Countess Maria Tarnowska (or ''Tarnowskaya'', ''Tarnovska'', etc.; 9 June 1877,

Poltava Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– 23 January 1949, Santa Fe,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

), born Maria Nikolaevna

O'Rourke O'Rourke ( ga, Ó Ruairc) is an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Leitrim. The family were the historic rulers of Breifne and later West Breifne until the 17th century. The O'Rourke Clan Chieftain is at odds with t ...

( Russian phonetical transcription: ''Orurk''), was a Russian convict. She was the daughter of Count Nikolay Moritsevitch

, a Russian naval officer of Irish ancestry and his second wife Ekaterina Seletska - a noblewoman of

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

origin. She gained international notoriety by standing trial for plotting and instigating the

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

of one of her lovers. Her 1910 trial in Venice and subsequent

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...

attracted

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

attention from both sides of the Atlantic and became the subject of various books ( Annie Chartres Vivanti,

Hans Habe Hans Habe (born János Békessy; 12 February 1911, Budapest – 29 September 1977, Locarno) was a Hungarian and American writer and newspaper publisher. From 1941, he held United States citizenship. He was also known by such pseudonyms as Anto ...

, etc.).

Biography

After marrying the Russian aristocrat Wassily Tarnowski (1872–1932) at the age of seventeen and giving birth to a son, Wassily (b. 1895), and a daughter, Tatyana (1898–1994), she became romantically involved with several other men. She was also known to abuse narcotic drugs (

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

). In 1907 in Venice, one of Tarnowska's lovers, Nicholas Naumov (also spelled Naumoff), killed another one of her lovers, Count Pavel Kamarovsky, allegedly upon her instigation. The Countess Tarnowska, as she was commonly called, was arrested that same year in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and transferred to

La Giudecca ''La Giudecca'' was a term used In Southern Italy and Sicily to identify any urban district (or a portion of a village) where Jewish communities dwelled and had their synagogues and businesses. Unlike the compulsory ghettos of Northern Italy an ...

penitentiary A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

in Venice, where the trial was to be held. The trial, locally called "the Russian affair" (''il caso russo''), began on 14 March 1910 and ended on 20 May of the same year, with the conviction of both defendants. Maria Tarnowska was found guilty, but was sentenced to serve a relatively mild term of only eight years in prison, thanks to an ingenious defence (it was one of the first to include

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

ian analysis of the defendant's personality and motives) – and, possibly, due to the leniency of the presiding judge. She was transferred to the penitentiary at

Trani Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the fir ...

(southern Italy), and released in 1915. Accounts of Tarnowska's life after her release are sketchy at best. She is known to have emigrated to America shortly after her release, in the company of a U.S. diplomat, under the assumed name of "Nicole Roush". In 1916 she was living in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

with a new lover, the Frenchman Alfred de Villemer, and calling herself "Madame de Villemer". There are accounts of her running a store selling

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

and other finery. Alfred de Villemer died in 1940; Maria died on 23 January 1949. Her body was transported back to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

(then the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

), where she was laid to rest in her family tomb.

Post mortem

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fat ...

worked on a treatment for a film to be called ''Il processo di Maria Tarkowska'' (''The Trial of Maria Tarkowska''), with

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

but it was never made. The filming was planned to begin in 1966 in Venice.Seymour Benjamin Chatman (1985)
''Antonioni, or, The Surface of the world''
Berkeley – Los Angeles – London: University of California Press, p. 273.

Bibliography

* Andrea Accorsi & Massimo Centini (2005), ''I grandi delitti italiani risolti o irrisolti''. Roma: New Compton Editori, ISBN 978-88-541-0414-3. *

La Domenica del Corriere ''La Domenica del Corriere'' was an Italian weekly newspaper which ran from 1899 to 1989. It came out every Sunday free with ''Corriere della Sera'', but was also sold separately. It was famous for its cover drawings, and its issues are still col ...

, 13-20 March 1910. *

La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...

, 4 September 1907. *

Stefan Michael Newerkla Stefan Michael Newerkla (; born October 7, 1972) is an Austrian linguist, Slavist and philologist. He has taught as Professor of West Slavic Linguistics at the University of Vienna since 2004 and has been Full Member (Fellow) of the Austrian A ...

(2020), Das irische Geschlecht O'Reilly und seine Verbindungen zu Österreich und Russland he Irish O'Reilly family and their connections to Austria and Russia In: ''Diachronie – Ethnos – Tradition: Studien zur slawischen Sprachgeschichte iachrony – Ethnos – Tradition: Studies in Slavic Language History'' Eds. Jasmina Grković-Major, Natalia B. Korina, Stefan M. Newerkla, Fedor B. Poljakov, Svetlana M. Tolstaja. Brno, Tribun EU, ISBN 978-80-263-1581-0, pp. 259–27
(accessible online)
here chapter 3.2 The Competing Clan O'Rourke, pp. 263–265. * Andrea Salmaso (2006), ''Maria Nikolajewna O'Rourke Tarnowska. “L’affare dei Russi”, Venezia (1907–2007).'' Venezia: Hotel Al
(accessible online)
* Annie Vivanti (2012), ''Circe. Il romanzo di Maria Tarnowska''. Milano: Otto-Novecento Editore, ISBN 978-88-877-3436-2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarnowska, Maria 1877 births 1949 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Argentina Murder in Italy

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...