There are amazing prophecies in theater and in life. “Yes, if I hadn’t caroused in Penza, I would have had money to get home,” says Khlestakov in Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” whose premiere on the Alexandrinsky Theatre stage took place in April 1836. According to legend, Emperor Nicholas I, who commissioned Gogol to write the play, before starting to applaud after the final “silent scene” in the frightened silence of the hall filled with courtiers, loudly exclaimed: “What a play! Everyone got it, and I got it the most.”
About six months later, in August 1836, it was in the Penza province that the emperor’s carriage overturned. Fortunately, retired non-commissioned officer Bayguzov happened to be passing by. He was the one who gave the first aid to the monarch. Then the arriving district doctor applied a bandage to Nicholas I. The tsar could not continue the journey because the pain from the fracture was felt at every bump, so he went on foot to Chembar. The retinue had to dismount as well. Nicholas I walked ahead, followed by the courtiers led by Benkendorf. Something similar, if you remember, happens in the film “An Ordinary Miracle,” when the sad king trudges to the wizard with his courtiers. But that’s cinema, and this was harsh reality. And the first question was: where to accommodate the monarch? There was not a single private house suitable for the tsar’s residence in Chembar. They had to offer the sovereign a room in the district school
(which has survived to this day),
and in honor of this curious historical event, a stone was installed in 2017 near the road leading to the town of Belinsky.
Benkendorf left interesting notes about the Chembar incident. “The carriage overturned with a crash like a cannon shot,” wrote Alexander Khristoforovich. “That’s nothing!” exclaimed the emperor, adding: “I feel that my shoulder is broken; that’s good, it means God is admonishing me, no plans should be made without asking for His help.” Settling in the school, the emperor wrote a humorous letter to the empress. Although Benkendorf himself was not in a mood for fun: “The entire empire was in anxious fear, and Chembar became the center of all fears and hopes.” When receiving local officials, Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich exclaimed: “Bah! I know you all!” He explained that although it was his first time in Chembar, he knew everyone from Gogol’s “The Inspector General.”
The autocrat was able to leave Chembar only in the fall.
Sources:
https://dzen.ru/a/YkLlGA6JKGYCZjxq
https://www.trud.ru/article/17-04-2015/1324248_revizor_ponevole.html
https://adresaspb.com/category/istoricheskiy-anekdot/pro-nikolaya-i-v-roli-revizora/
