Yulia Vrevskaya is a sister of mercy, a national heroine of Bulgaria. Abstract: Vrevskaya, Yulia Petrovna

Vrevskaya Yulia Petrovna(January 25, 1838 or 1841 Lubny, Poltava province - February 5, 1878, near Byala, Bulgaria) - baroness, née Varpakhovskaya. Friend of I. S. Turgenev. During Russo-Turkish War nurse of the field hospital of the Russian Red Cross.

Biography

Born in the city of Lubny, Poltava province, into the family of a participant in the Battle of Borodino, commander of the Separate Reserve Cavalry Division, Lieutenant General Pyotr Evdokimovich Varpakhovsky (c.1791 - 1868) and Karolina Ivanovna (née Blekh) (c.1805 - 1870). Yulia Petrovna studied first at the Odessa Institute of Noble Maidens, and then, after the family moved to Stavropol in 1848, at the Stavropol “St. Alexandra Secondary Educational Institution for the Education of Women.” In 1857 she married I. A. Vrevsky. After the wedding, they moved from Stavropol to Vladikavkaz. However, their living together didn't last long. At the end of August 1858, I. A. Vrevsky was seriously wounded in battle and died a few days later. Left a widow at eighteen, Yu. P. Vrevskaya moved to St. Petersburg, where she was invited to the court and received the position of maid of honor to Maria Alexandrovna. During ten years of court life (1860-1870), Vrevskaya visited with the empress in France, Italy, Syria, best resorts Europe, Africa, Palestine, Jerusalem.

Yulia Petrovna's active nature demanded more than court duties and Savor. Among her friends in Russia were writers D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, V. A. Sollogub, poet Ya. P. Polonsky, artists V. V. Vereshchagin and I. K. Aivazovsky. She travels a lot in Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East; meets wonderful people(including Victor Hugo and Franz Liszt). Vrevskaya amazed everyone who knew her with her erudition. Since 1873, Yulia Petrovna has been friends and corresponds with I. S. Turgenev.

In 1877, with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War, he decided to go to the Active Army. With the money raised from the sale of the Oryol estate, he equips a sanitary detachment. Yulia Petrovna herself became an ordinary nurse from June 19, 1877 in the 45th military temporary evacuation hospital in Iasi (Romania), and from November 20, 1877 in the 48th military temporary evacuation hospital near the city of Byala in Bulgaria, does the hardest and dirtiest work. “The war nearby is terrible, so much grief, so many widows and orphans,” she writes to her homeland. In December, Vrevskaya works at a front-line dressing station in the village of Obretenik. Last letter Yulia Vrevskaya wrote to her sister Natalya on January 12, 1878. On January 17, she fell ill with a severe form of typhus. She died on February 5, 1878. She was buried in the dress of a sister of mercy near Orthodox church in Byala.

Tribute to memory

Ya. Polonsky dedicated his poems to Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya - “Under the Red Cross”, V. Hugo - “The Russian Rose that Died on Bulgarian Soil.” I. Turgenev responded to her death with one of his most remarkable prose poems - “In Memory of Yu. Vrevskaya.”

In the 1920s, the “Russian Union (Community) of Sisters of Mercy named after Vrevskaya” worked in Paris.

A joint Soviet-Bulgarian film was filmed about the fate of Yu. P. Vrevskaya in 1977 Feature Film"Yulia Vrevskaya."

The Mishkovo estate, which belonged to Yu. P. Vrevskaya, near the village of Dubovik, Maloarkhangelsk district, Oryol province, has not survived.

Biography of Yu. P. Vrevskaya in the “Encyclopedia of Great Women”

Russian empire Russian empire

Pyotr Evdokimovich Varpakhovsky

Karolina Ivanovna Blekh

Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya(January 25 or, Lubny, Poltava province - January 24 (February 5), near Byala, Bulgaria) - baroness, née Varpakhovskaya. Friend of I. S. Turgenev. During the Russian-Turkish War, she was a nurse at a field hospital of the Russian Red Cross.

Biography

Born in the city of Lubny, Poltava province, into the family of a participant in the Battle of Borodino, commander of the Separate Reserve Cavalry Division, Lieutenant General Pyotr Evdokimovich Varpakhovsky (1791-1868) and Karolina Ivanovna (née Blekh) (1805-1870).

