The Town" (1815): Voltaire, Homer, Virgil, Tasso, La Fontaine, Dmitriev, Krylov, Derzhavin, Vergier, Grécourt, Parny, Racine, Molière, Fonvizin, Knyazhnin, Ozerov, Rousseau, Karamzin, and La Harpe. His early lyric poetry combined the traditions of French and Russian classicism. Pushkin's mentors as a poet were Batyushkov, a recognized master of "light poetry," and Zhukovsky, the leader of Russian Romanticism. Pushkin's lyric poetry from 1813 to 1815 is permeated with themes of the transience of life, which dictated a thirst for savoring the joys of existence. From 1816, following Zhukovsky, he turned to elegies, where he developed themes characteristic of this genre: unrequited love, the passing of youth, the fading of the soul. Pushkin's lyric poetry was still imitative, full of literary conventions and cliches, yet even then the budding poet was forging his own unique path. Not confined to chamber poetry, Pushkin addressed more complex, socially significant themes. "Memories in Tsarskoye Selo" (1814), which earned the approval of Derzhavin—Pushkin read the poem in his presence in early 1815—is dedicated to the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. The poem was published in 1815 in the journal "Russian Museum" under the author's full signature. Pushkin's letter "To Licinius" critically portrays contemporary Russian life, portraying Arakcheyev as the "despot's favorite." Even at the beginning of his career, Pushkin showed an interest in Russian satirical writers of the previous century. Fonvizin's influence is felt in Pushkin's satirical poem "Fonvizin's Shadow" (1815); "Bova" (1814) and "Unbelief" (1817) are associated with Radishchev's work.

In July 1814, Pushkin published his first poem in the Moscow-based journal Vestnik Evropy. Issue number 13 featured the poem "To a Poet Friend," signed with the pseudonym Alexander N.k.s.p. and addressed to Küchelbecker. While still a student at the Lyceum, Pushkin joined the literary society "Arzamas," which opposed routine and archaism in literary work. He actively participated in the debate with the "Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word" group, which defended the canons of classicism of the previous century. Attracted by the work of the most prominent representatives of the new literary movement, Pushkin was strongly influenced at that time by the poetry of Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, and Davydov. The latter initially appealed to Pushkin with the theme of a gallant warrior, and later with what the poet himself called "the twist of verse"—sharp shifts in mood, expressiveness, and unexpected combinations of images. Pushkin later said that, imitating Davydov in his youth, he "adopted his style forever."[30] Many of Pushkin's lyceum poems were inspired by Denis Davydov's lyrics: "Feasting Students," "The Cossack," "Riders," "Moustache," and "Recollection."

Pushkin graduated from the Lyceum on June 9, 1817 with the rank of collegiate secretary (10th class, according to the Table of Ranks), on June 13, by the highest decree, he was appointed to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and on June 15 he took the oath, signing a form of oath of allegiance to the emperor.

At this time, his father handed over to Alexander his servant Nikita, who had known Sasha from the first days, became his true friend and walked with him practically his entire life until the last day, except for the year of Mikhailovskaya exile.

Pushkin became a regular visitor to the theatre, took part in the meetings of Arzamas (he was accepted there in absentia, while still a student at the Lyceum, and received the nickname "Cricket"), and in 1819 joined the literary and theatrical society "Green Lamp", which was led by the "Union of Welfare". Without participating in the activities of the first secret organizations, Pushkin was nevertheless connected by friendly ties with many active members of the Decembrist societies, wrote political epigrams and poems “To Chaadaev” (“Love, hope, quiet glory…”, 1818), “Liberty” (1818), “To N. Ya. Plyuskova” (1818), “The Village” (1819), which were distributed in copies. During these years, Pushkin worked on the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila," begun at the Lyceum and consistent with the programmatic guidelines of the Arzamas Literary Society regarding the need to create a national epic poem. The poem was published in May 1820 (it had been known from copies earlier) and elicited varied, not always favorable, responses. Even after Pushkin's exile, controversy erupted around the poem. Some critics were outraged by the debasement of the high canon. The blending of Russian and French literary techniques with colloquialism and folkloric stylistics in "Ruslan and Lyudmila" also drew criticism from advocates of democratic nationality in literature. Such criticisms were contained in a letter from D. Zykov, a literary follower of Katenin, published in "Syn Otechestva."

In the spring of 1820, Pushkin was summoned to the military governor-general of St. Petersburg, Count M. A. Miloradovich, to explain the content of his poems (including epigrams on Arakcheev, Archimandrite Photius, and Alexander I himself), which were incompatible with his official status. There was talk of exile to Siberia or imprisonment in the Solovetsky Monastery. Only through the efforts of his friends, especially Karamzin, was his sentence mitigated. Pushkin was transferred from the capital to the south, to the Chisinau chancery of I. N. Inzov, viceroy of the Bessarabian region. En route to his new posting, Pushkin contracted pneumonia after swimming in the Dnieper. To recuperate, the Raevskys took the ailing poet to the Caucasus and Crimea at the end of May 1820. En route, the Raevskys and A.S. Pushkin stopped in Taganrog, at the former home of the mayor, P.A. Papkov (40 Grecheskaya Street). From June 13/25 to July 6/18, the poet spent his first time in Goryachie Vody, staying at A.F. Rebrov's estate.

