Everyone probably knows that Pushkin shot with Dantes because of his wife Natalia, nee Goncharova. Was there really a romance between Natalie Pushkina and Georges Dantes?
Goncharova and Dantes
Natalie Goncharova was known as a real beauty and always enjoyed success with men. Of course, she had many admirers, they said that even the emperor himself was not indifferent to her ... At first, Pushkin was proud of his wife's success in society. Moreover, she was quite restrained, no one would dare to call her a coquette, making eyes at men. But around 1830, Natalya Nikolaevna met a French citizen, a cavalry guard, and also adopted son envoy of the Netherlands, Baron Louis Heckern Georges-Charles Dantes, who began to actively look after her.
Dantes literally pursued Natalie. At first, worship from the side young man she was even flattered. But somehow she told her husband and Princess Vyazemskaya that a certain friend (according to some sources, it was actually her distant cousin Idalia Poletika) invited her to her place, and at that time she herself left home. All this was arranged by Baron Gekkern. When Natalya was left alone in the room, Dantes entered and, taking out a pistol, began to threaten to shoot himself if she did not give herself to him ... Fortunately, the mistress's daughter soon entered the room, and the situation resolved itself.
family drama
On November 4 (16), 1836, Pushkin and several of his friends received by mail an anonymous libel in French, under the heading: "Patent for the title of cuckold." Its content was as follows: “Chevaliers of the first degree, commanders and cavaliers of the Most Serene Order of Cuckolds, having gathered in the Grand Chapter under the chairmanship of the Honorable Grand Master of the Order, His Excellency D.L. Naryshkin, unanimously elected Mr. Alexander Pushkin coadjutor of the Grand Master of the Order of the Cuckolds and historiographer of the Order. Permanent secretary Count I. Borch.
What these lines alluded to, no one had to guess.
Pushkin immediately sent Dantes a challenge to a duel.
However, at the same time, Dantes offered his hand and heart sister Natalia Nikolaevna - Ekaterina Nikolaevna. Relatives managed to dissuade Pushkin from a duel with a future relative ...
The marriage of Georges Dantes and Ekaterina Goncharova took place on January 10. Meanwhile, rumors about love affair between Dantes and Natalie Pushkina, everything continued to spread. On January 26, Pushkin sent a letter to Baron Gekkern, in which he said that he was refusing to give him and his adopted son a home. The answer was a challenge to a duel. But the baron could not fight Pushkin himself, as this would be a threat to his diplomatic career: this role was assigned to Dantes.
We know about the future: the duel that took place on January 27 on the Black River, and the sad end of the poet ...
Was there a betrayal?
In 1946, Henri Troyat published excerpts from d'Anthes' letters to Gekkern, dated early 1836, in which the author reports his passion for "the loveliest creature in Petersburg." According to Dantes, the husband of this woman is "rabidly jealous," but she feeds love feelings to him, Georges... The researcher Tsvyalovsky, who translated the letters into Russian in 1951, believes that they were talking about Natalie Pushkina. “The sincerity and depth of Dantes' feelings for Natalya Nikolaevna, on the basis of the letters cited, of course, cannot be doubted,” writes Tsvyalovsky. — Furthermore, the reciprocal feeling of Natalya Nikolaevna for Dantes now also cannot be subjected to any doubt.
Meanwhile, another Pushkinist, N.A. Raevsky, points to the lines from the letter, from which it follows that the proposal to violate the marital duty for his sake, the beloved answered Dantes with a refusal.
According to the literary critic Yu. Lotman, Natalya Pushkina served only as a screen: an affair with a brilliant secular beauty was intended to hide the true nature of Dantes' relationship with Gekkern, who had homosexual inclinations. And the letters were written on purpose and served as another proof of Dantes' love for this woman.
V. Fridkin in the book "From Foreign Pushkiniana" claims that after receiving the libel, Pushkin explained to his wife, and she confessed to him that she really accepted Dantes' advances, while at the same time remaining physically faithful to her husband. “The poet's house at that moment collapsed like a card,” writes Friedkin. Pushkin has lost the meaning of his life. You can't want to kill another person just because your wife loved him. But you can wish death for yourself because of this.
It is known that Natalya Nikolaevna was very sad for her husband and even lay in a fever for several days. She married only seven years after the death of Pushkin - for General Peter Lansky. Throughout her life, the poet's widow was accompanied by rumors about her guilt in the death of her first husband. So, immediately after the death of Pushkin, an anonymous poem began to circulate in the lists: “Everything here breathes contempt for you ... You are a reproach to the whole world, a traitor and the wife of a poet.”
It is possible that all these events became an indirect cause of Natalya Lanskaya's health problems and her relatively early death at the age of 51 from pneumonia. It happened in November 1863. The historian and literary critic Pyotr Bartenev published the following obituary in one of the St. Petersburg newspapers: “On November 26 of this year, Natalya Nikolaevna Lanskaya, nee Goncharova, died in St. Petersburg at the age of 52, in her first marriage to A.S. Pushkin. Her name will long be pronounced in our public memories and in the very history of Russian literature.
After all, it is known that the desire of Natalya Nikolaevna to take two sisters, Ekaterina and Alexandra, into her house did not at all delight Pushkin. With the foresight of an experienced man, he warned his young wife: “Hey, wife! Look ... My opinion: the family should be one under one roof: husband, wife, children - for the time being small; parents when they are old.
But on the other hand, Alexander Sergeevich knew how to understand and appreciate generous impulses. Natasha is kind, she wants to rescue the sisters from the Kaluga outback and marry them off, who have sat out in girlhood. And in the fall of 1834, all the Goncharov sisters were already covered by one - Pushkin's - roof. “I ... am so happy, so calm, I never dreamed of such happiness, so I really don’t know how I can ever thank Tasha (as the sisters called Natalya Nikolaevna. - L.T.) and her husband for everything they do for us,” Ekaterina Goncharova wrote to her brother. Indeed, at first everything in the family was amicable, in harmony, cheerfully.
Then, in a nightmare, two sisters, the eldest and the youngest, could not have dreamed that their very names: Ekaterina Dantes and Natalya Pushkina - would become the personification of a deadly, tragic confrontation, the price of which is life. But the die is cast: one of them is destined to remain a widow. Widowhood fell to Pushkin's wife.
What happened to Catherine?
St. Isaac's Cathedral has hardly seen a stranger wedding. Nobody believed that it would take place. Those who saw the bride on the eve of a significant event wrote that "her veil hides tears that would be enough to fill the Baltic Sea." About the groom - that he looks "not at all in love."
“...Never since the light was on, there has been such a noise that trembles the air in all St. Petersburg living rooms. Heeckeren-Dantès is getting married! Here is an event that absorbs everyone and excites a hundred-mouthed rumor ... He marries the eldest Goncharova, an ugly, black and poor sister of the white-faced poetic beauty of Pushkin's wife, ”writes one high-society lady, calling it all “an incomprehensible story.” If the colors are exaggerated here, then only in assessing the appearance of Dantes' bride. We can judge this from the remaining portraits. 
