Russian baroness. The famous sister of mercy.
Many articles, poetic works have been written about the feat of the “Russian rose that died on Bulgarian soil” (V. Hugo), and even a feature film was made.
But in none of the literary sources, not in any of the letters of her contemporaries is there a word about what prompted the brilliant secular lady Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya to change her ball gown for a modest nurse's outfit. She never expanded on the subject, and an aura of mystery surrounded her act. It is about her and her many friends (but not so eminent) that P. A. Richter, the chief representative of the Society for the Care of the Wounded and Sick, wrote: a popularly recognized right to universal gratitude and respect as a soldier's best friend in the midst of suffering and disease." It is possible that the “military life” surrounding Vrevskaya left an imprint on her character.
There is very little information about this period. It is known that Julia was the daughter of the famous Major General Pyotr Evdokimovich Varikhovsky and lived with her mother, brothers and sister in the Smolensk province until she was ten years old. Then the whole family moved to the Caucasus, to the place of service of the father. The atmosphere of heroism, stories about military events and exploits, the suffering of the crippled and wounded - all this could not but leave a mark in the heart of a kind and sympathetic girl, nurtured in her spiritual warmth, which she strove to give to people.
Undoubtedly, female charm and intelligence, dedication and kindness, combined with fiery patriotism, attracted the attention of young Yulia Petrovna "one of the most educated and smartest people of her time" (according to the Decembrist A.P. Belyaev), 44-year-old military general, Baron Ippolit Alexandrovich Vrevsky. He was an outstanding person: at the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers he studied and was friends with M. Yu. Vrevsky graduated from the Academy of the General Staff, was familiar with many interesting people of that time: the brother of A. S. Pushkin - Lev Sergeevich, the Decembrists M. A. Nazimov, N. I. Loren, the brothers A. P. and P. P. Belyaev. Yulia Petrovna also communicated with these people when, at the age of 16, she became the mistress of the baron's house. She probably appreciated and loved this man if she agreed to accept his proposal, knowing that Vrevsky was “married” to a Circassian woman (the marriage was not officially recognized) and had three children from her. Nikolai, Pavel and Maria were considered "pupils" of the baron and bore the surname Tersky. However, the marriage was short-lived: a year later, the general died under the bullets of the highlanders.
Yulia Petrovna, together with her mother and younger sister, moved to St. Petersburg and, as the widow of the illustrious general, was affectionately received in society and became the maid of honor of the court of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. “The Baroness ... was considered for almost twenty years one of the first St. Petersburg beauties. I have never met such a captivating woman in all my life. Captivating not only for its appearance, but for its femininity, grace, infinite friendliness and infinite kindness. This woman never said anything bad about anyone and did not allow herself to be slandered, but, on the contrary, she always tried to put forward his good sides in everyone. Many men courted her, many women envied her, but the rumor never dared to reproach her for anything. She sacrificed her whole life for her relatives, for strangers, for everyone ... ”- this is how the writer V.A. Sollogub, who knew her from the Caucasus, spoke about Vrevskaya.
Yulia Petrovna was in a hurry to do good, she was generous and fair. She surrounded the children of her late husband with great care and attention and made a lot of efforts so that his sons and daughter received the name and title of their father. Vrevskaya gave the estate and fortune inherited from her husband to the now legal heirs of Ippolit Alexandrovich.
For many years, the baroness was known as one of the most brilliant minds of St. Petersburg, and among her friends were writers D. V. Grigorovich, V. A. Sollogub, poets Y. P. Polonsky, P. V. Schumacher, artists V. V. Vereshchagin , I. K. Aivazovsky. She was also acquainted with Victor Hugo and Pauline Viardot. Part of the time Vrevskaya devoted to traveling around Italy, Egypt and Palestine, accompanying the empress on trips abroad.
But despite the constant success, social life did not appeal to Yulia Petrovna. At court, she was more bored and uncomfortable than at her estate in Mishkovo (Oryol province.). In 1873, she met I. S. Turgenev and often talked with him in St. Petersburg. When Ivan Sergeevich fell ill in the summer of 1874, the baroness, neglecting secular conventions, took care of the writer for five days at his estate, Spassky-Lutovinovo. Turgenev was frankly not indifferent to Vrevskaya and admitted in letters that he would not have hesitated to “give the apple” of Paris to her. Only now Yulia Petrovna did not agree to share the "apple" with Polina Viardot, with whom Turgenev was actually in a civil marriage.
