Pushkin Was Here (Perhaps)

On June 6, Russia will celebrate the 220th birthday of the poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, one of the country’s most important literary icons. An icon who not only made an imprint on the country with his works of literature, but with his feet, heart, and head.

It seems as if every region of Russia strives to connect their past with the hallowed name of Alexander Sergeyevich. Since he traveled frequently and far, not all these claimed connections are necessarily tenuous. Certainly the poet traveled through and even stopped in many small villages and towns, and so current residents can align the place they live with the illustrious life of this “sun of Russian poetry.”

And while there are a great number of well-known places that Pushkin slept or visited, streets that he walked down, buildings and sites that he saw during his short life, we enumerate here a few lesser-known Pushkin-places, in hopes of showing a side of the poet’s life that others have missed. If such a thing is even possible 220 years on.