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 Alexander Pushkin, Father of Russian Poetry

LEXANDER PUSHKIN is called the "Russian Byron," "demigod of Russian Verse," "father of Russian poetry," "the laureate of Czar Nicholas." The Pushkins had long been about the rulers of Russia as cited by Alexander in "My Pedigree." The first of the line the grandfather of the poet was an Abyssinian, who was stolen as a slave from Constantinople. The grandsire was not only adopted by Peter the Great, but given a title of nobility and rank of General.

The poet was proud of his African blood, which asserted itself unmistablv in the curl of his hair

and the shape of his lips. He regarded himself as a drop of African blood on Arctic soil. He was born in 1799. During his childhood an old nurse be guiled him with many legends and fables of Rus sia. When he was twenty these legends brought forth fruit in his first great poem, "Ruslan and Liudmila." His democratic ideas, which encouched in an "Ode to Liberty," soon made him an exile from home and from Czar Nicholas I. However, the Czar loved the poet and speedily pardoned him. He died quite young, having written not only poetry that survives, but many prose tales. It is said that every youth in Russia knows his poetry by heart.