Naryshkina, Sofya Dmitrievna

Born in St. Petersburg, baptized on October 8, 1805 in the Simeonovskaya Church on Mokhovaya, the goddaughter of Count P.K. Razumovsky and M.A. Naryshkina . Beauty favorite Maria Antonovna Naryshkina gave birth to 6 children, of whom only three survived: the eldest Marina (the only one whom her husband recognized), Sophia and the youngest son Emmanuel Naryshkin , born in 1813 - are rumored to have been betrayed by her emperor with Count Grigory Gagarin. Because of this romance, the 14-year-old extramarital affair was severed, and the former favorite with her newborn boy and little Sophia went abroad. Due to the poor health of the girl, her mother continued to live with her for years in Europe - in France, Switzerland, Germany ^[3] . Consumption (tuberculosis) Sofia suffered from childhood.

According to P. V. Dolgorukov , “the emperor loved her very much and wanted to marry Count Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev , but he managed to evade this highest honor” ^[4] . During the Verona Congress (1822), Alexander I often visited Countess S. G. Shuvalova , a friend of Maria Naryshkina, and patronized her sons. The youngest of them - Andrei Shuvalov , he decided to marry Sophia. Maria Naryshkina was at that time with her daughter in Switzerland, and in 1823 they returned to Russia to have a wedding ^[5] .

In a letter dated October 27, 1823, Mikhail Speransky reported on the presence of Maria Naryshkina with her daughter Sophia in St. Petersburg as news. “Who will be her narrowed is still unknown” ^[6] , he writes, implying that the purpose of this return is clear. Sophia began to study the Russian language and she was engaged to the betrothal in 1823 with Andrei Shuvalov ^[7] . Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset recalled: “This rogue with imp. Alex <andre> Pavlovich, to make a career, asked for the hands of Sofia Naryshkina when she was already in consumption. She had a house on the embankment and 25 thousand ass. income; Alexander I was very stingy ” ^[8] . Vladimir Sollogub described the appearance of Sophia in this way ^[9] :

“In winter, Dmitry Lvovich lived in St. Petersburg, where he built a house on the Fontanka, or rather, a palace, now owned by Countess Shuvalova. Then I saw still sparkling beauty Marya Antonovna and her pretty daughter, seventeen-year-old Sophia. Her childish, as if a transparent face, large blue children's eyes, light blond curly curls gave her a reflection of the unearthly. She was engaged to Count A.P. Shuvalov, who had just arrived from Paris with her brother Grigory. But the wedding did not take place. The bride was not of this world. She died quietly and unexpectedly, and her death echoed with new despondency in the life of the capital. ”

In the summer of 1824, Sophia's health caused great concern and was watched by life doctors Miller and Reman. Despite the illness of her daughter, Maria Naryshkina was in a hurry with the wedding, but contrary to her wishes, Emperor Alexander I postponed the marriage until the girl recovered. Although from the day of the engagement, he treated Shuvalov as his future son-in-law, but the marriage never took place.

Sophia died on June 18, 1824 at the age of 18. This happened at the Naryshkin’s summer house Ma Folie in Koltovo settlement near Krestovsky transport, on the day when Alexander I was to attend the exercises of guards artillery in Tsarskoye Selo.

When they informed him of Sophia’s death, “the emperor, without saying a word, raised his eyes and was filled with the most burning tears, so that the whole shirt on his chest was moistened with them,” wrote his medical doctor Dr. D, who was present at the same time K. Tarasov ^[10] . Merezhkovsky in the novel "Alexander the First" writes that the emperor sent the empress a note: "Elle est morte. Je reçois le châtiment de tous mes égarements ”(“ She is dead. I am punished for all my sins ”). The writer further describes the day of the emperor: “We thought the maneuvers would be canceled. But a quarter of an hour there was a call from the restroom. (...) The sovereign went to the waiting room, where all the staff generals, division heads, and battalion commanders were waiting to accompany him to the military field. Having entered into a conversation with them, he proposed questions and explained the answers with the usual courtesy. ” Merezhkovsky quotes Dr. Tarasov: “I watched his face carefully, and, to my surprise, I did not see a single feature in him that reveals the internal situation of the torn soul of him: he until then retained the presence of the spirit that besides the three of us who were in the restroom, no one I didn’t notice anything. ”

According to K. Ya. Bulgakov , the death of young Sophia struck everyone, they only talked about this in St. Petersburg and Moscow. On June 20, 1824, he reported to his brother ^[11] :

Only universal regret is heard about poor Naryshkina, who ended her life in the prime of her life ... It was impossible for her to live. In her summer, consumption is terribly soon dead. So it was with her. Although it has not yet been announced, it seems that her marriage with the young Shuvalov, who is very much praised, has been decided. He is said to be in despair. He was bleeding. Today her body is being transported to Sergiev Pustyn, where they will sing and lay it tomorrow. The funeral is simple, no one is called; but many will go.

On the day of Sophia’s funeral, the inconsolable careerist Shuvalov allegedly told one of his friends: “My dear, what value I have lost!” As compensation, “he was sent as a secretary to Tatishchev in Vienna” (Smirnova-Rosset writes). Later, he married the richest widow of Plato Zubov.

Grave

She was buried in the Trinity-Sergius desert in Strelna in the demolished church of the Resurrection of Christ. The drawing has survived: “A plan of the graves of buried persons in the former Jacob Church, nowadays Mikhailo-Archangel, an aisle of the Resurrection Church of the Trinity-Sergius coastal Desert. Compiled with tombstones of existing slabs on July 8, 1886 ”, where its tombstone is indicated ^[12] .

• Pletnev, Peter Alexandrovich , “ On the death of S. D. Naryshkina ”
• M. E. Lobanov , who taught the girl the Russian language, wrote on her death “Elegy for the Death of S. D. Naryshkina,” which was then published in a separate edition (see Son of the Fatherland 1814, part 95, No. 31, p. . 226) ^[13] .
• Dmitry Merezhkovsky in the novel “December 14: (Nicholas I and the Decembrists)” quotes Zhukovsky’s poem “A Voice from the Other World ” regarding her death, which is a translation from Schiller.