A.S. Pushkin. Little-known facts from the life of a man whom everyone knows

April Fool's collection of funny stories, tales and legends

The commanders of Philip of Macedon address him:

“King, despite the fact that you shower the Greeks with generous gifts, they continue to slander you.

Philip replied:

“Yes, but what would happen if I treated them badly?”

Archimedes had two cats - a big one and a small one. They constantly distracted him from philosophical thoughts, scratched at the door and asked to take a walk. Then Archimedes made two holes in the door: a large one and a small one, i.e. for both cats.

A friend noticed and asked:

- And what is the second hole for, because a small cat can crawl into a big hole?

Archimedes scratched the back of his head.

One of the courtiers expressed his indignation at this fact to Dante. To which the poet replied:

- It `s naturally. Everyone loves who they look like...

Michelangelo sculpted the grandfather of the Florentine ruler Cosimo de Medici as a real handsome man. And he was a hunchback.

Who will remember this in five hundred years! - the sculptor answered all the curious.

During the reign of Peter the Great, three contractors announced their terms to the Admiralty Board. One offered services for a dime from the ruble, the second - for a nickel, and the third announced that he would work for free, out of zeal and jealousy for the sovereign. Upon learning of this, Peter made a resolution: “Give a contract to someone who demands hryvnia from the ruble for work. To refuse another, for the sake of five kopecks for the sake of nothing to work from, and to give the third, like a rogue, to a galley for two months, telling him that the sovereign is richer than him.

Peter I doted on Menshikov. However, this did not prevent him from often beating the Most Serene Prince with a stick. Somehow there was a fair quarrel between them, in which Menshikov suffered greatly - the tsar broke his nose and put a hefty lantern under his eye. And then he kicked me out with the words: - Go out, son of a pike, and so that I don’t have your legs anymore! Menshikov did not dare to disobey, disappeared, but a minute later he entered the office again ... in his arms!

Visiting meetings in the Winter Palace, Suvorov did not skimp on ridicule and various antics.

“Once in St. Petersburg at a ball,” he himself later said, “at 8 o’clock in the evening, the Empress deigned to ask me:

- How to treat such a dear guest?

- Bless, queen, vodka! I answered.

– Donc! (Fu - French) What will the beautiful ladies-in-waiting who will talk to you say?

- They, mother, will feel that a soldier is talking to them.

Denis Davydov once appeared in the vanguard of Prince Bagration and said: “The Commander-in-Chief ordered to report to Your Excellency that the enemy is on our nose, and asks you to retreat immediately. Bagration answered: “The enemy is on our nose? On whose? If it's on yours, it's close; and if on mine, then we will have time to dine again.

Emperor Nicholas I sometimes liked to joke with his entourage. Somehow, on April 1, the chief police chief of the capital, Buturlin, came to him with a morning report and reported:

“Everything is going well, yours.” Imperial Majesty.

The sovereign looked at him sternly and said:

“Everything is always going well with you, but meanwhile, passing through the square, you did not notice that the statue of Emperor Peter the Great was stolen.

How was it stolen? Buturlin got scared. “I haven’t received any reports… Forgive me, Your Majesty… I’ll go immediately and investigate…”

Buturlin went to the "crime scene" and found that Bronze Horseman stands in its place. He returned back and joyfully reported to the Tsar:

- Your Majesty, you were informed incorrectly - the statue is in place.

Nicholas I burst out laughing:

- Since the first of April! And how did you believe such nonsense? Is it possible to steal a monument?

Buturlin also decided to play the Emperor. When the latter was listening to The Huguenots at the opera, Buturlin burst into the box and exclaimed:

“Your Majesty, fire!” Winter Palace lit!

The tsar immediately abandoned the opera and hurried to the Winter Palace, but it turned out that there was no fire.

- What does it mean? he turned to Buturlin.

- Since the first of April, Your Majesty!

You are a fool, Buturlin. Don't think that I'm joking on the occasion of the first of April. Come tomorrow, I'll repeat the same to you.

A certain N., a member of the literary circle, which Pushkin often visited, composed a rather insulting libel against the great poet. Waiting for the arrival of Pushkin, N. proclaimed:

- "Appeal to the poet," and noticeably turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:

- I give the poet donkey head…

- And you yourself will stay with which one? - Pushkin, who understood everything, interrupted him.

“And I myself will stay with my own,” N.

- Yes, you gave it now ...

Emperor Nicholas I visited the Noble Regiment. On the flank stood a cadet head and shoulders above the rest. The emperor drew attention to him.

- What is your last name, hero? - he asked.

