Also known as: Alexandrov Alexander Andreevich

Date and place of birth: 1783, p. Voznesenskoe, Russian Empire

Date and place of death: 1867, Yelabuga ( 82 years old), Russian empire

Occupation: RIA officer, writer, female cavalryman, awarded the soldier's order for bravery

Many people remember a wonderful Soviet film in which a young beauty, disguised as a hussar, fights against the Napoleonic invaders. About how the adventures of a cinematic cavalry girl resonate with the fate of her prototype, will tell short biography Hope Durova.

early years

Her childhood was spent among "horses, weapons and regimental music". Her father often changed jobs, her mother was not involved in education, and, passing off Nadezhda as a petty official, she considered that she had got rid of her unloved daughter.

With a Cossack Yesaul

However, the stubborn girl was not ready for family life. Leaving her husband and newborn son, she returned to her parents. And soon she ran away from there too: with a Cossack officer, disguised as his batman.

Career

Leaving the Cossack, Durov, she entered the Lancers regiment as a private. She participated in battles with the French, saber attacks. The secret was revealed when her father received a letter in which Nadezhda repented for framing her escape from her father's house with suicide.

exposure

The father demanded the return of the unlucky daughter, and the scandal reached the emperor. The monarch was delighted with the dedication and courage of Durova. She received an officer rank, an order and the right to be called Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov.

Further service

Durova fought in the war of 1812, was wounded, after being cured she participated in foreign campaigns of the Russian army. She retired in 1816 and lived another 50 years, leaving a book of memoirs.

Monument to Nadezhda Durova

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova was one of the first Russian women to devote herself to military affairs. Despite the enormous difficulties that she had to overcome, she achieved her goal and became the first female officer in the Russian army, a “cavalry girl”. She can rightfully be considered a hero of the war of 1812: leaving her home, her relatives, Durova rushed into this adventure, risking her life and valiantly fighting the French in 1807, in 1812, and in 1813.

Hussar education
Nadezhda Andreevna was born on September 17, 1783. In her Notes, she pointed to 1789 or 1790, which is due to the fact that Durova decided to reduce her age, since the Cossacks, where she served, were supposed to wear a beard, and she had to impersonate a 14-year-old boy in order to somehow explain the lack of a beard.

Durova's parents were the hussar captain Durov and the daughter of the Little Russian landowner Alexandrovich (one of the richest lords of Little Russia). Their marriage was not approved by the girl's parents, and she ran away from her parents' house along with a brave hussar.

The Durov family from the first days began to lead a wandering regimental life. The mother, who really wanted to have a son, hated her daughter: "Take it, take it from my eyes, the worthless child and never show it." Once, when the one-year-old Nadezhda was crying for a long time in the carriage, her mother grabbed her from the nanny's hands and threw her out the window. The bloodied baby was picked up by the hussars.

After that, the father gave Nadezhda for education to the hussar Astakhov: “My tutor Astakhov carried me in his arms for days on end, went with me to the squadron stable, put me on horses, let me play with a pistol, waved a saber, and I clapped my hands and laughed at the sight of pouring sparks and shiny steel; in the evening he brought me to the musicians, who played various tricks before dawn; I listened and finally fell asleep.”

In 1789 Andrei Vasilyevich left military service and received a place as a mayor in the city of Sarapul, Vyatka province. Little Nadezhda again began to be brought up by her mother. But her "hussar" upbringing, fighting temper prevented the assimilation of typically female occupations - needlework, housekeeping.

A few years later, her mother sent her to her relatives in Little Russia. There her ardent temper subsided. She read more and more, walked, even began to go out. Became more feminine, and her regimental quirks receded into the background.

But after returning home, Durova again remembered her childhood, and she spent more and more time with her father. He gave her a Circassian horse Alkid, riding which soon became her favorite pastime.

In 1801, when Nadezhda was 18 years old, she married a court assessor Vasily Stepanovich Chernov, and a year later her son Ivan was born. To her son, probably, like her mother to her, Durova did not have any feelings: she did not even mention him in her Notes. Life with her husband did not work out, she also could not sit still in her parents' house. And in 1806, Nadezhda Durova, dressed in a Cossack costume, runs away from home. Here's what she thought: "So, I'm free! free! independent! I took what was mine, my freedom: freedom! the precious gift of heaven, inalienably belonging to every person! I knew how to take her, protect her from all claims for the future, and from now on, to the grave, she will be both my inheritance and reward!

How Alexander Vasilievich Sokolov became Alexander Alexandrovich Alexandrov
Only in 1807 did Durova's father receive news from her. Until that moment, he believed that she was no longer alive. And the news that his daughter, under the name of Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov, is in the army, shocked him. Andrei Vasilievich decided to look for his daughter. And by that time, she had already managed to take part in many battles of the 1807 military campaign of the year:

“May 22nd 1807. Gutstadt. For the first time I saw a battle and was in it. How much empty talk they told me about the first battle, about fear, timidity and, finally, desperate courage! What nonsense! Our regiment went on the attack several times, but not together, but in squadrons. I was scolded for going on the attack with every squadron; but this, really, was not from excessive courage, but simply from ignorance ... ".

"June 1807. Friedland. In this cruel and unsuccessful battle, more than half of our brave regiment fell! Several times we went on the attack, several times drove the enemy away and, in turn, were driven away more than once! We were showered with buckshot, we were brainwashed with cannonballs, and the piercing whistle of hellish bullets completely deafened me! Oh, I can't stand them! Another thing is the core! At least it roars so majestic and always has a short butchery with it! After several hours of heated fighting, the remainder of our regiment was ordered to retreat somewhat to rest. Taking advantage of this, I went to see how our artillery operates, not at all thinking that they could rip off my head for absolutely nothing. Bullets rained down on me and my horse; but what do bullets mean at this wild, insane roar of cannons.

For rescuing a wounded officer in the midst of one of the battles, Durova was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer. Amazingly, participating in the battles, she never shed someone else's blood.

But soon her secret was discovered, thanks to the efforts of her father and uncle. In the regiment she was deprived of weapons and freedom of movement and sent with an escort to St. Petersburg, where she was immediately received by Alexander I.

Durova asked the emperor for permission to continue military service, which he allowed her to do: he ordered her to enter the Mariupol hussar regiment with the rank of second lieutenant under the name Alexandrov Alexander Alexandrovich.

According to Durova, being a hussar meant a lot to her, and therefore she transferred to the Lithuanian Lancers.

Patriotic War
During the Patriotic War of 1812, Durova commanded a half-squadron.

Her mood at the beginning of the war was not very enthusiastic: “They say that Napoleon entered our borders with a large army. Now I have somehow become more indifferent; there are no longer those lofty dreams, those flashes, impulses. I think that now I will not go on the attack with every squadron; it is true, I have become more sensible; experience took its usual tribute from my fiery imagination, that is, gave it a decent direction.

However, already near Smolensk, Durova was ready to fight: “I again hear the formidable, majestic roar of cannons! Again I see the glitter of bayonets! The first year of my warlike life is resurrected in my memory!.. No! a coward has no soul! Otherwise, how could he see, hear all this and not burn with courage! For two hours we waited for orders under the walls of the Smolensk fortress; finally ordered us to go to the enemy.

