Pushkin: A Book About Everything

A new era has revived old questions—and rejected many familiar answers. Alexander Pushkin has not been spared. Was he an imperialist? A militarist? How should we read him today in light of empire, war, a new wave of emigration, the culture of cancellation, and the unresolved legacies of Russian history? Did the imperial state ultimately tame Pushkin, or did he succeed in influencing it? And is it true that he considered leaving Russia?
Alexander Arkhangelsky—philologist, public intellectual, and educator—argues that every generation must revisit its understanding of Russia's national poet. A century ago, the Futurists famously called for Pushkin to be "thrown overboard from the steamship of modernity." Today, a different historical moment demands a new conversation rather than old certainties.
Pushkin: A Book About Everything is neither a conventional biography nor a literary textbook. Instead, it is an open-ended dialogue that uses Pushkin's life and works as a starting point for reflecting on literature, history, politics, culture, and the enduring questions that continue to shape the Russian-speaking world.

Alexander Arkhangelsky. Pushkin: A Book About Everything. — Bratislava: Vidim Books; Moscow: AST, Elena Shubina Editorial (published in Russia under the title In Short: Pushkin!), 2025.
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