What is the surname of Arina Rodionovna. Nanny of all Rus': why Pushkin's Arina Rodionovna became native to everyone. The grave of Arina Rodionovna is lost

The birth of Arina Yakovleva falls on April 10 (21), 1758. The “main nanny of the country” grew up in the village of Lampovo in a large family. Serfs Rodion Yakovlev and his wife Lukerya Kirillova raised seven children. At birth, the parents gave the girl the name Irina, but at home they began to call her Arina. In those days, the serfs did not have surnames, and were named after their father, that is, in fact, the real name and surname of Arina is Irina Yakovleva. The girl knew all the sad sides of a poor, hungry childhood in a serf family.

Acquaintance with the poet's family

In 1759, Pushkin's great-grandfather A.P. Hannibal bought the villages together with the people from Count F.Ya. Apraksin. The Yakovlevs lived very poorly, and the girl asked for a job as a nanny. In 1792, Pushkin's grandmother M.A. Hannibal took her to the house to nurse her nephew Alexei. After the birth of Olga, the first granddaughter of Maria Gannibal, Arina moved to the Pushkins' house to work. Olga was several years older than her famous brother, so they shared the nanny one for two. With the warmest words, Olga Sergeevna recalled Arina as a simple and devoted person with an open, primordially Russian soul.

At the age of 23, Arina married Fyodor Matveev, a simple peasant who later died of an addiction to alcohol. All this time until 1811, before young Alexander entered the lyceum, the nanny spent with her beloved "angel", as she called the poet. In 1818, when her grandmother Maria died, Arina continued to live with the Pushkin family in St. Petersburg, and in the summer, together with her pet Sasha, she went to Mikhailovskoye. The nanny surrounds Alexander with care and love, which deserves a second affectionate appeal: "mommy."

The role of the nurse in the creative life of the poet

In literature, A. S. Pushkin never addressed Arina by name and patronymic, he always affectionately wrote: “nanny”. The image of the nanny in the legendary work "Eugene Onegin" was written off from her. Alexander was always very kind to his nurse, wrote tender letters to her and dedicated poems. Arina Rodionovna was a teacher, friend, guardian for the poet. And in his childhood, lulling him in a crib, and in the difficult years of exile, this brave woman always took care of him and loved him with all her heart.

Alexander often recalled how he loved to listen to her sayings and fairy tales. It's amazing how many of them the simple Russian soul kept in itself, and how she knew how to tell them! Undoubtedly, it was this woman who helped the poet take the first step into great literary creativity. Even Alexander himself admitted, having become a famous person, that acquaintance with folk art plays a huge role in a thorough knowledge of the Russian language. Fate itself decreed that a simple woman from the people could influence the creative development of the personality of the great poet.

Some call her Yakovleva, others - Rodionova, others - Matveeva (by the name of her husband).

Since Arina Rodionovna had been a serf all her life, she easily managed without a surname. And it has remained in history - with a name and patronymic.

2. Looked completely different from the portraits

The most famous image of Pushkin's nanny is "Portrait of Arina Rodionovna by an unknown artist."

The images of Pushkin that have come down to us were made after her death and bear little resemblance to the mean verbal descriptions of a woman. So, her most famous portrait hardly resembles a person from the memoirs of Maria Osipova, a contemporary of Pushkin: “She was an extremely respectable old woman, with a full face, all gray-haired.”

A different image is depicted in the high relief of Arina Rodionovna, which, under mysterious circumstances, ended up with Maxim Gorky in 1911.It is also suggested that one of Pushkin's sketches on the margins of the manuscript of the poem "Premonition" may be an image of a nanny in his youth and old age. But it's also impossible to say for sure.

Drawing by A.S. Pushkin (1828).

3. Was not the main teacher in the life of Pushkin

Until the age of two, little Alexander was looked after by Uliana Yakovleva. She was his breadwinner and first nanny.

