Russian poet will return to Ukraine – DW – 01.10.2022

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Pushkin died early, but he left many descendants. In Germany, the most famous of them is Clotilde von Rintelen, whose ancestor is also the Russian Emperor Alexander II. She discovered Russia for herself at the age of 50 and made a gift to the Pushkinists by publishing a manuscript found by chance of the poet’s youngest daughter.

“I have been to St. Petersburg many times, and they asked me the way all the time … I have some kind of Russian face,” laughs Clotilde von Rintelen, a tall, thin woman with a thin nose and a high forehead. “Many people think that I look like Pushkin, which, however, is not the greatest compliment for a woman. The character, as the countess admits, is also Pushkin’s: “Courageously defending one’s position is better to fight than to say no.”

The nee Countess Elisabeth Clotilde von Merenberg (Elisabeth Clotilde von Merenberg), and by her husband von Rintelen, was born in 1941 and lived all her life in the resort of Wiesbaden. This German city has special ties with Russia and its classics, suffice it to say that Ivan Turgenev once lived here and Fyodor Dostoevsky played in the casino. Royal blood also flows in the veins of Clotilde von Rintelen. She is not only the great-great-granddaughter of the great poet Alexander Pushkin, but also the great-granddaughter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II.

The prince’s wife

The Countess’s great-grandmother, Natalya Alexandrovna, is the poet’s youngest daughter, she was 8 months old when he died. Natalya married at the age of 16 a rake and gambler, Major General Mikhail Dubelt, and gave birth to three children. But this marriage did not bring happiness. Life changed thanks to a meeting with a German prince. He came to Russia from Germany and won the heart of Natalia, whose character many compared with his father. 10 years after their first meeting, in 1868, Pushkin’s daughter married Prince Nikolaus of Nassau in London and lived happily with him in Germany until the end of her life. The marriage was morganatic. And although she was granted the title of Countess von Merenberg, for the sake of this marriage, her husband had to renounce the rights to the throne in the duchy.

In Germany, Natalia gave birth to another son and two daughters. Georg Nikolaus von Merenberg, the youngest son from this marriage, is the grandfather of Clotilde von Rintelen. He married the daughter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II Olga. The ashes of Pushkin’s youngest daughter were scattered over the grave of her husband, who was buried in the family vault in the old Wiesbaden cemetery.

Accidentally found novel by Pushkin’s daughter

The history of her life in Russia – life in St. Petersburg, mother Natalya Goncharova and stepfather, cavalry general Pyotr Lansky, as well as her first husband and all other relatives – Natalya Alexandrovna described in great detail in a manuscript that Countess Clotilde von Merenberg accidentally discovered among unnecessary of things. The package containing the papers came from her father, who was sent to her by her sister, who had moved to Argentina. The manuscript is written in Gothic script, and, apparently, Natalya dictated the novel to her German husband.

What is this novel about? “Love and intrigue. This is a biographical work. You are unlikely to find anything new about Pushkin in it – every five minutes of his life have long been described. But there are a lot of interesting details. For example, how one of the heroes walks through St. Petersburg to the ball – along the embankment. When I was at that place for the first time, I was very surprised – that’s how I already “saw” everything in the manuscript,” the Countess shares her impressions. The novel by Natalia Pushkina “Vera Petrovna” was published by Clotilde von Rintelen in 2004 in German and Russian, and the manuscript was donated to the museum in Peterhof.

Family heirlooms returned to Russia

The countess donated to Russian museums some of the relics preserved in her family, including a 1917 portrait of her grandmother Olga von Merenberg, nee Princess Yuryevskaya, daughter of Alexander II from his second marriage, as well as a book in French describing the royal hunt in Belovezhskaya Pushcha – it was an informal meeting of the Russian emperor with the heads of a number of European states. The album was issued in fifty copies as a diplomatic gift and is a rarity. “In Peterhof, this book was even more delighted than the portrait of my grandmother,” says the Countess.

Umbrella handle inherited by Clotilde von Rintelen from her grandmother Olga, daughter of Tsar Alexander IIPhoto: Elena Dozhina/DW

The family has a few favorite heirlooms. For example, a brooch in the form of a cross made of glass and pomegranate, as well as an antique handle from an umbrella that belonged to the daughter of the Tsar, Olga. Initially, there were five of them, but in her youth, Clotilde decided to use the stones that decorated them. She never takes off a ring with one of them from her hand.

“I am the symbol of the symbol”

Until the age of 50, the countess had never been to Russia and did not speak Russian, although she was familiar with Pushkin’s work from adolescence. She especially likes The Young Lady-Peasant Woman.

“The death of parents, marriage, small children (I have three sons), working as a psychiatrist and opening my own medical practice – there were always some good reasons not to go to Russia,” von Rintelen admits. “But one day I said to myself: enough excuses. Because I always felt that Russian is an important part of me. I really love the romance for the poem “I remember a wonderful moment” – when I hear it, I cry.”

