What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 2
Pushkin in the father of Russian poetry. His great grandfather was known as Peter the Great’s Moor, a black man named Hannibal. Exotic and dramatic, he was a Byronic figure, who indeed modelled his great hero Eugene Onegin on Byron’s Childe Harold. However, I wouldn’t bother reading any of that for now; stick to The Bronze Horseman. First off, you’ll see the horseman when you’re touring the city. Secondly, it’s shorter. And thirdly, there’s a good enough film (or two) of Onegin, which can save you the reading time. TBH will also fill you in on a common early feature of Petersburg life – flooding. It caused much misery and destruction, and there are still high water markers around the city from through the centuries.