1799-1837. Russian poet and writer. He was
exiled 1820 for his political verse and in
1824 was in trouble for his atheistic
opinions. He wrote ballads such as The
Gypsies 1827, and the novel in verse Eugene
Onegin 1823-31. Other works include the
tragic drama Boris Godunov 1825, and the
prose pieces The Captain's Daughter 1836 and
The Queen of Spades 1834. Pushkin's range was
vast, and his willingness to experiment freed
later Russian writers from many of the
archaic conventions of the literature of his
time.