Nadezhda Mikhailovna Polovtsova (before marriage - Yunev or Yunin; 1843 - 1908 ) - the illegitimate daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich , a pupil of Baron A. L. Stiglitz , wife of the real secret adviser to the Secretary of State Alexander Alexandrovich Polovtsov .
| Nadezhda Mikhailovna Polovtsova | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of the work of J. Michele (1869) | |
| Birth name | Iuneva (Unina) |
| Date of Birth | December 10, 1843 |
| Date of death | 1908 |
| A country | |
| Father | Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich Reception: Stieglitz, Alexander Ludwigovich |
| Mother | Reception: Stieglitz, Karolina Karlovna |
| Spouse | Polovtsov, Alexander Alexandrovich |
| Children | |
Biography
In 1844, the childless couple Shtiglitsov adopted the illegitimate daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich from maid of honor K. According to legend, the child was found in lilac bushes at the Shtiglitsov dacha in Petrovsky . The girl was lying in a basket in sumptuous diapers, in which a note was pinned that she was born on December 10, 1843 and was baptized according to the Orthodox rite Nadezhda , her middle name was Mikhailovna , and there was an expensive golden cross with a large pearl around her neck. This event happened at the end of June, in connection with which the child was given the surname Junyeva (Junina, Unina, Yunieva). The emperor took part in the fate of his niece, telling Stieglitz that he was interested in the fate of a thrown child, and thereby prompting a childless banker to adopt an illegitimate one [1] .
According to another version, more believable, Nadezhda Mikhailovna was the illegitimate daughter of Stieglitz himself. So, I. S. Turgenev in a letter to Pauline Viardot on February 19, 1871, reporting on his dinner with Polovtsov, wrote that the latter was married to “the late daughter of Baron Stieglitz” [2] . Despite the fact that Stieglitz, like his wife Karolina Karlovna, was a Lutheran , their pupil retained the Orthodox faith. Adopted and brought up by the largest Russian financier, manager of the State Bank, she was the richest bride of Russia in the middle of the century.
On February 3, 1861, 18-year-old Nadezhda Mikhailovna became the wife of the future Secretary of the State Council, Alexander Alexandrovich Polovtsov ( 1832 - 1909 ). The wedding was in the church of Alexander Nevsky under the Governing Senate [3] . Around this marriage there were many rumors and there were many legends. Prince P. A. Obolensky, their grandson, recalled:
My grandfather was born into a poor noble family and he had the life of an ordinary official. However, the ambitious young lawyer persistently courted Stieglitz's adopted daughter, persistently molested her hands and hearts, and in the end managed to get married to her.
At first, the couple lived very modestly in a rented apartment, not far from the cottage of Baron Stieglitz, on Kamenny Island. After the death of the adoptive father, Nadezhda Mikhailovna became the owner of a huge fortune of 16-17 million rubles. She and her children inherited all real estate, including factories, factories, estates, two mansions in St. Petersburg and a cottage on Kamenny Island, as well as all interest-bearing securities. In the summer of 1884, she acquired the Bogoslovsky Mountain District in Verkhotursky Uyezd in the Perm Province , named after the owner on May 29 ( June 11 ), 1894 by the Nadezhda Plant [4] [5] .
Dreaming of playing the role of Princess Leaven , Polovtsova kept a salon in her Petersburg house and gave sophisticated dinners, skillfully grouping selected interlocutors at the table. In society, she had a reputation as an excellent mistress and queen of fashion. They said that intervening in charity affairs, she visited the poor, decorating her ears with hundreds of thousands of tapeworms, and explained this by the fact that the poor deserve to be dressed well [6] . The memoirist Count S. D. Sheremetev admitted [7] :
I never liked her and always seemed soulless. She had fans and admirers whom I was surprised. It seemed impossible to me to squeeze anything alive from this beautiful, restrained, cold and too sensible lady, but she lacked intelligence and she and her husband acted at the same time, gradually and consistently, treacherously achieving a strong position in the world. They laughed at them, but went to them and enjoyed their hospitality.
Together with her husband, Polovtsova traveled a lot around Europe, but she had a special love for France. Almost every summer she preferred to spend in her mansion in Paris or in the San-Roman estate in the vicinity of Monte Carlo . She died in 1908 and was buried in the church-tomb in the name of the Holy Trinity in the Stieglitz estate in Ivangorod .
Children
- Anna (1862-1917), wife of Prince Alexander Dmitrievich Obolensky (1847-1917), grandmother of Sir Dmitry Obolensky ;
- Nadezhda (1865-1920), wife of Count Alexei Alexandrovich Bobrinsky ;
- Alexander (1867-1944), husband of Countess Sofya Vladimirovna Panina (1871-1957) and Sofya Alexandrovna Kunitskaya (1884-1970);
- Peter (1874-1964), lieutenant general .
Baron A.L. Stieglitz Artist P.F. Sokolov
N.M. Polovtsova ,
1876 yearN.M. Polovtsova, photo 1880s
Anna Obolenskaya , daughter
Notes
- ↑ A.A. Polovtsov. Secretary of State's diary. In 2 volumes. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2005. - T. 1. - S. 8.
- ↑ I. S. Turgenev. Full composition of writings. —M., 1865. - T. 9. - S. 22.
- ↑ Diary of P. A. Valuev, Minister of the Interior: in 2 volumes. - M .: Publishing house of Acad. Sciences of the USSR, 1961. - T. 1: 1861-1864 - S. 66.
- ↑ Fedorchenko V.I., Noble clans that glorified the Fatherland: an encyclopedia of noble clans. - S. 432 Olma Media Group, 2003. - ISBN 5786700569 , ISBN 9785786700566
- ↑ Baykulova S.Z., Matveeva I.U., Bauman A.L. Leaders of St. Petersburg. - S. 414 Olma Media Group. - ISBN 5765421148 , ISBN 9785765421147
- ↑ Historical Herald. - 1906. - T. 103 .-- S. 340.
- ↑ Memoirs of Count S. D. Sheremetev / Federal Archival Service of Russia. - M .: Indrik Publishing House, 2001.