- Romanov, Your Majesty.

- Not related to me? the King asked jokingly.

“Exactly so,” the cadet replied without hesitation.

- To what extent?

- Your Majesty is the father of Russia, and I am her son.

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, two officers, a guardsman and a sailor, were kept under arrest in one of the St. Petersburg guardhouses. Upon the entry of the guard, which was commanded by a friend of the guardsman, the latter was released for several hours home. The sailor, envious of this, made a denunciation about this. Both guardsmen were betrayed by a military court, which sentenced them to be demoted to soldiers. But Nicholas I imposed the following resolution:

“The guards officers should be transferred to the army, and the sailor, as a reward for denunciation, should be promoted to the next rank, with a prescription in the form for which he received this rank.”

In Paris, they decided to put on a play from the life of Catherine II, where the Russian Empress was presented in a somewhat frivolous light. Upon learning of this, Nicholas I, through our ambassador, expressed his displeasure to the French government. To which the answer followed in the spirit that, they say, in France, freedom of speech and no one is going to cancel the performance. To this, Nicholas I asked to be told that in this case he would send 300,000 spectators in gray overcoats to the premiere. As soon as the royal answer reached the capital of France, the scandalous performance was canceled there without unnecessary delay.

Once Pushkin was sitting in the count's office ... and reading some book. The count himself ... was lying opposite, on the sofa, and on the floor, near the desk, his two children were playing.

“Sasha, say something impromptu,” the count turned to Pushkin.

Pushkin, without thinking at all, answered quickly:

- The crazy kid is lying on the sofa.

The Count was offended.

“You are forgetting yourself, Alexander Sergeevich,” he said sternly.

“But you, Count, don’t seem to understand me…

I said:

- The children are on the floor, the smart one is on the couch.

Astrakhan was supposed to be welcome Persian Shah. On this occasion, the townspeople were in a frenzy: some were preparing to strike the eye of the Shah with civilization, others - to soak the bodies of his retinue. The last task fell to the lot of the venerable merchant V. The table was superbly served, the owner himself, in a tailcoat and white gloves, was burning with impatience and hopes; finally appeared motley crowd Persians rushed to the dishes: “they tear and eat!”, According to an eyewitness.

The ministers are coming! shouted the breathless courier R. who flew into the dining room and was dumbfounded.

- How?! - V. is amazed. - Who is dining with me now?

- What have you done? - the courier who came to his senses cried out, flying at the Persians in a whirlwind. - These are nukers (servants), not ministers! .. Oh, they ... ate everything!

During the reign of the emperor Alexander III a certain soldier Oreshkin got drunk in the tsar's tavern. Started to rage. They tried to reason with him, pointing to the portrait of the Emperor. To this the soldier replied: “And I spat on your Sovereign Emperor!” He was arrested and filed a case of insulting the emperor. Having become acquainted with the case, the emperor realized that the story was not worth a penny, and inscribed the following resolution on the folder: “Stop the case, release Oreshkin, no longer hang my portraits in taverns, tell Oreshkin that I also spat on him.”

One lady once asked the famous Russian doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin (1832-1889):

"Doctor, what exercises are the most useful to lose weight?"

Botkin replied: "Head turns from right to left and from left to right."

The lady asked: “Is that all? And when and how often should you do these exercises?

During his visit to Russia in 1897, Wilhelm visited, as his chief, the 85th Vyborg Regiment in St. Petersburg. After giving ceremonial honors, during the review, the Kaiser went up to the regimental trumpeter and asked why the regiment had been granted silver trumpets.

"For the capture of Berlin, Your Imperial Majesty," the trumpeter barked.

"Well, it won't happen again," Wilhelm said a little embarrassed.

“I can’t know how our Imperial Majesty will order us,” the trumpeter said just as loudly.

Once Lloyd George spoke at a meeting of aggressive suffragettes. One angry woman stood up and said, "If you were my husband, I would give you poison." Lloyd George, who was distinguished by resourcefulness, retorted: "Madame, if I were your husband, I would not refuse him."

Once, during an international chess tournament, a stranger approached E. Lasker with an offer to play by correspondence with his talented son. The request was supported by a substantial financial reward, and Lasker agreed. If he won, he would receive $500, and if the boy miraculously won—which, of course, his father never counted on—then the grandmaster would have to fork out $1,500. In the end, the world champion managed to win, albeit with great difficulty.

