10.06.2010 - 18:43
We have all read Alexander Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades,” and even those who are not particularly fond of literature remember the famous formula “Three, Seven, Ace” - magic cards that will help anyone win. But few people know that this story is based on real events, and the Queen of Spades had a prototype - Princess Golitsyna...
Maid of honor-countess
On January 17 (28), 1741, Count Pyotr Grigorievich Chernyshev gave birth to a daughter named Natalya. She was destined to live a life full of bright events and amazing meetings... The Chernyshev family was one of the richest in Russia. Natalya Petrovna's grandfather was Peter I's orderly, and the Russian emperor took an active part in the fate of his favorite.
By the time of the tsar’s death, Chernyshev already possessed a countless number of souls and villages. Oddly enough, Peter’s successors also treated the family of the royal favorite kindly and increased his already considerable fortune.
Natalia spent her childhood in exquisite luxury, she studied with the best teachers and was dressed by the best tailors. Her special position was further enhanced by the fact that she was a court maid of honor - and one of the most beautiful and beloved...
For her beauty, Natalya Petrovna even received a personal gold medal at one of the balls, on which the countess’s name was carved. Now this medal is kept in the Hermitage. Beauty, brilliant education, extraordinary intelligence and significant wealth attracted men's hearts to her. As a result, the countess could “dig through suitors like they’re in trash.” And she chose among the contenders for her hand and heart the most well-born and rich, who belonged to the most famous and noble family - Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn.
They married in 1766, and the young princess quickly took all the reins of government into her own hands - it was she who managed the rich estate and the city house.
The Golitsyn couple had three sons and two daughters. The mother approached their upbringing with all severity - and not for nothing. All her children reached great heights and positions in the future. All the work paid off - including the trip abroad, taken to ensure that the younger Golitsyns received the best European education.
The Golitsyns went to France, where they bought a luxurious mansion and lived the high life. Princess Natalya Pavlovna was received at the court of Marie Antoinette. She received the nickname “Moscow Venus” and won many hearts - including royal ones. The English King George II, as a sign of admiration, presented Natalya Petrovna with his watercolor portrait with a kind inscription.
Returning to her homeland, the princess, in her St. Petersburg house on the corner of Gorokhovaya and Malaya Morskaya, tried to organize the same high-society salon that she had in France, and was quite successful in her endeavors - all the most noble and famous people tried to get to her...
According to the memoirs of contemporaries: “On certain days the whole city came to worship her, and on her name day the entire royal family honored her with a visit. The princess received everyone, with the exception of the Emperor, sitting and not moving from her place. Depending on the rank and nobility of the guest, the princess either bowed her head or uttered a few more or less friendly words. And all the visitors were apparently very pleased.”
And one more mention of the princess: “Yesterday was the birth of old woman Golitsyna. I went in the morning to congratulate her and found the whole city there. Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna also came. In the evening the whole city was there again, although no one was invited. Yesterday, it seems, she turned 79 years old, and I admired her appetite and vigor.”
The Golitsyn estate was also constantly bustling with social life - balls, receptions, performances... Her “career” as a court lady was also quite successful - honors and awards followed one after another. She received several orders and the title of lady of state. Golitsyna survived five Russian tsars and under none of them did she lose her special position. In her old age, Golitsyna became outwardly very unattractive - because of her growing mustache, she was called the “mustachioed princess.” But she did not lose her cool character until her last days.
After her death, which followed in December 1837, there remained untold wealth, many serf souls, lands, and villages. And the legend about the secret that the princess possessed...
The Mystery of Saint Germain
In 1834, when the princess was still alive and still remained the most influential lady in St. Petersburg, “The Queen of Spades” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was published. Soon the poet wrote in his diary: “My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven and ace. At court they found similarities between the old countess and Natalya Petrovna and, it seems, they are not angry.”
Indeed, the world quickly discovered Golitsyna’s similarity to the old woman from Pushkin’s story. The poet, of course, changed something so that the similarity would not be striking at all, but it was still very easy to guess.
This is how her grandson describes the Queen of Spades: “You need to know that my grandmother, about sixty years ago, went to Paris and was in great fashion there. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite (Moscow Venus); Richelieu dragged himself after her, and my grandmother assures me that he almost shot himself because of her cruelty.”
This is a direct indication of the events that happened with Princess Golitsyn... Pushkin was friends with the grandson of the princess Sergei Grigorievich Golitsyn and he once told him an interesting story...
Once upon a time, young Golitsyn lost a huge amount at cards. He complained about this misfortune to his grandmother and asked her for money - to recoup. She didn’t give him any money, but she told her grandson a secret that allowed him to get even...
Golitsyna told her grandson how many years ago she lost big in Paris, and there was no money to pay off the debt. And she was helped by... Count Saint-Germain, a mysterious person, alchemist, inventor of the elixir of immortality. Pushkin wrote down this story and thus the Queen of Spades was born. .
This is how he spoke about the events that happened to Princess Golitsyna in Paris: “A very wonderful person knew her briefly. You have heard about Count Saint-Germain, about whom they tell so many wonderful things.
You know that he pretended to be the Eternal Jew, the inventor of the life elixir and the philosopher's stone, and so on. They laughed at him as a charlatan, and Casanova in his Notes says that he was a spy; however, Saint-Germain, despite his mystery, had a very respectable appearance and was a very amiable person in society...
Grandmother knew that Saint Germain could have a lot of money. She decided to resort to him. She wrote him a note and asked him to come to her immediately. The old eccentric appeared immediately and found him in terrible grief. She described to him in the darkest colors the barbarity of her husband and finally said that she placed all her hope in his friendship and courtesy.
Saint Germain thought about it. “I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me, and I would not want to introduce you into new troubles. There is another remedy: you can win back.”
“But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I tell you that we have no money at all.” “Money is not needed here,” Saint-Germain objected: “if you please listen to me.”
Then he revealed to her a secret for which any of us would give dearly.”...
So the princess regained her fortune, and since then she has always been lucky in cards. In “The Queen of Spades” the old princess did not reveal Saint Germain’s secret to anyone, but in reality the younger Golitsyn still found out her secret, bet on these cards and won back, but never played again - this was the condition Golitsyn set for him...
This story seems fantastic, but, nevertheless, Golitsyna actually met in Paris with Saint Germain and, in fact, once managed to return the fortune lost by her husband...
- 7988 views
| Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Countess Natalya Petrovna Chernysheva |
| Date of Birth | January 17 (28)(1744-01-28 ) |
| Place of Birth | Berlin, Germany |
| Date of death | December 20, 1837 (1st of January )(1838-01-01 ) (93 years old) |
| A place of death | Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| A country | |
| Occupation | state lady |
| Father | Chernyshev, Pyotr Grigorievich |
| Mother | Ekaterina Andreevna Ushakova (-) |
| Spouse | Golitsyn, Vladimir Borisovich |
| Children | 3 sons and 2 daughters |
| Awards and prizes | |
| Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna at Wikimedia Commons | |
Biography
Origin
Daughter of diplomat and senator Count Pyotr Grigorievich Chernyshev from his marriage to Ekaterina Andreevna Ushakova. She came from a family of so-called new people who appeared at the beginning of the 18th century surrounded by Peter the Great.
Her grandfather on the male line was the orderly of Peter I, a representative of a poor and unnoble noble family, Grigory Petrovich Chernyshev. The rapid rise of the imperial orderly's career began when Peter I married him to a 17-year-old beauty, dowryless Evdokia Rzhevskaya, giving her a dowry of 4,000 souls. And then he gave money and villages to the sons born from this marriage.
There was a rumor in secular circles that Natalya Petrovna was the emperor’s own granddaughter. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, like her father, showered the Chernyshevs with special favors, granted them profitable estates, count titles, and soon the Chernyshevs became one of the richest families in Russia. On her mother's side, Natalya Petrovna was the granddaughter of Count A.I. Ushakov, famous for his cruelty, the head of the search office.
