In the summer of 1812, when Napoleonic troops marched across western Russia to Moscow, many nobles fled from the war to the eastern lands. So the Kaluga landowner Nikolai Goncharov ended up in the Tambov province, where in the village of Karian, the estate of the Zagryazhsky brothers, close relatives on his wife’s side, his daughter Natalya was born the day after the Battle of Borodino.
From whom did Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina, the first beauty of her time, inherit her extraordinary and sad, slightly cold beauty? Family legend says that her grandmother Ulrika Posse was remarkably beautiful, a woman with striking appearance and amazing destiny...
Already at the age of eight, everyone paid attention to the rare, classically antique perfection of her facial features and playfully scared her mother - a remarkably beautiful woman herself - that her daughter would overshadow her beauty over time and there would be no end to suitors! The stern and decisive mother pursed her lips in response and, shaking her head, said: “Too quiet, not a single offense! Still waters run deep!" And her eyes sparkled gloomily...
Tasha was born on August 27, 1812 in the Karian estate, Tambov province, where the Goncharov family and their children lived after being forced to leave Moscow due to the invasion of Napoleon. The mother, Natalia Ivanovna Goncharova, believed that her youngest daughter was incredibly spoiled by her father-in-law, Afanasy Nikolaevich, who did not allow her granddaughter to be taken from the Linen Plant (the vast family estate of the Goncharovs near Kaluga) until she was six years old to Moscow, to Bolshaya Nikitskaya, where the family settled for the winter.
The girl was raised by her grandfather, in the free air of a huge park with 13 ponds and pairs of swans swimming in them. Her grandfather, who doted on her, ordered toys and clothes for her from Paris: carefully packed boxes with satin ribbons were delivered to the estate, in which lay, with their eyes closed, porcelain dolls that looked like fairy-tale princesses, books, balls, and other intricate toys, expensive dresses, even small children's hats for a little fashionista named Tasha.
Mama broke one of the dolls in anger, only later, when Natasha returned to her parents’ house.
No one saw her despair, but the quiet and thoughtful girl was incredibly afraid of her mother, her outbursts of anger and unpredictable rage! Her amazing brown eyes with a mysterious vague look were often filled with tears, but she did not dare cry - tears would be followed by a more severe punishment! There was only one thing left to do - hide in a corner and wait out the storm. She did this even when she was already quite an adult.
Life next to a strict, always tense mother, sick father, Nikolai Afanasyevich, did not benefit Natalia Nikolaevna; she was painfully silent and shy.
Later, when she appeared in the secular salons of Moscow and St. Petersburg, many considered this shyness and tendency to silence to be a sign of a small mind.
So the qualities encouraged by the domineering mother - humility, complete obedience and silence - did Natalia Goncharova a disservice.
It probably could not have been otherwise in a family where the father was seriously ill - his addiction to horseback riding led to a tragic fall from a horse: as a result of a head injury, Nikolai Afanasyevich Goncharov suffered from clouding of mind, only in rare moments did he become kind, charming, witty - so what he was like in his youth, before his illness. And all decisions requiring male strength, male intelligence and logic were made by the mother. The Goncharovs owned the vast estates of Yaropolets, Karian, Linen Plant, a factory, and a stud farm, which was famous throughout the Kaluga and Moscow provinces! It was difficult for a woman who once shone at the court of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna, accustomed to admiration, worship, and the noise of balls, to manage the Goncharovsky primordium (an estate that is not subject to division and is inherited by the eldest in the family, usually a son). She sometimes couldn’t cope with a huge number of things to do, and she considered it inadmissible to admit this either to herself or to those around her. Until her son Dmitry came of age, she was in charge of everything herself, completely and uncontrollably!
Such power completely ruined the already difficult character. But it is also quite possible that behind her harshness and lack of restraint, Natalia Ivanovna was hiding ordinary female confusion and bitterness from a life that had not been very easy.
Despite all her shortcomings, Natalia Ivanovna loved her children, like any mother. When they grew up, she assigned her sons Ivan and Sergei to military service, and gave her three young ladies an excellent education for girls at that time: they knew French, German and English, the basics of history and geography, Russian literacy, they understood literature, fortunately there was a library, ( collected by his father and grandfather) under the supervision of Natalya Ivanovna was preserved in great order. The poems of Pushkin, famous throughout Russia, were known by heart and copied into albums. They could run a household, knit and sew, sit well in the saddle, control horses, dance and play. Not only the piano, they could also play a chess game. The youngest, Tasha, especially shone in the chess game.
This is what her close friend and neighbor on the estate, Nadezhda Eropkina, recalls about Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova’s youth: “I knew Natasha Goncharova well, but she was more friendly with my sister, Daria Mikhailovna. Even as a girl, Natalie was distinguished by rare beauty. They began to take her out very early, and she was always surrounded by a swarm of fans and admirers. The place of the first beauty of Moscow remains with her.”
“I have always admired her,” Eropkina continues further. “Upbringing in the countryside, in the clean air, left her with a legacy of flourishing health. Strong, dexterous, she was unusually proportioned, which is why her every movement was filled with grace. Her eyes are kind, cheerful, with a teasing sparkle from under her long velvet eyelashes... But Natalie’s main charm was the absence of any affectation and naturalness. Most considered her a flirt, but this accusation is unfair. Unusually expressive eyes, a charming smile and attractive ease of use, despite her will, conquered everyone. It’s not her fault that everything about her was so amazingly good!.. Natalia Nikolaevna was an amazing nugget in the family!” - Nadezhda Mikhailovna notes in conclusion in her memoirs.
This nugget instantly struck the heart and imagination of the famous poet when he saw her at the dance master Yogel’s balls, in a house on Tverskoy Boulevard, in the winter of 1828-1829. She was barely 16 years old then. In a white dress, with a gold hoop on her head, in all the splendor of her regal, harmonious, spiritual beauty, she was presented to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who “was timid for the first time in his life.” Pushkin, in love, did not immediately dare to appear in the Goncharovs’ house. The poet was brought into their living room by his old acquaintance Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, who soon became his matchmaker. The story of matchmaking, painful for the poet, lasted for about two years. Natalya Ivanovna had heard a lot about Pushkin’s political “unreliability” and, in addition, feared that the groom would demand a dowry that simply did not exist. The poet tried his best to arrange his financial affairs, which ultimately made it possible to provide a dowry for the bride - something that is generally rare in the wedding tradition.
At the “bachelor party” that Pushkin threw on the eve of the wedding, he seemed very gloomy. Everyone noticed this, and many predicted an unhappy marriage. But Pushkin’s confession after the engagement is known for certain:
“The one whom I loved for two whole years, whom my eyes were the first to find everywhere, with whom meeting seemed to me bliss - my God - she... is almost mine...”
On February 18, 1831, Pushkin and Natalie Goncharova finally joined their hands and hearts. During the wedding ceremony, Alexander Sergeevich accidentally touched the lectern, from which the cross and the Gospel fell. During the exchange of rings, one of them also fell, and in addition the candle went out. One can only guess what the poet, who attached so much importance to all kinds of omens and “signs of fate,” experienced in these unpleasant moments.
And yet, for some time, his whole life was illuminated with happiness. Of course, worries, troubles, and painful thoughts about money, which were constantly in short supply, continued, but a joyful and unusual feeling now reigned over everything.
“I’m married and happy: my only wish is that nothing in my life changes, I can’t wait for anything better,” the poet wrote to his friend P. A. Pletnev five days after the wedding. “My wife is lovely, and the longer I live with her, the more I love this sweet, pure, kind creature, whom I have done nothing to deserve before God,” he admitted in a letter to his mother-in-law N.I. Goncharova already in 1834 . What he dreamed of came true: “Madonna,” “the purest example of pure beauty,” entered his house...
Pushkin understood well that Natalya Nikolaevna was only twenty years old, that she was beautiful, and that coquetry and feminine vanity were so natural for her age. Arriving with her husband in St. Petersburg, and then in Tsarskoe Selo three months after the wedding, Natalie Pushkina almost immediately became the “most fashionable” woman of high society, one of the first beauties of St. Petersburg. D. F. Fikelmon called her beauty “poetic”, penetrating to the very heart. The thin, “airy” portrait of N. Pushkina by A. P. Bryullov conveys the youthful charm of Natalie’s appearance.
During the six years that the couple lived together, Natalya Nikolaevna gave birth to four children. But her love for children did not in any way obscure the desire for social success in her soul. According to Pushkin’s parents, Natalie experienced great pleasure from the opportunity to be presented to the court in connection with the appointment of Alexander Sergeevich as chamberlain and to dance at all court balls. She seemed to be rewarding herself for her joyless childhood and youth in a gloomy house, between a half-mad father and a mother who suffered from heavy drinking. She was flattered that her beauty impressed the king himself.
Alexander Sergeevich was very puzzled by all this, since he “wanted to save money and go to the village.” But... Pushkin’s love for his wife “was limitless.
Letters from Natalya Nikolaevna to her older brother discovered in the Goncharovs’ archives clarify a lot. A brilliant social beauty, charming Natalie in these letters appears to us as a completely down-to-earth woman, worried about her family, a caring wife, well versed in the affairs of her husband and trying to help him.
While justifying Natalya Nikolaevna in everything, some authors elevate her to an unattainable pedestal - she is, they say, nothing more than a tool in the hands of the killers of the great Russian poet. The more valuable objective reasoning seems, for example, this:
“No matter how much one tries to take Pushkin’s death beyond the scope of family relationships, one cannot escape them. Yes, there was a “Moscow young lady” with provincial shyness, there was a woman with a sympathetic soul and a faithful wife. But there was also an outbreak of love for the “blond, witty cotillion prince” (A. Akhmatova’s definition), and Pushkin’s jealousy. And the meanness of the Heckers. And a duel. And the death of the poet" (N. Grashin).
An ill-fated meeting in 1834 with the 22-year-old cornet of the Cavalry Regiment Dantes, a Frenchman by birth, turned out to be fatal for the Pushkin couple. Dantes burst into the peaceful life of Pushkin, full of creative work, began to pay exceptional attention to Natalya Nikolaevna, and she was flattered by the courtship of the brilliant cavalry guard. This did not even make Pushkin jealous. He loved his wife and trusted her endlessly. It is not surprising that, given the prevailing morals in society at that time, Natalya Nikolaevna innocently and thoughtlessly told her husband about her social successes and that Dantes adores her.
Natalya Nikolaevna considered coquetry a completely innocent activity. When asked by Princess V.F. Vyazemskaya how the whole story with Dantes could end, she replied:
“I have fun with him. I just like him, it will be the same as it was two years in a row.”
Dantes, meanwhile, openly courted Goncharova. The malicious grins and whispers behind Pushkin’s back intensified. Of course, he could not remain indifferent, but he postponed his intervention until a convenient moment. On November 4, 1836, this moment arrived. A group of secular slackers were then engaged in sending out anonymous letters to cuckolded husbands - that was the joking name given to husbands whose wives cheated on them. Pushkin received by mail three copies of an anonymous slanderous letter, insulting the honor of himself and his wife.
The day after receiving the letter, November 5, Pushkin sent a challenge to Dantes, considering him to be the culprit of the insult inflicted on him. On the same day, Dantes's adoptive father, Baron Heeckeren, came to him with a request to postpone the duel. Pushkin remained unshaken, but, touched by Heeckeren’s tears and excitement, he agreed. But a few days later it turned out that even before the challenge to a duel, Dantes intended to marry Natalya Goncharova’s sister, Ekaterina Goncharova. Dantes and Heeckeren brought this new circumstance to the attention of Pushkin, but he considered it incredible. Everyone knew that Ekaterina Goncharova was in love with Dantes, but he was infatuated with her sister, Pushkin’s wife. Heeckeren contributed to the efforts of Pushkin’s friends to remove the duel, but Pushkin saw in this Dantes’ cowardly desire to avoid the duel altogether and did not make any compromises.
The first words of the wounded Pushkin, when he was carried into the house, were the words addressed to his wife: “Be calm, you are not to blame for anything!” Then the days and nights became confused for her, she came to her senses after fainting and sobbing, went to her husband’s office, fell to her knees in front of his bed and cried silently again.
Doctors arrived, she tried to console herself with at least a little hope. But she wasn’t there... She understood that she wasn’t, although the doctors were silent. Countess Daria Fedorovna Fikelmon wrote then: “The unfortunate wife was saved with great difficulty from madness, into which she seemed to be irresistibly drawn by sad and deep despair...” (Gr. Fikelmon. Diary. Quoted from the book by A. Kuznetsova “My Madonna” M . 1983)
With Natalya Nikolaevna, there were always: Princess Vera Fedorovna Vyazemskaya, Countess Yulia Pavlovna Stroganova, friend, Princess Ekaterina Nikolaevna Karamzina-Meshcherskaya, sister Alexandrina and aunt, Ekaterina Ivanovna Zagryazhskaya.
Doctors Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, Ivan Timofeevich Spassky, the court physician Doctor Arendt, who arrived on the personal orders of the Emperor, looked after both the wounded Pushkin and her.
Here is what Prince Vyazemsky wrote later: “Arendt also said and repeated several times a wonderful and wonderful consoling word about this sad adventure: “It is a pity for Pushkin that he was not killed on the spot, because his torment is unspeakable; but for the honor of his wife it is happiness that he remained alive.
