Tuscan resident

The fate of the Moscow governor Count Zakrevsky

Ivan Tolstoy:

With his flaming soul,

With your stormy passions,

About the wife of the North, between you

She is sometimes

And past all the conditions of light

Strives before the loss of strength

Like a lawless comet

In a circle of calculated luminaries.

These Pushkin lines, dedicated to Countess Zakrevskaya, will be directly related to today's conversation. I asked one of its compilers, our guest from Milan, historian Mikhail Talalai, present a new book.

Mikhail Talalai: The book is called "Count Zakrevsky. Governor-General of Moscow and a resident of Tuscany." Again, Russian Italy. Actually, she went out in the Russian Italy series, which I founded, overshadowed, leading, developing as part of the Old Basmannaya publishing house in Moscow. This is the first monograph on this wonderful military and statesman who remained in the shadow for various reasons and now received his book. A collective, I must say, monograph, because together with my co -appropriate Olga Zakinina, I managed to collect a whole circle, about ten researchers who described the different facets of the biography of Count Zakrevsky. A stormy biography - a military man, in the service of the Fatherland, and then about his life in exile, in Italy, in the self -exile, which I mainly studied. Personally, the fate of Count Zakrevsky interested me when I collected the materials of my dissertation about Russian churches in Italy, and in the archive of the Holy Synod in St. Petersburg found a whole folder with an interesting correspondence. These are letters from Italy from Prince Drutsky-Sokolinsky, who writes that my wife and I live in Italy and would like to open our own in our Tuscan estate at our own funds in our Tuscan estate, which belongs to us, to open the Orthodox Church and ask for your blessings. The church will be kept at our expense, and we will invite priests at our expense. My mother -in -law Countess Zakrevskaya donates to this new church the iconostasis of her house of the Moscow Church. And at this request it was written "refuse."

I was struck by this visa, which was immediately revealed in the subsequent document, in a memorandum, in a note in which the official of the Holy Synod explained why such a pious petition of Prince Drutsky-Sokolinsky could not be taken into account, could not get a blessing, speaking of the church language. This is what is now called "the appearance of morality." The official wrote that the prince of Drutskaya-Sokolinsky lives with an undidested lady, with the daughter of Count Arseniy Zakrevsky, in the marriage of Nesselrode, and under such circumstances there can be no blessings. This story, of course, interested me - such an unfulfilled church project. By the way, I called my article in a new book. What is this project not implemented from? History goes closer to the hero of the book, to Arseny Zakrevsky, to the last years of his public ministry. The omnipotent nobleman, the dignitary, occupied the highest posts, was the Minister of Internal Affairs under Nicholas I, General Governor of Moscow at the time of his fall. What does he allow? For the sake of the happiness of his beloved daughter, as he wrote in one of his explanatory notes, he made a false document that his daughter is a widow. Unhappy marriage. Lidia Arsenievna Zakrevskaya is the only daughter. Marriage of convenience. Children of two ministers, daughter of Minister Zakrevsky and son of Foreign Minister Nesselrode. A marriage that does not develop, Lydia runs from her husband, is experiencing romantic adventures, in particular, she had a Parisian period when she was the mistress of Alexander Dumas Jr., like a lady with camellias was written off with Lydia Arsenyevna Nesselrode. Then this hobby ends and she meets a person of her life, Prince of Drutsky-Sokolinsky. They connect and want to live together. Indeed, two halves. They want to get married, they want everything to be legal. But she did not divorce her first husband and, for the sake of the happiness of her daughter, the Minister of the Russian Empire, the Governor-General writes a note that the husband, Nesselrode, died abroad under the circumstances of the difficult, the abroad is far away, so we cannot provide certificates of his death in time. I ask you to believe me, Governor-General of Moscow, Count Zakrevsky. And with this note, with other documents, Lydia and her fiancé go to church. They are crowned. This is a profanity of the sacrament. When all this was opened quickly enough, San, Jerodyakon, who was in a monastic dignity, was removed from the priest, sent to a remote monastery. In general, they dealt very severely. And - the fall of Zakrevsky. He was removed from all state posts and left for Italy with his wife Agrafena Zakrevskaya, nee Tolstoy, naturally with the daughter of Lydia and son-in-law, Prince Drutsky-Sokolinsky. And his Italian part of life begins, which I dug a little deeper for our collection. It is clear that this story - exciting, romantic - is insufficient for the book, especially since it is already such a family story. And here a positive role was played by the fact that the museum is currently located in the Moscow estate of Count Arseny. This is the city of Podolsk. Museum with a somewhat heavy name - "Federal Museum of Professional Education". Nevertheless, the fact that this estate is a state museum made it possible to arrange a corner dedicated to the life of the owners, the organizers of this estate in Podolsk, namely Count Arseny. And the employee of this museum, Olga Pokukein, acted as the initiator at first of the conference, and then (it was already my idea) so that everything was left in the air - we made a book. As a result, the conference participants, at our request with Olga, provided fairly worked out texts, where they lit up the whole path of Zakrevsky. In short, these are the following stages. Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, combat general. By the way, he got into the Hermitage Gallery of the same name. Recently, after the book, I had the opportunity to go to the Hermitage and look at the originals. I saw all this in publications, in reproductions, but contact with the original ... Of course, this is a very strong thing, George Dow's work, a brilliant portrait - still young Zakrevsky. He did not shine with beauty, but a strong, active person was visible. It was very much appreciated by Alexander I. Well, the era was such a young military who did not come from a very high nobility, he had already received county at his next state post, was from a very poor family, so personally Alexander I chose one of the richest brides of Russia that Agrafena Tolstoy, now Agrafen Zakrevskaya. She is his younger, she is a beauty, a separate report, a separate essay, was dedicated to her. I must say a lot about her, because Agrafena Zakrevskaya was a muse of a whole galaxy of Russian poets, primarily Pushkin ("as a lawless comet / in a circle of calculated luminaries"). And not only Pushkin, but also Baratynsky, Vyazemsky. I repeat that this is not my topic, many were engaged in it before us, but this time it was Olga Tyukyin who collected various evidence, and a separate essay on Zakrevskaya and her relations with Russian literature and, in general, Russian culture of that era. Then two essays on the manor activity of Zakrevsky. He was a good business executive, therefore, already becoming a wealthy person, having high posts, he paid great attention to this. And not only in Podolsk - he still had one estate near Moscow, a student. Now, unfortunately, little has been preserved from the decoration of the manor that was under Zakrevsky, but something was left. Then - an interesting part. He is General Governor of Finland, and a fairly large period, almost the entire 20s. Alexander I appoints him. He really did not want to go to Finland, but it is clear that he went to this post. True, he lived in St. Petersburg, only traveled to Finland. He was remembered by his different deeds in Finland, the Finns themselves modernly removed from Zakrevsky, because he, of course, pursued a Russification policy - the Orthodox Rusak, founded the first church in Helsinki at his own expense, Trinity, she was preserved, and even tried (he was restrained by the emperor) to move Finland to a common rower. But when Nicholas I entered the throne and traveled to Finland along with Zakrevsky, he said an interesting phrase that "Finns is the only province that does not bring me trouble, let's leave the Finns as they are." And it was when he was in Finland, Zakrevsky received the count's title as the count of the Grand Duchy of Finland. A somewhat complex title, but still it became a graph in the 20s.

