ABSTRACT
The old hopes collapsed, only to have new ones born from the ashes. As quickly as Alexander Pushkin had heard that a soldier, newly arrived from Petersburg, was announcing the death of Alexander I among the people of Novorzhev, he sent his coachman into town to investigate the rumors. He returned the following day, bringing with him a confirmation and still another rumor to his master’s attention. Pushkin drafted the text of the counterfeit travel document, forged his neigbor’s signature and affixed his own seal. Pushkin then went to Trigorskoye, hoping either to persuade Praskovya Osipova to create a real document based on the forgery, or else to warn her of possible official inquiries into the matter. The travel pass was dated back several days, in order to avoid the appearance of suspicious haste: it appears that they departed, in fact, on the first or second of December.
