Natalya Golitsyna

. Pyotr Chernyshyov with his wife Ekaterina Andreyevna and their daughters Anna, Darya and Natalya, and their son Grigory. , in a 1762 portrait by Alexander Roslin Natalya was born in Berlin on 28 January 1741, the second daughter of Count Pyotr Chernyshyov, diplomat and ambassador to the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Her mother was Ekaterina Andreyevna, daughter of a famous chief of the secret office in Biron, Count Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov. She was a niece of Counts Zakhar and Ivan Chernyshov and the sister of the lady in waiting Princess Darya Petrovna Saltykova. Natalya went with the family to London, her father's new posting as ambassador to the Kingdom of Great Britain, and received an excellent education, eventually being able to speak five languages. The Chernyshyovs were recalled to Russia in 1756, spending four years in the country before her father's appointment in 1760 as ambassador to the court of Louis XV of France. Upon the Chernyshyovs' return to Russia in 1762, Natalya and her sister Darya became known as two of the most learned women in Russia. In 1762 she was appointed maid of honour to Empress Catherine the Great, and was awarded a unique gold medal with Catherine's portrait by the empress for her dance in the "Court Carousel" of 1766. In October 1766 she married the 35-year-old Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn, in a wedding attended by the Empress herself, who decorated the Princess's hair with diamonds and accompanied her to the church. He wrote his mother about the activities of the National Constituent Assembly (France). On 14 July 1790 they were back in Paris. Empress Catherine ordered all Russians abroad to return home, and the Golitsyns returned to Russia in August 1790, except the brothers who visited Rome, where they were portrayed by Hugh Douglas Hamilton. She left two diaries from this period, which were subsequently published; Notes About the Events of My Life (), covering the years 1781 to 1783, and Notes About My Travels (), covering the years 1783 to 1790. ==Salon hostess==

The Golitsyns settled at their St Petersburg townhouse, , where Natalya hosted a salon for French monarchist émigrés. Evidence shows that she personally managed her property, and in Radogoshch the estate's office building, a distillery, stud-farm and stone church were built during her time as owner. There is the suggestion that the serfs were worked hard however, as in 1797 they rioted and burned down the tannery's office and the distillery. Princess Golitsyna was known to be haughty with those of equal social standing, and friendly with those whom she considered lower than herself. A contemporary noted that "she ruled in the light, recognized by all". ==Family==

Natalya Petrovna had five children with her husband. Her first son, Pyotr, was born in 1767, but died in 1778. Her second son Boris, born in 1769, became a lieutenant general, before dying in 1813 of wounds he sustained at the Battle of Borodino. Dmitry was born in 1771 and rose to be a statesman and military writer. He married Tatiana Vasilyevna Vasilchikova, with whom he had five children, before his death in 1844. The Golitsyn's two daughters, Ekaterina (1770–1854) and Sofia (1775–1845), married Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin and Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov respectively, with each having five children. All received excellent educations, and while living in Paris before the revolution it was noted that they spoke French better than they did Russian. Princess Golitsyna acquired a reputation as the autocrat of her family, being both capricious and domineering. Her children were afraid to sit in her presence; when her son Boris Vladimirovich did something to offend her, she refused to speak to him for over a year. Boris died during the Napoleonic Wars, leaving behind two orphaned illegitimate children he had had with a gypsy woman. In fear of Natalya's reaction to this news, their existence was kept a secret from her, and they were quietly raised with the family of Boris's brother Dmitry. On the death of her husband in 1798, Natalya's sons became heirs to the family fortune, but did not dare to demand their rightful share of the inheritance from their mother. On their marriages Princess Golitsyna's daughters received 2,000 serfs, while her sons received an annuity of 50,000 rubles. When Dmitry was appointed Governor-General of Moscow in 1820, a social position that required him to give receptions and balls, and to be engaged in charity, he soon fell into debt, as the allowance he received from his mother was not enough to support such a life. Eventually Emperor Nicholas I had to ask Princess Golitsyna to increase her son's allowance so that he would not compromise his name and position with debts. The princess added another 50,000 rubles, considering this a generous sum. It was only on his mother's death, seven years before his own, that Prince Dmitry received his full inheritance, amounting to 16,000 serfs. ==Later life==

Princess Golitsyna continued her salon hosting duties into her old age, and it was considered a signal honour to attend on her. She received all guests while sitting in her chair, making an exception only for the emperor. Pushkin and the Queen of Spades Princess Golitsyna was an inspiration for the character of the countess in Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades, written in 1833. On its publication in 1834 Pushkin wrote about its reception, noting that "At the court, they found similarities between the old Countess and Princess Natalya Petrovna and do not seem to be angry." A story spread that Princess Golitsyna's grand-nephew, Prince had gone to her for help after losing a large sum of money at cards. Princess Golitsyna replied that she knew the secret of the three magic cards, the three, the seven and the ace, having been told it by her friend in France, the Count of St. Germain. Sergei Golitsyn then used this knowledge to win the money back. Sergei Golitsyn had then related this story to Pushkin. Princess Golitsyna, who by the time of the publication of her story was in her 90s, began to be identified with the character, being nicknamed the "Queen of Spades", while her house in St Petersburg became known as the (). In later years the house and the intersection it stood on came to be considered a haunted site. The popular story stemmed from a friend of Pushkin's, , who related to historian P. I. Bartenev that it had been a Golitsyn who had told the cards anecdote to Pushkin. The Golitsyn in question was identified as likely being Sergei by Mstislav Tsiavlovskii, a connection challenged by A. A. Ilin-Tomich who presented evidence that he was not the source of the anecdote. When queried about the likeness with Zagryazhskaya, the great-aunt of Pushkin's wife Natalia, by Pavel Nashchokin, Pushkin admitted "It was easier for me to portray Zagryazhskaya, than for Golitsyna, whose character and habits were more complicated." The Oxford edition also notes that, despite the story of Sergei Golitsyn and Pushkin, neither Zagryazhskaya or Golitsyna were the inspiration for the occult aspect of the story involving the Count of St. Germain. Princess Golitsyna died in St Petersburg on 1 January 1838, at age 96. In her long life she had been maid of honour during the reigns of five emperors and empresses, and a lady in waiting at the courts of Alexander I and Nicholas I. She was buried in the Golitsyn family tomb in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. ==References==