Editing Alexander Pushkin (section)

==Social activism==
While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by the Kantian [[liberalism|liberal]] individualist teachings of [[Alexander Kunitsyn]], whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem ''19 October''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schapiro |first1=Leonard |title=Rationalism and Nationalism in Russian Nineteenth Century Political Thought |date=1967 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=48–50 |quote=Schapiro writes that Kunitsyn’s influence on Pushkin’s political views was 'important above all.' Schapiro describes Kunitsyn's philosophy as conveying 'the most enlightened principles of past thought on the relations of the individual and the state,' namely, that the ruler’s power is 'limited by the natural rights of his subjects, and these subjects can never be treated as a means to an end but only as an end in themselves.'}}</ref> Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of the French [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especially [[Voltaire]], whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kahn |first1=Andrew |title=Pushkin's Lyric Intelligence |date=2008 |publisher=OUP Oxford |page=283}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pushkin |first1=Alexander |title=The Letters of Alexander Pushkin |date=1967 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |page=164}}</ref>

Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wight |first=C. |title=Pushkin, poet and troublemaker - the early years |url=https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/blackeuro/pushkinpoet.html |access-date=23 August 2023 |website=www.bl.uk}}</ref> He went to the [[Caucasus]] and to [[Crimea]] and then to [[Kamianka, Cherkasy Oblast|Kamianka]] and [[House-Museum of Alexander Pushkin|Chișinău in Bessarabia]].

He joined the [[Filiki Eteria]], a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the [[Greek Revolution]] and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of the national uprising.