The elder Goncharova cannot be called an ugly girl. But in the right features, in the heavy "owl" look of large dark eyes, something that without it even absolute beauty is flawed is really missing - the charm of femininity. It seems that this face generally avoids smiling, preferring to remain cold and withdrawn. If we add to this the dangerous neighborhood of a radiant, charming sister, we have to admit how small were Catherine's chances to arrange her happiness. “Who looks at a mediocre painting if Raphael’s Madonna is nearby?” one contemporary remarked venomously. Yes, and Pushkin, of course, was right when he said that Natalie was a hindrance to both sisters.
No matter how much she fussed about suitors for them, everyone who has eyes will fall in love with her. But if Alexandra, sincerely devoted to her sister and her husband, patiently endured her position, then the proud, secretive Catherine found it much more difficult to cope with herself. The internal discord between her and Natalie, hidden for the time being, began from the time when Dantes appeared on the horizon.
Catherine lost her head, as one of her contemporaries put it, she “fell in love”. One can imagine what a hellish flame raged in her chest when she, following the handsome Georges with loving eyes, saw that he was openly courting her married sister. Meanwhile, everything was developing in such a way that Catherine, in order to once again to see the object of her passion, it was Natalie who had to resort to the help: unmarried girl could not appear anywhere alone. It was not for nothing that Alexander Sergeevich suspected that it was not his wife’s fault for frequent absences from home: “It’s the sisters who are disturbing you,” and he advised: “Don’t listen to the sisters, don’t drag around the festivities from morning to night.”
It is felt that the sisters, overwhelmed by the passion to travel as often as possible, pestered not only the soft-hearted Natasha, but also Alexander Sergeevich. This is evidenced by Pushkin's letter to Count Bobrinsky. “We received,” he wrote, “the following invitation on behalf of Countess Bobrinsky: “Mr. and Mrs. Pushkin and her sisters, etc.” Hence the strange excitement among my women... Which one? I assumed that this was just a mistake, I take the liberty of turning to you in order to lead us out of error and establish peace in my house.
But imagine the position of Catherine. Forced to constantly be near the divine sister and least of all desire it, to love desperately and to be a witness to the relentless red tape of her "subject" - hardly any woman will not be frightened by such a test.
Catherine was three years older than Dantes, from a family whose wealth was a thing of the past. From the very beginning, for Dantes, who came to Russia to make a career, curry favor, marry a well-born and rich, Goncharova did not represent anything interesting. But Dantes quickly realized what benefits for the development of an affair with Pushkina can easily be extracted from rapprochement with her sister, who looked at him with admiration. You can visit the Pushkins, see Natalie in the homes of their friends and acquaintances, hiding behind, like a shield, the passion of an old maid.
In the Karamzins' correspondence there is a significant remark characterizing the three stages through which this passion passed. We read about Catherine Dantes there: "... she who played the role of a matchmaker for so long, became in turn a mistress, and then a wife."
“In her turn, she became a mistress ...” Meanwhile, the girl who had given herself to Dantes began to understand with horror how reckless she had done: Georges was very far from the thought of legitimizing their relationship. He continues to pursue Natalie with courtship. Moreover, Natalie has a date with Dantes, where they are left alone, and he threatens to shoot himself if she does not give herself to him. The adoptive father of Dantes, the Dutch envoy Gekkeren, an intriguer, a man without conscience and honor, who acted in concert with Georges, asks Natalie to “pity” his son. Pushkin became aware of this. Following this, he received the insulting "cuckold diploma". The situation escalated to the point. Pushkin sent a call...
And then Dantes and Heckeren Sr. resorted to a completely unexpected maneuver: they announced that Georges was wooing Ekaterina Goncharova. Thus, the affair with Natalie was proposed to be considered a complete illusion and misunderstanding.
How rich and handsome Georges, showered with the attention of St. Petersburg charmers, was across the throat of a wedding with a provincial girl who had sat up in the girls, who achieved him with heavy adoration, there is another evidence. It would seem, already pinned to the wall by Pushkin's fury, just two weeks before the courtship to Catherine, he asked for the hand of Princess Baryatinsky. But it was a complete fiasco. What remained was a duel or a forced marriage.
In the first case, his career in Russia would be over. It was possible to put an end to it even if a secret connection with Catherine, the maid of honor of the Empress, was discovered. In addition, a duel with Pushkin, even without a bloody outcome, would forever alienate Natalie from him, while marriage gave chances for new rapprochements now under the banner of family relations. So, there was too much to say in favor of marriage. Dante made up his mind. After pressure from friends and persuasion from the Goncharov sisters, Pushkin took the challenge back. Annoyance from marrying an unloved woman Dantes wanted to compensate at least financially. It was Pushkin who could have taken a dowry. This did not occur to Dantes, and truly ruinous expenses were required from the Goncharov family to satisfy his demands.
The eldest of the Goncharov brothers, Dmitry Nikolaevich, who arrived at the wedding, found himself in an uncomfortable situation. He had no money with him, and the groom demanded a dowry not only in things, but also in cash. Goncharov rushed to look for money. He was rescued by an unexpected contract, under which he managed to get a large advance. Dantes, at his request, was paid ten thousand of the twenty received. We traded. The groom pressed on. In order not to put his sister in a humiliating position, Dmitry Goncharov agreed to send five thousand rents from Goncharov's estates to the Dantes starting in 1836 (Note that this year was almost running out.)
Among other things, the brother left the newlywed another five thousand rubles. “We must think,” writes researcher M. Yashin, “that this amount was handed over to the prudent groom.” In other words, Dmitry Nikolaevich left Petersburg literally robbed by Dantes.
The marriage of Dantes with the twenty-eight-year-old "Mr. Goncharova" fell on January 10, 1837. By the way, in the register of births St. Isaac's Cathedral the age of the bride is reduced by two years. And on the seventeenth, a duel took place on the Black River. Every day between the two numbers "the tenth - the seventeenth" was preparing a fatal event.
As if taking revenge on Pushkin for the fact that their confrontation led to an unwanted marriage, Dantes began courting Natalie with even greater zeal. “At the balls, he danced and was kind to Natalya Nikolaevna, at dinner he drank to her health, in a word, he brought everyone to the point where they began to talk about his love again,” an eyewitness writes. “Natalie lowers her eyes and blushes under the hot and long gaze of her son-in-law - this begins to become something more than ordinary immorality; Catherine (Catherine Dantes. - L.T.) directs her jealous lorgnette at both of them. Of course, her feelings were not taken into account by her young husband.
The thought is sad, but hardly disputed: it was the fatal duel, after which Dantes was judged, demoted to the soldiers and expelled from Russia, that saved Catherine from the role of an abandoned wife, prepared for her by her husband. Now, following him, she was leaving Russia and probably assumed that marriage away from the beautiful Natalie would bring her hard-won laurels ...
The circle of alienation around Catherine Dantes was already marked on the day of the wedding. To make her look family holiday, the bride diligently invited her loved ones. However, the brothers left the wedding dinner without saying goodbye to their sister. Natalya Nikolaevna, of course, without Pushkin, was present only at the wedding. Alexander Sergeevich refused to receive Dantesov in his house. The middle sister, Alexandra, did not hide her antipathy towards Catherine's husband.
Subsequently, none of the Goncharovs ever forgave Catherine for something else: there is very strong evidence that Madame Dantes knew about the duel on the Black River in advance. She knew, but did nothing to stop her. Didn't tell my sister. How not to remember her words: “I really don’t know how I can ever thank Tasha and her husband for everything they do for us ...”
