"I AM NUMBERED IN RUSSIA"
Anecdotes about A.S. Pushnin
"ZLATOUST"
Russian Foreign Publishing House
Munich-Schleisheim
PUSHKIN IN ANEKDOTES
During Pushkin's stay in Odessa, the widow of a general lived there, who began his military service with lower ranks and rose to the rank of general, although he did not distinguish himself in anything. This general was, by the way, wounded in the bridge of the nose in 1812, and the bullet, shattering it, went into the cheek. When the general died, his widow, wishing to honor the memory of her late husband, ordered a magnificent monument for his grave and certainly wanted poems to be engraved on it. To whom was it to turn, if not to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, with whom the general's wife was well acquainted? Alexander Sergeevich promised to write the corresponding poems, but he was in no hurry with it. So time passed, and he did not even think to fulfill his promise, although the widow at every meeting did not give him peace. But then came the day of the General's Angel. Pushkin came to her with congratulations. The hostess, as they say, stuck to him with a knife to his throat: - Well, Alexander Sergeevich, now you will never get off with promises, - she said, grabbing the poet's hand tightly, - I will not let you out until you write! I prepared everything: paper and ink. Sit down at the table and write. Pushkin with displeasure took up his pen, and a minute later the poems were ready: No one knows where he grew up, He entered the service as a corporal, was wounded in the nose by a Frenchman - And he died as a general! “I don’t know what happened to Her Excellency after she read the poems aloud in the heat of the moment,” says the poet: “because, having passed on the poems, I thought it would be good to leave unnoticed and left in good health.” But since then, the general's wife left the poet alone. After one dinner, at which a fair amount of champagne was drunk, Pushkin talked with a lady he knew. The lady was pockmarked after an illness. Some phrase uttered by Pushkin struck her as not entirely decent, and she remarked: - You, Alexander Sergeevich, seem to have double vision. “No, madam,” he replied, “but it is dazzling. Once, in a friendly conversation, an officer familiar to Pushkin, by the name of Kandyba, stuck to the poet: - Tell, Pushkin, a poem on "cancer and fish." - Fool Kandyba, - answered Pushkin. - No, not that, - the officer was embarrassed, - well, but "fish and cancer?" “Kandyba is a fool,” Pushkin confirmed calmly. General laughter, of course. One lyceum student, after graduating from the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1839, met Pushkin on Nevsky. The poet, noticing the lyceum's uniform on him, approached him and asked: - You, probably, have just been released from the lyceum? - Yes, just now, released on assignment to the Guards Corps. Were you also brought up in ours? -- Yes. - And let me ask you, where do you wish to serve now? - I am registered in Russia, - said Pushkin. Famous writer , Yves. Yves. Dimitriev, once visited the house of Pushkin's relatives when the latter was still a child. Making fun of the curly-haired, dark-skinned boy, Dimitriev said: - Look what a little arap! On this ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal snapped: - But not hazel grouse! All those present were embarrassed and surprised that the child Pushkin made fun of Dimitriev, disfigured on his face by mountain ash. Shortly before his death, Pushkin sat in the Alexandria Theater next to two young people who, by the way and inappropriate, incessantly applauded Asenkova, then a famous actress. Not knowing Pushkin and seeing that he was indifferent to the game of their favorite, they began to whisper and quite loudly dropped that their neighbor was a fool. Pushkin addressed them with the words: - You called me a fool. I am Pushkin, and I would give each of you a slap in the face right now, but I don’t want to: Asenkova will think that I am applauding her. While in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to the ball. That evening he was in a special shock. The lightning of witticisms flew from his lips, the ladies constantly tried to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of "probably a teacher," decided at all costs to "overconfuse" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing their heads in the most incomparable way, turn to him: - Mill sorry ... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little explanation. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to express ourselves correctly: “Hey, man, bring a glass of water!” Or Hey, man, bring a glass of water! ”Pushkin immediately understood the desire to play a trick on him and, without embarrassment, answered quite seriously: - - It seems to me that you can put it bluntly: “Hey, man, drive us to the waterbay!” Alexander Sergeevich, during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, decided to escape to St. this, that he will follow him. Pushkin waved his hand at this statement and, seizing Kuchelbecker, flees to St. Petersburg. Trico is behind them. Alexander Sergeevich drives up to the outpost first. "Surname?" asks Zavodny. "Alexander However "Answers the poet. The zastavny writes down the surname and lets the rider pass. Kuchelbecker drives up after Pushkin." shakes her head. Finally, the tutor arrives. - What is your last name? - the watchman calls out to him? - Leotards. - Well, you're lying, - the zastavny loses patience, - there is something bad here: one after the other - One-to-one, Two-to-one! Tights! You are naughty, brother, go to the guardhouse! Poor Trico spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, and Pushkin freely took a walk with his friend in St. Petersburg. As a chamber junker, Pushkin very often visited high-ranking persons who, at that blissful time, for any outstanding talent, both literary and artistic, still continued to look at something clownish, and tried to extract from such a talent as much as possible for yourself amusing. Pushkin was squeamish about such attitudes towards himself and fervently protested against them with well-aimed, sarcasm impromptu. Appearing once to a high-ranking person, Pushkin found him lying on the sofa and yawning with boredom. At the entrance of the poet, the person, of course, did not think to change the posture, and when Pushkin, having conveyed what was needed, wanted to leave, a high-ranking official asked the poet to say an impromptu. “Children on the floor - smart on the couch,” said the annoyed Pushkin through clenched teeth. - Well, what's so witty, - the person objected, - kids on the floor, smart on the sofa. I can't understand ... I expected more from you. Pushkin was silent, and when, repeating the phrase and shifting the syllables, the dignitary came at last: "The dude is half-witted on the sofa, then, of course, immediately and indignantly released Pushkin. In one literary circle, where more enemies than friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes dropped in, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet under the title “Letter to the Poet.” Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he arrived late as usual. All those present were, of course, in an excited state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. ”The literary part of the evening began with the reading of this particular" Message ", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed: - Message to the poet: Then, addressing to the side where Pushkin was sitting, began: - I give the poet a donkey's head ... Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning to the side of the audience: - And he will stay with which one? NS. - Did you give it now? General confusion ensued. The discouraged author fell silent on the first phrase; and Pushkin continued to joke and laugh. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich always advised Pushkin to quit card game, saying: - She spoils you! - On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - cards save me from the blues. - But what is your poetry worth after that? “She serves as a vehicle for me to pay off my gambling debts, Your Majesty. And indeed, when Pushkin was tormented by gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off overnight in one night. Thus, for example, "Count Nulin" was written by him. Delvig, a classmate of Pushkin, at one time began to lead a very riotous life. Once, having drunk heavily, disheveled, he appeared to Pushkin. The poet began to convince his comrade to change his lifestyle. However, to all the arguments of Pushkin, Delvig answered with despair that, they say, earthly life was not for him: - But we will correct ourselves in the next world. - Perhaps, - says Pushkin, laughing, - but you look at yourself in the mirror, will they let you in with such a face? Pushkin did not like to stand next to his wife and jokingly said that it was "humiliating" for him to be near her: he was so small in comparison with her height. Gogol's story about his attempts to get to know Pushkin when he still “had no right” to do so in his title of a writer is amusing. Subsequently, he was presented at an evening with P.A.Pletnev, but earlier, as soon as he arrived in St. Petersburg (in 1829), Gogol, who especially wanted to see the poet, who had occupied his imagination even at school, went straight to him. The closer he approached Pushkin's apartment, the more shyness took possession of him, and, finally, he stood at the very door and ... ran to the pastry shop, where he demanded a glass of liquor ... to your question. "Is the owner at home?" - heard the answer of the servant: "They are sleeping." It was already late in the yard, and Gogol asked with great sympathy: "Right, he worked all night?" - "Well, he worked," - answered the servant: - "I played cards." Gogol admitted that he was amazed. He could not imagine Pushkin otherwise, as surrounded by a constantly cloud of inspiration. Pushkin loved cheerful company young people. He had many friends between teenagers and cadets. Around 1827, he made acquaintance with the youth of the Guards in St. Petersburg and took an active part in revelry and drinking. Once he invited several people to the then restaurant of Dominic and treated them to glory. Count Zavadovsky enters and, turning to Pushkin, says: - However, Alexander Sergeevich, apparently, your wallet is tightly stuffed: - But I am richer than you, - Pushkin replies: - You sometimes have to live and wait for money from villages, and my income is constant - from thirty-six letters of the Russian alphabet. Once Alexander Sergeevich came with Mitskevich to his sister Olga Sergeevna, when the usual visitors were already assembled. Guests - some in anticipation of a musical session, others - whist - paced the room, and then there was a well-known exchange of good-natured phrases between Russian and Polish poets. Pushkin and Mitskevich entered together. - Make the way, gentlemen, the ace is coming, - announced Mitskevich, pointing to Alexander Sergeevich. - No, you pass before! The trump deuce beats the ace, ”answered Pushkin. Someone, wanting to embarrass Pushkin, asked him in society: "What is the similarity between me and the sun?" - Neither you nor the sun can be looked at without frowning, - the poet answered quickly. Once Pushkin entered the school of guards ensigns, where he had many acquaintances among the youth. The youth were engaged in "business": they were catching a mouse. But the quick mouse escaped from the chase already before the eyes of Pushkin, who entered, who exclaimed at the same time: We won, we won! So let's exclaim, hurray! If we didn't kill the mouse, Then we killed the beaver!
Pushkin's testament.
Friends, sorry! I will bequeath to you everything that I am glad and rich in ... Grievances, songs - I forgive everything, And let me forgive my debts. Once Pushkin was very out of sorts. He badly needed money, and did not foresee receiving it soon. At these unpleasant moments some German shoemaker appears and vigorously demands a meeting with Pushkin. The annoyed poet comes out and asks sharply: - What do you need? - I come to you, Mr. Pushkin, for your goods, - answered the German. “What is it?” The poet asked again in bewilderment. - You write poetry. I came from you to buy four words from your poems: I am making a Wax and I want to print four words on the label, very good words : "Clearer than day, darker than night." For this, I will give you, sir composer, 50 rubles. Do you agree? Pushkin, of course, agreed, and the German, quite pleased with the poet's compliance, went off to order the desired labels. Once Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich, in an intimate conversation with the poet, asked him: - Pushkin, if you were in St. Petersburg, would you take part in December 14? - Inevitable, Sovereign! - answered Pushkin: - all my friends were in a conspiracy, and I would be in the impossibility of falling behind them. One absence saved me, and I thank Heaven for that. This direct and frank answer pleased the Tsar. He was one of all those around him who understood the significance of Pushkin and recognized in him the power of poetic genius, - I hope, the Emperor remarked, - now you will be judicious, and we will no longer quarrel. Whatever you compose, send to me: from now on, I myself will be your censor. That same evening, at a ball at the French envoy, Marshal Marmont, the Emperor said to Count DN Bludov: - Do you know that today I spoke with the smartest man in Russia? With Pushkin. Pushkin, having learned about the uprising of the Decembrists (he at that time lived in the village of Mikhailovskoye), immediately went to Petersburg. On the way, he saw a hare in the field, crossing the road three times. The superstitious poet returned home immediately. It saved him. Village life and involuntary loneliness in the village became painful and difficult for the poet. He was eager to see friends, to the capital, to a noisy life. On the advice of Zhukovsky, Pushkin turned to Nicholas the First: “Now, with hope for the generosity of Your Imperial Majesty, with true repentance and a firm intention not to contradict my opinions with the generally accepted order, I dared to resort to Your Majesty with my most resigned request. a kind of aneurysm has long been in need of constant treatment. I dare to ask for permission to go either to Moscow, or to St. Petersburg, or to foreign lands for this purpose. " On August 28, 1826, a few days after the coronation, the Tsar sent for Pushkin from Moscow, who described his first meeting with the Emperor as follows: “I was brought into the Emperor's office, who said to me: - Hello, Pushkin, are you satisfied Then the Tsar asked: - Pushkin, would you take part in December 14, if you were in Petersburg? - Certainly, Tsar, all my friends were in a conspiracy, and I could not It was my absence alone that saved me, for which I thank God. ”“ You've been fooling enough, ”objected the emperor. - I hope now you will be reasonable, and we will not quarrel anymore. From now on, I will be your censor. But very soon the poet was completely disappointed, since Benckendorff became his actual censor. One French woman interrogates Alexander Sergeevich about who his ancestors were. The conversation was in French. - By the way, Mr. Pushkin, do you and your sister have the blood of a Negro in your veins? “Of course,” the poet replied. - Was that your grandfather a black man? - No, he was no longer one. - So it was your great-grandfather? - Yes, my great-grandfather. -- Так это он был негром... да... да.. Но, в таком случае, кто же был его отец? “Monkey, madam,” Aleksandr Sergeevich finally snapped off. In the secular circles of St. Petersburg, they looked at Pushkin as an upstart. Friends who were once close to him found it possible to treat the poet with a tinge of disdain. For example, a former comrade of Pushkin in "Arzamas", Count Uvarov, once said about Pushkin: "Why is he putting on airs? His great-grandfather, arapie Hannibal, was sold for a bottle of rum!" This vulgarity was picked up and put into circulation by Pushkin's enemy, the famous Bulgarin. To this Pushkin responded to his offenders with a poem "My genealogy", in which he pointed to the ancestors of many noble families, who were of very simple origin. Pushkin finished this poem: Vidocq Figlyarin *), sitting at home, Decided that my grandfather Hannibal Was bought for a bottle of rum And fell into the hands of the skipper. This skipper was that glorious skipper, Whom our land moved, Who gave a mighty run to the stern of the native ship: This skipper was available to his grandfather, And a similarly bought arap Grew zealous, incorruptible, The king's confidant, not a slave. And he was the father of Hannibal, Before whom, in the midst of the disastrous abysses, The bulk of ships surfaced, And Navarin fell for the first time. *) F.V. Bulgarin. Not only that, he soon answered Uvarov with one of his most caustic epigrams, but all this did not diminish, but, on the contrary, increased the number of the poet's secular enemies. Good relationship The Tsar was excited about Pushkin by avist. Many of his contemporaries did not understand the greatness of genius. For them, he was a "hack", no different from Bulgarin, and nothing more. Pushkin's life became more and more restless and restless. This life in the world was always disgusting to him, but he had to lead her willy-nilly, so as not to deprive his beloved wife of her entertainment. This life took the poet away from work. Pushkin suffered unbearably, and no one, not even such a close being as his wife, understood and did not notice this suffering. FV Bulgarin was an enemy of Pushkin. There was no evil gossip that Bulgarin would not spread about him. Pushkin took revenge on him with evil epigrams and quatrains: On F. V. Bulgarin Everyone says: he is Walter Scott, But I, the poet, am not a hypocrite: I agree - he is just cattle, But that he is Walter Scott - I do not believe. 2. Thaddeus give birth to Ivan, Ivan give birth to Peter - From the idiot grandfather What kind of good can we expect?"Pushkin and Prunes".
