Also known as: Alexandrov Alexander Andreevich

Date and place of birth: 1783, p. Voznesenskoye, Russian Empire

Date and place of death: 1867, Yelabuga ( 82 years old), Russian empire

Occupation: RIA officer, writer, female cavalryman, awarded the Soldier's Order for bravery

Many people remember the wonderful Soviet film in which a young beauty, dressed as a hussar, fights the Napoleonic invaders. He will tell you how the adventures of the movie cavalry maiden echo the fate of her prototype. short biography Nadezhda Durova.

early years

Her childhood was spent among “horses, weapons and regimental music.” The father often changed places of service, the mother was not involved in raising her and, having married Nadezhda to a minor official, she considered that she had gotten rid of her unloved daughter.

With the Cossack esaul

However, the stubborn girl was not ready for family life. Having abandoned her husband and newborn son, she returned to her parents. And soon she escaped from there: with a Cossack officer, disguised as his orderly.

Career

Leaving the Cossack, Durova entered the Uhlan regiment as a private. She took part in battles with the French, saber attacks. The secret was revealed when her father received a letter in which Nadezhda repented for framing her escape from her father’s house as suicide.

Exposure

The father demanded the return of his unlucky daughter, and the scandal reached the emperor. The monarch was delighted with Durova’s dedication and courage. She received an officer rank, an order and the right to be called Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov.

Further service

Durova fought in the War of 1812, was wounded, and after recovery she participated in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army. She retired in 1816 and lived for another 50 years, leaving a book of memories.

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Nadezhda Durova
Notes from a cavalry maiden

© AST Publishing House LLC, 2016

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova
(1783–1866)

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova is Russia’s first female officer, a Russian Amazon, a talented writer, a mysterious person living under a man’s name.

She was born on September 17, 1783 in Kyiv in the family of retired hussar captain Andrei Vasilyevich Durov and Nadezhda Ivanovna Durova, who, having run away from home, married her groom secretly from her parents, for which she was cursed by her father.

Nadezhda Ivanovna was disappointed by the birth of a daughter instead of a son; the son was the only hope for forgiveness from her parents. Andrei Vasilyevich commanded a squadron in a hussar regiment. One day during a trip, driven to the extreme by her daughter’s crying, the mother threw the poor child out of the carriage. The child crashed but survived. The father took action, and from that day on the girl was taken care of by a flank hussar, who carried her in his arms.

A.V. Durov retired and settled in Sarapul. The mother began to raise her daughter. The girl was a true tomboy, she did not want to weave lace and embroider, she was entitled to a spanking for spoiled needlework, but she climbed trees like a cat, shot with a bow and tried to invent a projectile. She dreamed of learning to wield weapons, horse riding and dreamed of military service.

Hussar Astakhov began to look after the girl, who instilled in her a love of military affairs. Nadezhda Durova wrote: “My teacher, Astakhov, carried me in his arms for whole days, went with me to the squadron stable, put me on horses, let me play with a pistol, wave a saber.”

When she grew up, her father gave her a Circassian horse, Alcis, riding which soon became her favorite pastime.

Having married Vasily Chernov, an official of the Sarapul Zemstvo Court, at the age of 18, she gave birth to a son a year later. The boy was baptized in the Ascension Cathedral and named Ivan. N. Durova left her husband and returned with the child to her parents’ home (this is not mentioned in Durova’s “Notes”). Thus, by the time of her military service, she was not a “maid,” but a wife and mother. In her parental home, her mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna, according to Durova, still “constantly complained about the fate of the sex, which is under the curse of God, and described the fate of women in terrible colors,” which is why Nadezhda developed “aversion to her own sex.”

In 1806, Nadezhda Durova went swimming on her name day, taking old Cossack clothes. She changed into it and left the dress on the shore. The parents decided that their daughter had drowned, and she, in a man's dress, joined the Don Cossack regiment, heading to war with the French. Durova passed herself off as “the landowner’s son Alexander Sokolov.”

Ivan, Durova’s son, remained in his grandfather’s family and was later enrolled in the Imperial Military Orphanage, which existed as a cadet corps. The sons of officers who died in the war or were on active military service enjoyed preferential enlistment rights. Ivan’s father was not able to provide him with this advantage, but his mother was able to do the impossible for her son. Having given him a capital education, Durova subsequently did not leave her son unattended. The “Cavalry Maiden,” using old connections and acquaintances, provided Ivan Vasilyevich Chernov with a certain degree of independence and a strong position in society.

Ivan Vasilyevich Chernov married, presumably in 1834, Anna Mikhailovna Belskaya, the daughter of a titular councilor. She died in 1848 at the age of 37. That year, a cholera epidemic broke out in the capital, and it may have been the cause of her death. Chernov never remarried. He died on January 13, 1856, at the age of 53, with the rank of collegiate councilor, a rank equivalent to an army colonel. He and his wife rest in the Mitrofanovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. The “cavalry maiden” outlived her son by 10 years.

In 1807, she was accepted as a “comrade” (an ordinary member of the nobility) in the Konnopol Uhlan Regiment. At the end of March, the regiment was sent to Prussia, from where Durova wrote a letter to her father, asking for forgiveness for her action and demanding “to be allowed to follow the path necessary for happiness.” Durova's father sent a petition to Emperor Alexander I asking him to find his daughter. By the greatest command, Durov, without revealing her incognito, was sent to St. Petersburg with a special courier. There it was decided to leave Nadezhda in the service, assign the name Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov (she bore it until her death), and enlist as a cornet in the Mariupol Hussar Regiment.

Partisan and poet Denis Davydov, in a letter to A. S. Pushkin, recalled his meetings with N. A. Durova during the war: “I knew Durova because I served with her in the rearguard, during the entire time of our retreat from the Neman to Borodino ... I remember that they said then that Alexandrov was a woman, but only slightly. She was very secluded, avoided society, as much as you could avoid it in bivouacs. One day, at a rest stop, I happened to enter a hut together with an officer of the regiment in which Alexandrov served, namely Volkov. We wanted to drink milk in the hut... There we found a young Uhlan officer who had just seen me, stood up, bowed, took his shako and went out. Volkov told me: “This is Alexandrov, who, they say, is a woman.” I rushed to the porch, but he was already galloping far away. Subsequently I saw her at the front...”

For participation in battles and for saving the life of an officer in 1807, Durova was awarded the soldier's St. George Cross. During her many years of campaigns, Durova kept notes, which later became the basis for her literary works. “The sacred duty to the Fatherland,” she said, “makes a simple soldier fearlessly face death, courageously endure suffering and calmly part with life.”