On August 16, 1820, Pushkin arrived in Feodosia. He wrote to his brother Lev: "From Kerch we traveled to Kafa and stayed with Bronevsky, a man respected for his impeccable service and his poverty. Now he's on trial—and, like Virgil's Old Man, he cultivates a garden on the seashore, not far from the city. Grapes and almonds are his income. He's not an intelligent man, but he knows a lot about Crimea—an important and neglected region. From here we set sail past the southern shores of Taurida, to Yurzuf, where the Raevsky family was staying. That night on the ship, I wrote an elegy, which I'm sending you." Two days later, Pushkin, together with the Raevskys, departed by sea for Gurzuf.

Pushkin spent several weeks in Gurzuf during the summer and fall of 1820. He and the Raevskys stayed at the Duke of Richelieu's house; the poet was given a mezzanine facing west. In Gurzuf, Pushkin took many walks along the coast and into the mountains, including a horseback ride to the summit of Ayu-Dag and a boat trip to Cape Suuk-Su.

In Gurzuf, Pushkin continued working on the poem "The Prisoner of the Caucasus" and wrote several lyric poems, some of which were dedicated to N. N. Raevsky's daughters—Ekaterina, Elena, and Maria. It was here that the poet conceived the idea for the poem "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" and the novel "Eugene Onegin." Late in his life, Pushkin recalled Crimea: "There is the cradle of my Onegin." In September 1820, on his way to Simferopol, he visited Bakhchisarai. From a letter to Delvig: "...Entering the palace, I saw a damaged fountain, water dripping from a rusty iron pipe. I walked around the palace with great annoyance at the neglect in which it was rotting, and at the semi-European alterations of some of the rooms." While strolling through the palace courtyards, the poet picked two roses and placed them at the foot of the "Fountain of Tears," to which he later dedicated poems and the poem "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai."

In mid-September, Pushkin spent about a week in Simferopol, presumably in the house of the Tauride governor, Alexander Nikolaevich Baranov, an old acquaintance of the poet from St. Petersburg.

Pushkin used his impressions from his visit to Crimea in the description of Onegin's Journey, which was initially included as an appendix to the poem Eugene Onegin.

It wasn't until September 21 that Pushkin arrived in Chisinau. His new superior was lenient with Pushkin's service, allowing him to take long breaks to visit friends in Kamenka (winter 1820–1821), travel to Kyiv, travel with I. P. Liprandi through Moldova, and visit Odessa (late 1821). In Chisinau, Pushkin became close with members of the Union of Welfare, M. F. Orlov, K. A. Okhotnikov, and V. F. Raevsky, and joined the Ovid Masonic Lodge, a fact he wrote about in his diary. If the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" represented the culmination of his studies with the best Russian poets, then Pushkin's first "southern poem," "The Prisoner of the Caucasus" (1822), placed him at the forefront of modern Russian literature and earned him the well-deserved fame of being the first poet, a reputation that would remain with him until the late 1820s. Later, in the 1830s, Pushkin earned the epithet "the Russian Byron." Later, another "southern poem" was published—"The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" (1824). The poem was fragmentary, as if harboring something unsaid, which gave it a special charm, evoking a powerful emotional response in the reader. P. A. Vyazemsky wrote from Moscow about it: "The appearance of The Fountain of Bakhchisarai is worthy of the attention not only of lovers of poetry, but also of observers of our successes in the intellectual industry, which, without offence being said, contributes, like any other, to the welfare of the state. The manuscript of Pushkin's short poem was paid three thousand rubles; it does not contain six hundred verses; so, a verse (and what kind of verse? Let us note for the stock market appraisers - a small tetrameter verse) cost five rubles with a surplus. A verse by Beyron, Casimir Lavigne, a line by Walter Scott bring in an even more significant percentage, that is true! But let us also remember that foreign capitalists collect interest from all educated consumers on the globe, while our capital circulates in a close and domestic circle. Be that as it may, more was paid for the verses of The Fountain of Bakhchisarai than for any Russian verse was."

At the same time, the poet attempted to turn to Russian antiquity, outlining plans for the poems "Mstislav" and "Vadim" (the latter idea also took on a dramatic form), creating the satirical poem "Gabriliad" (1821), and the poem "The Robber Brothers" (1822; separate publication in 1827). Over time, Pushkin developed a conviction (at first hopelessly tragic) that objective laws operate in the world, laws that man is powerless to shake, no matter how courageous and beautiful his intentions. In this vein, the verse novel "Eugene Onegin" was begun in Chisinau in May 1823; the ending of the first chapter of the novel presupposed the story of the hero's journey beyond his homeland, modeled on Byron's poem "Don Juan." Meanwhile, in July 1823, Pushkin secured a transfer to Odessa, to the office of Count Vorontsov. It was at this time that he realized he was a professional writer, a fact predetermined by the explosive success of his works. His courtship of his boss's wife, and possibly an affair with her, and his inability to perform public service strained his relationship with Vorontsov.

