“Little Tragedies” and “Boris Godunov” are the peaks of Russian dramaturgy in the first half of the 19th century. In 1825, while in exile in Mikhailovskoye, Pushkin wrote the tragedy “Boris Godunov.” “The study of Shakespeare, Karamzin, and our ancient chronicles gave me the idea to embody in dramatic forms one of the most dramatic epochs of modern history,” Pushkin wrote about the emergence of the plot concept related to the Time of Troubles. Upon completing the work on the play, in which the main theme was the struggle for power and the Russian throne, the poet confessed in a letter to his friend P. A. Vyazemsky: “My tragedy is finished; I read it aloud, alone, and clapped my hands and shouted, well done Pushkin! well done, son of a bitch!” The cycle “Little Tragedies” was written in 1830 in Boldino, and it is dedicated to human passions—subjugating all thoughts and feelings. Each main character is obsessed with such a passion—whether it is the accumulation of treasures, love, creativity, or the thirst for immortality. And each of them is a voluntary slave to their passion, who seeks not only to subordinate their personal existence to it but wishes to subordinate the whole world to it. The publication includes unfinished dramatic works by Pushkin—“The Rusalka” and “Scenes from Knightly Times,”—as well as selected poems.
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