Аннотация: Alexander Benckendorff, Dumas, Pushkin, de Custine. A historical essay.
Alexander von Benckendorff, Dumas, Pushkin, de Custine. A historical essay.
A good book was written by Dmitry Oleinikov (D. Oleinikov "Benckendorff").
Alexander Benckendorff is a traveler, a person prone to a literary occupation. He is a civilized, a broad-minded person. Benckendorff's courage and bravery, which he showed on the battlefields, during the defense of Russia, and in other circumstances, arouse a sympathy in relation to him.
But one topic - is aside. It stands alone. This theme is "Benckendorff and Pushkin".
You read the chapter about Pushkin and at some point, in the midst of sad thoughts, you start laughing. Dmitry Oleinikov (in all seriousness?) quotes Alexander Pushkin: "Pushkin, under the impression of the Count's active help, even told [own] friends that "I would like to receive a salary from Benckendorff."
We will not touch such a sensitive issue as (hypothetical) kinship ties between the tsar's family and Alexander Benckendorff, which were (if only they existed in reality) a consequence of inviting of brides from Germany for persons from the reigning house of the Romanovs ... Pushkin liked to emphasize his origin from the ancient Russian nobility ...
Let's see from another point of view.
Nikolai's regime and literature, and public opinion.
Here you can start not with Pushkin, but with Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre Dumas was very popular in France and in Europe. The man is a life-lover, he was not against in 1839 (this was after the death of Pushkin) to receive the order (the award) from Nicholas I. The Nikolai's regime reflected for a long time, having learned about Dumas's request to receive the order. After reflection, they sent a ring from the emperor. A ring got lost (even before it was handed over to Dumas). Dumas decided to get at least a ring (if they're not inclined to award him with the order). Dumas insisted. They sent a second ring (to replace the lost one). But Dumas is a mentally mobile person. He, without a special funding, due to his inner inclination, wrote in 1840 a romantic story about the Decembrist uprising ("The Fencing Master"; it was banned in Russia).
(As for the ring, later Alexander Dumas described his travels in Russia in 1858-1859 in quite friendly terms. By this time the Crimean War had already ended).
Let's assume that the whole story with Pushkin and with his duel took place without any participation of the Nikolai's regime. Pushkin died at the beginning of 1837. By a strange coincidence, Alexander Benckendorff fell seriously ill in March 1837. - He would never fully recover from this disease, he would continue treatment and he will die in 1844.
As Dmitry Oleinikov writes, 'However, the most powerful 'ideological bomb' that exploded in May 1843 was the publication in France of the work of the Marquis Astolphe de Custine 'La Russie en 1839'. The striking force of the explosion was as follows ... It is not at all the shortcomings of the "feudal-serf system" de Custine displays on its pages: "... the people and the ruler compete in deception, prejudice and inhumanity. A disgusting combination of barbarity and cowardice, mutual cruelty, mutual lies - all this constitutes the life of a monster, a rotting body, in whose veins not blood flows, but poison - this is the true essence of despotism." ['An abominable combination of barbarism and weakness, an exchange of ferocity, a circulation of lies, that support the life of a monster, of a cadaverous body whose blood is venom: this is despotism in its essence and in its deadliness!.... '] ['... peuple et souverain luttent entre eux de déceptions, de préjugés et d'inhumanité. Abominable combinaison de barbarie et de faiblesse, échange de férocité, circulation de mensonge qui fait la vie d'un monstre, d'un corps cadavéreux dont le sang est du venin: voilà le despotisme dans son essence et dans sa fatalité!.... '] (Note, that in 1841 great Russian writer and poet Mikhail Lermontov died in Pyatigorsk).
The Nikolai's regime, which was rapidly moving towards the Crimean War of 1853-1856, faced the problem of counter-propaganda - the answer to de Custine's book.
But who to turn to - not to Pushkin? And not to Lermontov ... (in 1844) ...
Dmitry Oleinikov continues: '... to combat his [de Custine's] influence on the West, a whole secret committee was created. It included the highest dignitaries of the empire: Minister of Foreign Affairs Nesselrode, Minister of Education Uvarov, Minister of State Property Kiselev, Manager of the Second Department of the Imperial Chancellery Bludov and, of course, Alexander Benckendorff, who coordinated the conduct of the polemic with the work [by de Custine] spread throughout Europe. "
Dmitry Oleinikov is silent about the effectiveness of the actions of the secret committee in the field of literature.
Dmitry Oleinikov spins a dashing plot. Alexander Benckendorff attracts the genius poet Fyodor Tyutchev for counter-propaganda. Tyutchev begins publishing in the German press.
But suddenly this interesting plot disappears, drowning in the details of a romantic story with the participation of Alexander Benckendorff.
Both Tyutchev and his counter-propaganda in a very interesting moment disappear from the pages of Dmitry Oleinikov's book.
(Yes, Pushkin died. But the Nikolai's regime was not taken aback, attracted Tyutchev. Tyutchev "overcame" de Custine ... In this direction a thought could move ...).
But no. He began, he started ... It is not clear what Tyutchev did, and what he achieved, and what were the results of his efforts.
What about the evil influence of de Custine's book on European minds? What about the results of the opposite influence of Tyutchev? There is no clarity.
Of course, Alexander Pushkin could have written works that could present Russia to a European audience in a sublime light. But alas ...
The handsome, good man Alexander Benkendorf, who lived a useful life for Russia (if we do not discuss the effectiveness of his steps in the field of literature), failed (like the entire Nikolai's regime) to orient himself correctly in the mysterious world of a literature and of a public opinion ...
We continue to read the book by Dmitry Oleinikov:
'The cabinet of Alexander Khristoforovich was located separately; even under subsequent owners, it retained the atmosphere of the Nikolai's era, since it remained a memorial cabinet.
Let us again give the floor to a descendant, Sergei Mikhailovitch Volkonsky:
'In a house in the Fall [the Schloss Fall (now Keila-Joa) near Tallinn in the present-day Estonia], so bright and welcoming, there is one room into which we children entered with some fear - gloomy, silent room, in which no one has ever sat. This was my great-grandfather Benckendorff's cabinet. (...)
The famous Kollman's watercolor hung there - the December riot on Senate Square: the boulevard, generals with plumes, with commanding gestures, soldiers with white belts in dark uniforms and a monument to Peter the Great in cannon smoke ... In this room, all things were somehow especially silent. It smelled of antiquity, of the something, that older than all the rest in the house; there I always wanted to ask someone: 'May I?' 'Is that allowed?' '.
April 11, 2021 15:55
Translation from Russian into English: April 12, 2021 07:39.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Александр Бенкендорф, Дюма, Пушкин, де Кюстин. Исторический очерк'.