Youth
Numerous sources call the exact year of birth of Natalya Petrovna differently - or 1744. She herself wrote in her notes:
Her father, Count Chernyshev, was recalled from Berlin and appointed envoy to London in 1746. So we can say with confidence that Natalya Petrovna was born in 1744.
She spent her childhood in England. Her mother took advantage of her long stay abroad and gave her daughters an excellent European education. They were fluent in four languages, but did not know Russian well.
Having become a princess, Natalya Petrovna was not constantly at the Court and was there only occasionally, when the highest commands were announced or when she received the highest invitation. Natalya Petrovna lived for a long time on the estates of her father and husband, raising and educating her children. Energetic, with a strong masculine character, she took control of her husband’s household into her own hands and soon not only put it in order, but also significantly increased it.
Life in St. Petersburg
The princess turned her house into a high society salon for the French emigration. F. F. Vigel wrote:
Natalya Petrovna was literally the model of a court lady. She was showered with honors. At the coronation of Alexander I, she was awarded the Cross of St. Catherine, 2nd degree. At her ball on February 13, 1804, the entire imperial family was present. In 1806 she was already a lady of state. Initially, the sign of the lady of state was received by her daughter, Countess Stroganova, who returned it with a request to grant it to her mother. At the coronation of Nicholas I, she was awarded the Order of St. Catherine, 1st degree. The attentiveness of the authorities to Natalya Petrovna was amazing: when she began to see poorly, enlarged solitaire cards were made especially for her; at her request, court singers could be sent to Golitsyn’s estate in Gorodnya. According to the memoirs of Theophilus Tolstoy, music critic and composer:
| On certain days the whole city went to worship her, and on her name day the entire royal family honored her with a visit. The princess received everyone, with the exception of the Emperor, sitting and not moving from her place. One of her close relatives stood near her chair and called the guests, since the princess had been seeing poorly lately. Depending on the rank and nobility of the guest, the princess either bowed her head or uttered a few more or less friendly words. And all the visitors were apparently very pleased. But they will not think that Princess Golitsyna was attracted to her by the luxury of the premises or the splendor of the treats. Not at all! Her house in St. Petersburg was not particularly luxurious; the only decoration of the front living room were damask curtains, and even those were quite faded. There was no dinner, no temporary buffets set with rich wines and sets, and from time to time orchards, lemonade and simple sweets were served. |
Highly willful, Golitsyna was arrogant with her equals in position and friendly with those whom she considered inferior to herself. Another contemporary of the princess, V. A. Sollogub, recalled:
Along with her successes at court, Natalya Petrovna was zealously involved in housekeeping. She then introduced a new crop - potatoes - to her estates, expanded and equipped the factories owned by the Golitsyns with new equipment. In 1824, Princess Golitsyna became an honorary member of the Scientific and Economic Society.
Family
All contemporaries unanimously noted the steep, arrogant disposition of the princess, her character, devoid of any feminine weaknesses, and her severity towards loved ones. The whole family was in awe of the princess; she was very strict with the children even when they themselves had long outlived their youth, and until the end of their lives she called them by their diminutive names.
Managing all the estates herself, Natalya Petrovna gave her daughters 2 thousand souls as a dowry, and gave her son Dmitry only the Rozhdestveno estate of 100 souls and an annual allowance of 50 thousand rubles, so he was forced to incur debts, and only at the request of Emperor Nicholas I she added another 50 thousand rubles in banknotes, thinking that she was generously rewarding him. Only after the death of his mother, having lived his whole life, having almost nothing, seven years before his death, Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich became the owner of his 16 thousand souls.
Once angry with her eldest son Boris Vladimirovich, Golitsyna had absolutely no contact with him for about a year and did not answer his letters. Prince Boris never married, but died, leaving orphans two illegitimate daughters from a gypsy woman who bore the surname Zelensky. They were brought up in the family of Dmitry Golitsyn, and their existence was hidden from Natalya Petrovna.
...Yesterday was the birth of old woman Golitsyna. I went in the morning to congratulate her and found the whole city there. Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna also came. In the evening the whole city was there again, although no one was invited. Yesterday, it seems, she turned 79 years old, and I admired her appetite and vigor... There is no happier mother than the old woman Golitsyna; you need to see how the children look after her, and the children already have grandchildren.
Here's P's chronicle.<етер>Burgskaya: yesterday we celebrated the centenary of Princess Nat.<альи>Peter.<овны>, there was no dancing, but the convention was quite crowded. Several generations crowded around the great-great-grandmother; homegrown roses twined around a century-old oak tree<…>The Emperor sent the princess two magnificent vases.
Princess Golitsyna was very rich. After her death, there were 16 thousand serf souls, many villages, houses, estates throughout Russia. Only N.P. Golitsyna, the only one, could afford to hire 16 horses to travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The most that the richest travelers allowed themselves was 6 horses for the same journey.
Natalya Petrovna died on December 20, 1837. She was buried in Moscow, in the Golitsyn tomb at the Donskoye Cemetery.
Golitsyna and Pushkin
In her youth, Natalya Petrovna was known as a beauty, but with age she acquired a mustache and beard, for which in St. Petersburg she was called “Princess Mustache” behind her back, or more delicately, in French, “Princesse moustache” (from the French moustache - mustache), although neither This feature is not visible in one portrait. It was this image of a decrepit old woman, who had a repulsive, unattractive appearance “combined with a sharp mind and royal arrogance,” that arose in the imagination of the first readers of The Queen of Spades.
According to legend, Golitsyna's great-nephew
Golitsina Natalia Golitsina Career: CitizensBirth: Russia, 28.1.1741
On January 17, 1741, January 28 according to the new style, Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, nee Chernyshova, was born, the famous “la princesse moustache (i.e., the mustachioed princess), who served as Pushkin’s prototype for the image of the old countess from the Queen of Spades.
On January 17, 1741, January 28 according to the new style, Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, nee Chernyshova, was born, the famous “la princesse moustache (i.e., the mustachioed princess), who served as Pushkin’s prototype for the image of the old countess from the Queen of Spades.
One of the most colorful characters in Russian history belonged to an humble, but incredibly rich family. Natalya Petrovna's grandfather was Peter the Great's personal orderly, and he took an active part in his fate and in the fate of his children. Moreover, it was rumored that our heroine’s dad was in reality the son of the emperor. Such sensitivity of the royal person, as usual, had a completely concrete content, in the form of peasant souls and villages. Peter's successors, in particular Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II, did not ignore the Chernyshov family with their affection. So by the time our heroine was born, the family of the royal orderly was one of the richest in Russia.
As a result, Natalya Petrovna was able to receive education and upbringing at the highest level of that time, and was terribly successful in marrying the well-born, rich, but unlucky prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn. To say that the Golitsyns are one of the most prominent Russian families is an understatement. And, apparently, having received such a husband and entering the circle of the most noble Russian aristocracy, Princess Natalya fulfilled her secret dream. In any case, contemporaries recalled that the princess “scolds all surnames and puts no one above the Golitsyns, and when she praised Jesus Christ in front of her 6-year-old granddaughter, the little girl asked: “Isn’t Jesus Christ from the Golitsyn surname?”
But this is not the only thing that Princess Natalya Petrovna was remembered by her contemporaries. And what’s more, her beard and mustache did not grow into old age, for which she was nicknamed “la princesse moustache.” Princess Golitsyna was remembered for the fact that she was then one of the most influential persons in both capitals, creating for herself such a position that all the sovereigns and empresses showed sensitivity to her , starting with Catherine II and ending with Emperor Nicholas I. The highest society considered it an honor to visit her at home, every young girl who began to go out into the world was taken to pay her respects; the newly minted guards officer came to her as if she were in charge. The family was in awe of the princess. , who called her son, Moscow Governor-General Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn, Mitenka. And the princess, it seems, did not find out that her other son, Boris, had two illegitimate children who were raised in Dmitry’s family until her death. It was easy to hide that very fact from her.
