Initially, it was transferred to the Secretary of State of Catherine II P. A. Soymonov. But he refused it. The wealthy merchant F. I. Groten became the actual first owner of the site. In 1784-1788, a mansion was built here for him according to the project of D. Quarenghi. The merchant did not have time to enter the new building. In 1790, he sold the site to the eminent Petersburg citizen T. T. Sievers. Three years later, the house was sold to Princess Ekaterina Petrovna Baryatinsky, and three years later, an announcement appeared in the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti about renting apartments here.
There were no clients for a long time, since a rumor spread around St. Petersburg about the ghost of Peter the Great, who allegedly wandered around the house with a young lady and at the same time scolded her with all sorts of words.
On February 3, 1796, Catherine II purchased the mansion and presented it to Field Marshal Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov. The new owner of the site was a holder of most Russian orders, held the highest government posts, was the president of the Military Collegium, and was involved in the education of Paul I and his sons Alexander and Konstantin.
Initially, the mansion had three floors from the side of the Neva and two from the side of the Field of Mars. A garden was laid out from the western side to the service building of the Marble Palace. The garden was separated from the Tsarina's meadow and the banks of the Neva by a fence. The western facade of the house had no windows. They appeared here only in 1818, when K. Rossi created the neighboring Suvorov Square. At the same time, the garden with a fence was destroyed.
Until 1802, N. I. Saltykov was the president of the Military Collegium. A. V. Suvorov repeatedly visited him as a guest and on business. In 1812-1816, Saltykov was chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. Therefore, it was in his office in the summer of 1812, at the direction of Alexander I, that a committee was assembled to select the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. After long disputes, M. I. Kutuzov was chosen by him.
Saltykov with late XVIII century, he also owned another house (33 Bolshaya Morskaya Street), in which, after the death of the field marshal in 1816, his coffin stood. In 1818-1823 the mansion was rebuilt main staircase and lobby, created house church, yard outbuildings were built on.
There is confusion about the next owner of the palace in local history literature. According to local historian V. Izmozik, based on the reference book of 1816, after the death of Saltykov, the house on the Field of Mars became the property of his son Alexander. Historian G. Zuev claims that the building was taken over not by Alexander, but by Sergei Nikolayevich, younger son Saltykov. Sergei Nikolaevich Saltykov died in 1828. The house on the banks of the Neva went to his nephew, the widow moved to a building nearby.
The absurdity in the books about St. Petersburg is also contained on the topic of the beginning of the stay of the family of the Austrian ambassador in the Saltykovs' house. Local historian T. A. Sokolova in the book "Palace Embankment" writes that the embassy headed by Count Charles Louis Ficquelmont rented the palace in September 1829. The local historian V. Izmozik in the book "On foot along the Millionnaya" indicates that the house was rented out from August 1828, while Count Ficquelmont headed the Austrian embassy in 1829-1840. According to G. Zuev (the book "The Moika River Flows"), the Austrian embassy moved into the premises in 1826, when it was already headed by Count Karl-Ludwig Ficquelmon. Moreover, Charles Louis and Karl Ludwig mean the same person, since everyone unanimously calls Daria Fedorovna Ficquelmont, the granddaughter of M. I. Kutuzov, his wife.
The northern part of the building was reserved for the front residence of the embassy. The ambassador's wife Dolly (Daria Fedorovna) lived in the rooms on the south side. Her favorite room in the Saltykovs' house was the Raspberry Room. Here is what she wrote about him:
“From the 12th we settled in the Saltykov house - it is beautiful, spacious, pleasant to live in. I have a lovely crimson office, so comfortable that I would not want to leave it. My rooms face south, there are flowers - finally, everything I love. I started by being ill for three days, but that's all right, I have a good feeling, and I think I'll love my home" [Cit. according to: 1, p. 153].
The Saltykovs' house had more than a hundred rooms. Separate apartments from the middle of 1831 were occupied by the mother of the hostess, the beloved daughter of Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Elizaveta Mikhailovna Khitrovo, with her eldest daughter Ekaterina. In 1833, Catherine became a lady-in-waiting to the Empress and took up residence in the Winter Palace.