In 1811, Durova joined the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment, with which she took part in hostilities Patriotic War, received a shell shock in the Battle of Borodino and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. She was an adjutant to Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov, and went with him to Tarutino. She took part in the campaigns of 1813–1814, distinguished herself during the siege of the Modlin fortress, and in the battles of Hamburg. She received several awards for her bravery. After serving for about ten years, she retired in 1816 with the rank of headquarters captain. After her resignation, Durova lived for several years in St. Petersburg with her uncle, and from there she left for Yelabuga.

Many of our contemporaries know more or less about the military exploits of Nadezhda Andreevna Durova. But few know that she also committed heroic feat in the field of Russian literature - her literary activity was blessed by A.S. Pushkin, and enlightened Russia of the thirties and forties of the 19th century was engrossed in her works.

In 1835–1836, Nadezhda Durova’s formation as a writer took place. Her difficult financial situation played some role in this. She lived on a small pension from the military department - one thousand rubles a year. Her literary activity is all the more surprising because she never studied anywhere. The publication in the Sovremennik magazine of an excerpt from her memoirs dedicated to 1812 created a real sensation among her contemporaries, and the Patriotic War acquired another hero, or rather, heroine.

Pushkin provided the passage with the following preface: “With inexplicable sympathy we read the confession of a woman so extraordinary; We were amazed to see that the gentle fingers that once gripped the bloody hilt of a Uhlan saber also wielded a fast, picturesque and fiery pen.”

In life, Nadezhda Durova was a violator of the canons: she wore men's suit, smoked, cut her hair short, crossed her legs and rested her hand on her side when talking, and referred to herself in the masculine gender.

In recent years, Durova lived in Yelabuga, in a small house, completely alone, surrounded by her many four-legged pets. These were cats and dogs. Love for animals has always been in the Durov family. Durova's descendants - Vladimir, Anatoly and Natalya Durov - became a world-famous family of circus trainers.

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova died on March 21, 1866, at the eighty-third year of her life. Having called herself a man's name in 1806, she bore it for sixty years, never making an attempt to return to real name. Even from her own son, the “cavalry maiden” demanded that she be addressed as Alexandrov.

She was buried at the Trinity Cemetery in Yelabuga, with military honors, in a man's dress.

In 1901, a grand opening of a monument made of dark green granite, surrounded by an iron lattice, took place at Durova’s grave. After a three-shot rifle salvo, the fallen blanket revealed a copper plaque on which was engraved the regimental emblem and epitaph:

NADEZHDA ANDREEVNA DUROVA

By order of Emperor Alexander - cornet Alexandrov.

Knight of the military order.

Driven by love for the Motherland, she entered the ranks of the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment.

Saved the officer. Awarded the St. George Cross.

She served for 10 years in the regiment, was promoted to cornet and awarded the rank of captain.

Born in 1783. Died in 1866.

Peace to her ashes!

Eternal memory for the edification of posterity of her valiant soul!

IN late XIX century, the Trinity Cemetery had a majestic appearance. On its territory there were installed many sarcophagi, obelisks, crypts, chapels made of the best types of marble and granite, made by real masters of stone cutting. In the early 30s of the last century, the Elabuga necropolis and cemetery church were turned into piles of ruins. The same fate befell Durova’s tombstone. Nothing could stop the destroyers: neither valuable monuments, nor mosaics of burial structures, nor the sacred grave of Durova. However, the grateful residents of the city preserved the burial place of the heroine of the Borodino battle in memory and in photographs. Now at the grave of Nadezhda Andreevna Durova there is a tombstone made of red granite, created according to the design of the Moscow sculptor F. F. Lyakh.

Part one

My childhood summers

My mother, nee Alexandrovicheva, was one of the most beautiful girls in Little Russia. At the end of her fifteenth year from birth, suitors came in a crowd to seek her hand in marriage. Of all their multitude, my mother’s heart gave preference to the hussar captain Durov; but, unfortunately, this choice was not the choice of her father, the proud, power-hungry gentleman of Little Russia. He told my mother to throw out of her head the chimerical idea of ​​marrying a Muscovite, especially a military man.

My grandfather was the greatest despot in his family; if he ordered anything, it was necessary to obey blindly, and there was no way to either appease him or change the intention he had once accepted.

The consequence of this immoderate severity was that in one stormy autumn night my mother, who slept in the same room with older sister her, quietly got out of bed, got dressed and, taking a cloak and bonnet, in only stockings, holding her breath, crept past her sister’s bed, quietly opened the doors to the hall, quietly closed it, quickly ran across it and, opening the door into the garden, flew through the garden like an arrow. a long chestnut alley ending at the gate itself. My mother hastily unlocks this small door and rushes into the arms of the captain, who was waiting for her with a carriage drawn by four strong horses, which, like the wind that was then raging, carried them along the Kyiv road.

In the first village they got married and went straight to Kyiv, where Durov’s regiment was quartered. Although my mother’s action could have been excused by the youth, love and merits of my father, the former the most beautiful man, who had a gentle disposition and a captivating manner, but he was so disgusted with the patriarchal morals of the Little Russian region that my grandfather, in the first fit of anger, cursed his daughter.

For two years, my mother did not stop writing to her father and begging him for forgiveness; but in vain: he did not want to hear anything, and his anger increased as they tried to soften him. My parents, having already lost hope of appeasing a man who considered stubbornness a characteristic, resigned to their fate, ceasing to write to their inexorable father; but my mother’s pregnancy revived her faded courage; she began to hope that the birth of a child would return her father’s favors.

My mother passionately desired to have a son and throughout her pregnancy she was occupied with the most seductive dreams; she said: “I will have a son, as beautiful as cupid! I will give him the name Modest; I will feed myself, educate and teach myself, and my son, my dear Modest, will be the joy of my whole life...” This is what my mother dreamed; but the time was approaching, and the torments that preceded my birth surprised my mother in the most unpleasant way; they had no place in her dreams and made the first impression on her that was unfavorable to me. It was necessary to call the obstetrician, who found it necessary to bleed; my mother was extremely frightened by this, but there was nothing to do, she had to submit to necessity. The blood was drawn, and soon after this I was born, a poor creature, whose appearance destroyed all the dreams and subverted all the hopes of the mother.

“Give me my child!” - said my mother, as soon as she had recovered somewhat from pain and fear. The child was brought and placed on her lap. But alas! This is not a son, as beautiful as cupid! this is a daughter and a daughter hero! I was of extraordinary size, had thick black hair and screamed loudly. Mother pushed me off her knees and turned to the wall.

A few days later, my mother recovered and, yielding to the advice of the regimental ladies, her friends, she decided to feed me herself. They told her that a mother who breastfeeds her child begins to love him through this very thing. They brought me; my mother took me from the woman’s arms, put me to her breast and let me suck on it; but, apparently, I felt that it was not motherly love that gave me food, and therefore, despite all efforts to force me to take the breast, I did not take it; Mama thought of overcoming my stubbornness with patience and continued to hold me at her breast, but, bored with the fact that I did not take it for a long time, she stopped looking at me and began talking to the lady who was visiting her. At this time, apparently controlled by fate, which had assigned me a soldier’s uniform, I suddenly grabbed my mother’s breast and squeezed it with all my might with my gums. My mother screamed shrilly, pulled me away from her breast and, throwing me into the woman’s arms, fell face down into the pillows.

