Catherine's children 2 their fate documentary film. Question about paternity

Russian monarchs a considerable number of illegitimate children are attributed, most of whom never actually existed. There are very real historical people who were considered imperial children, but who in fact were not.

But there are people whose origin historians are still puzzling over. One of them is Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina.

U Catherine the Great there were many favorites, however Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin stands apart. He managed to become not only the empress’s lover, but also her close friend, right hand, an assistant in all matters and endeavors.

Replaced as favorite Grigory Orlov, his namesake turned out to be wiser, more far-sighted, more active.

The relationship between Potemkin and Catherine II during a certain period of time was so close that even a version arose about their secret wedding.

As you know, Ekaterina gave birth to a son, Alexei, from Grigory Orlov. Considering the Empress’s affection for Potemkin, the version that Catherine decided to give birth to a child from him also looks quite realistic.

Secret birth

On July 13, 1775, a girl was secretly born in Moscow and named Elizabeth. Infant was taken by Potemkin to his sister Maria Alexandrovna Samoilova, and his nephew was appointed guardian of the girl Alexander Nikolaevich Samoilov.

When the girl grew up, in the 1780s they found another guardian for her - he became Life physician Ivan Filippovich Beck, who treated the Empress’s grandchildren. Subsequently, the girl was sent to a boarding school for education and upbringing.

The question of the paternity of Grigory Potemkin does not arise in this case - direct evidence is the surname “Tyomkina” given to the girl.

According to the tradition of that time, the surname of the illegitimate son of a high-born father was formed by removing the first syllable from the parent’s surname. This is how the Betskys, Pnins and Litsyns appeared in Rus' - the illegitimate descendants of the princes Trubetskoys, Repnins and Golitsyns. So there is no doubt that Lisa Tyomkina was the daughter of Grigory Potemkin.

But was the empress her mother?

For some time before and after July 13, 1775, Catherine did not appear in public. According to the official version, Catherine got an upset stomach due to unwashed fruit. During this period, she was actually in Moscow, where the celebration of the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty, which completed Russian-Turkish war. That is, Catherine had all the conditions to secretly give birth to a child.

"It's time to have children"

However, there were many skeptics then and now. Most of all, the age of Catherine herself raised doubts: by the time of the expected birth, she was already 46 years old, which is quite a lot from the point of view of childbearing today, but by the standards of the 18th century it seemed an prohibitive age.

King Louis XVI of France, the same one who was about to lose his head from the guillotine knife, sneered: “Mistress Potemkina is a good forty-five: it’s time to give birth to children.”

The second reason for doubt is Catherine’s attitude towards Elizaveta Tyomkina. Or rather, the absence of any relationship. Against the background of first concern, and then anger towards the son from Orlov, Alexei Bobrinsky, such indifference of the empress looks strange.

It cannot be said that the father spoiled the girl with attention, although Elizabeth, of course, had everything she needed.

There is an assumption that Elizabeth’s mother could have been one of Potemkin’s favorites, who, of course, could not compete with the empress and about whom little is known. However, there is no convincing evidence for this version either.

“The family lived amicably, cheerfully and noisily”

According to contemporaries, Elizaveta Tyomkina herself knew from childhood that she was the daughter of Grigory Potemkin and Catherine the Great.

After the death of her father, Elizaveta Tyomkina was granted large estates in the Kherson region - a region to the development and arrangement of which His Serene Highness devoted a lot of effort.

In 1794, a 19-year-old rich bride was married to a 28-year-old Second Major Ivan Khristoforovich Kalageorgi.

The son of a Greek nobleman, guardsman-cuirassier Ivan Kalageorgi was a notable person. From childhood he was brought up with the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich and therefore was one of those close to the imperial family.

This marriage turned out to be happy - Ivan and Elizabeth had ten children, 4 sons and 6 daughters. Ivan Kalageorgi himself rose to the rank of governor of the Ekaterinoslav province.

The character of Elizaveta Tyomkina was described in different ways - some called her spoiled, self-confident and uncontrollable, others called her a modest woman and a good mother.

Great-grandson of Elizaveta Tiomkina, famous literary critic and linguist Dmitry Nikolaevich Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, described the life of his ancestors this way: “The family lived amicably, cheerfully and noisily, but at the same time somehow very restless, expecting from time to time all sorts of troubles and misfortunes.”