Perhaps the Verse, composed by me, will not sink in Lethe; Perhaps - a flattering hope! - The future ignoramus will point out To my illustrious portrait And he says: that was a poet! .. Pushkin. In the fall of 1828, Pushkin stayed at the Wolf's estate - Malinniki. The rumor about the famous guest quickly spread around the neighbors, and they became frequent visitors to Malinniki. "Neighbors go to look at me like a Munito's dog," Pushkin wrote to Delvig. (Munito - the dog of Emperor Nicholas the First - was famous for his extraordinary training). - “The other day there was a gathering at a neighbor’s place, I had to come there,” Pushkin continued in the same letter. “The spoiled children certainly wanted to go there. But Pyotr Markovich Poltoratsky, who was staying at her house at that time, not far from Malinnikov, excited the children with the words: “Children, children! Mother is deceiving you - do not eat prunes, go with her. There will be Pushkin - he is all sugar, and his bottom is apple; they will cut it, and you will all have a piece. "The children burst into tears:" We don’t want prunes, we want Pushkin! " Pushkin, - "but when they saw that I was not sugar, but leather, - they were completely taken aback," More than a hundred years passed. Times have changed. Russia became the Council of Deputies. But the Bolsheviks composed a thousand legends that Pushkin was "their poet." that he is a nobleman, a landowner and an aristocrat. Once a genius ... Oh, of course, theirs. But how to celebrate, how to commemorate? While they were making all 1936 in memory of Pushkin, gingerbread, "Meat with Cucumber - Pushkin" and other culinary dishes. ”The story with prunes has now repeated itself ... But completely inside out. A boy in a shop, offering to take" Pushkin's gingerbread, "said loudly:" Mom, I don’t want Pushkin, but I want prunes. The prunes are delicious, they are covered in chocolate, but there is no taste in Pushkin. "Life in the capital did not satisfy Pushkin, and he was drawn to the countryside to nature, to solitude and peace. In the fall of 1826, Pushkin went to the Wulfs in Malinniki. Here he worked a lot, finished the seventh chapter of "Eugene Onegin", but w he had a lot of fun and looked after the young ladies. His letters from Malinniki are full of carefree gaiety; he signs one of his letters: "Tverskoy Lovelace". "There are a lot of pretty girls here, and I play with them platonically, and that's why I'm getting fat and getting better in my health ... It's a lot of fun here, because I love country life very much. I ride a ferry, play whist for eight hryvnia rubber and thus cling to the delights of virtue and disdain the nets of vice "... His funny chorus at the time: Though you don't feed raspberries, take them to Malinniki. Life in the village among friends encouraged the poet, but not for long: Benckendorff did not stop his nagging. In 1833, a friend of the poet P. N. Nashchokin arrived in St. Petersburg and stayed at a hotel. It was June 29, the day of Peter and Paul. Several acquaintances arrived, including Pushkin. General joy, cheerful talk, jokes, memories of the past, laughter. Meanwhile, even louder laughter and shouts were heard from the courtyard, where the room overlooked. It was the noisy masons, who were sitting on bricks near a bucket of vodka and a wooden cup with a snack. Most of all bawled some man with red hair Pushkin went to the window, lay down on the windowsill with his chest, immediately noticed the screamer and said to his friends: "That red-haired one must be a birthday boy," and shouted, turning to him: - Peter! - What, sir? - With an Angel! -- Thank you, Mr. “Pavel!” Shouted Pushkin again, and, turning into the room, added: “In such a heap there will be Pavel. - Pavel is gone. -- Where? What for? - In the tavern ... Everyone drank. Yes, wait, sir, tell me: how do you know me? - I and the old woman - I know your mother. -- Ouch? - And dad died? - For a long time, the kingdom of heaven to him! ... Brothers, let's drink to the deceased parent! At this time a man comes into the yard with a bottle of vodka. Pushkin, seeing him earlier, shouted: - Pavel, with the Angel! Yes, carry it quickly! ... Pavel, climbing on the stones, did not take his eyes off the man who called him by name. Others, explained to him, drink, and the red-haired man does not lag behind the talkative master: - So, it became, and you know our village? - I wouldn’t know: She’s near the river? - So, by the river itself. - Is your hut, read, extreme? - The third from the edge ... And you are wonderful, sir! Explain, please, do you not know all the ins and outs of the holy spirit? - It's very simple: your master and I were shooting ducks on the boat, suddenly a thunderstorm, rain, and we went into your old woman's hut. - So ... Now I dare. - But I complained about you: you send little money! “Sinful, sinful! ..” “But everything is damned,” said the man, pointing to the glass from which he drank in one gulp and shouted: “Hello, good master!” ... And ... he took a bite."My epitaph".
