Pushkin was a true patriot and defender of his Fatherland - he loved Russia, and not the state represented by Emperor Nicholas I. And therefore the poet died ...
Pushkinists say that the duel and death of Pushkin was the result of a combination of unfavorable circumstances. But personally, I am sure that the death of the poet was not accidental - there are too many "accidents" for such an important fateful matter.
It is surprising why they do not want to notice the obvious facts of planning, provoking and criminally carrying out a duel. Perhaps because no one looked at the duel through the eyes of a criminologist lawyer. At the Faculty of Law, when investigating a crime, we were taught to carefully analyze the causes and connections, to look not only for the perpetrator, but also for a possible accomplice, organizer and customer of the crime.
My version may seem unexpected, but no one has been able to conclusively refute it. Even a great connoisseur of duels, Yakov Arkadyevich Gordin, says about Pushkin's last duel: "Dueling history has been repeatedly described and researched (although not fully understood)."
On February 15, 2017, in the Mayakovsky Library (46, Fontanka Embankment), Yakov Gordin, on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of the tragic death of A.S. Pushkin, gave a lecture “Pushkin. Peter. Empire. Drama of Russian history.

When I was in school, in literature lessons we were told a simplified version of the duel. In those days, no other versions, except for the official one created in 1937, were considered. In high school, I attended an elective in literature, and at the same time, with great difficulty, I bartered the book Russian Poets of Pushkin's Contemporaries (published in 1937) and Pushkin in the Memoirs of Contemporaries.

It would seem that Pushkin's personality and his life have been studied far and wide. However, questions still remain unanswered. State and personal archives keep many more secrets. Perhaps we are in captivity of the "myth about Pushkin", which was created in 1937 or even earlier.

Throughout his life, A.S. Pushkin kept a diary. Diary No. 2, which ends in 1835, is kept in Russia. But, therefore, there must be diaries No. 1 and No. 3, covering the period up to 1835 and up to the fateful 1837. This is mentioned by V. Zhukovsky, Prince P. Vyazemsky, critic and playwright Baron Rosen.

If we had diary No. 3, we could know what the poet was thinking about on the eve of the duel. Therefore, until all Pushkin's letters to Gekkern are published, until Natalie Pushkina's correspondence with Dantes and all Pushkin's diaries are published, one can build various versions and speak about everything only presumably.

"Look for a woman," say the French. And they are right.
The experience of my investigations has shown that, in the end, all the intricacies are explained simply, and romantic interpretations are nothing more than a veil that covers basic instincts.

According to the prophecy of the fortune-teller Kirgof, in the 37th year, trouble could happen to Pushkin from a blond man. During the wedding, the ring from the hands of Natalya Nikolaevna fell to the floor. It was a bad omen. Pushkin was sensitive to omens. But even when, going to the Black River, he had to return home, he did not refuse to go to the duel.

Judging by the character of Pushkin, it was easy to provoke him to a duel. It's all about the libel, because of which the conflict broke out. However, the author of the libel has not yet been found. Or didn't want to find it?

According to Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the life of the poet. He was the initiator of fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not happen due to the reconciliation of the parties, mainly through the efforts of Pushkin's friends. In six cases, the challenge to a duel came not from Pushkin, but from his opponents. For the first time, Pushkin challenged to a duel at the age of 17. The poet's rival was his own uncle, Pavel Gannibal.

For a poet, it is important not only to live beautifully, but even more important to “leave beautifully”.
According to V. Veresaev, in the last year of his life, Pushkin resolutely sought death. Others, on the contrary, believe that the poet was not going to die. At 37, Pushkin was full of ideas and creative ideas.

Even before the first incident with Dantes, Alexander Sergeevich put his affairs in order and wrote a will. However, Pushkin was not going to die. On the day of the duel at 12 o'clock in the morning "(before the arrival of Danzas), the bibliophile F.F. Tsvetaev managed to visit Pushkin, who spoke with him about a new edition of his works. “Pushkin was cheerful,” writes Tsvetaev.

On the morning of January 27, on the day of the duel, Pushkin did not yet have a second. By chance, they became a lyceum comrade Konstantin Danzas.

I wonder if the fatal duel would have taken place if Pushkin had not found a second?

Konstantin Karlovich Danzas (1801-1870) was never a close friend of Pushkin, Danzas did not belong to the circle of the poet, they almost did not communicate.
Why did Danzas so easily agree to be Pushkin's second?

Danzas was the only witness to Pushkin's pre-duel hours and the only (on the part of the poet) witness to the duel itself. All information about the duel has its source in the stories of Danzas.

After receiving the libel of the "Order of Cuckolds" on the evening of November 4, 1836, Pushkin sent a challenge (without giving a reason) to a duel to Dantes. Gekkern received the call and asked Pushkin for a 24-hour delay. Natalya Nikolaevna, having learned about this, through her brother Ivan urgently summoned Zhukovsky from Tsarskoye Selo. Thanks to the participation of Zhukovsky, the duel was prevented.

It is believed that Pushkin was offended by an anonymous letter and therefore sent a challenge to a duel. But, firstly, an anonymous letter could not serve as a formal reason for a challenge to a duel. Secondly, it is proved that this letter was not written by Heckern, and he did not give such orders. Pushkin was wrong.

Dantes announced that his goal was to marry Natalya Nikolaevna's sister Ekaterina. On November 17, Pushkin sent his second Sollogub a refusal to duel. In the evening of the same day, the engagement of Dantes and Ekaterina Goncharova was officially announced. On January 10, 1837, a wedding was played, and Dantes became Pushkin's brother-in-law.
In the light, they began to say that Dantes sacrificed himself by marrying an unloved woman in order to "save the honor of his beloved."

On January 23, 1837, at a ball at the Vorontsov-Dashkovs, Dantes insulted Natalya Nikolaevna. Natalya Nikolaevna told her husband that Gekkern asked her when she would finally leave her husband. After such a recognition of his wife, Alexander Sergeevich wrote an extremely harsh letter to Gekkern the father on the night of January 25-26.
“... Like a shameless old woman, you lay in wait for my wife in all corners to tell her about the love of your illegitimate or so-called son; and when, ill with syphilis, he had to stay at home, you said that he was dying of love for her; you muttered to her: return my son. ... "

Pushkin insulted Baron Gekkern, so much so that he could no longer seek peace. In fact, they shot because of rumors about Dantes courting Natalia Goncharova.

In her letter to Baron Louis Gekkern, Natalya Nikolaevna writes: “Let's even assume that my passion for your son is so great that, clouded by him, I could betray my sacred duty; but you missed one thing: I am a mother. I have 4 small children. If I left them for the sake of a criminal passion, I would become in my own eyes the most contemptible of women. Everything has been said between us, and I demand that you leave me alone."

Pushkin did not hide from his wife that he would fight. He asked her for whom she would cry. “According to the one,” Natalya Nikolaevna answered, “who will be killed.”

According to Danzas, Natalya Nikolaevna suggested that her husband leave with her for a while somewhere from St. Petersburg; but Pushkin, having lost all patience, decided to end it differently. He wrote a well-known letter to Baron Heeckeren in very strong terms, which was the final reason for the fatal duel.

The poet knew that he would receive a challenge in response, and deliberately went for it. On the morning of January 26, the letter was sent to the Gekkerns, and in the evening, the attaché of the French embassy, ​​Viscount d'Archiac, came to Pushkin with a challenge to a duel from Georges Dantes.
Dantes made Pushkin because Baron Gekkern, as an envoy of a foreign state, could not participate in a duel. It is unlikely that Pushkin wanted to kill Gekkern. Apparently, Pushkin's goal was a duel with Dantes.

