Aleksandr Polezhaev was one of the poets of the Pushkin school, and in his day his name was not the least among them. His writing career began shortly before the 1825 Decembrist uprising, and for his entire life he remained faithful to its memory. Polezhaev was a follower and successor of the Decembrist tradition; even during his lifetime his name was connected to the revolutionary circles of the post-Decembrist period, with his politically conscious work continuing from 1825 to 1838.

The poet wrote in the fearful years of Nicolaevian reaction following the Decembrist revolt, under conditions of constant oppression from the autocracy at a time when, according to Nikolai Platonovich Ogarev, society consisted of “an educated minority and an incorrigible manoriality . . . Pushkin grew up among the former, and among the latter: Polezhaev.” This environment figured prominently in his life and work, promoting and supporting what Ogarev called “habits of indiscipline which...