“The general was grieving, of course, but what to do” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Pyotr Voronkov talks about how the Grand Duke’s adjutant lost his wife, tried to marry another, and how it ended.

St. Petersburg today, Bolshaya Morskaya Street, building 59. In the eighties of the century before last, it belonged to General Erich von Pistolkors. The general served as an adjutant to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich when another Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich stole his wife. The story is well known: there was a scandal, the emperor intervened and forbade the lovers to marry, but they still got married secretly abroad. The general grieved, of course, but what to do when even the sovereign did not help.

After some time, Pistolkors drew attention to a certain lady. True, she already had obligations to another man… This other man, the merchant Andreev, abandoned his family for her and indulged her every whim. This is such a love carousel… The lady’s name was Zinaida Nikolaevna, although shortly before that she was seamstress Sarra Levina. Now, being a kept woman, and soon the wife of a merchant, she spent her days in pleasant idleness and amusements – a dacha, dinner parties, theaters.

Her position as an already married lady guaranteed stability and, of course, a certain attitude from society. And then out of the blue – general! What prospects! Moreover, the general also wanted to get married, gave expensive gifts and even took her abroad secretly from Andreev. The lady completely lost her head. She openly and even mockingly admitted to the merchant that she would soon marry Pistolkors.

Andreev’s eyes darkened, the world turned upside down, she was the most dear creature in the world to him. The next day he bought a Finnish knife to commit suicide. The denouement came soon. She scolded again, shouted: “I will make sure that you are expelled from St. Petersburg!” He didn’t even understand how he hit her with that same knife…

At the trial, lawyer Andreevsky outdid himself: “Did the defendant want what he did? No, he didn’t want to, because the very next day he told his friends that he would give everything in the world so that this wouldn’t happen”… His speech went down in the history of jurisprudence – it is still studied today. And the merchant Andreev was acquitted as having committed a crime in a state of passion.