[1] The work recounts the poet's travels to the Caucasus, Armenia, and Arzrum (modern Erzurum) in eastern Turkey at the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29).

His unauthorized journey across the border into Turkey infuriated Tsar Nicholas I, who "threatened to confine Pushkin to his estate once again.

"[2] Pushkin's text challenged, though did not entirely reject, the Orientalist romanticism of his earlier Prisoner of the Caucasus.

[3] As a result, it was not popularly received by contemporary readers who expected a romantic epic poem about the Caucasus.

[4] A Journey to Arzrum was later adapted into a film during the Soviet era.