The last evening of the eighteenth century, December 31, 1800, Pushkin assembled guests. The table was festively laid: waiting for the New Year, new, nineteenth century.

Exactly at midnight there was a sound of hours. The first blow, followed by the second, third ... last - the twelfth. The guests raised their glasses, congratulated each other:

- Happy New Year! With the new century! With the new century!

clinking of glasses and loud voices woke sleeping guests in the adjoining room young son Pushkin - Alexandra. He was only eighteen months. He jumped out of bed, quietly opened the door to the room where the guests gathered, and jumped out of bed, blinded by the multitude of candles, stood in the doorway.

frightened, the child rushed to the nurse, the fortress Pushkins Juliana Yakovlev. But his mother, Nadezhda Levinton, stopped her. Touched the unexpected appearance of her son, she took his hand, raised high above his head and said, enthusiastically turning to the guests:

- that's who crossed the threshold of a new century! .. That's who it will live !..

Pushkin stepped in two centuries. It will pass and through the millennium.

... One little Alexander Pushkin was walking with his nurse Ulyana Yakovlevna the lanes of the old Moscow park. Suddenly, they went to meet a small increase in the officer's uniform, boots and cocked hat. A quick military step, he approached year-old Pushkin, sternly eyed nurse and, jabbing his finger in the child's head and shouted:

- Take off your cap!

Nurse, embarrassed, did not dare to contradict the imperative orders and took off the boy's cap. Just arrived from the countryside and the oversight of the child to nurse, Juliana could not, of course, know who was the officer met them. Hope Levinton (mother of Alexander Pushkin) explained to her house, it was the king himself, the Emperor Paul I, unhappy that they did not welcome him.

Subsequently, Pushkin wrote: "I saw three kings: the first told me to take off his cap and chided me for my nanny ..." Paul I do after the throne, Alexander I and Nicholas I have never ceased to haunt the poet and led to his downfall. ..
1 Morning of Life (1799 - 1811)
Unusually

began and evolved the life of the poet of . Was unusual, and Pushkin pedigree: in his veins Slavic and African blood.

Pushkin's father, Sergei, belonged to an ancient, gradually impoverished noble family of military men, soldiers and statesmen, the companions of Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, Kozma Minin.

Pushkins distinguished taste for poetry and literature in general. Sergei wrote poems in French and in n. Quite well-known poet of his time was his uncle Pushkin Davidov. He wrote poems of their distant relative of Alexei Mikhailovich Pushkin. Poems "amused" the elder sister of the poet, Olga, and his younger brother, Lev.

Pushkin was proud of the ancient origins of his family. Was proud and black great-grandfather, the famous "Moor of Peter the Great", Ibrahim. Son vladetelnogo Abyssinian chieftain, Ibrahim eight-year boy was brought to , as a gift to Peter I. When he was christened Abram Petrovich Hannibal. Prior to 1716 - Ibrahim was already 28 years old - he was a personal valet, Peter I. Noticing the great abilities and giftedness Abram Petrovich, the king sent him to France to get an education.

In the story "Moor of Peter the Great" and in his memoirs - "Getting an autobiography" - Pushkin says that Hannibal was trained at the Paris military academy, was released by Captain of Artillery, distinguished himself in the Spanish war, and badly wounded, he returned to Paris. Emperor often asked about his favorite, and the one at the call of Peter, he returned to St. Petersburg. Returned educated engineer.

Abram Petrovich rose to the rank of commander in chief. In 1745 he was rewarded for the great service Mikhailovskoye village near Pskov. Subsequently, in St. Michael, which became the Pushkin, the poet recalls in one of his great-grandfather's poetic message:

In the village where Peter pet,

Kings, queens favorite office
Their

forgotten odnodomets,

hiding my grandfather arap,
Where

, forgetting Elizabeth

and yard, and lush vows,

Under the canopy of linden avenues

He thought in cold years
On the far

its Africa.

German settlement, situated on the banks of the river Kukui, was considered an aristocratic part of Moscow. Here, in Peter the settled foreigners. They all called "Germans", hence the name - German settlement. Here, arriving in Moscow, he loved to have fun Peter I. To this day preserved in the former German Quarter Lefortovski Palace and Sloboda, which is now placed Higher Technical School im. Bauman.

