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What did Tsar Nicholas I promise Aleksandr Pushkin about censorship?
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Aleksandr Pushkin
Aleksandr Pushkin, oil on canvas by Vasily Tropinin, 1827; in the National Pushkin Museum, St. Petersburg.
When Aleksandr Pushkin returned from exile in 1826, Tsar Nicholas I addressed the poet's complaints regarding state censorship by promising that he would personally serve as Pushkin’s censor in the future.1
In practice, however, this arrangement proved to be more restrictive than the oversight of official censors. Pushkin found his personal freedom curtailed, as he was placed under secret police surveillance and supervised by Count Benckendorf.1