A chronological record of the poet V.A. Zhukovsky about the last day of the life of Alexander Sergeevich has been preserved. “I got up cheerfully at 8 o'clock - after tea I wrote a lot - an hour before 11 o'clock. From 11 lunch. - He walked around the room unusually cheerfully, sang songs - then he saw Danzas through the window (note: second), met him joyfully at the door. - Enter the office, lock the door. - A few minutes later he sent for pistols. - On departure, Danzas began to dress; washed all, everything clean; ordered to give bekesh; went out onto the stairs, returned, ordered a large fur coat to be brought into the office and went on foot to the cabman. “It was exactly at 1 o’clock.”

This entry contradicts the memoirs of KK Danzas. I'm not the only one who noticed these contradictions. Obviously, Danzas is a person of interest. Therefore, his testimony must be treated with caution.

In 1863, Danzas' memoirs about the duel, recorded by his friend A.N. Ammosov, were published. According to these memoirs, on January 27, 1837, Danzas, walking along Panteleymonskaya Street, met Pushkin in a sleigh. Pushkin stopped Danzas and said:
- Danzas, I was going to you, get in the sleigh with me and go to the French embassy, ​​where you will be a witness to one conversation.
Danzas, without saying a word, got into the sleigh with him, and they drove to Bolshaya Millionnaya. During the journey, Pushkin spoke with Danzas, as if nothing had happened, completely about extraneous things. Thus they reached the house of the French embassy, ​​where d'Archiac lived. After the usual greeting with the owner, Pushkin said loudly, turning to Danzas:
- Now I want to devote you to everything.
And he began to tell him everything that happened between him, Dantes and Hekeren.
Pushkin ended his explanation with the following words:
- Now the only thing I want to tell you is that if the matter does not end today, then at the first meeting with Gekeren, father or son, I will spit in their face.
Here he pointed to Danzas and added:
- Here's my second.
Then he turned to Danzas with a question:
- Do you agree?
After an affirmative answer from Danzas, Pushkin left, leaving Danzas, as his second, to arrange a duel with d'Archiac.

Quite unexpectedly, Danzas was drawn into a duel story, which for him could turn into the most serious consequences. Danzas knew that duels were forbidden, and participation in a duel was punishable by death.

Why did Danzas agree to become Pushkin's second and did not dissuade the poet from a duel?

In a report submitted to the Military Judicial Commission, Danzas explained his consent to be Pushkin's second: “After everything that I heard from Mr. D'Arshiac from Pushkin's words, although the challenge was from Mr. who chose me as a witness, gravely offended in what a person values ​​most in the world: in the honor of his wife and his own; to leave him in this position seemed impossible to me, I decided to take on the duty of a second ”(Case of the duel, p. 79).

Could Danzas refuse to be Pushkin's second?
Could! Perhaps by doing this he would have saved the great poet for Russia.

According to the charter, Lieutenant Colonel Danzas was obliged to report the duel. If he had informed, then, perhaps, he had saved the lyceum comrade.

Pushkin was supposed to fight with Dantes on the same day, January 27, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The place of the duel was appointed by the seconds behind the Black River near the Commandant's dacha. No one except the seconds and duelists could know about the place and time of the duel.

But it turns out that the Third Section knew about the place and time of the duel.
It can be assumed that Pushkin was secretly monitored, and the gendarmes were aware of the poet's life situation and his intentions.
The chief of staff of the gendarme corps, General L.V. Dubelt, admitted: “Yes, we knew about the upcoming duel, but the gendarmes were mistakenly sent to Yekateringof.”

Was it a mistake, and not the intent to let the tragedy come true?

The people of the “sovereigns” have their own morality, and for the sake of the state, these people are capable of anything!

“On the side of Baron Heckeren and Dantes was, among other things, the late Count Benckendorff, who did not like Pushkin.” This reluctance alone, says Danzas, can explain why Pushkin's duel was not stopped by the police.

Why was Danzas sure that the duel could have been stopped by the police?
Who informed the Third Section about the time and place of the duel between Pushkin and Dantes?

Perhaps, in order to save Pushkin and protect himself, Danzas, as a military man, himself reported to the Third Department about the impending duel, in the hope that the gendarmes would not allow the duel and that he would save the first poet of Russia.
This also explains why Danzas refused the offer made to him by Dantes to hide his participation in the duel.

There are many inconsistencies in the published memoirs of Danzas, his testimony is very contradictory. The statement of Danzas himself about his accidental meeting with Pushkin on the Chain Bridge was intended to mitigate Danzas's guilt before the court, since according to the law, the seconds, when “the conception of fights, had to friendly seek to reconcile the quarreling, and if they cannot do this, then immediately send on guard and about to announce such a case” (The case of the duel, p. 104).

Published in 1900 under the editorship of P.M. Kaufman "Genuine military case of 1837" does not contain two sheets, which, as the editor claimed in the preface to the publication, were "lost" and, apparently, contained the testimony of Danzas (in the published materials there are only records of his "interrogation"). In addition, it remains unclear from the published materials who was the first informer about the incident.

According to the “Dueling Code” of that time, “both the offender and the offended must fight the duel themselves personally. Substitutes are allowed only in the following cases:
a) a son can intercede for his offended father if the latter is too weak to receive satisfaction for the insult; if the age of the offender would be more suited to the years of the son than the father, and finally, if the latter has already passed 60 years old ... "

Together with the enemy's second d'Arshiac, Danzas punctually organized a duel a outrance, that is, to the point of death.
The conditions of the duel did not give a chance to survive.
1. Opponents stand at a distance of 20 steps from each other and 5 steps (for each) from barriers, the distance between which is 10 steps.
2. Opponents armed with pistols, following this sign, moving towards one another, but in no case crossing the barrier, can shoot.
3. Moreover, it is assumed that after the shot the opponents are not allowed to change their place, so that the one who fired first will be subjected to the fire of his opponent at the same distance.
4. When both sides make a shot, then, in case of ineffectiveness, the duel is resumed as if for the first time: the opponents stand at the same distance of 20 steps, the same barriers and the same rules remain.
5. Seconds are indispensable mediators in any explanation between opponents at the battlefield.
6. The seconds, undersigned and vested with full authority, ensure, each for his side, with his honor, strict observance of the conditions set forth here.

At the request of d'Archiac, the terms of the duel were written on paper.
With this fatal paper, Danzas returned to Pushkin. He found him at home, alone. Without even reading the conditions, Pushkin agreed to everything. In a conversation about the upcoming duel, Danzas remarked to him that, in his opinion, he should have fought with Baron Gekeren, his father, and not with his son, since he wrote an insulting letter to Gekeren, not Dantes. To this, Pushkin answered him that Hekeren, according to his official position, could not fight.

Having agreed with Pushkin to meet at Wolf's confectionery, Danzas went to make the necessary preparations. Having hired a twin sled, he drove to Kurakin's weapons shop for pistols, which had already been chosen by Pushkin in advance; these pistols were completely similar to those of d'Archiac. Having put them in a sledge, Danzas came to Wolf, where Pushkin was already waiting for him. It was about 4 o'clock.

In 1836, Pushkin had no income at all. There was literally nothing to live on. The poet pawned things, watches and even dishes. On January 24, 1837, Pushkin took silverware to the usurer A.P. Shishkin, on whose security he received 2,200 rubles. Part of this money went to pay for pistols, which he chose in Alexei Kurakin's "Military Items Store" at 13 Nevsky Prospekt.

Pushkin had dueling pistols by the famous French gunsmith Lepage. Dantes also borrowed pistols from the German gunsmith Karl Ulbrich from a friend. According to Danzas, "these pistols were completely similar to the pistols of d'Archiac."

When Pushkin and Danzas left Wolf's confectionery together, they got into a sleigh and set off towards the Trinity Bridge. On the Palace Embankment they met the carriage of Ms. Pushkina. Danzas hoped that she would see her husband and try to stop him. But Natalya Nikolaevna was short-sighted, while Pushkin looked the other way.

