Nashchokin's dollhouse: How an expensive toy of Pushkin's friend became a priceless historical rarity. Almanac "Day by Day": Science
In 1910, artist and collector S.A. Galyashkin exhibited a miniature Nashchokino house in the hall of the Academy of Arts. The response from visitors was overwhelming. What so impressed viewers of the early twentieth century? And what about this “toy” attracts us today? You can learn about this at the exhibition “Not a house, but a toy!”, the opening of which is timed to coincide with the 215th anniversary of the birth of P.V. Nashchokina.
Interior of the living room of the Nashchokino house.
The house, which became the central exhibit of the exhibition, contains miniature copies of furnishings and household items of a noble house of the 1820s–1830s. Many of them were made by famous craftsmen of that time, for example, furniture was ordered from the workshop of the Gumbs brothers, porcelain service from the A. Popov factory. They are current models real things: the centipede table can be extended, all the drawers in a tiny sideboard can be pulled out, you can shoot a 4.4 cm pistol, boil water in a samovar, light a floor lamp, and play a Fisher piano using knitting needles. The “toy” was expensive: it is known that Nashchokin spent 40,000 rubles on furnishing and arranging the house.
S. A. Galyashkin at the Nashchokino house at the exhibition at the Academy of Sciences
1910
Phototype
The house is certainly a unique example of decorative and applied art.
But the special value for us of this “toy” is that it is associated with the name of A.S. Pushkin.
When coming to Moscow, the poet always stayed in the Voinych house in a room that the household called “Pushkin’s”. He could confide in Nashchokin his most intimate thoughts, share the joys and sorrows of “family life,” being always confident in his friend’s “amazing good nature and intelligent, patient condescension.” The poet followed the creation of the house with interest. It can be assumed that he gave Nashchokin advice on his arrangement; in any case, his passion for this idea can be read in letters to his wife, N.N. Pushkina. On December 8, 1831, the poet wrote: “His [Nashchokin’s] house (remember?) is being finished off; what candlesticks, what service! he ordered a piano on which a spider could play, and a ship on which only a Spanish fly could defecate.”
Seven and a half octave piano from the Nashchokino house. From the VMP collection.
At the exhibition, the Nashchokino house is displayed surrounded by objects from the Pushkin era. A comparison makes it possible to appreciate the work of the masters of the first third of the 19th century who created its furnishings. An English grandfather clock, a card table, a sideboard, and armchairs are original “prototypes” of the small exhibits that we see through the windows of the house. “Interior units” form the office, living room, and dining room areas, repeating the arrangement of the main rooms of the house. The display cases display miniature objects from the museum’s collection that were not included in the Nashchokino house complex, and their real analogues, many of which are memorial items.
For more than 70 years, the Nashchokino house has been in the collection of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin. For 30 of these years, museum employee G.I. was the custodian of the complex of objects in the house. Nazarova, who did a lot to study and popularize it. Her communication with Nashchokin’s descendants made it possible to replenish the museum’s collection with memorial items. Today on display are the owner’s wallet, a samovar, a fruit knife, and silverware from the Nashchokins’ “big house.” The life of this family is depicted in detail in the painting by N.I. Podklyuchnikov “The Living Room in the Nashchokin House”, written in 1938. Pushkin is also depicted there, or rather, his marble bust by the sculptor I.P. Vitali. The death of the poet was a huge shock for Nashchokin; he blamed himself for not being able to save his friend. An exhibit that “screams” about this loss is a portrait of A.S. Pushkin, which Pavel Voinovich ordered K.-P. Mather after the poet's death. It is known that he himself posed for the artist in Pushkin’s characteristic pose and in his favorite arkhaluk, which was kept in Nashchokin’s family.
The concepts of “home”, “family”, “clan” meant a lot to both friends. Therefore, the exhibition contains portraits of their wives - N.N. Pushkina and V.A. Nashchokina, their personal belongings: an inkwell, a ball slipper and a cup and saucer of Natalya Nikolaevna; Vera Alexandrovna's box, signet and notebook; copies of Pushkin’s letters to his wife and P.V. Nashchokin with a mention of a small house, an image of the coat of arms of the Nashchokin family, correspondence from members of his family.
Cellar for silverware. From the VMP collection.
Generous gentleman and gambler, P.V. Nashchokin was a fine connoisseur of fine arts and literature. Among his acquaintances were the poets P.A. Vyazemsky and E.A. Baratynsky, actor M.S. Shchepkin, artist K.P. Bryullov. In Nashchokin’s house I read chapters from “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, the composer, the founder of the nocturne genre, the Irishman John Field, often visited, the artist P.F. lived for some time. Sokolov. A separate section of the exhibition presents objects associated with the name of this most talented portrait painter of the first third of the 19th century: his self-portrait in Nashchokin’s house, the artist’s inkwell, pieces of miniature furniture carved from bone, which were stored in a drawer of his bureau, which entered the museum’s collections.
