Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian 19th century who has often been considered his country's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Alexander Pushkin blended Old Slavonic with vernacular Russian into a rich, melodic language. He was the first to use everyday speech in his poetry (Lakhostskii 50).On his father's side he was a descendant of an ancient noble family and on his mother's side he was a great-great grandson of a black Abyssinian, Gannibal, who served under Peter the Great. Pushkin took great pride in his black ancestry and noble heritage.
