Emperor Nicholas I and poet Pushkin

[ilyala]

did nicholas actually have an affair with pushkin's wife? was he involved in pushkin's death?

[hikaru]

Maybe yes, Maybe no. Maybe he is just danced with her.
But he promised to the dying Pushkin to protect his wife and children. He kept his word.
All of the children has got the excellent education.
All girls was managed very good marriage.
The grand daughter of Pushkin in future married to the one of the Grand Son of Nicholas.
It was a Morganatic marriage and it caused a  huge scandal.

[Elisabeth]

did nicholas actually have an affair with pushkin's wife? was he involved in pushkin's death?

It's a complete myth that Nicholas I had an affair with Pushkin's wife, Natalia Goncharova. I studied Pushkin in graduate school and take my word for it, there is no foundation in fact either for this rumor or the one that Nicholas had a hand in Pushkin's death. He didn't.

It's true that Nicholas I was no great admirer of Pushkin, who had been friends with many of the Decembrists who staged a revolt against Nicholas at the beginning of his reign. The straight-laced Nicholas regarded Pushkin as not only politically unreliable but also as a "depraved person" ("porochnyi chelovek") because of his reputation as a gambler and a ladies' man. He respected Pushkin as a poet but did not like him personally. By way of contrast, he seems to have liked Pushkin's wife Natalia very much. She was a beautiful woman, some said the most beautiful woman in Russia, and by all accounts perfectly charming. It is probably because Nicholas enjoyed mild flirtations (and nothing more!) with Natalia that he eventually appointed Pushkin as a "kammerjunker" at court. Pushkin, typically, saw this as an insult (because most kammerjunkers were young boys and Pushkin was in his thirties). However, it is almost certain that Nicholas had not intended it this way. He viewed any court appointment as an honour and a privilege.

There are various controversies surrounding the death of Pushkin, too elaborate to go into here. But Hikaru is right, Nicholas I vowed to take care of Pushkin's widow and children and he kept his word. Natalia remarried many years later and one of her and Pushkin's descendants ultimately married a member of the imperial family, Grand Duke Mikhail ("Miche-Miche").

[hikaru]

Yes, I must to say that I adore Nataliya Nikolaevna, Pushkin's wife.
She was an angel.
She was regarded as the most beautiful woman in Russia, but she could not married with a wealthy person because, she was an poor aristorcratic girl.
Only 150sm 's Pushkin proposed her, and she accepted it. Pushkin was not an angel: his temper was africaine,
his gambling's debts were incredible, he loved women.
But Natalia overpassed everything( the lack of money, food etc.).
She was beautiful, she liked to go to society, to the balls etc.
But, I think, that she never was close to the Dantes,
who killed Pushkin.
Natalia's Sister - Katya (who loved Pushkin to death and who lived together with them) married Dantes (Pushkin's killer) immediately after the duele. So, Natalia cut any relations with the only syster.

Natalia have got a lot of marriage proposals after the Pushkin's death. But she did not accept them for 10years (which is the significant approve her truly love to the poet).
Then ,she married with a good, brave general Lanskoy,
had more children and lived in the peace and happiness.

[lexi4]

Does anyone have a picture of Nataliya Nikolaevna?

[Marc]

[Elisabeth]

There is also a photograph of Natalia Nikolaevna taken in late middle age, in which she appears to be as beautiful as ever. She hardly seems to have aged at all. I wish I had it but perhaps someone else here does and can post it. The artist's portrait of Natalia is obviously very accurate in its depiction of her because - as I recall - the resemblance between it and her photograph is extraordinary.

[Mike]

It's almost certain that Nicholas I did have an affair with Natalya. However, it started some years after Pushkin's death, when Nataliya was already married to General Lanskoy - who knew and tacitly approved of the "august grace" conferred upon his wife.

[Elisabeth]

Mike, I hate to tell you, but this is absolute nonsense. Natalia Nikolaevna never, I repeat never, had an affair with Nicholas I. What source are you actually citing? Because reputable historians completely dismiss this story as nothing but vicious slander.

[Lisa]

There is also a photograph of Natalia Nikolaevna taken in late middle age, in which she appears to be as beautiful as ever. She hardly seems to have aged at all. I wish I had it but perhaps someone else here does and can post it. .

WOW! I'd like to see the photo of such a lengendary character!!!

[Mike]

Natalia Nikolaevna never, I repeat never, had an affair with Nicholas I.

Neither you nor me or anybody else cannot be 100% sure of existence or non-existence of such affair.

As you're certainly aware this issue has been vividly discussed by hundreds of "Pushkinists". Incidentally I'm a nephew of one of them, and of a very prominent one  - which of course doesn't make me an authority on Pushkin and related topics. However, from my childhood I have always been interested in this field, and what I've said in my previous post is a personal impression derived from reading thousands of pages and hearing hundreds of hours of lectures and talks.

Many people closely familiar with the subject are of the same opinion, while many others think differently, and we will never know the truth. Anyway, I don't see why such an assumption should be called "vicious slander" and in which way could it damage Pushkin's memory or that of Natalia Nikolaevna's.  

[hikaru]

I tnink Nikolay wanted to give to Pushkin the official status of the State Poet.
He asked him to make the official history of the Pugachov case. He gave him the permission to use the
personal archive of the Court and Romanov Family, which was extraordinary.
Catherine the Great had not problem with Diderot , but Nicholas had a lot of problems with Pushkin whose character was not the angel's one.
There are some strange points about relations of Pushkin and Nicholas I - for example: poet had no money to live in such good apartment as his last one - almost in front of the Winter Palace.
As for the relations of the Nicholas and Natalia - possibly , we will never know about it.
I also like very much the picture of the soviet artist
ULYANOV -"Pushkin and Natalia in Winter Palace"

[hikaru]

I also would like to give to you the ifm about 4 children of Pushkin and Natalia , who lived with great passion too.:
1. Son Alexandr -
He was brave officer and hero of the Russo-Turkey war.
He also supported the reform of 1861 year very much.

2. Son Georgy
he was good looking officer.
He felt in love with one girl but could not get the permission to marry . SO he quit the officer's service and went to his country estate  where lived calmly for a lot of time till his marriage at the age of 48 with Ms. Varvara Melynikova , who was the niece of the famouse engineer who built the railroad between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

3. Daughter Maria . ( Maria Gartung after Marriage).
She became the model of the Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
( In the first variant , Tolstoy gave  to the heroine the name Nana Pushkina ).

4. Daughter Natalia, who had a great beaty , just like her mother. Her life was like the adventure.
Her first marriage was not happy one. She divorced  the general Dubelyt . In the first marriage she had 3 children.

Then she married with the prince of Luxemburg - Nicholas Wilgelm of Nassau. He was a heir and did not
go to the throne because of this morganatic marriage.
Natalia was given the name of the countess of Merenberg.
They had 3 children too.
Their son married the daughter of Alexandr II and Ekaterina Dolgorukaya.
Their daugher married to the Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhaylovich Romanov. Their marriage was not approved by the IF, so they lived happily in London.
Windsors now are their relatives.

[ilyala]

wow that's some interesting information, thank you hikaru

[Marc]

Can someone tell me more about Natalia's(Goncharova) ancestry?Did she come from a noble family?Who were her ancestors?