BOUNCE

^ One ship circumnavigated the world and was returning home. Was

the weather was calm, all the people were on deck. Spinning among the people

a big monkey and amused everyone. This monkey was writhing and jumping_

la, she made funny faces, imitated people, and it was clear that she

She knew that they were amusing her, and that made her diverge even more.

^ She jumped up to a twelve-year-old boy, the son of a captain_

on the ship, tore his hat from his head, put it on and quickly climbed onto

mast. Everyone laughed, but the boy was left without a hat and didn’t know

whether he should laugh or be angry.

^ The monkey sat down on the first crossbar of the mast, took off his hat and

I tried to tear it with my teeth and paws. It was as if she was teasing the boy,

pointed at him and made faces at him.

^ The boy threatened her and shouted at her, but she tore her hat even angrier.

pu. The sailors began to laugh louder, and the boy blushed and threw off

jacket and rushed after the monkey to the mast. In one minute he climbed_

climb along the rope to the first crossbar; but the monkey is even more dexterous and would_

faster than him, at the very moment when he was thinking of grabbing his hat, he stood up

went even higher.

- So you won’t leave me! - the boy shouted and climbed higher.

^ The monkey lured him again and climbed even higher, but the boy

I had already picked up the enthusiasm, and he didn’t lag behind. So the monkey and the boy are one

took a minute to reach the very top. At the very top the monkey stretches out_

Stooped at full length... hung her hat on the edge of the last bar_

us, and she climbed to the top of the mast and writhed from there until_

she clenched her teeth and rejoiced.

^ From the mast to the end of the crossbar, where the hat hung, it was a long

by two, so it was impossible to get it other than to let it out

hands rope and mast.

^ But the boy became very excited. He threw down the mast and stepped onto

crossbar. Everyone on deck looked and laughed at what they saw

the monkey and the captain's son barked, but when they saw that he was empty...

pulled the rope and stepped onto the crossbar, swinging his arms, all for_

died of fear.

All he had to do was stumble and he would have been smashed to pieces.

on the deck. Yes, even if he had not stumbled, but had reached the edge of the

treasures and took the hat, it was difficult for him to turn around and walk

back to the mast.

Everyone looked at him silently and waited to see what would happen.

Suddenly, someone among the people gasped in fear. The boy is from this Cree_

When he came to his senses, he looked down and staggered.

^ At this time, the ship's captain, the boy's father, left the cabin.

He carried a gun to shoot seagulls. He saw his son on the mast and

immediately took aim at his son and shouted:

- In water! Jump into the water now! I'll shoot you!

^ The boy was staggering, but did not understand.

- Jump or I'll shoot you! One, two...

And as soon as the father shouted “three”, the boy swung his head

down and jumped.

Like a cannonball, it splashed the boy’s body into the sea, and it didn’t stop...

the waves sang to close it, as already twenty fine sailors

jumped off the ship into the sea. After about forty seconds - they last for a long time

seemed to everyone - the body of a boy emerged. He was grabbed and taken away_

boarded the ship.

After a few minutes, water started pouring from his mouth and nose, and

he began to breathe.

When the captain saw this, he suddenly screamed as if he had something

he was choking, and ran to his cabin so that no one would see him cry.

(L. Tolstoy)

Rough plan text

(simple)

1. Return of the ship from around the world_

long journey.

2. The tricks of the big monkey.

3. The monkey teases the boy.

4. Fun duel.

5. Boy on the mast. Dangerous inequality

news on the crossbar.

6. On deck - tense anticipation_

tion. Fear for the boy.

7. Father’s determination: “Jump into the water!

Otherwise I’ll shoot you!”

8. Jump!

9. The boy is saved.

10. Father's tears.

ANNA KERN

The whole week in Trigorskoye passed under the sign of Anna Kern. She's in front of_

it was worth being a short-term guest, and therefore all the games, holidays, truancy_

the ki were arranged, it seemed, only for her. Pushkin became happier. There was a shu_

men and frolic, as before. Once he invited all the Trigorskys to his place.

Mikhailovskoe, and it was no secret to anyone that all this was started by him

for the sake of Anna Petrovna. The nanny baked a carrot pie and put out two

bottles of blackcurrant liqueur. The guests filled with laughter and noise_

during the conversation, the spacious and empty rooms of my father’s house.

We left long after midnight. Pushkin saw off the Osipovs on horseback_

strollers up to three pines and waved his hat for a long time, listening

to the increasingly receding horse tramp.

^ Anna Petrovna was leaving the next day in the evening. Alexander

Sergeevich came up at the very last minute. Saying goodbye, he re_

gave Anna Petrovna a fresh reprint of one of the songs of “Onegin” and on

before her eyes he thrust a piece of paper into the uncut pages.

- ^ Read this when you're already away! - he said seriously_

but also sad. She thanked him silent and also sad

glance. The trio set off. The bell rang. Pushkin, not about_

Staggering, he walked into the fields.

^ He couldn't work at home. The moon, which kept creeping into

the very windows. He sighed, pushed the manuscripts aside and went out into the garden. Soft_

Some moonlight lay in patches on the cooling paths. Sta_

rye, still G Hannibal's linden trees closed their dark pro_ over him

cold vault. The garden seemed silent, mysterious, and it was impossible

Text structure diagram

6. [Discussion

discover the most familiar places. In fact, everything has somehow changed,

became different. Yes, and is he really the same as he was so recently in st.

Riarchal Osipov circle! Yesterday they walked with her along this same

alley, far behind the guests. It was just as dark, quiet and moonlit. Uz_

brown old roots crossed the overgrown path. Both of them

bumped at every step, and once or twice he picked up the weakly screaming

out of fear Anna Petrovna. And it seemed to him that they were walking inseparably

but, inseparably - through the dark forest of life long ago and surely

They will come out to the moonlit edge. And an incessant melody sang in my soul,

the same one that later, alone, at night, filled with soft light

rebirth, freedom and happiness, his impetuously scribbled poems,

which can only be written once in a lifetime:

^ And the heart beats in ecstasy,

And for him they rose again

And deity and inspiration,

And life, and tears, and love.