None of us, seeing him, can doubt her innocence and the love that Pushkin preserved for her.”
These words from the mouth of Arendt, who had no personal connection with Pushkin and was with him, as he would have been with anyone else in the same position, are surprisingly expressive.
Two weeks after the tragedy, Natalya Nikolaevna with her children and sister Alexandrina left for Polotnyany Zavod, to visit her brother Dmitry. She lived in the village for almost two years, as the poet asked her before his death: “Go to the village. Mourn for me for two years, and then marry, but only to a decent man.” Pushkin's father, Nashchokin, and Zhukovsky came to see her. Then she returned to St. Petersburg. She raised children and took care of the house. I went to Mikhailovskoye and erected a monument on Pushkin’s grave. I haven't gotten married for a long time. Natalya Nikolaevna's practicality gave way to her love for children, which over the years became the main quality of her character. During her widowhood years, she had three serious suitors for her hand. None of them agreed to live under the same roof with Pushkin’s children, so they were all rejected by Natalya Nikolaevna.
In 1843, Natalya Nikolaevna met a fellow soldier of Sergei Nikolaevich Goncharov’s brother, Tambov landowner, General Pyotr Petrovich Lansky (1799-1877). He, at the age of 45, considered himself a confirmed bachelor and at first he visited Natalia Nikolaevna simply, as if he were a pleasant friend, and enjoyed communicating with the children, becoming more and more attached to the warm family home. Having received command of the elite Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, stationed near St. Petersburg, and a large apartment, P.P. Lanskoy proposed to N.N. Goncharova. The wedding took place on July 16, 1844 in Strelna, where the regiment was stationed. Pyotr Petrovich accepted Pushkin’s children as family. More than seven years had passed since the poet’s death before the 32-year-old widow was able to entrust her fate and the lives of her four children to a “decent man.”
Many contemporaries who knew Lansky considered him a decent person, but many also thought that he was somewhat stupid. And yet, after his marriage to Natalya, his official affairs went up sharply: he rose to the rank of adjutant general, then became governor general of St. Petersburg. Shortly before his marriage, he was expecting an appointment somewhere in the province, but after the engagement, the tsar abruptly changed his mind: he left him in the capital and promoted him, giving the young couple a luxurious government apartment. These were not all the royal favors: Nicholas also ordered, at the expense of the treasury, to secretly clear the Goncharovs’ majority from huge debts.
But despite the fact that Natalya Nikolaevna, now Lanskaya, was surrounded by the cares and affection of the whole family, her children and husband often noticed that her gaze was filled with some kind of inner, concentrated sadness. The suffering she experienced undermined her health long before she grew old. Her heart often ached, she suffered from leg cramps at night, and her nerves were frayed. In recent years, the disease has spread to the lungs. Treatment abroad did not help either.
In the fall of 1863, a boy was born into the family of Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin - also Alexander. At the request of her son, Natalya Nikolaevna went from St. Petersburg to Moscow for her grandson’s christening. She had suffered from a pulmonary disease before, and now she caught a cold. Returning to St. Petersburg, she came down with severe pneumonia and died on November 26, 1863.
Dying, in a feverish oblivion, she whispered with white lips: “Pushkin, you will live!” - although Pushkin had not been alive for many years. Nearby was only his immortal shadow, yearning for the soul of the one whom he loved more than life itself.
The children buried Natalya Nikolaevna at the Lazarevskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Fifteen years later, the grave of Pyotr Petrovich Lansky and a strict, black marble tombstone were added nearby; near it there is a small plaque with an inscription stating that in her first marriage Natalya Nikolaevna Lanskaya was to the poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
She lived in this world for 51 years and of those years she was with Pushkin for only six years...
What is this mysterious story about the dishonor of the beautiful Ulrika? She was the mother of Natalya Ivanovna, the grandmother of Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova. The story with her happened in the spirit of the eighteenth century. The daughter of a wealthy landowner, Russian captain Karl Liphart and Margarete von Vittingoff, who lived in Livonia, in 1778 she married Baron Maurice von Posse, of Swedish origin, and from this marriage a daughter was born (“my mother’s sister, Aunt Jeannette”). But then the couple divorced, and Ulrika left for Russia with Prince Potemkin’s first favorite, Ivan Aleksandrovich Zagryazhsky, Tasha Goncharova’s grandfather.
But in Russia, Ivan Alexandrovich had his own family. And so he brings the beautiful Ulrika from Dorpat to Yaropolets to his wife, son and two daughters and introduces the “deceived wife to his legitimate wife.” What is it like?! It is not difficult to imagine the heartbreaking scene that followed, after which Ivan Alexandrovich, in the spirit of his age, immediately ordered the horses to be re-harnessed and left for Moscow. Apparently, not wanting to expose himself to the inconvenience of mental discord, he decides to settle permanently in Moscow, where, according to contemporaries, “he lives single and, it seems, does not miss an opportunity to have fun.”
And the legal wife eventually left the beautiful Ulrika in her house, warmed her, and accepted her daughter Natalya, who was soon born, into her family. Ulrika, meanwhile, wasted away in a strange environment and soon “withered like a flower” - she died at the age of 30, leaving her legal wife in the care of a little daughter, whom she loved and raised as her own, and with the help of her influential relatives “made every effort to legitimize the birth Natalia, protecting all her inheritance rights.”
Everyone who saw Ulrika said that she was incredibly beautiful. In the memoirs they say that Zagryazhskaya’s aunt had her portrait. And one day, when there was a fire in the Winter Palace, where she served as a maid of honor, an officer who ran into her room considered the most valuable thing to be a miniature framed in a modest frame depicting an unheard-of beauty. When everyone expressed surprise at why the officer saved this “small, insignificant object,” he replied: “Take a good look - and you will understand that I could not leave the image of such a rare beauty to the fire!”
Her beauty was also inherited by her daughter, Natalya Nikolaevna’s mother. When their daughter grew up, the Zagryazhskys moved to St. Petersburg to take the girl and her sisters away. In St. Petersburg they had a patron - aunt Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya, née Countess Razumovskaya, a cavalry lady who enjoyed considerable weight in court circles, “thanks to her intelligence, strong character and liveliness of her disposition, responsive to all phenomena of life.” Natalya Ivanovna, Tasha’s mother, like her sisters, was accepted as a maid of honor to Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, the wife of Alexander I. From her early youth she was distinguished by her beauty, but those who remembered Ulrika said that although Natalya Ivanovna was pretty, she could not compare he can't with her.
At court, cavalry guard A.Ya fell in love with her. Okhotnikov (those cavalry guards again!), the Empress’s favorite, with whom the Empress had a daughter. But a year later he was killed as he was leaving the theater, allegedly by the Grand Duke's man. And then - perhaps to hush up this story - Natalya Ivanovna was hastily married to Nikolai Afanasyevich Goncharov, the son of the owner of the Linen Factories, well-educated and handsome. The entire imperial family was present at the wedding: Emperor Alexander I, the Empress, the Dowager Empress Mother, the Grand Dukes and Princesses. Something was wrong in this wedding - the parents who were planted were the highest nobles.
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Natalya Goncharova's mourning for her husband killed in a duel lasted seven years. When Alexander Pushkin was mortally wounded, she was only 25 years old, of which she managed to be married for six. Numerous surviving portraits and memoirs of contemporaries indicate that this woman was extremely beautiful, shone in the light and inevitably attracted the attention of men.
She did not wear eternal mourning for her husband (like, for example, the widow of Alexander Griboyedov) and accepted the offer of Lieutenant General Pyotr Lansky, with whom she spent the rest of her life.
Natalya Goncharova met her first husband, Alexander Pushkin, at the age of 16, when he was already 29. The poet was fascinated and expressed his readiness to marry her immediately, but the engagement dragged on for three years. The reasons were banal: discord with the future mother-in-law (the bride's mother was dissatisfied with their age difference and Pushkin's bad reputation as a freethinker and player) and lack of money. The wedding took place only in 1831.
Natalya Goncharova in 1843.
In six years, the couple had four children. In 1837, still young and beautiful, Natalya Nikolaevna was widowed. Despite the fact that Pushkin died in the prime of his creative powers and at the peak of fame, the financial condition of the family was depressing. The poet managed to owe a lot and mortgaged his father’s estate. The situation was saved by the order of Nicholas I to pay the debts of the deceased, assign a pension to the widow and daughter, send his sons as pages with a stipend, and publish Pushkin’s works at public expense in favor of the widow and children.
“Go to the village, mourn for me for two years, then get married, but not to a scoundrel,” the poet addressed his wife before his death. She fulfilled this wish. According to biographers, life as a widow was difficult for her - she was completely ignorant in matters of managing the estate and needed help; she often borrowed money. After the death of her husband, gossip and rumors haunted her: she was called Dantes' mistress, the emperor's favorite, and a frivolous beauty. Returning from the village two years later, Natalya Nikolaevna was in no hurry to return to society - she began to go out into the world again only in 1843.
13 years difference
A year later, she met Major General Pyotr Lansky. They were introduced by Natalya Nikolaevna’s brother, who was Lansky’s colleague.
Pyotr Lanskoy was the same age as Pushkin.
The major general at that time was already 45 years old, Natalya was 32, separated from Lansky by the same 13 years that at one time separated her from Pushkin. Lansky's life was devoted to a military career: starting with service in the Cavalry Regiment, a year before he met Goncharova, he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. Ten years later he received the rank of lieutenant general. Later, in 1864, Lanskoy transferred to the civil service, headed various commissions and committees, and in 1865 served as the St. Petersburg Governor-General. In 1866 he was promoted to cavalry general.
Unlike Pushkin, he was not surrounded by rumors and scandals, and had a reputation as a discreet and convinced bachelor. The meeting with Natalya Pushkina became a turning point in his life - this woman made him change his attitude towards marriage.
"The Union of Hunger and Need"
A modest wedding took place a year after they met in Strelna. Emperor Nicholas I, who had tender feelings for the Pushkin family, upon learning of the engagement, offered himself the role of the imprisoned father, but Natalya Nikolaeva politely refused, not wanting to attract undue attention to the wedding.
It is known that at the time of his marriage, Lanskoy, like Pushkin in his time, was not rich. Despite this, there were gossips who continued to support rumors about a marriage of convenience: supposedly thanks to her connection with the emperor, Natalya Nikolaevna began to promote her new husband in the service. “After seven years of widowhood, Pushkin’s widow marries General Lansky<…>Neither Pushkina nor Lansky have anything, and the world marvels at this union of hunger and need. Pushkina is one of those privileged young women whom the sovereign sometimes honors with his visit. About six weeks ago he also visited her, and, as a result of this visit or simply by chance, only Lanskoy was subsequently appointed commander of the Horse Guards Regiment, which, at least temporarily, ensures their existence,” wrote a member of the State Council and future director of the Public Library Modest Corf.
Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya. Early 1860s
Indeed, no one noticed the dizzying passion in these relationships, but it was hardly worth talking about calculation. Two experienced adults built their union not on frivolous charm, but on deep affection and mutual respect.
“Empty words cannot replace a love like yours. Having instilled in you such a feeling with the help of God, I value it. I'm no longer at that age where I'm giddy with success. You might think that I lived 37 years in vain. This age gives a woman life experience, and I can give real value to words. Vanity of vanities, everything is just vanity, except love for God and, I add, love for your husband, when he loves as much as my husband does,” Natalya Goncharova wrote to Pyotr Lansky.
Seven children
Lanskoy accepted his wife’s four children from her marriage to Pushkin as his own. In her second marriage, Natalya Nikolaevna had three daughters: Alexandra, Elizaveta and Sophia. All the children received an excellent education, the boys went on to have good careers, and the girls got married successfully.
Natalya and Pyotr Lansky lived together for 19 years. Natalya Nikolaevna died when she was 52 years old from pneumonia. In her last hours, her faithful husband, children and relatives were with her.
Pyotr Lansky was buried next to his wife
Pyotr Lanskoy outlived his wife by 14 years, tirelessly caring for the children. He passed away in 1877, after which he was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, in the same grave with his wife. “You have a feeling for me that corresponds to our years: while maintaining a shade of love, it, however, is not passion, and that is why this feeling is more durable, and we will end our days in such a way that this connection will not weaken,” wrote Natalya Nikolaevna to my husband in one of the messages. And so it happened...
Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova was one of the most beautiful women in St. Petersburg. Even Emperor Nicholas I himself was rumored to be in love with her. Pushkin's wife Natalya Goncharova, brief biography will be presented in this article.
Alexander Sergeevich was famous for his love affairs. Distinguished by his temperamental character, he was very loving and did not miss a single opportunity to hit on another beauty.
But, despite the impressive Don Juan list, the poet was married to only one woman- on Natalya Goncharova. The poet met his future wife in Moscow in 1828. He proposed after a year of dating. Goncharova’s mother did not give consent for a long time. But he also did not receive a final refusal.
In the 30s of the 19th century, on April 6, he finally received permission to marry. The wedding of Natalya Nikolaevna and Alexander Sergeevich took place February 18, 1831.
On August 27, 1812, Natalya Goncharova, the future wife of the brilliant Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, was born on the Karian estate. She grew up there for the first years of her life. Afterwards, the family lived in the Yaropolets and Polotnyany Zavod estates, which also belonged to her family. And then they moved to live in St. Petersburg, she spent her teenage years there.
