Suvorova, Varvara Ivanovna

The daughter of a retired general-general , Prince I. A. Prozorovsky (1712-1786) from marriage to Princess Maria Mikhailovna Golitsyna (1717-1780).

Marriage

On December 18, 1773, she was engaged to Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (1730-1800), four days later they were engaged to engagement, and on January 16, 1774, a wedding in Moscow.

This marriage was not particularly close to her heart, primarily because the Przorowski princes, despite some seediness in the local and in general property relation, belonged to the highest circles of Moscow nobility and had extensive and strong ties in it, while the Suvorovs were artful ; besides, the groom himself could not be considered especially enviable; it is true that by this time Suvorov already had considerable military merits behind him and was in the rank of brigadier and St. George cavalier.

For several years, the couple lived in harmony. Varvara Ivanovna accompanied her husband in the movements of his military service, was with him in Taganrog, Astrakhan, Poltava and Crimea. In 1775, the daughter of Natalia was born to the Suvorovs, but the next two pregnancies of Varvara Ivanovna because of the camp life ended in misfortune.

In the second half of 1777, a dispute began between the spouses. There was very little in common between them. Spoiled from childhood and accustomed to luxury, Varvara Ivanovna loved society, balls and was prone to waste. Alexander Vasilyevich was completely absorbed in military affairs, distinguished by frugality and did not have a penchant for social life. Under such conditions and with the temper and intolerance of each spouse, it was difficult for them to get along, especially since Varvara Ivanovna was not alien to her hobbies; “When absent-mindedly, she used depraved and seductive manners, indecent honor of her,” Suvorov wrote about her with his sharp bluntness.

At the end of 1779, Suvorov, who was constantly absent, opened a divorce case, accusing his wife of violating marital fidelity. But thanks to the intervention of a noble relative, the matter was hushed up. In 1780, Varvara Ivanovna accompanied her husband to a new duty station in Astrakhan, where a peculiar ceremony of their church reconciliation took place, a kind of public repentance, the husband and wife shed tears, the priest recited a prayer for them and then served the liturgy. However, this reconciliation was short-lived. In May 1784, a few months before the birth of his son Arkady , a new gap occurred between the spouses, which separated them forever. Despite all the attempts of Suvorov, who even resorted to the mediation of Potemkin before Catherine II , the matter did not reach a formal divorce. Varvara Ivanovna received from her husband “separate residence” and 1200 rubles. annual content. Their 9-year-old daughter was placed by her father in the Smolny Monastery , and the newborn son remained with his mother.

Having separated from her husband, Varvara Ivanovna settled in Moscow. At first she lived in her father’s house, and after his death she moved to her brother, Major General Prince Ivan Ivanovich Prozorovsky . In her brother’s Moscow house on Bolshaya Polyanka (in the place of the current house No. 1/3), Varvara Ivanovna spent several years away from the light and from the yard, living with difficulty living on her meager pension appointed by her husband. In 1796, she was forced to part with her son Arkady, who was appointed chamber junker to Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich . Her daughter, already married to Count N. A. Zubov , did not communicate with her mother under the influence of her father.

All this time, Varvara Ivanovna tried in vain to propitiate her husband several times, but Suvorov remained deaf to her letters. Only under Paul I , taking advantage of his disagreement with Suvorov, she was able to achieve personal support of the emperor. According to his special resolution, the field marshal was forced to give his wife his hereditary Moscow house, on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 44 , and to increase the amount issued to her annually to 8,000 rubles.

Widowhood

Widowed in May 1800, Princess Suvorova welcomed with special congratulations the accession to the throne of Alexander I. Expressing to her his "appreciation" for the merits of her husband, the emperor on the day of the coronation granted Varvara Ivanovna state-ladies and granted her the Order of St. Catherine of the first class. But not for long she had to use the honor and attention that she was deprived of during her husband’s life. The princess died in May 1806 and was buried in the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery .

According to the historian of Russian antiquity F. F. Vigel , there was “a beauty in the Russian taste, blush and full, but a low mind and an old education.”

Daughter - Natalya Alexandrovna (1775-1844), married to Count N. A. Zubov (six children).

Son - Arkady Alexandrovich (1784-1811), a lieutenant general commander of an infantry division, drowned in the river Rymnik.

• Correspondence on giving home and granting a pension to Countess Suvorova-Rymnikskaya (1797-1798) // Notes and Works of the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities. - 1862, Prince 4, p. 204-206.
• Dolgorukov P. Russian genealogy book. - Part II. - SPb., 1863, p. 65.
• Notes of Vigel // Russian Herald. - 1864, No. 1, p. 298.
• Russian Archive. - 1866, No. 7, p. 931, 962-964, 966, 967.
• Russian old man. - 1876, t. XV, p. 450–451.
• Rummel V.V., Golubtsov V.V. Pedigree collection of Russian noble families. - T. II. - SPb., 1887, p. 441.
• Shubinsky S. Wife of Suvorov // Historical Bulletin. - 1897, t. 68, p. 7-82.
• Petrushevsky A. Generalissimo Prince Suvorov. - SPb., 1900.