Why didn't Danzas tell Pushkin that he saw Natalya Nikolaevna and did nothing to stop the fateful course of events?

Pushkin trusted his high school friend. But when they were crossing the Neva, Pushkin jokingly asked Danzas: “Are you taking me to the fortress?”
“No,” answered Danzas, “the closest road is through the fortress to the Black River.”

The duel took place on January 27, 1837 after 4 pm. The poet was 37 years old, his opponent had a week to 25 years. The conditions of the duel were merciless: they shot from 20 steps, the barrier was 10 steps. In Europe, they shot from 30 paces. In Russia they even shot at six.

The famous Pushkinist Yakov Arkadyevich Gordin in his book “Russian duel: Philosophy, ideology, practice” describes the Pushkin duel and notes that the Russian duel was more cruel and deadly than the European one.
"Pushkin's duel with Dantes by European standards looked 'extraordinary', illegal," writes Gordin in the book "Duels and Duelists: A Panorama of Metropolitan Life."

Since the dueling pistols of the opponents were similar, after checking, each was given the opportunity to fight with his own weapon. Pushkin was armed with a pistol from a headset brought by Danzas, and Dantes was armed from a headset brought by d'Archiac.

Meteorologists thoroughly restored the picture of that day, including the weather. According to Danzas, the day of the duel was frosty and clear, the temperature was about minus 15 degrees. But at the imperial court on the same morning, a temperature of minus 2 degrees was noted. Most likely, Danzas was mistaken: because of the strong wind, it seemed much colder outside than it really was. The wind could affect the outcome of the duel.
The flintlock pistols used at that time were much more dependent on the weather than modern weapons. A lead bullet weighing 12 grams flew at a speed of 150 meters per second, and at a distance of 20 steps, a side wind could deflect it by 12 cm, and an angular one by 6 cm. And if it were not for the strong wind, it is not known how the duel would have ended.

Recently, the film "The Forgiven Sinner" was shown on the Russia-24 TV channel. Another version of the duel was voiced there. The killing power of Kuchenreuther dueling pistols is higher than that of the Nagant revolver and almost like that of the TT pistol of the 1932 model. Dantes fired from a distance of 11 steps, but the bullet did not pierce Pushkin's body, but got stuck in the peritoneum. Therefore, it is assumed that the seconds, wishing to prevent the inevitable death of the duelists, deliberately did not add gunpowder to the pistols, thereby reducing their lethal force. If the pistols had been loaded properly, the bullet would have gone right through, and Pushkin might have been alive. But Dantes, as the examination showed, would have been killed by a return shot.

Pushkin, according to Danzas, was nervous during the preparation of the duel site and several times impatiently asked "is it all over at last?"
But Dantes was calm. Why?

Lieutenant Colonel KK Danzas was an experienced military man and duellist. He could not help but know the "dueling code". Therefore, it is surprising that Danzas violated the rules of the duel at least three times during the duel between Pushkin and Dantes!

The "dueling code" of that time read:
377. Before the start of the duel, the opponents are obliged to allow the seconds of the opposing side to inspect them in order to verify that the above conditions are met.
Seconds must always comply with this formality.
Doctors stand a few steps behind the seconds.
454. The wounded with the first shot has the right to shoot at the enemy, who is not obliged to approach him, within one minute from the moment of receiving the wound.
Forbidden:
492. Some sharp body movements of the enemy who fired first, waiting for the enemy to fire.
495. Seconds of the opposing side, standing next to him, have the right to shoot the opponent who has committed a violation.
496. The committed act is considered as a simple murder or an attempt to do so, and the case is transferred to the judicial authorities.
497. Seconds draw up a protocol indicating the committed act and notify about it by sending a copy of the protocol, members of the corporation, place of service or society in which the offender was a member.

Why didn't Danzas inspect Dantes' clothes before the duel and after the duel?
Why didn't Danzas' second stop the duel after Pushkin was wounded?
Why Danzas gave Pushkin another pistol, which was also a violation of the rules of the duel (this was pointed out by Dantes' second d'Arshiak).

For the rest of his life after the ill-fated duel, Danzas regretted that he did not fulfill the duel rights and did not inspect Dantes' attire. Perhaps he would have found steel mail under his uniform. Such chain mail already existed, but it was against the laws of honor to wear them in a duel.

Pushkin was an experienced duelist and always fired second, since the one who saved the shot had the right to call the one who had already fired to the barrier. Dantes apparently knew about this.

It is believed that Dantes shot at the legs, not wanting to kill the poet. But I hit a little higher, because when shooting, the gun slightly throws up.
Pushkin was wounded in the right side of the abdomen; the bullet, having crushed the bone of the upper leg at the junction with the pelvis, entered deep into the stomach and stopped there.

Pushkin fell on Danzas' overcoat and seemed to lose consciousness. The seconds rushed to Pushkin, but when Dantes intended to do the same, the poet shouted in French: "Wait, I still have enough strength to make my shot."

Dantes stopped at the barrier and waited, covering his chest with his right hand.
There was an unwritten rule: if the opponent was wounded and dropped the gun, the duel should stop.
Rising slightly and leaning on his left hand, Pushkin fired.
Dante fell.
Pushkin asked Dantes where he was wounded, Dantes answered:
- I think I'm shot in the chest.
- Bravo! Pushkin cried out and threw the pistol aside.

But Georges quickly got to his feet. His injury was not serious. The bullet hit him in the arm and only contused his chest.

According to official materials, a bullet fired by Pushkin from a pistol pierced Dantes' right hand and, hitting the metal button of his uniform, rebounded. In other words, the button saved Dantes' life.

The writer V. V. Veresaev in his book “Pushkin in Life” suggested that Baron Louis Gekkern, having obtained a reprieve from the poet, ordered a chain mail for his adopted son, which saved the life of Dantes.

According to the rules, only one satisfaction could be claimed for an insult. But Pushkin was not satisfied.
“It's strange,” said Pushkin, “I thought it would give me pleasure to kill him, but now I feel that it's not ... However, it's all the same. As soon as we get better, we'll start again."

In 1938, using the achievements of forensic ballistics, engineer M. Z. Komar calculated that the bullet would inevitably deform the button and press it into the body. However, in the materials of the military-judicial commission there is no information about the inspection of a deformed button from the uniform of Dantes. This button has not yet been found.

Forensic physician V. Safronov also came to the conclusion that the bullet hit a barrier of large size and density. In 1962, an investigative experiment was carried out: they made a mannequin of a tall cavalry guard dressed in the uniform of Dantes and fired aimed shots, taking into account the conditions of the fatal duel. The authors of the experiment concluded that under the uniform of Dantes there was protection such as chain mail.

Some believe that Danzas actually betrayed Pushkin. The exiled Decembrist Ivan Pushchin was indignant: “If I had been in Danzas’ place, then the fatal bullet would have met my chest ...”

The wounded Pushkin was first dragged to the sledge, then laid on his overcoat and carried away. However, the seconds were unable to do so. Then, together with the cabbies, they dismantled the fence of thin poles and drove the sleigh. All the way from the place of the duel to the sleigh, a bloody trail stretched in the snow. The wounded poet was put into a sledge and driven along a shaky, bumpy road.

According to the memoirs of Danzas, blood flowed from Pushkin's wound like a "river". However, the second did not take any medicines and bandaging materials in case of injury. Danzas explained this by the fact that "he was taken as a second a few hours before the duel, time was running out, and he did not have the opportunity to think about first aid for Pushkin."

Or maybe Danzas hoped that the gendarmes would not allow a duel? And that is why he did not invite a doctor to a duel, as was required by the dueling code.

