“...When compiling these sketches of Pushkin’s first impressions and early years, we had in mind to supplement our “Materials for the biography of A.S. Pushkin”, published in 1855, with those facts and considerations that could not then be included in them, and then convey, to the best of our ability, the key to understanding the character of the poet and the moral foundations of his life. Despite everything that has appeared since 1855 in our timely publications to supplement the poet’s biography, despite the many anecdotes about him told by eyewitnesses and collectors of literary traditions, despite a significant number of letters and other documents emanating from him or relating to him; despite even attempts at monographs devoted to depicting some individual eras of his development, the poet’s personality still remains vague and uncertain, as it was before the appearance of these works and collections...” (P.V. Annenkov)