This is how the wedding of the eighteen-year-old sister of Alexander I, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar Karl-Friedrich, which was being prepared in 1804, was considered, in which Russia saw a reliable ally in the fight against Napoleon.

The Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar was one of the seven electorates of Germany, whose heads - the prince-electors - had the right to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. The groom's father, the Elector of Saxony Frederick-August III, occupied the throne of the Duchy of Saxony and was not only considered, but in fact was one of the most powerful potentates of Germany and, moreover, one of the most noble, due to his origin from the Romanov dynasty.

The wedding of Maria Pavlovna and Grand Duke Karl-Friedrich was celebrated in the best traditions of royal Europe and took place two years before the start of very important events in the history of the Grand Dukes of Saxony. Already in 1806, Karl-Friedrich's father, Friedrich-August III, went over to the side of Napoleon as soon as the Austrian troops were defeated near Jena, and then joined the Confederation of the Rhine, created by the French. For the transfer of Saxony to the side of France, Napoleon declared the Duchy of Saxony a kingdom, and Frederick-August became not only the king of Saxony, but also received the title of Duke of Warsaw, because Napoleon transferred the Polish lands taken from Prussia, on which, according to a decision taken in the summer of 1807 in Tilsit, the Duchy of Warsaw was formed.

Looking ahead, let's say that King Frederick-August III remained a loyal ally of Napoleon until in 1813 he was captured by the allies during the "battle of the peoples" near Leipzig. In 1815, by decision of the Congress of Vienna, more than half of the territories of Saxony were transferred to Prussia.

Let us return, however, to 1804.

Soon after the wedding, the young people arrived in the city of Weimar, where Maria Pavlovna would live a long life.

Even as a child, Maria Pavlovna amazed family members and many courtiers who knew her with her extraordinary curiosity for a girl, her passion for science and art, her desire to communicate with people of science and “fine arts”.

From the first minutes of her appearance in Weimar, already during the solemn entry into the city, Maria Pavlovna charmed everyone with her beauty, youth, the radiance of eyes that radiated intelligence and kindness.

And a few days later, one of the most educated women in Germany, Louise Gehhausen, wrote: “The gods sent us an angel. This princess is an angel of intelligence, kindness and courtesy; besides, I have never seen in Weimar such consonance in all hearts and on everyone’s lips, which has appeared since it became the subject of general conversation.

And many years after Maria Pavlovna's arrival in Weimar, old Goethe wrote to his friend Varnhagen von Enze: "She would have managed to rise above any class and, even belonging to the highest, is especially admirable."

The mother-in-law of Maria Pavlovna, the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar Anna Amalia, known throughout Europe as an ardent servant of the muses and an ardent supporter of the French enlighteners, on the day of her daughter-in-law's arrival in Weimar, not without fear, expected to meet her, standing "with humility and patience on the last step of the ducal Palace of Her Imperial Highness. However, the daughter-in-law in a matter of minutes completely fascinated her mother-in-law, and Anna Amalia, soon could no longer live without her, considering it a happiness to be with her almost every evening.

Already in November 1804, Maria Pavlovna met Goethe and was friends with him until the end of his days. Since 1805, Maria Pavlovna has been attending Goethe's lectures, which he reads at home.

Witnesses of Maria Pavlovna's communication with Goethe unanimously asserted that cordial and humanly warm relations had developed between them. Almost everyone who visited the country palace of the Weimar dukes Belvedere, where Maria Pavlovna and Karl-Friedrich lived, soon found themselves in Goethe's house. Thus, the Belvedere and the home of the great poet and thinker became two cultural centers of Weimar that complemented each other.

When Maria Pavlovna arrived in Weimar, Goethe was 55 years old. Here he lived for about thirty years at the invitation of Duke Karl-August. Here he became a great thinker, an outstanding writer, the creator of the theater and the author of many plays, right there he was successfully engaged in painting and natural science.

Maria Pavlovna, who was attracted to science, art history, and creativity in many of its forms, became a zealous admirer of Goethe, on occasion helping the great man in solving many of his tasks.

Of course, Goethe understood that the young duchess was most attracted to architecture, painting and art history, but he also knew that her interests were much broader, and, of course, such an encyclopedist as Goethe could not help but talk about many stories from the history of natural .

Maria Pavlovna listened to his lectures on astronomy, where he spoke about both Galileo and Newton, revealed to her the problems of optics and the integral, repeated doctrine of color, and even a wide variety of information about poets, playwrights, prose writers, artists, sculptors and their works so much was communicated to the young duchess that if Maria Pavlovna had attended several different university courses, she would hardly have received such an excellent education.

Maria Pavlovna lived in Weimar for more than half a century - until 1859, burying many of Goethe's friends, who had been his comrades and like-minded people for many years. She knew well J. G. Herder, F. Schiller, with whom, being an avid theatergoer, she often discussed the plays that were going on in the Weimar theater.

The reputation of a hospitable hostess was firmly established behind Maria Pavlovna, and many Russians traveling in Germany and countries close to it began to travel to Weimar. Over time, their flow became so great that it was necessary to build a special hotel for them - the Russian Hotel. Maria Pavlovna invited the Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt to Weimar. The thirty-seven-year-old musician, who had been wandering before, found his own home here for the first time in his life, under the roof of which he lived for thirteen years.

Maria Pavlovna treated Liszt in the same way as Goethe, saving him from everything that could interfere with the work of the great musician. Liszt, leaving the trips of a virtuoso pianist, took up creativity, creating in 1848-1861 his most significant works: two symphonies, two piano concertos, thirteen symphonic poems and many sonatas and etudes. A prosperous life in Weimar ended for Liszt in 1859 with the death of Maria Pavlovna, his true friend and ardent admirer.

After her death, intrigues and intrigues began around Liszt, and he left Weimar in 1861 and went to Rome.

In 1865, Liszt received the rank of abbot and served music for another twenty years, continuing to write church - organ and choral - compositions. Liszt maintained friendly and creative relations with Russian composers A. P. Borodin, P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. K. Glazunov.

Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev, a memoirist who has repeatedly appeared in this book, V. A. Zhukovsky, and Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya came here more than once.

Maria Pavlovna corresponded with many Russian writers, statesmen and scientists: Dmitry Khvostov, Anna Bunina, Nikolai Gnedich, fabulist Alexander Izmailov, Ivan Lazhechnikov, Sergei Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, Mikhail Speransky, Alexander Tishkov, as well as with many members of the imperial family.

In 1805, she introduced Alexander I to Goethe and the then fashionable salon writer Christoph Wieland, when the Russian emperor ended up in Weimar in connection with preparations for military operations against Napoleon.

* * *

By the autumn of 1805, Russia, Austria, Sweden and England entered the 3rd anti-Napoleonic coalition, and on September 9, for the first time after Peter the Great, the Russian emperor went to the army stationed on the borders with Austria. On the way, Alexander stopped at the estate of Czartorižski Puławy, where, charming the Polish society every day, he spoke about the restoration of Poland's independence and about his unchanging love for this country. From here he went to Berlin, for negotiations on joining the coalition of Prussia.

But these negotiations did not lead to anything - Friedrich Wilhelm secretly signed a convention on joining a coalition with the allies, but agreed that so far he would not participate in hostilities against Napoleon.

With that, without salty slurping, the king left Berlin to the south, to the city of Olomouc (in German Olmütz), where the headquarters of the Austrian emperor, his ally Franz, was located.

The road to Olomouc lay through Saxony, and Alexander decided to turn to Weimar, to his sister Maria Pavlovna.

It was here that she introduced Alexander to Goethe and Wieland. Speaking with them, Alexander said that he felt unusually happy to see with his own eyes how happy his sister was surrounded by such wonderful minds. In turn, Alexander made a very favorable and strong impression on his interlocutors - Wieland even said to Maria Pavlovna: "I would like to become his Homer."

After staying in Weimar for only one day, the Russian emperor went on a date with the Emperor of Austria Franz - to Olmutz. After that, Alexander arrived in the united allied Russian-Austrian army, which was under the command of M.I. Kutuzov on the northern bank of the Danube.

... And then there was Austerlitz, and the flight of the Russian and Austrian armies, and the defeat, which has not been since the day of the defeat near Narva.

In this battle, Alexander saw the war from the other side - two horses were killed next to him, and the core, which had burst in two steps, was showered with earth.

During the retreat, more like a flight, the convoy and officers of the retinue lost Alexander, and he was left with the life physician Willie, two Cossacks, the equerry and the bereator Jene. The emperor raced without looking at the road, when suddenly his horse stopped in front of a narrow ditch, which he could not jump over in any way. Alexander was a bad rider, and Jene, who was galloping next to him, jumped the ditch back and forth several times on his horse, showing how to do it, but Alexander did not dare to spur his horse. And when he nevertheless overcame the obstacle, his nerves completely betrayed him and Alexander got off the saddle, sat under a tree and burst into tears. The emperor's companions stood nearby in embarrassment until Major Tol approached them and began to comfort Alexander. The emperor got up from the ground, wiped away his tears and hugged the major.

Two days later, on November 22, Emperor Franz managed to conclude a truce that extended to the Russians, which Alexander signed a little later, and on November 27, leaving the army, he left for Russia.

And two weeks later, on December 8, the sad, discouraged by failure, discouraged twenty-eight-year-old Alexander quietly, almost imperceptibly drove into the snow-covered streets of St. Petersburg and on the same evening for the first time openly visited his beloved favorite Maria Antonovna Naryshkina.

