Stroganova, Natalia Viktorovna

The eldest daughter of Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey and Maria Vasilyevna , nee Vasilchikova . Her early years went abroad. Shortly after the wedding, held in 1799 at the Dikanka estate, Count Kochubei and his wife went to Dresden and fell out of favor with Emperor Paul I. Only after the accession of Emperor Alexander I Victor Pavlovich returned to the court and soon called his wife with her newborn daughter. Thanks to the Count’s proximity to Alexander I, Maria Vasilievna was able to occupy an enviable position in the world and at court.

Most of the years 1817 and 1818, Kochubey again spent abroad for family reasons, mainly in Paris . Returning to Russia, they settled in the Tsarskoye Selo cottage . Empress Alexandra Fedorovna in her memoirs recalled: “Now it’s time for me to talk about the Kochubeev family. They were absent for several years, and only in 1818 the count, countess and their beautiful daughter Natalie were introduced to me in Pavlovsk ^[2] . ” Soon Natalya Viktorovna was granted the maids of honor. M. M. Speransky wrote to his daughter: “I saw here for the first time Natasha in the French quadrille, the embodiment of grace” ^[3] . Her contemporary remembered ^[4] :

“She has an elegant figure, she charmingly dances, in general, she is exactly what you need to be in order to charm. They say that she has a living mind, and I willingly believe this, because her face is very expressive and mobile. ”

Another contemporary noted that Natalya Viktorovna "is pretty beautiful, full of talents and well-mannered." Speaking about the character of the girl, Speransky noted in a letter to his daughter: “The young countess, I think, is simply fearful and shy, these things are often found in the most extensive societies ...” ^[3] Count I. I. Vorontsov-Dashkov was told to her husband and A.F. Orlova . Princess Kochubey was actively holding onto the first candidate, she really wanted to give her daughter for him, Orlov seemed to her of the wrong origin. Natalya herself did not want either one or the other groom.

In September 1820, Natalia Viktorovna became the wife of Baron Alexander Grigorievich Stroganov (1795-1891). Their family life from the very beginning was unsuccessful. Already in January 1821, rumors circulated around St. Petersburg that Stroganov did not get along very well with his wife, and that it seemed to come to violence. Some said that the husband’s neglected illness was the cause of the disagreement, others were his irresistible attraction to the old theatrical affection, and also that both families with mutual claims were to blame. According to a contemporary, “on the part of the baron it was a marriage of convenience, and love was only on the part of the bride” ^[5] . In the future, the relationship of the spouses did not go beyond the boundaries of secular decency.

In 1829, Dolly Fikelmon wrote: “Natalie Stroganova has a piquant physiognomy; definitely, not being a beauty, she apparently likes much more than many other beautiful women. The capricious expression on her face really suits her. Her eyes are especially beautiful - in them her main beauty. Moreover, she is very witty ^[4] . " According to her observations, in these years, Countess Stroganova was one of the admirers of Nicholas I. The hero of the Polish Campaign, General Prince Gorchakov , took care of her seriously, caring "for her as was done in the old days - openly and without hiding." Portraits of Natalia Viktorovna were written by O. A. Kiprensky , P. F. Sokolov , A. P. Bryullov . The situation and family ties allowed Natalia Viktorovna to take a worthy place in the light: “in St. Petersburg, too, a brilliant position: the countess, who knew how to control the conversation, was not bad at all, especially in the evening, with huge connections like Kochubey’s daughter, she kept a brilliant ministerial drawing room ^[6] .”

In 1841, Count Stroganov received his resignation and left his family for several years with Russia, spending the winter in Paris and the summer in Bohemian waters, in Carlsbad , Teplice and Aachen . At this time, Countess Stroganova became close to Sofia Petrovna Svechina , who converted to Catholicism . S. M. Solovyov , who accompanied the Stroganovs as a teacher of their children, wrote:

Interest in Catholicism and visits to Catholic churches, not hidden by Stroganova, led to the fact that rumors spread about the conversion of the countess to another faith in the light. In recent years, Natalya Viktorovna’s life has not been calm. In 1839, a seventeen-year-old daughter died, three years later, the youngest son, who “choked on the chicken bone that her mother gave him on the way from Dresden to Weimar ^[6] ”.

In 1853, she lost her second daughter. The marriage was unhappy: both spouses allowed themselves to communicate on the side ^[2] . Countess Natalia Viktorovna Stroganova died on January 24, 1855 in St. Petersburg and was buried in the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra ^[7] .