Before leaving St. Petersburg, Ekaterina Dantes came to her sister-widow, who was left with four children in her arms. The eldest daughter was four and a half years old, the youngest eight months old.
The meeting took place in the presence of the middle sister Alexandra, brothers and aunt Zagryazhskaya. What kind of conversation came out and what she said, what Natalya Nikolaevna accused her sister of, we do not know. And was she able to carry on a heavy conversation? The disease that struck her after the death of her husband was just receding. According to eyewitnesses, at that time Pushkin's widow was "still weak, but quieter and calmer."
“Both sisters saw each other to say goodbye, probably forever,” writes S.N. Karamzin. - And then, finally, Catherine at least a little understood the misfortune that she should have felt on her conscience; she wept, but until that moment she was calm, cheerful, laughing, and spoke only of her happiness to everyone who visited her. What a chump and a fool!”
It is unlikely that the catastrophe that happened really left Catherine indifferent. It is much easier to assume that she was an exceptionally strong-willed, persistent nature in achieving her goal, who knew how to hide true feelings. It cannot be that all this was a pretense, eyewitnesses noticed, surprised at the contented appearance of Dantes' wife. This would require inhuman secrecy, and then such a game would have to be played all my life.
On April 1, 1837, Catherine Dantes left Russia following her exiled husband. As Schegolev wrote: “She did not blame her husband for anything and considered Pushkin to be guilty of everything, to such an extent that, leaving Russia after Pushkin’s death, she had the impudent stupidity to say: “I forgive Pushkin!”
The courage and patience with which Catherine endured life in a foreign land among the Dantes-Gekkeren, fed on one thing - love for her husband. It was an unreasoning, boundless feeling. Its strength is all the more amazing because it was unrequited. Dantes looked at his marriage as nothing more than bondage for life. With all her efforts to portray herself as a happy wife, Catherine in her letters to her brothers could not cite a single fact that would testify, if not about affection, then at least about her husband’s warm attitude towards her. She invariably remained true to what she wrote to the handsome Georges at the very beginning of her marriage: “The only thing I want you to know, of which you are already quite sure, is that I love you deeply, strongly and that you all my happiness, only in you, you alone ... "
The cherished dream of Catherine Dantes was to give her husband an heir. Having become pregnant for the first time, she believed that this was exactly what would happen. Experiencing the first sensations of motherhood, she wrote to Dantes who had left Petersburg about not yet born child: "As befits a respectable and loving son, he is very naughty because his adored dad was taken from him." But the hopes of the loving wife were not destined to come true: the "adored father" received three daughters one after another - Matilda, Bertha, Leonie-Charlotte. Note that, according to the custom of that time, one of the newborns was usually given the name of the mother. The Pushkins had Natalya Jr. Probably, such "subtleties" did not come to the cold head of Dantes.
Meanwhile, one can see a kind of mercy of fate in the fact that Dantes' wife was not destined to live up to the time when their youngest daughter Leonie became an adult. This girl represented a riddle, an inexplicable phenomenon. As if the young goddess of retribution was born and raised in a family where everything connected with Russia aroused dull malice ...
Leonie Dantes was born in April 1840. “Unfortunately, this is a girl again,” grandfather Baron Gekkeren spoke of the third granddaughter. A mother in labor, who dreamed of giving her husband a son, fell into anguish.
It is impossible even to imagine how, in what ways, Leonie Dantes, who grew up in a family where they did not hear the Russian word, perfectly learned to read and write in the language of the great relative of Alexander Sergeevich. Catherine Dantes had nothing to do with it: Leonie-Charlotte was three years old when she died.
Incredibly generously endowed with abilities, having completed a course at the Polytechnic (!) Institute, Leonia-Charlotte professed the cult of Pushkin and Russia. Judging by the stories, she knew by heart many of Alexander Sergeevich's poems and could tirelessly, for hours, recite them. Several portraits of the poet hung in her room. And most importantly: Leonie knew "Petersburg history." This could not but affect the relationship with his father. The word "murderer" was the last thing Dantes heard from his daughter.
She never spoke to him again and ended her days in a psychiatric hospital. “We would not be at all surprised,” wrote Pushkinists M. Dementiev and I. Obodovskaya, “if Georges Dantes, whom she accused of Pushkin’s death, had hidden her there.”
The diagnosis, which, under the dictation of Dantes, was "put" to the unfortunate girl, sounded like this: "Erotic Pushkinomania, afterlife love for his uncle." 
How did Ekaterina Nikolaevna live in Sulz, lost in the north-west of France, where the Dantes had an ancestral home? Brother Dmitry was practically the only one who kept up correspondence with her. Catherine complained that her sisters did not write to her, and even her only aunt, apparently, did not want to compromise herself with her relationship with her. Mother's letters are rare. With all her pride, CatherineNikolaevna makes it clear that it is bitter for her to feel like a cut off slice.
However, she remains true to herself: little Sulz, whom her brother could not find on the map, is praising with might and main. No matter how much Dmitry asks for specific details about her life, Ekaterina Dantes prefers to get by with general, streamlined phrases. She, of course, does not write about the fact that a trip to Vienna with her husband laid a stone on her soul. In a city where there were many Russians, even six years after the "famous events", the Dantes spouses felt a hostile attitude towards themselves. It was all the more difficult for the nee Goncharova. Russia, the native family still were not forgotten. When Ekaterina Nikolaevna was sure that the letter would bypass her husband's censorship, she no, no, and yes, she gave vent to hidden longing. “Everything that comes to me from Russia is always extremely dear to me ... I keep the greatest love for her and for all of you. This is my creed,” she writes to her brother.
A deep shock for her was the wounding of Dantes on the hunt. “I almost got killed!..” Was the forester's shot accidental? Obscure history. A few years later, on a hunt from the same accidental shot, Dantes' second in a duel with Pushkin, Viscount Auguste d'Archiac, died. “No, that would be too terrible,” Ekaterina Nikolaevna shuddered at the mere thought of what could happen. she is a sister with her four kids left without a father?
Not in a single letter, not in the slightest hint, does Madame Dantes express the slightest remorse or simply regret for the Petersburg tragedy. But I couldn't forget...
During the six years of marriage, Dantes' wife gave birth five times. Some births were unsuccessful - she lost her child, and it was a boy. And Ekaterina Nikolaevna continued to frantically dream of an heir for Georges. Her grandson, relying on family traditions, testified that the unfortunate woman imposed heavy vows on herself. I went barefoot to a small nearby chapel that sheltered the miraculous Madonna. Here she fervently prayed for the gift of a son to her.
And in September 1843, Ekaterina Nikolaevna gave birth to a boy named Louis-Joseph-Georges-Charles-Maurice. Soon a letter flew to Russia with the news that Catherine was in serious condition: She has postpartum fever.
A truly inimitable passage - Heckeren Sr. rests on the fact that moral reasons played a role in the illness of his daughter-in-law. “Do you know what those moral reasons are? - the baron asks pathetically. “This is the grief that you cause her ... you already owe her 20 thousand rubles.”