Pushkin's four-year stay in the south marked a new romantic stage in his development as a poet. During this time, he became acquainted with the works of Byron and Chénier. Fascinated by Byron, the poet, by his own admission, "went mad" over him. The first poem he wrote during his stay in the south was the elegy "The Daylight Has Faded...," the subtitle of which he noted: "An Imitation of Byron." The core, the primary goal of his works, became a reflection of a person's emotional state, a revelation of their inner life. Pushkin developed the artistic form of verse by turning to ancient Greek poetry, studying it in translation. Reinterpreting the figurative thinking of the ancient poets in a romantic vein, drawing on the best of his predecessors, and overcoming the clichés of elegiac style, Pushkin created his own poetic language. The fundamental characteristic of Pushkin's poetry was its expressive power and, at the same time, its extraordinary conciseness and laconism. Formed in 1818–1820 under the influence of French elegies and Zhukovsky's lyric poetry, the conventionally melancholic style underwent a significant transformation and merged with the new "Byronic" style. The combination of old, complex, and conventional forms with romantic colors and tension is vividly evident in "The Prisoner of the Caucasus." In 1824, police in Moscow opened a letter from Pushkin in which he wrote about his fascination with "atheistic teachings." This led to the poet's resignation from service. In the second half of July 1824, the Novorossiysk and Bessarabian Governor-General, Count M.S. Vorontsov, received notifications from Vice-Chancellor K.V. Nesselrode regarding the imperial orders of July 8th "to dismiss the Collegiate Secretary Pushkin, who is under the jurisdiction of the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs, from service altogether" and of July 11th, to transfer Pushkin to live in the Pskov Governorate, where he would be under the supervision of local authorities. On July 30th, Pushkin, having received 389 rubles and 4 kopecks in travel money, departed for the Pskov Governorate.

Pushkin was exiled to his mother's estate and spent two years there (until September 1826)—his longest stay in Mikhailovskoye. The young poet first visited in the summer of 1817 and, as he wrote in one of his autobiographies, was enchanted by "country life, the Russian bathhouse, the strawberries, and so on—but my enjoyment of all this was short-lived." Soon after arriving in Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin had a major argument with his father, who had effectively agreed to his father's secret surveillance of his own son. By late autumn, all of Pushkin's relatives left Mikhailovskoye.

Contrary to his friends' fears, the solitude of the village did not prove fatal for Pushkin. Despite the difficult experiences, the first autumn of Mikhailovskaya was fruitful for the poet; he read, reflected, and worked extensively. Pushkin often visited his neighbor, P. A. Osipova, in Trigorskoye and used her library (Osipova's father, a Freemason and associate of N. I. Novikov, left a large collection of books). From his exile in Mikhailovskaya until the end of his life, the poet maintained friendly relations with Osipova and members of her extended family. Yazykov, whose poetry Pushkin had known since 1824, arrived in Trigorskoye in the summer of 1826. Pushkin completed the poems he had begun in Odessa: "A Bookseller's Conversation with a Poet," in which he formulated his professional credo; "To the Sea," a lyrical reflection on the fate of a man in the era of Napoleon and Byron, and on the cruel power of historical circumstances over the individual; and the poem "The Gypsies" (1827), continuing to write a novel in verse. In the autumn of 1824, he resumed work on his autobiographical notes, abandoned at the very beginning during his time in Kishinev, and pondered the plot for the folk drama "Boris Godunov" (completed on November 7 (19), 1825, published in 1831) and wrote the humorous poem "Count Nulin." In total, the poet created approximately one hundred works in Mikhailovskoye. In 1825, he met Osipova’s niece, Anna Kern, in Trigorskoye, to whom, as is commonly believed, he dedicated the poem “I remember a wonderful moment…”.

A month after his exile ended, Pushkin returned "free to the abandoned prison" and spent about a month in Mikhailovskoye. Over the following years, the poet periodically returned there to take a break from city life and write in freedom. In Mikhailovskoye in 1827, Pushkin began his novel "The Blackamoor of Peter the Great."

In Mikhailovskoye, the poet also learned to play billiards. Although he didn't become an outstanding player, according to friends, he wielded a cue on the cloth quite skillfully.

During his stay in Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin entered into a love affair with the serf peasant Olga Kalashnikova and, as some researchers believe, had an illegitimate son, Pavel, with her. The news of the Decembrist uprising of December 14, 1825, deeply disturbed Pushkin, who burned his notes afterward. On May 11, 1826, he submitted a humble petition for permission to travel to one of the capitals or abroad; he attached a medical certificate of illness and a written statement declaring non-affiliation with any secret societies. On the night of September 3–4, 1826, a messenger from the Pskov governor, B. A. Aderkas, arrived in Mikhailovskoye. Accompanied by a courier, Pushkin was to report to Moscow, where Nicholas I, crowned on August 22, was residing. On September 8, immediately upon his arrival, Pushkin was brought to the emperor for a personal audience at the Small Nicholas Palace. Nicholas I's conversation with Pushkin took place privately. Upon returning from exile, the poet was guaranteed personal patronage from the highest authorities and exemption from ordinary censorship.

It was during these years that Pushkin's interest in Peter I, the reforming tsar, emerged. He became the hero of a novel he had begun about the poet's great-grandfather, Abram Gannibal, and of a new poem, "Poltava." Within the framework of a single work of poetry ("Poltava"), the poet combined several serious themes: the relationship between Russia and Europe, the unification of nations, and the happiness and drama of the individual against the backdrop of historical events. By Pushkin's own admission, he was drawn to "the strong characters and the deep, tragic shadow cast over all these horrors." Published in 1829, the poem met with neither readers nor critics. In the draft manuscript of the article "Rejoinders to Critics of 'Poltava,'" Pushkin wrote: "The most mature of all my verse stories, the one in which almost everything is original (and that is all we strive for, although that is not the main thing), is "Poltava", which Zhukovsky, Gnedich, Delvig, Vyazemsky prefer to everything that I have written so far, "Poltava" was not a success." By this time, a new direction had emerged in the poet's work. A sober historical and social analysis of reality combined with an awareness of the complexity of the surrounding world, which often eluded rational explanation. This imbued his work with a sense of foreboding, led to a widespread intrusion of fantasy, gave rise to sorrowful, sometimes painful, memories, and an intense interest in death. At the same time, after the poem “Poltava”, the attitude towards Pushkin among critics and among part of the reading public became colder or more critical.