The secret was revealed later. It turned out that Lasker played by correspondence with Capablanca himself, who agreed to the same conditions of a stranger, and the child was just a hoax. When Lasker, playing White, made the first move, he was repeated by the cheater in the game against Capablanca. His answer, in turn, was reproduced in the first game for "black", and Lasker's answer - in the second game for "white", etc. Obviously, with such a game, "father" guaranteed himself a draw in the match with grandmasters , which means a net profit of $1,000. He paid $500 to the winning Lasker, while the losing Capablanca paid him $1,500.

Once the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who was on a visit to the USSR, was asked how he finds the quality of Zhiguli beer.

“You don’t even realize what a serious question this is,” the scientist replied. - The fact is that natural Sciences in Denmark funded by the beer firm Carlsberg. Therefore, all natural scientists support their benefactors and drink only Carlsberg. In turn, another beer company, Tuborg, supports humanitarians, and, consequently, humanitarians drink only Tuborg beer.

- Well, how do you like our beer?

- The main thing is that it is not Tuborg.

A certain young writer, from the “fundamentally progressive and leftist”, published a book of stories, sent it to Bunin - and at the meeting he asked if Ivan Alekseevich had read it and what his opinion was about it.

- Yes, yes, I read it, how! Bunin responded with liveliness. - Something really stupid. Only thing I don't like: why do you write the word "God" with a small letter?

The answer was proud:

- I write "God" with a small letter, because "man" is written with a small letter!

To this Bunin said with feigned thoughtfulness:

- Well, that's probably true ... That's because the "pig" is written with a small letter!

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, during a trip to the United States in 1959, was introduced to a new miracle of technology - a soda machine. The vending machine was not simple: selling soda, he poured orange syrup for men and cherry syrup for women. Equipped with a primitive photoelectric cell, the automaton reacted to light. Of course, a woman in a skirt blocked the light more than a man in trousers. During the tests, an angry Nikita Sergeevich, even on the second attempt, again received a glass of cherry soda in his hands. It turned out that the photocell reacted to wide pants, which Khrushchev loved to wear so much, thus mistaking a male official for a woman. They say after that unfortunate misunderstanding in the USSR, the production of vending machines even stopped.

In 1976, a monument to Friedrich Engels was erected in Moscow near the Kropotkinskaya metro station. To do this, they set up a crane. They threw a cable around the statue's neck, lifted it from the platform of the truck. And at that moment the faucet broke. Engels was left hanging in the air with a noose around his neck. People began to gather around, the situation threatened to turn into a scandal. Then the authorities decided: until the crane was repaired, throw a white cloth over the hanging monument. It was winter. During the night, the cables froze, and as a result, the statue, covered with a white cloth, wobbled in the air for two days. At night, the sight was terrible - as if a huge ghost hung in the air. When the monument was nevertheless erected, the name “Ghost of Communism” was firmly entrenched in Moscow.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is not just a huge figure from school textbook in literature, but also very interesting person with an unusual fate.

1. Once the Russian writer Ivan Dmitriev visited the house of Alexander Pushkin's parents. Alexander was then still a child, and therefore Dmitriev decided to play a trick on the boy’s original appearance and said: “What an Arab!” But the ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal was not at a loss and instantly gave the answer: “Yes, but not a hazel grouse!” The adults present were surprised and terribly embarrassed, because the face of the writer Dmitriev was ugly pockmarked!

2. One day, an officer familiar to Pushkin, Kondyb, asked the poet if he could come up with a rhyme for the words cancer and fish. Pushkin replied: "Fool Kondyba!" The officer was embarrassed and offered to make a rhyme for the combination of fish and cancer. Pushkin was not at a loss here either: "Kondyba is a fool."

3. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When young poet the dignitary didn't even think to change his posture. Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu.
Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand… I expected more from you.” Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.

4. During the period of courtship for his future wife Natalya, Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and at the same time usually said:
"I am delighted, I am fascinated,
In short, I'm disappointed!"

5. And this funny incident that happened to Pushkin during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum shows how witty and resourceful the young poet was. One day he decided to run away from the Lyceum to St. Petersburg for a walk. I went to the tutor Triko, but he does not let me in, and even scares me that he will follow Alexander. But hunting is worse than bondage - and Pushkin, together with Kuchelbecker, flees to St. Petersburg. Trico followed.
Alexander was the first to arrive at the outpost. He was asked for his last name, and he replied: "Alexander However!" Zastavny wrote down the name and let it through. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his last name was, he said: “Grigory Dvako!” Zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. He asked: "What is your last name?" Answers: "Triko!" “You’re lying,” shouts the outpost, “there’s something unkind here! One by one - One, Two, Three! Naughty, brother, go to the guardroom! Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.

6. Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He told several times about how one day on a walk he noticed how the earth was swaying and the columns were trembling, and last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, Pushkin's first meeting with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold his horse back, the child was not hurt, and the only one who was seriously scared was the nanny.

7. Little Pushkin spent his childhood in Moscow. His first teachers were French tutors. And for the summer, he usually went to his grandmother, Maria Alekseevna, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow. When he was 12 years old, Pushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a closed educational institution with 30 students. At the Lyceum, Pushkin was seriously engaged in poetry, especially French, for which he was nicknamed "Frenchman".

8. Pushkin got to the lyceum, as they say, by pull. The lyceum was founded by Minister Speransky himself, the enrollment was small - only 30 people, but Pushkin had an uncle - a very famous and talented poet Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who personally knew Speransky.

9. The Lyceum published a handwritten journal "Lyceum Sage". Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I can fall asleep sooner." Offended, Küchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon, a cartoon was drawn in the "Lyceum Sage": Küchelbecker is drowning, and his long nose sticking out of the pond.

10. In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams during the seventeen days of May, among which are Latin, Russian, German and French literature, General history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received certificates of graduation from the Lyceum. The poet turned out to be twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing only "excellent" successes in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing.

11. It is known that Pushkin was very loving. From the age of 14 he began to visit brothels. And, already being married, he continued to visit the "merry girls", and also had married mistresses.

12. It is very curious to read not even a list of his victories, but reviews about him different people. His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad-looking, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. Which is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Alexandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love:

Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness.
However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.

13. Pushkin was a genius, but he was not handsome, and in this respect he contrasted with his beautiful wife Natalya Goncharova, who, at the same time, was 10 cm taller than him. For this reason, when attending balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife: so that others would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him.

14. Gendarmerie official III branch, Popov, wrote about Pushkin:

"-He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone."

Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered in Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him:

"-Modest in judgment, amiable in society and a child at heart."

15. Pushkin's laughter produced the same charming impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him:

"-What a lucky Pushkin! He laughs so much that as if the intestines are visible."

Indeed, Pushkin maintained all his life that everything that excites laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.

Pushkin was adored by women, hated by many men and adored in literary circles.

16. Pushkin had card debts and quite serious. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were any delays, he wrote malicious epigrams to his creditors and drew their caricatures in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.

17. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit card game, saying;
She spoils you!
“On the contrary, Your Majesty,” replied the poet, “cards save me from the blues.
“But what about your poetry after that?”
“She serves me as a means to pay my gambling debts. Your Majesty.
And indeed, when Pushkin was weighed down by gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off in excess in one night. Thus, for example, he wrote "Count Nulin".

18. While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. This evening he was in a special shock. Lightning of witticisms flew from his lips; ladies and girls vying with each other tried to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him to be some kind of, probably, teacher, decided, by all means, "to embarrass" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing in the most incomparable way, turn:
- Mille pardon ... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing in you educated person, let us turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it more correctly: "Hey man, give me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!".
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to play a joke on him and, not at all embarrassed, answered seriously:
- It seems to me that you can express yourself directly: "Hey, man, drive us to a watering place."

19. In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes looked, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet". Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he, as usual late, arrived. All those present were, of course, excited state, and in particular the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. Literary part The evening began with the reading of this particular "Epistle", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- "Message to the poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he himself will remain with what?
The author is confused:
- I'll stay with mine.
Pushkin:
- Yes, you gave it now.
General confusion ensued. The stricken author fell silent.

20. According to the calculations of Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the poet's biography. He was the initiator of fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not take place 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. Pushkin's first duel took place at the Lyceum.

21. It is known that Alexander Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbeker, but often played pranks on him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he was not, the poet replied: “I upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ...” Pushkin, having heard this, wrote an epigram:

"I ate too much at dinner,
Yes, Jacob closed the door by mistake -
So it was for me, my friends,
And kyukhelbekerno, and nauseating ... "

22. Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin's wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.

23. Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were transmitted by two outstanding person: V. A. Zhukovsky - a poet, at that time the educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt - the life physician of Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin's doctor.
The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the royal ban on duels:

…I am waiting royal word to die in peace...
Sovereign:

"- If God does not order us to see each other in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last tip die a Christian. Don't worry about your wife and children, I'll take them in my arms."

It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.

24. Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the poet's descendants now live all over the globe: in England, Germany, Belgium ... About fifty live in Russia. Of particular interest is Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's great-nephew. Now Tatyana lives in Klin.

25. And - finally - probably the most fun fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, Pushkin's biography. In Ethiopia, a few years ago, a monument to Pushkin was erected this way. The words “To our poet” are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal.