Centipede table
Gumbs Brothers Factory (?)
Russia. 1830s
Mahogany, copper. 14 × 38 × 31.3 cm
The organizers of the exhibition could not help but pay tribute to the memory of the man who revived the Nashchokino house - Sergei Aleksandrovich Galyashkin. In 1910, a photograph was taken showing it against the backdrop of the house - evidence of the first public display of a unique exhibit. The documentary series is continued by a sheet from the collector’s personal file, as well as letters from the artist Konstantin Somov to his sister on postcards depicting the Nashchokino house. They show interiors in which small figures are placed - miniature sculptural images of Pushkin, Nashchokin, Zhukovsky. In a letter to his wife dated May 4, 1836, Pushkin wrote: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people. How Masha would rejoice at them!” Having bought the house, Galyashkin restored the plaster figures; today some of them can be seen at the exhibition.
Samovar
Russia. 1830s
Silver, bone. 8.7 × 64 cm
Kettle with lid
Russia. 1830s
Silver, gilding. 3 × 2.5 × 2.5 cm
Rusk bowl
1830s
Silver, gilding. 4.5 × 5.5 × 4.5 cm
For many years, the Nashchokino house has remained one of the most interesting and truly living exhibits of the museum. It forever united the names of friends - Pushkin and Nashchokin, and became the material embodiment of the memory of their relationship and their time. And he still gives the joy of being part of the magic.
The grand opening of the exhibition took place in the Green Hall of the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin on December 2, 2016 within the framework of the V St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The exhibition will continue until March 19, 2017.
Interior of the dining room of the Nashchokino house
Floor clock
Russia. 1830s
Mahogany, copper, brass, glass. 30.7 × 8.2 × 4.7 cm
Travel samovar
1830s
Copper. 10.5 × 4.5 × 7.6 cm
Interior of the office of the Nashchokinsky house
Tube stand
1830s
Wood, bone. 23 cm (height); 11.4 cm (diameter)
Travel pistols
Belgium, Liege. 1830s
Steel, gilded bronze
Literary and monographic exhibition "A.S. Pushkin. Life and Creativity"
Address: St. Petersburg, Moika River embankment, 12
Directions: St. metro stations "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Admiralteyskaya", any type of transport along Nevsky Prospekt to Bolshaya Konyushennaya st. or Palace Square
I came from St. Petersburg on the occasion of the anniversary of the Moscow Museum of A.S. Pushkin (60 years).
But what exactly are we talking about? You can say the same about a toy. It belonged to Pushkin’s friend Pavel Nashchokin.
Well, here it is: at some point (prosperous in financially, which did not always happen to Pavel Voinovich), Pushkin’s friend came up with a strange whim: to make a copy of his house, with all the furniture and other things that were in it, one-seventh the size. And imagine, I actually ordered the entire furnishings - not external copies, but completely functional items. Only tiny ones.
The piano, by the way, was also real - according to the testimony of one of his contemporaries, Nashchokin’s wife even played it - with the help of knitting needles.
Miniature copies of paintings were made for the house. And also everything that was required for billiards (I wonder if you tried playing it?).
All household utensils were also made in miniatures. (From Pushkin’s letter to Natalya Nikolaevna, about his visit to Nashchokin: “His house (remember?) is being finished off; what kind of candlesticks, what kind of service! He ordered a piano that a spider could play on...")
And here you have Pushkin himself visiting the owner - clearly reading something new.
This figure was subsequently made into a copy at the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
The house gained considerable popularity in Moscow at that time; people went specially to see it. But what happened next to his fate?
Alas, alas. The frivolous owner, having once again lost, mortgaged the house but never bought it back. The curious toy passed from one antiquarian to another, gradually its parts became scattered. And most importantly, the house itself, which reproduced a two-story city mansion, disappeared.
By the way, which one exactly? Museum workers studied Nashchokin's Moscow addresses - and there were a lot of them. Here is a house in Gagarinsky Lane.
Here on Bolshaya Polyanka.
Here in Vorotnikovsky Lane. And all of them, mind you, are two-story - how can you tell?
Returning to the fate of the contents: the artist Sergei Galyashkin took up the matter at the beginning of the 20th century - he came across some of the items from an antique dealer, and he searched for another part (unfortunately, not all) on purpose. In 1910, the house he restored was demonstrated in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow and Tsarskoye Selo. Photographs of this reconstruction have been preserved.
After 1917, the house ended up in the Historical Museum. In 1937 it was demonstrated at the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition. During the war it was evacuated, and the architectural frame recreated by Galyashkin was lost. Well, now he lives in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg - from where he came to Moscow.
