ABSTRACT
The word “liberty” is purposely misspelled to mimic a tender, folksy pronunciation; the Concise Academic edition of the Complete Works corrects the poet’s misspelling. The word is meaningfully underlined, as Alexander Pushkin was convinced that the new tsar was on the verge of releasing him. Maxim von Fock, the chief of the Special Section of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, received a report as early as February that Pushkin was still preaching godlessness and disobedience to the authorities. Simultaneously, Colonel Ivan Bibikov submitted a report regarding “some issues in dealing with freethinkers” to his boss and one of his relations, head of the secret police Benckendorff. Concurrently, the authorities were carefully scrutinizing Pushkin’s contacts. Benkendorf received a report with regards to a letter intercepted from Mikhail Pogodin, inviting Pushkin to contribute to the new journal Moskovsky vestnik.