Ivan Tolstoy: That is, he is not a purely Russian count, but the count of the Finnish principality?

Mikhail Talalay: Yes, but then, by the end of his life, he was recorded in Russian county. But this is the next plot.

Agrafena Zakrevskaya. 1823

Ivan Tolstoy: That's what he wrote in the preface, an entitled greeting from the prince, recently died Andrei Vladimirovich Druitskaya-Sokolinsky, who lived in Brussels:

“As a child, I often visited Dimitri's daughter, granddaughter of Count Zakrevsky, - at Aunt Mani, like we children called her. I remember that every time, entering the luxurious entrance hall, I was especially fascinated by the figure of the knight in ancient iron armor, which flaunted in the corner of the hall.

After his dismissal from the post of Moscow Governor General, Count Zakrevsky spent only the last years of his life in Halcheto and, unfortunately, due to advanced years and frequent trips beyond the borders of Italy, could not completely enjoy a warm family life. However, he was very fond of Demetrius, who, in turn, was infinitely respected and with which the count led long conversations.

Thinking about the last years of the Count’s public service, I am always amazed by two facts: firstly, his boundless love for Lydia’s daughter, by virtue of which he decided at the end of his long-term brilliant career to stop the law and subject himself to strict punishment. Secondly, the severity and adamant of the authorities punishing the slightest condescension of the outstanding nobleman, the honored state husband, the approximate of three Russian emperors.

It seems to me that in our times, when mercantilism and the cult of compromise reigns in all areas of political and public life, such an adamant of the authorities in the application of the law deserves special attention - no matter what the omnipotence of lawlessness and arbitrariness in tsarist Russia. ”

Prince Drutskaya-Sokolinsky, a welcome word. We continue the conversation with the compiler of the book about the count Zakrevsky historian Mikhail Talalay.

