Pushkin, Alexander Sergeivich

Pushkin, Alexander Sergeivich (1799–1837), Russian poet, who at the age of 8 reputedly wrote little plays in French, which he acted with his sister. It is evident from his letters and other sources that Pushkin contemplated writing a series of dramatic works of which his great drama Boris Godunov alone was completed. It is notable as being the first Russian tragedy on a political theme—the relationship between a tyrant and his people—which, though set back in time, was actually a burning contemporary problem; and it does not rely on a love-intrigue. In other respects, too, it was revolutionary; it was broken up into scenes and episodes, it mingled poetry with prose, and it made use of colloquial Russian speech. It was not published until six years after its completion in 1825, owing to trouble with the censorship, and was not seen on the stage until 1870. Four years later it was used for the libretto of an opera by Mussorgsky, in which form it is best known today. Just before his death in a duel Pushkin completed a series of one-act tragedies, one dealing with Don Juan, one with the rivalry of Mozart and Salieri, and a third with a miser who owes something to Harpagon in Molière's L'Avare, but more to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. With some unfinished scenes taken from Russian folklore, these made up the total of Pushkin's work for the theatre. Yet though he is primarily remembered as a poet, the Russian theatre owes him a great debt, since it was he who first made Russian a literary language. There are theatres named after him in Leningrad and Moscow, and his works are quoted by Russians much as Shakespeare's are by the English.