Arina Rodionovna first looked after his older sister Olga, and then for the younger children, becoming a "general nanny". However, Ulyana remained under Pushkin until 1811.

In addition, after 5 years, an “uncle” was assigned to the noble boys, who was supposed to introduce a male element into their upbringing. For Alexander Pushkin, Nikita Kozlov became such an educator, valet, and then butler. He served the poet before and after the end of those - and until his death. It was he who brought the wounded Pushkin from the fatal duel and later carried the poet's coffin.

4. The poet appreciated the nurse's tales only in exile

The legend that Arina Rodionovna played a major role in the creative work of young Pushkin, "saturating" him with folklore from childhood, appeared after the poet's death. This story gained particular popularity in Soviet times.

Nanny's writer appreciated only in exile, when he lived with Arina Rodionovna for two years in Mikhailovsky (1824-1826). And, judging by the poet's letter to his brother, earlier they had no influence on him:“Do you know my classes? Before dinner I write notes, I have dinner late; after dinner I ride, in the evening I listen to fairy tales - and thereby reward the shortcomings of my accursed upbringing. What a delight these stories are! Each is a poem!

5. Not every old woman in the poet's verses - Arina Rodionovna

The traits of Arina Rodionovna can be found in the images of mother Xenia ("Boris Godunov"), mother of the princess ("Mermaid"), nanny Yegorovna ("Dubrovsky") and, of course, nanny Larina ("Eugene Onegin").

The poet dedicated several poems to his. However, not all elderly women in Pushkin's poetry are "copied" from Arina Rodionovna. The nanny had a serious "competitor" in the face of the poet's maternal grandmother, Marya Gannibal.

So, in the poem “The confidante of magical antiquity ...” they often mistakenly see a dedication to the nanny because of the lines about the old woman “in a shushun, with big glasses and with a frisky rattle,” who rocked the baby’s cradle. Many people forget the following lines about "expensive French perfume and pearls on the chest." These lines are dedicated to the poet's beloved grandmother.

6. Was a muse not only for Pushkin

Thanks to her stories, we have "The Tale of Tsar Berendey" by Vasily Zhukovsky. And the poet Nikolai Yazykov dedicated two poems to Arina Rodionovna: “To the nanny of A. S. Pushkin” (1827) and “On the death of the nanny of A. S. Pushkin” (1830).

7. The famous pupil has never been to her grave

Arina Rodionovna died at the age of 70, after a short illness, in the house of Olga Pushkina. Neither the poet nor his sister attended her funeral. The exact reason for this could not be established. Most likely, Pushkin found out about the incident too late.

They buried Arina Rodionovna as a serf peasant woman - in an unmarked grave at the Smolensk cemetery. Two years later, the poet tried to find her, but could not.

Let us leave the debate about the true role of Arina Rodionovna in the life of Alexander Pushkin to specialists. One way or another, it has become an important part of Russian culture. As Alexander Sergeevich said: “If the coming generation will honor my name, this poor old woman should not be forgotten.”

Pushkin's nanny, Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva, was born on April 10 (21), 1758 in the village of Suida (now the village of Voskresenskoye), or rather, half a verst from Suida, in the village of Lampovo, Koporsky district, Petersburg province. Her mother, Lukerya Kirillova, and father, Rodion Yakovlev, were serfs and had seven children. Arina was her home name, and the real one was Irina or Irinya. As a peasant serf, the nanny did not have a last name. In documents (revision tales, parish registers, etc.), she is named after her father - Rodionova, and in everyday life - Rodionovna. She was called Rodionovna already in her old age, as is sometimes done in the villages. Pushkin himself never called her by name, but wrote "nanny" in his letters. In the literature, she is referred to more often as Arina Rodionovna, without a surname, or, more rarely, under the surname Yakovleva. One of the later publications says: "The appearance in modern literature about A.S. Pushkin's nanny of the name Yakovlev, as if belonging to her, is not justified in any way. None of the contemporaries of the poet Yakovleva called her." However, this is a moot point, because the children are called by their father, and her father's surname is Yakovlev. Sometimes, by the way, she was also called Arina Matveeva - after her husband.