(On Sun. Christmas Day)

Approximate outline of the text

(expanded)

I. Week in Trigorskoye - under the sign

II. Pushkin and Anna Petrovna.

1. Invitation to Mikhailovskoye.

2. Laughter and noisy conversation in the desert_

It was in my father's house.

3. Farewell in Trigorskoye.

4. “I remember wonderful moment...» -

in the uncut pages of Onegin.

5. The troika set off...

6. Return of the poet to the house:

a) soft moonlight;

b) the coolness of old linden trees;

c) silence and mystery

d) memories of yesterday

e) there is an incessant melody in my soul...

III. “...and the heart beats in ecstasy”...

^ Scheme

text structure

Presentation+description

^ ORDINARY EARTH

There are no special beauties and riches in the Meshchera region, except

forests, meadows and clear air. But still this region has pain_

shoy attractive force. He is very modest - just like the paintings

^ Levitan. But in it, as in these paintings, lies all the charm and all

the diversity of Russian nature, imperceptible at first glance.

What can you see in the Meshchersky region? Blooming or mowed_

meadows, pine forests, floodplains or forest lakes, overgrown with black

haystacks, haystacks smelling of dry and warm hay. Hay in stacks

keeps warm all winter. I had to spend the night in haystacks in approx.

in the summer, when the grass at dawn is covered with frost, like salt. I

dug a deep hole in the hay, climbed into it and slept in a haystack all night,

like being in a locked room. And he walked over the meadows cold rain and ve_

ter swooped in with oblique blows.

In the Meshchersky region you can see pine forests, where so

It’s natural and quiet that the bell is the “chatterer” of a lost cow

you can be heard very far away, almost a kilometer away. But such silence

stands in the forests only on windless days. The forests rustle in the wind

with the great ocean roar and the tops of the pine trees bend after the passage_

melting clouds.

In the Meshchersky region you can see forest lakes with dark water,

vast swamps covered with alder and aspen, lonely charred

from old age foresters' huts, sands, juniper, heather, shoals

cranes and stars familiar to us under all latitudes.

What can you hear in the Meshchera region, except for the hum of pine trees?

forests? The cries of quails and hawks, the whistling of orioles, the fussy knocking

woodpeckers, the howl of wolves, the rustle of rain in the red needles, evening cry gar_

Monica in the village, and at night - the multi-voice crowing of roosters and

the village watchman's mallet.

^ But you can see and hear so little only in the first days.

Then every day this region becomes richer and more diverse

her, dearer to my heart. And finally the time comes when every willow

over a dead river it seems like its own, very familiar when you talk about it

amazing stories can be told.

(K. Paustovsky)

Approximate outline of the text

(simple)

1. Why Meshchersky is attractive

2. What can you see in Meshchera?

3. What can you hear in Meshchera?

4. Every day this region is richer,

dearer to the heart.

PECHORIN (portrait)

Excerpt from the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov

"Hero of our time"

He was of average height; his slender, thin figure and wide

the shoulders proved a strong build, capable of bearing anything

difficulties of nomadic life and climate change, not defeated

neither the debauchery of metropolitan life, nor spiritual storms; dusty

his velvet frock coat, buttoned only at the bottom two buttons_

Vitsa, allowed us to see the dazzlingly clean linen, revealing_

neck habits of a decent person; his dirty gloves

were deliberately sewn according to his small aristocratic hand,

and when he took off one glove, I was surprised by the thinness of his pale_

new fingers. His gait was careless and lazy, but I noticed that

he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secretiveness

character style. However, these are my own comments, based on_

based on my own observations, and I don’t want to force you to believe

go into them blindly. When he sat down on the bench, he stood straight

he was bent over as if he didn’t have a single bone in his back;

the position of his whole body depicted some kind of nervous weakness

bosom; he sat as Balzac's thirty-year-old coquette sits on

in their downy chairs after a tiring ball. At first glance_

Yes, on his face I would not give him more than twenty-three years, although after

I was ready to give him thirty. There was something childish in his smile.

His skin had a kind of feminine tenderness; blond hair,

Structure diagram

text

4. [Discussion

curly by nature, so picturesquely outlined his pale,

noble forehead, on which, only after long observation, one can

it was possible to notice traces of wrinkles crossing one another and, probably

clearly, indicated much more clearly in moments of anger or suspense

cerebral anxiety. Despite light color his hair, mustache

his eyebrows were black - a sign of the breed in a person, just like black

a white horse's mane and black tail. To finish the port_

ret, I will say that his nose was a little turned up, his teeth were blinding_

solid white and Brown eyes; I don't have to say anything about the eyes yet_

how many words?

First of all, they didn't laugh when he laughed! Didn't it happen to you

notice such oddities in some people?.. This is a sign -

or an evil disposition, or deep constant sadness. Because of_half-op_

their puppy eyelashes shone with some kind of phosphorescent shine, if

you can put it this way. It was not a reflection of spiritual heat or

playing imagination: it was a shine, similar to the shine of a smooth

steel, dazzling but cold; his gaze is short-lived

thoughtful, but insightful and heavy, left an unpleasant feeling

This gives the impression of an indiscreet question and could seem impudent,

if only he weren't so indifferently calm. All these comments are

came to my mind, perhaps only because I knew someone

further details of his life, and perhaps a different view of him

would have made a completely different impression; but since you are about

you won’t hear it from anyone except me, then inevitably you have to...

indulge in this image. I will say in conclusion that he

was generally very good-looking and had one of those original features

zionomies, which are especially popular with secular women.

Publications in the Literature section

Romantic correspondence of Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin's correspondence with ladies is only a small part of his epistolary heritage. The poet worked on his letters no less carefully than on works of art. We remember Pushkin's messages to women and their answers.