Money, money, money, money - this is the constant motive of all the letters of these barons to their Russian relatives. With the stubbornness of petty rentiers, the rich Dantes-Gekkerens "extort" from the impoverished Goncharovs the five thousand rubles promised by Dmitry Nikolayevich. Any clue, any argument is taken into service, just to get a benefit. Even near-death suffering becomes an instrument of moral blackmail: “Send money, this will help our glorious, kind Katrin” - this is how Heckeren should be understood, and this is all he is with his boundless cynicism.
But the fate of Ekaterina Nikolaevna was sealed. She was dying hard, but even during her agony, no one heard her complain or moan. The habit of enduring, of not showing her suffering in any way, remained with her to the end. On October 15, 1843, Goncharova-Dantes died and was buried in Sulz.
“She sacrificed her life quite consciously,” these words from the memoirs of Dantes’ grandson Louis Metman drew upon themselves Special attention Pushkin researchers. What is behind them? Maybe Ekaterina Nikolaevna deliberately made a choice between a child and herself, tired of being a toy in the hands of a callous, cold family and realizing the doom of her hopes to melt her husband's icy indifference? A truly tragic fate...
The younger sister Natalya Nikolaevna, with her irreparable loss, early widowhood, nevertheless knew Pushkin's love, then the selfless devotion of her second husband, Peter Lansky. Relatives and friends of the poet tried to alleviate her fate, she did not break away from her usual soil, environment, from those ties that invisibly keep a person afloat, heal, give strength.
Ekaterina Nikolaevna was deprived of all this, and, of course, being a smart woman, she could not help but understand the hopelessness of her situation, the uselessness of the sacrifices made. Even before the wedding with Dantes, a premonition tormented Ekaterina Nikolaevna: “My happiness is already irretrievably lost, I am too sure that it and I will never meet on this long-suffering earth, and the only mercy that I ask God is to put an end to life, so little useful, if not more like mine. Her heart didn't deceive her... 
The death of his wife, as it were, breathed a second wind into the sluggish existence of Dantes. The one that personified the collapse of a longed-for career and, in general, all Petersburg troubles, no longer existed. The Baron felt himself free, strong, ready to demand revenge from life. The unmarried sister of Dantes undertook to raise the children. He himself focused his attention on the political and financial field. Those to whom the lieutenant of the cavalry regiment seemed a useless rhetoric were far from the truth. Agile, assertive, perfectly aware of the situation and able to benefit from everything, Dantes rapidly made a career.
Now the banker and industrialist Dantes only occasionally ran into the family estate, settling in Paris, where he built himself a three-story mansion. But neither the “brilliant”, as his grandson testified, position in society, nor the large funds received from insurance operations, did not wean Dantes from the manners of the redneck. After the death in 1848 of his mother-in-law, Natalya Ivanovna Goncharova, he demanded his share of the inheritance from the brothers of his late wife and even turned to Nicholas I, seeking support in this matter. Goncharov's rubles settled in a mansion on the Champs Elysees.
Dantes died at the age of eighty-four, having outlived his Russian wife by more than half a century.
Photo source: ru.wikipedia.org, www.liveinternet.ru, www.magput.ru, www.proza.ru, www.greatwomen.com.ua, commons.wikimedia.org
Tretyakova L. On a whim of fate. Novels about women's destinies. – M.: Izograph, EKSMO-Press. 2001 - S. 58-74
Natalya was the first beauty of Moscow, the main pearl of any ball, an involuntary conqueror of hearts. But for us, she always remains, first of all, Pushkin's wife.
The tragic death of the poet put an undeserved stigma on the name of Natalia Goncharova: until now, many blame her for that fatal duel with Dantes.
To this was added many more myths based solely on rumors and gossip of envious people and the happiness of this harmonious couple - and as a result, Natalia Goncharova was presented by people's rumors as a frivolous beauty, because of whose endless flirting the great Russian poet died so early.
What was she really like? These five facts from her biography will forever change our understanding of her.
1. The marriage of Natalia Goncharova and Alexander Pushkin did not take place at all because of selfish motives.
Many believe that young Natalya was so vain that she agreed to marry the famous poet in order to get him. famous surname. Pushkin, on the other hand, is credited with a thirst for enrichment at the expense of Natalya's dowry - as if he decided to marry, first of all, Goncharova's money.
However, it should be noted that, firstly, at that time Pushkin did not at all seem such an enviable groom. The glory of a freethinker, a bully, was firmly entrenched behind him, he did not fall under the covert surveillance of the police.
And secondly, his financial situation left much to be desired - the poet's craft brought unstable income and he often went into debt. In a word, the mother of Natalya Goncharova, Natalya Ivanovna, was far from delighted with Pushkin's matchmaking with her youngest daughter.
She was a strict and domineering woman, and the last word in the family always remained for her. After Pushkin's first proposal, a vague answer followed that Natalya was still too young to get married and that she would have to wait, i.e. no unequivocal refusal, no consent.
Pushkin was so disappointed with this answer that, without delay, he went to the Caucasus, to the active army. Young Natalya sincerely fell in love with Pushkin - her letters to the poet speak eloquently about this.
She even dared to go against her mother and write to her grandfather, Afanasy Nikolaevich, for permission to marry the poet, begging him not to listen to slander and speculation.
But it should be said that Pushkin's relationship with his mother-in-law was always very tense - he did not pass common destiny all sons-in-law. Goncharova also did not have a rich dowry.
Moreover, Pushkin himself gave money to the Goncharov family on credit - for the dowry of his bride. And yet the marriage for the poet became very happy: in his letters to friends, he expressed his boundless love and tenderness for his wife.
Having barely married, Alexander Sergeevich immediately began to take his young wife to balls and masquerades. “Lovely, how good,” was the general opinion about Natalie. She was not socialite like, say, Dolly Ficquelmont or Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset.
Often in the morning she sat in the living room with knitting and embroidery, all alone. She had no one to say a word to, because Pushkin had a habit of locking himself in his office after breakfast and writing until two in the afternoon, but she did not dare and did not want to interfere with him, forbidding the servants to make noise and disturb the master in vain.
In those bitter February days, Natalie was sent down comfort. Conversations with the confessor of the royal family. Now the name of Protopresbyter and Doctor of Theology, member of the Holy Synod Vasily Bazhanov is known to few. And once his word was heeded Russian monarchs the anointed of God.
For many years Nicholas I and Alexander II, empresses and heirs confessed to him. How many palace secrets did Vasily Bazhanov take with him to the grave! Prince Peter Vyazemsky writes that the poet's widow confesses every day to Fr. Bazhanov, and that he was "very touched by the disposition of her soul and also convinced of her purity."
Moreover, he calls his spiritual daughter "the angel of purity." The evidence is truly priceless! But, unfortunately, not heard in the chorus of voices that judged the 24-year-old widow. Natalia Nikolaevna was a true Christian, brought up from childhood in strict Orthodox traditions.
What did she tell the confessor in confession? What burden lay on her heart? What did you blame yourself for? She could not hide the fateful meeting with Dantes in November 1836. It was a conspiracy, a deceit, a trap, and she fell into it ...
Much later, Natalia Nikolaevna admitted: “I suffered too much and fully atoned for the mistakes that I could have made in my youth ...” Note that "could do"! And Dantes himself is one of the main actors bloody drama made an unusual confession.
And he can be trusted, because it was not written for the public: “She was so beautiful that she seemed like an angel descended from heaven ... She remained pure and can hold her head high, not lowering her to anyone in the whole world. There is no other woman who would behave in the same way.”
