How does The Bronze Horseman depict the conflict between Peter the Great and the ordinary citizen Yevgeny?

In Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem The Bronze Horseman, the conflict between Peter the Great and the ordinary citizen Yevgeny serves as a profound exploration of the tension between state ambition and individual happiness.12

The poem depicts Yevgeny as a "little man" whose life is shattered when his sweetheart drowns during a catastrophic flood in St. Petersburg—a city built by Peter the Great’s design. Driven to madness by his grief, Yevgeny wanders the city and encounters the bronze statue of the tsar seated on a rearing horse.2

Recognizing the statue as the embodiment of the leader whose grand ambitions and city-building efforts are the indirect cause of his personal tragedy, Yevgeny threatens the monument. The conflict culminates in a haunting sequence where the "Bronze Horseman" appears to pursue the terrified Yevgeny through the streets. Through this narrative, Pushkin illustrates the tragic reality of the "little man" whose existence is sacrificed or destroyed by the overwhelming forces of history and the pursuit of imperial greatness.21