AMBASSADOR OF THE RUSSIAN TSAR AT THE COURT OF GOETHE
Section from the second chapter of the book "Russian Writers at Goethe in Weimar" -
"Goethe in the politics of Alexander I and Nicholas I"

GOETHE'S INTEREST IN RUSSIA. - GOETHE AND RUSSIAN HISTORY - GOETHE AND PETER THE GREAT; THE POLITICAL MEANING OF GOETHE'S INTEREST TO PETER. - GOETHE AND THE MURDER OF PAUL I. - FAMILY RELATIONS OF THE WEIMAR COURT WITH THE PETERSBURG COURT. - MARIA PAVLOVNA AND ITS POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR WEIMAR. - NAPOLEON I AND MARIA PAVLOVNA. - THE WEIMAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. - RUSSIAN FINANCIAL BASIS OF THE WEIMAR CULTURAL WELFARE. - CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS OF GOETHE AND FINANCE OF MARIA PAVLOVNA. - GOETHE AS MARIA PAVLOVNA'S SECRETARY. - "NYMPHA EGERIA" OR AMBASSADOR OF THE RUSSIAN EMPEROR. - MARIA PAVLOVNA AND THE LITERARY POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. - LEGALIZATION OF RUSSIAN PILGRIMAGES AND VISITS TO GOETHE.

Goethe's interest in Russia in the 19th century is undeniable, continuous and varied. His interest in ancient Russian art has already been discussed; his attention to Russian poetry and poets will be discussed later. Science in Russia also attracted the attention of Goethe: he was in correspondence with German scientists who worked in Russia, followed their scientific work, was a member of the St. Petersburg mineralogical and one of the Kharkov scientific societies, was an honorary member of Kharkov University and the Academy of Sciences, tried to accept participation in her works, and a little earlier - warmly took to heart the project on the establishment of the Asian Academy in St. Petersburg. In this work, one could not do without whole pages devoted to Goethe's relationship to Russian artists: O. Kiprensky, A. Orlovsky, F. Tolstoy, G. Reitern were valued by Goethe. He also had a great interest in Russian nature, life, and the geography of Russia. He cherished every book, every conversation that expanded his knowledge in this area. Knowledge of Russia in the most diverse ways - Goethe studied continuously. Then he reads Pallas' Second Journey Through Russia (1803); then he listens with curiosity to the “humorous story” of some Chevalier about how “a Russian monk took him through the Kyiv caves and mistook him for a Mohammedan, because he was baptized in front of the holy tombs from right to left, and not from left to right” (1810); then he notes “Russian sleigh rides”, which interests him as a detail of Russian life (1812); then together with gr. Golovkin, head of the Russian large expedition-embassy to China, examines a map of Russia and discusses the route of their endless journey (1812). From "Journey to the Caucasus and Georgia in 1807, 1808 and 1813" I.G. Klaproth, he moves on to J. D. Cochran’s journey “On foot through Russia and Siberian Tataria” (1825), and in 1831 he himself travels with Otto Kotzebue: “At the request of Wolf, his beloved grandson, a globe was brought, and with the help he was clearly imagined by the last round-the-world trip of the Russians. When he manages to read a new book that reveals something new in that little-known sixth part of the world called Russia, Goethe is happy: “Ledebour, the Russian flora that has adorned my library thanks to the Grand Duchess,” he writes on May 1, 1830, “remarkable an essay introducing many new species. But it seems that Goethe valued even more lively conversations about Russia with those learned travelers whose knowledge and conscientiousness he trusted. In 1817, he, usually so stingy on notes, enters his conversation with prof. Renner "about Russia, especially about Russian horses, cattle" and about cattle diseases. In 1823, Soret brought to him some "traveler from St. Petersburg", and Goethe examined with them "views of St. Petersburg in Russian lithographs and costumes of various nationalities." In the same year, a Prussian general visited Goethe, and Goethe talked with him about “a canal that makes it possible to communicate with the south and north of the Russian state”: this was a conversation about the Mariinsky system, which was just at that time undergoing a major reorganization. In 1830, Goethe noted a conversation with the learned jurist Cailloue, a Frenchman who "traveled around Prussia and Russia, studying their legal and legal system." When Goethe's old friend Alexander Humboldt returned from his famous trip to Russia, Goethe, not without some reproach for the incompleteness of his stories, noted in his diary: journey through the Russian state "and consoled himself somewhat on the future:" he promised some wonderful minerals found there.
All these readings and conversations - and their number could be multiplied - testify to the unflagging, even growing interest of old Goethe in a distant and foreign country with its unexplored expanses and incomprehensible ways of life and way of life.
But, no matter how deep and constant this interest in Goethe in Russian art, literature, science, nature, everyday life, it is much inferior to his own interest in Russian history. This interest is by no means academic. Although Goethe is not alien to the interest in ancient Russian history - in 1802 he read Russian chronicles - his attention is really directed only to the latest Russian history from Peter, and all his readings have the obvious character of a commentary on the history that was going on in the era of the Napoleonic wars before his eyes, in which he himself was a participant and in which - sometimes not without obvious displeasure - he noticed an increasing participation of Russia. In his historical reading, Goethe stocked up with material for the study of this Russian intervention in the history of Europe, and often the historical reading or the conversation caused by this reading gives Goethe an opportunity to express a judgment that is directly drunk with the topic of the day. Here is an excellent example: in August-October 1809, Goethe was immersed in the reading of "The Life of Peter the Great" (Leben Petrus des Grossen) by Gerhardt-Anton Halem (1752-1819), four times noted the stages of this reading in his diary, and on the same day , when he made the first of the marks, he said to Riemer: “What did the Germans really get in their lovely freedom of the press, if not that everyone can say bad and shameful things about another, as much as he wants?” This political statement by Goethe rebounds from the study of the life of Peter I, who, in Goethe's eyes, did major historical deeds even without "freedom of the press." And Goethe's very interest in the personality of Peter was a political interest: an enemy of the revolution, an enemy of republicanism and constitutionalism, Goethe, in the era of restoration, did not want, however, to be with the blind restorers of the old regime, with the Catholic and Holy Allied reaction of Louis XVIII and Alexander I, and that's why he was drawn to Peter I, where there was no revolution, but there was a reform - there was a reform, but there were no reformers sitting in parliaments and causing trouble to kings and dukes. A "reformer", but on the throne, with assistant ministers around the throne - this was the most that Goethe went to in his political aspirations, more than moderate and least of all corresponding to the brilliant sharpness of his poetic and scientific vigilance. Peter I and his despotic reformism from above, more than anyone else in history, responded to these aspirations, and Goethe felt a special interest in him.
