Georges Dantes remained in history, first of all, as the murderer of Alexander Pushkin. After being expelled from Russia, he made a brilliant political and entrepreneurial career and died at the age of 83.

1. Dantes' ancestors were Scandinavians from the island of Gotland, in the 16th century they moved to Germany, and ended up in France in 1720.

2. In 1730, Georges' great-great-grandfather Jean-Henri Antes opened an arms factory in Alsace and 10 years later received a heraldic title.

3. Georges was the third child in the family and the eldest of the Dantes' sons. He received his name according to tradition - until now, the eldest son in this family is called Georges.

4. Dantes is a relative of Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova. Grandmother Georges, Countess Gatzfeld, was the wife of the Russian diplomat Count Musin-Pushkin, a distant relative of Musina-Pushkina, grandmother Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova.

5. In his second year at the military school Saint-Cyr, Georges Dantes won the annual pigeon hunting competition and was honored with admission to the personal pages of the widowed daughter-in-law of King Charles X, Duchess Maria of Berry.

6. Faithful to the Bourbons, Dantes participated in the Vendée uprising and the battles of Shen and Penissieres. Although, this part of his biography is disputed by historians today.

8. Dantes met Baron Gekkeren by accident. On the way to Russia, he caught a cold and was lying with pneumonia in a provincial hotel in Lübeck, when the baron arrived at it. This chance meeting turned out to be fatal for Dantes.

9. Upon arrival in Russia, Dantes became the cornet of the most brilliant Cavalier Guard regiment and one of the personal bodyguards of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

10. For three years of service in the regiment, Dantes received 44 penalties due to indiscipline.

11. Dantes dreamed of rising to the rank of field marshal in Russia.

12. The opinion that Dantes was adopted by Gekkeren because of the commercialism of Georges is difficult to recognize as wealthy - the baron was not rich. In order to ensure social life, Gekkeren brought goods from Europe that were not subject to customs duties.

13. The rumor about the unconventional orientation of Dantes was launched by Pushkin. In his diary, he wrote: “The fact that Dantes indulges in Sodomy sin became known to me first, and I gladly made this news public. I learned about it from the girls from the brothel he used to go to...”.

14. The adoption of Dantes was made in violation of three mandatory rules: Dantes was over 18 years old, he had not lived with Gekkeren under the same roof for six years, Gekkeren was not fifty years old at the time of the adoption.

15. Most likely, “the most beautiful creation of St. Petersburg”, with whom Dantes was passionately in love, is not Natalya Goncharova, but Idylia Poletika, the daughter of Count Stroganov. And Dantes did not mention her name in letters because of the proximity of Count Stroganov to the emperor.

16. Dantes was ready to accept Pushkin's first November challenge immediately, but Baron Gekkeren, realizing what the duel threatened for his career, reduced everything to the marriage of his adopted son with Ekaterina Goncharova.

17. For Dantes, the duel with Pushkin was the first, for Pushkin - the 14th in the general list of duels of the poet and the fourth of those that took place. Pushkin was known as an experienced breter.

18. The second of Dantes was the attaché of the French embassy, ​​Viscount D'Archiac. Immediately after the duel, he was urgently sent by his ambassador from Russia to Paris, allegedly with a dispatch, and in this way he happily avoided arrest and trial.

19. Dantes fired at Pushkin without reaching 1 step to the barrier, that is, from a distance of 11 steps (about 7 meters).

20. The most famous button in history can be considered the notorious “Dantes button”. The fact is that in the reports about the duel of a number of foreign ambassadors, in particular, the German envoy Lieberman and the Saxon envoy Karl Lutzerode, it is stated that the bullet, having shot through his hand, then hit the metal button of the cavalry guard uniform of Dantes.

21. The mortally wounded Pushkin was taken away from the duel on a sleigh, then transferred to a carriage prepared for Dantes.

22. After the duel, Dantes was immediately dismissed from the guard, demoted to the rank and file and expelled from Russia by personal decree of the emperor. It was like running away. In 4 days he traveled 800 miles of the way.

23. Dantes' wife Ekaterina Goncharova bore him three daughters and a son, died in the seventh year of marriage after childbirth in 1843.

24. After the death of his wife, Dantes began a lawsuit with the Goncharovs - demanding his wife's inheritance.

25. The son of Dantes and Goncharova, named Georges by family tradition, became the hero of the Mexican mission, the owner of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

26. Under Napoleon III, Dantes became a senator and mayor of Sulz. He went on secret missions to the courts of Vienna, St. Petersburg and Berlin. May 10, 1852 met in Potsdam with Nicholas I.

27. Dantes was a Chevalier and Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

28. Dantes was one of the founders of the Paris Gas Society and remained its director until his death, thanks to which he amassed a large fortune.

29. Dantes' daughter Leonia-Charlotte independently completed the full course of the Polytechnic Faculty, was fond of mathematics and was a passionate Pushkinist. In her room even hung a large portrait of a Russian poet. She ended her days at the age of 48 in an insane asylum, where she stayed for 20 years. Her father sent her to an insane asylum. She called him a killer for the rest of her life.

