Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin born in Moscow.

Earthquake in Moscow: Pushkin's earliest memory.

Wrote his first verses - in French.

Enters the new lycée at Tsarskoye Se1o, near St. Petersburg, a school founded by the Tsar to prepare the sons of noblemen for a career as Government ministers, or as diplomats.

• FACT: Pushkin's great-grandfather was an African. He, later christened Abram Petrovich Hannibal, was abducted from home at the age of 7 and taken to live in Istanbul as a slave. There he was rescued by the Russian envoy, who sent him as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great, who stood as godfather to him at his christening. Peter sent him abroad as a young man to train as a military engineer. Peter's daughter, the Empress Elizabeth, made him a general, and he eventually died in retirement well into his eighties on one of the estates granted to him by the crown.

First publication, anonymously, of Pushkin's verses, in the St Peterburg Magazine.

Public success of his poem, Reminiscences of Tsarskoye Selo. The leading Russian poet of the day, Derzhavin, names Pushkin as his sucessor.

Leaves the Lycée. Takes up a post in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Begins work on his first narrative poem, Ruslan and Ludmila. Also writes ode, Liberty.

Pushkin suffers three serious illnesses, brought about by his dissipated life-style. Frequents radical political circles. Liberal poems by Pushkin circulated in manuscript.

• FACT: Pushkin had the best education available in Russia at that time. At the age of twelve Pushkin was sent by his Parents to St Petersburg to be educated at the new Lyceum ( Lycée, a high school) that the Emperor Alexander I had just established in the grounds of his summer palace at Tsarskoye Se1o to prepare the sons of noblemen for careers in the government service. Pushkin spent six happy years there, learning Russian, French , Latin, German, state economy and finance, scripture, logic, moral philosophy, law,history, geography, statistics, and mathematics.

Publishes Ruslan and Ludmila. Pushkin is exiled by the Tsar to South Russia. Travels in Caucasus and Crimea. Studies English to read the poems of Byron in the original. Begins first "Byronic" poem, The Captive of the Caucasus.

In Exile in Kishinev, writes The Robber Brothers, and The Gabrieliad.

Writes The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. Pushkin is acclaimed as "the Russian Byron". Tsar Alexander I is so moved by The Captive of the Caucasus that he contemplates a reconcilliation with Pushkin.

Pushkin's exile is transferred to Odessa. Under the influence of Byron's Don Juan, Pushkin begins writing Eugene Onegin, which he is to continue writing for the next eight years.

• FACT: Pushkin, as well as his literary genius, has a gift for quick sketches.

	Here is a sketch of one of the many women with whom he fell in love, Amalia Riznich (1803 - 1825).
Amalia was a beauty, with fiery eyes, a neck of exceptional grace and whiteness and a plait of black hair almost five feet long. She also possessed large feet, and wore long dresses to hide them. She went about wearing a man's hat, and a semi-riding habit. Pushkin's passionate love and agonising jealousy - Amalia was married - resulted in a burst of deeply felt lyrics.

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray is a great literary and financial success. Writes The Gypsies. Sentenced to exile in Mikhailovskoye, in the north of Russia, for the promotion of atheism. Writes Memoirs, which are later burned.

Publication of the first chapter of Eugene Onegin. Writes Boris Godunov.

The first collection of Pushkin's lyrics is published, and sold out in two months. The new Tsar, Nicohlas I, frees Pushkin from exile. Writes The Prophet.

First visit to St. Peterburg after six years of exile. Writes The Moor of Peter the Great, based upon his great-grandfather, Hannibal.

• FACT: Pushkin had an uneasy relationship with the ruling Emperors and government of Russia. In 1820 the Emperor Alexander I took offence at the levity, disrespectfulness and libertarianism of some of Pushkin's youthful verses and determined to exile him to Siberia. At the intercession of high-placed friends of Pushkin's, this sentence was commuted to a government posting in the south of Russia. In 1924, when Pushkin was living in Odessa, an intercepted letter brought him under suspicion of harbouring atheistic views; Alexander then had him dismissed from the service and sent to indefinite banishment on his mother's country estate of Mikhailovskoye in the west of Russia. Pushkin spent the next two years under police surveillance at Mikhailovskoye. In the autumn of 1826 Alexender's successor Nicholas I restored Pushkin's freedom. Though over the ensuing years, Nicholas gave Pushkin intermittent help and support, the government as a whole still treated him as politically untrustworthy, and kept him under informal surveillance.

The Church proceeds against Pushkin for his blasphemous poem The Gabrieliad. Tsar Nicholas I protects Pushkin. Writes Poltava.

Travels through the Caucasus to Erzurum. Sees action in battle with the Russian Army, against the Turks.

Becomes engaged to Natalya Goncharova. Stranded at Boldino by a cholera outbreak, Pushkin writes about 30 lyric poems, the Little Tragedies, Tales of Belkin, The History of Goryukhino, The Little House in Kolomna, and the last chapters of Eugene Onegin

Marries Natalya Goncharova. Writes the Fairy Tales. Tsar Nicholas I appoints him as historian of Peter the Great.

• FACT: Pushkin claimed to have had 113 lovers.

Birth of his first child, Mary. Writes Dubrovsky and Rusalka.

The first complete edition of Eugene Onegin is published. Birth of his eldest son, Alexander. Travels to Urals. Writes History of Pugachev Rebellion, The Queen of Spades, The Bronze Horseman, and Andzhelo.

Pushkin leads an unhappy life in court circles at St. Petersburg, with mounting debts, and jealousy of his wife's admiriers.

Birth of his younger son, Gregory. Publication of selected works: narrative verse, and prose, in two volumes, and lyric poems in four volumes.

• FACT: Pushkin knew and admired English literature. In his early years, Pushkin admired and imitated Byron, but this admiration waned. He remained a great admirer of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. He was also familiar with other English literature of the 18th and 19th centenuries, translating and adapting several works into Russian. He also became an enthusiastic admirer of Shakespeare, modelling his drama, Boris Godunov on Shakespeare's historical plays. In his younger days he came to English works through French translations; but he later taught himself to read English.

Becomes editor of Sovremennik magazine. death of his mother. Writes religious poems, and The Captain's Daughter. Birth of his last child, Natalya.

Continues work on The History of Peter the Great. Shot in a duel, over insults to his wife's reputation, and dies two days later.

• FACT: Pushkin's death was tragically early and unnecessary. In January, 1837 Pushkin fought a duel following improper advances to his wife and insults to himself, by a French Royalist in exile, Baron Georges d'Anthès, 24 years old, serving in the Russian regiment, the Chevalier Guards. In order to get closer to Pushkin's wife, Natalya, d'Anthès married her sister. Pushkin forbade d'Anthès entrance to his house, but rumours - probably false - were spread thoughout fashionable Moscow that his wife and d'Anthès were having an affair. Pushkin was fatally wounded in the duel, and died in St. Petersburg two days later, at the age of 37.