Читать книгу The History of almost Everything. Practical guide of the eaters of Time - Lim Word - Страница 19

Since the fifth century of our era, most of Russia, except Pomerania, is designated on ancient maps as part of the empire of the Atilla Hun. What happened here before and until the ninth century, when there are corresponding references in the annals, until the emergence of new special methods of penetration into the past, is still unknown.

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1. The Empire of the Huns (434—453 AD). It is formed on the site of the Sarmatian settlement (Sarmatiya-Crimea, the territory to the north, and somewhat south), the Scythians (Scythia, east-south from the peninsula), in part – East Germany and the Balkans. The highest flowering reaches during the rule of Atilla.

The Huns themselves are nomads of the north of China, who fought with the Celestial Empire and the Mongols in the first century AD, who did not achieve much success there, seeking adventures and prey to the West. In the fifth century, they conquered Germany, France, northern Italy, imposed a tribute to the Roman Empire. After the battle with the powerful combined Roman and German troops in the Catalaun fields (an uncertain outcome), Atilla somewhat slows down, a year later dies. His sons quarrel with each other, and nothing clever for the salvation of their state, can no longer do.

The territory of the empire is declining, by 530 this state education, as a whole, ceases to exist.

In Germanic heroic tales, such as “The Song of the Nibelungs,” the ruler of the Huns looks very worthy, an enlightened ruler whose state structure does not particularly differ from the European one. More about the old order in the territories after all, the future of Ukraine (Kievan Rus) and partly of Russia, we do not know anything.

…The Avarian Kaganat, composed of the following, mighty Asian wave of migration, sprawls from the line (approximately) from the Crimea to the north, to the borders of modern France, capturing part of the Balkans. For some time now, the domination of the so-called. Avars (obrov) finally bored the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles the Great. The active king organizes an extensive coalition of nations, including scattered Slavic tribes and many Black Sea Bulgarians who suffered from their neighbors.

In 805 the Khaganate suffers a catastrophic defeat. Abras, red-haired, strong, ferocious and proud, as the chronicles testify, disappear everywhere, throughout the entire former residence.

…One more, the Khazar Khaganate has a center in modern Dagestan, it occupies part of the former Hun Empire, controls some territories of the future Russia, part of the Crimea, the Volga region and Kazakhstan. In 660, he disperses the troops of the neighboring (and partly with the kaganate of the crossing) Great Bulgaria. The tribes are settling: some form the well-known Black Sea Bulgaria, others go to the Volga and the Kama, forming the Volga Bulgaria, becoming the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars and Chuvashes. Tatars convert to Islam, fighting against the Kaganate hoping for the help of their co-religionists from Persia. Some groups remain in place, and the Khazars are paid tribute (usually one silver coin from the plow).

In 964, the Russian prince Svyatoslav defeats the Khazar army, places the White Tower in a strategically important place on the Don River (now at the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir), captures Sarkel (Tmutarakan, the present Taman Peninsula). Finally, a new wave of nomads from the East, the ubiquitous and tireless Polovtsians, is pressing the Khazars.

Much later, in the 13th century the Polovtsi will become part of the Golden Horde, they assimilate, they will give their (Kipchak) language to the Mongol conquerors. The Khazars are scattered throughout the earth, possibly making up some of the European Jewish communities.

Since 576, the Turkic Kaganate, a reflection of the Khazar Khaganate, but decently shifted to the East, towards China, is tearing away part of the Crimea and the North Caucasus from Byzantium.

…Information about all these state entities is very sketchy. Often the Kaganate are combined, both territorially and on a chronological scale. It is clear only that they occupied a significant part of the future Russia, as they interacted with the Slavic tribes – they fought or joined alliances. The state religion of the Avar and Khazar Kaganates is Judaism, more or less fancifully mixed with pagan customs, Turkic – shamanism and Buddhism.

2. Old Russian state in 10—12 centuries. We pay attention: the city of Vladimir in Volhynia is the essence of Vladimir-Volynsky.

…Ninth century. Varyag (Viking, Norman), or, perhaps, the Prussian Rurik reigns at the invitation of the People’s Veche in Veliky Novgorod, the north-west of modern Russia, with his two brothers – Truvor and Sineus. A ruler with a good pedigree, an effective manager outside of local strife – a worldwide practice to this day.

The word “Rus” is raised by some researchers to the ancient Icelandic Róþskarlar – “sailors, oarsmen”, others define themselves as the self-name of the ancient Baltic (Slavic) people of the Prussians. There is also a version, deriving “Rus” as the ancient Iranian ruksi – “white, light.”

The name of the individual representative of this people initially sounds like “rusin”.

.. Prince Oleg regent son of Rurik, Igor, on behalf of the latter, moves to the south, seizes the center of trade routes, very prosperous Kiev. Then he goes with the embassy to Byzantium, on other sources to war with it, for the first time is called the Grand Duke in synchronized Byzantine and European sources. Oleg prophetic, according to folk epics, from the snake bite.

Prince Igor was first recorded by Byzantine chronicles as a Russian commander, attacking Constantinople, and significant, – one thousand forty rooks, by forces. The Byzantine squadron uses Greek fire, which destroys most of the Russian fleet. Draw. Peace treaty with the Emperor of Byzantium, Roman the First Lakapin, the establishment of trade, political and religious ties.

Where was the fleet base? Perhaps in the Russian enclave, Tmutarakan – on the present Taman Peninsula, or, in the area of modern Kerch (other Russian “Korchev”). East Crimea at this time is managed precisely from Taman, although part of the peninsula (Chersonese, or, in other words, Korsun, within the boundaries of the present Sevastopol) is controlled by Byzantium.

The prince dies from his greed, trying to re-collect the tribute: however, all the circumstances of his death are greatly entangled.

Igor’s favorite wife, Olga, the first name of Beautiful, is baptized personally by the Byzantine emperor, Constantine the Seventh, builds the country’s government, redeems his sins, and educates the son of Svyatoslav, the one who later says: “I’m going to you”.

Svyatoslav, in turn, is at war with Bulgaria, then turns his arms toward the Byzantine possessions in Thrace. In 970, the troops of Emperor John the First Tzimisce compel the prince to retreat. Returning, he, with his army, falls into an ambush of the Pechenegs (known to the middle of the 11th century nomadic tribe) and perishes.

The next prince deserving special attention is Vladimir the First Svyatoslavovich, he is also Vladimir the Sacred (the epic “Red Sun”), the fruit of Svyatoslav’s connection with some alms-giving distributor, Malusha. Bastard is brought up under the supervision of Princess Olga.

In 988, another war with Byzantium will take place. Vladimir captures Korsun (Chersonesus Tavrichesky, whose remains are now somewhat south of modern Simferopol), concludes a peace treaty.

To enter into a dynastic marriage with the sister of Byzantine Emperor Basil the Second, Anna, here, in the city he captured, the prince is baptized (hundreds of pagan wives are exempted from duties).

The first Metropolitan of Kiev, witnessed by written sources – Theophylacte, translated by Emperor Basil II in Rosia from the Byzantine province of Armenia Second, the city of Sevastia (the northeast of modern Turkey, or rather its center), which took the origin of the four episcopses – Belgorod, Novgorod, Chernigov, and Polotsk. There is little information on the activities of the metropolitan, he leaves his high post Theophylact in 1018.

Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko is known for his participation in the voluntary and forced change of state religion. The character of many folk tales. With it, a church statute is introduced, a hierarchy of priests is built, the chasing of “srebreniki” begins; high-quality classic coins, which replaced the extended silver hryvnia. Around 980, Vladimir kills Rogvolod, the prince of the Polotsk principality (the territory of modern central and northern Belarus), his daughter, Rogneda, wields power by force. Three sons from her become a branch of the Rurik, Izyaslavichi Polotsk, or, in other words, Rogvolodovichi.

Yaroslav Vladimirovich Wise, son of Vladimir, prince of Novgorod, Kiev and Rostov. The heyday of the Russian kingdom. The introduction of a set of laws – “Russian Truth”. Princes and princesses from Yaroslav and his wife, the daughter of the Swedish king, Indigerda, are fully welcomed in France, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Poland and Austria.

Three centers of power – Kiev, Vladimir and Veliky Novgorod. Here you can add Polotsk, the capital of the future Belarusia (or, if its modern “king” – “Belarus” demands). Kiev is an outpost of Russian civilization: to the south, immediately behind the system, it is unknown who, two centuries before the era of the Zmiyiv ramparts erected, are the possessions of the Polovtsians and Mongols, with the island of Russian possessions, Tmutarakan, located on the site of the present Krasnodar Territory, and partially dependent on it by the eastern Crimea.

The next popular ruler (according to the “lestive” principle of the seniority of the princely family, most often from brother to brother) is Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, ie. “Edinoborets”, (1113—1125), the grandson of the fifth son of Yaroslav the Wise and the Emperor of Byzantium Constantine Monomakh; Prince of Rostov, Chernigov, Pereyaslav, Grand Duke of Kiev. It is known primarily for the exclusion of the Polovtsians from the borders of Rus (1111, a kind of “Crusade” to the Great Steppe), interesting autobiographical texts (“Instruction to Children”, “Chronicle of Life”), restriction of tyranny of usurers from ex-Khazars in Kiev – decrease, so to speak, the discount rate from 200% to 50%, the release of purchases – dependent debtors, and similar measures.

The war of the prince with powerful Byzantium, for the interests of the husband of his daughter, the impostor of “Leo Diogenes” (1116—1122), and then his son (his grandson) are somewhat less familiar to us, to mass readers. There is an opinion that in a series of fierce and, in general, unnecessary fights, Vladimir completely depleted the potential of his country, prepared it for the subsequent period of fragmentation and decline.

In the twelfth century, after the death of the last strong ruler, Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, with the skirmishes of the princes Andrei Volynsky and Yuri Dolgoruky, Rostov, a civil war begins. Daughters of Mstislav marry the prestigious European kings – Norway, Hungary, Denmark, then the popularity of matchmaking in these parts of the royal blood falls sharply.

Rus splits into fifteen or eighteen principalities, with its dynasties, and without them. In the absence of external enemies, such a separation, for a time, is permissible. Great Novgorod, on the decision of the mixed boyar and people’s veche, invites to itself worthy princes. His example is followed by three more princedoms, choosing to reign the remaining inferior sons of the main dynasty. In Kiev, the thrones governing this or that land work side by side, somewhat resembling the present, consisting mainly of governors, or their deputies, the Russian Senate (Federation Council). Variety works in a plus, if fragments can be collected and divided by virtue of some of their natural causes. As part of a single body, parts should breathe, have “play” – experimenting with forms of the world order, absorbing vital energy in large volume, while remaining in communication with each other. So that in a state of solidarity to assimilate the best achievements of friends-allies. But, this time the union comes from outside, when the state organism is most susceptible to external influences.

In 1240 the Russian princedoms were captured by the Mongol conquerors, a half-million-strong army, who shortly before conquered the Chinese empire of the Jin dynasty. The northern fragments of Rus are free from direct invasion, but they pay Batu a heavy tribute of property, money and people. The question of whether the Rusyns could unite for an irreconcilable struggle, in principalities-bastions, hidden in the North, remains open. Alexander Nevsky prefers to “make friends” with the Golden Horde, willy-nilly introducing in Asia its Asian customs and customs, rather than being measured with it, hardly reaching fifty thousand relatively regular troops.

Polotsk avoids the Mongol invasion, but falls into the composition of the Lithuanian principality – in fact, Western Russia, nominally ready to fight the Horde. Many Russian princes who disagree with the conciliatory doctrine of Nevsky leave for Livonia (not to be confused with modern Lithuania!), Together with their squads, experience the effect of two centers of gravitation – Moscow Rus and Poland. Separated from the Horde by the Wild Field, and also already regularly paying tribute to the Russian state, they are more or less left to themselves.

To the current Lithuania this state education has only indirect. The tribes of the Zhmudy, Zhemut, Auschayt, etc., indeed, were the tributaries of the great (for the most part – Russian-speaking) principality. After their conquest by German orders, as if as moral compensation, the northern nationalities borrowed the names “Lithuania”. The very same Lithuanian principality, united with Poland, largely adopted Catholicism, was eventually called the “Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth”.

Due to their geographical position, mainly the steppe southern principalities are subjected to the most powerful blows, lose their former significance and are unable to recover independently. Since the thirteenth century, Kiev is run by the Baskakov of the Nogai ulus, little-known local stewards, who do not even need to come to the Khan’s bid for the label’s approval. The city ceases to be the residence of the metropolitan. In the middle of the fourteenth century, Kiev captures the Principality of Lithuania, although for this he has to fight, and with the Horde troops somewhat weakened in a series of internecine strife.

The money is again becoming less expressive with two hundred-gram oblong ingots; in the North, because of the custom to cut such money into several parts, the name “ruble” appears.

The era of Dmitry Donskoy, the second half of the fourteenth century, is very controversial. The victory over the troops of Mamai, father-in-law of the supreme ruler of the Horde, Berdibek, who imagined himself to be there chief, in 1380, does not change anything particularly. Remains of Mamai troops, gaining strength in the Crimea, “presses” the legitimate heir of Genghis Khan, Khan Tokhtamysh. Mamai lives near Kafa, gets involved in the struggle with the Genoese who shelter him, and loses his head. This is a character buried in Russian community memory, which is buried in Russian community memory, as the excavations carried out in 1941 near Feodosia in the village of Aivazovsky (Sheikh Mamai) confirm that for me, now leafing through encyclopedia files is an amazing discovery.

Yagailo (Yakov), a potential ally of Mamai (if you believe the annals), he is also Vladislav Second Jagiello, prince of Vitebsk, Grand Duke of Lithuania, later – King of Poland, in one way or another, participating in the epic battle, on the side of the Horde does not accept. Later, in 1384, on one of the fractures of History, the question is solved: a union with Poland, or an alliance with Russia. As a result, as is known, the second variant falls out. Two years later, the Lithuanian principality passes into the Catholic faith, the Grand Duke marries the 13-year-old Polish princess Jadwiga. His descendants (from the second and fourth wives) form the dynasty of Jagiellons, ruling the Commonwealth until 1572.

Vasily First Dmitrievich, the eldest son of Dmitry Donskoy (1371—1425) – is held hostage in the Horde, flees to the Moldavian principality, successfully marries the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitold, Sophia, in 1389 gains a label, becomes, among other titles, Prince of Moscow. Vitold, in the meantime, decides to compete with the force already shaken in internecine quarrels by the Golden Horde, refuses extradition, deprived of the post of Khan Tokhtamish, to another applicant of this high rank, Yedigei. The maximum task is to plant Tokhtamysh in the Horde, with the help of his own, who became a very powerful protege, to occupy the throne of the sovereign of all Russia. The forces of the parties: Vytautas, knights of the Teutonic Order, Tokhtamysh – 38 thousand soldiers. The Golden Horde – 90 thousand soldiers. The battle will take place on the River Worksla (north of present Ukraine, in part – Russia). The interest of the Order is the promised by Vitovt, in case of victory, of course, Pskov. The heavily armed knights pursue the feigned retreat of the enemy, then their horses, weakly protected by armor, are bent out of bows and crossbows. On the shoulders, now quite sincerely retreating the Teutons, the Horde crash into the enemy infantry and complete the rout. Litvinov lost about 18 thousand, Horde people – it is not known, there are also such estimates as “very few” in the sources.

Several times recovered from the defeat of Vytautas, along with a fellow competitor, the Polish King Jagiello still dreams of becoming a unifier of the East Russian lands. In 1408, the (first) standing on the Ugra River occurs (somewhat north of present-day Kaluga). For some reason (the attack of the units of Yedigei in the territory of Russia and of Lithuania itself, etc.), in the face of an even more formidable opponent, the battle does not take place. At the same time, the Horde, displeased with the delay in the payment of tribute, approaches Moscow, ravages the neighborhood and, apparently, has received a substantial otkupnye, returns to its steppes.

Obliged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by his initial advancement, his wife, and still unknown what, Basil I quite easily concedes to the western neighbors Vyazma, Smolensk, and many other Russian lands.

Vasily II Vasilyevich (Dark), 1415—1462, the son of Basil the First and Sophia Vitoldovna. He spends a lot of time in a viscous muddy battle for the throne with many competitors, one of which is the little-known prince of Zvenigorod, Yuri Dimyevich Shemyaka (“Sheemyaka”, that is, one who can easily namet the neck – a generic nickname), the son of Dmitry Donskoy, also his own, the eldest son, Vasily Yurievich (nickname “Kosoy”), as well as his younger son – Dmitri Y. Shemyaka. The court of the Golden Horde, in such a dubious dispute about inheritance, issues a label to Vasily Vasilievich. Then follows a series of conflicts, battles against external and internal enemies, with an uncertain outcome, repressions against opponents of opponents, giving rise to the secret “fifth column”, and new coups. Actually, all the characters designated here take up the Russian throne for some time. Basil II is the only one who manages to stay on it a little longer than the others.

The second success – perhaps, Prince Dmitry Yurievich. Having lost the Moscow reign, he immediately leads the prestigious Novgorod republic. But, in the end, the people of Basil the Dark are bribed by the prince’s cook (nicknamed “The Gangbang”) and that “armor” greens (apparently, arsenic) in the chicken that the ruler gives.

The confessor of Basil II, Martinian Belozersky, after learning about what happened, takes the prince a severe penance, but, as a result, he is only deprived of the post of hegumen of the Trinity Monastery.

The right of inheritance becomes direct, not “lestivichnym” (“On the stairs”) as before, that is, from father to son, bypassing all younger brothers.

An important event of the time – the Russian Church becomes autocephalous, that is, completely independent. In 1435, Metropolitan of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (formally – Kiev and All Russia) on the proposal of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Greek by origin, Isidore (Kiev), is proclaimed. In Moscow, he convinces, not at all kindly welcoming the innovations of Basil II, the importance of convening the Ecumenical Council, where the contradictions between Catholics and Orthodox are necessarily blurred. The prince gives the metropolitan a hundred men of the suite, who need money for wandering, and sends them to Italy, with the order something like: “That nothing new should happen to us.” In March of 1441, after a lot of misunderstanding in Europe, Isidore returns to Moscow, the message of Pope Eugene the Fourth with the request to the Metropolitan in an important matter for the reunification of the Catholic and Russian churches. During the episcopal service in the Assumption Cathedral, among the priests of the Church, Isidore mentions the Pope. Three days later, on the orders of Basil, the Metropolitan is taken into custody, is the Chudov Monastery. In the same year, probably with the prince’s secret permission, flees to Europe, Byzantium, then Rome, where he manages the revenues of the Holy College of Cardinals. In 1452, together with a small squad of soldiers arrives at the Constantinople, surrounded by Turks, reminds the priests of the (formal) union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Participates in the defense of the city, unrecognized falls into captivity, flees, returns to Rome, where he receives a titular (without the appropriate jurisdiction and material base) of the patriarch of Constantinople.

So, we see how the first serious misunderstanding in Russia between the power of the church and the secular, (outwardly) ends in the victory of the earthly ruler. Vasily II, through a partially controlled cathedral of Russian bishops, in 1448, asserts on the spiritual throne of the long-conceived unquestioning patriarch Ion. Russia loses its spiritual connection with Europe, refuses any burning disputes at all, stops in its development, which leads to the next two centuries later, the too hasty and fierce reforms of Nikon, which has not healed the Dissolution of the Orthodox Church.

It should be mentioned and the failed predecessor Isidore, hieromonk Gerasim, bishop of Smolensk, at the will of the Prince of Lithuania Svidrigailo (Rus-2), who went to Constantinople to beg the patriarch for the saint of the metropolitan of “all the Russian land.” He gets the San, but, within the limits of the Lithuanian Principality (Vitebsk), falls into the disgrace of an extremely suspicious prince, and is extremely cruelly killed.

Any violent actions against members of the elected government – whether spiritual or secular, echo in the whole society with a loud echo. In the end, we see how the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually loses its meaning, becomes a province, joins Russia, where the attitude towards the leaders, even if they are recognized as disagreeable, and excommunicated, is at least somewhat more humane.

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1. Rzeczpospolita (Poland-dependent Ukraine + Grand Duchy of Lithuania) within the borders of 1619 in comparison with the borders of modern states. 1) The Kingdom of Poland (Crown), 2) The Duchy of Prussia is the Crown vassal, possession of the Teutonic Order. Before that, it’s the so-called. (the motto: Help-Protect-Heal), which emerged from the Order of the Hospitallers, was reborn, almost in its opposite, repeatedly attacked the principality of Lithuania, but in 1410 suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Grunwald from the Polish-Lithuanian (Russian) troops under the command of Jagiello and his cousin Vytautas. 3) – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 4) the Duchy of Zadvin, the condominium of Lithuania and the Crown, 5) the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the vassal of Lithuania, from 1569 – the Commonwealth.

2. Location of the Russian “Gulyai-city” in the Battle of Molodia, August 11—15, 1572. Photo of the author. Behind the residential buildings one can see the Resurrection Church (1703 years of foundation), in which, alas, there are no steles, plates, other signs of the great event that took place here. According to the testimony of the old-timers, burial mounds of the heroes of the battle could be seen until the 50s of the last century: after that, beets were either plowed up for sowing or built up.

3. Fragment of Gulyai-city (“Walking city”). Historical reconstruction.

4. Picture, corresponding to the spirit of the beginning of the 17th century: “Messengers. Early in the morning in the Kremlin”, the artist Apollinari Vasnetsov.

5. Vasnetsov’s painting “Medvedchiki” (a wandering circus with bears), the period of the beginning of the 18th century.

…Ivan the Third Great ruled in the Principality of Moscow from the middle of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. At this time, the Moscow Kremlin is being built, strong, complex, impressive to this day. A final release from the almost devoured itself, thoroughly battered by Tamerlane of the Golden Horde, is achieved. Reflected the invasion of the Crimean Khan Mehmet Giray First. Confidential, almost friendly, diplomatic and trade relations are established with the powerful Crimean Khanate. The wars with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in which, for their part, as the allies of Russia, the omnivorous Crimean Tatars are taking part) are bursting and extinguishing, there will be marches on Smolensk (then – the Lithuanian principality), Novgorod, Kazan and Pskov. Son, Basil the Third in the contract with the Holy Roman Emperor, perhaps with the support of his mother, Sophia from the Byzantine dynasty of Paleologes, is for the first time called Caesar (king). In a marriage with Elena Glinskaya, daughter of the Lithuanian prince (who leads the genus from Mamaia’s temnik), Yuri and Ivan, the future Grozny, are born.