As a child, she was listed as a serf lieutenant of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment Count Fyodor Alekseevich Apraksin. In 1759 Suidu and the surrounding villages with people were bought from Apraksin by great-grandfather A.S. Pushkin - A.P. Hannibal. In 1781, Arina married the peasant Fyodor Matveev (1756-1801), and she was allowed to move to her husband in the village of Kobrino, not far from Gatchina. They lived in poverty, there was not even cattle on the farm, it is understandable why Arina asked for a nanny. In 1792, she was taken by Pushkin's grandmother Maria Alekseevna Hannibal as a nanny for her nephew Alexei, the son of brother Mikhail, and already in 1795 Maria Alekseevna gave Arina Rodionovna a separate hut in Kobrin for her impeccable service. December 20, 1797 at M.A. Hannibal was born granddaughter Olga (older sister of the poet). After her birth, Arina Rodionovna was taken into the Pushkin family, replacing her relative or namesake Ulyana Yakovleva in this post. Arina was the nurse of the poet's sister, the nanny of Pushkin and his brother, she nursed Olga, and Alexander, and Lev.

Soon after the birth of his daughter, Sergei Lvovich retired and moved with his family to Moscow, where his mother, brother and other relatives lived. Arina, as Olga Sergeevna's nurse and nurse, left with them. From the church record it is known: "in Moscow in 1799, on the 26th day of May, on the day of the Ascension," the Pushkins' son Alexander was born. Soon Maria Alekseevna also decided to move to Moscow. In 1800 she sold Kobrino with people, and in 1804 she bought Zakharovo near Moscow. Arina with her family and the house in which they lived, the grandmother excluded from the sale. Obviously, Maria Alekseevna agreed with the new owners that the husband and children of Arina Rodionovna would live in this hut for an indefinite period. Thus, the nanny and her children could find shelter in their native village at any time, which has always been the dream of every peasant.

The situation is not entirely clear. At one time it was considered that Arina with her family - her husband, who died in 1801 from drunkenness, and four children, Maria Gannibal either gave, or wanted to give free, but Arina refused free. This is stated in her memoirs by Pushkin's sister Olga Sergeevna Pavlishcheva. The nanny remained a courtyard, that is, "a serf, taken to the master's court to serve the landowner, his house." Arina Rodionovna's daughter Marya married a serf and thus also remained a serf. Biographer of the nanny A.I. Ulyansky claims that the children did not receive freedom. All her life Arina considered herself a slave of her masters; Pushkin himself calls the nanny in "Dubrovsky" a "faithful slave", although this, of course, is a literary image. Apparently, Maria Alekseevna was going to let the nanny's family go free, but she did not let go. Later, in Mikhailovsky, judging by the lists, Arina and her children again become serfs. From birth to death, she remained a serf: first Apraksin, then Hannibal, and finally the Pushkins. And Pushkin, we note, the situation is quite satisfied. Never, not a single word, he touched on this topic in relation to the nanny, although slavery in general outraged his civic feelings more than once. The important thing is that Arina Rodionovna herself and her children found themselves in a certain special position. She was something like a housekeeper: she guarded the estate, carried out the instructions of the gentlemen, they trusted her, making sure of her honesty, some money matters. She is a "housekeeper", according to V.V. Nabokov, who tried to explain its role to the Western reader.

After Olga, Arina nursed Alexander and Lev, but she was only a nurse for Olga. Nabokov generally calls Arina Rodionovna "the former nanny of his sister." She wasn't the only one, of course. There were many servants in the Pushkins' house, breadwinners were easily found in the village and sent back, but this nanny was trusted more than others. Pushkin's mother sometimes allowed her to sleep in the master's house. Her family members were given some benefits. They were released for a certain time, they could have a side income or help relatives in their village with the housework. Later, the daughter of the nanny Nadezhda was also taken to serve the gentlemen. Later, in the Pushkin family, Sophia, Pavel, Mikhail and Plato were born and died as babies. It is not known if Arina nursed any of these children. Four children of Arina Rodionovna remained after the death of her husband in Kobrino, and she herself was with Maria Alekseevna, first in Moscow among the numerous domestics, and after the sale of Kobrino - in Zakharovo. Then Arina, among the household members, moves to Mikhailovskoye.