In this German settlement, in German, now Bauman, street 40, in a small wooden house, and Pushkin was born. In place of this house now stands the multistory building 353 schools named after the poet. He wore a plaque with the inscription: "Here was a house where May 26 (6 June) 1799 Pushkin was born." Before the facade - a sculptural bust of the young poet.

entirely different character than the German settlement were Ogo, which soon moved to Pushkin. Children's impressions of those years the poet has reproduced in the book "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg." Pushkins moved to a small lodge at the palace of Prince Yusupov, in November 1804 This magnificent architectural monument of the 17 th century perfectly preserved to this day and decorates Moscow. Mysterious shady garden opposite the palace - "Yusupov garden" - was probably the first strong impression of a small Pushkin. He was then only 6-7 years. In the poem "In the beginning of the life of the school I remember," Pushkin wrote about his childhood impressions of that time:

And often I furtively ran

In the darkness of another's magnificent garden,

Under a set of artificial porphyry rocks.
There

nezhila me shadows cool:

I stargaze his young mind,
and

idle thoughts were a comfort to me.

throughout his life carried Pushkin tender, touching love for his grandmother, Mary Alexeevna Hannibal, and his nurse Arina Rodionovna. None in the world literature of another nurse, whose name would so closely interwoven with the name of her pet. Simple, illiterate n woman, a peasant serf became the companion of the great n poet.

We had a young nurse. -Old girl she was married to a serf Fyodor Matveyev. She had had four children, when Pushkin was born in 1797, daughter Olga, and a half years - the son of Alexander - the future poet. She took him to the nurse, she brought them, as his younger brother, Lev. We were at the Pushkin four boys - Paul, Michael, Plato, Nicholas - and daughter Sophia, but they all died in infancy.

Grandma Maria and the nurse Arina fused in the imagination of Pushkin in one of the dearly beloved image. And he fondly remembers them in his poem "Dream":

Ah Mademoiselle keep silence about my Mammy,

the charms of the mysterious night,

When the cap, in an old garment,
She

, spirits prayer deviation,
diligently

blessed me

And whisper tell me will be

a dead man, about the exploits Bova ...
Terrified

not shelohnus, happened,

barely breathing, long press under a blanket,

feeling neither feet nor head.

Alexander came out of childhood, and the house Pushkin appeared next to his grandmother and a nanny, tutors. They were foreigners, rushed after the French Revolution in in the pursuit of happiness. There were among them people worthy and educated, but, as later recalled his sister Olga, mostly emigrants struck his lack of culture and naivete.

Parents Alexander almost did not participate in the upbringing of their children. His father, Sergei, passed all the care for his family to his wife, Nadezhda Levinton, and she adored him no less light and gay society. Unpleasant memories of childhood, celebrated by Pushkin, were associated with tutors, governesses and unfair treatment of the mother Hope Osipovna, which is constantly irritated by persistent, proud, prone to self-sufficiency character of Alexander. Only a warm friendship with his sister Olga softened his "intolerable condition".

sister Olga was a loyal childhood friend of Alexander. To her he confided his childhood secrets, shared with her first poetic dreams. Being introduced in the early years of French literature, speak the language well, a little Pushkin and his first children's works created in the French language.

in the development of the poetic gift of Pushkin's uncle played an important role Davidov. In verse letter "To Delvig Pushkin admitted that it was his uncle made him a poet:

My uncle poet

That's what gave me advice

And with the Muses betrothed.

Together with parents, Alexander often visited friends who lived in the neighborhood, such as passionate book lovers, what were his father and uncle. One of them, and DN Buturlin was enlightened leader of his time, his library consisted of 25 thousand volumes, and admired, even foreigners. When we go with my parents at Buturlins, Pushkin, climbed into their huge library. Often met there with his uncle and poets Batyushkov, I. Dmitriev, VA Zhukovsky, fabulist Ivan Krylov.

Thus passed childhood Pushkin. Mother loved more than his younger brother, Lev, and Alexander felt it. When he left in 1811, in Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, twelve-year boy without regret parting with governesses and tutors. But I heartily later recalled his sister Olga, a companion of his childhood, his grandmother and nurse.
2 Arrival in Moscow after his exile (1826 - 1827)

Moscow ... how much of this sound

for n hearts blended!

How much it imparts!

A. Pushkin. "Eugene Onegin"

Pushkin entered the Moscow crisp autumn morning. Distant childhood memories of Moscow and the joy of returning to the "edge of native embraced the poet - he excitedly poured those feelings in the seventh chapter of" Eugene Onegin ":

Oh, brothers! I was pleased,

When churches and bell towers,

Gardens, a palace of a semi-circle

suddenly opened before me!

How often in bitter parting,

In my wandering fate,

Moscow, I thought about you !..

Moscow Pushkin was delighted. But, like all of , was under a heavy impression that only an accomplished executions of five of the Decembrists and the harsh sentence of his 120 "friends, brothers and comrades." In Moscow, Pushkin had to arrive at this time on the orders of Tsar Nicholas I. While still a Grand Duke, Nicholas I heard from the lips of his brother, Emperor Alexander I, Pushkin's assessment: "I read whether you" Ruslan and Lyudmila "? The author serves on the board of Foreign Affairs - is a loafer, a gifted great talent ".

stepped on the throne, and disposing of the Decembrists, Nicholas I made a vow: "The revolution on the eve of . I swear it did not penetrate to us, yet I will keep the breath of life. " Nicholas I was forced to reconcile with the rebel poet. Benckendorf returned with the king of advice: "Pushkin is still a decent varmint, but if you can send it to the pen and speech, this will be a direct benefit." Nicholas I heeded the advice chief of police.

