Pushkin. T. Binyon J.
mass,/I go to Katakaziâs,/What Greek rubbish!/What Greek bedlam!â he wrote.5 Most evenings a company gathered to play cards at the home of the vice-governor, Matvey Krupensky; here Pushkin could satisfy his addiction to faro. Krupenskyâs large mansion housed not only the provinceâs revenue department, but also, in a columned hall decorated with a frieze emblematic of Russian military achievement, the townâs small theatre. At the beginning of November, a twenty-year-old ensign, Vladimir Gorchakov, who had just arrived in Kishinev and was attached to Orlovâs staff, attended a performance given by a travelling troupe of German actors. âMy attention was particularly caught,â he wrote in his diary, âby the entrance of a young man of small stature, but quite strong and broad-shouldered, with a quick and observant gaze, extraordinarily lively in his movements, often laughing in a surfeit of unconstrained gaiety and then suddenly turning meditative, which awoke oneâs sympathy. His features were irregular and ugly, but the expression of thought was so fascinating that involuntarily one wanted to ask: what is the matter? What grief darkens your soul? The unknownâs clothing consisted of a closely buttoned black frock-coat and wide trousers of the same colour.â6 This was Pushkin; during the interval Alekseev introduced Gorchakov to him, and the two were soon deep in reminiscences of the St Petersburg theatre and of their favourite actresses, Semenova and Kolosova.
Another prominent member of Kishinev society was Egor Varfolomey, a wealthy tax-farmer and member of the supreme council of Bessarabia. He was extremely hospitable: it was very difficult to visit him and not stay to dinner; but for the young officers and civil servants the main attractions of the house were the informal dances in his ballroom and his eighteen-year-old daughter, Pulkheriya. She was a pretty, plump, healthy, empty-headed girl, with few powers of conversation, whose invariable reply to advances, compliments or witticisms was âWho do you think you are! What are you about!â â Veltman, in a flight of fancy, surmised that she might be an automaton.7 Nevertheless, Pushkin, for want of a better object for his affections, fell in love with her during his stay in Kishinev. It was hardly a passionate affair, and did not prevent him from languishing, during the next three years, after many others: Mariya Schreiber, the shy seventeen-year-old daughter of the president of the medical board, for example; or Viktoriya Vakar, a colonelâs wife with whom he often danced; or the playful, dark-complexioned Anika Sandulaki. He sighed from afar after pretty Elena Solovkina, who was married to the commander of the Okhotsk infantry regiment and occasionally visited Kishinev, and made a determined assault on the virtue of Ekaterina Stamo, whose husband Apostol, a counsellor of the Bessarabian civil court, was some thirty years older than her. âPushkin was a great rake, and in addition I, unfortunately, was considered a beauty in my youth,â Ekaterina remarked in her recollections. âI had great difficulty in restraining a young man of his age. I always had the most strict principles, â such was the upbringing we all had been given, â but, you know, Aleksandr Sergeevichâs views on women were somewhat lax, and then one must take into account that our society was strange to him, as a Russian. Thanks to my personal tact [â¦] I managed finally to arrange things with Aleksandr Sergeevich in such a way that he did not repeat the declaration which he had made to me, a married woman.â8 She was one of the seven children of Zamfir Ralli, a rich Moldavian landowner with estates to the west of Kishinev. Pushkin got to know the family very well during his stay in Kishinev: they were his closest friends among the Moldavian nobility, and he was especially intimate with Ivan, Ekaterinaâs brother, a year younger than himself, who shared his literary tastes. Another Kishinev beauty was Mariya Eichfeldt, âwhose pretty little face became famous for its attractiveness from Bessarabia to the Caucasusâ.9 She had a much older husband: Pushkin christened the couple âZémire and Azorâ, after the French opéra comique with that name on the theme of Beauty and the Beast. He flirted with her in society, but refrained from pressing his advances further, as she was Alekseevâs mistress: âMy dear chap, how unjust/Are your jealous dreams,â he wrote.10
At the beginning of November General Raevskyâs two half-brothers, Aleksandr and Vasily Davydov, came to stay with Orlov. âAleksandr Lvovich,â Gorchakov noted, âwas distinguished by the refinement of a marquis, Vasily flaunted a kind of manner peculiar to the common man [â¦] They were both very friendly towards Pushkin, but Aleksandr Lvovichâs friendliness was inclined to condescension, which, it seemed to me, was very much disliked by Pushkin.â11 Orlov was about to visit the Davydov estate at Kamenka â some 160 miles to the south-east of Kiev, not far from the Dnieper â and the brothers also extended an invitation to Pushkin. He accepted with alacrity; Inzov gave his permission; and in the middle of November he left with the Davydovs. Passing through Dubossary, Balta, Olviopol and Novomirgorod, they arrived in Kamenka three days later. General Raevsky and his son Aleksandr were already there, having travelled down from Kiev; Mikhail Orlov and his aide-de-camp Okhotnikov soon followed, bringing with them Ivan Yakushkin, who âwas pleasantly surprised when A.S. Pushkin [â¦] ran out towards me with outstretched armsâ: they had been introduced to one another in St Petersburg by Chaadaev.12
Kamenka was one of the centres of the Decembrist movement in the south; the other, more important, was Tulchin, the headquarters of the Second Army, where Pestel was stationed. The gathering here, ostensibly to celebrate the name-day, on 24 November, of Ekaterina Nikolaevna, the mother of General Raevsky and of the Davydov brothers, was in effect a meeting of a number of the conspirators: Orlov, Okhotnikov, Yakushkin and Vasily Davydov. The party dined luxuriously each evening with Ekaterina Nikolaevna, and then retired to Vasilyâs quarters for political discussions.
Orlov and Okhotnikov left at the beginning of December. Pushkin had intended to accompany them, but was prevented by illness. Aleksandr Davydov made his excuses to Inzov, writing that âhaving caught a severe cold, he is not yet in a condition to undertake the return journey [â¦] but if he feels soon some relief in his illness, will not delay in setting out for Kishinevâ.13 Inzov replied sympathetically, thanking Davydov for allaying his anxiety, since, he wrote, âUp to now I was in fear for Mr Pushkin, lest he, regardless of the harsh frosts there have been with wind and snow, should have set out and somewhere, given the inconvenience of the steppe highways, should have met with an accident [but am] reassured and hope that your excellency will not allow him to undertake the journey until he has recovered his strength.â14 He enclosed with his letter a copy of a demand for the repayment of 2,000 roubles, which Pushkin had borrowed from a money-lender in November 1819 to pay a debt at cards.
A few days later Pushkin wrote to Gnedich: âI am now in the Kiev province, in the village of the Davydovs, charming and intelligent recluses, brothers of General Raevsky. My time slips away between aristocratic dinners and demagogic arguments. Our company, now dispersed, was recently a varied and jolly mixture of original minds, people well-known in our Russia, interesting to an unfamiliar observer. Women are few, there is much champagne, many witty words, many books, a few verses.â15 Though there may have been few women in Kamenka, Pushkin made the best of the situation and enjoyed an affair with Aglaë Davydova, Aleksandr Lvovichâs thirty-three-year-old wife. It was a short-lived liaison. The difference in age and social position between the two led Aglaë to treat him with a patronizing condescension that was as distasteful to Pushkin in his mistress as it had been in her husband. When Liprandi dined with Davydov and his wife in St Petersburg in March 1822 he noted that she âwas not very favourably disposed towards Aleksandr Sergeevich, and it was obviously unwelcome to her, when her husband asked after him with great interestâ, and added: âI had already heard a number of times of the kindness shown to Pushkin at