Anna Kern

Nadya Rusheva. Pushkin and Anna Kern. From the series “Pushkiniana”. No later than 1969

Alexander Arefiev-Bogaev. Presumably a portrait of Anna Kern. 1840s

Alexander Pushkin. Portrait of Anna Kern. 1829

Alexander Pushkin dedicated the textbook lines “I remember a wonderful moment...” to Anna Kern. The poet wrote them in the summer of 1825 during his home exile in the village of Mikhailovskoye. Then he often visited the neighboring estate of Trigorskoye - the Osipov-Wulf family - where Anna Kern, the wife of General Ermolai Kern, also stayed. In Trigorskoe, Pushkin read “Gypsy” for the first time.

“I will never forget the delight that gripped my soul. I was in rapture both from the flowing verses of this wonderful poem, and from his reading, in which there was so much musicality that I was melting with pleasure.”

Anna Kern, letter to Alexander Pushkin

However, Anna Kern’s feelings for the poet did not extend beyond “intoxication” with poetry. He did not hide his affection, and when Kern had to leave with her husband for Riga, he asked permission to write to her. What remains of their correspondence is a dozen letters from Pushkin and not a single one from Kern. The earliest messages contain mostly half-ironic, half-frank confessions of Pushkin: “Your arrival in Trigorskoye left in me an impression deeper and more painful than that which our meeting at the Olenins once made on me... Farewell, divine; I'm mad and I'm at your feet". And the further it goes, the more and more humorous the tone becomes.

“You claim that I don’t know your character. Why should I care about him? I really need him - are pretty women supposed to have character? the main thing is the eyes, teeth, arms and legs - (I would also add - the heart - but your cousin has become very tired of this word).”

Alexander Pushkin

Kern's flighty character was no secret to Pushkin. In correspondence with friends, the poet called her “the harlot of Babylon.” Pushkin wrote to Anna Kern’s aunt, Praskovya Osipova, that he was going to “decisively break off all relations with her.” The poet did not succeed immediately, although the correspondence gradually faded away. In 1827, when Mikhailovsky’s exile ended, Pushkin met with Anna Kern in St. Petersburg. The novel resumed and even went beyond the epistolary: the poet spoke about its details in letters to his friend Sergei Sobolevsky.

Anna Wolf

Edmond Martin. Portrait of Anna Wulf. Miniature. 1830s

Alexander Pushkin. Portrait of Anna Nikolaevna Wulf standing at a milestone. 1825

Unknown artist. Portrait of Anna Wulf. No later than 1835

Anna Wulf is one of the fans unrequitedly in love with Pushkin. She did not write many letters to Pushkin, but they were all voluminous and full of frank, strong feelings. However, they did not touch the poet, who was carried away by Anna Kern, at all. Moreover, Pushkin allowed himself to be rude. In his response letters, he played the role of an ironic mentor and even a style guide: "Wear short dresses, because you have pretty legs, and don’t fluff up your hair at the temples, even if it were fashionable, since you, unfortunately, have a round face.”. Immediately he was mercilessly frank about his feelings for Kern: “Every night I walk through the garden and repeat to myself: she was here - the stone she tripped over is lying on my table.”. Alexander Pushkin dedicated a single poem to Anna Wulf - “I witnessed your golden spring...”.

But time has passed, a change has come,
You are approaching a doubtful time,
How fewer suitors crowd in the courtyard,
And the quieter sound of praise enchants your ear,
And the mirror threatens and frightens more boldly.
What to do? calm down and calm down,
Give up your sweet old rights in advance.

Alexander Pushkin, excerpt from the poem “I witnessed your golden spring...”

Praskovya Osipova, her mother, although in a slightly different way, was also not indifferent to the poet. She tried to keep her daughter away from Trigorsky. Anna Wolf wrote to Pushkin: “Yesterday I had a very stormy scene with my mother about my departure. She said in front of all my relatives that she was decisively leaving me here [in Riga], that I had to stay, and there was no way she could take me with her... If you only knew how saddened I am! I really think, like A.K. [Anna Kern], that she alone wants to defeat you and that she is leaving me here out of jealousy.”.

Anna Wulf is frank not only in her confessions, but also in her reproaches: “Oh, Pushkin, you are not worthy of love. I am afraid that you do not love me as you should; you are tearing and wounding a heart whose value you do not know..." The girl never got married and lived in Trigorskoye until the end of her days.

Elizaveta Khitrovo

Peter Sokolov. Portrait of A.S. Pushkin. 1836. All-Russian Museum A.S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of E.M. Khitrovo. 1816-1817. State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Moscow

Peter Sokolov. Portrait of E.M. Khitrovo. 1837. State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg

In Pushkin’s life there were many women with whom he was close friends. One of them is Elizaveta Khitrovo. Literary critic Leonid Grossman believes that on the part of the latter there was also a feeling of “boundless worship.” Pushkin valued Elizaveta Khitrovo as a widely educated, intelligent and selflessly devoted woman. However, he combined this with an ironic attitude towards her somewhat intrusive concern. In 1826, after a long stay in Europe, Khitrovo settled in St. Petersburg and set up a salon in which the capital's intellectual elite gathered.

“It’s been two weeks since you left tomorrow, it’s unclear why you haven’t written a word to me. You know too well that my love for you is restless and painful. It is not in your noble character to leave me without news of yourself. Forbid me to talk about myself, but do not deprive me of the happiness of being on your errands.”

Elizaveta Khitrovo, letter to Alexander Pushkin

Before Pushkin’s marriage to Natalya Goncharova, Elizaveta Khitrovo warned the poet: “The prosaic side of marriage is what I fear for you! I always thought that genius maintains itself with complete independence and develops only in continuous adversity; I thought that perfect, positive and somewhat monotonous happiness from constancy kills activity, predisposes to obesity and makes a good fellow rather than a great poet...”

Karolina Sobanska

Peter Sokolov. Portrait of K.A. Sobanskaya. 1830s

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of A.S. Pushkin. 1827. State Tretyakov Gallery

Alexander Pushkin. Portrait of Karolina Sobanska. 1830s

In Pushkin’s Don Juan list there is a certain NN, the so-called “hidden love” of the poet. Researchers still do not have a consensus on her personality. One of the possible candidates is Karolina Sobanska, a social beauty and part-time agent of the III department. Alexander Pushkin met her in Kyiv in 1821, during his Southern exile. Then the poet did not miss the opportunity to hit on Karolina Sobanska, but soon switched to Amalia Riznich.

