Writer Birthday: Alexander Pushkin

Celebrating the birthday of Russia's most beloved author with a brief biography

Today we celebrate the birhday Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. While other names like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky are more familiar to non-Russians, Pushkin is thought to be the most revered national writer in Russia and a founder of Russian literature.

Pushkin was born into an elite Moscow family and was known for having an African great-grandfather. Pushkin was published and well-known in the high society literary community by the time he was in his mid to late teens.

In his early twenties, Pushkin became a political radical. He was censored by the govornment and left for remote regions, where he became interested in Freemasonry. When he was allowed to return to the city, his connections to the Decemberists worried those in power. He continued his literary career and was even so lucky as to meet Nikolai Gogol.

Pushkin married the beautiful Natalya Goncharova but was troubled by her affairs and his social role. In 1837, at the age of 38, he challenged his wife's alleged lover to a duel. Pushkin lost, and died two days later from his wounds.

Were he alive today (at the ripe old age of 209), Pushkin might not be planning any big celebrations. He was born on May 26th, 1799 of the Julian calender, which would be June 6th according to the Gregorian calender that we use today. Also, birthdays are traditionally less important in Russia than a person's "name day", in which they are celebrated on the day that honors the Russian Orthodox saint that shares their name.