Together with all her sisters, the girl had an excellent education at home. She studied world history and literature, studied several foreign languages - French, German and English. She also played the piano beautifully, mastered the art of dancing and could control horses. In addition to all this, she was excellent at sewing and knitting. She also knew about housekeeping.
Natalie's mother was a very domineering woman. The extensive family holdings, which she managed alone, only exacerbated this quality. When she scolded her daughter, the girl had no choice but to hide in a corner and wait for the storm to subside. She could not cry, because tears would be followed by an even more severe punishment. The mother’s difficult character negatively influenced the girl. As a result of this, Tasha, as her household called her, grew up silent and shy. Thanks to these qualities, in secular society Tasha was known as someone with a narrow mind.
The girl was also negatively affected by her father’s illness. He was a passionate fan of horse riding. On one of these trips he fell from the saddle and injured his head. All his life he suffered from a disorder of consciousness. Only occasionally did the beloved father become as cheerful and witty as he had always been before the accident.
From an early age was of extraordinary beauty Pushkin's wife Natalya Goncharova. Her short biography tells us that the girl began to be brought into the world quite early. Where she immediately acquired a crowd of fans and admirers. She owes this to her mother, since in her youth she was one of the most beautiful women.
At one of these balls hosted by dance master Iogel, young Tasha was first introduced to Pushkin. He was immediately captivated by the beauty of 16-year-old Natalie.
The girl appeared before him in a white dress, her hair was decorated with a gold hoop. She was so beautiful and regal that for the first time in his life he was so timid and shy.
Everyone knows the dramatic story about the love triangle between Pushkin, his wife and the charming Frenchman Dantes. Dantes falls in love with the poet's wife and begins to openly court her. Exhausted by jealousy, he went to a duel, where he was mortally wounded in the right side of the abdomen. The wound was not dangerous, but due to the low development of medicine at that time, doctors were unable to save him.
After seven years of widowhood, Goncharova married again. She lived with her second husband until her death. In the last years of her life, she was often sick and traveled abroad for treatment. She also completely stopped appearing at social events. She died at the age of 51 from lung disease. Her beloved husband survived her by 14 years.
Pushkin’s wife Natalya Goncharova, whose brief biography tells us that, despite her amazing beauty, her life was not easy and cloudless.
Despite her advanced age, Natalya Nikolaevna retained her extraordinary beauty and naturalness. In the presented photo, she is sitting with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Portrait of Natalia Goncharova, Pushkin's wife. This is exactly what Natalie looked like when she met her future husband and charmed him. This portrait is the most famous image of Pushkin's wife.
The last poems written by the greatest poet were mainly dedicated to his wife. Often in the letters he wrote for her, the poet praised Natalya and admired her beauty. In letters dedicated to Goncharova-Pushkina, he wrote more than once that besides her, there was no more consolation in his life.
Who did Pushkin's wife marry after his death?
After being wounded in a duel with Dantes, Pushkin dies a few days later. Widowed Natalya remarries only seven years later. The widow's chosen one was Lieutenant General Pyotr Petrovich Lanskoy. They lived in marriage until Lanskaya’s death, for 19 long years.
Having become a widow, she went to her brother’s family estate. After living there as a recluse for two years, she returned to the Northern capital again. And just like on the estate, for several years she led a secluded life. Only 4 years later she began to appear at balls again.
In 1944, Gocharova’s brother introduces her to his colleague Pyotr Lansky. The convinced 45-year-old bachelor could not pay attention to the grace of the young widow.
During the period of their acquaintance, he managed to fall in love with her children and began to treat them as family. He proposed six months after they met.
The wedding took place on July 16 in Strelny. To obtain permission for the wedding, Lanskoy conveyed his proposal to the commander-in-chief of the Guards Corps so that he would convey it to Emperor Nicholas I. The emperor insisted on the role of the bride's father, but she, in turn, refused the proposal. She wanted a modest wedding with only close friends and relatives.
Peter loved his wife’s children from his first marriage very much and considered them family. He also became their guardian.
Natalya Nikolaevna gave birth to Pyotr Petrovich three children. He gave all his children, both natural and adopted, an excellent education.
Have you read the article by Pushkin’s wife Natalya Goncharova, did her short biography leave you indifferent? Leave your opinion or feedback for everyone on the forum.
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Goncharova, Natalya.
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Pushkin.
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Lanskaya.
| Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova |
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| A. P. Bryullov. Portrait of N. N. Pushkina. Watercolor, 1831-1832 | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth: | |
| Place of Birth: |
Karian estate, Tambov province, Russian Empire |
| A country: |
Russian empire |
| Date of death: | |
| A place of death: |
St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Father: |
Nikolay Afanasyevich Goncharov |
| Mother: |
Natalya Ivanovna Zagryazhskaya (Goncharova) |
| Spouse: |
1. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1831-1837) |
| Children: |
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| Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova on Wikimedia Commons |
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Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, in first marriage Pushkin, in the second - Lanskaya(August 27, 1812, Karian estate, Tambov province - November 26, 1863, St. Petersburg) - wife of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Seven years after his death, she married General Pyotr Petrovich Lansky. Her role in the life of Pushkin and the events preceding his last duel is the subject of debate to this day. With the discovery of new documentary and epistolary materials, ideas about the personality of Natalya Nikolaevna.
Parents
Natalya Nikolaevna's grandfather - A. N. Goncharov
Natalya Nikolaevna's father is N. A. Goncharov. 1810s
Natalya Nikolaevna's mother is N.I. Goncharova. 1800s
Pedigree of N. N. Goncharova
Natalya's father, Nikolai Afanasyevich Goncharov (1787-1861), came from a family of merchants and industrialists who received the nobility during the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. In 1789, by a special decree issued to Nikolai Afanasyevich’s father, Afanasy Nikolaevich, Catherine II confirmed the Goncharovs’ right to hereditary nobility. Nikolai Afanasyevich was the only son in the family. He received an excellent education: he knew German, English and French perfectly (one of his tutors was Boudry, the brother of Jean-Paul Marat), was fluent, unlike other family members, in Russian, wrote poetry, played the violin and cello .
In 1804, Nikolai Goncharov was enrolled in the St. Petersburg Collegium of Foreign Affairs, and in 1808 he received the rank of collegiate assessor and took the post of secretary of the Moscow governor.
Natalya Nikolaevna's mother, Natalya Ivanovna (1785-1848), née Zagryazhskaya, was the great-great-great-granddaughter of the Ukrainian hetman Petro Doroshenko from his last marriage to Agafya Eropkina. According to family legend, Natalya Ivanovna is the illegitimate daughter of Euphrosina Ulrika, Baroness Posse (née Liphart) from Ivan Alexandrovich Zagryazhsky. After the death of her mother in 1791, Ivan Alexandrovich’s wife, Alexandra Stepanovna, took care of Natalya Ivanovna, and “made every effort to legitimize Natalya’s birth, protecting all her inheritance rights.” According to another version, Ivan Zagryazhsky married a French woman in Paris, but Natalya Nikolaevna’s biographers consider the first hypothesis more plausible.
Natalya Ivanovna, together with her half-sisters - Sophia and Catherine - enjoyed the patronage of Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya, maid of honor of Catherine II, and all three sisters were accepted as maids of honor to Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna. At court, Natalya Ivanovna, who was distinguished by her extraordinary beauty, which, according to family legends, came to her from Baroness Posse, attracted attention and fell in love with the Empress's favorite Alexei Okhotnikov. Natalya Ivanovna’s marriage to Nikolai Goncharov, for this or another reason, was, according to some biographers, “hurried.” Judging by the entry in the Chamber-Fourier journal, the wedding was magnificent: the entire imperial family was present at the wedding, and the bride was cleaned in the chambers of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Childhood and youth
Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova in childhood. Unknown artist. Early 1820s
The Goncharovs' estate in the village of Yaropolets
The manor house of the Goncharov estate in Polotnyany Zavod
Natalya Nikolaevna was the fifth child of the Goncharovs’ seven children; the youngest, daughter Sophia, was born and died in 1818. Natalya was born in the village of Karian, Tambov province, the family estate of the Zagryazhskys, where the Goncharovs moved during the Patriotic War of 1812. Natalya spent her childhood and youth in Moscow and the estates of Yaropolets (Moscow province) and Polotnyany Zavod (Kaluga province).
The situation in the family was difficult. At the Linen Plant, Natalya Nikolaevna’s grandfather, Afanasy Nikolaevich, was in charge of everything. Relatives had to endure the presence of his mistress, the Frenchwoman Madame Babette, in the house. Natalya Nikolaevna's father tried in vain to stop the wasteful Afanasy Nikolaevich, but in 1815 he himself was removed from the management of affairs. Natalya's parents moved to Moscow, leaving their youngest daughter in the care of her grandfather, who loved and spoiled her. The girl lived in the Factory for about three more years.
An educated and talented man, Nikolai Afanasyevich suffered from mental illness from the end of 1814. The illness, according to relatives, was caused by a head injury received when falling from a horse. However, much later, doubt was expressed about the accuracy of the diagnosis: judging by the letters of his wife, Nikolai Afanasyevich drank a lot. Perhaps this was a consequence of the sudden removal from all matters of managing the estate and the consciousness that Afanasy Nikolaevich was ruining his family: in 40 years he had squandered almost a 30 million fortune.
Natalya Ivanovna Goncharova was a powerful woman with a difficult character, who was affected by her unsuccessful family life. According to Alexandra Arapova, Natalya Nikolaevna’s daughter from her second marriage, her mother did not like to talk about her childhood. Natalya Ivanovna raised her children strictly, demanding unquestioning obedience.
Judging by the files of student notebooks preserved in the Goncharov archives, Natalya and her sisters, Ekaterina and Alexandra, received a good education at home. The children were taught Russian and world history, geography, Russian language and literature. In addition to French, which all the younger Goncharovs knew very well (later Natalya Nikolaevna admitted that writing in French was much easier for her than in Russian), German and English were studied. The elder brother Dmitry graduated from Moscow University “with very good success”, Ivan graduated from a private boarding school, and Sergei was educated at home. Pushkin scholar Larisa Cherkashina suggests that Natalya studied in the same program as her younger brother Sergei.
According to the memoirs of Nadezhda Eropkina, Pavel Nashchokin’s cousin, who knew Natalya Nikolaevna before her marriage, she was distinguished by her beauty from an early age. They began to take her out into the world very early, and she always had fans:
“Unusually expressive eyes, a charming smile and attractive simplicity in communication, despite her will, conquered everyone. It wasn't her fault that everything about her was so amazingly good. But it remains a mystery to me, where did Natalya Nikolaevna acquire tact and ability to control herself? Everything about her and her manner of carrying herself was imbued with deep decency. Everything was comme il faut - without any falsehood. And this is all the more surprising since the same could not be said about her relatives. The sisters were beautiful, but it would be in vain to look for Natasha’s exquisite grace in them. The father, weak-willed and, in the end, out of his mind, had no significance in the family. Mother was far from having good manners and was often quite unpleasant... Therefore, Natalya Nikolaevna was an amazing nugget in this family. Pushkin was captivated by her unusual beauty, and no less likely, by her charming demeanor, which he valued so much.”
Getting to know Pushkin. 1828-1831
Pushkin met Natalya Goncharova in Moscow in December 1828 at the dance master Yogel's ball. In April 1829, he asked for her hand through Fyodor Tolstoy the American. Goncharova’s mother’s answer was vague: Natalya Ivanovna believed that her then 16-year-old daughter was too young for marriage, but there was no final refusal. Pushkin went to join Ivan Paskevich’s army in the Caucasus. According to the poet, “involuntary melancholy drove” him from Moscow; he was driven into despair that the reputation of a freethinker, which had attached itself to him and was exaggerated by slander, influenced the decision of the elder Goncharova. In September of the same year, he returned to Moscow and received a cold reception from the Goncharovs. According to the memoirs of Natalya Nikolaevna’s brother, Sergei, “Pushkin had frequent disagreements with Natalya Ivanovna, because Pushkin happened to let slip about manifestations of piety and about Emperor Alexander Pavlovich,” while the elder Goncharova was extremely pious, and treated the late emperor with reverence. The poet’s political unreliability, his poverty and passion for cards also played a role.
A. S. Pushkin. Watercolor. Unknown artist. The portrait is dated June 31, 1831. According to art historians, it was made in the 1860s. There are also doubts that it is Pushkin who is depicted in the watercolor
In the spring of 1830, the poet, who had left for St. Petersburg, received news from the Goncharovs through a mutual friend, which gave him hope. He returned to Moscow and proposed again. On April 6, 1830, consent for the marriage was received. According to one friend of the Goncharovs, it was Natalya Nikolaevna who overcame her mother’s resistance: “She seems very passionate about her fiancé.” As a person under secret surveillance, Pushkin had to inform Emperor Nicholas I about his every step. In a letter dated April 16, 1830 to Alexander Benckendorf, through whom all correspondence between Pushkin and the emperor was conducted, the poet announced his intention to get married. Calling his position “false and dubious,” Pushkin adds: “Mrs. Goncharova is afraid to give her daughter to a man who would have the misfortune of being in bad standing with the sovereign...” At the end of the letter, he asks for permission to publish his previously banned tragedy “Boris Godunov” . In his response, Benckendorff notes the “favorable satisfaction” of Nicholas I with the news of his marriage and denies that Pushkin was under surveillance, but emphasizes that he, as the emperor’s confidant, was entrusted with “supervision” and “advice guidance.”