This interest had much in common with the interest that Goethe always had in the personality and cause of Napoleon. “In war and statecraft,” Goethe considered them equally “brilliant,” and attributed to Peter the same inspiration of the “demonic” as to Napoleon. Both of them seemed to Goethe such powerful engines, in which the movement in history is ensured even without the support of the masses of the people. The more closely Goethe wished to judge their activity. In 1829 he read very carefully Segur's Histoire de Russie et de Pierre le Grand (Paris, 1829). “The situation of St. Petersburg,” said Goethe to Eckermann, “is unforgivable, especially if we remember that the soil rises near it and that the emperor could protect the city from floods, placing it a little higher and leaving only the harbor in the lower reaches ... In such an act of such a great man there is something mysterious. Do you know how I explain it? It is impossible for a person to free himself from the impressions of his youth, and it comes to the point that even things that suffer from shortcomings, but to which he was accustomed in his youth and among which he lived in these happy years, remain dear to him later and seem good; he is as if blinded by them and does not see any faults in them. So Peter the Great wanted to build Amsterdam, dear to him in his youth, at the mouth of the Neva. Goethe's interest in the history of the new Russia did not weaken: the problem of the existence of Russia and the historical meaning of this existence confronted Goethe with particular brightness when Alexander I, unexpectedly for himself, turned out to be the arbiter of the destinies of Europe and especially Germany. Even when Goethe reads essays on the general history of Europe, he singles out everything that relates to Russia. So in 1808, while reading someone's "Staatengeschichte", he made two notes about reading the part of this work devoted to Russia, and did the same in 1823: reading the work of L.T. Spittler (1752-1810) "Essay on the history of European states", he singled out Russia from it, specifically noting the reading of the corresponding chapter. On the example of Goethe's Russian historical readings, the truth is clearly proved that historical reading is always political reading.
But Goethe could read Russian history of the first quarter of the 19th century not only from books, but from the events themselves, to learn it from people who were participants or witnesses of these events.
On April 7, 1801, Goethe made the following note in his diary: “Faust. Death of Emperor Paul.
There is no connection between the two marks, but their proximity is remarkable: Goethe placed a work or thought on the most important creation of his genius next to a political event that took place in distant Russia: it seemed to him so important and significant.
In small Weimar, there could be a special interest in this event: the wife of Duke Karl-August, so associated with Goethe, Duchess Louise was the sister of the first wife of Paul I, led. Princess Natalia Alekseevna (Wilhelmina, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1755-1776). When Goethe lived in Naples, he became friends with the artist F. Hackert, who enjoyed the favor of Prince. Andrei Kirillovich Razumovsky, who was in 1779-1784. Russian ambassador in Naples. Goethe's pages dedicated to F. Hackert are full of notes about Razumovsky and his attachment to the talented artist. Hackert knew Paul I and Maria Feodorovna when they, under the incognito “count and countess of the North”, who did not deceive anyone, traveled around Italy, and even painted a portrait of Maria Feodorovna. And about Razumovsky, the envoy and Don Juan, a witty and subtle musician, there was a European rumor as a happy rival of Pavel with his wife, Natalia Alekseevna. Catherine herself opened Pavel’s eyes to this success of Razumovsky: in order to “comfort him in the death of his wife,” she presented him with a bundle of Razumovsky’s letters to Natalia Alekseevna. As a consolation to Pavel, Razumovsky was sent first to Revel, then to Baturin, then ... to Naples, where he had a second success with Queen Caroline. In Italy, Pavel and Razumovsky had the pleasure of meeting. This is approximately the circle of stories about Razumovsky and the Russian court with Paul at the head that Goethe could hear from Hackert, who painted battle-sea paintings for Catherine II, shrouded not only in the smoke of gunpowder, but also in the smoke of incense in honor of the "victories of the Russian fleet." These stories for Goethe could have a specific "court interest", since they concerned the sister of Louise of Weimar.
The conspiracy of March 11, 1801 and the assassination of Paul I were the subject of long-term interest, even study by Goethe. With great perseverance, he collected everything that he could find out about the murder of Paul from people who were in St. Petersburg at that time, and since 1804 from close associates of Maria Pavlovna and her Russian visitors. Extremely curious in this regard is the note in his diary on March 14, 1814: “Their Highnesses. Miss Dillon. The history of the death of Paul I.
Their Highnesses are the Grand Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail Pavlovichi, who arrived in Weimar with their tutor, Count Lamsdorf. Goethe presented himself to them and was probably very respectful to the sons of Paul I, and proceeded directly from them to the Englishwoman miss Dillon, who served as a chamber frau at Maria Pavlovna, and from this person intimately close to the daughter of Paul I learned - once again - the story his murders. Goethe knew very well the ostentatious history of the Russian court, but his underside was no less familiar to him. This is evidenced by the result of his inquiries about the death of Paul I - a large, carefully compiled entry entitled "Die Palasterrevolution gegen Kaiser Paul I". Due to the fact that it never appeared in Russian and was not even mentioned by Russian historians, we present it in its entirety:
« Saturday. The courier is sent to Bonaparte. Partition of a large part of Germany. Baden gets nothing. Wirtemberg receives Münster, Paderborn, Gildesheim, Würzburg, Bamberg, Prussia-Hanover, Bavarian Salzburg, Passau, Bechtolsgaden.
Sunday. The Izmailovsky Guards Regiment was offended at the parade by the fact that four officers, among them General Milyutin and Prince. Vyazemsky, sent to the fortress. There is a duel between the book. Chetvertinsky and chamberlain Ribopierre, the latter was wounded.
Monday. Under the agreement of the Grand Duke gr. Palen should hush up the case. Prince (! - S.D.) Naryshkin blurts out. Ribopierre is first sent to the fortress, then expelled with his family from the city.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday March 1st Art. Grand Duke Konstantin scolds his father, the prosecutor general betrays. The emperor himself wants to bring him to justice. In a strange way, it's repulsed. Constantine must take an oath.
Saturday 2.
Sunday 3.
Monday 4. Count Kutaisov was informed of the plan of Prosecutor General Obolyaninov to declare himself the guardian of the emperor's non-existent bastard child.
Tuesday 5. Count Palen is removed from the court, his wife is also sent back with her crew.
Wednesday. Count Palen is told that the emperor will return his favor if he directly or indirectly through gr. Kutaisova will ask for forgiveness. The Count rejects this.
Thursday. Palen was again called to the court.
Friday.
Saturday 9. For the first time after a long time, the emperor reappears in the city, but, having found a pile of inevitable garbage near the Kazan Cathedral under construction, he becomes furious and sends a verbal reprimand to the count (Palen) with the courier; hereinafter he is called everywhere simply: “Count.” - S.D .)
Sunday 10. Wedding of Gervais, to which the count promises to come, but does not come.
Monday 11. Count Kutaisov comes to the count and jokingly expresses some suspicions. Stormy night. Ober-shenk Zagryazhsky, at the evening at Prince. Beloselsky, at midnight, reminds of the upcoming big deal. Talyzin gives dinner, to which the count goes. Everyone who gathered there is either initiated into the cause, or they are immediately initiated.
Tuesday 12. Fine weather. Universal joy.
Wednesday 13. Prince Platon Alexandrovich and Count Valeryan Zubov dine with the Count.