At court, Natalya Petrovna was practically showered with honors. At the coronation of Alexander I she was awarded the Cross of St. Catherine of a lesser degree. The entire imperial family was sometimes present at her balls. The courtesy of the authorities towards Princess Golitsyna knew no bounds. She was very interested in cards, and when she began to mature, large format cards were deliberately made for her. At her whim, court singers could be sent to her estate, located far from the capital and roads. According to the recollections of contemporaries, “on certain days the whole town came to worship her, and on her name day the entire royal family honored her with a visit. The princess received everyone, with the exception of the sovereign emperor, sitting and not moving from her place. Someone stood near her chair - one of the close relatives called the guests, since lately the princess had seen poorly, depending on the rank and nobility of the guest, the princess either bowed her head, or uttered a little more or less friendly words, and all the visitors remained, apparently, extremely pleased. ".
And one more piece of evidence: “Yesterday was the birth of the old woman Golitsyna. I went in the morning to congratulate her and found the whole town there. In addition, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna came. In the evening the whole city was there again, although no one was invited. Yesterday, it seems, she turned 79 years old, and I admired her appetite and vigor." CC. It is worth adding that the princess, who was born before Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, died in the only year with Pushkin, 4 years before her centenary.
Also read biographies of famous people:
Natalia Peshkova Natalia Peshkova
You know, when you're 17, you think more about romance than politics. Well, of course, we were completely fooled by our propaganda. No..
Candidate of Philological Sciences I. GRACHEVA (Ryazan).
Petersburg. View of the arch of the General Staff building. Drawing from 1822.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Portrait by V. A. Tropinin. 1827
Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna (née Chernysheva) did not shine with beauty, but enjoyed great success in the world at the court of Catherine II. It was she who was one of those “old women” who served Pushkin as the prototype for the old countess in “The Queen of Spades”
Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn in 1766 became the husband of Natalya Petrovna Chernysheva. Thus, a new princess Golitsyna appeared in the St. Petersburg world.
But, perhaps, Pushkin observed the most character traits, as well as behavior, from Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya. In her youth, she was distinguished not so much by her beauty as by her quirks, she was smart, kind and “could set hearts on fire.”
Princess Maria Vasilievna Kochubey (nee Vasilchikova) is the same niece of N.K. Zagryazhskaya, whom she took from her parents as a child.
Prince Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, having become the husband of Maria Vasilievna, fell out of favor with Emperor Paul I, who was planning to marry the prince to his favorite.
Perhaps this is how Pushkin imagined his old countess from “The Queen of Spades” in the prime of her youth and beauty. In the portrait is Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna (1720-1761).
In 1830, in Moscow, fate brought A. S. Pushkin together with the Serpukhov landowner V. S. Ogon-Doganovsky, an experienced card player, to whom the poet, in excitement, lost almost 25 thousand. He was unable to pay such a huge amount at once and asked for an installment plan for four years. This incident, which was gossiped about in Moscow living rooms, almost upset Pushkin’s engagement to N.N. Goncharova. In a letter to P. A. Pletnev on August 31, 1830, the poet complained: “Moscow gossip reaches the ears of the bride and her mother - henceforth quarrels, caustic circumlocutions, unreliable reconciliations...” Settlements with Ogon-Doganovsky weighed on his soul for a long time.
This loss, which almost turned out to be fatal in the fate of Pushkin, undoubtedly became one of the motivating reasons for the creation of the story “The Queen of Spades”. When the story was published, Pushkin wrote in his diary on April 7, 1834: “My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven and ace. At court they found a similarity between the old countess and Prince Natalya Petrovna and, it seems, don’t get angry..." Close friends of Pushkin, the Nashchokins, said that, in the words of Alexander Sergeevich himself, "the main plot of the story is not fictional - it is Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna.<...>really lived in Paris in the same way as Pushkin described. Her grandson Golitsyn told Pushkin that once he lost money and came to his grandmother to ask for money. She did not give him money, but told him three cards assigned to her in Paris by Saint-Germain. “Try it,” said the grandmother. The grandson bet his cards and won back. The further development of the story is fictional. Nashchokin noticed to Pushkin that the countess did not look like Golitsyna, she was more similar to Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya, another old woman. Pushkin agreed with this remark and replied that it was easier for him to portray Zagryazhskaya than Golitsyn..."
What features of these two women were transformed in Pushkin’s story?
Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, née Chernysheva, although not reputed to be a beauty, in her youth enjoyed constant success at the court of Catherine II. In 1766 in St. Petersburg, participating in a horse carousel (a type of equestrian competition), she received the first prize - a diamond rose. In the same year, Natalya was married to Prince V.B. Golitsyn, who held the rank of brigadier. In Pushkin’s story, Tomsky said that his grandmother, the countess, once “went to Paris and was in great fashion there.”<...>Once at court, she lost something very much on the word of the Duke of Orleans." She was unable to repay the debt, and this forced her to turn for help to the Count of Saint-Germain, "about whom they told so many wonderful things." He told her three treasured cards.
Golitsyna visited Paris twice: in the 60s of the 18th century, even before her marriage, with her father (Russian envoy P. G. Chernyshev), and in the 80s , already with my husband. In the story, the heroine is also in Paris with her husband. However, as B. Ya. Vilenchik showed in the article “Historical Past in the Queen of Spades”, all the realities mentioned by Pushkin are a card game played by the queen (the wife of Louis XV, Maria Leshchinskaya), the Duke of Orleans, Saint Germain, who lived in Paris, and etc. - could only relate to the first appearance in the capital of France of Natalya Petrovna, then still a very young girl. But an artistic narrative never obeys the indispensable requirements of historical accuracy, but Pushkin wrote not a documentary essay, but a work of fiction, using and. situations only individual features of real destinies, freely combining them.
But the relationship of the Countess (from “The Queen of Spades”) with her husband, who was entirely under her thumb and “feared like fire,” is very reminiscent of the life of the Golitsyn couple. According to the stories of their contemporary E.P. Yankova, V.B. Golitsyn, although a rich landowner, “was a very simple-minded person.” His wife easily got the better of him, blaming him for his low brigadier rank and his disorganized estates. Golitsyna, however, “was a very smart woman by nature and a great master at organizing her own affairs.” Taking control of the estates into her own hands and disposing of them individually for the rest of her life, she paid off all her debts and managed to significantly increase her fortune. She kept everyone at home in strict obedience; grown-up children did not dare sit down in her presence. After the death of V.B. Golitsyn, his sons Boris (29 years old) and Dmitry (27 years old), being legally rightful heirs, did not dare to demand their share from their mother. As before, she was in charge of everything, and gave her sons an annual allowance at her own discretion. Pushkin endowed his heroine with the energetic businesslike spirit inherent in Natalya Petrovna and the ability to resolve complex everyday issues: after losing a huge amount of money, she finally found a way to get out of a seemingly hopeless situation.
Pushkin notes that his countess is “stingy.” Contemporaries also knew this trait from Golitsyna: at evenings in her house, where many guests gathered, dinner or substantial snacks were never offered, the servants served only lemonade and candy. And for those who stayed on her estates, they did not buy wine for the table, forcing them to be content with kvass and home-made beer.
