Pushkin was pleasantly surprised by the warmth of his reception
at Mikhailovskoe. Unfortunately the local authorities imposed on
his father the responsibility of supervising and reporting on his
daily behaviour and his dangerous political tendencies. Sergei went
as far as opening his son’s letters, and furious quarrels
ensued. In the end Sergei gave up and removed himself and the rest
of the family to St Petersburg. Mikhailovskoe was a refuge, a tiny
kingdom where the Pushkins owned the land and the people who lived
on it.
At Mikhailovskoe Pushkin relived his childhood. In winter he went
down to the lake and broke the ice with his fist to plunge in for
a swim or he went riding or walking round the countryside, in a
Russian shirt, baggy trousers and straw hat, amusing the peasants
with his habit of jumping around, waving his arms and talking loudly
to himself. Life was easy. The village chieftain (starosto),
took care of the land, while Arina Rodionova, his old nanny and
a sort of surrogate mother, looked after the house. He wrote down
Arina’s folk tales, finished the poems he had started in Odessa,
expanded the collection which was to be the core of his great library,
continued his studies of Russian history, and composed a play, Boris
Godunov, based on a historical episode.
Guest-curated for the British Library by Mike Phillips
Next - 'The Decembrist disaster'
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