Daria Fedorovna and Elizaveta Mikhailovna had their own salons. Sometimes Elizaveta Mikhailovna received guests in her daughter's rooms. Sometimes they settled here musical evenings. P. A. Vyazemsky, A. I. Turgenev, V. A. Sologub, V. A. Zhukovsky and A. S. Pushkin were frequent guests in this house. The poet sympathized with the young mistress, which her mother did not like. The arrangement of the rooms of the house is reminiscent of the rooms of the old countess in The Queen of Spades. This similarity was noticed by the researcher N.A. Raevsky [Ibid.]. The last time Pushkin was here was on January 7, 1837, shortly before the duel with Dantes. P. A. Vyazemsky recalled:
“There was no need to read newspapers, like the Athenians, who also did not need newspapers, but lived, studied, philosophized and enjoyed mentally. English speaker and ending with a novel or a dramatic creation of one of the favorites of that literary era. There were also reviews of current events; there was also Premier Petersburg with its own judgments, and sometimes condemnations, there was also a light feuilleton, descriptive and picturesque. And best of all, it is a worldwide, oral, colloquial newspaper, published by the direction and under the editorship of two kind and sweet women. You will not find such publications soon" [Quoted from: 3, p. 243].
The state rooms of the Austrian ambassador were on the third floor. The central room of the second floor is the White Hall. Its decoration has survived to this day. Next to it were the main dining room and the "evening hall". On the other side of the White Hall there was a large living room, small and corner rooms (the same crimson office).
Elizaveta Mikhailovna died in the Saltykovs' house on May 3, 1839. In 1843-1844, the reconstruction of the premises in the Saltykovs' house was carried out by the architect G. E. Bosse.
The Ficquelmonts lived in the Saltykovs' house for nine years. Then they were recalled to Austria, but until 1855 the premises remained with the Austrian, then with the Austro-Hungarian embassy. During this time, the architect N.I. Bayer redesigned the facade from the side of the Field of Mars, built a transverse wing along the courtyard.
In 1855, the Danish embassy began renting the building. The Danish ambassador, Baron Otto Plessen, settled in 34 rooms on the third and fourth floors. Two years later, the architect V. E Stukkay redesigned the southern facade and created a gallery inside the courtyard. The Danes were unable to pay expensive rent for a long time. In 1863, the British embassy moved in here. In 1881, the building was expanded along Millionnaya Street by the architect K. I. Lorentzen.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous diplomat and memoirist J. Buchannen was the British ambassador in St. Petersburg. He and his wife occupied approximately the same rooms where the Ficquelmonts had lived before them. Writers Herbert Wells, Chesterton, Walpole worked for British intelligence. They lived in the Saltykovs' house or came here with important assignments. S. Maugham wrote that he received a huge amount of money at the embassy. He was supposed to help the Mensheviks buy arms and bribe the press to keep Russia in the war.
Before 1917, the owners of the house were Prince Ivan Nikolaevich Saltykov, Princess Anna Nikolaevna Lvova, Princess Serafima Anatolyevna Lieven and Princess Elizaveta Nikolaevna Obolenskaya. They themselves did not live here, they continued to rent the mansion to foreign embassies.
Foreign missions left the Saltykovs' house in the spring of 1918, moving to Vologda. Consuls and other employees of the embassy remained here. In mid-March 1918, by agreement with Anna Sergeevna Saltykova, the Swedish mission organized a shelter for German prisoners of war in an apartment on the third floor from the Field of Mars.
On August 31 of the same year, a shootout broke out in the mansion between ten employees of the Cheka and embassy workers who arrived here. The search of the British Embassy was provoked by the murder of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka. As a result, the English naval attache Francis Cromie and one of the Chekists were killed. In total, about 40 people were detained in the building.
The British embassy finally left the mansion after the transfer of the Russian capital to Moscow. The mansion was nationalized. The Institute of Out-of-School Education and various other institutions worked here. In 1925, the Communist Political and Educational Institute named after N. K. Krupskaya (later the Leningrad Library Institute) was opened in the Saltykovs' house. In 1999 the Institute was transformed into St. Petersburg State University Culture and Arts. With the neighboring house of Betsky, which has also been owned by the university since the 1960s, it is connected by internal passages.