Moscow museum workers, of course, supplemented the exhibition with their own materials. Here is a portrait of Nashchokin’s wife Vera Alexandrovna.
There are a lot of different things from the Nashchokin family, among which is a fan depicting frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The furniture (this time full-size) is also from the Nashchokins’ Moscow apartment.
And this is an image of the living room in the Nashchokinsky house (the real one) by the artist Nikolai Podklyuchnikov. The inhabitants of the house themselves are also here.
Pay attention to this bust in the painting that came from St. Petersburg. Doesn't remind you of anyone?
So the Moscow museum people decided that it was reminiscent and placed their own bust by Ivan Vitali closer.
Well, the exhibition “Nashchokinsky House” opened in the main building of the A.S. Pushkin Museum on Prechistenka. 168 miniature objects were brought to it (initially there were up to six hundred of them, a little more than half have survived). The exhibition will last until December.
Exhibition halls on the 1st floor
State Museum of A.S. Pushkin
st. Prechistenka, 12/2 (metro station "Kropotkinskaya")
Exhibition
“Nashchokinsky house - a trip to Moscow”
To the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin"
With the participation of the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin
Exhibition time:
From October 4 to December 3, 2017
“My little house” - that’s what Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin called a miniature copy of his Moscow house. His friends who were abroad spoke with admiration about the long European tradition of creating dollhouses. Perhaps the works of the German romanticE. T. A. Hoffmann prompted Nashchokin to order copies of all the objects around him from famous masters. The furniture for the house was made in the famous workshop of the Gumbs brothers, the porcelain service was made at the A. Popov factory. The special value of these items is that they are working models of real things: you can boil water in a samovar, play a Fisher piano using knitting needles, or play a game of pyramid on billiards.
The creation of the house was witnessed by A.S. Pushkin, a friend of Nashchokin. In letters to his wife from Moscow, the poet talked about his friend’s quirk. On December 8, 1831 he wrote: “His house (remember?) is being finished; what candlesticks, what service! he ordered a piano on which a spider could play, and a vessel on which only a Spanish fly could defecate.” A year later, Pushkin informed Natalya Nikolaevna: “I see Nashchokin every day. He had a feast in his house: they served a little mouse in sour cream with horseradish in the shape of a pig. It's a pity there were no guests. In terms of its spirituality, this house refuses you.” And on May 4, 1836: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people. How Masha (A.S. Pushkin’s daughter) would rejoice at them.”
But the house was never transferred to the Pushkin family. Soon after the poet's death, Nashchokin was forced to pawn it. The fate of this relic, which passed from one antique dealer to another, was complicated. Only half a century later it was discovered and restored by the artist and collector S. A. Galyashkin. He organized exhibitions: at the Academy of Sciences in 1910, then at the Moscow Literary and Artistic Circle and in Tsarskoye Selo for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov family in 1913.
In 1919, the house was requisitioned, brought to the building of the English Club, where the State Museum Fund was located, from where in 1922 it was transferred to the Museum of Old Moscow. After the merger of this museum with the Historical Museum in 1926, the relic became part of the collections of the Historical Museum.
In the year of the 100th anniversary of the death of Pushkin, the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition was opened, the materials of which became the basis of the newly formed A. S. Pushkin Museum. Having survived the evacuation, the house again appeared in the museum’s exhibition, housed in 17 halls of the State Hermitage.
The next milestone in the life of the house was the move to the church wing of the Catherine Palace in Pushkin in 1967. For 20 years, the Nashchokino house was located in one of the 27 halls of the exhibition “A. S. Pushkin. Personality, life and creativity."
For the 200th anniversary of the poet appeared new opportunity present the house to the public in all its splendor in the literary exhibition of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, on Moika, 12.
In the 21st century, the house left St. Petersburg only once, to end up in Moscow on Vorotnikovsky Lane, where Nashchokin lived in the 19th century (in 2001 it housed the gallery “Nashchokin’s House”).
After a 16-year break, the house again traveled to Moscow, and for two months it will be exhibited in the exhibition halls of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, on Prechistenka, 12.
Model of the “Nashchokinsky House”, presented at an exhibition in the conference hall of the Academy of Sciences in 1910. The model was commissioned by S.A. Galyashkina.
The tradition of creating miniature houses, palaces and even cities filled with replicas of objects has existed in Europe since the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Museums in Holland and Germany still contain wonderful dollhouses, which are collections of reduced objects from a rich house, not only with living rooms, but also an art cabinet, collections of paintings, a library made up of miniature books, and much more. During the reign of Peter the Great, the custom came to Russia. In Russia, the first such miniature copy was the so-called Nashchokinsky house.
