Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin is a singer of love and freedom, a man who went down in history as the greatest poet of Russia. Judging by the stories of his entourage, genius could be seen in completely different roles. He became famous among contemporaries as a cutler, gambler, duelist ... But the most important thing that is attributed to Pushkin is, of course, the conquest of women's hearts.
How sweet she is ...
I must say that his nondescript appearance did not interfere with captivating beautiful ladies. Pushkin’s lyceum comrades, for example, S. Komovsky, tell in their memoirs that even in his teens, Alexander was characterized by truly African voluptuousness and incredible loving love. They say that at the lyceum balls during dances, his eyes literally glowed with just one touch of the girl's fingers, the poet began to tremble and intermittently breathe. It is difficult to say today how many women Pushkin had. His Don Juan list is quite large - so much so that it was sometimes very difficult for biographers to decide. But only a few were able to leave a mark on the life and work of the poet. And one of them was Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina - the elder sister of his lyceum friend. It was she who inspired him for a whole cycle of poems. So what was Pushkin’s first love? In this article, we will talk about Bakunina, about her acquaintance with the great poet, about how her fate happened.
short biography
Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina was born on February 20, 1795. She was the daughter of a real chamberlain. For a long time, her father Pavel Petrovich was the manager of the Academy of Sciences. Her mother, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Sablukova, was from a noble family, originating from the Polish gentry. By father Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina was the cousin of the famous diplomat D.P. Tatishchev, and by mother she is the granddaughter of the senator.
The girl received an excellent home education. Beginning in 1798, she and her parents lived abroad: first in Germany, then in Switzerland, and then in England. In 1804, due to lack of funds, the Bakunin family returned to Russia. In December 1805, her father Pavel Petrovich passed away. After the death of the father, the girl and brothers Alexander and Semyon were raised with their mother by their grandfather A. Sablukov. It was he who was appointed the official guardian of the children. Bakunin lived in a rented apartment on the Neva embankment, in the house of Tairov.
Acquaintance with Pushkin
They would hardly have met if in 1811 her brother Alexander Bakunin’s grandfather had not been identified in the newly opened Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Here, as you know, Pushkin also studied. Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina, together with her mother, often visited her brother, and in the summer their family lived permanently in Tsarskoye Selo. In the preserved Vedomosti Lyceum, their visits were noted: in 1811, Catherine came to her brother four times, in 1814 - thirty-one, in 1815 - seventeen, etc.
A sixteen-year-old girl immediately became the object of attention from many lyceum students. Among them were Pushchin, Pushkin, Ivan Malinovsky. Her lovely face, wondrous camp, her charm produced general delight. Lyceum youth, as S. Komovsky recalled, was crazy about her. But most of all, she fell in love with the young poet. Her acquaintance with Pushkin happened at a lyceum ball. She, according to contemporaries, awakened the first true platonic love in the poet. It was thanks to this feeling that a completely different Pushkin appeared - the singer of love. The poet, with fiery delight in lively colors, portrayed her beauty in one of his works. Ekaterina Bakunina, he dedicated his poem "To the painter." Her name was included in the "Don Juan list" of the poet.
Life at court
In October 1817, Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina, becoming the maid of honor of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna, moved to live at the royal court. There were various rumors about her appointment in society. Many perceived Bakunin ambiguously. In a letter to his mother, N. Muravyov wrote to his mother that he was incredibly surprised by this appointment. Secular society was surprised that she was promoted to maids of honor, and found this circumstance very strange.
Gradually, Ekaterina Bakunina settled down at court and soon became one of the empress’s favorites. In 1818, she accompanied the royal lady on a trip to Darmstadt, Weimar, Munich and Karlsruhe. Judging by the testimonies of contemporaries, the beautiful maid of honor Bakunin was distinguished by a special grace during dances at court balls. This was noted by everyone who has ever seen her.
Ekaterina Bakunina and Pushkin
I must say that many high school students were also fond of Katya, as they called her. In particular, Jeannot felt love for her, Pushkin's closest friend Pushchin. The same Komovsky, who subsequently so naturally described Pushkin’s passion for Yekaterina Bakunina, secretly “breathed unevenly towards her”. However, it was he who wrote in a letter to Annenkov about the first feeling of the famous poet. Moreover, with a great sense of humor, he talked about how he looked for traces left by “her beautiful foot” in Tsarskoye Selo forests and groves.
