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Alexander Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature and is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet.
Although the vast majority of African Americans are unfamiliar with Pushkin's monumental works, most students of literature are at least aware of his "Blackamoor of Peter the Great," an unfinished romance which relates the biographical data of the poet's great-grandfather, Ibrahim Petrovitch Gannibal his black great-grandfather.
Some early critics wrongly suspected that Pushkin attempted to aggrandize the African lineage of this black forebear by playing up the family tradition that he was an Ethiopian princeling. However, Pushkin certainly did not need to embellish his ancestor's own personal history. For the accomplishments of Ibrahim Petrovitch Gannibal are proof of what any man - despite his colour - could rise to, given the opportunity. Ibrahim was treated as no less than a member of the royal family at court and, in the biographical notes on him written either by his wife or by someone in her family shortly after his death, the following statement is made:
Although, as we now realize, no Blackamoor at any 18th century European court was merely decorative, in Ibrahim's case, Peter's expectations for him were as loaded with responsibility as those he would have had for his own son. If he was the Emperor whose patriotic duty it was to drag Russia spiritually and intellectually out of its Byzantine backwardness and into the future of the Enlightenment, then it would literally be Ibrahim's responsibility to care for his adopted country's physical formation and his defence of it. In 1717 the young blackamoor was sent to France for an education in both civil and military engineering.
Of Pushkin's children only the lines of Alexander and Natalia continue. Natalia married Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau, and their grand-daughter, Nadejda, married into the British royal family (her husband was the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh). The descendants of the poet now live around the globe: in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and the United States.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
Alexander Pushkin the black Russian was way ahead of his time and produced contemporary works such as:
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
THE BLACK RUSSIAN WHO DEVELOPED RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND RUSSIA`S GREATEST POET
Alexander Pushkin (6 June 1799 – 10 February
1837)
Alexander Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature and is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet.
Pushkin was notoriously touchy about his honor and
fought 29 duels. This may have been due to that fact that Pushkin’s Grand
Father, Abram Petrovich Gannibal was an African possibly from Eritrea. He was
ransomed and sent to Russia at the request of Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy,
the Grandfather of another prominent Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Abram Petrovich
Gannibal. initially, he was presented as a gift to Peter the Great who came to
respect and admire Gannibal as a child and adopted him as his son. As a result,
Gannibal was raised as a philosopher, scientist and military general
Although the vast majority of African Americans are unfamiliar with Pushkin's monumental works, most students of literature are at least aware of his "Blackamoor of Peter the Great," an unfinished romance which relates the biographical data of the poet's great-grandfather, Ibrahim Petrovitch Gannibal his black great-grandfather.
Some early critics wrongly suspected that Pushkin attempted to aggrandize the African lineage of this black forebear by playing up the family tradition that he was an Ethiopian princeling. However, Pushkin certainly did not need to embellish his ancestor's own personal history. For the accomplishments of Ibrahim Petrovitch Gannibal are proof of what any man - despite his colour - could rise to, given the opportunity. Ibrahim was treated as no less than a member of the royal family at court and, in the biographical notes on him written either by his wife or by someone in her family shortly after his death, the following statement is made:
"....he (Peter) wished to make examples of them
and put (Russians) to shame by convincing them that out of every people and
even from among wild men - such as Negroes, whom our civilized nations assign
exclusively to the class of slave, there can be formed men who by dint of
application can obtain knowledge and learning and thus become helpful to their
monarch."
To a divine rights monarch like Peter whose
relationship to a nation of serfs was entirely paternalistic, a child as a
personal gift or possession could only be regarded as one of his own kith and
kin. Indeed, at the eight-year old Ibrahim's baptism, the Emperor himself was
his godfather, while his godmother was the Queen of Poland.
Although, as we now realize, no Blackamoor at any 18th century European court was merely decorative, in Ibrahim's case, Peter's expectations for him were as loaded with responsibility as those he would have had for his own son. If he was the Emperor whose patriotic duty it was to drag Russia spiritually and intellectually out of its Byzantine backwardness and into the future of the Enlightenment, then it would literally be Ibrahim's responsibility to care for his adopted country's physical formation and his defence of it. In 1717 the young blackamoor was sent to France for an education in both civil and military engineering.
He studied at the Ecole d'Artillerie of La Fere under the
brilliant Bernard Forest de Belidor and afterwards, at the École d'Artillerie
of Metz, an institution founded by the illustrious Sebastien Le Preste, Marquis
de Vauban. Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/pushkingenealogy.html
Pushkin descendants
Pushkin had four children from his marriage to
Natalya: Maria (b. 1832, touted as a prototype of Anna Karenina), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835), and Natalya
(b. 1836) the last of whom married,morganatically, into the royal house of Nassau to Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and became the Countess
of Merenberg.