It is worth once again reading the lines from the letters of Prince Vyazemsky - they contain the key to the intricate dueling story: “Pushkin and his wife fell into a vile trap, they were killed”; "Infernal nets, infernal machinations were arranged against Pushkin and his wife."
2. Natalya Goncharova was far from a frivolous coquette.
Contemporaries describe Natalia Nikolaevna as a girl of graceful nobility and modesty. She not only did not boast of her beauty, but rather was embarrassed by it, and was distinguished by amazing tact compared to the rest of her sisters and mother.
Life with the poet was not easy: Natalia had to take on the decision of all household issues but she never murmured. Natalya always expressed deep concern for Pushkin, trying in every possible way to fence him off from unnecessary fuss and problems so that he could completely immerse himself in creativity with a free head.
Often Natalya stood up for her husband before the publishers, demanding from them an increase in fees, which, of course, the poet himself could not ask for.
3. Natalia Goncharova had no affair with Dantes, but his defiant behavior caused a fatal duel.
Pushkin twice challenged Dantes to a duel. The first time was in 1836, when a dirty anonymous letter was planted in the poet's house.
But Natalya Nikolaevna then managed, with the help of Pushkin's friends, to hush up this matter, and Dantes even married older sister Natalia, having become related to the Pushkins.
But even after the wedding, Dantes continued to publicly show signs of attention to Natalya, which Pushkin could not stand and sent the second, last call.
Pushkin's friends wrote in their memoirs that the poet did not doubt for a moment the devotion of his wife, but he was forced to call the insolent man to account in order to put an end to the dirty gossip spread about his wife.
Natalya did not know anything about the duel, otherwise she could have prevented it again, but she was visiting a friend with her children when Pushkin left for his last duel.
4. Goncharova did not cooperate with the police secret police, as many believe, and, of course, could in no way participate in Benckendorff's fictional conspiracy against the poet.
The reason for such rumors was that after the death of Pushkin, Nicholas I personally paid all the poet's debts and assigned life benefits to his children.
The death of Pushkin was not needed by the government - on the contrary, the government has always been loyal to the poet, trying to make him the mouthpiece of the empire.
Benckendorff, in his reports to the emperor, repeatedly noted that Pushkin needed to stay on public service- so he will be completely under control and will be of great benefit to the empire.
5. Natalya Goncharova did not betray Pushkin by remarrying after his death.
On his deathbed, Pushkin bequeathed to her to mourn for him for two years, and then to marry a worthy man. He knew perfectly well that it would not be easy for a single woman with four children to live.
At the time of Pushkin's death, Natalya was only 24 years old, but she buried her youth and completely retired from social life. Noble and wealthy men wooed her, but she remained adamant.
And only seven years after the death of the poet, Natalya found her happiness - they became General Peter Lanskoy. He was not showered with wealth and honors, but he sincerely fell in love with Natalya and accepted her children as his own.
Pushkin died on Friday. This day of the week became mourning for Natalia. Until the end of her life on Friday, she did not go anywhere, “indulged in sad memories and did not eat anything all day.
Lanskoy adored his wife, called her his greatest treasure. In marriage, she bore him three more children and lived happily until the end of her days. At 51, Natalya Nikolaevna died.
“Lanskaya is buried here… The necropolis was covered with snow.
And the ear still caresses ... Holy name - Natalie
How strange that she is Lanskaya ... I didn’t bring flowers to Lanskaya,
And the one whose image arises ... From an old memory and tears ... "
(A. Dementiev)
Her husband survived her for 14 years, never ceasing to remember and mourn his precious Natasha.
Pushkin, while in Mikhailovsky, often wrote letters to his wife in Moscow. He was very bored and jealous of Natalya Nikolaevna for her many admirers. In one of the letters, he wrote prophetic words: “You seem to have flirted in the wrong way. Look: it’s not for nothing that coquetry is not in fashion and is considered a sign in bad taste. It makes little sense. You rejoice that males run after you like a bitch, raising their tail with a tube ... there is something to rejoice about! .. Why should you accept men who look after you? You don’t know who you will fall for ... "How right Pushkin was! Natalya Nikolaevna, with her addiction to innocent coquetry, will very soon meet a fan named Georges Dantes, who will derail her barely settled life ...
Dantes is the adopted son of the Dutch envoy to Russia, Baron Louis de Gekkeren, who, when the fatal duel took place, was not 45 years old. They met by chance in Germany in October 1833, when the baron was returning to Russia from vacation. Staying at the hotel, he learned that there was a sick French officer who was going to Russia. Heckeren suggested that Dantes follow together to Petersburg.
In 1836, the Frenchman becomes his adopted son and Dutch subject. In order to get permission for this, Heckeren seeks a royal decree that allowed Dantes to take the name, title, coat of arms of the baron for himself and his children. Subsequently, it turned out that, for formal reasons, he did not receive Dutch citizenship, although he remained a Dutch nobleman. Gekkeren, as an adoptive parent, did not meet the requirements of the laws of the country: he was less than 50 years old, his acquaintance with Dantes lasted only 3 years. In addition, the adoptee must be a minor. But even if consent to the adoption had been obtained, its announcement should have taken place no earlier than a year later, that is, on May 5, 1837. Thus, Heckeren and Dantes resorted to deception.
What attracted Dantes to Russia? Lermontov wrote that he "... from afar, like hundreds of fugitives, was abandoned to us by the will of fate to catch happiness and rank." According to the biographers of Dantes, he could not find an application for his abilities in the provincial life that fell to his lot, and therefore decided to enter the service abroad, as was often practiced at that time.
Georges Dantes Baron Louis de Heckeren
Gekkeren, fascinated by the mind and beauty of Georges Dantes, took part in it. You can admire the appearance and abilities of a young officer, but not to the point of adopting him. Was there another, more good reason? Much is explained by the memoirs of Prince Trubetskoy, who served in the same regiment with Dantes, who wrote about his colleague: “And he was followed by pranks, but completely innocent and characteristic of young people, except for one, which, however, we learned much later. I don’t know how to say whether he lived with Gekkeren, or Gekkeren lived with him ... Apparently, in relations with Gekkern, he played only a passive role. Bymemoirs of Pushkin's second Danzas, Dantes had "some kind of innate ability to please everyone at first sight<…>enjoyed a very good reputation and fully deserved it, if you do not reproach him for his foppishness and weakness for boasting about his successes with women.
In the autumn of 1836, clouds gathered over the cloudless life of the Gekkerens in St. Petersburg. “How did it happen, my friend, that you could talk about my household affairs with Gekkern as an envoy?” The future king of the Netherlands, Wilhelm II, would write to his brother-in-law Nicholas I. “He outlined all this in an official dispatch…” Heckeren made an unacceptable mistake: he handed over to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands the contents of his private conversation with Nicholas I, who told him something about Wilhelm's "household affairs". But, of course, the baron in no way wanted to embroil the states. After this letter, relations with the representation of the Netherlands in Russia became cool. The highest displeasure fell on Dantes. The young lieutenant, who, in the opinion of Pushkin's second Danzas, "enjoyed a very good reputation and fully deserved it", in short term receives more administrative penalties than in the previous three years. After adoption, he is not invited to balls at the Anichkov Palace at all. And then Pushkin refused Dantes from the house. They knew each other quite closely, and if they were not friends, then they treated each other with sympathy. Alexander Sergeevich considered the cavalry guard a pleasant and witty person and laughed heartily at his puns. Georges was a frequent visitor to their house, amused the Goncharov sisters. From the summer of 1836 they met at the Karamzins'. And he, of course, looked after Natalya Nikolaevna. But he did not ignore either her sister Catherine or other ladies. His name could then be in the diary of any secular girl. He joked, raised cheerful toasts. "Your son's behavior did not go beyond the limits of decency," Pushkin wrote in a draft letter to Heckeren.