Pushkin could have known about the character and habits of Natalya Petrovna long before the stories of her grandson, who told the story of the three cards. The estate of Pushkin’s parents, Zakharovo, was located not far from Bolshie Vyazem, where Natalya Petrovna’s eldest son, B.V. Golitsyn, lived on the estate. The families knew each other. Pushkin's uncle, Vasily Lvovich, even wrote solemn poems for the princess's 78th birthday in 1819. At the end of the 1820s in Moscow, Pushkin visited the house of another son of the princess, D.V. Golitsyn, who was appointed Moscow governor-general. His social position obliged him to live in grand style, give receptions and balls, organize holidays, and do charity work, and he suffered greatly from the fact that his tight-fisted mother allocated him a very modest amount from the income of the estates. It ended with Nicholas I himself intervening in the matter and convincing Golitsyna to give Dmitry Vladimirovich a significant increase so that he would not accumulate debts that would compromise their family name and himself as an official.
Pushkin, in his story, says that the countess often underpaid her pupil Liza the amount due to her, “and meanwhile they demanded from her that she be dressed like everyone else, that is, like very few.” The following details are also noteworthy: the Countess and Lisa went to another ball in winter, “the weather was terrible: the wind howled, wet snow fell in flakes.” The Countess appears from the house in a sable fur coat, her pupil hurries to the carriage “in a cold cloak”, without a headdress, but her hair was decorated with fresh flowers, which was very expensive at this time of year. Her outerwear was clearly an item of thrift, but she would enter the ballroom dressed up, “like very few others.”
In “The Queen of Spades” we learn about the old countess: “She hosted the whole city, observing strict etiquette and not recognizing anyone by sight.” And here is what F.M. Tolstoy remembers about Golitsyna: “In St. Petersburg (she lived, if I’m not mistaken, in Malaya Morskaya), the whole city went to worship her on certain days, and on her name day the entire royal family honored her with a visit. The princess received everyone, with the exception of the sovereign emperor, sitting and not moving from her place. One of her close relatives stood near her chairs and called the guests, since recently the princess had difficulty seeing the guest, depending on the rank and nobility, the princess only inclined. head, or uttered several less or more friendly words."
In Pushkin’s story we read: “She took part in all the vanities of the big world, went to balls, where she sat in the corner, flushed and dressed in old fashion<...>, visiting guests approached her with low bows, as if according to an established ritual.”
Being a state lady of the court, Golitsyna certainly appeared at all court celebrations and entertainments, and, according to Yankova, “all the noble nobles and their wives showed her special respect and highly valued her slightest attention.” M.I. Pylyaev in the book “Wonderful eccentrics and originals” (St. Petersburg, 1898) wrote about her authority in St. Petersburg high society circles: “Every young girl was brought to her to bow. A guards officer, who had just put on epaulettes, came to her, like a commander-in-chief." (Tomsky asks Pushkin for permission to introduce Narumov to her.) The authorities did their best to please Golitsyna. Knowing her passion for card games that persisted into old age, which was hindered only by her weakening eyesight, special decks of cards of an enlarged format were made for her by the staff of the Orphanage. Court singers were sent to her estate, 200 miles from St. Petersburg (the village of Maryino, Novgorod province). After the Decembrist uprising, the princess’s efforts helped ease the fate of her great-nephew Z. G. Chernyshev and the Muravyovs.
Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya was a match for Golitsyna. She, as Prince P. A. Vyazemsky said, “according to all accepted social conditions and by her own properties, for a long time occupied one of the most honorable places in St. Petersburg society.” She also loved cards very much and even the day before her death she enthusiastically played Boston. If Pushkin took episodes about the past of his old countess mainly from the biography of Golitsyna, then her character in old age was copied to a greater extent from Zagryazhskaya.
The story says that even in old age the countess “preserved all the habits of her youth” and “dressed just as long, just as carefully, as she did sixty years ago.” She receives Tomsky, who has come to her, sitting in front of the mirror, while the maids remove her head. This was the custom among dandies of the 18th century. Pushkin himself found himself in a similar situation when, as Natalya Nikolaevna’s groom, he came to introduce himself to the Goncharovs’ relative, Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya. In a letter to his bride on July 29, 1830, he says: “I arrive, they report on me, she receives me at her toilet, like a very pretty woman of the last century.” After a short conversation, they “parted as very good friends.” Since then, Pushkin often visited her house at evenings and had the opportunity to get to know the unique character of this lady.
Natalya Kirillovna - the daughter of the Hetman of Little Russia, K. G. Razumovsky, a maid of honor, spoiled from her youth by the adoration of her parents and the attention of the royal court - was distinguished by her whimsical capriciousness and willfulness. The parents were selective in looking for a worthy match for their favorite, the richest heiress in Russia, but she, having returned one day from yet another duty in the palace, categorically declared that she intended to throw in her lot with N. A. Zagryazhsky, an officer of the Izmailovsky regiment, and also a widower . The father barely recovered from this surprise, however, knowing his daughter’s stubbornness, he did not try to interfere, but quickly secured the rank of chamber cadet for her “subject.” The ceremonial wedding, which was attended by all the nobility, took place in the church of the Winter Palace. Subsequently, Zagryazhskaya, well aware of the shortcomings of her eccentric nature, laughingly admitted that a person less flexible and patient than her chosen one would have run away from her after the very first days of the honeymoon.
She was not famous for her beauty even in her youth; rather, on the contrary, she could be called ugly. But her liveliness of mind, good nature and ability to be an entertaining conversationalist attracted the most prominent and interesting people to her. Count A.I. Shuvalov became her respectful admirer. According to P. A. Vyazemsky, Shuvalov dedicated poems to Natalya Kirillovna, in which there was “a lot of passion and at the same time a lot of restraint and knightly devotion.” One of them contains the following lines (translated from French): “This invincible love that I carry in my chest, which I do not speak about, but about which everything testifies to you, is a pure feeling, a heavenly flame<...>I will live my life unhappy if you do not love me; I will die of sorrow if you love another." At the same time, the author assured that he was not going to become a "seducer" of the young lady and would be glad to achieve only her friendly disposition.
The powerful Prince G. A. Potemkin, coming from the army to St. Petersburg, gallantly courted her. Pushkin recorded Natalya Kirillovna’s confession: “Potemkin loved me very much; I don’t know what he wouldn’t do for me.” In Pushkin’s story, the countess’s grandson recounts her memories: “Richelieu trailed after her, and her grandmother assures that he almost shot himself because of her cruelty.”
Zagryazhskaya had no children. While visiting her sister in Moscow, Natalya Kirillovna became attached to her daughter Mashenka and one day she took her little niece with her without permission. Alarmed parents began to seek her return. But Zagryazhskaya announced that if Masha was left to her, she would make her her only heir. And the relatives decided not to interfere with Masha’s happiness. Natalya Kirillovna doted on her pupil, but living in the house of an overbearing, wayward aunt was just as difficult for the young girl as it was for Pushkin’s Liza.
Natalya Kirillovna combined with her kind-hearted simplicity an excessive capriciousness, which in her old age reached impossible whims. According to the story of P. A. Vyazemsky, “she was very afraid of a cold, and during her walks around the city, the old footman carried behind her several mantles, shawls, and neck scarves: depending on the temperature of the street, the transition from the sunny to the shady side and the sensations of cold or warmth, she put on and folded one or the other.” This was repeated every few steps. One day, when she once again ordered the shawl to be changed, and the footman hesitated, the lady shouted irritably: “Give it to me quickly! How tired of you you are to me!” The old man, calmly continuing to sort through her clothes, grumbled: “And if you only knew, mother, how tired I am of you!” Natalya Kirillovna herself laughed and told this episode to the guests.
In Pushkin’s story, the Countess is also afraid of the cold, and her mood changes every minute. Then she tells us to get ready for a walk and hurries Lisa to get dressed. Then suddenly he asks: “What’s the weather like? - It seems like it’s wind.” And although the servant assures that it is “very quiet” outside, the countess insists: “Open the window. That’s right: the wind! And very cold!” The walk is postponed. But, “only Lizaveta Ivanovna had time to take off her hood and hat when the countess sent for her and ordered the carriage to be brought again.” Pushkin wrote: “The Countess, of course, did not have an evil soul, but she was willful, like a woman spoiled by the world.”
