Аннотация: Project "Loyalty". Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset and the Emperor
Project "Loyalty". Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset and the Emperor
The circumstances of the youth of Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset formed in such a way that she (Alexandra Rosset, a daughter of a French emigrant, an orphan at this stage of life) started a study in the institution of noble maidens. Near the imperial court.
She herself considered this life option for herself very unhappy.
According to some hints, we can conclude that, being at the institute, she (in the evening or at night) was awarded a "visit" ...
Next - the marriage ... Her husband was Nikolai Mikhailovich Smirnov, the son of an officer (?) of a cavalry guard regiment. Nikolai Smirnov began to make a successful career after the marriage.
The excellent relationship with the Emperor.
Acquaintance (possibly, in some cases, becoming a friendship of cultural people) with Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Vasily Zhukovsky, Ivan Turgenev ...
Many facts of help to Nikolai Gogol owing to the influential position of Smirnova-Rosset at the court of Nikolai the First are known.
Who would she be if she hadn"t been studying at the institution of noble maidens? What number of girls in Russia were in distress? What number of girls in Russia were happy - thanks to parental care? Who would she have a relationship with? Who would she marry? Would she be happy in such a marriage?
There are no answers to all these questions ...
One way or another, but her loyalty project was, de facto, a certain deal. In exchange for loyalty, she received certain benefits and advantages.
She went down in history as a cultural figure, historian of literature, memoirist ... Her name is mentioned in many encyclopedias ... Her memories are still reading ...
And what, in general, can be said about this loyalty project? Something a positive? Something a negative? Something a neutral? ... ... ...
Perhaps two circumstances deserve mention:
1. Judging by the memoirs of Alexandra Osipovna, she had no choice. It was her fate. She wanted it, or she didn"t want it, but she was forced to cross the threshold of the institution of noble maidens ...
2. Her loyalty project is more reminiscent of a deal - in which each side receives some kind of "benefit" - rather than transferring of Smirnova-Rosset to eternal slavery with corresponding "prospects" ...
November 11, 2019 21:31
Translation from Russian into English: November 12, 2019 06:05.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Проект "лояльность". Александра Осиповна Смирнова-Россет и Император. Исторический очерк".