It is always interesting when you are sitting in an archive and they bring you a greasy yellow document, of which you become the first reader, or in the library, opening a magazine more than a century old, you come across interesting material on a topic in which interest has not been lost to this day. One of these topics is the fatal duel between Lermontov and Martynov (about which, by the way, my material was on VO, though not so much about her as about Lermontov's military career in general). Much has been written about her, but … everything that is written today is just a census of what was once written. Therefore, one can understand my joy when, looking through the magazine "Niva" for the purpose of searching for materials about the Anglo-Boer war, I suddenly came across an article about the duel of officer M. Yu. Lermontov. Moreover, it was clear from the material that it was first published in the "Russian Review", and then already reprinted by "Niva". This is exactly the case when we are approaching information sources. After all, what was not written about this duel in Soviet times? And that it was the tsar who ordered him to be killed, and that a sniper was shooting from the mountain, and that all this was the poem "Death of a Poet" (for a long time the tsar waited to settle scores with him), in a word - "the accuser of autocracy fell from the bullet of a satrap." … But in 1899, they looked at all this differently, there was no politicization of this event. That is why, I think, it will be interesting to know how it all happened at the suggestion of one of the most popular magazines of the Russian Empire. Naturally, “yati” and “fita” were removed from the text, otherwise it would not have been read at all, but the style and spelling are mostly preserved. So, let's imagine for a moment that it is 1899, and we … are sitting and reading the Niva magazine.
A modern monument at the site of the duel of M. Yu. Lermontov. The place of the duel was determined in 1881 by a special commission.
“More than half a century has passed since the fatal duel between Lermontov and Martynov; but until now neither the true cause nor the real reason for this tragic incident was known for certain to the Russian public. The son of Nikolai Solomonovich Martynov, who for half a century bore the grave nickname of the murderer of Lermontov, tells in the Russian Review, according to his late father, the real story of this duel.
We present here detailed extracts from this article, which, of course, cannot fail to interest the readers of Niva.
During his lifetime Martynov was always under the yoke of his conscience, which tormented him with memories of his unfortunate duel, which he did not like to talk about at all, and only on Holy Week, as well as on July 15, on the anniversary of his fight, he sometimes told more or less detailed history of it.
The Martynov family, living permanently in Moscow and having, like Lermontov's grandmother, Arseniev, estates in the Penza province, has long been in excellent relations with the poet's family on the maternal side. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, living in Moscow in the late twenties and early thirties, often visited the house of Martynov's father, where he met his daughters, and one of them, Natalya Solomonovna, later Countess De Turdone, he really liked …
House of the poet in Pyatigorsk
In 1837, fate again brought the poet to Martynov in the Caucasus, where Lermontov was exiled, as you know, for his poems "To the Death of Pushkin", and Martynov was transferred as a volunteer from the Cavaliergrad regiment. This summer, his sick father came to Pyatigorsk on the water, accompanied by his entire family, including Natalie, who at that time was 18 years old and grew up to be a magnificent beauty.
Somehow at the end of September Martynov arrives at Lermontov's detachment, who, having taken out 300 rubles from his wallet. banknotes, explained to him that the money had been sent to him from Pyatigorsk by his father, and was with Natalie's letter in a large envelope that was kept in a suitcase stolen from him in Taman by a gypsy. “For whom do you take me, Lermontov, so that I agree to accept from you the money that was stolen from you, I don’t know, but I won’t take this money from you, and I don’t need it,” Martynov answered. “And I can’t keep them with me either, and if you don’t accept them from me, then I will give them on your behalf to the songwriters of your regiment,” Lermontov answered, and immediately, with Martynov’s consent, sent for the songwriters to whom they, After listening to a dashing Cossack song, they transferred this money on behalf of Martynov.
