Pushkin and the Decembrists

19 hrs. 35 min.

Language Russian

Author Natan Eidelman

Narrator Dmitriy Saltsev

Description

There is probably no book about the history of the Decembrists in which Pushkin’s name does not appear, and no book about Alexander Sergeyevich’s life in which the Decembrists are not mentioned. Quite a number of studies have been made on the topic «Pushkin and the Decembrists,» and we present to your attention one of such works by the Soviet writer, literary scholar, and historian Nathan Yakovlevich Eydelman. There are two types of historians. Some talk about history. Others talk with history. Eydelman talked with history in the same way—composedly, openly, and energetically—as he spoke with friends. He belonged to the category of researchers-conversationalists, and thanks to that his works were unbelievably popular with readers.

At the center of this book is the history of the relationship between Russia’s first poet, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, and the first revolutionaries—the Decembrists. With some of them—Pus hchin and Kyukhelbeker—he was connected by friendly ties from his Lyceum youth; with others—Raevsky and Orlov—he shared his years of exile. And for all of them, he was a singer of freedom and «the youthful revolt.» Nathan Eydelman tells how constantly the two worlds intersected—the world of secret societies and the world of Pushkin—and how, out of attraction and repulsion, closeness and disagreements, there arose both great poetry and surprising destinies.

In his work «Pushkin and the Decembrists,» Nathan Eydelman showed what this was a «great, complex, contradictory historical unity,» a «union of disputants who are in disagreement in agreement, and in disagreement in agreement»…