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What did Aleksandr Pushkin learn from his nurse Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva?
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Aleksandr Pushkin
Aleksandr Pushkin, oil on canvas by Vasily Tropinin, 1827; in the National Pushkin Museum, St. Petersburg.
From his nurse, Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva, Aleksandr Pushkin learned traditional Russian folktales.1
As a freed serf, Yakovleva played a significant role in the poet's early life, and Pushkin later immortalized her as the nurse of the character Tatyana in his famous work, Yevgeny Onegin. These early exposures to folklore were instrumental in shaping his literary imagination and later influenced his writing, including his romantic poem Ruslan and Ludmila, which drew heavily upon Russian folklore and epic traditions.1