The second stage of a complex relationship with Sobanskaya occurred at the end of the 1820s, when the lady settled in St. Petersburg. At that time, Pushkin had already made an offer to Goncharova, to which she refused. In January 1830, the poet wrote in Sobanskaya’s album “What’s in my name for you?..” And in February he was going to send her a letter. His draft is the only trace of their hypothetical correspondence.

“Today is the 9th anniversary of the day I saw you for the first time. This day was decisive in my life. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that my existence is inextricably linked with yours; I was born to love you and follow you - any other concern on my part is delusion or folly; Far from you, I am only gnawing at the thought of happiness, which I could not get enough of..."

Alexander Pushkin

Many researchers believe that Pushkin made his second, successful attempt to woo Goncharova after Sobanskaya finally refused him. Against the background of this hopeless love, marriage with Natalya Goncharova became almost a compromise for Pushkin. He wrote to his friend Nikolai Krivtsov: “...I’m getting married without rapture, without childish charm. The future appears to me not in roses, but in its strict nakedness. Sorrows do not surprise me: they are included in my household calculations.". Literary critic Tatyana Tsyavlovskaya mentioned in her research that Pushkin at the bachelor party, according to eyewitnesses, was sad and cried while listening to gypsy romances. to Pushkin have not survived. However, many of the poet’s letters to her have survived. Their tone quite soon changed from cautiously polite - during the matchmaking period - to family-intimate. At the beginning of Pushkin’s correspondence with his wife, they discussed mainly everyday issues; the spouses practically did not touch on any abstract topics - literary or political - in their correspondence. However, in last years, when Natalya Pushkina began to participate more actively in her husband’s affairs, and the letters became more diverse in content. Thus, in one of the letters of 1836, the poet, among other things, told his wife: “I visited Perovsky, who showed me unfinished paintings by Bryullov. Bryullov, who was his prisoner, ran away from him and quarreled with him. Perovsky showed me “The Capture of Rome by Genseric” (which is worth “The Last Day of Pompeii”), saying: notice how beautifully this scoundrel drew this horseman, such a fraud. How could he, this pig, express his canalistic, brilliant thought, he is a bastard, a beast. As he drew this group, he is a drunkard, a swindler. Hilarious. Well, goodbye. I kiss you and the guys, be healthy. Christ is with you". If we judge Pushkin’s correspondence with his wife, without delving into the context, it seems that Eliza Khitrovo’s prediction about the prosaic side of marriage came true. However, his wife’s letters were always the most desired messages for Pushkin. Vera Nashchokina, the wife of Pushkin’s close friend, in whose Moscow apartment the poet often visited in the last years of his life, recalled: “You should have seen the poet’s joy and happiness when he received letters from his wife. He was beaming and showered those scribbled pieces of paper with kisses.”.

Be that as it may, we can talk about Pushkin endlessly. This is exactly the guy who managed to “inherit” everywhere. But this time we have to look at the topic “Anna Kern and Pushkin: a love story.” These relationships could have gone unnoticed by everyone if not for the emotionally tender poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment,” dedicated to Anna Petrovna Kern and written by the poet in 1825 in Mikhailovskoye during his exile. When and how did Pushkin and Kern meet? However, their love story turned out to be quite mysterious and strange. Their first fleeting meeting took place in the Olenins' salon in 1819 in St. Petersburg. However, first things first.

Anna Kern and Pushkin: a love story

Anna was a relative of the inhabitants of Trigorskoye, the Osipov-Wulf family, who were Pushkin’s neighbors on Mikhailovskoye, the poet’s family estate. One day, in correspondence with her cousin, she reports that she is a big fan of Pushkin’s poetry. These words reach the poet, he is intrigued and in his letter to the poet A.G. Rodzianko asks about Kern, whose estate was located in his neighborhood, and besides, Anna was his very close friend. Rodzianko wrote a playful response to Pushkin; Anna also joined in this playful, friendly correspondence; she added several ironic words to the letter. Pushkin was fascinated by this turn and wrote her several compliments, while maintaining a frivolous and playful tone. He expressed all his thoughts on this matter in his poem “To Rodzianka.”

Kern was married, and Pushkin knew well her not very happy marital situation. It should be noted that for Kern Pushkin was not a fatal passion, just as she was not for him.

Anna Kern: family

As a girl, Anna Poltoratskaya was a fair-haired beauty with cornflower blue eyes. At the age of 17, she was given in an arranged marriage to a 52-year-old general, a participant in the war with Napoleon. Anna had to submit to her father’s will, but she not only did not love her husband, but even hated her in her heart, she wrote about this in her diary. In their marriage, they had two daughters; Tsar Alexander I himself expressed a desire to be godfather one of them.

Kern. Pushkin

Anna is an undeniable beauty who attracted the attention of many brave officers who often visited their house. As a woman, she was very cheerful and charming in her interactions, which had a devastating effect on them.

When Anna Kern and Pushkin first met at her aunt Olenina’s, the young general’s wife already began to have casual affairs and fleeting connections. The poet did not make any impression on her, and at some points seemed rude and shameless. He immediately liked Anna, and he attracted her attention with flattering exclamations, something like: “Is it possible to be so pretty?!”

Meeting in Mikhailovsky

Anna Petrovna Kern and Pushkin met again when Alexander Sergeevich was sent into exile to his native estate Mikhailovskoye. It was the most boring and lonely time for him; after the noisy Odessa, he was annoyed and morally crushed. “Poetry saved me, I was resurrected in soul,” he would later write. It was at this time that Kern, who could not have come at a more opportune time, one July day in 1825, came to Trigorskoye to visit her relatives. Pushkin was incredibly happy about this; she became a ray of light for him for a while. By that time, Anna was already a big fan of the poet, she longed to meet him and again amazed him with her beauty. The poet was seduced by her, especially after she soulfully sang the then popular romance “The Spring Night Breathed.”

Poem for Anna

Anna Kern in Pushkin's life for a moment became a fleeting muse, an inspiration that washed over him in an unexpected way. Impressed, he immediately takes up his pen and dedicates his poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” to her.

