An ordinary drunkard or an underappreciated poet: Who really was the younger brother of the great Pushkin

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Lev Sergeevich Pushkin's contemporaries believed that only because of his close relationship with the genius poet, he did not receive the recognition he deserved. Lev Sergeevich enjoyed general love and was perceived as a person not devoid of talents; Belinsky was delighted with one of his poems. And among the later reviews about the younger brother of Alexander Pushkin, there are also frankly critical ones. Who was Lev Pushkin - an underestimated poet with phenomenal abilities or a drunkard, brawler, rake and epicure typical for his environment?

Study, Petersburg and relations between brothers

Leo was the only brother of Alexander Pushkin who survived to adulthood - the other sons of Sergei Lvovich and Nadezhda Osipovna died in childhood. He was born in 1805 in Moscow, and in 1814 the family moved to St. Petersburg; Alexander lived nearby, in the Lyceum. The Pushkins' apartment was located in the Admiralty part of the city, near Sennaya Square. While the older brother studied in Tsarskoye Selo, the younger was sent to the Main German School at the Lutheran Church of St. Peter. Soon he was enrolled in a boarding school at the Lyceum, and then moved to the Noble boarding house at the Main Pedagogical Institute. Lev Sergeevich changed educational institutions, as well as places of service later, with ease, especially for a long time, not staying anywhere - sometimes of his own free will, and sometimes not.

Pushkin Jr. did not complete his studies at the Noble Boarding School, in 1821 he was expelled from there for participating in protests against the dismissal of the language teacher Kuchelbecker, lyceum comrade Alexander. In general, the social circle of the older brother became a familiar environment for Leo, he easily made friendships. This was also facilitated by the fact that after graduating from the Lyceum, Alexander lived for some time in his parents' house, and the brothers talked a lot. The lion was shorter than Alexander, with light, albeit curly, hair; his appearance, albeit to a lesser extent than his brother, reminded of his origin - his great-grandfather, Abram Hannibal, was African. Lev Sergeevich was broad-shouldered, but his figure retained traces of intemperance in food and wine, and he himself was witty and distinguished by "perfect literacy."

In 1820, the eldest of the Pushkin brothers ended up in southern exile, and Lev became his attorney on many assignments - from sending books and periodicals to solving issues of publishing poems and poems. He did this, apparently from a pure heart, but not particularly conscientiously, in any case, in letters to his brother and friends, Alexander often reproached Pushkin Jr. with insufficient seriousness and even squandering the sums sent for the cause. with his younger brother, the poet appreciated, and Leo enjoyed his unconditional trust - including in correspondence.

"Reading heaven", social life and the December uprising

Lev Pushkin had one remarkable ability - from the first time to memorize any text he read. He knew by heart all of his brother's poems, including their sketches and the original, later corrected, versions. Despite the fact that after the death of Alexander, Leo shared his memories of the poet, apparently, a huge number of Pushkin's poems - unpublished and even, perhaps, not recorded, were, according to Vyazemsky, buried along with his younger brother.

The phenomenal memory of "Lyovushka" made him a welcome guest of the capital's drawing rooms, because "reading heaven", public reading of poetry, was the younger Pushkin's favorite pastime. At one time, “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai” was read in this way - even before publication, this caused the extreme displeasure of Alexander, who, in correspondence with his younger brother, “lathered his head.” But it was not only poetry that attracted Lev to the Petersburg salons; a true son of his father, he had a great penchant for fun pastime - drinking, playing, chatting with ladies. At the same time, he was witty and charming, cheerful and kind, and therefore became a welcome guest and the soul of the company. Like his father, he liked to boo, whether it was ordering the most expensive hotel room or treating friends to dinner; Lev Pushkin's debts, including game debts, were handed out by Alexander until his death.

The Pushkin family, including both brothers, spent the summer of 1824 in the village of Mikhailovskoye, in the company of Lev Pushkin made his visits to neighbors. Soon, leaving Alexander to serve his exile, the family went to Petersburg, where Lev briefly entered the service of the Department of Foreign Religions, but his zeal was enough for only a few months.

On December 14, 1825, Lev Sergeevich appeared on Senate Square, was introduced to Odoevsky by Küchelbecker and received a broadsword taken from the gendarme. However, participation in the events of that day did not lead Leo to the fortress or to exile - perhaps, due to his age, the young man was only twenty. In 1826, Lev Sergeevich entered the Nizhny Novgorod dragoon regiment and went to the Caucasus. In military service, he showed himself much better - he participated in military campaigns, was famous for his bravery, enjoyed the favor of his superiors and the love of his comrades in the service. Following the Persian-Turkish campaigns, he took part in the Polish events, in between, he managed to walk at his brother's wedding in 1831 during an extended vacation.

Civil service, family and life in Odessa

In 1832, Leo made an attempt to say goodbye to military service, he retired and soon entered the Ministry of the Interior as an official on special assignments. But the civil service again did not work out, and he left for the Caucasus, where he received the news of his brother's death in a duel. The news was a great shock for Lev Pushkin. He rushed to France to challenge Heeckeren-Dantes to a duel, but was stopped by friends. Until the end of his life, Lev Pushkin maintained good relations with his brother's widow, Natalya Nikolaevna, and in 1843, shortly after leaving military service, he married her relative, the daughter of the Simbirsk governor, Elizaveta Zagryazhskaya. In this marriage, four children were born.

By that time, Lev Sergeevich finally resigned. Military service brought him awards for his courage and reputation as a brave officer. The Pushkin family settled in Odessa, in the Kramarev house, which has not survived to our time, at the corner of Deribasovskaya and Preobrazhenskaya streets. For almost ten years, Lev Pushkin served as an official of the Odessa customs, promoting his career and gaining an excellent reputation; they used to ask him to act as an arbitrator in disputes. Despite the constant lack of funds, the Pushkins participated in the public life of Odessa, were engaged in charity work. In 1852, Lev Pushkin died of dropsy.

One of the favorite pastimes of Alexander Pushkin's younger brother was writing; he wrote good poems that were highly valued by his contemporaries. Alexander himself recognized Leo as only a writer, but not a poet. Nevertheless, the poem "Peter the First", one of the few published works of Pushkin the Younger, was very popular with Belinsky, who knew it by heart. In 1853, after the death of Lev Sergeevich, an article by his authorship appeared in "Moskvityanin" under the title "Biographical news about A. S. Pushkin until 26”.

“My brother is an intelligent man in every sense of the word,” Alexander Pushkin once wrote to Delvig, “and he has a wonderful soul.” The old cemetery in Odessa, which was destroyed in the thirties of the last century.

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