How did Pushkin become the ‘greatest  Russian poet’?

The need for a "foremost national poet" emerged in European countries during the Romantic era in the late 18th and 19th centuries. This was linked to the formation of nation-states and the search for national identity. There was a need for cultural heroes capable of standing on equal footing with religious saints.

Romanticism and nationalism demanded proof that a nation was not merely a random collection of people, but an ancient, organic community sharing a common spirit and language. The national poet became the "validation" of this community; his work demonstrated that the people deserved their own state or autonomy.

In Italy, Dante Alighieri became such a poet; in Spain, Cervantes; in England, Shakespeare; in Germany, Goethe; and, in Russia, Alexander Pushkin.

The life, death and grave of such a poet became objects of a cult and the poet himself was transformed into a "cultural saint" – a symbol of national suffering and hope.

Why Pushkin specifically?

It was not Pushkin’s life, but his death that gave rise to his cult. The reaction of Russian society to the poet’s death in a duel in 1837 was so intense that it surprised even his contemporaries. This moment marked the starting point for the formation of the "Pushkin myth".

The foundation was laid by critic Vissarion Belinsky in the 1840s. In his articles about the poet, he asserted that it was Pushkin who ushered in a new era in Russian literature. The next major milestone came in 1880. The unveiling of Russia’s first monument to Pushkin in Moscow turned into a grand literary and social event. This "Pushkin celebration" brought together the cream of the Russian intelligentsia.

The culmination was the famous speech by Fyodor Dostoevsky, in which he called Pushkin a "prophetic" figure and emphasized his "universal appeal".

"It can be said with certainty: had it not been for Pushkin, the talents that followed him would not have existed. At the very least, they would not have manifested themselves with such force and clarity – despite even their great gifts – as they have subsequently managed to express in our own time. But, it is not merely a matter of poetry or artistic creation: Were it not for Pushkin, our faith in our Russian independence – our hope, already conscious at this time – in our national strengths and, subsequently, our belief in our future independent destiny within the family of European nations – might not have taken shape with such unwavering force (as it subsequently did, albeit still not for everyone, but for a select few)," Dostoevsky asserted at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature in June 1880.

According to researchers, it was precisely after his speech that the process of officially canonizing the poet’s image began. Pushkin became not merely a great writer, but a "poet of the people" and a "poet of the empire", The phrase coined by poet Apollon Grigoryev – "Pushkin is our everything" – first uttered in his 1859 article ‘A Look at Russian Literature Since Pushkin’s Death’, was vividly confirmed.

What happened next?

The next milestone was the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth in 1899. The celebrations, organized by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, took place in many cities across the Russian Empire. To mark this anniversary, a large-scale Pushkin exhibition was opened, which served as the prototype for the future Pushkin House. It was during this period that Pushkin’s works were widely incorporated into school curricula and grammar textbooks as models of excellence, while his style was elevated to the status of a standard.

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the new Soviet authorities initially viewed Pushkin with suspicion, regarding him as a "nobleman" poet. The situation changed in December 1935, when an article acknowledging his outstanding significance appeared in ‘Pravda’, the leading proletarian newspaper. That moment marked the beginning of the Soviet canonization of Pushkin’s image.

A pivotal event was the 1937 All-Union celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the poet’s death; in scale, it surpassed all previous anniversaries honoring Russian literary classics. An All-Union Pushkin Committee was established to organize events across the country. The poet’s image underwent "Sovietization": he was transformed from a freethinker and "ideologue of the nobility" into a "fighter against autocracy", a friend of the Decembrists and a precursor to the revolutionary democrats. Pushkin definitively became an idol and a symbol that united the Russian nation.