Museum opens in Africa to honour Pushkin ancestry

The government of Eritrea is planning to open another branch of the Pushkin museum Mikhailovskoye. Eritrean Ambassador to Russia Teklai Menassie Asgedom has been visiting the Pskov Region in connection with this.

As Rosbalt was informed by the press office of the regional administration, the ambassador met Deputy Governor of the Pskov Region Yuri Demyanenko on October 28. The Eritrean ambassador gave a detailed account of his country's history (a small republic in the north east of Africa, which was at war with Ethiopia for 30 years for its independence). He said the republic is returning now to peaceful life and is establishing economic and cultural ties with the world community.

African scientists have discovered that the great-grandfather of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was called Ibrahim Hannibal, who was born in a village not far from Asmera, the capital of Eritrea. For this reason the people of Eritrea want to open a Pushkin museum to honour the 'Russian African' in their homeland. There are also plans to erect a monument to Ibrahim Hannibal.

The Eritrean ambassador has already visited the grave of the Russian poet at Svyatogorsk Monastery and met Director of the Mikhailovskoye Museum Georgy Vasilievich, who told him about the lives of Hannibal's descendants. He also visited the museum itself.

The site of today's museum was allocated to Pushkin's great grandfather Abram (Ibrahim) Petrovich Hannibal by decree of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. The Petrovskoye estate was the name of the family home. Pushkin often visited his great uncle Peter Abramovich Hannibal at Petrovskoye and he found material here for his works Dubrovskoye and Peter the Great's Negro.