The Captain's Daughter by Alexander Pushkin

Part 2 of our Pushkin reading is a short historical novel based on the famous Pugachev Rebellion.

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“God save us from seeing a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless!" - Alexander Pushkin, The Captain's Daughter

The Captain's Daughter was published in 1836, one month before Pushkin's death, in the literary journal Sovremennik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovremennik). The novel is a romanticized account of Pugachev's Rebellion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugachev%27s_Rebellion) in 1773–1774, the largest peasant revolt in Russian history. Pushkin himself had been associated with the Decembrist revolt in 1825, for which he was sent into exile and subsequent house arrest. As you read the text, see if you can glean Pushkin's views on the nature of revolt, the traditions of the Russian nobility, and the army service of the Czar.

Let's read the entire text (~100 pages) for this meetup.

Translations: I'll be reading the translation included in the new P&V volume (https://www.amazon.com/Novels-Tales-Journeys-Complete-Alexander/dp/0307959627/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1482878339&sr=8-4&keywords=the+captain%27s+daughter+pushkin) of Pushkin's prose. A variety (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+captain%27s+daughter+pushkin) of other translations are available, often in conjunction with the Tales of Belkin.

Happy reading!

About the author

Alexander Pushkin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin) (1799-1837) was a poet, novelist and playwright. Considered by many to be the greatest Russian wordsmith, he was the first to write in the modern Russian vernacular, becoming the "founder" of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow, but was the descendant of an African slave: his great-grandfather, Abram Gannibal, was brought to Russia from Cameroon and was raised in the imperial household of Peter the Great. Pushkin became the leading figure of the Golden Age of Russian Poetry: he produced hundreds of poems, as well as numerous novels-in-verse (The Bronze Horseman, Ruslan and Ludmila, Evgeny Onegin), plays (Boris Godunov, Mozart and Saliery, The Miserly Knight) and fiction (The Queen of Spades, The Captain's Daughter, The Tales of Belkin). After a short but exceptionally prolific literary career, he was killed in a duel at age 37.