In terms of the number of surviving items (611), it does not exceed many similar models, but it contains such a number of things from Pushkin’s time that are not found in any historical, everyday or literary memorial museum of the first third of the 19th century. During Pushkin’s life, his friend, Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin, came up with the happy idea of copying his apartment in a reduced form with all the furnishings in it. Nashchokin loved to amaze countless friends, acquaintances and admirers with all sorts of ideas and fantasies. The original and unusual caused him a surge of excitement and was immediately brought to life. It is unknown which apartment Nashchokin recreated - over the years of working on the model, he moved several times. It is possible that Nashchokin’s initial idea grew into a desire to reproduce a rich noble mansion typical of the era of the 1820s - 1830s.
"Nashchokinsky house". Dining room. 1830s All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin. Saint Petersburg.
"Nashchokinsky house". Cabinet. 1830s. All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin. Saint Petersburg.
"Nashchokinsky house". Living room. 1830s All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin. Saint Petersburg.
All the things in the house - a table set for dinner, chairs with wicker seats, sofas and armchairs, paintings on the walls, gilded bronze chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a deck of cards on the card table - are not just toys or props. Made to order by Nashchokin by skilled cabinetmakers, bronzers, jewelers and other craftsmen, the items in the House can be used for their intended purpose.
You can fire a pistol 4.4 centimeters long, boil water in a samovar that can be easily held with two fingers, light an oil lamp with a round matte lampshade the size of Walnut. The small house cost Nashchokin 40 thousand rubles. For this amount at that time it was possible to purchase a real mansion. The architectural shell of the Nashchokinsky house has not reached us. Judging by the descriptions, the House was an oblong regular quadrangle, framed by Bohemian mirror glass, and formed two compartments, upper and lower. The top floor contained a solid dance hall with a table in the middle, set for sixty cuverts; the lower floor consisted of living quarters and was filled with everything that was required for some grand ducal palace. Having gone bankrupt, Nashchokin mortgaged the House and was no longer able to buy it back. The house traveled from one antique store to another until it was discovered by the artist S.A. Galyashkin bought it. Having found some missing items and replaced the lost ones, Sergei Alexandrovich placed them in a two-story case house and in the spring of 1910 exhibited “Nashchokin’s house” in St. Petersburg and in Tsarskoe Selo, where celebrations were held in connection with the bicentennial of the suburb. Now the House is kept in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
A.S. Pushkin in the interior of the Nashchokinsky House. Gypsum. The author of the model is N.A. Stepanov (?). All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin. Saint Petersburg.
Poet's friend
Dmitry Zubov
After Pushkin's death, many rushed to declare themselves his friends. A minute meeting at a ball or in an aristocratic salon seemed to be a sufficient reason for this. The true companions and accomplices in the life of Alexander Sergeevich often remained in the shadows. One of them, 15 years after the tragic events, was discovered in Moscow by the young Pushkinist Bartenev. The name of the forgotten witness of Pushkin's days was Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin.
K. Mather. Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin. 1839
“Nashchokin is busy with business, and his house is so messy and jumbled that his head is spinning. From morning to evening he has different peoples: players, retired hussars, students, solicitors, gypsies, spies, especially lenders. All free entry; everyone cares about him; everyone shouts, smokes a pipe, dines, sings, dances; There is no free corner - what should I do? - this is how Pushkin describes his friend’s life to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna.
"Pushkin was short, brown-haired, with very curly hair, with blue eyes extraordinary attractiveness, I have seen many portraits of him, but I must sadly admit that not one of them conveyed even a hundredth part of the spiritual beauty of his appearance - especially his amazing eyes. These were special, poetic, sincere eyes, which reflected the entire abyss of thoughts and sensations experienced by the soul of the great poet. I have never seen such eyes on anyone else in my entire long life." Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina
It was a strange friendship... Pushkin is two years older than his friend and, in the constellation of the most brilliant lyceum graduate, is a star of the first magnitude. Nashchokin, studying at a boarding school of a lower rank, all at the same Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, could not even complete the course. Literary victories, devoted fans, and the highest patrons awaited Pushkin ahead, while Nashchokina was modest. military service(and God knows what: he retired with the rank of lieutenant). Their correspondence also cannot but surprise: Pushkin’s light and, as always, elegant style - and Nashchokin’s sincere, but clumsy messages, the punctuation and spelling of which can lead to heart attack any wordsmith. “Do me a favor, don’t correct your mistakes - there are many of them - and this will embarrass me,” he asks Alexander Sergeevich.
