Hope of Durova. Heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812

Sometimes it happens that the real biographies of people outweigh the subjects of the most striking adventure novels. Sometimes this is the result of unpredictable life collisions, in which a person gets in addition to his will, and sometimes he becomes the creator of his unique destiny, not wanting to move on once and for all established track. It was to such people that the first female officer of the Russian army, Nadezhda Andreevna Durova, was treated.

Childhood of the future hussar

The future "cavalry-maiden" was born on September 17, 1783 in Kiev. It immediately requires clarification: in her "Notes" she indicates 1789, but this is not true. The fact is that during the service in the Cossack regiment Hope specifically reduced her age by six years, to impersonate a very young man and thereby explain the lack of vegetation on his face.

Fate was pleased that from the first days of her life Nadezhda Durova found herself in an ebullient military environment. Her father Andrei Vasilievich was a hussar captain, and the family led a wandering regimental life. Her mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna, was the daughter of a well-to-do Poltava landowner and, differing in eccentric and unbridled disposition, married in spite of the will of her parents, or, as they said, "taking away".

This her disposition played a very ugly role in her daughter's life. Dreaming of the birth of a son, the mother hated her newborn girl, and one day, when the year barely turned, annoyed by her weeping, threw the child out of the window of a racing carriage. Nadia was rescued by the hussars, who followed and noticed a bloody child in the road dust.

A young pupil of a dashing warrior

To avoid the repetition of the incident, the father was forced to give his daughter for education to an outsider, but boundlessly kind and sympathetic person - hussar Astakhov, from whom Nadia lived until the age of five. Subsequently, in her memoirs, Durova writes that in those years the hussar saddle replaced her with a cradle, and toys and fun were horses, weapons and fighting military music. These first childhood impressions will have a decisive role in shaping the character of the future cavalry-girl.

Return to the father's house

In 1789, Andrei Ivanovich retired and procured a town governor's place in the city of Sarapul, Vyatka province. The girl was again in her family in the care of her mother, who, engaged in her upbringing, tried in vain to instill in her daughter a love of needlework and housekeeping. Nadya was absolutely alien to everything that her contemporaries occupied in those years - the little girl was inhabited by the soul of a hussar. When her daughter grew up, her father gave her a beautiful Cherkasy horse named Alcides, who eventually became her fighting friend and more than once saved in a difficult moment.

Forced marriage

Immediately after reaching adulthood, Nadezhda Durova was married. It's hard to say how much her parents guided her: the desire to arrange the fate of her daughter or the desire to get rid of this "hussar in a skirt" as soon as possible. Under the crown, she went with a quiet and little-noted man - Vasily Stepanovitch Chernov, who served in the same city as a lay judge.

A year later, Nadezhda gave birth to a son, but she did not feel any tender feelings for him, as did her husband. In dislike for the child, she revealed herself as a complete continuation of her own mother. Of course, this marriage was doomed from the very beginning, and soon Nadezhda left her husband, leaving him only memories of unfulfilled love and a young son.

In the thick of life on a dashing horse

For a short time Durova returns to his home, but there meets only the wrath of his mother, outraged by her break with her husband. It becomes unbearably stifling in this gray and faceless life, which was led by the district inhabitants. But soon fate makes her a gift in the face of the Cossack captain, with whom Hope forever leaves the disgraced house. Having changed into a man's suit and cutting her hair, she is carried away in her Alcides after the young lover, portraying the orderly for the people around him.

It was during this period that Nadezhda Durova, as was said above, deliberately underestimates her age: the Cossacks were obliged to wear beards according to the regulations, and she could only evade this for a while, referring to her young years. But, in order to avoid exposure, it was finally necessary to leave the captain and search for places in the cavalry regiment of the Lancers, where no beards were worn. There she entered the service under the fictitious name of Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov - a nobleman and the son of a landowner.

The first battles and St. George's Cross for courage

It was 1806, and the Russian army took part in the battles with Napoleon, which went down in history as the War of the Fourth Coalition. This was the threshold of the coming Patriotic War. Nadezhda Andreevna Durova participated on an equal basis with men in a number of the biggest battles of those times and everywhere she showed exceptional heroism. For the rescue of a wounded officer she was awarded a soldier's cross of St. George and was soon promoted to non-commissioned officers. Throughout this period, none of the surrounding did not even suspect that the image of a dashing warrior hides a young and fragile woman.

Unexpected disclosure

But, as you know, sewed in a sack is not concealed. So long kept secret Nadezhda Andreevna soon became known to the command. Issued her own letter, written to her father on the eve of one of the battles. Not knowing if she was destined to survive, Hope asked him for forgiveness for all the experiences he and his mother suffered. Before that, Andrei Ivanovich did not know where his daughter was, but now, with accurate information, turned to the army command with the request to return the fugitive home.

From the headquarters immediately followed the order, and the regiment commander, where he served as Nadezhda Durova, urgently sent her to St. Petersburg, depriving her of weapons and putting her to a reliable guard. One can only guess what was the reaction of the colleagues who found out who they really were, although an indifferent, but dashing and brave non-commissioned officer ...

The highest audience with the emperor

Meanwhile, the rumor of an extraordinary warrior reached the Tsar-Emperor Alexander I, and when Nadezhda Andreyevna arrived in the capital, he immediately took her into the palace. Hearing the story of what happened to a young woman who participated equally with men in hostilities, and most importantly, having understood that she was brought to the army not by an affair of love, but by a desire to serve the Motherland, the sovereign allowed Nadezhda Andreevna to remain in combat units and personal Order made her the rank of lieutenant.