Participants number 42

5. Bennigsen (long Cassius) retired as a lieutenant general, tries to enter the service again, receives a refusal, is going to leave on Monday the 11th, the count holds him and sends him to the Zubovs.
6. General Chicherin.
7. Artillery Colonel Tatarinov
8. Artilleryman Prince Yashvil, Georgian. Scarf
9. Captain Ushakov, the only one from the Horse Guards. Brother of General U[shakov], who was the head of the former so-called. Senate regiment and had to line it up in front of the castle.
10. General Uvarov, head of the cavalry guards. Depreradovich, commander of the battalion of Grand Duke Alexander. At the disposal of the Count. More than 20 minutes late.
Talyzin, Lieutenant General, Commander of the Imperial Life Guards Regiment. The head of that battalion of this regiment, which marched in front of the castle.
Vyazemsky, an officer of the Izmailovsky regiment, then he was the first to greet the new emperor.
Commandant Epifarov.
Gorgoli, Oberleutnant and Platz Major (now Colonel in the Regiment of Emperor Alexander).
Count Kutaisov, a native of the Turks. Wardrobe manager and servants.
Secret secret. Mich. Dolskoy.
Wardrobe, secretary Troshin, servant of the last beloved.
His brother, an officer of the second corps, informed about his superior, Valerian Zubov.
He was the last to be deceived, on the night of the 11th, with the help of a concert."
Goethe's entry is very valuable: it is one of the very first, in terms of time, and the most complete, in terms of material, attempts to create a solid scheme of the entire course of the "palace revolution" on March 11, 1801 and give a list of actors. Goethe knows the smallest details of the case. In this regard, the mark “scarf” next to the names of Tatarinov and Yashvil in the list of conspirators is indicative: with special restraint, which is noted in his entry everything related to the royal family. With this one word, Goethe describes for himself the whole scene of the murder of Paul I: he was strangled with a scarf, and Yashvil and Tatarinov are indicated as the closest participants in this case in all modern notes. Another "trifle" in Goethe's recording was already noted by the famous German historian T. Schiemann: "Bennigsen's nickname "long Cassius" is striking and points to oral transmission." For Goethe, this, of course, is not only a “nickname”, but also a whole characterization of Bennigsen as a participant in the murder. Many other pieces of Goethe's note show with certainty that he collected material for it from extremely knowledgeable people, from close witnesses of Pavlov's "scolds" and "furies" and equally close participants in the cessation of these "furies" forever. With one of the direct participants in the conspiracy, with F.P. Uvarov, Goethe was personally acquainted, as we shall see later.
Why did Goethe make his note about the "palace revolution" of 1801? There is no hint in it that this is a plan or material for some work - for example, a dramatic one - from the life of Paul I; undoubtedly, this is not the plan of a historical work. These are the “works and days” of a small court revolution, which especially struck Goethe with something. One can guess the reason for this interest: general and particular. Private is clear. The Weimar courtyard, as we shall see later and as Goethe clearly understood, was a branch of the Petersburg court: the characters of the Petersburg tragedy constantly appeared in the cramped Weimar scene; how could one not be interested in both the performers and the tragedy itself, which they played on March 11? Goethe and made a very accurate sketch of her script. But in the incident of March 11, for Goethe, there was also a larger interest. The Russia of Catherine II and Paul I was a bulwark against the Western revolution, and suddenly a palace revolution is taking place in Russia itself, and a successful one at that. Goethe does not try to hide this success from himself in his very cautious entry: “Beautiful weather. General joy." Goethe noted, as carefully as he could, the fury and antics of the "unenlightened absolutist" Paul. In Goethe's eyes, this is a lesson and a warning to all Weimar and non-Weimar absolutists. Goethe wants - as a minister and a politician - to memorize the entire factory of the mechanism by which the "palace revolutions" are set in motion, in order to know how to prevent this mechanism from being factory. This record is a memento mori - a faithful servant of the Weimar feudal-palace prosperity. The note about the accession of Alexander I - as about the "universal joy" of all of St. Petersburg - is important for understanding Goethe's attitude to the first years of the reign of Alexander I. There are no entries in Goethe's diary about Alexander I before his arrival in Germany in 1805. We do have, however, indirect indications to Goethe's interest in the first years of his reign, which aroused such bright and unfounded hopes in liberal circles of the nobility for the political renewal of the state that Andrei Kirillovich Storkh, vice-president of the Academy of Sciences in St. a sympathetic review of all the activities and projects of the early era of the reign of Alexander I. The publication had to be stopped by Storch when these “great extraordinary deeds and enterprises” soon turned out to be so few that there was nothing to fill the pages with. It is very likely that Goethe read Storch, in any case he wanted to go and see how Russland unter Alexander dem Ersten prospered. The meaning of such a trip is obvious to Goethe: as it was pointed out, his political program was monarchist reformism from above. Goethe himself tried as a minister to be the conductor and inspirer of such reformism within the limits of the toy Weimar state. Even the German apologists for all Goethe’s activities admit that he suffered a complete failure here: according to Belypovsky, “he dreamed of grandiose (! - S.D.) socio-political reforms”: “liberation of the peasants from corvée and tithes, transformation of the peasant and land ownership into free, divisible property, the taxation of estates in accordance with their profitability, "and" had to be satisfied "instead of these reforms with this:" economy was installed in public administration (reached the point that, according to Goethe's persuasion, "the duke removed his courtiers ranks from daily dinners at the court table. ”- S.D.), diligence and humanity, the burden of military service was reduced (the Weimar “army” was reduced from 600 people to 310. - S.D.), communications improved (all the space of Weimar was equal to 1900 sq. km. - S.D.), an extensive system of irrigation and drainage of fields was adopted, measures were taken against damage to the fields by various animals ... ”(i.e., fences were set up! - S.D.). In Russia, Goethe could hope to see broader experiences of reformism from above and thereby confirm his political theory, which was cracking at the seams: that is why he was going to go to Russia. Once - between October 1806 and March 1807 - in Weimar, in the house of the "court adviser" and writer Schopenhauer, Goethe met with the writer and teacher Georg Reinbeck (Reinbeck, 1766-1849), who shortly before that - in 1805 - published the book "Fliichtige Bemerkungen auf einer Reise von St. -Petersburg ... nach Deutschland im Jahre 1805 ”(“ Quick notes on the journey from St. Petersburg ... to Germany ”). “When many guests had gathered, including Goethe's wife,” Reinbeck recalled, “the Privy Councilor came. He entered with a cordially drawling: hmm! hm! bowing in all directions, and looking for a chair. Then he looked around the whole circle of those gathered, and when his eyes fell on me, he got up and walked towards me. Of course, I immediately got up. He bowed solemnly and said, "I must thank you." I asked what made me so happy that I deserved his gratitude? “I always intended to visit Russia someday,” he replied, “but you completely cured me of this.” “I would really regret it,” I replied, “primarily because of Russia, but also, - allow me, Your Excellency, to say this, - also because of you. On his part, it was a jocular turn to let me know that he had read my "Riduous Notes" about the trip through Moscow, etc., which appeared at that time, which attracted some attention by the fact that here and there in descriptions and judgments deviated from the usual praises of Storch: I lived for 14 years in St. Petersburg ... Goethe talked a lot with me about Russia and asked about many of my acquaintances there.
With the accession to the throne of Alexander I, Weimar's connection with the Russian court intensified: his wife Elizaveta Alekseevna, through her mother, the Baden Margravine Amalia, was the niece of the same Duchess Louise.
A small yard got a big relative. So far, Germany has sent its princesses to St. Petersburg; in 1804 St. Petersburg sent a princess to Weimar: the Weimar Hereditary Duke Karl-Friedrich (1783-1853) married the third daughter of Paul I, Maria Pavlovna (1786-1859). It was a great court and diplomatic fortune for tiny Weimar.
For a long time in St. Petersburg they did not agree to the marriage of the Grand Duchess with the seedy Weimar prince, and considerable diplomatic tricks were needed for the marriage to take place.
The sister of the Russian emperor carried with her on 80 Russian carts a dowry that far exceeded more than one annual budget of the entire Weimar duchy. The wealth brought by Maria Pavlovna was so unprecedented in feudal impoverished Germany that when Goethe happened to see in 1829 "all the treasures of the dowry" (Sammtlichen Schatze des Trous-seaux) of Maria Pavlovna, he exclaimed: "The spectacle from" A Thousand and one night! But Maria Pavlovna, at the same time, brought with her a dynastic dowry - connections that were the biggest political support for Weimar in those days when, at the behest of Napoleon, tens and hundreds of German principalities, duchies and margraviates disappeared from the face of the earth like fluff.
Even preparing for war with Russia, Napoleon considered that the hereditary Weimar Duchess did not come from some Kassel or even Berlin. Grech tells a curious story: “The impudent upstart decided to appoint several natural princesses of Germany, including the Crown Princess of Weimar, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, as court ladies to Empress Marie-Louise ... I don’t know through whom, probably through Talleyrand,” Napoleon came to know “that the immediate consequence of this insolence will be a break between Russia and France and an alliance with England. Preparations for a war of extermination with Russia were not yet completed, and the decree did not take place. German princesses got rid of the pleasure of being court ladies to Marie-Louise only because one of them turned out to have strong all-Russian relatives. Whether it was so in the case of Grech or not quite so, but the significance of the newly acquired relatives was very seriously and weightily taken into account and weighed both in Weimar itself and in its European environment - friendly and hostile.
Goethe understood better than anyone else that dynastic ties were the strongest trump card in the cheap Weimar political game. This must always be taken into account in all Goethe's statements about Maria Pavlovna and her relatives. This is usually not taken into account, and in the vast majority of writings about Goethe, Maria Pavlovna is presented almost as his "nymph Egeria." The matter is much simpler. When Goethe speaks about her, in his words a very large share of judgment always comes from the lips of a minister, diplomat, courtier - and even a good Weimar burgher: it was easier, safer, more prosperous for all of them to live in their Weimar fatherland, city, estate, house since then. since the sister of Alexander I settled in the palace. In an era when all the big and small rulers of pieces and pieces of Europe were afraid of Napoleon, the crown princess of Weimar, young Maria Pavlovna, was the least afraid of him. Here is the most characteristic episode told by A.I. Turgenev in his unpublished diary (entry dated May 5, 1829). It takes place during the war of 1807: Karl-August opposed Napoleon as a Prussian general and ally of Alexander. At Weimar's side, Napoleon rejects Jena; there were French in Weimar; Chancellor Müller had to beg Napoleon for mercy for Weimar.
“I was with Chancellor Muller,” writes A.I. Turgenev, - read excerpts from his notes about a meeting with Napoleon during the war of 1807, about Napoleon's main apartment, about Daru, about Talleyrand, about Muller's trip to Paris: "Avez-vous les quittances de Daru?" - asked Napoleon and until then did not accept him. An offer of passports to the Grand Duchess: she trampled them when she received them. Muller's suspicion of treason."