The development of the Palace Embankment began to take shape one of the first in St. Petersburg. From the Admiralteisky meadow, the bank of the Neva was gradually built up with residential buildings. In 1705, at a distance of 200 sazhens from the Admiralty, according to the project of Domenico Trezzini, the house of Admiral General Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin was built. In 1707, Admiralty adviser A. Kikin settled nearby. In 1712, Apraksin's house was rebuilt in stone, in 1716 the building was redone again, and after the arrival of the architect Leblon, it was rebuilt again.
In the first quarter of the 18th century, it became necessary to strengthen the Nevsky bank. Since 1716, they began to strengthen it with wooden walls, equipped the piers. Thus, more than 80 meters were "recaptured" from the Neva. By 1720 along Winter Palace Peter I dug a canal called the Winter Canal. Through it, in the alignment of the embankment, the engineer Herman van Boles built a wooden drawbridge of the Winter Palace Bridge.
In 1718, after the execution of Kikin, the Naval Academy was placed in his mansion. In 1725, newlyweds were temporarily settled in the Apraksin mansion: the Duke of Holstein and the daughter of Peter I Anna.
In 1727, on the site of house No. 8, a palace was built for Prince Cantemir. In 1728, according to the will, Apraksin's house passed to Peter II. The young emperor never settled here, he moved with the government to Moscow, where he died of cholera. Apraksin's house was empty all this time, from 1731 it began to be rebuilt as the residence of Anna Ioannovna. Domenico Trezzini began these works, continued at the request of the Empress F. B. Rastrelli. To accommodate new premises, a neighboring site belonging to the Maritime Academy was purchased. By 1735, the new Winter House of Anna Ioannovna was built here, the main facade overlooking the Admiralty.
In the 1740-1790s, the embankment was called Millionnaya. Since 1762, it has been dressed in stone, it was then that semicircular descents to the Neva were built. These works were directed by Ignazio Rossi. However, the work was not done well. Since 1772, the embankment has been rebuilt according to the project of Yuri Matveyevich Felten. Oak tarred piles were driven into the ground, granite blocks tied with iron brackets were placed between them. The entire structure was filled with lead. Thus, the bank was carried out into the riverbed for another 20 meters. When the roadway of the embankment appeared, it was decided to separate the Summer Garden from it. Then the famous fence appeared, which was designed by Felten. In the 18th century, the embankment was called Pochtovaya, since the Post Office Yard was located on the site where the Marble Palace is now located.
In 1763-1766, a stone Hermitage bridge was built across the Winter Canal instead of a wooden one. The Palace Embankment is connected with the Kutuzov Embankment by the Verkhne-Lebyazhy Bridge, which arose here in 1767-1768. On the granite slopes to the Neva one can see the dates of their creation.
In 1762-1769 the building of the Small Hermitage was built (house No. 36). In 1775-1783 Felten builds Big Hermitage(house number 34), in 1783-1785 connects it with the Hermitage Theater by an arch. The Hermitage Theater (house No. 32) was built in 1783-1787. In 1762-1785, the Marble Palace was built between the embankment and Millionnaya Street. In 1784-1788, house No. 4 was built - the Saltykovs' house. The neighboring house No. 2 was also built in the 1780s and belonged to I. I. Betsky.
In 1799, two buildings on the site of the now existing house number 10 were merged into one according to the project of Giacomo Quarenghi. This was a gift from Emperor Paul I to his favorite Anna Petrovna Lopukhina for her wedding to Prince Gagarin.
In the early 1820s, the section of the embankment near the Winter Palace was a construction site. There were barns, sheds, piles of stone, heaps of sand and stacks of boards prepared for the construction of the General Staff building. Nicholas I decided to improve this territory, the work was entrusted to the architect Carl Rossi. According to his project, a wide descent to the Neva was arranged here. Rossi planned to decorate it with sculptures of Dioscuri (youths holding back horses) and cast-iron lions, copies of those at the Mikhailovsky Palace. The emperor forbade placing the Dioscuri here, the architect replaced them with porphyry vases.
In 1827, in connection with the construction of the first floating Trinity Bridge on the embankment, the fence and lanterns were renewed. In 1857-1862, the Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace was built (house No. 18). In 1867-1872, house No. 26 was built - the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.