The list of differences in their destinies and characters can be continued endlessly, over and over again convincing ourselves and others of the fundamental impossibility of such relationships. But, thank God, true friendship is built according to different laws. She does not look at the certificate, is not interested in ranks, does not depend on the placement of commas; she lives differently - with a sensitive heart, a generous soul, a readiness to respond in word and deed to any call. Otherwise, Pushkin would never have had a friend Nashchokin, their paths simply would not have crossed.
Nashchokin was a cheerful, wasteful, gambling man, he easily gave loans, forgetting to demand payment of the debt, welcomed the homeless and unsettled, reconciled those who quarreled, shared the last thing he had. He then became fabulously rich, having won at cards or received an unexpected inheritance, and then threw Lucullus's feasts for his friends, remembering which his other faithful comrade Gogol once again asked: “For God's sake, don’t feed” so that after dinner we will be at least somewhat like bipeds "; then, completely ruined, he relied only on providence and the help of friends, of whom he had many in difficult times. “Only in Rus' alone could it be possible to exist in this way,” Gogol wrote in “Dead Souls,” clearly copying his literary hero from Pavel Voinovich. “Having nothing, he treated and provided hospitality, and even provided patronage.”
K. E. Sevastyanov. P. V. Nashchokin and A. S. Pushkin at the Nashchokinsky house
Unknown artist. Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina. Late 1830s
When visiting Moscow, Pushkin always stopped at “Voynych”. He rejoiced like a child when the coachmen unerringly found the way to his friend’s house, although he often changed apartments. And here the quiet home life that the poet valued so much awaited him: a sofa, a pipe and endless conversations. And when the hour of separation came, the hope remained that it wouldn’t be long, it would be worth waiting a little, and again “we’ll see each other in passing and talk to our heart’s content.” But weeks and months flew by, and still there was no long-awaited meeting, and I could only dream: “Whenever we can see you!” I would tell you a lot; A lot has accumulated for me this year that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk about on your sofa, with a pipe in my mouth...”
But they always had letters at their disposal - kind, warm, sincere, written as is, from the heart (Pushkin forbade Nashchokin to write drafts), and, of course, full of humor. In this art, friends were worth each other. “Tell Nashchokin that he must be alive,” Pushkin conveyed greetings to his friend through their mutual acquaintance, “firstly, because he owes me; 2) because I hope to owe him, 3) that if he dies, I will have no one in Moscow to speak to who is alive, that is, intelligent and friendly.” Nashchokin, too, did not remain in debt and did not reach into his pocket for a sharp word: “What a pity that I am writing to you - I would have told you a lot of funny things,” among others there was a visitor from the provinces who said that your poems are not in fashion, - and they are reading a new poet, and whoever you think is the task again - his name is Eugene Onegin.”
Unknown artist. Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina. Late 1830s
Some memoirists wrote that Nashchokin built the House to perpetuate the memory of his friend and poet. Most likely this is a legend. But nevertheless, the model eventually acquired a Pushkin aura. Years and decades later, it became, as it were, an embodied memory of the poet. “Of course, this thing is precious as a monument of antiquity and painstaking art,” wrote A. I. Kuprin, “but it is incomparably more dear to us, as an almost living evidence of that environment... in which Pushkin simply and so willingly lived.
The friends became especially close in the year before the poet’s wedding: Pushkin asked for advice from the more experienced Nashchokin, arranged his financial affairs through him, and in the end walked down the aisle in Pavel Voinovich’s tailcoat, to save money, so as not to spend money, since they were the same height as him They say that the poet was buried in the same attire.
“The memory of Pushkin is dear to me not because of his celebrity in the literary world, but because of the close friendship that connected us,” Nashchokin admitted to Pogodin at the end of his life, and he was not lying. After the falsehood and pomp of high-society Petersburg with its intriguers and envious people, after financial troubles and the harsh pressure of censorship, Pushkin, coming to Moscow, rested his soul in the company of Nashchokin, dear to his heart. Here he was truly happy, appreciating every meeting, every minute of conversation: “They say that misfortune is a good school: maybe. But happiness is the best university. It completes the education of a soul capable of good and beautiful things, like yours, my friend...”
Not only Pushkin, but also the poet’s young wife fell under the charm of Pavel Voinovich’s generous nature. Among all her husband’s friends and acquaintances, Natalya Nikolaevna unmistakably singled out Nashchokin and did not miss the opportunity to convey her sincere greetings and kisses to a family friend in a letter. You can’t deceive a woman’s heart... And Voinych was going to leave Pushkina’s most expensive treasure as an inheritance - a doll’s house, a model of a two-story noble mansion, known today under the name of its owner as “Nashchokin’s House.” This is truly an amazing monument of the era! With his characteristic breadth, Nashchokin ordered interior items for the house from the best Russian and European craftsmen. The precision of the details of the noble home was amazing: an extendable table for sixty people, porcelain dishes, tablecloths, napkins, billiards and even a small piano, which could be played by pressing the keys with a thin stick. In total there are more than six hundred items of noble life. Pushkin, who saw this miracle, wrote to his wife from Moscow: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people.”
