Pushkin and Goncharova’s first meeting: why the date and venue of the ball are disputed

When did Pushkin first meet Natalia Goncharova? One museum publication dates their first meeting at Pyotr Iogel’s ball to late 1828, another to spring 1829. Moscow historian Sergei Romanyuk also considers an earlier possibility: 1826–1827. The poet’s letter of 1 May 1829 establishes a firm latest possible date: by that day, they had already met, and Pushkin had received Natalia’s mother’s response to his first proposal of marriage. The document does not reveal the date of the meeting itself.

The location presents a similar question. A reference work on Pushkin places the ball at the Kologrivov family’s house on Tverskoy Boulevard. This traditionally accepted location has been challenged on the basis of the houses’ ownership history; the 1829 letter gives no address for the ball. To answer the question of their first meeting precisely, we need to distinguish three events: their meeting at a society gathering, the discussion of his marriage proposal with the Goncharov family, and the church wedding almost two years later.

When are Pushkin and Goncharova believed to have first met?

Museum materials give two possible dates: late 1828 and spring 1829. The sources consulted do not specify an exact day. The page for the exhibition ‘My Soul, My Wife, My Angel!’ dates the meeting at Iogel’s ball to late 1828. The description of ‘Impatience of the Heart’ states that Pushkin saw Natalia at one of Moscow’s musical evenings in spring 1829.

Both texts were published by the State Museum, but give different time periods. L. A. Chereisky’s reference book ‘Pushkin and His Circle’ dates their first meeting to late 1828 or early 1829. It also names the organiser of the ball and the house associated with the meeting.

Why the dates given by museums cannot be combined into one precise date

Both exhibition summaries were written retrospectively and refer to different exhibitions. ‘The Heart’s Impatience’ accompanied a small-scale exhibition in 2014 devoted to the first marriage proposal. ‘My Soul, My Wife, My Angel!’ introduced the 2018–2019 exhibition about Natalia Nikolaevna and the Pushkins’ family life. The discrepancy between ‘spring 1829’ and ‘late 1828’ is already apparent in the museum’s exhibition summaries; neither cites a dated invitation to the ball in question. The summaries therefore help reconstruct the narrative adopted by the museum, but do not in themselves settle the dispute over the date.

Chereisky’s reference book does not give such a narrow date range. His wording covers late 1828 and early 1829, allowing for the winter season as a whole. A meeting in December 1828 falls within this interval; a musical evening in spring 1829 belongs to a later season. The similarity of the accounts does not automatically mean that both museum texts describe the same gathering. One may have used a broader date range; the published exhibition summaries do not make it possible to establish the reason for the discrepancy.

There is a reliable biographical fact about Natalia Nikolaevna against which to check these accounts: the A. S. Pushkin State Museum gives her date of birth as 27 August 1812. She was sixteen both in late 1828 and in spring 1829. Her age, often mentioned in accounts of the ball, is therefore consistent with both versions and does not favour either. Attempting to work out the month of their first meeting from the phrase ‘sixteen-year-old beauty’ would create a false sense of precision.

Pushkin’s letter to his parents in April 1830 reveals that, by then, he considered himself to have been in love with Natalia for about a year. This is important evidence of how the poet himself perceived the length of time, but an approximate phrase is not the same as a dated record of their first meeting. He may also have seen his future bride before recognising his feelings. This remark cannot establish the date of the ball, but it does show why spring 1829 came to feature in the biographical narrative.

Why the theory of a meeting in 1826–1827 arose

Moscow historian Sergei Romanyuk suggested considering an earlier encounter at Iogel’s ball. In his article ‘Where Did Pushkin Meet Nathalie?’, he cites a later account by Ekaterina Dolgorukaya, an acquaintance of Natalia’s, who believed that Pushkin first saw Natalia around 1826. Romanyuk places the possible encounter between the second half of 1826 and the first half of 1827, when the poet spent time in Moscow. This is the researcher’s hypothesis: the recollection gives no exact date and was recounted long after the event.

Romanyuk cites a newspaper report of Iogel’s ball on 23 April 1827 at M. S. Tatishcheva’s house on Mokhovaya Street. Neither Alexander Sergeevich nor Natalia Goncharova is named among those present. The report confirms that the dancing master held balls in various Moscow houses, but does not place the future spouses in this particular ballroom. Pushkin’s letter of 5 April 1830 also leaves room for an interval between his first glimpse of her and his proposal: the poet recalls the two events in sequence without specifying how much time elapsed between them.