Without dwelling on the numerous events that preceded the duel, let's say that on January 10, 1837, shortly before the duel, Dantes, to everyone's surprise, marries Ekaterina Nikolaevna Goncharova, the elder sister of Pushkin's wife. The poet was not present at the wedding, but Natalya Nikolaevna was. It is not known for certain why Dantes, who was courting Natalya Nikolaevna, married her sister? Some historians believe that he did this out of cowardice, trying to avoid a duel with Pushkin. There is a version that the tsar forced him to marry Ekaterina Goncharova in order to stop courting Natalia. Perhaps Dantes married Ekaterina in order to be closer to the Pushkin family and communicate more often with Natalie.
Ekaterina Goncharova-Dantes
After a duel, the slightly wounded Dantes was deprived of his rank, the title of a Russian nobleman by a military court and demoted to the soldiers. A few weeks later he was expelled from Russia. Dantes and his wife went to Alsace, to the city of Sulz, where the Dantes family estate was located.After the duel, Dantes also got from the Dutch king, who was outraged not by the fact that Dantes fought a duel and killed Pushkin, but by the fact that he, being a citizen of Holland, was also an officer in the Russian army: the Dutch constitution forbade its citizens to serve in foreign troops.For Heeckeren, the duel served as a convenient pretext for recalling him from Russia. Formally, the Dutch envoy was recalled for consultations. But having received a diamond snuffbox as a gift from Nicholas I, which was usually given to foreign ambassadors leaving Russia forever, he realized that he would never return to this country. Heckeren sought an audience with Nicholas I, but was refused. Then he sent a letter to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he asked for a transfer to another position.
After their arrival, Georges and Catherine settled in the Dantes castle. Baron Gekkeren also lived there at one time. Then he left Sulz, becoming the Dutch envoy to Austria. After the brilliant St. Petersburg, the provincial town seemed to Catherine a hole. After all, she was a maid of honor imperial court. But soon she got used to the unusual environment, locals loved her. She was constantly worried about money. After the wedding, Dantes was supposed to receive five thousand rubles from the Goncharov family annually. However, relatives in Russia experienced financial difficulties, and the money did not come regularly. Catherine constantly reminded in letters about money, and once Dantes himself wrote an extremely immodest letter, demanding money. The Sulz Museum houses a formal portrait of Catherine, which was once located in the Dantes-Gekkeren castle. It depicts a stately woman. Although she did not look very attractive, she somehow resembled her younger sister, the lovely Natalie Pushkin. The portrait image of Catherine coincides with the description of her appearance: "She was tall and slender. Her black, slightly short-sighted eyes enlivened her face with a graceful oval and matte skin color."
In 1837, Matilda-Eugenia is born, then Bertha-Josephine and Leonia-Charlotte appear. The couple dream of a son, and in order to beg him from God, Catherine, according to the local tradition, went barefoot to the chapel of the Virgin Mary, located five kilometers from the castle. The Lord heard her prayers and gave her a son, but took her life from her. A few days after the birth of Louis-Joseph, in October 1843, she dies at the age of 32 from complications after giving birth to her son.
In 1848 Dantes began trial against the Goncharovs (to the detriment of the interests of the Pushkin family) to recover from them the inheritance of their late wife. Several times in this case, he addressed letters to Nicholas I. In 1851, the emperor handed over one of the petitions of Dantes to Benkendorfwith the aim of "to persuade the Goncharov brothers to a peaceful agreement with him [Dantes]". In 1858, the guardianship of Pushkin's children decided to reject the claim.
Left a widower with four children, Dantes never remarried and lived long life. His career was successful. He was mayor of Sulz, and in 1852 he was elected senator. In the same year, in Germany, he met with Nicholas I, during which the tsar "expressed his favor."Dantes died in 1895 at the age of 83, having outlived his wife by 53 years. In 1875, the adoptive father, Baron Gekkeren, again settled in the Dantes family, leaving the diplomatic service. He passed away at the age of 92. At the city cemetery of Sulza, Ekaterina is buried next to Dantes' father. The grave of her husband is in the next row, a little to the side - the ashes of the former Dutch envoy to Russia.
It is not known how the great Russian poet was treated in the Dantes family. According to some accounts, he was adored by the youngest daughter of Leonia-Charlotte. She knew many of his poems by heart. She often prayed before the portrait of her uncle. And once, during a quarrel, she called Dantes the killer of Pushkin.Writer Erviemet Dantes at the end of his life in a club on the Champs Elyseesin Paris: "For several years, every evening at about six o'clock, I saw a tall old man who looked like a bean and had excellent bearing. The only thing I knew about him was that that six decades before - yes, in such a distant past! - he killed Pushkin in a duel. I saw his strong appearance, his old man's step ... and said to myself: "Here is the one who brought death to Pushkin, and him immortality, just like the temple of Ephesus- the person who burned it".
In the living room of the estate of the Linen Factory, the family nest of the Goncharovs, there are two portraits side by side - Pushkin and Dantes. Victim and killer! But why? It's simple: for the owners of the estate, they are equally close relatives. Alexander Pushkin and Georges Dantes are the husbands of sisters - Natalia and Ekaterina Goncharova. In-laws…
Here, in the Linen Factory, you clearly understand: the roots tragic death The poet is in the family. Love and betrayal, envy and jealousy were intertwined into such a burning ball that it was impossible to unravel, only to cut it with blood.
rare bird
... The linen factory does not look much like an estate - this is already clear from the name. Above the arch of the gate is the dome of the chapel, and under it, growling and smoking, heavy wagons squeeze through to the brick buildings with tall chimneys. And in this industrial landscape, the former palace of the Goncharovs, and now the museum of this ancient noble family, is inscribed like a white swan.
Noisy neighborhood in the museum is not welcome, but what can you do? For three hundred years, the manor's chambers and production were nearby. The linen factory is one of the first manufactories in Russia. The ancestor of Pushkin's muse discovered it under Peter the Great. The factory was famous for the production of canvas, which was bought by the British who knew a lot about navigation. Later, the Factory began to produce the best paper in Russia, on which the emperors wrote the highest decrees, and Pushkin wrote his immortal poems. Money for the owners poured golden rain.
Elena Vladimirovna Nazarova, head of the museum, leads us through the enfilade of cool rooms of the palace. Everything, as under Pushkin - furniture, statues, vases, flowers ... A sweet trill rushes from the depths. Where did the birds come from in such a serious institution?
- Canaries have been bred in the Linen Factory for a long time. This “graceful”, as they said then, business was very profitable, the bird cost no less than a thoroughbred horse, - Elena Vladimirovna explains. – In the 18th century, the canary was considered a rare bird.