Danzas knew how dangerous a wound in the stomach was. He has repeatedly seen people die from blood loss within an hour. But Pushkin remained without dressing for several hours.
Pushkin could have been saved if medical assistance had been provided on time. The chances of recovery would be at least 80%, because the mortality rate for such gunshot wounds is now 17.2 - 17.5%.

According to a study by the Ural surgeon Mikhail Davidov (“The duel and death of A.S. Pushkin through the eyes of a modern surgeon”), Danzas’ mistake was that Pushkin was taken from the place of the duel not to the hospital, where they could provide at least some help, but home. From the Black River to the apartment on the Moika - about seven miles. Pushkin was driven for an hour and a half. According to modern doctors, on the way home, he lost almost half of his blood volume.

At the Commandant's Dacha, Pushkin was transferred from the sleigh to Gekkern's carriage. It was a disservice, because the carriage was shaking even more, which increased the torment of the wounded. If Pushkin had been carried on a sleigh, they would have brought him twice as fast and, therefore, the wounded man would have lost less blood. And so the wounded poet was brought home already in the dark, by 18 o'clock.

Danzas spent three (!) hours looking for a surgeon all over St. Petersburg. First he went to Arendt, then to Salomon; not finding either one or the other at home, he left notes for them and went to Dr. Person; but he was also absent. From there, on the advice of Person's wife, Danzas went to the Orphanage, where, according to her, he could probably find a doctor. Approaching the Orphanage, Danzas met Dr. Scholz coming out of the gate. After listening to Danzas, Scholz told him that he, as an obstetrician, could not be useful in this case, but that he would immediately bring another doctor to Pushkin.
Scholz invited the surgeon K. Zadler, who by this time had already managed to provide medical assistance to the slightly wounded Dantes.

Arendt arrived at the same time, he also examined the wound. Pushkin asked to be told frankly: what position he was in, and added that no matter what the answer was, he could not frighten him, but that he needed to know his position for sure in order to have time to make some necessary orders.
“If so,” Arendt answered him, “then I must tell you that your wound is very dangerous and that I have almost no hope for your recovery.”
Leaving, Arendt said to Danzas, who was escorting him to the front: "The thing is bad, he will die."

After the duel, Danzas was to be arrested, but he was allowed by the emperor not to leave Pushkin until his last hour. Why?

During the night, Pushkin's suffering increased so much that he decided to shoot himself. Calling a man, he ordered to give him one of the drawers of the desk; the man did his will, but, remembering that there were pistols in this box, he warned Danzas. Danzas approached Pushkin and took the pistols from him, which he had already hidden under the covers. Pushkin admitted that he wanted to shoot himself because his suffering was unbearable.

The death of the poet came 46 hours after the injury. The autopsy was carried out right in the hallway. The bullet was never found in the body. No autopsy records were made. So the cause of Pushkin's death is still a mystery. Only 24 years after Pushkin's death, Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, who participated in the process, wrote notes on the results of the autopsy from memory and published them.

For seconding at the duel of Pushkin, Danzas was sentenced to hanging. However, at the request of the military and supervisory authorities (!) the emperor replaced this punishment with two additional months of arrest in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Danzas was released on May 19, 1837. Two years after the duel, in 1839, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav, 2nd degree; in 1840 the imperial crown was granted to this order. In 1844 he received the rank of colonel, and in 1857 he retired with the rank of major general.

The "Genuine military court case of 1837" about the duel between Pushkin and Dantes has been preserved. However, two sheets of primary testimony, written by KK Danzas with his own hand, are missing there.
Why did these sheets disappear? What was in them? Confession?

I do not blame KK Danzas. This cannot be done in the absence of direct evidence. However, circumstantial evidence does not speak in favor of Danzas.

Based on the foregoing, I can conclude that the duel was, in fact, a murder.

I answered: “Most likely, Danzas could only be an accomplice (accomplice). Only the emperor could be the organizer.”

Georges Dantes was only a performer. Some believe that Dantes was a kind of "shadow" that covered the Tsar's romance with Pushkin.
Dantes recalled: “There were plenty of cases when she could give me everything - and what? .. - never anything! never!"

Apparently, Natalya Nikolaevna really did not cheat on her husband with Dantes, since she was the favorite of Tsar Nicholas I. Evil tongues claimed that the last offspring of Pushkin was the child of Nicholas. Although Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich himself, judging by his physique, was hardly a descendant of the frail Emperor Paul.

Yakov Gordin in the book "The Death of Pushkin 1831-1836" explains the death of the poet as follows:
“He did not die in the struggle against the autocracy and the “secular mob”. He died in the fight against Russian history, the course of which he tried to change.<…>He lost hope for the implementation of his historical-state plan. He lost faith in friends. He lost faith in the possibility of creating a durable home. What remained for him was understanding and recognition in the future, and in the present - self-respect, i.e. unsullied honor. Honor, understood broadly. His honor as a true Russian nobleman. His honor as a true Russian writer. His honor as a man of duty."

But what is honor? What is the value coloring of the concept of honor?
Is fame really the worldly equivalent of immortality? Is there a true and false glory?
Doctor of Sociological Sciences Alexander Filippov spoke about honor, valor and glory in his lecture on February 10, 2017 at the European University in St. Petersburg.

Pushkin was first killed for political purposes, and a hundred years later they were "resurrected" for political purposes. In 1937 Alexander Pushkin was turned into a fighter against the autocracy; he became "our everything".
But Pushkin foresaw this.

Poet! do not value the love of the people.
Enthusiastic praises will pass minute noise;
Hear the judgment of a fool and the laughter of the cold crowd,
But you remain firm, calm and gloomy.

You are the king: live alone. By the road of the free
Go where your free mind takes you
Improving the fruits of your favorite thoughts,
Not demanding rewards for a noble feat.

They are in you. You are your own highest court;
You know how to appreciate your work more strictly.
Are you satisfied with it, demanding artist?

Satisfied? So let the crowd scold him
And spits on the altar where your fire burns
And in childish playfulness your tripod shakes.

The poet is not appreciated while he lives among us,
But will become famous as soon as he dies.
He serves as a reproach for those who sleep with their souls.
He is a wanderer on Earth, he is strange, he is a stranger.

The poet is a servant of Heaven, an instrument of the Creator,
God is in the faces of all creators, and He is without a face.
Adversity is the bread of the soul, and an incentive for us to grow,
And to become a poet, you thank them.

A poet is always a fighter, an artist and a hero.
And God speaks to them. He is only his God!
(from my true-life novel "The Wanderer" (mystery) on the site New Russian Literature

So what did you want to say with your post? they ask me.

All I want to say to people is contained in three main ideas:
1\ The purpose of life is to learn to love, to love no matter what
2\ Meaning is everywhere
3\ Love creates necessity.

P.S. Congratulations on the Defender of the Fatherland Day. I would be grateful to anyone who can reasonably refute my version.

And in your opinion, what is the CLUE TO PUSHKIN'S LAST DUEL?

© Nikolai Kofirin – New Russian Literature –

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet, playwright, publicist and prose writer. His death is one of the most mysterious events of the 19th century. For almost two centuries, researchers have been trying to clarify the mysterious events of the duel. How did Pushkin die? What was the reason? These and many other questions remain a mystery to this day. This article discusses various versions of the circumstances of his duel, the death of the poet, as well as the strangeness of his burial.