From the memoirs of Kern herself it follows that on the evening of July 1825, after dinner in Trigorskoye, everyone decided to visit Mikhailovskoye. The two crews set off. In one of them rode P. A. Osipova with her son Alexei Wulf, in the other A. N. Wulf, her cousin Anna Kern and Pushkin. The poet was, as ever, kind and courteous.

It was a farewell evening; the next day Kern was supposed to leave for Riga. In the morning, Pushkin came to say goodbye and brought her a copy of one of the chapters of Onegin. And among the uncut sheets, she found a poem dedicated to her, read it and then wanted to put her poetic gift in the box, when Pushkin frantically snatched it and did not want to give it back for a long time. Anna never understood this behavior of the poet.

Undoubtedly, this woman gave him moments of happiness, and perhaps brought him back to life.

Relationship

It is very important to note in this matter that Pushkin himself did not consider the feeling he experienced for Kern to be love. Maybe this is how he rewarded women for their tender caress and affection. In a letter to Anna Nikolaevna Wulf, he wrote that he writes a lot of poems about love, but he has no love for Anna, otherwise he would become very jealous of her for Alexei Wulf, who enjoyed her favor.

B. Tomashevsky will note that, of course, there was an intriguing outbreak of feelings between them, and it served as the impetus for writing a poetic masterpiece. Perhaps Pushkin himself, giving it into the hands of Kern, suddenly thought that it could cause a false interpretation, and therefore resisted his impulse. But it was already too late. Surely at these moments Anna Kern was beside herself with happiness. Pushkin's opening line, “I remember a wonderful moment,” remained engraved on her tombstone. This poem truly made her a living legend.

Connection

Anna Petrovna Kern and Pushkin broke up, but their further relationship is not known for certain. She left with her daughters for Riga and playfully allowed the poet to write letters to her. And he wrote them to her, they have survived to this day, however, on French. There were no hints of deep feelings in them. On the contrary, they are ironic and mocking, but very friendly. The poet no longer writes that she is a “genius of pure beauty” (the relationship has moved into another phase), but calls her “our Babylonian harlot Anna Petrovna.”

Paths of destinies

Anna Kern and Pushkin would see each other next two years later, in 1827, when she left her husband and moved to St. Petersburg, which would cause gossip in high society.

After moving to St. Petersburg, Kern, along with her sister and father, will live in the very house where she first met Pushkin in 1819.

She will spend this day entirely in the company of Pushkin and his father. Anna could not find words of admiration and joy from meeting him. It was most likely not love, but great human affection and passion. In a letter to Sobolevsky, Pushkin will openly write that the other day he slept with Kern.

In December 1828, Pushkin met his precious Natalie Goncharova, lived with her for 6 years in marriage, and she bore him four children. In 1837, Pushkin would be killed in a duel.

Liberty

Anna Kern would finally be freed from her marriage when her husband died in 1841. She will fall in love with cadet Alexander Markov-Vinogradsky, who will also be her second cousin. She will be quiet with him family life, although he is 20 years younger than her.

Anna will show Pushkin's letters and poem as a relic to Ivan Turgenev, but her poverty-stricken situation will force her to sell them for five rubles apiece.

One by one her daughters will die. She would outlive Pushkin by 42 years and preserve in her memoirs the living image of the poet, who, as she believed, never truly loved anyone.

In fact, it is still unclear who Anna Kern was in Pushkin’s life. The history of the relationship between these two people, between whom a spark flew, gave the world one of the most beautiful, most elegant and heartfelt poems dedicated to beautiful woman, which only existed in Russian poetry.

Bottom line

After the death of Pushkin’s mother and the death of the poet himself, Kern did not interrupt her close relationship with his family. The poet’s father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin, who felt acute loneliness after the death of his wife, wrote reverent heartfelt letters to Anna Petrovna and even wanted to live with her “the last sad years.”

She died in Moscow six months after the death of her husband - in 1879. She lived with him for a good 40 years and never emphasized his inadequacy.

Anna was buried in the village of Prutnya near the city of Torzhok, Tver province. Their son Alexander committed suicide after the death of his parents.

Her brother also dedicated a poem to her, which she read to Pushkin from memory when they met in 1827. It began with the words: “How can you not go crazy.”

This concludes our consideration of the topic “Pushkin and Kern: a love story.” As it has already become clear, Kern captivated all the men of the Pushkin family, they somehow incredibly succumbed to her charm.

The inspiration of Pushkin, the “genius of pure beauty”, the victim of a despotic husband, the heroine of numerous “novels”, the author of priceless diaries and memoirs, Anna Petrovna Kern (1800-1879) lived a long life, in which there were acquaintances with the smartest people of her time, free love, the painful hopelessness of her first marriage and the later happiness of her second, condemnation of her relatives, poverty, oblivion and - the gift of immortality - Pushkin's lines dedicated to her. The book, written by literary historian and local historian Vladimir Sysoev (1947-2010), tells the story of this “heroine of her time” based on memoirs, correspondence and archival materials. The text is accompanied by numerous illustrations.

PREFACE

Three kilometers from the small ancient town of Torzhok, in the Prutnya churchyard, for almost 130 years now the ashes of the one to whom A.S. Pushkin dedicated his most magical poetic lines have rested:

I remember a wonderful moment...

Anna Petrovna Kern (many know her precisely by the name of her first husband), nee Poltoratskaya, after her second husband Markova-Vinogradskaya... The muse of the greatest Russian poet, the author of priceless memoirs, without quoting which it is now impossible to imagine a single serious work about Pushkin.