They became good friends and corresponded until the last days of her life. (Only Turgenev’s letters have been preserved.) Vrevskaya left a “deep mark” in his soul: “I feel that in my life from now on there is one more creature to whom I sincerely attached, whose friendship I will always cherish, whose fate I will always be be interested."
Yulia Petrovna and Turgenev continued to meet in St. Petersburg, Paris, Carlsbad. He knew well about her passion for the theater, understood her dreams of long trips to India, Spain, America; they exchanged impressions about books and art exhibitions. The "Serbian catastrophe" (1876), which upset Turgenev so much, became a test of spirit and character for Vrevskaya. After Russia declared war on Turkey on April 12, 1877, Yulia Petrovna, unexpectedly for everyone, joined the ranks of volunteers who were not indifferent to the misfortune of the Slavic brothers. She obtained permission at her own expense to organize a sanitary detachment of 22 doctors and nurses. Moreover, the baroness herself "learned to look after the sick and consoled herself with the thought that she was doing the job." She seemed to repeat the path of Elena Stakhova, described by Turgenev in the novel "On the Eve".
Shortly before the departure of Yulia Petrovna to the Balkans, the writer was destined to meet her at the dacha of Ya. P. Polonsky. K. P. Obodovsky, who was present there, described this event as follows: “Turgenev did not arrive alone. A lady dressed as a sister of mercy arrived with him. Unusually pretty, of a purely Russian type, her facial features somehow harmonized with her costume.
On June 19, 1877, Baroness Yu. P. Vrevskaya arrived in the Romanian city of Iasi to work as an ordinary nurse of the Holy Trinity community in the 45th military temporary evacuation hospital. There was a catastrophic shortage of medical personnel: from one to five trains with the wounded arrived a day. Sometimes the number of people in need of medical assistance exceeded 11,000. Vrevskaya wrote to her sister: “We were very tired, things were ruinous: up to three thousand patients a day, and on other days we bandaged until 5 o’clock in the morning tirelessly.” In addition, the sisters took turns distributing medicines, feeding the seriously wounded, managing the kitchen, and supervising the change of linen. The baroness, a court lady, accustomed to luxury and comfort, in her letters never complained about the hardships of war.
It was especially difficult for Yulia Petrovna in December 1877. After four months of hard work, she was assigned a vacation, and she was going to spend it with her sister in the Caucasus. But, having learned from the commissioner of the Red Cross, Prince A. G. Shcherbatov, that many hospitals are closing due to lack of funds and nurses, she changed her mind. Yulia Petrovna went to the small Bulgarian town of Byala. In messages to Turgenev, Vrevskaya wrote: “... I sweep my room myself, all luxury is far away here, I eat canned food and tea, I sleep on a stretcher of the wounded and on hay. Every morning I have to walk three miles to the 48th hospital, where I am temporarily seconded, where the wounded lie in Kalmyk wagons and huts. There are 5 sisters for 400 people, all of them are very seriously wounded. There are frequent operations at which I am also present ... "She spoke sparingly about her hardships and with pain and pride - about Russian heroes:" It's a pity to see these unfortunate truly heroes who suffer such terrible hardships without grumbling; all this lives in dugouts, in the cold, with mice, on some breadcrumbs, yes, the Russian soldier is great!
Yulia Petrovna, who does an excellent job with dressings, was appointed an assistant in amputations. Once in Byala, actually on the front line, she took part in the battle at Mechka, taking out the wounded from the battlefield under a hail of bullets and providing them with first aid. But the empress conveyed to the baroness a request to return to the court. Vrevskaya was outraged to the limit by the words transmitted to her by Prince Cherkassky: ““I miss Yulia Petrovna. It’s time for her to return to the capital. The feat is accomplished. She is presented to the order ...”. How those words make me angry. They think that I came here to perform feats. We are here to help, not to receive medals.” In high society, Vrevskaya's act continued to be considered an extravagant trick, and she simply did the "deed", not considering it heroism.