30. In 2004, on the NTV channel, Vladimir Solovyov, on the program “To the Barrier”, told the story that the already elderly Dantes was introduced to Alexei Gorky, but he did not shake hands with Dantes, and a duel was scheduled between them. This tale does not withstand any criticism. Dantes died in 1895, at which time Gorky was just beginning to be published in the capital's magazines.

Supporting the republic, d'Antes ... temporarily abandoned the baronial title and presented himself modestly: "wine grower." Then he enjoyed the confidence of a prominent politician Louis Adolphe Thiers, and the latter invited him to act as a second in his two fights, because after the murder of the Russian poet, d'Antes was known in French society as a desperate duelist. The first duel of Thiers - with the minister and editor of the Nacional newspaper Ulysses Trela ​​- almost took place on a memorable date for d'Antes on January 27 - the day of his fatal duel with Pushkin. On another occasion, Thiers fought with the left-wing deputy Bixio. The duel took place in the Bois de Boulogne.<...>

Meanwhile, the colors in the political sky of France were rapidly changing. Thiers soon ceased to be the head of the republican government and in the legislative assembly of 1849-1851 became one of the leaders of the monarchists, and then completely lost the battle for power. Then d'Antes went over to the side of the first president of the republic, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. This time, his political bet turned out to be correct: the coming to power of Napoleon III ensured a brilliant career for the "vine grower" from Sulz, and strengthened his well-being. Becoming a senator at the age of forty (a position for life), he received, according to the law, thirty, and then sixty thousand francs of an annual income.

One of the ladies surrounded by the Empress is the eldest daughter of d'Antes and Catherine - eighteen-year-old Matilda Eugenia. She later married Brigadier General Jean Louis Metman. It was her son - the grandson of d'Antes [Louis-Joseph] - who left memories of his ancestors and informed P. E. Shchegolev when he was working on the book "The Duel and the Death of Pushkin."

We had to listen to a touching story about the strong friendship of d'Anthes with Napoleon III. Over time, the baron became a parliamentarian and was known as a powerful orator. When on February 28, 1861, he spoke in the Senate against the unification of Italy, his speech struck Prosper Merimee, and he talked about what he heard like this: “... Mr. Gekkern, the one who killed Pushkin, ascended the podium. This is a man of athletic build, with a Germanic pronunciation, with a stern, but subtle look, and in general, the subject is extremely cunning. I don't know if he prepared his speech, but he delivered it admirably with that restrained indignation which makes an impression. The meaning of his speech in the part relating to Italy is that France and her emperor were constantly victims of the Piedmontese deceptions. Cavour, Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi - these are three heads under one cap. There is no certainty that Mazzini was not an agent of this triumvirate, in which each had his own duty and his own role. Garibaldi threw out his follies, Victor Emmanuel accepted them for the Italians, and Cavour refuted them before

Most of even the most ardent lovers of history and literature about Georges Dantes know, perhaps, only two things: Dantes was a Frenchman, Dantes mortally wounded Pushkin. But the biography of the unlucky foreigner is not at all limited to these two facts. On the eve of the anniversary of the fatal duel, which took place on February 8, 1837, we tell you what else this Frenchman was "remarkable".

Frenchman Georges Charles Dantes dreamed of a grandiose career in Russia. In order to make a greater impression on the high society, having arrived in snowy Petersburg to serve, Dantes told fables, attributed unimaginable feats of arms to himself, and in general behaved, frankly, not in the best way - he constantly violated the guards charter (for three years of service in the Dantes regiment received 44 penalties due to indiscipline). True, if it were not for the duel with Pushkin, a certain Georges Dantes, perhaps, would have remained an inventor, subjected to constant ridicule, but fate judged otherwise.

The Frenchman was not in love with Pushkin's wife

It is generally accepted that the Frenchman, who served in the Russian guard (and dreamed, by the way, of the rank of field marshal) was passionately in love with the young wife of Alexander Sergeevich, the beautiful Natalie, because of which, in fact, the notorious duel happened, in which Dantes mortally wounded the poet. However, there are no real clues that could confirm these suspicions. Moreover, at the time of the conflict with Pushkin, Georges Dantes had an affair with Natalya's sister, Ekaterina, whom he was hastily married, either to try to save two hotheads from a duel, or for another reason (some historians believe that Ekaterina Goncharova was so close with Dantes that she almost became pregnant, and, they say, a false alarm about this caused a hasty wedding, and at the same time the duel was canceled for the first time).

In addition, judging by historical research, for some time Georges preferred a completely different girl - Idalia Poletika, the daughter of Count Stroganov. True, a love affair, not to mention a legal relationship, was a completely unrealizable dream: Stroganov was friends with the emperor himself, and an affair with Idalia could cost Dantes his career.