“Take it away, take the worthless child out of my sight and never show it,” said the mother, waving her hand and covering her head with a pillow.

I was four months old when the regiment where my father served received orders to go to Kherson; Since it was a home trip, the priest took the family with him. I was entrusted to the supervision and care of my mother’s maid, who was the same age as her. During the day, this girl sat with my mother in the carriage, holding me on her lap, feeding me from a horn. cow's milk and swaddled me so tightly that my face turned blue and my eyes were bloodshot; I rested during the night because I was given to a peasant woman who was brought from the village; she unwrapped me, laid me to her chest and slept with me all night; Thus, at every crossing I had a new nurse.

Neither the changing nurses nor the painful swaddling caused my health to deteriorate. I was very strong and cheerful, but incredibly loud. One day my mother was in a very bad temper; I didn't let her sleep all night; We set out on the hike at dawn, my mother settled down to fall asleep in the carriage, but I began to cry again, and, despite all the efforts of the nanny to console me, I screamed louder every hour: this overwhelmed the measure of my mother’s annoyance; She lost her temper and, snatching me from the girl’s hands, threw me out the window! The hussars screamed in horror, jumped off their horses and picked me up, all bloody and not giving any sign of life; They were about to carry me back to the carriage, but the priest galloped up to them, took me from their hands and, shedding tears, put me on his saddle. He trembled, cried, was as pale as death, rode without saying a word and without turning his head in the direction where my mother was riding. To the surprise of everyone, I returned to life and, beyond my expectations, was not disfigured; only from strong blow I was bleeding from my mouth and nose; Father, with a joyful feeling of gratitude, raised his eyes to the sky, pressed me to his chest and, approaching the carriage, said to my mother: “Thank God that you are not a murderer! Our daughter is alive; but I will not give it to you anymore; I’ll take care of it myself.” Having said this, he drove away and took me with him until the night; without turning a glance or a word to my mother.

From this memorable day of my life, my father entrusted me to God’s providence and the supervision of the flank hussar Astakhov, who was constantly with my father both at home and on the march. I was only in my mother’s room at night; but as soon as the priest got up and left, they immediately carried me away.

My teacher Astakhov carried me in his arms all day long, walked with me to the squadron stable, put me on horses, let me play with a pistol, waved a saber, and I clapped my hands and laughed at the sight of the showering sparks and shiny steel; in the evening he brought me to the musicians, who played various things before dawn; I listened and finally fell asleep. Only when I was sleepy could they carry me to the upper room; but when I was not sleeping, at the mere sight of my mother’s room I would faint with fear and with a scream, I would grab Astakhov’s neck with both hands.

Mother, from the time of my air travel from the carriage window, no longer intervened in anything that concerned me, and had for her consolation another daughter, as if already beautiful as cupid, in whom, as they say, she did not hear the soul.

My grandfather, soon after my birth, forgave my mother, and did it in a very solemn way: he went to Kiev, asked the bishop to release him from his rash oath never to forgive his daughter, and, having received pastoral permission, then wrote to my mother that forgives her, blesses her marriage and the child born from it; that he asks her to come to him, both in order to personally accept her father’s blessing, and in order to receive her part of the dowry.

My mother did not have the opportunity to use this invitation until the very time when my father had to retire; I was four and a half years old when my father saw the need to leave the service. In his apartment, in addition to my crib, there were two more cradles; traveling life with such a family became impossible; he went to Moscow to look for a position in the civil service, and my mother, with me and two other children, went to her father, where she was supposed to live until her husband returned. Having taken me from Astakhov’s arms, my mother could no longer be calm or cheerful for a single minute; every day I angered her with my strange antics and my chivalrous spirit; I knew all the command words firmly, I loved horses madly, and when my mother wanted to force me to knit a lace, I cried and asked her to give me the pistol, as I said, to click; in a word, I made the best use of the education given to me by Astakhov!

Every day my warlike inclinations intensified, and every day my mother no longer loved me. I forgot nothing of what I learned while constantly with the hussars; ran and jumped around the room in all directions, shouting at the top of her voice: “Squadron! Come in right! From place! March-march!

My aunts laughed, and my mother, who was driven into despair by all this, knew no bounds to her annoyance, took me into her room, put me in a corner and made me cry bitterly with abuse and threats.

My father received a position as mayor in one of the district towns and went there with his entire family; my mother, who did not love me with all her heart, seems to have deliberately done everything that could strengthen and confirm my already irresistible passion for freedom and military life: she did not allow me to walk in the garden, did not allow me to leave her for even half an hour ; I had to sit in her room all day and weave lace; She herself taught me to sew and knit, and seeing that I had neither the desire nor the ability for these exercises, that everything was in my hands and was torn and broken, she became angry, lost her temper and hit me very painfully on the hands.

I'm ten years old. Mother had the imprudence to tell my father in front of me that she did not have the strength to cope with Astakhov’s pupil, that this hussar upbringing had taken deep roots, that the fire of my eyes frightened her and that she would rather see me dead than with such inclinations. Father answered that I was still a child, that there was no need to notice me, and that as I grew older I would develop other inclinations, and everything would go away by itself. “Don’t attribute such importance to this childishness, my friend!” - said the father. Fate wished that my mother would not believe and follow the good advice of her husband... She continued to keep me locked up and not allow me a single youthful joy. I was silent and resigned; but oppression gave maturity to my mind.

I made a firm decision to overthrow the painful yoke and, like an adult, began to think about a plan to succeed in this. I decided to use all means to learn to ride a horse, shoot a gun and, having changed clothes, leave my father’s house. In order to begin to put into action the planned revolution in my life, I did not miss a single opportunity to hide from my mother’s supervision; these cases presented themselves every time guests came to mother; she was busy with them, and I, I, not remembering myself with joy, ran into the garden to my arsenal, that is, a dark corner behind the bushes where my arrows, bow, saber and broken gun were kept; I forgot the whole world, busy with my weapon, and only the piercing scream of the girls looking for me made me run in fear towards them. They took me to the upper room, where punishment always awaited me.

Thus two years passed, and I was already twelve years old; At this time, the priest bought a riding horse for himself - a Circassian stallion, almost indomitable. Being an excellent rider, my father himself rode this beautiful animal and named him Alcides. Now all my plans, intentions and desires were focused on this horse; I decided to use everything to accustom him to myself, and I managed; I gave him bread, sugar, salt; she quietly took the oats from the coachman and poured them into the manger; I stroked him, caressed him, spoke to him as if he could understand me, and finally reached the point where the unapproachable horse followed me like a meek lamb.