In May 1830, Pushkin and Natalya Ivanovna and their daughters visited the Linen Factory: the groom was supposed to introduce himself to the head of the family, Afanasy Nikolaevich. Vladimir Bezobrazov, who visited the estate in 1880, saw in one of the albums Pushkin’s poems addressed to the bride, and her poetic response.
The engagement took place on May 6, 1830, but dowry negotiations delayed the wedding. Many years later, Natalya Nikolaevna told Pavel Annenkov that “their wedding was constantly in the balance due to quarrels between the groom and his mother-in-law.” In August of the same year, Pushkin’s uncle, Vasily Lvovich, died. The wedding was again postponed, and Pushkin left for Boldino to take possession of part of this estate allocated by his father. Here he was delayed due to a cholera epidemic. Before leaving for the Nizhny Novgorod province, Pushkin quarreled with Natalya Ivanovna, probably because of the dowry: she did not want to give her daughter away without him, but the ruined Goncharovs had no money. In a letter written under the influence of an explanation with the elder Goncharova, Pushkin announced that Natalya Nikolaevna was “completely free”, but he would marry only her or never marry. The bride's answer, which he received on September 9 in Boldin, reassured him, and he made peace with his future mother-in-law in absentia. Due to the cholera epidemic, Pushkin stayed on the estate for three months, which became one of the most fruitful periods in his work. Returning to Moscow, Pushkin mortgaged the Kistenevo estate and loaned part of the money (11 thousand) to Goncharova Sr. for a dowry. Natalya Ivanovna gave a mortgage on her diamonds as a wedding gift, and the bride's grandfather gave a copper statue of Catherine II, commissioned by A. A. Goncharov in Germany. From the amount received as collateral for Kistenev, Pushkin left 17 thousand “for the establishment and living expenses of a year.”
Marriage with A.S. Pushkin
Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate. Modern look
Memorial Museum-dacha of A. S. Pushkin (Kitaev’s dacha)
On February 18 (March 2), 1831, the wedding took place in the Moscow Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate. During the exchange of rings, Pushkin's ring fell to the floor, and then his candle went out. He turned pale and said: “Everything is a bad omen!”
“I am married and happy; My only wish is that nothing in my life changes - I can’t wait for anything better. This state is so new to me that it seems that I have been reborn,” the poet wrote to his friend Pletnev shortly after the wedding. The newlyweds settled in Moscow in an apartment rented by the poet before the wedding (the current address is Arbat St., 53). In mid-May 1831, the couple, on the initiative of Pushkin, who did not want his mother-in-law to interfere in his family life, moved to Tsarskoe Selo. The couple settled at Kitaeva’s dacha and lived quite secludedly for several months, receiving close friends and relatives. It is known that Natalya Nikolaevna helped Pushkin with correspondence: copies of “The Secret Notes of Catherine II” (fragments), “Journal of Discussions” (fragments), and “The House in Kolomna” that she made have survived. In July, due to a cholera epidemic, the imperial family moved to Tsarskoye Selo. In a letter to her grandfather, Natalya Nikolaevna says that she chooses “the most secluded places” for walks, since she heard rumors that the emperor and his wife wanted to meet her for a walk. Pushkin’s mother tells his sister about the Pushkins’ meeting with the imperial couple:
...the emperor and empress met Natasha and Alexander, they stopped to talk with them, and the empress told Natasha that she was very glad to meet her and a thousand other sweet and kind things. And now she is forced, without wanting to at all, to appear at court.
In another letter, N. O. Pushkina writes that the court is delighted with Natalya Nikolaevna, the empress has appointed a day for her to appear to her: “This is very unpleasant for Natasha, but she will have to obey.”
In the fall of 1831, the Pushkins moved from Tsarskoe Selo to St. Petersburg and settled in the house of the widow Briskorn on Galernaya Street; Natalya Nikolaevna’s older brother Dmitry lived on the same street. Pushkina's two other brothers also served in St. Petersburg. Natalya Nikolaevna’s aunt, maid of honor Ekaterina Zagryazhskaya, became very attached to her, protected her in society and took care of her as if she were her own daughter, helping her financially, too.
Pushkina's beauty made an impression in the secular society of St. Petersburg. At first, Pushkin was proud of his wife’s secular successes. Daria Fikelmon in her diary notes the appearance of the poet’s wife, but at the same time says that “she doesn’t have much intelligence and even, it seems, little imagination.” Pushkin, according to Fikelmon:
...ceases to be a poet in her presence; It seemed to me that yesterday he felt... all the excitement and excitement that a husband feels who wants his wife to be successful in the world.
N. N. Pushkin (?, left). Fragment of the manuscript of the poem “The Bronze Horseman”. 1833. Boldino
Contemporaries noted the restraint, almost coldness of Natalya Nikolaevna, her taciturnity. Perhaps this was due to her natural shyness and due to the persistent, not always friendly attention of society. According to the writer Nikolai Raevsky, raised outside St. Petersburg, she, like her sisters later, quickly got used to society, but never became a real society lady. He noted that, as the wife of “the first poet of Russia,” a man who had not only friends, but also enemies, Pushkina from the very beginning found herself in a “difficult position”: some expected to see perfection in her, others “looked for shortcomings in his wife, which could humiliate the proud poet." Much later, she wrote that revealing her feelings “seems profane to her. Only God and a chosen few have the key to my heart."
On May 19, 1832, Natalya Nikolaevna gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Maria, and on July 6, 1833, a son, Alexander. The birth of grandchildren somewhat improved the relationship between Pushkin and his mother-in-law, who apparently appreciated his love for children. In letters to his wife, Pushkin constantly remembered his children (most often the names of the two eldest are found); during his trips he asked her to report everything that was happening at home. The lack of funds - “I can have large sums, but we also live a lot” - worried him: more than once in his correspondence he wonders what will happen to his family in the event of his death.
For a long time it was believed that Natalya Nikolaevna did not take care of her family and home and was only interested in social entertainment. Shchegolev’s book “The Duel and Death of Pushkin” played an important role in the formation of this image, where the author claims that the main content of Pushkina’s life was “secular love romanticism.” Shchegolev, however, considered it necessary to note that he has a small amount of material. Later study of the Goncharovs’ archives and Pushkina’s letters to her family changed the idea of her personality. They helped create a more complete portrait of Natalya Nikolaevna. Thus, the correspondence of the sisters does not confirm the previously formed opinion that, having moved to the Pushkins, Alexandra Nikolaevna took upon herself all the household chores. Researchers note that, unlike her sisters, Natalya Nikolaevna’s letters never touch upon her successes in society; for the most part they are devoted to her home, children, and her husband’s publishing activities. Contrary to popular belief, the “poetic Pushkina” was practical and assertive when it came to her relatives and close people. Thus, she took an active part in the litigation of the Goncharovs with the tenant of their enterprises. Later, when Pushkin began publishing the magazine, during his absence Natalya Nikolaevna carried out his instructions regarding Sovremennik.
In the fall of 1832, Natalya Nikolaevna’s grandfather died. The Goncharovs' estate was burdened with a debt of one and a half million rubles, in addition, the heirs had to fight several lawsuits. Dmitry Goncharov was appointed guardian of his father, left his service in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, moved to the Moscow Archives and at the same time took over the management of the family primate. He was unable to pay off his grandfather’s debts and spent his entire life paying interest (sometimes exceeding the amount of the debt) on mortgages.
The Pushkin family, after the money from Kistenev’s mortgage ran out, was almost constantly in a difficult financial situation. Life in St. Petersburg was expensive, the family was growing, but the Pushkins, like many others, kept a large house for reasons of “prestige.” Traveling out into the world also required considerable expenses. Pushkin sometimes played and lost money at cards. His salary from his service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (five thousand rubles a year) was only enough to pay for his apartment and dacha.
At the end of December 1833, Nicholas I promoted Pushkin to the junior court rank of chamber cadet. According to the poet's friends, he was furious: this title was usually given to young people. In his diary on January 1, 1834, Pushkin wrote:
The day before yesterday I was promoted to chamber cadet (which is quite indecent for my years). But the Court wanted N.N. [Natalya Nikolaevna] to dance in Anichkovo.
In their letters to O. S. Pavlishcheva, Pushkin’s parents report that their daughter-in-law is a great success at court, and complain that she spends too much time at balls.
In 1834, Natalya Nikolaevna invited her sisters to her place in St. Petersburg. Both Alexandra and Catherine strove to the capital, hoping to arrange their destinies - their mother refused to take them out into the world, and they spent several years in the village. Pushkina overcame her husband’s doubts about the correctness of this step, and he himself understood what a difficult situation they were in. Both sisters settled with the couple and began to go out into the world; they contributed from their allowance, paid to them by their brother Dmitry, a share of the table and apartment. Through the efforts of Aunt Zagryazhskaya, Catherine soon received a maid of honor code, but, contrary to custom, she did not move to the palace, but lived with the Pushkin family.
Natalya Nikolaevna and Dantes
Georges Charles Dantes. Portrait by an unknown artist. Around 1830
In 1835, Natalya Nikolaevna met a French citizen, cavalry guard Georges Dantes. As Modest Hoffman noted, before his appearance in the life of the Pushkins, “no one connected her name [Natalia Nikolaevna] with anyone else’s name,” although it was known in the world that the emperor was not indifferent to her. Until that moment, no one could call her a coquette who attracted fans. According to Y. Levkovich, Natalya Nikolaevna had nothing to reproach before meeting Dantes. Dantes began to court Natalya Nikolaevna, which gave rise to rumors about the alleged relationship of the poet’s wife with him. Her behavior and role in the pre-duel events are the subject of debate to this day. Some researchers, including Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva, believed that she was directly or indirectly to blame for Pushkin's death.
In 1946, Henri Troyat published two excerpts from letters from Dantes's archive, provided by his descendants. Letters dated early 1836 were written by Dantes to Heckern, who was abroad at that time. In them, Dantes reports his new passion. Her subject is “the most charming creature in St. Petersburg” (the lady is not named), the husband of this woman is “furiously jealous,” but she loves Dantes. These documents were first published in Russian translation by Tsyavlovsky in 1951. Tsyavlovsky, believing that the unknown lady is Pushkin’s wife, concluded:
Based on the above letters, of course, one cannot doubt the sincerity and depth of Dantes’ feelings for Natalya Nikolaevna. Moreover, Natalya Nikolaevna’s reciprocal feeling for Dantes now also cannot be subject to any doubt.
However, D.D. Blagoy noted and considered this a very important point, that the lady (Pushkina), although she was carried away by Dantes, “remained true to her duty.” N. A. Raevsky draws attention to the second of Dantes’ letters, where he says that the woman, when persuaded to “break her duty for him,” refuses:
Frivolous, as everyone thought, Natalya Nikolaevna in the role of Tatiana the Princess... It is not known whether she stood this role to the end, but at the beginning of 1836, she undoubtedly wanted to stand it.
At the same time, according to Raevsky, the further course of events shows “that Dantes did not achieve his goal in relation to Pushkina.” Biographers Natalya Nikolaevna Obodovskaya and Dementyev point out that Dantes’ letters have not been studied from an archaeographical point of view, without this it is impossible to confirm the time of their writing. In their opinion, the content of the letters gives the impression of “deliberation”, the implausibility of this “romantic story”. Dantes' words that he idolizes the lady and is concerned about maintaining a secret do not fit with all his actions: persistent courtship of Pushkina, which was widely known in the world, marriage to Natalya Nikolaevna's sister and openly defiant subsequent behavior. In addition, Dantes's courtship of Pushkina began earlier, at the end of 1835, and Heckern was aware of this.
Story by V. F. Vyazemskaya
Recorded by P. I. Bartenev
Madame NN, at the insistence of Gekkern, invited Pushkina to her place, and she herself left home. Pushkina told Princess Vyazemskaya and her husband that when she was left face to face with Gekkern, he took out a pistol and threatened to shoot himself if she did not give herself up to him. Pushkina did not know where to go from his insistence; she wrung her hands and began to speak as loudly as possible. Fortunately, the hostess's unsuspecting daughter appeared in the room, and the guest rushed to her.
Bartenev, P. Story by V. F. Vyazemskaya // Russian Archive. - 1888. - No. 7. - P. 310.
Obodovskaya and Dementiev suggested that the letters were written on purpose, that “this is another link in the persecution of Pushkin,” and perhaps the poet’s enemy Idalia Poletik had a hand in their creation, or Dantes himself wrote them later, wanting to justify himself, and kept them in his papers. But the Italian translator Serena Vitale, who received Dantes’s great-grandson’s letters to Heckern and published them in 1995, has no doubt about their authenticity. In her opinion, Pushkina was an “arsonist”: not inferior to Dantes, she “was unable and did not want to put an end to the sweet game,” and “if she had come to the end in her relationship with Dantes, Pushkin would not have died.”
In the documentary story “Around the Duel,” Semyon Laskin hypothesized that the unknown woman from Dantes’ letters is Idalia Poletika herself. Pushkina, whom Dantes demonstratively courted, served only as a “screen” to hide his affair with Idalia. Researchers reject this hypothesis. According to Y. Lotman, Dantes needed a high-profile affair with a brilliant social beauty (Pushkina) in order to divert public attention from the true nature of his relationship with Heckern.