Her whole life was devoted to the tireless search for all-consuming love. She needed to feel constant male love, she needed romantic experiences on the highest note like air. Rarely were any of her fans able to withstand such intensity of feelings even for a short time; Anna Petrovna quickly consoled herself and plunged headlong into a new passion. For her, love was the meaning and main shrine of her life, and therefore the assessment of many of her actions and personality as a whole cannot be approached by the standards of generally accepted morality.
Fate gave her the great happiness of close communication with Pushkin, acquaintance and friendship with many famous poets, writers, composers and just interesting people.
Many literary scholars, historians and writers have tried to scrupulously understand the rather complex relationship between the poet and his muse. Diametrically opposite are the epithets that he awarded in different time Anna Petrovna Pushkin: from “pretty woman”, “genius of pure beauty”, “loveliness”, “sweet, divine” and “angel of love” to “Babylonian harlot”, “vile” and “fool”.
In the understanding of many researchers, the summer days of June-July 1825, spent by Anna Petrovna in Trigorskoye, at the end of which the poet wrote and presented her with a world masterpiece love lyrics, as well as the subsequent three months of their intense mischievous, witty and passionate correspondence became for Anna Petrovna the pinnacle, the zenith of her rather long life. Yes, they were the ones who brought her immortality. However, did they bring her happiness?
In addition, it was still October of the same 1825, when Anna Petrovna came to Trigorskoye for the second time and had a new meeting with the poet, whom she herself and most researchers mention in passing at best. Soon after this meeting, she finally broke up with her husband, went to St. Petersburg, became close to the poet’s parents and even lived in their apartment for some time, and nine months later gave birth to a daughter, whose godmother was the poet’s sister Olga Sergeevna Pushkina. And upon Pushkin’s return from Mikhailovsky to St. Petersburg there were new meetings, new poems dedicated to her and a rapprochement that this time did not remain their secret... Note that Pushkin rarely returned to the objects of his former passion; For this, this subject needed to be not just a beautiful and attractive woman, but also an extraordinary personality.
However, such a rapid, sparkling romance greatest poet Russia with our heroine was for him only a small episode in his stormy life, full of love passions, and for her, the end of the relationship with Pushkin did not become a life drama.
After the death of the poet, Anna Petrovna lived for more than forty years, finally met her love - the one she had been looking for throughout the first half of her life, gave birth to a son and accomplished one of the main things - she wrote very interesting and, most importantly, quite frank memories - and about herself, and about the wonderful people around her.
Of course, she wrote them already at the end of her long and eventful life, twenty years after Pushkin’s death. This is both good and bad: the view on many events has settled, passions have subsided - but at the same time, some of the most expressive colors have faded, the tart aroma of the most vivid impressions has faded. Nevertheless, Anna Petrovna found such words, such a style of presentation that she was able to very vividly, easily and at the same time tactfully talk about her relationship with the great poet, without offending anyone or belittling her honor. At the same time, she did not openly talk about her feelings for Pushkin; she kept all her emotions to herself.
In communicating with Pushkin, and with other famous contemporaries, Anna Petrovna remembered every episode, every detail, every little thing and then, many years later, she reproduced everything that happened with such details and such language that do honor to her memory and literary abilities.
Considering herself quite knowledgeable in matters of love (“reading and experience allow me to judge this article,” she wrote to one of her fans), she was able to understand Pushkin’s attitude towards women. Anna Petrovna made him directly dependent on the era. According to her testimony, the poet himself almost never expressed feelings, he seemed to be ashamed of them, and in this he was the son of his century, about which he himself said that “the feeling was wild and funny” (italics A.P. Kern. - B . WITH.). In her bitter phrases “He had a low opinion of women” and “Pushkin never really loved anyone,” the tragedy of her personal experiences is felt.
Our contemporaries should be grateful to A.P. Kern not only for the fact that the poet reached the pinnacle of love lyricism, inspired by her, but also for the fact that in her memoirs she conveyed to us the true image of Pushkin - not an icon, but a living person.
Anna Petrovna was the first to tell in her memoirs about many episodes of her life, thereby setting the tone for future stories about her. They began writing about A.P. Kern literally a year after her death. However, most works dedicated to her describe only episodes of her biography related to Pushkin. And already in the first publications her place was clearly defined: in the poet’s closest friendly and family circle.
One of best works The outstanding Pushkinist B. L. Modzalevsky wrote about Anna Petrovna Kern at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, so much has been written about her - both good and bad - that it seems difficult to add anything. However, almost every year new studies appear on Kern. Among those who were interested in her life, there were many big names of our cultural figures. N. I. Chernyaev and P. K. Guber, A. I. Nezelenov and V. V. Veresaev, B. V. Tomashevsky and A. I. Beletsky, A. A. Akhmatova and A. M. Gordin, Yu. M. Lotman, L. I. Volpert, L. A. Kraval and others.
But if you carefully re-read her memoirs and letters, the notes of her second husband A.V. Markov-Vinogradsky, the diaries of Alexei Vulf, the published and still in manuscript memoirs and letters of Anna Petrovna’s contemporaries, it will become clear that everything previously printed illuminated her life is incomplete and one-sided.
The author of the proposed book tried, based on the sources listed above, to present as much as possible full spectrum the life of this wonderful woman. Due to the fact that some stories, which she herself described with utmost frankness and sometimes with deep emotion, would only fade in retelling, there was no point in depriving the reader of the opportunity to get acquainted with them precisely in her presentation.
Much information about the life of Anna Petrovna after her second marriage was gleaned by the author from the notes of A.V. Markov-Vinogradsky, the full text of which is in this moment is being prepared for publication by employees of the Pushkin House, and unpublished letters stored there.
Natalya Sergeevna Levitskaya, a descendant and family historian of the Poltoratskys, provided the author with great assistance in understanding the character and many motives of Anna Petrovna’s behavior. Her inspired essay about representatives of this family: A.P. Kern, E.E. Kern and E.V. Poltoratskaya was my reference guide at the final stage of working on the manuscript.
When quoting, the spelling and punctuation of that era are observed whenever possible and the necessary references are given. Translations into Russian of texts written in French are given in parentheses as presented by the publishers; Sometimes several translation options are given if they convey different shades of meaning.
The author expresses gratitude for the assistance in collecting materials for this book and preparing it for publication to the head of the department of genealogy and written sources of the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin, candidate historical sciences Olga Vladimirovna Rykova, researcher State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin to Igor Savvich Sidorov (Moscow), director of the literary museum of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) Russian Academy Sciences, candidate of cultural studies Larisa Georgievna Agamalyan, employees of the manuscript department of the Pushkin House, doctor of philological sciences Margarita Mikhailovna Pavlova and Lidia Konstantinovna Khitrovo, employees of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin Elena Vladimirovna Prolet and Irina Aleksandrovna Klever (St. Petersburg), former director of the museum A. S. Pushkin in Torzhok Taisiya Vladimirovna Gorokh, candidate of philological sciences Alexander Mikhailovich Boinikov (Tver), as well as descendants of the Bakunin family Vadim Sergeevich Galenko (Skhodnya) and Alexander Borisovich Moshkov (St. Petersburg) and descendant of the Poltoratsky family Natalya Sergeevna Levitskaya (Moscow).

