The Undertaker (manuscript)

What it is

This is a manuscript page of The Undertaker, written by Alexander Pushkin in September 1830. The page is covered with dense Russian handwriting, with many crossed-out lines. Below the text is a pen-and-ink drawing of two seated men at a small table, with a samovar and a teacup, beside a stack of books. The archive copy is a scan of the page.

Why it matters

The manuscript is direct evidence of the productive autumn Pushkin spent at Boldino in 1830. The crossings-out show how he worked through his drafts, revising line by line before a text was finished. The drawing beside the text shows the same habit seen in his other sketches, in which he drew while writing. Such pages allow historians to follow a writer's choices from first draft to printed text.

Look closer

• What do the crossed-out lines suggest about how Pushkin changed his writing as he worked?
• How does the drawing of the men and the samovar relate to the text on the same page?
• What can a single scanned page not show about the story as a whole or about the process behind it?