"She was a real representative of Russian nannies," Olga Sergeevna recalled Arina Rodionovna. For children in the master's families took wet-nurses and nannies. "Uncles" were also assigned to the boys (it is known that Pushkin had Nikita Kozlov, a faithful and devoted "uncle" who accompanied the poet to the grave). These simple people loved other people's children as their own, gave them everything that the Russian soul is capable of. But in the biographies of Pushkin, the nanny overshadows Kozlov. Veresaev was the first to pay attention to this: “How strange! The man, apparently, was ardently devoted to Pushkin, loved him, cared for him, perhaps no less than Arina Rodionovna’s nanny, accompanied him throughout his independent life, and is not mentioned anywhere: not in Pushkin's letters, or in the letters of his relatives. Not a word about him - neither good nor bad." But it was Kozlov who brought the wounded poet into the house in his arms, he, together with Alexander Turgenev, lowered the coffin with the body of Pushkin into the grave.

After the death of Maria Alekseevna (June 27, 1818), the nanny lives with the Pushkins in St. Petersburg, moving with them to Mikhailovskoye for the summer. Pushkin called her "mammy", treated her with warmth and care.

In 1824-1826, Arina Rodionovna lived with Pushkin in Mikhailovsky, sharing his exile with the poet. At that time, Pushkin became especially close to his nanny, listened to her fairy tales with pleasure, and wrote down folk songs from her words. He used the plots and motives of what he heard in his work. According to the poet, Arina Rodionovna was "the original nanny Tatyana" from "Eugene Onegin", Dubrovsky's nanny. It is generally accepted that Arina is also the prototype of Xenia's mother in "Boris Godunov", the princess's mother ("Mermaid"), female images of the novel "Peter the Great's Moor". In November 1824, Pushkin wrote to his brother: "Do you know what my classes are? I write notes before dinner, I have dinner late; after dinner I ride, in the evening I listen to fairy tales - and thereby reward the shortcomings of my accursed upbringing. What a charm these fairy tales are! Each one is a poem!" . It is known that Pushkin wrote down seven fairy tales, ten songs and several folk expressions from the words of his nanny, although, of course, he heard more from her. Sayings, proverbs, sayings did not leave her tongue. The nanny knew a lot of fairy tales and conveyed them in a special way. It was from her that Pushkin first heard about the hut on chicken legs, and the tale of the dead princess and the seven heroes.

In January 1828, against the will of her parents, Pushkin's sister married Nikolai Ivanovich Pavlishchev. The young people settled in St. Petersburg, now Olga Sergeevna, as the mistress, had to run the house. Relations with relatives remained cold. Only in March did they agree to give her a few yards. At this time, Olga Sergeevna decided to take Arina Rodionovna to her. She could do this only with the permission of her parents, since she did not have her own serfs. So, Arina Rodionovna was forced to go to St. Petersburg to live out her life in the house of Olga Sergeevna. The nanny came to the Pavlishchevs, apparently at the beginning of March 1828, still on a winter journey. For the last time she saw her son Yegor, granddaughter Katerina and other relatives in Kobrin.

Pushkin saw his nanny for the last time at Mikhailovskoye on September 14, 1827, nine months before her death. Arina Rodionovna - "a good friend of my poor youth" - died 70 years old, after a short illness, on July 29, 1828 in St. Petersburg, in the house of Olga Pavlishcheva (Pushkina). For a long time, the exact date of the nanny's death and the place of her burial were unknown. Surprisingly, nothing was known about the burial place of Arina Rodionovna to Olga Sergeevna's son, Lev Nikolaevich Pavlishchev.
Arina Rodionovna was born and died a serf. Pushkin did not go to the funeral, as, indeed, did his sister. The nanny was buried by Olga's husband Nikolai Pavlishchev, leaving the grave nameless. In cemeteries, the graves of ignorant persons, especially serfs, were not paid due attention. The nanny's grave, left unattended, was soon lost. Judging by the poem by N.M. Yazykov "On the death of A.S. Pushkin's nanny", in 1830 they tried to find the grave of Arina Rodionovna, but they did not find it even then. In St. Petersburg, the nanny had no close relatives, and Olga Sergeevna did not take care of the nanny's grave. There were versions that the grave of the nanny was in the Svyatogorsk monastery, near the grave of the poet, that Arina was buried in her homeland in Suyda, as well as at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery in St. Only in 1940, as a result of painstaking searches in the archives, did they find out that the nanny was buried in the Vladimir Church. In the metric book of this church, they found an entry dated July 31, 1828 No. 73: "5th class official Sergei Pushkin, serf woman Irina Rodionova, 76 old age, priest Alexei Narbekov." It also turned out that she was buried at the Smolensk cemetery. The long-existing version that the nanny was buried at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery was rejected.

Information about the life and death of Arina Rodionovna is incredibly scarce. We do not know at all what the real woman who served the poet looked like. Pushkin himself created a romantic, poetic myth about the nanny, the poet's idea was continued by his friends. But we hardly know what she really was. Contemporaries wrote that she was talkative, talkative. The poet N. Yazykov, in his memoirs, noted her unexpected mobility, despite her fullness, - "... she was an affectionate, caring troublemaker, an inexhaustible storyteller, and sometimes a cheerful drinking companion." There are almost no descriptions of her appearance, except for a quote from the memoirs of Maria Osipova "an extremely respectable old woman - with a plump face, all gray-haired, passionately loving her pet ..." The next part of the phrase in a number of publications was cut out: "... but with one sin - loved to drink.

Confidante of magical old times,
Friend of fictions playful and sad,
I knew you in the days of my spring,
In the days of joys and initial dreams;
I was waiting for you. In the evening silence
You were a cheerful old woman
And she sat above me in a shushun
In big glasses and with a frisky rattle.
You, rocking the cradle of a child,
My youthful ear captivated me with melodies
And between the sheets she left a flute,
Which she herself enchanted.

A.S. Pushkin

Soon after the death of Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva, her idealization and exaggeration of her role in Pushkin's work began. The first Pushkinists began to exalt the nanny, expressing thoughts that were consonant with the official national ideology. Pushkin's biographer P.V. Annenkov reported: "Rodionovna belonged to the most typical and noblest persons of the Russian world. The combination of good nature and grouchiness, a tender disposition for youth with feigned severity left an indelible impression in Pushkin's heart. ... The whole fabulous Russian world was known to her as short as possible, and she conveyed its extremely original." The same Annenkov introduced exaggerations like: "The famous Arina Rodionovna" into the tradition. He went even further: it turns out that Pushkin "initiated the venerable old woman into all the secrets of his genius." And one more thing: "Alexander Sergeevich spoke of the nanny as his last mentor, and said that he owed this teacher the correction of the shortcomings of his initial French upbringing." But Pushkin himself, unlike his biographer, nowhere calls the nanny either a mediator, or a leader, or a last mentor, or a teacher. By the way, Pushkin also does not have the words "damned French upbringing", he has "the shortcomings of his damned upbringing." From this statement of the poet, it follows that Arina Rodionovna, being his nanny, like her parents, did not raise him very well in childhood. Pushkin contradicts Pushkinists, who affirm the enormous positive role of Arina Rodionovna in the formation of a child poet.

