Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born May 26, 1799 in Moscow, Russia.  He was born to an aristocratic family and

was raised by his grandmother and his nurse, Arina Rodionovna because his parents were not around a lot.  His grandmother

taught him his family history while his nurse told him stories of Russian folklore.  He was known as an extremely rebellious poet

but is now known as one of the finest Russian poets ever.  At age 13 he went to Lyceum where he receive the best Russian

education.  He left Lyceum at age 19 and by then he had published his first work in the journal The Messenger of Europe.

After Lyceum he went to the Collegiums of Foreign Affairs where he was the tenth undersecretary in the Foreign Office.  In

1820, Pushkin was exiled to South Russia because of the controversy that his works created.  During the five years Pushkin

was there, he wrote a series of Romantic poems known as the "southern cycle"  and he began working on the verse novel

Eugene Onegin.   He was exiled again but this time to his mother’s estate in Mikhaylovskoe which is in northern Russia  While

at the estate he wrote a number of other poems including The Bridegroom.  In 1826 Czar Nicholas I ascended to the thrown.

Nicholas enjoyed Pushkin's work and allowed Pushkin back into the country but refused to give up the idea of censoring

literary works.  Therefore, Pushkin was put on police survellance but that didn't stop him from creating even more works.  On

February 18, 1831 Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova in Moscow and they moved to St. Petersburg together.  But during

their marriage, Natalia met someone else.