Mikhail Pogodin
A Moscow historian, journalist and playwright, to whom Pushkin wrote from Boldino in 1830.
An Island Surrounded by Quarantines
Alexander Pushkin, letters from Boldino, 1830, in his Works, vol. 6, edited by S. A. Vengerov (1915) · October–November 1830
Изъ Моск. Вѣдомостей, единственнаго журнала доходящаго до меня, вижу любезный и почтенный Михайло Петровичъ что вы не оставили Матушки нашей. Дважды порывался я къ Вамъ, но карантины опять отбрасывали меня на мой несносный островокъ откуда простираю къ Вамъ руки и вопію гласомъ велимъ. Пошлите мнѣ слово живое, ради Бога. Никто мнѣ ничего непишетъ. Думаютъ что я холерой схваченъ или зачахъ въ карантинѣ. Не знаю гдѣ и что моя невѣста. Знаете-ли вы, можете-ли узнать? ради Бога узнайте и отпишите мнѣ: въ Лукояновскій Уѣздъ въ село Абрамово, для пересылки въ село Болдино.
From the Moscow Gazette, the only paper that reaches me, I see, my dear and esteemed Mikhail Petrovich, that you have not left our Mother Moscow. Twice I have tried to break through to you, but the quarantines threw me back again onto my unbearable little island. From here I stretch out my hands to you and cry out with a loud voice. Send me a living word, for God’s sake. No one writes to me at all. They think I’ve caught the cholera or wasted away in quarantine. I don’t know where my bride is or how she is. Do you know, or can you find out? For God’s sake, find out and write to me: Lukoyanov District, village of Abramovo, to be forwarded to the village of Boldino.