Pushkin is so popular and loved in Russia that it seems we know everything about the poet. But from time to time we find something new and new. For example, very often some people are surprised when they are told that A.S. Pushkin was a Freemason. In the Pushkin family, all the men were Freemasons.

Edward Ulan. Wedding

3. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When the young poet appeared, the dignitary did not even think to change his position. Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu.

Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand… I expected more from you.” Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.

Painting by Ilya Glazunov "On the Eve"

4. During the period of courtship for his future wife Natalya, Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and at the same time usually said:

"I am delighted, I am fascinated,

In short, I'm disappointed!"

Alexander was the first to arrive at the outpost. He was asked for his last name, and he replied: "Alexander However!" Zastavny wrote down the name and let it through. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his last name was, he said: “Grigory Dvako!” Zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. He asked: "What is your last name?" Answers: "Triko!" “You’re lying,” shouts the outpost, “there’s something unkind here! One by one - One, Two, Three! Naughty, brother, go to the guardroom! Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.

Painting by Fedorov Vladimir Kornidovich "Pushkin. In the footsteps of Pugachev"

6. Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He talked several times about how one day on a walk he noticed how the earth was swaying and the columns were trembling, and the last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, Pushkin's first meeting with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold his horse back, the child was not hurt, and the only one who was seriously scared was the nanny.

Pirogov Alexander Petrovich. "Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Bryullov"

9. The Lyceum published a handwritten magazine "Lyceum Sage". Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I fall asleep sooner." Offended, Küchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon, a cartoon was drawn in the "Lyceum Wise Man": Küchelbecker drowns himself, and his long nose sticks out of the pond.

10. In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams within seventeen May days, including Latin, Russian, German and French literature, general history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received certificates of graduation from the Lyceum. The poet turned out to be twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing only "excellent" successes in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing.

Pushkin at the lyceum exam in Tsarskoye Selo. Painting by I. Repin

11. It is known that Pushkin was very loving. From the age of 14 he began to visit brothels. And, already being married, he continued to visit the "merry girls", and also had married mistresses.

12. It is very curious to read not even a list of his victories, but reviews of different people about him. His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad-looking, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. This is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love: "Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness." However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.

14. The gendarmerie officer of the III department, Popov, wrote about Pushkin: "He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone." Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him: "Modest in judgment, amiable in society and a child at heart."

Gogol and Zhukovsky at Pushkin's in Tsarskoye Selo. Artist P. Geller. 1910

15. Pushkin's laughter produced the same charming impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: “What a lucky Pushkin! Indeed, Pushkin maintained all his life that everything that excites laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.

16. Pushkin had gambling debts, and quite serious ones. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were any delays, he wrote malicious epigrams to his creditors and drew their caricatures in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.

17. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;

She spoils you!

On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - the cards save me from the blues.

But then what about your poetry?

It serves me as a means to pay my gambling debts. Your Majesty.

And indeed, when Pushkin was weighed down by gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off in excess in one night. Thus, for example, he wrote "Count Nulin".

A. S. Pushkin on the Black Sea

Mille pardon... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it more correctly: "Hey man, give me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!".

Pushkin vividly understood the desire to play a joke on him and, not at all embarrassed, answered seriously:

I think you can put it bluntly: "Hey, man, drive us to the water."

A.S. Pushkin on top of Ai-Petri at sunrise. Canvas, oil. State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)

- "Message to the poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he himself will remain with what?
The author is confused:
- I'll stay with mine.

Yes, you gave it now.

General confusion ensued. The stricken author fell silent.

V.A. Lednev. "Pushkin in Mikhailovsky"

21. It is known that Alexander Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbeker, but often played pranks on him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he was not there, the poet replied: "I upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ..." Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:

I ate at dinner
Yes, Jacob closed the door by mistake -
So it was for me, my friends,
And kyukhelbekerno, and sickening ...

Küchelbecker was furious and demanded a duel! The duel took place. Both fired. But the pistols were loaded... with cranberries, and, of course, the fight ended in a draw...

B.V. Shcherbakov. Pushkin in Mikhailovsky

22. Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin's wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.

23. Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were transmitted by two prominent people: V. A. Zhukovsky, a poet, at that time the educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt is the life physician of Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin's doctor.

The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the royal ban on duels: "...I am waiting for the king's word in order to die peacefully..."

Sovereign: "If God does not order us to see each other in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Do not worry about your wife and children, I take them into my own hands." It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.

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

24. Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the poet's descendants now live all over the globe: in England, Germany, Belgium... About fifty live in Russia. Of particular interest is Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's great-nephew. Now Tatyana lives in Klin.

