Pushkin: Father of Russian Lit
The author Alexander wrote poetry in the native tongue rather than French and became a national literary hero to the masses.
Alexander Pushkin's importance to Russian literature and history can not be underestimated. He is still revered in Russia as Russia's greatest poet.
Alexander Pushkin is Russia's most famous and influential Russian writer-as famous and influential as Shakespeare is to English literature. In fact, Alexander Pushkin is considered to be the father of Russian literature. Why was Pushkin so important? And why is his importance still discussed among historians and literary scholars today?
The first reason for Pushkin's past and contemporary importance lies in the fact that he revolutionized Russian literature. During his early years in the beginning of the 19th century, the language most spoken by learned and aristocratic Russians was-are you ready for this?-French. As Russia was always looking westward for inspiration (see Founding of St. Petersburg), French was the language of choice to set the upper classes apart from the peasants. However, while Pushkin spoke French, he began a tradition unheard of before: to write verse in Russian.
What did this do to Russian literature? It made it available to everyone! Poetry was not only relegated to the educated classes, but offered something to speakers of Russian as well. Pushkin's importance during his lifetime was that of a national hero-someone who had recreated the way anyone who was anyone (and the way all those Russian-speaking "nobodies") thought about, and treated, literature.
The second way in which Alexander Pushkin maintained literary importance was through other Russian writers paying homage to him through their own writing. Lermentov, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and others have re-imagined Pushkinesque characters in their novels and short stories. The superfluous man, the Byronic hero, the tragic female figure-all are repeated in various forms in every literary upswing in Russia. No one can forget Pushkin because the most influential writers won't let anyone forget. Pushkin started it all, and each writer in turn has taken up the torch to pass to future writers.
Pushkin's verse and legendary life pervade Russian culture unlike any other figure. He is commonly quoted in verse without warning. Statues and busts of him are all over the land. His rather amateurish drawings are reproduced wherever appropriate and are instantly recognizable. Russia has never let their great Pushkin die-even his dramatic death by dueling has become a story to be retold in various forms.
Pushkin's importance to Russia can never be underestimated. Nor can it be avoided. Without Pushkin, Russians might still be writing in French.