There is another point of view why Georges chose absolutely inaccessible objects of love for worship: to hide something that in those times far from tolerance was not customary to talk about in a decent society.

Dantes (possibly) was gay

The real name of our anti-hero is Georges Charles de Gekkern Dantes. The prefix "de Gekkern" Dantes received already being in Russia. The piquant story of an unexpected tender friendship between a young lieutenant and a society lion, Baron Louis von Heckern, became the source of the most frivolous rumors. So, for example, one of Dantes' friends, Prince Trubetskoy, wrote in his memoirs about him: “Dantès was involved in pranks, but completely innocent and typical of young people, except for one, which we, however, learned much later. I don’t know how to say: did he live with Gekkern or Gekkern lived with him ... Apparently, in relations with Gekkern, he played only a passive role.

The fact is that the baron adopted Georges Dantes when he was already an adult (24 years old), having received the consent of his father and the king of Holland. Von Heckern never married and had no children. He became friends with Dantes in the early 1830s, when the young man was just over 20 years old. For what purpose the baron, who was not yet 50 years old, adopted a 24-year-old lieutenant if he had a living father (and also a baron, by the way) - it turned out to be difficult for others to understand. Many researchers explain this fact of adoption as “the desire to be a father, characteristic of all homosexuals.”

Dantes dared to duel with Pushkin only the second time

The connection of Pushkin's wife with the Frenchman remained unproven, and was, most likely, pure fiction of the poet's ill-wishers. In 1836, Pushkin received an anonymous letter with a hint of the presence of branched horns on his head - they say that Natalie is having an affair behind his back, not only with a guardsman of foreign origin, but also with Nicholas I himself. After long trials, "our everything" came to the conclusion that the author of the letter is the adoptive father of Dantes, Baron Gekkeren, which means that there is no doubt about the authenticity of the facts presented in it and it is time to grab a weapon.

After Pushkin, driven by blind jealousy and, most importantly, a thirst for adventure, challenged Georges to a duel, he hastened to accept the challenge, but subsequently took a step back. Baron Gekern managed to convince his son of the disastrous decision for his own career.

Dantes was married to the sister of Natalia Goncharova

As soon as the beloved "son" was under the threat of being at least dismissed from an attractive position, and at most - killed on the Black River, Baron Gekkeren hurried to marry Dantes, and not to anyone, but to Natalie's older sister. Ekaterina Goncharova at that time had already reached the age that even in our time is considered alarming for an unmarried woman - she was 28 years old. The girl did not differ in beauty, and, it seems, she was not delighted with the groom. On the day of the wedding, all the high society of St. Petersburg only talked about the fact that the young almost cried during the wedding. However, this did not prevent the spouses from living in peace and harmony for seven whole years until Catherine's death in childbirth at the age of 34. Georges Dantes had four children from this marriage.

Pushkin did not challenge Dantes to a duel again

As you know, the fatal duel nevertheless took place, however, not in 1836, but in 1837, on February 8 (according to the new calendar). It is generally accepted that Pushkin again became the initiator of the duel, but this is not entirely true. Despite the fact that in the fall of 1836 the duel was avoided, the poet did not let up. And on February 7, he sent an insulting letter to Baron Gekkern (it later appeared in court), in which he spoke derogatoryly of both him and Georges. Alexander Sergeevich walked in his usual sharp manner both on the orientation of both Gekkerns, and on the shameful diseases with which Georges was allegedly infected. As a result, our restless poet achieved his goal: on the same day, Louis von Heckern informed Pushkin that his previous challenge was in force, and Georges was ready to accept it. It was a cunning move that gave Georges an advantage: after all, the one who challenges to a duel shoots second if he survives.

For Dantes, the duel with Pushkin was the first

Dantes, like any other Frenchman, was an extremely prudent and non-conflicting person, which is why the duel with Pushkin became the first for the guardsman, which cannot be said about the genius of Russian literature itself - in just his life, Alexander Sergeevich provoked a scandal fourteen times, ending with a challenge to duel, four of which were carried out. The last duel, as we know, ended tragically for the poet.

Not a button saved Dantes from a mortal wound

The Frenchman's button is rightfully considered almost the most famous in world history, because it was thanks to it, according to the assurances of the romantics, that Dantes remained alive - supposedly, a bullet aimed at the heart, having pierced through his hand, hit the metal button on the duelist's uniform. True, such a theory, according to historians, does not withstand any criticism. First, no one has ever seen the button itself. She was not represented at the trial after the duel. Secondly, according to eyewitnesses, the shot knocked Dantes down, which means that the force of the blow was such that no button would have saved the young man from injury. Much more plausible is the version that the guardsman, fearing a bad outcome of events, put on under his overcoat one of the bulletproof devices that were already in use at that time. It is even alleged that this idea was given to Georges by his adoptive father, Baron Gekkern.

