Leonid Baranov has a predilection for representing the scientists and literary figures of the 18th and 19th century Russia in his works; still, the result in most cases is far from heroic and monumental. He devotes much attention to expressively developing character traits, as well as to the relation of the figures to their surroundings. Nevertheless, his works go far beyond sculptural problems. Dedicated to Pushkin is a synthesising literary tableau, which departs from schematic portrait galleries on account of its personal approach. Among the figures of the sculpture group, Nikolai Gogol and the poet Mikhail Lermontov also appear next to Alexander Pushkin and his wife, Natalia Goncharova. Although the Russian authors from different periods of the 19th century are placed around a theatrically twisting column, the scale and moulding of the figures suggests that they are present in the same room at the same moment. The use of wood in addition to plaster has been characteristic of Baranov’s work since the early 1980s. Its use reflects a sort of nationalism, emphasized by turning towards the past. Baranov evokes the great literary figures of the Russian Empire and the world of nobility in Russia in the period of tsars – undoubtedly a patriarchal world, notice the naked figure of Goncharova – without making clear whether it is the voice of sympathy or irony that dominates this piece.