Ambasciatrice di Russia: tracce d'Europa nei viaggi e nei salotti della principessa Zinaida Aleksandrovna Volkonskaja
Author(s)
Valeri, Marta
Date Issued
May 22, 2015
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
Volkonsky family have been one of the older and nobler branches of Russian
aristocracy. Its members stood out for abnegation and bravery, whether in favour, such
as Nikita or Petr, or against the Emperor, such as the decembrist Sergey Grigorevich.
The female branch includes high ranking personalities as well: amongst all Maria
Nikolaevskaya Raevskaya, Sergey’s wife, who decided voluntarily to follow her
husband to the Siberian exile, to which he had been condemned. Another woman, who
honoured the name and the prestige of this family was Zinaida Aleksandrovna
Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya, Nikita’s wife.
Her name can be found in quite every memory of her contemporaries all over Europe.
She was the daughter of the sofisticated prince Alexander Beloselsky-Belozersky,
Catherine the Great’s ambassador first in Dresden, than in Turin, who fascinated his
contemporaries with his principles, Illuministic ideas and huge culture. Princess Zinaida
was educated following her father’s steps.
She was his worthy heiress: grown up in Dresden, than in Turin, she left for Petersburg
in her early adolescence, becoming after few months lady-in-wating of the Empress
Dowager and drawing the attentions of young Emperor Alexander I. After Napoleon’s
defeat in the great patriotic war of 1812, Zinaida followed the imperial entourage across
Europe, took part in the Congresses of Vienna and Verona, fascinating Austrian,
English, French and Vatican courts, establishing heartfelt and stimulating friendships
with the most influential figures of her times, might they be politicians, intellectuals or
artists.
In Russia her name became famous thanks to her salon in Tverskaya street, in the
building now housing Eliseev’s stores.
In Rome she was well-known not only for her beautiful villa, in which nowadays
England’s ambassador resides, but particularly thanks to her patronage in support of the
roman Russian artistic colony and, in the last days of her life, for her passionate support
to catholicism.
The guests of her salons were eminences from Moscow university, such as Shevyrev,
Delvig, Odoevsky and Pogodin, distinguished poets like of Pushkin, Mickiewicz and
Belli, prominent artists and prelates like Thorvaldsen, Walter Scott and cardinals
Consalvi and Mezzofanti, as well as Kipreensky, Bruni Shchedrin and Galberg, who
showed promise as painters and artists. Everyone who loved culture, beauty and
elegance was at least once in her place.
Zinaida herself was a singer, a philantropist, a composer, a member of the most
important intellectual societies both in Russia and in Italy, inspired many acclaimed
poets and was an intimate friend of Emperor Alexander I. She also had correspondences
with intellectuals and officials and distinguished herself for cleverness, intellect and
innate savoir faire.
Her biography, though it includes very different periods, is constantly featured by
prominent figures and during her entire life she was in every place, where History was
made.
First of all she was an unceasing traveller. She began travelling since she was a child in
order to follow her father from Dresden to Turin, then their journey back to Russia, the
European march following the tsar, the Russian-Prussian army entry to Paris, the
celebrations in England, the Congresses of Vienna and Verona. The sojourn in Italy in
1815 and 1820, in Paris, in Odessa, in Moscow and once again in Rome. Even when she
decided to open her salon in Moscow, her stay lasted not more than four years, before
she moved (quite) definitely to Rome.
As she was forty she had already spent fifteen years travelling.
Princess was celebrated by her contemporaries and many of them wrote about her: there
are at least five biographies and each of them particularly focuses on a single stage or a
peculiarity of her life and personality.
Biographies published by A.N. Belozerskaya and M. Fairweather seem to be the most
complete works on Volkonskaya’s life, even if in both of them there can be found
mistakes and lack of information.
Considering the analyzed bibliography, there are so far poorly examinated seasons of
her life, such as the salons in Paris or in Odessa, but the most evident lack concerns her
travels. In Italy only Ettore Lo Gatto and Giulia Baselica wrote about this topic, but
only analyzed the 1829-year travel, the only one about wich we have detailed
information. Zinaida, actually, wrote some travel memories (here presented in their first
Italian complete translation, with two non-published letters from the Moscow State
archive for literature and arts), but mainly we have details about this journey thanks to
the diaries of Shevyrev, who took part in this travel.
Researches about Volkonskaya were also difficult on account of hard access to
documents: the main part of sources from Zinaida’s private archive can be found at
Harvard’s Houghton Library, while some manuscripts and few other materials are
conserved in Moscow (RGALI and Russian State Library) or in French, German, Polish
or English libraries.
Princess Volkonskaya’s private archive, firstly scattered in numerous private
collections, was out together by baron Lemmermann, who in 1967 donated it to Harvard
University, where it was classified only many years later. The only direct, but partial,
evidence of the content of this archive is Aroutunova’s Lives in letters, a book
collecting some of the most significant letters received by Zinaida from her
correspondents.
The present work is aimed to gather and organize all available information and
materials about Volkonskaya’s travels, in order to underline their importance in a life
dedicated to the realization of Peter the Great’s long for dream about a bridge
connecting Russia and Europe.
Finally the Appendix presents the Italian translation of some of the most significant
literary works of princess Zinaida and few fragments of her private correspondence.
In spite of all the efforts made this work is not, and it can’t be complete: documents
stored in unaccessible archives, such as the Vatican or the Imperial ones, might reveal
helpful knowledge about some obscure years in the life of princess Volkonskaya. These
lacks are due, furthermore, to the censorship by Alexander Nikitich of the private
collection of his mother, in order to preserve her memory from likely compromising
materials. Maybe the same reasons forced Propaganda Fide and the imperial Russian
officers to take the same action. Harvard University is the main accessibile archive:
thanks to its detailed cataloguing we can hold that there is a possibility to reveal
accurate information about this extraordinary woman, to whom XIX century european
culture owes so much.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Storia e cultura del viaggio e dell'odeporica nell'età moderna
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