Aleksandr Pushkin (1799–1837) has passed through the vagaries of fashion and served succeeding generations of literary, political, and intellectual factions as a cultural icon in which they could find support and embellishment for their respective ideologies. Although the poet was wildly popular in his own lifetime, the Russian cult of Pushkin was not launched until the publication of his collected works in 1855, nearly two decades after his death in a duel at the hands of his wife’s admirer. The cult then faded until 1880, when Dostoevsky re-ignited it with a fervent speech at the unveiling of the first statue of the poet. By the mid-twentieth century, Pushkin had become a sacred cow, an untouchable symbol of Russia’s cultural heritage and sense of identity.

The extent of modern Russians’ almost fanatical devotion to Pushkin in domestic and émigré cultural circles alike was revealed by the uproar that...

 

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