A week after the death of Basil the Great, the boyars kill Yuri, the main pretender to the throne. Five years later, possibly from the Shuisky poison, the mother who has taken over the reins dies. Another eleven years of board of trusteeship council, and Ivan the Fourth (1530—1584) is crowned on the kingdom in the Assumption Cathedral. The era of princes, equal in the European table of ranks only to princes and dukes, as a whole is completed. The title is recognized by England and the Holy Roman Emperor, but is rejected by the Vatican, who in the thirteenth century appropriated the title “Rex Russiae” to the prince of the lands of Southern Rus Daniil Galitsky, with the condition of spreading Catholicism. The dynasty in the South is not developed. Relations with the Pope are broken.

Further events:

…Taking Kazan, the destruction of the capital of the Golden Horde, located eighty kilometers from Astrakhan, Saray-Berke. The beginning of the mental degradation of the king, perhaps under the influence of doses of mercury, oprichnina and terror, over the course of forty years eight thousand people were killed (comparatively little for that epoch, according to European standards).

The second half of the sixteenth century. Invasion of the troops of the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray. Before that, in alliance with the Turkish sultan, the Tatars conquer the Genoese colony, the Feodoro mountain principality on the western coast of the peninsula, populated by 200,000 Christians, and now the khanate is ready for long-range raids. Burning suburbs and the capital, except for the Kremlin and China-city. A year later, the second campaign, the Battle of Molody, a hundred and fifty kilometers south of Moscow – a catastrophic frontal attack on the Russian “Gulyai-city” (“Walking city”) made up of wagons reinforced with wooden shields. The extermination of the 120,000-strong Turkish-Tatar army leads to the fact that the Crimean Khanate loses most of the male population, for a while becomes relatively peaceful. However, the Russian state still has to pay him a “wake”, a tribute, that is, after all, probably a tribute, until the era of Peter the Great.

Destruction of the oprichnina, which was not justified in its struggle against external enemies. The capture of Isker, the capital of the Siberian Khanate, in alliance with Ermak, the entry of the remains of the ulus Juchi into Rus. The capture of Polotsk and (before that of Smolensk), while it goes without saying that life under the rule of an unbalanced tsar as a whole does not become better, creates a threat to the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, determines not very convenient consequences: the practical creation of a union state – Polish-Lithuanian (partially – ethnically Ukrainian) of Rzeczpospolita.

The King of Poland, the prince of Lithuania, formally the vassal of the Ottoman Empire, Stefan Batory reclaims Polotsk, moves swiftly into the depths of Moscow Rus, but gets stuck in the siege of Pskov (1581—1582). About 16,000 defenders of the fortress are confronted by 50,000 besiegers. There is a fierce struggle – in the course of huge mobile tours, large-caliber artillery, digging and mines galleries. In the end, the Polish-Lithuanian-Swedish army loses 20 – 24 000 people, and removes the siege of the city (the Yam-Zapol Peace Treaty is signed).

The last six years of life the king is not able to walk independently because of illness and moves on stretchers. Presumably, Ivan the Fourth “corrupted one thousand virgins and killed as many of his children” (from the words of the English ambassador Jerome Gorsay, with whom the king allegedly communicates) is treated for syphilis usual for the Middle Ages and the beginning of our days, with mercury ointments.

By the way, the recipe is this. Mercury is mixed with animal fat, sulfur and rubbed into the legs. As an option, general mercury is carried out, placing the patient in a closed room, with a cup of heated mercury. If a person does not die (in 80% of cases) a positive result is shown. Mercury is an antiseptic, and the causative agent of the disease, treptoneema, is very sensitive to it.

Historians do not recognize the “New Chronology” shamelessly shortening the dynasty, sometimes to a single ruler, bringing historical dates closer to the present, so that the building of the Moscow Kremlin is attributed almost to Stalin. But, you can notice an extraordinary similarity in the reign of Ivan the Third and his grandson. The campaign to Novgorod, Pskov, clashes with the troops of the khan and even the most patronymic, ideally coincide.

People travel through the points of view of spiritual ancestors, the psychological Machine of Time acquires an unusual popularity, one should be prepared for such unexpected turns of the Chronology.

Ivan the Terrible suddenly dies, on the throne, according to the decision of the Zemsky Sobor his middle son Fyodor, “a fast and silent, a saint on the throne”, rises. He reigns for 14 years, establishes a great peace in the Russian land with his endless prayers, while his guardian, Boris Godunov, in fact is in charge. At forty years (1598), the king is represented, leaving no heirs (the only daughter dies in infancy) and, referring to the will of God, at least of any written will. Seven years earlier, as a result of an accident, the youngest son of Grozny died from a seventh marriage, not consecrated by the church, in fact, illegitimate, and not having rights to the throne, Prince Dmitry. Would he be a good king, turn a knife in his hands, during an epileptic attack otherwise? Unknown. According to the testimony of a foreign traveler D. Fletcher, he liked to beat a gob of geese and chickens until they were exhausted, he found pleasure in watching how cattle were slaughtered. However, anyway, Dmitry Ioannovich canonized by the ROC (the patient who touched the sarcophagus died, since then access to the relics has been discontinued). The dynasty of the main, Moscow branch of the Rurik, is interrupted. The wife of Tsar Feodor, Irina – Godunov’s sister, a week after the death of her husband announces the desire to get a haircut in a monastery and, indeed, leaves for Novodevichy, freeing the way to the throne to his brother. The beginning of the reign of Godunov is quite successful, however, the prayers of his predecessor seem to be lacking; in 1601—1603, after a lot of rains and early frosts that destroyed crops, a strong famine begins. The cost of grain grows a hundred times, but many household gentlemen, as well as monasteries, keep it in barns, expecting further price increases, and the tsar does not dare to order bread for sale. Dying to half a million people.

In 1604, with a small detachment of Cossacks and Poles (about 14,000 people) begins a campaign from Poland to Moscow, False Dmitry First. The government army under the leadership of Vasily Shuisky, incl. three hundred guns with literate artillerymen, trained by alternating shooting archers, smash the army of the impostor. All is well, but next year, after a plentiful meal, the last time having examined Moscow from the tower, Godunov feels “faint”, and “losing his tongue” dies. The king becomes a sixteen-year-old son Fyodor (Second), with the regency of his mother, Maria Godunova (Skuratova), by the way, the daughter of the attorney of Ivan the Fourth Grozny in all matters, Malyuta Skuratov. The Tsar does not have time to get married to the kingdom, part of the army takes the oath of allegiance to False Dmitry.

The “elected tsar”, ie, Godunov, and his successors, in the opinion of the Russian people, is not equal to the tsar “hereditary, ruler of God’s will, and not human will.” For this reason, as well as the fact that the tsarist troops unleashed cruel reprisals against the impostor’s supporters on the ground, Muscovites, in their mass, are opposed to a new, at least reasonable and kind ruler. After spending a month and a half Fyodor and Maria Godunova, they perish at the hands of traitors (“the people are silent”). Patriarch Job, an ally of the failed dynasty, loses his rank, goes to the monastery. His place is occupied by Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan. Xenia Godunova, the sister of a young monarch, is rumored to become a concubine of False Dmitry for a short time, then also refers to a monastery.

So, in June 1605, False Dmitry the First, having coordinated the details with the Duma, solemnly enters the Kremlin and meets with the mother of Dmitry, Maria (in monasticism of Martha) Naga. She recognizes in her new “anointed” son, believably, with sobbing, perhaps to leave the walls of the disgusted monastery. Henceforth, Dmitry calls the Duma the Senate, and himself – the emperor (“Caesar”). In general, his reign goes to the country for good – many boyars return from exile, the serfdom of peasants is suspended, taxes are reduced, and the economy rises. The obstacles to movement within the state, and beyond, are removed. The Polish king does not receive the promised Russian lands. At the same time, the plans of the war with Turkey, the still ardent Crimean-Tatar Crimea (recently on the walls of the capital the next raid is reflected), the personal guard of the king, recruited entirely from the Germans, and also some frivolous European orders are not popular among the masses.

All this would be, again, not so bad, quite tolerably, but, in mid-May 1606, at the wedding of Dmitry and his long-time lover, the daughter of Polish voivode Marina Mnishek comes two thousand Poles. During the festival, drunken haiduk soldiers grab passers-by, break into houses, attack women. This is enjoyed by the boyar Vasily Shuisky, summoning the people allegedly to protect the tsar from them; but, on the move, however, the action flows into its opposite. Escaping from the crowd, the wounded Dmitry falls into the hands of the detachment of the streltsy of the external guard, they are some time in confusion, before they join the defeating side. They send again for Maria Naga, but something comes from the mouth of the incoming messenger; “Martha answered, her son was killed in Uglich.” False Dmitri First, he, or Dmitry, is not exactly known until now – dies. On the grave of the king ominous signs are noted, because the body is digging, burning, mixing the dust with gunpowder and firing in the direction of Poland.

The crowd of adherents “calls” Vasily Shuisky (Suzdal branch of Rurikovich) king, and that he becomes, on June 1 of the same year. The Patriarch is changing, from Ignatius to Hermogenes. A new, even less legitimate ruler is expected from the very beginning to be severely tested – in October 1606, Moscow was besieged by a 100,000-strong army of the authorized representative of the next False Dmitry (Second) – the former galler oarsman, “serf”, now voevoda Ivan Bolotnikov. In the camp of the insurrection a split is brewing – the boyars and runaway peasants are not able to form a stable union. Muscovites are ready to surrender, they only need to show the figure only somehow similar to the real prince, but that at the “voivode Dmitry” I. Bolotnikov at the moment is not. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the killers of Prince Fyodor, once a confidant of False Dmitri, who, incidentally, retains the royal seal and, finally, an imposter, refuses to take part in a risky fight personally. The hastily taken, in October, Bolotnikov failed to storm the capital. The army of the peasant leader, suffering in the way of defeat, retreats to Tula. It is possible to accumulate new forces, up to 38 thousand people, regroup and carry out a second campaign against Moscow. A hundred kilometers south-east of the capital, near Kashira in June 1607, there was a battle with the army of the Tsar himself, Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky). Peasant rebels are well organized, they have effective artillery, they are one step away from victory; but, a certain Tula governor with a 4-thousand detachment changes Bolotnikov, strikes the rear of the militia and sows panic. The uprising is coming to naught, however, many militiamen are involved in the struggle of the parties, for or against, the impostors of Dmitry II and the Third.

…The backlog of Mikhail Molchanov with False Dmitry for Ivan Bolotnikov’s army was, in fact, true, but the search for a real person for this role was too long. Yes, for a while, in Poland and Ukraine (actually, the protectorate of Poland), the role of the prince was played by Molchanov himself. But, in Moscow he was well known. Only at the beginning of 1607, in Byelorussia, also then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the name of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the calka from Latin res publica – “Republic”), was found suitable for the figure, age, other basic parameters, man. In a halo of mystery, first as a relative of the tsar, Andrei Nagoy, False Dmitry II appeared before the Russian people only at the end of the spring of 1607.

False Dmitry did not have time for either the first or the second campaign of Bolotnikov to Moscow. He also goes to Tula, where, on October 10, Shuisky’s troops, having changed the direction of the river to the city, forced the rest of the peasant army to surrender. But, in any case, now under his name is collected 27 thousand people – Poles, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, archers, nobles and fighting serfs. False Dmitriy wins several battles, but Moscow, surrounded by stone white walls (by the current Boulevard Ring) can not be taken. Having settled in Tushino, False Dmitry II tries to completely block the capital. He manages to intercept Marina Mniszek, and, after some persuasion, marry her. At the same time, the “deputy king” succeeds in attracting Metropolitan Philaret to his side – becoming from now on the understudy of the Moscow patriarch. There comes a dual power – Shuisky and False Dmitriy II (more precisely, his Polish bodyguards who believe that they control the owner) rule the country in parallel. Vasily the Fourth achieves some successes, with the help of the governor Skopina-Shuisky (whom he later, according to most historians, will poison) and some participation, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Catholic Poland, Protestant Sweden. Polish mercenaries openly show disdain for their Russian “tsarik,” and, after all, climbing into the cart under the matting, False Dmitry runs away from them to Kaluga.

In this city the spirit of the Bolotnikov uprising is still very strong. Only here the impostor begins to play an independent role, enjoys the respect of the people, finds a second wind. The Tushino camp, which remained without the tsar’s name, loses the original meaning of the second capital, is set on fire by former masters; The arrogant Polish army is dispersed.

False Dmitry is besieging Moscow already with a new army. In the milieu of boyars, the “overturners” are ripening the idea: simultaneously remove from the political field both Vasily Shuisky and the impostor, and then by the whole world choose a new king. In Moscow, the nobles of the Zemsky Sobor, indeed, overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the king into monks and await response from the near False Dmitry II. But, they do not hurry to fulfill this promise, because now their positions are remarkably strengthened. To fill the vacuum of power, the interim government, Semiboyarschina, chooses the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaz, the eldest son of the Polish king Sigismund the Third. Gradually Russian society is polarized: to the False Dmitrii, pushed back to Kaluga, the poor and humiliated poor people, Cossacks and Cossacks, flock to Vladislav, or rather, his representatives in Russia – the nobles.

Without a sufficient number of representatives of the nobility, outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of people enter the power of their dark instincts. The notion of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of senseless terror is developing to all the more suspicious and “wrong” people. Moreover, False Dmitry II expects to call for Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars, who are already moving to Central Russia, as well as Turks, in order to Moscow, so that they can quickly correct all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true; in retaliation for one of the victims of terror, an impostor kills his own bodyguard.

So, Vasily Shuisky tonsured monks, along with two brothers he is kept in a castle, 100 kilometers from Warsaw. His own children do not have a former king. The three-year-old son of Mary Mniszek, Ivan, can claim the throne, but, nevertheless, he is still too small. Tsar Vladislav is unpopular among the people, in addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow, and himself, it seems, is cooling to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the appearance of the third False Dmitri is still fertile.

And it is announced, (January 1611) – in the besieged Swedes of Ivangorod (150 kilometers west of present-day Petersburg). False Dmitry III manages to gather the militia in Pskov, and even drive away the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor is slow to move to Moscow, embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence against the townspeople and, imperceptibly, loses popularity. The conspirators who were betrayed to him by the Cossacks were removed from Pskov, allegedly to fight the Swedes that besieged the suburbs. False Dmitriy feels something is wrong, tries to escape; they catch him, put him in a cage and take him to Moscow. According to some information, the impostor is killed on the way, on others – executed in the capital.

Moscow, meanwhile, is occupied by the Poles, as the 15-year-old Vladislav Vaz, the son of the Polish king, nominally becomes king. He is elected, but not crowned. Here, a relatively independent Orthodox church shows itself with the best of luck; Patriarch Hermogen (number one), initially loyal to the foreign ruler, realizing the intentions of the occupiers, frees the people from the oath, sends letters from Moscow with appeals for resistance. The diplomas find a response, first of all, in Ryazan, where the first national militia is being formed. The Poles are sent to suppress the insurrection and the ruin of the Ryazan towns, the Little Cossacks of the Little Russians, dependent on them. Some of them die, a part – goes to the side of the people’s militia. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is rising to fight; two main resistance centers are formed. In mid-March 1611, their forces are connected near Moscow, increasing to one hundred thousand people. The occupying forces – five thousand Poles, two thousand Germans, carry out large-scale repressions in the city, set fire to houses to cope with the outraged people even before the storming – about seven thousand people died from fire and steel. In alliance with the Poles, there are some Russian boyars, and the courtyard serfs dependent on them.

To storm high white-stone walls the militia does not dare, creates its Zemsky Sobor and the system of state power. However, between the two forces – the nobility, seeking to restore statehood and serfdom, and the Cossacks, who want to preserve their liberties, there is some kind of discord. This is used by the Poles: their forgery testifies that the Ryazan leader of the Lyapunov militia is determined to destroy the Cossacks. The Cossacks call him “on a circle,” where without trial and trial, on pure emotions they kill the leader of the insurgents. As a consequence, most noblemen leave the camp. Dying of hunger in the capital (the dungeon of Chudova monastery), Patriarch Hermogen urges the people now not to obey the orders of the governor of the Moscow region, D. Trubetskoi and I. Zarutsky. However, the archimandrite of the influential Trinity-Sergius monastery, Dionysius, stands for solidarity precisely under their command. The large Cossack detachment remains on the siege of Moscow until the middle of the summer of 1612, but, with the approach of the detachments of the second militia, flees to the Ryazan lands, Astrakhan, and does not participate in further combat operations with the interventionists. Zarutskiy has a trump card – Marina Mnishek with the son of False Dmitry II, the ataman wishes to use it later for his own purposes. At the walls of the capital are the forces of Trubetskoi, directly in the murder of Lyapunov not involved.

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1. Sigismund plan, 1610, before the destruction of 1612. The north here is on the right. In the bend of the Neglinka River (then it could catch a wonderful fish) – the Kremlin.

It is interesting that the towers and walls of the Kremlin are not exactly as they are on the map, although the architectural complex was formed already under Ivan the Terrible and his father, the sovereign of all Russia, Vasily the Third.

2. This picture, as it is felt, conveys the atmosphere of the reign of Moscow princes, until the era of Peter the Great.

3. The liberation of Moscow from foreign invaders, 1612: an artistic reconstruction, quite suitable for tuning travel in Time.

4. Patriarch Hermogenes, an icon that faithfully reflects not only the appearance of the shepherd, but also the very mood of the time.

5. Red Square. Comparison with modern time. A guide for travelers on the Four-dimensional World. View of the Main Universal Store (GUM), built in 1896 on the site of dilapidated shopping arcades.

There is such a book, a fantasy; “The land of lost souls,” the American writer Neil Shusterman. In some other world, modern buildings are combined with significant, in the spiritual plan, buildings of past eras. Perhaps this combination of the past and the present gives rise to a peculiar volume of being, gives a new meaning to existence, opens up unusual prospects for life, opens up new sources of psychic energy for the soul.

6. Red Square, a site near the St. Basil’s Cathedral. The temple itself consists of nine separate churches, respectively, with their holy altars. It was built in 1555—1561, by the order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The most famous name is the Pokrovsky (Troitsky) cathedral named after the holy fool and Saint, St. Basil the Blessed (Naked), who was buried here.

Until 1813, at the Pokrovsky Cathedral, along the Kremlin wall (where the Mausoleum is now located), a defensive moat, filled with water from the Neglinka River, stretches. Behind the Kremlin wall, a photograph of the end of the nineteenth century shows the domes that were demolished in 1932 by the Chudov (Miracle) Monastery. Later there is the administrative 14th building of the Kremlin. In 2014, the President of Russia, looking at the renovated building (already spent 8 billion budget rubles, or 250 million US dollars at the rate), drops the phrase that it would be nice, in principle, to restore the monastery complex in its old form. As a consequence, the 14th Corps (which has also earned a certain historical significance) is destroyed “with a view to further possible development of the territory.” Now, ie, by the beginning of 2018, on the site of these two essential structures, there is an ordinary lawn.

7. Street Nikolskaya, in the early twentieth century, and now. The direction to the Lubyanka Square (the building of the state security bodies, the Cheka-NKVD-KGB-FSB, as well as the Central Department Store “Children’s World”).

8. Nikolskaya Street. View of the Nikolsky (now closed) gates of the Kremlin, to which, before the appearance of the Red Square, at the end of the 15th century, the highway led directly.

9. Prechistenskaya embankment. Metro Kropotkinskaya, down, along the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and to the right. On the way you can see “The house on the embankment”, it is also the “House of Government”, built in 1931, known primarily for a large number of repressed residents – major statesmen.

In the photo, as you can see here, Moscow, the Kremlin, the bridge are almost unrecognizable – although this is exactly the place where the photographer took the photo. The stone staircase disappears, the elevation, the solid lantern, the scale of the streets and buildings is changing. What is it is the deception of vision, the property of optics of photographic apparatuses, or the actual anomalous property of space and time.

In general, there is a feeling that Moscow of the beginning of the twentieth century differs from the current capital in the same way as the ruddy, brisk, loving outfits and entertainment the girl differs from some pale who does not understand what she herself wants, a melancholic lady.

7. Orthodox church.

1) Throne (altar, from the Latin altarium, “high”, pommel of the altar). The name is common in the Orthodox tradition. Initially (in the pre-Christian era), the altar is constructed from the earth, clay, and stones (if possible, a solid stone block) in the places where the interaction with the higher force has most clearly occurred – at the creek, in a clearing, in a grove, at the top of a mountain. In Ancient Greece, the altar (a powerful stone foundation) is essentially the temple itself. The Throne of the Eastern Church is approximately equal to the altar of the Western Church.

The Orthodox throne is a square table, the place of the mysterious presence of God. Here are the sacred relics. (1) – antimins, scarf, with the sign of the cross, with stitched parts of the relics of some great martyr, and also the signature of the bishop of the diocese, to which the temple belongs. Antimins is a kind of document permitting the performance of the liturgy. When the service is performed, the antimension unfolds, a chalice and a discus are placed on it – vessels for wine and bread, necessary for communion. Only the priests in full service clothes can touch the scarf, or (at the time of out-of-worship service) with a ribbon trimmed (Greek επιτραχήλιον – that around the neck). In certain cases, due to its strength, the antimension can replace the throne itself.

(2) The Gospel (New Testament).

(3) One, or more often two, of the altar cross. Crosses are used for the celebration of the Liturgy, for the blessing of those praying to leave the temple at the end of the divine service, the consecration of water for the Epiphany, and especially solemn prayers.