Durova fought heroically in the Battle of Borodino: "Hell day! I almost went deaf from the wild, incessant roar of both artillery... Our squadron went on the attack several times, which I was very unhappy with: I have no gloves, and my hands are so numb from the cold wind that my fingers can hardly bend; when we stand still, I put my saber in its sheath and hide my hands in the sleeves of my overcoat: but when they are told to go on the attack, you must take out the saber and hold it with your bare hand in the wind and cold. I have always been very sensitive to cold and to all bodily pain in general; now, enduring day and night the cruelty of the north wind, to which I am defenselessly exposed, I feel that my courage is no longer what it was from the beginning of the campaign. Although there is no timidity in my soul and my complexion has never changed, I am calm, but I would be glad, however, if they stopped fighting.

In this battle, she was shell-shocked in the leg and was sent for treatment. Later, Durova served as an orderly for Kutuzov.

In May 1813, she again appeared in the army and took part in the war for the liberation of Germany, distinguished herself during the blockade of the fortress of Modlin and the capture of the city of Hamburg.

Photograph by N. A. Durova (circa 1860-1865)

Durova was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1817 she retired with the rank of captain, with the right to receive a pension. She spent the rest of her life in Yelabuga. It would seem that her military service came to an end. But, nevertheless, she constantly walked in a man's suit, signed all letters with the name Alexandrov, got angry when they addressed her as a woman, and in general she was distinguished, from the point of view of her time, by great oddities.

Nadezhda Andreevna died on April 2, 1866 in Elabuga, Vyatka province, at the age of 82, and was buried at the Trinity Cemetery. At her burial, military honors were given to her.

In the history of the Russian state, there are many heroic examples when women, on an equal footing with men, defended their Fatherland with weapons in their hands. The life of one of them, a native of the city of Sarapul, cavalry girl Nadezhda Andreevna Durova, is a true example of service to Russia.

What a strange and unusual fate befell our compatriot!

Everyone who watched the good old film “The Hussar Ballad” remembers the young Shurochka Azarova, who fled from home in a hussar uniform to fight Napoleon. The prototype of Shurochka was the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova, driven by anyone to her Fatherland.

DAUGHTER POLK

Nadia's father, the gallant officer Andrei Durov, once met the daughter of the landowner Alexandrovich in the Ukraine, in the estate. Having fallen in love to the point of madness, 16-year-old Anastasia ran away from home and married Durov without the permission of her parents. She dreamed of a lovely son, whom she had already thought of a name - Modest. But in September 1783, at one of the halts, a girl was born - strong, with thick black hair. In addition, the baby roared bass. Anastasia Ivanovna, exhausted by a difficult birth, was disappointed. One day, tired and irritated by the cry of the baby, she threw her in a nervous fit out of the carriage window.

The role of the nanny was entrusted to the father's orderly Astakhov. He gave the girl milk from a bottle to drink, and the "daughter of the regiment", pulling the veteran's mustache, laughed joyfully. A saber and a pistol, golden embroidery of a dolman and a high shako with a plume of feathers became the first toys of little Nadia. She shot from a bow, climbed trees, fiercely waved a wooden saber and famously shouted out cavalry commands, rushed headlong on a dashing stallion Alkida (her father's gift) through the fields and forests. Batiushka, who loved his daughter immensely, admired Nadenka's playfulness. Both of them were united by dreams of freedom and glory on the battlefield.

But after several happy years, the girl's life changed dramatically. My father retired and received the position of mayor in the provincial town of Sarapul. The girl now spent more time with her mother. From the upbringing of Astakhov, Anastasia Ivanovna was horrified. From a daredevil, they began to educate a noblewoman, taught literacy and needlework. But in vain: Nadia did not want to do a decent job. female gender. Mother's supervision oppressed and was hateful.

In an effort to free herself from tyranny, 18-year-old Nadezhda willingly agreed to marry the first person she met. The provincial assessor of the Sarapul Zemstvo Court, Vasily Chernov, was a good man, but very boring. He lived according to a once and for all established schedule and expected the same from his wife. The birth of a son never brought the couple closer. Hope is back in parental home. Reproaches from the mother and her relatives rained down, and the beloved father could not help in any way.

"FREE! INDEPENDENT!”

After agonizing thought, a solution was found.

On September 17, 1806, on the day of his name day, taking the faithful Alkid with him, Durova secretly runs away from home, dressed in a Cossack costume, and in order to lead the search to a dead end, she leaves her women's dress. Soon Nadezhda reached the Cossack unit. Nadezhda introduced herself to the regimental commander as Alexander Durov, a nobleman who had run away from home to fight the enemy. This explanation was sufficient. True, they did not take her to the Cossack regiment, but they agreed to take her to Grodno, where an army was being formed for a foreign campaign. In March 1807, the imaginary Alexander Sokolov enlisted as a private in the Konnopolsky Lancers Regiment.

Hope was filled with happiness: “So, I am free! Free! Independent! I have found my freedom - a precious gift of heaven, inalienable belonging to every person! Army service turned out to be difficult: drill, constant exercises, scolding of commanders, hands ached from a heavy pike, which the lancer had to wield easily, like a cane. But even in the most difficult days, she repeats with delight: “Freedom, the precious gift of heaven, has finally become my lot forever.”

After the exercises, the regiment was sent to fight Napoleon. Before going on a campaign, Durova wrote a letter to her father, in which she informed where she was and under what name she was, begged to forgive the escape, "give a blessing and allow me to go the way necessary for my happiness."

The nobleman Sokolov fought bravely in the battles of Heilsberg and Friedland and was wounded twice. On May 24, 1807, in a battle near the city of Gutstadt, Nadezhda saved the life of a wounded officer Panin. Seeing that several people of enemy dragoons, surrounding one Russian officer, knocked him down with a pistol shot from his horse, she rushed towards them, holding her lance at the ready. This extravagant courage forced the enemy to scatter, and Durova at full gallop picked up Panin in the saddle.

All this time, Durova managed to hide her gender. And yet the secret was revealed. Her father's younger brother, Nikolai Vasilievich, petitioned Emperor Alexander I - he said that a woman, Nadezhda Durova, was serving in the troops of His Majesty under the name of Alexander Sokolov, after Chernov's husband, and asked the sovereign to return home "this unfortunate one." The emperor wished to meet with Sokolov.

BOTTOMED TO WAR

The meeting took place in December 1807 at the Winter Palace. Alexander I personally presented Nadezhda with the St. George Cross and praised her for her courage, but then he sternly moved his eyebrows: “Well, that's it, my dear! We fought, now go back to your parents' house. Nadezhda, with tears, fell at the king's feet, begging him not to send her home. "What do you want?" Alexander asked in bewilderment. "Be a warrior, wear a uniform!" - without hesitation, the cavalry girl answered. The emperor was moved. He allowed her to remain in the army, appointed her to the elite Mariupol hussar regiment and ordered her to take the name Alexandrov - in honor of the sovereign.