In a letter to his brother dated 21 February 1829, cited by Romanyuk, Alexander Bulgakov reports that Iogel’s annual ball for his pupils had taken place the previous evening. The researcher notes that Pushkin had left Moscow in early January, while it is unknown whether Natalia Goncharova attended the February ball. The firmly established date of the dancing master’s ball does not, in itself, establish when the future spouses first met.

Where did Pushkin first meet Goncharova?

According to the State Historical Museum’s account, Pushkin first saw Natalia Goncharova at Iogel’s ball in December 1828. Chereisky’s reference book links the encounter to a ball held by the dancing master Pyotr Andreevich Iogel at the Kologrivov family’s house on Tverskoy Boulevard. He identifies the house with the present-day No. 22. However, Pushkin’s own letter does not confirm this location.

Iogel’s name is significant here. He taught dancing and held balls; according to the same reference book, Pushkin was taken to his lessons as a child. The account of their first meeting therefore places it within Moscow’s society gatherings rather than a chance encounter in the street. However, the museum’s wording from 2014 — ‘a musical evening’ — does not allow us to reconstruct the programme.

Another Moscow address relates to the poet’s subsequent visits. The A. S. Pushkin State Museum places the Goncharov family home on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, on the site of the present-day buildings at numbers 48 and 50, and states that Pushkin visited the family after they became acquainted. The building has not survived. Confusing the venue of the ball with his future bride’s home would mean placing a later episode on the day of their first meeting.

What the address on Tverskoy Boulevard tells us

The reference book ‘Pushkin and His Circle’ gives the present-day address as 22 Tverskoy Boulevard, but this is a later publication’s attempt to locate the former house by its address, rather than a surviving ticket to the ball of 1828. An educational itinerary from Moscow City University also identifies the building of today’s Gorky Moscow Art Theatre on this site as the place where Pushkin possibly met Goncharova. The word ‘possibly’ matters: the itinerary gives visitors a point of reference on the city map while leaving the historical identification open.

The authors of the same educational itinerary mention another venue where Iogel held balls: the hall of the Assembly of the Nobility in Okhotny Ryad. The material does not prove that their first meeting took place there. It highlights the limitations of the familiar phrase ‘Iogel’s ball at the Kologrivov family home’: the dancing master’s name alone does not identify a single hall. The house on Tverskoy Boulevard remains the traditionally accepted location, following Chereisky’s account; the exact hall is unknown.

Why the Kologrivovs’ house is disputed

Sergei Romanyuk compared the ownership of two Kologrivov family houses on Tverskoy Boulevard. According to his research into archival records, in 1828–1829 the house on the site of the present-day No. 22 belonged to Ekaterina Alexandrovna, the widow of General Andrei Kologrivov. Pyotr and Praskovya Kologrivov, known for their society receptions, purchased another mansion, later numbered 23, only in April 1832. If the biographical account refers to this particular hospitable couple, it places their later address in an earlier period.

This objection does not establish an alternative location for their first meeting. Information about the owner of No. 22 does not answer the question of whether Iogel held a ball in the house, while the newspaper report of an evening on Mokhovaya Street names neither Pushkin nor Goncharova. No. 22 therefore remains the traditional location given in Chereisky’s reference book, but the matching surnames do not confirm a particular hall. A definitive answer requires a document recording an evening attended by both.

The Goncharov family home on Bolshaya Nikitskaya belongs to the next stage of the story. According to the A. S. Pushkin State Museum, in early April 1829 the poet asked Fyodor Tolstoy to introduce him to Natalia Ivanovna, the young woman’s mother. His meeting with his future mother-in-law took place after he first saw her daughter and therefore does not establish the date on which he met the young woman.

This distinction also matters when looking at the city’s present-day map. The museum explicitly states that the Goncharov family home has not survived. The address on Tverskoy Boulevard remains a hypothesised location for a society soirée; the Church of the Great Ascension and the apartment on Arbat are associated with later events that are much better documented. Their geographical proximity does not make these sites the setting for a single episode.

How did their first meeting lead to the first marriage proposal?

Pushkin’s pursuit of Goncharova’s hand in marriage began with discussions with her family in April 1829. According to the exhibition ‘Impatience of the Heart’, early that month the poet asked his acquaintance Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, known as Tolstoy the American, to introduce him to Natalia Ivanovna, the young woman’s mother. The museum also mentions Anna Petrovna Malinovskaya, who was to speak on his behalf before the formal proposal.

