Red-Headed

Slavonic poet
created so much beauty
in his short lifetime

only to be killed
by a sad jealous Frenchman
in a Russian field -

an entire country
that mourned Pushkin's death for weeks
now deifies him.





Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. He is considered to be one of the most important & influential of Russian poets & writers. In fact many Russians believe that their literature did not start until Pushkin. Not unlike Shakespeare in England he set a standard of beauty in the Russian language that has never been surpassed. After a brief flirtation with the pre-Decembrist revolutionaries in 1820 he was exiled in disgrace. With the failure of the Decembrist’s uprising in 1825 & the succession of a new Tsar he gained his freedom. He was married to a young society beauty in 1831. The marriage was not a happy one & his wife shared little of his artistic & intellectual talents or interests. She loved fashionable society & the intrigues of the Imperial Court. Pushkin could ill afford this way of life & many courtiers looked down on him because of his less than prestigious background. Many of his contemporaries were jealous of his genius & started a vile campaign to slander him. This culminated with a vitriolic attack by the Baron Georges d’Anthes, a French royalist in the Russian service, who suggested rumours of an improper liaison between the Tsar & Pushkin’s wife. Duty bound to defend her honour he fought a duel with the aforementioned Baron. Fatally wounded Pushkin died on the 29th of January 1837. His death was mourned throughout Russia as a national disaster.