Almost every day I got up at dawn, quietly left the room and ran to the stable; Alcides greeted me with a neigh, I gave him bread and sugar and took him out into the yard; then she led him to the porch and sat down on his back from the steps; His quick movements, jumping, snoring did not frighten me at all: I held on to his mane and allowed him to jump with me throughout the vast yard, without fear of being carried out of the gate, because they were still locked.

It happened once that this fun was interrupted by the arrival of a groom, who, crying out in fear and surprise, hurried to stop Alcides galloping with me; but the horse twisted its head, reared up and began galloping around the yard, jumping and kicking its legs.

To my happiness, Efim, frozen with fear, lost the use of his voice, without which his cry would have alarmed the whole house and would have brought me cruel punishment. I easily pacified Alcides, caressing him with my voice, chattering him and stroking him with my hand; he walked at a pace, and when I hugged his neck and leaned my face against it, he immediately stopped, because in this way I always got off, or, better said, crawled off of him. Now Yefim came up to take it, muttering through his teeth that he would tell this to his mother; but I promised to give him all my pocket money if he didn’t tell anyone and allowed me to take Alcides to the stable myself; at this promise Efim's face it turned out, he grinned, stroked his beard and said: “Well, if you please, this urchin listens to you more than me!”

In triumph, I led Alcides to the stable, and, to Efim’s surprise, the wild horse followed me quietly and, bending his neck, tilted his head towards me, lightly taking my hair or shoulder with his lips.

Every day I became bolder and more enterprising and, with the exception of my mother’s anger, I was not afraid of anything in the world. It seemed very strange to me that my peers were afraid to be alone in the dark; I, on the contrary, was ready to go into the cemetery, into the forest, into an empty house, into a cave, into a dungeon in the dead of midnight.

In a word, there was no place where I would not go at night as boldly as during the day; although I, like other children, were told stories about spirits, dead men, goblin, robbers and mermaids, tickling people to death; although I believed this nonsense with all my heart, I was not at all afraid of any of this; on the contrary, I thirsted for dangers, I would have wanted to be surrounded by them, I would have sought them out if I had even the slightest freedom; but my mother’s vigilant eye watched my every step, every movement.

One day, mother went with the ladies for a walk in the dense forest beyond the Kama and took me with her so that, as she said, I would not break my head, being left alone at home. This was the first time in my life that they took me out into the open, where I saw a dense forest, and vast fields, and a wide river! I almost choked with joy, and as soon as we entered the forest, I, unable to control myself from admiration, at that very moment ran away - and ran until the voices of the company became inaudible; Then my joy was complete and complete: I ran, jumped, picked flowers, climbed to the top tall trees, in order to see further, I climbed onto thin birch trees and, grabbing the top with my hands, jumped down, and the young tree lightly put me on the ground!

Two hours flew by like two minutes! Meanwhile, they were looking for me, calling me in several voices; Although I heard them, how can I part with captivating freedom!

Finally, extremely tired, I returned to society; It was not difficult for me to find them, because the voices calling me did not stop. I found my mother and all the ladies in terrible anxiety; they cried out for joy when they saw me; but mother, guessing from my pleased face that I was not lost, but left voluntarily, became very angry. She pushed me in the back and called me a damned girl who swore to anger her always and everywhere!

We arrived home; Mother led me from the hall to her bedroom and pulled me by the ear; bringing me to a pillow with lace, she ordered me to work without unbending or turning my head anywhere. “Here I will tie you, you worthless thing, to a rope and feed you nothing but bread!” Having said this, she went to the priest to tell about my, as she called, monstrous act, and I remained sorting out the bobbins, putting pins and thinking about the beautiful nature, which I had seen for the first time in all its grandeur and beauty! From that day on, my mother’s supervision and severity, although they became even more vigilant, could no longer frighten or restrain me.

From morning to evening I sat at work, which, I must admit, nothing in the world could be worse, because I could not, did not know how and did not want to be able to do it like others, but I tore it up, spoiled it, confused it, and in front of me there stood a canvas ball, on which stretched a disgusting tangle in a stripe - my lace, and behind it I sat patiently all day, patiently because my plan was already ready and my intention was accepted.

As soon as night fell, everything in the house became quiet, the doors were locked, the fire in my mother’s room was extinguished, I got up, quietly got dressed, sneaked out through the back porch and ran straight to the stable; there I took Alkida, led him through the garden to the barnyard, and here I sat on him and drove out through a narrow lane straight to the shore and to Startsovaya Mountain; here I again got up from the horse and led it up the mountain by the halter in my hands, because, not knowing how to put the reins on Alcidas, I could not force him to voluntarily climb the mountain, which in this place had a rocky steepness; So, I cocked him by the halter in my hands and, when I was on level ground, I looked for a stump or a hillock, from which I again sat on Alcida’s back, and until then I clapped my hand on the neck and clicked my tongue until the good horse began to gallop, gallop and even into the quarry; at the first sign of dawn, I returned home, put the horse in the stable and, without undressing, went to bed, through which my night walks finally opened up.

The girl who looked after me, finding me every morning in bed fully dressed, told my mother about this, who took the trouble to see how and why this was done; my mother herself saw how I came out at midnight fully dressed and, to her inexplicable horror, led an evil stallion out of the stable! She did not dare to stop me, considering me a sleepwalker, she did not dare to shout, so as not to frighten me, but, ordering the butler and Yefim to watch me, she went to the priest herself, woke him up and told him the whole incident; the father was surprised and hastily stood up to go see this extraordinary thing with his own eyes. But it was all over sooner than expected: Alcidas and I were led in triumph, each one back to his place.

The butler, whom my mother ordered to follow me, seeing that I wanted to mount a horse, and not considering me, as my mother thought, to be a sleepwalker, came out of ambush and asked: “Where are you going, young lady?”

After this incident, my mother absolutely wanted, no matter what the cost, to get rid of my presence, and for this they decided to take me to Little Russia to my grandmother, old Alexandrovicheva.

I was already approaching my fourteenth year, I was tall, thin and slender; but my warlike spirit was depicted in the features of my face, and although I had white skin, a lively blush, sparkling eyes and black eyebrows, my mirror and my mother told me every day that I was not at all pretty. My face was marred by smallpox, my features were irregular, and the incessant oppression of freedom and the severity of my mother’s treatment, and sometimes cruelty, imprinted on my face an expression of fear and sadness.