Here Pushkin is buried: he spent a merry century with his young muse, With love, laziness; He didn’t do good, but he was the soul of God, a kind person. Once Pushkin was sitting at the opera. The gentleman sitting next to him sang along to the artist Petrov all the time. Frustrated Pushkin said loudly: "What an idiot, interferes with listening!" - "Excuse me, sir, who do you deign to call that?" - "Well, of course, Petrova, who prevents me from enjoying your singing," - said Pushkin. Everyone knows Pushkin's wonderful poem "Gypsies", which begins: Gypsies roam in a noisy crowd Across Bessarabia ... This poem was written under the impression of meetings with free children of the steppes and constant observation of their life. The entire population at that time treated the Roma favorably. For men, the latter were constant horse suppliers and veterinarians, and black-eyed fortunetellers always knew how to cheer and interest the bored audience. At that distant time, the gypsies were located along the banks of the Bychka River and along Mount Inzova. On the same mountain there was also the house in which Pushkin lived. The poet loved to admire the sunrise from this mountain on a good summer morning. Here, for the first time, he saw the gypsy woman Stesha, who later played such a great role in the poet's life in Kishinev. In all likelihood, a nomadic gypsy camp was located on Inzovaya Gora, and Stesha, seeing a young master walking here, approached him with an offer to tell fortunes. The beauty of Stesha amazed Pushkin, and he was so carried away by her that he began to visit the camp quite often, where he was loved for his cheerful disposition and generosity. It should be added that another novel by Pushkin, beating or imagining himself passionately in love with the Moldovan aristocrat Lyudmila I-za, also belongs to this time. While Pushkin met with the latter in the evenings, at festivities, picnics, etc., he devoted to Stesha every morning and a good half of the day. While the business was limited to Pushkin's visits to the camp, gifts, songs and dancing, the camp looked at the poet friendly and even loved him, but soon the free sons of the steppes noticed that Stesha was becoming more and more attached to Pushkin, and the latter did not always restrain his ardent, passionate disposition. But the consequence of these circumstances was that one fine morning Pushkin found only shards on the site of the camp. broken dishes, litter and pits from the stakes to which the tents were attached. At first, the poet flew into a rage, he wanted to set off in pursuit of the camp, but then he calmed down just as soon, to the great joy of his Kishinev friends, who noticed that he was starting to get carried away with the wild beauty. However, this joy was premature. Summer was drawing to a close, but the weather was still hot, and suddenly a terrible thunderstorm with a downpour broke out. The pouring rain, pouring down from a bucket, immediately filled all the dry streams and the shallow Bychek with water. Pushkin's house, located on the slope of the mountain, was flooded with water, since whole streams of water poured into it from above. At this time, Pushkin had his friends. The young people were laughing, joking and helping the owner to remove various things from the floor, when suddenly the door opened and Stesha, tired and exhausted, entered. Everyone forgot about the flood and looked with curiosity at the scene of a genuinely joyful meeting between two people who love each other. Stesha sincerely loved the poet, and the latter, presumably, was more carried away by her beauty than loved, and ... often cheated on her. At that time, there was a Romanovsky Garden in Kishinev, where Pushkin often went with Lyudmila Isa. Here Pushkin constantly recited his poems to her, warmly confessed his love to her and, probably, broke more than one kiss. Stesha, often left alone, was tormented by jealousy and melancholy. Finally, she decided to lie in wait for Pushkin with a rival. Thanks to her innate cunning and Pushkin's carelessness, this task did not cost her much. Having learned in advance the place and hour at which Pushkin and Lyudmila Isa visited the garden, Stesha hid in the currant bushes and began to wait for them. As luck would have it, on this day the walk of the poet and the beautiful Moldavian woman was especially intimate. Stesha could not stand it and, like a wild cat, rushed to I-zu. At first, Pushkin was at a loss, but then, seeing that Isa was lying unconscious on the ground, in turn he hit the gypsy with a thick stick, which served as a support for vine... Stesha screamed in pain and, leaving her rival, was about to rush at Pushkin, but then, as if thinking it over, did not even look at the insidious traitor and walked out of the garden with a proud step. She was no longer seen in Kishinev: the gypsy woman went to commit suicide, or, more likely, returned to the camp. Of course, gardeners and walkers came running to the shouts and noise. Beaten and lying unconscious, I-zu was carried away to the carriage, and the rumor of the incident with the speed of lightning spread throughout the city. The proud Moldavian woman could not bear the scandal and left somewhere.Konstantin Korovin about Pushkin.
(From "Memories of Childhood")
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is not just a huge value from a school textbook on literature, but also a very interesting person with an unusual fate.
1. Once the house of the parents of Alexander Pushkin was visited by the Russian writer Ivan Dmitriev. Alexander was then still a child, and therefore Dmitriev decided to play a trick on the boy's original appearance and said: "What an arab!" But the ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal was not taken aback and instantly gave the answer: "But not a hazel grouse!" The adults present were surprised and terribly embarrassed, because the face of the writer Dmitriev was ugly pockmarked!
2. Once one of Pushkin's acquaintances, officer Kondyba, asked the poet if he could come up with a rhyme for the words cancer and fish. Pushkin replied: "Fool Kondyba!" The officer was embarrassed and offered to compose a rhyme for the combination of fish and cancer. Pushkin was not at a loss even here: "Kondyba is a fool."
3. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared in front of a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning with boredom. When the young poet appeared, the high-ranking person did not even think to change his position. Pushkin gave the owner of the house everything he needed and wanted to leave, but was ordered to say an impromptu.
Pushkin squeezed out through clenched teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed impromptu: “Well, what's so witty - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can't understand ... I expected more from you. " Pushkin was silent, and the high-ranking person, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The kid is half-witted on the sofa." After the sense of the impromptu reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.
4. During the period of courting his future wife Natalya Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and usually said:
“I am delighted, I am fascinated,
In short - I'm fired up! "
5. And this funny incident, which happened to Pushkin during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, shows how witty and resourceful the young poet was. Once he decided to run away from the lyceum to Petersburg for a walk. I went to the governor Trico, but he would not let him in, and even scared that he would be watching Alexander. But hunting is worse than bondage - and Pushkin, together with Kuchelbecker, escapes to St. Petersburg. Trico followed.
Alexander drove up to the outpost first. He was asked his surname, and he replied: "Alexander However!" The zastavny wrote down the surname and let it pass. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his name was, he said: "Grigory Dvako!" The zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. The question is: "What is your surname?" Answers: "Tricot!" “You’re lying,” the zastavny shouts, “there’s something bad here! One by one - One, Two, Three! You are naughty, brother, go to the guardhouse! " Trico spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.
6. Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He spoke several times about how he once, while walking, noticed how the earth swayed and the columns tremble, and last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, the first meeting of Pushkin with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold the horse, the child was not hurt, and the only one who got scared in earnest was the nanny.
