the three magic cards, the three, the seven and the ace, having been told it by her friend in France, the Count of St. Germain. Sergei Golitsyn then used this knowledge to win the money back. Sergei Golitsyn had then related this story to Pushkin. Princess Golitsyna, who by the time of the publication of her story was in her 90s, began to be identified with the character, being nicknamed the "Queen of Spades", while her house in St Petersburg became known as the (). In later years the house and the intersection it stood on came to be considered a haunted site. The popular story stemmed from a friend of Pushkin's, , who related to historian P. I. Bartenev that it had been a Golitsyn who had told the cards anecdote to Pushkin. The Golitsyn in question was identified as likely being Sergei by Mstislav Tsiavlovskii, a connection challenged by A. A. Ilin-Tomich who presented evidence that he was not the source of the anecdote. The 1999 Oxford World's Classics edition notes that the characteristics of the countess likely owed more to Natalia Zagryazhskaya, who like Golitsyna had been a lady in waiting at court in the eighteenth century, and whose salons Pushkin had attended. When queried about the likeness with Zagryazhskaya, the great aunt of Pushkin's wife Natalia, by Pavel Nashchokin, Pushkin admitted "It was easier for me to portray Zagryazhskaya, than for Golitsyna, whose character and habits were more complicated." The Oxford edition also notes that, despite the story of Sergei Golitsyn and Pushkin, neither Zagryazhskaya or Golitsyna were the inspiration for the occult aspect of the story involving the Count of St. Germain. Princess Golitsyna died in St Petersburg on 1 January 1838, a few weeks before her 97th birthday. In her long life she had been maid of honour during the reigns of five emperors and empresses, and a lady in waiting at the courts of Alexander I and Nicholas I. She was buried in the Golitsyn family tomb in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. References 1741 births 1838 deaths Ladies-in-waiting from the Russian Empire Countesses of the Russian Empire Socialites from the Russian Empire Natalya Burials at Donskoy Monastery Russian princesses by marriage