The exhibition ‘Impatience of the Heart’ dates the proposal conveyed through Tolstoy to 30 April 1829, while M. A. Tsyavlovsky’s chronology places it on 1 May. Pushkin’s letter to Natalia Ivanovna was written on 1 May: by then, the count had already conveyed her inconclusive reply. The museum attributes the postponement to the young woman’s youth. The poet expressed his gratitude for being allowed to hope, but was troubled by the uncertainty of the reply. It is important here to distinguish between the intermediary’s words, the mother’s reaction and Pushkin’s own document: the content of each is known from different accounts.

Why so many intermediaries were involved in this story

Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy appears twice in the document: he conveyed Natalya Ivanovna’s reply to Pushkin, and the poet suggested that any further requests be passed through him. He thus became an intermediary in the negotiations. The museum adds the background to this episode: at Pushkin’s request, Tolstoy first introduced him to the young woman’s mother, while Anna Petrovna Malinovskaya later spoke in the poet’s favour before the formal marriage proposal.

Pushkin scholar Sergei Bondi, who studied the draft of the letter to the count, recalls the unexpected history of their relationship. In the early 1820s, they quarrelled over a rumour Tolstoy had spread about Pushkin; after the poet returned to Moscow, the two adversaries appear to have reconciled. By 1829, Tolstoy, a longstanding acquaintance of the Goncharov family, was in a position to introduce the prospective bridegroom to the young woman’s mother at their home and act as a marriage intermediary. This change in their relationship explains the choice of intermediary better than the colourful nickname ‘the American’ alone.

Bondi presents manuscript evidence of Pushkin’s intention to write to Tolstoy after his departure in May. The scholar deciphered a pencil draft in the poet’s travel notebook; it had previously been published as a letter to Delvig. The opening, which had been misread, revealed an address to Count Fyodor. By comparing the contents with the poet’s circle of acquaintances, Bondi identified the recipient as Tolstoy, known as ‘the American’. According to his account, the draft was written during the journey to the Caucasus; the published study does not automatically establish that the letter was sent.

The discovery’s significance for the history of the marriage proposal is more modest, but more precise, than the colourful legend: after leaving Moscow, the poet continued to think of the intermediary through whom he hoped to receive news. Bondi shows where the draft appears in the notebook of travel notes and explains the earlier misattribution. The letter of 1 May confirms Tolstoy’s role in the negotiations; this manuscript reflects Pushkin’s intention to contact him, but does not prove that the letter was sent. The location of the first evening gathering remains a separate question.

Sergei Nikolayevich Goncharov, Natalia’s brother, later recalled that the family had been reluctant to give a definitive answer straight away because of her youth. Pyotr Bartenev relayed this account as told to him by her relative; the Presidential Library cites the testimony without giving the precise date on which it was recorded. It is consistent with the museum’s account of the mother’s cautious response. However, the relative’s recollection should not be read as a verbatim transcript of the conversation in April 1829.

What does Pushkin’s letter of 1 May 1829 confirm?

The letter provides reliable evidence, that by 1 May 1829 the first marriage proposal had already been made, and the family’s response had reached Pushkin through Count Tolstoy. The Russian Virtual Library publishes the French original, a translation and the date and place: ‘1 May 1829. Moscow’. The recipient was Natalia Ivanovna Goncharova, Natalia Nikolayevna’s mother, rather than the poet’s future wife.

At the beginning of the document, Count Tolstoy is named as the intermediary who conveyed the family’s reaction. In the translation of the published text, the poet describes this response as ‘not a refusal’ and speaks of hope. After expressing his gratitude, he acknowledges Natalia Ivanovna’s caution, but does not conceal his bitterness and impatience. This combination of gratitude and anxiety is difficult to reconcile with an account of the family having given its full consent as early as April 1829.

At the end of the letter, Pushkin announces his immediate departure and asks that any requests be conveyed through Tolstoy. The museum dates his departure from Moscow to the night of 1–2 May. These two accounts form a sequence: the marriage proposal, an inconclusive response, the letter and the departure. The first document confirms the family’s hesitation and his intention to leave; the precise timing of his departure comes from the museum’s account.

