Repnina-Volkonskaya, Varvara Alekseevna

The eldest daughter of Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky and his wife Varvara Petrovna, daughter of Count P. B. Sheremetev . Early lost the care of the mother, removed from his father's house in 1784. My father did not often see his daughter either, the German nanny was involved in the upbringing. Upon reaching the age of 13, the Swiss teacher Kalam, the aunt of a famous landscape painter , a woman with a strong character, very intelligent, of high moral qualities, was hired as a teacher in Varvara. Varvara Alekseevna loved her very much and until the end of her life (she died in Geneva, in extreme old age), she felt affection for her.

Countess Razumovskaya lived with her father in the estate near Moscow and often accompanied him on trips, including to the village of Vorontsovo , where Field Marshal Prince Nikolay Vasilievich Repnin lived. She liked the prince, and he decided to marry her eldest grandson, the beloved of Paul I , the aide-de-camp of Nikolai Grigorievich Volkonsky , and even called him out of St. Petersburg for this.

The young people fell in love with each other, but the wedding was interrupted by an unexpected disagreement between Count A. K. Razumovsky and Prince N. V. Repnin. Then the war began with France and Nikolai Volkonsky in the corps of Herman went to Holland . Upon the return of Colonel Volkonsky, the wedding was again postponed due to the death of Field Marshal Repnin. With him faded away his famous family. By decree of July 12, 1801, Alexander I ordered Prince Nikolai Grigorievich Volkonsky to adopt the name Repnins.

In 1802, the wedding of Varvara Alekseevna with Prince Volkonsky was played in the Baturinsky Palace of Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky . The young ones first lived in Moscow , then moved to St. Petersburg, where Princess Varvara Alekseevna became close friends with Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna .

After the beginning of the war with France in 1805, Prince Repnin went to the army, and the princess who was passionately in love with her husband followed him, leaving the children in the care of her aunt - Princess Alexandra Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. During the battle of Austerlitz , commanding the squadron , Prince Repnin made the famous attack described in the novel War and Peace , after which only 18 people remained from the squadron, and the prince himself, contused and wounded in the chest, was captured .

Varvara Alekseevna penetrated the French camp and took care of the wounded spouse and several other Russians, accompanying him until his release from captivity. The news that his wife was caring for a wounded Russian officer reached Napoleon, he met with Prince Repnin, and later it was he who authorized him to convey to Alexander I a proposal for peace talks.

After returning to St. Petersburg, the couple went to Spain , where Ambassador Nikolai Grigoryevich was sent, but the war that started there forced them to stay in Paris . And soon after returning to Russia, the Patriotic War of 1812 began . And again, Varvara Alekseevna was next to her husband. In 1813, the prince commanded the rearguard of the army of Vitgenshein , and the princess cared for the Russian wounded. After the appointment of her husband as governor-general of Saxony, she provided assistance to those in need in Dresden , which the local population remembered for a long time.

In 1814, together with her husband, she attended the Congress of Vienna , where she participated in various festivals, so she participated in the Russian quadrille , hosted by Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna at the ball given to Emperor Alexander I by Russian representative at the Congress, Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky . Later, Izabe painted a portrait of the princess in the Russian dress in which she danced.

In 1815, Princess Repnina-Volkonskaya returned to St. Petersburg, where she set about arranging the Patriotic Institute and the House of Hardworking (later the Elizavetinsky Institute ), created under the guidance of Empress Elizaveta Pavlovna to assist families orphaned after the war. She took on the upbringing of the talented daughters of the Poltava landowner Psёl - Alexander , Glafira and Tatiana to her house.

After the appointment of her husband as governor-general of Little Russia, they moved to Poltava . Varvara Alekseevna established hospitals, orphanages, but she focused mainly on the creation of the Poltava Institute of Noble Maidens, for which she spent considerable funds, pretty much wasting her fortune. During the famine in Ukraine, she took care of the hungry, regardless of the cost.

In 1834, her husband was appointed a member of the State Council , the couple again moved to St. Petersburg. Soon the prince was filed a denunciation to the emperor. It was about the loss of a significant amount of money assigned to the Poltava Institute, precisely to the institution to which Repnins laid a significant part of their fortune. The investigation began. The offended prince retired and went abroad with the whole family. There they stayed for more than four years, mainly in Rome and Switzerland. The family also rented two cottages in Castellammare near Naples, where N. V. Gogol lived in the summer of 1838, as well as the architect D. Ye. Efimov .

Upon returning to Russia in 1842, the couple settled in Yagotin , where Prince Nikolai Grigorievich died. In the late 1840s, Varvara Alekseevna moved to Odessa , and in 1856 to Moscow. At the age of eighty she was weak, weak, but firm in spirit and mind. Her affairs were in an extremely deplorable state, from a once significant state only insignificant amounts remained, but she continued to assist the poor.

She lived in her house on Sadovaya , where she died on October 9, 1864 at the age of 93 years. Her body was transported to Chernihiv region and buried next to her husband in the church of the Trinity Gustyn monastery .

In marriage, the couple of Repnins-Volkonsky has given birth to seven children:

• Alexey Nikolaevich (died 12/13/1812)
• Grigoriy Nikolaevich (died 02.07.1812)
• Alexandra Nikolaevna (1805–1836), married in 1829 to the senator, Count A. G. Kushelev-Bezborodko (1800–1855).
• Vasily Nikolaevich (1806–1880), collegiate assessor; Married to the maid of honor Elizabeth Petrovna Balabina (1813–1883), but the marriage was unhappy, the spouses lived separately, Vasily was a player, and his wife suffered suspiciousness, and later mania of persecution. Their son Nikolai .
• Varvara Nikolaevna (1808-1891), wrote prose and memoirs, was in love with T. G. Shevchenko , managed to overcome her feeling, later corresponded with him and petitioned for his release from exile.
• Sofya Nikolaevna (died 09/28/1811)
• Elizaveta Nikolaevna (1817–1855), was married to a full state adviser, chamberlain, and Russian charge d'affaires at the Roman mission, Pavel Ivanovich Krivtsov (1806–1844).

•  

  Varvara Alekseevna
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  Vasily Nikolaevich,
  a son
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  Varvara Nikolaevna,
  daughter
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  Elizaveta Nikolaevna,
  daughter
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  Pavel Krivtsov,
  son-in-law

• Russian Biographical Dictionary: Reitern - Roltzberg . - Ed. Imperial Russian Historical Society . - SPb. : type of. Imperial Acad. Sciences , 1913 [2]. - T. 16. - P. 125-127. - 438 s.

• Varvara Repnina-Volkonskaya
• Repnina-Volkonskaya, Varvara Alekseevna // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extras). - SPb. , 1890-1907.