Conditions in Byala were terrible. The wounded and personnel were housed in wagons and damp huts. The forces of Vrevskaya were not unlimited. When typhus began to fall on the wounded, Yulia Petrovna's weak body could not stand it. “For four days she was not well, did not want to be treated ... soon the illness became strong, she fell into unconsciousness and was all the time without memory until her death ... she suffered a lot, died of a heart because she had a heart disease,” Sister Vrevskaya wrote from the words of eyewitnesses. Yulia Petrovna died on February 5, 1878. The wounded themselves looked after such a sympathetic and gentle "sister", they themselves dug a grave in the frozen ground. They carried her coffin.
Yulia Petrovna wanted to be buried in the Sergius Desert near St. Petersburg, where her mother and brother rested, but fate decreed otherwise. Vrevskaya was lowered into the ground near the Orthodox church in Byala. She was wearing the dress of a sister of mercy. M. Pavlov wrote: “Not belonging, in essence, to the Community of Sisters, she nevertheless impeccably wore a red cross, was indifferently affectionate and courteous with everyone, never made any personal claims, and with her even and sweet treatment earned herself a general location. The death of Yulia Petrovna made a heavy impression on all of us, cut off, like her, from everything close to us, and not one tear rolled down during the burial of the body of the deceased.
This death upset Turgenev, who responded with a poem in prose: “She was young, beautiful; the highest society knew her; even dignitaries inquired about it. The ladies envied her, the men trailed after her... two or three people secretly and deeply loved her. Life smiled at her; But there are smiles worse than tears.
Tender meek heart... and such strength, thirst for sacrifice! Help those in need of help ... she did not know another happiness ... did not know - and did not know. All other happiness passed by. But she reconciled with this long ago, and all, blazing with the fire of unquenchable faith, gave herself up to the service of her neighbors.
What cherished treasures she buried there, in the depths of her soul, in her very hiding place, no one ever knew - and now, of course, she will not know.
Yes, and why? The sacrifice has been made… the deed is done.”
So the name of Baroness Yu. P. Vrevskaya went down in history as a symbol of the moral character of a nurse and philanthropy.
Nurse. National heroine of Bulgaria.
Probably, the motives of her actions can be understood only by listening to the voice of the era that nurtured her fighting character. They say that the best people of the time absorb all the problems, vices and virtues of it to a greater extent than mere mortals. It was an extraordinary courage for the youth of the 1960s to accept life in a much more mundane way than their enthusiastic, romantic grandfathers did. Love did not seem to these boys and girls the only meaning of life, rather, they treated it as a fruitless slobbering, designed to hide the worthlessness of character. The sixties bowed before the natural sciences, the most "advanced" publicly preached natural human relations, not excluding sound benefit and pleasure; Everywhere, natural humanism came into favor, meaning, first of all, concrete assistance to those in need. They fought with the values of their fathers in their own way: they went “to the people”, painted grubby children on picturesque canvases and slaughtered frogs. They sincerely believed that humanity, with the help of a steam engine and universal equality, would find heaven on earth. And if some philosophers (for example, V. Ilyin) argue that the revolution in Russia was born in the sixties of the XIX century, then our heroine can probably be attributed to those who “lit a fire” in their home - voluntarily or involuntarily.
Yulia Vrevskaya was established in society in a completely different way than was customary for women of her circle. "Who is guilty?" - this age-old domestic question, related to its fate, is almost impossible to solve.
Julia was born in that ill-fated year when Lermontov died, and even not far from the very place where the duel took place, and even by a curious accident, her husband Ippolit Alexandrovich Vrevsky, a military general who commanded troops on the Lezgin line of the Caucasus, studied at the School of Guards ensigns and cavalry cadets with Lermontov. Did the rebellious soul of the famous poet touch the young beautiful creature - the daughter of General Pyotr Varpakhovsky? True, in fairness it should be said that, according to recent studies, our heroine was born in the Smolensk province, and was brought to the Caucasus at the age of ten. Yes, and the date of birth of Yulia is controversial, there is an assumption that this is 1837, not 1841.