In contrast to the businesslike, strict Golitsyna, Pushkin’s heroine in her old age appears as a mismanaged lady, unable to control the “numerous servants” who “did what they wanted, vying with each other to rob the dying old woman.” In this, the Countess also resembled Zagryazhskaya. Natalya Kirillovna once told Pushkin how Potemkin gave her lands in Crimea. And she didn’t know what to do with them. Local residents who grazed cattle there paid her 80 rubles a year. Finally, the father advised Natalya Kirillovna to populate the land with serfs and even gave 300 souls. "I settled them, but the next year they all fled , I don’t know why,” she complained innocently. And when V.P. Kochubey, head of the College of Foreign Affairs, wooed Masha’s niece, Zagryazhskaya gave these lands to Masha as a dowry. Kochubey, without much difficulty, managed to receive 50 thousand in annual income from them, which is quite a lot surprised the old maid of honor.
The story of this wedding itself could become an episode of a romantic story. Kochubey, carried away by Masha, but fearing Natalya Kirillovna’s unpredictable temper, did not dare to explain himself for a long time. And at this time, Emperor Paul brought a new favorite from Moscow - Anna Lopukhina. Secular decency demanded that the ambiguous position of a young girl at court be covered up by the formalities of an official marriage. Pavel, calling Kochubey, announced that he had found him a good bride. He immediately guessed where things were headed, and, not daring to contradict the sovereign, fearlessly lied that he was already engaged to Masha. Pavel had no choice but to coldly congratulate him. Kochubey rushed from the palace to Zagryazhskaya, begging for leniency and intercession. She, having learned that her pet also sympathized with Kochubey, hurried with the wedding. True, after this Kochubey found himself in retirement, and Zagryazhskaya, who did not bow to the relatives of the “upstart” Lopukhina, was in exile. Kochubey, for the sake of love, was ready to sacrifice both his high official position and the benefits of imperial favor. Fate, however, rewarded him handsomely: under Alexander I and Nicholas I, he went uphill, becoming state chancellor.
Kochubey, whose youth fell at the end of the 18th century, belonged to that courtly time when love interest was considered almost the main meaning of life. In this atmosphere, the young age of Pushkin’s countess passed, after whom Richelieu “dragged” in Paris and who, apparently, also had a reason for once revealing the cherished secret of winning cards to Chaplitsky. It is not for nothing that in the story the image of the countess - from youth to old age - is associated with a rose, a symbol of love. In the portrait hanging in her chambers, the countess is represented as “a young beauty with an aquiline nose, combed temples and a rose in her powdered hair.” Even at 87 years old, she goes out into the world wearing a “cap decorated with roses.” This detail appears to be repeated deliberately.
Hermann, who found himself on the secret staircase of the countess’s house, vividly imagined how here in the past, “clutching a three-cornered hat to his heart, a young lucky man crept.” In the world, apparently, there were rumors about the countess's past amorous "pranks"; It was not without reason that when Hermann appeared at her funeral service, “the thin chamberlain, a close relative of the deceased, whispered in the ear of the Englishman standing next to him that the young officer was her natural son.”
Following the example of Griboyedov's recently sensational play "Woe from Wit", Pushkin in "The Queen of Spades" also compares "the present century and the past century": modern society captures the spirit of commercialism and cold selfish calculation. Unlike the “lucky young man” depicted by Hermann’s imagination, he himself enters someone else’s house at night not for a love date, but solely for the sake of enrichment. Without remorse, deceiving Lisa’s feelings and thinking only about one thing, how to extract the secret of lucky cards from the countess, he is ready, overcoming disgust, “perhaps to become her lover.” In the world depicted in The Queen of Spades, there is no place for pure passions of the heart. Tomsky, apparently, not without benefit, marries Princess Polina, whom Pushkin ranked among the high society circle of “arrogant and cold brides.” It must be no coincidence that the horse guard Narumov asks Tomsky to introduce him to the countess immediately after the story about the secret of the three cards was heard in his house. But Hermann was ahead of him.
Lisa’s future fate does not seem to be prosperous. In the finale it is said restrainedly and briefly: “Lizaveta Ivanovna married a very kind young man; he serves somewhere and has a decent fortune: he is the son of a former steward of the old countess.” (The story said that the servants robbed the mistress as much as they could, but the manager probably did it with great success.)
Everyone involved in the magic of the three cards met a bad end in the story. Chaplitsky received millions, but “died in poverty.” The Countess, who owned this secret, also dies. Hermann, having lost all his winnings on the last card, ended his life in a madhouse. And the fate of a real historical person who possessed the secret of three cards, Saint Germain, had a sad ending. Finding himself “persona non grata” for many European states, Saint Germain spent the last years of his life living at the court of Landgrave Charles of Hesse.
Pushkin seems to warn: the human desire to penetrate the secrets of the highest craft, the desire to subordinate “fortune” to personal selfish goals, is always punishable. This is some immutable law of the universe.
The character of the Pushkin countess is drawn so psychologically precisely and so close to the nature of N.K. Zagryazhskaya that one of the scenes of the story turned out to be the threshold of real events. For fear of upsetting the Pushkin heroine, they hid the death of her peers. Tomsky nevertheless let it slip that the friend of her youth was no longer alive: “But the countess heard the news, new to her, with great indifference: “She died!” she said, “but I didn’t even know!” And then she switched the conversation to something else. And Zagryazhskaya was afraid to report the sudden death of Kochubey, which followed in 1834. But, as Pushkin wrote in a letter to his wife on June 11, 1834, Natalya Kirillovna accepted the sad news without much worry: “She is consoled by the fact that he died, and not Masha.” Two months later, she was already angry with Masha, who was crying about her husband, - “Lord, we all lost our husbands and yet we were comforted!” But she was especially indignant at Prince Kochubey: why did he die and thereby upset her Masha.
Golitsyna and Zagryazhskaya knew their worth and behaved so independently that they would not forgive anyone else for such insolence. Once, at an evening in the Winter Palace, Golitsyna was introduced to Count A.I. Chernyshev, one of the members of the Investigative Commission in the Decembrist case, who zealously used this court case to strengthen his career. As they said, “the princess did not respond to the respectful bow of the first tsar’s favorite and said sharply: “I don’t know anyone except one Count Chernyshev - the one in Siberia.” According to the Decembrist N.I. Lorer, “known for her influence at that time time for St. Petersburg society, the old woman Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya, from the Razumovsky house, did not accept General Chernyshev and closed her doors to him forever."
Not everyone, despite their rank and position in society, was given the honor of visiting Zagryazhskaya’s house. One day a dignitary came to visit her, but for some reason did not deserve her respect. In the presence of numerous distinguished guests, Natalya Kirillovna loudly ordered her Cossack: “Go to the doorman and tell him that he is a fool! He was ordered not to let this gentleman see me.” The embarrassed dignitary hastily left the hall.
Zagryazhskaya, a witness to five reigns (starting with Peter III), was a wonderful storyteller; a circle of the most prominent people always gathered around her. Pushkin, celebrating the new year of 1834 in Zagryazhskaya’s house, met M. M. Speransky there and talked with him about Pugachev, about the beginning of the reign of Alexander I. And earlier in his diary on December 4, 1833, he conveyed Zagryazhskaya’s memories of the times of Catherine II and noted an intriguing palace rumor for myself: “Elizabeth Petrovna had one natural daughter, Budakova. Natalya Kirillovna knew this from Elizabeth’s former ladies-in-waiting.”
