Pushkin's Ambivalent View of Peter the Great's Vision
This paper examines Alexander Pushkin's ambivalent attitude toward Peter the Great as revealed in the narrative poem The Bronze Horseman and his lyric poetry. While Pushkin admired Peter's transformative vision — most dramatically embodied in the founding of St. Petersburg — he was equally troubled by the human cost of that imperial ambition, particularly for serfs and ordinary people symbolized by the poem's tragic protagonist Evgeny. The paper also briefly considers Pushkin's self-conception as a poet in "Arion," where the artist's role is portrayed as enduring and heroic even amid catastrophe.
- Peter the Great's Vision and Pushkin's Admiration: Pushkin praises Peter's creation of St. Petersburg
- The Flood, Evgeny, and the Limits of Imperial Power: Flood exposes limits of imperial will; Evgeny's tragedy
- Pushkin's Sympathy for the Serfs: Historical serf policies inform Pushkin's ambivalence
- Pushkin as the Lyric Poet: Arion: Pushkin portrays the poet as heroic survivor
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper balances close textual reading with historical context, grounding literary analysis in actual policy details such as Peter's factory serf reforms.
- It uses specific quoted passages from The Bronze Horseman to anchor interpretive claims, making the argument concrete and verifiable.
- The writing maintains a clear thesis — Pushkin's dual admiration and unease — and returns to it consistently across both literary and historical evidence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of thematic synthesis: connecting the symbolic arc of a literary text (the poem's flood narrative) to broader historical realities (Peter's serf policies) to explain an author's ideological ambivalence. Rather than treating the poem purely as fiction or purely as biography, the student triangulates between text, historical fact, and authorial context.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing thesis about Pushkin's dual attitude, then moves through a close reading of The Bronze Horseman from its admiring opening to its dark conclusion. It then introduces historical evidence about serfdom to explain the emotional stakes behind the poem. A brief second section pivots to the lyric poem "Arion" to extend the portrait of Pushkin as a self-conscious, heroic poet figure. The works cited section follows standard academic form.
Peter the Great's Vision and Pushkin's Admiration
Peter the Great's vision for Russia involved sweeping changes — changes so radical that, although they brought about tremendous progress, they also ruthlessly crushed many old traditions. Alexander Pushkin simultaneously admired the vision and determination shown by the ruler and was troubled by the measures necessary to carry out the envisioned reforms.
The Bronze Horseman exemplifies this dual viewpoint. In the poem's opening, Peter the Great — referred to simply as "he" ("on") as if his identity needed no explanation — contemplates the unpromising site of his projected city of St. Petersburg. In time, his vision is realized. "That city young, gem of the Northern world" became the world-class city its founder had envisioned. Pushkin's admiration for the achievement is palpable: "I love thee, city of Peter's making."
The Flood, Evgeny, and the Limits of Imperial Power
With the flood, however, the limits of human power and vision are exposed: "No Tsar, with God, is master over God's elements!" The humble man Evgeny loses everything and everyone he has ever loved, and he turns in anger on the Emperor's statue, denouncing it as haughty and presumptuous: "Ay, architect, with thy creation of marvels... Ah, beware of me!" The angered statue comes to life — in Evgeny's crazed mind — and chases him mercilessly through the devastated city, ultimately to his death. The tone of the poem's ending echoes its opening in its description of a shabby marsh and its wretched inhabitants.
The meaning of the poem and its disturbing imagery suggest that Pushkin was torn between two impulses. On one hand, he recognized Peter the Great's laudable ambition to make Russia a center of power and influence in Europe — to create a cultured, imperial capital out of an unpromising marsh, as exemplified in the founding of St. Petersburg. On the other hand, Pushkin was deeply sensitive to the plight of ordinary people like Evgeny, who were swept away by the Emperor's will to power.
Pushkin's Sympathy for the Serfs
Pushkin was highly sensitive to the plight of the serfs — humble men like Evgeny. Peter the Great established factories throughout Russia to compete in the European economy, and in one of his reforms allowed those factories to purchase entire villages of agricultural workers for manpower. Although he decreed that families could not be broken up, he nevertheless upheld the right of landowners to sell their serfs as the market dictated.
Thus, although Pushkin could not help but admire Peter's visionary plan for Russia, his intensely felt libertarian convictions must have generated deep sympathy for the plight of the serfs — the little people like Evgeny and his Parasha — who were to be swept aside by the imperial will to power.
Works Cited
Mosaic (Houghton Mifflin). "Peter the Great's Revolution." Perspectives on Western Civilization. Retrieved December 9, 2002, from http://college.hmco.com/history/west/mosaic/chapter10/module37.html
Pushkin, Alexander. "The Bronze Horseman." Trans. Oliver Elton. Retrieved December 9, 2002, from
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