Semi-related, the most hilarious conspiracy theory I know is that Pushkin was in fact an agent of the imperial intelligence service, his fatal duel was fake and in reality he moved to France where he became known as Alexandre Dumas père. =) This is so crazy, I love it!

Maybe Pushkin developed a time machine went back in time to Elizabethan England and became Shakespeare!!! 😂

Crazy things happen in history. Reilly, Ace of Spies, had a life full of coincidences, which apparently began in Odessa.

Well, Pushkin himself never quite made it to the elites (ending up a low-rank courtier) despite being the top author of the period. But his great-grandfather, Abram Gannibal grew to being the chief military engineer and a general-in-chief (second military rank in the army after marshal)

Didn't he have an African ancestor?

I believe so…

yes, Abram Gannibal I talk above was the one (he is traditionally thought to be from Ethiopia, but these days other regions like Kameroon and Chad are also proposed)