To trample on Napoleon's passports - such a political luxury could only be afforded in all of Germany by Maria Pavlovna: she alone was the sister of the Russian emperor there. In comparison with this episode, Grech's story loses its anecdotal flavor.
One can believe that provincial Weimar was quite sincerely happy in 1804, when 18-year-old Maria Pavlovna entered it: so in the old days a poor and low-ranking family rejoiced when she managed to intermarry with a metropolitan family, rank, rank and pocket much higher and stronger. Weimar joy was to be expressed by Goethe in a special theatrical greeting, but he evaded, being ill and out of sorts; however, greeting Maria Pavlovna was considered such a serious matter that the “honor” passed from the first Weimar poet to the “second”: the sick Schiller was disturbed, and he wrote the “Salutation of the Arts”, played at the theater at the same time. Maria Pavlovna had not yet had time to settle down in Weimar, when Goethe had already sung a whole hymn to her (in a letter to Marianne Eibenberg dated April 26, 1805). “She is a miracle of charm and grace. I have never seen a connection of such perfection with what high society expects and even requires from a high-ranking lady. Goethe sang it several times in verse.
When Maria Pavlovna was already a “reigning” duchess, Goethe spoke of her to Eckermann: “From the very beginning she became a good angel for the country and the more she felt connected with the new fatherland, the more she showed this property. I have known the Grand Duchess since 1805, and I have had many occasions to marvel at her intelligence and character. She is one of the best and most remarkable women of our time, and she would be her, even if it were not for the Grand Duchess.
A year and a half later, Goethe repeated this review: “The Grand Duchess is smart, kind, and benevolent; she is a true blessing to the country. People everywhere quickly feel where the blessings come from, and they also revere the sun and other beneficial elements, and therefore I am not surprised that all hearts turn to her with love and that they recognize what she deserves. Both of these reviews of Goethe replace many quotations from Goethe himself - if only from his numerous letters to Maria Pavlovna herself - from memoirists and from biographers, Russian and German: Goethe in this two-pronged review expressed what he himself and all others repeated many times. If we add to Goethe's review the well-known judgment of Schiller, who found in Maria Pavlovna "great abilities for painting and music and a real love of reading", then there will be no need to apply for other reviews: everything will be a repetition of these reviews. What do Goethe and Schiller say about Maria Pavlovna here? Goethe twice emphasized that she "became a good angel for the country from the very beginning." The feudal-noble burgher Weimar could really be pleased with Maria Pavlovna: Weimar really received all those political benefits from her marriage to their prince, which are mentioned above. Until the very end of October 1813, the French were in Weimar, and the Weimar fought on the side of the French against Alexander I and the allies. The situation was the most delicate for both the duke and his army. Maria Pavlovna came to the rescue here too. Here is what she wrote “with her own hand” on September 11 from Teplitz to Count Arakcheev himself: “Count Alexei Andreevich. It was with particular pleasure that I received your letter of August 22, and I thank you sincerely for your diligence in reasoning with the Weimar captured officers, who should expect a change in their fate until a future time, where they are: meanwhile, I ask you to notify me in advance if anything follows in favor of them; I, of course, will always consider your attention to their fate as evidence of a special service related to my person. How many such Russian services to Weimar Maria Pavlovna entered into her personal account, paid by her brother and his entourage! Weimar emerged from the Napoleonic wars not only intact, but also with an increase in territory, and with an increase in the rank of the ruler: he was made “great” from a mere duke. The fact that Weimar survived and even expanded while "many hundreds of small areas were swallowed up by larger ones" on the orders of Napoleon and the decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 , Belshovsky attributes to Karl-August: all this was done "as a reward" - de "for the duke's patriotic course of action and for those heavy sacrifices that befell the country during the wars." This explanation is a mere deception: Karl-August, in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, made quite a few experiments in political defection between Napoleon and Alexander.
Once upon a time, during the Tilsit meeting in 1807, the German provincial “fatherlands” already benefited from St. Petersburg relatives: “thanks to family ties with the Russian imperial house, the duchies of Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Coburg remained inviolable. This was a special courtesy of Napoleon to a new ally. The example of Napoleon was followed by the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. At the congress, they did not remember the imaginary "merits" of Karl-August, but that the wife of his heir was the sister of Alexander I: it would be ridiculous to deprive the hereditary patrimony of the sister of that person, in whose hands were then sharp scissors for redrawing the entire map, not only Germany, but also Europe. A small Weimar relative was forgiven and even added something to his poverty because of a large - and in 1815 even a very large - St. Petersburg relative. Therefore, Goethe did not exaggerate, but only condescended to the sentimental language of some Weimar burgher when he called Maria Pavlovna "a good angel for the country." The budget of the Imperial Russian maintenance of Maria Pavlovna as the Grand Duchess allowed her to be “kind”: it so much exceeded all Weimar financial possibilities that it allowed her to spend large - and based on the Weimar scale, even exceptionally large - funds on the creation and support of various educational and charitable institutions.
P.I. Bartenev recalled the Weimar Russian archpriest Sabinin: “When the wife of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich was condemned under him for her expenses abroad, he noticed that these expenses were negligible in comparison with what his mother spent on Weimar alone, in which the best buildings were erected with the money sent by her ". This message is not exaggerated. Here is what I have to say about the same Rudolf Jagoditsch in his latest (1932) work: “Goethe und seine russischen Zeitgenossen”: “the abundant funds that she [Maria Pavlovna] received from the Empress Mother and from her royal brothers transferred something to Weimar from the brilliance and luxury of the St. Petersburg court ... In particular, Russian wealth benefited Weimar in Goethe's artistic and scientific plans. He received constant funds from Maria Pavlovna for the Weimar library and its collections, for the maintenance of the “Free Drawing School” (“Freien Zeichen-schule”) led by Meyer, etc. The Jena University Library also received rich donations. The construction of the Weimar theater after the fire of 1825 also owed its rapidity mainly to her. Even the arrangement and decoration of the Weimar park - Goethe's favorite idea - became possible only thanks to the support of the "Imperial Highness". When Maria Pavlovna became Grand Duchess, her material assistance to Weimar increased even more, and "Weimar owes a number of generally useful and charitable institutions to her practical meaning, constancy and care." The educator of the children of Maria Pavlovna Sore wrote in his diary on March 10, 1831: “By one o’clock, her highness sent me to Goethe again ... The first order concerned a gift of 1000 ecu, which the Grand Duchess wanted to make to the directorate [of the theater. -S.D.] to help the education and development of new artists." Two weeks later, Goethe himself wrote in his diary: “At 12 o'clock. was Her Imperial Highness. I am very pleased with the happy success of the various institutions founded by her in the highest degree, for which, no doubt, large sums are spent. On October 5, 1831, Goethe noted in his diary: “Mr. Otto, private fund report. This letter, written on the same day, has survived: “Your Excellency,” Goethe wrote to this secretary of Maria Pavlovna, “doubly oblige me if you would be so kind at the right moment to hand over to her Imperial Highness the attached invoice (Rechnung) along with the humble report (unterthanigsten Vortrag). In like manner, the elapsed half of the year is accounted for and, I dare to hope, in time also deserve the highest approval. Goethe submits a report and accounts for some of the institutions associated with him, the content is entirely at the expense of Maria Pavlovna; there is no other way to understand the meaning of the printed letter. Unfortunately, the editors of the Weimar edition turned out to be so inquisitive that they did not even make the slightest attempt to clarify what kind of Goethe institution it was, which lived exclusively on the donation of the sister of Alexander I.
Only a special work built on archival, Weimar and St. Petersburg material, could fully reveal the serf Russian financial foundations of Weimar cultural well-being, but the evidence cited leaves no doubt that the golden Russian rain that poured down on Weimar from the time of being settled there Maria Pavlovna, was frequent, large and continuous. This rain of fortified gold is an important and almost unexplored fact of Goethe's biography. If Goethe wanted to be precise in his comments to Eckermann about Maria Pavlovna, he would have to say, speaking of her "benefits", that these "benefits" constitute conditio sine qua non of the main "Athenian" institutions of Weimar, with which Goethe's name is connected. : theater, library, art school. This predetermined the entire attitude of Goethe and his “Athenian” circle towards Maria Pavlovna and her St. Petersburg relatives: to shake up these relations with something, to color them in the wrong color would simply mean to make such a hole in the Weimar budget that nothing could be filled: the patronage of Maria Pavlovna and the uncontrolled masters of the Russian Empire standing behind her was a constant and extremely significant article of the Weimar "parish". Goethe's "spending" on his own and Schiller's tragedies in the theater, on rare editions in the library, on Meyer's classicism in art school, on a beautiful park in the city and on many other things depended entirely on this "arrival". When the young Goethe entered Weimar, he was struck by the ruins of the burned-out ducal palace: Anna-Amalia had no money to rebuild it. At the end of Goethe's life, history repeated itself: the court theater burned down, but Maria Pavlovna was in Weimar, and the theater was quickly restored with Russian money. Maria Pavlovna was not a person, but an institution in Weimar - an institution on which his political strength and financial stability depended, and Goethe's attitude towards her was dictated by the need to protect and honor this useful institution. Such an institution had to serve. And Goethe served - from writing letters, on the orders of Maria Pavlovna, to settling material affairs and accounts with the teachers of her children. I limit myself to these two examples. Letter to Maria Pavlovna, where Goethe settles her affairs with prof. Myunkhov, entering into all the details of the calculation, the reader will find in the article A.G. Gabrichevsky “Goethe’s autographs in the USSR”, and to the same secretary Maria Pavlovna Otto this is what Goethe wrote on May 11, 1830: “I am forwarding a sketch of the answer graciously entrusted to me, how successful it was. Here there is a difficulty not only in the fact that you need to please a high-ranking lady (hohen Dame), but also in finding the momentum corresponding to her position. If anything raises doubts, I am ready for any changes. With the letter, a draft letter was attached on behalf of Maria Pavlovna to Varnhagen von Ense: with Goethe's hand, thought and word, Maria Pavlovna very elegantly thanked the famous writer for the pleasure she had received from reading his book "The Life of Winzendorf". It is likely that such letters, elegantly signed "Marie", greatly contributed to the spread of fame about the mind and talents of the Weimar patron of talents - "Egeria's muse".
Goethe, in response to the completed order, "honored" to receive a new order through the secretary of Maria Pavlovna and a small gift from her. Here is what Otto wrote to him in an unpublished letter:

