Consumed by rumors of an affair between his wife Natalya and French officer Georges d'Anthès, Alexander Pushkin sent a letter demanding satisfaction. The two men met on January 27 (Gregorian calendar; January 25 by another dating) on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, and Pushkin was mortally wounded, dying two days later. His death shocked Russia and instantly mythologized him as a martyr to honor and jealousy.
Pushkin's rivalry with d'Anthès had simmered for months, fed by anonymous letters mocking Pushkin as a cuckold and by the persistent presence of the dashing Frenchman at St. Petersburg society balls, always at Natalya's side. Pushkin, prickly about his honor and already the author of works obsessed with duels and fate, finally forced the confrontation he seemed almost fated to seek.
The two men stood ten paces apart in the snow near the Black River. D'Anthès fired first, striking Pushkin in the abdomen — a wound that in 1837 was almost certain to be fatal. Pushkin, sprawled in the snow, still managed to raise himself and fire back, wounding d'Anthès in the arm before collapsing.
He was carried home and lingered in agony for two days, tended by his friend the physician Vladimir Dal, before dying. Tsar Nicholas I, wary of the poet's rebellious reputation, ordered a quiet funeral before dawn to avoid crowds. Pushkin was only 37, at the height of his powers, having already given Russia "Eugene Onegin" and much of its literary language.