After the Duel, Dantes was expelled from Russia

After the ill-fated duel, Dantes' departure to France was only one in a series of numerous events that the duel entailed. D'Arshiac, Dantes' second, was demoted to the ranks, stripped of all awards and expelled from the country. Pushkin's second was pardoned - partly at the dying request of the poet himself. The debts of the Pushkin family were forgiven by the loss of a breadwinner. The government also urged Dantes to immediately leave Russia, which he hurried to do, although this departure was much more like a stampede: in four days, the duelist covered more than 800 miles (about a thousand kilometers), which by the standards of those years seemed an almost impossible task. His young wife followed her husband.

In France, Dantes became a senator and mayor of Sulz

After returning to his homeland, Dantes did not sit idly by - his career rapidly went uphill. In 1843 Dantes was elected a member of the General Council of the Haut-Rhin department. And later he became the chairman of the General Council and the mayor of Sulz. At the same time, he traveled a lot on state affairs outside of France, including carrying out secret missions of the future monarch Louis Napoleon. For the same reason, fate brought Dantes together with Nicholas I. The Russian Emperor agreed to accept Pushkin's murderer only as a private person and with a long reservation, embodied in the historical dispatch of 1852, in which Nicholas I warned that he "... cannot accept him in as a representative of a foreign power as a result of the decision of the military court, according to which he was removed from the imperial service. If he would like to appear as a former officer of the guard, convicted and pardoned, then his majesty would be ready to listen to what he would like to tell him on behalf of the head of the French Republic.

Already in extreme old age, the former guardsman admitted: if it were not for the fatal duel with Pushkin, he would certainly have settled in Russia, and his life would have been much less bright and successful.

Dantes' daughter was an ardent Pushkinist

Dantes' daughter Leoni-Charlotte was passionately passionate about the work of Alexander Sergeevich. Those close to the Dantes house in France even assured that a large portrait of the poet hung in the girl’s room. Charlotte's life ended at the age of 48 in an institution for the insane, where her own father passed her at the age of 18. Until the end of her days, Leonie-Charlotte called her father a murderer (hinting that the duel between him and Pushkin was not held according to the laws of honor).

There were a lot of rumors about the prudent and cold mind of the Frenchman - back in 1843, after the death of his wife, Ekaterina Goncharova, Dantes sued his wife's father until he was blue in the face, trying to take away at least half of his property from him, besides, he got a considerable inheritance from the deceased father - Baron Gekkeren. Dantes himself, having said goodbye to all his relatives, lived to a ripe old age and died in prosperity and warmth at the age of 84.

The name Georges is inherited in the Dantes family

It was no coincidence that Dantes was named Georges - according to family tradition, this name was always assigned to the eldest son in the family. Moreover, the tradition is still preserved, even despite the fact that today the name Georges in France is considered extremely unfashionable.

Revisiting the versions of Pushkin's death, I got the impression that they all create an interconnected picture. Intrigues intertwined, creating a series of fatal circumstances. As Pushkin's friend, Prince Vyazemsky, said - “Pushkin and his wife fell into a terrible trap, they were killed ...”.

Graffiti in Kharkov

“The unfortunate death of Pushkin, surrounded by a sad and mysterious situation, gave rise to many rumors in St. Petersburg society; it has become something of an international issue. In general, they regretted the sacrifice; but there were also those who resorted to circumstances mitigating the guilt of the culprit of this death, and if they did not completely justify him (or, more correctly, them), then they were intercessors for them. It is known that a diplomatic person was also involved. The mystery of the nameless letters, this prologue to the tragic catastrophe, has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. There are suspicions, almost irrefutable, but there is no positive legal evidence.- Vyazemsky argued.

I'll try to tell you in order. While the first part of the story. A version of secular intrigues, shamelessness, meanness and other outrages.

The connection between Baron Heeckeren and Dantes

A lot was said in the world about the very close relationship between the respectable Baron Heckeren and the young officer Dantes. The baron even adopted his close friend, making him the heir to his considerable fortune. No one believed in such sudden disinterestedness. In the vicious high society, such a relationship was not pursued and "they did not refuse from the house," but increased interest, giggles, gossip, obsession. Dantes in the world was immediately nicknamed "Heckeren's wife."

Georges Dantes

“The old Baron Heckern was known for debauchery. He surrounded himself with young people of arrogant debauchery and hunters of love gossip and all sorts of intrigues in this area.- said Prince Vyazemsky.

Prince Trubetskoy wrote directly about the Heckeren-Dantes couple “... behind him [Dantes] there were pranks, but completely innocent and typical of young people, except for one, which, however, we learned about much later. I don’t know how to say: did he live with Gekkern, or Gekkern lived with him ... ... Apparently, ... in relations with Gekkern, he played only a passive role.

Baron Geckeren

The texts of A. Karamzin also say without hints: "Heckeren, being an intelligent man and the most refined debauchee that has ever been under the sun, without difficulty completely mastered the body and soul of Dantes."

