This film is part of the Based on the Drawings of A. S. Pushkin series.

Description:

A film about the early life of great Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837), based on his drawings and writings.

It covers the period of his teenage years and the very close group of friends from his school days that he was part of - until he was separated from them.

Russian viewers would have been familiar with the outline of Pushkin's life, so the film spends little time explaining things and can thus be confusing without some basic knowledge. A good English introduction to his life and work was written by Nadine Jarintzov in her book "Russian Poets and Poems", and can be read online here.

But here is a brief summary of what's going on in the film:

2:35 - Pushkin's years in the school (Lyceum) at Tsarskoye Selo ("Tsar's Village"), where he made close friends and discovered his gift for poetry.

5:57 - After graduation (1817), Pushkin moved to the imperial capital of St. Petersburg and worked in the Civil Service with the Foreign Office. There, he had much leisure time and enjoyed the "high life". He wrote his first major literary "hit", the verse novel "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1820). But he also got involved with revolutionary political circles (alongside his friends), and wrote the poem "Ode To Liberty" which caused the Tsar to exile him to the distant south-west town of Chisinau (Moldova).

8:58 - In Chisinau ("Kishinov" in Russian), Pushkin mercilessly pursued various ladies and got into duels. He also fell in love with a Gypsy girl and joined their caravan for several weeks. In the end, he was so much trouble that the officials sent him away again to Odessa (a major city further south, on the Black Sea).

14:11 - In Odessa, the governor was very strict. Pushkin found it stifling, and did not take his job seriously (he was making more from his literary work). When he was sent to check up on a plague of locusts, it is rumoured that he returned in just a few days and handed in a very short report in verse: "The locusts flew and flew; / Then settled in; / They sat and sat; ate everything; / And flew away again!"

16:05 - Pushkin was exempted from the Civil Service and exiled to his parents' rural estate (Mihaylovskoye) in the north-west province of Pskov. There, he was surrounded by Russian folk culture for the first time. This productive and joyful period is the focus of the second film of this trilogy.

23:55 - In 1825, the Tsar unexpectedly died (or possibly became a hermit), and his brother ascended the throne. On his inauguration in December 1825, there was an unsuccessful revolt in which many of Pushkin's old friends were involved. The new Tsar did not deal with them kindly.

More detailed information regarding each section of the film can be found in the English subtitle upload notes.

Awards:
1986 - State Prize of the RSFSR named after N.K. Krupskaya, presented to director Hrzhanovskiy and composer Schnittke for the A.S. Pushkin trilogy