Immediately behind the Marble Palace, since 1711, the Red Canal was dug, which connected the Neva and the Moika. During the construction of the palace, it was filled up. In 1780-1788, a service building (house No. 6) was built next to the palace, existing view the building acquired in 1844-1847. In 1915, the pier with lions was moved to the Admiralteyskaya embankment.
On September 9, 1941, during an air raid, one of the bombs fell in front of house number 14, destroying its facade and the facades of neighboring houses number 12 and 16. After the war, the facades of these buildings were combined.
When I first entered this house, I could not even imagine how interesting its history is, how much is connected with it. I didn’t even know that Pushkin, Vyazemsky had been here ... That in this house Alexander Sergeevich and Dantes brought their relationship to the inevitability of a duel. Then, in 1970, I simply sent documents for admission to the Krupskaya Institute of Culture and in the summer I came to take exams. I wanted to become a librarian. This is funny to me today. Did I, with my restless nature, really want to spend my whole life in the library? I don't think. It’s just that then I was a frequent guest of our Gusev library, participated in all its events, helped them in the bibliographic department to lay out and paint new literature by departments. And, of course, I read a lot. But, now, come on, you knew a little more about Pushkin than the school curriculum.
Having received a triple at the first exam, I already knew that I would not go anywhere. But I really wanted to see Leningrad. And I, despite zero chances to become a student, continued to take exams. Therefore, she could live in a hostel and watch Leningrad for her own pleasure, go to museums and theaters. And of course, every day in the morning, the girls and I went to this house number 4 on the Palace Embankment to listen to lectures and prepare for the next exams. We, applicants, were then even taken to the Russian Museum on an excursion. I hardly remember what these auditoriums looked like, the library hall, where I spent more than one hour. In the eyes, perhaps, there are stairs and halls. And then they are interspersed with interiors seen in other buildings much later. I only remember the library, or rather reading room, and our regular audience.
The next time, now not in Leningrad, but in St. Petersburg, I ended up in May 2007. It's been 37 years!!! We were in the city for only five days. For St. Petersburg, this is so little! It so happened that I ended up near this house on the last day of my stay in this city. We were walking from Peter and Paul Fortress along the Trinity Bridge to the Summer Garden. Coming out on the Palace Embankment, they crossed it and ended up on Suvorov Square. We did not stop near the monument, as we were there on the eve of the city day, then we did not get into the summer garden because it was closed - everything was being prepared for the holiday.
We turned towards the summer garden and I involuntarily stopped near two interconnected beautiful buildings. Why? Don't know. After all, the day before we also passed by these buildings, but my eyes only glimpsed them. Apparently because there are so many beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg that these two houses seemed to us not noteworthy. And now I came to a signboard that said it was the University of Culture and my heart was beating fast. How could I forget these buildings? After all, I spent many hours here, took exams, worried, made new friends, some of whom I then corresponded with. But even now I had no time for reminiscences. Ahead was the Summer Garden, Pushkin's museum apartment on the Moika, a holiday on the embankment near the Admiralty and departure home.
I took a picture of my failed alma mater, but apparently later, removing something to shoot another, I erased these pictures too. And it so happened that it was not in any book (and I bought several of them), or on postcards of house No. 4 on Palace Embankment. It was he who, subsequently, aroused such interest in me. Thanks to the Internet and especially spherical panoramas, I was able not only to look at it more closely, but also to “walk around” and correlate what I saw with what had been read by that time.
For a long time, a very long time, Pushkin was for me just “our everything”, a genius, the pride of Russia, but a person completely not close to me. I have always given preference to Lermontov, accepting everything that he wrote unconditionally. Moreover, everything written by this boy delighted me precisely because he was a brilliant boy. And about Pushkin, I had several books at home, published back in Soviet times. The most interesting S. Abramovich "Pushkin in 1836". In the house on the Moika, I bought Pushkin's Don Juan List. This is, of course, fiction, but it gives an idea of Pushkin's entourage.
