The beginning of the life of a beautiful woman who conquered all famous people not only with her appearance, but also with her sharp-edged mind, did not portend a bitter death with a dizziness in senile dementia. Smirnova Alexandra was from a young age subject to bouts of melancholy, replaced by gleams, during which she was both seductive and brilliant.
Childhood
Alexandra Smirnova, Osipovna by patronymic, was born in Odessa in 1809 in the family of Osip Ivanovich Rosset, a Frenchman from a noble family of origin. In the veins of the mother was mixed German and Georgian blood. Alexandra was the eldest child, later four more brothers were born. The family existed on the salary of his father, the commandant of the Odessa port. But when his daughter was five years old, he died during the plague. The mother, having married a second time, gave the children to the education of her grandmother. Alexandra Rosset's childhood passed on an estate in Little Russia. These were the bright years that painted her adult life with wonderful memories and later brought them closer to N.V. Gogol in their common love for Ukraine. And she herself later considered herself a Ukrainian. When the children grew up, the boys were sent to receive education at the Page Corps, and Sasha at the Catherine Institute in St. Petersburg.
Maid of honor
In 1826, at the end of the institute, the noble damsel Alexandra Smirnova Alexander (then Rosset) was added a maid of honor at the court, first with the Empress mother, and then, in 1828, with Alexandra Fedorovna, the august wife of Emperor Nicholas I.
The palace rooms were in sharp contrast with the maids of honor. They lived in the attic of the Winter Palace, where 80 steps led. Each of them was supposed to have a room divided into two parts by a gray wooden partition. The room served as a bedroom and living room. The maids lived in a smaller room, but nearby. On the day of duty, the maid of honor was dressed in accordance with her position and waited for her to be called. It was always necessary to be ready. In general, this was a high-ranking servant who was not always regularly paid salaries. On days free from duty, each maid of honor tried to escape from the Winter Palace in order to find herself in a friendly or family atmosphere.
And so she lived in the palace of Alexander Smirnov, maid of honor of the young empress. But her mind was appreciated by the crowned ruler of Russia, with whom she did not hesitate to communicate.
Extraordinary girl
With its beauty, bold mind, and the ability to juggle thoughts with the easy grace of a magician, it attracted a lot of fans of Alexander Smirnov. Her photo, naturally, is not, and the pictures on which portraits of the woman are shown show her young, beating beauty on the spot.
Her modest maid of honor on the fourth floor became a literary salon. She was also a member of the famous salon E.A. Karamzina and was friends with her stepdaughter, Sofia Nikolaevna. All celebrities swirled around her: A.S. Pushkin, V.F. Odoevsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, M. Yu. Lermontov. “Black-eyed Rosseti” wrote to the album by A. S. Pushkin, with whom she was friends and could analyze his new work. The "southern eyes" of the northern maiden, tender and passionate, were fascinated by P. A. Vyazemsky. For her bold mind, he called her Donna Sol and Donna Pepper.
"Devil of Heaven" called her Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. To the words of Vasily Tumansky (diplomat, state secretary) “I loved blue eyes, now I love black ...”, an enthusiastic Rosset, a romance has been written that has been performed to this day. Pushkin, having already married Natalie Goncharova, often in a family host Alexandrin, who was only three years older than Natalya Nikolaevna. He went down to the talking ladies and could read them new poems. Alexander was still close to sovereign Smirnov . So, through it, the tsar handed over to Pushkin an envelope with his notes on the manuscript of “Eugene Onegin”.
Marriage
A.S. Pushkin was very pleased when he found out about her engagement to Nikolai Mikhailovich Smirnov, whom he met in 1828. He made a wonderful impression on the poet - an educated Russian man and at the same time a foreigner who even sat in the saddle in English.
He was a calm person, somewhat jealous, though true, but also wealthy and with a career going uphill. The wedding took place in the Winter Palace. It was attended by members of the imperial family. Alexandra Osipovna married by calculation. Her mother gave all her fortune to the children from her second marriage. Alexandra Osipovna was going to help her brothers, who were left without funds, except for official earnings.
Due to the difference in characters and Alexander Smirnov’s calculation, marriage could not be made happy. Her very nature was unstable, prone to depression. And the husband, in turn, could not boast that he fully understood such an ambiguous woman. In addition, Herzen and Ogarev repeatedly criticized his bureaucratic inclinations, as well as the fact that he patronized theft officials. But, one way or another, he gradually advanced up the career ladder. Young settled in St. Petersburg. The pinnacle of the career of Nikolai Pavlovich Smirnov was the position of governor of St. Petersburg, as well as the fact that he became a senator of the Russian Empire. But while they were young, A.S. Pushkin visited their house and they were the first to read the history of the Pugachevsky rebellion. Actor Mikhail Shchepkin, a young but well-known critic Vissarion Belinsky, poet and writer Alexei Tolstoy visited them in the salon.
Later, M. Yu. Lermontov will come into this house, who will write unforgettable lines on the album, where feelings that the poet could not express in the presence of Alexandra will be expressed. Her image was not forgotten by the poet, and he introduced him to the begun novel “Lugin”. There, Smirnova Alexandra will perform under the name Minskaya, in which both her beauty and her original outlook are appreciated.
Smirnova Alexandra: children
The first child was born dead at the end of 1832. Two years later, twin daughters were born - Alexander (1834–1837) and Olga (1834–1893). Gossip went that these were the children of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich. But A.S. Pushkin did not pay attention to them. Then the daughters Sophia (1836–1884), Nadezhda (1840–1899) and the last son, Mikhail (1847–1892) will be born.
Relations with N.V. Gogol
They were introduced by A.S. Pushkin. Almost all the time, Rosset will correspond with Nikolai Vasilievich, he will live with them in Begichevo estate near Kaluga and Spassky near Moscow, working on the second volume of Dead Souls. Repeatedly, Alexander Smirnov will meet with him, living abroad in Rome. Moreover, in 1845, she would procure for the writer from the emperor an annual pension, the size of which would be 1,000 rubles. Gogol valued her as a pearl among women.
Gentle friendship
Sharp in tongue, stabbing and mocking, Smirnova Alexandra, in the words of Pushkin , who knew how to write full of "jokes of the blackest anger," was fascinated in 1844 by Nikolai Dmitrievich Kiselev, a diplomat by profession and don Juan by vocation.
Anna Olenina, who knew Aleksandra Smirnova well, believed that on her part it was a strong and gentle platonic feeling, very unexpected for such an ironic person.
Old age
Unfortunately, the heredity of the brilliant Rosset was unfavorable. In her youth, she was prone to depression, to "black melancholy." In 1846, this manifested itself very clearly, and she was inclined to religious ritualism. Not in faith, but in the external fulfillment of rites, she gained a certain calm. She is losing weight at this time, losing sleep. These gaps between light and dark periods accompany her throughout her life. But by 1879, children in Paris were already petitioning to establish custody of her and believe that the deterioration of her condition began three years ago, back in Moscow. Modern psychiatrists, analyzing her condition, talk about the manifestation of vascular senile dementia. Her immediate relatives were almost no exception, almost all affected by psychiatric illnesses - daughters Olga, Sophia, son Mikhail. Her three brothers also suffered from mental disorders.
In Paris in 1883, having outlived her husband by 13 years and almost all friends, Alexandr Smirnova died. Biography, life and death were unusual, just as unusual was this person herself, who worried many people in her path.