How Alexander Pushkin once fought with the Russian army

In early May 1829, the poet left Moscow and headed to Transcaucasia, where fighting was underway against the Turks. He was traveling to General Ivan Paskevich's army to see his brother Lev and his friends among the officers.

"I really enjoyed camp life. The cannon woke us at dawn. Sleeping in a tent was surprisingly healthy. At dinner, we washed down Asian shashlik with English beer and champagne frozen in the Taurian snows," the poet recalled his first days in the Russian garrison near Kars.

The army was advancing on Erzurum. Pushkin witnessed several armed clashes with the enemy and even participated in the decisive battle near the village of Kainli. Officer Mikhail Pushchin wrote that he saw the poet "separated from the flanking dragoons, galloping with his saber drawn, against the Turks charging at him."

The appearance of Russian lancers forced the enemy to retreat and Pushkin, caught up in the pursuit, was stopped by his comrades, to his great dismay. “He never got the chance to try his saber on the Turkish head," Pushchin noted.

Soon after the capture of Erzurum, a plague broke out among the Russian troops. "I immediately imagined the horrors of quarantine," the poet recalled. On July 19, 1829, Pushkin said goodbye to his friends, received a Turkish saber as a gift from Paskevich and left the army.