Maybe I would finally have forgotten all my hussar habits and become an ordinary girl, like everyone else, if my mother had not imagined the fate of a woman in the most bleak form. She spoke to me in the most offensive terms about the fate of this sex: a woman, in her opinion, should be born, live and die in slavery; that eternal bondage, painful dependence and all kinds of oppression are her lot from cradle to grave; that she is full of weaknesses, devoid of all perfections and incapable of anything; that, in a word, a woman is the most unfortunate, the most insignificant and the most despicable creature in the world! My head was spinning from this description; I decided, even if it cost me my life, to separate myself from the sex that, as I thought, was under the curse of God. My father also often said: “If instead of Nadezhda I had a son, I would not think what would happen to me in my old age; he would be my support at the evening of my days.” I almost cried at these words from my father, whom I loved extremely. Two feelings, so opposite - love for my father and disgust for my own sex - agitated my young soul with equal strength, and I, with a firmness and constancy little characteristic of my age, began to think about a plan to leave the sphere assigned by nature and customs to the female sex.

On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, relatives of the cavalry girl arrived in Yelabuga, where Durova lived for almost 30 years until her death. At the Elabuga museum-estate of Nadezhda Durova, her great-great-grandnephew Pyotr Shveder and six grandchildren who live in France, and Apollo Ogranovich from Ukraine, whose great-grandfather was the cousin of a cavalry maiden, were warmly received. It’s a pity that her great-grandniece, Nadezhda Borisovna Durova, mother of Pyotr Shveder, who died this spring, could not come to Yelabuga. They say she was an exact copy of her famous namesake. Today in Yelabuga, the memory of Durova is preserved by her house-museum. The elder tells about the woman warrior Researcher Elabuga Museum-Estate of N. Durova Olga Aikasheva.

Male share

Nadenka has loved men's games since childhood. Her mother did not like the noisy child, so from the age of four months the girl was nursed by her father’s orderly, soldier Astakhov. The first toys were a drum, a saber and a horse. When father Andrei Durov retired, 5-year-old Nadya looked more like a boy.

It was not possible to re-educate her daughter; at the age of 18, at the insistence of her mother, she was married to the official Vasily Chernov. This fact is not in the autobiographical “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden,” but it was precisely this fact that influenced Durova’s choice. In 1803, a son, Ivan, was born into the Chernov family. But Nadezhda’s life with her husband did not work out. Apparently, that’s why Durova decided to do something unprecedented at that time: she took her son and returned to her parents’ house.

When her mother wanted to return Nadezhda to her husband, 23-year-old Durova decided to disappear. But where? Serving the Fatherland became her only option.

Blessing of the King

In 1807, Nadezhda Durova was recruited into the Polish Cavalry Uhlan Regiment. At the same time, she lied, introducing herself as 17-year-old nobleman Alexander Sokolov, who was not allowed to go to war by his parents. So she justified the lack of documents, but how did she manage to hide her gender from her colleagues for 10 years?

Nadezhda was quite tall for a girl - 165 cm, and her athletic figure could easily be hidden under the thick cloth of her uniform. From her first days in the army, Durova asked to water the horses, so she had the opportunity to be alone. She did not get close to anyone, she was visible only during the battle, because the army did not have public baths or barracks. The soldiers did not get off their horses for three days and slept on horseback. During the attack, the infantry had to stand under bullets without bending down; trying to save a life was considered cowardice. During the war, Durova suffered without gloves and was constantly freezing in an unlined overcoat, although she was in good health.

When she realized that serious trials lay ahead, she wrote to her father where she was serving. Andrei Durov gave the letter to his brother in St. Petersburg, and he sent it to the military chancellery. It had the effect of a bomb exploding and reached Alexander I. A year after Nadezhda’s escape, an investigation began: what is this woman doing in the army?! It is clear that prostitution was unacceptable. But it turned out that young Sokolov was praised and did not even assume that he was a woman.

After verification, Durova was secretly taken to the Tsar. For her valiant service, he presented her with the soldier’s St. George’s Cross and asked: “They say you are not a man?” She could not lie and asked to be allowed to wear a uniform. The king allowed, but took an oath from her: never admit to anyone that she was a woman. Durova remained faithful to this oath until the end of her days. Sokolov entered the Tsar’s office, and Alexandrov came out: the Tsar gave Durova his name. And Alexander Alexandrov became a cornet of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment. The Tsar even allocated 2,000 rubles to Durova. for sewing a uniform and buying a horse. However, there was not enough money for the horse - Durova’s biographers suggest that she was forced to pay the tailors extra for silence.

Perhaps, in battles, quick-witted fellow soldiers protected the “mustacheless youth.” But it was unacceptable to talk about such guesses according to the laws of military ethics. Moreover, the emperor himself blessed Durova to serve in the Russian army. Mikhail Kutuzov and the Minister of War knew about her secret, and fellow soldiers joked: “Alexandrov, when will you get a mustache?!”

As a fiercely brave officer, she earned their respect. In 1812, Durova was wounded in the leg, but she did not go out of action. Wounded, she took part in the Battle of Borodino.

Forbidden love

The question about Durova’s sexual orientation is the most common one. During her service, women fell in love with Durova. She writes that she was forced to transfer to another regiment because of the daughter of the regimental commander. In general, she avoided women, they saw right through her, called her a “hussar girl,” and asked tricky questions.

It didn't work out with men either. Since Durova swore to the Tsar to be a man, she could not marry again. Durova wrote about vicious connections in her Notes: “Fearlessness is the first and necessary quality of a warrior; with fearlessness the greatness of the soul is inseparable, and when these two great virtues are combined, there is no place for vices or low passions.”

Following the oath, Durova could do things that were strictly forbidden to women: ride a horse, wear a uniform, smoke a pipe, sit cross-legged, talk loudly. Until the end of her days, she wore men's clothing and demanded to be treated like a man. At the same time, Nadezhda Durova had to hide her son along with her gender. He was raised by his grandfather Andrei Durov, but thanks to the merits of his mother, Ivan Chernov received a prestigious education at the Imperial Military Orphanage. But he did not become a military man for health reasons, but made a career as a civil servant in St. Petersburg. There is a legend that in order to receive his mother’s blessing for marriage, Ivan had to turn to her as officer Alexandrov. It is still unknown whether Chernov had children.

Pushkin's protégé

The secret of Durova was first revealed by Alexander Pushkin. In the preface to an excerpt from “Notes” published in 1836 in his journal Sovremennik, the poet called the author by his real name. Durova was distraught, she wrote to Pushkin: “Is there no way to help this grief?.. you call me a name that makes me shudder as soon as I think that twenty thousand lips will read and name it.” Also, without permission, the poet assigned Durova the nickname cavalry maiden. At that time, “maiden” meant “never married,” which was not true. At their first meeting, Pushkin kissed Durova’s hand, and she pulled it back with the words: “Oh, my God! I’ve been UNSUBCUTED from this for so long!”

