The Death of Pushkin

My Friends!

I regret to inform you that a great tragedy has taken place.  Since I last wrote, I have found myself again in St. Petersburg, and have fallen in with a group of fellow story tellers who have captured ideas from the west.  This group of brilliant Russians are some of the greatest writers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting for drinks.  But, horror of horrors, the greatest of these my new friends has been wounded in a duel.  My friend, Aleksandr Pushkin, teeters now on the precipice between this mortal life and the grave.  He is in God's hands now, and we can only drink and pray in hopes that he may somehow recover.  I will admit, I do not think I have the faith to believe he will recover.
Perhaps it will clear my head to detail some of the strange events leading up to the duel itself, as the tale is a strange one.

A portrait of Natalia from this period,
though it hardly does her justice.

To understand this duel, one must understand a bit of the history of Pushkin himself.  The first part being that he was a troubled soul.  Pushkin had fallen into the tragedy many feel in youth.  He had married a beautiful woman.  Indeed, Natalia Nikolaevna is the most beautiful woman I have ever met.  While this seems like a blessing to the young, we who have been around may know better.  It is commonly rumored that Natalia had sought attentions outside her marriage with men of the court, most notably with one Georges d'Antes and potentially even the Tsar, Nicholas I (Yefimov, 1999; Strakhosvsky, 1956).  I unfortunately do not have the blessing of being invited to these court events as a simple story teller, and cannot verify the truth of the rumors myself.  However, the strength of a rumor lies not in its truth, but rather in its persistence.

This particular rumor was highly pervasive, and the content of it would have made any husband melancholy.  Pushkin was no exception.  Over the years, he had taken several actions, some more brash than others, to defend the honor of his wife and himself, including many letters of a scathing nature sent to d'Antes and his father and a dueling challenge later retracted (Yefimov, 1999).  Certainly, this shows the courage, patience, and reason possessed by Pushkin, but those admirable qualities could never hope to sustain him forever.

Pushkin, after his duel.

It seems, the final nail in the coffin was a diploma, as cryptic as it was inflammatory, which was given to Pushkin in the November before his fateful duel (Yefimov, 1999).  This document seems meant to ridicule and mock Pushkin, and to question the validity of his accomplishments.  In response, he reissued his challenge to d'Antes.

Dueling has become popular here in Russia only recently, and has spread through the military and the nobility rather swiftly, though the practice is done with some pseudo secrecy, as the Tsar has stated that it is not to be permitted (Reyfman, 1995).  Indeed, I have known several officers who have been demoted for agreeing to participate in such duels.  However, to the young men of today, their honor is more important than the law.

A typical duel involves two men,
who face each other and exchange fire.

As it is, Pushkin himself carried through with the deed only yesterday.  During the exchange, Pushkin shot first, and missed.  d'Antes, however, had a truer aim, catching Pushkin in the hip.  Pushkin, horribly wounded, was brought back to his home, where I and a few of his other friends came as quick as we could to comfort our friend in his final hours and say our farewells.


When I had arrived at Pushkin's home, I was shocked to find the Tsar's own doctor there already!  He had apparently for immediately (Strakhovsky, 1956).  I had not been aware that Pushkin had been quite this close to the Tsar, but I suppose I should have accounted better for the interaction he has had while accompanying his wife.  Zhukovsky, who is in charge of managing Pushkin's documents should he die, has even hinted that the Tsar has promised to care for Pushkin's family after the event itself (Strakhovsky, 1956).

I am grateful that someone is taking care for the family of the great man.  Surely, Russia will be poorer without him.  It is a cruel irony that the honor and courage that so inspired Pushkin's work has now cost him the life by which he may have done so much more.  I shall miss him dearly.

Sources:
Reyfman, Irina. "The Emergence of the Duel in Russia: Corporal Punishment and the Honor Code." The Russian Review, no. 1, 1995, p. 26. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.10.2307.130773&site=eds-live.

STRAKHOVSKY, LEONID I. “Pushkin and the Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I.” Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, vol. 1, 1956, pp. 16–30., www.jstor.org/stable/40866041.

Yefimov, Igor. "A Duel with the Tsar." Russian Review, vol. 58, no. 4, Oct. 1999, p. 574. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=2846755&site=eds-live.