After some time, another little book came across: "Pushkin and Dolly Ficquelmont" by Nikolai Raevsky. And in 2010 in memorable date duel Alexander Sergeevich gave me a book published in 1987 - the author V. Fridkin "The Lost Diary of Pushkin." Several interesting books borrowed from the library. In general, I got hooked on Pushkin thoroughly. I read about him, and him, and letters to him and from him, memoirs of contemporaries and critical articles. I read books and online publications. And wherever something is written about Pushkin, there is house number 4 on Palace Embankment. Why didn't I pay attention to this before? After all, even in my youth I read both Blagoy and Maimin about Pushkin. They probably wrote something about him. Apparently I read superficially. Should be re-read. But, perhaps, Raevsky wrote more fully about this house. After all, it was in this house that Dolly Ficquelmont, the wife of the Austrian ambassador, a good friend, or rather even a friend of Alexander Sergeevich, lived. And he often went there, judging by his letters to his wife, the diary of Dolly herself, the letters and memoirs of Vyazemsky. I have already bothered to read this myself, although those who wrote about Pushkin had references to them. And here's what's interesting: Dolly paid a lot of attention to Pushkin in her diary. Almost every day she wrote something about him. And suddenly silence. The diary was written in its own way, it described all the secular news, all the acquaintances were mentioned, but not Pushkin. The last entry about Pushkin before a long silence was made on November 21, 1832. And then only after the death of Pushkin, she honored the poet with her attention. This entry is dated January 29, 1837. And not just a record, but a whole essay. What happened? What cat ran between them?
Now let's remember Pushkin's story " Queen of Spades". There was a lot of talk around her; Who is the prototype of the old woman, in what house did all this take place? A lot has been said about prototypes. Who just was not recorded as the Queen of Spades? Even Countess E.I. Yusupova, who lived in a house on Liteiny, built only in the fifties of the 19th century. And she herself was younger than Pushkin. But basically, Princess N.P. Golitsina is considered the prototype of the old countess.
The house described in The Queen of Spades from the outside fit the description of more than one palace, which is why contemporaries (and not only) argued. And there are signs of the Golitsina mansion in it too. But the inner chambers fully corresponded to the house in which the family of the Austrian ambassador lived. But then how did Alexander Sergeevich know the location of Dolly's bedroom, the secret door, etc.? So he was there? How? When? Assumptions were made during Pushkin's lifetime. I read about this in the memoirs of contemporaries about the poet. And here's what I found there.
(Nashchokin's story to Bartenev)
“The next story refers to a completely different era of Pushkin's life. Pushkin informed him of the secret to Nashchokin and did not even want to say his name for the first time actor, promised to open it after. Already in the current reign, in St. Petersburg, at the court there was one lady, a friend of the empress, who stood at a high degree of court and secular significance. Her husband was much older than her, and despite the fact that her young years were not disgraced by rumors; she was impeccable in the general opinion of the gossip-loving and intriguing world. Pushkin told Nashchokin his relationship to her on the occasion of their conversation about willpower. Pushkin assured that, if necessary, one could refrain from fainting and exhaustion, and postpone them until another time. This brilliant, irreproachable lady finally succumbed to the charms of the poet and made an appointment with him in her house.
In the evening, Pushkin managed to get into her magnificent palace; according to the condition, he lay down under the sofa in the living room and had to wait for her arrival home. He lay for a long time, losing patience, but it was already impossible to leave the matter, it was dangerous to go back. Finally, after a long wait, he hears: a carriage has arrived. There was a fuss in the house. Two footmen brought in chandeliers and lit up the living room. The hostess entered, accompanied by some maid of honor: they were returning from the theater or from the palace. After a few minutes of conversation, the maid of honor left in the same carriage. The hostess was left alone. "Etes-vous l;?", and Pushkin was in front of her. They moved into the bedroom. The door was locked; thick, luxurious curtains are drawn. The raptures of voluptuousness began. They played and had fun. In front of the fireplace was a magnificent cavity of bearskin. They stripped naked, poured all the perfume that was in the room on themselves, lay down on the fur ...
Time passed quickly in pleasure. Finally, Pushkin somehow accidentally went up to the window, pulled back the curtain and saw with horror that it was already completely dawn, it was already broad daylight. How to be? He hastily, somehow dressed, hastening to get out. The embarrassed hostess leads him to the glass doors of the exit, but the people have already risen. At the very door they meet the butler, an Italian. This meeting so struck the hostess that she became ill; she was ready to lose her senses, but Pushkin, squeezing her hand tightly, begged her to postpone the swoon until another time, and now release it, both for him and for herself. The woman has overcome herself. In their critical situation, they decided to resort to the mediation of a third.