Martynov wrote to his father on October 5, 1837: “I received the three hundred rubles that you sent me through Lermontov, but no letters, because he was robbed on the way and the money invested in the letter also disappeared; but he, of course, gave me his. " In this letter, apparently, Martynov, probably not wishing to alarm his father with the news that he did not accept money from Lermontov and that he himself was sitting penniless, concealed this circumstance from him. During a personal meeting with his father and sisters, Martynov learned from them that Lermontov, living in Pyatigorsk and seeing them every day, once announced to them that he was going to the detachment where he would see him, and then asked Natalia Solomonovna to send him a letter to my brother. She agreed and, putting her Pyatigorsk diary and a letter to her brother in a large envelope, handed it to her father, asking him if he would like to add something from himself. “Okay, bring me your letter, and maybe I'll add something else from myself,” answered the father, who knew that his son in the detachment might need money, and put three hundred rubles in banknotes in his letter, and no daughter he did not say a word to his own, nor to Lermontov. "I think," said Martynov's father, "that if Lermontov found out that three hundred rubles had been invested in the letter, then he opened the letter." In his opinion, Lermontov, incited by curiosity, wanted to know what his beloved girl thought of him, for whom he wrote one of the poems in the same year under the heading “I, the Mother of God, now with prayer,” etc., opened a letter and, finding in it 300 rubles, about which he was not warned, and seeing the impossibility of hiding the actions he had done, he invented a story about the kidnapping of a box from him by a gypsy in Taman, and brought the money to Martynov.
Subsequently, in 1840, Lermontov, in his defense, placed a separate story “Taman” in The Hero of Our Time, in which he described this incident.
Be that as it may, after this incident, Lermontov, feeling completely guilty before Martynov and wanting to admit this act, began to annoy him in every possible way with his sarcasms, so that one day in a close circle of friends he warned him that he could only endure his words at home or with friends, but not in ladies' society; Lermontov then bit his lip and walked away without saying a word.
And here is the furnishings of one of the rooms of this dwelling.
For some time, he really stopped annoying Martynova with his poisonous ridicule, but then he forgot his warning and again took up the old one.
In the summer of 1841, Martynov, having retired during the service, arrived in Pyatigorsk, where at that time all the "jeunesse doree" serving from the Caucasus, as well as visitors from Russia, gathered. They spent their time merrily: there were balls, parties, carnivals and other entertainments every day.
Among the young ladies, the young girls of Verzilina, the daughter of the old-timer of Pyatigorsk Verzilin, attracted the attention. Among them, Emilia Alexandrovna was especially distinguished by her beauty and wit.
Somehow, in the last days of June or in the first days of July, at an evening with the Verzilins, the Lermonts and Martynov, as usual, courted Emilia Alexandrovna.
Martynov had the habit of grabbing a dagger with his hand, an obligatory accessory to the Caucasian Cossack costume, which he, who had just arrived from the Grebensky regiment, continued to wear.
The living room in the Verzilins' house, where it all happened …
After talking for a while with Emilia Alexandrovna, Martynov moved a few steps away from her, and, as usual, took hold of the handle of the dagger, and he immediately heard Lermontov's mocking words to Mrs Verzilina "Apres quoi Martynow croit de son devoir de se mettre en position" (After which Martynov considers himself obliged to return the position.) Martynov clearly heard these words, but, being a well-mannered person and not wanting to bring up history in the family house, he kept silent and did not say a single word to Lermontov, so that, according to Vasilchikov, none of those who attended his clashes I didn't notice with Lermontov, but when leaving the Verzilins' house, he took Lermontov by the arm on the boulevard and walked on with him. "Je vous ai prevenu, Lermontow, que je ne souffrirais plus vos sarcasmes dans le monde, et cependant vous recommencez de nouveau" old), Martynov told him in French, and added in Russian in a calm tone: "I'll make you stop." “But you know, Martynov, that I am not afraid of a duel and will never refuse it,” Lermontov answered with gall. "Well, in that case, tomorrow you will have my seconds," Martynov said and went to his home, where that evening he invited his friend, the Life Hussar officer Glebov, whom he asked to go to Lermontov's house the next morning. him a formal challenge to a duel. Glebov, returning from Lermontov, told Martynov that he had received him and that Lermontov had chosen Prince Alexander Illarionovich Vasilchikov as his official second.
