Pushkin inВ Copenhagen

Irina BjГёrnГё

Book about Pushkin monument inВ Copenhagen. Pushkin monument was opened 6В ofВ June 2017В inВ Royal Library inВ Copenhagen. Pushkin manuscript was found inВ the archives ofВ H. Ch. Andersen and shown for the public.

Pushkin inВ Copenhagen

Editor Irina BjГёrnГё

Photograph Irina BjГёrnГё

Photograph Leonid Pankratov

Translator Irina BjГёrnГё

Translator Katherina Kukhtina

Illustrator Anne Gyrite SchГјtt

© Irina Bjørnø, photos, 2017

© Leonid Pankratov, photos, 2017

© Irina Bjørnø, translation, 2017

© Katherina Kukhtina, translation, 2017

© Anne Gyrite Schütt, illustrations, 2017

ISBNВ 978-5-4485-4313-5

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Introduction

To the right from A. Pushkin – Russian Ambassador M.V. Vanin, to the left – chef librarian H.K. Mikkelsen

Every fairy tale has its beginning. Our story began inВ Russia when aВ young poet, Alexander Pushkin, copied his early poems byВ hand with aВ goose feather, glued the pages inВ aВ small notebook and gave it toВ his brother, Lev Sergeevich, toВ send the notebook toВ the censorship. The notebook was only 19В pages ofВ lyceum poems byВ aВ young poet. It happened inВ the spring ofВ 1825.

The notebook included the poet’s early works, which he created when he was only 17 years old. This manuscript is known under the title “P.I. Kapnist’s Notebook”. Mr. Kapnist have probably kept it until the last day of his life, although, according to the extant correspondence, the notebook was preserved at the Academy of Sciences by academician L. N. Maikov.

This was the moment for our fairy tale to begin. In 1898, the owner of the handwritten Pushkin’s notebook, Mr. Kapnist, died suddenly in Rome, and two years later died academician Maikov, who have been working on the notebook’s publication. Kapnist’s daughters got all the archives of their father, including the manuscript of the poet, but after the October Revolution the sign of the notebook seemed to be completely lost. When suddenly ….

Now our story moves to the true Kingdom of all fairy tales – Denmark, where its main storyteller Hans Christian Andersen lived. He has never been to Russia and never met Pushkin, but still their paths crossed.

Unexpectedly – as it happens in fairy tales – the copy of the letter written by Andersen was found in the archives of the Academy of Sciences of Russia. In this letter dated 1865, Danish storyteller thanks his acquaintance, Elizaveta Karlovna Mandershtern

, born Swede, for a wonderful gift – the autograph of the great Russian poet written by his hand. Andersen has met this Russian girl of a noble family in 1862 in the mountains of Switzerland, and was absolutely fascinated by Russian sisters from the Mandershtern family, who were having a vacation there.

One of the sisters, Elizabeth, frivolously promised Danish writer to send Pushkin’s autograph. But – as they say in the fairy tales – “it is easier to say than to do!”.

It took three years for the young lady to fulfill the promise given to the Danish writer. She finally succeeded: the first page of the manuscript written by the great poet was presented by Kapnist’s young wife, Ekaterina Mandershtern, as a gift to her cousin. Finally, she cut out the first page from the Pushkin’s manuscript with scissors and gave to her beloved cousin. What a generous gift from a cousin it was! And already in 1965 the manuscript of the Russian poet along with a kind letter from Elizabeth Mandershtern, travels with postal horses to Copenhagen, to Andersen himself, where it was kept until the death of Danish writer.

In 1939, the Russian State Literary Museum sends its representative, professor P.G. Bogatyrev, to the Archive of the Copenhagen Royal Library. And right there in Andersen’s archives he found the first page of Puskin’s manuscript, carved from Kapnis