N. Podklyuchnikov. The Nashchokin family. 1839
What is this, another eccentricity of the Russian master? It’s unlikely, most likely the idea for the house came to Nashchokin during the difficult hours of separation, in one of those moments about which he speaks in a letter: “You cannot imagine what a bad influence your departure had—there is no one to wait for, no one to go to.” From biographers a beautiful legend was even born that Nashchokin was building a house in order to thereby forever capture the image of his friend, to preserve the memory of those rooms where Pushkin lived and those things that his hand touched. In this doll world there are no worries and worries, illness, old age and death are unknown to it, this world does not know separation, and eternal love, joy and happiness reigns here. How Nashchokin wanted to shelter, hide his dear friend from all the troubles and worries of this world in his little toy kingdom! As if Pavel Voinovich felt something unkind - at the last meeting he handed Pushkin a ring with turquoise, which supposedly protects him from violent death... Natalya Nikolaevna did not become the heiress of the house - Nashchokin pawned it in the next “dark” times. The donated ring did not save the Russian poet - Pushkin did not have it with him, according to the testimony of his seconds, during the duel.
In the evening of the tragic day, Pavel Voinovich had a vision: he thought he heard the steps of a friend and a familiar voice. He jumped up and ran out to meet him - no one. I interviewed the servants and suddenly realized: something bad had happened to Pushkin! “Pavel Voinovich, who worried so much last days Having received the fatal news, he went to bed and spent several days in a fever and delirium. I, too, could barely stand on my feet. Day and night we didn’t turn off the lights,” recalled Nashchokin’s wife. For a long time Nashchokin could not forgive those who were next to the poet and did not intervene, did not stop, did not avert the trouble. N.I. Kulikov, who visited the inconsolable Nashchokin during the days of mourning, recalled how he rushed from side to side, not finding a place for himself. “If I had lived there at that time,” said Nashchokin, “he would not have done such stupid things. I would not have allowed their duel, I would have forced both Dantes and his scoundrel father to respect such a poet, worship him and apologize to him.”
________________________________________ ________________________________________ __________________________
There was no friend, no one to greet with open arms in the hallway, no one, as before, to write in a letter with longing and hope: “maybe you’ll come to Moscow again and warm yourself up.” All that remains are memories, a stack of letters read to holes and a rapidly thinning circle of people, connecting with a priceless past with a thin thread... But in this sadness, oddly enough, you especially clearly begin to realize how happy those who, like Pushkin and Nashchokin, are marked by a great gift of fate - true friendship.
MAN WITHOUT BOUNDARIES
The lanes between Arbat and Prechistenka, in the figurative expression of Prince Peter Kropotkin, the Saint-Germain suburb of Moscow, have always attracted creative and unusual people. Among the local inhabitants there were and still are many big names. The famous Moscow madcaps also lived here, giving life in old Moscow a unique and beloved style of cheerful recklessness.
Pavel Nashchokin
Arriving in Moscow, Pushkin took a cab and said: “To Nashchokin!”; no further clarification was required - all the cab drivers knew where Pavel Voinovich’s house was. True, the bohemian atmosphere in Nashchokin’s house seemed too vain even to Alexander Sergeevich, who, as is known, was not a supporter of excessive decorum and stiffness. This is how he described his impressions of Nashchokin’s house in a letter to his wife: “I’m bored here; Nashchokin is busy with business, and his house is such a mess and chaos that my head is spinning. From morning to evening he has different people: players, retired hussars, students, solicitors, gypsies, especially moneylenders. Everyone has a free entrance; everyone shouts, smokes a pipe, dines, sings, dances; there is no free corner - what to do?.. Yesterday Nashchokin gave us a gypsy evening; I’ve lost the habit of this, and the screaming of the guests and the singing of the gypsies still gives me a headache.”But although Pushkin allowed himself to grumble at Nashchokin in a friendly manner, they were united by the most faithful and devoted friendship. Nashchokin even became the godfather of Pushkin’s eldest son. He would have baptized his second son, but due to illness he could not come to St. Petersburg for the christening.
Pushkin and Nashchokin met back in Tsarskoe Selo - Alexander Sergeevich studied at the Lyceum, and Nashchokin studied at the Noble boarding school at the Lyceum, where Levushka Pushkin, the poet’s younger brother, was brought up with Pavel. Subsequently, Pushkin and Nashchokin met in St. Petersburg, but they truly became friends in Moscow when Pushkin returned from exile.