Pushkin taken to the Kremlin directly from the road, unshaven, covered with road dust. In a large study Chudova Palace met the poet and the king. The audience lasted for more than two hours. Nicholas I asked:

- Pushkin, took Would you participate in the December 14, if I was in St. Petersburg?

- Certainly, Sire, all my friends were in the conspiracy, and I could not participate in it. The mere absence of saved me ... - Said Pushkin.

- Pretty deceive you, - replied the Emperor, - I hope now thou discreet, and we are not going to quarrel over. You're going to send me all that compose; from now on I'll be your censor.

tsarist censorship was for the poet's new gravest yoke. From the hands of the autocrat Pushkin was only semi-freedom.

September 12, 1826 Pushkin first visit to the Bolshoi Theater. There was a piece AA Shakhovsky "Aristophanes" with M. Schepkin. "When Pushkin entered the stalls of the Bolshoi Theater - his contemporaries - instantly swept across the theater voices, repeating his name: all eyes, all attention turned on him ...".

poet visited Sept. 16 festivities in honor of the coronation of Nicholas I to the Virgin's Field, at the Novodevichy Monastery. On the "royal feast" gathered 200 thousand people. 20 bands played.

Pushkin brought with him to Moscow, "Boris Godunov". He read many times this tragedy with friends - Sobolev, Viazemskii, Baratynsky, in his hotel. She made an indelible impression on them.

Moscow Pushkin met with members of the Society of Wisdom "VF Odoyevsky novelist, poet DV Venevitinovs and others. Once we were talking about the issue of the journal, as opposed to "Son of the Fatherland, published by reactionary journalists FV Bulgarin and NI Grech. The idea came to mind "the Society" and the editor of a new two-week "Moscow Gazette chosen MP Pogodin. In the first issue of the Moscow Gazette had published a scene from "Boris Godunov" - "night. Cell in the Miracle Monastery ".

In a noisy, vain Moscow poet often thought of quiet Mikhailovskoe. She remembered the nurse Arina, sobbed violently when the courier was taking him out of Michael's in Moscow. Presenting himself as she was concerned, worried, Pushkin wrote:

friend of my days of severe,

Dove decrepit mine!

One in a wilderness of pine forest

long. long have you been waiting for me.
You

under the window of his parlor

grieving, as if on watch,

and slow constantly spokes

in your wrinkled hands.

the first anniversary of the execution of the Decembrists, seeking to express their sympathy, devotion and loyalty to the cause of the Decembrists, Pushkin creates a work of "Arion". In it he laid the foundation myth of salvation dolphin Greek poet and musician Arion, covering thus the political meaning of the poem:

We had a lot on a boat;
Other

sail strained,
Other

amicably resisted

Deep powerful oars. In the silence

handlebar bent, our Kormshchikov clever

The silence of the law ponderous bark;

And I - carefree faith is full of

crush a fly whirlwind noisy ...

Killed and Kormshchikov and swimmer! -

Only I, the mysterious singer,

ashore thrown thunderstorm,

and sing the old hymns

And wet my robe

land on the sun under a rock.

considerable public place in Pushkin's time served in Moscow salon Zenaida Volkonskaya on Tverskaya, 14, a current Pushkin Square. When Pushkin first appeared in the cabin, Zinaida Volkonskaia, welcoming the poet, sang a song to the words of Pushkin's Elegies extinguished daystar ":

murmur, murmur, obedient sail,

worry beneath me, sullen ocean ...

Pushkin gave hostess salon poem "Gypsies" and verses:
Among the scattered

Moscow,
When

persuasions whist and Boston,
When

ball babble rumor

you like games of Apollo.

Queen music and beauty,

gentle hand you hold you

magic scepter inspirations,

And over the thoughtful brow,
Double

crowned with a wreath

And winds and blazing genius ...

Returning to Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin and again experienced the bright and exciting experiences life in Moscow two months after six years of captivity. From Michael Vyazemsky Pushkin wrote: "The village came to me somehow to the heart. There is some poetic pleasure to return to a free to leave prison. You know that I do not Korca sensitivity, but a meeting of my servants ... and my nanny - I swear nicer Shchekotov heart, than fame, pride, pleasure, distraction, and so on ".

winter evening Dec. 19, 1826 Pushkin again after the link returns to Moscow. Returns already freely, without any courier number. And do not call for the king, and in your heart and friends.
And

Pushkin again in the brilliant salon Zenaida Volkonskaya, at the farewell party hosted by her in honor of Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya is traveling to a distant, harsh Siberia, sentenced to penal servitude to her husband, the Decembrists. Volkonskaia left for the prison, which were awarded two of the closest friend of Pushkin Lyceum - I. Leo and VK Kiichelbecker. Pushkin wrote a poem "Epistle to the prisoners and sent them to the Decembrists AG Muravyova also going