By that time the foreign campaign was over. Hope decided to take advantage of a short respite and visit her home. She was saddened to learn of her mother's death. But Nadezhda could not stay at home for a long time and hurried back to the army.

She served in the hussars for three years. She met the Patriotic War of 1812 with the rank of second lieutenant of the Lithuanian Lancers Regiment, and soon she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. With the regiment she went all the way of the Russian army from the border to Tarutino. Durova takes part in the battles near Mir, Romanov, Dashkovka, Smolensk. In the Battle of Borodino, Nadezhda was at the forefront. A bullet grazed her side, fragments of a cannonball grazed her leg. But, suffering from pain, she still remained in the saddle until the end of the battle.

In September, by order of the commander-in-chief M.I. Kutuzov, lieutenant Aleksandrov serves at the army headquarters. Several times a day, under enemy fire, he hurries with instructions to various commanders. Kutuzov said that such a sensible and. he did not yet have an efficient orderly.

The wound and contusion received at Borodino made themselves felt. Durova had to take a vacation for treatment, which she spent at her parents' house in Sarapul. However, six months later, in the spring of 1813, she returned to the army, taking with her brother Vasily, who was only 14 years old. Vasily remained at the headquarters, and Nadezhda with her regiment went ahead. The war ended in France.

In 1816, Nadezhda Durova retired. Her thoughts were unhappy: “What will I do at home? I must say forgive everything - and the light sword, and the good horse, friends, cheerful life! But there was nothing to do - the old father needed care.

LONELINESS

In 1826, Andrey Vasilievich died, and the post of mayor passed to his son Vasily, who was soon transferred to Yelabuga. Nadezhda left with him and settled in an outbuilding of an old noble estate. The rooms of her house were filled with books and homeless animals - the hostess collected dogs and cats from all over the city. Knowing this, the boys deliberately carried the puppies past her house - "drown". And the good lady bought animals from them - a piece for a dime.

"NOTES OF A CAVALIER GIRL"

In the evenings, Durova sat down at the table and sorted through her diaries: “From nothing to do, I decided to review and read various scraps of my Notes that had survived from various upheavals of a not always calm life. This occupation, which resurrected both in my memory and in my soul the past, gave me the idea to collect these shreds and make something whole out of them, to print.

Durova sent her "Notes" to Pushkin. The poet was delighted. “Be bold - enter the literary field as bravely as the one that glorified you. You can vouch for success, he wrote. “The fate of the author is so curious, so well-known and so mysterious.” Durova came to St. Petersburg and met with the poet. Pushkin showered her with pleasantries and kissed her hand. Blushing deeply, Nadezhda exclaimed: “What are you doing? I've been away from it for so long!"

At the first opportunity, Pushkin published the first part of "Notes of a cavalry girl" in the journal Sovremennik in the autumn of 1836, providing them with a preface. Soon they came out as a separate edition and immediately attracted the attention of readers and critics. It was an excited artistic story of an ordinary participant in historical events, based on a truly unusual fate. Durov colorfully and aptly characterizes outstanding generals, brightly draws fighting and does not forget to show the beauty of his native nature and the greatness of his beloved homeland. Durova's literary talent was admired by Gogol and Zhukovsky. Belinsky wrote: “And what kind of language, what kind of style does the Cavalry Maiden have? What a wonderful, what a marvelous phenomenon of the moral world of the heroine…”. After the Notes, new novels and short stories followed.

GLORY

Durova became a celebrity, she was vying to be invited to receptions, and two retired generals even offered her a hand and a heart. All this angered Nadezhda Andreevna, who was unaccustomed to fame. "I'm being stared at like a trained monkey!" she grumbled.

In 1841, Durova left the capital and returned to Yelabuga. Until the end of her life, she remained alone, she lived like a soldier: she ate simple food, slept on a hard bed, poured herself in the morning cold water. Occasionally she visited the noble assembly and played cards, which she became addicted to in the hussars.

She was buried with military honors: in front of the coffin, on a velvet pillow, they carried the St. George Cross, when the body was lowered into the grave, a rifle salvo thundered.

In the center of Sarapul, on Red Square, under a sprawling lime tree stands a quadrangular marble stele. Come and read: “There was a house in which the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, the orderly of Field Marshal M.I., lived for 18 years. Kutuzova, the first female officer of the Russian army, holder of the St. George Cross Nadezhda Andreevna Durova. The Museum-Estate of Nadezhda Durova has been operating in Yelabuga since 1993. The warrior woman is also remembered in France, where her descendants live.

Welhelm Schwebel - a German thinker - is known to our contemporaries by the aphorism "People often put on uniforms that are too much for them." N. Durova put on a man's uniform and did not disgrace him. She remained in our memory as a hero, soldier, patriot. Her battle path, her fate is not the result of random circumstances, but the result of a choice that she consciously made.

1. Durova N.A. Selected works of a cavalry girl. - M., 1988.

2. Life and feat of N.A. Durova in the context of history and modernity: Materials of the NPK. - Sarapul, 2003.

3. Oskin A.I. Nadezhda Durova - the heroine of the Patriotic War of 1812. - M., 1962.

4. Oskin A.I. Nadezhda Durova - the heroine of the Patriotic War of 1812. - M., 1962.

5. Pushkin V.A., Kostin B.A. Out of a single love for the Fatherland. - M., 1988.

6. Erlikhman V. Cavalry girl // well. GEO/ - 2005. - No. 8. - S. 131-136.

"Cavalry girl" N. Durova

The real biography of Nadezhda Durova is perhaps much more adventurous and controversial than romantic story, depicted in our favorite film by Eldar Ryazanov "Hussar Ballad", which was released in 1962 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the war of 1812..

It is thanks to Ryazanov's film with the phrase "cavalry girl" and entered widely into the vocabulary of the Russian language. The prototype of the main character, Shurochka Azarova, was the “cavalry girl” Nadezhda Durova, probably one of the most amazing (though not the most feminine) women of the 19th century.

Born in 1783 in the family of an army captain, Nadia did not enjoy special maternal love and was brought up by a retired private hussar. Her first toys were a pistol and a saber. In 1801 she married a subordinate of her father, by that time the mayor of the city of Sarapul. In 1803, after the birth of her son, she quarreled with her husband, returned to her father's house, from where in September 1806 she left with a regiment of Don Cossacks, dressed in a Cossack uniform. In the spring of 1807, under the name of Alexander Sokolov, she volunteered - an ordinary noble rank ("comrade") in the Polish Horse (Uhlan) Regiment.

Participated in the battles of the Franco-Russian-Prussian war in 1807 near Gutstadt, Heilsberg, Friedland. In the battle near Gutstadt, she saved a wounded officer of the Finnish Dragoon Regiment from captivity.

Father at that time was looking for Durova and petitioned Emperor Alexander. On December 3, 1807, Durova was summoned to St. Petersburg. She met twice with Alexander I, who allowed her to serve in the army, promoted her to the first officer rank of cornet, awarded the officer with the Insignia of the Military Order for saving the officer and gave her his name, calling her Alexander Alexandrov.