An open, generous, sincere character, a penchant for good eccentricities attracted Nashchokin different people. Among his friends were V.A. Zhukovsky, E.A. Baratynsky, N.V. Gogol, V.G. Belinsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, actor M.S. Shchepkin, composers M.Yu. Vilyegorsky and A.N. Verstovsky, artists K.P. Bryullov and P.F. Sokolov... Contemporaries said that half of Moscow was related to Nashchokin, and the other half were his closest friends. N.V. Gogol wrote to Nashchokin: “...You have never lost your soul, you have never betrayed its noble movements, you were able to acquire the involuntary respect of worthy and intelligent people and at the same time the most sincere friendship of Pushkin.”
“Only Nashchokin loves me”, “Nashchokin is my only joy here,” Pushkin wrote from Moscow in letters to his wife. “...I’m chatting with him,” Pushkin asserted. Indeed, many recall their “endless conversations.” A variety of topics were raised - Pushkin read drafts of new works to Nashchokin and listened to his friend’s opinion, talking about the most secret impressions of his life and the movements of his soul. For example, only Nashchokin could Pushkin trust his terrible childhood impressions of the death of his brother Nikolai in 1807. (This death shocked eight-year-old Alexander. He told Nashchokin how he and his brother “quarreled and played; and when the baby got sick, Pushkin felt sorry for him, he approached the crib with sympathy; the sick brother, to tease him, stuck out his tongue at him and soon then died").
Nashchokin’s unbridled, passionate, but at the same time artistic nature constantly pushed him to unusual adventures. Once, having fallen in love with the beautiful actress Asenkova, he dressed up as a girl and joined his idol as a maid. (Pushkin used this story for the plot of “The House in Kolomna”). Nashchokin was either interested in alchemy or became involved with card sharpers. Having become interested in the gypsy singer Olya, he bought her from the gypsy choir for a lot of money and settled her in his house as his wife. Later Nashchokin got married to another woman. He met the illegitimate daughter of his distant relative, born of a serf maid, and fell in love. Pushkin advised his friend to get married and was at his wedding.
P.V. Nashchokin with his family, 1839
Nashchokin was an extraordinary storyteller. Pushkin, who considered his friend capable of writing and used the plots of his stories (for example, Nashchokin’s story about the robber-nobleman Ostrovsky suggested the plot of “Dubrovsky”), persuaded Pavel Voinovich to write at least memoirs about his eventful life. “What are your memories?” Pushkin asked his friend in a letter. “I hope you won’t abandon them. Write them in the form of letters to me. It will be more pleasant for me, and it will be easier for you too.” Pushkin was going to publish these “memories”, subjecting them to literary processing. But Nashchokin’s “Memoirs” were never completed, although the sheets with Pushkin’s edits were preserved. But... “He was sick of persistent work. Nothing came of his pen.”
Pushkin, finding himself in difficult circumstances, often turned to Nashchokin for help, and it happened that he himself helped him out in financial matters. Actor N.I., who knew Nashchokin closely. Kulikov recalled that Nashchokin “lived precisely according to the broad Russian-lordly nature, and, wherever necessary, he did good, helping the poor, and gave loans to those who asked, never demanding repayment and being content only with voluntary return.” Friends were never afraid to lend money to Nashchokin himself. Pushkin, being in the most cramped circumstances before his marriage, was forced to mortgage 200 souls of serfs. However, from the amount received, he allocated 10,000 rubles to lend to Nashchokin. In a letter to Pletnev, talking about the distribution of his meager income for a nobleman getting married, he mentions: “10,000 to Nashchokin to help him out of bad circumstances: sure money.” The amount of the deposit received was quickly sold out; ordering a decent tailcoat for the wedding was expensive. Pushkin got married in the tailcoat of Pavel Nashchokin. Eyewitnesses mentioned that the poet was buried in the same wedding coat after the fatal duel.
"Little House" by Nashchokin
Nashchokin’s main eccentricity, not understood by his contemporaries, and only appreciated by his descendants, is the famous “little house”. Dreaming of preserving the memory of the interiors of his house, associated with the name of Pushkin and other great guests, Nashchokin ordered a model of the rooms of his mansion with all the furnishings. The house, measuring 2.5 by 2 meters, was made of mahogany. It housed two residential floors and a semi-basement. Exact copies of furnishings were ordered from the best factories and workshops of that time, only their proportions were greatly reduced in comparison with the originals.
Dining table and dishes from Nashchokin's house (compared to actual size tableware)
“Imagining people in the size of the average height of children’s dolls,” wrote N.I. Kulikov, “based on this scale, he ordered the first masters all the accessories for this house: the general’s boots on lasts were made by the best St. Petersburg shoemaker Paul; a piano of seven and a half octaves - Wirth; ... the furniture, the extendable dining table was made by Gumbs, tablecloths, everything that was needed for 24 kuverts - everything was made in the best factories."
