ABSTRACT
In conjunction with professional investigators and spies of the Third Section, society was permeated by numerous volunteer informers, as well as professionals employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Andrey Ivanovsky, Benkendorf’s direct subordinate in the Third Section and an aspiring author who occasionally encountered Pushkin v vospominaniyakh in society, left a detailed description of this visit in his memoirs. Hence, according to Ivanovsky, the tsar’s concern for Pushkin’s poetic genius was the sole cause for the refusal. Pushkin, says the memoirst, took the flattery at face value: “His eyes and his smile shined with life and pleasure.” During the night, Pushkin most likely thought over the offer thoroughly, weighing the price of fulfilling his desires, and woke with significantly less confidence that his decision had been the right one. The poor state of Pushkin’s health was reported to Benkendorf, and he ordered Ivanovsky to visit the poet at home.
