Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin^[a][b] (6 June [O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [O.S. 29 January] 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.^[3] He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet,^[4][5][6][7] as well as the founder of modern Russian literature.^[8][9]

Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow.^[10] His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman and military general of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by the Ottomans, then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson.