Alexander Pushkin. For some, school torment, for others, a name on a monument. But what does he mean today, in 2026, when clip thinking and neural networks write poems for us? Paradox: Pushkin did not simply die; he became a cultural code. A code that we use even when we are unaware of it. "Under the Green Oak of Lukomorye" is known to everyone, even if they haven't read "Ruslan and Lyudmila". "I write to you, what else can I do" — a quote in correspondence. "We all learned a little by little" — an ironic characteristic. Pushkin has penetrated memes, advertising, everyday speech. He has become a marker of "ourselves/strangers": if a person understands a quote from "Eugene Onegin", they are one of us.The Language of Pushkin as a FoundationModern Russian literary language is largely Pushkin's language. Before him, Russian was "clumsy" for artistic prose. Pushkin blended folk speech, Church Slavonicisms, and Western borrowings into something coherent and light. When we say "Well, brother?", "the melancholic season", "the genius of pure beauty", we are quoting Pushkin. He created that very "golden mean" that allows us to understand literature of the 19th century without a dictionary. Without Pushkin, the Russian language would have been different — perhaps more cumbersome, less flexible.Pushkin in Memes and the InternetOn the network, Pushkin lives in all his aspects. The meme "Poet Pushkin" is a caricatured cadet with sideburns. "I'm waiting for all this to end" illustrates a sad Pushkin. "Rhyme to the word frost" — classic. Twitter accounts quoting Pushkin for the day's grievances gain thousands of followers. Neural networks depict Pushkin as a superhero, Pushkin-rapper, Pushkin-anime. On one hand, this is profanation. On the other hand, it is proof of vitality. If Pushkin were boring, he would not be meme-ified.Pushkin and Modern MediaTV series adapt "Eugene Onegin" in the style of teen drama. "The Queen of Spades" is turned into a horror. "The Captain's Daughter" — ... Read more