The Presidential Library historical materials tell about Alexander Pushkin’s childhood and youth

June 6, 2018 marks the 219th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, the great Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, publicist, founder of the Russian realistic trend in literature and the creator of the modern Russian literary language. The Presidential Library portal features electronic collection, which includes digital copies of books, articles, archival documents, abstracts of dissertations, graphic and other materials dedicated to the writer.

A real storehouse of information about the poet is the famous work of V. V. Veresayev "Pushkin in life", composed of memoirs of contemporaries of the writer. According to the author of this arch, the extracts from various sources collected for many years at one point merged and turned into "the most original and fascinating book in which Pushkin stands up perfectly, as if alive. Truly alive Pushkin, in all the changes of his moods, in all the contradictions of his complex character, - in all the details of his life, his appearance, the clothes surrounding his surroundings". Part of it is devoted to the children's years of the writer.

"According to the poet's sister, Pushkin was a fat, silent and slow-moving boy who was deliberately forced to walk and run, and who preferred to stay at home with his grandmother. <...> In his seventh year, Pushkin became more cheeky, and the former clumsiness even passed into playfulness", - Veresayev quotes the words of P. I. Bartenev.

Here, there are the memoirs of Sergei Lvovich, the father of little Sasha: "In his infancy he showed great respect for writers. Not having six years, he already understood that Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was not like the others. One evening, Nikolai Mikhailovich. was at my place, sat for a long time - all the time Alexander, sitting against him, listened to his conversations and did not take his eyes off him". The poet's brother, Lev Sergeevich Pushkin, testifies: "The passion for poetry was manifested in it with the first concepts. At the age of eight, knowing how to read and write, he composed in French small comedies and epigrams on his teachers. In general, his upbringing had little to do with the Russian". J. Grot continues: "It is known that the first samples of Pushkin's pen were in French, which, at the time of common custom, reigned in his parents' house. Later, Pushkin considered such exercises in a foreign language harmful to Russian poetic technique".

It is believed that the boy was greatly influenced by two women: grandmother Maria Alekseevna Hannibal and nurse Arina Rodionovna. "Maria Alekseevna was a remarkable woman, as much on the adventures of her life, as much as common sense and experience. She was the first mentor of Pushkin in Russian. Baron Delvig even in the Lyceum was delighted with her written syllable, from her strong, simple Russian speech", - we read from Veresayev. In the collection of historical and literary articles "Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin: his life and works" (1905), the writer's nurse devotes the following lines: "Rodionovna belonged to the typical and noble faces of the Russian world. The combination of good nature and grumbling, tender disposition towards youth with feigned rigor left an indelible memory in Pushkin's heart. He loved her with a kindred, unchanging love and, in the years of maturity and glory, talked with her for hours at a time. This is also due to another important advantage of Arina Rodionovna: she knew the entire fairy-tale Russian world as short as possible, and she conveyed it in an extremely original way. Sayings, proverbs, stories did not descend from her tongue". 

Thinking about education for the eldest son, the parents wanted to give him to a private Jesuit institute, but the circumstances developed in such a way that in 1811 Pushkin went to study at the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum where the boys were trained for the benefit of Russia. On the portal of the Presidential Library you can see a digitized copy of the draft Charter of this educational institution, here is also a copy of the "Charter, awarded to the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum by Emperor Alexander I".

The years spent by the poet in the lyceum are described by J. K. Grot in the book "Pushkin, his lyceum comrades and mentors" (1887). In particular, he notes: "Pushkin was not loved by the majority of his comrades: the reason for this was his somewhat wrenching nature and wit, which was sometimes played out at the expense of others". The opinion of one of the teachers mentioned in the book is of interest: "He has more intelligence than memory, more taste for elegance than diligence to thorough, why a small difficulty can stop him, but not hold on: but he, excited by competition and a sense of his own benefit, desires to be compared with the first pupils".

J. Grot notes: "In Pushkin, from an early age, it seemed as if the premonition of the brevity of the dissociated age seemed to hide: he was in a hurry to live and create, as if guessing, that he was destined to become famous, fill the world with the brilliance of his name and suddenly perish in full flourishing his powers: an extremely ticklish sense of honor many times forced him to risk his life and finally led to a fateful denouement. His ardent nature did not know the measures even in the years of his upbringing. From the stories of his lyceum comrades and mentors, we know that, having realized his talent, during the last stay at the Lyceum with a feverish heat, he indulged in a passion for poetry, day and night thinking about poetry and even once in a dream composed two successful verses, one of his then plays".

More information about Alexander Pushkin is presented in the section "Biographical materials", part of it is made up of electronic copies of postcards, drawings and paintings depicting the poet and people of his circle. In total, the collection "A. S. Pushkin (1799-1837)" has about 350 items of storage.