St. Petersburg’s Pushkin Museum is really all about a tabloid story. Pretty mother of four, Natalia Goncharova, is seen flirting with a foreigner. Meanwhile, hubby has received one of those anonymous letters about her carrying on with a ballroom Baron. Pushkin has no choice but to challenge the philandering Frenchman to a fatal duel. It’s the moment when Pushkin comes to shove.

The Pushkin House museum documents the timeline to tragedy. But it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Was Natalia really a slapper? Did she sleep with d’Anthes or not? And why doesn’t the Pushkin’s huge apartment have a kitchen or a loo?

Police today might write this up as domestic argument and even suspect Natalia of putting the boys up to it. Pushkin was close to bankruptcy most of the time. His publishing ventures were wobbly. Worse, he pawned quite a lot of Natalia’s stuff to pay the rent. (The rental agreement - which must have given the couple a few sleepless nights - is one of the exhibits.) So, not a Russian girl’s dream.

Though little is known about Goncharova’s lovers, Pushkin certainly had a loose trouser belt. He listed all his (37) conquests in a special ‘bonking book’. To say he wasn’t very bright about women would be an understatement. One girl, Karolina Sobanskaya, only dated him to report on his movements to the political police. He proposed unsuccessfully to a few other girls before Natalia and even her parents with-held consent for a couple of years hoping for a suitor with more valuta.

Other literary commentators, such as Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetayeva, firmly blame the marriage breakdown on Natasha. She had little interest in his life or poetry since his scribbling didn’t really support her shopping.

The apartment museums are something St Petersburg does rather well. There’s always a good collection of memorabilia. You can even see The Last Waistcoat Pushkin Ever Wore - no hole in it though as he was shot in the hip and lower abdomen.

Pushkin’s study is one of the busier rooms in the apartment museum. Seems like he pawned more of her stuff than his.

Pushkin Museum: 12, Naberezhnaya Reki Moyki, 191186
Metro: Nevsky Prospekt or Gostiny Dvor
Tel: +7 (812) 311-3531, +7 (812) 314-0006
Open: Wednesday to Monday, 10:40 am to 5 pm