Yulia Petrovna studied first at the Odessa Institute of Noble Maidens, and then, after the family moved to Stavropol in 1848, at the Stavropol “St. Alexandra Secondary Educational Institution for the education of women.” In 1857 she married I. A. Vrevsky. After the wedding, they moved from Stavropol to Vladikavkaz. However, their life together did not last long. At the end of August 1858, I. A. Vrevsky was seriously wounded in battle and died a few days later. Left a widow at eighteen, Yu. P. Vrevskaya moved to St. Petersburg, where she was invited to the court and received the position of maid of honor to Maria Alexandrovna. During ten years of court life (1860-1870), Vrevskaya visited with the empress in France, Italy, Syria, the best resorts in Europe, Africa, Palestine, and Jerusalem.

Yulia Petrovna's active nature demanded more than court duties and social life. Among her friends in Russia were writers D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, V. A. Sollogub, poet Ya. P. Polonsky, artists V. V. Vereshchagin and I. K. Aivazovsky. She travels a lot in Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East; meets wonderful people (including Victor Hugo and Franz Liszt). Vrevskaya amazed everyone who knew her with her erudition. Since 1873, Yulia Petrovna has been friends and corresponds with I. S. Turgenev.

In 1877, with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War, he decided to go to the Active Army. With the money raised from the sale of the Oryol estate, he equips a sanitary detachment. Yulia Petrovna herself becomes an ordinary nurse, from June 19, 1877 in the 45th military temporary evacuation hospital in Iasi (Romania), and from November 20, 1877 in the 48th military temporary evacuation hospital near the city of Byala in Bulgaria , does the hardest and dirtiest work. “The war nearby is terrible, so much grief, so many widows and orphans,” she writes to her homeland. In December, Vrevskaya works at a front-line dressing station in the village of Obretenik. Yulia Vrevskaya wrote her last letter to her sister Natalya on January 12, 1878. On January 17, she fell ill with a severe form of typhus. She died on February 5, 1878. She was buried in the dress of a sister of mercy near the Orthodox church in Byala.

Tribute to memory

• Ya. Polonsky -, V. Hugo - “The Russian rose that died on Bulgarian soil” dedicated their poems to Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya.
• I. Turgenev responded to her death with one of his most remarkable prose poems -.
• In the 1920s, the “Russian Union (Community) of Sisters of Mercy named after Vrevskaya” worked in Paris.
• In 1977, a joint Soviet-Bulgarian feature film “Yulia Vrevskaya” was shot about the fate of Yu. P. Vrevskaya, in leading role- Lyudmila Savelyeva.
• The Mishkovo estate, which belonged to Yu. P. Vrevskaya, near the village of Dubovik, Maloarkhangelsk district, Oryol province, has not survived.

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Excerpt characterizing Vrevskaya, Yulia Petrovna