(4) The tabernacle (kiwot). The sacred vessel, the casket, where the holy Gifts are stored – the Body and Blood of Christ, used for communion (Eucharist, from other Greek εὐ-χᾰριστία – thanksgiving, honor, gratitude). The body is round, somewhat bifurcated, as a sign of the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, reminiscent of the seal of a piece of bread, a prosphora (προσφορά – “offering”), is made from wheat flour, with yeast, water and salt. Wine – in Orthodoxy usually red, sweet (Cahors). In the Latin rite, liturgical bread is called unleavened bread, a guest (Latin hostia – “sacrifice”), or a robe (Latin oblatio – offering, offering, gift), it is baked exclusively from flour mixed with water, and resembles a thin coin. Wine, as a rule – white.

A consecrated, functioning temple, ideally – a place where the contradiction between the spiritual and the material is removed, the heaven descends to earth, God incarnates in the world. You can add that the difference between the temporary and the transcendent, the eternal, disappears, one can feel the infinity of taste, so that he begins to like it.

The sacraments of the Eucharist consist of a) proskomedia (Greek “offering”), when the priest, after reading the prayers for the sending of the Holy Spirit, in the presence of many believers, but also with the closed Royal Gates, prepares the Blood and the Body on the Throne. Wine is mixed with water and poured into the chalice. Prosfora is cut with a special copy – a ritual double-edged knife with a triangular blade. b) Liturgies of catechumens (taught in the faith, and also penitent and excommunicated). In the great litany (the Greek “extended prayer”), global (then first) global, then smaller, general church and social, then personal petitions are raised. c) Liturgy of the faithful (there are only persons who have accepted baptism). The prepared Holy Gifts are solemnly transferred from the altar to the throne through the North Gate: before the iconostasis, believers. After that, the Royal Gate closes, the altar curtain is pulled up. The remaining priests read the eucharistic prayer anaphora, after which the Woof (lifting upward) of the Holy Gifts takes place. At this moment, mysteriously, wine and bread are converted into the Blood and Body of Christ.

The priests take communion, then they receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the laity.

In the Roman rite the Eucharistic Liturgy is called the Mass (perhaps from the Roman missio – mission, message). There are no fundamental differences. The service is conducted in Latin.

2) The altar. A quadrangular table, hidden in the same “clothes” as the throne, to the left of the high place (the northern part of the temple). The location of the sacred vessels, as well as bread and wine – gifts of Christians, suitable for the celebration of the Eucharist. In the intervals between the services, the veil is closed.

The upper part is a part of the Orthodox church opposite the throne, near the central part of the eastern wall. In a small niche, on a certain elevation there is a pulpit (throne, a high altar) for the bishop. The throne is surrounded by a semi-circle of seats (synthron) of priests of lesser rank. In some parish churches, the place is designated more only by an icon lamp, or by a tall candlestick with candles.

3) Altar. The space between the semicircular (eastern) wall is an apse and the iconostasis.

4) Ponomar (northern), it is sometimes “paradise”, because of the usual themes of the painting, the door in the iconostasis.

5) Sacristy (a storage room, a deacon). Place in the altar, several cabinets, or a separate room for storing the liturgical garb of priests and church utensils.

In the sacristy lead the southern, otherwise, the deacon’s doors of the iconostasis.

The spiritual person in charge of the sacristy is a sacristan. In Catholic churches, the sacristy is also called sacristy (Latin sacrum – sacred utensils). Mass begins with the solemn release of the clergy from sacristy. Here you can privately talk with a clergyman.

Ponomar – other Greek. παραμοναριος – “gatekeeper”, he is an altar boy, sexton, a servant of the Orthodox Church, obliged to ring bells, sing in the choir (elevations on the sides of the salt), monitor the order, serve during worship.

Deacon – from other Greek. διάκονος is a minister, a person passing service at the first, inferior priesthood degree. Below him in the church hierarchy is only the clerk, the subdeacon is a cleric (he is a true believer, but not ordained as a parishioner). The deacon does not have the right to perform the sacraments himself. Appeal to the deacon in solemn cases, usual, but not registered in the church protocol of the ROC: “Your evangelism”, “Your loud voice”, or “Your God-love”.

6) The iconostasis. In Orthodoxy – the altar partition, consisting of rows of icons, separating the temple (parishioners) from the altar, respectively, the priests, and the ritual of the priesthood. In the Western tradition, there is no such clear separation of the people from the hierarchs.

7) Clears (from other Greek κλῆρος – getting a place or land by lot). Elevation, sometimes partially enclosed, for singers or readers. Sometimes the choir of choristers is also called the “choir”.

8) Salt (from the Latin solum – flat place, foundation). Raising the floor before the altar barrier or the iconostasis. In the front part of the saltwater there is the pulpit (another Greek ἄμβωνος – “ledge, elevation”) with the chair (other Greek καθέδρα armchair, throne), a symbol of the authority of the bishop, or, in the Catholic and Protestant temples – sacred texts.

9) The middle part of the temple. A place for parishioners. In orthodox (orthodox) churches, the service is accepted standing, in Roman Catholic and Protestant – sitting on benches (sometimes, on the sign of the priest, rising).

10) The porch (from the Latin praetorium, place for the praetor tent, later – the central square of the city). Passage part of the temple, vestibule. In the pre-Niconian Orthodox Church, the vestibule is usually very capacious, designed for a joint meal, gathering people during any emergency, heating the wanderers during the cold season (days), etc.

11) Candle box, literally – a church shop. Theoretically, trade here does not happen, but donations are made to the temple. In theory, in case of extreme need, you can ask for a candle for free. Practically, (nowadays) trade in various goods (wine, candles, books), including quite secular calendars, pictures are kept in the middle part of the temple.

12) The porch (from the Latin atrium, ater – “smoked”, “black”, the room blackened by soot, or from the Latin pauper – “poor”) – a roofed platform in front of the inner porch of the church, in which in the first centuries of Christianity stood weeping and penitent. The first temple elevation. Usually in the middle of the porch there was a pool in which believers washed their hands and face, before entering the church. The usual place for beggars, begging for parishioners.

8. Standard peasant hut (from the word “isba” – “source”). The usual “footage” – 25 square meters, in the absence of clearly defined rooms (“studio”), is designed to accommodate seven or eight people.

In the pre-Christian era, before the building of the dwelling, the masters must sacrifice any animal, best of all – the horse; which thus gives the structure its reasonable, perfect form. An echo of the belief is the strengthening of the wooden horse’s head on the roof.

1) Furnace with a stove (polotyami). The base is 2 × 1.5 m., The height is about 1.5 m. Until the beginning of the 18th century, smoke is selected through the doors and windows in the walls (“in black”, in the so-called “hut”), then on a wooden box, … a pipe made of fireproof bricks. In the body of the furnace there are numerous excavations (stoves, grills) for cooking or drying clothes. There is also a tub with water and a towel for washing. On the floor, you can climb up two or three high steps – offensives. Cook, fry the dishes, bake bread at the mouth of the stove, in front of burning fuel, or a little further, in the furnace (furnace) of the melted or cooling furnace. The oven is usually melted once a day, in the morning, at the same time the food is cooked: some of it is kept warm (languishing) until lunch and dinner in the grooves. According to popular belief, the space under the stove, or behind it – is a legitimate habitat for a brownie.

2) Oven (baby’s corner, he’s a kut, tinyushka, sunshine). Located between the mouth of the furnace and the opposite wall. Sometimes it can be called a closet, although it is usually a room in the passage, for storing some things, or sleeping on warm days. It is covered with a curtain or a board, not reaching the ceiling, with a partition. Owning women and, above all, the eldest (by age) of them in the house.

3) The ship’s shop. Location of household utensils and blanks for cooking. Household items, tools, etc. are also located on shelves that run along the entire inner perimeter of the hut (except for the Red corner)

4) Holy (red, anterior, corny) corner. It is located diagonally from the stove, usually on the eastern side of the hut. In this version, the door, canopy and podklet are on the left (the rest changes almost nothing). An analogue of a church altar in a dwelling. In addition to the icons on the shelves of the Red Corner, there are: a vessel with consecrated water, candles, and branches of the Easter pussy willow. In the upper row there are, separated by curtains from benches, the icon of the Savior (center), to the left of the viewer – the Virgin, on the right – usually, Nikolai the Sinner. Old believers protect the faces of icons from prying eyes with white cloths, the so-called. evangelists. The composition of the other saints (personal icons) is selected at the discretion of family members. Outsiders enter the Red Corner, in the norm of generally accepted behavior, are free only at the special invitation of the hosts.

5) Conic. A wide bench, also a trunk with a folding flat lid. It is fenced off from the entrance door by a vertical board-back, usually made in the form of a horse head. For a woman sitting on a conic (man’s place), except for some special cases, is considered indecent. A place of honor for male guests.

6) Dining table. It is considered “the hand of God”, which serves food, is located in the Red corner. The host man sits under the images, the eldest son on the right side, next on the left, and so on. Except in special cases, the food is served in a common (usually wooden) bowl. Eating takes place in deep silence. On holidays, a massive table (with the ability to slide on skids) is exposed in the middle of the hut. In the presence of a significant number of guests, women feast separately, in their own sun.

7) A long shop. A long bench running from the Red corner along the entire facade. By and large, it is considered a female place, prenaznachennymi for spinning fabrics, embroideries, etc.

8) Kutniy corner. The location of the tub with drinking water or kvass.

9) Primost. Wooden flooring for sleeping. It is usually supplemented by a second tier – poloty, essentially being a continuation of the furnace stoves. As a rule, the dwelling of children and single youth. The bed below is intended for the owners of the dwelling – husband and wife, their parents, or (in the cold season, when you can not spend the night in the hall or cage) of young couples. It is considered normal to sleep on straw mattresses, near a door or stove, without any flooring. In the summer time, you can relax on the bank – a log hut attached to the walls for a strong fortress and heat-saving, grass-covered pile of land.

10) Chest.

11) The canopy. A tambour, a cold storage room, a guest room in a warm period. Combined with short or long halls, living quarters, outbuildings, barns, etc., form the notorious mansions.

12) The cage. Pantry, summer home, bedroom. Pokljet – a cellar, a cellar, covers usually space and under the whole house. Over the cage can be arranged a room – an unheated living room with large windows on all sides, a sign of a rich house. Sometimes here there can be a stove, round or quadrangular, with tiles, following the Dutch pattern. Similar to the upper room of the light-tree – but it definitely does not have a furnace, at least its furnace part. Heating (to a small extent) is made by the oven side, or plastered chimney.

The upper rooms and the luminaries are designed to carry out female handicrafts, other works, storage of something, and also, probably, the dreams of unmarried girls, about something so vaguely good.

…The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. Formation of his forces was initially based on the union of the representative of the nobility – the profound prince Pozharsky and the peasantry – the economic zemstvo headman Minin. From voluntary donations, a treasury is created, which is well, without delay, paid for the help of experienced service people. Near the walls of Moscow, the strength of the army reaches ten thousand men – about ten times less than the First Militia; at the same time, it is incomparably better organized and internally coordinated. In early September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitriy III, he managed to repel the convoy with food for the besieged, to liberate most of Moscow and, in October, to occupy the city of China. Remains the Kremlin, in the walls of which the Poles and Russian boyar families are already everywhere engaged in cannibalism. Having placed his regiment at its walls, Pozharsky defends the boyars and one of two large Polish detachments. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the camp of the Cossacks of Trubetskoy, and is completely exterminated by those. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612, a solemn moleben is held at the Place of Execution in honor of their victory. The new Polish army, which is halfway to Moscow, after news of these events reaches Sigismund and Vladislav, stops at Volokolamsk.

In January 1613, an all-meeting meeting was convened, including the peasants, the Zemsky Sobor, whose purpose was to elect a new tsar and dynasty. Among the contenders are Pozharsky, Trubetskoi, Swedish Karl Philip, Vladislav, and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad; in 1615 from Astrakhan he was sent to the capital, where he was executed together with the ataman Ivan Zarutskiy.

The election is won by the sixteen-year-old son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail F. Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have a family and, in general, to live a sexual life, but Fyodor Nikitich Romanov and his wife Xenia Ivanovna did not always have a monastic order. They had to go to the monastery under Boris Godunov, who saw them as candidates for the throne, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret becomes a “betrothed” patriarch in the Tushino camp, parallel to Moscow’s Hermogen, then taken out by the Poles to Poland, but finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.

So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, Martha, who is hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatievsky Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Sobor from Moscow arrives from Moscow and informs the important news. A shy young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty. He and his entourage are, in particular, to give an unpleasant instruction about the execution of a young son False Dmitry. This sacrifice seems to seal the entrance to new impostors, but remains a stain in the history of the Russian people – as long as, perhaps, historians prove that this never happened.

Three years later the Polish troops, together with the Zaporozhye Cossacks of the Orthodox nobleman Peter Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore the rights of King Vladislav Vazu, they are storming Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the so-called. Deulin world, concluded in 1618, Russia loses 26 cities, including the key Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl – together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to Russian lands. Vladislav still claims the Russian throne.

At the age of 20, Mikhail the First is going to marry, and, examining the bride’s structure, he chooses Maria Khlopova. But, the girl does not like his mother, according to her suggestion, doctors conclude that “Maria Khlopova to tsar’s joy is fragile.” Other healers come to a completely different conclusion, however, the final word is still for the nun Martha. After a while, with the assistance of his father, Patriarch Filaret, who had returned from the Polish captivity, Michael almost already marries Khlopova, but the mother’s influence again outweighs. In the end, the king enters into a marriage with Evdokia Streshneva, the confidante of one of the boyars who came to the bride’s eyes. Marriage is quite happy, except for the fact that, even under royal care, six out of ten children die before they reach adulthood (the usual statistics of that time).

In 1636, Michael declared war on Poland, his troops besieged Smolensk. However, incompetent governors lose initiative, they return to Moscow from 8000 people with an initial number of 32000. The status quo is preserved, the only plus is the King of Poland (otherwise – the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the association of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, indeed, Poland itself), Vladislav refuses, finally, claims to the Russian throne.

In 1645, the son of Mikhail, Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishy) became the king. In his reign there are: the formal reunification of Ukraine and Russia, the Copper and Salt riots and, especially, the church schism. The fault of the patriarch Nikon is that he could not carry out the reform of church rituals gently, with all the necessary explanatory work. His discord with the king is not due to concern for the people, but, solely, his own pride. The Church Council of 1666 supports the reform of Nikon, betrays the curse (anathema) of the Old Believers (therefore, casts doubt on the religiosity of their ancestors) and, whatever, condemns the rebellious patriarch for imprisonment in the monastery. Open resistance to such a godlessly introduced religious statute lasts at least until the capture of the Solovetsky Monastery by troops in 1676; 14 monks from 500 remain alive. In 1654, in connection with the annexation of the Hetmanate, or, more precisely, the troops of Zaporozhye (Zemsky Sobor of 1653, Pereyaslav Rada), another Russian-Polish war begins. The combined forces of Buturlin and Khmelnytsky achieve considerable success, they are already fighting in the territory of ethnic Poland and Lithuania; but the entry into the war of Sweden, which threatens both states, snatched Warsaw and Krakow from under Russia’s nose, forces the parties to the conflict to sign the Vilna truce. And, in addition, there is an interesting prospect of electing Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishim) to the throne of Poland.

Let us note, by the way, that Ukraine then, in colloquial speech, and in all official documents, is called exclusively Minor Russia, or the Hetmanate. The treaty between the Russian Tsar and Cossacks is compiled in the “Belarusian language”. Moscow Russia at that time is often called the “White”: later this toponym is shifted to the West, and denotes current Belarus (Belarus).

From the oath of the Cossacks Zaporozhye Moscow Tsar:

“… The King of Tours is a Busurman; you all know how our brethren, the Orthodox Christians, Greeks suffer, and in what essence from godless oppression; Khrimsky Khan is also a busurman, whom we took in need and friendship, what unbearable misfortunes we took! What captivity, what merciless shedding of Christian blood from the Polish Panos of oppression, does not need to tell anyone; you yourself all know that the Jew and the dog are better than the Christian, our brother, they revered. And the Orthodox Christian Grand Sovereign, the King of the East, is with us the one pious Greek law, one confession, one and all the body of the church by the Orthodoxy of Great Russia, the head of the property of Jesus Christ.”

In 1658, the war continues, but now without the deceased Bogdan Khmelnitsky.

His former secretary, Ivan Vygovsky, who himself became the “hetman of the Grand Duchy of Russia,” conducts mass reprisals among dissatisfied Cossacks by his rule, concludes with the Polish-Lithuanian Common Land a separate treaty under which the Hetmanate becomes a federal unit of Poland; makes other decisions that divide Ukraine into the Right Bank (western) and left-bank (eastern). In the same year, Vygovsky brutally punished Poltava, rebelling against him (the uprising of Barabash and Pushkar, the influential Cossack elders, who inquired as to where the royal money allocated for the maintenance of the Zaporozhye army was).

In 1659, Vygovsky succeeded in attracting the Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray of the Fourth with a 30-thousand-strong army to his side; together they defeat the elite Russian detachment of Alexei Trubetskoy, besieging the city of Konotop. Loss of about seven to seven thousand. Nevertheless, in Ukraine, against Vygovsky, new uprisings are breaking out. The next hetman is the 18-year-old son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Yury, who has reached his legal age, who formally left Vygovsky’s care. He is by no means the continuer of the cause of the famous father, speaking, in general, against the unification of states. However, in fact, the offspring of Khmelnytsky is a protege of the Poles, then of the Ottomans, and does not pursue an independent policy.

Realizing that the hetman was not for him, he cuts himself into monks… gets to the Tatars, then the Turks… who, in the end, are executed.

In the autumn of 1663 the Polish army (plus the Crimean Tatars and detachments of the Principality of Lithuania), led by King Jan Kazimir, is making the last major operation. With heavy fighting, it takes a half dozen cities, bypassing the fortress with numerous Russian garrisons (Kiev, Pereyaslav, Chernigov). Russian commanders are awakened by a sensible initiative, competently guiding troops, they are making deceptive maneuvers, blocking enemy units, making deep raids along their rear lines. On the side of Russia, at the moment, many talented Little Russian commanders, such as Ivan Serko (author of the “letter to the Turkish sultan”), who, according to contemporaries, have remarkable paranormal abilities. There are also foreign officers in the Russian army – after the relatively recent Thirty Years’ War, the market for professional mercenaries in Europe is simply overcrowded. The Polish-Lithuanian army retreats, suffering hunger and deprivation, losing three quarters of its original composition. In 1666, right-bank hetman Peter Doroshenko raises a rebellion against Poland, already quite openly declaring himself a vassal of the Turkish sultan. To help his 15 thousand Cossacks come 20—30 thousand Crimean Tatars. The turmoil lasts five years, after all, Poland regains the status quo, but it exhausts forces completely. January 30, 1667 between Russia, without the participation of Cossacks, and Poland signed the Andrusov Truce. The Commonwealth recognizes the accession of the Left-bank Ukraine, Smolensk, the Chernihiv Province, a number of small towns, preserves the Right-Bank Ukraine and Byelorussia. To retain some large territorial acquisitions Russia is not yet able, and the king understands this.

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1. Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky), 1552—1612, the last representative of the Rurik dynasty on the throne. He died in Polish captivity, for an unknown reason, almost simultaneously with his brother Dmitry, also a prisoner.

2. Michael (Fedorovich), 1596—1645, the first monarch of the Romanov dynasty. He was elected to the tsar by the Zemsky Sobor on February 21, 1613. As the contemporary testifies, he dies of melancholy, “twisted sculls” and “many seats”. There are six children from marriage with the unloved, or at least not chosen by them, Evdokia Streshneva.

3. Alexei Mikhailovich, Russian Tsar, father of Peter the Great (Velikii), 1629—1676. The monarch is completely good-natured, peacefully combining the Russian and Western orders, keen on astrology and European music, the founder of the regiments of the “new order” – the Reiters, soldiers, dragoons and hussars.

4. Peter the First, the last king, the first emperor of the Russian state, 1672—1725.

5. Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Nikon (Nikita Minin), reformer of the Russian Church, 1605—1681g. At first he is the representative of the so-called. white clergy, but, after a family drama, persuades his wife to take a monastic vows, becomes a monk himself and thus exits from a former, not presupposing church career, condition.

The first reforms, for example, the return of the church sermon from the pulpit, are clearly perceived as positive, but the subsequent cause a number of serious questions. The technical detail in essence – baptism with two or three fingers, generates a deep split in the church and flock.

The patriarch establishes in New Moscow the New Jerusalem (Resurrection) monastery, which simultaneously becomes both the personal property of Nikon and his residence.

After the final disagreement with the Quiet Tsar, the patriarch is deprived of the priesthood, sent to the Belozersky Monastery. In 1681 he, severely ill, was allowed to return to the New Jerusalem Monastery; and on the way to this monastery, Nikon dies.

6. Bogdan Mikhailovich Khmelnitsky, Hetman of the Army of Zaporozhye, statesman. Birth – 1595, the village of Subotov, Cherkassy region of Ukraine, a family under age. She studies at the Kiev fraternity school, then at the Jesuit College in Yaroslav and, probably, in Lviv, where she comprehends the art of rhetoric, works, as well as Polish and Latin. Travels to European countries. Participates in the Polish-Turkish war, falls into captivity, literally, working as a slave on galley, incidentally learns Turkish and Tatar languages. Redeemed relatives, enlisted in the registered (in the service of Poland) Cossacks. Marries, receives the rank of centurion. Participates in the siege of the Poles of Smolensk, saves King Vladislav from captivity, according to studies of some historians, awarded a gold saber for bravery. In 1648 there was a quarrel with Poland. A certain aged Chaplinsky attacks Khmelnitsky’s farm, takes away the woman Bogdan used to live after the death of his wife, and his son is marked with rods (at least, since then there have been no mention of him anywhere in the annals). The centurion seeks truth in the royal court, the Sejm, intercedes for the king, but, for this activity, still strictly in the legal line, at first ridiculed, then confined by local authorities to prison. Having been freed only thanks to the intercession of the influential patrons of the Cossack foremen, Khmelnitsky arrives in Sich (then located near the modern Nikopol), smashes the Polish garrison controlling it, and seeks the consent of the registered Cossacks for action against their mother country. Also, the new hetman sends a delegation to the Crimea, attracts to his side the Tatars of the Perekop Murza.

