/lit/ - Literature and Writing

Have you ever heard of this theory, /lit/? It proposes that Aleksandr Pushkin and Alexandre Dumas were the same person. The most thorough explanation of the theory I could find was some old post on an Eastern Orthodox forum. I'm just copy-pasting it from there.

Russian theories that French author Alexandre Dumas is Alexander Pushkin

Almost all the materials I found on this topic are in Russian. Here are a few articles.

A Comparison of the Signature of Pushkin with the Signature of Dumas
http://moj-golos.livejournal.com/1035203.html

The article above notes that although dueling was severely punished by Tsar Nikolas I, the Tsar made an exception and acted mercifully toward those involved in Pushkin's fatal duel, wherein officially Pushkin was killed. The article proposes that Pushkin faked his own death and notes that Pushkin's wife did not attend the funeral, as if that was faked too. He believes that Pushkin showed up in France as "Alexander Dumas", with a new French identity.

"It's not a secret that Nikolai I created in Europe a powerful spying network. In this project were included powerful leading minds of Russia, for example spies included I.S. Turgenev (a famous author) (1818-1883) and F.I. Tyutchev (1803-1873). Acceptable work was found for A S Pushkin too, wo after Karamzin's death was solidly helped with the position of a natural historian. There was no demand in Russia for that kind of work, but that kind of "vacancy", which was not hard to create, should have appeared in France, the main political and military enemy of Russia of the time."
The writer (I think it's Nina Milova) imagines that by posing as a French history writer, "Dumas" could gain access to France's historical archives.

The writer says that Pushkin's handwritten signatures are in question as to their autheticity, and that Dumas generally left no direct signatures, only signatures copied by correspondents.

She points out similarities between the writers, like how they were both Mulattos with similar appearances and who both knew French and Russian fluently. Pushkin wrote a work, Kinzhal, about Karl Zand, whereas Alexander Dumas wrote a work called Karl-Ludwig Zand.
Puskin and Dumas:


According to the writer, Dumas liked to tell a joke that his grandfather was African and that all he had in genetic common origin with ignorant racists was a monkey. But this is joke a giveaway, because the real Dumas only had an African grandmother, but Pushkin did have an African grandfather.

Alexander Dumas' alleged father was French general Thomas Dumas, who died in 1806 and whose wife and son were soon forgotten and lived in the provinces. So their son Alexander Dumas appeared to come from nowhere back into French public life in the 1820's. But practically none of the French associates of Thomas Dumas recognized him, only one Herzog De Foie gave him legal recognition papers.

The writer said she always racked his brains trying to see why the writer Dumas was so mean to the female character Miledy. He depicted her so badly and tortured her to death. The writer proposes that this was because of Pushkin's own mistreatment by his own wife, Natalya Goncharova. Like Atos falling in love with Miledy when she was 16, Pushkin fell in love with Goncharova when she was that age. Both Goncharova and Miledy remarried once. Miledy remarried in 1844, when Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers (1844-1845).

Nina Milova in her interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, Pushkin lived after his duel and wrote under the pseudonym Dumas, says that she decided that he faked his death when she learned that his relatives were absent from his funeral. His father learned about the funeral two weeks after it.
http://www.mk.ru/social/2015/03/31/pushkin-vyzhil-posle-dueli-i-pisal-pod-psevdonimom-dyuma.html

Milova says that the doctors couldn't find the cause of death, nor find the fatal bullet. She says that the Russian nobility loved to travel to Western Europe for vacations, but she thinks it's strange that officially Pushkin never left Russia. Supposedly it was because he was considered an enemy of the state, but Milova says that this is not true, as archives show that he was an official of the Foreign Ministry. She thinks that his exile in the 1820's was a cover for his trips abroad, as "Dumas" first made a public appearance in Paris at that time (1822), after years in obscurity as a child. Meanwhile, she says that Pushkin's time in exile in 1822-1823 is a black hole in his own biography. She says that Pushkin's faking his own death would be a way to get out of his massive debts in Russia.

She proposes that in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, "Dumas"/Pushkin intends to suggest that D'Antes was unfairly condemned for killing Pushkin. In real life Pushkin's French brother-in-law D'Antes was charged with killing Pushkin in a duel and was briefly imprisoned. In reality, D'Antes helped Pushkin escape to France. Meanwhile, in Dumas' novel, the protagonist "Edmond Dantes" escapes from unjust judgment and takes on a new identity as the Count of Monte Cristo.

When at one point Dumas dedicated a chapter to Pushkin, Milova interprets this as Dumas/Pushkin dedicating literature to himself in reality. Further, she notes that Dumas was a translator of Pushkin works into Russian, despite the fact that Dumas officially first went to Russia only in about 1858, ie. when Dumas was already over 60 years old. Dumas had a major interest in Russia, writing novels about the Decembrists and Caucasus. How could he get so fluent in Russian and and knowledgeable about Russia if he only went there first in his old age?

Another post in the thread mentioned that it was very common for members of the Russian upper class to speak French but very rare for a Frenchman to speak Russian. What are your thoughts on this theory? Is it possible or just another case of Slavs trying to LARP as Frenchmen?