Portrait from the Tretyakov Gallery

After Elizabeth got married, one of her former guardians, Alexander Samoilov, commissioned a famous artist Vladimir Borovikovsky her portrait. “What I need most... is to have a portrait of Elizaveta Grigorievna Kalageorgieva... I want the painter Borovikovsky to copy her... let Elizaveta Grigorievna be painted in such a way that her neck is open and her hair, disheveled in curls, lies on it in no order... .,” Samoilov gave instructions in a letter to his representative.

Portrait of Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina as Diana. 1798 Photo: Public Domain

The portrait was ready a year later. Borovikovsky also performed a miniature repetition of it on zinc. On it, Elizabeth was depicted in the image of the ancient Greek goddess Diana, with her breasts bare, with a crescent-shaped decoration in her hair.

The portrait and miniature were presented to the Kalageorgi family.

Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina-Kalageorgi lived a life far from political storms and died in May 1854, at the age of 78.

In 1884, Elizabeth's son Konstantin Ivanovich Kalageorgi offered to buy a portrait of his mother to a collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov for 6 thousand rubles.

Tretyakov considered the price excessively high. Then the grandson of Elizabeth and the son of Constantine, a justice of the peace, joined the trade Nikolai Konstantinovich Kalageorgi, who wrote to the collector: “The portrait of my grandmother has a triple historical significance- according to the personality of the artist, according to the personality of my grandmother and as a type of beauty of the eighteenth century, which constitutes its value completely independently of the fashionable trends of contemporary art.”

Tretyakov, however, was not convinced by this argument. As a result, the portrait remained in the Kalageorgi family.

In 1907, the widow of Judge Kalageorgi sold the portrait to the Moscow collector Tsvetkov. 18 years later, Tsvetkov’s collection became part of the State Tretyakov Gallery. A miniature with Elizaveta Tyomkina as Diana was acquired Tretyakov Gallery th in 1964.

The portrait of Grigory Potemkin’s daughter can be seen today by all visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery. See and try to independently conclude whether she was the daughter of Catherine II. After all, historians have never had 100% proof of the correctness or incorrectness of this version.

Almost immediately a complete dissimilarity of character and upbringing is revealed. Georg may be half an hour, an hour late with a visit to both her and her brother Alexander. This infuriates Ekaterina terribly. One day the Prince of Wales was an hour and a half late, but a courtier came out to him and said that His Highness had arrived too early, Her Highness was taking a bath.
Meanwhile, one of George's brothers, Duke of Clarence, became seriously interested in the Russian beauty. If it weren’t for her prejudice against the boors of the English and she would eventually be the Queen of England…
However, the enmity between Catherine and the English world was quite fierce. The wife of our ambassador in London, Daria Lieven ( sister the future chief of gendarmes Benckendorff and head of our station in Europe) writes about the sister of his king, in solidarity with the Prince of Wales: “She was very power-hungry and distinguished by enormous conceit. I have never met a woman who was so obsessed with the need to move, act, play a role and outshine others.”
“The need to move and play a role” led to the fact that in London, Catherine, casually, upset the emerging alliance of the heir to the Dutch throne with one of the English princesses and urgently reoriented it in favor of her younger sister Anna.
Moving further in the matrimonial direction, Catherine finds a groom for herself, this is her close relative heir to the throne of the Duchy of Württemberg, the handsome Wilhelm. For the sake of his beloved sister, Alexander assigns the status of a kingdom to Württemberg through the Congress of Vienna. (Moreover, Württemberg is the birthplace of Maria Feodorovna).
So, having flown past the Austrian, French and English crowns, Catherine still becomes the Queen of Württemberg (since 1816).
Her second marriage is successful in all respects. Spouses love each other passionately and sincerely. Both are engaged in the organization of their kingdom. It’s amazing: Catherine does so much for the prosperity of Württemberg that the inhabitants of this German land still honor her memory! Catherine’s motto: “Providing work is more important than giving alms” sounds acutely relevant today!
She gives her husband two daughters. One of them will eventually become the wife of Count Neiperg, the son of Marie-Louise and her second (after Napoleon) husband. No matter how hard the rope twists, the descendants of Catherine of Württemberg still had to become related to the Habsburgs (and to some extent with Bonaparte)…
In 1818, Maria Feodorovna visited the capital of her kingdom and her hometown of Stuttgart. She is delighted with Catherine’s successes, with the happiness that reigns in their home, and leaves them with tears of tenderness to continue her voyage to the Courts of her daughters. Maria Feodorovna's path lies in Weimar. And here terrible news overtakes her: shortly after her departure on January 9, 1819, Catherine of Württemberg dies of transient meningitis.
She is not yet 32 ​​years old…
King William still could not believe his loss; he was literally taken by force from his wife’s corpse…
Catherine was buried outside the city in Orthodox Church, which has survived to this day. This church is connected not only with Russian history, but also with Russian culture. Many years later, the wedding of the 58-year-old poet V.A. Zhukovsky and the 17-year-old daughter of his friend Elizaveta Reitern took place here.
In 1994, all of Germany widely celebrated the 175th anniversary of the birth of Catherine of Württemberg. They remember her more there than at home…