Brief biography of Pushkin: childhood and youth

A. S. Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799 in Moscow. As a child, the boy spent a long time with his nanny, studied French with tutors, and at the age of 12 he went to study at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he spent six years. Years of study contributed to the formation of him as a poet (it was during this period that the young man wrote 130 poems) and the formation of his political views. Here are some interesting facts from Pushkin's life that happened during his studies at the Lyceum:

• Alexander Pushkin entered the institution at the request of his uncle Vasily Lvovich. According to the results of training, he was listed as the second from the end in terms of academic performance.
• While still a lyceum student, the poet was a success with women. In this institution, he also fell in love for the first time.
• His first duel happened back in the years of study, and for a completely trifling reason.
• The poet was fond of card games, because of which he got into debt, and then drew epigrams and caricatures for his creditors, which caused great scandals.

Years of creativity in St. Petersburg and in exile

After graduating from the Lyceum in 1817, he began to serve in the College of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg. However, instead of work, he became interested in creativity, distinguished by youthful free-thinking. For poems in which he opposed the authorities and called for revolution (“The Fire of Purification”), the young man in 1820 was sent by the tsar into exile in the south of Russia. During these years, Pushkin's work developed very intensively. He created the poems "The Prisoner of the Caucasus", "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray", etc.

In 1824, the poet moved to the village of Mikhailovskoye, where "Eugene Onegin", "Boris Godunov" and many poems were written. In December 1825, he learned about the arrest of his friends after the uprising on Senate Square. And, protecting them from arrest, he had to destroy autobiographical records. In 1830, he spent a very fruitful autumn in the village. Boldino. Pushkin wrote famous works in prose and verse, and finished Eugene Onegin.

In 1831 he again moved to St. Petersburg and began to serve in the Foreign Collegium. Using the right to visit the archive, he began to work on works about Pugachev and Tsar Peter I. And on February 18, he married Natalya Goncharova in Moscow, the marriage with which became a source of inspiration, happiness and led the poet to death. A brief biography of Pushkin, presented in the article, told us about his childhood, youth and mature years. Now let us turn to his last period of life in St. Petersburg.

What preceded the tragic events?

To tell in detail how Pushkin died, it should be noted that the last years of the poet were morally difficult due to the hostile attitude of the tsar and the noble society towards him, impartial statements in the newspapers. But work on the works continued: at this time he wrote the poem "The Queen of Spades", the story "The Captain's Daughter", the poem "The Bronze Horseman".

In the winter of 1836, rumors began to spread around the city about the romantic relationship between his wife and J. Dantes, which resulted in Pushkin challenging Mr. Georges to a duel, in which Alexander Sergeevich was mortally wounded. At the time of his death, the brilliant poet was only 37 years old. It is generally accepted that Pushkin died in a duel at the hands of Dantes, but in reality this happened 2 days after this event.

The reasons for the duel with Dantes and the conditions for it

At first glance, everything is simple. The quick-tempered and very eccentric Pushkin, jealous of his wife Natalya for Lieutenant Georges Dantes, challenges him to a duel. Place, time and seconds appointed. And on January 27, 1837, the duelists shoot bullets at each other from pistols near the Black River, as a result of which the rival Georges mortally wounds the poet.

According to historians, the duel between Pushkin and Dantes was the 21st challenge of Alexander Sergeevich. The poet was the initiator of about 15, and only four of them took place, largely thanks to Pushkin's friends, who contributed to the reconciliation of the parties. In the other six cases, the opponents were the initiators. The conditions under which this duel took place were quite cruel. The rivals diverged for 20 steps, after which they began to shoot, walking towards each other. If the first shots did not bring results, then the duel was resumed.

The reason for Pushkin's duel is one of the most important questions that has worried historians for many years. After all, the most popular and official version is the poet's jealousy, which Georges Dantes aroused by his courtship of Natalia Goncharova. But there are some options. Comparing various interesting facts from the life of Pushkin, the duel itself, as well as the burial of the great poet, one can find several probable reasons that led to the tragic duel.

Pushkin's jealousy is the official reason for the duel

The first challenge to a duel occurred on November 5, 1836. The reason was an anonymous letter that came the day before, with a slanderous and insulting text for the poet. Then the duel of Pushkin and Dantes did not take place due to the request of Baron Gekkern, the adoptive father of Georges. He asked to postpone the fight for two weeks. The Frenchman announced his intention to marry Natalia's sister, Catherine, which helped settle the differences between Alexander and Georges, but, alas, not for long.

Soon an incident occurred that made the duel almost inevitable. Returning from the theater, Gekkern asked Natalya Goncharova about whether she was going to divorce soon. The woman told her husband about this incident, and Pushkin sent a letter to the baron, showing all his feelings and indignation about what had happened. In response, Dantes' second brought Louis Gekkern's answer with a challenge to a duel, signed by Georges himself.

Other versions of the reasons for the duel

The second version is not so popular, but many scientists and historians put forward indisputable facts in support of it. It says that with the help of Dantes, Tsar Nicholas I got rid of Pushkin. After all, the poet was distinguished by impudence and waywardness, and his poems did not always support the ruler and the foundations of the Russian Empire.

The third version contradicts the previous one. Following it, the poet was killed because in his poems he exposed the king in a favorable light (such works were really present in his work). This prevented the Dutch ambassador to the Russian Empire, Baron Louis Gekkern, who decided to get rid of Pushkin. This is also indicated by the fact that the baron took too much part, first in the showdown between Dantes and the poet, setting up and causing quarrels, and later in court, defending Georges.

The fourth version, which has recently been gaining more and more popularity, says that Pushkin's death occurred on the orders of foreign Masons. There are facts that at one time Alexander Sergeevich was a member of this society. But later, in 1820, he breaks with the Order of Freemasons and becomes a poet who glorifies the king and his reign. This version is confirmed by the persecution that all the newspapers staged, exposing the poet in the worst light and calling him "unbridled and wild." According to historians, only the Masons could do this.

Why didn't the doctors save the Russian genius?

How Pushkin died and from what exactly are also very burning questions. The official cause is severe blood loss and peritonitis after being wounded in the abdomen. Unfortunately, in those days, medicine was unable to cure such ailments. Pushkin's death occurred on January 29, 1837 in his apartment on the Moika embankment. In the last minute of his life, his friends were with him: Zhukovsky, Dal and Turgenev.

A very interesting question that has been causing controversy among scientists for more than a decade: "Why didn't a bullet fired from Pushkin's pistol cause great damage to Georges d'Anthes?" The official version - she ricocheted off the button of her coat. But doesn't it seem strange? There is a lot of controversy about this. It is suggested that Dantes was wearing chain mail. But this version has been refuted more than once by scientists, since it is not even possible to hide a “bulletproof vest” under a military uniform or frock coat.

Secrets of the poet's burial

Pushkin's death is indeed a very mysterious event, but the story of his burial is no less mysterious. Very strange circumstances come to light:

1. The poet was supposed to be buried next to his mother, not far from the village of Mikhailovskoye. But for some reason, his last will was not carried out. It was decided to bury him elsewhere.
2. Another mysterious factor is the transfer of the funeral service from one church to another. Initially, it was planned to hold the ceremony in St. Isaac's Cathedral, but at the last moment, the coffin with the body of Pushkin was transferred at night to the Stables Church, which was allowed to visit only by courtiers. Most likely, the authorities tried to keep the people away from the body of the poet.
3. On the second of February and all day on the 3rd, the corpse remained in the church. Some researchers suggest that at this time the body of the poet was replaced with another one, but there is no exact evidence of such a version. In the evening, Pushkin's friends saw him off. And at night, the box with the coffin was transported to the city of Pskov, where on February 6, next to the temple in the Svyatogorsk monastery, the poet was buried.
4. A very interesting fact is that the poet’s relatives were not at the grave, and his wife visited the grave only once and was there for a very short time.

When will the mysteries of the poet's death be resolved?

Pushkin's work is distinguished by love for the motherland, an enthusiastic perception of life, beautiful love lyrics and a light musical style. These are beautiful poems and prose, filled with the feelings of the poet himself. For more than one century, starting from childhood, people will read the works of Alexander Sergeevich, and historians and literary critics will unravel the secrets of his life and death. Unfortunately, the puzzling question of how Pushkin died may remain unresolved.

