Why did Pushkin return to Moscow after the Decembrist uprising?

After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising of 1825, the new tsar, Nicholas I, allowed Aleksandr Pushkin to return to Moscow in the autumn of 1826.1

The tsar permitted this return because he was aware of Pushkin’s immense popularity and knew that the poet had taken no part in the Decembrist conspiracy. Although Pushkin’s heart was with the Decembrists—many of whom were executed or exiled to Siberia—the tsar sought to manage the poet's influence directly. During a meeting between the two, Nicholas I promised to act as Pushkin’s personal censor and discussed his intentions to implement reforms from above, including the eventual liberation of the serfs. Pushkin, having concluded that a struggle against autocracy without popular support was doomed, accepted this opportunity to return, though he subsequently found himself under strict police supervision and censorship.1