In January 1808, Durova arrived in the Mariupol Hussar Regiment, taking command of the 4th platoon of the first squadron. At the beginning of 1811, she transferred to the Lithuanian Lancers Regiment, with which she participated in the Patriotic War of 1812. From August 1812 she was a lieutenant, for some time she commanded a squadron in a regiment, then a half-squadron.

During the Battle of Borodino she received a shell shock. In September - October 1812 she was an orderly at Kutuzov. Then she received leave to treat a concussion and went home. She returned to the army in the spring of 1813. In September 1816, having served ten years in the equestrian ranks, she retired with the rank of staff captain and settled in Yelabuga. It must be emphasized here that out of these ten years, Durova served in the hussars only three - the remaining seven years she was a lancer and it was in the lancer uniform that she took part in all hostilities, including the events of 1812.

In the 1930s, Durova took up literary activity and writing a book based on his biography "Notes of a cavalry girl. Incident in Russia", went to St. Petersburg with the intention of publishing it.

After meeting with Pushkin, the latter became interested in Durova's work and published her Notes in 1836 in his journal Sovremennik. Pushkin later wrote: “With inexplicable participation we read the confession of a woman so extraordinary; uhlan saber hilt, wield and a quick, picturesque and fiery pen. "(Note that Pushkin went too far with the" bloody hilt - in battles Durova preferred not to shed other people's blood; the only living creature that fell from her lancer saber was one goose, decapitated for Christmas dinner - read more about this in the article by I. Strelnikova at the end of this section).

This book became quite popular among the Russian reading public - and for the first time introduced the phrase " cavalry girl "(which a century and a quarter later was re- popularized by Eldar Ryazanov). After the "Notes" (which were subsequently reprinted more than once), Durova published several more stories and novellas - but they were no longer so popular.

Nadezhda Durova died at the age of 83 on March 21, 1866 in the city of Yelabuga.

Description of the appearance from the officer's form of A. A. Aleksandrov: "Height is 2 arshins 5 inches / about 165 cm /, his face is swarthy, pockmarked, blond hair, brown eyes ..."

The memory of Nadezhda Durova is alive, first of all, in Yelabuga, where she spent the last fifty years of her long life. Hand the square is worth equestrian monument.Her house is now a museum with enough more details and interesting exposure.

A division of the Lithuanian Lancers Club operates in the city, and Lithuanian Lancers from Moscow come to Yelabuga for memorable dates and events associated with the name of Durova.

Delfin Durand - a descendant of N. Durova from France

The presently existing monument on the grave of N. Durova in Yelabuga is a remake. And he stands alone in the square ... But Durova was buried with all military honors onchurch cemetery. It can be assumed that under the Soviet regime this cemetery was destroyed along with the grave of Durova. A in 2008 to the 225th anniversary of N. Durova built this new monument in the style of late socialism. Lithuanian lancers, of course, were present at its opening. What did the original headstone look like? Found an old postcard.

In 2013, the Moscow premiere of the play "The Game of Fate" took place, dedicated to a few months in the life of Nadezhda Durova - in particular, her meeting with Alexander I. The costume consultants were, of course, Lithuanian uhlans.

Here is a bust of Nadezhda Durova to the left of the central staircase of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill. Something was not calculated with the height - and they decided to simply punch a hole in the plastic ceiling for a metal sultan on a shako ... As in other "official" images, Durova is depicted here in a hussar uniform - although she took part in all hostilities as a lancer.

I didn’t forget N. Durova and the Russian Mint (... and again in the hussar’s!)

We we began our short essay about Nadezhda Durova with the film by Eldar Ryazanov "The Hussar Ballad" - a talented film, beloved by all of us, but, alas,having the least relation to the realfate of our heroine. And almost no one remembers a very good two-episode television film of the Sverdlovsk film studio in 1989 "That a man, that a woman." The authors of the film refer mainly to the "literary" period of Durova's life, trying to understand her very difficult psychological situation - and even throw a bridge into the Leningrad life of the late 80s of the 20th century ... look Get this movie, you won't regret it. And perhaps you will begin to think about Nadezhda Durova a little differently ...

Perhaps a little better to understand the difficult life of Nadezhda Durova, to understand the motives for her extraordinary actions, the article below by Irina Strelnikova will help.

NADEZHDA DUROVA: ULAN BALLAD

In the early 1830s, in Yelabuga, one could meet an inconspicuous gentleman of about fifty in trousers, a military-style cap and a blue Cossack caftan, on which the St. George Cross flaunted. The lord was short stature, frail, his face was pockmarked and wrinkled, his hair and eyes were mouse-colored - in a word, his appearance was the most disadvantageous. But as soon as the little gentleman, somewhere at a party, in good company, comfortably sits down in a smoking room, cheekily resting one hand on his knee, and holding a pipe with a long stem in the other, and talking about past battles, about camp life, about dashing comrades, his small, expressionless eyes lit up with the fire of enthusiasm, his face animated, and it became clear to everyone that in front of him was a man who had experienced a lot, plenty of scent nushchy gunpowder, a glorious grunt, a hero and generally well done. And if at the same time some stray stranger suddenly found himself in the smoking room, then one of the locals did not deny himself the pleasure of stunning him by whispering in his ear: “But the retired captain Alexandrov is a woman!” A silent scene followed...

When in 1836 the book “Cavalry Maiden. Incident in Russia”, the veil over the mystery of this strange masquerade was lifted.

NURSIE'S PUPIER

Durova describes his birth in amazing detail, as if he remembers himself from the first minutes on earth and even earlier. Her mother was a beauty, and besides, the heiress of one of the richest pans of Little Russia. And she chose no match for the suitors - a hussar captain, neither a stake nor a court, and even, to the great indignation of her father, a Muscovite. Unable to obtain consent from her parents, one fine Ukrainian night, stealthily, holding little slippers in her hands, the masterful girl got out of the house. Outside the gate, Captain Durov's carriage was waiting for her. In the first rural church that turned up, the fugitives got married. Over time, the bride's parents forgave them. But in the inheritance, alas, they still cut it.

Durov brought his young wife to his regiment, and they lived on his meager officer allowance. Soon the bride discovered that she was pregnant. This news did not bring her great joy: life without money, without clothes, without servants is not easy, and then there is a child. In addition, for some reason she was sure that a boy would be born, she came up with beautiful name- Modest, but a girl was born. “The regimental ladies told her that a mother who breastfeeds her child begins to love him through this very thing,” Durova narrates in her book. - They brought me, my mother took me from the hands of a woman, put me to her chest. But, apparently, I felt that it was not maternal love that gave me food, and therefore, in spite of all efforts to force me to take the breast, I did not take it. Bored that I did not take it for a long time, my mother stopped looking at me and began to talk with the lady who was visiting her. At this time, I suddenly grabbed my mother's breast and squeezed it with all my might with my gums. My mother screamed piercingly, pulled me away from her chest and, throwing me into the hands of a woman, fell face down into the pillows. “Take it, take it from my eyes, the worthless child and never show it,” said mother, waving her hand and covering her head with a pillow.