In 1827, an investigation was launched into the poem "Andrei Chenier" (written in Mikhailovskoye in 1825), which was seen as a response to the events of December 14, 1825. In 1828, the government learned of the Kishinev poem "Gabriliad." These cases were closed by imperial decree after Pushkin's explanation. Pushkin was found guilty of spreading "that pernicious spirit" that characterizes the time of its appearance—the eve of December 14. He signed a pledge "not to release any works to the public without review and censorship," and was placed under secret police surveillance. In December 1828, Pushkin met the 16-year-old Moscow beauty Natalia Goncharova. By his own admission, he fell in love with her from the very first moment they met. At the end of April 1829, Pushkin proposed to Goncharova through Fyodor Tolstoy the American. The girl's mother's vague response (citing Natalia's youth as the reason), according to Pushkin, "drove him mad."

In early May 1829, Pushkin set off for the Russo-Turkish War, joining the active army in the Caucasus, commanded by I. F. Paskevich. He hoped to meet N. N. Raevsky, his brother Lev, and many friends there. On the way, he encountered Griboyedov's body, which was being transported from Persia to Tiflis. On June 14, 1829, Pushkin took part in a skirmish with Turkish horsemen. Wearing a burka and top hat, on horseback, he flung himself under enemy fire and even, at one point, seizing the lance of a dead Cossack, gave chase to the retreating enemy. On June 19, 1829, after the Battle of Kainli, Pushkin took part in the pursuit of the fleeing enemy. On June 27, after the surrender of Turkish troops in Erzurum, Pushkin entered the city with Russian troops. During every skirmish with the enemy, or during the advance of the troops, Pushkin was always seen galloping ahead of the Cossacks or dragoons, directly under fire. Paskevich repeatedly warned Pushkin that it was dangerous for him to dig so far and advised him to remain with him during battle, but Pushkin disobeyed. Furthermore, Pushkin maintained relationships with some of the Decembrists who served as privates in the army, which displeased Paskevich. Finally, Paskevich invited the poet and said to him: "Mr. Pushkin, I pity you; your life is precious to Russia; you have no business here, and therefore I advise you to leave the army immediately; I have already ordered a reliable escort to be prepared for you." That same day, July 19, Pushkin left the army and lived for a time in Tiflis. He described his journey to war in the essays "Journey to Arzrum." Returning to Moscow, he met with a cold reception from the Goncharovs. Perhaps Natalya's mother feared Pushkin's reputation as a freethinker, his poverty, and his passion for gambling. At the end of 1829, Pushkin developed a desire to travel abroad, which he expressed in the poem "Let's go, I'm ready; wherever you go, friends..." Pushkin approached Benckendorff for permission, but on January 17, 1830, Nicholas I denied him permission to travel.

Pushkin felt the need for change in his life. In 1830, his second proposal to Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova was accepted, and that autumn the poet set off for Boldino, his father's Nizhny Novgorod estate, to take possession of the nearby village of Kistenyovo, a wedding gift from his father. Cholera quarantines delayed the poet for three months, and this period was destined to become the famous Boldino Autumn, the pinnacle of Pushkin's creative output, when an entire library of works poured from his pen: "The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" ("Belkin Tales"), "An Attempt at Dramatic Studies" ("Little Tragedies"), the final chapters of "Eugene Onegin," "The Little House in Kolomna," "The History of the Village of Goryukhino," "The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda," several drafts of critical articles, and about thirty poems. Among the Boldino works, seemingly deliberately dissimilar in genre and tone, two cycles stand out in particular contrast: the prose and the dramatic. These are the two poles of Pushkin's oeuvre, toward which the remaining works written in the three autumn months of 1830 gravitate.

The poetic works of this period represent a wide variety of genres and cover a wide range of themes. One of them, "My Ruddy Critic...," echoes "The History of the Village of Goryukhino" and is so far removed from the idealization of rural reality that it was first published only in a posthumous collection of works under a modified title ("Whim").

"Belkin's Tales" became the first of Pushkin's surviving completed works of prose, a work he repeatedly attempted. In 1821, Pushkin formulated the fundamental law of his prose narrative: "Precision and brevity—these are the first virtues of prose. It demands thought and thought—without them, brilliant expressions are of no use." These stories are also a unique memoir of an ordinary man who, finding nothing significant in his life, fills his notes with retellings of stories he heard that struck his imagination with their unusualness. "The Tales..." marked the completion of Pushkin's development as a prose writer, which began in 1827 with "Peter the Great's Blackamoor." The cycle defined both the future direction of Pushkin's work—he turned primarily to prose for the last six years of his life—and the entire, hitherto undeveloped Russian literary tradition.

