Russia (bbabo.net), - A great poet was mortally wounded on the Black River in St. Petersburg. It happened on February 8 (January 27, old style), 1837. Exactly 185 years ago, the poet and chamber junker Alexander Pushkin shot himself with the adopted son of the Dutch diplomat Gekkern, Baron Georges Dantes. And he was mortally wounded.
It is known that three insulting anonymous letters received by Pushkin shortly before the unfolding events became the reason for the duel. Anonymous hinted at the connection of the poet's wife with the French subject Dantes. By that time, the ground for jealousy was quite ready. Pushkin's wife Natalya (nee Goncharova) was at that time the first beauty of St. Petersburg, who was favored by Nicholas I himself.
Pushkin challenged Dantes to a duel. And then the diplomat Gekkern entered the game, on whose advice Dantes made an offer to marry Natalya Pushkina's sister, Ekaterina Goncharova. The calculation was to justify such close attention of Dantes to the Goncharov sisters. It was worth it, because the scandal could cause the Frenchman to be expelled back home.
Dantes accepted the poet's challenge, but asked to postpone the duel for a while after the wedding. Hoping that kindred feelings, the possible intercession of Natalya Nikolaevna will play a role.
Pushkin agreed to postpone the duel, and the wedding of the French subject and Ekaterina Goncharova really took place. But this did not stop Dantes from continuing, as they said then, to drag the poet's wife. Pushkin's fury was fueled by various rumors about the alleged continued connection of Natalia Goncharova with Dantes and the intrigues of Gekkern.
In the end, he sent the diplomat an extremely insulting letter, to which, according to the then accepted rules, it was possible to respond only with a challenge to a duel. But since Gekkern, due to his status, could not sort things out in this format, the challenge was made on behalf of Dantes.
Historians argue that theoretically the duel could not have taken place. Already on the way to the Black River, Pushkin and his second Konstantin Danzas met a sleigh with the poet's wife. But the short-sighted Natalya Nikolaevna did not notice who was riding in the oncoming sleigh, while Pushkin himself was looking in the other direction.
The duel could have been prevented by the police. But, according to the memoirs of Danzas, recorded by the poet Alexander Ammosov, the detachment was sent to another place. One of the explanations for such a "mistake" historians call the personal dislike for Pushkin of the chief gendarme of the country, Benckendorff.
On the other hand, the very conditions of the duel were spelled out in such a way that they left no chance for the participants to remain unharmed. The duelists fired from 10 steps and, in case of misses from both sides, the duel was resumed. According to Danzas, Pushkin accepted the conditions without even reading them to the end.
Another gross violation of the duel was that the duelists had to choose weapons from two identical sets immediately before the duel. Who cares. But in this case, Dantes fired from his pistol (possibly, a shot and more accurate one), while Pushkin fired from what was bought in the store a couple of hours before the meeting.
There were many duels in Pushkin's life. According to some data - 21, according to others - 29. And only four took place. On the Black River - was the last.
The bleeding poet was driven home for more than an hour. The second who went for the doctor went around three addresses until he found at least some doctor at home. The first to arrive at Moika 12 was Dr. Zadler, who had already managed to bandage the wound of Pushkin's murderer Dantes by that time. Later, Pushkin was examined by the tsar's personal physician, Nikolai Arendt, who said: "It's a bad thing, he will die." Less than two days later, on February 10, "at 2:45 pm" the poet will die.
When the news about the duel spread throughout St. Petersburg, people began to flock to the house at 12 Moika. And right up to the very death of the poet, the crowd only arrived. I even had to turn to the Preobrazhensky Regiment so that sentries were placed at the entrance to the house for order.
All two days relatives and friends, friends and acquaintances, acquaintances and strangers, still continued to hope for the best. The phrase of Pushkin's wife Natalya Goncharova is well-known, which, according to Zhukovsky's memoirs, she uttered to Dr. Spassky: "You'll see, he will live, he won't die."
In a sense, Alexander Pushkin really did not die. His works, his work, his very life continue to be the main asset of cultural Russia. The dates of birth and death of the great poet are widely celebrated. At the site of the duel, at the stele erected in memory of the genius, in February, fans of his work gather annually, lay flowers, read the author's poems and prose. Schoolchildren of the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg carry out a "poetic watch" in the mini-square "Pushkin is gone", broken in 2016.
The memory of the poet is honored, of course, not only in St. Petersburg. All cultural and educational institutions of the country, from the largest museums to small rural libraries, hold events dedicated to these dates.In the years that have passed since that tragic day for Russian culture, so much has been written, studied, investigated, proven and refuted that events can be traced literally by the hour. Everyone living today can form their own opinion about this.
For example, in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, the last year of the poet's life is restored in detail, a kind of Pushkin calendar was created, covering the last twelve months of the poet's earthly journey.
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