Petersburg circles were well aware of the unconventional passions of Georges Dantes, in particular, about his connection with Baron Louis Gekkern. In order to ward off the vanity of others, Baron Gekkern decides to adopt Dantes and fusses with the Dutch king about papers confirming the adoption, and advises him to start a non-binding affair, for example, with some famous married lady. The choice falls on Natalia Goncharova. However, at the first meeting, she sharply refuses him. Now he finds himself at a dead end - his pride is wounded, and Goncharova becomes a kind of matter of honor.

In 1836, Natalia Pushkina and Dantes are said to have met in a tete-a-tete format. The latter needed to get at least some sign from Pushkina so that they could talk about their romance. It seems that even then Natalia expressed herself about her husband, that she would be "faithful to him for a century." Then Dantes, threatening her with a gun, demands either to surrender to him, or to marry. Soon Pushkin sends an angry letter to Baron Gekkern and through him challenges Dantes to a duel. Dantes, on the other hand, uses plan "B": he proposes to Natalia's sister, Ekaterina Goncharova. In light of these circumstances, Pushkin is forced to abandon the duel.

It seems that the task of Dantes was realized: Petersburg began to teem with rumors about his connection with Goncharova. A year before the ill-fated duel, Pushkin receives an anonymous letter in which he is called "the historiographer of the order of cuckolds." At first, he tries not to pay attention to this, but such letters are becoming more and more. Pushkin considered Baron Gekkern to be their author. At least, this could be guessed from the handwriting and the quality of the paper. Gekkern such a move was beneficial. Firstly, since the letters were anonymous, the baron did not risk being challenged to a duel, and secondly, he saw that his adopted son Dantes had gone too far in trying to charm Natalia.

To any sane person, more or less familiar with the history of the death of the poet, such a question should seem ridiculous. However, in recent years, readers could come across a categorical statement: "Pushkin did not shoot Dantes." In issue 21 of 2001 of the newspaper "Secret Materials of the XX Century" was published an article by Igor Talanov "What happened on the Black River?" Trying to answer this sacramental question, which has long tormented serious researchers of the circumstances of Pushkin's death, the author stunned readers with an unexpected statement: “Dantes, as you know, remained alive and well. Conclusion: he did not receive any injury! True, after the shot, the "French rogue" fell. But he collapsed in fear. It was Pushkin who fired into the air, but Dantes simply chickened out because "this passive homosexual was not a brave man ..."

Immediately after the military court in the duel case was completed and the tsar approved the verdict, Dantes was immediately expelled from Russia, accompanied by a courier. On the way, he received a letter from his "adoptive father" Heeckeren. An “active homosexual” wrote to a “passive” one: “...God forbid that you do not have to suffer much during such a terrible journey, you, a patient with two open wounds; did they allow you, or rather, did they give you time on the road to dress your wounds? I don’t think, and I’m very worried about…”

Where did Dantes, after the duel, from which the cavalry guard came out without a single scratch, appear two open wounds? Is it really possible that even before the trial, during which Pushkin's killer was kept under arrest in the guardhouse, two homosexuals were so "addled" in their amorous pastimes that the "active", also not distinguished by courage, left two injuries on the body of the "passive" one?

The answer to the question is given by two medical examinations of Dantes, stored in the Pushkin House.

The fact is that the senior doctor of the St. Petersburg police, on duty, was obliged to report to the Medical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about all the injuries that took place in the capital. So, at the end of January 1837, a medical examiner reported to his superiors about the "bites of the Billing spouses by a cat suspected of being rabid." Of course, the police doctor could not fail to report to the authorities about the open wounds of the lieutenant of the Cavalier Guard Regiment. A file has been preserved under the title "According to the reports of the senior police doctor on incidents in St. Petersburg for 1837 of the Medical Department of the Ministry of the Interior, department 2, table 1." Let us quote this short document in full: “The police found out that yesterday, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, outside the city behind the Commandant’s cottage, there was a duel between the chamber junker Alexander Pushkin and the lieutenant of Her Majesty’s Cavalier Guard regiment, Baron Gekkeren, the first of them was wounded by a bullet in the lower part of the belly, and the latter in the right hand right through and received a concussion in the belly. - Mr. Pushkin, with all the benefits provided to him by His Excellency 1st Life Physician Arendt, is in danger of life. “What I have the honor to convey to Your Excellency.

Senior police doctor Yudenich, Petr Nikitich, stat. Council.

However, there is another more detailed medical description of Dantes' injury. It was preserved in the military court case about the duel between Pushkin and Dantes. Before involving the cavalry guard in interrogations, the members of the Military Court Commission, with the help of a physician, wanted to make sure whether the person under investigation could testify. For this purpose, the head doctor of the guards of the cavalry corps Stefanovich was sent to the apartment of Dantes. On February 5, 1837, he drew up the following act: “Lieutenant Baron Gekkeren has a penetrating bullet wound on his right arm below the elbow joint by four transverse fingers. Entry and exit of the bullet in a small distance from one another. Both wounds are located in the flexor muscles surrounding the radius, more towards the outside. The wounds are simple, clean, without damage to the bones and large blood vessels. The patient ... wears a bandage on his arm and, in addition to pain in the wounded area, also complains of pain in the upper right part of the abdomen, where the ejected bullet caused a concussion, which pain is detected with a deep sigh, although external signs of concussion are imperceptible. From the wound, the patient has an ordinary slight fever (ferbis vulneraria): in general, he seems to be in a good and reliable condition for recovery ... "

Unfortunately, Igor Talanov cannot even be called an amateur, because amateurs, as a rule, know what is considered well-known. Yudenich's report was published in Shchegolev's book "The Duel and Death of Pushkin", which went through five editions (the last "Duel of Pushkin with Dantes Gekkeren: A Genuine Military Court Case. 1837", where Stefanovich's report was published, is also not a bibliographic rarity. Published in 1900, it was republished during the years of perestroika).

It was enough for Igor Talanov to look into any of these publications ... to be convinced of the absurdity of all his ballistic calculations.

… Talanov is right about one thing. Indeed, much remains unclear in the history of the duel between Pushkin and Dantes. Indeed, how do we know about what happened on the Black River?

At the first interrogation of the military court commission on February 6, 1837, Dantes was asked where and when the duel took place, and whether he could refer to witnesses or any documents explaining the case in support of his words. Dantes stated that his second d’Arshiac, before leaving Petersburg, handed the “report” about the duel to chamberlain Vyazemsky.

It is noteworthy that Dantes, who did not want to interfere in the process of any of the outsiders, brought to the fore a third person who did not participate in the duel. And for what? In order to inform the court about the details of the duel, that is, to convey what he himself should have told about as a direct participant. Moreover, the "report" (which, in fact, became the first document about the duel, which the military court had) was created, presumably, specifically for this case for the commission.

On February 8, Vyazemsky was called to the commission. When asked about the origin of the "relationship", the prince replied that he did not have any official document, but he had a letter from d'Archiac with a description of the duel. “Not knowing anything about the duel in advance,” Vyazemsky testified, “... at my first meeting with d’Arshiac, I asked him to tell me what happened.” In these "sincere testimonies" of Vyazemsky, it is not difficult to see the prince's desire to substantiate, as it were, an accidental, everyday origin of a private letter.

