Idalia Poletika and its role in the duel Pushkin and Dantes

• Idalia Poletika and its role in the duel Pushkin and Dantes

The names of the major players in the drama that unfolded in 1836-1837 gg. and led to the death of the poet in a duel, all long been well known. However, the biography of Alexander Pushkin are still arguing about who was really responsible for what happened. Some believe Natalia Goncharova - does not the femme fatale, which caused serious passions. And the name of this femme fatale - Idalia Poletika.

B. Gau. Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, nee Goncharova, 1843. Detail

All publications on this duel, the name Idalia Poletika mentioned in those involved in the tragic outcome of a love triangle Pushkin - Goncharova - Dantes. It is known that she was a close friend and distant cousin Natalie, and what she gave Dantes a date with his girlfriend at his home. She wrote that she did it in retaliation for what Pushkin supposedly did not reciprocate her feelings for him and even laughed at her.

On the left - V. Tropinin. Portrait of Alexander Pushkin, 1827. Right - Repin. Portrait of Alexander Pushkin. Copy of Tropinin 1913

Idalia Poletika called second beauty of St. Petersburg - the championship is still usually given to Natalia Goncharova. Idalia was smart, sharp-tongued and cunning, her stretched trail of scandals, intrigue and gossip. It said that her account was not a duel, arranged so that the very culprit in this case remained in the shadows. Because of this, she even got the nickname "Madame intrigue." Her husband was Alexander Poletika - Colonel, which for the meek like to call "ladybug". Idalia got married not for love, and her novels known to all. One of its elected was Peter Lansky - the same one that in the future will be the second husband of Natalia Goncharova.

Georges d'Anthes

At first, their relationship with the poet were friendly, but then suddenly Idalia began to show in public its open hostility to him, calling him a "sonneteer" The reasons for this hatred say different. For example, there is a version that her anger was caused by the fact that once Pushkin, who was riding in a carriage with her and his wife, Idalia jokingly grabbed his knee. However, it might be a cause for irritation, but not hatred.

AP Bryullov. Portrait of NN Pushkina, 1831-1832. Fragment

Whatever it was, she did arrange a meeting with the poet's wife Dantes. Idalia friend of invited to her house, and she went under some pretext. In the living room Goncharov met Dantes, then proceed to the ardent explanation. He threatened to shoot himself before her eyes if she did not respond to him in return. Natalie saved by the fact that at this point in the living room ran daughter Idalia, and behind her came the governess, and the poet's wife, taking advantage of the moment, hastily left the house Poletika. That same evening, Natalie told about this meeting my husband. According to some researchers, Idalia personally participated in the drafting of slanderous anonymous letter of acceptance of the Order of cuckolds in Pushkin, was the reason for the duel. A further outcome of events is known to all. After the death of the poet Poletika redirected his anger on his wife, especially after 7 years later, her former lover married Natalia Goncharova, taking care of her and her "brood" as contemptuously called her Idalia children.

B. Gau. Left - NN Pushkin Lanskaya. Watercolor, 1849. Right - P. Lansky 1847

However, there is another version of what happened. At the beginning of 1836 Dantes carefully concealed the name of his lady, protecting her reputation. In a letter to his adoptive father, Baron Heeckeren, he confessed: "I'm in love like a madman ... name it you do not call, because the letter can not reach, but call to mind the most beautiful creature in St. Petersburg, and you'll know immediately who it . And the most awful thing in my position, that she too loves me, seeing as we still can not be, because her husband is jealous ugly ... ". Some researchers have suggested that in fact in this letter it is not about the poet's wife, and about ... Idalia Poletika.

B. Gau Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Lansky, 1844. Detail

Supporters of this version are: first novel about the secret Dantes Poletika and nobody knew about it but later began to suspect. So, Smirnova-Rosset wrote: "Dantes has never been in love with Natalie; he found her stupid and dull; he was in love Idalia, and they met Natalie ... ". That is, Goncharova was only a cover for the true enthusiasm of Dantes. And after the poet's death, he was demoted and expelled from the country, and this was the real reason to hate Poletika Goncharova. Sister Natalie Catherine, who became the wife of Dantes, perplexed wrote to him: "Idalia came yesterday for a moment with her husband, she was in despair, do not just with you ... She could not be consoled and cried like crazy." The cause of these tears should be well understood by him. She kept a bracelet given to her before departure Dantes, until the end of days.

O. Kiprensky. Portrait Pushkin 1827. Fragment

Later Poletika seen with Dantes several times in France. The last years she spent alone, and survived her husband and children. And the mystery of Pushkin's death is still unsolved until the end.