Like a businessman... The heirs of Afanasy Goncharov quickly squandered the wealth he had created. When the three Goncharov sisters - Ekaterina, Alexandra and Natalya - were growing up, balls were still given in the palace, but the owners already understood that their industrial empire was on the verge of collapse.
Under the roar of the Battle of Borodino
During the Napoleonic War, the Linen Factory was at the forefront, and in October 1812 the legendary commander Kutuzov set up his headquarters on the estate. These days, a turn in the war took place - from here the Russian troops drove the retreating French to the border.
The Goncharovs, the younger ones, with their children, were at that time in the rear - in the Karean estate of the Tambov province, where Natasha was born. When, two years later, they returned to their native nest, the new mistress, the French mistress of the head of the family, was already in charge there. The relationship did not seem to work out, and in 1815 the grandfather of the three-year-old Natasha sent his son's family to Moscow, where an almost beggarly existence awaited him. At home, in Polotnyanoy, he leaves only the youngest, beloved granddaughter, who is cherished and pampered like a princess in a magical kingdom. Toys, sweets, outfits - everything for her.
But the tale did not last long. When Natasha was six years old, her parents took her home.
The beloved granddaughter of the owner of the Linen Factory appeared on the threshold of a Moscow house in an expensive fur coat. Looking sternly at her daughter, the kind mother said sternly: “Natasha must be weaned from everything that has been grafted onto her.” The fur coat was divided equally - capes and muffs were sewn from delicate fur for all three sisters.
But these were still flowers ... The mother kept the children in strictness, she could whip her daughters on the cheeks. My father was showing more and more signs of mental illness. In fits of madness, he was terrible. Natalya Nikolaevna recalled how he chased her with a knife and how she ran as fast as she could up the stairs to hide behind a solid door with locks. Is it not the acquaintance with the wife's father inspired by Pushkin's lines:
God don't let me go crazy
Already better staff and prison?
In such an atmosphere, the brilliant Natasha grew up shy and insecure. “You don’t know how to reign,” one of her acquaintances once told her. I never knew how ... But what can not be taken away - the parents gave the sisters an excellent education for those times. So it was in vain that Pushkin's wife was called "zero" and a provincial, unable to appreciate her husband's genius.
Dozens of notebooks are kept in the Linen Factory, written in her neat handwriting. The girl writes essays on the history of Russia, geography, mythology, freely talks about the theory of versification. The last notes dated 1829. At this time, Natasha was 17 years old, and she had already met her fate - Pushkin.
"My light, mirror, tell me" ...
In Moscow, the Goncharovs do not live well - there is little income from the Linen Factory, and a lot of expenses. Three brides need to be taken out into the world.
They are not similar to each other. The eldest, Ekaterina, is chubby, swarthy, with black eyes and a wide smile. The average Alexandra is thoughtful, with an intelligent deep look and a strict profile. They are not particularly successful in the world. Not like the youngest, Natalie ...
She conquered the metropolitan society at the moment when in the winter of 1828 she stepped on the brilliant parquet of the ballroom. The emperor turned his benevolent gaze on her. And at first sight, Pushkin, the famous poet and womanizer, fell in love with her. The verses dedicated to her sound like a prayer:
My wishes have been fulfilled. Creator
He sent you down to me, you, my Madonna,
The purest beauty, the purest example.
“Who looks at a mediocre painting if Raphael’s Madonna is nearby?” Sofya Karamzina, the mistress of one of the most brilliant salons of that time, echoes him. From now on, the older sisters are doomed to be in the shadow of Natasha's beauty.
Shortly after the wedding, Pushkin would write his famous Tale of Tsar Saltan:
Three maidens by the window
Spinning late at night
One by the royal will becomes a cook, the second - a weaver (why not a hint at the Linen Factory?), And the youngest - a queen. And here it is, Pushkin's conclusion:
And they envy
The sovereign's wife.
A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it ... Not only for young people, but also for girls.
"Ogoncharovan"
On May 26, 1830, Pushkin arrived at the Linen Factory as a fiancé to meet Natasha's beloved grandfather and celebrate his 32nd birthday with his new family. He is in love and happy. After all, it was the young bride who persuaded her mother to agree to the marriage, which dragged on for a year with a blessing. From the point of view of the future mother-in-law, the first poet of Russia is an unenviable party. Not rich, bad reputation - on the note of the secret police. Yes, and it would be more correct to first decide on the older daughters. But what now?
A table is set in the front living room. (Dishes, cutlery - everything has been preserved ...) Together with his Madonna, Pushkin walks along shady alleys, steep bridges across channels and ponds. The poet is delighted: “My God! If the factories were mine, they wouldn't have lured me to St. Petersburg even with a Moscow roll. I would live like a master." Three days in the Goncharov's nest, perhaps the most happy Days in his life. No wonder this summer completes the miracle of the Boldin autumn - the peak creative biography poet.
The next time Pushkin came to the Goncharov family nest in the summer of 1834 to spend two weeks with his family. Natalya Nikolaevna with two children - daughter Masha and son Sasha - is staying here with her mother and sisters.
He needs rest...
Pushkin works hard. The family is growing, social life requires expenses. And the only permanent income is Pushkin's salary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, five thousand rubles a year. This is only enough for a few dresses for my wife, she needs a new dress for each ball, and there are many balls in the capital. Well, the wife's aunt, Ekaterina Ivanovna Zagryazhskaya, does not leave her niece a concern.
The poet tries to make money with literature and is angry, because creativity requires solitude, and he is forced to accompany his wife when going out. “My wife is in great fashion,” Pushkin writes with some irritation. Jealousy torments him more and more.
He increasingly recalls that during the wedding in the Moscow Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate, the wedding ring escaped from his hands and rolled across the floor. A sudden gust of draft extinguished the wedding candle. Are bad omens coming true?
But from the outside, these "skeletons in the closet", of course, are not visible. Natasha's life seems brilliant to the sisters Ekaterina and Alexandra - her husband, children, balls, receptions in the palace ... And for the third year they have been sitting in the village without a break. The bees are buzzing, the jam is being cooked, there is no money. The mother discouraged the suitors from her daughters and left for the Yaropolets estate, leaving them with their insane father, who no longer rages, but is still silent. Boring…
Of course, the sisters began to ask for the Pushkins, in the city. They will not be a burden, they will help with the children, they will beg money from brother Dmitry - at least a little. And my aunt will help... Natasha feels sorry for her sisters. So it is life will pass, in the backwoods.
Pushkin is skeptical: “Hey, wife! look ... My opinion: the family should be one under one roof: husband, wife, children, for the time being small; parents when they are old. Otherwise, you won’t get any trouble, and there will be no family peace. ”
But you can't argue with three women. In the autumn of 1834, 25-year-old Ekaterina and 23-year-old Alexandra moved to St. Petersburg, to the Pushkins. The three sisters are back together. They walk along the boulevards in a carriage and on horseback. And they dance, dance at balls, making up for lost time, so that the shoes are worn to holes.
The spring of deadly intrigue, meanwhile, begins to unwind ...
The phenomenon of d'Anthes
At that time, the gallant cavalry guard Georges Dantes, a very mysterious character, shines in the light. A foreigner, he quickly makes a career. And then he ... is adopted by the Dutch envoy Baron Gekkern - this is with his father alive! The light is lost in conjectures: what does this mean? It is said that Georges is the son of a baron's sister and a certain European monarch, and adoption will help him receive a legitimate inheritance. Rumor has it that the baron has gay, and his relationship with the "son" is by no means related.
