Pushkin’s youth exposed him to aristocratic philosophy and lifestyle and molded his early political ideals. His parents lavished themselves in the pretensions of society, which may be the reason that Pushkin was often seen as overly frivolous in appearance and manner. Entering the school for noble children, the Lycée at Tsarskoe Selo, when he was eleven, he was greatly influenced by his peers throughout his education. It was at Lycée where Pushkin’s early political convictions were formed. Although Lycée was a school for elites, it had very liberal tendencies for St Petersburg during Pushkin’s time. This provided a perfect breeding ground for future Decembrist revolutionaries, many of whom were Pushkin’s close friends. There was a strong sense of class-consciousness among the youths of old noble families even with the liberal influences of their school. This feeling was possibly “heightened simply by their physical proximity to the court and the imperial family…” which “…bred if not contempt at least the rather intolerant criticism of adolescents for the older generations, regardless of rank,” says Sam Driver in his book Puškin: Literature and Social Ideas, (Driver 24). Driver explains a comment made by Pushkin’s friend Ivan Pušcin where he talks about the discrimination enacted by the Imperial family, in which the Empress did not want her sons receiving their schooling with “plebians.” Thus, it makes sense that resentment toward the court, like Pušcin’s, fostered sentiments that led to future revolutionary attitudes in many of the St. Petersburg aristocracy.
At Lycée Pushkin learned the principles of eighteenth century Western thought which enabled him to engage and stay afloat in the political debates (spory) he so enjoyed. Other personages who influenced his political mind were the Guard officers who were “the backbone of the aristocratic party in Russia.” (27). The Guards had spent considerable time in Paris and London and naturally were exposed to the politics of both societies. Well-liked by the guards because of his cunning wit and charm, Pushkin visited the Guards’ quarters often after his classes, and dined with them as he absorbed the enlightened Western thought which so enthralled him. He became especially close to an excellently educated guard with a sharp political mind, P. Ja.Caadaev, who encouraged Pushkin to think on his own. But even with so many influential minds to encourage his political direction, his mentors often commented on the lack of seriousness in his study comparing him to young people who “willingly repeated liberal phrases learned by heart, [but] understood nothing of politics…” (29). His frivolous manner of dress was also an aspect of criticism, especially among serious political minds. But can one really blame Pushkin for at times being a bit unfocused? Though he was very bright and well-educated, he was only seventeen when he graduated from the Lycée, and as immature in character as any seventeen-year-old male, regardless of historical era.
Although influenced by many liberal thinkers, Pushkin often let his pride and desire for attention and recognition as a brilliant mind contradict his convictions. Pušcin makes a comment showing his frustration of his friend’s flaw in one of his many memoirs about Pushkin:
…it was that same Puškin, so liberal in his views, who had a regrettable habit of betraying his noble nature—and angering me and the rest of us—by bustling about in the parterre near Orlov, Cernyšev, Kiselev and the others…We used to say: “Why dear friend do you want to run with that lot? In not one of them will you find sympathetic feelings.” (26)
Pushkin “betray[ed] his noble nature” by consorting with members of the court, and actions like these by noble youths (which defined the Lycée students) were not well-looked upon. Pushkin seemed to be confused about his loyalties, and whether to irrevocably commit to the new, wealthy, elitist aristocracy or to remain aligned with and sympathetic towards the old nobility, a class of aristocrat who were gradually losing their hereditary ties, and becoming more impoverished. This idea of disintegrating nobility becomes one of Pushkin’s central concerns as he begins to clarify his political stance in later years.
In summary, Pushkin’s aristocratism is the factor on which all his political views are based. While he often wavered between his loyalties to his noble ties and the new, elitist Petersburgian aristocracy, his interaction with these influences shaped his social and political ideas, which in turn heavily influenced a great-portion of his literary works.