The duel was scheduled for July 15, 1841 at 6 and a half in the evening, at the foot of Mount Mashuk, half a verst from Pyatigorsk.
Although Martynov was well aware that Lermontov had an excellent command of a pistol, from which he shot almost without a miss, and Martynov himself, as fully certified by the second Glebov, did not know how to shoot at all … nevertheless, he was with the carelessness of youth - he was only 25 years old, at the end of the fifth hour he ordered his trotter to be saddled, and he gave up his racing droshky to his second, Glebov.
Living room in the houses of A. A. Alyabyev - the author of the famous "Nightingale". At that time, about all people of the corresponding class lived like this.
The day was extremely sultry and hot: the approach of a thunderstorm was felt in the air. Arriving with Glebov at the place of the duel at the same time as Lermontov and Vasilchikov, they found seconds there - Trubetskoy and Stolypin and many other common Pyatigorsk acquaintances, up to forty people in number.
Bearing in mind that the clash between Martynov and Lermontov took place, as mentioned above, around June 29th, and the duel itself took place almost two weeks later, it is clear that the news about it had already spread throughout Pyatigorsk. Glebov and Vasilchikov did not say a word about the presence of spectators at the trial, so as not to subject them to responsibility for allowing the duel and for failing to report it.
The barrier was determined by the seconds for fifteen steps, with a pile of stones placed on both sides, and from it, ten steps each, duelists were placed, who had the right to shoot from their place or approaching the barrier.
The opponents were given a pistol in their hands, and one of the seconds waved a handkerchief as a sign that the duel had begun. Lermontov stood in leggings and a red canaus shirt, and with apparent or real carelessness began to eat cherries and spit out bones. He stood in his place, hiding behind his hand and a pistol, and aiming the latter directly at Martynov.
A minute passed, showing, as happens in such cases, all those present with eternity. Neither Lermontov nor Martynov fired and stood in their places. The seconds and those present began to hesitate and make remarks among themselves in an undertone, which partly reached Martynov's ears. "We must finish," someone said, "we are soaked through and through." Martynov with quick steps approached the barrier, pointed his pistol at Lermontov and fired …
When the smoke cleared, he saw Lermontov lying motionless on the ground. His body twitched with slight convulsions, and when Martynov rushed to say goodbye to him, Lermontov was already dead.
From the place of the duel Martynov went to the commandant, to whom he announced the unfortunate event. The commandant ordered that he and both seconds be arrested, and an investigation began, at the beginning of which Martynov learned from Glebov that Lermontov, during negotiations regarding the terms of the duel, had told his second Vasilchikov: “No, I feel so guilty before Martynov that I feel my hand it will not rise. Whether Lermontov was hinting here at the opening of the letter or at the absurdity of his antics at the evening at the Verzilins', Martynov remained unknown, but his son still vividly remembers the words of his father: a duel, of course, would not have happened.
Martynov, having spent his entire previous life in military service, petitioned to be handed over to a military rather than a civilian court.
His request was respected, and by the maxim of the Pyatigorsk military court Martynov was sentenced to deprivation of ranks and all rights of the state, which maxim was first softened by the chief of the left flank, then by the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, the minister of war and, finally, by the sovereign Emperor Nicholas I, who was the 3rd January 1842 put the following resolution: "Major Martynov to be kept in the fortress for three months, and then to commit him to church repentance."
About two years before his death, General Velyaminov conveyed to Martynov's second son that Emperor Nicholas I, who usually spent the summer in Peterhof, where Velyaminov was in his pages in 1841, and who used to gather all those present on holidays after dinner his retinue, to whom he reported the most interesting news he received, said the following about Lermontov's death: “Today I received sad news: our poet Lermontov, who gave Russia such great hopes, was killed in a duel. Russia has lost a lot in it."
