Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Pushkin, (1799-1837). Russian poet, dramatist, and prose writer. In 1820 he was exiled as a result of his political writings. Influenced by Byron, he introduced Romanticism to Russia in such works as the verse-novel Eugene One gin (1833). Boris Godunov (1831) is a historical tragedy. On his return from exile in 1826 he turned to lyric poetry and prose works such As The Queen of Spades (1834). He was killed in a pistol duel. Several of Pushkin’s works were made into operas by Russian composers: Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky’ and Ruslan and Ludmilla by Glinka.
“Pythagoras founded a religion, of which the main tenets were the transmigration of souls and the sinfulness of eating beans. His religion was embodied in a religious order which, here and there, acquired control of the state and established a rule of the saints. But the unregenerate still hankered after beans, and sooner or later rebelled. Bertrand Russell”
