The Jetsam, Lara Biyuts [classic reads txt] 📗

the young lady, who lived in the 19th century and died young, still has a magical charm. Since her death, fires of 200 great and small wars snatched away 100 or 200 million humans, who remained mostly nameless. The name of Maria Bashkirtseff as an artist and diarist has survived for over a hundred years; her life story is on our mind just the way it haunted imagination of her contemporaries, and her pictures are available on Google Search.

 

2009

 

The Darling of Fortune

(love story)

 

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.”

(Shakespeare. As You Like It Act 2, scene 7.)

 

“Voltaire, René Descartes -- for me,

the world is a pack of cards.

Life is faro; fate keeps the bank, I play,

and rules of games of chance

I use to people.”

(M. Lermontov. Masquerade)

 

I

 

However close to poetry any of French senators ever was, he scarcely could be closer than the hero of my essay, since my hero’s bounds were of blood, in the literary sense of the word, and he chanced to gain the hatred of one of the greatest world powers or rather creative powers of the name of Russian Literature, which hatred seems to be more lasting than the power.

Despite his later career as a senator under the Second French Empire, the name of d’Anthès is most famous because of the duel he fought with the poet Aleksandr Pushkin in February, 1837, and since then, d’Anthès is possibly the most cursed character in history of Russian literature. Pushkin was a Romantic author who is considered to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature; one of the not numerous writers who Vladimir Nabokov dearly loved. The poet Pushkin wrote wondrous prose, creating a style of storytelling, mixing drama, romance, and satire, which some biographers reckon to be adopted from Byron, and his rich vocabulary is reckoned to be the base for modern literary Russian. Both d’Anthès and Pushkin were equally worldly and biophilic persons, merely one of them was elder, and Pushkin was a straight man, and d’Anthès was definitely bisexual, as I’ve learnt later, much later than I first studied the story of the fatal duel as a Russian schoolgirl. Although d’Anthès was neither a great poet nor a writer, but personally I can call myself his fan, and when I was a schoolgirl, I loved his image, preferring to the image of Pushkin, because he was a tall handsome man, and his portraits with the curling blond hair and the beautiful white and golden uniform of an officer of the Tsar’s Horse Guard looked so impressive. Later, from the facts I learnt, I have formed the opinion that his life was worth being described in a novel.

 

II

 

Georges-Charles d’Anthès (February 5, 1812 - November 2, 1895) was born to a French royalist emigre family. First boy among six children, he was sent to Saint-Cyr, the prime French military academy. Shortly soon after graduation from the military academy Georges got the letter of introduction from Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and set off for Russia in search of fortune.

On the way, in Germany, he caught cold and took to his bed at an Inn in the town of Lübeck. His money was nearly up; the illness proved to be lingering. By chance, through of breakage of a carriage, the string of carriages of the Dutch Ambassador Baron de Heeckeren turned to the Inn. At dinner the innkeeper told de Heeckeren about the illness of the lonely French man; out of curiosity de Heeckeren came to Georges’s room and was stricken with the young man’s beauty.

The Baron kept vigil over the sick young man till Georges got better, and then he offered the young man to join his train. As some evidential facts testify, the relationship between d’Anthès and de Heeckeren was distinguished by uncommon care of each other and tenderness. In St Petersburg Heeckeren engaged best teachers for Georges, and soon the young man succeeded in entering the Knights Guards of the Empress -- Chevalier Guards’ -- as cornet.

Chevalier Guards’ life was full of fun. Georges wrote to Baron de Heeckeren:

“The next adventure in our regiment. Lately, Sergei Trubetskoy and my two mates began to break facades of buildings… During the show at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, from the box for our regiment officers, a condom stuffed with paper was thrown to an actress on the stage. Those poor things ruin their careers, merely for the tricks, which are neither funny nor witty, and the game is not worth it.”

D’Anthès had his own game – his career – fortunately, there’s help in his business. Two years later, in 1836, he became lieutenant. His views of the paternal care of the Baron, who was busy with the case of adoption, sounded cautiously, according to his letter:

“Nowadays, it’s difficult to find an outlander, who is ready to give his name and fortune, asking only friendship in return.” 

Coming from an old noble Protestant family, Jacob (a.k.a. Louis) Burchard van Heeckeren had begun his career in the Dutch navy, then he had served under Napoleon I for years; from that period, he had got a great attachment to France, a title of Empire baron and conversion to Catholicism. On his return to Netherlands he became a diplomat, and in 1826 -- the Dutch Ambassador to St Petersburg.

De Heeckeren was a highly educated man, “…his apartment was full of antiques, and there was no a replica among the works of art. He was smart, with his own view of truth; he took a broad view of things, but he did not let others get away with their sins. They at the diplomatic set were afraid of his tongue.” This most objective characteristic of his temper belongs to Baron Thornau -- all the rest ones are malevolence tinted.

So, the relationship between d’Anthès and de Heeckeren got stronger from day to day, and the Baron doted upon the young officer. According to Memoirs of A. Zlotnitskie, d’Anthès was “a stately, very beautiful, well-educated, smart man of fashion, highly appreciated in society.” The comrades in the regiment loved him, as Prince A. Trubetskoy wrote, “the stately, beautiful, more educated than we, witty French man.” After a lengthy correspondence and a journey to Alsace, Heeckeren proposed to d’Anthès’ father to adopt his son as his heir. And he got the permission, which, in my view, tells about his outstanding capacity to convince, or about his wealth.  D’Anthès’ was not wealthy, and the young man’s father “renounced the rights to Georges-Charles d’Anthès” giving is permission to adopt the young man. After the agreement of the King of the Netherlands by letters patent dated May 5, 1836, Georges-Charles d’Anthès took the name of Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthès. Thus, the “forbidden love” -- which is truism at the present day -- was registered and consecrated by the Law.