Natalya Nikolaevna was also blamed for her meeting with Dantes at Poletika’s apartment. This meeting is known from the story of Vera Vyazemskaya in Bartenev’s record (Poletika’s name was hidden behind the initials NN) and a letter from Gustav Friesengoff, the husband of Alexandra Goncharova, written by him to Arapova in 1887. Probably Arapova turned to her aunt for clarification. For Alexandra Nikolaevna, already paralyzed at that time, her husband wrote the answer. Researchers note that Arapova did not make the letter public and did not use it at all when working on her memoirs. The date of the meeting is unknown. According to one version, Natalya Nikolaevna was invited by Idalia Poletika and did not suspect that she would meet Dantes. According to another, Pushkina received a letter from Dantes in which he begged for a meeting, supposedly in order to discuss “important issues.” Stella Abramovich believes that it was this meeting, which took place (according to her version) on November 2, that became the reason for the anonymous libel that provoked Pushkin to challenge Dantes to a duel in November 1836. Other researchers (for the first time - Shchegolev) place the date of the meeting in January 1837 (sometimes the date is January 22), and Pushkin allegedly learned about it from anonymous letters, which served as the “final impetus” for the duel. There is also an opinion that the date did not play a fatal role in the pre-duel events. Obodovskaya and Dementyev also note that there is no reliable evidence that the meeting took place at all, and the stories of contemporaries should be treated with great caution.
In Pushkin studies, there is a version that the family life of the spouses has recently been complicated by the relationship between Natalya Nikolaevna’s sister, Alexandra, and Pushkin. V.F. Vyazemskaya told Bartenev that the eldest of the Goncharov sisters was in love with her son-in-law. Dantes's colleague, Prince A. Trubetskoy, claimed that she even had a relationship with Pushkin. These rumors were repeated and developed by A. Arapova, who did not stop at any means to whitewash her mother. But these persons only conveyed the words of Idalia Poletika, to whom Alexandra Nikolaevna herself allegedly made confessions. According to Obodovskaya and Dementyev, Alexandra became a victim of slander spread by the poet’s enemies, since in the pre-duel story she took the side of the Pushkin family.
The last months of life, the duel and death of Pushkin
Main article: The last duel and death of A. S. Pushkin
A. S. Pushkin. Watercolor by P. F. Sokolov. 1836
In the fall of 1835, Pushkin left for Mikhailovskoye, hoping to work there, but due to his mother’s illness he had to return early. The last period of Pushkin’s life was difficult: the family’s debts grew, he received permission to publish Sovremennik, but could not publish in other publications. The magazine was not a success among readers: it had only 600 subscribers, which could not cover either printing costs or staff fees. The extent to which the poet was in a depressed state of mind is evidenced by a series of conflicts that occurred between him and Uvarov, Repnin, Sollogub, and the Goncharovs’ Kaluga neighbor Semyon Khlustin - the last three almost ended in duels. In the spring of 1836, Nadezhda Osipovna died. Pushkin, who became close to his mother in the last days of her life, had a hard time bearing this loss. A letter from Natalya Nikolaevna (July 1836), discovered in the Goncharovs’ archive, indicates that she perfectly understood her husband’s condition. In it, without Pushkin’s knowledge, she asks the head of the Goncharovsky majorate, brother Dmitry, to assign her a salary equal to that of her sisters. She writes about Pushkin: “I really don’t want to bother my husband with all my small household chores, and even without that I see how sad, depressed he is, how he cannot sleep at night, and, consequently, in such a mood he is not able to work to provide for our livelihood: in order for him to compose, his head must be free.”
Libel. First call
The Knights of the First Class, Commanders and Knights of the Most Serene Order of Cuckolds, having assembled in the Grand Chapter under the chairmanship of the venerable Grand Master of the Order, His Excellency D. L. Naryshkin, unanimously elected Mr. Alexander Pushkin as Coadjutor of the Grand Master of the Order of Cuckolds and Historiographer of the Order.
Permanent Secretary Count I. Borch
In the fall, Dantes's courtship of Natalya Nikolaevna became even more demonstrative, and gossip began in secular society. The atmosphere in which the Pushkins found themselves during this period, the social gossip around their family and Dantes, is fully reflected in the diary of Maria Merder. On November 3, an anonymous libel with offensive allusions to Pushkin and his wife was sent to the poet’s friends. Pushkin, who learned about the letters the next day, was sure that they were the work of Dantes and his adoptive father, the Dutch envoy Heckern. On the evening of November 4, he sent a challenge (without specifying the reason) to a duel to Dantes, which was received by Heckern. Heckern asked Pushkin for a 24-hour delay. Natalya Nikolaevna, having learned about this, urgently summoned Zhukovsky from Tsarskoye Selo through her brother Ivan. Thanks to the participation of Zhukovsky and Zagryazhskaya, the duel was prevented. Dantes announced that his goal was to marry Natalya Nikolaevna's sister Ekaterina. On November 17, Pushkin sent his second Sollogub a refusal to duel. On the evening of the same day, the engagement of Dantes and Ekaterina Goncharova was officially announced.
Dantes's marriage. Duel
The planned marriage did not defuse the situation; the relationship worsened. Dantes was not received at the Pushkin family; he met his fiancee at her aunt Zagryazhskaya’s. However, the Pushkins and Dantes, who continued to adhere to the previously chosen line of behavior, saw each other in society. The gossip in the St. Petersburg world did not stop; on the contrary, the news of the marriage only intensified it. They said that Dantes sacrifices himself by marrying an unloved woman in order to “save the honor of his beloved.”
In her diary entry dedicated to the duel and death of Pushkin, Countess Fikelmon noted:
...poor woman [N. N. Pushkin] found herself in the most false position. Not daring to speak to her future son-in-law, not daring to raise her eyes to him, watched by the whole society, she constantly trembled; not wanting to believe that Dantes chose her sister over her, she, out of naivety or, rather, out of her amazing simplicity argued with my husband about the possibility of such a change in the heart, whose love she treasured, perhaps, only from one vanity.
According to Fikelmon, Pushkin was especially hurt by the fact that Natalya Nikolaevna’s behavior was condemned by his friends.
I have to admit, Baron, that your own role was not entirely decent. You, representative of the crowned head, you pimped your son in a fatherly manner. Apparently, all his behavior (however, quite awkward) was directed by you. It was you who probably dictated to him the vulgarities he uttered and the absurdities he dared to write. Like a shameless old woman, you lay in wait for my wife in all corners to tell her about the love of your illegitimate or so-called son...
Alexander Pushkin
A new round of conflict occurred on November 21. On this day, Pushkin composes a sharp letter to Heckern and a letter to Benckendorff, in which he describes everything that has happened since the receipt of the anonymous letters. Pushkin told only Sollogub about the letter to Heckern, who, realizing the danger of the situation, immediately turned to Zhukovsky, who, in order to prevent a new challenge, turned to Nicholas I for help. On November 23, the emperor gave Pushkin a personal audience, the poet, during a conversation with Nicholas, promised that he won't fight.
The wedding took place on January 10, 1837. Natalya Nikolaevna was present at the wedding, but, like her brothers, Dmitry and Ivan, she did not stay for the festive dinner. The Pushkins did not receive the newlyweds, but saw them in public. On January 23, at the Vorontsov-Dashkov ball, Dantes insulted Natalya Nikolaevna. The next day, Pushkin sent Louis Heckern a sharp letter, which left the latter no choice; the poet knew that he would receive a challenge in return and deliberately went for it. Instead of Heckern, who, as an envoy of a foreign state, could not participate in the duel, Dantes made a challenge to Pushkin. On January 27, a duel took place on the Black River, in which Pushkin was seriously wounded.
Death of Pushkin
In Pushkin’s last days, his wife, according to friends, did not give up hope that he would live. When Pushkin became worse, he asked not to hide his condition from Natalya Nikolaevna: “She is not a pretender; you know her well, she should know everything.” Several times Pushkin called his wife, and they were left alone. He repeated that Natalya Nikolaevna was innocent of what happened and that he always trusted her.
The death of her husband became a severe shock for Natalya Nikolaevna, she fell ill. But, despite the state in which she was, Pushkina insisted that the poet be buried in a frock coat, and not in the chamber cadet uniform, which he hated. Friday, the day of her husband’s death, became a day of mourning for Natalya Nikolaevna. Until the end of her life on Friday, she did not go anywhere, “indulged in sad memories and did not eat anything all day.”
By decision of the emperor, Pushkin’s debts were paid, a pension was assigned to the widow and daughters until they got married, the sons were registered as pages, and 1,500 rubles were allocated for them per year until they entered the service. The testimony of D. Dashkov has been preserved, according to which Nikolai refused to assign a pension to the poet’s family equal to the maintenance of Karamzin’s family, as Zhukovsky proposed: “He [Zhukovsky] does not want to realize that Karamzin is an almost holy man, but what was Pushkin’s life like?”
A guardianship was established over the children, headed by Grigory Stroganov, a relative of Pushkina, which also included Mikhail Vielgorsky, Zhukovsky and Narkiz Otreshkov. The guardianship published a multi-volume collection of Pushkin's works for the benefit of the family.
On March 1, 1837, during the investigation into the duel, Louis Heckern wrote a letter to Nesselrode. He denied that he persuaded Pushkina to leave her husband, blamed her for what happened and demanded that she take testimony under oath. The letter caused an effect that Heckern hardly expected: Nicholas I, to whom the contents of the message were brought to light, was indignant. Gekkern changed his line of behavior and already in a letter dated March 4, 1837 to A.F. Orlov assured that “she [Pushkina] remained just as pure<…>, just like when Mr. Pushkin gave her his name.”
1837-1844
Mikhailovskoye estate in 1837. Lithograph by P. A. Alexandrov based on a drawing by I. S. Ivanov
On the advice of doctors, Natalya Nikolaevna had to urgently leave the capital and she herself strived for this. Before leaving, she had a meeting with her sister Ekaterina.
Both sisters met to say goodbye, probably forever, and then, finally, Catherine understood at least a little of the misfortune that she must have felt on her conscience; she cried...
- S. N. Karamzina - A. N. Karamzin
Natalya Nikolaevna and Ekaterina Nikolaevna did not meet again; in her messages from abroad to her brother Dmitry, the latter talks about two letters she received from her sisters. According to Arapova, her mother never mentioned the name of her older sister.
Before leaving, Sofia Karamzina visited Pushkina, sharing her observations with her brother Andrei, she writes: “Having lost him [Pushkin] through her own fault, she suffered terribly for several days, but now the fever has passed, all that remains is weakness and a depressed state, and that will pass very soon " In another letter, Sofya Nikolaevna returns to the idea that Natalya Nikolaevna’s grief will not last long: “... he [Pushkin] knew that this was Ondine, into whom the soul had not yet been breathed.”
Pushkina left St. Petersburg on February 16. Passing through Moscow, she did not visit her father-in-law, who was there, but sent her brother Sergei with a request to allow her to come in the summer with her children. According to contemporaries, Sergei Lvovich, who was experiencing the death of his son, was very upset that his daughter-in-law did not see him and did not bring him grandchildren. The father-in-law was visiting Natalya Nikolaevna in the Polotnyany Zavod in the spring of 1837 and, in his words, “he said goodbye to her as to his beloved daughter.”
Until the autumn of 1838, Natalya Nikolaevna lived with her children and older sister Alexandra in Polotnyany Zavod. They settled separately from Dmitry Goncharov’s family in the so-called Red House.
Natalya Nikolaevna returned to St. Petersburg in early November 1838, at the insistence of Zagryazhskaya and, probably, her sister. Zagryazhskaya prepared the ground for Alexandra’s acceptance as a maid of honor; with this appointment, Natalya Nikolaevna’s sister pinned hopes for a change in her destiny. Having become a maid of honor, Alexandra Nikolaevna did not move to the palace, but stayed to live with her sister. The poet's widow maintained relations with his family and friends. She did not go anywhere, spent her evenings with Zagryazhskaya, and later in the salon of Countess de Maistre, her other aunt, with the Karamzins and Vyazemskys.
Pushkin's children in 1841: Grisha, Masha, Tasha, Sasha. Mikhailovskoe. Drawing by Natalia Ivanovna Friesengof
At Pushkina’s insistence, the guardians began negotiations to buy Mikhailovsky from his co-heirs for the poet’s children. Natalya Nikolaevna spent the summer of 1841 and 1842 with her children and sister on this Pskov estate. Natalya Nikolaevna planned to visit Mikhailovskoye already in the summer of 1837 and, apparently, notified the Pushkins’ neighbor, the owner of Trigorskoye, P. Osipova, about this. It is also known that Pushkina wrote from the Linen Factory to Trigorskoye in 1838 and 1839. Praskovya Alexandrovna did not refuse directly, but, according to A. Turgenev, “there was a hostile feeling towards her [the widow] for Pushkin.” For this or another reason, Pushkina’s first visit to Mikhailovskoye took place only a few years later.