Around historical figures, cultural figures, artists and politicians always collect an incredible amount of myths, gossip and rumors. The Russian Empress Catherine II was no exception. According to various sources, the children of Catherine II were born from her legal husband Peter III, favorites Grigory Orlov and Potemkin, as well as adviser Panin. Now it is difficult to say which rumors are true and which are fiction, and how many children Catherine II had.

Children of Catherine II and Peter III

Pavel Petrovich- the first child of Catherine II from Peter III, was born on September 20 (October 1), 1754 in the Summer Imperial Palace in St. Petersburg. Present at the birth of the heir to the empire were: the current Empress of Russia Elizaveta Petrovna, future emperor Peter III and the Shuvalov brothers. The birth of Paul was an extremely important and anticipated event for the empress, so Elizabeth organized festivities on this occasion and took upon herself all the troubles of raising the heir. The Empress hired a whole staff of nannies and educators, completely isolating the child from his parents. Catherine II had almost no contact with Pavel Petrovich and had no opportunity to influence his upbringing.

It should be noted that the heir’s father doubted his paternity, although Catherine II herself categorically denied all suspicions. There were doubts at court as well. Firstly, the child appeared after 10 years of marriage, when everyone at court was sure of the couple’s infertility. Secondly, it is not known for certain what caused the long-awaited pregnancy of Catherine II: the successful cure of Peter III from phimosis by surgical intervention(as the empress states in her memoirs) or the appearance at court of the handsome nobleman Sergei Saltykov, Catherine’s first favorite. To be fair, it is worth noting that Pavel had an extreme external resemblance to Peter III and was completely different from Saltykov.

Anna Petrovna

Princess Anna was born on December 9(20), 1757 in Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. As in the case of Paul, Empress Elizabeth immediately took the baby to her chambers for upbringing, forbidding her parents to visit her. In honor of the birth of a girl, 101 shots were fired from the Peter and Paul Fortress around midnight. The baby was named Anna in honor of the Empress Elizabeth's sister, although Catherine intended to name her daughter Elizabeth. The baptism was carried out almost secretly: there were no guests or representatives of other powers, and the empress herself entered the church through a side door. For the birth of Anna, both parents received 60,000 rubles, which greatly delighted Peter and offended Catherine. The children of Catherine II from Peter grew up and were raised by strangers - nannies and teachers, which deeply saddened the future empress, but completely suited the current empress.

Stanislav August Poniatowski

Peter doubted his paternity and did not hide it; there were rumors at court that the real father was Stanislav Poniatowski, the future king of Poland. Anna lived for just over a year and died after a short illness. For Catherine II, the death of her daughter was a strong blow.

Illegitimate children

Children of Catherine II and Grigory Orlov

Alexey Bobrinsky

The relationship between Catherine II and Grigory Orlov was quite long, so many are inclined to the idea that the empress gave birth to several children about the count. However, information has been preserved about only one child - Alexei Bobrinsky. It is unknown whether Orlov and Catherine II had any more children, but Alexei is the official offspring of the couple. The boy became the first illegitimate child of the future empress and was born on April 11-12 (22), 1762 at the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg.

Immediately after birth, the boy was transferred to the family of Vasily Shkurin, Catherine’s wardrobe master, where he was brought up with Vasily’s other sons. Orlov recognized his son and secretly visited the boy with Catherine. The son of Catherine II from Grigory Orlov, despite all the efforts of his parents, grew up to be a mediocre and infantile man. Bobrinsky's fate cannot be called tragic - he received good education, arranged his life well with government funding and even supported friendly relations with brother Paul after his coronation.