25. And - finally - probably the most amusing fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, Pushkin's biography. In Ethiopia, a few years ago, a monument to Pushkin was erected this way. The words "Our poet" are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal.

Once the house of Alexander Pushkin's parents was visited by the Russian writer Ivan Dmitriev. Alexander was then still a child, and therefore Dmitriev decided to play a trick on the boy’s original appearance and said: “What a little black!” But the ten-year-old great-grandson of Hannibal was not at a loss and instantly gave the answer: “Yes, but not a hazel grouse!” The adults present were surprised and terribly embarrassed, because the face of the writer Dmitriev was ugly pockmarked!

This story is most likely a literary anecdote, but very entertaining. It was said that once an officer familiar to Pushkin, Kondyb, asked the poet if he could come up with a rhyme for the words "crayfish and fish." Pushkin replied: "Fool Kondyba!" The officer was embarrassed and offered to make a rhyme for the combination "fish and cancer." Pushkin was not at a loss here either: "Kondyba is a fool."
When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When the young poet appeared, the dignitary did not even think to change his position. Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu.
Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand... I expected more from you.” Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.
One day, young Pushkin decided to run away from the lyceum to St. Petersburg for a walk. I went to the tutor Triko, but he does not let me in, and even scares me that he will follow Alexander. But hunting is worse than bondage - and Pushkin, together with Kuchelbecker, flees to St. Petersburg. Trico followed.
Alexander was the first to arrive at the outpost. He was asked for his last name, and he replied: "Alexander However!" Zastavny wrote down the name and let it through. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his last name was, he said: “Grigory Dvako!” Zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. He asked: "What is your last name?" Answers: "Triko!" “You're lying,” shouts the outpost, “there is something unkind here! One by one - One-to, Two-to, Three-to! Naughty, brother, go to the guardroom! Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.
In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams within seventeen May days, including Latin, Russian, German and French literature, general history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received certificates of graduation from the Lyceum. The poet turned out to be twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing only "excellent" successes in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing. And we were given him as an example at school!
Pushkin's laughter made an indelible, simply enchanting impression on people. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: “What a lucky Pushkin! He laughs so hard that his intestines are visible.
Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;
She spoils you!
“On the contrary, Your Majesty,” replied the poet, “cards save me from the blues.
“But what about your poetry after that?”
“She serves me as a means to pay my gambling debts. Your Majesty.
While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. This evening he was in a special shock. Lightning of witticisms flew from his lips; ladies and girls vying with each other tried to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably, teacher, decided, at all costs, to "embarrass" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing in the most incomparable way, turn:
- Mille pardons... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it more correctly: "Hey man, give me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!".
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to play a joke on him and, not at all embarrassed, answered seriously:
- It seems to me that you can express yourself directly: "Hey, man, drive us to a watering place."
In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes looked, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet." Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he, as usual late, arrived. All those present were, of course, in an excited state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. The literary part of the evening began with the reading of precisely this "Message", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- "Message to the poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he himself will remain with what?
The author is confused:
- I'll stay with mine.
Pushkin:
- Yes, you gave it now.
General confusion ensued. The stricken author fell silent.
And finally, probably the most amusing fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, Pushkin's biography. In Ethiopia, a few years ago, a monument to Pushkin was erected this way. The words “To our poet” are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal. (Alas, this fact turned out to be a "duck", as our readers told us. On the monument to Pushkin in Ethiopia, only the name, years of life and occupation are indicated. The monument was a gift from Russia). Source: “I am registered in Russia” Jokes about A.S. Pushkin. - "ZLATOUST" Russian Foreign Publishing House Munich-Schleisheim, 1947.

Alexander Sergeevich, during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, decided to run away to St. Petersburg - to take a walk. He goes to the tutor Trico, he does not let him in, saying that he will watch him.
Pushkin waved his hand at this statement and, having captured Kuchelbeker, fled to St. Petersburg. Behind them is Trico. Alexander Sergeevich is the first to arrive at the outpost.
- Surname? - asks the outpost.
“Alexander However,” the poet replies.
Zastavny writes down the last name and lets the rider through. Kuchelbecker rolls up behind Pushkin.
- Surname? the outpost asks again.
"Grigory Dvako," replies Pushkin's comrade, who came up with this witty combination.
Zastavny writes it down and shakes his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives.
- What is your last name? the watchman calls out to him?
- Trico.
“Well, you’re lying,” the outpost loses patience, “there’s something unkind here: one after the other—One-one, Two-one!” Tights! Naughty, brother, go to the guardhouse!
Poor Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin freely romped with his friend in St. Petersburg.