The hostess called her maid, an old, prim Frenchwoman, already well dressed and dexterous in similar cases. They approached her with a request to take her out of the house. The Frenchwoman took over. She took Pushkin downstairs, straight to her husband's rooms. He was still sleeping. The sound of footsteps woke him up. His bed was behind a screen. From behind the screens he asked, “Who is there?” - "It's me," the dexterous confidante answered and led Pushkin into the hallway, from where he freely left: if someone had met him here, then his appearance here could no longer be reprehensible. The very next day, Pushkin offered the Italian butler 1,000 rubles in gold to keep him quiet, and although he refused to pay, Pushkin forced him to take it. Thus the whole matter remained a mystery. But the brilliant lady for four months could not remember this incident without nausea.
The story of Pavel Nashchekin became known to Bartenev only in 1922. It was published by one of the Pushkinists M.A. Tsyavlovsky. This caused a lot of controversy. And not smart. But Nashchekin was a friend of Pushkin. He loved and respected the poet and for a long time kept secret what he told him. Bartenev was the poet's biographer, but he did not use this story in his works. Recordings of conversations with a friend of the poet P.V. Nashchokin in 1851 were found in one of his draft notebooks. How much more is stored in the archives that were not burned during the revolution, God knows.
When I read this, I did not know whether to believe or not to believe? If you believe, then of course not everything. And if you don’t believe at all ... Then how to explain the description of this situation with such a similarity to what happened in The Queen of Spades, when Herman made his way into Lisa’s bedroom, how he expected her arrival and how he secretly left the house? Much has been written about this, entire studies have been carried out. And now, some time after reading Nashchekin's story, I buy Raevsky's book Pushkin and Dolly Ficquelmont. You can imagine how happy I was with this purchase. One of the chapters of the book was devoted to this topic. The story of Nashchekinva, Raevsky does not give, although he refers to it. The book was written in Soviet time and considerations of sensitivity were at work.
But I was not interested in the intimate side of this matter, but in particular Pushkin's secret visit to this house and the correspondence between the arrangement of rooms in Dolly's house and the house of the countess in The Queen of Spades. Perhaps then, in 1970, I would have passed by such a fact, but now ... Raevsky collected a lot of material, analyzed it, but this seemed to him not enough. He just picked up and went to the place of his research, walked through the floors and classrooms. And then, in accordance with the work of A.S. Reisrer "Palace Embankment, 4", he correlated the premises of this house from the time of Pushkin with what he saw in 1965. In addition, he walked the path that Herman (and Pushkin) walked around the house. Of course, not everything (far from everything) has been preserved in that form - time has done its job.
But much has been preserved. It turns out that the reading room of the institute's library, which I remember even after so many years, is located in the former dining room of the British Embassy. And in one of the subscriptions of the library, once there was a salon of Countess Dolly. In which? Have I been there? May be. And there was Alexander Sergeevich. The salon windows overlooked the Champ de Mars. Perhaps I was looking through the same window he was looking through... By the way, the windows of our auditorium were also facing south. Only now, after a lapse of time, I forgot what floor it was on. But where the table was, at which my friend and I sat, I remember perfectly. Our memory is strangely selective. If I had known, I would have better remembered the hall - a white hall, or a dance hall, where, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, and in particular Count Sollogub, Pushkin's explanation with Dantesoom took place at a reception at the Ficquelmonts on November 16, 1836. I simply by definition could not pass this hall. But I don't remember.
Pushkin liked to visit this house. He first arrived there on December 10, 1829. And in 1831, Natalya Nikolaevna appeared here. Dolly writes in her diary that this was her first public appearance. Pushkin's friend Pyotr Vyazemsky also often visited there. Dolly had a long correspondence with him. In an age when there were no telephones, high society it was customary to send notes even to the next street. When I read such letters, in two or three lines, I get the feeling that these are text messages, but written in the language of the century before last.