In fact, Vyazemsky received detailed information about the duel, of course, not from d’Arshiak, but from Danzas on the evening of January 27 on the Moika, in the poet’s apartment, where the prince met Pushkin’s second after the duel. “For this, Mr. d'Arshiac volunteered to state in a letter everything that had happened, asking me at the same time,” continued Vyazemsky, “to show the letter to Mr. Danzas for mutual verification and certification of details ...” However, Vyazemsky received d'Arshiac's letter after the departure of the French attaché abroad, so the prince could not read it together with both witnesses in order to obtain the "reliability" that he desired to have. As a result, Vyazemsky gave d'Arshiac's letter to Danzas, and he returned this document to the prince along with a letter from himself.

So Vyazemsky explained the seemingly accidental creation of a written version of the duel - a version whose authenticity was almost officially certified by both seconds in documents specially prepared for such a case.

It turned out that it was as if Vyazemsky did not have the opportunity to discuss all the circumstances of the duel in the presence of both seconds, and therefore letters from them were needed. However, Vyazemsky's meeting with d'Archiac and Danzas took place. On January 31, Turgenev wrote in his diary that he first went to Pushkin's house, and then went to d'Archiac, where he found Vyazemsky and Danzas. They talked about Pushkin. Apparently, at that meeting with d’Archiac, it was agreed to prepare documents about the duel in the form of two letters from seconds, which were presented to the investigation by Vyazemsky, as if by a completely outsider, and therefore, seemingly by an absolutely objective person. It is important to note that in the following days Vyazemsky will create a written version of not only the duel itself, but the entire duel history.

This is the origin of the official version, which has now become a textbook.

Moreover, it was created immediately after it became known that it was decided to bring all the participants in the duel to court and an official investigation was ahead. However, the seconds began to talk about what really happened already on the evening of the fateful January 27th. Their initial stories were written down by contemporaries at the same time, in the last days of January. And they sharply contradict what the seconds later presented to the investigation. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of these stories was that they describe a duel that is more reminiscent of the duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky in Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. The duelists cast lots and shoot at each other in turn.

One of the earliest records of the duel belongs to Turgenev. He was on the Moika, in the apartment of the dying poet, and sent his letters-reports about everything that happened there directly from there. At 9 am on January 28, Turgenev described to Nefedeva the circumstances that led to the duel. “Yesterday, a duel was scheduled for the Commandant's dacha on the Black River ... Pushkin met Danzas on the street ... took him to his dacha and only there showed him a letter to Father Gekkeren; Danzas could not refuse to be a second; he and d'Archiac, who was Heckeren's second, cleared the snow, prepared a place, and twenty paces away Pushkin and Heckeren fired." Turgenev's testimony causes some bewilderment. Obviously, he did not really know where the duel took place. The fact is that the Commandant's dacha was really located on the Black River. But the dacha that Pushkin and his family rented in the summer of 1836 was located on Kamenny Island. Where the fight actually took place is not entirely clear. Perhaps Turgenev confuses the dacha that Pushkin rented earlier on the Black River with the Commandant's dacha. But it is important to point out that d'Arshiac and Dantes immediately found themselves at the dacha along with Danzas. It turns out that they arrived at the place of the duel together. Pushkin brought Danzas up to speed here. This means that there were no preliminary negotiations between the seconds. Further more interesting. “First, Heckeren fired and hit Pushkin right in the stomach ... he fell.” The phrase is ambiguous. Does it mean that the duelists could shoot whenever they pleased (as it was later stated in the official version), or did Dantes get the right to fire the first shot?

In favor of the second assumption, the following words of Turgenev speak: “The second gave him a pistol ...” What does “give him a pistol” mean? It turns out that at the moment when Dantes fired his shot, Pushkin did not have a pistol in his hands. This is an extremely interesting observation. After all, the official version said that Pushkin's pistol clogged with snow after the fall, and it had to be replaced with another one. But Turgenev does not write a word about replacing the pistol. It is also somewhat suspicious that, as Danzas later claimed, both Pushkin and Dantes had exactly the same pistols when they arrived at the place of the duel.

Further, Turgenev claims that “Heeckeren was wounded in the hand that he held at the waist: which saved him from a similar wound as Pushkin’s,” that is, in the lower abdomen. A very important observation. As you know, Pushkin was wounded in the groin. Both medical examinations of Dantes - both Yudenich and Stefanovich - confirm that the bullet, having pierced the arm and hit the button of the pantaloons, ricocheted into the belly. This means that both duelists shot at the same place - below the waist.

An interesting account of the duel is contained in Durnovo's letter to his mother, Volkonskaya, the same one with whom Pushkin lodged. “The bullet entered his groin,” writes Durnovo, “and did not come out. They fought at 10 paces. They cast lots. Heckeren fired first; he, with all that he was wounded, still had the strength to fire his shot. As you can see, Durnovo was well aware of the details of the fight. She knew for sure that Pushkin was wounded in the groin, while Lermontov and Tyutchev, for example, as well as the majority of St. Petersburg society, were convinced that it was in the chest. Her letter is dated January 30, 1837 and is also one of the earliest accounts of the duel. Here we find confirmation of the information obtained as a result of the analysis of Turgenev's letter, written during Pushkin's lifetime: the duelists fired by lot, Dantes fired first.

There is another evidence that the duelists fired in turn, and at first glance, it echoes the statement of Igor Talanov, because there is also a shot in the air. This testimony belongs to Alfred Fall, author of Memoirs of a Royalist, published in Paris in 1888. Falloux visited Petersburg in 1836, and his guides were Dantes and Trubetskoy. Moreover, immediately after the flight of d'Archiac from Russia, Falloux met with him in Paris. According to Falloux, with the consent of Dantes, the seconds decided that Pushkin would shoot first. Pushkin took aim at his bofrère, lowered his pistol, raised it again with an insulting smile. Shot. The bullet whistled past the enemy's ear without hitting him. Dantès arrived at the scene of the duel with the firm conviction to shoot into the air after he had withstood Pushkin's shot. But this cold hatred, manifested until the very last hour, made him lose his cool, and "Pushkin fell dead on the spot."

Dantes' medical examinations leave no doubt about the Pushkin bullet "whistling past the ear." As for assertions that Pushkin fell dead, they even cast a shadow of confidence in Fallu's testimony. Before us is another unsuccessful attempt to hide what really happened.

But why was it necessary to hide the fact that Dantes and Pushkin were shooting by lot and aiming at each other in the groin? The fact is that if the duel really happened that way, then it was especially cruel. It was here that the intensity of the passions that moved the duelists was imprinted. However, the seconds in no way wanted to reveal this circumstance to the government and society.

However, the whole course of events immediately preceding the duel itself seemed to indicate that things were heading towards such a final. At 9 am on January 27, Pushkin received a note from d'Archiac with a categorical demand to send a second for negotiations. Pushkin replied that he did not want any negotiations. He stated that he would leave the house only to go to the place of the duel. Obviously, this is exactly what happened in reality.

At about 12 o'clock Danzas, apparently invited by Pushkin's note, appeared at the house on the Moika. Pushkin immediately sent him for pistols, while he washed himself and changed into clean clothes. At one o'clock in the afternoon the poet left the house, went in the direction of Nevsky for a cab, and never returned home.

What happened next? We don't really know. It is only certain that Pushkin and Danzas visited the French embassy. What Danzas later told about this episode during the investigation raises serious doubts. According to Danzas, Pushkin accidentally met him on the Chain Bridge and invited him to be a witness to one conversation. Danzas got into the sleigh. Pushkin took him to the French embassy. Only here Pushkin brought him up to date: he explained the reasons for his displeasure and read his letter to Heckeren. The poet then introduced Danzas to d'Archiac as his second. Danzas could not refuse and agreed. Pushkin left his seconds to work out the terms of the duel, while he returned home. When Danzas arrived there, Pushkin sent him for pistols. Then they went to the place of the duel.