The Poles are used against the army Khmelnitsky registered Cossacks, but they immediately pass to his side. There are a number of defeats crowned hetmans Pototsky – under the Yellow Waters, Korsun, almost the entire regular Polish army – 20 thousand people. As a side effect of victories, the main forces of the Crimean Tatars of the Third Girey arrive in Ukraine, without fights they seize a huge amount of yasir (esir – prisoner of war), other booty, and triumphantly return to the Crimea.

In the same year, a battle will take place near Pilyavtsi. The forces of the troops of the Sich and Tatars – 80 thousand, Polish-Lithuanian noblemen and jolners (cadre infantrymen), as well as the German reytars – about 50 thousand (not counting 30 thousand of various kinds of servants). At night, the Cossacks and Tatars attack the Polish camp; there is confusion, the Poles come into battle with scattered detachments, the leadership is retired, panic flares up. The result of the battle: the loss of Cossacks and Tatars 2—3 thousand, the Crown troops – about 50 thousand, killed and captured, as well as 90 guns (equated to regimental banners) and 100 thousand supply carts. Most of the production, however, goes to more pragmatic Tatars, which causes discontent in the camp of Khmelnitsky. To, as they say, “to repel money losses”, Cossacks are taken for the robbery of the local population.

The next destination is Lviv. Khmelnytsky receives solid payoffs and besieges the Polish fortress Zamosc (song “Zamoscie”), which prevents direct movement to Warsaw. Meanwhile, the fighting spirit of the army, which has already tasted a rich booty, falls. The hetman conducts sluggish negotiations with the new Polish king and, without waiting for their end, actually dissolves his irregular army. He expects a triumphant reception in Kiev, ode and salute, as well as the returned saber wife, Elena (now) Chaplinskaya.

With some indecision, Bohdan Khmelnitsky takes the official letter of hetmanship from the King of Poland. Actually, Bogdan “on horseback”, he is the winner, the possible founder of the dynasty of the South Russian principality, what else? But, apparently, the hetman feels that centrifugal forces are still very strong in his people, aspiration for anarchy and “patchiness”, there is no well-functioning administration apparatus, or even at least a clear self-government.

In July 1649 the army of Khmelnitsky – militiamen from all parts of Ukraine and Cossacks, with a total of 130 thousand, are speaking to Poland. They unite with the Crimean Tatars and storm for several months, the fortress Zbarazh, defended by the 15 thousandth Polish garrison. King Jan Kazimir with a 20,000-strong army approaches the besieged, and suffers a catastrophic defeat. Bogdan stops the battle when he notices that Crimean Tatars, Muslims, can get, even hostile, but still, a Christian monarch.

The Poles are negotiating with representatives of the Crimean Khan, to which Bogdan Khmelnitsky is not invited. The so-called Zboriv peace treaty is signed. Tatars receive how many hundreds of thousands of golden thalers, vast tracts of steppe for nomadic, and Cossacks – the autonomy of the three regions and an expanded to 40 thousand register. In fact, yesterday, even proud militiamen with weapons, are again disenfranchised serfs, under the control of all the same gentry. Poles with the troops of the servants, not paying attention to some restrictive lines, are scouring all over Ukraine, searching for their now unarmed, yesterday’s offenders, and severely punishing them. Khmelnytsky, on the other hand, does not hinder anything to the gentry, on the contrary, wishing to observe the concluded agreement on points, severely punishes peasants who dared to defend themselves.

At the end of the summer of 1650, the crown hetman Nikolai Pototsky (“Bear’s Paw”) returned from Tatar captivity, and immediately announced mobilization throughout Poland. In response, Khmelnitsky, whose popularity among the people has catastrophically decreased, again sends a request to the Crimean Khan. Tatars, already fed up with prey, do not want to fight yet. Bogdan acts through the Turkish sultan as a vassal of his empire, and he, weighing the “pro” and “contra”, gives the troops of the khan an order to join the Cossacks. The Tatars are reluctant to obey. Forces parties: Cossacks, along with the militia, the ratio of one to one – 100 thousand, the Tatar cavalry 20 thousand. Poland: 100 thousand Poles, Lithuanians, 12 thousand German, 8 thousand Romanian mercenaries, and about 40 thousand servants, “servants for everything”. June 20, 1651 between the armies are fastened skirmishes. Shot by the Polish artillery the Crimean-Tatar army (under Islam-Gireem the horse is killed) unexpectedly is removed from a place, strips a flank and goes unknown where. In an effort to understand the meaning of what is happening, Bogdan with a small retinue catches up with the Tatars. Instead of explanations, the Crimean Khan takes Khmelnitsky and his secretary Vygovsky with him.

Cossacks fall into the encirclement in the camp, bordering the swamp. The Poles are trying to destroy the gati, they meet them, at night, a two thousandth detachment of a new voivode is being put forward. Kozaki, believing that the hetman throws them, rush after them, and, with their whole mass, destroy the ferries. The Poles take advantage of the moment, attack the camp from the field side. In the end, 35,000 Cossacks manage to escape. The loss of the Poles is 15—20 thousand.

After spending a month in the Crimean Tatar captivity, Khmelnytsky returns to his thin army. In addition, he is experiencing a family drama. His son, who disliked his stepmother, and suspected her of adultery, without the order of the hetman, executed her along with the alleged lover. Nevertheless, pretty soon Khmelnitsky takes control of himself, marries again, an agitated population flocking under his banner. A full-scale guerrilla war is unfolding, during which militiamen and Cossacks show unimaginable cruelty to the captives of the gentry. The Poles nevertheless occupy Kiev burnt by its inhabitants, they arrange total terror throughout the country. They are now helped by the Crimean-Tatar Horde. There is a famine, epidemics break out. Ukraine is losing half the population. Neither side wants to come to its senses, to show the advantage of its branch of faith by the unilateral termination of a series of bloody crimes. People run north to Russia (Moscow Rus), or to Moldova, try to take refuge in sparsely populated areas of the left bank of the Dnieper.

The transition of the peasants (otherwise, pospolityh, ready to mobilize, but still sedentary Cossacks) on the Left Bank Ukraine causes overpopulation of the territories, as well as the development of such a malicious phenomenon as “renting”. People are becoming increasingly dependent on the “masters” of the land, the influential Cossack sergeant and monasteries. Landlords arbitrarily increase “obedience”, require new taxes and services. The villagers complain to the hetman, but, as a rule, they do not receive permission. Starting from Mazepa’s rule, 27 articles of section 9 of the Lithuanian statute are applied, prohibiting the purchase of anything without the will of the Pan. The next step – the “masters” by force keep the people off the transitions.

Since 1727 (Hetman Daniel the Apostle) time after time, the chief of the sergeant-major calls on St. Petersburg to officially forbid the transitions of its peasants. And, in 1783, by the decree of Catherine II, serfdom in Minor Russia is formalized legally.

On January 8, the Rada (Supreme Council) meets in Pereyaslavl, where the issue is being resolved; one of the four princes to receive; Khan of the Crimean, the Turkish Sultan, the King of Poland, or the Muscovite Tsar. They choose the tsar of all Russia – at that time Alexey Mikhailovich (Tishayshey). As one of the results of this decision, the Russian-Polish war starts, a series of battles, often with an uncertain outcome. A real strong world, albeit with a nasty taste of serfdom, comes only during the reign of Catherine II.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky dies in 1657 (61), in all probability, from a hemorrhage to the brain. In 1664 the Polish voivode, whose name will not tell us anything, seizes Subotov farm, orders to dig up the hetman’s ashes and throw it to scold.

7. Ivan Dmitrievich Serko (Gray, i.e., “Wolf”), the ataman of the Zaporozhye Sich, a “character” who possesses clairvoyance, insensitivity to pain, also the ability to bring back to life the recently deceased comrade, to force the enemy to see instead of stuck in land of stakes, grove, etc. Reconstruction according to Gerasimov. The image is not represented; Photo is not in the database with a license to use and change. Birth – 1610, the village of Merefa Slobozhanshchyna (present Kharkiv region). Many data about the ataman have been lost, since 1644 he may have served the French king, participated in the European Thirty Years’ War, besieged Dunkirk under the prince of the blood of de Conde.

The oath of the tsar does not give an oath, however, acts on his side when, in particular, in 1659 he raids the Nogai uluses (the north-west coast of the Caspian Sea) and forces the Tatars to leave the main part of Ukraine. Together with the tsarist fighters, G. Kosagova raids the Crimea and Poland. One of the episodes is the destruction of 3,000 prisoners, their compatriots who accepted Islam. It is fighting for Peter Doroshenko, who declared Ukraine a vassal of Turkey, then against him. Wanting to become a hetman, organizes intrigues, goes into exile (Tobolsk), but in view of the upcoming Chigirinsky campaigns he receives a royal pardon. The wife and two sons are killed at the hands of the enemies, there is no one to give the gift, the ataman feels a sharp decline in strength. Ivan Serko dies in 1680, in the place of Velikiy Lug (vast territory of river fluvial and reed thickets), which is now at the bottom of the Kakhovka water reservoir. According to legend, the right hand of the koshevoye was used for a long time by the Zaporozhye army as a talisman in battles and campaigns, and in 1812 it was used to drive the French out of Moscow.

…In the summer of 1672, the Ottoman Empire attacks Poland. By this time, the Turks and their vassal Petro Doroshenko belong to the whole of the Right-Bank Little Russia, there are established the corresponding orders – Islamization, the conversion of churches into mosques, the recruitment of boys into janissaries, girls and, again, boys into harems, and the like. Fearing the invasion of the Ottomans to the Left Bank Ukraine, not wishing for their excessive elevation, as well as the humiliation of the Christian world, including the Greek Catholic, Russia enters the war with Turkey. Relations with Poland are warming up at once. Cossacks and Cossacks (usually Zaporozhye Cossacks called through the first vowel “O”) are given an order, or rather an offer, to attack the Crimean and Turkish possessions from the sea. Russia is trying to form an anti-Turkish coalition and even become its head; it fails, but, at least, this attempt is assessed in Europe favorably, the fighting is covered in detail by the European press.

Poland loses the war of Turkey and officially gives Right-Bank Ukraine to the Ottomans. Alexei Mikhailovich believes that this is the reason for extending his power to the whole of Little Russia (in case of victory over the mighty Porta, of course). Events, however, do not develop quite as the Russians want: they fight with the Turks and Crimean Tatars, they intensify repression against the local population, the population falls away from the Ottomans and betrays the already established, quickly restored Polish administration. A significant part of the inhabitants also flee to the Russian Left-bank Ukraine. A special place in the Ukraine of that time is occupied by the city of Chigirin, it is the unofficial capital of the Hetmanate, a large camp of Cossacks and covers a strategic crossing across the Dnieper. The Russian-Ukrainian army seizes him, forcing Doroshenko to swear allegiance to the Russian emperor and withstands, with interruptions, two Turkish sieges. The second of them (1678) is affected by the lack of experienced artillerymen, while Ottoman guns shoot almost without a miss. Four guns are “super heavy”, 32 buffaloes are required to transport each. The ratio of forces is 1:10. Turks lose 30 thousand people from 120 thousand troops, the Russian-Ukrainian coalition, according to averaged data, 15 thousand of the original 65 thousand people. In the end, the troops of Romodanovsky, subsequently charged with treason and lynched, having built up in a huge square, retreat to the Dnieper, and are evacuated to the Left Bank of Ukraine.

The war is at an impasse. Right-bank Ukraine, in any case, is built largely on the Polish model, to win and retain it without an alliance with Poland is almost impossible. The Poles themselves as a condition for such a union require huge sums to maintain their troops. In the end, according to the Bakhchsarai Peace Treaty (1680), the Port recognizes the entry of the left-bank Ukraine and Kiev into Russia. Right-Banked Little Russia is now ruled by a Turkish vassal, Moldovan ruler George Duka (Yuri Khmelnitsky arrested and sent to Turkey). Zaporizhzhya Sich becomes independent of Moscow. Russia continues to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan (or a similarity of reparations).

In 1676, announcing the heir of his fifteen-year-old son Fyodor (mother – Maria Miloslavskaya), the king dies of a heart attack. Fedor the Third rules quite happily, but not for long, only five years, not leaving after the death of the heirs. Great, albeit a terrible emperor, of course, is not he, and not his own brother Ivan the Fifth, and the married one with his second wife, Natalia Naryshkina, the half-blooded Peter the Great.

Clan Naryshkins announced that, when he died, Fyodor personally handed over the royal scepter to Peter. Miloslavsky raise the archers with rumors that the Naryshkins have strangled Tsarevich Ivan; the military, despite the fact that they are represented by both princes, kill several noble boyars, including the queen’s brothers, Natal’s regent. However, to deal with Peter himself, they do not dare.

As a result, representatives of the Miloslavskys and Naryshkin families are crowned in 1682 at the same time; for them even arrange a throne with two seats. Actually, an active daughter is governed by the first marriage of Alexei Tishaish, the second regent of royal brothers, Sophia.

In 1686, the queen signs “Eternal Peace” with Poland; For the Russian kingdom, Kiev is assigned (146 thousand rubles are paid for it), Zaporozhye, Smolensk, Chernigov. A number of ruined lands during the Ruin are included in neutral, buffer territories. In addition, Russia joins the countries that are at war with the Ottoman Empire, so-called. The Sacred League. In fulfillment of allied obligations, the First and Second Crimean campaigns are undertaken. Both end in approximately the same way: a 100,000-strong army, suffering privations in supplies, water, having lost pastures for horses as a result of the steppes falling out of the Tatars, returns back. In the first case (1687), the army only reaches the Konki River, possibly the legendary Kalki, located 150 kilometers south of Dnipropetrovsk, near the Dnieper flood. In the second (1689) – reaches the fortifications of Perekop. The idea of building fortresses for the accumulation of supplies is not implemented. However, the troops of the more initiative and successful Grigory Kosagov take strategically important Ochakov (Kara-Kerman, Black Fortress), located on the Black Sea coast, near the mouth of the Dnieper. Only then, finally, the Russian state ceases to pay tribute to the Crimean khan.

The first Crimean campaigns can hardly be called unsuccessful, but they are also brilliant; historians express an opinion that this, in a number of other circumstances, served as the reason for the overthrow of the princess.

The first, Nerchinsk Treaty with China is concluded, which is considered by the majority of historians to be equal. In general, Sofia’s rule is not marked by special events: Russia is accumulating forces to withstand the era of the great deeds of Emperor Peter the Great. May 30, 1689, Tsar Peter turns 17, and he, at the insistence of his mother, marries Evdokia Lopukhina, becoming, among other things, the last Russian queen, an equally non-alien wife of the Russian monarch. Love lasts about a year, afterwards the king finds consolation in the arms of the daughter of goldsmiths from the German suburb, Anna Mons. Despite the beginning of a completely adult life, virtually no one in Peter’s circle does not take his orders seriously. Rumors of an impending assassination attempt reach the Tsar. Together with his mother, close relatives and confidants, Peter takes refuge in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, sends orders from the commanding regiments to appear with a dozen elective people in person. Arriving from Moscow archers waiting for sovereigns of mercy: vodka, feasts, but Peter himself leads the exemplary life of the Moscow Tsar. In the end, Sophia is deprived of all influential supporters, she has to retire to the Novodevichy Convent, although she does not become a real nun before the suppression of the Strelka uprising. Brother Ivan the Fifth meets Peter at the Assumption Cathedral and in fact gives him all power. After settling in the manor, far away from Moscow and all the turbulent events, conducts a measured family life, becomes, in particular, the father of Anna Ioannovna, the future Russian empress, and dies at 30 years, strangely enough, from the collapse of power.

Until 1700, the Boyar Duma still exists – in fact, a government that does not have independent power, like that; “The king decided, and the boyars were sentenced.”

Peter likes to fight. In 1695 the First Azov campaign was carried out. More than 30 thousand troops get down the Don to Azov (the very top of the Sea of Azov), on transport ships and overland, and it turns out that it is impossible to take it without combat ships. Capture only two overlapping river fortress towers.

Before that, in 1637, when the Turks focused on the war with Iran, the fortress, which was also a large slave market, was captured by Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. Almost for four years Azov became a free trade city. Then the Ottomans dragged to him the main forces, including the detachments of his vassal, the Crimean Khan, and began a siege. The famous “Azov Siege Seat” was distinguished by a remarkable balance of forces: 120,000 Ottomans and Tatars against 5,000 Cossacks. The besieged defended themselves with the greatest skill, destroying more than a third of the enemy’s troops, while losing three thousand. However, of course, they could not fight with all of Turkey and, in 1642, after the temporary withdrawal of the Turks, they left the fortress. The troops of the Don and Zaporozhye offered Azov under the rule of the Russian Tsar, but then, under Mikhail the First, the very beginning of the Romanov dynasty, Russia was not ready to accept such a dangerous gift.

In the village of Preobrazhenskoye, on the banks of the Yauza River, not far from Moscow, all new large, transport and warships are being built in a wild hurry, being dismantled and transported to Voronezh, to the Don, where they meet again. The strength of the army reaches 70 thousand people. In May 1696 Azov was again besieged. In July, after massive shelling, the garrison surrenders, according to the pre-requisite, the Ottomans leave the city with families and movable property. Voevoda Shein becomes the first Russian generalissimo. According to the Constantinople Peace Treaty of 1700, Russia is officially released from paying tribute to the Crimean Khan, Azov and a number of adjacent territories are handed over to it. But, the main goal – access to the Black Sea, at least through the Kerch Strait, is still not achieved.

In 1697, Peter, who a year ago became an autocratic king, for some informal communication presented as a “regent of the Preobrazhensky regiment,” travels to Europe. The goal of the “Grand Embassy” (about 60 people) is the acquisition of new allies in the struggle against Turkey, the purchase of tools, weapons, the hiring of masters. Often the king is ahead of the Embassy itself, in general, for this period of his rule there are many inconsistencies, as if Peter is at the same time in several places. At personal meetings with the English King Wilhelm the Third in Utrecht (Holland), the ruler of Austria Leopold the First, as well as with Newton, Leibniz, Leuvengueck, Halley (thus, in honor of which the comet was named), etc., “Secret”. It comes to the point that some historians believe that Peter the Great at the Grand Embassy did not participate at all.

Whatever it was, according to official history, it was not possible to reach an agreement with Austria and Holland about a sacred alliance against the Ottomans. Vienna even refused to recognize the transfer of Kerch and the corresponding strait to Russia, even if they were captured by it. General understanding and personal friendship of the young (25 years old) king are formed only with the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus the Second, a contemporary, an ethnic Austrian – to elect his nominee for the Polish Sejm Peter at one time exerted certain efforts and resources.

All kinds of herbariums, tools, ships, 15,000 small arms are purchased.

In the summer of 1698, after the news of the rebellion of the streltsi, the tsar returns to Moscow. The rebellion had already been suppressed, the instigators were punished – the troops of Generalissimo Shein, almost one artillery was defeated by a squad of 2,200 people with archers. Tsarevna Sofya, the main reason for the rebellion, convinced that her brother was replaced, now becomes a full-fledged nun, and sent to the Novodevichy Convent, under guard. A few months before the windows of her cell are several executed archers. Manages reprisals, according to the definition of Prince B. Kurakin “… a kind of monster, the temper of an evil tyrant, the great unwillingness of good to anyone, drunk all the days,” the ruler of Russia in the absence of Peter, the prince-Caesar Fedor Romodanovsky (aka, the head of the Preobrazhensky search warrant). The Emperor, however, needs more sacrifices. Muscovites for the first time see the Russian Tsar in the guise of a cruel executioner. He not only personally kills the heads of the archers, but forces the boyars to do the same. Some insurgents lose their lives by the progressive “overseas” method – the wheel. A total of 2,000 people were executed, 600 minors were beaten with whips, branded and sent to Siberia. The Streltsy regiments who did not participate in the uprising were disbanded.

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1. Fedor Yuryevich Romodanovsky (1640 – 1717), the prince-Caesar, the actual ruler of Russia during the foreign tour of Peter the Great. Rurikovich in the 23rd knee, according to the testimony of a completely independent contemporary: “the sight of a monster, drunk all the days, the greatest unwillingness of good to anyone.”

2. Menshikov Alexander Danilovich (1673—1729) Count and even, by decree of Peter the Great, “Duke of Izhora”. Origin – from the ruined Belarusian, or Lithuanian nobles. Batman, the right hand of the tsar, the actual ruler of Russia after the death of Peter the Great.

3. Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa (1639—1709), hetman of the Zaporozhye Army on both sides of the Dnieper. Memorable, in particular, a love affair 65-year-old hetman and his 16-year-old godfather Matryona (Motry). The girl’s bloody father, Judge Kochubei, after this incident, begins sending allegations to Moscow. However, the unsuccessful bridegroom turns out this time the winner – for “slander” Peter the First Kochubei executes. The continuation of the novel and the fate of Motry is unknown.

Moreover, historians are interested in the causes of Mazepa’s treason to the Russian Tsar. It all boils down to what Ivan Stepanovich himself utters; I will not swear an oath, “Until I see that the king’s majesty can not protect not only Ukraine, but all of its state from the Swedish potency.” In fact, Carl had by then disposed of Poland (the main offender of ethnic Ukraine), like a cook with potatoes, Peter in every possible way evaded an open battle. And, only Poltava put everything in its place.

It should be noted that, up to a relatively recent time, in the broadest layers of the population of Ukraine, Mazepa meant an abusive word, a synonym for the word “traitor”, “sly”, etc.

4. Carl the Twelfth (1682 – 1718). A fan of wars, but not alcohol and women, which, perhaps, determines his failure as a European politician. In 1713, under the pressure of the Ottomans, the king leaves the camp in Bendery and goes to Sweden, where, in general, no one is particularly waiting. Not wishing to appear in Stockholm with disgrace, the king joins his troops in Norway and, at the siege of one of the fortresses, receiving a crazy bullet in the temple, perishes.

