Alexander Sergeyevitch Pushkin, a Russian poet, born in Pskov, June 6, 1799, died in St. Petersburg, Feb. 10, 1837. He was the son of a nobleman, studied at Tzarskoye Selo, and became a clerk in the foreign office. In 1820 he was expelled on account of his "Ode to Liberty," and subsequently he was expelled from Odessa for his tirade against the governor general. The emperor Nicholas, after his accession in 1825, reinstated him in his clerkship at St. Petersburg, and appointed him to prepare the history of Peter the Great. This shook his friends' belief in his liberalism, and his life was further embittered by what he fancied to be undue attentions paid to his beautiful wife by George Charles d'Anthès, a French officer in the Russian army (the future senator baron de Hee-keren). Although D'Anthès married Mme. Pushkin's sister to disarm the husband's suspicion, Pushkin fought a duel with him and was killed. The emperor gave a pension of 10,-000 rubles to the widow, and provided for the children's education, and for the publication of a superb edition of Pushkin's works. A public subscription for a monument in his honor amounted on Jan. 1, 1874, to about 75,-000 rubles.

Among his earliest works were the poems "Ruslan and Liudmila," "The Prisoner of the Caucasus," a sketch, and "The Fountain of Bakhtchiserai," resembling Byron's "Corsair." His masterpiece, "Eugene Onegin," a novel in verse, appeared between 1825 and 1828. His other works include the narrative poems "The Gypsies" (1827) and "Poltava" (1829); the dramatic poems "Boris Godunoff" and "The Stone Guest" (1836); and the novels "The Captive's Daughter" and "The Captain's Daughter." The latter and other novels are comprised in "Russian Romance, from the Tales of Belkin," an English translation by Mrs. J. Buchan Telfer, née Mura-vieff (London, 1875). Prosper Merimée and Viardot have translated some of his works into French, and Bodenstedt and others into German. The best complete editions of Pushkin's works are by Anenkoff (7 vols., St. Petersburg, 1854-'7) and Gennadi (6 vols., 1869 et seq.).