Of Pushkin's children only the lines of Alexander and Natalia continue. Natalia married Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau, and their grand-daughter, Nadejda, married into the British royal family (her husband was the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh). The descendants of the poet now live around the globe: in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and the United States.
Portrait of Pushkin 1800-1802 by Xavier de Maistre.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
Alexander Pushkin the black Russian was way ahead of his time and produced contemporary works such as:
Narrative Poems
- 1820 – Ruslan i Lyudmila (Руслан и Людмила); English translation: Ruslan and Ludmila
- 1820–21 – Kavkazskiy plennik (Кавказский пленник); English translation: The Prisoner of the Caucasus
- 1821 – Gavriiliada (Гавриилиада) ; English translation: The Gabrieliad
- 1821–22 – Bratya razboyniki (Братья разбойники); English translation: The Robber Brothers
- 1823 – Bakhchisaraysky fontan (Бахчисарайский фонтан); English translation: The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
- 1824 – Tsygany (Цыганы); English translation: The
Gypsies
- 1825 – Graf Nulin (Граф Нулин); English translation: Count Nulin
- 1829 – Poltava
(Полтава); English
translation: Poltava
- 1830 – Domik v Kolomne (Домик в Коломне); English translation: The Little House in Kolomna
- 1833
– Andjelo (Анджело); English
translation: Angelo
- 1833 – Medny vsadnik (Медный всадник); English translation: The Bronze Horseman
Verse novel
- 1825–32 – Yevgeny Onegin (Евгений Онегин); English translation: Eugene Onegin
Drama
- 1825 – Boris Godunov (Борис Годунов); English translation: Boris Godunov
- 1830 – Malenkie tragedii (Маленькие трагедии); English translation: The Little Tragedies
- Kamenny gost (Каменный гость); English translation: The Stone Guest
- Motsart i Salyeri (Моцарт и Сальери); English translation: Mozart and Salieri
- Skupoy rytsar (Скупой рыцарь); English translations: The Miserly Knight, The Covetous Knight
- Pir vo vremya chumy (Пир во время чумы); English translation: A Feast in Time of Plague
Prose
- 1828 – Arap Petra Velikogo (Арап Петра Великого); English translation: Peter the Great's Negro, unfinished novel
- 1831 – Povesti pokoynogo Ivana
Petrovicha Belkina (Повести покойного Ивана Петровича Белкина); English translation: The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich
Belkin
- Vystrel (Выстрел); English translation: The Shot,
short story
- Metel (Метель); English translation: The Blizzard, short story
- Grobovschik (Гробовщик); English translation: The Undertaker, short story
- Stanzionny smotritel (Станционный смотритель); English translation: The Stationmaster, short story
- Baryshnya-krestyanka (Барышня-крестьянка); English translation: The Squire's Daughter, short
story
- 1834 – Pikovaya dama (Пиковая дама); English translation: The Queen of Spades, short story
- 1834 – Kirdzhali (Кирджали); English translation: Kirdzhali, short story
- 1834 – Istoriya Pugacheva (История Пугачева); English translation: A History of Pugachev, study of the Pugachev's Rebellion
- 1836 – Kapitanskaya dochka (Капитанская дочка); English translation: The Captain's Daughter, novel
- 1836 – Puteshestvie v Arzrum (Путешествие в Арзрум); English translation: A Journey to Arzrum, travel sketches
- 1836 – Roslavlev (Рославлев); English translation: Roslavlev, unfinished novel
- 1837 – Istoriya sela Goryuhina (История села Горюхина); English translation: The Story of the Village of
Goryukhino,
unfinished short story
- 1837 – Yegipetskie nochi (Египетские ночи); English translation: Egyptian Nights, unfinished short story
- 1841 – Dubrovsky (Дубровский); English translation: Dubrovsky, unfinished novel
Fairy Tales in verse
- 1830 – Сказка о попе и о работнике его Балде; English translation: The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman
Balda
- 1830 – Сказка о медведихе; English translation: The Tale of the Female Bear (was not finished)
- 1831 – Сказка о царе Салтане; English translation: The Tale of Tsar Saltan
- 1833 – Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке; English translation: The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
- 1833 – Сказка о мертвой царевне; English translation: The Tale of the Dead Princess
- 1834 – Сказка о золотом петушке; English translation: The Tale of the Golden Cockerel
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