Russian and soviet journalist/writer/political activist Alexei Maximovich Peshkov Gorky -pseudonym meaning bitter,- denounced the degrading conditions of workers in Russia.
Aleksandr Serguéyevich Pushkin was a Russian noble with some outstanding familial ancestry: his great-grandfather was a slave brought over from Africa who had risen to aristocracy!
Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen and was recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Lyceum.
