How does Pushkin praise Russia throughout the novel?

In the novel, Pushkin illustrates the different cultures through his main characters, each of whom represents a certain European influence. Onegin is English due to his reading of Byron, Tatyana is French due to her love for French romance novels, and Lensky is German due to his time spent in Germany and affinity with the German Romantic poets. Although the only purely Russian characters are the peasants, mentioned only as background characters, Onegin, Tatyana, and Lensky still have a Russian essence to them. However, it may be argued that Onegin has no real essence, but only an empty character fashioned from Byronic novels, as Tatyana believes.