Dining room from Nashchokin's house
The table in the dining room was set in the most exquisite way - slender purple glasses, green tulip-shaped wine glasses, silverware, samovars. The walls of the house were decorated with paintings in gilded frames. An elegant beaded cushion was thrown onto the living room sofa. A bronze chandelier with crystal, a card table with cards, billiards, candlesticks with candles - everything you need for life.
Small living room
Pushkin was delighted with this idea. In December 1831, he wrote to his wife: “His house (remember?) is being finished; what candlesticks, what service! He ordered a piano that a spider could play, and a ship that could only be used by a Spanish fly.” In another letter, Pushkin noted: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people!”
Pushkin visiting Nashchokin examines objects from a small house
Having listened to the opinion of his friend, Pavel Voinovich settled in the house also little men - miniature doubles of Pushkin, Gogol, himself, ordered from a porcelain factory in St. Petersburg...
Figurine of Pushkin in the Nashchokino house (this is no longer the original porcelain Pushkin, but a later plaster reconstruction)
This idea was very expensive for Nashchokin. According to rough estimates - 40 thousand rubles, because all the miniature items were unique and made to order. (For that kind of money you could buy a real house in Moscow, but Nashchokin still lived in rented mansions, changing his address from time to time). Contemporaries were surprised that he “spent tens of thousands of rubles to build a two-arshine toy - the Nashchokinsky house.” And for us now this toy is a priceless monument to Moscow life in Pushkin’s times. The Nashchokinsky house is located as an exhibit in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
Billiards in Nashchokin's house
It is great happiness that the house survived, although its fate was dramatic. Financial position Nashchokin, like everything in his life, flowed from one extreme to another - either he was throwing away thousands, or he did not have a few rubles to buy firewood in the winter and he stoked the stoves with mahogany furniture. Once, “at a difficult moment in his life,” he was forced to mortgage his beloved house and... could not buy it back on time. The house disappeared for a long time, wandering through other people's hands and antique shops...
Desk from the Nashchokino house (in comparison with real medium-sized books)
The relic was found only at the beginning of the twentieth century. The artists Golyashkin brothers bought the house from the last owner. Sergei Aleksandrovich Golyashkin restored it, supplemented some of the lost items, and in 1910 presented it to the public. The house was exhibited in St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. At that time, journalist S. Yablonovsky wrote: “The more you look at this house, at its furnishings, at its inhabitants, the more you begin to understand that this is not a toy, but magic, which at a time when there were no photographs, no cinema, it stopped the moment and gave us a piece of the past in such completeness and with such perfection that it becomes eerie.”
Office in the Nashchokino house
The same office with expanded desk and a screen by the bed
"You are happy: you are your own little house,
Keeping the custom of wisdom,
Sluggish from evil worries and laziness
I insured it like it was from fire," -
Which of the Nashchokino houses - real or toy - should these lines be attributed to?
The new facade (“case house”) made by S.A. Golyashkin for the Nashchokino house in 1910
So, Nashchokin had to change his Moscow addresses several times, where he rented apartments, and one of the most famous addresses of Pavel Voinovich was the house of the Ilyinsky sisters in Gagarinsky Lane. The house on the corner of Gagarinsky and Nashchokinsky lanes is now marked with a memorial plaque. But the fate of the mansion is mysterious - some guidebooks to Moscow and Pushkin's places claim that the house has been preserved and carefully restored, others are categorical - Nashchokin's house has not been preserved. However, in Gagarinsky Lane at the indicated address there is a two-story mansion, the architecture of which is clearly marked by the stamp of post-fire development of the mid-1810s...
The fact is that the real Nashchokino mansion had become so dilapidated by the 1970s that it was decided to dismantle it and build a new one, “following the model and likeness of the one that was on this site 160 years ago.” (S. Romanyuk “From the history of Moscow lanes”).
Mansion in the early 1970s before reconstruction
True, during the reconstruction of the second, wooden floor was replaced by a brick one, but in general the restorers tried to adhere to the old project and even partially restored the interior design of the rooms, guided by the surviving details and the Nashchokin “layout”. The reconstructed mansion first housed the Society for the Preservation of Monuments. Nowadays there is the Nashchokinsky Cultural Center - an exhibition and small concert hall.
And another Arbat address where Nashchokin lived - Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky Lane, building No. 5 - remains only in memory. The old mansion where Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin had his apartment no longer exists.
By the way, Nashchokinsky Lane received its name not in memory of Pavel Voinovich, but because the estate of his ancestors, the Nashchokin boyars, was once located here. IN Soviet times Nashchokinsky Lane was called Furmanov Street - the author of “Chapaev” lived here in one of the houses.