Estrangement
Everyone knew that Pushkin was passionately in love with Bakunin. The poet languished with this feeling all winter. It did not leave him in the spring and summer of 1816. It is difficult to say whether Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina reciprocated the poet. Pushkin's poems during this period, in particular elegy, are full of deep melancholy. Therefore, biographers fail to draw any definite conclusions about their relationship. The feelings that existed between Pushkin and his beloved girl are hidden behind an elegiac stencil that obscures reality. Moreover, it can be concluded that this youthful novel was just a couple of fleeting meetings in the park, at a ball or on the porch of the Lyceum.
In the fall, the Bakunin family moved to St. Petersburg. Judging by the poems written by him at that time, Pushkin remained completely inconsolable for a long time. However, youth took its toll, especially since every day brought new impressions to his life. Soon his first literary successes began, and after a public reading in the presence of an already aging Derzhavin, a real triumph ensued. Gradually, the poet’s heart wound healed ...
Novels
Of course, Katya Bakunina could not reciprocate any of the lyceum students in love with her. Each of them was seventeen, while she was twenty-one years old. Moreover, the younger brother of Bakunina was the same age as the poet in love, and a similar situation was extremely disadvantageous for the ardent admirer. The girl looked at the seventeen-year-old boy as a child.
In general, according to contemporaries, Catherine was a rather strict and serious girl who was completely alien to playful coquetry. I must say that biographers were not able to collect a lot of information about her personal life. Nevertheless, during her life at the court, Bakunina had serious novels. One of his contemporaries recalled this. He wrote that the "adventure of Ekaterina Bakunina" is incredibly romantic! Ekaterina Pavlovna, according to him, is charming and quite worthy of a good party.
She took painting lessons from A.P. Bryullov, a court artist. They even rumored that they had a short romance. Being a very talented artist, Bakunina did a lot of copying in her favorite genre - portrait. She was depicted by many fairly well-known artists. Kiprensky, Sokolov and A. Bryullov - this is not the whole list of portrait painters who were delighted with her beauty. The works belonging to the pen by Bakunina herself were kept in their family, transmitted from generation to generation. Many of them later ended up in museum collections.
Marriage
However, under the crown Bakunin went already at a fairly mature age. In March 1834, Natalia Pushkina wrote about this to her daughter. She said that Mademoiselle Bakunina would soon be married to Mrs. Kern’s cousin. Alexander Poltoratsky was a middle-aged widower without children and with a great fortune. It was said that he had been in love with his bride for two years. They spoke a lot about the upcoming marriage of the retired captain and Ekaterina Bakunina at court. The maid of honor Sheremetev told that the bride is incredibly happy and even cries with great joy. The wedding was played in St. Petersburg on April 30, 1834. Empress Alexandra Fedorovna herself blessed this marriage. Soon, Ekaterina Pavlovna Poltoratskaya, together with her husband and mother, left the capital.
Married life
The newlyweds settled in the estate of her husband in Rasskazovo. As her friend Baron M. Korf later recalled, Catherine buried herself in a village in Tambov district. And although the marriage deprived her of a sufficiently large salary of the maid of honor - 3900 rubles in bank notes, but Bakunin, according to her relatives, did not need anything and was happy. In 1837 A. Poltoratsky was elected the leader of the nobility in the Tambov district, very soon Ekaterina Pavlovna began to act as the mistress of balls and evenings in the Noble Assembly.
Old age
In 1846, her mother died, and in March 1855, her husband. Poltoratsky was buried in the Novodevichy Convent in St. Petersburg. In 1859, Ekaterina Pavlovna moved to live with her married daughter in Kostroma, and for the summer went to Lull - the Bakunin family estate. And only occasionally did she visit Rasskazovo. Pushkin's first love died on December 7, 1869. She was buried in St. Petersburg, in a monastery next to her husband.
Afterword of verses
Even the cynic Komovsky recognized that Pushkin’s first platonic love was Katya Bakunina. The poet’s biographers acknowledge that it was to her that he devoted a huge cycle of his poems. It is believed that more than one of the women, both before and after, failed to inspire a genius to create so many works from which it was possible to create a whole collection. Of course, they were not as perfect as subsequent masterpieces, traces of imitation can be seen in them. However, these verses invisibly feel the real feeling of first love that Pushkin carried through life. In 1815, the poet in love deeply portrayed the beauty of the girl in the poem "To the Painter", whose words were later put to music by the lyceum student Korsakov. According to most researchers of Pushkin’s work, the poet wrote about two dozen lyric works under the impression of his love for Bakunina. Moreover, her image was repeatedly seen in his poems until 1825.
Many years later, Ekaterina Bakunina and Pushkin met again. It was in 1828 in Priyutino at the birthday of Ekaterina Markovna Olenina. But, according to biographers, then the poet was too absorbed in his romance with the daughter of the birthday girl, Anna, to remember her first lyceum love ...