P. A. Vyazemsky testified: “Pushkin listened to Natalya Kirillovna’s stories, caught with her echoes of generations and society that had already disappeared from the face of the earth; in a conversation with her he found an extraordinary historical and poetic charm...” On the advice of V. A. Zhukovsky, Pushkin decided to collect for posterity the stories told by Zagryazhskaya, while conveying, if possible, the originality of her speech. Recordings of several passages survive in his papers. Perhaps they could have served as a source of new Pushkin plans, but in January 1837 his life was cut short.
Zagryazhskaya and Golitsyna survived him only by a few months. The first died in May 1837 at the age of 90, the second in December at the age of 97.
Or, Berlin, Germany - December 20, St. Petersburg) - maid of honor “at the court of four emperors”; State lady and cavalry lady of the Order of St. Catherine (in 1801 - 2nd degree, in 1826 - 1st degree), was known in society as “Princesse Moustache” (“Mustachioed Princess”) (from the French. mustache- mustache) or “Fée Moustachine” (“Mustachioed Fairy”). The prototype of the main character of A. S. Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades”.
Biography
Origin
Daughter of diplomat and senator Count Pyotr Grigorievich Chernyshev from his marriage to Ekaterina Andreevna Ushakova. She came from a family of so-called new people who appeared at the beginning of the 18th century surrounded by Peter the Great.
Her grandfather on the male line was the orderly of Peter I, a representative of a poor and unnoble noble family, Grigory Petrovich Chernyshev. The rapid rise of the imperial orderly's career began when Peter I married him to a 17-year-old beauty, dowryless Evdokia Rzhevskaya, giving her a dowry of 4,000 souls. And then he gave money and villages to the sons born from this marriage.
There was a rumor in secular circles that Natalya Petrovna was the emperor’s own granddaughter. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, like her father, showered the Chernyshevs with special favors, granted them profitable estates, count titles, and soon the Chernyshevs became one of the richest families in Russia. On her mother's side, Natalya Petrovna was the granddaughter of Count A.I. Ushakov, famous for his cruelty, the head of the search office.
Youth
Numerous sources call the exact year of birth of Natalya Petrovna differently - or 1744. She herself wrote in her notes:
Her father, Count Chernyshev, was recalled from Berlin and appointed envoy to London in 1746. So we can say with confidence that Natalya Petrovna was born in 1744.
She spent her childhood in England. Her mother took advantage of her long stay abroad and gave her daughters an excellent European education. They were fluent in four languages, but did not know Russian well.
Having become a princess, Natalya Petrovna was not constantly at the Court and was there only occasionally, when the highest commands were announced or when she received the highest invitation. Natalya Petrovna lived for a long time on the estates of her father and husband, raising and educating her children. Energetic, with a strong masculine character, she took control of her husband’s household into her own hands and soon not only put it in order, but also significantly increased it.
Life in St. Petersburg
The princess turned her house into a high society salon for the French emigration. F. F. Vigel wrote:
Natalya Petrovna was literally the model of a court lady. She was showered with honors. At the coronation of Alexander I, she was awarded the Cross of St. Catherine, 2nd degree. At her ball on February 13, 1804, the entire imperial family was present. In 1806 she was already a lady of state. Initially, the sign of the lady of state was received by her daughter, Countess Stroganova, who returned it with a request to grant it to her mother. At the coronation of Nicholas I, she was awarded the Order of St. Catherine, 1st degree. The attentiveness of the authorities to Natalya Petrovna was amazing: when she began to see poorly, enlarged solitaire cards were made especially for her; at her request, court singers could be sent to Golitsyn’s estate in Gorodnya. According to the memoirs of Theophilus Tolstoy, music critic and composer:
| On certain days the whole city went to worship her, and on her name day the entire royal family honored her with a visit. The princess received everyone, with the exception of the Emperor, sitting and not moving from her place. One of her close relatives stood near her chair and called the guests, since the princess had been seeing poorly lately. Depending on the rank and nobility of the guest, the princess either bowed her head or uttered a few more or less friendly words. And all the visitors were apparently very pleased. But they will not think that Princess Golitsyna was attracted to her by the luxury of the premises or the splendor of the treats. Not at all! Her house in St. Petersburg was not particularly luxurious; the only decoration of the front living room were damask curtains, and even those were quite faded. There was no dinner, no temporary buffets set with rich wines and sets, and from time to time orchards, lemonade and simple sweets were served. |
Highly willful, Golitsyna was arrogant with her equals in position and friendly with those whom she considered inferior to herself. Another contemporary of the princess, V. A. Sollogub, recalled:
Along with her successes at court, Natalya Petrovna was zealously involved in housekeeping. She then introduced a new crop - potatoes - to her estates, expanded and equipped the factories owned by the Golitsyns with new equipment. In 1824, Princess Golitsyna became an honorary member of the Scientific and Economic Society.
Family
All contemporaries unanimously noted the steep, arrogant disposition of the princess, her character, devoid of any feminine weaknesses, and her severity towards loved ones. The whole family was in awe of the princess; she was very strict with the children even when they themselves had long outlived their youth, and until the end of their lives she called them by their diminutive names.
Managing all the estates herself, Natalya Petrovna gave her daughters 2 thousand souls as a dowry, and gave her son Dmitry only the Rozhdestveno estate of 100 souls and an annual allowance of 50 thousand rubles, so he was forced to incur debts, and only at the request of Emperor Nicholas I she added another 50 thousand rubles in banknotes, thinking that she was generously rewarding him. Only after the death of his mother, having lived his whole life, having almost nothing, seven years before his death, Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich became the owner of his 16 thousand souls.
Once angry with her eldest son Boris Vladimirovich, Golitsyna had absolutely no contact with him for about a year and did not answer his letters. Prince Boris never married, but died, leaving orphans two illegitimate daughters from a gypsy woman who bore the surname Zelensky. They were brought up in the family of Dmitry Golitsyn, and their existence was hidden from Natalya Petrovna.
...Yesterday was the birth of old woman Golitsyna. I went in the morning to congratulate her and found the whole city there. Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna also came. In the evening the whole city was there again, although no one was invited. Yesterday, it seems, she turned 79 years old, and I admired her appetite and vigor... There is no happier mother than the old woman Golitsyna; you need to see how the children look after her, and the children already have grandchildren.
Here's P's chronicle.<етер>Burgskaya: yesterday we celebrated the centenary of Princess Nat.<альи>Peter.<овны>, there was no dancing, but the convention was quite crowded. Several generations crowded around the great-great-grandmother; homegrown roses twined around a century-old oak tree<…>The Emperor sent the princess two magnificent vases.
Princess Golitsyna was very rich. After her death, there were 16 thousand serf souls, many villages, houses, estates throughout Russia. Only N.P. Golitsyna, the only one, could afford to hire 16 horses to travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The most that the richest travelers allowed themselves was 6 horses for the same journey.
Golitsyna and Pushkin
In her youth, Natalya Petrovna was known as a beauty, but with age she acquired a mustache and beard, for which in St. Petersburg she was called “Princess Mustache” behind her back, or more delicately, in French, “Princesse moustache” (from the French. mustache- mustache), although this feature is not visible in any portrait. It was this image of a decrepit old woman, who had a repulsive, unattractive appearance “combined with a sharp mind and royal arrogance,” that arose in the imagination of the first readers of The Queen of Spades.
In St. Petersburg, Golitsyn was never called anything other than the “Queen of Spades.” And the house where she lived (Malaya Morskaya St., 10 / Gorokhovaya St., 10) forever remained in the history of the city “the house of the Queen of Spades”. After Golitsyna’s death, the house was purchased by the treasury for Minister of War A.I. Chernyshev. Architectural monument - Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
// Website “Objects of cultural heritage (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation.” Retrieved 2012-06-08
Children
A close friend of Pushkin, Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin noted that in the image of the old countess (in addition to Golitsyna) the traits of Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya were embodied. Pushkin admitted to Nashchokin that in the image of the Countess:
- Pyotr Vladimirovich (August 23, 1767 - April 12, 1778)
- Boris Vladimirovich (-) - Lieutenant General, participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, died of wounds in Vilna.