How to read a short letter without drawing unwarranted conclusions

The Russian Virtual Library reproduces the French text of the letter dated 1 May and its Russian translation from the ninth volume of Pushkin’s ten-volume collected works, published in 1959–1962. This is a printed version of a historical document, rather than a photograph of the manuscript. The publication’s heading identifies the recipient, Moscow and the date. Without it, the letter could easily be mistaken for one addressed to Natalia Nikolayevna: the poet is writing to the mother about her daughter.

The French original helps preserve the distinction between an outright refusal and uncertainty. The Russian translation conveys the meaning clearly; its key word refers to the mother’s reply, rather than to Natalia’s consent to marriage. The daughter is not the recipient and writes nothing on this page. To infer her decision from this quotation would be to substitute personal conjecture for documentary evidence.

What does the letter leave untold about the first ball?

The letter dated 1 May 1829 gives neither the date when Pushkin first saw Natalia, nor Iogel’s name, nor the name of the house. The document establishes the latest possible date for their first meeting and his marriage proposal: both took place no later than 1 May. It cannot be used to pinpoint a particular day in December 1828. The account of the ball and its location draws on biographical and reference sources.

Pushkin’s later recollections of their first meeting add the poet’s own perspective on his experience, but do not turn the letter of May 1829 into an account of the ball. The museum quotes his words to his future mother-in-law in 1830: he recalled seeing Natalia and proposing shortly afterwards. A distinction remains between describing a feeling and dating an event precisely, and researchers must preserve it.

What the poet recalled a year later about his first glimpse of her

On 5 April 1830, Pushkin again wrote to Natalia Ivanovna Goncharova. In this much longer letter, he revisits his first impression of her daughter, his marriage proposal, the uncertain reply and his departure that same night. Here, for the first time among the documents examined, the poet himself brings these events together into a coherent narrative. He explains that he left to join the army because of the distress he felt after the family’s reply. This is a later explanation of his own actions, rather than an account written at the ball.

The date of the 1830 letter allows us to assess the poet’s recollections of 1829: he had already made the journey, returned and was once again considering the possibility of marriage. Pushkin admitted that, on his return, he had encountered coldness from the mother and an absent-minded reception from Natalia. These words are significant as evidence of his impressions. They offer no insight into the young woman’s private motives and do not prove that she was actually indifferent to him.

The poet expressed a separate concern about Natalia’s eventual consent: whether he could win her affection over time and whether she might regret her choice. He also discussed the family’s financial circumstances. The phrase ‘the mother rejected a poor suitor’ does not convey the substance of the letter: Pushkin writes about Natalia Ivanovna’s caution, his own fears about marriage and Natalia’s future position in society. Each assessment is the poet’s own.

The letter of 5 April 1830 does not name Yogel or give the address of the evening gathering where they first met. The poet recalls their first meeting through the feelings he experienced, rather than its location. The letter therefore strengthens the documentary link between the meeting, his first marriage proposal and his departure, but does not settle the dispute over whether the meeting took place on Tverskoy Boulevard or at the Assembly of the Nobility. This is the most significant limitation of its evidence on the question of ‘where’.

Why the concert in March 1830 was not their first meeting

Pushkin left another dated account of a meeting with Natalia: a letter to Pyotr Vyazemsky dated 14 March 1830. In it, he reports that he had arrived in Moscow two days earlier and immediately attended a concert, where Goncharova and Princess Vera were among the first people he encountered. This episode has a date, a venue for the public gathering and named participants. Yet by then, the letter concerning his marriage proposal, dated 1 May 1829, already existed. The March concert was therefore a subsequent encounter after their initial acquaintance, however well documented the episode may be.

This distinction is especially useful when considering the museum’s vague reference to a ‘musical evening’ in the spring of 1829. The letter to Vyazemsky does not retrospectively confirm that account: it refers to a concert in March 1830. Conflating episodes from different years can easily produce a precise but false date. The sources allow us to date this evening to 12 March 1830; when they first met remains unknown.

The three letters answer different questions: the letter of May 1829 records the situation after the first marriage proposal; that of March 1830, another meeting at a concert; and that of April 1830, the poet’s recollections of how the story began and what he felt at the time. Keeping the documents in chronological order prevents details from one episode from being retrospectively transferred to another in the account.

When did the story of the first marriage proposal culminate in a wedding?