Thanks to the light hand of genius, Durova found herself among the most fashionable and popular writers of that time. Pushkin himself assessed “Notes” this way: “...charming, lively, original, beautiful style. Success is certain." To publish them, the aspiring writer went to St. Petersburg and over the 5 years of her life there she wrote 12 (!) books. Durova's talent was appreciated by Zhukovsky, Belinsky, and Gogol. By the way, she was the first to dare to write about Pushkin after the duel.

Durova lived in Yelabuga for almost 30 years. Army habits did not leave her: she smoked a pipe and rode horseback while she had the strength. When the first photo studio opened in the city, a female officer stopped by. In the photo she is 80 years old, but her bearing is still visible - true to her oath, she holds her head proudly.

Nadezhda Durova, the first woman awarded the St. George Cross for military merits, did not find herself in the ranks of the defenders of the Fatherland out of a sudden impulse of patriotism. A few years before Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, a mysterious Amazon appeared in the ranks of the Russian troops fighting the “Corsican monster” in Prussia, posing as a man named Alexander, and her surname changed: first Durov, Sokolov, and then Alexandrov, under which and the “Amazon” lived until the end of her life. She lived a rather secluded life, appeared in society in a man's suit and was called by a man's name, did not marry, and had no children. Because of such oddities gossips it was said that she was probably “not quite a woman.” But everything was much more complicated.

Nadezhda Durova left us her “Notes” and several other stories and novellas, testifying to the author’s extraordinary literary talent. From them and from the few memories of contemporaries, an amazing life emerges, full of incredible events and twists and turns, and the courageous, daring, but at the same time subtle, vulnerable and very feminine nature of the author.

The mother of Nadezhda Durova, whose name our heroine does not even mention in her memoirs, “nee Alexandrovich and one of the most beautiful girls in Little Russia,” was the daughter of a wealthy Poltava landowner. When she fell in love with the handsome Andrei Durov, behind whom there was only some village in the Sarapul district, the despotic father opposed his daughter’s choice, and when the daughter ran away from home and secretly married her lover, he cursed her. For two years, the young people begged for forgiveness from their parents, hoping that the birth of a son would help. But a daughter was born, and although she was a real hero, the mother immediately disliked the poor thing and was openly burdened by her.

“I was four months old when the regiment where my father served received orders to go to Kherson; “since it was a home trip, the priest took the family with him,” Nadezhda Durova wrote in her memoirs. - One day my mother was in a very bad temper; I didn't let her sleep all night; We set out on the hike at dawn, my mother settled down to fall asleep in the carriage, but I began to cry again, and, despite all the efforts of the nanny to console me, I screamed louder every hour: this overwhelmed the measure of my mother’s annoyance; She lost her temper and, snatching me from the girl’s hands, threw me out the window! The hussars screamed in horror, jumped off their horses and picked me up, all bloody and not showing any sign of life: they carried me back to the carriage, but the priest galloped up to them, took me from their hands and, shedding tears, put me on his saddle. He trembled, cried, was as pale as death, rode without saying a word and without turning his head in the direction where my mother was riding. To the surprise of everyone, I returned to life... only from a strong blow I was bleeding from my mouth and nose; Father, with a joyful feeling of gratitude, raised his eyes to the sky, pressed me to his chest and, approaching the carriage, said to my mother: “Thank God that you are not a murderer! Our daughter is alive, but I will not give her up to you anymore.”

The father entrusted his daughter to the care of the flank hussar Astakhov, who served the master on campaigns and at home. In his arms, which turned out to be more affectionate than his mother’s, the first years of little Nadenka’s life passed...

Nadezhda Durova at the age of 14

Nadezhda Durova at the age of 14. The unknown author flattered the original: Nadezhda was ugly, her face was pockmarked, but most importantly, she was dark-skinned, which at that time was considered a serious flaw for a girl.

It is not known how long her campy childhood would have lasted if the young Durovs had not had two more children. The long-awaited forgiveness came from the Alexandrovichs, and family trips became impossible. Andrei Vasilyevich retired and received the position of mayor in Sarapul. But when Nadezhda passed from the hussar's hands to her mother's, it turned out that she did not at all like sitting in the upper room knitting and embroidering. She climbed trees much more willingly and better, shot with a bow and gun, and rode on horseback, and preferred sabers to all toys. And then from her father, whom she loved madly, from the cradle she heard that if instead of Nadezhda he had a son, he would be calm about his old age. The father bought the warlike daughter a purebred Circassian stallion Alkida, and soon she subdued the indomitable horse with affection and patient care. The mother continued to torment her daughter with hated needlework and beat her on the wrist for the damaged canvas, but at night Nadezhda took her beloved Alcides out of the stable and galloped through the surrounding fields until dawn. When everything was revealed, the girl was sent to re-educate her grandmother in the Poltava region. Here, on the Velikaya Krucha estate near the town of Piryatina, she finally found some freedom.

There was even a love affair with a young neighbor, Kiriyakov. The son of a wealthy landowner had already explained his serious intentions to the romantic neighbor and was waiting for her consent, so that he could then officially ask for the hand of her relatives. But it didn't work out. “I think that if they had given me away for him then,” Durova recalled, “I would have said goodbye to warlike plans forever; but fate, which destined me to take the battlefield, decreed otherwise.”

Otherwise, not right away. In her “Notes” Nadezhda Durova did not say a word about the bitter experience of family life. Moreover, in “Notes” she deliberately reduced her age - not at all out of coquetry, which was contrary to her nature, but solely so that it would not even occur to anyone that she had been married after all: she could not get married when she was eight years old. In fact, Nadezhda Durova was already eighteen when, due to her father’s infidelities, discord arose between her parents, and they urgently called their daughter from the Poltava region to marry her off against her will, without love. Only many years later will meticulous researchers figure out that the hussar girl could not have retired in 1816 at twenty-four years old, if she came to the glorious year of 1812 as an already experienced warrior. Moreover, a document dated October 25, 1801 was found about the marriage of the Sarapul Zemstvo Court of the noble assessor of the 14th class Vasily Stepanovich Chernov, 25 years old, and the daughter of the Sarapul mayor second-major Andrei Durov, the maiden Nadezhda, 18 years old. The Chernovs' metric certificate of birth of their son Ivan in January 1803 was also preserved... Soon the young family went to the place of her husband's business trip to Irbit, but there was neither love nor agreement between the spouses, and Nadezhda left her husband, taking her son and returning to Parent's house...

In “Notes” she completely “forgot” this dramatic page of life, as if it had not existed at all. Her sad marriage did not fit into the romanticism that was dominant in literature when she wrote them, nor into her own sincere romantic impulses to become a warrior and paternal pride: “Father said that I was a living image of his youth and that I would be the support of old age and to the honor of his name, if I had been born a boy.”

“I decided,” she wrote, “to become a warrior, to be a son for my father and to forever separate from the sex, whose fate and eternal dependence began to frighten me...”

