Natalia Goncharova was born in 1812, during a difficult period for Russia due to the war with Napoleon. Prior to her birth, her father, Nikolay Afanasyevich Goncharov, concerned about the safety of his pregnant wife and other family members, decided to move them immediately to the Tambov estate of the Zagryazhsky family — Karian-Znamenka. Natalia Nikolayevna Goncharova, the youngest daughter of the Goncharov family, was born on August 27, 1812 at this estate. The family remained in the Tambov Governorate for approximately one year before returning to the Goncharov’s estate, Polotnyany Zavod (Linen Factory), near Kaluga, where Natalia (also called Tasha in Russian) spent her childhood. Later, the family relocated to Moscow, residing in a house on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Unfortunately, this house has not survived to the present day.
Natalia received a good home education. Her mother, Natalia Ivanovna, who was a former lady-in-waiting to the empress, raised the children with strictness and respect for religion. The girls were able to do all that was expected in noble families, such as horseback riding, dancing, needlework, speaking foreign languages, and playing music. Their father, who composed poems and music and played the cello professionally, also supported the children’s interest in arts.
By the time she was sixteen, Natalia had grown to be a beautiful young woman and began attending balls. Society immediately recognized her as Moscow’s first beauty, and she had many admirers. However, her mother, trying to improve the family’s financial situation, dreamed of finding a wealthy suitor for her daughter. She had a good reason. Afanasy Nikolayevich Goncharov, her grandfather, had ruined his once prosperous estate and left his beloved granddaughter without any dowry.
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin met Natalia at one of the balls hosted by the renowned Moscow dance instructor Iogel in late 1828. Immediately, he was smitten and soon began courting her. “When I first saw her, her beauty was yet to be noticed by society. I was enamored, my head was spinning, and I proposed,” the poet wrote to her future mother-in-law in May 1830.
Only two years later, Natalia Ivanovna consented to her daughter’s union with the poet. Eventually, the wedding was held on February 18, 1831, at the bride’s parish — the Greater Church of Christ’s Ascension. The newlyweds spent their three “honeymoon” months in a house rented prior to the wedding in Arbat Street. However, the poet’s relationship with his mother-in-law was difficult, and the Pushkins relocated to Tsarskoye Selo for the summer and then settled in St. Petersburg. There, they had four children in quick succession: Maria, Alexander, Grigory, and Natalia.
