Amalie Adlerberg - Amalie at High Society, Admirers

Amalie At High Society, Admirers

In April 1836, Baron von Krüdener received a promotion and left for Russia. Amalie brought to Saint Petersburg a bunch of Tyutchev's poems (more than a hundred). She gave dozens of them further to Prince Ivan Gagarin, former colleague of the poet. Gagarin wrote down several poems and gave them to read to Alexander Pushkin, publisher of Sovremennik, the most influential literary magazine in Russia. Pushkin was very excited and published them immediately. Thus, Amalie helped Tyutchev gain recognition at his home country.

Bibliographers of Pushkin like Alexander Shik state that Alexander Pushkin felt for Amalie and tried to court her at one of the balls. Natalia Pushkina, one of the most beautiful women in Russia, had to have a talk with her husband, after which the poet was joking that Madonna has a heavy hand... (The Married Pushkin by Alexander Shik, p. 68, 1936).

Count Alexander von Benckendorff was another passionate admirer of Baroness Amalie von Krüdener. Her influence was so great that he even secretly converted to Catholicism. In Imperial Russia, where Orhodoxy was the state religion, this action would be punished by years of katorga (the secret was revealed only after death of Benckendorff). He also helped to reinstate Fyodor Tyutchev at the Ministry after he was fired in 1843, and arranged the meeting of Tyutchev with Nicholas I of Russia and Minister Karl Nesselrode. His Majesty Nicholas I of Russia himself was not indifferent to Amalie. November 25, 1836 she received a luxurious fur coat as a gift from the Czar that she received on the rights of his cousine.