Acquaintance and meetings of Natalia Kochubei with Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin belong to the first years of his stay in the Lyceum . Spending the summer months with her parents at the dacha in Tsarskoye Selo, the countess often met with lyceum students. Later, in the outline for an autobiography under the period “1813”, Pushkin will write: “Gr. Kochubey. ” According to M. A. Korf , “almost she (and not Bakunin) was Pushkin’s first love ^[3] ”. Possibly, the poems “Treason” (1815) and “Remembrance of the Drunken” (1819) are dedicated to her.

Like other secular beauties of the early 1820s, Natalia was considered by the early Pushkinists as a candidate for the role of the " secret love " of the poet. Namely, P.K. Huber in his book “The Don Juan List of A. S. Pushkin” (1923), refuting Shchegolev’s assumption, put forward a different hypothesis for deciphering the initials “NN” (which, however, did not receive any support):

Later, already being a married lady, Countess Stroganova met with Pushkin in the light: at the Karamzins , in whose salon she was a regular visitor, and with common acquaintances. The first ball, which Pushkin attended with his young wife , took place in the mansion of father Natalia Viktorovna, Count V. P. Kochubey, November 11, 1831 ^[8] . The host’s daughter attended the same ball with her husband, Count Alexander Stroganov (a second cousin of N.N. Pushkina), who was promoted to the rank of Major General and appointed to His Majesty’s retinue in October 1831. In the first half of November, in the eighth chapter of "Eugene Onegin" there are lines in which, according to Pletnev , the poet described precisely the Countess Stroganov ^[8] :

Working in the years 1834-1835 on the novel "Russian Pelam", Pushkin introduces N. Kochubey and her father among the main characters, who are mentioned either under the name "Kochubey", then "Chukoley". According to the poet’s plan, the heroine, neglecting the opinion of the world, sends an encouraging letter to the hero, rejected by society

Natalia Viktorovna was drawn into the family drama of the poet. P. I. Bartenev conveyed the words of Princess V. F. Vyazemsky : “On the eve of the New Year, the Vyazemsky had a great evening. As a groom, Huckern appeared with his bride. There was no reason to refuse him from home. Pushkin and his wife were right there, and the Frenchman continued to be near her. Countess Natalya Viktorovna Stroganova told Princess Vyazemskaya that he had such a terrible appearance that if she had been his wife, she would not have decided to return home with him ^[9] . ” S.N.Karamzina wrote in 1836 about the celebration of her name day on September 17, which was attended by Pushkin and his wife, the sisters Goncharova and Dantes , who “did not leave a step from Ekaterina Goncharova from afar cast passionate glances at Natalie, and in the end, nevertheless, she danced a mazurka with her. ”

Countess Stroganova, in contrast to her husband’s sister Idalia , whom Pushkin scholars consider one of the main figures of this intrigue, remained a faithful friend of Pushkin after his death. Alexander Karamzin wrote:

According to P.K. Huber, one of the reasons why contemporaries and the first Pushkinists avoided talking about Pushkin’s relationship with N.V. Kochubey was the longevity of her husband (he lived to be 95 years old and died in 1891), when whose lives mention of this hobby in the press was impossible.

In September 1820, Natalia Viktorovna became the wife of Count Alexander Grigoryevich Stroganov (1795-1891), the son of Count Grigory Aleksandrovich Stroganov from marriage to Anna Sergeyevna Trubetskoy . In a marriage were born ^[10] :

• Mariamna Alexandrovna (1822–1839) - maid of honor, according to V. A. Sollogub , “personified beauty, grace and femininity” ^[11] . Healthy and blooming, in February 1839 she stayed with her mother for several days in Moscow and died there from three days of “inflammatory fever”. She was buried in the Donskoy monastery.
• Grigory Alexandrovich (1824-1878) - since 1853, the morganatic spouse of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna ;
• Natalia Alexandrovna (07/04/1829 ^[12] –11.04.1853), the goddaughter of Count V.P. Kochubey and N.K. Zagryazhskaya ; since 1850, the wife of Prince Pavel Vasilyevich Golitsyn (1822-1871), the son of V. S. Golitsyn ;
• Victor Alexandrovich (1831-1856) - from 1854 he was married to Ekaterina Nikolaevna Voeikova, daughter of a retired guard captain N.P. Voeikov ;
• Sergey Alexandrovich (1834-1842).

• Kochubey Natalya Viktorovna (neopr.) . Date of treatment February 13, 2014.
• Kochubey, Countess Natalya Viktorovna (neopr.) . Date of treatment February 13, 2014.
• O.L. Dovgy, A.E. Machs. "12 mirrors of Pushkin" (neopr.) . Date of treatment February 13, 2014.