Abstract
This article analyzes the historical, literary, and political context of Pushkinʼs poem “The Feast of Peter the First”, as well as its reception by authorities. The author investigates the sources which guided the poet (most importantly, Derzhavinʼs complimentary and ironic odes). The author shows that the poem was not yet another “freedom-loving” ideological text, which criticizes the regime or opposes two tsars in order to demonstrate the superiority of the fi rst. On the contrary, it served as a “dedication” of the magazine “Sovremennik” to Tsar Nicholas I. The poem inspired the tsar to organize a naval parade on July 3 1836, featuring “Peterʼs little boat”. The symbolic projection of Pushkinʼs text was embodied in the reality of the celebration, and it turned out to be the only “lesson” that the authorities would extract from the poetʼs text.
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