The History of Pugachev

The appearance of Pushkin¿s The History of Pugachev was greeted with suspicion and hostility by Nicholas I, who had restricted Pushkin¿s access to the records of the Pugachev Rebellion and who insisted on censoring the book before publication. The Tsar insisted that Pushkin change the title from The History of Pugachev to The History of the Pugachev Rebellion since ¿a rebel could not have a history.¿ The tsar was not the only person to find fault with the History ¿ liberals of the time attacked Pushkin for his lack of social bias, and the conservatives disliked his indictment of the foreign-born generals who conducted the campaign against Pugachev with an eye only on the advancement of their own careers.The History of Pugachev represents a major departure for Pushkin. It is a history written by a poet, yet Pushkin¿s fieldwork and handling of archival materials is admired by historians today. Pushkin travelled to Kazan, Orenburg and in the Ural territory ¿ an act of heroism in those days. He visited Pugachev¿s capmpsite, interviewed natives of the region who claimed to have participated in the rebellion, and examined provincial archives. Pushkin the artist takes this raw material and fashions it into a powerful literary and historical narrative of uprising and rebellion.