What are some examples of oppression in Russia during the time of Alexander Pushkin?

Uznik "Uznik" ("The Prisoner") was written the previous year. From April 1820 until July 1823, Pushkin lived in quasi-exile as a foreign ministry employee in Kishinyov (Chisinau, today the capital of Moldova), where he was sent by administrative transfer after being interrogated about certain political poems. I sit behind bars in the dankest of blocks. A captive young eagle, the king of the hawks, My sorry companion here, lifting his wings, Pecks bloody food by the sill, pecks and flings, And looks out the window, away, away off, As if he, with me, fell to thinking one thought. He summons me now with his look and his cry, And wants to speak plainly, aloud: "Let us fly! "We're free birds in truth; it is time, brother, time! To go, where o'er clouds, the high mountains are white, To go, where the sea realm's as blue as the sky, To go, where the wind alone wanders... and I!" <a href="http://www.schillerinstitute.org/transl/trans_pushkin.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.schillerinstitute. ...  more