At the same time, Pushkin was actively involved in the publication of the Literary Gazette (published from January 1, 1830, to June 30, 1831), run by his friend, the publisher A. A. Delvig. Delvig, having prepared the first two issues, temporarily left St. Petersburg and entrusted the newspaper to Pushkin, who became the de facto editor for the first thirteen issues. After the Literary Gazette published a quatrain by Kazimir Delavigne about the victims of the July Revolution, a conflict arose with F. V. Bulgarin, an agent of the Third Section and editor of the semi-official newspaper Severnaya Pchela (Northern Bee), which led to the publication's closure. On December 5, 1830, Pushkin returned from Boldino to Moscow. On February 18 (March 2), 1831, Alexander Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova in the Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate in Moscow. The two wedding crowns with which, according to legend, A.S. Pushkin and N.N. Goncharova were married are currently kept in the Armory Chamber (Hall 2, Display Case 19). While exchanging wedding rings, Pushkin dropped his ring on the floor, and then the candle went out. Shocked, he turned pale and said, "Everything is a bad omen!" Immediately after their wedding, the Pushkin family briefly settled in Moscow, at number 53 on Arbat Street (according to the current numbering; now a museum). The couple lived there until mid-May 1831, and before their lease expired, they left for the capital, as Pushkin had fallen out with his mother-in-law, who was interfering in his family life. For the summer, Pushkin rented a dacha in Tsarskoye Selo. Here he wrote "Onegin's Letter," thus finally completing the verse novel that had been his "faithful companion" for eight years. The new perception of reality that emerged in his work in the late 1820s demanded a deep study of history: in it, the sources of the fundamental questions of our time had to be found. Pushkin actively expanded his personal library with domestic and foreign publications related to the history of Peter the Great's time.

A. I. Turgenev noted in him “treasures of talent, observations and erudition about Russia, especially about Peter and Catherine, rare, unique... No one judged modern Russian history so well: he was ripe for it and knew and discovered much that others had not noticed.” The cholera riots, horrific in their brutality, and the events in Poland, which brought Russia to the brink of war with Europe, appeared to the poet as a threat to Russian statehood. Under these circumstances, a strong government seemed to him the key to Russia's salvation—an idea that inspired his poems "Before the Tomb of the Saint...," "To the Slanderers of Russia," and "Borodino Anniversary." The last two, written on the occasion of the capture of Warsaw, along with V. A. Zhukovsky's poem "Old Song in a New Way," were published in a special brochure titled "On the Capture of Warsaw" and provoked a mixed reaction. Pushkin, never an enemy of any nation and a friend of Mickiewicz, nevertheless could not reconcile himself to the rebels' claims to annex Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian lands to Poland. Pushkin's friends reacted differently to the Polish events: Vyazemsky and A. I. Turgenev were both negative. On September 22, 1831, Vyazemsky wrote in his diary: Pushkin in his poems: "He shows the slanderers of Russia a pittance. He knows they won't read his poems, and therefore won't answer questions that would be very easy for even Pushkin himself to answer. <…> And what sacrilege is this again, to combine Borodino with Warsaw? Russia cries out against this lawlessness." Some exiled Decembrists enthusiastically read the poem. However, F. V. Bulgarin, associated with the Third Section, accused the poet of adhering to liberal ideas.

In July 1831, Pushkin sent a letter to the head of the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Chancellery, Adjutant General A. H. Benckendorff: "The Emperor's truly paternal concern deeply touches me. Already showered with His Majesty's blessings, my inaction has long been a burden to me. I am always ready to serve him to the best of my ability. <…> I also dare to ask permission to engage in historical research in our state archives and libraries. <…> I can, in time, fulfill my long-held desire to write a history of Peter the Great and his successors up to Tsar Peter III." On July 23 of the same year, A. H. Benckendorff informed Vice-Chancellor K. V. Nesselrode of the imperial order to appoint Pushkin to the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs with permission to search the archives for materials for composing a history of Peter I. On November 14, 1831, Pushkin was enlisted in the service at his previous rank, and on December 6 he was promoted to titular councilor. Beginning in the early 1830s, prose began to take precedence over poetry in Pushkin's work. "Belkin's Tales" (published in 1831) was unsuccessful. Pushkin conceived a grand epic—a novel set during the Pugachev rebellion, featuring a nobleman hero who defects to the rebels. Pushkin temporarily abandoned this plan due to his insufficient knowledge of the era and began working on the novel "Dubrovsky" (1832–1833), whose hero, avenging his father, who was unjustly deprived of his family estate, becomes a robber. The noble robber Dubrovsky is portrayed in a romantic vein, while the other characters are depicted with the utmost realism. Although Pushkin drew the plot from contemporary life, as he worked, the novel increasingly took on the characteristics of a traditional adventure story with a conflict generally uncharacteristic of Russian reality. Perhaps foreseeing the insurmountable censorship difficulties with its publication, Pushkin abandoned work on it, even though it was nearing completion.

The idea of ​​a work about the Pugachev rebellion once again attracted Pushkin; steadfast in his commitment to historical accuracy, he interrupted his studies of the Petrine era to pore over printed sources about Pugachev, sought out documents on the suppression of the peasant rebellion (the "Pugachev Affair" itself, strictly classified, proved inaccessible), and in 1833 visited the Volga and Ural regions to witness firsthand the sites of those terrible events and hear living legends of the Pugachev rebellion. Pushkin traveled through Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary, Kazan, and Simbirsk to Orenburg, and from there to Uralsk, along the ancient Yaik River, renamed the Ural after the peasant rebellion.

On January 7, 1833, Pushkin was elected a member of the Russian Academy at the same time as P. A. Katenin, M. N. Zagoskin, D. I. Yazykov and A. I. Malov.

