Is it true that Dantes during a duel with Pushkin was in the Brolder?

In the media and blogs, a version is often found, according to which, during a duel with Pushkin, his opponent Dantes was protected by some kind of armor-either chain mail, or cuirassa. We decided to figure out if this is so.

The version of Kiiras or chain mail that saved Dantes from Pushkin’s shot, you can meet in the media over and over again, especially on the eve of the birthday or day of Pushkin's death. For example, "Komsomolskaya Truth"Wrote about chain mail made shortly before the duel, and"Russian newspaper" - About cavalry cuirass. This version is also found in blogs - Livejournal, "VKontakte" And Facebook.

The duel between Alexander Pushkin and Georges Dantes-Geckern took place at about 5 pm on January 27 (February 8), 1837. Conditions as an insulted party put forward Dantes. The second of Pushkin, his lyceum friend Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Danzas, accepted these conditions from the second Dantes. “Pistols were chosen weapons. Opponents had to shoot at a distance of twenty steps, so that everyone could take five steps and approach the barrier; No one was given the advantages of the first shot; Everyone had to make one shot when he would like, but in the event of a miss on both sides, the case was supposed to begin again on the same conditions, ” - told Later Danzas.

At the signal of seconds, the rivals headed for the barriers. Dantes, not reaching one step, shot first, on the go. The bullet hit Pushkin in the stomach, he fell, the gun flew into the snow. He asked Danzas to give him another pistol. Rising at the elbow, Pushkin shot at Dantes, standing in the same place and turning to the enemy with his right side. The shot found the target, Dantes Fell and said: "I think that the bullet hit the chest." "Bravo!" - exclaimed Pushkin.

Two days later, Pushkin died. Dantes was more fortunate: his wound was not dangerous. On March 11 (23), 1837, the military ministry started a consequence of the match. The defendants became Dantes as a direct participant in a duel and Danzas as a second of Pushkin. Thanks to this case, a document on a medical examination of Dantes remained in history. The headquarters of horse artillery Stefanovich visited Dantes and presented conclusion: “He has a bullet penetrating wound on his right hand below the elbow composition of four transverse fingers; The entrance and output of the bullet in a small one from a different distance. Both wounds are in the bending fingers of the muscles surrounding the radial bone to the outer side. ” In addition, the doctor noted that the patient “also complains in the wounded place about the pain in the right upper part of the belly, where the flying bullet caused a concussion, which pain is detected with deep inhalation, although the external signs of the contusion are not noticeable.”

Pushkin's friends knew a little more than the investigation. IN letter Zhukovsky’s father, the poet Sergei Lvovich, is also given by the smaller details of Dantes-Geckern’s wounds: “The bullet broke through the fleshy parts of his right hand, he closed his chest with some, and, being weakened, fell into the button, to which the pantalons kept on a suspension against the spoon; This button saved Haeckerna. ” Contemporaries knew about the duel all possible details, but this did not prevent the descendants from doubting the reliability of this information.

The version of Dantes’s armor gained its distribution in the early 1930s. Scientists They thinkthat this was one of the most famous Pushkinists Vikenty Veresaev. One evening, a conversation about Pushkin’s death came into a large company. How told The owner of the house, the journalist and writer Ivan Rahillo, supported the conversation by a guest from Arkhangelsk. He said that he saw somewhere a record of the arrival in Arkhangelsk in front of the duel of a man from Baron Gekkern, the foster father of Dantes. And, most suspicious, this man settled in the quarter of gunsmiths. Veresaev vividly reacted to this news and then came to an unexpected conclusion. The first duel between Pushkin and Dantes was supposed to take place at the end of 1836, but Baron Geckern asked to postpone it for two weeks. During this time, it was just that it was possible to order chain mail and cirasa, I counted Veresaev.