After reading everything that concerned Pushkin, Dolly, their entourage, I became interested: what kind of house was this? And what was its original appearance? After all, there were no photographs then. And quite by accident, in the book “Palaces and Gardens of the Russian Museum”, which, it would seem, has nothing to do with my topic, I found a reproduction of the painting by I.V.G. Bart “View of the Neva at the Palace Embankment and the Summer Garden”. It was written in the 1810s. On it, the two houses I need, No. 2 and No. 4, on Palace Embankment, are best seen. Yes, they look a little different now. But very recognizable. The facade of house number 4 overlooking the Neva generally remained the same. But where Suvorovskaya Square is today, it turns out, there was a garden. And in the middle of house No. 2, at the level of the second and third floors, a garden is also visible - it is located right on the roof of the first floor with large windows. Apparently, there was a large hall. And it is turned towards the Summer Garden.
Well, after that, how not to become interested in the history of these interesting buildings? Who built them? When? Who did they belong to before they became an institution of Culture, before the Great Pushkin appeared for the first time in one of them. First, I rummaged through the books and encyclopedias that are available in my house, then I turned to the help of the Internet. I didn't even know that this kind of information could be found there. And here, television also helped: the culture channel broadcasts a series of programs “Show off, city of Petrov,” which tells interesting stories about the architecture of the city on the Neva. And finally, what a picture emerged.
I'll start with house number 2, since its construction began earlier. It was started to be built for I.I. Betsky in 1784-87, and completed in 1830 by the architects J.B. Vallin Delamon and V.P. Stasov. The style in which the house was built is classicism. But the history of this site does not begin with Betsky's house. In the first half of the 18th century, there were regimental barracks, a swimming pool and guardhouses on this site. But in the 1750s, the architect Rastrelli built a wooden two-story building here. opera house. It hosted the first Russian opera written by Sumarokov.
I don’t know what happened to the theater, it seems that it burned down, and the site was transferred to Betsky for construction. After his death in 1795, the house passed to his daughter Anastasia, who married the builder of Odessa O.M. de Ribas. (Later, being in Odessa, I got acquainted with the history of this family). In 1830, the treasury bought the house and gave it to Prince Peter Grigoryevich of Oldenburg. (Everyone who was in Gagra has already heard about this prince). The building was rebuilt, the hanging gardens (which were preserved in the painting by J.W.G. Barth) were removed and a floor was added in their place. And the house began to look like it looks now. Thanks to the artist who helped to look into the distant past.
Musical evenings were held in this house and life was in full swing. And in 1917, the prince's son Alexander Petrovich sold the house for one and a half million rubles to the interim government, which transferred it to the Ministry of Education. But after October revolution communal apartments were set up there. You can imagine what it looked like, remembering the film "Viper", where a communal apartment of the 20s is shown in all its glory. But in 1962, the house was transferred to the Institute of Culture. Krupskaya. Now it is called the University of Culture.
There is an interesting moment in the history of this house. In 1791-96. I.A. lived in this house. Krylov. He had a printing house, where the magazines "Spectator" and "St. Petersburg. Mercury". There are recollections of contemporaries that Krylov liked to walk around the rooms completely naked in the morning and play the violin. Its windows overlooked the Summer Garden and the Swan Canal. Hanging gardens also went out there. Someone drew attention to this ... Then people left a lot of interesting things in letters and diary entries.
And now about house number 4. The plot located next to Betsky's house was allocated to P.A. Simonov, but it was not built. And the house was built by Merchant F.I. Groten. Rather, it was done for him in 1787 by the architect D. Quarenghi. But for some reason, Groten did not use the house and he passed to T.T. Sievers (who he was and how he “passed over” was not found), and then in 1793 to Princess E.P. Baryatinsky. And already in 1796, Ekateria 11 bought the house and presented it to Count (later His Serene Highness Prince) N.I. Saltykov, who was the tutor of three Grand Dukes: son Pavel and grandchildren Alexander and Konstantin. Saltykov was an important figure - the president of the Military Collegium, and from 1812 to 1816 - the chairman of the State Council and the committee of ministers.