It is easy to see that the whole story is invented in order to whitewash Danzas as an unwitting participant in the duel. However, it is extremely poorly crafted. In fact, Pushkin reads the letter to Heeckeren and announces the reasons for his displeasure only in order to “initiate” Danzas. We have no doubt that, having come to Pushkin on the Moika and being sent for pistols, Danzas was already “initiated”. Then what could be discussed at the French embassy, ​​where Pushkin and the "initiate" Danzas arrived with pistols? It is not otherwise about how to immediately go to the place of the duel and there decide how and under what conditions to fight.

A quarter of a century later, in his memoirs, recorded by Amosov, Danzas developed the version that he announced under oath, supplementing it with new details. From the embassy, ​​Danzas brought Pushkin to the Moika a written text of the terms of the duel. But from the poet's house they did not go to the place of the duel, as Danzas claimed during the investigation. It turns out that now Pushkin sent him for a sleigh and for pistols. And only then, having met in the confectionery of Wolf and Beranger, the duellists went to the Black River.

Comparing the various versions of Danzas' testimony, we can clearly trace how the version of the duel was created and improved. First, stories in Pushkin's apartment, then testimony during the investigation, then memories, and the version became canonical. However, we still tend to give preference to the earliest evidence.

180 years ago, the poet Alexander Pushkin was mortally wounded on the banks of the Black River. About his last days, methods of treatment and the opinion of modern medicine about the injury - in the material "Gazety.Ru".

“Duel A.S. Pushkin with Dantes, Adrian Markovich Volkov, 1 869

The cause of death of Alexander Pushkin, the great Russian poet and writer, is known to every fifth grader. The poet was mortally wounded in a duel with the French officer Georges Charles Dantes. According to the calculations of the historian of literature Vladislav Khodasevich, before the duel with Dantes, Pushkin already had several dozen challenges to a duel, and Pushkin himself was the initiator of fifteen, of which only four eventually took place. The conflict between Pushkin and Dantes, provoked by Dantes' love for Pushkin's wife, Natalia Goncharova, and the jealousy of the poet, lasted for several years. The duel that took place on February 8, 1837 near the Black River on the outskirts of St. Petersburg put an end to it.

Pushkin and Dantes fired from a distance of 20 steps. Dantes fired first. The bullet hit the poet in the stomach, hitting the neck of the thigh. After being wounded, Pushkin was able to shoot back, but did not inflict a serious wound on the enemy. From the place of the duel, Pushkin was taken home.

In the days after the injury, Pushkin was conscious. He found the strength to communicate with numerous visitors who wanted to inquire about his health.

At the same time, he was in such severe pain that at night his wife, who was dozing in the next room, jumped up from his screams.

The cause of the pain, as noted by the historian and literary critic Pyotr Bartenev, in particular, was enemas. “Doctors, thinking to alleviate suffering, put in a flush, which caused the bullet to crush the intestines ...” he wrote.

Pushkin often asked for cold water and took only a few sips.

By noon the next day after the duel, the poet felt better. He talked with Vladimir Dal and joked, and those around him received hope for the recovery of the poet. Even the doctors doubted the initial forecasts - they told the friends of the wounded man that the assumptions of doctors are sometimes erroneous and, perhaps, Pushkin will recover. He even helped to plant leeches himself.

But the poet felt himself weakening. He kept calling his wife to him, but he did not have the strength for long conversations. By nightfall he was worse again.

The next day, Pushkin felt a little better again. Ivan Spassky, one of the doctors involved in the treatment of Pushkin, noted that his hands warmed up, his pulse became more pronounced. By seven o'clock in the evening, as Spassky wrote, "the warmth in his body increased, his pulse became much more distinct, and the pain in his stomach was more palpable."

“Actually, he suffered from pain, according to him, not so much as from excessive melancholy, which must be attributed to inflammation of the abdominal cavity, and perhaps even more inflammation of the large venous veins,” Dahl recalled.

On the morning of February 10, the assembled doctors unanimously recognized Pushkin's position as hopeless. According to their estimates, he had no more than two hours to live.

Pushkin's house was surrounded by so many people that his friends had to resort to the help of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. The poet was getting worse, but he continued to remain conscious. Shortly before his death, he wanted cloudberries. Pushkin wished his wife to feed him from her own hands. “You will see that he will live, he will not die,” she said, hopeful, to Spassky.

But very soon he asked Spassky, Dal and Konstantin Danzas, his lyceum comrade, who were at the bedside, to turn him on his right side.

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The autopsy was performed by Spassky. Dahl wrote: “At autopsy, it turned out: the loin part of the right half was shattered, part of the sacral bone as well; the bullet got lost near the tip of the latter. The intestines were inflamed but not killed by gangrene; inside the peritoneum to a pound of gore, probably from two femoral or mesenteric veins. The bullet entered two inches from the superior anterior extremity of the right shinbone and passed obliquely or in an arc inside the greater pelvis from above down the sacrum. Pushkin died, probably from inflammation of the large veins in conjunction with inflammation of the intestines.

Had a duel taken place today, Pushkin would have had a chance to survive, according to modern doctors. The volume of blood loss, according to the historian of surgery Uderman, amounted to 40% of the total blood volume in the body, which is no longer considered fatal due to the possibility of blood transfusion. Pushkin did not receive donated blood. Instead of hospitalization, Pushkin was taken home, dragged to the sled, exacerbating the traumatic shock.

Those wounded in the stomach at that time were not operated on, and science did not know either aseptics, or antibiotics, or anesthesia. They were recommended to be treated with poultices, castor oil, laxatives and enemas.

The use of leeches aggravated the blood loss. By that time, according to the associate professor of the Perm Medical Academy Mikhail Davidov, the author of the book “The Duel and the Death of A.S. Pushkin through the Eyes of a Modern Surgeon”, the poet has already begun to have peritonitis. Thanks to foreign bodies that got into the abdominal cavity - a bullet that no one pulled out, pieces of clothing, bone fragments - the infection penetrated there. In the meantime, blood from damaged vessels filled the small pelvis and from there also poured into the abdominal cavity. Bacteria from a gangrenous area of ​​the small intestine wall also got there. The disease could also be complicated by osteomyelitis of the pelvic bones.

In a modern interpretation, Pushkin's diagnosis would sound like this:

“Gunshot penetrating blind wound of the lower abdomen and pelvis. Multifragmented gunshot infected fractures of the right iliac and sacral bones with incipient osteomyelitis. Traumatogenic diffuse peritonitis. Gangrene of the wall of the small intestine. Infected abdominal hematoma. Foreign body (bullet) in the sacrum. Phlebitis of the pelvic veins. fulminant sepsis. Traumatic shock. Massive blood loss. Acute posthemorrhagic anemia of severe degree. Acute cardiovascular and respiratory failure. Multiple organ failure."

To save Pushkin, it was necessary to provide first aid after being wounded by applying an aseptic bandage and introducing painkillers and hemostatic agents.

Then he was to be transported in a supine position to the surgical department, on the way introducing blood plasma substitutes and anti-shock agents. In the hospital, it would be necessary to conduct an urgent examination, including radiography and ultrasound, and then operate on the poet under general anesthesia. In the postoperative period, intensive therapy with antibiotics would be necessary.

“If the above measures were carried out in full, a fatal outcome due to the severity of the wound could still occur, but the chances of recovery would be at least 80%, because the mortality rate for such gunshot wounds is now 17.2-17.5%”, - says Davidov.

But in the first half of the 19th century, no one suspected the aspects that now seem self-evident. Even in the 1980s, according to the estimates of the prominent Soviet surgeon Boris Petrovsky, Pushkin's chances of survival would have been 30-40%. At a special scientific conference dedicated to the wound and death of the poet, he formulated the general opinion of the audience as follows: “From the standpoint of modern surgery, we can say that before A.S. Pushkin, our colleagues in the first half of the 19th century were helpless.

Alla Salkova