Princess Marya postponed her departure. Sonya and the Count tried to replace Natasha, but they could not. They saw that she alone could keep her mother from insane despair. For three weeks Natasha lived hopelessly with her mother, slept on an armchair in her room, gave her water, fed her and talked to her incessantly - she talked because her gentle, caressing voice alone calmed the countess.
The mother's mental wound could not be healed. Petya's death took away half of her life. A month after the news of Petya’s death, which found her a fresh and cheerful fifty-year-old woman, she left her room half-dead and not taking part in life - an old woman. But the same wound that half killed the countess, this new wound brought Natasha to life.
A mental wound that comes from a rupture of the spiritual body is exactly the same as a physical wound, strange as it may seem, after deep wound has healed and seems to have come together at its edges, the mental wound, like the physical one, heals only from the inside with the bulging force of life.
Natasha’s wound healed in the same way. She thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up.
The last days of Prince Andrei connected Natasha with Princess Marya. The new misfortune brought them even closer together. Princess Marya postponed her departure and for the last three weeks, like a sick child, she looked after Natasha. Last weeks Natasha spent in her mother’s room strained her physical strength.
One day, Princess Marya, in the middle of the day, noticing that Natasha was trembling with a feverish chill, took her to her place and laid her on her bed. Natasha lay down, but when Princess Marya, lowering the curtains, wanted to go out, Natasha called her over.
– I don’t want to sleep. Marie, sit with me.
– You’re tired, try to sleep.
- No no. Why did you take me away? She will ask.
- She's much better. “She spoke so well today,” said Princess Marya.
Natasha lay in bed and in the semi-darkness of the room looked at the face of Princess Marya.
“Does she look like him? – thought Natasha. – Yes, similar and not similar. But she is special, alien, completely new, unknown. And she loves me. What's on her mind? All is good. But how? What does she think? How does she look at me? Yes, she is beautiful."
“Masha,” she said, timidly pulling her hand towards her. - Masha, don’t think that I’m bad. No? Masha, my dear. I love you so much. We will be completely, completely friends.
And Natasha, hugging and kissing the hands and face of Princess Marya. Princess Marya was ashamed and rejoiced at this expression of Natasha’s feelings.
From that day on, that passionate and tender friendship that only happens between women was established between Princess Marya and Natasha. They kissed constantly and talked to each other tender words and spent most of their time together. If one went out, then the other was restless and hurried to join her. The two of them felt greater agreement among themselves than apart, each with herself. A feeling stronger than friendship was established between them: it was an exceptional feeling of the possibility of life only in the presence of each other.
Sometimes they were silent for hours; sometimes, already lying in bed, they began to talk and talked until the morning. They talked mostly about the distant past. Princess Marya talked about her childhood, about her mother, about her father, about her dreams; and Natasha, who previously with calm incomprehension turned away from this life, devotion, humility, from the poetry of Christian self-sacrifice, now, feeling bound by love with Princess Marya, fell in love with Princess Marya’s past and understood a side of life that was previously incomprehensible to her. She did not think of applying humility and self-sacrifice to her life, because she was accustomed to looking for other joys, but she understood and fell in love with this previously incomprehensible virtue in another. For Princess Marya, listening to stories about Natasha’s childhood and early youth, a previously incomprehensible side of life, faith in life, in the pleasures of life, also opened up.

VREVSKAYA YULIA PETROVNA

(b. 1841 – d. 1878)

Russian Baroness. Famous sister of mercy.

Many articles have been written about the feat of the “Russian rose that died on Bulgarian soil” (V. Hugo), poetic works and even a feature film was made. But in none of them literary sources, in none of the letters of her contemporaries there is not a word about what prompted the brilliant society lady Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya to change ball gown for a modest nurse's outfit. She never expanded on this topic, and an aura of mystery surrounded her action. It is about her and her many friends (but not so eminent) that the chief commissioner of the Society for the Care of the Wounded and Sick, P. A. Richter, wrote: “A Russian woman with the rank of sister of mercy acquired... honorable fame in the last campaign, acquired... an inalienable, publicly recognized right to universal gratitude and respect as the soldier’s best friend in the midst of suffering and illness.” It is possible that the surrounding Vrevskaya " military life"left its mark on her character.

There is very little information about this period. It is known that Julia was the daughter of the famous Major General Pyotr Evdokimovich Varikhovsky and lived with her mother, brothers and sister in the Smolensk province until she was ten years old. Then the whole family moved to the Caucasus, to his father’s place of service. The atmosphere of heroism, stories about military events and exploits, the suffering of the maimed and wounded - all this could not but leave a mark in the heart of a kind and sympathetic girl, fostering in her a warmth that she sought to give to people.

Undoubtedly, female charm and intelligence, dedication and kindness, combined with fiery patriotism, attracted the attention of young Yulia Petrovna, “one of the most educated and the smartest people of his time" (according to the Decembrist A.P. Belyaev) 44-year-old military general, Baron Ippolit Aleksandrovich Vrevsky. He was an extraordinary person: at the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers he studied and was friends with M. Yu. Lermontov, maintained friendly relations with him and R. I. Dorokhov (the prototype of Dolokhov in L. N. Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”). Vrevsky graduated from the Academy of the General Staff and was familiar with many interesting people of that time: the brother of A.S. Pushkin - Lev Sergeevich, the Decembrists M.A. Nazimov, N.I. Lauren, brothers A.P. and P.P. Belyaev. Yulia Petrovna also communicated with these people when, at the age of 16, she became the mistress of the baron’s house. She probably appreciated and loved this man if she agreed to accept his proposal, knowing that Vrevsky was “married” to a Circassian woman (the marriage was not officially recognized) and had three children from her. Nikolai, Pavel and Maria were considered “pupils” of the baron and bore the surname Terskikh. However, the marriage did not last long: a year later the general died under the bullets of the highlanders.

