The history of the life and death of the greatest Russian poet has always interested his many fans. To make an icon out of genius or to see a person in it is a personal choice for each of us. For representatives of the second category there is a Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg.
Last home
Pushkin did not have his own house or apartment in Petersburg. The mansion on Moika embankment, 12, near the Konyushenny bridge, belonged to the princes Volkonsky - they had a poet and rented 11 rooms, which he moved with his family in September 1836.
This apartment was the last refuge of the poet: he lived here for only about five months. The walls of the house where Pushkin's apartment-museum is currently located (Moika, 12) witnessed the sad drama that led to the death of the great Russian poet. Mortally wounded in a duel, he died here on February 10, 1837, instructing his wife to observe mourning for two years, and then marry a decent person.
According to numerous testimonies, the poet did not hold evil at his spouse: he was always affectionate with her, always sought to protect. She touchingly looked after her husband until the last hours of his life. The wave of hatred and censure that fell upon the young woman after the death of the poet was hardly deserved.
The long road to the museum
The events of the last months of life are devoted to the exposition, the path of which was rather thorny. Nobody knew about what would one day open at 12 Moika Pushkin Museum-Apartment. Immediately after the death of the poet, many things were transferred to his friends and relatives, and the family moved to the village estate.
New residents moved into the Volkonsky mansion. After 1900, it was converted into a tenement house (a large number of guests changed), and after the revolution of 1917 it was the kingdom of communal apartments. Many household items and furnishings were irretrievably lost.
Attempts have long been made to arrange the Pushkin Museum. Moika 12 is an address that is perfect for this. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pushkin House was created at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, on which the mission was assigned to collect disparate exhibits. His employees managed to buy a library (3,700 volumes) from the poetâs grandson - today it is presented in the museum. Negotiations were also held with a Paris fan of Pushkin (as a fan would say now). He collected in his apartment an impressive collection of personal belongings, autographs, portraits of the poet and his family. These things began to return to their homeland only after the death of the collector, in 1925.
Bit by bit
Museum staff are true enthusiasts in their field. Everything that was found in various funds was carefully collected. According to the preserved evidence and documents, the furnishings of the apartment in which the Pushkin Museum is located (Moika, 12) have been restored as much as possible in modern conditions.
Some things are really preserved. In the cabinet there is a ruby glass carafe in which the poet held his beloved Madeira, and next to him on the tray are the remains of the family silver: a spoon and a ladle. Behind the glass, you can see a tiny shirt in which the poetâs son was baptized, and a fragment of the fabric that the walls were upholstered (wallpapers in those days were not yet practiced).
With special love reproduced the study and library of the poet. Here are presented more than 4 thousand volumes, which he personally collected, as well as about a dozen thousand books in 17 languages.
Preserved and Pushkin's desk , his favorite "Voltaire" chair with dark pink upholstery, a travel chest and a checker, donated by friends. Another exhibit that the Pushkin Museum is rightly proud of (St. Petersburg, Moika, 12) is the poetâs favorite inkwell, decorated with an arapochka figure in golden trousers and a pickaxe. Alexander Sergeyevich himself was proud of his origin, he never missed a chance to emphasize the characteristic features of his appearance, so he liked the bauble.
The original pen that the poet held in his hands was placed in a sealed box with a transparent lid. Apparently, there were many who wanted to hold on to the "magic" stationery.
Emperor's subject
There are several canes in the office with which Pushkin traveled along the pavements of the Northern capital. Among them is his favorite, made of bamboo, with the button of Peter I instead of the knob. Despite everything that was told about the poet in Soviet schools, he was not at all such a fighter against tsarism. And the monarch did not commit atrocities beyond measure - he was very far from the rulers of the USSR .
It is known that Pushkin, being on his deathbed, asked Nicholas I forgiveness for the duel and received a gracious reply with an obligation not to leave the poet's family forgotten. The Pushkin Museum keeps this note among its exhibits. Moika, 12 - the last address of the poet, so the letter is in place.
By the way, the emperor kept his promise, thereby giving rise to a new round of gossip about his love affair with Natalya Nikolaevna (with whom this eternally pregnant woman had not been associated). Apparently, the rights of Monica Bellucci, saying that people can forgive a personâs mind and even talent, but not beauty.
Museum exposition
Among the exhibits of the museum, intravital portraits of the poet and his contemporaries belonging to the brush of famous Russian artists are of great value. Of particular interest are the canvases of famous painters - Aivazovsky, Repin, Myasoedov and others, dedicated to Pushkin's theme.
Now the Pushkin Museum (Moika, 12) includes 9 rooms. Downstairs, on the basement, two rooms are dedicated to the opening memorial exposition - the guide acquaints visitors with the last months of the poetâs life, with the chain of events that brought him to the Black River. Here you can see the original of the anonymous insulting letter that Pushkin received (and considered that Dantes had sent it), portraits of seconds, a copy of the call (and the conditions of the match), as well as a couple of dueling pistols.
The museumâs exposition was built logically: the drama unfolds from room to room and ends in that very little room in which there was a coffin with the body of a deceased poet. Numerous fans came to say goodbye to him here, there is immediately a death mask, a medallion with a lock of hair of the poet. Such an unusual request was made by Turgenev - the museum (Moika, 12) demonstrates his note, according to which the hair was cut off on the second day after the death of the poet by his valet, who thus earned gold. Against the wall, behind the glass, you can see a vest and a white glove, in which Alexander Sergeyevich shot himself.
Reason for the duel
I must say that the whole story of the duel is not as simple and sketchy as it is described to schoolchildren. Some hotheads interpret the role of Natalya Nikolaevna in tragic history as negative, but, according to numerous characteristics of her contemporaries, she was a quiet woman, she did not shine by secularism. During the birth of the âtumultuous romanceâ with Dantes Goncharova, she was expecting a baby again - and her pregnancy was far from cloudless.
Perhaps Pushkinâs condition was influenced by the situation in the light: such a whirlwind of dirty insinuations shot up around his wife that he felt obligated to react to this.
Truth and myths
An anonymous libel, which was received by Pushkin and several of his friends, where the poet was called the âcuckold,â became the decisive reason for the duel. Alexander Sergeyevich attributed the authorship to the young Gekkeren, but the true culprit has not been able to establish to this day. Numerous biographers multiply versions.
Some blame the incident on Idal Poletik (a second cousin of Natalia Nikolaevna). Say, it was her affair with Dantes, and the naive Pushkin served as an intriguing cover, for which the poet undeservedly paid.
Others âagreedâ to frankly delusional versions that Gekkeren was a foreign spy, and Pushkin undertook to eliminate him, because he was related to the secret service.
Trust professionals
To hear a coherent version of what happened from the mouth of specialists, you need to go to the address: Moika, 12. Pushkinâs apartment, which has become his last refuge, can tell a lot to a person who is ready to watch and listen. Guides at the museum deserve the highest praise. By itself, it is quite small, so tours are mainly served.
As a result of the only strictness established by the Pushkin Museum (Moika, 12), photos of exhibits located in the basement cannot be seen on numerous Internet resources - shooting is prohibited here. In the rest of the rooms it is allowed to use a camera or a camera, for this you will have to pay a symbolic sum for the current times.
The museum operates daily, from half past ten in the morning to six in the evening, and a day off on Tuesday. It should be borne in mind that the ticket office is open until 17-00, after this time you canât get inside anymore, so planning a trip is better in the morning.