Pushkin has been cherished equally by Slavophiles and westernisers, by tsars and Communists, by peasants and aristocrats.
The tsars built a 9, 300km (5, 800 mile) rail line from Moscow to Vladivostok.
Mr Putin has also inherited a region that has resisted the will of central government since the tsars were in power.
During the drama, 'tsars' visit the local houses of unmarried girls to give comic performances and receive good wishes and awards.
The Kalyady Tsars (Christmas Tsars) is a ritual and festive event celebrated in the village of Semezhava in the Minsk region of Belarus.
The alliance between these two trade tsars (both keen on marathon-running as well as marathon telephone calls) is the linchpin of today's global trading system.
About 500 men participate annually in the event, of which seven are chosen to play the roles of 'Kalyady Tsars' in the national historical-religious drama 'Tsar Maximilian'.
Some 57km over the mountains from Shipka lies yet another historic settlement - Veliko Tarnovo, the "City of the Tsars" - famous for being the medieval seat of Bulgarian power.
In the northern town of Velikiy Ustyug, famous under the tsars for the art of its silversmiths, Mr Taplin found a church given over to a display of pre-revolutionary photographs and trivia.
He felt destiny operating, as well, in the form of an uncle, also named George Kennan, who had been a Russia expert and had written important books on the Siberian prison system under the tsars.
And The New Elite will be more than hopping on their private jets to move from castle to castle to yacht, pushing up the prices of art and trying to emulate the Roman Emperors, the 18th century French nobility or the Russian Tsars.
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