Smirnova Alexandra, maid of honor: biography, origin

The beginning of the life of a beauty who conquered all known people, not only with appearance, but with sharp as a blade with her mind, did not foreshadow a bitter death with the confusion of consciousness in senile dementia. Smirnova Alexandra was exposed to youth in the midst of melancholy, alternating lumens, during which she was both seductive and brilliant.

Childhood

Alexandra Smirnova, Osipovna by patronymic, was born in Odessa in 1809, in the family of Osip Ivanovich Rosset, a Frenchman from a noble family by descent. German and Georgian blood was mixed in his mother's veins. Alexandra was the eldest child, later four more brothers were born. The family existed at the salary of his father, the commandant of the Odessa port. But when his daughter was five years old, he died during the plague. Mother, having married again, gave the children to the grandmother's upbringing. The childhood of Alexandra Rosset passed on the estate in Little Russia. These were the bright years that painted her adulthood with beautiful memories and subsequently brought N. Gogol closer in their common love for Ukraine. And she considered herself to be Ukrainian later. When the children grew up, the boys were sent to receive an education in the Corps of Pages, and Sashenka - to the Catherine Institute in St. Petersburg.

Maid of honor

In 1826, the noble lackey of Smirnov Alexander (then Rosset) at the end of the institute was attached to the maid of honor at the court, first with the Empress Mother, and then, in 1828, with Alexandra Feodorovna, the Augustan wife of Emperor Nicholas I.

The palace rooms were in sharp contrast to the life of the maid of honor. They lived in the attic of the Winter Palace, where they walked 80 steps. Each of them relied on a room divided by a gray wooden partition into two parts. The room served as a bedroom and a living room. The maids lived in a smaller room, but next door. On the day of duty the maid of honor was dressed according to her position and waited for her to be summoned. It was always necessary to be ready. In general, it was a high-ranking servant, who was not always paid regularly. In the days free from duty, each maid of honor tried to escape from the Winter Palace in order to find herself in a friendly or family atmosphere.

That's how she lived in the palace of Alexander Smirnov, the maid of honor of the young Empress. But her mind was valued by the crowned ruler of Russia, with whom she did not hesitate to communicate.

Unordinary girl

With her beauty, brave intellect, ability to juggle thoughts with easy grace of the conjurer, she attracted a lot of admirers of Alexander Smirnov. Her photo, natural, no, and the pictures, which depict the portraits of women, show her young, beating beauty on the spot.

Her modest maid of honor on the fourth floor became a literary salon. She also was a member of the famous in the salon EA Karamzina and was friends with her stepdaughter, Sofya Nikolaevna. All celebrities of the 20s-30s fluttered around it: AS Pushkin, VF Odoevsky, PA Vyazemsky, VA Zhukovsky, M. Yu. Lermontov. "Black-eyed Rosset" wrote in the album A. S. Pushkin, with whom she was friendly and could analyze his new work. "South eyes" of the northern maiden, gentle and passionate, was fascinated by P. A. Vyazemsky. For a daring mind, he nicknamed her Donna Sol, and Donna Pepper.

"The Devil of Heaven" was called by her Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. On the words of Vasily Tumansky (diplomat, State Secretary) "I loved blue eyes, now I love black ...", enthusiastic Rosset, written a romance, performed to this day. Pushkin, already married with Natalia Goncharova, often took a family home, Alexandrin, who was only three years older than Natalia Nikolaevna. He went down to the chatting ladies and could read to them new poems. Alexandra Smirnova was still close to Alexandra. Thus, through it, the Tsar handed Pushkin an envelope with his notes to the manuscript of Eugene Onegin.

Marriage

Pushkin was very pleased when he learned of her engagement with Nikolai Mikhailovich Smirnov, whom he met in 1828. He made a great impression on the poet-an educated Russian man and at the same time a foreigner who sat in English even in the saddle.

It was a calm person, somewhat jealous, true, but also wealthy and with a career going up the hill. The wedding took place in the Winter Palace. Members of the imperial family attended it. Alexandra Osipovna married by calculation. Her mother gave all her fortune to the children from the second marriage. Alexandra Osipovna was going to help her survivors, except for official earnings, to help her brothers.

Because of the difference in character and calculation of Smirnov Alexander, her marriage could not make her happy. Her character was unstable, prone to depression. And the husband, in turn, could not boast of the fact that he fully understands such an ambiguous woman. In addition, Herzen and Ogarev repeatedly criticized his bureaucratic tendencies, and also that he patronized the stealing officials. But, one way or another, he gradually moved up the career ladder. The young people settled in Petersburg. The top of the career of Nikolai Pavlovich Smirnov was the post of governor of St. Petersburg, and also that he became a senator of the Russian Empire. But while they were young, their house was visited by AS Pushkin and was the first to read the history of the Pugachev rebellion. They had Mikhail Shchepkin, a young but well-known critic, Vissarion Belinsky, poet and writer Alexei Tolstoy.

Later, M. Yu. Lermontov will enter this house, who will write unforgettable lines into the album, where feelings that the poet could not express in the presence of Alexandra are expressed. Her image was not forgotten by the poet, and he introduced him into the narrative Lugin. There Alexandra Smirnova will perform under the surname Minskaya, where her beauty is appreciated, and the original view of things.

Alexandra Smirnova: Children

The first child was born dead at the end of 1832. Two years later, twins-daughters-Alexander (1834-1837) and Olga (1834-1893) were born. There were rumors that they were the children of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich. But Pushkin did not pay attention to them. Then the daughters Sophia (1836-1884), Nadezhda (1840-1899) and the last son Mikhail (1847-1892) will be born.

Relations with N. V. Gogol

They were introduced by AS Pushkin. Almost all the time Rosset will correspond with Nikolai Vasilyevich, he will live with them at the Begichevo estate near Kaluga and in Spassky near Moscow, working on the second volume of Dead Souls. Repeatedly Alexandra Smirnova will meet with him, living abroad in Rome. Moreover, in 1845 she procured an annual pension for the writer from the emperor, the size of which would be 1000 rubles. Gogol valued her as a pearl among women.

Gentle friendship

Sharp on the tongue, shaking and mocking, Alexandra Smirnova, in Pushkin's words, who could write "the joke of anger of the blackest", in 1844 was carried away by Nikolai Dmitrievich Kiselev, a diplomat by profession and a Don Juan by vocation.

Anna Olenina, who knew Alexander Smirnov well, believed that on her part it was a strong and tender platonic feeling, very unexpected for such an ironic person.

Old age

Unfortunately, the heredity of shiny Rosset was unfavorable. In her younger years, she was prone to depression, to "black melancholy." In 1846, this manifested itself very clearly, and she inclined to religious ritual. Not in faith, but in the external fulfillment of rituals, she acquired a certain calmness. She is losing weight at this time, is losing sleep. These intervals between light and dark periods accompany her all the years of her life. But by 1879, in Paris, the children had already petitioned for the establishment of custody over her, and believed that the deterioration of her condition began three years ago, back in Moscow. Modern psychiatrists, analyzing her condition, talk about the manifestation of vascular senile dementia. Her closest relatives, almost all affected by psychiatric illnesses - Olga's daughter, Sofya, son Mikhail, were no exception. Three of her brothers also suffered from mental disorders.

In 1883, in Paris, after surviving her husband for 13 years and almost all friends, Alexandra Smirnova died. Biography, life and death were unusual, as was the personality itself, which worried many people in its path.