KOCHI: If he were alive today, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin would have turned 215 this month, thrilled to find much of his work still in continuous print. As Russia and the literary world celebrated the 215th birth anniversary of the author of such works as Eugene Onegin and Ruslan and Lyudmila, the state also joined in with a seminar, poetry session and a photo exhibition to mark the occasion on June 6.
Organised by the Russian Cultural Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, the celebration was inaugurated by Perumbuzha Gopalakrishnan who said that Pushkin used his pen to fight for the downtrodden. “Pushkin wrote for the common man. He used his pen to fight to protect the interest of the poor. But his poems were well linked with nature and emotions. Pushkin can be considered as a saint who dedicated himself to literature that was based on love,” said Gopalakrishnan.
“He even sacrificed his life because of his self respect and love and affinity for his wife Natalia,” added Gopalakrishnan, referring to Pushkin’s death in a duel at the age of 37. “For the new generation Pushkin’s life is like a fairy tale which under line the fact that sometimes life is stranger than fiction,” he said.
Since 2010, Pushkin’s birth anniversary is celebrated in Russia as the Russian Language Day. It was in 2010 that the United Nations declared June 6 as International Pushkin Day in honour of the poet who is considered by many as the father of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born in Moscow on June 6, 1799.
His works are considered representative of the Romantic era in Russian literature.
Laureate of the Pushkin Medal and former Head of the Russian Language Department, Kerala University Prof Govindan Nair delivered the key note address at the function. Russia’s honorary consul in Thiruvananthapuram and director, Russian Cultural Centre, Ratheesh C Nair presided over the function. Poems by Pushkin and a poem on Pushkin written by Prof O N V Kurup were recited at the function.