After 1917, the myth of the nanny was used to politically correct the image of Pushkin as a folk poet. In Soviet Pushkin studies, the role of the nanny grows even more. Arina Rodionovna settles in all the biographies of Pushkin, receives a residence permit in all textbooks on Russian literature. In the editorial of Pravda in 1937, the nanny from the people is opposed to aristocratic parents and, thus, brings the poet closer to the people. It turns out that thanks to the nanny, Pushkin becomes close and understandable to ordinary Soviet people. A year after the centenary of Pushkin's death, two more anniversaries were solemnly celebrated: 180 years since the birth of Arina Rodionovna and 110 years since her death. In 1974, on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of Pushkin's birth, "images" of the nanny made by artists appeared. In the tape recording, the voice of the storyteller sounded, which "could resemble" the voice of a nanny. There were proposals to erect a monument to the nanny, and it was erected in Kobrin and even in Pskov, where Arina Rodionovna, it seems, was not at all. In the noble estate of Suyda, the patrimony of the Hannibals, on a memorial plaque, the nanny, at the behest of the ideological authorities, is ranked among Pushkin's relatives - father, mother and sister. Now it is very difficult to say what role the illiterate Arina Rodionovna actually played in the life of the great poet. Obviously, the poet's biographers and friends exaggerated the role of the peasant woman Arina in shaping Pushkin's childhood impressions. It turns out that the nanny told Pushkin fairy tales, and his biographers began to compose tales about the nanny. It is now impossible to find out what the real contribution of the nanny to the upbringing of the poet is.

On the June Pushkin Days of 1977, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery. At the entrance to the cemetery, an inscription is carved on marble in a special niche:

On this
cemetery
buried

nanny
A.S. Pushkin
1758-1828
"Girlfriend of my harsh days,
My decrepit dove!"

Around the image of the legendary Arina Rodionovna - the nanny of the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - there were many different rumors and legends. Despite the fact that the famous pupil himself always spoke of this respected woman with sincere love and gratitude, some Pushkinists and the poet's contemporaries noted amazing and even contradictory moments in the biography and character of the nanny, whose name became a household name.

Izhorka or Chukhonka?

Arina Rodionovna (1758-1828) was a peasant serf. She was born in the village of Lampovo, Petersburg province, not far from the village of Suyda. Her parents Lukerya Kirillova and Rodion Yakovlev raised seven children. The real name of the girl was Irina (or Irinya), but in the family she was always called Arina, and so it happened.

Despite the fact that officially in the 18th century almost all the serfs of the St. Petersburg province were considered Russian, the majority of the inhabitants of those places, in fact, were representatives of assimilated Finno-Ugric nationalities. The environs of Suida were inhabited mainly by Izhors - the descendants of one of the tribes of the people, who bore the name "Chud". In addition to them, Chukhons also lived on these lands.

Historians and Pushkin scholars do not have exact information to which of these Finno-Ugric nationalities, completely mixed with Russians and not preserved, Arina Rodionovna belonged. But some of the tales she told to her famous pupil have a distinct northern flavor. Even the image of an oak standing near Lukomorye clearly echoes the Scandinavian legends about the Yggdrasil tree, which connects different levels of the universe.

From a family of Old Believers?

Some historians note that families of Old Believers have long lived in the vicinity of the village of Suyda in the St. Petersburg province. Many of these people hid their religious views so as not to be persecuted by the official church.

In addition to the fact that Arina Rodionovna was born in the places of the traditional settlement of the Old Believers, her origin from this environment is also indicated by the information contained in the letter of A.S. Pushkin to his friend P.A. Vyazemsky on November 9, 1826. So, the great poet writes: “My nanny is hilarious. Imagine that at the age of 70 she memorized a new prayer "For the tenderness of the heart of the lord and the taming of the spirit of his ferocity", probably composed during the reign of Tsar Ivan. Now her priests are tearing up a prayer service ... "

The simple fact that Arina Rodionovna knew by heart or learned from somewhere a rare ancient prayer that existed even before the split of the Orthodox Church may indicate her close communication or kinship with the Old Believers. After all, only they so reverently preserved religious texts, many of which were lost by the official church.