…Then a significant number of Russians decide that Peter the First (or the one who became of them) is “the beast that emerged from the abyss”, the Antichrist himself and Miroed.

There are doubts about the origin of Peter and, in fact, the line of the Romanovs, (so to say, cruelty of morals and unbalanced psyche), so to speak, originally. The height of Peter the Great is 203 cm, and this is in the century when the average male is considered to be 160 cm, the size of the shoe is 38, the figure is 48. These parameters do not even approximate any of the supposed royal ancestors.

…Confirmation of this opinion are regularly convened on the island in the middle of the Yauza “All-Comprehensive Cathedrals”, where the parodies of Catholic and Orthodox rites are parodied. The naming of church rites, rituals, are altered using profanity. The “pontifex” chosen by the cathedral floats in a ladle in the middle of a vat of alcohol, and the participants, naked men and women of the highest boyar surnames, drink this wine and sing out obscene songs on the motif of church hymns.

Reforms occur in the field of time. Thus, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Russian-Byzantine calendar) becomes the year 1700 according to the Julian calendar, in addition, the New Year is celebrated now not on the day of the autumnal equinox, on September 22—23 according to the new style, but on the first of January.

Russia is part of the Northern Union, created on the initiative of the rulers of Saxony and Poland. The general direction of the treaty is the war with Sweden, whose king, the fifteen-year-old Karl Twelfth, seems to other monarchs not sufficiently experienced in military affairs. Aspirations of Peter – Karelia and Ingria (it’s Ingermanlandia, the future Leningrad region), besides, it is motivated by a personal insult – a cold reception in Riga, then still Swedish, during the Great Embassy.

In 1700, Russian troops, numbering 35,000 people, mostly recruits, with only light and disagreeable, more than 25 calibers, with artillery, with obviously insufficient supply, besieged Narva. Once that city was intended to take Ivan the Third, even built in front of him the Ivangorod fortress. He achieved success, however, 80 years later, the Swedes repulsed Narva and, combining the fortifications of the two cities with a fortified bridge, created a powerful citadel.

Meanwhile, Karl Twelfth, promptly forcing the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, from the landing side in Reval (Riga) rushing to the aid of the besieged. Spermetyev’s detachment clashes with the advanced units, and the prisoners, according to preliminary agreement with the king in this case, declare the strength of the entire Swedish army of 50 thousand people. Perhaps believing this information, Peter leaves the army – either in order to call more quickly to the place of the future battle other regiments, whether to meet his ally, the Polish king, or, after all, out of cowardice. To command the Russian army remains the Dutch duke, a certain de Croix.

The actual strength of the army of Charles is 8—9 thousand people. On the flanks, the king builds soldiers with solid columns, and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is exhibited by the duke with a six-meter thin line, five or six rows, within the camp. The columns of the Swedes pierce it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry “Germans are traitors!” Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovsky regiments, fenced off with wagons, have stubborn resistance. Later they will be allowed to leave – one part with banners and weapons, but without transport and artillery, others – without all of the above. Losses of the Swedes – 700 people, Russian – 9 000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons from the 184’s, artillery. Carl the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist and politician; Instead of consolidating victory, an immediate offensive against Moscow, he turns his eyes to Poland and Saxony. In the meantime, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, elderly for those times (50 years), but very experienced, begin to learn martial art in practice, breaking up separate detachments from the 15,000-strong Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). Gradually, all the Narva is in the hands of the Russians and, at its mouth, in the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty residents, on May 27 (according to the new style) 1703 Peter the First founded St. Petersburg.

Polish friend of Peter, Augustus the Second loses Karl the Twelfth Fraustadt battle, in which the auxiliary Russian corps participates. In battle, Russian soldiers die 4,500 (all 500 prisoners of war were executed by Swedes), allied Saxons 700, plus “an immense number of prisoners,” and 450 Swedes. August with a 12-thousand army at this time stands idly 25 kilometers from the battlefield, and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, the 20,000-strong Swedish army besieged the 40,000-strong army of Russians and Saxons under the (Great Belarusian, now Belarusian) Grodno. Peter gives commander Menshikov an order “not to take in a clear battlefield.” During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people, but because of the ice break, the troops of Karl miss it. In advance, the Polish king who left Grodno concludes the Altranstaedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia, renounces the throne. The entire Great-Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislaw Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch began to implement a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its goal, according to the opinion of one group of historians, is the total annihilation of Russia’s state independence, its division into specific princedoms, the separation of Pskov, Novgorod, etc., the annexation of Ukraine and other West-Russian territories. Another version – Karl Twelfth plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod republic in the north, to return all territories seized by Peter, and to establish a direct Swedish protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.

By the beginning of the Russian campaign, the army of Karl reached 120 thousand people, of which 38 thousand – the army of the invasion. The number of regular forces of Peter is 200 thousand people and, in addition, 100 thousand in irregular troops of Cossacks, and Asian nationalities. Defense spending amounts to 78% of the budget, the entire country is militarized, grain is taken to the cities, they are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin once again becomes a full-fledged stronghold, bastions are built on it, the ditches, dried from the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.

The campaign of the Swedish king begins from the vicinity of Minsk. Both armies quickly eat up supplies of the local population. Menshikov decides to burn before the invaders of the city – Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, etc.

In the nine months before the Battle of Poltava, on October 9, 1708, a new battle will take place at the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus), with a 12.5-thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying a huge, more than 7,000 wagons with equipment, artillery and ammunition. The so-called “Corvolant” – the “flying squad” of Peter the Great has about the same number of soldiers and officers, but this is the guard; hungry nobleman cavalry, Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, other eminent Russian divisions. The Swedes in the majority here are not fully motivated recruits: Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic states. Nevertheless, the battle is very fierce. Losses of the parties: the detachment of General Lewenhaupt – 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 – deserted. To Carl the Twelfth replenishment of just over 6,000 fighters comes – practically without artillery, ammunition and food. Russian troops irretrievably lose 3000 people.

In view of the lack of food, the Swedes are turning to the south, to the Seversky region (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa (who had put down the symbols of the hetman’s authority under the feet of the Swedish king, the banner, the mace and the army seal) now openly promises the support of the Cossacks to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects huge supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary Swedish army guns. Very irritated Peter gives the order to Menshikov to betray the city to the fire, so that on November 2, 1708, it is unquestionably carried out. At the same time, defenders are dying – 5—7 thousand Cossacks (serdiuk), 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich pass to the side of the Swedes. Actually, the Sich, from the word of the notch, the fence, fortified settlements constantly change their location; depending on the situation. In total, for the history of the existence of this tradition, colorful military towns, there are ten. Chortomlytska Sich, in question, is located on the right bank of the present Kakhovka water reservoir, in the Dnipropetrovsk region. On May 14 of the same year, the tsarist detachment seized her with an attack and destroyed it.

The army of Karl, already somewhat discouraged, for a while circling around Little Russia, then, obeying the caprice of his king, begins to besiege Poltava. They are confronted by 5 thousand military men and (not confirmed) 2,5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight off; in addition, the lack of the Swedes in artillery and gunpowder affects. The army of Karl loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers deprivation, when, on June 6, Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great himself.

When reconnaissance, on his birthday, Karl gets injured in the foot of his left foot; Perhaps this also affects the clarity of thinking during the future battle. His plan is to attack early in the morning, more precisely, even at night, when the advantage of the Russians in artillery almost vanishes. At 2 o’clock in the morning, somewhat delayed during the construction, the Swedish army advances to the battlefield.

The idea of Sheremetev, the leading commander of the Russian army, is a novelty of military affairs of that time – the creation between the two forests of a chain of six gunfire fortifications from each other. Two more transverse redoubts are being constructed behind this line. Attackers would have to either, with heavy losses, storm them, or go forward, to the main army of the enemy, substituting flanks under the fire. An innovative, though somewhat dubious, idea, with the irritation and self-confidence of the Swedish monarch, is quite manageable.

About 3 o’clock in the morning the cavalry of Charles the Twelfth slips between the redoubts almost without loss and gets into a fight with the Russian cavalry, which expose the enemy to the weapon and artillery fire of the longitudinal fortifications. Trying to help her, the Swedish infantry gets stuck in the redoubt attack and is bombarded from the camp. Peter gives the order to recall the cavalry, that, turning in the enemy’s sight, gallops 3 kilometers gallop to break away from the pursuit. This maneuver creates in the camp of the Swedes the impression of defeat of the Russian army.

Both sides take a timeout to regroup and continue the battle. At nine o’clock the Swedes attack again. This time the captured or blocked redoubts do not share the army. The forces of the opponents are: Russians – 25,400 infantry, 9—12,000 noble cavalry, with 72 guns, Swedes – 8,300 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, 4 cannons, used mainly for signaling. Next is the usual frontal three-hour battle.

Personnel infantry of Charles the Twelfth sees in the battle his supreme destination, the Puritans, accustomed to adversities, march into battle, singing in unison religious hymns. At one time Protestant Swedes are the best fighters of Continental Europe.

Important, if not decisive role in the battle is the Russian core, breaking the stretcher of the Swedish king, generating a rumor about the death of the commander. The Swedes retreat, first to the baggage train, where, in reserve, there are 7,000 cavalry and several thousand Cossacks, then to the Dnieper crossing. Ahead of the retreating Charles with 2,000 soldiers, then several dozen approximate; he manages to withdraw to the Ottoman allies, now the Ukrainian Bendery. The remaining army in the number of 12,575 military and 3,000 non-combatants falls into the encirclement, and surrenders.

Losses of the parties in the battle: Swedes – 9224 people killed, 2,993 prisoners, in addition 12,575 combatants after the battle. The Russian army – 1345 people. The captured Swedes are subsequently held along the streets of Moscow. Home they will return, in view of the ongoing war, only after many years, or even decades.

In 1710, not waiting for the end of the thirty-year armistice, wishing to return Azov rather quickly, and in response to Peter’s too zealous demands for the expulsion of Karl Seventh from Bendery, Turkey declares war on Russia.

Peter the Great comes to mind that the peoples of Wallachia and Moldavia will be very happy, having got rid of the Osmanians, accepting its protectorate, and even total absorption, and, in March 1711, taking, besides the 80,000-strong army, the girlfriend of the heart, Ekaterina Alexeevna in the position, goes to the Prut march. Many officers also take their wives with them. Already in mid-July from the raids of the Tatars, diseases, lack of food and water, the army is reduced to 56 thousand. July 19, even before the start of major battles, it becomes clear; it’s time to retreat. The 170,000-strong Turkish army, plus a 20,000-strong detachment of Crimean Tatars, presses Peter’s army to the Prut River, 160 cannons are subjected to continuous bombardment of the camp. The Grand Vizier is rather complacent, and, according to sources, for a bribe, agrees to the terms of peace proposed by Peter the Great. It is possible to bargain out even more than the tsar expects, already fully agreeing to the loss of the northern conquests: “just about” the return of the Turks to Azov, the ruin of Taganrog and other Russian settlements near the Sea of Azov.

The best ships of the southern fleet manage to sell Porte, the rest are burned.

In 1712, the wedding of Peter with his mistress, from 1703, Martha Skavronska (Latvian or Lithuanian), the widow of the Swedish dragoon, now Catherine.

In 1717, Khan Tauke, the nominal head of the Kazakh families bogged down in wars with the Kalmak Jungars (present-day Kalmykia and part of China) appealed to Peter for a protectorate – however, without payment of tribute (jasaka), execution of duties and preservation of the supreme power of the khan. The solution of this issue stretches for a century and a half, finally everything will be settled only under Alexander II.

In 1718 the son of Peter the Great, Alexei takes refuge in one of the castles of Naples. The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire allows you to talk with the prince one of the emissaries of Peter. He persuades him to return to Russia, presents false evidence that the extradition of Alexis by the Austrian government is a perfectly settled matter. The prince agrees, not knowing that his request for help to Carl the Twelfth has been approved by the king; the heir could be granted a Swedish army. In the homeland of Alexei immediately arrested, he dies in prison from torture, apoplexy, or exacerbation of tuberculosis, is not known. Together with him three priests are killed, with whom he ever consulted, including a confessor. The Tsarevich abdicated in favor of Peter the Great’s son from a marriage with Catherine, Peter, who later, alas, would die at the age of four. His only son from marriage to the German princess Charlotte, also Peter, would later become a Russian emperor.

In the same year, the first full-fledged census (“audit”) of the entire population starts. In one list are entered and peasants, and powerless yard serfs. The idea, as if, is to raise the latter to the level of the former. But, it comes out somewhat differently. The landlord must pay a poll tax from each of his siblings. It’s clear. But peasants, who have their own means of production, as well as labor skills, which make it possible to earn anywhere else, now have to pay the state “cesarean” through the landowner. A person is exempted from the need to personally lay out for himself and his sons one and a half rubles a year, some related official red tape – but falls into real slavery to the head of this all nobleman. This is how the current tax system in Russia is structured in the same way (it received its highest development in the USSR). Contributions to the PF and other social organizations for an employee is paid by an employer with a well-developed accounting department. If a person wants to go to a more or less free state of an “individual entrepreneur” in order to earn and pay for himself, he encounters a lot of pitfalls, surprises, like the need to pay “social”, even if he is in a deep minus. To re-integrate into the role of the employee, the IP must be closed, passed instances, again parted with the money, and the like. A person becomes entangled in a viscous documentary web and more, usually, does not seek liberation. In Western countries there is a single and fairly simple tax system, a citizen is mobile, that is, he is free, and, importantly, he is well versed in the work of the financial mechanisms of the state.

…Peter the First approximately understands what happened, it seems even he does not like this course of events, but to stop it, in view of the numerous landowners’ fronts, the mighty sovereign is no longer able.

In 1721, the Nystadt peace treaty was signed between Russia and Sweden – Russia returns the conquered Finland, compensates for the remaining northern territorial acquisitions. At the same time, Pyotr Mikhailovich took the title of Russian emperor.

In 1722, Peter, after extensive exploration and mapping, begins the Persian campaign. Reason – attacks on merchants and advanced reconnaissance Russian detachment. The global goal – having seized the Caspian and adjacent territories, to restore trade routes to Central Asia and India. Forces – 30 thousand people, 200 guns, 270 transport ships. More or less successfully captured Derbent, Baku; territory of modern Dagestan and Azejbardjan.

In 1732—1735, in order to avoid a new war with Turkey, all these areas return to Persia.

Peter begins to think about successors. There are no more sons with him and his brother Ivan. The new decree, which allows the emperor himself to appoint any worthy person to be the heir to the throne, including a woman, causes ferment in society. In the same year of 1724, the kidney stone disease worsened. Catherine, a co-ruler of the Emperor, is suspected of adultery (the alleged lover, brother of the mistress of King Anne Mons is executed on charges of bribery), her candidacy falls under the question mark.

On February 8, 1725, Emperor Peter the Great dies as a result of narrowing of the urethra.

Two years after him reigns Catherine the First, widow of the king, exhausts forces in balls and feasts, gets an abscess, i.e., decay of the lung and, in 1627, leaves this world.

On the throne enters the last representative of the Romanov family in a straight male line, the eleven-year-old Peter Alekseevich, the grandson of Peter the Great, full of his namesake, the son of the deceased in prison, Tsarevich Alexei.

Almost immediately, Menshikov, the “half-sovereign ruler,” betrots him with his 16-year-old daughter Maria.

The capital is transferred back to Moscow. The navy and the army are declining. The boyars and the Supreme Privy Council are ruled, and not capricious, and lazy, prone to wine since childhood, heir. By and large, on the ground and in the center of the state everyone does what comes to their mind.

In 1730, Peter II died of hypothermia and heat, which complicated the disease with smallpox.

Dolgoruky represent on the Privy Council false counterfeit emperor; give the rights to the throne of the second bride of Peter II, Catherine Dolgoruky, but, at the meeting, the powerful Golitsyn simply ridicule them. The empress becomes Anna Ioannovna, the daughter of Brother Peter I, Ivan the Fifth, the widow of Courland (territory of modern Latvia) Duke.

In 1735 the war with Turkey and the Crimean Khanate begins. Captured Azov and Ochakov. With an interval of one or two, three campaigns are made to the Crimea, the army even reaches Bakhchisarai, the capital of the khanate, but each time it comes back because of a lack of provisions and water. Here the general inability of several, as they say, frozen “chicks of Petrov’s nest” (in particular, Kh. A. Minich), to establish at least some kind of trusting relationship with local residents, is affected. The epidemic of cholera that erupted in 1736 reduces a significant part of the army, as well as the entire population of the peninsula. European allies are emerging from the war. According to the Belgrade Peace Treaty of 1737, Russia loses all the gains, except for Azov, on condition that all its fortifications are ripped off. Exit to the Black Sea and trade are allowed only on Turkish ships.

Laughing at the Dolgoruky, trying to make the monarchy manageable, the Golitsyn brothers fall into a stern disgrace on charges of high treason.

In 1740 Anna Ioannovna died of an attack of urolithiasis. Under her will, the emperor becomes the great-grandson of Ivan Fifth, the son of the sisters of the empress, the two-month-old John Antonovich. Formally, with the regency of the mother and the care of Biron, the baby is ruled by a year. Further, on the throne, with the help of the guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment, who do not want to fight in cold Finland against the Swedes, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great, born two years before her marriage, Ekaterina Skavronska, rises. All portraits, church books, passports, other documents, coins depicting a young king are withdrawn. Ivan the Sixth, together with his parents, goes first to Kholmogory, then to the Shlisselburg fortress, where, playing with spiders and rats, is kept in solitary confinement, outside of any communication with people.

In 1741, Sweden, not yet realizing that it had become second-rate militarily European powers, wanting to return its Northern territories, declares war on Russia. The main activities are all in the same Finland. A year after the accession to the throne, Elizabeth inclines to the Russian side the people of these lands (under a rather tough Swedish protectorate) – he is offered the opportunity to create his own state. The forces of the parties are approximately equal. The losses are almost the same: the Russian army has 10,500 people, the Swedish army has 12—13,000. Eventually, the Swedish army surrenders, leaves for the homeland, leaving almost all of its artillery to the Russians.

In 1757, as part of the coalition, Russia began fighting against Prussia. Together with the Austrian troops, during the Battle of Kunersdorf, it is possible to defeat the army of Frederick II – out of 48 thousand, in his own words, there are only 3 thousand. Allies get confused in the orders coming from the capitals and, instead of immediately marching on Berlin, are dispersed. Now we can only assume that such actions are connected with the German Catherine, the future Russian Empress and her approximate commanders – the commander-in-chief Apraksin, Chancellor Bestuzhev, who lead their game at the court of Elizabeth. The second “miracle of the Brandenburg house”, which was repeated for the third time by Hitler later, occurs in January 1762 – Peter III, an ethnic German, admirer of Frederick who ascended to the throne, breaks the treaty with Austria and concludes a separate peace.

In 1671, the childless and unmarried Elizabeth dies, from an unidentified illness, after sudden throat bleeding. She is succeeded by the grandson of Peter the Great, the son of his daughter Anna from the second marriage and the duke of Holstein, the Holstein-Gottorp (German) ducal dynasty. Actually, according to the rules of inheritance, Anna completely joins this kind, her children can no longer be “Romanovs”, but, under the conditions of a political crisis, they do not pay attention to this “trifle”. The main thing now is at least a fraction of the “royal” Russian blood itself.

So, Carl Peter Ulrich, who is also Peter Third Fedorovich, occupies the Russian throne. Health and upbringing is affected by the fact that at one time the prince was seized, kneeled on peas, and subjected to more sophisticated tortures. The young man is inclined to military affairs, but he attaches importance not to military training, maneuvers, material support, but mainly to his external, parade form. At 17, already at the Russian court, Peter is married to Sofia Frederick Augustus, a native of the German (now Polish) city of Stettin, the future Catherine the Second, and even attach new mentors – an exemplary married couple. But, it does not help – instead of fulfilling the duties, in this case, according to the testimony of contemporaries, the prince continues with enthusiasm to play in the tin soldiers. Peter is surprised when, in 1754, Catherine nevertheless gives birth to his son Pavel (the future Russian emperor); however, a certain spiritual connection between the spouses persists.

Under Peter the Third some useful laws are introduced, but these are, rather, house preparations of influential noblemen. The initiative of the unincorporated monarch is a separate peace, the return of East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast) for four years already in the Russian Empire, to its former owner, Friedrich II. Another, not fully implemented idea – the sequestration of the property of the church, the abolition of monastic land ownership, even the banning of icons. The third idea is a dynastic war with Denmark, a long-time ally of Russia, along with Prussia, for the Schleswig (territory in the south of Denmark, now an interstate EU entity) taken away from its German ancestors.

Peter III thinks about his marriage to his favorite, Elizaveta Vorontsova, speaking directly, between us, terrible in appearance. At the same time, of course, relations with his lawful wife, Catherine, are deteriorating. In particular, the emperor considers it possible to call her “fool” in the presence of the court, diplomats and foreign princes, for refusing to listen to the toast while standing.

A palace coup is being prepared. For such things, usually cash in hand is required. Catherine addresses the French and the British. The French try not to understand the subtle hints of the Empress, but reasonable Englishmen easily give the requested amount: 100,000 gold rubles.

Peter somewhat hesitates with a campaign to Denmark, wishing to celebrate his name-day (June 28, 1762) in Peterhof. However, having arrived at the palace, he does not find here the official organizer of the holiday – his wife Catherine. She is already in St. Petersburg, takes the oath at the Synod, the Senate, the Guards regiments and part of the population. Again, disastrously lingering, the monarch rushes on a yacht to Krondstadt, to the forces of the navy, however, the garrison of the fortress island has already sworn allegiance to the Empress Catherine. The last way to save the throne and myself is the army in East Prussia, but, the emperor is already tired of these throwings. Peter lowers his hands, returns to his residence and signs a decree on abdication.