7. Little Pushkin spent his childhood in Moscow. His first teachers were French governors. And for the summer, he usually went to his grandmother, Maria Alekseevna, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow. When he was 12 years old, Pushkin entered Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, closed educational institution with 30 students. At the Lyceum, Pushkin seriously studied poetry, especially French, for which he was nicknamed "French".
8. Pushkin got to the Lyceum, as they say, through pull. The Lyceum was founded by Minister Speransky himself, the enrollment was small - only 30 people, but Pushkin had an uncle - a very famous and talented poet Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who personally knew Speransky.
9. The handwritten magazine "Lyceum sage" was published in the Lyceum. Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I fall asleep as soon as possible." Offended, Kuchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon a cartoon was drawn in the "Sage of the Lyceum": Kuchelbecker is drowning, and his long nose sticks out of the pond.
10. In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams during seventeen days in May, including Latin, Russian, German and French literature, general history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received their Lyceum diplomas. The poet was the twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing only "excellent in Russian and French literature, also in fencing".
11. It is known that Pushkin was very loving. At the age of 14, he began visiting brothels. And, already being married, he continued to visit the "gay girls", and also had married mistresses.
12. It is very curious to read not even a list of his victories, but reviews about him different people... His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad in himself, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. This is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Alexandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love:
Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness.
However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.
13. Pushkin was a genius, but he was not handsome, and in this respect he contrasted with his beautiful wife Natalia Goncharova, who, at the same time, was 10 cm taller than him. For this reason, while attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife: so that those around him would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him.
14. A gendarme official of the III branch, Popov, wrote about Pushkin:
"-He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone."
Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him:
"- Modest in his judgments, kind in society and a child to his liking."
15. Pushkin's laughter produced the same enchanting impression as his poems. Artist Karl Bryullov said about him:
"-What a lucky Pushkin is! He laughs so much that as if the guts are visible."
And in fact, Pushkin all his life argued that everything that arouses laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.
Pushkin was adored by women, hated by many men and adored in literary circles.
16. Pushkin had gambling debts, and quite serious ones. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were some delays, he wrote evil epigrams to his creditors and drew caricatures of them in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.
17. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;
- She spoils you!
- On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - cards save me from the blues.
- But what then is your poetry?
- She serves me as a means to pay off my gambling debts. Your Majesty.
And indeed, when Pushkin was burdened with gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off overnight in one night. Thus, for example, he has “Count Nulin” written.
18. While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. That evening he was in a special shock. Lightning jokes flew from his lips; ladies and maidens vied with each other to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably a teacher, decided, at all costs, to "overconfuse" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing their heads in the most incomparable way, address:
- Mille pardon ... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it right: "Hey, man, bring me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!"
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to make fun of him and, not in the least embarrassed, answered seriously:
- I think you can put it bluntly: "Hey, man, drive us to the watering hole."
19. In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes dropped in, one of the members of this circle wrote a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet." Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he arrived late as usual. All those present were, of course, in an agitated state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. The literary part of the evening began with the reading of this particular "Message", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- "Message to the Poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he will stay with which one?
The author was confused:
- And I will stay with mine.
Pushkin:
- Yes, you just gave it.
General confusion ensued. The defeated author fell silent.
20. According to the calculations of the Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the poet's biography. He initiated fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not take place due to the reconciliation of the parties, mainly through the efforts of Pushkin's friends; in six cases the challenge to a duel came not from Pushkin, but from his opponents. Pushkin's first duel took place at the Lyceum.
21. It is known that Aleksandr Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbecker, but he often arranged practical jokes for him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he had not been, the poet replied: “I had upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ...” Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:
"- I ate too much at supper,
Yes, Jacob locked the door blindly -
So it was to me, my friends,
And küchelbeckerno, and sickening ... "
22. Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to to my sister Pushkin's wife - Ekaterina Goncharova.
23. Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were passed on by two outstanding people: V. A. Zhukovsky - a poet, at that time educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt - physician-in-chief of Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin's physician.
The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the royal prohibition on dueling:
... I'm waiting for the king's word to die in peace ...
Sovereign:
"- If God does not tell us to meet in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Do not worry about my wife and children, I take them in my arms."
It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.
24. Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the descendants of the poet now live all over the globe: in England, Germany, Belgium ... About fifty live in Russia. Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash is especially interesting. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's grand-nephew. Now Tatiana lives in Klin.
25. And - finally - probably the most amusing fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, the biography of Pushkin. In Ethiopia, a monument to Pushkin was erected in this way a few years ago. The words "To our poet" are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal.
Pushkin is so popular and loved in Russia that it seems that we know everything about the poet. But from time to time we find something new and new. For example, very often some people are surprised when you tell them that A.S. Pushkin was a Freemason. In the Pushkin family, all the men were Masons.
1. Once the house of the parents of Alexander Pushkin was visited by the Russian writer Ivan Dmitriev. Alexander was then still a child, and therefore Dmitriev decided to play a trick on the boy's original appearance and said: "What an arab!" But the ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal was not taken aback and instantly gave the answer: "But not a hazel grouse!" The adults present were surprised and terribly embarrassed, because the face of the writer Dmitriev was ugly pockmarked!
2. Once one of Pushkin's acquaintances, officer Kondyba, asked the poet if he could come up with a rhyme for the words cancer and fish. Pushkin replied: "Fool Kondyba!" The officer was embarrassed and offered to compose a rhyme for the combination of fish and cancer. Pushkin was not at a loss even here: "Kondyba is a fool."
Edward Ulan. Wedding
3. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared in front of a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning with boredom. When the young poet appeared, the high-ranking person did not even think to change his position. Pushkin gave the owner of the house everything he needed and wanted to leave, but was ordered to say an impromptu.
Pushkin squeezed out through clenched teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed impromptu: “Well, what's so witty - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can't understand ... I expected more from you. " Pushkin was silent, and the high-ranking person, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The kid is half-witted on the sofa." After the sense of the impromptu reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.
Painting by Ilya Glazunov "On the Eve"
4. During the period of courting his future wife Natalya Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and usually said:
“I am delighted, I am fascinated,
In short - I'm fired up! "
5. And this funny incident, which happened to Pushkin during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, shows how witty and resourceful the young poet was. Once he decided to run away from the lyceum to Petersburg for a walk. I went to the governor Trico, but he would not let him in, and even scared that he would be watching Alexander. But hunting is worse than bondage - and Pushkin, together with Kuchelbecker, escapes to St. Petersburg. Trico followed.
Alexander drove up to the outpost first. He was asked his surname, and he replied: "Alexander However!" The zastavny wrote down the surname and let it pass. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his name was, he said: "Grigory Dvako!" The zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. The question is: "What is your surname?" Answers: "Tricot!" “You’re lying,” the zastavny shouts, “there’s something bad here! One by one - One, Two, Three! You are naughty, brother, go to the guardhouse! " Trico spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.