In October 1991, Clotilde von Rintelen came to Russia for the first time to celebrate the 180th anniversary of the Pushkin Lyceum, which was attended by all the descendants of the poet from around the world. “After talking with people in Russia, I realized what an important symbol Pushkin is for them. A symbol of freedom, love, liveliness, adherence to principles. And I have a feeling that for Russians I am a symbol of a symbol.” On the same visit, Clotilde von Rintelen began to learn Russian and today she speaks it quite well.

“It seemed like bullets were flying”

Before the pandemic, the countess traveled to Russia every year, collecting donations for the Alexander Hospital in St. Petersburg, and also organizing trips to Russia. “It was not just tourism. We always visited, for example, memorable places associated with the blockade of Leningrad. It was exciting and painful, because some of the fathers and grandfathers fought on the side of Nazi Germany.”

Talking about one of the trips, the 81-year-old woman could not hold back her tears. “In the Stalingrad Battle Museum-Reserve, I noticed a postcard with a text written in Cyrillic in pencil. I then said that, probably, the Germans who were here during the war could write the same thing. And the guide said: “Do you want to read “?” In the archive, she took out a bunch of letters written in Gothic script. They were translated, with the exception of completely illegible lines. I repaired the gaps for several hours. Their content turned out to be as I expected: “we are suffering from a cold, a parcel, how is grandmother doing, is the cow alive … And then we went out into the street, it was hot forty and a strong wind was blowing. We walked along the road, and under our feet the sand creaked like snow … And for some reason there were a lot of locusts, and they jumped out from under us in different directions, and it seemed to me that it was bullets flying.

A descendant of the Russian Tsar served in the Luftwaffe

Grandson of the Russian Tsar, Count Georg von Merenberg
Grandson of the Russian Tsar, Count Georg von Merenberg Photo: private

Clotilde’s father, Count Georg von Merenberg, was a military man. During World War II, he served on the Eastern Front. After the Eastern Front, already being a major, he served in Greece. “Father didn’t tell anything about the war at all. Only 10 years ago I learned from the media that for some time he was the commandant on the Greek island of Paros. In May 1944, partisans attacked a military airfield there, killing two Germans. Luftwaffe soldiers executed one Greek and took hostage 125 local residents. They, too, were to be killed in an act of retribution,” says the Countess. However, the new commandant appointed after this attack, Major von Merenberg, managed to agree with the rector of the local monastery: he promised to release all the hostages if the partisans refused new attacks.

Both sides kept their word. “When this became known, my father was transferred to another place. Under the laws of wartime, he was considered a traitor because he did not follow the order. But it was July 1944, just a few days after the assassination attempt on Hitler was made. Father was lucky that all attention was focused on this, and he managed to avoid the harsh sentence of the tribunal.

Pushkin is little known in Germany

After acquaintance with Russia, Clotilde von Rintelen headed the Pushkin Society in Germany for some time. The Countess notes with regret that Pushkin is very little known in her homeland. The reason for this, in her opinion, is the unsuccessful translations into German, and this is especially true of poetry. In the east of Germany, older people are better acquainted with the poet’s work, because they studied Pushkin at school during the GDR.

Clotilde von Rintelen signing a book she published about the Orthodox Church in Wiesbaden
Clotilde von Rintelen headed the Pushkin Society in Germany and published several books, and also presented Peterhof with a portrait of Princess OlgaPhoto: DW

Clotilde von Rintelen took part in the forum of civil societies in Germany and Russia “Petersburg Dialogue”. Including in Wiesbaden. At one of the conferences, she ran into Mikhail Gorbachev. Upon learning that she was a descendant of Pushkin, the ex-president of the USSR immediately read an excerpt from “Eugene Onegin”, which struck both the countess and everyone around her. Today, Pushkin’s great-great-granddaughter complains that because of the pandemic and the war, she cannot go to Russia.

Pushkin will return

Recently, the countess has been living mainly in a nursing home in Wiesbaden. This is her choice – more communication, because her husband has already died, and help if necessary. But Clotilde von Rintelen often returns to her large apartment, where, in addition to portraits of Pushkin and her other ancestors, her own paintings hang on the walls.

Pushkin’s great-great-granddaughter is upset that against the backdrop of the war and the fight against Russian aggression, the poet began to be excluded from the school curriculum in Ukraine, and the streets named after him were renamed. “If you cross out Pushkin, it will be noticeable that something is missing. He adapted and Russified, including European fairy tales. And now just saying that they are no more will sound strange. I think some time will pass, and Pushkin will return Once we were driving around Moscow, and the taxi driver, having heard that I was a relative of the poet, began to recite his poems, so emotionally that he stopped holding the wheel. There are and will remain such people. I don’t think Pushkin can be banned. “

The great-great-granddaughter of the poet loves barbecue, knows how to make okroshka, cook borscht and bake pies. “I can say that I am – thanks to Pushkin – a kind of genetic bridge between Russia and Germany. And I hope that I can help build bridges after the war. I am sure that this is possible if everyone feels that establishing new borders is not properly”.

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