The only royal desire now is that his wife allow her husband to go back to his native Holstein. Theoretically, this is possible. Practically – no longer. The situation requires complete certainty.

Peter the Third is held in the palace of the town of Ropsha (neighborhood of Petersburg), under the supervision of the Orlovs. Officers do not dare to kill the emperor with their own hands. In the end, they find a way out: Grigory Teplov, senator and Fedor Volkov are involved in the operation. He is an actor, director, founder of the Russian Theater, once recognized as a stage genius by Peter the Third. The latter, as follows from the research of historians, is the most likely murderer of the emperor.

The Russian throne goes back to Catherine II, the Catherine’s epoch, the Golden Age of the Nobility begins. Yes, the Empress is a German woman, a representative of the Gottorp House of the Oldenburg dynasty, who took the throne through a palace coup. But, it is the precariousness of the situation that forces Catherine II to observe the interests of many parties, find balance and harmony, and scrupulously study the processes taking place in society. She, by the way, is not a regent with the son of Paul, but, contrary to the established rules, “at the request of all our loyal subjects, explicit and unfeigned,” a full-fledged empress.

One of the innovations is the secularization of the monastic lands. Previously, the collection of taxes, the management of villages belonging to the church, engaged in church ministers. Farmers worked off the corvee, performed a lot of inputs simply, “in friendship”, natural duties, fell into debt bondage. Now the peasants, numbering a million, and this is only a male, are exempt from church feudal lords, acquire, neither much nor little, personal freedom, many legal rights are called “economic”, and they pay one and a half rubles per capita tax per year. Their villages are under the supervision of retired officers. Monasteries, whose number has now been reduced by a factor of three, left small gardens, vegetable gardens, paid for maintenance from the state treasury.

In addition, the new government is pursuing an active foreign policy. The influence of Russia in Poland is growing. Polish and Lithuanian magnates – the Confederates openly oppose the legally elected (1764) monarch Stanislav Poniatowski, but his side is taken by Russia, and, at the invitation of the king, introduces his military contingent to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Suffering defeat for the defeat of the troops of A. Suvorov, as well as his own, humiliated and generalized “claps”, the Confederates find nothing better than to address the Ottoman Empire, promising her help for Volhynia and Podillya.

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1. Catherine the First (Marta Samuilovna Skavronska, in the first marriage – Kruze, after the adoption of Orthodoxy – Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova), 1684 – 1727. Mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. She was born in Latvia or Lithuania, perhaps in the family of serfs. For correct actions and women’s wisdom, first of all (now you can safely say – not for model appearance) was received first by Field Marshal Sheremetev, then Alexei Menshikov. In 1703, during a visit to his friend, Peter the First notices the friendly Martha, and takes with him. In 1725 he died on her hands.

2. Peter the Second, grandson of Peter the Great, the son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the German princess Sophia-Charlotte (1715 – 1730). Entered the throne in 1727, at the age of eleven. Tended to wine literally from infancy (nannies used this remedy as soothing), did not show interest in public affairs, died of smallpox at fourteen.

3. Anna Ioannovna, Empress, the fourth daughter of Ivan the Fifth and Queen Praskovia Fedorovna (1693 – 1740).

4. Elizabeth (First) Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the Great, born two years before they entered into marriage (1709 – 1761). It gave rise to gallomania: dreaming of becoming related with the Bourbons, studied diligently the French language, and the entire imperial court soon passed to communication. It is believed that Elizabeth was in a secret church marriage with her lover, the Dnieper Cossack, a good singer, Alexei Razumovsky. For the child born in this marriage, Princess Tarakanova (self-name – Elizabeth of Vladimir) gave herself out (or even appeared to them).

5. Peter Third Fedorovich (1728 – 1762), Duke of Holstein, the Russian Emperor. Father – Carl Friedrich Holstein-Gottorp, nephew of the Swedish king, mother – Anna Petrovna, the second daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the First.

6. Catherine II Alexeevna the Great, nee Sofi Augusta Frederika Anhalt-Zerbstskaya (1729—1796). Place of birth – Prussian Stettin (now Polish Szczecin). Father – Christian Augustus, a branch of the Angals House, Governor of Stettin, mother – Johanna Elizabeth, from the Gottorp House.

7. Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, general-feldtsehmeister, favorite of Catherine II, native of the village of Lyutkino, Tver province (1734 – 1783). The unfortunate husband of the empress, the father of her illegitimate child Alexei, the ancestor of the Bobrinsky family.

8. Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky, native of the village of Chizhovo in the Smolensk Province, general-field marshal, founder of a number of cities in Ukraine and Crimea (Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Sevastopol), favorite of Catherine II (1739 – 1791). The developer, in particular, of the “Greek project”, according to which the Ottoman Empire should be abolished, and its territory divided between Russia, the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic. The emperor of the revived Byzantine state was to become one of the grandchildren of Catherine, who was supposed to give the name of the founder of the capital (Constantinople) – Constantine.

Gregory Alexandrovich, the richest man in Europe, died during negotiations in Moldova, intermittent fever, at 52 years. “That’s all… nowhere to go, I’m dying! Take me out of the stroller: I want to die on the field!”.

…Between wars, Catherine is also interested in non-open, still completely uninhabited territories. In May 1764, the tsarina, consulting with the famous scientist M. Lomonosov, detach the expedition to the North Pole. The commander of the six, equipped with the most advanced equipment of the time ships – Captain first rank V. Chichagov. The expedition stops northwest of Spitsbergen (Grumant Island in the designation of Pomors), reaching a latitude of 80 degrees and five minutes, in front of insurmountable ice. The second campaign, carried out in a year, wins only one geographical minute from the North. Thus, the hope of the ambitious Lomonosov that “the ice will disperse” and by sea the Russian ships will reach the shores of North America is not justified.

Taking advantage of a pretext, the Turkish authorities conclude Russian Ambassador Obreskov in the so-called. Seven-tower castle, which, according to Ottoman custom, means the beginning of the war. In response, November 29, 1768, the war declares and Catherine II. The Russian fleet is sent to the Mediterranean Sea, under the control of the Orlov brothers; the main goal is the incitement of anti-Turkish uprisings in the midst of the conquered Christian nations by the Ottomans. Crimean Tatars cross the border of Russia and attack Novorossia – the wheel of war is crippled. The Russian detachment occupies Azov and Taganrog, begins the re-creation of the Azov flotilla. On the other flank, Golitsyn provokes the Turks, departs for two months and waits, waiting for the extraction to come to him. Indeed, the Turks come, but, because of the corruption now reigning in the Ottoman society, they are hungry, demoralized and over-inflated. In 1770 follows a series of battles, of which we especially note the battle near the Cahul River, in the south of modern Moldova. The strength of the parties: the Russian army – 32 thousand people, 118 guns, the Turkish army – 150 thousand people, with 140 guns. A detachment of Tatars in 80 thousand fighters is preparing to attack Rumyantsev’s convoys; on their protection, the commander withdraws part of the troops, leaving for a general battle of 17 thousand people. On the night of August 1, soldiers are being built in a squad of 800 men and, at dawn, move towards the Ottoman army at an accelerated pace. Turkish cavalry, as well as cavalry in general, it is difficult to attack the personnel infantry prepared for battle, besides the Russian guns under the command of the experienced Mason Melissino are extraordinarily effective. Some confusion is caused by ten thousand janissaries appearing on the flank, but, after the intervention of initiative high-ranking officers, the queen puts himself in order, and continues the offensive. A detachment of Kurds in the Ottoman army, instead of helping the Turks, is taken to rob them mercilessly. The next day the Russian detachment attacks the crossing of the Danube, where, in complete disorder, on 300 ships, the remnants of the Turkish army are trying to evacuate. Losses of the parties: the Turkish army – “according to a moderate account” 8 thousand people, 140 guns, 4 thousand prisoners, the Russian army – 364 people.

Further, on August 5, almost without resistance, for the first time the strategically important fortress Ishmael was taken. Problems with the supply of provisions, the establishment of comprehensive relations with the allies are in the past, the army remains to winter in Moldavia and Wallachia.

The Russian fleet passes from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, losing about 40% of the materiel due to leaks and other incidents. For the occupation of Turkish fortified points, along with the Greek insurgents, landings are landed; in the beginning successfully, but, after the Greeks are cruelly cracking down on the prisoners, – no longer. In addition, at the head of a formally divided fleet, there are at once two equal in the status of an admiral, which can not but cause friction between them. Favorite Catherine, A. Orlov appears between them as a powerful arbitrator. Nevertheless, after a warm-up clash in the Chios Strait, where the losses of the parties are approximately equal, the battle of Chesme takes place. It develops simply: after a powerful artillery preparation, the Russians release four fire-ships against the Turkish fleet that has crowded into the bay. With two torpedo ships, the crew escapes on boats too early, at random, the third vessel stranded near the shore battery, preventing it from aiming. The fourth “torpedo” adheres to the battleship, lights it and, a few minutes after the team leaves the fire, explodes. The wreckage falls on other Turkish ships, causing a fiery storm. Burn, go to the bottom of 14 Turkish battleships, 6 frigates, a large number of small ships. Of the 15,000 Turkish sailors, 4,000 are being saved. The Russian fleet controls the entire Aegean Sea. The blockade of the Dardanelles begins – a series of straits between the islands off the western coast of Turkey; the main goal, in the future – the siege of Constantinople. Russian citizenship takes 27 islands of the Aegean Archipelago. The fleet number reaches 50 pennants. On August 5, 1773, the Russian squadron began the siege of Beirut (then belonging to Syria). In two months the city capitulates, it is passed on to the new allies, who have accepted Russia’s patronage. At the same time, 200,000 piastres of indemnity, according to the Sea Charter (the correct war!) are distributed between the ship’s crews.

In July 1774, Kyuchuk-Kainarji (a place in present-day Bulgaria) is a peace treaty. In comparison with the military successes of the Russian army, as well as the money spent, it is very modest: Russia acquires Kerch and part of the northern coast of the Crimea, with the right of navigation in the Black and Mediterranean seas (unobstructed passage through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) rubles indemnities. The Crimean Khanate becomes independent of Turkey, with a number of territories, including the fortress Ochakov, remain in the possession of the Porte. The population of the Dardanelles, Greeks and Albanians who accepted Russian citizenship has to be taken out on a dozen vessels to Kerch and St. Petersburg. In 1778, Alexander Suvorov organizes the resettlement from the Crimea to the Azov Sea 30 thousand Christians being persecuted.

The funds for the expedition are truly enormous. Catherine II, for the first time in the history of the Russian state, turns to external loans, generating an impressive external debt, which exceeds in many times the annual budget. Practically as always, inflating the territories (which in itself is not bad) and increasing the international authority of the monarch, does not bring any improvement to the life of the indigenous population. The cost of bread increases, in fact, and not at the rate of new paper money, 4—6 times, farmers often starve and, slowly but surely, become enslaved. Hundreds of thousands of state, virtually free peasants, are transferred by Catherine II into the possession of favorites, are sold, become real slaves.

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In 1769 the first Russian paper money was issued. It is rather an obligation-receipt for the receipt of a coin (if you take copper pyataki, weighing about 20 kilograms). Very popular Katerynian banknotes, existed until 1843. A cow or a horse is worth a ruble and a half, as much as a tenth of the land, a gray coat (simple clothes) – 20—40 cents, an ax of 7 cents, a pood of rye – five cents. The most popular among the people are fifty-gram coppers. Gold coins are used usually for international settlements. The master at the state plant receives 120 rubles a year (33 kopecks a day), a simple (relatively free) worker – 20 rubles.

Under Catherine II the market of people is finally formed. At the prices of 1782, the standard inventory of the estate: “… In this courtyard yard people: Leonti Nikitin 40 years, according to estimates of 30 p. His wife Marina Stepanova is 25 years old, according to the assessment of 10 rubles. Yefim Osipov is 23 years old, according to estimates of 40 p. His wife Marina Dementieva 30 years, according to an estimate of 8 rubles. They have children – the son of Guryan for 4 years, 5 rubles, the daughter of the girl Vasilissa 9 years old, according to the estimates of 3 rivers, Matryona one year, according to 50 k. “A good village girl can be bought out by the landowner for 200 rubles, but all the same pedigreed puppies cost more – up to 10,000 rubles.

1. Catherine’s banknotes of fifty rubles.

2. Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, the leader of the peasant uprising (1742 – 1775). In the Seven Years’ War – a simple Cossack orderly. He was arrested, first for helping her sister and her husband escape from Taganrog to the Terek, or (?) Then, when the Terek Cossacks elected him as the stanitsa ataman, during a delegation to Petersburg asking for a salary increase (in Mozdok). As you can see, the data of independent sources vary, but sometimes it’s the same thing. The third time the fugitive was captured near Cherkassk (Rostov region), on the way to the Don. Further, from Poland and the new passport, all in the text given below.

3. Stepan Timofeevich Razin (1630—1671), the leader of the peasant uprising in pre-Petrine Russia. Place of birth; the village Zimoveyska (on-Don) of the present Volgograd region, according to other sources – Cherkassk (Cherkassy town). In 1665 the voevoda Y. Dolgorukov executed his elder brother, Ivan (allegedly he refused to take off his boots, or simply left in “wolf”), and Stepan Razin departs from the tsar’s service. He does not lower his hands. The main idea is to extend the Cossack military-democratic system to the entire Russian state.

On the Don, in the meantime, there was a stratification of the Cossacks on the “old”, who officially served in the service of the tsar, who received their salaries, and “golubtvennye”, ie, fugitives. The latter with monetary content had some problems. In addition, and in the conditions of peace they wanted to quickly obtain, military glory, so desired for this Cossack.

In 1667, Razin became their leader. “Thieves” march on the lower Volga and, through the Caspian Sea, to Persia. Here the fleet of Stepan Timofeevich unleashes the flagship of Admiral Mammad Khan to the bottom, and then seizes the lost ships, according to the inexplicable design of the naval commander, connected together by long chains. Among the trophies is the son and, notice, the daughter of the khan is the Persian princess, the heroine of the famous “folk” song (in the words of the Russian ethnographer Dmitry Sadovnikov). According to the legends, which can be quite reliable, the tipsy Cossack leader brought her (weighed down with rich furniture) to the Volga River for her “gloriously wearing a young man”.

In the spring of 1670, Razin enters into an open confrontation with the tsarist authorities. The whole Volga is now under his control. The voevods are trying to solve the matter by peace, they are sending ambassadors to Stepan, but in the camp of the rebels only death awaits them. The Cossacks state that among them is the son of Aleksei Mikhailovich (Tishaishy), Alexei Alekseevich and the exiled patriarch Tikhon (who died before that at age 15). They kill the representatives of the central government, the merchants simply rob, introduce the Cossack system of communal life everywhere (which, as time passes, it must be said, is not liked by all peasants). Capture large cities – Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, and stop in front of Simbirsk. Here they have to fight with a rushing 60,000-strong tsarist army, under the command of Yury Baryatinsky. Razin is badly wounded, supporters take him to the Don, in the so-called. Kagalnitsky small town. Here the ataman is seized by the domed Cossacks, and given out to the tsar’s voevoda.

Astrakhan, the capital of the insurgents, will last a little less than a year.

Probably not all Russian citizens share Catherine’s conviction that she was elected empress “at the request of all …". It’s funny that both Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev were born, with a break about 112 years, in the same Cossack village of Zimoveyska (Zimoveyka). Now this village rests on the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir, in the Volgograd region.

Pugachev participated in the Seven Years’ War with Prussia, the Russian-Turkish war of 1769—1774, becoming ill, asking for resignation, not getting it, and hiding from the authorities. He is arrested, but the Cossack flees to Novorossia (now the Lugansk region), from there, on the advice of the Old Believer, to Poland, where, declaring himself wishing to return to normal life as a schismatic, he gets a passport and a residence permit in the Mosque suburb (later – Saratov, near the Volga tributary). Here, in a conversation with a participant in the recently suppressed Cossack unrest, he, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, sees it in vain; “I’m not a merchant, but Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich, I was also in Tsaritsyn, that God saved me and kind people, and a guard of the guard was spotted instead of me, and an officer saved me in St. Petersburg.” According to the denunciation, Pugachev is arrested, he again runs to his long-time friend, a retired, therefore free soldier Stepan Obolyaev. Yemelyan is again called Peter the Third and asks Stepan to bring down the instigators of the past uprising. The people, displeased, in particular, by the addition of state (village) peasants to state and private factories. Catherine II forbids serfs to complain about the landlords. There is a rumor about the transfer of all the peasants “to the treasury,” where the living is indeed better, or even a decree of liberty drawn up by the repressed Peter III. In the fall of 1773 the first followers appeared. Together they are looking for a literate person to compose “royal decrees”, but, in the Mosque Sloboda Pugacheva is identified. He manages to hide, although a friend, Obolyayev and taken into custody. At the agreed place, at the inn, the future driver of free people awaits new acquaintances, completely located to the beginning, or more precisely, the continuation of the egg revolt (the river Yaik later renamed the Urals) Cossacks. In their composition, with time, appear and ready to make decrees, literate people. Emelian Pugachev confesses suddenly that he is not at all Emperor Peter the Third, and receives the following answer: “… There is no need for me in this: you are a Don Cossack, only we recognized you already for the emperor, so, de and be. “The flywheel of rebellion begins to unwind. Pugachev himself can no longer lead the army “in manual mode,” the Cossack sergeants perfectly suit themselves. Often they completely exceed their authority, such as: they shoot the mistress of her leader, and her brother, the captive nobles, fearing that they will have some spiritual power over Pugachev. Over time, the Cossacks are looking for the “Tsar” bride from “their own” – Ustin Kuznetsov, and, in 1774, during the siege of Orenburg, after the wedding, she acquires the title of “Empress.” The insurgents seize convoys, break up separate detachments, seize military plants, but exhaust their forces in the siege of Ufa and Orenburg. Opens the period of defeat.

Government troops are approaching. They oppress the rebels, but the death of the commander-in-chief of the prince forces from illness gives Pugachev’s troops a month to regroup. There is, in particular, a connection with the formations of the 19-year-old Salavat Yulaev, the improvising poet, the leader of the uprising in Bashkortostan. At the peak of the uprising, the army reaches 40,000 people, Pugachev creates a Military Collegium to manage it, with military courts, and all the rest.

The peasant army captures most of Kazan (except the Kremlin). Here, in the prison of the Secret Commission, Pugachev discovers his first wife, Sophia, with three children. They carry them with them, separately, saying that it is a family of a Cossack “visited” for his name. He sometimes mentions his “son”, Paul the First, carries the portrait of the heir with him, turns to him when he says the toasts.

“Tsar Peter the Third” spreads manifestos about liberty for the peasants, distributes stocks of salt and bread to the inhabitants, his army, greeted by the people with enthusiasm, blessings of village fathers, is approaching the Moscow province. Further, on August 7, 1774, the rebels, with a bell ringing and bread and salt, the Saratov opens.

Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, Pugachev cautious and turns to Astrakhan – one version – to gain strength in the Don army, on the other – to finish this idea and dissolve in the boundless steppes. On the way, he is overtaken by a large government detachment. Because of the sudden raid of the cavalry, the insurgents immediately lose all 24 cannon. Artillery already in those days – the god of war, and the detachments of the advancing peasants are scattered by volleys of the tsar’s guns. Later, the Cossack colonels, wishing to earn their pardon, knit the peasant leader and give him out to General Suvorov, who came to the rescue of the uprising. The future generalissimo personally guards the cage with Emelian Pugachev. After the investigation, on January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, the people’s tsar was executed by cutting off the head. Here, 104 years ago, Cossack and peasant leader Stepan Razin was quartered.

The insurrection of the peasants led by Pugachev can be compared with the serf riot in England that occurred, under the nominal start of Wat Tyler, four centuries ago – in 1381. During the Hundred Years War, in order to feed the army, King Richard II raises the tax for the lower classes-now 12 pence from each toiler. The people are indignant, rises, reaches the capital, thoroughly shakes all the Foggy Albion. Six months later, thanks to the troops, the deceit and the promises of the monarch to rectify the situation, the excitement subsided. Wat Tyler dies, as well as most other leaders. However, the central authorities make very correct conclusions. They declare guilty insatiable officials on the ground, proclaim a general amnesty, stop attempts to introduce illegal taxes. Large landowners resolve conflicts with their employees (yes, participants in the insurrection) as a rule, through the courts. When discussing the rent for the land, the peasants are not averse to recalling their combat past aloud…

By the fifteenth century, the institution of serfdom in England ceased to exist.

…To strengthen the administrative apparatus, the government of Catherine II disaggregates the province – instead of the 23 centers of power they become 56 (governors, gubernias, the essence of synonyms). Accordingly, the bureaucracy, the power block, doubles, and the costs for them are increased four and a half times.

As a result of the uprising, the situation of serf factory workers improves somewhat, but there are no conclusions about the allowances for the entire peasantry. And, this decision of the government, leads, in the first half of the twentieth century, to the collapse of the state and the physical destruction of the Russian nobility.

Many prominent enlighteners, generals, statesmen are united by Masonic lodges. Catherine initially is loyal to them, but after the French Revolution, organized, in many ways, by this community, radically changes its position. The Empress expels from the country, removes from the people (publisher Novikov, etc.) people for mere involvement in Freemasonry.

A year before the start of the Pugachev uprising, in 1772, the First Section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place. The Polish Saeima abuses liberum veto, the principle of declaring a ban on the discussion of the resolution by at least one dissenting party. The Russian Ambassador Repnin worked well on creating the pro-Russian stratum. The King of Poland, Stanislav Ponyatovsky, in the past – the lover of Catherine, her protege on the throne treats Russia fairly friendly, but he and his followers can no longer manage anything. The country is divided into many small “sejmics”, enters a civil war even before centralized states pay attention to it. So, according to mutual agreement, contingents of Prussia, Austria and Russia join Poland. The troops of AV Suvorov occupy the ancient capital of this country, covered with mysticism Krakow, as well as part of the current Baltic and Byelorussian (Polotsk, Mogilev gubernias, six years later transformed into one Belarusian province). Actually, Prussia inherits the present West Prussia. Austria receives Galicia, without Krakow, Lviv and a number of adjoining lands. Further allies occupy Warsaw, and demand from the Diet to ratify legality of an event. For the quickest decision-making, the principle “Liberalum vito” is canceled, and most say “yes.”