Further more. Once we were riding in a carriage, and the one-year-old Nadia kept screaming and did not let up. And then the mother, in annoyance, snatched it from the nanny's hands and threw it out the window. The bloodied baby was picked up by the hussars. To everyone's amazement, the child was alive. The father, having learned about what had happened, gave Nadia to the care of an ordinary hussar Astakhov - away from his mother. The hussar raised the girl until she was five years old. Her first toys were a pistol and a saber. And on horseback Nadenka learned to ride before she could walk. And then her life changed dramatically - her father resigned And got a job as a mayor in the city of Sarapul, Vyatka province. The girl was separated from the hussar Astakhov and again entered the care of a hard-hearted mother, who, having discovered too much boyishness in her daughter, hastily began to retrain her according to the appropriate female model. Nadenka was seated for needlework, for which she turned out to be strikingly incapable, and her mother shouted: “Others boast of the work of their daughters, but I am ashamed, I run to quickly close your nasty lace! Twenty-forty couldn't have messed up like that!"

And the girl was drawn to run across the meadow, ride, sing, shout, and even set off explosions, throwing gunpowder into the stove ... And all this was forbidden to Nadya. It turned out that the female world, destined for her from birth, was the world of boredom, lack of freedom and miserable deeds, and the male world, which she managed to fall in love with, was the world of freemen, freedom and activity. In addition, she was not good-looking, with pockmarks all over her face, and she was swarthy, which in those days was considered a big drawback. Even the maid blamed her: “You should at least wash your face with something, young lady, horseradish or sour milk.” But the most offensive of all are the father’s words: “If instead of Nadezhda I had a son, I would not worry about what would happen to me in my old age.” However, he also had a son (Nadya's younger brother), and his father openly gave him preference over his daughter.

How many tears were shed from all these grievances! Sometimes it seemed to Nadenka that among people she had no place at all. Well! She became attached to the horse - her father's stallion Alkid, who was considered evil and indomitable, was obedient to her, like a dog. At night, when the house was quiet, the girl would stealthily make her way to the stable, take Alcides out and indulge in a frantic gallop. Once, returning home in the morning, she did not find the strength to undress and fell asleep - this is how her night walks opened. The mother, once again complaining that she could not cope with such a terrible daughter, sent her out of sight - to her relatives in Ukraine. There an event happened that almost reconciled the pupil of the hussar Astakhov with the female lot. A romantic neighbor's youth, the son of a wealthy landowner Kiriyakova, fell in love with her, despite her ugliness. Every morning they ran on dates - to the church, to the early liturgy. In the porch they sat down on a bench and talked in a half whisper, holding hands.

But sudden devotion young man his mother alerted him, she found out about everything - and forbade her son to even dream of marrying the dowry Durova. “I missed young Kiriyaka for a long time. This was the first inclination, and I think that if they gave me for him then, I would forever say goodbye to militant plans, ”writes Durova. But she does not mention a word about the future in her book! The fact that at the age of 18, at the behest of her parents, she was married off to an insignificant and boring person - a court assessor Vasily Stepanovich Chernov. And that a year later, a son, Ivan, was born, to whom she remained as insensitively indifferent as to her husband (and how her own mother treated her). And that in the end, having fallen in love with a visiting Cossack captain, she rode off on the faithful Alkid after his regiment, dressed in a Cossack dress. For some time, Durova lived with her captain under the guise of a batman, but this union turned out to be fragile: somewhere near the western border of the empire, Nadezhda left her lover. None of this is mentioned in her "Notes ...". The six years during which all these events took place were deleted by Durova from her own biography using a simple trick: it follows from the book that she was born in 1789, while in fact - in 1783.

It must be said that it was not uncommon for the mistresses and wives of officers to dress up as batmen to accompany their beloved on military campaigns. But sooner or later, the ladies returned home - in female form, of course. But Nadezhda Durova did not return. To her, with her penchant for weapons, horseback riding, wide open spaces and nomadic life, the army environment suited her like water suits a fish. Only here it was impossible to stay with the Cossacks. The thing is. that the Cossacks were supposed to wear a beard, but Nadezhda Andreevna could not have a beard. When she entered the regiment, the question of beardlessness did not arise: Durov was mistaken for a 14-year-old boy. But it is clear that in a year or two the signs of growing up on the face of the “young man” will still not appear - and then what? And then another sharp-eyed Cossack woman whispered, grinning: “Young lady, listen to what I will tell you.” Nadenka did not show that she was frightened. But I realized: it’s time to take off to the regular army, where they didn’t wear beards.

Having somehow reached the location of the nearest cavalry regiment - it turned out to be Konnopolsky - she appeared to the captain, called herself Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov and asked for service. "Are you a nobleman? How did it happen that you wear a Cossack uniform? - the captain was surprised (there were no nobles among the ordinary Cossacks). "Father did not want to give me into military service, I left quietly, joined the Cossack regiment." She was believed, enlisted in the regiment as a comrade (rank of privates of noble origin) and given a uniform with woolen epaulettes, a shako with a sultan, a white baldric with a pouch and boots with huge spurs. “It's all very clean, very beautiful and very hard!” Durova wrote.

"CORNET, ARE YOU A WOMAN?"

Every morning for her now began with training in military techniques. “It is necessary, however, to admit that I get tired to death, waving a heavy pike - especially twirling it over my head; and I've hit myself over the head a few times already. I do not quite calmly act with a saber; it always seems to me that I will cut myself with it; however, I am more ready to hurt myself than to show the slightest timidity. Less than six months later, she had the opportunity to test her courage in battle for the first time - in the great European war that Russia, in alliance with England, Sweden and Prussia, waged against Napoleon. “Our regiment went on the attack several times, but not together, but in squadrons. I was scolded for going on the attack with every squadron; but this, really, was not from excessive courage, but simply from ignorance; I thought it was necessary, and I was very surprised that the sergeant-major of a foreign squadron, near which I was rushing, shouted at me: “Get the hell out of here! Why are you jumping here?"

In the very first battle, she managed to accomplish a feat and almost lost her faithful Alcides. It was like this: Durova saw how the enemy dragoons knocked down some Russian officer from his horse and already raised their sabers to cut him down. She hurried to the rescue with a pike at the ready. Astonishingly, her appearance was formidable enough that the French fled, and the wounded officer was saved. I had to put him on my horse. The run-up ordinary infantryman Durova entrusted by the bridle to take Alkid with his half-dead luggage away from the battle, uttering the condition that the horse would be sent to her in the Konnopilsky regiment. And she herself remained on foot in the midst of the general jump and shooting.

In less than a few hours, she met a familiar lieutenant riding Alkis. Durova gasped and rushed across. "Is this horse yours? - the lieutenant was surprised. "Some crook just sold it to me for two chervonets." Alcides later saved her life several times. Then Durova would fall asleep at a halt, and in the meantime they were ordered to retreat, and the horse, snorting, would wake her up, and then, by some miracle, take her straight to the new location of the regiment. It will carry you away from the enemy's encirclement, choosing the only saving path - across a field strewn with dead bodies. Then, without any compulsion, he would jump far to the side when an enemy grenade fell under his feet - all that remained was to be amazed that the fragments did not hit either the horse or the rider. Later, when Alkid died (having stagnated in the stall, he broke free to frolic, began to jump over peasant wattle fences, and a pointed stake stuck out of one, piercing the horse's belly), this was a terrible shock for Nadezhda Andreevna. She seriously grieved that she could not die with her Alkil. Actually, except for this horse and the war. she had nothing good in her life.

