Pushkin began writing the poem in 1817, while attending the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo. He based it on Russian folktales he had heard as a child. Before it was published in 1820, Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia for political ideas he had expressed in other works such as his ode to "Freedom". A slightly revised edition was published in 1828. The poem was the basis of an opera of the same name composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. A feature film based on the poem was produced in the Soviet Union in 1972, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko and starring Valeri Kozinets and Natalya Petrova as the title characters.[citation needed] Other film versions include a 1915 silent produced by the Russian production company Khanzhonkov, directed by Ladislas Starevich,[citation needed] and a 1996 made-for-TV version based on Glinka's opera, directed by Hans Hulscher and produced by NHK.[citation needed] As well, the 1938 black and white film of the same name.[2][3] An animated adaptation appears as The Stolen Princess: Ruslan and Ludmila. Lines from the prologue of this poem are repetitively recited by the character Masha in the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. ©& IE Vorobev V.A.; ©& Publishing House Soyuz