Pushkin, in personal correspondence, discussed the topic of the relationship between Dantes and his "guardian", saying that they "indulge in sodomy", and then Dantes, after these labors, rests in brothels.

From the touching letters of Heckeren to Dantes: “... what a deed you left me as a legacy! And all the lack of trust on your part. I will not hide from you, my dear, I was upset to the depths of my soul, I did not think that I deserved such an attitude from you.

To get rid of the obsessive attention of secular gossips, Heckeren advised Dantes to take care of Natalie Pushkina, the first beauty. Such an act was supposed to distract society from the relationship between Heckeren and Dantes. For poignancy, Heckeren even spoke to Natalie about his "son's" feelings for her.

At first, Dantes and Heckeren did not think about the murder of Pushkin. Dantes did not want to risk his life in a duel, but soon the poet's enemies took advantage of the situation, fueling the situation with gossip.

“The dry and almost contemptuous treatment of Pushkin lately with Baron Heckeren, whom Pushkin did not like and respect, could not but embitter such a person as Heckeren was against him. He became an inveterate enemy of Pushkin and, hiding this, began to harm the poet secretly. Being completely convinced of the impossibility of reconciling Pushkin with Dantes, which he hardly even wanted, but referring the former’s indignation solely to excessive pride and jealousy, the vengeful Dutchman nevertheless continued to show that he was busy about this reconciliation, hated by Pushkin, understanding very well that this gives him a reason to torment and insult his enemy with impunity and incessantly"- said Pushkin's friend - Danzas.

Insulting behind his back, Heckeren publicly showed Dantes' intentions to reconcile with Pushkin, but the poet did not even open the enemy's letters. Once Pushkin tried to give Heeckeren a letter of truce received from Dantes. Heckeren refused, then the poet defiantly threw this letter in his face. Such a public escapade was beyond etiquette. “Pushkin fought in broad daylight and, so to speak, almost in front of everyone!” Danzas recalled.

The chronicler of the late early 20th century Shchegolev directly accuses Gekkeren and his clan of the murder of Pushkin “They [Pushkin's enemies] join the sexually pathological collective grouped around Heckeren. Welded together by common erotic tastes, common erotic amusements, bound by the "tender ties" of mutual male love, young people - all of a high aristocratic brand - easily and carelessly made a malicious intent on Pushkin's life.

Anonymous libel - a cruel joke

In November 1836, Pushkin and his friends received an anonymous libel in which the poet was called a "cuckold". Pushkin logically suggested that the intrigues of Baron Gekkeren were to blame for everything, and it was they who were insulted. The poet sent a challenge to a duel to Dantes, although, as Pushkin's comrades noted, if Heckeren wrote the libel, he should shoot himself in a duel.

Heckeren, frightened by this turn of events, succeeded in delaying the duel for two weeks.

According to the story of Konstantin Danzas, Pushkin's second: “The author of these notes, due to the similarity of handwriting, Pushkin suspected Baron Heckeren, his father, and even wrote about this to Count Benckendorff. After Pushkin's death, many suspected Prince Gagarin of this; now this suspicion remained with Prince Peter Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, who then lived with him.
One must think that the refusal of Dantes from the house did not stop the vile intrigue. Offensive rumors and notes continued to annoy Pushkin and forced him to finally do away with the one who was the visible reason for all this. He sent a challenge to Dantes through an officer of the general staff, Klementy Osipovich Rosset. Dantes, having accepted Pushkin's challenge, asked for a two-week delay.

Secular salon of the era

Today, the examination has established that the libel was not written by Heckeren. The text was not written by a foreigner, and local intriguers are to blame.

Lampoon text:
“Chevaliers of the first degree, commanders and cavaliers of the Most Serene Order of the Cuckolds, having gathered in the Great Chapter under the chairmanship of the Honorable Grand Master of the Order, His Excellency D.L. Naryshkin, unanimously elected Mr. Alexander Pushkin as Coadjutor of the Grand Master of the Order of the Cuckolds and historiographer of the Order. Permanent Secretary Count I. Borch "

Betrayal of the Goncharovs

There is a widespread version that on the eve of the duel, the Goncharov family was on the side of Dantes. Many contemporaries confirm this. Natalie's older sister, Ekaterina, drew attention to the handsome officer Dantes, the heir to the Heckeren fortune. The Goncharov family supported the young lady's idea of ​​getting such a husband. They decided to take advantage of the situation.

Through the efforts of Pushkin's friends, the scandal caused by the libel was hushed up. Emperor Nicholas I himself intervened in the matter, who ordered Dantes to marry Ekaterina Goncharova, Natalie's sister. "... And Dantes was ordered to marry the older sister of Natalia Pushkina, a rather ordinary person"- recalled the daughter of the emperor Olga.