A threateningly large, little less than the current EU, while internally unstable and contradictory, the Rzeczpospolita is now shrinking to a reasonable level.

In 1775, according to the decree of Catherine, finally eliminated (New, near the former Chertomlykskaya, from the 50-ies of the twentieth century on the bottom of the Kakhovka water reservoir) Zaporizhzhya Sich. Turkey is quiet, it is necessary to establish friendly relations with Poland. On the night of June 5, 50 assembled cavalry regiments approach the Novaya Sich, Don Cossacks, Hungarians, Wallachians, and up to 10,000 infantry. Kozaki, after discussions, accept an ultimatum and leave the fortress. After this, the fortifications are destroyed by artillery fire. Some of the Cossacks go to the Crimean Khanate (under the protectorate of Russia, but fairly independent), then to Turkey, to serve the Ottomans (Transdanubian Sich). Some remain in the service of Russia, the sergeant-major receive the nobility, the lower ranks, if they are able to withstand discipline, join the dragoon and hussar regiments, and the irregular “Army of faithful Zaporozhets” settles on the left bank of the Kuban.

The army Zaporizhzhya is colorful, covered with legends, but only in about 70% of cases it is loyal to Russia and actively supports it, while in 30% it opposes, or is relatively neutral. Separate detachments are not connected with hierarchy, reporting with a stable state center, therefore they allow unjustified cruelty when conducting military operations (and even in peacetime, with their own population, to recall even the popular song “Galya the Young”). About this artistically narrates N. Gogol in a famous work, Polish sources (Henryk Sienkiewicz, “Fire and sword”) and, of course, the chief Kobzar, Taras Shevchenko (in particular, the poem “Gaydamaky”):

In a calm environment, not on nerves, after reading the reports on the actions of his subordinates in the capture of some fiercely resisting city, the monarch is quite capable of severely punishing the commander who committed excesses with the civilian population. If only he is not Peter the First, although then it is possible. Well, and “their” guys “their”, in a small free squad, are usually strictly not judged.

In 1777, the son of Alexander, the beloved grandson of Catherine II, was born to the heir to the throne, (23-year-old) Paul and German (divided into dozens of kingdoms and dynasties by Germany – the “breeding economy” of princesses for Europe) of Sofia-Dorothea of Württemberg.

On April 8, 1783, after two campaigns of Russian troops to the Crimea, in order to support the Russian protégé (the last raid was conducted by A. Suvorov), Catherine issued a manifesto on the annexation of the peninsula, and also the Kuban to the Russian Empire. All this together is now called Tavrida. The last khan, Shahin-Geray, a man of the European mindset, although the spender and despot, who could not build communication with the Russian authorities and the Crimean Tatar population, renounced the throne. Later, with a content of 200,000 rubles (a lot), he lives in Kaluga, asks the Russian government and Porto to return to their homeland. There, in the fortress of the island of Rhodes, the Ottoman authorities execute him and execute him. Thus, fallen out of the Old Russian state in 1223 after the attack of the troops of the Golden Horde (ulus Dzhuchi), Crimea again becomes Russian.

August 4, 1783 Eastern Georgia passes under the protectorate of Russia. St. George’s treatise does not provide for the entry of the kingdom into the Empire, and therefore, the defense by all means and means (although such a point is noted). The construction of the Military-Georgian road, and the Vladikavkaz fortress that covers it, begins. In 1787, for some ulterior reasons, Russia withdraws its troops, two battalions. Georgia will be further struck by the Dagestani Ummah Khan and the Persian shah Agha-Mohammed, before the document signed by Pavel the First and the strong Russian garrison, will give her lands a long-awaited peace.

In 1787, in the summer, with a three-thousand suite, in the company of Potemkin and representatives of foreign missions, the empress goes to the Tauride voyage across Novorossia and the Crimea. The procession takes place, in particular, Kiev, Kherson, Bakhchisarai, Sevastopol, Sudak, Stary Krym, Feodosia, Mariupol and Azov.

This fashion show did not go unnoticed in the Port, there is a revanchist mood. Sultan puts forward a note on Russia’s refusal from the Crimea. The Russian envoy, in turn, passes a demand to Turkey to stop the attacks on the borders of Georgia. In the end, the diplomat is put in the Seven-door castle, which means in fact, the beginning of the war. The fighting begins in August 1787.

By that time, Russia was already preoccupied with the creation of a military alliance with Austria. The troops of Suvorov and Potemkin besiege Ochakov. The commander-in-chief is procrastinating, he strengthens the siege buildings, referring to the care of people, however, it comes to winter, and the forays of the Turks bring tangible losses. We have to accept Suvorov’s plan – a decisive assault. The attack, from different directions, with six columns, must be conducted at 20-degree frost. Ochakov was taken and, on the orders of Potemkin, completely destroyed. Then the action moves to the territory of modern Romania (the river Rymnik), where Suvorov, also commanding Austrian troops, inflicts a number of serious defeats to Porte. Austria itself, who achieved the liberation of Belgrade, but also experienced the bitterness of defeat in several battles, after the change of emperors, leaves the war. In December 1790, Suvorov begins the assault on Ismail, who represents, according to him, “Fortress without weaknesses.” The forces of the parties: the Russian troops 31 thousand people, 600 guns, the Turkish garrison – 35 thousand people, with 260 guns, plus 10-meter walls of the fortress and moat. After two days of artillery preparation, at three o’clock in the morning, on the signal rocket, the columns storm fortifications. The night turns into a day, fifteen hundred horses, breaking out of burning stables, intensify confusion. To retreat to the Ottomans is impossible: the Sultan defined the execution as the only punishment for those who leave the fortress. The cannon fire of 20 cannons supporting the infantry cleans the streets, but every house has to be taken with a fight. Suvorov throws into action the huntsmen, who, acting mercilessly, with bayonets alone, complete the rout by four days.

Losses of the parties: Porta – 26 thousand people, 8 thousand prisoners, Russian empire 4,600 people. The corpses of Turkish soldiers have to be thrown into the Danube, since it is impossible to work earthworks in winter on such a scale.

According to the Treaty of Yaslav, Izmail returns to Turkey.

On the Black Sea, the Russian fleet disrupts the plans of the Turkish command to land troops in the Crimea (the battle in the Kerch Strait). The new Sultan Selim III can not approach the signing of the peace with at least one victory. The Treaty of Ias is concluded on January 9, 1791. After Russia, the Crimea, the Northern Black Sea Coast, and some other lands are assigned; they are based Odessa, Grigoriopol, Tiraspol. New lands – the Black Sea Region, Volgograd, as well as Volhynia, are inhabited by about 200 thousand ethnic Russians, who do not pay taxes at all, who are invited by Catherine.

In addition, Turkey refuses hostile actions against Georgia. Once formidable, Porta now evokes sympathy, the Russian ambassador, under his responsibility, strikes out of the peace treaty an item on a large, 7 million rubles, monetary indemnity.

Catherine’s dreams – the creation of New Byzantium, the continuation of Russia in the conquered Ottoman Empire, do not come true because of the position of the French, who in the East are already in a privileged position (the Union of the Lily and the Crescent), and the British, who do not want to violate the existing balance of power.

…Using the diversion of Russian forces to Turkey, Sweden (King Gustav III) is once again trying to recover the lost lands, and, June 21, 1788, begins fighting. The main idea is the landing of 20,000 troops in St. Petersburg, from where it is most convenient to dictate the terms of peace. The balance of forces: the Swedish army of 30 thousand, the Russian army, recruited urgently from local recruits – 14 thousand. On land, Swedes do not achieve success and retreat to their limits. Fighting takes place at sea; Fortunately, the whole Russian fleet has not yet gone to the Dardanelles. The Russian naval commander is the famous V. Ya. Chichagov, however, the Swedes have an advantage in the number of guns and warships. Battles are followed: the Gogland, the no man’s, the Eland – the Swedes retreat, the Rochensalme – the Russians are deprived of 2 ships, the Swedes 39, including the admiral frigate. In the Vyborg battle of 1790, Sweden loses 67 rowing ships and bids farewell to the dream of landing in St. Petersburg. But, on July 9, 1790, Gustav the Third receives an active long-awaited victory and approaches the signing of peace while retaining his face; In the Second Battle of Rocensalm, the Russian fleet is losing 52 warships, against 5 Swedish ships.

In total, the losses of the parties with people: Russians – 6 000 people, Swedes – 18 000. The Perpetual Peace Treaty of Verherry is signed – the status quo is preserved throughout the territories.

Meanwhile in Poland, again, the riot is ripening. The society is divided into supporters of the Targovitsky confederation, the friendship of which is bought by Catherine the First, and the “patriotic” party, which controls the Sejm. The first, roughly speaking, for the former feudal orders and alliance with Russia, the latter for some vague “Constitution of May 3”, somewhat softening tough serfdom in Poland, and promoting the ideas of the Constitutional monarchy. The latter looks progressive, at the time, however, a sharp increase in the number of Polish troops, revanchism, the possibility, in the future, of aggression against Russia is attached to it, as it happened many times before.

New confederates, together with the allied Russian troops (the strength of the expeditionary corps of 96 thousand people), in a series of fighting clashes defect the supporters of the Constitution. Russia receives the remaining Belarusian lands, as well as Podillia and Volhynia, formerly part of Austria (now engaged in a war with revolutionary France). Prussia occupies Great Poland (the historical center of the Commonwealth) and a number of other territories.

Catherine II is distrustful of Jews, however, 67% of the world’s scattered people live in the annexed lands. For them it is necessary to invent such a thing as the Pale of Settlement – the border of populated areas, the so-called. places where Jews can live, except for some of their preferential categories, is prohibited.

The Grodno Sejm is called upon to approve the new redistribution of Poland. On the requirements of the Sejm Marshal to approve the treaty with Russia, the deputies are silent. Perhaps, it was then that the famous phrase was first pronounced: “Silence is a sign of consent.”

March 16, 1794 in Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, inspired by the population is elected dictator of the Republic Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The peasants totally destroy the representatives of the intelligentsia, the gentry (local nobility), just well-off people, repeating, in their own way, the events in revolutionary France. Everywhere there are attacks on the garrisons of Prussia and Russia; in Warsaw alone, 2500 Russian soldiers are killed. The military is cut out, unarmed, in houses that they consider friendly, at the signal – the bells ringing for matins on the Feast of Christ’s Resurrection (April 6). Parts of them manage to escape, bayonet attacks through crowds of the rampaging people, under a hail of bullets, logs, stones, anything that can harm, from windows and from roofs.

Lithuanians and Poles gather a body of volunteers, 23 thousand people, who are fighting to the capital with fights. In one of the battles Tadeusz Kosciuszko is captured by the Cossacks. Residents of the capital, encouraged by the recent slaughterhouse, nevertheless, demand the continuation of resistance, possibly hoping for help from revolutionary France. Counting 24 thousand people, Suvorov’s troops almost from the storm storm fortified suburbs (so-called Prague), defended by 25 thousand confederates. Sappers throw fascists a moat with stakes, arrows and cannons support them with fire. According to the testimony of the Russian participant in the assault; “… In my life, I was twice in hell – on the assault of Izmail and on the assault of Prague …". The rout of the Polish formation completes the explosion of the ammunition depot. Losses of the parties: Russian troops 600 people, insurgents 12 thousand.

However, this is not the end. Despite the fact that Suvorov specifically left in the reserve the regiments who suffered during the Warsaw morning, in order not to allow them to take revenge, their comrades also became bitter, and they wanted to punish the guilty. According to some reports, in order to stop their impulse, the commander-in-chief must even blow up the bridge that leads to Warsaw. Soldiers shoot at the crowd, indiscriminately, seeing in every human being only a traitor and murderer. According to later historical research, irregular cossacks are more guilty of excesses, although jury soldiers, remembering that the Poles sometimes spared officers, but the rank and file killed, also quenched their thirst for revenge. In total, while suppressing a riot in Warsaw itself, about 20,000 civilians are killed and, or combatants, a clear distinction can not be made between them.

The commanders-in-chief, as always, are indulgent towards the defeated enemy: Suvorov dismisses 6,000 of the militia, 4,000 regular troops are sent to Kiev, and soon, at the personal request of the Polish king, all officers are released.

Upon learning of the amnesty, the Polish detachments disperse to their homes. The third section of Poland is based on the analysis of flights. Prussia acquires territories inhabited by ethnic Poles, including “cherries on cake” – Warsaw; now they are called South, West and New East Prussia. Austria inherits historical Krakow and surrounding land. Russia receives the present Nemyrivsky (Ukrainian) region, Belarusian Grodno, part of Lithuania, and other, other, other. King Stanislaw Poniatowski – the one who could not keep his lancers and dragoons from the wrong step, gets a solid content, but is deprived of the crown. The Kingdom of Poland, Rzeczpospolita, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, just Poland, cease to exist.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, now a hero of Poland, is kept for some time in the fortress of Shlisselburg, under Paul the First, after taking the oath, like all the participants in the uprising, he is released, and leaves for the USA. Two years “Ted” gets acquainted with the situation, ties up with the president, Thomas Jefferson. Then he sails away to Europe, leaving his savings for ransom and the release of a dozen African Americans, including personal servants of the president. Jefferson is an opponent of slavery, but slaves on his plantations in Virginia is holding. In Paris Kosciuszko, says that he is free from the promise of Russia’s loyalty under the pressure and starts to form Polish legions for the French. However, he does not manage to find mutual understanding with Napoleon, whom he calls “the undertaker of the French Republic”. Kosciuszko departs from violent revolutionary affairs and is devoted to literary writing. Towards the end of his life, Tadeusz is finally thinking of starting with himself-he writes a testament according to which 53 peasant families of his personal estate are exempt from serfdom. But, the latter already belongs to relatives, and the court rejects the last will of the revolutionary.

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1. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov 1730—1800, Count, Prince, Generalissimo of Russia, General-Field Marshal of Austrian and Piedmontese troops. According to the pedigree legend, the Suvorovs originate from the ancient Scottish family name (Suvor), which originated in Russia under Mikhail Fedorovich (the first Russian tsar of the Romanov dynasty). In 1742, under Elizabeth Petrovna enlisted in the Musketeer regiment, 12 years later receives the first rank of lieutenant. The title of brigadier (intermediate between the colonel and the general) Suvorov was awarded in 1768, after the wars with Prussia and the capture of Berlin. There are a number of campaigns to “pacify” Turkey, Poland and the final consolidation of the Crimea within Russia. Suvorov fails to seize Emelian Pugachev (he is ahead of a certain centurion Harchev), but he is involved in suppressing the remnants of the peasant army.

He is married twice, in his first marriage two, the second – four children. Contemporaries note the strange custom at dawn to walk almost naked, while riding in dewy grass (supposedly this is very useful for health). Interesting remark of the King of France Louis XVIII, who knows Suvorov personally: “Cruel impulses, fearless by nature, he could calmly and calmly see the streams of blood, the conflagration of the destroyed cities, the desolation of the destroyed fields. It was a copy of Atilla, with his superstition, faith in witchcraft, in forebears, in the mysterious influence of the stars. … In a word, Suvorov had in himself all the weaknesses of the people and the high qualities of the heroes.”

Another eccentricity of the prince, thoroughly imprinted in the people’s memory, is the “Suvorov” method of marrying serfs (which the prince numbered about 15,000). If there were not enough girls for the boy in the Kobrin estate, Suvorov bought them in neighboring estates (the prince’s salary is 50,000 rubles a year). Twenty or thirty pairs of both sexes were built according to their height. Actually, this parameter (growth) was the main one in the selection of men and women for marriage; the priest immediately conducted a rite on them. Perhaps, this method will seem to the contemporary not quite human, but, it must be admitted that at that time the overwhelming majority of marriages were made exclusively by calculation. Errors here are unlikely to be more than in the case of matrimony “for love,” and the level of expectations is initially smaller – hence, there is no disappointment either.

To the place, or not, let us recall one of the Russian folk songs (where all the same, there is also some will):

2. Tadeusz Kosciuszko, in Polish sounding – Andrzej Tadeusz Bonaventura Kosciusko (or Kosciusko), 1746—1817. Head of the Polish uprising in 1794. Place of birth – Mertsevschina, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, now Brest region, Belarus. He graduated from the Cadet Corps in Warsaw. He held the post of educator in the estate of the tycoon Juzef Sosnovsky. After an unsuccessful escape with the employer’s daughter, he moved to France, where he received engineering skills. Sailed to America, took part in the war with England, received the rank of brigadier general. He returned to Poland, limited the corvee in his estate, but then ceased to bring the necessary income, and the revolutionary got into serious debts.

…Kosciuszko applies for entry into the army, becomes a major general and a wealthy person. In 1794, the general leads the movement for Great Poland, receives blows with a pike and a sword, is captured by the Cossacks. On instructions from the tsar, he is released, writes letters to Napoleon with an appeal to establish a noble democracy in Poland, but he does not receive a reply. He enters into correspondence with the Emperor Alexander the First, but they do not develop cooperation on the issue of creating a tired, completely non-ambitious Poland.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko died on October 15, 1817, from a stroke.

…The Persian Shah Agha Mohammed Khan Qajar demands from the Georgian king Irakli II to break the alliance with Russia. The monarch refuses to fulfill this demand, then, in August 1795, the 35,000-strong Persian army invades Georgia. Georgians and their allies could gather a large army during the talks, but, expecting that Russia will fight for them, they do not do this. Persians are met only by 7 thousandth detachment. During the two-day battle, the Iranians force the Kura River and break the Georgians. Then they seize Tbilisi, the city is being destroyed, 22,000 residents, women and children are being enslaved. Losses of the parties: Shah’s troops – 15 thousand people, the king of Irakli the Second – 6850 soldiers (150 fighters can survive).

The Russian army is forming its corps here only next year. In response campaign, a detachment of 13 thousand people is sent to Persia. He seizes the fortress (now Dagestan) Derbent by storm, then Baku – the possession of the Persian shah, a number of other cities and, having received instructions from the new emperor, returns to Russia.

In 1792, a tripartite union of Russia, England and Austria was concluded, against revolutionary France. Convent, however, he himself wishes to declare war on Austria, on behalf of the still alive, albeit the arrested King Louis XVI. The reason is the Pilnicka Declaration issued by the European monarchs; Paris, in case of the death of the French king, they threaten complete destruction, the people – countless executions. Louis refuses to take part in this performance, but the Convention, acting on a preemptive strike, strikes Austria. The revolutionary army suffers from a lack of experienced noble officers, but it easily accepts useful new items of military science, such as; strikes by columns capable of quickly assembling out of loose order, leading the aim fire of the riflemen. The idea of the Allies – the dispersal of forces in garrisons, the siege of fortresses, does not lead to the solution of significant tasks, and these goals themselves are not exactly defined. France defends its borders, seizes new territories. The troops are stationed in the defeated countries, they feed themselves at their expense, and huge contributions contribute materially to the Republic itself. Despite the solid subsidies of England, which pays for the blood of soldiers of foreign armies, European monarchies are withdrawing from the war. In 1797 the First Anti-French Coalition disintegrates.

The prepared 60-thousandth Russian expeditionary force does not go beyond the limits of the Russian state for the following internal circumstances:

On the morning of November 5, 1796, in the Winter Palace (St. Petersburg), Empress Catherine II, having drunk coffee, retires to the toilet, lingers there longer than usual. The duty valet, sensing the unkind, opens the door slightly, and discovers the body lying on the floor. From the Empress’s throat there are faint rales. This is an apoplectic stroke, i.e., in the modern sense, a cerebral hemorrhage. She turned her leg, strangely burdened Catherine put on the floor, then transferred to the bedchamber. The heir, the son Pavel, comes urgently. He is already met as an acting emperor.

And, on November 6, at 9:45, he becomes it.

Paul the First enters the throne at age 42, a fully mature man. Previously, the reigning mother removed him from any serious business. According to rumors, a few more hours, and she would have issued a decree appointing Alexander’s beloved grandson the heir to the throne. Most likely, the father of the emperor was not the lover of Catherine, Count Saltykov, and yet, Peter the Third, and Paul is difficult to forgive his murder. In any case, he is going through the death of Catherine II quite calmly.

Paul takes care of ordinary soldiers, but reduces the liberties of the nobility, including the Guards who participated in too many palace coups. For the lower ranks, at last, a garment such as a cloth overcoat with sleeves, replacing the old sleeveless scoop, is introduced, and in especially cold weather, for guards, mandatory – sheepskin coat and felt boots. Those who receive a free certificate to retired soldiers and invalids are paid a pension (ruble or one and a half per year). Corporal punishment is strictly regulated. Mass construction of the barracks begins.

At the same time, having noticed that up to 90% of officers in peacetime are really in their estates, and not in regiments (paying for that with their commander’s salary), Paul tightens discipline. For the slightest mistake, immediate dismissal follows.

Large-scale audits are being carried out. For theft dozens (not hundreds, and not thousands) of the guilty are referred (for several months) to their country estates.

Nobles now pay a tax of 20 rubles per person. Perhaps it is their humiliation, as a symbol of some dependence on the treasury.

About 600,000 state peasants are transferred to the property of the landlords; Paul, very unreasonably, believes that so the first will live better.

Russia participates in the Second Coalition against revolutionary France and its allies.

United and commanded by A. Suvorov, Russian and Austrian troops inflict a number of defeats on the French, and force them out of Italy.