Painting by Vladimir Kornidovich Fedorov "Pushkin. In the footsteps of Pugachev"
6. Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He talked several times about how once while walking he noticed how the earth swayed and the columns tremble, and the last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, the first meeting of Pushkin with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold the horse, the child was not hurt, and the only one who got scared in earnest was the nanny.
7. Little Pushkin spent his childhood in Moscow. His first teachers were French governors. And for the summer, he usually went to his grandmother, Maria Alekseevna, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow. When he was 12 years old, Pushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a closed educational institution with 30 students. At the Lyceum, Pushkin seriously studied poetry, especially French, for which he was nicknamed "French".
Pirogov Alexander Petrovich. "Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Bryullov"
8. Pushkin got to the Lyceum, as they say, through pull. The Lyceum was founded by Minister Speransky himself, the enrollment was small - only 30 people, but Pushkin had an uncle - a very famous and talented poet Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who personally knew Speransky.
9. The handwritten magazine "Lyceum sage" was published in the Lyceum. Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I fall asleep as soon as possible." Offended, Kuchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon a cartoon was drawn in the "Wise of the Lyceum": Kuchelbecker is drowning, and his long nose sticks out of the pond.
10. In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams during seventeen days in May, including Latin, Russian, German and French literature, general history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received their Lyceum diplomas. The poet was the twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing excellent success only "in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing".
Pushkin at the lyceum exam in Tsarskoe Selo. Painting by I. Repin
11. It is known that Pushkin was very loving. At the age of 14, he began visiting brothels. And, already being married, he continued to visit the "gay girls", and also had married mistresses.
12. It is very curious to read not even the list of his victories, but the reviews of different people about him. His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad in himself, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. This is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Alexandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love: "Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness." However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.
13. Pushkin was a genius, but he was not handsome, and in this respect he contrasted with his beautiful wife Natalia Goncharova, who, at the same time, was 10 cm taller than him. For this reason, while attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife: so that those around him would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him.
14. Popov, a gendarme official of the III department, wrote about Pushkin: "He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone." Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him: "Modest in his judgments, amiable in society and a child to his liking."
Gogol and Zhukovsky at Pushkin's in Tsarskoe Selo. Artist P. Geller. 1910
15. Pushkin's laughter produced the same enchanting impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: "What a lucky Pushkin! He laughs so much that it looks like the guts are visible." And in fact, Pushkin all his life argued that everything that arouses laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.
16. Pushkin had gambling debts, and quite serious ones. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were some delays, he wrote evil epigrams to his creditors and drew caricatures of them in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.
17. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;
She spoils you!
On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - cards save me from the blues.
But what then is your poetry?
She serves as a vehicle for me to pay off my gambling debts. Your Majesty.
And indeed, when Pushkin was burdened with gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off overnight in one night. Thus, for example, he has "Count Nulin" written.
A. Pushkin on the Black Sea coast
18. While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. That evening he was in a special shock. Lightning jokes flew from his lips; ladies and maidens vied with each other to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably, a teacher, decided, by all means, to "overconfuse" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing their heads in the most incomparable way, address:
Mille pardon ... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it right: "Hey man, bring me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!"
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to make fun of him and, not in the least embarrassed, answered seriously:
I think you can put it bluntly: "Hey man, drive us to the watering hole."
A.S. Pushkin on the top of Ai-Petri at sunrise. Canvas, oil. State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)
19. In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes dropped in, one of the members of this circle wrote a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet". Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he arrived late as usual. All those present were, of course, in an agitated state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. The literary part of the evening began with the reading of this particular "Message", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- "Message to the Poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he will stay with which one?
The author was confused:
- And I will stay with mine.
Yes, you just gave it.
General confusion ensued. The defeated author fell silent.
V.A. Lednev. "Pushkin in Mikhailovsky"
20. According to the calculations of the Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the poet's biography. He initiated fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not take place due to the reconciliation of the parties, mainly through the efforts of Pushkin's friends; in six cases the challenge to a duel came not from Pushkin, but from his opponents. Pushkin's first duel took place at the Lyceum.
21. It is known that Aleksandr Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbecker, but he often arranged practical jokes for him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he had not been, the poet replied: "I had upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ..." Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:
I ate too much at supper
Yes, Jacob locked the door blindly -
So it was to me, my friends,
And küchelbeckerno, and sickening ...
Kuchelbecker was furious and demanded a duel! The duel took place. Both fired. But the pistols were loaded ... with cranberries, and, of course, the fight ended in peace ...
B.V. Shcherbakov. Pushkin in Mikhailovsky
22. Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin's wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.
23. Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were passed on by two outstanding people: V. A. Zhukovsky - a poet, at that time educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt - physician-in-chief of Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin's physician.
The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the tsar's prohibition on duels: "... I'm waiting for the tsar's word to die peacefully ..."
Sovereign: "If God does not order us to meet in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Do not worry about your wife and children, I take them into my arms." It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.
“Duel of A.S. Pushkin with Dantes ", Adrian Markovich Volkov
24. Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the poet's descendants now live all over the world: in England, Germany, Belgium ... About fifty live in Russia. Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash is especially interesting. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's grand-nephew. Now Tatiana lives in Klin.
25. And - finally - probably the most amusing fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, the biography of Pushkin. In Ethiopia, a monument to Pushkin was erected in this way a few years ago. The words "To our poet" are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal.
V.A. Tropinin. Portrait of A.S. Pushkin
"To this they will say to me with an incorrect smile:
See, you are a poet deviating, hypocritical,
You fool us - you don't need fame,
It seems ridiculous and vain to you;
Why are you writing? - I AM? for yourself. - For what
Are you typing? - For money. - Oh, my God!
What a shame! - Why?
Xavier de Maistre. Pushkin is a child. 1800-1802
Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He talked several times about how once while walking he noticed how the earth swayed and the columns tremble, and the last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, the first meeting of Pushkin with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold the horse, the child was not hurt, and the only one who got scared in earnest was the nanny.
Portrait of Pushkin (Watercolor by S. G. Chirikov, 1810); Central Museum of A.S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg
Little Pushkin spent his childhood in Moscow. His first teachers were French governors. And for the summer, he usually went to his grandmother, Maria Alekseevna, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow. When he was 12 years old, Pushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a closed educational institution with 30 students. At the Lyceum, Pushkin seriously studied poetry, especially French, for which he was nicknamed "French".
Pushkin at the lyceum exam in Tsarskoe Selo. Painting by I. Repin (1911)
"My friends, our union is wonderful!
He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal, -
Unwavering, free and carefree
It grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.
