Basile

Overview

«Prince Basile» in the family house at Dikanka is Vasyl Kochubey (c. 1640 – 15 July 1708), a statesman of the Cossack Hetmanate and General Judge, who denounced Hetman Mazepa to Peter the Great and was executed on the charge brought against him in return (Wikipedia, «Vasily Kochubey», https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Kochubey; reader footnote 3 of that entry). The estate of Dikanka near Poltava, celebrated by Pushkin in Poltava and by Gogol, is the seat of the Kochubey princes; Marie visits it from Gavronzi. Not a living person of her world. (The Mon Journal t.9 index has «Basile (cuisinier du prince ...) : 69», a different man, a cook.)

Relevance to Marie

On 1 October 1876, in white and a black-feathered hat, Marie visits the prince's country house, ten kilometres from Gavronzi, «cette fameuse Dikanka chantée par Pouchkine en même temps que "Les amours de Mazeppa et de Marie Kotchoubey"» (066.0577). In the Moorish drawing-room «je m'assis et me suis presque trouvée mal. On me montra les tableaux, les statuettes, le portrait du Prince Basile et sa chemise tachée de sang suspendue dans une armoire à laquelle le portrait sert de battant» (066.0584): the portrait of the executed ancestor and the bloody shirt kept as a relic.

References in Diary

• 1876-10-01 (066.0577, 066.0584).