VOLKONSKII Zinaida Alexandrovna

Born in 1792, Mr.. Turin from marriage Chief Shenk Prince Alexei Mikhailovich Beloselsky with Barbara Yakovlevna Tatisheva, his first literary and aesthetic education received, thanks to the care of his father, who was known as the French-Russian writer. She was married to Prince Nikita Volkonsky (died 1844), she first lived in St. Petersburg, where and by rank and wealth of her husband, by his intellect and beauty held a high position at court. When, then, after 1812. She left Russia, . then the same brilliant position held abroad, . particularly in Teplice and Prague, . where the Emperor Alexander, . who was at that time in Germany, . liked being in her company, . as well as then, . when she lived in Paris since 1813, . and then in Vienna and Verona, . during the brilliant European Congress,
. Gateway to Russia, she abandoned herself to the study of native antiquities, but in St. Petersburg its scientific aspirations awakened in the high society of discontent and ridicule, and therefore it is the end of 1824. moved to Moscow. Here she became the center of, . that was an educated and gifted in Russian life, . and she began to study their native language, . which is so little known, . and for the study of national literature and national antiquities: it was interested in songs, . customs, . folk legends,
. In 1825, Mr.. She even began to intercede on the basis of Russian society for the device and the National Museum of Antiquities for the promulgation. Its constant companions were Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Prince Vyazemsky, Baratynsky, Venevitinov, Shevyrev etc.. Pushkin dedicated her "Gypsy" and in his famous letter on the subject: "Among the scattered Moscow called her" the queen of music and beauty "; Baratynskij on her departure from Moscow in 1829. wrote a poem: "From the kingdom of whist and winter, even a solid and rigorous philosopher I.V. Kireyevsky succumbed to irresistible charm of this woman and devoted to her his only written by him in this unusual to him spirit, laudatory poem. In 1829, Mr.. Princess Volkonskaia from Moscow moved directly to Rome, where she died in 1862. strict ascetic Catholicism. By all appearances, it was a nature gifted, who could not find satisfaction in secular life, but at the same time, very impressionable, and carried away, and therefore not as durable and permanent, to give one a case. Hence the transitions from the ideas of Rousseau to the study of peoples, from the Russian past to Catholicism. In his first works, written in French: "Quatres nouvelles" (Moscow, 1819), it condemns the weaknesses of high society, and expresses sympathy for the primitive life among the savages of America, Africa and Asia. In "Tableau slave du V-me siecle" (Paris, 1820, 3rd edition, Moscow, 1826, Russian translation of "The Lady's Journal in 1825, h. IX and separately Moscow, . 1825, . and Moscow, . 1826; Polish remake: "Ladovis i Miliada, . czyli poczatek Kijowa ", . Warsaw, . 1826), she draws a prehistoric type of Common Slavonic paganism and hints and guesses Karamzin sometimes successfully fills own imagination,
. At the same time and in Russian, and French, she began writing the novel "Olga", which remained unfinished (excerpt in "observer in Moscow", 1836, h. XIII and IX), . but in which she would present the struggle of various pagan elements, . emerged in early Russian history with the advent of Varangian, . victory of the Slavic element of Norman and, . Finally, . expansion Slavic paganism under the impact of Christianity,
. Poet and composer, she wrote and composed the cantata music to it, so known for its "Cantata memory of Emperor Alexander I" (Karlsruhe, 1865). One might think that in Rome, living recluse, she did not forget Russia. Thus, in the language of the poem: "Neva water," he wrote in 1837, Mr.. fire on the occasion of the Winter Palace (published in the Russian Archives ", 1872), is still printing enthusiasm of the Russian past, Russian folk dialects. Collected Works of Princess Volkonskaya issued her son, Prince Alexander Nikitich Volkonski (died in 1878. in Rome) in Russian ( "Works of Princess Zinaida Alexandrovna Volkonskaya", Karlsruhe, 1865) and French ( "Oeuvres choisies de la prinsesse Zeneide Volkonsky", Paris and Karlsruhe, 1865).