Vladimir Ivanovich Sysoev was born on August 14, 1947 in the village of Papkovo, Lukovnikovsky district, Kalinin region. Since 1959 he lived in Kalinin (now Tver). While still studying at school, his interest in history showed; in the tenth grade, he made reports on the topics: “The Bolshevik faction in the IV State Duma" and "Rzhev partisans of the Great Patriotic War."

In 1965-1970, V.I. Sysoev studied at the Kalinin Polytechnic Institute (specialty "Hydraulic construction of river structures and hydroelectric power stations"). He visited many “impact Komsomol construction projects” of the USSR, including - in 1969 - the construction of the famous Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric power station.
In the summer of 1970, he traveled to Pushkin’s places in the Kalinin region, attended the first Pushkin poetry festival in Bernovo and became interested in local history.
After graduating from the institute, he worked in Kazakhstan for 7 years on the construction of the Irtysh-Karaganda canal. He built waterworks, pumping stations, industrial and civil buildings. I did a lot of self-education: I studied history, literature, and art. I started collecting my home library.
At the end of 1977, he returned to Kalinin and for ten years worked as the head of the construction shop and deputy director for construction at the state farm named after the 50th anniversary of the USSR (now Zavolzhsky). He built residential buildings, schools, kindergartens, roads, and livestock farms.
He continued his studies in local history: he began touring the former Tver noble estates with a camera, worked in libraries, met the Torzhok local historian A. A. Suslov, Pryamukhinsky - Ya. A. Moryakov and Talozhensky - A. B. Bogoyavlensky. Gradually he moved from the vast Pushkin theme to the specific one - Bakunin. He often went to the Tver estate of the Bakunins, Pryamukhino.
All this time he was keenly interested in issues of history and local history, and he was especially interested in the Pryamukhino estate. In 1978, he met a researcher of the history of the Bakunin family, the author of books about M.A. Bakunin, Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalya Mikhailovna Pirumova. She gave a new impetus and a specific direction to his local history research, and from that time on, the history of the Pryamukhino estate and the Bakunin family became a priority for V.I. Sysoev. This was expressed in many large and small matters. Thus, he took part in the acquisition of portraits and other Bakunin family heirlooms from the descendants of this family for the Tver Regional Museum. In the early 1990s, the restoration company Presto, which he created, was engaged in the restoration and conservation of the Bakunin manor house in the village of Pryamukhino and the improvement of the park. In 1999, V.I. Sysoev became one of the founders and a member of the board of the Bakunin Foundation, the main task of which is the revival of the estate and the creation of a Bakunin museum in it. Vladimir Ivanovich was one of the organizers of the annual Bakunin holidays, which are held in Pryamukhin on the birthday of M.A. Bakunin.
Vladimir Sysoev’s first attempt at writing was the booklet “Pryamukhino - the Bakunins’ estate” (2001), and his first thorough work as a writer and local historian was the book “The Bakunins” (2002). With its vastness of materials, depth of development, good quality of both content and printing, the book surprised many who did not expect such a magnificent publication from a “techie” by education.
Since then, the name of V.I. Sysoev has been heard by the enlightened Tver public. For the book “Bakunins” in 2002 he was awarded the Literary Prize. Saltykov-Shchedrin in the nomination “For works telling about the life and destinies of our compatriots who left a noticeable mark on the history of the Tver province.” This detailed study immediately attracted the attention of the author not only from Tver scientists and local historians, but also from genealogists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, other Russian cities, as well as foreign scientists.
New books soon followed, similar in theme to the first: about the Tver governor Alexander Pavlovich Bakunin (2004), about the famous figure of the first Russian emigration Tatyana Alekseevna Bakunina-Osorgina (2005), about the first Lyceum love of A. S. Pushkin Ekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina (2006). In 2009, a book was published in the “ZhZL” series about Anna Petrovna Kern, who is related by family ties to the Bakunins and the Poltoratskys. (In February 2010, the second edition of this book was published, recognized by the editors of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house as one of the most popular books in the ZhZL series in 2009.)
Since December 2004, V.I. Sysoev was a member of the Writers' Union of Russia.
In 2003, he took an active part in the creation of the Bakunin Museum in Pryamukhin: he collected exhibits,, together with employees of the Tver State United Museum and artists, prepared stands, and resolved financing issues. Provided unique materials and photographs for the museum’s exhibition. The small museum, opened on July 26, has become a landmark of the Tver region. Every year, hundreds of visitors from many cities in Russia and the CIS, as well as near and far abroad, come to plunge into the atmosphere of “Pryamukhin Harmony”.
In April 2009, Vladimir Ivanovich became a nominee for the “ Cultural heritage" in the nomination "Public Recognition" for services in the preservation, revival and popularization of the architectural heritage of Russia and was awarded the Avaev Medal "For Non-Official Distinctions".
V. I. Sysoev was a member Coordination Council Tver Regional Society of Local Lore, a member of the Tver Historical and Genealogical Society and the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, since August 2009 he has worked as deputy chairman of the Tver VOOPiK.
After the sudden death of V. I. Sysoev on January 3, 2010, the monograph “The Poltoratskys”, “The Tver Noble Atlantis” - a large work on the history of the estates of the noble families of Novotorzhsky and Kuvshinovsky districts, as well as a book about Ekaterina Mikhailovna Bakunina, one of the first nurses, remained unfinished Russia, and Konstantin Markovich Poltoratsky. In March 2010, in a collection dedicated to the anniversary of the Tver Union of Artists, an article by V. I. Sysoev “Master of Etude” appeared - about the forgotten Tver artist Mitrofanov. The article “Mashuk Estate and its Owners” is awaiting publication. The articles “Talozhnya”, “The Death of Patriarch Tikhon”, “Admirals of Novotorzhsky District”, “Acquaintances of A.S. Pushkin in Novotorzhsky District” and others were being prepared for publication.

