ABSTRACT
Student Alexey Vulf, who became the confidant of Alexander Pushkin’s plans of emigration, was planning to go abroad himself,” wrote Pushkin’s biographer Annenkov. “He offered to take Pushkin along disguised as a servant. But Vulf’s own trip was still a dream.” As Evgeny Petukhov, a professor at Dorpat University, would later write in an article entitled “Two Years of Pushkin’s Life, ” Alexey Vulf was also the main participant in the creation of Pushkin’s failed plan to escape abroad. The journey’s chances for success depended on their overcoming several obstacles: for Vulf, academic and financial ones; for Pushkin, administrative. Moreover, by keeping Pushkin’s company, Vulf almost certainly came to the attention of the secret police. As Pushkin was prohibited from leaving Mikhailovskoye, his disappearance from there would have been noticed at once. It could have been easy to intercept the runaways en route, especially since the only road passed near Pskov.
