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Why did Aleksandr Pushkin join the Arzamas literary circle?

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Aleksandr Pushkin joined the Arzamas society in 1817 after being elected to the exclusive literary circle, which had been founded by friends of his uncle.1

The society served as a platform for advocates of Westernized language reforms who sought to modernize the Russian language. By joining, Pushkin aligned himself with prominent poets like Vasily Zhukovsky and Konstantin Batyushkov in their opposition to the conservative "Lovers of the Russian Word." This group, led by Aleksandr Shishkov, favored maintaining ties to archaic Old Church Slavonic, whereas the Arzamas members utilized their circle to ridicule these traditionalist views through burlesque compositions.2