Mikhail Talalay: What happens then? The career is growing, he becomes under Nicholas I Minister of the Interior, but there is a big trouble, the first in his life is the 1831 cholera riot. And they wrote off all the negative consequences for him, that is, not the rebellion itself, but the cholera, the Russian cavard .... Let's just say - he could not cope with the task to prevent this epidemic, so we recouped on it, he was resigned after the cholera epidemic in 1831. And he lives in his estates and is engaged in their well -being. In the late 40s, Nicholas I suddenly calls him back to himself and appoints Moscow General. And here is a new take -off of Zakrevsky, a new period of his activity. And a separate article by Moscow Veda Vladimir Kozlov is devoted to Moscow construction sites at Zakrevsky. These were great construction sites! He finished the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, with him the Nikolaev railway ended! That is, the main construction sites of the mid-19th century. And it seems that he continues to act successfully in this post. Although the liberal intelligentsia (this is another era) was quite critical of it - he was a representative of the old Alexander times, not Arakcheev, because he and Arakcheev conflict, but about the same people - a military bone, distant, unlike his wife, from literature and poetry. Therefore, the fact that books did not appear about Zakrevsky was a fact of his rejection in the Russian liberal society, in the society of the Russian intelligentsia of the middle of the 19th century. Then the death of Nicholas I, Alexander II ascends to the throne, and it is under Alexander II that this scandalous story takes place - our hero flies from all posts and leaves forever to Italy. There is an opinion (of course, this is only an opinion) that Alexander II may have taken advantage of this delicate situation and exaggerated the punishment of Zakrevsky because he carried out reforms, and he simply did not need these old bison, serfs and other reactionaries. And since then the story of Zakrevsky is Italy. There were no descendants of Zakrevsky, the Drutsk-Sokolinsky had a daughter Maria, who remained unmarried. Nevertheless, in our study in Italy, the fact that the relatives of the Drutsky-Sokolinsky lived for a long time in Italy helped us and they have preserved photographs of the 20th century already related to the granddaughter of our hero Maria Drutskaya-Sokolinskaya, which was in correspondence with many figures of Italian culture, already, despite the Russian princely surname, the Italian, because it was born in the Italian. Italy, and almost all her life lived under Florence. So it already belongs to Italian culture. Now-about the Drutsky-Sokolinsky now residents, now living in Belgium. Alexander Drutskoy-Sokolinsky is an artist, through him we received valuable materials about the Russian Florence on the beginning of the 20th year and, let’s say, by the post-revolutionary Florence, if I can talk about Russian Italy that we included in our book.

Ivan Tolstoy: And what is the late fate of Count Arseniy Zakrevsky? What did he do in Italy and when he died?

Mikhail Talalay: Arseniy Andreevich died under Florence on the estate, which they acquired with his wife in 1865. He was already at a decent age, so he was not noted in Italy. It is known that he maintained relations with the Demidovs as old friends, but in general, according to my concepts, they were removed somewhat from Russian Florence, because nevertheless a disgraced nobleman, a daughter in a dwkey ... Is there such a term-a duality?

Ivan Tolstoy: Well, let's introduce ...

Mikhail Talalay: And therefore, such a fall, psychologically as I feel it, it was natural for him. That is, he spent time in the family circle, with his son -in -law, with his daughter. The wife survived him for twelve years. But Agrafena Fedorovna also spent most of her time in solitude. I must say that my searches were provoked by the search for Pushkinists, because the estate of Zakrevsky in Italy was looking for many Pushkinists in the hope that in the archive of the Agrafenes Zakrevskaya some letters, drawings, in general, something from Pushkin. But, unfortunately, after the death of the granddaughter of the count, the estate was sold and the archive disappeared. Some parts, photographs, for example, came to the Druitsky-Sokolinsky, on the side line, and the rich epistolary archive and so on-all this was gone. Maybe in some suitcase this will ever be discovered, but at present-alas, no. Now, in the estate of Galcheto, as this area near Florence, one Italian lives, who refers to Zakrevsky with extraordinary food, he even installed memorial boards in Italian and Russian languages at the entrance to his current estate, where everything that we talked about is very lapidarously listed. I was present at the opening of a memorial plaque, which was hanged from the arrival, from the church community in the same church that the Drucetskaya-Sokolinsky once wanted to turn to the Orthodox Church. She never became Orthodox, now it is a Catholic Church and Zakrevsky were originally buried in it. And so it is written on the memorial plaque that the Counts of Zakrevsky rested here. Then, unfortunately, the fate of this burial formed sadly, Zakrevsky were transferred to the municipal cemetery, and then their graves were abolished. When I, compiling my Russian necropolis, visited this municipal cemetery, I even met with one cemetery worker who personally was engaged in this case, and he said that they opened the coffin of Agrafena, that the beautiful dress and much more was preserved, even some kind of prayer book was that they gave to the Catholic Church. But all the remains were transferred to a common rector. There is such a situation in Italian cemeteries - from the abolished graves the remains are transferred to the common Ossueria. This place is well -groomed, with flowers, and the remains of the graves that are abolished are transferred there.