Ekaterina Goncharova, Natalie's sister

As Prince Vyazemsky wrote, in order to attract the attention of Dantes, Catherine at first helped him see his sister - “In love with Gekern, the tall, tall older sister Ekaterina Nikolaevna Goncharova purposely arranged for Natalya Nikolaevna to meet with Gekern just to see the object of her secret passion. Outfits and trips absorbed all the time ... "

The jealous old baron grumbled that Dantes had “enslaved himself for life” with this marriage, but did not dare to object to the will of the sovereign. More angry, Heckeren continued to spread unpleasant rumors about Pushkin.

“With his sister-in-law during all this time, Pushkin was sweet and amiable as before, and even merrily made fun of her on the occasion of her wedding with Dantes” Danzas said.
“Ma belle-soeur ne sait pas maintenant de quelle nation elle sera: Russe, Française ou Hollandaise?!
(My sister-in-law does not now know what nationality she will be: Russian, French or Dutch?) ”- the poet spoke.

Goncharov sisters - Natalie, Ekaterina and Alexandra

The truce was short-lived. Pushkin refused to visit his newly-appeared relatives, and he did not wait for them in his house either. “Dantes came to Pushkin on a wedding visit; but Pushkin did not accept him. Following this visit, which Dantes made to Pushkin, probably on the advice of Heckeren, Pushkin received a second letter from Dantes. This letter Pushkin, without opening, put in his pocket and went to the then maid of honor, Mrs. Zagryazhskaya, with whom he was related. Pushkin wanted to return the letter to Dantes through her; but, having met Baron Heckeren with her, he went up to him and, taking a letter out of his pocket, asked the baron to return it to the one who wrote it, adding that not only did he not want to read Dantes' letters, but even his name he did not want to hear " Danzas recalled.

As already mentioned, Pushkin did not even open the letters sent to him by a newly-minted relative.
“Pushkin received two 4 such letters, one even before dinner, which was with Count Stroganov, for which he answered at this dinner to Baron Heckeren in words what we have already said above, that is, that he does not want to renew any relations with Dantes.”

In intrigues, Catherine immediately took the side of Dantes; on the day of the duel, she did not even warn Natalie, who could stop her husband. After the death of Pushkin, saying goodbye to her sister, Catherine dared to say that she forgives everything to her and Pushkin. In response, Aunt Zagryazhskaya sharply expressed her opinion to her niece about such a “forgiveness”, these words made Catherine burst into tears.

Alexander Karamzin writes about the unpleasant role of Ekaterina Goncharova, also arguing that Dantes, noticing Catherine's interest in his person, made her a spy in the Pushkin house long before the wedding: “... she, who for so long played the role of a procuress (fr. entremetteuse), became, in turn, a lover, and then a wife. Of course, she benefited from this, because she is the only one who triumphs to this day, and has become so stupid with happiness that, having ruined the reputation, and perhaps the soul of her sister, Madam Pushkin, and causing the death of her husband, she on the day of departure, the last one sent to tell her that she was ready to forget the past and forgive her everything !!!

“One of the sisters of Mrs. Pushkina, unfortunately, fell in love with him [Dantes], and, perhaps, carried away by her love, she forgot about everything that could happen because of this for her sister; this young lady increased the chances of meeting Dantes; finally, we all saw how this disastrous thunderstorm grew and intensified!- wrote society gossip Dolly Ficquelmont.

Wealth and family life did not bring Catherine happiness. Gekkeren turned out to be tight-fisted for the maintenance of the Dantes family, and she had to ask for money from the Goncharov brothers. Relations with Natalie remained cool for obvious reasons. Catherine lived with Dantes for five years, she died of postpartum illness. They had four children - three daughters and a son.

Georges Dantes-Heeckeren, mayor of Sulza.

Dantes made a successful political career in France, his success was overshadowed by the madness of his daughter, who became a passionate admirer of Pushkin and hated her father. “Her room was turned into a chapel. A large portrait of Pushkin hung in front of the lectern, and there were other portraits of him on the walls. Dantes' daughter prayed in front of a portrait of her uncle, with whom she was in love. She did not speak to her father after one family scene, when she called him the killer of Pushkin.

Frivolity Natalie?

All Pushkin's friends said that Natalie "was innocent", although they reproached her that she did not stop Dantes' signs of attention and listened to his obscene compliments.

Secular manners backfired. Princess Vyazemskaya retold the story that Natalie told her, how one day at a party “... when she stayed face to face with Dantes, he took out a pistol and threatened to shoot himself if she did not give herself to him. Pushkin did not know what to do with his insistence; she wringed her hands and began to speak as loudly as possible. Fortunately, the unsuspecting daughter of the mistress of the house appeared in the room, the guest rushed to her.

Natalie did not believe that the duel would happen. She assumed that the quick-tempered spouse would soon calm down and forget.
According to the records of the chronicler Bartenev, who wrote down the testimonies of the princes Vyazemsky - “Pushkin did not hide from his wife that he would fight. He asked her for whom she would cry. “According to that,” answered Natalya Nikolaevna, “who will be killed.” Such an answer infuriated him: he demanded passion from her, and she did not think to hide the fact that she was pleased to see how a handsome and lively Frenchman was in love with her. “I am ready to give my head to be cut off,” says Princess Vyazemskaya, “that everything was limited to that and that Pushkin was innocent.”

