After becoming jealous of the attentions paid to his wife by Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthes (1812-1895), the poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) wrote an abusive letter to d'Anthes's adoptive father; refusing to withdraw these abusive words, d'Anthes challenged Pushkin to a duel in which the former shot the latter mortally on January 27th, 1837;