Wherever fate throws us,
And happiness wherever it takes
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoe Selo. "
Pushkin got to the lyceum, as they say, through pull. The Lyceum was founded by Minister Speransky himself, the enrollment was small - only 30 people, but Pushkin had an uncle - a very famous and talented poet Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who personally knew Speransky.
The Lyceum published a handwritten magazine "Lyceum sage". Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I fall asleep as soon as possible." Offended, Kuchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon a cartoon was drawn in the "Wise of the Lyceum": Kuchelbecker is drowning, and his long nose sticks out of the pond.
In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams during seventeen days in May, including Latin, Russian, German and French literature, general history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received their Lyceum diplomas. The poet was the twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing excellent success only "in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing".
Painting "Pushkin on the seashore", artist Ivan Aivazovsky, 1887, art museum, Nikolaev
The first love of Pushkin, in the opinion of the author of the book "Pushkin's 113 Ladies", literary critic Yevgeny Ryabtsev, was Sophia Sushkova, the daughter of the famous writer Nikolai Sushkov. It was about her that 16-year-old lyceum student Alexander Pushkin wrote in one of his poems:
"In the evening quiet at times
Alone in languid thought
I see you before me ... "
It is known that Pushkin was very loving. But it is very curious to read not even the list of his victories, but the reviews of different people about him. His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad in himself, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. This is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Alexandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love: "Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness." However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.
Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya (Goncharova)
"My voice for you is both gentle and languid
Disturbing the late silence of the dark night.
Near my bed is a sad candle
Is on; my poems, merging and murmuring,
Flow, streams of love, flow, full of you.
In the darkness your eyes shine before me
They smile at me, and I hear the sounds:
My friend, my gentle friend ... I love ... yours ... yours! .. "
Painting by N. Ulyanov "Pushkin with his wife in front of the mirror at the court ball" (1936)
Monument to Pushkin and Goncharova on the Arbat. The sculptor A.N. Burganov
Pushkin was a genius, but he was not handsome, and in this respect he contrasted with his beautiful wife Natalia Goncharova, who, at the same time, was 10 cm taller than him. For this reason, while attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife: so that those around him would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him.
A gendarme official of the III branch, Popov, wrote about Pushkin: "He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone." Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him: "Modest in his judgments, amiable in society and a child to his liking."
Pushkin's laughter produced the same enchanting impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: "What a lucky Pushkin! He laughs so much that it looks like the guts are visible." And in fact, Pushkin all his life argued that everything that arouses laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.
Pushkin had gambling debts, and quite serious ones. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were some delays, he wrote evil epigrams to his creditors and drew caricatures of them in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.
I.K. Aivazovsky, I.E. Repin. "Farewell to Pushkin with the sea. "(" Farewell, free element ... "). 1887 Oil on canvas.
Aivazovsky knew his weakness in the portrait and himself invited Repin to paint Pushkin ... Later, Repin said about the joint work: "The wonderful sea was written by Aivazovsky (...) And I was honored to paint a figurine there."
"There on the bank, where the sacred forest slumbers,
I repeated your name;
There I often wandered solitary
And looked into the distance ... and waited for a nice meeting. "
Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;
She spoils you!
On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - cards save me from the blues.
But what then is your poetry?
She serves as a vehicle for me to pay off my gambling debts. Your Majesty.
And indeed, when Pushkin was burdened with gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off overnight in one night. Thus, for example, he has "Count Nulin" written.
While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. That evening he was in a special shock. Lightning jokes flew from his lips; ladies and maidens vied with each other to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably, a teacher, decided, by all means, to "overconfuse" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing their heads in the most incomparable way, address:
Mille pardon ... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it right: "Hey man, bring me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!"
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to make fun of him and, not in the least embarrassed, answered seriously:
I think you can put it bluntly: "Hey man, drive us to the watering hole."
O. A. Kiprensky. Portrait of A.S. Pushkin. 1827
In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes dropped in, one of the members of this circle wrote a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet". Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he arrived late as usual. All those present were, of course, in an agitated state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. The literary part of the evening began with the reading of this particular "Message", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- "Message to the Poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
And I will stay with mine.
Yes, you just gave it.
General confusion ensued. The defeated author fell silent.
Monument to A.S. Pushkin in Odessa
"Monkey, loving his jumps from a young age,
And the decrepit one still galloped through the hoops;
What came of that? - only broke her legs.
Poet! Take care of yourself in old age!"
One French woman interrogates Alexander Sergeevich about who his ancestors were.
The conversation takes place in French.
By the way, Mr. Pushkin, do you and your sister have the blood of a Negro in your veins?
Of course, - the poet answered.
Was that your grandfather a black man?
No, he was no longer one.
So it was your great-grandfather?
Yes, my great grandfather.
Так это он был негром... да, да... но в таком случае, кто же был его отец?
Monkey, madam, - Alexander Sergeevich finally cut off.
According to the calculations of the Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the poet's biography. He initiated fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not take place due to the reconciliation of the parties, mainly through the efforts of Pushkin's friends; in six cases the challenge to a duel came not from Pushkin, but from his opponents. Pushkin's first duel took place at the Lyceum.
It is known that Alexander Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum friend Küchelbecker, but he often arranged practical jokes for him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he had not been, the poet replied: "I had upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ..." Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:
I ate too much at supper
Yes, Jacob locked the door blindly -
So it was to me, my friends,
And küchelbeckerno, and sickening ...
Kuchelbecker was furious and demanded a duel! The duel took place. Both fired. But the pistols were loaded ... with cranberries, and, of course, the fight ended in peace ...
Adrian Volkov. The last shot of A.S. Pushkin
"Yesterday at a punch bowl
I sat with the hussar,
And silently with a dark soul
I looked at the long way.
"Tell me, what are you looking at the road? -
My brave questioned. -
Even on it you, thank God,
I didn't see my friends. "
Drooping his head to his chest,
I soon whispered:
"Hussar! She is no longer with me! ..."
He sighed and fell silent.
A tear hung on my eyelash
And she sank into the glass. -
"Child! You cry for the girl.
Be ashamed! "He screamed.
"Leave it, hussar ... oh! My heart hurts.
You, know, did not grieve.
Alas! one tear is enough
To poison the glass! .... "
Monument to A.S. Pushkin in Moscow
Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin's wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.
Pushkin's conflict with Dantes was provoked by anonymous letters hinting at a love affair between Pushkin's wife Natalia and Dantes. The duel took place on January 27 (February 8), 1837 on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, in the area of the Black River near the Commandant's dacha. As a result, Pushkin was mortally wounded in the thigh. The bullet broke through the neck of the thigh and penetrated into the stomach. For that time, the wound was fatal. The poet died two days later.