The mother's anger when Nadezhda returned home only strengthened this desire - the mother demanded that she return to her unloved husband. September 17, 1806 was her name day. But that was not what worried Nadezhda. She knew that a Cossack regiment had set out on a campaign from Sarapul and stopped for the day 50 kilometers from the city. She waited until evening - she wanted to say goodbye to her father, who certainly came to wish her good night. After all, he won’t see her again; according to her plan, Nadezhda was supposed to disappear - drown in the Kama. “When the priest left,” she recalled, “I knelt down near the chairs on which he was sitting, and, bending to the ground in front of them, kissed, wet with tears, the place on the floor where his foot stood. Half an hour later, when my sadness had subsided somewhat, I got up to take off my woman’s dress: I went to the mirror, cut off my curls, put them on the table, took off my black satin hood and began to dress in a Cossack uniform. Having tied my waist with a black silk sash and put on a tall hat with a crimson top, I examined my transformed appearance for a quarter of an hour; my cut hair gave me a completely different face; I was sure that no one would even think of suspecting my gender...” Having gone down to the bank of the Kama, she left her hood with all the accessories of a woman’s clothing. And then she jumped on her Alcides and... - “So, I’m free! Free! Independent! I took what belonged to me, my freedom; freedom! A precious gift from heaven that inherently belongs to every person! I knew how to take it, protect it from all claims for the future, and from now on until the grave it will be both my inheritance and reward!”

Nadezhda Durova in Ulan uniform and with the St. George Cross

Nadezhda Durova in Ulan uniform and with the St. George Cross. Nadezhda did not choose the Uhlan regiment by chance: the Uhlans, unlike the Cossacks, did not wear beards.

The Cossacks warmly received the “son of the landowner Alexander Durov,” the “Kama foundling,” as they began to call the newcomer, and put him in the first hundred. After more than a month of trekking, Nadezhda got used to the hardships military service and men's clothing, mastered the saber and pike, and learned to constantly sit in the saddle. And in Grodno, she enlisted in the regular troops as a private in the Konnopol Uhlan Regiment under the name Sokolov. From there I decided to write to my father, asking for forgiveness and permission to serve the Fatherland. “I stepped out of my sphere to stand under our oriflamme that was fluttering at that time,” she explained. Then the Prussian campaign was going on, and in the very first battle near Heilsberg, Nadezhda showed heroism, saved the life of a wounded officer, and a week later, in new battles there, she emerged alive from the battle when a grenade exploded literally under the belly of her horse. “The sacred duty to the fatherland forces the common soldier to fearlessly face death, courageously endure suffering and calmly part with his life,” she recalled. She was promoted to cornet, but no matter how flattering the recognition of her merits was, the main thing for her was something else: “Fearlessness is the first and necessary quality of a warrior, with fearlessness the greatness of the soul is inseparable, and when these two great virtues are combined, there is no place for vices or low passions "

At that time, the “dauntless one” did not yet know that real glory was already coming about her and her exploits. “I knew Durova because I served with her in the rearguard during our entire retreat from the Neman to Borodino,” the legendary poet and partisan Denis Davydov wrote to Pushkin more than twenty years later. - The regiment in which she served was always in the rearguard, together with our Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment. I remember that back then they said that Alexandrov was a woman, but only slightly. She was very secluded and avoided society as much as one could avoid it in bivouacs. One day, at a rest stop with officer Volkov, I happened to enter a hut... to drink milk... There we found a young Uhlan officer, who, as soon as he saw me, stood up, bowed, took his shako and went out. Volkov told me: “This is Alexandrov, who, they say, is a woman.” I rushed to the porch, but he was already galloping far away. Subsequently, I saw her at the front...” And poets wrote poems about the unknown Amazon. This is what Andrei Glebov, the poet-general hero of the Battle of Borodino, wrote:

In the War of 1812, cornet Alexandrov took part in the battles of Mir, Romanov, Dashkovka, and in the cavalry attack near Smolensk. On “Borodin Day” on August 26, he received a concussion in his leg and the rank of lieutenant - for heroism.

Nadezhda endured all these hardships of military life more easily than the outbursts of unlost female emotions, which sometimes dictated actions incomprehensible to the male environment. To be honest, she herself openly described her own violations of military discipline: she fell asleep at her post, fell behind the regiment, did not follow orders... But what was Nadezhda’s surprise when, after a new heroic act - rescuing a wounded uhlan - she received a reprimand from the regiment chief General Kakhovsky for his extravagant courage: he rushes into battle when he shouldn’t, goes on the attack with other people’s squadrons, and in the middle of the battle saves everyone he meets... He even threatened to punish him: to send him to a convoy. Durova reacted to such injustice like a woman - with tears, of course, hiding from everyone. While the French were moving towards Moscow, there was some confusion: they had to either get food for the horses, or look for lagging comrades, almost getting lost between the detachments of advancing enemies. The authorities were nervous, and they even threatened Durova with execution. Then she came to Field Marshal Kutuzov with bitter resentment and a request to take her as an orderly. Mikhail Illarionovich remembered her father, but advised her not to react so painfully to the injustice of her superiors. However, after a short leave for treatment of a shell-shocked leg, she received the coveted staff position: this made it easier for her to hide her gender.

The first edition of “Notes” by N. Durova. Title page

However, not only the field marshal knew the whole truth about the young lieutenant. Back in 1807, after returning from Prussia, Nadezhda was unexpectedly invited to the emperor. She recalled: “The Emperor came up to me, took me by the hand and, approaching the table with me, leaned with one hand on it, and with the other, continuing to hold my hand, began to ask in an undertone and with such an expression of mercy that all my timidity disappeared and hope again came to life in my soul. “I heard,” said the sovereign, “that you are not a man, is this true?” I didn’t suddenly gather the courage to say: “Yes, Your Majesty, it’s true!” I stood for a minute with my eyes downcast and was silent; my heart was beating strongly, and my hand was trembling in the princess’s hand! The Emperor was waiting! Finally, raising my eyes to him and saying my answer, I saw that the sovereign was blushing; I instantly blushed myself. Having asked in detail about everything that was the reason for my entry into the service, the sovereign praised my fearlessness a lot, saying that this was the first example in Russia; and that he wants to reward me and return me with honor to my father’s house, giving... The Emperor did not have time to finish; at the word: return to the house! I screamed in horror and at that very moment fell at the feet of the sovereign: “Don’t send me home, Your Majesty! - I said in a voice of despair, - don’t send me away! I'll die there! I will definitely die! Saying this, I hugged the sovereign’s knees and cried. The Emperor was touched; he picked me up and asked in a changed voice: “What do you want?” - “Be a warrior! Wear a uniform and a weapon!” “If you believe,” said the emperor, “that mere permission to wear a uniform and weapons can be your reward, then you will have it!” The Emperor continued: “And you will be called by my name - Alexandrov!”

