Valentinovich, Thekla Ignatievna

Her childhood was spent in a small estate of parents, who owned 30 peasants' souls. In 1821, 54-year-old Prince Platon Zubov fell in love with her. He lived alone in his Ruanthal estate , where he “had a clan of seraglio ; as soon as the beauty bothered him, he went to Vilna to recruit a new one. ”

While in the city on business, Zubov noticed a “Polish sorceress” on the street (expression of A. O. Rosset ) and ordered his manager Bratkovsky to bring her to his house. He offered a huge reward for the possession of the girl by her mother, but received a decisive rebuff. According to A. Ya. Bulgakov , the future mother-in-law of Prince Zubov “was a grated kalach, she was disappointed that the resistance for the prince was a new thing, that it would arouse love, strengthen the desire to possess an object that he liked” ^[1] .

And so it happened, Prince Zubov offered Tekla a hand and a heart, endowed her whole family, picked up a rich husband for her sister Dominica ^[2] . The newlyweds settled in the magnificent estate of Riental, where Princess Thekla soon gave birth to a daughter, Alexandra, who died in infancy. Prince Zubov did not live until her birth for three weeks. According to K. Valishevsky , the young widow inherited “twenty million that had long been useless in the storerooms of the house”, as well as a scattering of diamonds, three of which were clear water, and one with a fixed portrait of Catherine II .

Relatives of Zubov initiated a process to divide the inheritance, citing the absence of a will in his papers. Princess Zubova arrived at the trial in Warsaw , where she completely charmed the State Secretary for Polish Affairs, N. N. Novosiltsev . According to A.O. Rosset, “she caressed the old and ugly libertine with the thought that she would marry him,” but when the process, thanks to Novosiltsev’s connections, ended in her favor, she immediately left to live in Vienna ^[3] .

In the Austrian capital, Princess Zubova, who had almost no education, “learned to chat in French and was later adopted by the aristocratic society,” continues A.O. Rosset, “she danced the mazurka of the lady so that all the old people were furious.” She became close to her compatriot , the wife of the Russian ambassador Tatishchev , and fell in love with the young secretary of the embassy, ​​Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov , who was one year younger than her ^[4] . The wife of the English envoy, Lady Dysbrow, reporting urban gossip, wrote to her relatives in September 1826 ^[5] :

Their wedding was on November 12, 1826 in the Kazan Cathedral ^[6] . For the sake of Princess Zubova (or her millions), Shuvalov refused diplomatic service and went with her to Florence , where they lived for a year. “In Leipzig (June 15, 1827), their eldest son Peter, the current ambassador to England, was born,” wrote Rosset, convinced (hardly thoroughly) that the child was conceived even before marriage. The marriage with the heiress of Prince Zubov put forward the Shuvalovs among the richest families in Russia. Upon arrival in Russia, the Polish rich woman entered the high society of St. Petersburg, received the Catherine’s ribbon , attended even the coronation of Nicholas I.

Thekla, having settled in Petersburg, made herself a position with surprising tact. When she introduced herself to the Empress, I saw her. She was somehow magnificently good; hands, neck, eyes, hair - everything was classically good for her. After the presentation, the empress said: "In two months of marriage, they developed very quickly." They played whist and 250 roubles la parte: Count Nesselrode , Matvey Yuryevich Vielgorsky , Chief Jägermeister Prince Lobanov, an evil and stupid man; of the ladies she became friends with Mary Pashkova and Countess Chernysheva. The three were inseparable in the theater, and rode together, and danced.

- A.O. Smirnova-Rosset

In St. Petersburg, the Shuvalovs hired the house of Prince M. A. Golitsyn on Nab. Sinks , 90/1, which was later bought. Their house was one of the most fashionable in the capital, the whole high society gathered here. He visited the Shuvalovs and Pushkin , who knew the owner of the house well and repeatedly mentioned the name of his wife in his diaries ^[7] . Friendship with Countess Shuvalova Dolly Fikelmon in 1831 wrote ^[8] :

Countess Shuvalova raised her sons in respect of Polish and Catholic traditions. Both made a brilliant career, although surrounded by Nicholas I they were ranked among the Polish patriots. In her declining years she spent a lot of time in Rwendal, where she died in 1873, four months after her husband ^[9] . The spouses of the Shuvalovs are buried in the Sofia Church , which they built on the estate of Vartemyaki near St. Petersburg.

1. husband since 1821, Prince Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov (1767-1822), who was 34 years older than her.
   • Alexandra Platonovna (1822-1824)
2. husband from 1826 Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov (1802-1873), the eldest son of chamberlain P.A. Shuvalov , later a master of ceremonies, chamber junker.
   • Pyotr Andreyevich (1827–1889), cavalry general, governor of Livonia, Courland and Estonia (1864–66), chief of the gendarmes and head of the Third Division (1866–74), ambassador to Great Britain (1874–79).
   • Sofya Andreevna (1829-1912), maid of honor, inherited the beauty of her mother; since 1850, married to Count A. A. Bobrinsky (1823-1903).
   • Pavel Andreevich (1830-1908), infantry general, governor general of Warsaw, ambassador to Germany from 1885 to 1894.
   • Olga Andreevna (1833-1859).

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  Plato of the Teeth,
  1st husband

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  Andrey Shuvalov,
  2nd husband

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  Pyotr Andreyevich,
  son

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  Sofya Andreevna,
  daughter

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  Pavel Andreevich,
  son