Yulia Petrovna with her mother and younger sister moved to St. Petersburg and, as the widow of a famous general, was affectionately welcomed in society and became a maid of honor at the court of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. “The Baroness... was considered for almost twenty years one of the first St. Petersburg beauties. I have never met such a captivating woman in my entire life. Captivating not only for her appearance, but for her femininity, grace, endless friendliness and endless kindness. This woman never said anything bad about anyone and did not allow anyone to slander her, but, on the contrary, she always tried to bring it out in everyone. the good side. Many men courted her, many women envied her, but rumor never dared to reproach her for anything. She sacrificed her whole life for her family, for strangers, for everyone...” - this is how the writer V. A. Sollogub, who knew her from the Caucasus, spoke about Vrevskaya.

Yulia Petrovna was in a hurry to do good, she was generous and fair. She surrounded the children of her late husband with great care and attention and made a lot of efforts so that his sons and daughter received the name and title of their father. Vrevskaya now gave the estate and fortune inherited from her husband to the legal heirs of Ippolit Alexandrovich.

For many years, the baroness was known as one of the most brilliant minds in St. Petersburg, and among her friends were writers D. V. Grigorovich, V. A. Sollogub, poets Ya. P. Polonsky, P. V. Schumacher, artists V. V. Vereshchagin , I.K. Aivazovsky. She also knew Victor Hugo and Pauline Viardot. Vrevskaya devoted part of her time to traveling around Italy, Egypt and Palestine, accompanying the empress on trips abroad.

But despite the constant success, social life did not appeal to Yulia Petrovna. At court she was more bored and uncomfortable than on her estate in Mishkovo (Oryol province). In 1873, she met I. S. Turgenev and often communicated with him in St. Petersburg. When Ivan Sergeevich fell ill in the summer of 1874, the baroness, disregarding secular conventions, looked after the writer for five days on his estate Spassky-Lutovinovo. Turgenev was openly partial to Vrevskaya and admitted in his letters that he would not hesitate to “give Paris the apple” to her. Only Yulia Petrovna did not agree to share the “apple” with Polina Viardot, with whom Turgenev was actually in a civil marriage.

They became good friends and corresponded until last days her life. (Only Turgenev’s letters have survived.) Vrevskaya left a “deep mark” on his soul: “I feel that in my life from now on there is one more being to whom I have sincerely become attached, whose friendship I will always value, whose destinies I will always be be interested."

Yulia Petrovna and Turgenev continued to meet in St. Petersburg, Paris, and Carlsbad. He knew well about her passion for theater, understood her dreams of long trips to India, Spain, America; they exchanged impressions about books and art exhibitions. The “Serbian disaster” (1876), which so upset Turgenev, became a test of spirit and character for Vrevskaya. After Russia declared war on Turkey on April 12, 1877, Yulia Petrovna, unexpectedly for everyone, joined the ranks of volunteers who were not indifferent to the misfortune of her Slavic brothers. She obtained permission to organize a sanitary detachment of 22 doctors and nurses at her own expense. Moreover, the baroness herself “learned to care for the sick and consoled herself with the thought that she was doing something.” She seemed to be repeating the path of Elena Stakhova, described by Turgenev in the novel “On the Eve”.

Shortly before Yulia Petrovna left for the Balkans, the writer was destined to meet her at the dacha of Ya. P. Polonsky. K.P. Obodovsky, who was present there, described this event as follows: “Turgenev did not arrive alone. A lady dressed as a nurse came with him. Her unusually pretty, purely Russian-type facial features somehow harmonized with her costume.”

On June 19, 1877, Baroness Yu. P. Vrevskaya arrived in the Romanian city of Iasi to work as an ordinary nurse of the Holy Trinity community in the 45th military temporary evacuation hospital. There was a catastrophic shortage of medical personnel: from one to five trainloads of wounded arrived per day. Sometimes the number of people in need of medical care exceeded 11 thousand. Vrevskaya wrote to her sister: “We were very tired, things were ruinous: up to three thousand patients a day, and some days we bandaged them until 5 o’clock in the morning tirelessly.” In addition, the sisters took turns distributing medicine, feeding the seriously wounded, managing the kitchen, and supervising the change of linen. The Baroness, a court lady, accustomed to luxury and comfort, never complained about the hardships of war in her letters.