Then Veresaev received A letter from the Ural engineer who decided to conduct an investigative experiment: he put on a clock on a mannequin and shot at the butt of an aim at the button. The bullet did not bounce, but, on the contrary, deeply entered the mannequin with a button. Thus, the author argued that no button could save Dantes - therefore, the armor has preserved the enemy of Pushkin. However, the engineer did not take into account the hit in the hand, as well as the amount of gunpowder, which could influence the trajectory and the power of the pool flight. Subsequently, the article about this experiment was Published In 1939 in the magazine "Siberian Lights". Finally, the version of the armor (cuirass, chain mail or metal plates) finally fixed the TASS agency in 1963. In several Soviet newspapers, an article appeared under the name “Duel or Murder?”. It was written by a Sudmed expert V. Safronov. According to him, during a duel, Dantes wore a uniform with buttons in a row located in the middle, and the bullet could not scoop in the way as Zhukovsky described. The expert concluded that under the shirt of Dantes there was a kind of protective device. Later Safronova, like tells The literary critic Boris Meilay was invited to speak for a conference, where both forensic experts and Pushkinists were called. But, writes Meila, the participants did not hear the scientific substantiation of the armor version, only discussions about Dantes's baseness.

Another remarkable work is a series of articles by Pushkinist Mikhail Yashin, dedicated to the Chronicle of the latest events in front of a duel. In particular, he assumes that Dantes’s armor is nothing more than Cavaliergard Kiras, who was already supposed to Dantes as a uniform. Yashin describes in detail the tests of a new model, Passing in 1836. But to his research, Pushkinists Reacted skeptically Due to the set of actual errors in other works.

So, there were several versions of the “protective device” at once. Kirasa, if it corresponded to the established sample, can immediately be discarded: the convex upper part of the cuirass in any way would not allow you to wear such protection under the uniform or frock coat.

The story with a person sent behind the armor in Arkhangelsk did not find confirmation. Boris Meilay I tried Find at least something in the archives, but to no avail. The writer Igor Strezhnev later said that Veresaev simply played. In his book "To the Jupered Northern Waves" Strezhnev opened The personality of the “guest from Arkhangelsk”, which threw Veresaev’s version about the ordered armor. It turned out to be poet Vladimir Zhilkin. According to Strezhnev, "everything he said in the memorial to V. Veresaev and I. Rahillo evening was nothing more than a gloomy joke, a hoax, which resulted in a rejection of all sorts of leisure inventions."

Supporters of the version of the armor (including Veresaev) also indicated that before the duel, the seconds did not examine the clothes of opponents. Some written arch regulating the conditions of the fights did not exist at that time, they were determined by seconds (as in the case of Pushkin). In 1912 appeared "Duel Code" Vasily Durasov. It really indicates that seconds should examine the participants of the duel, whether it be a duel on swords or on pistols. But in the 19th century, everything was decided on the spot with seconds. Pushkinist Yanina Levkovich already in the 1990s I examined in detail All versions of the "armor" came to the conclusion that they are most likely insolvent. Pushkin was a magnificent shooter, the chances that he would miss almost did not exist. And Dantes could hardly risk reputation, even posthumously. The first examination by the doctor at the place of a duel would reveal cirasa, chain mail or any type of armor.

On Popular sites and in social networks There is another common version: supposedly the first about Kiras guessed the daughter of Dantes, Leonia-Sharlotta. This hypothesis appeared in "Russian newspaper»In 2003. The logic of the author of the article, professor MAI Valery Burdakov, is as follows: Leonia adored Pushkin - she studied at the Polytechnic Institute and had a mathematical mind - accused her father of murder - he sent her to a crazy house. The article concludes that Dantes's daughter could not help but understand why her father escaped with a wound. And the records were not preserved, because they were allegedly destroyed by Dantes. But the only source of information is interview Her brother (that is, the son of Dantes) newspaper "New Time" in 1899. He said that his sister loved Russian culture and Pushkin, as well as her mental illness. There is only oral evidence about a quarrel with a father and their Retelling Pushkinists. A statementthat Dantes sent his daughter for this to a crazy house is just speculation.

For any conclusions in favor of the version of the "armor" there are too few initial data. It is not known in which clothing that Dantes was and in which button the bullet hit. The inspection of the wounded Dantes seems to be too fugitive, and the word “contusion” is too vague. Therefore, no direct or even indirect convincing evidence of Dantes has special protection to date.

Images on the cover and inside the publication: Wikipedia

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Ya. L. Levkovich. Chain of Dantes // Legends and myths about Pushkin.
2. A.I. Hessen. Moika embankment, 12.
3. I. Obodovskaya, M. Dementiev. After the death of Pushkin.