Patarei, built as a sea fortress under Russian tsar Nicholas I in 1840, but served as a prison from 1920 to 2005.

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Some compared him to Nicholas I, the Tsar who crushed the Decembrists' uprising in 1825.

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From then on he endured internal exile in three different locations, followed by a lowly position at court which enabled Nicholas I, the new tsar, to function as Pushkin's personal censor while flirting with his new young wife.

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