The descendants of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

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  • Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin (1833–1914), (546) eldest son of Alexander S. Pushkin.

Student of the 2nd St. Petersburg College and the Body of Pages he completed in 1851. He took part in the Crimean War. In 1869 he was promoted to colonel. During the Bulgarian War of Independence (1877–1878), he was the head of the Narva Hussar Regiment and received as a reward a golden weapon with the inscription «For courage» and was decorated with the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th class with ribbon and sword. In 1880 he had the honour of being promoted to aide-de-camp to the Sovereign and, a month later, field marshal of His Majesty the Emperor’s retinue and appointed commander of the first brigade of the 13th cavalry division, a position he held until October 1881. On August 30, 1890, Alexander Alexandrovich was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-general for " Distinguished (irreproachable) services «. In 1891, in a civilian position, his military rank of lieutenant-general was transferred to the civilian rank of privy counsellor. He was actively engaged in the development of education, including that of girls. He was the headmaster of the Moscow Imperial Business School, a member of the Council of Public (pedagogical) Education of Institutions for girls of the Order of St. Catherine and Alexander, a member of the Council of the Moscow Government. From May 27, 1895 and until the end of his life, he held the position of honorary guardian of the First chamber of the Moscow council of the Trusteeship Council of the establishments of Empress Mary. In 1896, he took part in the solemn feast of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. In 1898, he was reinstated in the military cavalry with the rank of lieutenant-general. He did not hold any military post but continued his work as an honorary tutor. In 1908, he was promoted to general of cavalry and was on the lists of the 13th regiment of the Narva Hussars.

  • Nicholas Alexandrovich Pushkin (1885–1964) (487) is the grandson of the poet Pushkin and the son of General Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin (from his second marriage to Maria Pavlova). He married Mademoiselle Nadine de Petunikoff.

A Doctor of Law, lieutenant of cavalry, counsellor, justice of the peace of the Tula government, head of the noble security service of the imperial family during its stay in Crimea. After the revolution and the evacuation of Crimea, he emigrated to Constantinople where he earned his living by doing translations. Like many Russian migrants, Nicholas Alexandrovich, after two years, moved to Belgrade (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). In 1923, he wrote a letter to Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier (protector of Russian migrants in Belgium) and moved to Brussels with his family. Thanks to the cardinal’s support, his son studied at St. Andrew’s College in Bruges and his daughter Nathalie got a job in a bank. Nicholas Alexandrovich, like his illustrious grandfather, was an excellent draftsman and in the 1930s he wrote and described the armories of the Russian noble families who had emigrated to Belgium and France (the Cheremetyevs, Pushkin, etc.) In this imposing opus, the descendant of the poet shows a deep knowledge of Russian heraldry because as his grandfather said: «To be proud of the glory of one’s ancestors is not only appropriate but obligatory. Not respecting it is shamefully pusillanimous " (A. S. Pushkin).

  • Alexander Nikolayevich Pushkin (1909–1968) (499), great-grandson of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and father of Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin. Born in Imperial Russia, he accompanied his parents on the way to exile to settle in Belgium in 1923. He graduated from the Collège Saint-André in Bruges and took commercial courses at the Université Saint-Louis in Brussels. In the Belgian capital he enrolled in a Russian football club, «Rosse» where he met Belgian Russians like him. He actively participated in the cultural life of the Russian diaspora and marries Mademoiselle Mathilde Louise Ameel. They have a son, Alexander Alexandrovich. In 1946, Alexander Nikolayevich was hired by a sports newspaper. He quickly made a career there and became its commercial director. He remained in this position until his death in 1968.
  • Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin (1942 -) (519) was born on September 10, 1942 in Brussels. He is the direct descendant of the poet via his eldest son Alexander Alexandrovich (from his second marriage to Maria Pavlova). Alexander studied electronics engineering and from 1970 to 1997 he worked at Bell Téléphone taken over by ITT and resold to Alcatel Belgium.

In 1969, Alexander married Maria Alexandrovna Dournovo in Paris in the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Daru Street. The wedding reception was held in the salons of the Russian Conservatory of Paris, Serge-Rachmaninoff. Their honeymoon took place in the Swiss mountains in Leysin.

He is currently vice-president of the International Pushkin Foundation established in the Kingdom of Belgium (1999). He was also, for 10 years, President of the «Association of the Nobility of Russian Origin, residing in Belgium» of which he is currently Honorary President. Alexander is also a hereditary Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. In 2005, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, he was granted citizenship of the Russian Federation.

  • Maria Alexandrovna Pushkin-Dournovo (1943 -) (588) was born in Paris on September 21, 1943. She is a descendant from the eldest son of the poet, Alexander Alexandrovich (from his first marriage to Sophia Lanskoy, niece of Nathalie Goncharova’s second husband, General Lanskoy).

Among the thirteen children of Alexander there was a daughter, Mary (the great grandmother of Maria Alexandrovna), who married the son of Elisabeth Gogol and Vladimir Bykov. From this union was born, among others, a boy, Nicholas Bykov.

Nicholas (thus the writer’s nephew) and Mary had nine children, including Elisabeth (M. A.'s grandmother) who married Vladimir Savitsky. The latter had two daughters, Tatiana and Anastasia.
Tatiana married in 1935 (in Paris) Alexander Ivanovich Dournovo (the father of M. A.), descendant of an old noble family (12th century).

Maria Alexandrovna married Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin on January 12, 1969.

She worked as executive attaché and for two years as the general treasurer of the «Women of Europe».

Maria is the President of the International Pushkin Foundation established in 1999.

In 2005, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, she was granted citizenship of the Russian Federation.