Despite the Caucasian childhood, in which the aroma of war was always smoked, the girl was brought up in the best aristocratic traditions - French bonnes, Easter conversations, pink children's balls. And she was given in marriage, like an ordinary noblewoman - at the age of sixteen, for a middle-aged man, but thirty years more experienced than her young wife. And she was widowed a year later, not having time to understand the sweetness of male love - the usual fate of the Russian mistress, who so admired Nekrasov with her fidelity and purity.
The husband died from a wound received during the storming of the Lezgin village of Kituri, and Yulia went to St. Petersburg, where she was received and treated kindly at the royal court. Along the way, she managed to do a good deed - she honored the memory of her husband by taking care of the illegal heirs of General Vrevsky. Her husband performed feats, like Lermontov's heroes known to us from literature, and had children from a Circassian woman. Our heroine, also quite in the spirit of that time, abandoned her husband's estate and fortune in favor of his children, rightly believing that her father's inheritance and wealth, which fell to her from the imperial table, were enough from her. In St. Petersburg, Yulia came in handy - she was loved for her kind, cheerful disposition and was accepted as another pretty "star" in the sky of the capital's beau monde. “... I have never met such a captivating woman in all my life,” the writer V.A. Sollogub. - Captivating not only with her appearance, but with her femininity, grace, infinite friendliness and infinite kindness ... ”Other celebrities were captivated by Yulia - the poet Y. Polonsky, the artist I. Aivazovsky, and in Paris the connoisseur of women Victor Hugo did not remain indifferent to the Russian beauty.
However, the closest relationship connected Vrevskaya with I. Turgenev. They met in 1873 and have met regularly ever since. The following summer, Yulia Petrovna, despite the condemnation of the world, spent five days at Turgenev's estate in Spassky. After that, their friendship was so strengthened that Vrevskaya allowed herself to give advice to the famous writer on how to build relationships with colleagues. So, in one of the letters, Yulia Petrovna asked Ivan Sergeevich to reconcile with the dying Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Turgenev justified himself before Vrevskaya: “... before death, everything is smoothed out, and who among us is right - who is to blame? “There are no guilty ones,” said Lear ... Yes, there are no right ones either. But I am afraid to make a heavy impression on him: whether my letter will seem to him like some kind of dying messenger ... It seems to me that I have no right to take such a risk ... I hope you are sure that there is no other reason for my silence.
In total, Turgenev's letters to Vrevskaya, from which it is clear that the writer fully considered his young correspondent, forty-eight are known. It's hard to tell what degree of intimacy their relationship has reached. Ivan Sergeevich, of course, liked her. “No matter what you say,” he flattered Yulia, “that you have become ugly lately, if the named ladies (some St. Petersburg acquaintances of Turgenev and Vrevskaya are discussed in the letter) and you appeared to me with them as ancient goddesses to the shepherd Paris on Mount Ida, - I would not hesitate to whom to give the apple. Further, in the letter, Ivan Sergeevich remarks offendedly that, however, he still does not have an apple, and Yulia Petrovna does not want to take "anything like an apple" from him.
Her obstinacy is quite understandable: a well-known writer and a man pleasant in all respects has long been living in a civil marriage with Polina Viardot, and Vrevskaya's restless soul is more attracted to stories about the heroic Turgenev women than family ties. She did not become the wife of the writer, but she embodied the ideology embodied in his books with such completeness, which, perhaps, the writer himself did not imagine. No wonder he was frightened when Yulia Petrovna decided to go to the theater of operations in the Balkans: “My most sincere sympathy will accompany you in your difficult wandering. I wish with all my heart that the feat you have taken upon yourself does not turn out to be unbearable, and that your health does not suffer ... ”Meanwhile, fifteen years ago, was it not him in“ On the Eve ”that he wrote the image of Elena Stakhova, who leaves the house for the sake of the Bulgarian Insarov, the host fight against the Turks. Only Yulia Petrovna was inspired to an unusual adventure not by love, but by the desire to find the meaning of life.
