Pyotr Stolypin and Olga Neidgardt: 27 years of happiness born of tragedy

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

He went down in history as one of the toughest reformers. Pyotr Stolypin was honest, straightforward and fearless. And it was hard to imagine how gentle and caring a politician is with his family. He became close to Olga Neidgardt at a time when, it seemed, there could be no place for romantic feelings. But they were destined to live together 27 happy years, go through terrible trials and keep the freshness of feelings until the very end.

Love amid loss

When Pyotr Stolypin was still a young student, and his older brother Mikhail, a warrant officer of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, was preparing for an engagement with the charming Olga Neidgardt, great-great-granddaughter of the famous military leader Alexander Suvorov and maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Shortly before the upcoming engagement, Mikhail Stolypin challenged Prince Shakhovsky to a duel, defending the honor of his bride. During the duel, Mikhail was seriously wounded and died in agony. At his death hour, the bride and brother were with him. Legend has it that when he was dying, Mikhail put Olga's hand in his brother's, instructing him to take care of the girl.

Pyotr Stolypin considered it his duty to stand up for his brother's honor and he himself fought with Shakhovsky, throwing a glass of water in his face as a challenge, not a glove, and calling the prince a scoundrel. The duel took place very quickly, however, not dueling revolvers, but personal Browning were used as weapons. As a result, Pyotr Stolypin was wounded in his right hand, and the prince was wounded in the chest. The bullet went right through, but a year after the incident, Shakhovskoy died of consumption.

The attempts of Pyotr Arkadyevich to support Olga, completely crushed by the loss, led to close communication of young people, then a real deep feeling flared up between them. Olga was three years older than Peter, but for him it seemed insignificant. However, having appeared to ask the hand of his beloved from her father Boris Alexandrovich Neidgardt, Pyotr Stolypin himself pointed out the difference in age and expressed the hope that this fact would not serve as a reason for refusal.

Boris Aleksandrovich only answered the groom with a smile: "Youth is a shortcoming that is corrected every day," and entrusted his daughter to the care of this serious young man, knowing exactly that she could not find a better groom.

At 22, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, a student at the St. Petersburg Imperial University, became the head of the family. Such an early marriage at that time was a novelty, and he became a well-known personality in student circles. And he had no time to think about how he looked in the eyes of fellow practitioners and teachers.

Bright happiness

This marriage turned out to be very happy. In 1885, the eldest daughter of the Stolypins, Maria, was born, 4 years later - Natalya, in 1893 - Elena, in 1895 and 1897 - Olga and Alexandra, respectively, and in 1903 the long-awaited son Arkady was born, named after his grandfather.

The relationship between Peter Arkadievich and Olga Borisovna could serve as an example of mutual love and devotion of the spouses. Even two decades after the wedding, Stolypin wrote touching letters to his wife, full of love and tenderness, he did not hesitate to confess his feelings to his wife and always said that the meaning of his life is in the family.

Their days were never darkened by family scandals, jealousy or mistrust. Every minute spent together was happiness, every letter was a reward for patience, and every meeting was like a first date.

The Ruined Nest

Together they resisted external storms, anxiously protecting their world from outside interference. Ill-wishers even spread rumors about Stolypin's almost painful dependence on the opinion of his dearest wife. Allegedly, Olga Borisovna had a huge influence on her husband, and it is by her will that Peter Arkadyevich makes some decisions. In fact, Stolypin never asked his wife for advice on state affairs, and she would not dare to give them. Pyotr Arkadyevich could only reflect or talk about the decisions that he had already taken in his letters and conversations with his wife.

But Stolypin and his wife completely did not pay attention to the rumors that arose around them, to the dislike of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the cooling on the part of Nicholas II. But in 1906, a real disaster struck their home.

In August 1906, two terrorists blew up the Stolypin house on Aptekarsky Island, killing 30 people on the spot, and injuring another 70. Stolypin's daughter Natalya was seriously injured. The father himself took her and her son Arkady out of the rubble. Natasha barely managed to save her legs, broken in many places, but until the end of her days she experienced severe pain.

Subsequently, the whole family lived in fear of assassination attempts. However, no one gave a sign, because all the Stolypins, young and old, had natural restraint and knew how not to show their emotions in public. In fact, there were several more attempts on Stolypin's life.

On September 1, 1911, Dmitry Bogrov shot Pyotr Stolypin at the Kiev theater in the presence of the Tsar. Falling, wounded in the arm and in the stomach, Pyotr Arkadyevich baptized Nicholas II and, losing consciousness, said: "Happy to die for the Tsar …"

Three days later, Stolypin was gone. Olga Borisovna was next to her husband until the last second. She seemed cold and reserved. And only her eyes seemed to be frozen, and her face seemed just stone.

After the death of her beloved husband, she still had to learn to live without him. Raise children, stoically endure the trials that have befallen their families. For several years after the 1917 revolution, the children and wife of Pyotr Stolypin emigrated abroad. In 1920, Olga, beaten by the Red Army in Nemirov, tragically died.

Olga Borisovna settled in Paris in 1921 and devoted herself to perpetuating the memory of Pyotr Arkadyevich. She died on October 22, 1944, all alone in a nursing home in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where she spent her final years.

At the time of Stolypin's birth, his noble family had existed for over 300 years. The legendary poet Lermontov was a fairly close relative of Pyotr Arkadyevich. Fearlessness is associated with the personality of Stolypin, in addition to his state merits. More than ten assassination attempts fell to his lot, but he did not retreat from his principles. The legendary reformer of the Russian Empire in different periods served as governor in several provinces, then was appointed head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and by the end of his life he became prime minister.