Amazing. But. time after time being in battles, brandishing either a saber or a lance, Nadezhda ... did not shed other people's blood at all (it would still be higher than her female forces). The only creature she killed was a goose, which she caught and beheaded for Christmas dinner for her starving squad. Meanwhile, the position of the army was getting worse. At the end of May 1807, the French drove the Russians into a trap. The left bank of the River Alle was the least suitable for defense, and the disposition was so unfortunate that Napoleon could not believe his eyes and suspected some kind of military trick, but alas! There was no trick. Durova's regiment ended up in a living hell - a narrow place between the river and the ravine, along which the enemy was frying with cannonballs. Night, crush, panic - the scream was terrible. Those who managed to get out fell under the French bayonets. They threw themselves into the river, but, unable to swim across it in heavy uniforms, they drowned. Ten thousand Russians died in that battle. The war has been lost! The matter ended with the fact that Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon met and concluded the Peace of Tilsit.

In the life of Durova, this decision turned out to be fateful! Indeed, in Tilsit she first saw the sovereign and ... fell in love. However, this was not surprising. Everyone without exception was captivated by the sovereign: privates, non-commissioned officers, young officers and gray-haired generals ... Despite all their troubles, the army roared with delight and devoured with the eyes of the one to whom, in essence, it owed its defeat. “Our sovereign is handsome,” explains Durova. - Meekness and mercy are depicted in large blue eyes his greatness of soul in noble features and extraordinary pleasantness on his ruddy lips! On the pretty face of our young king, along with an expression of goodness, some kind of girlish shyness is drawn. Against the background of Alexander, she didn’t like Napoleon at all: he was fat, small in stature, his eyes were round, his gaze was disturbing - well, what kind of hero is this, even with all his immense glory? Since then, the enamored lancer Sokolov - aka Nadenka - began to secretly dream of seeing the adored sovereign again. The dream came true pretty quickly - and in a completely unexpected way.

It all started with a strange call to the commander in chief. Sokolov was not such a person to be interested in him at such high level- even taking into account the fact that in less than a year he rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. But the commander-in-chief said: “I have heard a lot about your courage. And now the sovereign wants to see you, I must send you to him. What all this meant was not at all clear. They took away Durova's weapons and led her to the sleigh under guard. After several days of anxiety and divination, she ended up in Petersburg, and the sovereign immediately received her. Actually, almost exactly the same scene took place as shown in Ryazanov's film. The only difference is that it was not Kutuzov, but Emperor Alexander himself, having circled around the bush, gathered his resolve and asked a direct question: “I heard that you are not a man, is that true?” It turned out that Nadenka was given a letter written to his father after escaping from the crowbar - Durova asked for blessings to enter the regiment. Her father, using all his connections in the army, managed to find her. And having found, he demanded to put the fugitive home.

“Yes, your majesty, indeed!” Hope slumped. They looked at each other and both blushed. The sovereign was sensitive and shy. Durova - in love. She laid out everything to him as if in spirit about the reasons that prompted him to decide on such an extravagant act, and about the hardships that he had to endure in the war. The king only sighed and gasped. “Your bosses speak of you with great praise,” he concluded. “You are entitled to a reward, after which I will return you home with honor.” At these words, Nadezhda Andreevna screamed in horror and fell at his feet, hugging her royal knees: “Do not send me home, your Majesty! Don't send! I will die there! Do not take away from me the life that I willingly wanted to sacrifice for you!” - "What do you want?" - Alexander asked embarrassed. "Be a warrior! Wear a uniform, weapons! This is the only reward you can give me!" That's what they decided on. The tsar also came up with the idea of ​​transferring Durov to some other regiment and giving her a new name so that her relatives could not find her again. So the non-commissioned officer of the Konnopolsky Lancers Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov became an officer of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov. In the choice of such a surname there was a hint of the great location and patronage of Tsar Alexander.

On the evening of that day, Durova wrote in her diary: “I saw him! Spoke to him! My heart is too full and so inexplicably happy that I cannot find expressions to describe my feelings! The greatness of my happiness astonishes me! Admires! O sovereign! From now on, my life belongs to you!” Before leaving for the regiment, she was once again called to the palace, introduced to the tsar's favorite, the incomparable Maria Antonovna Naryshkina. A contemporary wrote about this woman: “Who in Russia does not know the name of Maria Antonovna? I remember how, with my mouth open, I stood in front of her box (in the theater) and in a stupid way marveled at her beauty, so perfect that it seemed impossible. Even from the side it was clear that the Tsar adores Naryshkina.

Durova was surprised at herself: no jealousy, no bitterness, no envy for this brilliant, elegant beauty, who held in her lovely hands the heart of the one with whom Durova was so desperately in love. Naryshkina is just the most beautiful of women, and Durova, in her own opinion, surpassed her, having earned the right to be a man from the king! “I have always loved to look at ladies' outfits, although I myself would not wear them for any treasure; although their batiste, satin, velvet, flowers, feathers and diamonds are seductively beautiful, but my lancer tunic is better! At least he suits me better, and this, they say, is a condition of good taste: to dress to the face.

And how the elegant hussar uniform fell to the face of a thin beardless Lieutenant Aleksandrov! A mentic embroidered with gold, a shako on one side, all these laces, fringe, tassels ... And in the provincial provinces, where after the conclusion of peace, regiments stood idly, ladies and young ladies, as you know, breathe unevenly towards the hussars! Under their gaze, now constantly turned on her, Durova felt terrible: “It is enough for a woman to look at me intently to make me confused: it seems to me that she will understand my secret, and in mortal fear I hasten to hide from her eyes.”

But nothing like that! The beauties saw in Nadezhda Andreevna only a man, and a very attractive one. In the end, Lieutenant Aleksandrov had to transfer from the hussars back to the lancers - to the Lithuanian Lancers - because of one young lady, the colonel's daughter, who cried all night long, and her father expressed more and more obvious irritation: why is it, they say, that Lieutenant Aleksandrov turns up his nose at his girl and does not deign to make an offer? (There is also a more prosaic version of the reasons for the transfer of Durova from the hussars to the lancers: a complete set of hussar officer uniforms and equipment was the most expensive in the army, and it was customary to live with the hussars on a grand scale. So Lieutenant Alexandrov, who existed on only a modest salary and did not receive any money from home, was more convenient to serve in outwardly more modest lancers. - Note. ed.)

