The Death of Pushkin. The Right to Duel

This edition includes two books by Yakov Gordiny - a well-known writer, publicist, and historian: "The Death of Pushkin" and "The Right to Duel. Pushkin and Power."

In the first of these, the destiny of Pushkin is traced from 1831, when the mature stage of the poet's creativity begins; he is married and full of energy. Nevertheless, many of his most important endeavors fail. Pushkin appears as a serious historian and political thinker, foreseeing the future of the Russian Empire, but remaining misunderstood not only by the tsar, his close associates, and critics, but at times even by his own circle.

The foundation of the plot of the second book is the confrontation of Pushkin with the ideology of "enlightened despotism," advocated during the Nicholas era by Minister of Enlightenment S. S. Uvarov. The narrative about the last year of the poet's life unfolds against the backdrop of the fates of his contemporaries (M. F. Orlov, M. M. Speransky, P. D. Kiselev, A. P. Yermolov, P. A. Vyazemsky), who, like him, entered into an unequal struggle with imperial bureaucracy and failed to change the course of the socio-political process in Russia. This broad historical context allows for an understanding of the magnitude of the problems that burdened Pushkin, which he sought to resolve.

This edition is aimed at a wide audience - everyone interested in questions of Russian history and literature.