High society intrigues

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, secular society was divided into two hostile camps. Some were on the side of Pushkin, others on the side of Heckeren and Dantes.

As Danzas recalled:
“After this story, Gekeren resolutely took up arms against Pushkin and two parties were formed in St. Petersburg society: one for Pushkin, the other for Dantes and Gekeren. These parties, acting hostilely against each other, equally pursued the poet, giving him no peace ...

... The struggle of these parties consisted in the fact that while Pushkin's friends and the whole society that was on his side tried in every possible way to refute and reject from him all the insulting rumors spread by the poet's enemies, to divert him from meetings with Heckeren and Dantes, the opposite side, on the contrary, it intensified to bring them together, for which they purposely arranged balls and evenings, where Pushkin's wife, suddenly and unexpectedly, met Dantes.

In this story, former friends went over to the side of enemies. One of the brightest examples was Idalia Poletika, Natalie's cousin.

“... she was known in society as a very intelligent woman, but with a very evil tongue, in contrast to her husband, who was called “ladybug”. She personified the type of a charming woman not so much with her pretty face, as with her brilliant mind, cheerfulness and liveliness of character, which brought her constant, undoubted success everywhere.

At first, Idalia developed friendly relations with Pushkin.
“... Tell Poletika that I’ll come personally for her kiss, but they don’t accept anything at the post office” he said jokingly to a friend.

Suddenly, the secular beauty changed her attitude towards the poet, taking the side of the intriguers. It was said that she took part in the compilation of an anonymous libel. The reasons for this change are unknown.

Idalia Poletika - friend turned enemy

It was said that when, years after the duel, not far from Idalia’s house in Odessa, they decided to erect a monument to Pushkin, she was indignant and said that it “deeply offends her and she intends to go and spit on the one who was the“ monster ”.

Poletika's intrigues played their part, one day “... Madame Poletika, at the insistence of Dantes-Gekkern, invited Pushkin to her place, and she left home ...”- recalled Princess Vyazemskaya.

This "date" was the last straw of Pushkin's patience, the duel was inevitable. "The poet is a slave of honor" decided to put an end to this protracted performance.

Natalie in mourning dress

“Knowing how unpleasant all these circumstances were for her husband, Natalya Nikolaevna suggested that he leave with her for a while somewhere from Petersburg; but Pushkin, having lost all patience, decided to end it differently. He wrote a well-known letter to Baron Heckeren in very strong terms, which was the final reason for the fatal duel of our poet.- According to Danzas.

The text of Pushkin's letter to Baron Gekkeren, sent before the duel

Baron!
Let me summarize what happened recently. Your son's behavior was known to me for a long time and could not be indifferent to me. I contented myself with the role of observer, ready to intervene when I thought it was time. An incident, which at any other time would have been extremely unpleasant for me, very opportunely got me out of my embarrassment: I received anonymous letters. I saw that the time had come and I took advantage of it. You know the rest: I forced your son to play such a miserable role that my wife, surprised at such cowardice and vulgarity, could not help laughing, and the feeling that this great and sublime passion perhaps aroused in her died out in contempt. the most calm and well-deserved disgust.

I am forced to admit, Baron, that your own role was not entirely proper. You, the representative of the crowned lady, you paternally pandered to your son. Apparently, all his behavior (however, rather awkward) was directed by you. It was you who probably dictated to him the vulgarities that he let loose and the stupidities that he dared to write. Like a shameless old woman, you lay in wait for my wife in all corners to tell her about the love of your illegitimate or so-called son; and when, ill with syphilis, he had to stay at home, you said that he was dying of love for her; you muttered to her: Give me back my son.

You well understand, Baron, that after all this I cannot bear my family to have any intercourse with yours. Only on this condition did I agree not to give way to this dirty deed and not to dishonor you in the eyes of our courts and yours, for which I had both the opportunity and the intention. I do not want my wife to listen to your fatherly admonitions in the future. I cannot allow your son, after his vile behavior, to dare to talk to my wife, and even less so - that he makes barracks puns to her and plays devotion and unrequited love, when he is just a coward and a scoundrel. So, I am compelled to turn to you to ask you to put an end to all these intrigues if you want to avoid a new scandal, which, of course, I will not stop at.

I have the honor to be, Baron, your humble and humble servant.
January 26, 1837 Alexander Pushkin

On the death of the poet, Mikhail Lermontov wrote his famous lines against high society "The poet died, a slave of honor, fell slandered by rumors ..." Four years later, Lermontov repeated the fate of Pushkin ...