In the autumn of 1833, he returned to Boldino. Pushkin's Boldino autumn was now half as short as three years earlier, but its significance was comparable to that of 1830. In a month and a half, Pushkin completed "The History of Pugachev" and "Songs of the Western Slavs," began work on the novella "The Queen of Spades," and wrote the poems "Angelo" and "The Bronze Horseman," "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish," "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights," and the octave poem "Autumn."

In November 1833, Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg, feeling the need to radically change his life and, above all, to escape from the guardianship of the court. On December 31, 1833, Nicholas I awarded his historiographer the junior court rank of chamberlain. According to Pushkin's friends, he was furious: this title was usually given to young men. In his diary for January 1, 1834, Pushkin wrote: "The day before yesterday I was granted the rank of gentleman of the bedchamber (which is rather inappropriate for my age). But the Court wanted NN [Natalya Nikolaevna] to dance at Anichkov." At the same time, the publication of "The Bronze Horseman" was banned. In early 1834, Pushkin completed another prose novella from St. Petersburg, "The Queen of Spades," and published it in the journal "Library for Reading," which paid Pushkin promptly and at the highest rates. It was begun in Boldino and was apparently intended at the time for the joint almanac "Troychatka" (Troychatka), written with V. F. Odoevsky and N. V. Gogol.

On June 25, 1834, Titular Councilor Pushkin resigned, requesting to retain access to the archives, which was necessary for the execution of "The History of Peter." The stated reasons were family matters and the impossibility of a permanent presence in the capital. The request was accepted, but access to the archives was denied, as Pushkin was formally an official at the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thus, Pushkin was deprived of the opportunity to continue working. Following Zhukovsky's advice, Pushkin withdrew the request. Later, Pushkin requested a leave of absence for three to four years: in the summer of 1835, he wrote to his mother-in-law that he intended to move with his entire family to the countryside for several years. However, his leave was denied; instead, Nicholas I offered a six-month leave and 10,000 rubles, allegedly "for assistance." Pushkin rejected them and asked for 30,000 rubles, with the condition that the amount be deducted from his salary. The leave was granted for four months. Thus, for several years to come, Pushkin was bound by service in St. Petersburg.

This sum didn't cover even half of Pushkin's debts; with his salary cut off, he had to rely solely on literary income, which depended on reader demand. In late 1834 and early 1835, several final editions of Pushkin's works were published: the complete text of Eugene Onegin (the novel was published in individual chapters from 1825 to 1832), collections of poems, stories, and verses, but all sold poorly. Critics were already loudly declaring the decline of Pushkin's talent, the end of an era for him in Russian literature. Two autumns—1834 (in Boldino) and 1835 (in Mikhailovskoye)—were less fruitful. The poet returned to Boldino for the third time in the autumn of 1834 to deal with complicated estate matters and spent a month there, writing only "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel." In Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin continued to work on “Scenes from the Times of Knighthood,” “Egyptian Nights,” and created the poem “I Visited Again.”

The general public, lamenting the decline of Pushkin's talent, was unaware that his best works had not been published, that during those years he was constantly and intensely working on vast projects: "The History of Peter," a novel about the Pugachev rebellion. Fundamental changes were brewing in the poet's work. During these years, Pushkin the lyricist became primarily a "poet for himself." He now persistently experimented with prose genres that did not fully satisfy him, remaining in ideas, sketches, and drafts; he was searching for new literary forms.

According to S. A. Sobolevsky: "The idea of ​​a large periodical publication, which would touch upon, as far as possible, all the most important aspects of Russian life, the desire to directly serve the fatherland with his pen, occupied Pushkin almost continuously during the last ten years of his short career... Circumstances hindered him, and only in 1836 did he manage to secure for himself the right to publish Sovremennik, but already on a very limited and cramped scale." Since the closure of the Literary Gazette, Pushkin had been seeking the right to publish his own periodical. Plans for a newspaper (the "Diary"), various almanacs and collections, and "The Northern Viewer," which was to be edited by V. F. Odoevsky, were never realized. Along with Odoevsky, Pushkin also intended to publish "The Contemporary Chronicler of Politics, Science, and Literature" in 1835. In 1836, Pushkin received a one-year permit to publish the almanac. Pushkin also hoped for the income to help him pay off his most pressing debts. The journal, founded in 1836, was named "Sovremennik" (Contemporary). It published works by Pushkin himself, as well as by N. V. Gogol, A. I. Turgenev, V. A. Zhukovsky, and P. A. Vyazemsky.

Nevertheless, the magazine was not a success with readers: the Russian public had yet to get used to this new type of serious periodical devoted to topical issues, necessarily treated in allusions. The magazine had only 600 subscribers, making it ruinous for the publisher, as it failed to cover printing costs or staff fees. Pushkin filled more than half of the last two volumes of Sovremennik with his own works, mostly anonymous. The fourth volume of Sovremennik finally published his novel, The Captain's Daughter. Pushkin could have published it as a book, which would have brought in the income he desperately needed. However, he ultimately decided to publish The Captain's Daughter in the magazine and could no longer count on a simultaneous release as a book—at that time, such a publication was impossible. The novel was likely placed in Sovremennik under the influence of Kraevsky and the magazine's publisher, who feared its demise. "The Captain's Daughter" was well received by readers, but Pushkin never saw the enthusiastic critical reviews of his final novel in print. Despite the financial setback, Pushkin remained occupied with publishing until his last day, "hoping, despite fate, to find and cultivate his reader."

