On the meaning of ‘the Alexandrian column’

Abstract

Any attempt to interpret Pushkin’s The Monument [ Pamyatnik ] has for a long time been frustrated by the struggle to explain what the poet meant by ‘the Alexandrian column’ ( Aleksandriyskiy stolp ), with which he contrasts the ‘the monument not built with hands’. The author proves that the researchers looking for the only correct answer (a pursuit that has kept Pushkin scholars busy for decades) have been asking the wrong question all along. It is his belief that the phrase ‘Alexandrian column’ is used in the poem without any identifiable denotation and that the image’s artistic vagueness is deliberate. The poem alludes to several historical objects from various countries and epochs, including the more contemporary rein of the Russian emperor Alexander I. However, it appears that none of those allusions have any distinguishable features for identification purposes, hence easy confusion of the Alexander column with the Lighthouse of Alexandria. A similar effect occurs from the use of the ambiguous adjective ‘Aleksandriyskiy’ (‘Alexandrian’) to describe the Alexander column, illustrating the eroding historical memory about rulers.