Pushkin’s monuments are currently being destroyed in the Ukraine, under the guise that Pushkin was instrumental in “Russifying” Ukraine.
Pushkin was a bit complicated. But Africans and African-Americans looked up to him as a brilliant poet of African ancestry venerated and respected in a majority ‘white’ nation. He was an “octaroon”, but had dark skin and curly hair and he often commented on his own African features.
I find it sad to see his monuments destroyed. Disgusting as well. It must be gravy for these “de-Russifiers” that Pushkin was of African descent. Here’s a metal ass poem he wrote against tsardom. Love to hear your thoughts.
http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2015/07/pushkin-ode-to-liberty-from-russian.html?m=1
“…and a young African man, clearly one of the thousands of foreign students present in the country at the time, stepped in. Visibly cold and out of place, he scrutinized the length of the line, then started to walk toward the chair in the farthest corner of the room. As he was passing by our bench, my friend elbowed me with a sly look on his pimply face and snickered loudly, ‘Smotri, kakaya obez’vanal [Look, what a monkey!]’ The African froze on the spot, slowly turned around and approached us. More than twenty years later, I still remember the furious and disgusted expression on his dark face. He fixed us with his gaze for a few very long seconds. I felt a knot in my stomach; my schoolmate was studying intently the lapels of his shabby school uniform, while the rest of the audience remained demonstratively oblivious to the scandal in the offing. But the scandal never erupted. The black man smiled contemptuously, and then, speaking slowly in a heavily accented Russian, emphasizing every syllable, uttered something very strange: ‘A Pushkin tozhe obez’yana? [Was Pushkin also a monkey?]’” – Black in the USSR, Maxim Matusevich