For many years, Vrevskaya felt longing - time ran swiftly, but stupidly, no secular entertainment, no veils lit her heart. She seemed to herself like a squirrel in a wheel, which only knows what to eat delicious nuts. Meanwhile, the surrounding life seethed, called for knowledge, offered to try it by touch. At one time, Yulia Petrovna seriously thought about traveling to India. True, at that time it was very problematic to get into this exotic country, and therefore she continued to get bored in cold St. Petersburg.
The way out was suggested by life itself. In 1876, an uprising of the Slavs broke out in the Balkans against Turkish rule. The war was extremely brutal. After the brutal reprisals of the Turks against the Bulgarians (in a few days 15,000 people were slaughtered and 79 villages were burned), many Russians kindled with noble anger. The national-patriotic upsurge in defense of the Slavic brothers was so strong that even such a refined person as Turgenev burst into an indignant tirade these days: “Bulgarian outrages offended my humane feelings. They only live in me - and if this cannot be helped otherwise - as by war - well, then war!
The Russian-Turkish war began a year later. Yulia Petrovna hurriedly completed the courses of a nurse and organized a small sanitary women's detachment at her own expense. I must say that the participation of the weaker sex in hostilities at that time was regarded as nonsense. Men of the 19th century rightly believed that front-line hardships were unbearable for a woman. Nevertheless, in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the Russian army for the first time in the world resorted to the help of sisters of mercy. It was at this time that the names of Dasha Sevastopolskaya, E. Bakunina and others became widely known. However, twenty years later, the woman in the field infirmary was still looked upon as a miracle.
In June 1877, Baroness Vrevskaya, at the head of a small detachment, arrived at the 45th military hospital in Iasi. Two days later, the first train arrived from Bulgaria with the sick and wounded. And the exhausting work began, without respite, without sleep. The daughter of a military general, who grew up in the Caucasus, she, of course, imagined what awaited her in the theater of operations. However, the reality of dirt, blood, suffering surpassed all ideas. This war was capable of clouding the mind of even a strong peasant. Crippled bodies were brought from the front line, which bore little resemblance to human ones, and yet ordinary everyday problems interfered. She, a court aristocrat, accustomed to comfort, must have had a very hard time in huts with smoky torches - neither to wash every day, nor to be alone due to the constant presence of curious hosts. “Of course, I didn’t sleep all night from smoke and excitement, especially since from 4 o’clock in the morning the hostess lit the torches and began to spin, and the owner, lighting a pipe, sat down in front of my bed on his haunches and did not take his eyes off me,” wrote Vrevskaya the inspirer of his feat I. Turgenev. “Obliged to make my toilet in the sight of the whole good-natured family, I, angry and almost not washed, got into my van ...”
Yulia Petrovna's emotions involuntarily broke through in this letter. And most of her letters are like dry, dispassionate reports, with occasional restrained woeful summaries. “... The sick lie in Kalmyk tents and huts, the wounded suffer terribly, and there are often operations. Recently, one had the entire upper jaw cut out with all the teeth. I feed, bandage and read to the sick until 7 pm. Then a van or cart comes for us and takes us 5 sisters. I return to my room or go to my sisters for supper; dinner at the Red Cross is not luxurious: chicken and potatoes - all this with almost no plates, no spoons and no cups.
Her feat resembles, rather, a slow suicide. She seemed to have rejected everything for herself from that past life, as if she had passed that segment to the end and under no circumstances did not want to return to the previous route. By Christmas she is given a vacation, Yulia Petrovna is preparing for it, she dreams of spending it with her sister in her native Caucasus. But at the last moment he refuses. She excuses herself by saying that there is too much to do here, that sympathy for the soldiers keeps her. But let us assume - she simply did not know what to do in a peaceful life, she found inner peace, the meaning of existence, and she was afraid to lose it for the only time in many years. This is the case with many who have experienced the hardships of war too acutely. Noteworthy is the entry in her diary: “The Empress called me to Petersburg. Prince Cherkassky conveyed her words to me: “I miss Yulia Petrovna. It's time for her to return to the capital. The feat is done. She is presented to the order." How those words make me angry! They think that I have come here to perform feats. We are here to help, not to receive orders.”
