Annotation: The legacy of Alexander Pushkin, long considered untouchable, has increasingly become the subject of critical reassessment. Critics now focus on the patriarchal, imperial, and militaristic meanings embedded in his works. Ilya Vinitsky offers an alternative approach to these ideological evaluations—a literary analysis that problematizes readings of the classic author’s texts and reconstructs the contexts in which they were created.

Vinitsky’s goal is to present Pushkin's work as a paradoxical and dynamic intersection of diverse traditions, ideas, and cultural currents. He also examines various scenarios of Pushkin’s mythologization, ranging from state-sponsored propaganda and imperial narratives to liberal-enlightenment and émigré interpretations.

What insights can we gain by subjecting Pushkin's humor to historical and cultural reflection? What poems did the great poet allegedly "dictate" from the afterlife to spiritualists? How does the forgery of Pushkin’s letter to Nicholas I connect to the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel? These and other fascinating questions are addressed in the essays included in this collection.

Ilya Vinitsky is a philologist and professor at Princeton University.