Moreover, in order to prevent her from creating trouble for her in future, the Tsar sent her to serve in the Mariupol Hussar Regiment under the fictitious name of Alexander Andreyevich Aleksandrov. Moreover, she was given the right, if necessary, to apply directly to the highest name. Such privilege at that time enjoyed only the most worthy people.

Regimental vaudeville

Thus, Nadezhda Durova, a cavalry girl and the first female officer in Russia, was among the Mariupol hussars. But soon with her there was a story worthy of exquisite vaudeville. The fact is that the daughter of a regimental commander fell in love with the new lieutenant without memory. Of course, she did not have a clue about who her adored Alexander Andreevich really was. Father - the military colonel and the noblest person - sincerely approved the choice of his daughter and wholeheartedly wished her happiness with a young and such a pleasant officer.

The situation was very spicy. The girl withered from love and poured tears, and father was nervous, not understanding, why the lieutenant does not go to ask his daughter's hand. Nadezhda Andreevna had to leave the hospicant regiment who had accepted her so cordially and continue her service in the Ulan squadron - also, of course, under an assumed name, invented for her personally by the Emperor-Emperor.

The Beginning of the Patriotic War

In 1809, Durova went to Sarapul, where her father still served as a governor. In her house, she lived for two years and shortly before the Napoleonic invasion, she again went to serve in the Lithuanian Ulan regiment. A year later, Nadezhda Andreevna commanded a half-squadron. At the head of her desperate lancers, she took part in most of the major battles of the Patriotic War of 1812 . Fought under the Smolensk and Kolotsky monastery, and under Borodino defended the famous Semenovsky flushes - a strategically important system consisting of three defensive structures. Here she was able to fight side by side with Bagration.

Commander-in-Chief's order

Soon, Durova was wounded and went to Sarapul for her treatment. After recovering, she again returned to the army and served as an orderly at Kutuzov, and Mikhail Illarionovich was one of the few who knew who she really was. When the Russian army in 1813 continued military operations outside of Russia, Nadezhda Andreevna continued to remain in the ranks, and in the battles for the liberation of Germany from Napoleonic troops distinguished itself during the siege of the Modlin fortress and the capture of Hamburg.

Life after retirement

After the victorious end of the war, this amazing woman served the tsar and the Fatherland several more years, retired in the rank of captain-captain. The Chin of Hope Durova allowed her to receive a life-long pension and provided a quite comfortable existence. She settled in Sarapul with her father, but periodically lived in Elabuga, where she had her own house. Years spent in the army imposed on Nadezhda Andreevna their imprint, which probably explains the many oddities that were noted by all those who were close to her during that period.

From the memoirs of contemporaries it is known that up to the end of her life she went in a man's dress and signed all the documents solely by the name of Alexander Alexandrov. From the surrounding, however, she demanded that she address herself only in the masculine gender. There was an impression that for her personally the woman she once was, died, and only the image she created with a fictitious name remained.

Sometimes it came to extremes. For example, when one day her son, Ivan Vasilyevich Chernov (the same one she had left when she left her husband), sent her a letter asking him to bless him to marry, she, upon seeing the reference to her "mama," burned a letter , Without even having read it. Only after the son wrote again, referring to her as to Alexander Andreevich, he finally received a maternal blessing.

Literary Creativity

Coming to rest after military works, Nadezhda Andreevna was engaged in literary activity. In 1836, on the pages of Sovremennik, her memories appeared, which later served as the basis for the famous "Notes", which were published in the same year under the title "Cavalry Girl". High appreciation of her writing talent was given by AS Pushkin, whom Durova met through her own brother Vasily, who personally knew the great poet. In the final version of her memories saw the light in 1839 and had a noisy success, which prompted the author to continue his work.

End of life cavalry girl

But, despite everything, Durov was very alone on the slope of her days. The most close creatures in those years were the numerous cats and dogs that Nadezhda Andreevna picked up wherever she could. She died in 1866 in Elabuga, having lived to eighty-two years. Feeling the approach of death, she did not change her habits and bequeathed to burial herself under the man's name - the servant of God's Alexander. However, the parish priest could not break the church charter and refused to fulfill this last will. Hop Nadezhda Andreevna in the usual way, but at the funeral gave her military honors.

Born in the time of Catherine II, she was a contemporary of the five rulers of the imperial throne of Russia and finished her journey in the reign of Alexander II, having lived until the abolition of serfdom. So died - but not from the people's memory - Nadezhda Durova, whose biography embraced an entire era of the history of our Motherland.

Memory left over for centuries

Grateful descendants of Nadezhda Durova tried to perpetuate her name. In 1901, the imperial decree of Nicholas II established a monument on the grave of the famous cavalry girl. In the mourning epitaph, words were written about her military path, about the rank of Nadezhda Durova, and expressed gratitude to this heroic woman. In 1962, on one of the avenues of the city park, the residents of the city also installed a bust to their famous compatriot.

Already in the post-Soviet period, in 1993, a monument to Nadezhda Durova was opened on the Troitskaya Square of Elabuga. Its authors were the sculptor F. F. Lyakh and the architect S. L. Buritsky. Russian writers did not stay aside. In 2013, at the celebrations on the occasion of the 230th anniversary of her birth, poems dedicated to Nadezhda Durova written by many famous poets of the past and our contemporaries sounded in the Yelabuga State Museum-Reserve.