As Prince Vyazemsky noted: “At one time, with an extract from Zhukovsky’s letter, the news of Lermontov’s death reached me. What an opposite in these fates. There is, however, some imprint of Providence. Compare the elements from which the life and poetry of the one and the other were formed, and then their end will seem like a natural consequence and conclusion. Karamzin and Zhukovsky: the life of the former was reflected in the latter, just as Pushkin was reflected in Lermontov. This may give rise to many thoughts. I say that our poetry is shot more successfully than Ludwig Philipp: the second time they do not miss.

Further in the continuation of the version about the place of the Masonic Order and the intrigues of Benckendorff's special services.
Perhaps society gossips and shameless people are just pawns in another game.

Georges Charles Dantes (more precisely, d'Antes), after adoption, bore the surname Gekkern (fr. Georges Charles de Heeckeren d "Anthès, in Russian documents - Georg Carl de Gekkeren; February 5, 1812, Colmar, Upper Rhine, France - November 2, 1895 , Sulz-Oberalsas, Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire) - French monarchist, cavalry guard officer, Catholic by religion. In the 1830s he lived in Russia. Subsequently, he went into politics, was a senator of France. Known primarily as a man who mortally wounded on duel by A. S. Pushkin.

Georges Dantes is a relative of both Pushkin and his wife. His great-aunt, Countess Elizaveta Feodorovna (née Charlotte-Amalia-Isabella Wartensleben) is the wife of the Russian diplomat A. S. Musin-Pushkin, a relative of the sixth cousin of N. P. Musina-Pushkina, grandmother of N. N. Pushkina

Georges Charles Dantes. Fragment of a lithograph
from a portrait by an unknown artist.
Around 1830

In 1835, in the Anichkov Palace, Dantes met Pushkin's wife, Natalia Nikolaevna. On November 4 (16), 1836, the city post delivered to Pushkin and several of his friends an anonymous libel, which awarded Pushkin a "cuckold diploma"; the diploma contained an indirect allusion to the attention to N. N. Pushkina not only of Dantes, but also of the tsar. Alexander Sergeevich considered the letter to be coming from Gekkern the father (it is still unknown whether he was right; in any case, it has been proven that the surviving copies were not written by Gekkern or Dantes) and immediately sent Dantes an unmotivated challenge to a duel. Gekkern, who received a call (Dantes was on duty in the barracks), asked for a delay for a day, and then for two weeks, to which Pushkin agreed. N. N. Pushkina, having learned about the call, contacted Zhukovsky, and he, together with her aunt, began negotiations with Pushkin and the Gekkerns. Zhukovsky tried to convince the poet to refuse the duel, to which he did not agree. However, a week after the call, Georges Dantes proposed to Ekaterina Goncharova, the sister of Natalya Nikolaevna and, accordingly, Pushkin's sister-in-law. Since Dantes became Catherine's fiancé, Pushkin was forced to withdraw his challenge. On January 10, 1837, Ekaterina Goncharova became the wife of Gekkern-Dantes. Subsequently, she bore him four children and died after childbirth, in 1843, in the seventh year of her marriage.

Ekaterina Goncharova.
Portrait by an unknown artist.
1830s

However, the conflict between Pushkin and the Gekkerns was not exhausted, and soon after the marriage of Dantes to Catherine, rumors and jokes (“barracks puns”) began to spread in the light of Pushkin and his family. On January 26 (February 7), 1837, Pushkin sent a letter to the elder Gekkern (basically composed during the first conflict in November), where, extremely sharply describing both his father and his adopted son, he refused them from home. In the letter, Pushkin, among other things, claimed that the young Gekkern was "malade de vérole" ("sick with syphilis"), which was translated in the military duel case as "venereal disease."

On the same day, Gekkern announced to Pushkin that his challenge was in force, and Dantes was ready to accept it. On January 27 (February 8), a duel took place near Petersburg, in which Pushkin was mortally wounded in the stomach (he died on January 29). With a return shot, Pushkin easily wounded Dantes in the right hand.

In 1848, Dantes began a lawsuit against the Goncharovs (and to the detriment of the interests of the Pushkin family) to recover from them the inheritance of their late wife. Several times in this case, he addressed letters to Nicholas I. In 1851, the emperor handed over one of Dantes' petitions to A. Kh. Benkendorf in order to "persuade the Goncharov brothers to a peaceful agreement with him [Dantes]." In 1858, A. S. Pushkin's child custody decided to reject the claim.

August 12, 1863 Dantes received the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor, August 14, 1868 was promoted to commander. The revolution of September 14, 1870, which abolished the Second Empire, forced him to return to private life.

Georges Charles de Gekkern Dantes - Mayor of Sulz.
Around 1855

According to the story of Dantes' grandson - Louis Metman:

“Grandfather was quite pleased with his fate and subsequently said more than once that he owed his brilliant political career only to his forced departure from Russia due to a duel, that, if it weren’t for this unfortunate duel, the unenviable future of the regiment commander was waiting for him somewhere in the Russian province with a large family and insufficient means.

On November 2, 1895, Dantes died at the Sulz family estate, surrounded by children and grandchildren. He was buried in Sulz next to Baron Gekkern.