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 Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman 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.