Vasilii L'vovich Pushkin
Vasilii L'vovich Pushkin, born on April 27, 1766, in Moscow, was a notable figure in Russian literature and the uncle of the renowned poet Alexander Pushkin. He grew up in a wealthy family, benefiting from a French-style education and frequent exposure to Moscow's elite society. Pushkin's early life was marked by a rich cultural environment, where he developed a love for languages and poetry, becoming well-known for his engaging recitations and improvisations. His military service in St. Petersburg from 1791 to 1797 allowed him to cultivate literary friendships and publish his first poem, "K kaminu," in 1793.
Despite a tumultuous personal life, including a failed marriage and a lasting partnership with Anna Nikolaevna Vorozheikin, Pushkin made significant contributions to Russian literature. He was involved in various literary societies and advocated for the Russian Enlightenment while critiquing emerging nationalist movements. His works included light verse and more serious narratives, showcasing his versatility as a writer. Pushkin's literary legacy, alongside his influence on his nephew Alexander, solidified his place in the cultural history of Russia, despite the challenges he faced throughout his life.
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Vasilii L'vovich Pushkin
Poet
- Born: April 27, 1766
- Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
- Died: August 20, 1830
Biography
The paternal uncle of the great Russian Romantic poet Alexander Pushkin, Vasilii L’vovich Pushkin was likely born in Moscow on April 27, 1766, into a wealthy family. Pushkin’s youth was privileged: He and his brother received a French-style education at home and were exposed to Moscow’s upper class through the extravagant parties their father, Lev Aleksandrovich Pushkin, threw. Pushkin learned English, French, German, Italian, and Latin. He frequented Moscow salons, becoming known for his lively character, his recitations of poetry, and his improvisations of French verse forms.
From 1791 to 1797 Pushkin served in the army in St. Petersburg. While he only achieved the rank of lieutenant and spent much of his time socializing, he managed to establish literary friendships and start publishing poems. “K kaminu” (To My Hearth), a satiric idyll published in the journal Sankt-Peterburgskii Merkurii in 1793, was Pushkin’s first poem to appear in print. Other poems in the light verse genre—elegies, epigrams, fables, improvisations, songs, and verse epistles—soon appeared in journals. His collection of poetry, Stikhotvoreniia (poems), was not published until 1822, however.
When Pushkin returned to Moscow, he married Kapitolina Mikhailovna Vysheslavtseva, an upper-class woman who filed for divorce in 1802. Between 1802 and 1806, when the ecclesiastical court finally ruled in Vysheslavtseva’s favor and banned Pushkin from remarrying, he took another permanent partner, Anna Nikolaevna Vorozheikin, and traveled throughout Europe. Together Pushkin and Vorozheikin, a merchant’s daughter, had two children, Margarita and Lev, whose surname was Vasil’ev.
Pushkin spent a great deal of time with his young nephew Alexander, whom he enrolled at the prestigious Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoe Selo near St. Petersburg and whom he would later introduce into literary society. He wrote pieces in the spirit of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, a pro-Western and conservative prose writer and historian. Pushkin’s divisive “Poslanie k V. A. Zhukovskomu” (epistle to V. A. Zhukovsky), which opposed nascent Slavophilism and defended the Russian enlightenment as promoted by Karamzin and the poet Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, was published in the December, 1810, issue of Tsvetnik (flower garden).
More popular was Pushkin’s delightful short narrative poem, Opasnyi sosed (the dangerous neighbor), about a visit to a brothel. While not published until 1855 in Leipzig and 1913 in Russia, the manuscript was in extensive circulation. Pushkin helped to found the Moscow branch of the Obshchestvo liubitelei rossiiskoi slovesnosti (society of lovers of Russian literature) in 1811. The following year he lost his house and library to the Great Moscow Fire and was forced to live in Nizhniy-Novgorod until 1813. In 1816, Pushkin was honored by induction into the Arzamasskoe obshchestvo bezvestnykh liudei (Arzamas society of obscure persons), a literary society founded as a send-up to the Beseda liubitelei russkogo slova (colloquy of lovers of the Russian word), a Slavophile group.