Other children of Orlov and Catherine II

In various sources you can find references to other children of the empress and favorite, but there is not a single fact or document confirming their existence. Some historians are inclined to believe that Catherine II had several failed pregnancies, while others talk about stillborn children or those who died in infancy. There is also a version about Grigory Orlov’s illness and his inability to bear children after it. However, the count, having married, became a father again.

Children of Catherine II and Grigory Potemkin

Equally, as with Orlov, with Potemkin, Catherine II for a long time I was in a close relationship, so there are many myths around this union. According to one version, Prince Potemkin and Catherine II had a daughter, born on July 13, 1775 in the Prechistensky Palace in Moscow. Existence itself Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina There is no doubt - such a woman really existed, she even left behind 10 children. Tyomkina's portrait can be seen in the Tretyakov Gallery. What’s more important is that the woman’s origins are unknown.

The main reason for doubt that Elizabeth is the daughter of Potemkin and the Empress is the age of Catherine II at the time of the girl’s birth: at that time the Empress was about 45 years old. At the same time, the baby was handed over to the family of the prince’s sister, and Potemkin appointed his nephew as her guardian. The girl received a good education, Grigory allocated significant sums for her maintenance and worked hard for the marriage of his intended daughter. In this case, it is more obvious that Elizabeth’s father was Grigory Potemkin, while her mother could well have been one of his favorites, and not Empress Catherine.

Other illegitimate children of Catherine II

It is not known for certain how many children Empress Catherine II had and what their fate was. Various sources call different quantities children, mention different fathers. According to some versions, miscarriages and stillborn babies were attributed to Catherine’s union with Potemkin, as well as with Orlov, but no evidence of this has survived.

– quite a prominent person in the history of Russia. Thanks to her appearance, charisma, flexible mind and cheerful disposition, she was popular among men and had a stormy personal life. Catherine gave birth to 4 children, two boys and two girls.

Anna Petrovna born in 1757. Many believed that Peter III was not the girl's father, despite the fact that he recognized her as his daughter. There were rumors that the real father was Catherine's lover Stanislav Poniatovsky. The girl, unfortunately, lived only a short time more than a year, and died of smallpox in infancy.

The only surviving legitimate child of Catherine the Great - although in this case about the origin young man there is a lot of controversy and gossip. He was born in 1754, and after his birth he was immediately taken in by Empress Elizabeth. The boy received an excellent education, was spoiled by his grandmother, and lived in abundance. Pavel was unhappy in the future, his first wife died in childbirth, and his relationship with his second did not work out, despite the fact that they had 10 children. The young man ascended the throne at the age of 42, but ruled for only 4 years, after which he was killed by conspirators.

Elizaveta Temkina was illegitimate child Catherine 2. The Empress gave birth to a girl at a fairly late age - at 46 years old. Her father would have been Count Potemkin (it was in his honor that she was given such a surname), after whose death his estates passed to the girl, and she lived happy life without need. The Empress's daughter happily married Ivan Kalageorgi and gave birth to 10 children. Elizabeth died at the age of 76.

Alexey Bobrinsky- another child of Catherine the Great, born out of wedlock in 1762 from Grigory Orlov. Catherine did not participate in raising her son (she first saw him a year after his birth); the boy was raised by Chamberlain Shkurin until he was 12 years old, after which he was sent to the cadet corps. The young man learned about his origin only after the death of his mother, and was unexpectedly good-naturedly received by Paul 1. Alexei received the title of count and was close friends with his brother. He was interested in alchemy, science and agriculture. The son of Catherine the Great died in 1813.

Historians still cannot accurately calculate how many illegitimate children Louis XIV had - the offspring of the “Sun King” were too numerous. However, not everything was so pious in the Russian kingdom: rumor ascribes 7 offspring to Catherine II, 9 to Nicholas I, and 12 to Alexander II, but we suggest recalling only the most notable bastards.

Ivan Musin-Pushkin

As you know, Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich had 16 children in two marriages, three of them Feodor III, Ivan V and Peter I reigned. However, there is a version according to which the offspring of the “Quiet” were not limited to this. His illegitimate son could well have been the future associate of Peter the Great, Ivan Musin-Pushkin, - and this assumption was first voiced by the famous collector of gossip about representatives of the royal family, Prince Dolgoruky. Ivan’s father served as a steward at court, which means that his wife, Ivan’s mother, Irina, could come into the tsar’s field of view—there were persistent rumors about their relationship at court.