"Your Excellency!
On behalf of Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess and Grand Duchess, I am forwarding a letter to Mr. Varnhagen von Ense, Privy Councilor of the Embassy, ​​with a request that it be delivered through your kind mediation to its destination.
At the same time, a lithographed portrait of the Empress of Brazil is attached, which Her Imperial Highness is donating to the local museum.
With the utmost respect and devotion, I have the honor to be

Your Excellency
most obedient servant
f. Otto.
Weimar, May 16th, 1830"

But Goethe speaks not only of the merits of Maria Pavlovna's position, but also of her personal merits: he had "many occasions to marvel at her mind and character." Both Schiller and many German and Russian recallers speak of personal merits. It doesn't seem difficult to decipher these comments. One of the earliest reviews about Maria Pavlovna belongs to Prince Adam Czartoryzhsky, who, together with his brother, served as a chamber junker under the daughters of Paul I: “Both Grand Duchesses, Elena and Maria, to whom we were considered seconded, were very nice. The princes they were to marry were men of little merit." In the cautious recall of the Polish aristocrat, the modest dignity of the princesses is enhanced by comparison with the unworthiness of two princes - Mecklenburg and Weimar. About Weimar - Karl-Friedrich, the husband of Maria Pavlovna - even Goethe found it possible to say only two words, finding in him "cordial kindness", and nothing more. Karl-Friedrich was a nonentity. The great-nephew of Maria Pavlovna, historian Nikolai Mikhailovich, says that she "was not happy in marriage." In comparison with her miserable husband, Maria Pavlovna, whom her grandmother Catherine II called for her liveliness "a real dragoon" ("c "est un vrai dragon"), was a living person with human feelings and interests. Neighborhood with Karl-Friedrich was extremely beneficial for Maria Pavlovna’s reputation with everyone who met her during her long stay in Weimar. The gratitude felt for her by Empress Elizabeth, the wife of Alexander I, is very bright: she appreciated the “trust” that her sister-in-law showed her, and was happy that Maria Pavlovna's affection "cannot be attributed solely to financial support. Whatever her source, her family did not spoil me with this. "This is again a praise for ordinary, but not at court, human feelings. We must believe Goethe that Maria Pavlovna was kind, friendly, courteous, affectionate, courteous to people.These properties of her increase in value from close proximity to the opposite properties that live in people of the same position and social height. The Berlin “neighborhood” exalted Maria Pavlovna just as much as the Weimar one. What Schiller says about her is also merit only in comparison: “a real love of reading” is a virtue, but virtue is only within the boundaries of the St. Petersburg Anichkov Palace or the Weimar Belvedere: beyond the threshold of these palaces, the love of reading is a simple property of many millions of literate of people.
Maria Pavlovna was well aware that the prestige of the literary court and the glory of German Athens greatly increased Weimar's place in the "table of ranks" of the motley German statehood. Therefore, she took care to secure this prestige; on her initiative, the foundation was laid for the archive and museum of Schiller and Goethe. Her intra-German literary policy found a successor in the person of Duchess Sophia, who reminded Germany and Europe of Weimar and her dynasty by publishing the first complete collection of Goethe's works.
But Maria Pavlovna also had a special sphere of activity in Weimar: she was an excellent representative of the court and political interests of imperial Russia at the second court that was then in Weimar: at the court of the great Goethe. This second courtyard was of incomparably greater European significance than the first courtyard of the Grand Duke. We shall see further that Napoleon explicitly and openly acknowledged and emphasized this. Representatives of Russia under the duke changed. Maria Pavlovna remained permanent under Goethe. True, she did not write diplomatic notes, but her diplomatic activity was an indisputable and constant success: Goethe was never a great power hostile to imperial Russia, just as such great modern powers as Byron, Victor Hugo, Beranger, Heinrich Heine were hostile to her. Meanwhile, Goethe was personally disposed to Russia, to its government and rulers, hardly many more sympathetically than these great powers of European literature hostile to Russia. Goethe rarely and reluctantly speaks and writes about Alexander I and Nicholas I, but he talks a lot about Maria Pavlovna, clearly exaggerating the proportions of her mental abilities: a clear sign that he is pleased with the envoy at his court, while not very disposed to rulers who accredited her to him. It is impossible not to attribute this to the art of courtesy, which Maria Pavlovna possessed better than many professional diplomats. She surrounded Goethe with exceptional attention (up to visits three times a week, on precisely appointed days), supplied him with valuable books, gave him something that corresponded to his exacting tastes and passion for collecting, was attentive to all the little things of his complex everyday life and she did all this not only as a Weimar duchess, zealous about the best property of the Weimar state, but also as an envoy of Russia to a very influential and conservative, but still independent power. Catherine II sent only temporary ambassadors to Ferney for short periods; in Weimar, the Russian court had a permanent representation. In a difficult mission, Maria Pavlovna showed quite a bit of tact: he was required from her more than from Russian diplomats under the duke. She achieved what Goethe saw in the Russian court, the government and the upper stratum of society as equal holders of the heritage of European culture, and not at all what, for example, Byron saw in them: a semi-Asiatic despotism with a French language and grimaces of semi-enlightenment. Further it will be seen with what jealousy Maria Pavlovna maintained relations with Goethe of the Russian court and the nobility, who showed up in Weimar. She taught many of those who visited her in Weimar as a branch of the St. Petersburg court to be Europeans - and attracted them to Goethe, accustoming serf patrons and bear-Tambov tourists to the duties of a cultural "voyager". All this was of great importance for the formation of Goethe's opinion about Tsarist Russia, and Goethe's opinion was of great importance for Europe. The Russian autocracy had a bad reputation in Europe, despite all the flirtations of Catherine II with Voltaire, Diderot, Beaumarchais and Grimm, despite all the political and mystical maneuverings of Alexander I with Mme de Stael, Bentham, Baader, Jung-Stilling, the Quakers and Dr. Maria Pavlovna did everything she could to correct this reputation with Goethe's weighty word, or at least his no less weighty silence, interpreted as a sign of agreement with the rulers and inspirers of official Russia. In the constancy of these efforts and their relative success, we will be convinced throughout our study. Maria Pavlovna was a guidebook for almost all Russian writers and figures who went to Goethe, and this guidebook was such that it would be difficult to wish for better: he was well aware of Goethe and his works and days - this is how he attracted travelers, but he was also strictly well-intentioned: by this he completely satisfied the best aspirations of Alexander I and Nicholas I.
Both Alexander I and Nicholas I could be satisfied with how their sister implemented the Goethean policy of the Russian autocracy.

Views: 1803

Communication between Maria Pavlovna and Goethe lasted more than 25 years. It happened at the time of political upheavals, and the personal and cultural maturation of Maria Pavlovna, and even in the first years of her independent reign together with Karl Friedrich (since 1828). For Maria Pavlovna, this communication was, although not as harmonious as with Wieland and Schiller (she could never say about Goethe, like, for example, about Schiller, that she feels special tenderness for him), but it gave her a lot and in educationally and even in terms of political formation. Goethe, especially in the first years of Maria Pavlovna's stay in Weimar, supports her in her desire to get used to the Weimar cultural life, advises on art and science, moreover, relying on the practical direction of her activity - what he himself defines as "praktische Richtung" .

Already the very first meetings of Maria Pavlovna with Goethe are accompanied by a demonstration of works of art. This includes a collection of Carstens' drawings, which Karl August acquired after the artist's death, and sculptural casts and figures that Goethe himself collected. “... in particular, I was amazed and fascinated by the drawings of Carstens,” she immediately informs Maria Feodorovna. – ‹…› What a wealth of ideas and a delightful composition. I am very much indebted to Herr Goethe, who showed me his drawings, and especially for the way he showed them to me. He explains with astonishing simplicity and erudition, which, so to speak, is characteristic of him; he very much invited me to his place - to see various collections and other things, I will go to him with pleasure at the end of this week.

From this time on, she really begins to pay him morning visits. The formula "comme d'usage le mercredi chez Göthe" ("as always on Wednesday with Goethe") is increasingly found in her letters. During one of these visits, Goethe shows her a plaster cast of the famous statue of Minerva Velletri, which he bought in Rome, with a description of which Maria Pavlovna's youthful diary begins.

Goethe often accompanies the demonstration of works of art with the reading of his own - and not only his own - works. In addition, according to the established tradition, on Thursdays he gives lectures at his home, to which he invites a narrow circle of people close to him. And from 1805, Maria Pavlovna began to visit them quite regularly, considering her participation as belonging "to the circle of the elite." Goethe shows her the local library (now known as the library of the Duchess Anna-Amalia in Weimar), famous for its book, manuscript and other art collections. During these years, Goethe literally educated Maria Pavlovna: “You can believe me, Mamenka, that it is very interesting when he gives free rein to his conversation, which does not always happen. ‹…› Listening to him, you become educated, because he is terribly learned, and what he says seems to flow from the very source. I swear to you, Mom, every time I listen to his thoughts, I think about you and tell myself that, of course, my kind Mom would listen to him with great pleasure.

The content of one of the lectures Maria Pavlovna in 1805 retells to Schiller, about which the latter, in turn, informs a friend: “The Grand Duchess told me yesterday with great interest about your last lecture. She rejoices at the opportunity to see and hear a lot from you. Goethe replied: “If our young Princess takes pleasure in what we can tell, then all our wishes come true‹…› But also think about what can be stated to her in general in such cases. It should be something short, but full of wisdom and art, and usually this kind of thing does not always come to my mind.

The last phrase, however, testifies that mutual communication was given not only not only to Maria Pavlovna, but also to Goethe himself (so Ms. von Stein testified: “Goethe seems to feel shackled with Her Imperial Highness. She asked him about the laws time and place in his plays. He obviously did not adhere to them too much: I stood next to him, he answered indistinctly. I think he is reluctant to speak French").

And yet, his initial skepticism, associated with the hype around the arrival of Maria Pavlovna in the autumn of 1804 in Weimar, which forced him then to refuse poetic greetings, was soon replaced by admiration and sincere sympathy, although not without a share of irony, and possibly self-irony. : “Come to us, you will see a lot of new things here,” he wrote in 1805 to A. Wolf. “The most beautiful and significant is the crown princess, for the sake of just getting to know her, it would already be worth making a distant pilgrimage.” Also in a letter to I. von Müller: “We now have one young saint here, to whom it is worth making a pilgrimage.”

In subsequent years, he devotes more than one poem to her: "Epilogue to Schiller's "The Bell""; "Prologue to the opening of the Weimar theater on September 19, 1807, after the happy reunion of the ducal family"; sonnet "To Her Imperial Highness Madame Crown Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach"; "To the Honorable Women's Society". The last work dedicated to her was a staging of the carnival of 1819, arranged in honor of the arrival of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in Weimar. Goethe took this time to work on the court dramatization very seriously, worked on it "for six weeks without interruption", although he then wrote to Knebel that from now on "I intend to part with such vain affairs forever." And yet ... do not forget that he used individual motives and even fragments of the staging later in the second part of Faust (a masquerade scene played out against the backdrop of the decay of the empire).

In general, Goethe's universalism of these years, his immersion in poetry and the arts, combined with studies in the natural sciences, geology, botany, medicine, physiology, found, as it turned out, a deep and lively response in the very receptive and inquisitive nature of Maria Pavlovna, who was partly under the guidance , and partly under the influence of Goethe, he intensively engaged in self-education in his first Weimar years: he listens to a course in the history of art from the famous professor Meyer, author of the work “On Art and Antiquities” (1832), with the help of Professor Riemer, he studies ancient literature, attends lectures on Gall's phrenology (which for that time seemed, especially for a woman, almost a challenge, especially since the lectures had a bad reputation as “materialistic”), outlines in detail Goethe’s teaching on color, which he expounds in his home lectures in 1805-1806. And if back in 1805, not without a share of irony, she wrote to Maria Feodorovna about another visit to Goethe and his alleged natural scientific interest in her family jewels (“the study of natural history became the main subject of our conversation; he asked me to also show my diamonds, arguing that he wants to see them as a lover of nature”), then mineralogy will soon occupy a very large place in her own activities. And the collection of minerals of the University of Jena will subsequently be subsidized from the personal funds of Maria Pavlovna and in parallel enriched by her own mineralogical collection.