In 1816, an order was issued: “On March 9, Lieutenant of the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment Alexandrov was dismissed from retirement with the rank of staff captain.” This came as a shock: “Past happiness! Glory! Dangers! Life bustling with activity! Farewell!" It was difficult for her to get used to the measured life devoid of romance, first in Sarapul, where her brother Vasily serves as mayor, then in Yelabuga... The only joy was the “Notes” she had begun, which were made for herself. But it’s impossible to live on a pension of a thousand rubles a year - should we try to sell “Notes”? A trip to St. Petersburg brought the happiness of meeting the great Pushkin, of whom she was a longtime fan. The poet highly appreciated her literary talent and published “Notes” in his “Contemporary” with an excellent review by Vissarion Belinsky, who noted the bright pictures and accurate characteristics, subtle observations and rich language of the author. After that, it was worth continuing “Notes”, and there were a lot of ideas for stories and novellas.

Nadezhda Durova. Lithograph by Karl Bryullov. 1839

The only thing that bothered the newly minted writer was that her person attracted more and more attention from those around her, and when appearing in society, she was cautious and, despite her apparent openness, reserved. “She was of average height, thin, earth-colored face, pockmarked and wrinkled skin; the face shape is long, the features are ugly; she squinted her already small eyes. The hair was cut short and combed like a man's. Her manners were masculine: she sat on the sofa... rested one hand on her knee, and in the other she held a long chibouk and smoked” - this is not a very flattering portrait of Durova left by the writer and memoirist Avdotya Panaeva, common-law wife Nikolai Nekrasov (read the love story of Nekrasov and Panaeva), and she did this, perhaps not without envy of the higher assessments of the personal and literary merits of her contemporary. And playwright Nikolai Vasilyevich Sushkov did not hide his irritation with the “honored warrior” smoking tobacco from his hussar pipe, who also “decided... to add to the laurels of the writer.” In her touchiness, she remained a woman to the end. She herself wrote down how, after her resignation, she was offended by the aristocrat who, expressing all respect to the honored warrior, let the guest leave the house in the pouring rain without offering one of the many carriages - she never came to this house again.

From 1841 until the end of her life, Nadezhda Andreevna lived in Yelabuga in a small house without a break. Alone, but not lonely - with dogs and cats. Unfortunately, she could not keep her combat horses. Adopted in 1806 male name, she did not give up on him until the end of her life.

Nadezhda Durova died on March 21, 1866. They buried the body of the retired headquarters captain of the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment A. Alexandrov with all due military honors - accompanied by a gun salute and a choir of regimental singers. The only strange thing was that they performed the funeral service for her as Nadezhda Durova, although she bequeathed the funeral service for herself as the servant of God Alexander. But the priest did not violate church rules.

Monument to cavalry maiden Nadezhda Durova in Yelabuga

Edda Zabavskikh,
Gala Biography, No. 2, 2015

DUROVA, NADEZHDA ANDREEVNA(1783–1866) – Russia’s first female officer (“cavalry maiden”), writer.

Born on September 17, 1783 in Kyiv in the family of retired hussar captain A.V. Durov and N.I. Durova (Alexandrovich). Her mother was disappointed by the birth of a daughter instead of a son, and gave her to be raised by the hussar Astakhov, who instilled in the girl a love of military affairs (“My teacher, Astakhov, carried me in his arms all day long, went with me to the squadron stable, put me on horses, let me play with a pistol, wave a saber").

Having married at the age of 18 an official of the 14th class of the Sarapul Zemsky Court, Chernov, she gave birth to a son, Ivan, at the age of 20 (1802 or 1803) and, leaving her husband, who was transferred to serve in Irbit, returned with the child to her parents’ home. Here the mother, in her words, still “constantly complained about the fate of the sex under God’s curse, described the fate of women in terrible colors,” which is why Nadezhda felt “aversion to her own sex.” In 1806, Durova, on her name day, went swimming, taking old Cossack clothes. She changed into it and left the dress on the shore. Her parents decided that she had drowned, and she, dressed in a man’s dress, joined the Don Cossack regiment heading to war with the French. She passed herself off as “the landowner’s son Alexander Sokolov.”

In 1807, she was accepted as a “comrade” (a private member of the nobles) in the Konnopol Ulan Regiment under the name of Alexander Sokolov. At the end of March, the regiment was sent to Prussia, from where Durova wrote a letter to her father, asking for forgiveness for her actions and demanding “to be allowed to follow the path necessary for happiness.” Durova's father, having received a letter from her revealing the motives for the act, sent a petition to the Tsar with a request to find his daughter. By the greatest command, Durov, without revealing her incognito, was sent to St. Petersburg with a special courier. There it was decided to leave Nadezhda in the service, assign the name Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov (she bore it until her death), and enlist as a cornet in the Mariupol Hussar Regiment. For participation in battles and for saving the life of an officer, 1807 was awarded the insignia of the Military Order (soldier's Cross of St. George). During her many years of campaigns, Durova kept notes, which later became the basis for her literary works.

In 1811, Durova joined the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment, in which she took part in the fighting of the Patriotic War, received a shell shock in the Battle of Borodino and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. She was an adjutant (orderly) of Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov, and went with him to Tarutino. She took part in the campaigns of 1813–1814, distinguished herself during the siege of the Modlin fortress, and in the battles of Hamburg. She received several awards for her bravery. After serving for about ten years, she retired in 1816 with the rank of headquarters captain. After her resignation, Durova lived for several years in St. Petersburg with her uncle, and from there she left for Yelabuga.

In Yelabuga, “having nothing to do,” she took up literary work. Wrote memoirs based on travel notes (Cavalry maiden. Incident in Russia, 1839), which were highly appreciated by A.S. Pushkin. In life, she was a violator of the canons: she wore a man's suit, smoked, cut her hair short, crossed her legs and rested her hand on her side when talking, and called herself in the masculine gender.

In 1842, the first story about her exploits was published, written by A.Ya. Rykachev Nadezhda Durova; So during her lifetime she was recognized as a unique person. The heroine herself lived at that time in Yelabuga, forgotten, among other things, by her grown son. She died in Yelabuga on March 21 (April 2), 1866 at the age of 83. She was buried, according to her will, in a man's dress, with military honors at the Trinity Cemetery in Yelabuga.

IN Soviet time Durova served as a prototype main character plays by Alexander Gladkov A long time ago Shurochka Azarova. The play was first staged in 1941 in besieged Leninrad. E.A. Ryazanov made a film based on it Hussar ballad. Based on the libretto by A. Gladkov, A. V. Bogatyrev wrote an opera Nadezhda Durova(1957). Durova's descendants - Vladimir, Anatoly and the now living Natalya Durov - have become a world-famous family of circus trainers.

Essays: Durova N.A. Selected works of a cavalry maiden. M., 1988.

Natalia Pushkareva