Eugene Onegin

Chronology

1799 26 May Born in Moscow. Father of ancient Muscovite aristocratic lineage; mother a granddaughter of Abyssinian General Abram Gannibal (hero of Pushkin’s unfinished novel The Negro of Peter the Great).

1811–17 Educated at newly opened Imperial Lycée at Tsarskoe Selo. First poetry (earliest publication 1814).

1817–20 Nominal government appointment in Foreign Office, St Petersburg. Life of dissipation. ‘Free-thinking’ acquaintances (future Decembrists).

1820 Completed first major narrative poem, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Exiled to south for a handful of ‘liberal’ verses on freedom, serfdom and autocracy.

1820–24 ‘Southern exile’ (via Caucasus and Crimea to Kishinev and, from July 1823, Odessa). ‘Byronic’ narrative poems, including The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain at Bakhchisaray. Began Eugene Onegin (1823). Recognition as leading poet of his generation.

1824–6 After misdemeanours in Odessa, exile continued in greater isolation of parental estate of Mikhailovskoe. The Gipsies (1824); Count Nulin; Boris Godunov (1825). Misses Decembrist Revolt of 1825, ruthlessly suppressed by new emperor, Nicholas I.

1826 September Summoned to Moscow by Nicholas I. Freed from exile, with tsar as personal censor; subject thereafter to ‘surveillance, guidance and counselling’ of Count Benkendorf, Head of the Third Section (Secret Police). Resumed life in Moscow and St Petersburg; restlessness, search for stability.

1828 Poltava (narrative poem on Peter the Great and Mazeppa). Four-month visit to Transcaucasia. Witnessed Russian army in action against the Turks.

1830 Proposed to Natalya Goncharova (1812–63). In September – November stranded by cholera epidemic at new estate of Boldino: first and most productive ‘Boldino autumn’ (Onegin; lyrics; Little Tragedies; Tales of Belkin; The Little House in Kolomna).

1831 Married in February. Settled in St Petersburg. Completed Onegin.

1833 Historical research. Travelled to Urals. Second Boldino autumn (The Bronze Horseman; work on The Queen of Spades).

1833–6 Unhappy period in St Petersburg: humiliations at court (with requests for retirement from government service refused), mounting debts and marital insecurity. Relatively little creative work: The Captain’s Daughter (completed 1836) and some outstanding lyrics.

1837 27 January Provoked into duel with Baron D’Anthès, adopted son of Dutch ambassador, and shot in stomach. Died two days later. ‘Secret’ burial decreed to avoid expressions of public sympathy.