About the work
Alexander Pushkin (The Last Days) is a four-act drama by Mikhail Bulgakov about the poet's final weeks. Bulgakov began writing it in 1935 and revised it until 9 September 1939; he did not live to see its 1943 premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre. Unusually, Pushkin himself never appears on stage and does not speak a single line.
Plot
In January–February 1837 in St Petersburg, the conflict escalates around Pushkin's wife Natalya and her admirer, the cavalry officer d'Anthès. Bulgakov shows Pushkin only through the reactions of those around him – family, friends, courtiers and censors – and presents the fatal duel as an intrigue tolerated from the highest level.
Cultural significance
By keeping the poet off stage, Bulgakov denies any pathos-laden glorification and instead centres the play on the surveillance and censorship apparatus around Tsar Nicholas I. The play remained in the Art Theatre's repertoire until 1958 and was later filmed twice, in 1986 and 2002.