Serf without a surname

Arina Rodionovna did not have a last name, like many serfs. Although her parent is recorded in church registers as Yakovlev, and her husband as Matveev, these were not names, but patronymics. In those days, Peter, the son of Ivan, was called Peter Ivanov, and the grandson of the same Ivan did not inherit the surname of his grandfather, but was called after his father - Petrov.

However, Irina, the daughter of a peasant, Rodion Yakovlev, is indicated in the birth record. There is also information about the wedding of Irinya Rodionova and Fyodor Matveev in the church book of the village of Suyda. These facts confused many researchers who mistakenly called Pushkin's nanny Yakovleva as a girl, and Matveeva as a wife.

mother of four children

Some people believe that Arina Rodionovna did not have her own family, and therefore she was strongly attached to her pupil. However, this was not the case. In 1781, a 22-year-old peasant woman got married and moved to the village of Kobrino, Sofia district, where her husband Fyodor Matveev (1756-1801), who was two years older than his young wife, lived.

Four children were born in this marriage. The eldest son of the legendary nanny was called Yegor Fedorov. In the revision tale for 1816, he is listed as the head of the family, since he was the eldest man in the house of the widowed mother.

And the husband of Arina Rodionovna died at the age of 44. Some sources claim that from drunkenness.

Drinker

All posts by A.S. Pushkin about his nanny are imbued with special warmth and gratitude. But some people who knew this woman pointed out that Arina Rodionovna liked to knock over a glass or two from time to time.

So, the poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov wrote in his memoirs: "... she was an affectionate, caring troublemaker, an inexhaustible storyteller, and sometimes a cheerful drinking companion." This man, who knew his friend's nanny well, noted that despite her fullness, she was always a mobile and energetic woman.

Quite frankly, a neighbor of the great poet on the estate in the village of Mikhailovskoye also spoke about Arina Rodionovna. The noblewoman Maria Ivanovna Osipova left the following entry in her memoirs: "... an extremely respectable old woman, all gray-haired, but with one sin - she loved to drink."

Perhaps in the poem "Winter Evening" A.S. Pushkin, it is far from accidental that the following lines appeared:

Let's drink, good friend

My poor youth

Let's drink from grief; where is the mug?

The heart will be happy.

Although there is no other information that this respected woman ever drank or (God forbid!) introduced her famous pupil to alcohol, does not exist.

Folk storyteller

It is unlikely that any of the Pushkinists would deny that Arina Rodionovna had a noticeable influence on the work of the great poet. Some historians call her a real folk storyteller - an inexhaustible storehouse of ancient legends, legends and myths.

Becoming an adult, A.S. Pushkin realized what an invaluable national and cultural asset fairy tales were, which his dear nanny knew by heart. In 1824-1826, while in exile, the great poet took advantage of the moment to once again listen and write down the magical stories about Tsar Saltan, about the golden cockerel, about the Lukomorye, about the dead princess and the seven heroes, as well as many others. The author breathed new life into these tales, bringing them his literary gift and poetic look.

At the beginning of November 1824 A.S. Pushkin wrote to his younger brother Lev Sergeevich from the village of Mikhailovsky that he was engaged in writing until lunch, then he rides, and in the evening he listens to fairy tales, thereby making up for the shortcomings of his education. Probably, the poet meant that at the beginning of the 19th century, the nobles did not study oral folk art at all.

“What a charm these fairy tales are! Each is a poem! exclaimed the poet in a letter to his brother.

As the Pushkinists established, according to their nanny A.S. Pushkin also recorded ten folk songs and several expressions that seemed very interesting to him.