Maria Pavlovna Romanova (1786-1859) was the daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Sophia-Dorotea-Augusta-Louise, Princess of Württemberg. Catherine II supervised the upbringing and education of her granddaughter, calling her "a guard in a skirt." The Grand Duchess received a versatile education

In 1804, Maria Pavlovna married Prince Karl-Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar in St. Petersburg. At the end of the year, the Russian princess left Russia.

In the centre of Europe

The ducal family, with which the Romanovs were to intermarry, was one of the most ancient and dominant in Europe. The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) appeared as an independent state in the sixteenth century. Karl-Friedrich's grandmother, Duchess Anna-Amalia, turned the duchy into the cultural center of Europe. It served as a residence for many poets, musicians, philosophers, Goethe lived here for almost six decades, thanks to his efforts the philosopher and historian Johann Gottfried Herder and the "true romantic heart of Germany" Friedrich Schiller moved to Weimar.

Marriage to a Russian princess was of great political importance for the small duchy. At that time, Napoleon was a great threat to all of Europe. The duchy managed to maintain its independence only because at that time Napoleon was interested in maintaining peace with the Russian emperor.

Schiller dedicated a play to Maria Pavlovna - the cantata "Greeting of the Arts", where in an allegorical and elegant form he expressed admiration for the beauty and nobility of the future duchess:

The tree of the country is different,

Transplanted by us

Grow up, take roots

In this soil, our own.

quickly entwined

Tender bonds of love

Our Fatherland will be yes there,

Where we make human happiness!

In 1828, after the death of Grand Duke Karl-August (Karl-August), the husband of Maria Pavlovna takes the throne, and she becomes the Grand Duchess.

Acquaintance with Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Russian princess continued the activities of Anna Amalia, who turned Weimar into a "palace of muses" and created a unique library known to this day. The country residence of the Grand Dukes Belvedere has become one of the largest cultural centers in Europe.

Goethe himself advised the duchess in matters of art, introduced him to the basics of modern philosophy. Their communication lasted until the death of the poet in 1832.

Charity played an important role in the life of the Grand Duchess. Throughout the country, she organizes loan offices for the poor, workhouses, vocational schools, exhibitions of industrial innovations, gardening courses, orphanages. He invests a lot of money in all of this.

Already being a widowed duchess, Maria Pavlovna founded the "Society of History", in every possible way encouraging the study of relics and documents of the Weimar region and neighboring principalities. She continually established incentive scholarships, music competitions with prize funds, and the Falk Institute, famous throughout Europe, was founded on her personal donations, with a shelter for homeless children for two hundred places. Theatrical performances, festivities in the ducal garden, musical performances - all this was available to the general public at the insistence of the Russian princess of the blood, the Weimar ruler.

The Grand Duchess died in 1859. She is buried in a Protestant cemetery near the Belvedere in an Orthodox chapel built especially for her.

Maria Pavlovna, Duchess of Saxe - Weimar and Eisenach: "Adorable swan "Pavlov's nest" and the Weimar crown decoration."

On February 4, 1786, the family of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich was replenished with a fifth child and a third daughter. The newborn Grand Duchess was named after her mother - Maria.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, Borovikovsky V.L.

In 1790, Empress Catherine II gives her granddaughter the following characterization: “She is a real dragoon, she is not afraid of anything, all her inclinations resemble a boy, and I don’t know what will come of her, her favorite pose is to lean her hands on her hips and so walk around".

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna A., Roslin

Five years later, Catherine writes to Baron Grimm: “... Maria, who is nine years old ... has already graduated from Sarti with general bass, as she has an extraordinary love for music ... Sarti says that she is endowed with great talent for music, and that in general she shows great intelligence and ability in everything and will be a reasonable girl. According to General Lieven, she loves to read and spends several hours a day reading, for all that, she is very cheerful and lively ... ".

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. D. Levitsky, 1793

According to the remark of one of the courtiers: “Maria Pavlovna, if not as beautiful as Elena, but so attractive, kind, that they looked at her like an angel.”
However, the angel was distinguished by a strong-willed character, a sharp mind and such a valuable quality for a royal person as the ability to understand people.
However, the appearance of the Grand Duchess, despite some troubles after smallpox inoculated in childhood, was not offended by nature. No wonder she was called "perle de famille" - "the pearl of the family."

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. P. Zharkov.

Prince Eugene of Württemberg (nephew of Empress Maria Feodorovna), who arrived in Russia in the winter of 1801, spoke of his cousin in the following way: that I immediately felt a heartfelt attraction to her. She had a sympathetic, tender heart. An indisputable proof of this was her always cautious stay on guard in order to warn in advance of any possible mistake on my part and thereby protect me from a difficult situation.

Emperor Paul I, despite a sharply negative attitude towards the traditions of the reign of his mother, Catherine II, nevertheless retained one of them, namely: the choice of suitors for the Grand Duchesses in advance.
According to various sources, negotiations about the possible marriage of Maria Pavlovna began in 1800 or 1802.
The husbands of the Grand Duchess predicted the Crown Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Karl Friedrich.
The Saxe-Weimar envoy, Baron Wilhelm von Walzogen, a very intelligent and educated person, was able to fully appreciate the natural talents and high spiritual qualities of Maria Pavlovna: "She had a sympathetic and tender heart, meekness and perfect kindness ...".

Pavel I, Andrei Filippovich Mitrokhin

In 1803, Crown Duke Carl Friedrich arrived in St. Petersburg. The Duke was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the Russian army, and was awarded the highest order of the Russian Empire - St. Andrew the First-Called; but, “this groom, with his complete external pleasantness, is too simple in mind for our dear princess ...” *.
Even this vague, truly diplomatic characterization makes it clear that such a carefully prepared and expected marriage was supposed to unite forever two completely different people.

Maria is active, smart, educated, plays the piano beautifully and draws, open to the world and at the same time able to see things as a whole, delve into the very essence, always busy with something - that is, an active and successful person. Karl Friedrich, unlike his bride, lacked strength, determination and initiative. For the year that he spent in St. Petersburg, he was practically completely inactive.

However, all the shortcomings of the duke were more than covered by the fact that in the future he was to become the ruler of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar.
Despite its small size, the duchy was considered the cultural center of Germany, and its capital, Weimar, was called "German Athens."

It is worth noting that Weimar owed its fame primarily to women, the first of whom was the mother of the reigning Duke Charles August - Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia, nee Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel: “Philosophers, poets, artists and writers crowded around Princess Amalia, the woman of the great mind and lofty heart. She was a sorceress who attracted and summoned geniuses. That was the German Medici, who borrowed some of their virtues from her Italian female partners.

Portrait of Anna Amalie von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1739-1807), unknown

Therefore, it is quite understandable that Duke Karl August, who possessed both mind and character, received an excellent education, and worthily continued the work of his mother, patronizing and helping many people of science and art. An equally outstanding personality was his wife, Louise Augusta, nee Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt. (I note that the duchess was the sister of the Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, the first wife of Paul I, and even came to Russia). Her "white table conversations" about the arts and science gathered the entire color of the intellectual elite of Weimar.

Moreover, we can safely say that it was the color not only of Weimar, but of the whole of Germany - for this it is enough to list only a few names: the philosopher and writer Wieland, the famous poets Goethe and Schiller, the historian and philosopher Herder, the playwright and publicist Ifland.
Perhaps this atmosphere of high spirituality that developed at the Weimar court so attracted the Grand Duchess Maria? One way or another, but in the year that the Crown Prince spent in Russia, Maria and Karl Friedrich managed to get to know each other quite well and imbued with mutual sympathy, which for a political marriage was already a very weighty plus.

The solemn betrothal of Maria Pavlovna and Karl Friedrich took place on January 1, 1804, and six months later the marriage took place. We announce to all our loyal subjects: By the power of Almighty God and His wise care, on July 22, according to the rite of the Orthodox Eastern Church, our beloved sister Maria Pavlovna was married to His Serene Highness Crown Prince of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach Karl Friedrich ......".

Portrait of Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

According to the marriage contract, Maria Pavlovna's dowry was one million rubles, of which she received the first quarter after the wedding, and the second six months later; from the second half, she received 5% of the rent annually. Along with this, Maria Pavlovna received many things, among which were contributions to the future Orthodox church in Weimar ...
Until October, the newlyweds remained in the residences of the royal family - in Peterhof and Pavlovsk, and then went to Germany. Maria Pavlovna arrived in Weimar on November 9, 1804: bells and cannon shots announced the arrival of the newlyweds. According to eyewitnesses, this arrival caused a general joy of the population. Many rushed to see and greet the married couple of heirs. Some time later, they appeared on the balcony of the palace - and thousands of people exclaimed in joyful animation, "Long live, many years!" The jubilation continued on November 12 when Maria Pavlovna visited the theater for the first time. That day was the premiere of the play "Adoration of the Arts" by Friedrich Schiller, which had just been written and dedicated to Maria Pavlovna. The preface to the text says: “Her Imperial Highness, Madam Crown Princess of Weimar Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, is dedicated with respect and presented at the court theater of Weimar on November 12, 1804.”
The tree of the country is different,
Transplanted by us
Grow up, take roots
In this soil, our own.
quickly entwined
Tender bonds of love
Our Fatherland will be yes there,
Where we make human happiness!