In the spring of 1836, Nadezhda Osipovna died after a serious illness. Pushkin, who had become close to his mother in her final days, took this loss hard. Circumstances conspired to make him the only member of the family to accompany his mother's body to the burial site in Svyatye Gory. This was his last visit to Mikhailovskoye. In early May, Pushkin traveled to Moscow on publishing matters and to work in the archives. He hoped to collaborate with the authors of "Moscow Observer" on Sovremennik. However, Baratynsky, Pogodin, Khomyakov, and Shevyryov were slow to respond, not directly refusing. Moreover, Pushkin hoped that Belinsky, who was in conflict with Pogodin, would contribute to the magazine. After visiting the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he realized that working with documents from the Peter the Great era would take several months. At the insistence of his wife, who was expecting a baby any day now, Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg at the end of May.

According to the memoirs of the French publisher and diplomat Löwe-Weimar, who visited Pushkin in the summer of 1836, the latter was captivated by "The History of Peter," sharing with his guest the results of his archival research and his concerns about how readers would perceive a book that would depict the tsar "as he was in the first years of his reign, when he furiously sacrificed everything to his goal." Upon learning that Löwe-Weimar was interested in Russian folk songs, Pushkin translated eleven of them into French for him. According to experts who have studied this work, Pushkin's work was flawlessly executed. In the summer of 1836, Pushkin created his final poetry cycle, named "Kamennoostrovsky" after the place where it was written (a dacha on Kamenny Island). The exact composition of the poems is unknown. They were possibly intended for publication in Sovremennik, but Pushkin rejected it, anticipating problems with censorship. Three works, undoubtedly part of the cycle, are linked by a Gospel theme.

The poems "The Desert Fathers and the Pure Wives," "How the Traitor Disciple Fell from the Tree," and "To the Worldly Power" all revolve around Holy Week during Lent. Another poem in the cycle, "From Pindemonte," is devoid of Christian symbolism but continues the poet's reflections on the responsibilities of living in peace with oneself and others, on betrayal, and on the right to physical and spiritual freedom. According to V. P. Stark: “This poem formulates Pushkin’s ideal poetic and human credo, which he suffered through his entire life.” The cycle probably also included “When I wander pensively outside the city,” the quatrain “In vain I run to the Zion Gates,” and, finally (some researchers dispute this assumption) “Monument” (“I erected a monument to myself not made by hands…”) — as a beginning or, according to other versions, a finale — Pushkin’s poetic testament.

Endless negotiations with his son-in-law over the division of the estate after his mother's death, concerns over publishing, debts, and, most importantly, the cavalry guardsman d'Anthès's deliberately obvious courtship of his wife, which sparked gossip in high society, contributed to Pushkin's despondency in the autumn of 1836. On November 3, an anonymous libel containing insulting innuendos about Natalya Nikolaevna was sent to his friends. Pushkin, who learned of the letters the following day, was certain they were the work of d'Anthès and his adoptive father, Gekkern. On the evening of November 4, he challenged d'Anthès to a duel. Gekkern (after two meetings with Pushkin) secured a two-week postponement of the duel. Through the efforts of the poet's friends, especially Zhukovsky and Natalya Nikolaevna's aunt, maid of honor Ekaterina Zagryazhskaya, the duel was averted. On November 17, d'Anthès proposed to Natalya Nikolaevna's sister, Ekaterina Goncharova. That same day, Pushkin sent his second, Vladimir Sollogub, a letter refusing the duel. Marriage didn't resolve the conflict. Dantès, meeting Natalya Nikolaevna in society, pursued her. Rumors circulated that Dantès had married Pushkina's sister to save Natalya Nikolaevna's reputation. According to Konstantin Danzas, his wife suggested Pushkin leave St. Petersburg for a while, but he, "losing all patience, decided to end things differently." On January 26 (February 7), 1837, Pushkin sent Louis Heeckeren "an extremely insulting letter." The only possible response was a challenge to a duel, and Pushkin knew it. Heeckeren's formal challenge, approved by Dantès, was received by Pushkin that same day through the attaché of the French embassy, ​​Vicomte d'Archiac. Since Heeckeren was the ambassador of a foreign state, he could not fight the duel—it would have meant the immediate ruin of his career.

The duel with d'Anthès took place on January 27 at Chernaya Rechka. d'Anthès fired first and seriously wounded Pushkin: the bullet broke his femur and penetrated his abdomen. For the time, the wound was fatal. Pushkin learned of this that same day at his home from his physician, Arendt, who, yielding to his insistence, did not conceal the true state of affairs. Already wounded, Pushkin fired at d'Anthès, slightly wounding him.

Before his death, Pushkin, while putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Nicholas I. The notes were passed by two people: Vasily Zhukovsky was a poet and, at that time, the full-time tutor of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II. The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the tsar's ban on duels: "...I am waiting for the Tsar's word so that I can die in peace..." Nicholas I: "If God does not allow us to meet again in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Don't worry about your wife and children, I will take them into my arms."

— It is believed that this note was passed on by Zhukovsky. Nicholas saw Pushkin as a dangerous "leader of freethinkers" (hence, measures were taken to ensure the funeral service and burial were as modest as possible) and later claimed that "we forced him to a Christian death," which was untrue: even before receiving the Tsar's note, the poet, having learned from doctors that his wound was fatal, sent for a priest to receive communion. On Friday, January 29 (February 10), at 2:45 PM, Pushkin died of peritonitis. Nicholas I fulfilled his promises to the poet.