Meanwhile, some vague rumors were circulating in the army about a female cavalryman: either a freak, or, on the contrary, a beauty, or an old woman, or a very young girl. It was also known that the king himself patronized her. Sometimes these stories reached her ears. However, Lieutenant Alexandrov learned to listen to them almost without embarrassment. As well as the jokes of fellow soldiers on the topic of their beardlessness, thin camp, too small and weak hands, modesty and fearfulness with the ladies. “Aleksandrov blushes every time you mention a woman’s leg in his presence,” the colleagues in the Lithuanian regiment laughed. - And you know, gentlemen, why? Yes, because he ... (a dramatic pause followed) a virgin, gentlemen! They obviously had no idea. And yet, just in case, Durova went to consult the regimental doctor: how could she get rid of the blush on her cheeks? “Drink more wine, spend your nights playing cards and chasing. After two months of this commendable kind of life, you will get the most interesting pallor of the face, ”advised the imperturbable doctor.

She felt that she seemed to be exposed only when she met Kutuzov. Whether he himself examined the obvious with his single eye, or whether he learned something from the king, is unknown. But only when he met Durova near Smolensk in 1812, at the beginning of the Patriotic War, did the old commander address her with exaggerated tenderness: “So it’s you? I heard about you. Very happy, very happy! Stay with me as an orderly, if you like."

During the war of 1812, Durova served in the Lithuanian uhlans - and when meeting with Kutuzov, she could not be in a hussar uniform. But the artist portrayed her in this way - and even with clearly defined female forms (which Kutuzov would have liked), but which Durova, alas, was completely devoid of ...

Since then, she began to notice that in the regiment they look at her differently. For example, they try once again not to use a strong swear word with her. "Do they know or not?" Durova wondered. Judging by one letter from the hussar, partisan and poet Denis Davydov, they knew! “It was rumored that Alexandrov was a woman, but so, slightly,” Davydov wrote. - She was very secluded and avoided society as much as you can avoid it in bivouacs. It happened to me once at a halt to enter a hut together with an officer of the regiment in which Alexandrov served. There we found a young lancer officer who had just seen me, got up, bowed, took his shako and went out. Volkov told me: "This is Alexandrov, who, they say, is a woman." I rushed to the porch, but he was already galloping away. Subsequently, I saw her at the front.

During World War II, she already commanded a half-squadron of the Lithuanian Lancers. On the day of the battle of Borodino with her Lithuanian Lancers, she defended the Semyonov flushes. She was shell-shocked by a shell fragment in her leg. Having recovered, she returned to the front line again, drove the French across Europe, distinguished herself during the blockade of the Modlin fortress and the capture of the city of Hamburg ... In 1816, Nadezhda Andreevna finally calmed down and retired with the rank of staff captain. Durova was 33 years old, ten of which she served in the army.

HOW PUSHKIN KISSED THE HANDS OF THE LITHUANIAN ULANS

There was a time when Nadezhda Andreevna's civil boredom was brightened up by a new attachment - a tiny dog ​​named Amur. “Yes, and how was it not to love him! Meekness has an irresistible power over our hearts. Poor thing! How he curled around my feet. One day at dawn she let him out of the room; but a quarter of an hour passed, and he was gone. I went to look for it - it's nowhere to be found! Called - no! Finally my dog ​​came and sat outside the gate. Hearing her barking, I looked out the window and could not help laughing: she, like a big one, raised her muzzle up and howled. But I paid dearly for this laughter!” It turned out that the dog was mortally wounded. “Cupid died in my arms ... Since that time, I happened to dance all night and laugh a lot, but true joy has never been in my soul: it lay in the grave of my Cupid. Many will find this strange; maybe worse than weird."

She still didn't get along well with people. There was nothing to think of returning to her husband and son! However, she was adopted by her younger brother. Vasily Andreevich Durov was a fascinating figure! Once he met Pushkin and delighted him with his special kind of naive cynicism - so that Pushkin could not stop talking to Durov for several days, endlessly asking for new details and laughing at the top of his lungs. “I met him in the Caucasus in 1829,” Pushkin recalled. - He was treated for some amazing disease, like catalepsy, and played cards from morning to night. Finally he lost, and I took him to Moscow in my carriage. Durov was obsessed with one point: he certainly wanted to have a hundred thousand rubles.

All sorts of ways to get them were invented and rethought by Durov. It happened that he woke Pushkin at night: “Alexander Sergeevich! So how do I get a hundred thousand anyway? Pushkin answered the first thing that came across, for example: “Steal!” “I thought about it,” Durov replied, not at all surprised, “but not everyone can find a hundred thousand in their pocket, and I don’t want to kill or rob a person for a trifle: I have a conscience.” “Steal the regimental treasury,” Pushkin advised on another occasion. It turned out that Durov had already considered this option, but found many difficulties in it. “Ask the sovereign for money,” Pushkin advised again. Durov, it turns out, was already thinking about this, and not only thought, but even wrote to the tsar! "How?! Without any right to do so? Pushkin laughed. “Well, yes, I began my letter with that: so, they say, and so, your majesty! I have no right to ask you for what would be the happiness of my life; but there is no model for mercy. - "And what did the sovereign answer you?" - “Alas, nothing!”

Pushkin continued to come up with more and more fantastic options: “Ask Rothschild!” - “I thought about that too. But the only way to lure a hundred thousand from Rothschild is to cheer him up. Tell a joke that would cost a hundred thousand. But how many difficulties! So many difficulties! it money from the British, writing them a letter: "Gentlemen, Englishmen! I bet on a mortgage of 10,000 rubles that you would not refuse to lend me 100,000. Gentlemen, Englishmen! Save me from the loss that I imposed in the hope of your generosity known to the whole world. " For several years then the poet did not hear anything about Durov, and then received a letter: "My story is short: I got married, but still no money." Pushkin replied: "I regret that out of 100,000 ways to get 100,000 rubles, none of them, apparently, you succeeded."

The next time, Durov wrote to him about his sister, who wanted to publish her memoirs (Nadezhda Andreevna began to write out of anguish). Having familiarized himself with them, Alexander Sergeevich was struck by the quirkiness of the whole family. But the memoirs were good, really good. For the first time a woman wrote about the war - and this was felt in every paragraph. The disposition, the course of the battle, ingenious maneuvers - Durova did not stop at anything like that. But she described in detail what it was like to wear uncomfortable boots, how she was cold, how her leg hurt, how sleepy and how terrible it was that one day she would be exposed.

Desk N. Durova

Pushkin appreciated the charm and originality of these notes and undertook to publish them in his Sovremennik. He invited the writer to St. Petersburg ... Sighing heavily that she would no longer see the adored monarch in the capital, she went (the death of Alexander 1 in 1825 became for Nadezhda Andreevna the same heavy shock as the death of Alkid and Cupid once. In other words, hardly anyone mourned the tsar more bitterly than Durova).

