Memoirs (Pages)

"One of the most beautiful women in Petersburg," Count Sologub recalled about the writer and memoirist Avdotya Yakovlevna Panaeva. "A stylish, striking brunette," Pavel Kovalevsky wrote about her, and even the near-sighted Nikolay Chernyshevsky noted: "...a beauty like few." Fet dedicated poems to her; Dostoevsky fell in love with her at first sight; Nekrasov praised her in his works. However, she felt favor toward not everyone, which is reflected in her “Memories.” Avdotya Yakovlevna was born on August 12, 1820, in Petersburg, into a family of actors of the Alexandrinsky Theatre. At 18 she married the metropolitan man of letters Ivan Ivanovich Panaev, who held a prominent position in the editorial board of the magazine “Sovremennik.” And although Panaev was a kind and talented person, it soon became clear that he was not at all made for family life. And such details in the book are countless! Panaeva’s memoirs are a concentrated immersion in the era of Nicholas I and Alexander II, in the life of society of that time...

Pages from Avdotya Panaeva’s memoir book were read on the radio by Olga Bogdanova.