Catherine Palace in Pushkin’s Village.
Everything is interconnected. So, I am writing about Russia and Catherine Palace. But now about the grandson of an African Slave, the renowned writer Pushkin. From Pushkin Village…

When in Vilnius, Lithuania, I read about Hannibal, Pushkin’s African Granddad. This is where the renowned slave, later Russian general, was baptized.

 And of course, the former slave married a Russian Countess.

What did I tell you about interconnectedness?

I suppose these are success stories but being successful back in the day was a difficult endeavor.

Where Hannibal was Baptized in Vilnius, Lithuania
Perhaps just being a quiet farmer was preferable unless you ended up being a serf or robbed by the socialists and sent to the Gulag to die, curse upon you individualist working persons!

In Vilnius, Lithuania once again.

I follow history around the world. Although I have a story of my own, I become enveloped in the histories of others. I try to do solo travel but look what happens. Pushkin is all about and somehow I keep running into him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._Paraskeva,_Vilnius

He even wrote poetic lines about General Kutuzov who was buried in Kazan Cathedral which I visited as Islamic Terrorists had been planning an attack.

Still tonight, I will relate the story of Pushkin. He was born in 1799 in Moscow, Russia and died in 1837 in St. Petersburg. Some think he is the founder of modern Russian literature. His mother was a granddaughter of Abram Hannibal, purchased in Istanbul as a slave by Peter the Great.

Pushkin’s grandparents adopted French culture and his nurse was a freed slave and told him Russian folk tales. He began a literary career in the town I just visited. His ideologies inspired the Decemberist uprising.

Unfortunately, Pushkin fell in love with the wife of his superior, fighting several duels. Later, in 1837 he died defending the honor of his own wife. Looks like girls and the government got him into a lot of trouble just like now.

In relating to modern-day issues, Pushkin complained to Czar Nicholas of censorship and the Czar agreed to be Pushkin’s own personal sensor like Facebook, Twitter, and other groups. Do things ever really change? Ah, Censorship…

This reminded me of the importance of telling the truth, speaking it loudly, and being unafraid of the censors.

Then I must come back to Catherine Palace in Russia… Pushkin’s village… Next time. And did you know Hannibal also became a slave owner? Ahh, human nature. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Petrovich_Gannibal