The first meeting with Pushkin came out awkward: the gallant poet uttered compliments to Nadezhda Andreevna and kissed her hand - Durova blushed, confused: “Oh, my God! I've been away from it for so long!" She could write about herself in the feminine gender (this is how her memoirs are written), but she can no longer speak. I forgot how ... The novel “Cavalry Girl. An Incident in Russia”, having been published, instantly became a sensation. Everyone wanted to get acquainted with Durova by all means - she became fashionable. She published four more volumes of novels and short stories: "Elena, the T-beauty", "Count Mavritsky", "Yarchuk the spirit-seer dog". But interest in her creations faded as soon as the windy St. Petersburg community found some new fashionable toy. Now, if they remembered Durova, it was something like this: “Fi! Bad in appearance, moreover, it is expressed as a soldier on the parade ground. “No one needs me, and everyone decisively cools off towards me, completely and forever,” Durova stated and quietly returned to her brother in Yelabuga, where by that time he had received the position of mayor. In the capital, no one noticed her departure ...

Once in Yelabuga she received a letter from Ivan Vasilyevich Chernov. Her son! He asked for blessings for the wedding. Seeing the appeal "mother", Durova, without reading, threw the letter into the fire. The son waited and waited and sent another - this time turning to his mother, as befits: Alexander Andreevich. She answered briefly and formally. Like, I bless.

Even Durova bequeathed herself to be buried as a servant of God, Alexander. However, when, at the age of 82, she left this world that was not too kind to her, the priest considered this stupidity and did not violate church rules ...

Irina STRELNIKOVA

P.S. Amazingly, Durova was not unique in her fate. At the same time, a certain Alexandra Tikhomirova fought under the guise of her own brother - the secret was revealed only after her heroic death. Around the same time, the Italian Francesca Scanagatta served in the Austrian army, who was exposed and dismissed with a scandal (however, having appointed an officer's pension).

They say that there were similar cases in the Prussian and French armies. Perhaps Napoleon is to blame for everything: it is his loud military glory, his dizzying rise that drove his contemporaries crazy, giving rise to a real cult of heroism, a brilliant and daring military career! Here it was difficult for women to stay away. Especially those whom nature endowed with an energetic and enterprising character, and social norms did not allow them to show all this.

And yet, even among other Amazons, Durova is the most unusual. The longest-serving, most advanced veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, she also immortalized her story in a book that is still read and loved today. And all this - instead of the life of a provincial court assessor. But did she find happiness by deciding to deceive fate? Who knows...

Nadezhda Durova, a participant in the Battle of Borodino, lived to see the invention of photography - and her photographic card, taken shortly before her death, has come down to us.

There are many examples in Russian history when women, on an equal footing with men, defended Russia from the hordes of the enemy with weapons in their hands.

It will be about a simple Russian woman - Nadezhda Andreevna Durova, who devoted her life to serving the Motherland.

The name of Nadezhda Durova is also reflected in art. In the film "Hussar Ballad" there is the heroine Shura Azarova, who, with the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, went to fight the French. The image of Shura was written off from Durova.

Nadezhda Andreevna was born in 1783 in Kyiv. Her father, Andrei Durov, was an officer in the Russian army.

Mother Anastasia Alexandrovna was the daughter of a Ukrainian landowner. When she was 16, she unconsciously fell in love with Durov, and without the permission of her parents, she married an officer.

She really wanted a child, dreamed of a son for long evenings, and even came up with a name for the unborn child - Modest. Soon Anastasia became pregnant and after the due date gave birth to a girl.

The mother was very disappointed, besides, it was very difficult for her to give birth. The born girl was named Nadia.

The girl was born strong, and as they say, already in childhood she roared in bass. Her first toy was a pistol, then she became addicted to a saber.

As a child, Nadezhda Andreevna loved to shoot from a bow, climb trees with the boys, ride a horse and shout out various army commands while brandishing a saber.

Soon, the mother took up the upbringing of her daughter, she was horrified by her hobbies. Anastasia wanted to raise a noblewoman in her daughter, tried to teach her needlework and literacy.

In the educational process of the mother there were big excesses. Nadezhda was not interested in her mother's efforts, and her supervision oppressed her more and more. At the age of 18, Nadezhda Andreevna married Vasily Chernov in order to move out of her parental home. The marriage was unsuccessful, and soon she returned to her parents, having received even more reproaches and teachings.

In the autumn of 1806, Durova runs away from home. She put on a Cossack uniform and soon reached the Cossack unit. To the unit commander, Nadezhda introduced herself as a nobleman Alexander Durov, who fled from home to go to war.

They did not take her to the Cossack regiment, but they promised to bring her to the city of Grodno, where the formation of an army for a campaign against Napoleon was in full swing. Once in Grodno, Nadezhda Durova was enrolled in the Horse Polish Regiment. Her joy knew no bounds.

The service was not easy: difficult exercises, abuse of commanders, but, despite all the difficulties, Durova was glad that she was a soldier in the active Russian army.

Soon the Horse-Polish Regiment went to fight the French. Before leaving for the campaign, she wrote a letter home to her father, asking her to forgive and bless her for her deeds. Nadezhda Durova participated in the battles of Fridlan and in the battle of Heilsberg.

In May 1807, a battle took place between Russian and French troops near the city of Gutstadt. During this battle, she showed fantastic courage, and saved officer Panin from death.

Nadezhda Durova, up to a certain point, successfully managed to hide her gender. But the letter she wrote to her father betrayed her. The uncle told a familiar general about his niece, and soon Emperor Alexander I himself found out about the soldier. She was taken to the capital of the Russian Empire.

With a courageous woman, Alexander I wished to meet personally. Their meeting took place in December 1807. The emperor handed Durova the St. George Cross, and everyone was surprised at the courage and courage of the interlocutor.

Alexander I intended to send her to her parents' house, but she snapped - "I want to be a warrior!" The emperor was amazed, and left the brave woman in the Russian army, transferred her to the Mariupol regiment and allowed her to introduce herself by her last name - Alexandrova, in honor of the emperor.

Meanwhile, the foreign campaigns of the Russian army came to an end. Nadezhda Andreevna took the opportunity to visit her parents' house. At home, she learned of her mother's death. This event was a shock to her. After staying at home for a short time, she went to the active army, to her new regiment.

Soon the thunder Patriotic War 1812. Nadezhda Durova began the war in the rank of second lieutenant of the Ulansky regiment. Durova took part in many battles of that war. There was Nadezhda near Smolensk, Mir, Dashkovka, and there was also on the Borodino field.

During the Battle of Borodino, Durova was at the forefront, was injured, but remained in the ranks.

In September 1812, Durov was sent to serve at Kutuzov's headquarters. Mikhail Illarionovich will later say that he has never had such an intelligent orderly.

The wounds of the Battle of Borodino constantly worried Nadezhda, prevented her from serving. Durova takes a six-month vacation for treatment, and spends it in home. After the end of the vacation, she and her regiment take part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army.

In 1816, Nadezhda Andreevna retired. In the following years of her life, she tried to engage in literary work, and very successfully. Communicated with Pushkin. Her main literary work was Notes of a Cavalry Girl.

Nadezhda Durova was dearly loved by Russian society, many knew and respected her. Until the end of her life she was alone. In 1841 she moved to Yelabuga. Here she will spend the next years of her life. She lived modestly, ate ordinary food, doused herself with ice water in the morning, and loved to play cards.

Nadezhda Andreevna died on March 21, 1866, she was 83 years old. They buried the "caveler girl" with all military honors.