Anna Kern is one of Alexander Pushkin’s muses and the most beautiful women of the 19th century, to whom the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” was dedicated.

Alleged portrait of Anna Kern. A. Arefov-Bagaev. 1840s

"I almost hate him"

The history of the relationship between Pushkin and Anna Kern, the wife of General Ermolai Kern, is very confused and contradictory. Despite the fact that their connection gave birth to one of the most famous poems the poet “I Remember a Wonderful Moment”, this novel can hardly be called fateful for both sides.
At the age of 17, a girl of noble origin, Anna Poltoratskaya, a fair-haired fairy with cornflower-blue eyes and unruly blond curls, marries 52-year-old General Ermolai Kern, a participant in the wars against Napoleon, who would later even serve as the prototype for Prince Gremin in Pushkin’s novel Eugene Onegin."

Like many marriages that took place at that time, this one was made out of convenience. Such an alliance was agreed upon by Anna’s dad, court councilor Pyotr Poltoratsky. The girl had to submit to her father’s will, but she did not hide her true attitude towards her husband, and in her diary one could often find such entries: “It is impossible to love him - I am not even given the consolation of respecting him; I’ll tell you straight - I almost hate him.” During their marriage, Anna gave birth to two daughters, but her attitude towards them was more than cool: the girls were placed in the Smolny Institute, and Kern herself openly neglected raising her daughters.

Rude Pushkin

Before her first meeting with Pushkin, which took place in St. Petersburg in 1819, when Anna was visiting her aunt, the first casual connections and fleeting novels began to appear in the life of the young general’s wife: the girl was undeniably beautiful, attracted the attention of brave officers who often appeared in the general’s house , and most importantly, she was notable for that charm that makes beauty especially crushing. The meeting with Pushkin did not make a particular impression on Kern; in some places the poet even seemed rude and shameless to her. She subtly described her feelings in her diary:

“At one of the evenings at the Olenins’, I met Pushkin and did not notice him: my attention was absorbed in the charades that were then being played out and in which Krylov, Pleshcheev and others took part. In the child of Krylov’s enchantment, it was difficult to see anyone other than the culprit of poetic pleasure, and that’s why I didn’t notice Pushkin, although he tried his best to attract attention with flattering exclamations such as, for example: “Is it possible to be so pretty!”

Everything changed during their second meeting, which occurred while Pushkin was serving exile on the Mikhailovskoye estate. Kern was resting nearby, in the Trigorskoye estate, which belonged to the Osipov-Wulf family - mutual friends of Kern and Pushkin.

"I remember a wonderful moment..."

By that time, the poet’s fame had reached the ardent beauty. She became keenly interested in Pushkin and, having received a letter through a mutual friend, full of delight and desire to meet, immediately wrote a response to Pushkin. There is an entry in her diary: “admired by Pushkin, I passionately want to see him...”.

The next evening, Anna’s wish came true: the lovers walked through the garden, talked about a thousand little things, and the next morning Pushkin brought Kern a copy of the first chapter of the novel “Eugene Onegin”, in which he inserted a sheet of paper with the lines “I remember a wonderful moment” written on it. Later, when Kern talked about this, perhaps the most exciting moment in her life, she recalled that when she was about to hide the poetic gift in the box, Pushkin for some reason snatched out the sheet of poetry and for a long time did not want to give it to Anna. She “forcibly begged them again.” Why the poet wanted to take the piece of paper with the poem remains a mystery.

It is known for certain how the relationship between Pushkin and Kern developed after that romantic time. When Kern was getting ready to go with her daughters to Riga, where the old general was at that time, she playfully allowed Pushkin to write letters to her. These messages in French have survived to this day. As much as I would not like to find in them even the slightest hint of the poet’s deep feelings for his fair-haired muse, these letters are mocking and ironic. They are in no way similar to the messages that a person overwhelmed by passion writes.

Anna Petrovna, drawing by Pushkin (1799-1837), Institute of Russian Literature, St. Petersburg

Burnt out wick of love

The next meeting of the poet and his muse happened two years later. Then, remembering the rude and cynical remark Pushkin made in a letter to his friend Sergei Sobolevsky, their relationship moved into another phase: Pushkin no longer calls Anna “a genius of pure beauty,” but refers to her only as “our Babylonian harlot Anna Petrovna” . By that time, Kern had already left her husband, finally moved to St. Petersburg and caused outright gossip in high society, where she was included thanks to her husband’s connections and the favor of Emperor Alexander, whom she met in the first years of her marriage.
After 1827 they life paths separated forever. Pushkin had new women to whom he dedicated poems and whom he included in the “Don Juan list.” Kern's husband died in 1841, and Anna, finally free, finds her main love: a 16-year-old cadet and her second cousin Alexander Markov-Vinogradsky. With him she begins to lead a quiet family life. It is known that she kept Pushkin’s poems as a relic and even showed them to Ivan Turgenev, who once paid her a visit. However, a precarious financial situation, which turned into poverty, which subsequently reaches its extreme state, forces Kern to say goodbye to her cherished letters. She sold them for five rubles apiece.

Anna Kern outlived Alexander Pushkin by 42 years, preserving in her diaries the eternally young and lively image of the poet, who, thanks to notes and comments, turns from a textbook personality into a real person who fell in love to the point of tightness in his chest, who found inspiration in beauty, and, in Kern’s opinion , “who never really loved anyone.”

The history of the relationship between two people, between whom a spark slipped, is largely unclear, but after them something has been preserved that exalts and makes the connection almost sacred - the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment” - a dedication of a poet in love to a beautiful woman, which has become one of the most heartfelt and graceful in history of Russian poetry.