- Ekaterina Vladimirovna (-) - lady of state, cavalry lady, since 1793 married to S. S. Apraksin, mother’s cousin.
- Dmitry Vladimirovich (-) - cavalry general, Moscow military governor-general.
- Sofya Vladimirovna (-) - philanthropist, wife of Count P. A. Stroganov.
Golitsyn Boris Vladimirovich1.jpg
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun Apraxine.jpg
Catherine
Dmitry Golytsin by Hugh Douglas Hamilton.jpg
Portrait of Countess Sophia Stroganoff.jpg
Write a review of the article "Golitsyna, Natalya Petrovna"
Notes
Literature
An excerpt characterizing Golitsyn, Natalya Petrovna
“I don’t want to wake him up,” he said, feeling something. - You're sick! Maybe so, rumors.“Here’s the report,” said Bolkhovitinov, “I’ve been ordered to hand it over to the general on duty immediately.”
- Wait, I’ll light a fire. Where the hell do you always put it? – turning to the orderly, said the stretching man. It was Shcherbinin, Konovnitsyn's adjutant. “I found it, I found it,” he added.
The orderly was chopping the fire, Shcherbinin was feeling the candlestick.
“Oh, disgusting ones,” he said with disgust.
In the light of the sparks, Bolkhovitinov saw the young face of Shcherbinin with a candle and in the front corner a still sleeping man. It was Konovnitsyn.
When the brimstones lit up with a blue and then a red flame on the tinder, Shcherbinin lit a tallow candle, from the candlestick of which the Prussians ran, gnawing it, and examined the messenger. Bolkhovitinov was covered in dirt and, wiping himself with his sleeve, smeared it on his face.
-Who is informing? - said Shcherbinin, taking the envelope.
“The news is true,” said Bolkhovitinov. - And the prisoners, and the Cossacks, and the spies - they all unanimously show the same thing.
“There’s nothing to do, we have to wake him up,” said Shcherbinin, getting up and approaching a man in a nightcap, covered with an overcoat. - Pyotr Petrovich! - he said. Konovnitsyn did not move. - To the main headquarters! – he said, smiling, knowing that these words would probably wake him up. And indeed, the head in the nightcap rose immediately. On Konovnitsyn’s handsome, firm face, with feverishly inflamed cheeks, for a moment there remained the expression of dreams of a dream far from the present situation, but then suddenly he shuddered: his face took on its usually calm and firm expression.
- Well, what is it? From whom? – he asked slowly, but immediately, blinking in the light. Listening to the officer’s report, Konovnitsyn printed it out and read it. As soon as he had read it, he lowered his feet in woolen stockings onto the earthen floor and began to put on his shoes. Then he took off his cap and, combing his temples, put on his cap.
-Are you there soon? Let's go to the brightest.
Konovnitsyn immediately realized that the news brought was of great importance and that there was no time to delay. Whether it was good or bad, he did not think or ask himself. He wasn't interested. He looked at the whole matter of war not with his mind, not with reasoning, but with something else. There was a deep, unspoken conviction in his soul that everything would be fine; but that you don’t need to believe this, and especially don’t say this, but just do your job. And he did this work, giving it all his strength.
Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, just like Dokhturov, only as if out of decency was included in the list of so-called heroes of the 12th year - the Barclays, Raevskys, Ermolovs, Platovs, Miloradovichs, just like Dokhturov, enjoyed the reputation of a person of very limited abilities and information, and, like Dokhturov, Konovnitsyn never made plans for battles, but was always where it was most difficult; he always slept with the door open since he was appointed general on duty, ordering everyone sent to wake him up, he was always under fire during the battle, so Kutuzov reproached him for this and was afraid to send him, and was, like Dokhturov, alone one of those inconspicuous gears that, without rattling or making noise, constitute the most essential part of the machine.
Coming out of the hut into the damp, dark night, Konovnitsyn frowned, partly from the intensifying headache, partly from the unpleasant thought that came into his head about how this whole nest of staff, influential people would now be agitated at this news, especially Bennigsen, who was after Tarutin at knifepoint with Kutuzov; how they will propose, argue, order, cancel. And this premonition was unpleasant for him, although he knew that he could not live without it.
Indeed, Tol, to whom he went to tell the new news, immediately began to express his thoughts to the general who lived with him, and Konovnitsyn, who listened silently and tiredly, reminded him that he needed to go to His Serene Highness.
Kutuzov, like all old people, slept little at night. He often dozed off unexpectedly during the day; but at night, without undressing, lying on his bed, he mostly did not sleep and thought.
So he lay now on his bed, leaning his heavy, large, disfigured head on his plump arm, and thought, with one eye open, peering into the darkness.
Since Bennigsen, who corresponded with the sovereign and had the most power in the headquarters, avoided him, Kutuzov was calmer in the sense that he and his troops would not be forced to again participate in useless offensive actions. The lesson of the Tarutino battle and its eve, painfully memorable for Kutuzov, should also have had an effect, he thought.
“They must understand that we can only lose by acting offensively. Patience and time, these are my heroes!” – thought Kutuzov. He knew not to pick an apple while it was green. It will fall on its own when it is ripe, but if you pick it green, you will spoil the apple and the tree, and you will set your teeth on edge. He, as an experienced hunter, knew that the animal was wounded, wounded as only the entire Russian force could wound, but whether it was fatal or not was a question that had not yet been clarified. Now, according to the dispatches of Lauriston and Berthelemy and according to the reports of the partisans, Kutuzov almost knew that he was mortally wounded. But more evidence was needed, we had to wait.
“They want to run and see how they killed him. Wait and see. All maneuvers, all attacks! - he thought. - For what? Everyone will excel. There's definitely something fun about fighting. They are like children from whom you can’t get any sense, as was the case, because everyone wants to prove how they can fight. That's not the point now.
And what skillful maneuvers all these offer me! It seems to them that when they invented two or three accidents (he remembered the general plan from St. Petersburg), they invented them all. And they all have no number!”
The unresolved question of whether the wound inflicted in Borodino was fatal or not fatal had been hanging over Kutuzov’s head for a whole month. On the one hand, the French occupied Moscow. On the other hand, undoubtedly with his whole being Kutuzov felt that that terrible blow, in which he, together with all the Russian people, strained all his strength, should have been fatal. But in any case, proof was needed, and he had been waiting for it for a month, and the more time passed, the more impatient he became. Lying on his bed on his sleepless nights, he did the very thing that these young generals did, the very thing for which he reproached them. He came up with all possible contingencies in which this certain, already accomplished death of Napoleon would be expressed. He came up with these contingencies in the same way as young people, but with the only difference that he did not base anything on these assumptions and that he saw not two or three, but thousands. The further he thought, the more of them appeared. He came up with all kinds of movements of the Napoleonic army, all or parts of it - towards St. Petersburg, against it, bypassing it, he came up with (which he was most afraid of) and the chance that Napoleon would fight against him with his own weapons, that he would remain in Moscow , waiting for him. Kutuzov even dreamed up the movement of Napoleon’s army back to Medyn and Yukhnov, but one thing he could not foresee was what happened, that crazy, convulsive rushing of Napoleon’s army during the first eleven days of his speech from Moscow - the throwing that made it possible something that Kutuzov still did not dare to think about even then: the complete extermination of the French. Dorokhov's reports about Broussier's division, news from the partisans about the disasters of Napoleon's army, rumors about preparations for departure from Moscow - everything confirmed the assumption that the French army was defeated and was about to flee; but these were only assumptions that seemed important to young people, but not to Kutuzov. With his sixty years of experience, he knew what weight should be attributed to rumors, he knew how capable people who want something are of grouping all the news so that they seem to confirm what they want, and he knew how in this case they willingly miss everything that contradicts. And the more Kutuzov wanted this, the less he allowed himself to believe it. This question occupied all his mental strength. Everything else was for him just the usual fulfillment of life. Such habitual fulfillment and subordination of life were his conversations with staff, letters to m me Stael, which he wrote from Tarutin, reading novels, distributing awards, correspondence with St. Petersburg, etc. n. But the death of the French, foreseen by him alone, was his spiritual, only desire.