 

III

 

There are several mentions of the homosexual love affair of de Heeckeren and d’Anthès in the works by some authors who wrote about the life of Pushkin.

In the book “The Duel and Death of Pushkin” P. Shchegolev claims:

“…The ambassador was intimate to the young French man in a special way, by the perverse intimacy of a man to man.” [translation is mine. L.B.]

More distinct mention of the friendship of Heeckeren and d’Anthès we can find in the booklet by Prince A. Trubetskoy:

“…some pranks were usual to him, however all the pranks were quite inoffensive and usual to youths but one, of which we learnt much later. I don’t know what to say: whether he took Heeckeren or Heeckeren took him […] Judging by all […] in the intercourse with Heeckeren he was a passive partner.” [translation is mine. L.B.]

By P. Annenkov’s account, “Heeckeren was a homosexual, he was jealous of d’Anthès and he wanted to quarrel d’Anthès with the Pushkins.”

In Letters, A. Karamsin says:

“Being a wise man and the most refined debauchee in the world, Heeckeren possessed d’Anthès’ body as well as soul easily and entirely.” [translation is mine. L.B.]

Pushkin in his dairies writes:

“I was the first in society who has learnt that d’Anthès gives himself to Sodomite sin, and I enjoyed giving publicity to the news. I’ve learnt of that from the whores in the brothel, which he frequented. The girls said confidentially to me, their old friend, that d’Anthès paid them a lot of money so that they in turn licked his arse that was busted, bleeding like my sluts’ after they were buggered mercilessly. As Heeckeren adopted him there’s no doubt about that.” [translation is mine. L.B.]

This last could be a most interesting evidence, if we were entitled to believe in words of the man who was d’Anthès’ arch-enemy, who hated d’Anthès with all ardour of his African temper, and whose judgment well may be unfair, to put it mildly. However, there were several prostitutes as the witnesses who could confirm the bleeding alleged to be. But who did ask them? Pushkin again, that is, the one who could pay money for faking evidence like that. In reply, d’Anthès could equally well give publicity to the fact (generally known to us) that Pushkin had venereal diseases more than once when he was a young student.

De Heeckeren introduced d’Anthès to high society of St Petersburg where Georges met Natalie Pushkin, a beautiful flirtatious young woman, who had many admirers -- including the Tsar himself -- and he alleged to fall in love with her, and then he had to get married to Natalie’ own sister. Needless to say, Heeckeren was displeased and maybe jealous of Georges. After d’Anthès was deported he wrote in his letter from St Petersburg:

“…what a nice business you’ve left to me! It’s because you are lacking of trust to me. It upset me so much, my dear. I was unable to suppose that I’ve earned such a treatment.” [translation is mine. L.B.]

 

IV

 

The way out for the first conflict between Georges d’Anthès-Heeckeren and Pushkin in autumn 1836 had become the marriage to Natalie Pushkin’s own sister, Ekaterina Goncharova, who loved him to distraction. D’Anthès’ engagement and marriage to Natalie’s sister was devised to contradict society gossip that he was in pursuit of Natalie. Baron de Heeckeren had to agree to this marriage, because it saved his beloved one from the duel. But this was not enough for soothing the conflict between the two new brothers-in-law, especially after an anonymous letter went round, nominating Pushkin “Deputy Grand Master and Historiograph of the Order of Cuckolds.”

Pushkin’s furious jealousy made him write an insulting letter to d’Anthès’ adoptive father. Pushkin having refused to withdraw these abuses, a duel became inevitable. On the evening of 8 February, 1837, d’Anthès, as the offended, shot first, mortally wounding Pushkin in the stomach. Pushkin, who had fought several duels, managed to rise and shoot at d’Anthès, however, only slightly wounding him in the right arm.

After Pushkin’s death, Georges d’Anthès-Heeckeren was imprisoned at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg. Dueling was illegal in Russia; d’Anthès came to court, but he was pardoned by the Emperor, considering the gravity of the abuses written by Pushkin. Stripped of his rank, the young man was escorted back to the frontier. In Berlin, Ekaterina, his wife, who never doubted him, joined him. Both returned to France, in his father’s region.

 

V

 

Female images in the story of the fatal duel as well as the contemporary strong and open supporters of Georges-Charles d’Anthès-Heeckeren were not numerous, that’s why the name of Idalia Poletika (1807-1889), nee Idalia Maria de Oberto, one of the most active figures among Pushkin’s enemies and persecutors of society, must be mentioned in this essay. 

Idalia was an illegitimate daughter of Count Grigori Stroganov (1770-1857) and la contessa da Ega, Juliana d’Oyengauzen (1782-1864) also known as Julia Stroganova. Finally, Count and la contessa were married, but the child remained illegitimate. In 1826, Idalia got married to the army-officer Alexander Poletika (1800-1857). Alexandra Smirnova-Rossette (1809-1882), Russian Imperial court lady-in-waiting, best remembered for her memoirs, writes about Idalia:

“The girl was lovely, smart, well-bred, with large blue eyes, which looked tender and playful.