Imagine that a hundred, two hundred or even three hundred years from now, your children's descendants will be collecting archives about the family. Opening museums and even continuing your work. Is it hard to see that far ahead? Or maybe you had to be born a genius or go down in the history of world literature to do it? It's hard to believe, but some heirs of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky are living in our time. And many of them collect family relics and cherish the memory of their ancestors.
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
As we know, Alexander Sergeyevich had four children. Two daughters and two sons. One of the daughters, Maria, had no children. The youngest son Grigory had only illegitimate children, and Alexander and Natalia had several children each. Thus, Pushkin's grandchildren continued the family surname.
Today, the descendants of the poet live in different countries - in Europe, the USA and Russia. But of the direct descendants with the surname Pushkin, only one remains. The man bears the family name and is the heir of the eldest son of Pushkin - Alexander. Modern Alexander Pushkin lives with his wife in Belgium. They together carefully preserve and collect family relics. Thus, the memory of the Russian genius was preserved by his descendants after almost 200 years.
To this day, admirers of Alexander Sergeyevich's work wonder whether Pushkin had children out of wedlock. Historians confirm that there were. One of the known cases is a son born from the serf Olga. With her Pushkin had an affair during his exile in Boldino. Unfortunately, the child died two months after delivery. About the rest of the children from extramarital affairs is not known exactly, only rumors.
There are several articles about Alexander Sergeyevich on our blog. You can familiarize yourself with them below:
- A complete collection of films about Pushkin
- Domestic and foreign films based on Pushkin's works
- Why is Pushkin our everything?
- Test of knowledge of Pushkin's life and works
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev
The descendants of the writer have not survived to our days. Unfortunately, the writer had only one illegitimate daughter - Polina. And, although she had two children, they left no descendants. This is where the family of Turgenev - the writer was interrupted in 1952, with the passing of his granddaughter Jeanne.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin
The fate of the writer's children was even more tragic. Two daughters from two marriages - Lydia and Ksenia. The latter lived a long but childless life. Lydia was the eldest daughter from the first marriage and left life at 21 years old. Kuprin's daughter managed to give birth to a son Alexei. Lydia died a few months later, and the child was brought up by his father. Kuprin first saw his grandson when he was 13 years old. Alexei died at the age of 22 from heart disease. Like his mother Lydia, he left life very young. Alexei had no children.
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev
As the history of the poet shows, a large number of children does not guarantee a lot of descendants.Tyutchev had 2 official marriages, 3 daughters from the first wife, a daughter and 2 sons from the second, as well as 5 illegitimate children. But the Tyutchev family managed to continue only the youngest son from the second marriage - Ivan. He had 5 children, of whom only one daughter - Catherine - had children. They continued the family of great-grandfather Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, although with the surname of Catherine's husband - Pigarevs.
Interestingly, one of the sons of Tyutchev's granddaughter, Kirill Pigarev, became a famous literary scholar in the 20th century. Thus, the great-grandson continued the ancestor's love of literature. Kirill Vasilyevich Pigarev was also for many years the director of the Tyutchev Museum in the Muranovo estate near Moscow.
Leo Tolstoy
Perhaps the most interesting personalities grew up Tolstoy's children and heirs. The writer had 13 children. Several of them died in childhood. In the house of the Tolstoys always loved literature and art. Therefore, the writer's children grew up well-educated, creative people. Many of them had a close relationship with their father, and they helped him in his creative work. When the Tolstoy estate in Yasnaya Polyana became a museum, the adult children worked in it. In this way they continued their father's work.
Tolstoy had many grandchildren, and today their lineage numbers over 200 worldwide. His great-grandchildren. For example, Fekla Tolstaya (Anna Nikitichna) - great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy - is a TV and radio presenter. Peter Tolstoy - the writer's great-grandson - hosts TV programs on Russian television. And another great-grandson of Tolstoy - Vladimir Ilyich - is the director of the museum in Yasnaya Polyana.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky had four children, of whom two - daughter Lyubov and son Fyodor - became adults. Lyubov had no children, so only Fyodor continued his father's lineage. He died during the Civil War, when he lived with his family in the Crimea. He had two sons. One of the sons - Andrei - also had heirs. They still live in St. Petersburg - the city of their distinguished great-great-great-grandfather. Now the writer has three great-great-granddaughters and one great-great-grandson, who bears the family name Fyodor.
What about the others?
We have told only about those writers who had children and direct descendants. Unfortunately, not all the famous classics had heirs. For example, Gogol, Lermontov, Chekhov had no children. A good reason to think about the continuation of the family, isn't it?
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