Ivan was born in 1661, and at that time the Tsar’s first wife, Maria Ilyinichna, was still alive. Could “The Quietest” have adopted a son on the side, when during 21 years of marriage he had 13 legitimate children? Unknown. Indirect confirmation of Ivan’s noble origins are the facts: Peter called him “brother,” awarded him the title of count in 1710, made him a senator a year later, and in 1725 entrusted him with the management of the Mint. There is a legend according to which Peter, during the next feast, in an attempt to figure out whose son he was, pointed to Ivan with the words: “This one knows for sure that he is the son of my father.” Peter himself was unsure, because rumors included many people as his fathers - from the groom Mishka Dobrov to Patriarch Joachim.

Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky

However, Peter himself was not distinguished by monastic behavior. Numerous illegitimate children were attributed to him both at home and abroad. Many have heard that since the 18th century Mikhail Lomonosov was called his son, in contrast to the version that Peter the Great’s blood also flows in the veins of the commander Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. In his classic biography, Moscow is indicated as his place of birth, but there is an assumption that the future hero of Russia was born in the village of Stroentsy (Transnistria), where his mother, Countess Maria Rumyantseva, was waiting for her husband from a Turkish business trip on the orders of Peter. Allegedly, the boy was named Peter in honor of his noble father.

Whether this is true or not, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was very favorable “ stepbrother“- for the news of the Peace of Abo, the queen immediately promoted the young captain to colonel and made him a count. The young man resembled his intended parent and was daring, leading a wild life both while studying abroad and during his service at home. His father, the outstanding diplomat Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev, threatened to renounce his heir and wrote that he would have to “sew up his ears” so as not to hear about his shameful antics.

Alexey Bobrinsky

The question of the paternity of the children of Catherine II still torments historians and bibliographers. In memoirs Alexandra III there is indirect confirmation of rumors that Paul I was born by Catherine from Sergei Saltykov. Upon learning of this, Alexander allegedly crossed himself and exclaimed: “Thank God, we are Russian!” However, there are many refutations of this version, and one of the most powerful arguments is that the characteristic Western European genes of Paul’s descendants could hardly have been laid down by Saltykov.

Among other children, Alexey Bobrinsky, born in the Winter Palace from Count Orlov, especially stands out. The very sacrament of birth was kept in the strictest confidence, and immediately after his birth the boy was given to be raised by the Empress’s wardrobe master, Vasily Shkurin. In 1781, Catherine sent her son Alexei a letter in which she pointed out the “vague circumstances” of his birth and the reasons why she was forced to hide this fact: “strong enemies” and “the desire to save herself and her eldest son.” True, there is a version that the queen deliberately lied to herself, wanting to annoy her eldest.

Meanwhile, the “free brother” Paul, after his accession to the throne, favored his relatives. He canceled Alexei’s disgrace (his mother allowed him to come to St. Petersburg only once - after marriage), and during a personal meeting he treated his “brother,” according to eyewitnesses, with warmth. Bobrinsky received the count with the right to transfer to descendants and the inheritance of his father, Grigory Orlov. Alexey Grigorievich failed to achieve outstanding successes during his service, but he laid the foundation famous family Bobrinsky, whose representatives later became outstanding statesmen.

Nikolay Isakov

IN different times rumor attributed to Alexander I the paternity of 11 children, among whom the most prominent figure was the general and reformer of military education Nikolai Isakov. Officially, his parents were the court riding teacher Vasily Isakov and a student of the Catherine Institute Maria Karacharova. External resemblance Nicholas and the emperor gave rise to a lot of gossip, and even Nicholas I allegedly explained this “similarity” by kinship. There is a legend according to which Nikolai forbade Isakov to care for his daughter Olga due to the fact that the young people were brother and sister.

Nikolai Isakov made a brilliant career, not always without the help of his all-powerful relatives. Graduated with honors from the Imperial military academy, went through the Caucasian War of 1846, during the Crimean War he participated in the defense of Sevastopol, rose to the rank of general, and in 1863 carried out a reform military educational institutions. At the request of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, he headed the Red Cross, and on his personal initiative he devoted a lot of time to charity.