The Crown Princess very quickly won the love and respect of her subjects and her new family - the Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia spoke of her in her letters like this: “I tell you with joy and true love that my new granddaughter is a real treasure, I love and respect her endlessly. She had the happiness - and perhaps a blessing - to charm us all ”; Very many agreed with Anna Amalia. Maria Pavlovna settled with her husband in the Belvedere, the country residence of the Weimar dukes. Here she ordered to lay out a park, the layout of which exactly corresponded to the layout of the Pavlovsk park. In Weimar, Maria Pavlovna began to organize music festivals, literary evenings, and organized festivities. One of the closest friends of the Crown Duchess was Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
Maria Pavlovna's acquaintance with the "great Weimar" took place in November 1804, and since then their communication has not been interrupted until the death of the greatest of poets. He actively supported the duchess in her desire to quickly integrate into the cultural life of Weimar, advised on art, introduced the basics of modern philosophy. A feature of the cultural life of Weimar was that the houses of Maria Pavlovna and Goethe - these two cultural centers of the city - were, as it were, one whole , complemented each other. Such a combination, the interpenetration of two cultures, could not but attract attention, aroused keen interest, and gave the cultural life of Weimar a special, incomparable flavor. “Everyone who came to visit Maria Pavlovna ended up visiting Goethe, and vice versa,” contemporaries noted. Among them were members of the Russian imperial family, including Alexander I, as well as A. Turgenev, V. Zhukovsky, S. Uvarov, Z. Volkonskaya. Leaving Weimar, Volkonskaya, sincerely attached to Maria Pavlovna, left the following lines: “Departing from the pantheon of great German writers, my soul is filled with reverent feelings. Everything there breathes science, poetry, reflection and reverence for genius. Genius reigns there, and even the great lands are its courtiers. There I left an angel shedding tears on the ground.” During her long life in Weimar, Maria Pavlovna became famous for her charity, and she was called the mother of the nation, not without reason. Having become a patriot of her new country, she trampled on the passport given to her by Napoleon, and later asked the Russian minister Count Arakcheev for help and attention for the Weimar prisoners, whom Napoleon forced to fight with Russia during the war. The Crown Duchess created the Patriotic Institute of Women's Associations in the country; the purpose of its members was to provide assistance to the wounded and injured during the war.
Maria Pavlovna's charity was carried out in various directions: first of all - overcoming poverty, then - the promotion of sciences, arts, culture and the development of society. So, she supported working workshops for adults, spinning mills for elderly poor women, care for women in childbirth. The population owes Maria Pavlovna a lot of fountains built in Weimar. The first savings bank in Weimar was opened on Maria Pavlovna's birthday, February 4, 1821. At the same time, Maria Pavlovna helped individuals, remaining for the most part an "unknown donor."

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, Crown Princess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. J.-A. banner.

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna wrote in her memoirs: “Dad loved this older sister of his almost with filial love. It seemed to me the embodiment of duty. Married for 35 years to a funny husband, she has never known weakness. A kind, great philanthropist, very capable in matters of financial management (she inherited this from her mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, and was the first to introduce loan offices in Germany). From six o'clock in the morning she was already writing, standing at her bureau in her office, conducting all negotiations on behalf of the Grand Duke and still trying to preserve the tradition of Weimar as the German literary Olympus.
She patronized artists, mainly musicians - Weber, Hummel and Liszt. Her yard was a gathering point for all the small yards of the German North. Much could be learned from her; she knew how to deal with people. Her courtesy towards those around her, including the most ordinary people she met, knew no bounds. She never forgot to thank for the slightest favor. When she got out of the carriage, she turned to thank the coachman with a nod of her head, and this was by no means a formality, but a heartfelt need. She always thought of those who paid attention to her in order to answer them the same.
In June 1828, Grand Duke Karl August died, and Maria Pavlovna's husband succeeded to the throne. Charitable and cultural activities, now the Grand Duchess, became even more active: she continually established incentive scholarships, music competitions with prize funds, the Falk Institute, famous throughout Europe, with a shelter for homeless children for two hundred places, was founded on her personal donations. . Theatrical performances, festivities in the ducal garden, musical performances - all this was available to the general public at the insistence of the Russian princess of the blood, the Weimar ruler. In the interests of science, Maria Pavlovna established literary evenings that took place in the palace, at which various Weimar scientists and professors from the University of Jena made presentations. It was by no means a mere pastime; on the contrary, Maria Pavlovna thus took care of both her own education and the education of others. “Probably, her court ladies often secretly sighed when their crowned mistress demanded that they write down scientific reports from memory the next day.” Maria Pavlovna was a real decoration of Weimar - according to Goethe: “The Grand Duchess<...>shows an example of both spirituality and kindness, and good will; she is truly a blessing to the country. And since people in general tend to quickly understand where good comes from, and since they revere the sun and other beneficial elements, it does not surprise me that all hearts are turned to her with love and that she easily saw what she deserved. Maria Pavlovna, for her part, always tried to do something pleasant for Goethe. Later, after the death of the poet (in 1832), the Grand Duchess wished to somehow contribute to the perpetuation of the memory of Schiller and Goethe. The result of this desire was the creation of memorial rooms in the ducal palace, for the decoration of which they took velvet from the dowry of Maria Pavlovna. These rooms not only serve to honor the memory of poets; they are a material monument of cultural tendencies and Maria Pavlovna's personal assessment of those who were the princes of German poetry.
Maria Pavlovna made a significant contribution to the flourishing of the arts in Weimar. At her request, the composers Jan Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Liszt were invited to Weimar, who lived in Weimar for 13 years and it was there that he created his most significant works. In 1852, on the initiative of Maria Pavlovna, the Society of History was organized.
As for political events, the French Revolution of 1848 had the greatest consequences for the duchy.
Its echoes appeared in Weimar in the form of popular unrest: “People walked everywhere and discussed something, and the general direction of their movement was towards the palace. From a distance, we saw that the entire square in front of the palace was crowded with people shouting and demanding something ... Until one in the morning, people did not leave the square, demanding freedom of the press to reduce taxes, change the ministry, revise the budget of the court, and similar things ... "

The culmination of the rebellious mood was a pogrom organized by students of the University of Jena, in a village not far from Weimar.
Everything that happened, undoubtedly, left a heavy mark on the soul of Maria Pavlovna.

Unknown artist Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna 1851

However, she managed to return the life of the duchy to its usual course: in August 1849, Weimar solemnly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Goethe.
Just a year later, in August 1850, Herder's birthday was no less magnificently celebrated. But fate was already preparing new trials for the Grand Duchess.
On June 26, 1853, at the age of 70, Maria Pavlovna's husband, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Karl Friedrich, died.
Their union lasted an unusually long time - 49 years. Having become the dowager duchess, Maria Pavlovna by no means lost her influence on the life of the duchy. Her truly multifaceted - cultural, educational and charitable - activities continued: "Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna lives in the Belvedere<...>It is distinguished by spirituality, dignity, refinement and special directness. Now, having been widowed, she does not take money from the treasury, but is content with what she receives from Russia - about 130,000 thalers a year; she gives the surplus to her daughters and especially to the poor, distributes and helps everywhere. ”In 1854, the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach celebrated the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Maria Pavlovna. Schiller's Adoration of the Arts was again staged in the Weimar theater, but at the request of the Grand Duchess, this event was not celebrated particularly solemnly. Medal, in honor of Maria Pavlovna's fifty-year stay in Weimar:

Maria Pavlovna banned the planned illumination, allocating money for the poor.
In early March 1855, news came to Weimar of the death (February 18, 1855) of Maria Pavlovna's younger brother, Emperor Nicholas I.
This sad event, however, gave Maria Pavlovna the opportunity to visit her homeland: after a long absence, the Grand Duchess arrived in Russia for the coronation of her nephew, Emperor Alexander II. Two years later, Maria met her younger sister Anna - of all the children of Emperor Paul I, only two of them survived. The sisters were very middle-aged: Maria - 71 years old, Anna - 62 years old. And, probably, they had already thought more than once about the end of their earthly journey ... but Maria Pavlovna, of course, did not know that she had only two years left. On June 6, 1859, she caught a cold. But so that people would not worry because of her, the Grand Duchess forbade the publication of bulletins about her health. After a short illness, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna departed on the eve of the birthday of her son, Grand Duke Karl Alexander - June 11th. Death came at half past six in the evening. The reigning Grand Duke said goodbye to his mother, unaware of her imminent death, and set off from the Belvedere to Ettersberg. But before he could arrive there, a horse messenger overtook him and informed him of the death of Maria Pavlovna. At first they did not want to believe this sad news. The day of death was Thursday, and on Sunday the inhabitants of the duchy learned that “By the highest command, the most illustrious remains of Her Imperial Highness the most radiant late Grand Duchess and Grand Duchess will be exhibited (by the urgent order of the deceased - in a closed coffin) in the Greek church located in the Weimar park, Sunday 26th of this month from 4:00 p.m. to midnight. The solemn burial will take place on Monday 27 of this month at 8 am. Like her sisters, Maria Pavlovna always remained Russian. In her will, she wrote: “I bless the beloved country in which I lived. I also bless my Russian homeland, which is so dear to me, and especially my family there. I thank God that here and there He directed everything for the better, contributed to the flowering of good and took under His powerful protection both my local and my Russian family.
On June 26, on the anniversary of the death of her husband, Grand Duke Karl Friedrich, the foundation stone of the Orthodox cemetery chapel was laid. Fulfilling the last will of Maria Pavlovna, they began the construction of an Orthodox church over her grave.
In 1862, the church in the name of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was consecrated.
The memory of the Tsarina and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna is still preserved in Weimar.
Children of Maria Pavlovna and Karl Friedrich: Pavel Alexander Karl Friedrich August (September 1805 - April 1806); Maria Louise Alexandrina, Princess of Prussia (1808 - 1877);