In August 1841, by order of Natalya Nikolaevna, a tombstone made by the St. Petersburg master Permagorov was installed on Pushkin’s grave in the Svyatogorsk Monastery. Natalya Nikolaevna’s letters to her brother Dmitry indicate that in the summer of 1841 she was in great need of money: there was no estate farming in Mikhailovskoye, all food had to be bought, the manor’s house was very dilapidated, friends visited her all summer. S. L. Pushkin lived with his daughter-in-law in Mikhailovskoye; on his way abroad, the estate was visited by Ivan Goncharov and his wife, and the Friesengoffs. In September, Pyotr Vyazemsky visited Mikhailovsky. Natalya Ivanovna Friesengof left pencil portraits of Natalya Nikolaevna, her relatives and neighbors on the estate in Pushkina’s album. Natalya Ivanovna, who drew well, captured “precisely captured characteristic features.” Somewhat cartoonish, sometimes even poignant sketches of the inhabitants of Trigorsky and Golubov (the Vrevsky estate) reflect the slightly tense relationship between the Osipova family and Pushkina’s entourage.
Natalya Nikolaevna wrote to her brother that she was completely ignorant in matters of managing the estate: “... I do not dare to make any orders for fear that the headman will laugh right in my face,” and asked Dmitry to come help, however, for some reason, he could not carry out her request. Later, in order to return to St. Petersburg before the onset of cold weather (it was impossible to stay in the house for the winter), Pushkina borrowed money from Stroganov.
V. I. Gau. N. N. Pushkin. 1843
Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Pushkina submitted a petition to the Guardianship for the assignment of benefits for the education of grown-up children: the lessons that Natalya Nikolaevna and her sister themselves gave them were no longer enough; it was necessary to hire teachers. Natalya Nikolaevna really wanted her sons to study at home and then go to university, but due to lack of funds she could not do this. The eldest, Alexander, entered the 2nd St. Petersburg Gymnasium, and Grigory also studied there for some time. Since after Pushkin’s death his sons were enrolled in the Corps of Pages, she had to ask permission for this from Nicholas I. But, according to Pletnev, Natalya Nikolaevna did not have the funds to pay for the entire gymnasium course. Later, Alexander (from 1848) and Gregory (from 1849) studied in the Corps of Pages, perhaps the influence of her second husband, Lansky, was felt here.
Natalya Nikolaevna began to appear at court from the beginning of 1843. Later, being married to Lansky, she would write to him:
Insinuate yourself into intimate court circles - you know my disgust for that; I'm afraid of being out of place and being subjected to some kind of humiliation. I find that we should appear at court only when we receive orders to do so, otherwise it is better to sit quietly at home.
Pushkina had many fans. The names of some - the Neapolitan diplomat Count Griffeo and, probably, Alexander Karamzin - are known from the letters of Vyazemsky, at that time, according to some Pushkinists, also very keen on Natalya Nikolaevna. Arapova names two more contenders for her mother’s hand: N.A. Stolypin and A.S. Golitsyn.
Second marriage
V. Gau. Portrait of P. P. Lansky. 1847 (?). Album of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment
In the winter of 1844, Pushkina met Pyotr Petrovich Lansky, a friend of her brother Ivan. This spring she was going to sea swimming in Revel to improve the health of her children. However, the trip was postponed, as Natalya Nikolaevna sprained her leg, and in May Lanskoy proposed to her. The manner in which this marriage was discussed in secular society is evidenced by the diary entry of Modest Korf dated May 28, 1844:
After seven years of widowhood, Pushkin's widow marries General Lansky<…>Neither Pushkina nor Lansky have anything, and the world marvels at this union of hunger and need. Pushkina is one of those privileged young women whom the sovereign sometimes honors with his visit. About six weeks ago he also visited her, and, as a result of this visit or simply by chance, Lanskoy was subsequently appointed commander of the Horse Guards Regiment, which, at least temporarily, ensures their existence.
It was believed that Lanskoy made a career thanks to his marriage to Natalya Nikolaevna. However, there are other opinions: there is no data about “special career growth” after marriage to her, and the financial situation of the Lansky family in subsequent years, judging by Natalya Nikolaevna’s letters, was not easy. The wedding took place in Strelna on July 16, 1844, the wedding took place in the Strelna Church of the Transfiguration. Nicholas I wished to be “implanted by his father,” but Natalya Nikolaevna, as Arapova writes, avoided this offer. Only close relatives were present at the wedding.
Pushkin writer V.V. Veresaev put forward his version of Natalya Nikolaevna’s second marriage. Based on hints in Arapova’s memoirs, as well as a story published in Shchegolev’s monograph by a certain de Culture about the custom of Nicholas I of arranging marriages for his mistresses with the provision of a career advancement for an accommodating husband, Veresaev argued that the poet’s widow had an affair with the emperor and that her marriage with Lansky had “a whole series of oddities.” Veresaev cites two facts to prove that he is right. The first is an incident that occurred during the celebration of the anniversary of the Life Guards Horse Regiment. The Emperor was presented with an album with portraits of the regiment officers, and he wished that a portrait of his wife be placed next to the portrait of Lansky. The second is a message from Pushkin scholar Yakushkin from the words of an eyewitness: in the middle of the 19th century, an unknown person offered the Moscow Historical Museum to purchase a gold watch with the monogram of Nicholas I at a fabulous price: the watch had a secret back cover, under which there was a portrait of Natalya Nikolaevna. The museum staff suggested that the unknown person come in again, as it was necessary to consider his proposal. This man no longer appeared in the museum. According to Blagoy, it was a clever fake “in the expectation that they would fall for such a sensational offer and immediately - in the heat of the moment - agree to buy it [the watch] at any price.” Blagoy believed that Veresaev, too carried away by his version, built on the basis of rumors and speculation, accepted it as the truth and repeated “those hints that were contained in the dirty and vile anonymous libel of 1836. Only there they were made in relation to Pushkin’s wife, and here - his widow.”
Portrait of N. N. Lanskaya by I. K. Makarov. Not earlier than 1851
Friends spoke positively about Lansky. So, Pletnev, despite the misunderstanding that initially occurred between him and Lansky, later wrote: “He [Lanskoy] is a good person,” this was also Vyazemsky’s opinion: “Her [Natalia Nikolaevna’s] husband is a kind person and is kind not only to her, but also to children." Having met Natalya Nikolaevna in St. Petersburg, Lev Pushkin writes to his wife in Odessa that he “understood and forgave” her second marriage. Due to her difficult character, Alexandra Nikolaevna developed a strained relationship with Lansky. Natalya Nikolaevna, suffering from this discord, tried to reconcile her sister and husband. Alexandra Nikolaevna lived in the Lansky family until 1852, when she married Gustav Friesengoff.
The marriage allowed Natalya Nikolaevna to free herself from Otreshkov, who was placed under guardianship at the insistence of Stroganov. According to the memoirs of Natalya Merenberg, Stroganov was not at all involved in matters of guardianship, entrusting all matters to Otreshkov, “who acted in very bad faith. The publication of my father's works was careless (1838-1842), he plundered and sold a significant part of my father's library, only a small part went to my brother Alexander, he missed the time convenient for my father's subsequent publications... I did not want to listen to my mother and did not allow her interfere in the affairs of the Guardianship...” In the spring of 1846, Natalya Nikolaevna filed a petition to appoint Lansky as guardian of her children.
In her marriage to Lansky, Natalya Nikolaevna gave birth to three daughters. After her death, Lanskoy took care of his wife’s grandchildren, Natalya Alexandrovna’s two eldest children from her first marriage to Mikhail Dubelt, when she went abroad after the divorce. Natalya Nikolaevna’s children from both marriages maintained relationships with each other later.
Last years
N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Nice, 1863 (All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin)
At the end of the 1840s, the Lanskys’ St. Petersburg house was often visited by children of friends who, for one reason or another, could not spend the holidays at home. In Natalya Nikolaevna’s letters to her husband, who served in Livonia in 1849, the names of Pushkin’s nephew Lev Pavlishchev, Lansky’s nephew Pavel, and Nashchokin’s son Alexander are found.
Overall, I'm very happy with my little boarding house, it's easy to run. I could never understand how the noise and pranks of children can get boring, no matter how sad you are, you involuntarily forget about it, seeing them happy and contented.
- N. N. Lanskaya - P. P. Lansky
In 1851, Natalya Nikolaevna fell ill and, together with her sister, who at that time, although unofficially, was already engaged to Friesengoff, and her older daughters, went abroad for several months. They visited Bonn, Godesberg, probably Dresden, Switzerland and Ostend.
Just before the end of the Crimean War, in the fall of 1855, Lanskoy was sent to Vyatka; his duties included replenishing the active army with militias. Natalya Nikolaevna accompanied her husband, the couple lived in Vyatka for about four months. One of Lanskaya’s Vyatka acquaintances told her about Saltykov-Shchedrin, who was exiled to Vyatka, and asked her to assist in his forgiveness and return to St. Petersburg. Thanks to the assistance of Lansky, Saltykov was returned from exile. The participation of Natalya Nikolaevna, “in memory of her late husband, who was once in a position similar to Saltykov,” in the fate of Saltykov-Shchedrin was known for a long time, but due to a biased attitude towards her, this fact was not given much importance. Much less known is Natalya Nikolaevna’s participation in the fate of a young man named Isakov, who was arrested in 1849 in the Petrashevsky case. Lanskaya, to whom Isakov’s mother turned, found out his fate from Orlov.
In 1856, Natalya Nikolaevna petitioned to grant the exclusive right to publish Pushkin’s works to his two sons “until the end of their lives.” Count Bludov was instructed by Emperor Alexander II to draw up a bill on copyright, according to which the period of preservation of literary property rights for heirs was extended to 50 years from the date of the author's death. The law was passed in 1857, and the poet's heirs received the right to all his works until 1887.
In the last years of her life, Natalya Nikolaevna was seriously ill. Every spring she was tormented by coughing attacks that prevented her from sleeping; doctors believed that only long-term spa treatment could help. In May 1861, Lanskoy took leave and took his wife and daughters abroad. At first, the Lanskys changed several German resorts, but Natalya Nikolaevna did not get any better. They spent the autumn in Geneva, and the winter in Nice, where Natalya Nikolaevna began to recover. To consolidate the results of treatment, it was necessary to spend another winter in a mild climate. In the summer of 1862, Lanskaya and her daughters (Lanskaya returned to Russia on business) visited her sister Alexandra at the Brodzyany estate in the Nitra Valley. However, her vacation was overshadowed by family problems: Pushkin’s youngest daughter Natalya finally broke up with her husband and came to Brodzyany with her two older children. A deeply religious person, Natalya Nikolaevna suffered from the knowledge that her daughter was getting a divorce, but, considering herself guilty of failing to prevent this marriage at one time, she did not persuade Natalya Alexandrovna to save it. The excitement was added by the arrival of Mikhail Dubelt, who decided to make peace with his wife, and when he realized that it was useless, he “gave full rein to his unbridled, frantic character.” Baron Friesengoff was forced to demand that Dubelt leave Brodzyany. At this time, Natalya Nikolaevna gave her daughter 75 letters from Pushkin with the hope that, if necessary, she would be able to publish them and improve her financial situation. Natalya Nikolaevna kept all of Pushkin’s letters to her, despite the fact that in many of them he criticizes her.
Monument to N. N. Lanskaya at the Lazarevskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Meanwhile, in letters to his wife, the poet sometimes did not mince words, and some of these expressions could not be pleasant to the poet’s widow, and she could not help but understand that they could later be used to denigrate her personality. To some extent, in this case, one cannot but agree with Arapova when she says: “...only a woman, convinced of her unconditional innocence, could preserve (with the knowledge that sooner or later it would get into print) that weapon that was in the prejudiced eyes could turn into her condemnation.”
N. A. Raevsky
Lanskoy, who arrived in Brodzyany in the fall of 1862, found his wife sick from anxiety. However, after spending the winter in Nice, Natalya Nikolaevna felt much better, in addition, the time had come to take her eldest daughter from her second marriage, Alexandra, out into the world. The Lanskys returned to Russia.
In the fall, Natalya Nikolaevna went to Moscow to baptize her grandson, the son of Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin. There she caught a cold, on the way back the illness worsened, and pneumonia began. On November 26, 1863, Natalya Nikolaevna died. She was buried at the Lazarevskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Children of N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya
From his first marriage (1831) with A. S. Pushkin:
- Maria (married Hartung) (19 May 1832 - 7 March 1919),
- Alexander (July 6, 1833 - July 19, 1914),
- Gregory (May 14, 1835 - July 5, 1905),
- Natalya (Dubelt in her first marriage, Countess von Merenberg in her second) (May 23, 1836 - March 10, 1913).
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Pushkins ( from left to right): Maria, Alexander, Grigory, Natalya |
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From his second marriage (1844) with P. P. Lansky:
- Alexandra (May 15, 1845-1919) (husband - I. A. Arapov);
- Sophia (April 20, 1846 - after 1910) (husband - N. N. Shipov);
- Elizabeth (March 17, 1848 - after 1916) (1st husband - N.A. Arapov, 2nd - S.I. Bibikov).
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Lansky ( from left to right): Alexandra, Sophia, Elizaveta |
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The grandson of A. S. Pushkin and N. N. Goncharova (from the morganatic marriage of their daughter Natalia and Prince Nicholas-Wilhelm of Nassau), Count Georg-Nicholas von Merenberg, was married to the legitimized daughter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, Olga. Their granddaughter Sofya Nikolaevna (from the same marriage) was married (morganatically) to the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Their daughter Nadezhda Mikhailovna was married to Lord George Mountbatten (until July 1, 1917 - Prince George of Battenberg) - the nephew (maternal) of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
Personality assessment. History of research
According to Nikolai Raevsky, a negative attitude towards the poet’s wife was formed during her lifetime. Immediately after Pushkin’s death, a poem began to circulate in the lists, where an anonymous amateur poet, addressing the widow, writes: “Everything here breathes contempt for you... You are a reproach of the whole world, a traitor and the poet’s wife.” As Blagoy noted, this work is noteworthy as an expression of the reaction of many contemporaries to the tragedy. One of the copies of the manuscript has been preserved in the archives of the Wulf-Vrevskys, a family closely connected by friendly ties with Pushkin.
