Lyubov Dmitrievna Mozhayskaya

Lyubov Dmitrievna Mozhayskaya (née Kuzmina) was a member of the Vologda nobility, the elder daughter of Court Councillor Dmitry Ivanovich Kuzmin and Elizaveta Nikolaevna Kuzmina. Her mother sought to provide her daughters with a good education: during the winters of 1857/58 and 1858/59 Lyubov and her sister continued their studies in Moscow. After fourteen-year-old Lyubov was refused admission to the Moscow Catherine Institute, private teachers were engaged for Russian, French, German and music; in 1858 she took music lessons from the pianist Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein. On 5 November 1861 Lyubov Dmitrievna married naval officer Alexander Fyodorovich Mozhaysky and received the Kotelnikovo estate near Vologda as her dowry. The couple had two sons, Alexander and Nikolai. Their second son was born prematurely at the end of 1865; Lyubov became seriously ill after childbirth and died soon afterwards. After her death Alexander Fyodorovich became guardian of the estate. Memorial objects belonging to Lyubov Dmitrievna are preserved at the A. F. Mozhaysky House Museum of the Vologda State Museum-Reserve.