Pushkin, Alexander Sergeievich

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Pushkin, Alexander Sergeievich (1799–1837) Russian poet and novelist. He was exiled for his political beliefs in 1820, the year in which his folk poem Ruslan and Lyudmila published. The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1822) is his response to the beauty of the Crimea and the Caucasus; and the tragedy Boris Godunov (1826) reveals the influence of Byron. Pushkin's masterpiece was the verse novel Eugene Onegin (1833). Other works include the short story The Queen of Spades (1834) and the historical novel The Captain's Daughter (1836). He died in a brawl fought over his wife, Natalia.