It was especially difficult for Yulia Petrovna in December 1877. After four months of hard work, she was assigned a vacation, and she was going to spend it with her sister in the Caucasus. But, having learned from the Commissioner of the Red Cross, Prince A.G. Shcherbatov, that many hospitals were closing due to lack of funds and nurses, she changed her mind. Yulia Petrovna went to the small Bulgarian town of Byala. In her letters to Turgenev, Vrevskaya wrote: “...I sweep my room myself, all luxury is far away, I eat canned food and tea, sleep on a wounded man’s stretcher and on hay. Every morning I have to walk three miles to the 48th hospital, where I am temporarily assigned, where the wounded lie in Kalmyk wagons and mud huts. Out of 400 people there are 5 of us sisters, the wounded are all very serious. There are frequent operations at which I am also present...” She spoke sparingly about her hardships and with pain and pride about Russian heroes: “It’s like pity to see these unfortunate truly heroes who endure such terrible hardships without a murmur; all this lives in dugouts, in the cold, with mice, on some breadcrumbs, yes, the Russian soldier is great!”

Yulia Petrovna, who is excellent at dressing bandages, was appointed an assistant during amputations. Finding herself in Byala, actually on the front line, she took part in the battle of Mechka, carrying out the wounded from the battle under a hail of bullets and providing them with first aid. But the empress conveyed to the baroness a request to return to court. Vrevskaya was outraged to the limit by the words conveyed to her by Prince Cherkassky: ““I miss Yulia Petrovna. It's time for her to return to the capital. The feat is accomplished. She is presented to the order...” These words make me so angry. They think that I came here to perform heroic deeds. We are here to help, not to receive orders.” In high society, Vrevskaya’s act continued to be considered an extravagant trick, but she was simply doing “business”, not considering it heroism.

Conditions in Byala were terrible. The wounded and personnel were housed in tents and damp mud huts. Vrevskaya's powers were not unlimited. When the wounded began to suffer from typhus, Yulia Petrovna’s weak body could not stand it. “For four days she did not feel well, she did not want to be treated... soon the illness became severe, she fell into unconsciousness and was unconscious all the time until her death... she suffered a lot, died from the heart, because she had heart disease,” wrote Vrevskaya’s sister with words of eyewitnesses. Yulia Petrovna died on February 5, 1878. The wounded themselves took care of such a responsive and gentle “sister” and dug a grave in the frozen ground themselves. They carried her coffin.

Yulia Petrovna wanted to be buried in the Sergius Desert near St. Petersburg, where her mother and brother were buried, but fate decreed otherwise. Vrevskaya was lowered into the ground near the Orthodox church in Byala. She was wearing a nurse's dress. M. Pavlov wrote: “Not belonging, in essence, to the Community of Sisters, she nevertheless impeccably wore the red cross, was indifferently affectionate and courteous with everyone, never made any personal claims, and with her even and sweet manner won general favor. The death of Yulia Petrovna made a heavy impression on all of us, cut off like her from everything close to us, and more than one tear rolled down during the burial of the deceased’s body.”

This death also upset Turgenev, who responded with a poem in prose: “She was young, beautiful; high society knew her; Even dignitaries inquired about it. The ladies envied her, the men followed her... two or three people secretly and deeply loved her. Life smiled on her; but there are smiles worse than tears.

A tender, meek heart... and such strength, thirst for sacrifice! Helping those in need... she didn’t know any other happiness... she didn’t know - and never did. All other happiness passed by. But she had long since come to terms with this, and all, burning with the fire of unquenchable faith, she devoted herself to serving her neighbors.

No one ever knew what treasures she buried there, in the depths of her soul, in her very hiding place - and now, of course, no one will know.

And why? The sacrifice has been made…the deed is done.”

Thus, the name of Baroness Yu. P. Vrevskaya went down in history as a symbol of the moral character of a nurse and philanthropy.