Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Born in Moscow in 1799, Alexander Pushkin began writing while still a student at the Imperial Lyceum. He drew on Russian speech, European literary influences, and a strong feel for storytelling to create poetry and prose that felt fresh and alive to his contemporaries.

His major works include the verse novel Eugene Onegin, the historical drama Boris Godunov, and celebrated shorter fiction such as The Queen of Spades and The Captain's Daughter. He also wrote lyric poems, narrative poems, and fairy-tale pieces, and is often described as the founder of modern Russian literature.

Pushkin's life was marked by government surveillance, periods of exile, and a public literary career that made him one of Russia's most important cultural figures. He died in St. Petersburg in 1837 after a duel, but his writing has remained central to Russian literature ever since.