Our Notes & References

A very rich visual record of Pushkin’s life and time, from Turoverov’s collection.

Published by the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature [Obshchestvo Liubitelei Rossiskoi Slovesnosti] to mark the centenary of Russia’s greatest poet. The Society was founded in 1811 and was an important force in the Slavophile movement. They were also instrumental in preserving Pushkin’s legacy by collecting and archiving his papers, as well as by raising funds for his statue, which still stands in the eponymous square in Moscow today. In addition to commemorative albums like this one, designed to accompany an exhibition at the Historical Museum of Moscow in 1899, the Society also published editions of Pushkin’s works targeted at the general public.

Even during his lifetime, Pushkin’s growing popularity spurred readers’ interest in his personality. Numerous images of the poet appeared in books and magazines — “there is hardly any major artist of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries who did not depict the great poet” (the State A.S. Pushkin Museum). Many of them are gathered here, including the few original portraits of Pushkin which were taken from life as well as paintings by the most famous Russian artists, such as Aivazovskii among others. The very abundant illustration also includes reproductions of Pushkin’s manuscripts and his own various drawings.

From the collection of the Cossack émigré poet, Nikolai Turoverov (also Touroveroff; 1899-1972), a Cossack officer, man of culture and bibliophile. He fought on the side of the White Guards in General Wrangel’s Don Ataman Regiment during the Civil War. After his evacuation with Wrangel’s army from Crimea, he eventually settled in Paris, where he put great efforts into preserving and promoting the Cossack traditions and culture: he founded the Museum of the Leibgarde of the Ataman Regiment in Paris, published the Cossack Almanac and the magazine Rodimyi Krai, and organised exhibitions on the military history of Russia among other projects.

Turoverov was also a talented poet, writing about the wars he witnessed and his nostalgia for his native land. Banned in the Soviet Union, his poems became widely known in Russia only at the end of the 20th century. His library and his archive were important and eclectic, and have recently been sold in parts.

Rather scarce outside Russia (no copies traced at auction in recent decades), the work shouldn’t be confused with with an almost identically named album from the Society’s earlier 1880 exhibition, or with one of the other centenary publications.

Provenance

Nikolai Nikolaevich Turoverov (blue ink stamp on title page).

Bibliography

Smirnov-Sok. 3735; History of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. 2025. ‘Istoriia Obshchestva’; State A.S. Pushkin Museum. 2025. ‘Portraits of Alexander Pushkin’.