In 1818, the house was rebuilt by the architect C.I. Rossi in the style of classicism. Until the revolution of 1917, it belonged to the Saltykov family. The historical name "Saltykov's house" was assigned to it. By the way, I was looking for it on the Internet. Until 1818 (when the house was rebuilt), a garden and a fence adjoined it to the marble palace itself. Once this site was allocated for construction to Count A.R. Vorontsov, but he refused the site, and a garden was planted in its place. But in 1818-20, the garden was uprooted and Suvorov Square was made. This is where the monument to the great commander was moved from the depths of the Field of Mars. At the same time, windows were broken in the blank wall that now overlooked the square. So it has survived to this day. The facade has remained the same from the very beginning of the construction of this house. But from the side of Millionnaya Street, a floor was built on, which did not decorate the house in any way. The windows of this side of the house overlook the Champ de Mars. It was there that carriages with guests drove up when the Ficquelmonts held receptions.
But what is interesting is that the descendants of Saltykov never lived in this house. It was rented out to foreign embassies. It was first rented by the Austrian Embassy from 1829 to 1855. And from 1829 to 1840 the ambassador was Count K.L.
Who is this Dolly? Her mother, Elizaveta Mikhailovna, by her first husband, Tizengauzen, and by her second husband, Khitrovo, is the daughter of our great commander Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov and close friend and an admirer of the talent of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. A woman not without oddities, but very educated, she was well received in all the noble houses of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Sometimes she annoyed the poet with her admiration for him, which he complained about in letters to his friends. When I read these letters in my youth in the Prometheus almanac, I was very indignant: is it possible to say that about a woman, especially Kutuzov's daughter! But now, when I got to know more closely the memoirs of Elizaveta Mikhailovna's contemporaries, with the history of her life, when I read many letters of that time, my condemnations melted away. Can I judge what happened so many years ago? And did the poet think that all this would be read by someone after so many years.
According to the memoirs of her contemporaries, Daria Feodorovna was smart and beautiful. Judging by her diary entries, she also had a high opinion of her mind, but she did not consider herself a beauty. But she calls Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova very beautiful. And not just once. About her beauty, Dolly writes "her beauty is heavenly and incomparable", "it is impossible to be more beautiful." But the mind of Pushkin's wife considers it ordinary. And he writes quite differently about Pushkin himself. Here is the first entry in the diary concerning Alexander Sergeevich: “December 10, 1829. Pushkin, the writer, talks in a charming way, without pretensions, with enthusiasm and fire, it is impossible to be more ugly - this is a mixture of the appearance of a monkey and a tiger ... ”And after about a year and a half she writes that when Pushkin speaks, you don’t notice that he is ugly, as his conversation sparkles with intelligence.
This is the attitude this woman had towards Pushkin and his wife. With such passions, what Pavel Nashchekin told Bartenev may well be true. Even if everything did not happen the way Bartenev wrote down (or Pushkin told Nashchekin), but it happened. And I again took the story "The Queen of Spades" and read it already with passion and straining my memory in order to remember the little that I had to see during my stay in this beautiful house. Or maybe the imagination was already working. And then once again, with the help of a spherical panorama, I walked around these houses along the Embankment, along Millionnaya Street, admired the Swan Canal and summer garden, and, of course, did not pass Suvorovskaya Square. After all, it was in the wall facing the square that there was a door through which German (and possibly Pushkin) sneaked out of this house. In any case, this is what Raevsky claims, and he went this way and believes that he simply cannot be otherwise.
I don’t know if I will be able to visit St. Petersburg again, but first of all, I will come here. It torments me that I did not recognize this place then in 2007. And then I’ll go again to Pushkin on the Moika. After all, now I have not left unread a single of his poems, not a single, even unfinished, work. Yes, and letters to him and from him, and a lot of memories of him read. I think now I will look at his last shelter a little differently than before.
Why did I write all this? I asked myself this question many times, but I could not answer it unequivocally. Maybe, in order not to forget myself in the future, age is an insidious thing, maybe it will be interesting to my granddaughters when they grow up. And I post it here in the hope that it will interest someone else, and then the person will not have to delve into letters, memoirs, documents. Or maybe on the contrary, my notes will push someone to a more professional approach to this topic.
Yes, in 1922 the Communist, political and educational institute named after Krupskaya was placed in this building. Since 1941, it has been a library institute, then the Krupskaya Institute of Culture, the Academy of Culture and, finally, the University of Culture.