From ancient nobility on his father’s side, and with a maternal great-grandfather said to be an Ethiopian prince who served Peter the Great, this most beloved of Russian poets grew up speaking and writing French as well as Russian. His poetry was popular from the outset, but some liberal opinions detected by government spies led to his banishment to the southern regions in 1821. He was allowed to return to St. Petersburg in 1826, when the Tsar, after a long conversation with him, declared he would be Pushkin’s personal censor, as much a burden as an honor, and gave him a minor court appointment.