The first researchers of the events preceding Pushkin's duel unconditionally believed the negative reviews of contemporaries about Natalya Nikolaevna, discarding all positive statements. No one paid attention to Pushkin’s assessment of his wife’s spiritual appearance. The publication of letters (edited and with cuts) from Pushkin to his wife, undertaken by Turgenev in 1878, raised a new wave of hostility towards Natalya Nikolaevna. Already its first part received an indignant review from the critic and admirer of the poet E. Markov, who found in the letters, far from the “cooing trills of Romeo and Julia,” written in Russian, in a common style and full of everyday details, “no sublime feelings, no sublime thoughts " In 1907, Arapova’s memoirs were published as a supplement to the newspaper “Novoe Vremya”. Natalya Nikolaevna's daughter set out to protect her mother, but the means she chose for this only contributed to strengthening the negative attitude towards Pushkina-Lanskaya. In her memoirs based on rumors and gossip, discarding the testimony of friends and accepting the speculations of the poet’s enemies, Arapova tries to prove how difficult family life with Pushkin was for his wife. Repeating the slander about Pushkin’s connection with Alexandra Nikolaevna, attributing the cult of Emperor Nicholas to Natalya Nikolaevna, she does not understand that this only casts a shadow on her mother’s reputation.
Shchegolev, in his monograph “The Duel and Death of Pushkin,” noted that Natalya Nikolaevna’s appearance allowed her to “not have any other advantages,” and declared any positive reviews from those who knew her only “a courtesy tribute to the same beauty.” However, he considered it necessary to make a reservation that in relation to Pushkina, researchers have a very meager factual base. The commentator on the third edition of the monograph, J. Levkovich, nevertheless notes:
The appearance of the poet's wife, created by Shchegolev, with all its sharpness, opposes the desire for sentimental idealization that has penetrated into the research and fiction literature of recent years, making adjustments to the depiction of Pushkin's family life.
Veresaev, adhering to the direction set by Shchegolev, went even further and built a hypothesis about Pushkina’s affair with the emperor on the basis of Arapova’s memoirs, which he himself declared “false.” And he explained Natalya Nikolaevna’s despair in the days of Pushkin’s agony by her selfishness. Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova spoke sharply negatively about Natalya Nikolaevna. The latter called Pushkina, along with her sister Ekaterina, “if not conscious, then unwitting accomplices, “agents”<…>Heckern Sr.,” claiming that without the help of the poet’s wife Heckern and Dantes could not have done anything against him.
Later discoveries in domestic and foreign archives, the discovery of new letters from Pushkina-Lanskaya and her relatives (dating to the period of widowhood and second marriage), and a careful study of already known documents changed the situation. Biographers Natalya Nikolaevna Obodovskaya and Dementyev examined the entire Goncharov archive. The result of their research was the publication, in full or in excerpts, of 14 letters from Pushkina and 44 from her sisters in the work “Around Pushkin.” One of the most important finds was an unknown letter from Pushkin addressed to Dmitry Goncharov.
Until this time, only three letters from Pushkina were known, which belonged to the post-Pushkin era and therefore did not attract the attention of researchers. According to Blagoy, the newly discovered materials contributed to the formation of a new, objective view of the personalities of the Goncharov sisters and the roles that each of them played in the history of Pushkin’s death. Obodovskaya and Dementyev undertook further research in the Arapova archive, where Natalya Nikolaevna’s letters to Lansky are stored, partly published in the book “After the Death of Pushkin.” They added not only new features to the portrait of Pushkina-Lanskaya, but also helped to clarify the character of her second husband and the relationship of the Lansky spouses, based on love and mutual respect.
Thus, comparing scattered facts from various sources: testimonies of contemporaries, letters from Pushkin to his wife, letters from Natalya Nikolaevna herself to her brother Dmitry, we can say with confidence that the image of Natalie Pushkina is a brilliant and frivolous beauty, the essence of which was manifested only in her passion to secular entertainment turns out to be ephemeral.
However, in conclusion about Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya, I would like to say that at present in Pushkin studies, it seems, another extreme has emerged - to overly idealize Pushkin’s wife, to make her almost an angel. But she was not like that, she was a living person, she had both her shortcomings and her merits.N. A. Raevsky
Letters from Natalya Nikolaevna addressed to Pushkin
Natalya Nikolaevna's letters to her husband have not yet been found. Only a few lines are known in French, which she added to a letter to her mother when she visited her in 1834 in Yaropolets. The letter was given to Shchegolev by the poet’s grandson Grigory Pushkin. It was published by Shchegolev in 1928 with a commentary where he drew attention to the “vacuity” of Natalya Nikolaevna’s postscript. Larisa Cherkashina notes that Shchegolev approached the assessment of these lines too superficially: Pushkina wrote, knowing that her message would be seen not only by her husband, but also by her mother. Obodovskaya and Dementyev, noting that these lines cannot be used to judge a wife’s letters to her husband in general, still draw attention to the fact that in French Natalya Nikolaevna wrote “you” to her husband - this pronoun sounds more personal, sincere than in Russian language. Thus, in French letters to her brother, Pushkina wrote vous (“you”), as was usually customary in relation to relatives.
After Pushkin’s death, when all the papers were confiscated in his office by order of Benckendorff, the widow’s letters were also delivered to the chief of the gendarmes. Benckendorff ordered that they be handed over to Natalya Nikolaevna “without reading them in detail, but only with observation of the accuracy of her handwriting.” On February 8, 1837, Pushkina, preparing to leave St. Petersburg, asked Zhukovsky to return them: “... the thought of seeing his papers in the wrong hands is regrettable to my heart...” In the inventory of Pushkin’s papers, notes were preserved about the transfer of letters to Zhukovsky and that the latter gave them to his widow.
There are several versions of the further fate of these documents. There is an assumption that Pushkina’s son Alexander (it was he who received all Pushkin’s manuscripts in his mother’s will), fulfilling her will, destroyed them. It is possible that they died in a fire in the house of Pushkin’s eldest son in 1919. Back in 1902, Vladimir Saitov, trying to find out the fate of the letters, turned to Bartenev for clarification. To Saitov’s request, he replied that, according to the poet’s eldest son, these letters do not exist. Saitov turned to the chief curator of the manuscript department of the Rumyantsev Museum, Georgievsky, but the latter stated that he had no right to “give away Pushkin’s secrets.” Mikhail Dementyev, searching for missing documents, found a letter from the Russian Book Chamber to Gosizdat, dated October 30, 1920. In it, in the list of publications prepared for printing, “Letters of N.N. Pushkina” were listed and their volume was indicated - 3 printed sheets. However, literary critic Sarra Zhitomirskaya believed that they were not talking about letters from Natalya Nikolaevna herself, but about messages addressed to her. Zhitomirskaya was sure that Pushkina’s letters to her first husband were not received by the Rumyantsev Museum. In 1977, the former director of the IRLI in Leningrad, Nikolai Belchikov, in a conversation with Andrei Grishunin, claimed that in the early 20s he saw the texts of Pushkina’s letters prepared for publication, made extracts from them, which, however, after many years, he could not find in your personal archive. Researchers who have not lost hope of finding letters draw attention to the fact that in 1919 Valery Bryusov, in his application to the Council of People's Commissars, directly wrote that the Rumyantsev Museum “keeps letters from Pushkin’s wife N.N. Pushkina to her husband, transferred to the museum heirs of the great poet under different conditions...” According to Georgievsky, Pushkina’s letters were taken from the museum by her descendants. It is possible that, if they exist, these papers are stored abroad (it is assumed that they were exported to England or Belgium).
Works by A. S. Pushkin dedicated to the bride and wife
Natalya Nikolaevna is considered the prototype of the heroine of Pushkin’s poem “Madona”; according to some researchers, the poem “On the hills of Georgia lies the darkness of the night...” and several erotic poems were also addressed to her.
- “On the hills of Georgia lies the darkness of the night...” (1829);
- "Madona" (1830);
- “When in my arms...” (1830, first published: “Russian Antiquity”, 1884, August);
- “No, I don’t value rebellious pleasure...” (not published during Pushkin’s lifetime, dated 1831 according to a manuscript that belonged to N.N. Pushkina; some handwritten copies are entitled “To my Wife” and dated 1832);
- “It’s time, my friend, it’s time! The heart asks for peace..." (1834);
- “My fate is decided, I’m getting married...” - three sketches (May 1830) of an autobiographical nature, marked “From French” in the manuscript. They reflected the story of Pushkin's matchmaking with Goncharova and his thoughts in connection with it. Researchers note the coincidence of many details with real events.
Natalya Goncharova on graffiti. Kharkov, 2008
Monument to A. S. Pushkin and N. N. Goncharova on Arbat. Sculptors A. N. Burganov and I. A. Burganov
Main article: N. N. Goncharova in works of art
Shchegolev in his monograph “The Duel and Death of Pushkin,” noting that the poet’s death was the result of a combination of many reasons, nevertheless reduced everything to a family conflict. Shchegolev's book, written lively and fascinatingly, valuable to this day in its documentary part, presents a one-sided image of Natalya Nikolaevna as a limited nature, a woman occupied exclusively with social life. This portrait of Pushkina was also included in the works of other authors, including V. Veresaev.
CinemaIt is precisely this idea of the poet’s wife […], which has become completely clichéd and vulgarized in some of the numerous works of fiction (plays, novels), that has entered the consciousness of many readers and admirers of the poet.
D. D. Blagoy
- “The Poet and the Tsar” (1927), director V. Gardin; Natalie- I. Volodko;
- “And I’m with you again...” (1981), director B. Galanter; Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya- I. Kalinovskaya;
- “The Last Road” (1986), directed by L. Menaker; Natalia Goncharova- E. Karajova;
- “Pushkin: The Last Duel” (2006), director N. Bondarchuk; Natalie Goncharova- A. Snatkina.
- V. Kamensky “Pushkin and Dantes” (1924) (not published);
- N. Lerner “Pushkin and Nicholas I” (1927) (not published);
- M. Bulgakov “The Last Days (Alexander Pushkin)” (1935, published in the USSR in 1955);
- August Strindberg in the play “The Father” (1887) draws a parallel between the fate of the protagonist, the role played in it by his wife, and Pushkin’s family tragedy: “... the greatest Russian poet died more as a victim of rumors about his wife’s infidelity than from a bullet, who struck him down in a duel.”
- Anonymous - “Two people went to a meeting...”
- P. Vyazemsky - “When presenting an album” (to Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina).
The poem was written in September 1841, when the poet was visiting a friend’s widow in Mikhailovskoye. It was not published during Vyazemsky’s lifetime.
- N. Agnivtsev - “Lady from the Hermitage”
- M. Tsvetaeva - “Happiness or Sadness...” (1916)
- M. Tsvetaeva - “Psyche” (1920)
Even before Marina Tsvetaeva became acquainted with the works of Shchegolev and Veresaev, she reflected in her poetry the rejection of “Pushkin’s fatal wife” and the “emptiness” of her personality. In her essay about the artist “Natalya Goncharova” (1929), the great-great-granddaughter of Natalya Nikolaevna’s brother, Tsvetaeva again returns to the image of Pushkin’s wife and reflections on his family drama. According to Tsvetaeva, Pushkina is the personification of emptiness: “There was one thing about her: a beauty. Only a beauty, simply a beauty, without any adjustment of mind, soul, heart, gift. Naked beauty, cutting like a sword.” Pushkin's wife is a dumb, weak-willed, innocent instrument of fate.
- N. Dorizo “Natalia Pushkina”
- A. Kuznetsova - “My Madonna”, story
- A. Kuznetsova - “And I love your soul...”, story
In the 1930s, literary scholars (V.S. Nechaeva, M.A. Rybnikova) suggested that “The Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov” by Lermontov is an image of Pushkin’s drama, and the image of Kalashnikov’s wife is a portrait of Natalya herself Nikolaevna. In general, accepting this hypothesis, D. Blagoy noted that in the main details the plot of Lermontov’s work does not coincide with real events.
According to A. V. Amfitheatrov, in his unfinished novel “Devil's Dolls” N. S. Leskov “was going to combine two saddest dramas of two greatest artists of the Nicholas century: to tell how the enormous talent of K. P. Bryullov was distorted and exchanged for a copper coin, and throw light on the causes and details of the death of A.S. Pushkin.” Leskov’s correspondence, opened after the October Revolution, confirmed Amfiteatrov’s assumptions only in relation to Bryullov.