Yes, the light misinterpreted her act. They thought that in extravagance, Yulia Petrovna surpassed the most daring fashionistas of the court, it was time to know the honor, but she was saved ... She was saving herself from a meaningless life, from stupid conversations and vulgar languid looks. She was doomed to stay here. And she stayed...
Vrevskaya died of typhus. That day there was a severe frost, unusual for the Bulgarian climate. The grave in the frozen ground was dug by the wounded, whom she looked after. They carried her coffin. The mistress of the house where the Russian lady lodged covered the deceased with a carpet of flowering geraniums.
Perhaps, Yulia Vrevskaya, despite the abundance of books, articles, studies about her (even a film was released in 1977), remained one of the most closed celebrities. Biographers never managed to unravel the secret of her soul: whom she loved, what she hated, what her soul lived for. And even the person closest to Yulia Petrovna - I. Turgenev - in a posthumous prose poem dedicated to Vrevskaya, wrote: “What treasured treasures she buried there, in the depths of her soul, in her very hiding place, no one ever knew - but now, of course won't know."
Vrevskaya Yulia Petrovna(January 25, 1838 or 1841 Lubny, Poltava province - February 5, 1878, near the city of Byala, Bulgaria) - Baroness, nee Varpakhovskaya. Friend of I. S. Turgenev. During the Russian-Turkish war, nurse of the field hospital of the Russian Red Cross.
Biography
Born in the city of Lubny, Poltava province, in the family of a participant in the Battle of Borodino, commander of the Separate Reserve Cavalry Division, Lieutenant General Pyotr Evdokimovich Varpakhovsky (c. 1791 - 1868) and Karolina Ivanovna (née Blech) (c. 1805 - 1870). Yulia Petrovna studied first at the Odessa Institute of Noble Maidens, and then, after the family moved to Stavropol in 1848, at the Stavropol "Secondary Educational Institution of St. Alexandra for the Education of the Female". In 1857 she married I. A. Vrevsky. After the wedding, they moved from Stavropol to Vladikavkaz. However, their life together did not last long. At the end of August 1858, I. A. Vrevsky was seriously wounded in battle and died a few days later. Left a widow at the age of eighteen, Yu. P. Vrevskaya moved to St. Petersburg, where she was invited to the court and received a place as maid of honor Maria Alexandrovna. For ten years of court life (1860-1870), Vrevskaya visited the Empress in France, Italy, Syria, the best resorts in Europe, Africa, Palestine, Jerusalem.
The active nature of Yulia Petrovna demanded more than court duties and social life. Among her friends in Russia were writers D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, V. A. Sollogub, poet Ya. P. Polonsky, artists V. V. Vereshchagin and I. K. Aivazovsky. She travels a lot in Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East; meets wonderful people (including Victor Hugo and Franz Liszt). Vrevskaya amazed everyone who knew her with her erudition. Since 1873, Yulia Petrovna has been friends and corresponded with I. S. Turgenev.
In 1877, with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, he decides to go to the Active Army. With the proceeds from the sale of the Oryol estate, he equips a sanitary detachment. Yulia Petrovna herself becomes an ordinary sister of mercy from June 19, 1877 in the 45th military temporary evacuation hospital in the city of Iasi (Romania), and from November 20, 1877 in the 48th military temporary evacuation hospital near the town of Byala in Bulgaria, does the hardest and dirty work. “The war near is terrible, how much grief, how many widows and orphans,” she writes to her homeland. In December, Vrevskaya works at a front-line dressing station in the village of Obretenik. Julia Vrevskaya wrote her last letter to her sister Natalya on January 12, 1878. On January 17, she fell ill with a severe form of typhus. She died on February 5, 1878. She was buried in the dress of a sister of mercy near the Orthodox church in Byala.
tribute
Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya dedicated their poems to Y. Polonsky - "Under the Red Cross", V. Hugo - "Russian rose that died on Bulgarian soil." I. Turgenev responded to her death with one of his most remarkable poems in prose - “In Memory of Yu. Vrevskaya”.
In the 1920s, the Russian Union (Community) of Sisters of Mercy named after Vrevskaya worked in Paris.