Order of the Sovereign:

1. Pay off debts.
2. Clear the father's mortgaged estate of debt.
3. Pension for the widow and daughter upon marriage.
4. Sons as pages and 1,500 rubles for the upbringing of each upon entering service.
5. The works are to be published at public expense for the benefit of the widow and children.
6. One-time payment of 10,000 rubles.

At his wife's request, Pushkin was laid in his coffin not in his chamberlain's uniform, but in a tailcoat. The funeral service, scheduled for the Admiralty Church, then known as St. Isaac's Cathedral after one of its side chapels, was moved to the Konushennaya Church. The ceremony took place before a large crowd, and admission to the church was by invitation only.

"There were also, as usual, the most absurd orders. The people were deceived: they were told that Pushkin's funeral service would be held in St. Isaac's Cathedral—that was what was written on the tickets—while in reality, the body was secretly removed from the apartment at night and placed in the Stables Church. The university received strict orders that professors were not to leave their departments and that students were to attend lectures. I couldn't resist expressing my sorrow to the trustee about this. Russians cannot mourn their fellow citizen who honored them with his existence!" — From the “Diary” of A. V. Nikitenko. The coffin was then lowered into the basement, where it remained until February 3, before being sent to Pskov. A. I. Turgenev accompanied Pushkin's body. In a letter to the governor of Pskov, A. N. Peshchurov, the State Secretary of the Third Section, A. N. Mordvinov, on behalf of Benckendorff and the emperor, pointed out the need to prohibit "any special manifestation, any meeting, in a word, any ceremony, except that which is usually performed according to our church rite at the burial of the body of a nobleman." Alexander Pushkin was buried on the grounds of the Svyatogorsk Monastery in the Pskov Governorate. In August 1841, by order of N. N. Pushkina, a tombstone by the sculptor Alexander Permagorov (1786-1854) was installed at the grave.

Of Pushkin's four children, only two left children—Alexander and Natalia. The poet's descendants now live all over the world: in the United States, England, Germany, and Belgium. About fifty of them live in Russia, including Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash, whose great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's great-nephew. Tatyana lived in Klin until her death in 2020.

Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin, the poet's last direct male descendant, lives in Belgium.

Contemporaries held varying opinions regarding Pushkin's appearance. Those who knew the poet noted his small stature; according to his brother, "Pushkin was unattractive, but his face was expressive and animated; he was short." His height, recorded by the artist Grigory Chernetsov on April 15, 1832, in a sketch for the painting "Parade on the Field of Mars," was 2 arshins 5.5 vershoks, or 166.7 cm. Other sources indicate a height of 2 arshins 4 vershoks (approximately 160 cm). Vyazemsky noted that, when in society, Pushkin disliked standing near his wife (Natalya Nikolaevna's height was 173 cm) and "jokingly said that it was humiliating for him to be near her: he was so small in comparison." M. P. Pogodin recalled his first meeting with Pushkin: "The majestic priest of high art we were expecting was a man of medium height, almost short..." Opinions about Pushkin's appearance largely depend on how one views him. While no one generally considered Pushkin handsome, many noted that his facial features became beautiful when they reflected his spirituality. M. V. Yuzefovich particularly noted Pushkin's eyes, "which seemed to reflect all that was beautiful in nature." L. P. Nikolskaya, who met Pushkin at a dinner with the Nizhny Novgorod governor in 1833, describes him thus: "His slightly dark face was original, but unattractive: a large, open forehead, a long nose, thick lips—all irregular features. But what was magnificent about him were his dark gray eyes with a bluish tint—large, clear. It is impossible to convey the expression of those eyes: somehow burning, and at the same time caressing, pleasant. I have never seen a more expressive face: intelligent, kind, energetic. <…> He speaks well: ah, how much intelligence and life there was in his natural speech! And how cheerful, kind, delightful he is! This fool could be liked…"

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was a man of complex, contradictory character. The poet's personality is revealed through his temperament, social interactions, habits, and attitude toward love. His contemporaries described him as passionate, emotional, and at times hot-tempered, but they also valued him for his sincerity, kindness, and sense of humor. Temperament: Pushkin was distinguished by a choleric temperament: high emotionality, energy and quick reactions. Some features:

1. a tendency to sudden mood swings
2. high sensitivity and impressionability, which was reflected in creativity
3. often experienced strong emotions such as joy, sadness, love and disappointment At the same time, Pushkin was hard-working and capable of creative inspiration. Communication:
4. In society, Pushkin could be charming, but often caustic. Even influential people feared his epigrams.
5. He was warm and faithful with his loved ones (Delvig, Pushchin, Kuchelbecker), and supported them in difficult times.
6. He loved noisy feasts with friends, where he read poetry and made the guests laugh. However, in some situations Pushkin could be withdrawn, especially during periods of creative solitude or mental crises. Habits:
7. Creative chaos: I wrote on whatever I could find, even on scraps of bills from a tavern.
8. Love of water activities: he loved swimming in ponds and did so until late autumn, not being afraid of low temperatures.
9. Superstition: He believed in many omens and believed they would inevitably bring him misfortune. For example, he wore a turquoise ring—a custom-made amulet against violent death.
10. Passion for gypsy songs: a gypsy singer named Tanya said that her songs evoked different emotions in the poet: from tears to laughter. Love: In his youth he was amorous - he courted dozens of women and dedicated poems to them. In his marriage to Natalia Goncharova, he became extremely jealous—even of his own reflection. His letters to his wife are full of passion and anxiety: "I'm afraid of your coldness... You can't imagine how painful this is for me." In his later works, he was a poet.