Left: V.I. Gau. N. N. Pushkin. Watercolor, 1844
Right: I.K. Makarov (?). Portrait N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Oil, cardboard. 1849. Previously attributed to T. A. Neff and dated 1856
A large number of portraits of Natalya Nikolaevna have been preserved, but almost all of them date back to the period of her widowhood and second marriage. The only image of her as a child is a drawing by an unknown artist using Italian pencil and sanguine, which depicts her at the age of six or seven years. In one of his letters to his bride in the summer of 1830, Pushkin expresses regret that he does not have her portrait, but he is consoled by a copy of Raphael’s “Bridgewater Madonna” displayed in Slenin’s bookstore. It was also suggested that Pushkin had in mind a copy of another painting by Raphael, the Sistine Madonna. The watercolor portrait by A.P. Bryullov, created in the first year of her married life with Pushkin, is distinguished by high skill, lightness, “airiness” and at the same time careful execution, but does not reveal another, spiritual appearance, which, however, is justified by extreme the youth of the model herself. In the same outfit as in Bryullov’s watercolor, Pushkin painted his wife on the back of the account of the almanac “Northern Flowers”. In total, there are fourteen images of Natalya Nikolaevna in Pushkin’s manuscripts.
Portraits of Natalya Nikolaevna in the 1840s were almost all created on the initiative of P. A. Vyazemsky, who at that time was very keen on Pushkin’s widow. According to Vyazemsky, Pushkina at that time was “amazingly, destructively, devastatingly good.” The author of most of the watercolor portraits of Natalya Nikolaevna from this period was the court artist Vladimir Gau. She considered her most successful depiction of Pushkin to be a watercolor from 1843 (not preserved), commissioned for the Empress’s album. On it, Natalya Nikolaevna was depicted in a costume in the Hebrew style, in which she appeared at one of the palace balls.
One of the most interesting images of Pushkina-Lanskaya is considered to be a portrait attributed to the artist I.K. Makarov. The history of its creation is known from a letter (1849) from Natalya Nikolaevna to her second husband. She was going to give Lansky her photograph or daguerreotype for Angel Day. However, Natalya Nikolaevna considered both of these images unsuccessful and turned to Makarov for advice on correcting them. The artist offered to paint her portrait in oil, because, in his words, he “caught the character” of the model’s face. The portrait was completed in three sessions, and Makarov did not take payment for it and asked to accept it as a gift out of respect for Lansky. According to the head of the technological research department of the State Russian Museum, Svetlana Rimskaya-Korsakova, it was Makarov who managed to show the “inner spirituality” of Natalya Nikolaevna, her “eternal femininity of a Madonna” and at the same time truthfully reflect the appearance of a woman who suffered a lot.
Nikolai Raevsky, who visited Brodzyany Castle before World War II, describes a daguerreotype kept by the descendants of Alexandra Friesengoff. It depicted Natalya Nikolaevna, her sister Alexandra and the children Pushkin and Lansky. According to Raevsky, none of the portraits of Pushkina-Lanskaya known to him so successfully conveyed the “lively and affectionate look” that made him remember “Pushkin’s sincere letters to his wife.” Raevsky dated this daguerreotype to 1850-1851; its whereabouts are currently unknown. In the last years of her life, Natalya Nikolaevna was photographed a lot. In photographic portraits of the second half of the 50s and early 60s, she appears as an elderly and sickly woman.
Goncharova Natalya Nikolaevna (1812-1863) - wife of the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin.
Family
Natasha was born on September 8, 1812 in the Tambov province. In the village of Znamenka there is the historical Karian estate, where a girl was born, who was destined to conquer the people around her with her beauty and become a femme fatale for her husband, the greatest poet of Russia A.S. Pushkin.
The ancestors of her father, Nikolai Afanasyevich Goncharov, were industrialists and merchants. During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, the Goncharov family received a noble title. In 1789, Catherine II confirmed the right of the Goncharov family to hereditary nobility, about which she signed a corresponding decree and handed it over to Natasha’s grandfather Afanasy Nikolaevich Goncharov.
Natalya's father was the only son in the family, received a decent education, and spoke excellent English, German and French. Nikolai Afanasyevich was a member of the St. Petersburg Collegium of Foreign Affairs, had the rank of collegiate assessor, and worked as a secretary for the Moscow governor.
Natasha’s mother is Natalya Ivanovna (maiden name Zagryazhskaya). As biographers managed to establish, Natalya Ivanovna was the illegitimate daughter of Ivan Alexandrovich Zagryazhsky. When her own mother, Euphrosina Ulrika Baroness Posse, died, little Natasha was only 6 years old, and Alexandra Stepanovna, Zagryazhsky’s wife, took care of her. She made every effort to legitimize the birth of a girl and give her all inheritance rights. Natalya Ivanovna was distinguished by her extraordinary beauty and served as a maid of honor for Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna.
The parents' wedding was very magnificent; the entire imperial family was present at the wedding ceremony of Nikolai Goncharov and Natalya Zagryazhskaya.
Childhood
A total of seven children were born in the Goncharov family; Natasha was the fifth child. The family lived in Moscow, but in 1812, during the Patriotic War, the Goncharovs left for the Zagryazhsky family estate in the village of Karian, where Natasha was born.
Natalia Goncharova spent her childhood in Moscow. She also often visited the urban village of Polotnyany Zavod, which was located in the Kaluga province and where her grandfather Afanasy Nikolaevich was in charge of everything (here the Goncharovs had an extensive family estate). As a child, Natasha spent a lot of time in the noble estate of the Zagryazhskys, which was located near Volokolamsk in the village of Yaropolets.
The girl was often sent to her grandparents because the situation in the family was not very prosperous. Natasha was only two years old when doctors diagnosed her father with a mental illness. And although all relatives were told that it was caused by a head injury after falling from a horse, in fact, the father drank a lot.
After this diagnosis was made to her father, Natalya was sent to her grandfather in Polotnyany Zavod, where she was raised until she was almost six years old. Afanasy Nikolaevich doted on his granddaughter; he ordered her toys and clothes from abroad. It was her grandfather who raised little Tasha (as her family affectionately called her) into an incredible fashionista. How could it be otherwise when boxes arrived from Paris, tied with bright satin ribbons, inside which lay children's hats and dresses, painted books, beautiful balls and porcelain dolls.
When Natasha returned to her parents' house in Moscow, her mother broke one of her dolls, similar to princesses from fairy tales, in a rage. The girl’s huge brown eyes only filled with tears, but she did not dare to cry, since then an even more severe punishment could follow. Since then, Natasha avoided her mother when she was in a similar mood, the child simply hid somewhere in a secluded corner and waited out the storm.
An unsuccessful family life left a certain mark on my mother, Natalya Ivanovna; she had a difficult character, was a very domineering woman and raised her children too strictly, demanding unquestioning obedience from them. Perhaps this is why Natasha Goncharova never liked to remember and talk about her childhood.
Education
Despite all the severity, the mother loved her children and wished them a decent future. Natalya's older brothers, Sergei and Ivan, when they grew up, were assigned to military service; Dmitry successfully graduated from Moscow University. And the young ladies in the Goncharov family received an excellent education at home. The girls were taught the history of the world and Russia, Russian language and literature, and geography. Natalya also studied English and German, and spoke French so perfectly that she sometimes admitted that it was much easier for her to write in French than in Russian.
Everyone who knew Natalya Goncharova and left memories of her for descendants noted that the girl was distinguished by unprecedented beauty from an early age. They began to take her out into the world quite early; Natasha always had crowds of fans. However, her strict mother and her father’s illness left their mark on the girl. Natalia was very shy, modest and silent. When she began to appear at social events, at first, due to her silence and shyness, she was considered a girl of small intelligence. But one could only think so until Goncharova began to speak.
A very educated and well-read girl could not only show off her knowledge in a conversation, but also play a chess game, dance beautifully, play the piano, sit perfectly in the saddle and control horses. At the same time, the girls were raised to be good future mothers and wives; they all knew how to run a house, sew, knit and embroider.
But among her sisters, Natalya stood out for her special elegance, ability to hold herself, attractive simplicity in communication, tact, manners, and deep decency. Many who knew the Goncharov family considered Natalya an amazing nugget. It’s not clear who she turned out to be like that? The father is a weak-willed man who, at the end of his life, was out of his mind. Many considered the mother to be a very unpleasant person; she never had good manners. And Natasha was without any falsehood and, on top of everything, extremely beautiful, these qualities captivated the greatest poet of Russia, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
Pushkin in her life
In December 1828, dance master Iogel’s balls were held in a house on Tverskoy Boulevard. Natasha was barely 16 years old. Pushkin first saw her so young and incredibly beautiful at one of the balls. She was wearing a white dress and a gold hoop on her head. She was unusually proportionally built, harmonious, her every movement was filled with grace. She appeared so regal before the great poet, and for the first time in his life he was timid.
And four months later, Pushkin asked for Natalia Goncharova’s hand in marriage. However, her mother believed that Natasha was still too young to get married.
Having not received a definite answer, the poet left for the Caucasus to join the active army.
He was 13 years older than Natalya, not rich, and in secular society he was recognized as a brilliant poet and at the same time an unreliable person. On top of that, Pushkin was in bad standing with the sovereign. Perhaps this influenced the mother’s decision. But Natasha herself managed to break her mother’s resistance. As her mother said about her: “It seemed to me that she was passionate about her fiancé”.
In 1830, Pushkin returned to Moscow and on April 6 asked for Natalia Goncharova’s hand in marriage for the second time. This time consent to the marriage was obtained. A month later, on May 6, 1830, the engagement took place.
But the wedding could not take place on time, as if something was constantly pushing it back. Even Pushkin himself wrote in a letter to his bride: “Our wedding is definitely running away from me.” The groom often quarreled with his future mother-in-law, most often the cause of the dispute was the dowry. Mother did not want to marry Natasha without a dowry, and the Goncharovs had no money. Then the groom’s uncle died, and Pushkin left for Boldino to take over the inheritance. But he had to stay there for three months due to a cholera epidemic.
In the end, Pushkin decided to mortgage the Kistenevo estate, and from this money he gave Natasha’s mother 11 thousand rubles for a dowry. Never later did Alexander Sergeevich mention, either in a single word or in a hint, that he had married a dowryless woman.
On March 2, 1831, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Natalya Goncharova got married in the Moscow Church of the Great Ascension. During the wedding, Pushkin dropped his wedding ring on the floor, and then his candle went out. The groom turned pale and quietly whispered: “These are bad omens.”
The newlyweds first settled in a rented apartment in Moscow. But then, not wanting their mother-in-law to interfere in their personal life, they left for Tsarskoye Selo. Young Natasha became the mistress of a large and bright house, which was often visited by guests. They had to be greeted, the table set and hot tea served. And in the mornings, Natalya worked on embroidery in the living room, since in the morning Pushkin locked himself in his office and wrote continuously for up to two hours.
On May 19, 1832, a girl, Maria, was born to Pushkin and Goncharova. During the six years of marriage, Natalya after Maria gave birth to her husband three more children - two boys Grisha and Sasha, and one girl Natasha.
In 1835, Natalya Nikolaevna met the cavalry guard Dantes, he began to court her. Although before this no one could ever call her a coquette, despite the fact that Natasha constantly attended balls and social events. She simply never gave her husband any reason to doubt her love and fidelity. After Dantes's courtship, rumors spread that he was having an affair with Pushkin's wife.
Dantes played on these rumors and his courtship by the fact that in this way he wanted to get to know Natalya’s sister Ekaterina, who later married him. But all this left some kind of black mark on the happy family life of the Pushkins. At the beginning of 1837, during one of the balls, Dantes insulted Natalia. The whole world knows how it ended - the Black River, the duel, Pushkin’s serious injury and two days later the death of the poet. Just before his death, he told his Natalya that he had always trusted her and she was not to blame for anything.
Pushkin died on Friday; for Natalya, the death of her husband was a severe shock. Then, for the rest of her life, she wore mourning clothes on Fridays and did not eat. The emperor granted a pension to the widow, as well as an allowance for his daughters before marriage; the boys were enrolled as pages and were given 1,500 rubles a year before entering the service.
After all these events, Natalya Nikolaevna became seriously ill and went with her children to the Linen Factory to rest and receive treatment. Here she stayed until 1839.
Second marriage to Lansky
In 1839, Natalya returned with her children to St. Petersburg. After several years of reclusive life, in 1843 she visited the theater. There she had a chance meeting with the Emperor, after which Natasha was simply obliged to appear in the company of the Empress. She went out again and was still dazzlingly beautiful.
In 1844, Natalya met her brother’s friend, General Lansky Pyotr Petrovich. He was 45 years old, and the man considered himself a confirmed bachelor. He began to visit Natalya Nikolaevna, over time he became very attached to their cozy and warm home, and Peter especially liked to communicate with children.
On July 16, 1844, Natalya Nikolaevna and Pyotr Petrovich got married. The wedding was modest, only the closest and closest friends were present. In this marriage, Natasha gave birth to three daughters - Sophia, Alexandra and Elizaveta.
Lanskoy equally loved both his daughters and Pushkin’s children. In addition, Natalya and Peter also raised Lansky’s nephew Pavel and the son of Pushkin’s sister, Lyovushka. After the death of his wife, Pyotr Petrovich raised her grandchildren from her first marriage to Pushkin.
Death
In the fall of 1863, Natalya Nikolaevna went to Moscow for the christening of her grandson. There she caught a bad cold, and then on the way back the illness began to worsen. Arriving home in St. Petersburg, this cold resulted in pneumonia. She died in feverish oblivion. It was a gloomy morning, there was cold rain, sometimes turning into snow, and on December 8, 1863, the most beautiful of women, Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, passed away in St. Petersburg.