One lyceum student, after graduating from the Imperial "Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum" in 1839, met Pushkin on Nevsky. The poet, noticing a lyceum uniform on him, approached him and asked:
- You probably just graduated from the Lyceum?
- Yes, just released with secondment to the guards corps. Were you also brought up in ours?
- Yes.
- And let me ask you, where do you want to serve now?
“I am registered in Russia,” Pushkin answered.

In one literary circle, where more enemies than friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes looked, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet under the title "Message to the Poet."
Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he, as usual late, arrived. All those present were, of course, in an excited state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick.
The literary part of the evening began with the reading of precisely this “Message,” and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
— Epistle to a poet:
Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning towards the audience:
“Which one will he stay with?”
The author is confused:
- I'll stay with mine.
- Yes, you gave it now?
General confusion ensued.
The discouraged author fell silent at the first sentence, while Pushkin continued to joke and laugh.

Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich always advised Pushkin to give up the card game, saying:
She spoils you!
“On the contrary, Your Majesty,” replied the poet, “the cards save me from the blues.” »
“But what is your poetry worth after that?”
“She serves as a means to pay my gambling debts, Your Majesty.
And indeed, when Pushkin was tormented by card debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off in excess in one night. Thus, for example, he wrote "Count Nulin".

Delvig, Pushkin's classmate, at one time began to lead a very wild life. Once, very drunk, disheveled, he appeared to Pushkin. The poet began to convince his comrade to change his way of life. However, to all the arguments of Pushkin, Delvig answered with despair that, they say, earthly life is not for him:
“But we’ll fix it in that world.”
- Perhaps, - says Pushkin, laughing, - look at yourself in the mirror, will they let you in with such a mug?

Amusing is Gogol's story about his attempts to get acquainted with Pushkin, when he still "did not have the right" to this in his rank as a writer.
Subsequently, he was presented at the evening at P.A. Pletnev, but earlier, as soon as he arrived in St. Petersburg (in 1829), Gogol, who especially wanted to see the poet, who occupied his imagination for another school bench went straight to him. The closer he came to Pushkin's apartment, the more timidity took possession of him, and, finally, at the very door he stood and ... ran to the confectionery, where he demanded a glass of liquor ... Encouraged by him, he again returned to the attack, boldly called, and to your question. "Is the owner at home?" - heard the answer of the servant: "They are resting." It was already late in the yard, and Gogol asked with great sympathy: “Is it true that you worked all night?” - "Well, he worked," answered the servant: "he played cards." Gogol admitted that he was amazed. He could not imagine Pushkin otherwise - as constantly surrounded by a cloud of inspiration.

Pushkin loved cheerful company young people. He had many friends between teenagers and junkers. Around 1827, in St. Petersburg, he made acquaintance with the youth of the Guards and took an active part in carousing and drinking. Once he invited several people to the then Dominik's restaurant and treated them to fame. Count Zavadovsky enters and, turning to Pushkin, says:
- However, Alexander Sergeevich, it seems that your wallet is stuffed tightly:
- Why, I'm richer than you, - Pushkin answers: - You sometimes have to live and wait for money from the villages, but I have a constant income - from thirty-six letters of the Russian alphabet.

Pushkin's testament.
Friends, I'm sorry! I bequeath
Everything you are happy with and rich with ...
Offenses, songs - I forgive everything,
And let me forgive my debts.

Once, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, in an intimate conversation with the poet, asked him:
- Pushkin, if you were in St. Petersburg, would you take part in the 14th of December?
“Inevitably, my lord! - answered Pushkin: - all my friends were in a conspiracy, and it would be impossible for me to lag behind them. One absence saved me and I thank Heaven for that.
This direct and frank answer pleased the Emperor. He was one of all those around him who understood the significance of Pushkin and recognized in him the power of a poetic genius.
“I hope,” the Sovereign remarked, “now you will be reasonable, and we will no longer quarrel. Everything that you compose, send to me: from now on, I myself will be your censor.
On the same evening, at a ball at the French envoy, Marshal Marmont, the Emperor told Count D.N. Bludov:
Do you know that today I spoke with smartest person Russia? with Pushkin.

"Furs and prunes".

Perhaps it will not sink in Lethe
A stanza composed by me;
Perhaps a flattering hope! —
The future ignorant will indicate
To my illustrious portrait
And he says: that was a poet! ..
Pushkin.