The wedding ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 at the Church of the Great Ascension near Nikitskiye Gates in Moscow. This is the date of the marriage, not of their first meeting or the first proposal. According to the A. S. Pushkin State Museum, the poet returned to Moscow on 20 September after his journey in 1829 and visited the Goncharov family on the very day he arrived. Discussions with the family continued after their initial inconclusive response.

The museum’s explanatory note states that the bride’s mother gave her consent “only two years later”, following the meeting in late 1828. Pushkin’s letter to his parents, dated 6–11 April 1830, already records the consent of both women. The family’s decision must therefore have been made no later than 11 April, while the wedding ceremony took place in February 1831. The couple spent the first months of their marriage in a rented house on the Arbat.

How the first proposal, with its uncertain outcome, led to an engagement

On 6 April 1830, the day after his letter to Natalya Ivanovna, Pushkin once again asked for her daughter’s hand in marriage. The Presidential Library links this second proposal to the decision made by the young woman and her mother. In a letter to his parents, dated by the editors to 6–11 April, Pushkin reports the reply he has received and asks for their blessing. M. A. Tsyavlovsky’s chronology dates the engagement to 6 May 1830. This marks a further stage in the marriage negotiations, one that had not been reached in May 1829.

In his letter to his parents, Pushkin explicitly identifies the Goncharov family’s financial difficulties as an obstacle to the marriage. He asks for help and explains that Natalya Ivanovna’s finances are in disarray and that her means depend partly on her father-in-law. The museum’s article also notes the lack of a dowry following the financial ruin of the family estate. Here, the document offers a more precise account than the later romantic narrative: consent to the marriage had already been given, but discussions about money and family obligations continued.

In April 1830, Pushkin tells his parents that he has loved Natalya for about a year. This approximate duration is consistent with the lengthy marriage negotiations following his first proposal, but it does not establish the month of their first meeting. Together with the letter of 1829, it traces a sequence of events rather than proving the exact date of the ball: first, hope without a definitive answer, then a renewed proposal and consent. The intervening period was a time of waiting, travel and uncertainty.

Even after the proposal was accepted, the path to the church wedding was far from straightforward. In a letter to Natalia Nikolaevna, which editors date to the last few days of August 1830, Pushkin feared that her mother might break off their existing engagement. He described this as a possibility being discussed during a quarrel. The letter attests to the poet’s own anxiety and confirms that the engagement had already taken place; it does not prove that the family had actually decided to break it off.

At the end of August 1830, Pushkin travelled to Boldino to attend to property matters. The official page for the Pushkin Memorial Apartment on Arbat attributes his three-month delay to the cholera epidemic and quarantine restrictions. In his letter to Natalia of 30 September, the poet is already calculating possible delays on the journey to Moscow and lamenting the postponement of the wedding. This journey must not be confused with his departure in May 1829: this time, the obstacles were the journey, quarantine restrictions and the church wedding that had yet to take place.

The museum dates Pushkin’s return from Boldino to Moscow to 5 December 1830. Another ten months elapsed between his second proposal in April and the wedding in February. This interval matters for the chronology: brief accounts place their first meeting, the marriage proposal and the church wedding close together, as though they followed in quick succession. The letters of 1829 and 1830 show that the poet and the family went through several distinct stages of reaching an agreement.

What is confirmed about February 1831

Before the wedding, the poet secured a home for his future family. According to the A. S. Pushkin State Museum, he signed a tenancy agreement for the first floor of the Khitrovo house on Arbat on 23 January 1831. For two thousand roubles in assignation banknotes, he rented rooms, mezzanines and utility spaces for six months. The agreement makes this address a verifiable location associated with preparations for the marriage, unlike the presumed venue of the first ball.

The exact date when the poet moved into the house on Arbat is unknown, even according to the museum’s account. What is known is that by 10 February 1831, he was already asking for a letter to be addressed to him at the Khitrovo house. Here, the museum respects the limits of what is known, and the same care should be taken when recounting how they became acquainted. We can give the documented date of the agreement and the earliest known reference to the address without inventing the moment when the poet first crossed the threshold of the flat.

Pushkin gathered those closest to him for a bachelor dinner on 17 February, the day before the wedding; the following day, after the ceremony at the Church of the Great Ascension, the newlyweds were welcomed at the house on Arbat. According to the State Museum, they held their first ball as a married couple there on 27 February 1831. The celebration took place more than two years after their presumed meeting at Iogel’s. The word ‘ball’ appearing in both accounts does not make them the same event.