It is still unknown what the most famous nanny of Russia looked like and what was, whose name has already become a household name

Arina Rodionovna, who nurtured the "sun of Russian poetry", was born on April 21 (according to the old style on April 10), 1758, exactly 260 years ago. Historians, Pushkin scholars are still building hypotheses, trying to find out how close she was to Arina Rodionovna and influenced his work. And at the same time - how she looked, with whom she competed for the upbringing of the poet, what destructive addiction she suffered and whether she was happy like a woman.

origin mystery

Let's start with the fact that the serf was born in the village of Lampovo, St. Petersburg province, in the family Lukerya Kirillova And Rodion Yakovlev, where there were seven children. The girl in the church book was recorded as Irina(or Irinho), but at home they called Arina colloquially, and so it happened. Her last name is indicated as Yakovleva, subsequently Matveeva- for her husband. But surnames were not supposed to be serfs.

In those days, the places where the future legendary nanny lived were inhabited by representatives of assimilated Finno-Ugric nationalities - Izhors or Chukhons. To what nationalities Arina belonged, it is now difficult to say. Perhaps she was from a family of Old Believers.

In 1826 Alexander Pushkin in a letter to his friend Peter Vyazemsky mentions a 68-year-old nanny who knows by heart the prayer “For the tenderness of the heart of the lord and the taming of the spirit of his ferocity”, probably composed during the reign of Tsar Ivan. And the Old Believers were very careful about religious texts and passed them from mouth to mouth in order to preserve them.

mustachioed babysitter

Some even from school believe that Arina Rodionovna gave herself without a trace to the brilliant poet, but this is not so. She was married. Went down the aisle quite late - at 23 for a 25-year-old Fyodor Matveev. And immediately moved to him in the village of Kobrino, Sofia district. There were four children in the family.

Apparently, the female share of the woman was unhappy. Her husband died of alcoholism at the age of 44. In 1792, Arina Rodionovna was taken as a nanny to the house of Alexander Pushkin's grandmother. Mary Hannibal for nephew Alexey. The teacher showed remarkable talent, and she was presented with a separate hut.

Excellent recommendations brought her to the Pushkin family in 1797. It is curious, but Arina Rodionovna, one might say, had a rival. Alexander was engaged in "mustachioed nannies" Nikita Kozlov. Until the death of the ward, he faithfully served him. However, the name of this man remained unknown, the poet did not mention him anywhere.

Mother storyteller

Some historians and Pushkin scholars believe that the influence of Arina Rodionovna and her closeness to Pushkin are somewhat exaggerated. She was next to the poet until he entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1811. And then only in 1825, the nanny and her pupil, who called her "mammy" in letters, were reunited in the village of Mikhailovskoye, where Pushkin was serving a link. It was here that Alexander Sergeevich heard, as the school teachers assured him, the stories of Arina Rodionovna. So there were fairy tales about the king Saltan, goldfish, about Lukomorye.

Soviet propaganda, while Stalin, tied Pushkin and his nanny in a tight knot. Arina Rodionovna became a symbol of the "common people", who had a huge impact on the "aristocracy" in the person of Alexander Sergeevich. For many decades this was hammered into the school curriculum. As a result, many were sure that the poet loved his nanny in childhood more than his parents and adored her with fiery son love in adulthood. The only truth is that "mammy" creatively motivated Pushkin. But the poet himself in his notes did not exalt his inspirer in any way. Well, he “listened to” fairy tales largely from boredom and idleness - there was little entertainment in Mikhailovsky.

Where is the mug?

Everyone remembers the immortal lines from the poem “Winter Evening” dedicated to the nanny: “Let's drink, good friend / Of my poor youth, / Let's drink from grief; where is the mug? / The heart will be more cheerful. Fiction or raw truth? Poet Nikolay Yazykov called Arina "an affectionate and caring troublemaker", who was sometimes a "cheerful drinking buddy". Pushkin's friend via link Maria Osipova mentioned in her memoirs that the nanny had a sin - "she loved to drink."

How true this is, it is already difficult to judge, but obviously her weakness, if she was, did not affect Arina Rodionovna's health in any way. Nanny Pushkin died at the age of 70 in 1828, nine years before the death of her ward, who, by the way, was not at her funeral.