In the memoirs of contemporaries, it was noted that a rumor persisted in the world that Baron Heckern personally acquired chain mail for Dantes, in which he was in a duel. There were good reasons for such rumors - Pushkin's bullet pierced the soft tissues of Dantes' hand right through, and, consequently, hit the torso. In the testimony of the Military Court Commission, Danzas and the Viscount unanimously asserted that Pushkin's shot knocked Dantes off his feet.
According to the official version, the bullet ricocheted off the button of the uniform, however, upon impact of such force, the bullet would most likely simply rip and drive the button into the body (uniform buttons were then made exclusively of soft metals), but, as you know, Dantes received no other injuries. In addition, the mysterious button was never presented to the court.
Another secular rumor was connected with the fact that Nicholas I instructed the chief of the gendarme corps Benckendorff to stop the duel and detain the duelists, since a wide circle of people knew about the place and time of the duel. Benckendorff, deliberately or not, approached the execution of the order formally, and sent a gendarme picket "to the Black River", without specifying which one.
Obelisk at the site of Pushkin's duel in St. Petersburg
"The bee stung the bear in the forehead.
She wanted to take revenge on the offender for the honeycomb;
But what then? She died herself, having lost her sting.
What is the lot of the one who wants revenge? - Coffin."
Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. Notes were transmitted by two prominent people: V. A. Zhukovsky - a poet, at that time educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt - physician to Emperor Nicholas I, physician to Pushkin.
The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the tsar's prohibition on duels: "... I'm waiting for the tsar's word to die peacefully ..."
Sovereign: "If God does not order us to meet in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Do not worry about your wife and children, I take them into my arms." It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.
Fearing demonstrations, the tsar ordered the secret removal of Pushkin's body from St. Petersburg. The coffin was accompanied by a gendarme and old friend family of the poet, A. Turgenev. Pushkin was buried at the cemetery of the Svyatogorsk monastery, five miles from the village of Mikhailovskoye.
Monument to A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg
"I have erected a monument to myself, not made by hands,
The folk path will not grow to it,
He ascended higher as the head of the rebellious
Of the Alexandrian pillar.
No, all of me will not die - a soul in a cherished lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will flee -
And I will be glorious, as long as in the sublunary world
At least one drinker will live.
The rumor about me will spread throughout the great Russia,
And every tongue in her will call me,
And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and now wild
Tunguz, and a Kalmyk friend of the steppes.
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I am awakening good feelings with a lyre,
That in my cruel age I have glorified Freedom
And he called for mercy to the fallen.
By God's command, oh muse, be obedient,
Without fear of resentment, without demanding a crown,
They received praise and slander indifferently,
And don't dispute a fool. "
Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the poet's descendants now live all over the world: in England, Germany, Belgium ... About fifty live in Russia. Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash is especially interesting. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's grand-nephew. Now Tatiana lives in Klin.
Turgenev once offered a proven recipe for headaches and blues: read aloud 10 of Pushkin's poems. Prosper Merimee, who knew Russian well enough, having become acquainted with Pushkin's work, called him the greatest poet in the world. The famous lawyer of the late 19th century A.F. Koni argued that it was not knowledge of the laws that allowed him not to lose a single case, but the knowledge of ... Pushkin. He could read by heart several hundred of the poet's poems, including "Eugene Onegin"!
Monument to A.S. Pushkin in Tsarskoe Selo
"Oh no, I'm not tired of life,
I love to live, I want to live,
The soul has not completely cooled down,
Having lost their youth.
Pleasures are still stored
For my curiosity,
For sweet dreams of imagination
For the senses of everything. "
Monument to A.S. Pushkin in Boldino (opened in June 1979)
"- In that case," I said in French, so as not to understand our
conversation [Denisevich], who did not know this language - let me accept
active participation in your business with this gentleman and therefore I ask you to explain
me the reason for your quarrel.
Then one of the assistants told me that Pushkin had been in
theater, where, unfortunately, fate put him next to [Denisevich]. Were playing
an empty song, they played, perhaps, and badly. Pushkin yawned, hissed, spoke
loudly: "Unbearable!" The neighbor apparently liked his play very much. At first
he was silent, then, driven out of patience, told Pushkin that he was interfering with him
listen to the song. Pushkin glanced sideways at him and began to make noise as before.
Here [Denisevich] announced to his restless neighbor that he would ask the police
take him out of the theater.
“We’ll see,” answered Pushkin coolly and continued to hang out.
The play ended, the audience began to disperse. That should have been
end the quarrel of our opponents. But my knight did not lose sight of his
an insignificant neighbor and stopped him in the hallway.
“A young man,” he said, addressing Pushkin, and at the same time
raised his forefinger, - you prevented me from listening to the song ... this
it is indecent, it is impolite.
- Yes, I am not an old man, - answered Pushkin, - but, Mr.
it is more impolite here and with such a gesture to tell me this. Where do you live?
Denisevich said his address and appointed to come to him at eight o'clock
in the morning. Wasn't this a real challenge? ..
- I will, - answered Pushkin. Officers of different regiments, hearing these
negotiations, were surrounded by opponents; there was a noise in the corridor, but
to Pushkin's word, everything was quiet, and those arguing dispersed without further
adventure.
You see that Pushkin's assistant did not hide his guilt either, explaining to me the guilt
his opponent. It was this knot that I had to untie, saving between
the head and honor of Pushkin.
“Let me talk to this gentleman in the other room,” I said.
military visitors. They nodded to me in agreement. When I was left alone
with Denisevich, I asked him if this was the case in the theater, as he told me
one of the officers. He replied that this was the case. Then I started to prove
to him all the thoughtlessness of his actions; introduced him that he himself was around
guilty, having started a quarrel again with a young, unknown person, when leaving
from the theater, when this quarrel ended in nothing; told him how insolent he was
the threat of a finger and his foolish admonitions, and that, having made a formal challenge, why
he, of course, did not understand whether it was necessary either to fight or to apologize. I added
that Pushkin is the son of a noble man (that he famous poet, this gentleman
would not care). I accompanied all my convictions with a description of the terrible
the consequences of this story if it is not resolved at once. "Otherwise
case, - I said, - I am going now to our general, then ... you know him:
he doesn't like to joke. "
not without reason. Denisevich was convinced that he was guilty and agreed to apologize.
Then, without giving the major his senses, I led him into the room where they were waiting for us.
Pushkin and his assistants, and said to him: "Mr. [Denisevich] considers himself
guilty before you, Alexander Sergeevich, and in a rash movement, and in rash words when leaving the theater; he had no intention of offending you with them. "
“I hope Mr. [Denisevich] himself will confirm this,” said Pushkin.
Denisevich apologized ... and was about to stretch out his hand to Pushkin, but he did not give him his, saying only: "I am sorry," and left with his companions, who very kindly said goodbye to me. "
(II Lazhechnikov. My acquaintance with Pushkin ")