Honoring the greatest black Russian

Also in this section:
Opera Nights at the Teatro Nacional
Learning to salsa dance at Spanish Panama
Poets' Corner
Sparky the Wonder Dog
Honoring the greatest black Russian
Cool Internet sites
José Ponce's urban scenes
Four shows in one at the Ancon Theater
The Gospel as sung by Los del Aposento
The Jazz Festival wrap-up

Celebrating the greatest black Russian at the University of Panama
photos by José F. Ponce

Alexander Puskin died at age 37, but in his short time established himself as the father of modern Russian literature.

Pushkin was the great-grandson of Abram Petrovich Gannibal, an Eritrean page boy who was raised by Peter the Great, sent to study engineering in France and upon his return promoted to be a provincial governor and then head of Russia's military engineers.

Pushkin, born in 1799 into a time of radical ferment in Russia, was a dissident who frequently found himself under house arrest or in exile. A freemason, he was an active supporter of the Greece in its war of independence against the Turks.

So how radical was Pushkin? Consider that his greatest masterpiece, the play Boris Godunov, was not allowed to be published until years after it was written, and although Pushkin, mortally wounded in a duel, died in 1837, that play was never performed in its uncensored original version until 2007.

But now the University of Panama, this country's growing Russian community and the Russian Federation's Embassy have joined forces to honor Pushkin's memory in particular and Russian culture in general, with the unveiling of a Puskin bust and a cultural exchange on the university's central campus.

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