Quadruple duel over a ballerina: How Alexander Griboyedov took part in a bloody duel

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

These four young people - and none of the participants in the events at that time was more than twenty-five - did not, of course, think that they would end up in the chronicles of duels, in which both the main opponents and the seconds shoot themselves. No, they were driven by something completely different - love and jealousy, loyalty and hostility, nobility and self-sacrifice. Like any duel, this one left its mark on the further fate of its participants - those, of course, who survived.

Love triangle or misunderstanding: Istomina, Sheremetev and Zavadovsky

In 1815, twenty-year-old Vasily Sheremetev fell in love with the famous ballerina Avdotya Istomin - the one who was “surrounded by a crowd of nymphs”, the one that was sung in the novel “Eugene Onegin”. The captain-captain of the Cavalry Regiment, who had time to take part in military campaigns, including the Battle of Borodino in World War II, Sheremetev won the artist's favor and settled her in his apartment. For two years Istomina lived in his care, but by the end of 1817 she “intended to leave”: not that because of Vasily's difficult, restless disposition, not, as evil tongues claimed, simply because she did not receive enough gifts. In November, a quarrel broke out between Avdotya and Sheremetev, and the ballerina moved out of his apartment.

On the 17th, Griboyedov came to Istomina's dressing room and, in a conversation, invited him to tea, to the apartment he shared with Alexander Zavadovsky at the time. It was a young count, a gambler and a rake, and it was rumored that he had been in love with the same ballerina for some time, and therefore with his gesture Griboyedov allegedly wanted to give his friend a kind of gift. Istomina accepted the invitation.

A few days later, Sheremetev, in despair from the gap between them, begged Istomin to return to him and even threatened to shoot himself if he refused; she agreed. Under a hail of questions about how she had spent the last days, Avdotya told about tea with Zavadovsky, and an enraged Sheremetev went to his opponent with a challenge to a duel. Not one - he was accompanied by a friend, Alexander Yakubovich. Zavadovsky assured that there was no reason for a duel, that he himself had no desire to shoot, but would be at Sheremetev's services if he insisted. Yakubovich, in turn, summoned Griboyedov.

The first part of the duel

The details of the conflict and fights are poorly known: of course, all the persons involved were connected in a certain way - both by the law prohibiting dueling and by the unwritten rules of the noble code of honor. During the proceedings, many tried to present others in the best possible light, or simply remained silent, leaving room for speculation. Therefore, the course of events in November 1817, and then in the fall of 1818, can now be restored only approximately, with some assumptions. In particular, there is reason to believe that by the time of the scandal around the ballerina there were some personal scores between Griboyedov and Yakubovich.

On November 12, 1817, opponents - Sheremetev and Zavadovsky, as well as their seconds - Yakubovich and Griboyedov met on Volkovo Pole. They fired, converging six steps at a barrier of eighteen. Sheremetev was the first to shoot; the bullet pierced the collar or side of Zavadovsky's coat. He, as it was stated later, wanted to avoid bloodshed by shooting in the air, or to do with "little blood", shooting in the enemy's leg, but Sheremetev was categorically determined that only one of them should stay alive. Zavadovsky had no choice but to shoot to kill.

The shot fell in the stomach, the wound was fatal. Vasily Sheremetev was taken to an apartment, where he died the next day. The second part of the "quadruple" duel, the duel of the seconds, was postponed for this reason. Of course, an investigation was started, and the father of the murdered man himself petitioned the emperor to forgive Zavadovsky. After the end of the investigation, the count, who was considered acting out of "the need for legal defense", left Russia abroad, to London, where he died in 1856.

Second duel

Yakubovich was sent to serve in the Caucasus, by the way, in the same dragoon regiment, in which Mikhail Lermontov would later appear. There, in Tiflis, the seconds met: Griboyedov, who was appointed secretary of the Russian embassy in Persia, was often in this city on duty. The duel, once postponed due to the mortal wound of one of the participants, it was finally decided to hold. This fight took place near the village of Kuki on October 23, 1818.

And here there were seconds who no longer took personal part in the shooting: the diplomat Amburger from Griboyedov's side and Nikolai Muravyov, a friend of Yakubovich. The future author of "Woe from Wit" shot in the air, his opponent aimed at the stomach, but hit Griboyedov's left hand. In 1829, during the massacre in Tehran, Griboyedov was killed. The body was identified thanks to the traces of that very wound.

Alexander Yakubovich continued his service after the duel. He was famous for his unprecedented prowess, was the first to rush into battle, "akin" to the Caucasus, adopting both the customs and temperament of the mountaineers with whom he communicated. In 1825 he came to St. Petersburg and there he took part in the December uprising. After the trial of the Decembrists, Yakubovich went into exile, first to the Nerchinsk mines, later to a settlement near Irkutsk. He died in 1845. Avdotya Istomina, the unwitting culprit of everything that happened, continued her career in the theater. At the age of forty, after leaving the stage, she married the actor Ekunin. The former lover of Vasily Sheremetev died in 1848 from cholera.

Read also: famous men who vied for the attention of one lady.