On the night of October 11, he lay with his elbow on his hand and thought about it.
There was a stir in the next room, and the steps of Tolya, Konovnitsyn and Bolkhovitinov were heard.
- Hey, who's there? Come in, come in! What's new? – the field marshal called out to them.
While the footman lit the candle, Tol told the contents of the news.
- Who brought it? - asked Kutuzov with a face that struck Tolya, when the candle lit, with its cold severity.
“There can be no doubt, your lordship.”
- Call him, call him here!
Kutuzov sat with one leg hanging off the bed and his big belly leaning on the other, bent leg. He squinted his seeing eye to better examine the messenger, as if in his features he wanted to read what was occupying him.
“Tell me, tell me, my friend,” he said to Bolkhovitinov in his quiet, senile voice, covering the shirt that had opened on his chest. - Come, come closer. What news did you bring me? A? Has Napoleon left Moscow? Is it really so? A?
Bolkhovitinov first reported in detail everything that was ordered to him.
“Speak, speak quickly, don’t torment your soul,” Kutuzov interrupted him.
Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, awaiting orders. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face squinted and wrinkled; He waved his hand at Tolya and turned in the opposite direction, towards the red corner of the hut, blackened by images.
- Lord, my creator! You heeded our prayer...” he said in a trembling voice, folding his hands. - Russia is saved. Thank you, Lord! - And he cried.
From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, all of Kutuzov’s activities consisted only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with the dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the entire army and gives orders to cleanse Kaluga, retreat beyond which seems very possible to him.
Kutuzov retreats everywhere, but the enemy, without waiting for his retreat, runs back in the opposite direction.
Historians of Napoleon describe to us his skillful maneuver at Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate the rich midday provinces.
But without saying that nothing prevented Napoleon from going to these midday provinces (since the Russian army gave him the way), historians forget that Napoleon’s army could not be saved by anything, because it already carried in itself the inevitable conditions death. Why is this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not hold it, but trampled it underfoot, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out the food, but plundered it, why could this army recover in the Kaluga province, inhabited by those the same Russians as in Moscow, and with the same property of fire to burn what they light?
The army could not recover anywhere. Since the Battle of Borodino and the sack of Moscow, it already carried within itself the chemical conditions of decomposition.
The people of this former army fled with their leaders without knowing where, wanting (Napoleon and each soldier) only one thing: to personally extricate themselves as soon as possible from that hopeless situation, which, although unclear, they were all aware of.
That is why, at the council in Maloyaroslavets, when, pretending that they, the generals, were conferring, presenting different opinions, the last opinion of the simple-minded soldier Mouton, who said what everyone thought, that it was only necessary to leave as soon as possible, closed all their mouths, and no one , even Napoleon, could not say anything against this universally recognized truth.
But although everyone knew that they had to leave, there was still the shame of knowing that they had to run. And an external push was needed that would overcome this shame. And this push came at the right time. This was what the French called le Hourra de l'Empereur [imperial cheer].
The next day after the council, Napoleon, early in the morning, pretending that he wanted to inspect the troops and the field of the past and future battle, with a retinue of marshals and a convoy, rode along the middle of the line of troops. The Cossacks, snooping around the prey, came across the emperor himself and almost caught him. If the Cossacks did not catch Napoleon this time, then what saved him was the same thing that was destroying the French: the prey that the Cossacks rushed to, both in Tarutino and here, abandoning people. They, not paying attention to Napoleon, rushed to the prey, and Napoleon managed to escape.
When les enfants du Don [the sons of the Don] could catch the emperor himself in the middle of his army, it was clear that there was nothing more to do but to flee as quickly as possible along the nearest familiar road. Napoleon, with his forty-year-old belly, no longer feeling his former agility and courage, understood this hint. And under the influence of the fear that he gained from the Cossacks, he immediately agreed with Mouton and gave, as historians say, the order to retreat back to the Smolensk road.
The fact that Napoleon agreed with Mouton and that the troops went back does not prove that he ordered this, but that the forces that acted on the entire army, in the sense of directing it along the Mozhaisk road, simultaneously acted on Napoleon.
When a person is in motion, he always comes up with a goal for this movement. In order to walk a thousand miles, a person needs to think that there is something good beyond these thousand miles. You need an idea of the promised land in order to have the strength to move.
The promised land during the French advance was Moscow; during the retreat it was the homeland. But the homeland was too far away, and for a person walking a thousand miles, he certainly needs to say to himself, forgetting about the final goal: “Today I will come forty miles to a place of rest and lodging for the night,” and on the first journey this place of rest obscures the final goal and concentrates on yourself all the desires and hopes. Those aspirations that are expressed in an individual always increase in a crowd.
For the French, who went back along the old Smolensk road, the final goal of their homeland was too distant, and the nearest goal, the one to which all desires and hopes strove, in huge proportions intensifying in the crowd, was Smolensk. Not because people knew that there was a lot of provisions and fresh troops in Smolensk, not because they were told this (on the contrary, the highest ranks of the army and Napoleon himself knew that there was little food there), but because this alone could give them the strength to move and endure real hardships. They, both those who knew and those who did not know, equally deceiving themselves as to the promised land, strove for Smolensk.
Having reached the high road, the French ran with amazing energy and unheard-of speed towards their imaginary goal. Besides this reason of common desire, which united the crowds of French into one whole and gave them some energy, there was another reason that bound them. The reason was their number. Their huge mass itself, as in the physical law of attraction, attracted individual atoms of people. They moved in their hundred thousandth mass as an entire state.
Each of them wanted only one thing - to be captured, to get rid of all horrors and misfortunes. But, on the one hand, the strength of the common desire for the goal of Smolensk carried each one in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for the corps to surrender to the company as captivity, and, despite the fact that the French took every opportunity to get rid of each other and, at the slightest decent pretext, to surrender themselves into captivity, these pretexts did not always happen. Their very number and close, fast movement deprived them of this opportunity and made it not only difficult, but impossible for the Russians to stop this movement, towards which all the energy of the mass of the French was directed. Mechanical tearing of the body could not accelerate the decomposition process beyond a certain limit.
A lump of snow cannot be melted instantly. There is a known time limit before which no amount of heat can melt the snow. On the contrary, the more heat there is, the stronger the remaining snow becomes.
None of the Russian military leaders, except Kutuzov, understood this. When the direction of flight of the French army along the Smolensk road was determined, then what Konovnitsyn foresaw on the night of October 11 began to come true. All the highest ranks of the army wanted to distinguish themselves, cut off, intercept, capture, overthrow the French, and everyone demanded an offensive.
Kutuzov alone used all his strength (these forces are very small for each commander in chief) to counteract the offensive.
He could not tell them what we are saying now: why the battle, and blocking the road, and the loss of his people, and the inhuman finishing off of the unfortunate? Why all this, when one third of this army melted away from Moscow to Vyazma without a battle? But he told them, deducing from his old wisdom something that they could understand - he told them about the golden bridge, and they laughed at him, slandered him, and tore him, and threw him, and swaggered over the killed beast.
At Vyazma, Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov and others, being close to the French, could not resist the desire to cut off and overturn two French corps. To Kutuzov, notifying him of their intention, they sent in an envelope, instead of a report, a sheet of white paper.