Fedor Trepov

Persistent rumors regularly turned the St. Petersburg mayor Fyodor Trepov into the illegitimate son of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich - the future Emperor Nicholas I. Reasons for gossip were given by the mysterious multi-million dollar fortune Fedor Fedorovich - allegedly each of his nine children received up to 15 thousand in income annually. True, his other “father” periodically became the German Emperor Wilhelm I. But these are all rumors, but the fact that the capital’s mayor was given a salary unthinkable at that time is a fact. He received more than 18 thousand rubles a year, while Minister of War Milyutin was content with only 15.

did not allow envious people to sleep peacefully and successful career Trepov. In particular, he reformed the city police by attracting retired military officers, most of whom he formed a personal opinion about during the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863-64. He was the first to fight corruption in the city police. The ban on “holiday offerings” did not cause delight among the townspeople, because “thanking” the police was a common thing. Perhaps this is what partly persuaded the jury to acquit Vera Zasulich, who shot mayor Trepov.

Alexander Dembovetsky

The date of birth of one of the most progressive governors of Mogilev, Alexander Dembovetsky, was not indicated even in official papers. Today we can only guess about the reasons. However, this is exactly what Alexander Stanislavovich’s contemporaries were doing, gossiping about his secret origin and high-ranking patrons. The speculation was also fueled by the fact that it was impossible to occupy the governor’s chair at the age of 30 thanks to one’s own talents; moreover, during his entire service, Dembovetsky was showered with the “highest favors” of his “parent” - Alexander II.

There is one more fact in favor of this version. In 1839, during a voyage across Russia, the emperor fell ill and spent a month and a half in Mogilev, and Sasha Dembovetsky was presumably born in 1840. The date of birth is helped to establish the Formal List from the historical archive of St. Petersburg - in the entry from 1893 there is a mention of 53-year-old Alexander Dembovetsky.

The Emperor personally admonished the newly elected governor, instructing him to do “everything possible to restore the upset affairs in the Mogilev province.” AND illegitimate son He tried with all his might to justify the trust: already in the first year of leadership, he brought the Mogilev region out of crisis, and then turned the province into one of the most progressive in the empire.

Lev Gumilev

The thirst for sensation did not spare Nicholas II, who was credited with paternity only son Akhmatova. This version was expressed by the famous St. Petersburg researchers of the biography of the “poet-knight” Vladimir and Natalya Evseviev. Their first argument was that contemporaries noted Akhmatova’s “royal behavior,” although she herself always said that she was brought up in a “philistine” family - supposedly she adopted the manner of behavior from her crowned lover.

Huge bet in evidence base The relationship between Lev Gumilyov and the Tsar is based on the work of Akhmatova herself. Just remember the “gray-eyed king” - it was “gray radiant eyes” that many diplomats who met with Nicholas noted. The Evsevievs also remembered the little-known poem “Confusion” with the lines: “And glances are like rays. I just shuddered: this/Can tame me” and “And mysterious, ancient faces/The eyes looked at me...” According to researchers, few people other than the king could have possessed a “mysterious ancient face.”

Further, the first collections with “helpless”, by the author’s own admission, poems were accepted by critics (who would scold a woman with such a patron?), but not by her husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, who refused to publish them in the “Workshop of Poets” for a year and a half. The Evsevievs claim that “Evening” and “The Rosary” were successful largely due to the fact that they were published at the height of the relationship between Akhmatova and the Tsar, while the collection “ White flock" of 1917 was not noticed, like the two subsequent books.

If Anna Andreevna categorically denied any connection with Blok, she never denied rumors about a relationship with the Tsar. At the same time, it is known that the married life of Akhmatova and Gumilyov did not work out, and Akhmatova wrote that after the birth of her son, the couple, with tacit consent, gave each other absolute freedom.

Where could Nikolai and Akhmatova meet? And the Evsevievs have an answer to this question: from the windows of their house, the poetess could see the Tsar walking in Alexander Park, and since the residence was open to the public, Anna Andreevna could easily approach him and speak.

Indirect confirmation of Nikolai’s paternity was also found in Emma Gerstein - famous literary critic, who lived at the same time as the poetess. In “Notes about Anna Akhmatova” she wrote that she hated her “Grey-Eyed King” because “her son was from the King, and not from her husband.” What caused such a statement is unknown, but a researcher with such authority could hardly afford groundless statements. However, not a single one is presented historical document, confirming the royal origin of Lev Gumilyov.