Which Moscow addresses help us understand this story?

Each address has its own role in the story. Tverskoy Boulevard is linked to the reconstruction of the ball’s location in Chereysky’s reference work. Bolshaya Nikitskaya is associated with the Goncharov family home, which Pushkin visited after they became acquainted; the house itself no longer survives. The Church of the Great Ascension is the documented venue of the wedding. 53 Arbat preserves the memory of their first months of married life and became the Pushkin Memorial Apartment.

What you can see in the memorial apartment

The current exhibition on Arbat traces the stages of the courtship and marriage. According to the museum, following restoration, it opened on 6 June 2024 in twenty rooms across three levels. One room is devoted to the Goncharov family and the courtship, which lasted almost two years; another explores Boldino, quarantine and letters to his bride-to-be. In the wedding room, visitors reach the events of February 1831. This sequence is more accurate than the familiar account of a single meeting seemingly followed almost immediately by a wedding.

The portraits displayed in the museum, the furniture from Polotnyany Zavod and the recreated interiors of the Arbat flat relate to different stages of the family’s history. They help us picture their social circle and daily life, but do not in themselves establish which hall Iogel used for a particular ball in 1828 or 1829. The museum shows how long the journey was from their first meeting to their home on Arbat; the debate over exactly where they met remains a matter for the critical study of historical sources.

Pushkin and Natalia spent the first three months of their marriage in the Khitrovo house and left for Tsarskoye Selo on 15 May 1831, according to the official history of the memorial apartment. The dates of the tenancy, wedding ceremony, ball held at home and departure form a reliable chronology for the Arbat address. For Tverskoy Boulevard, the materials examined offer no equally detailed chain of evidence concerning the evening when they first met. The Arbat address is confirmed by the tenancy agreement and a reference in a letter dated 10 February 1831, while the location of the first ball remains disputed.

Thus, Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova are generally thought to have first met in late 1828 at Yogel’s ball in Moscow. Another museum label gives the date as spring 1829; Sergei Romanyuk makes a case for a ball in 1826–1827 and challenges the customary association with the house on Tverskoy Boulevard. The materials examined contain no dated account that identifies the day, the venue and both individuals on the evening of their first meeting. The letter of 1 May 1829 establishes a more limited fact: by that date, Pushkin had already proposed marriage and received an inconclusive response from the young woman’s mother. The date and venue of their first meeting remain unresolved.

You can explore more of Moscow’s places associated with Pushkin on Radius Tour Bureau’s ‘Alexander Sergeyevich’s Moscow’ tour: the route includes Tverskoy Boulevard, the Church of the Great Ascension and the memorial apartment on Arbat. Along the way, you can compare the disputed location of the ball with the documented sites of the wedding and the first months of married life; the sources do not establish the exact location of their first meeting.

Sources

1. A. S. Pushkin State Museum: ‘My soul, my dear wife, my angel!’
2. A. S. Pushkin State Museum: ‘The Heart’s Impatience’
3. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to N. I. Goncharova dated 1 May 1829. Russian Virtual Library
4. L. A. Chereisky. Iogel // Pushkin and His Circle. Fundamental Digital Library
5. Radius Tour Bureau: ‘Alexander Sergeyevich’s Moscow’ tour
6. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to N. I. Goncharova dated 5 April 1830. Russian Virtual Library
7. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to his parents dated 6–11 April 1830. Russian Virtual Library
8. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to P. A. Vyazemsky dated 14 March 1830. Russian Virtual Library
9. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to N. N. Goncharova dated late August 1830. Russian Virtual Library
10. A. S. Pushkin. Letter to N. N. Goncharova dated 30 September 1830. Russian Virtual Library
11. S. M. Bondi. Letter to F. I. Tolstoy, ‘the American’. Fundamental Electronic Library
12. Moscow City University. ‘Through Moscow’s Lanes into Pushkin’s Circle’
13. Presidential Library. On the Joyful Easter Days in the Life of A. S. Pushkin
14. The State Museum of A. S. Pushkin. A. S. Pushkin Memorial Apartment on the Arbat
15. S. K. Romanyuk. Where Did Pushkin Meet Natalie? Literaturnaya Gazeta
16. M. A. Tsyavlovsky. Chronological Outline of the Life of A. S. Pushkin. Russian Virtual Library
17. State Historical Museum. Woman’s Dress