Pushkin and His Horseman Byron’s work and lifestyle exert a huge impact on writers throughout Europe, including Russia, one of whom is Alexander Pushkin. Ten years younger than the English poet, he styles himself for a while as the “Russian Byron” — and readers, friends, and critics do likewise. Byron’s most popular works are the long narrative, autobiographical poems Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan, which inspire Pushkin to write his own novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, seen by many as the finest work in Russian literature. (Critics describe it as imitative.) Like Byron, Pushkin is eager to see the world, drawn to the romance of travel. But the Russian Empire’s attitude to poets is very different from that of the British:
— War and Punishment (Mikhail Zygar), Loc. 423–9