The Russian capture of Erzurum was a 1829 military campaign in which Pushkin accompanied the Russian army under Paskevich. In the account of Pushkin’s later life, the episode places the poet amid an active campaign before his turn to historical research and literary work based on the past.

Background and Participants

After Nicholas I pardoned Pushkin and restored him to favor, Pushkin returned to the Foreign Office and was appointed Court Historian. The narrative then records his journey with the Russian army in 1829, under Paskevich, to capture Erzurum. Pushkin is presented as accompanying the army, not as its commander; the campaign’s stated participants are the Russian forces led by Paskevich.

The Campaign and Pushkin’s Presence

The account calls Pushkin a hardy poet and emphasizes that he accompanied the army during the capture. It gives no description of the fighting, the city’s fall, or Pushkin’s specific duties, so the event’s narrative focus remains on his presence within the military expedition rather than on its tactics or outcome beyond the capture itself.

Place in Pushkin’s Later Life

The campaign forms a concise bridge between Pushkin’s restored official standing and his subsequent literary-historical pursuits. In the surrounding account, his 1828 poem Poltava precedes the journey; afterward, he settled near St. Petersburg following his 1831 marriage and devoted himself chiefly to collecting and investigating materials for a history of Peter the Great. The passage does not state that the Erzurum campaign directly shaped any particular work, but it situates Pushkin’s firsthand journey with the army within a period when history and the past were becoming central to his work.