Caring husbands, affectionate fathers – Russian personalities in the Presidential Library’s collections

May 15 traditionally marks an International Family Day, established by the UN General Assembly in 1993. The Presidential Library’s collections contain a large number of materials that feature outstanding people from the informal side. Through letters, memoirs of contemporaries, we can see them through the eyes of loved ones, understand how they were at home, how they felt about their people.

“Alexander Sergeevich had the happiest character for family life: no penalties, no whims” - these words of Sergei Goncharov, Natalya Nikolaevna’s brother, about the great Russian classics of Alexander Pushkin are available in the May issue of the Russian Antiquity magazine for 1880 year. It also presents excerpts from the writer's letters to his wife: “My wife, my dear wife! I go on high roads, live for three months in the wilderness of the steppe, stop in dirty Moscow, which I hate - for what? For you, my wife, so that you would be calm and healthy in your years and with your beauty”.  

Concern for the family manifested itself even in the last minutes of Pushkin’s life. This is reflected in the 1929 edition of Pushkin Talks, which includes numerous quotes from the poet himself, memories of his relatives. In particular, I. T. Spassky said: “The patient experienced terrible agony. But here, too, the extraordinary hardness of his soul was fully revealed. Ready to cry out, he only moaned, fearing, as he said, so that his wife would not hear, so as not to frighten her”.  

Another testimony about the strength of Pushkin’s character and his love for loved ones is reflected in the September issue of the Russian Antiquity magazine for 1875. One of the eyewitnesses of the last days of the poet’s life writes: “The first word to his wife, when they brought him to the wounded man’s room and laid him on the sofa, was the following: “How happy I am! I'm still alive, and you're near me! Be calm: you are innocent, I know that you are innocent". Meanwhile, he hid from her the danger of his wound, which the doctor, at his request, frankly declared mortal. <...> Saying goodbye to the children, he crossed them. I said goodbye to my wife several times and always spoke to her with tenderness and love”.  

The great commander Mikhail Kutuzov, being constantly on the road in state or military affairs, did not forget about his loved ones who were waiting for him at home. He wrote a lot to his wife and daughters. A part of these messages later entered the book “Kutuzov in correspondence with his relatives” of 1912, and we see in them the military leader as a affectionate husband and father: “Hello, my dear kids! I send Hamburg gifts to you: Anna has bracelets, Liza has earrings, Katya and Dasha have a gold needle and pin, and also as a zealous owner - in April 1803, he wrote to his wife: “I heard that some book about water communications in Petersburg was selling. Give me a favor, send it to me, I really need it here, because I think very much about commerce”.  

Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, the largest statesman of the Russian Empire, was also an affectionate husband and father, and a separate electronic collection is devoted to him on the Presidential Library’s portal, which included a large number of archival materials, including politician's letters to his wife, which he often, sometimes and several times day sent from trips. “My beloved. I just arrived, a little bit of decay, and before going to get a haircut and have breakfast, I sat down to write to you so that the letter was sent even today”, - writes Stolypin on March 1, 1904. A week later: “Honey, my darling, I write briefly, because I see soon the end of my digestion and I will soon embrace You. You get so tired with the staff, my beloved, and Knoll says and Ara writes that You are so sad". The collection in the section “Visual materials” contains numerous photographs of the friendly family of the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire. In particular, home and fancy clothes are represented in the case “Photographs of Pyotr Stolypin and his family members”.

The Presidential Library preserves the digitized family archives of the Imperial House of the Romanovs, in particular, photographs surrounded by those close to Alexander II, Alexander III, and the last Russian emperor Nicholas II. Especially worth noting is the collection album “Photographs of the Emperor's Family. Nicholas II” - these miraculously preserved photographs were once part of the Tsar’s personal photo archive, the album “Photographs about the stay of Nicholas II Romanov with his family in Tobolsk”, as well as rare newsreels, which captured hours of joint family leisure. The former valet Volkov, who had served at the court for many years, in 1918, fled from the execution, recalled: “I don’t know how to talk about the characters of the royal family members, because I am an unlearned person, but I will tell you how I can. I will say simply about them: it was the holiest and most pure family”.

Historical documents telling about the family experience of both Russian and well-known foreign historical figures are available in the 1913 edition of Love in Letters of Outstanding People of the 18th – 19th centuries, which is presented in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library. In this book, the attitudes of the family of Napoleon, Hugo, Byron, Balzac, Goethe, Heine and many other famous representatives of their time are revealed through attitudes towards the family.