In the autumn of 1828, Pushkin was a guest at the Wolff estate, Malinniki. The rumor about the famous guest quickly spread around the neighbors, and they settled in Malinniki. “Neighbors come to look at me as if I were Munito’s dog,” Pushkin wrote to Delvig. (Munito, the dog of Emperor Nicholas I, was famous for his extraordinary training). - "The other day there was a gathering at one neighbor, I had to come there," Pushkin continued in the same letter. Mother brought them raisins and prunes and thought to get away from them quietly. But Pyotr Markovich Poltoratsky, who was staying at that time in her house, not far from Malinniki, excited the children with the words: “Children, children! Mother deceives you - do not eat prunes, go with her. Pushkin will be there - he is all sugar, and his backside is apple; they will cut it up, and you will all have a piece.” The children burst into tears: “We don’t want prunes, we want Pushkin!” There was nothing to do - they were taken to the neighbors, where Pushkin also arrived. “And they ran to me, licking their lips,” wrote Pushkin, “but when they saw that I was not sugar, but leather, they were completely taken aback.”

More than a hundred years have passed. Times have changed. Russia became the Soviet of Deputies. But the Bolsheviks invented a thousand legends that Pushkin was "their poet." They forgot that he was a nobleman, a landowner and an aristocrat. Once a genius ..., then, of course, - them. But how to celebrate, how to commemorate? For the time being, they made gingerbread in memory of Pushkin throughout 1936, “Meat with cucumber—Pushkin” and others. culinary specialties. The story with prunes has now repeated itself ... But completely inside out. The boy in the shop, on the offer to take the “Pushkin gingerbread”, declared loudly: “Mom, I don’t want Pushkin, but I want prunes. Prunes are delicious, they are in chocolate, but there is no taste in Pushkin.

In 1833, "a friend of the poet P.N. Nashchokin arrived in Petersburg and stayed at a hotel. It was June 29, the day of Peter and Paul. Several acquaintances came, including Pushkin. General joy, cheerful conversation, jokes, memories of the past, laughter. Meanwhile, from the courtyard, where the room overlooked, even louder laughter and screams were heard. It was the noisy masons who were sitting on the bricks near a bucket of vodka and a wooden cup with snacks. Most of all bawled some man with red hair,
Pushkin went to the window, lay down with his chest on the windowsill, immediately noticed the screamer and said to his friends: “That red-haired one must be the birthday man, and shouted, turning to him:
— Peter!
— What, sir?
- With Angel!
- Thank you, Mr.
- Pavel! Pushkin shouted again, and, turning into the room, he added: "In such a heap, even Pavel can be found."
Pavel is gone.
- Where? What for?
- In a tavern ... Everyone drank. Yes, wait, master, tell me: how do you know me?
“I know your old mother too.
- Ouch?
“Did daddy die?”
- Long ago, the kingdom of heaven to him! ... Brothers, let's drink to the deceased parent!
At this time, a man enters the yard with a damask of vodka. Pushkin, seeing him earlier, shouted:
- Pavel, with an angel! Bring it quickly!...
Paul, climbing the stones, did not take his eyes off the man who called him by name. Others, explaining to him, drink, and the redhead does not lag behind the talkative gentleman:
- So, it has become, and you know our village?
- Still would not know: After all, she is near the river?
26
Yes, by the river.
- Your hut, read, extreme?
- Third from the edge ... And you are wonderful, master! Explain, do me a favor, do you know all the ins and outs with the holy spirit?
- It's very simple: your master and I were shooting ducks on a boat, suddenly a thunderstorm, rain, we went into your old woman's hut.
- So..,. Now I laugh.
- - But I complained about you: you send little money!
- Sinful, sinful! .. -Yes, everything goes to hell, -said the peasant, pointing to the glass from which he drank in one gulp and shouted: "Hello, good gentleman!" ... And ... took a bite.

"My epitaph"

Here Pushkin is buried: he is with a young muse,
With love, laziness spent a cheerful age;
He did not do good, but he was a soul
By God, good man.

One day Pushkin was sitting at the opera. The gentleman, sitting next to him, sang along with the artist Petrov all the time. Annoyed, Pushkin said loudly: “What an idiot, interferes with listening!” “Excuse me, sir, who did you deign to call that?” “Well, of course, Petrova, who prevents me from enjoying your singing,” Pushkin answered.

Famous writer, Iv.Iv. Dimitriev, once visited the house of Pushkin's relatives when the latter was still a child.
Making fun of the curly, swarthy boy, Dimitriev said:
- Look, what a rascal!
To this, the ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal snapped:
- But not a hazel grouse!
All those present were embarrassed and surprised that the child Pushkin had ridiculed Dimitriev, who was disfigured by mountain ash on his face.

Portal for the student. Self-training

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