Dantes meets Natalia Nikolaevna and frankly begins to court her. He follows her to the theater, the opera, circles in dance, sits next to her at a dinner party. He jokes, flirts, looks with loving eyes.
The world froze in anticipation of the scandal. The poet's wife has always been beyond suspicion, is it possible that the Madonna is not without sin? Many years later, Natalya Nikolaevna confesses to her daughter that if she were free, then passing infatuation could turn into something more. But she is married, and there was nothing.
But who cares about the truth? On November 3, 1836, Pushkin and many of his friends receive mocking anonymous diplomas as members of the cuckold club. Pushkin takes a cruel joke to heart. He thinks everyone is making fun of him. He sends Dantes a challenge to a duel.
The officer's adoptive father begs the poet to postpone the duel for two weeks - the diplomat does not need a scandal. Pushkin agrees, but the time passes, and passions run high again. Pushkin's friends, the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, Aunt Zagryazhskaya are doing their best to prevent the inevitable. The poet walks darker than a cloud: “Everything is like a fever,” he complains. Natalya Nikolaevna is horrified. What's next?
And then Dantes makes a knight's move - he asks for the hand of ... Catherine, and she immediately agrees. It turns out that the dashing cavalry guard has long been dear to her. So that's why he's after the Goncharov sisters! A convenient version that explains everything, but does not deceive anyone. “There is something either very suspicious or a misunderstanding here,” Pushkin’s sister is perplexed, before whose eyes this drama is unfolding.
Aunt Zagryazhskaya writes to Zhukovsky: "So, all the ends are in the water." What does she mean? The first daughter of Catherine and Dantes was born exactly a year later, but historians do not exclude that in fact it happened earlier.
A stormy explanation takes place between sisters Natalya and Ekaterina. Natalya tries to explain to her sister what a bitter fate awaits her. But she repeats her own: "The power of my feelings is so great that sooner or later it will win his heart." In the heat of a quarrel, she throws a reproach to her sister that she simply does not want to give in to her beloved. Natalia is offended, silent.
On January 10, 1837, the wedding of Ekaterina Goncharova and Dantes took place. The brothers, who arrived from the Linen Factory, did not stay for the wedding dinner. Pushkin was not in the church. Aunt Zagryazhskaya kept up appearances, but then immediately broke off all ties with her eldest niece.
Already 17 days after this wedding, a catastrophe breaks out - Pushkin and Dantes shoot at the Black River. The poet is mortally wounded. The world, which had previously watched the family drama with pleasure, was horrified. Dantes is expelled from the country by the highest order. Ekaterina, of course, goes with him.
She is no longer destined to visit Russia. “I still love the Plant,” she confessed to her brother Dmitry.
The family life of Catherine Dantes-Gekkern was short-lived - seven years. She gave birth to three daughters, passionately dreamed of a son and died after his birth. And her husband lived a long life and made a brilliant career. But retribution still caught up with him. The youngest daughter Leonie learned Russian, read Pushkin's poems and called her father the killer of the great poet.
It would probably have been a consolation for Catherine to know that her Georges never married again.
Cross under the pillow
“Go to the village, wear mourning for me for two years, and then marry, but for a decent person,” Pushkin punished his wife. She obeyed.
Almost lost her mind after the death of her husband, Natalya Nikolaevna leaves for the Linen Factory with her children. In the estate where she spent her childhood and the happy days of her youth, where she met Pushkin as a bride, Natalya returns as a different person - a widow.
Her grief is inconsolable, if she still lives, then only for children. She tries to forget herself by reading. But not Pushkin - it's too painful. “I don’t know what I would give to see her calm and happy,” writes her sister Alexandra. She is inseparable from Natalya Nikolaevna, helps in everything. Angel, and only.
But why, then, did the old nanny who lived in the house say that Alexandra was a sinner before Natalya? Is it true that Alexandra's cross was allegedly found in Pushkin's bed? Why did the dying poet not allow her, so devoted, to his bed - to say goodbye?
The poet's sister-in-law always adored Pushkin's poems. “Did she provoke a response in him? Where was the limit of mutual infatuation? - many years later, the daughter of Natalya Nikolaevna from her second marriage will ask these questions in her memoirs. There will be no answer. Alexandra destroyed all her diaries and letters. 
Pushkin's widow fulfilled the second part of the poet's will - she married a decent person. True, not more than two years, but only after seven years. General Pyotr Lanskoy adored her, and she seems to have found peace. Three more girls were born in the family. The eldest daughter was named Alexandra - in honor of Pushkin and his sister. Alexandra Nikolaevna's relationship with her sister's second husband was difficult, but Natalia forgave her everything.
Pushkin's widow died at 51, having caught a cold at her grandson's christening. She was pretty before last day. But fate turned out to be merciful to Alexandra. It would seem that raising her nephews, she missed her time. But no, she did it!
At 41, Alexandra married the Austrian diplomat Gustav von Friesengoff. She won his heart by caring for his seriously ill wife. And she lived with him a whole life - 37 years. She was warmly received by her stepson, 10-year-old Gregor, who later became a prominent scientist, geologist and soil scientist. At 43, Alexandra gave birth to a daughter and named her after her sister - Natalia. She lived to the age of 80, having outlived all the relatives of her generation, raised two grandchildren.
Natalia Nikolaevna visited the Frizenhof Brodzyany castle (now Slovakia) with her children. On the door frame, there are marks of growth - of her and the children. The Goncharov brothers - Dmitry, Sergey and Ivan - came to visit. A passionate admirer of Pushkin, Alexandra kept his spirit in the house. Here his poems sounded, Russian books stood on the shelves, portraits of the Goncharovs were kept.
During World War II, some of the relics were lost. But now - through the efforts of enthusiasts and with the money of Slovakia, many of them have been returned. Since 1979, here is the only foreign museum named after Pushkin. In the park, which reminded the Goncharovs of their native Linen Factory, a monument to the poet was erected.
Alexandra Nikolaevna would be pleased...
***
“My light, mirror, tell me
Yes, tell the whole truth
Am I the sweetest in the world,
All blush and whiter?
- Pushkin's queen inquires in "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs."
... Incredibly, but in the Linen Factory, having survived revolutions and wars, a mirror of the 18th century has been preserved. The glass, tarnished from time to time, reflected the faces of the Goncharov sisters - Ekaterina, Alexandra, Natalya, who fully knew love and deceit, happiness and grief. The reflection trembles, blurs... Here, in the Goncharovs' family nest, in the relationship between the Poet and the three Goncharov sisters, a different, mirror-like depth opens up.
Linen factory, Kaluga region
Photo by the author and from the archive
Pushkin and his Madonna. Natalia Goncharova (1812- 1863)
The Goncharovs' estate
Here Pushkin walked with his bride
Under the glass is Pushkin's autograph, which he gave to the Kaluga publisher
An ancient mirror that remembers the reflections of the Goncharov sisters
Ekaterina Goncharova-Dantes (1809-1843)
Alexandra Goncharova-Friesengoff (1811-1891)
Georges Dantes (1812-1895)
