The Irbit State Museum of Fine Arts displays a portrait of Nadezhda Durova, a hero of the War of 1812, also known as Alexander Alexandrov.
Nadezhda Andreyevna Durova (1783–1866) was a Russian cavalry soldier and an officer of the Imperial Russian Army. Her father was a Hussar captain, and her mother was the daughter of a Poltava landowner. As her father was an officer, the family traveled a lot. Nadezhda’s mother wanted a son and disliked her daughter because of that.
For some time, Nadezhda Durova lived in Irbit. In 1801, she arrived there after marrying Vasily Stepanovich Chernov, a government official of the 14th class and an assessor of the zemstvo court. Together, they had a son named Ivan. However, soon, Nadezhda Durova left her husband and their young son and returned to her parents’ home in Sarapul. She staged her death while swimming in the Kama River. She left her women’s clothes behind and changed into a Cossack uniform. On September 29, 1806, Nadezhda Durova enlisted into the Polish Horse Regiment as a private. To do that, she pretended to be younger and used the alias, Alexander Sokolov. Unlike in a Cossack unit, growing a beard was not mandatory, and she did not risk being discovered. Her secret was revealed in Tilsit in 1807 when she tried to send her father a letter asking for his forgiveness. The regimental authorities confiscated Durova’s weapons and escorted her to St. Petersburg to meet the emperor. Alexander I was impressed by her bravery and desire to serve her country. He listened to Durova’s request to let her stay in the army instead of sending her back to her parents. He gave her the name of Alexander Andreyevich Alexandrov, promoted her to the rank of sub-lieutenant, and assigned her to the Mariupol Hussar Regiment.
Nadezhda Durova’s military career took off rapidly. In 1811, during the Patriotic War, she commanded a half-squadron of 60–75 horsemen. In 1812, she participated in a cavalry attack near Smolensk, in Borodino, where she was wounded in the leg. After convalescing at her parents’ home, Nadezhda Durova was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and became an orderly to General Mikhail Kutuzov. In 1813, she took part in the siege of Modlin and Harburg fortresses and the crossing of the Bohemian mountains. In the spring of 1816, after ten years of service, she retired from the army with the rank of stabs-rotmistr and was awarded a small pension of 1,000 rubles per year.
Nadezhda Durova settled in Yelabuga where she wrote her memoirs “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden” which were later published by Alexander Pushkin in his magazine Sovremennik.