In 1977, a joint Soviet-Bulgarian feature film Yulia Vrevskaya was shot about the fate of Yu. P. Vrevskaya.
The Mishkovo estate, which belonged to Yu. P. Vrevskaya, near the village of Dubovik, Maloarkhangelsk district, Oryol province, has not been preserved.
Biography of Yu. P. Vrevskaya in the Encyclopedia of Great Women
Baroness Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya was one of the most beautiful and brilliant ladies of the high society of St. Petersburg. Unexpectedly for everyone, she changed her ball gown to a simple sister of mercy outfit and left court life to care for the wounded in the war. The motives behind this decision remain a mystery to many. As did she herself. Even biographers still argue about the reliability of her images.
She was born in 1838 in the family of Major General Varpakhovsky. At the age of 18, Julia married 44-year-old General Ippolit Vrevsky and became a baroness. This marriage did not last long - a year later, the husband died after being wounded in battle. The widow of the general was received in St. Petersburg with all honors, she became the maid of honor of the court of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.
Many contemporaries spoke of Vrevskaya with genuine admiration. So, for example, the writer V. Sollogub said about her: “In all my life I have not met such a captivating woman. Captivating not only for its appearance, but for its femininity, grace, infinite friendliness and infinite kindness. This woman never said anything bad about anyone and did not allow herself to be slandered, but, on the contrary, she always tried to put forward his good sides in everyone. Many men courted her, many women envied her, but the rumor never dared to reproach her for anything. She sacrificed her whole life for her relatives, for strangers, for everyone. Yulia Petrovna reminded many of the type of women of Alexander's time, this higher school of taste - refinement, politeness and friendliness.
In 1873, Baroness Vrevskaya met I. Turgenev, and feelings arose between them that can hardly be called exclusively friendly. Turgenev wrote letters to Vrevskaya, full of tenderness: “Since I met you, I fell in love with you in a friendly way - and at the same time I had an unrelenting desire to possess you; it was, however, not so unbridled (and I am no longer young) - to ask for your hand - besides, other reasons prevented; on the other hand, I knew very well that you would not agree to what the French call une passade... your heart is not like a brother? But Vrevskaya did not allow their relationship to go beyond friendship.
In the world, she enjoyed constant success due to her intelligence, kindness, charm and responsiveness. Nevertheless, social life did not give her pleasure, at court she was often bored and felt useless. When the Russian-Turkish war began, Baroness Vrevskaya made an unexpected decision for everyone: to go to the front as a sister of mercy.
In 1877, the baroness attended courses for nurses of the Holy Trinity community. Not being officially a member of the Red Cross, in July 1877 Vrevskaya, together with 10 ladies of high society, went to the front as part of the Holy Trinity community. In this occupation, she saw her true destiny: "I console myself with the thought that I am doing a job, and not sitting at needlework."
Every day, from 1 to 5 trains with the wounded came to them. The baroness wrote to her sister: “We were very tired, things were ruinous: up to three thousand patients a day, and on other days we bandaged until 5 o’clock in the morning tirelessly.” She had to sleep on hay, eat canned food, be present at operations, but the noble sister of mercy did not complain about the difficulties and did not give up her decision - "at least this is a matter that is to my heart."
Instead of a vacation, the baroness went to the front lines in Bulgaria. While nursing, she contracted typhus. The illness proceeded very hard, and on January 24, 1878 sister of mercy Yulia Vrevskaya passed away. In Bulgaria and Russia, the baroness was recognized as a folk heroine.
Upon learning of her death, Turgenev dedicated to her a poem in prose “Yu. P. Vrevskaya”, which contained the following lines: “She was young, beautiful; the highest society knew her; even dignitaries inquired about it. The ladies envied her, the men trailed after her... two or three people secretly and deeply loved her. Life smiled at her; But there are smiles worse than tears. A tender meek heart... and such strength, such a thirst for sacrifice! Help those in need of help ... she did not know another happiness, did not know - and did not know. All happiness is gone. But she reconciled with this long ago to serve her neighbors.
After Yulia Vrevskaya, many Russian women voluntarily went to war:
