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Pushkin on the campus of GWU (fwd)
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New Statue Honors Poet Pushkin
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A site on the campus of George Washington University was
dedicated Friday at a groundbreaking ceremony for a statue to celebrate the
200th birthday of Alexander Pushkin, the poet, storyteller and democratic
propagandist sometimes called ``the Russian Shakespeare.''
Former Rep. James W. Symington, D-Mo., chairman of the American-Russian
Cultural Foundation, read a letter of support from President Clinton, and
Washington Mayor Anthony Williams proclaimed Friday as ``Pushkin Day.''
``The statue, I am told, will be the only one of Pushkin, in fact the only
statue of a Russian literary figure, in this country,'' said Stephen Joel
Trachtenberg, president of the university.
Symington sang a Pushkin poem set to music by Russian composer Mikhail
Glinka. He also led an audience of 200 gathered at the street corner site in
a chorus of ``Happy Birthday, Alexander.''
``Having the statue may be more important for Russia than the next loan from
the World Bank,'' sculptor Alexander Burganov recently told a small group
representing the university and the foundation.
Burganov has also done a figure of the poet and his wife, Natalya, for the
front of the Pushkin House on the Arbat, Moscow's broad pedestrian avenue.
Pushkin died in 1837 from a wound suffered in a duel brought on by rumors
that his wife was unfaithful.
AP-NY-06-04-99 1818EDT