The meaning of all that is happening: France projects revolutionary moods on the cradle of Rome. In the region protests against the disgusting, very, very many, the Bourbon dynasty have long been brewing, and, accordingly, the desire for renewal of life, itself deeply entangled in the dense Middle Ages, is increasing. Squadron Ushakov, Suvorov’s troops contribute to the expulsion of the French to their homeland. The French are loaded onto their ships and leave the sunny coast. The sympathetic Republican Italians are left alone with the peasant army of the Sanfedi (Santa Fe – “The Army of the Holy Faith”), organized by the British and, to some extent, by the Catholic clergy. Of course, they lose, surrender under the guarantees of British admiral Nelson and, having left three of their fortresses, are destroyed by him (hundreds hang on the rim of the masts of English ships) – or are given to the wild violence of the crowd.

It should be noted, friends, the French officers at this time, no doubt, are the best officers of the World. Their origin is the working class, the bourgeoisie, or even the petty nobility. These soldiers are able not only to destroy, but also to create. They create – Europe, which is completely different from all that was on this place in the Middle Ages. They have something to offer – Italy, Spain, Poland. You yourself know how dramatically, almost beyond recognition, people who have passed at least a small path to success are changing. A few more years will pass, and their spirit will change. The military will acquire arrogance, ambition, disdain for “ordinary people”. It is exactly the same thing, parallel, that happens to Napoleon Bonaparte himself. In this, already unattractive, French officers will enter Russia, instead of destroying slavery, they will plunder the Orthodox churches and, unfortunately, in less than six months, almost all will die.

The influence of Russia sharply increases in the liberated region. Fearing this, the Allies demand that the troops immediately move to Switzerland and, using this country as a foothold, invade France itself. Suvorov is forced to obey, although with some delay; left by him, in practice, despite the will of the Austrians garrisons, block the movement of French troops (still remaining in Genoa).

There is a strange castling; Austrian troops in Switzerland are urgently sent to Holland, to join with the Anglo-Russian landing force. Their place, in the country not yet liberated from the French, should be occupied by the Russian-Austrian national army. September 21, 1799, Suvorov’s troops begin the Swiss campaign – including the famous crossing over the Alps. Having overcome the path with incredible difficulties, having saved about 20 thousand soldiers, in the Swiss valley surrounded by mountains, the commander learns that the 60,000-strong army of Rimsky-Korsakov is defeated by the 75,000-strong corps of Massena. With a breakthrough from the Mutenskaya Valley, the 15,000-strong French detachment is half destroyed, the Russian troops are losing 700 people, Massena himself is barely escaping, leaving the epaulette in the hands of a certain brave non-commissioned officer. There is another difficult transition: 200 soldiers are killed, half of almost 3 thousand prisoners, the army is also deprived of all its artillery. At the end of September, troops leave for the valley, where people receive warmth, bread, meat and portions of alcohol. There is a connection with the half-reduced body of Rimsky-Korsakov. The army withdraws to the allied Bavaria, where Suvorov, without reacting to the proposals of the Austrian Emperor Franz the First (whom, together with his commander, Archduke Karl considers a traitor) to continue the fighting, waiting for the courier from Paul the First. Russian troops responded to Russia, Suvorov is waning to his estate Kobrin Klyuch (present-day Belarus), for a well-deserved rest. The commander is still vigorous, but the closest adviser to Pavel the First, Count Palen, slanders Suvorov, accusing almost of preparing the insurrection; in St. Petersburg an honest and decisive Generalissimo can prevent a real revolution.

The Anglo-Russian landing in Holland (on English ships) is landed in June 1799. The total number of about 45 thousand, of which 18 thousand – the Russian corps. Soldiers get stuck in numerous canals, spills, suffer from deprivation from the autumn weather. The number of supporters of the restoration of the monarchy in the Netherlands, it turns out, is not great. French troops have strong rear, popular support, excellent supply. Eventually, having lost about 7 thousand people, in hostilities and from diseases, the Allied army is evacuated by the sea. Benefit from the expedition gets only the UK: it manages to capture almost the entire Dutch fleet.

In August 1798, the united Russian-Turkish squadron under the command of Ushakov besieged the island of Corfu, captured by the French (now Greek). The garrison capitulates, the fleet commander is made into admirals. In this area, under the protectorate of Turkey and Russia, the Republic of the Seven Islands is being established, for several years becoming the main base of the Russian Mediterranean squadron. The fleet participates in the siege of Genoa, then relocates to Malta, and halfway receives the order of Paul the First to return to Sevastopol (Austria concludes a separate truce). Human losses of 400 people, all ships are saved.

So, Paul is dissatisfied with the fact that, located in Sicily Malta, the possession of the most ancient knightly order of the Hospitallers, the British not only cleared Napoleon’s troops, but also joined the UK. Russia itself was going to declare a protectorate over this island, with the prospect of becoming one of the provinces, and, at the same time, the erection of a large naval base here. Moreover, having received the regalia of the great master of the Maltese (Enkih French, as a rule) knights, Paul really considers himself so, considering it his personal duty to use all the resources of the Russian Empire for the liberation of the sacred island.

Knights expelled by Napoleon from their places of refuge, find shelter in St. Petersburg, have treasury, office, etc. in the Vorontsov Palace. However, they do not go deep into politics, do not go deep into politics, consider themselves above the subtleties of palace intrigues, and allow his nominal commander to die. Among their later achievements is the establishment of a prestigious Corps of Pages. Where the teaching of not only Catholics and Orthodox (Orthodox) is allowed.

In November 1801 Dagestan (Avar) Ummah Khan decides to support the Georgian prince Alexander Bagrationi in his struggle for the Georgian (Karli-Kakheti) throne. The legitimate monarch – George the Twelfth nominates another heir. Against the 14,000 people of the Avar and Georgian squad, there are: a Russian detachment of General Ivan Lazarev, numbering 1,500 soldiers and 6 guns, and about 7,000 Georgian fighters. The battle takes place on the outskirts of Tiflis, near the Iori River. Highlanders enter the battle without the command of Ummah Khan, the Russian-Georgian troops crowd, but fall under artillery fire and suffer serious losses. The battle ceases with the onset of the night, after which Ummah Khan gives the order to retreat.

Impressed by this battle, also afraid of the scale campaign that is being prepared by Persia, Georgii Twelfth expresses a desire to join Georgia as an autonomy with special rights. Emperor Paul the First, December 22, 1800 signs the appropriate manifesto. Further, the monarch asserts the kingdom of successor George, King David Twelfth. Later, David becomes Governor-General, with the title of king, and the Carly-Kakhetian kingdom, turning into a simple Russian province, is deprived of autonomy. At the beginning of the reign of Alexander the First, (1801), the Georgian king (who had entered into a struggle with potential dignitaries against St. Petersburg dignitaries) was suspended from power, General Ivan Lazarev, commander of Russian troops, became its manager.

The self-name of Georgians is kartveli, in the East they were called “gurj”, from this in Russian “gurzin” was formed and, with the rearrangement of sounds, the modern “Georgians”.

…Plans for the Indian campaign (with the British, former French colonial possessions) combined with Napoleon are recognized by most historians as a hoax, but the very fact that the rumor about him seemed true to contemporaries speaks of a turn of the foreign policy vector. With regard to Britain, Russia now maintains its armed neutrality, while others, seeing this, are imposing an embargo on trade with the “mistress of the seas,” and close their ports for it.

But, the British do not hesitate and, in 1801, through their ambassador, Winstvorte is handed over to participants in the unfolding conspiracy, in most of the masons who promoted each other to key positions, 2 million rubles. Yes, we can say that Paul favored the soldiers, but now there is not a single private soldier with him. But there is Count Palen, the Baltic German, the closest secret adviser and, in combination, the main coordinator of the coup.

And, on September 11, the plot wheel comes into motion. The Preobrazhensky regiment in the guard of the emperor is replaced by Semenovsky, who is in direct subordination to the heir Alexander (the future First), except for only one internal post. The initial plan, in words – custody of the feeble-minded and, like the hospital – Shlisselburg fortress. The deceived valet opens the door, two perplexed guard hussars receive heavy wounds of sabers. The fact that there were further four main versions. In all cases, officers bursting into the Emperor’s bedchamber are slow to leave, wanting everything to happen as though by themselves, without their direct participation. The first – Paul is half-hourly negotiating, already almost pitying the drunk conspirators, then one of them, calling for decisive action, deals the emperor with a golden snuff box in the temple. The second – the emperor exerts desperate resistance, dies in the ensuing struggle. Third, Paul signs all the conditions for abdication, but one of the leaders, Bennigsen, demonstratively leaves to another room, examines the pictures posted there for a long time. The rest perceive this gesture in their own way, they severely beat and (the Georgian prince Yashvil, the most likely murderer) suffocate the monarch. The fourth – Paul signs the act of abdication, all calms down a little, then the conspirators remember Anna Ivanovna and the Council defeated by her secret advice, express to the emperor sore, and, again, use the golden snuffbox. Apparently, such an end awaits many monarchs who are dissuaded by clever words or jokes, do not want to understand anything that “ordinary people” try to interpret to them, treat you frivolously, in the usual situation, although you know for yourselves that, in fact, you are right.

Empress Maria Feodorovna (Sofia Augusta), who is widowed, declares that she is crowned and should now reign, tears to the window with an appeal to the troops, but she is stopped (the same Palen), suggesting not to play a comedy. Later, she will take her, at least partially, sending the coup to their distant estates, removing them from power, etc.

On the throne rises her eldest son, Alexander the First. His first words are “… Everything will be the same with me as with my grandmother…”

The project of peasants’ emancipation by means of their gradual redemption with land from owner-landlords is being blamed, and is reduced almost to nothing. In newspapers it is only forbidden to publish, so shocking Europeans, announcements about the sale of people. The decree “On Free Farmers” comes out, declaring what seems to be taken for granted; the right of the landowner to let his serf to freedom. But, for the whole time of the existence of this document, hardly 1,2% of peasants could use it; landlords do not want to part with “movable property.”

By that time Alexander had been married for two years to Louise Maria Augusta, the daughter of the Crown Prince of one of the German kingdoms. In Orthodoxy, the spouse takes the name of Elizaveta Alexeevna. Both daughters die in early childhood. Further, the monarch is cold to his wife and finds solace in the arms of the main favorite – daughter lynched by the mob during the Warsaw uprising of the Polish nobleman, Maria Naryshkina (nee Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya).

In 1804, in response to the annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia, and incited by the leading English in Asia, the Shah of Persia Feth-Ali (Baba-Khan) declares war on Russia. In June and July, Russian troops, having defeated the Iranian detachments, besieged Erivan (Yerevan), but, because of the large losses, retreat. Under the rule of Russia passes the Karabakh, then the Shirvan (Shemakha, part of the present Azeybardjan) khanate. August 12, 1805, the Caspian flotilla anchors in Baku Bay, Russian General I. Zavalishin convinces Huseyngul-khan to accept the citizenship of the Russian Empire. After unsuccessful negotiations, the squadron bombarded Baku for 11 days, landed troops, broke the Khan’s forces that had left the fortress, but, due to serious losses and shortage of ammunition, removes the siege. January 30, 1806 follows the second act of submission: the Caspian fleet replenishing its reserves and the two thousandth detachment of infantry stand at the walls of the eastern capital. It seems that the transition of the Baku Khanate to the Russian Empire is a decided matter, but the cousin of the khan is included in the course of negotiations; his bodyguards are killing Russian parliamentarians. In the summer of the same year, in the final part of the action, the Russian troops break the forces of the Persian commander (son of the Shah) Abbas Mirza and join the Baku, Derbent and Cuban (part of present Dagestan and Azeybardzhan) khanate.

After the end of the Russo-Turkish war in January 1812, Persia tends to sign a peace treaty, but Napoleon’s invasion of Russia adds extra weight to the war party in the Shah’s yard. South Azebaryan becomes the place of formation of the 30-thousand army of invasion of Georgia. Further, on February 1, 1812, the 18,000-strong corps of the Persians, under the command of British officers, manages to encircle one of the Russian battalions to surrender, but this ends their fortune. A series of fierce battles ends with the capture of Lankaran (now belonging to Azerbaijan), a fortress built by British engineers. The five-day bombardment does not bring any special damage to the fortification. At dawn on January 1, 1813, a frontal assault is carried out: 1800 Russian huntsmen against 4000 defenders of the fortress. The rows of assault columns are thinning out, but a few grenadiers climb onto the wall, capture an enemy cannon, unfold it and open fire with a grapeshot, supporting the attack. In battle, 350 soldiers and officers are killed, as well as almost all defenders of the fortress. Among the trophies – 8 English guns.

October 24, 1813, the Gulustan peace treaty is signed in Karabakh, recognizing all the acquisitions of the Empire, except for the territory of Eastern Armenia – which is returning to Persia. The peoples of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia get rid of the threat of invasion by Persia and Turkey, but the constant friction on the racial and religious grounds in this region become some of the factors of the instability of the whole of Russia.

The third coalition against Napoleon and his allies – Spain, Bavaria, Italy, arises after the signing of the St. Petersburg Union Treaty by England and Russia (April 11, 1805). Later Austria, Sweden and Portugal join it.

Bonaparte is not helped even by the fact that he himself, in effect, becomes a monarch: on December 1, 1804, according to the results of a plebiscite poll among his people, with 0.07% of the votes “against” is proclaimed emperor. Russian and French rulers exchange insults. Alexander the First, protesting against the shooting, accused of conspiracy, the Duke of the neutral Baden Margrave, calls the French government a “den of robbers”, Napoleon in response hints at Alexander’s participation in the overthrow and murder of his own father.

The UK is not fighting as much as it pays: 1 million 250 thousand pounds sterling for every 100,000 soldiers of the coalition each year. This is about 80 grams of gold, or 900 modern pounds per ordinary soldier.

Bonaparte is preparing a landing across the English Channel, against his main opponent, and so to speak, the “customer”; 180 thousand people cavalry and infantry. They need to transport 1700 barges in the first wave of invasion, 590 in the second. The French-Spanish fleet is sent from the Mediterranean Sea to support the landing force and, at Cape Trafalgar (vicinity of the Strait of Gibraltar), meets with the English Navy. The forces are roughly the same, three dozen battleships, but the British gunners are more adept, and mostly the noble officer corps of the “Lady of the Seas” did not suffer at all from the work of the revolutionary guillotine. The avant-garde of the Franco-Spanish column, nine pennants, breaks through, the lagging ships suffer crushing losses of manpower in artillery duels (4,500 against 450 killed by the British), are boarded and captured. The British do not lose a single ship, but their brave Admiral Nelson dies – in a barrel of rum (according to legend, drunk by sailors during the journey), the body of the commander returns to his homeland.

Meanwhile, the Austrians are going to attack the possessions of Napoleon in Northern Italy and Bavaria. Upon learning of their plans, Napoleon is like Vienna. To help allies rush two parts of the Russian army (about 200 thousand people). Alexander supposes to give battle even before the approach of additional forces. At Austerlitz, on December 2, 1805, 60,000 Russians, 25,000 Austrians, 350 guns and 74,000 French (including their allies) gather, with 250 guns.

The left flank of the Russian-Austrian army is gaining initial success, gradually shifting from occupied heights and getting bogged down in battle, then the reserves of Napoleon come out of the forest shelters and rapidly break through the center of the Allied forces. Maneuverable, extremely effective French artillery appears exactly where it is needed, immediately opens fire, sows horror and death. The army of Franz and Alexander disintegrates, as well as their retinue; For a while the sobbing Russian emperor is accompanied only by a single hussar.

However, the army of Napoleon is no longer able to pursue the retreating enemy. The Russian army receives a harsh lesson, retains two-thirds of the original composition and half of the artillery. Emperor Franz the First states to Alexander that resistance is meaningless, and concludes with Napoleon a separate peace. The third anti-Napoleonic Coalition disintegrates.

In 1806, however, a new, Fourth coalition – Russia, Great Britain, Prussia, is being formed. Napoleon breaks the Prussian army, enters Berlin. Further hostilities are taking place in Poland and East Prussia. The French emperor wants to impose the decisive battle of the Russian army, acting together with the surviving German troops (about 14% of the total). Occurring in the course of six months, three clashes of the winners do not reveal. The general battle takes place in January 1807 under the Prussian city of Preysish-Eylau (now Bagrationovsk). Beforehand, the armies maneuver for a long time, which, in conditions of severe winter and insufficient supply, leads to significant, up to 35% non-combat losses. In the end, on February 8, the Russian army in 67 thousand people, with 400 guns, leaving the city to the enemy, is built in two lines, on the frontline 4, 5 kilometers.

Napoleon has 64 thousand soldiers and 300 guns. There is a massive mutual bombardment. Some initial advantage among the French: their troops are covered with walls of houses, the gunners of Napoleon shoot more often and more accurately. Marshal Davout’s squad attacks the left flank of the Russian army, commander Bennigsen throws reinforcements to the battlefield, weakening the middle of the system. Noticing this, Napoleon gives an order to General Augerot’s corps (15,000 people) to strike at the center. The offensive is conducted on a snow-covered plain. The storm is rising, the disoriented French units are deflected to the left, and suddenly they find out, 120 meters away, the main battery of the Russians. Immediately 72 guns open fire, already without a miss, knocking out entire rows of soldiers. Within a few minutes, 5,200 enemy combatants are killed or injured. Bennigsen throws the cavalry and infantry into battle, in turn attacking the center of the army of the French.

The battle is already at the very stake of Napoleon (the emperor himself is watching the battle from the bell tower), but the 9-thousandth cavalry of Murat comes to her rescue, correcting the situation, saving his emperor. There is another desperate attack by a 4,000-strong detachment of Russian grenadiers, then the opponents retreat to their original positions. The artillery duel continues.

At noon, the fresh parts of Marshal Davout join the battle, they again press the left flank of the Russian army. 36 mobile (according to the French model, on horse traction, with the initial stock of charges) cannons are coming to their aid, 3 horse-artillery companies of General Ermolov, and also, the Prussian corps, which lasted for almost 100 kilometers a day. At nine o’clock the cannonade subsides, the opponents do not want to continue the battle and count the losses. On the Russian side of the killed and wounded – 26 thousand, Prussian – 800, the French – 24 thousand people. The Russian units retire to Koenigsberg, leaving the battlefield, corpses and broken weapons to Napoleon, but there are no winners and losers here.

After Eylau, the French soldiers are inclined to cry out no longer “Vive L’Empereur” (long live the Emperor), but “Vive Le Paix” (Long live peace). But, Napoleon is inclined to end the war on a victorious note. One can not call his subsequent actions at the Battle of Heilsberg, the June 10, 1807, when the emperor again and again sent cavalry to the fortified Russian artillery batteries. The French lose 12,500 soldiers killed and wounded (usually killed make up a fourth of the losses), the Russians – 8,000, and retain their positions. The decisive battle takes place June 14, 1807 near Friedland (now Pravdinsk Kaliningrad region, 46 kilometers southeast of Kenigsberg). The forces of the parties: the French – 80,000 soldiers, 118 guns, the Russians – 65,000 soldiers, 120 guns. Bonaparte forces launch a general frontal attack, bear significant losses from the Russian kartachi, then the emperor pushes forward fresh pieces. French guns resemble modern self-propelled guns, they swiftly move along the battlefield, along with a supply of gunpowder and lead in capacious boxes of the gun carriage, occupy a position eighty meters from the front of the enemy and immediately open fire. Perseverance, despite the high losses, well-trained mobile artillery, the strength of the army, as if inexhaustible reserves are doing their job – Napoleon wins. The Fourth Coalition disintegrates.

In the summer of 1807, the Tilzit world lies between France and Russia on the river near the city of Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region). Russia recognizes the conquests of Napoleon, the restoration of the statehood of Poland in the former Prussian possessions (the Warsaw Duchy), the power of France over the Ionian (now Greek) islands. At Napoleon’s insistence, the Russian Empire withdraws troops from the already-conquered Wallachia and Moldavia from Turkey (a year later relations are warming, Napoleon allows them to return, although it’s too late), participates in the naval blockade of England, recognizes three brothers Bonaparte – Joseph, Louis, Jerome, respectively, the kings of Naples, Holland and Westphalia.

Somewhat earlier, in 1806, on a minor, in fact, occasion – the removal of the ruler of Moldova without the prior approval of Russia, another Russian-Turkish war is being fastened. The Russian army, which once, storms Ismail, takes possession of Iasi, Bendery and Bucharest.

Further, Russia supports the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman rule. In 1804, after the “massacre of the princes” by the janissaries (formerly, at that time, opponents of the sultan’s authority), the Serbs, in cooperation with the troops, in fact, the legitimate ruler of Turkey, defeated the main forces of the rebellious Turkish guard. At the same time, they feel the embassies of Austria and Russia to support Serbia. Russia becomes a patron of the Serbs in the struggle, first for the autonomy of their Belgrade Pashalyk, and then complete independence. The rebels crush the 15-thousand Turkish detachment, occupy Belgrade, drive out the Turkish population and finally break off relations with the Porte. According to the conditions of the Peace of Tilsit, Russian assistance to Serbia is severely restricted. In 1809, during the Russo-Turkish armistice (fueled by British subsidies), the Ottomans inflict a number of defeats on the Serbs, but already in 1811—12 the militia, along with the detachment of M. Kutuzov, restore the situation, negotiate peace and autonomy. The fourth stage of the uprising – 1813 – the Turks, unilaterally reviewing the terms of the treaty, occupy Serbia, deal with the active participants in the uprising, but to the others, wanting the return of the numerous refugees from Austria, are already showing some loyalty. The national Serb administration is slowly but surely formed, the Turkish managers – spahi are in the village only to collect taxes.

Admiral Senyavin’s fleet is blocking the Dardanelles, landing troops on the islands, achieving success; in August 1807, with the mediation of Napoleon, with Turkey is a truce.

Active land hostilities are resumed in 1810, they boil down to a series of battles in the territories of Moldova, Romania and Serbia. In 1812, the peaceful Bucharest Treaty is concluded: the Besarabian region (part of present-day Moldova) departs to Russia, some territories of Transcaucasia, the border of Europe moves somewhat southward. The Danube princedoms, as well as Serbia, return to Turkey, while their wide autonomy is confirmed. Russia is emerging from the war with the Port hastily, with losses, on the eve of a large-scale Napoleonic invasion.

In 1807, Denmark declared England a continental blockade. In response, after a massive artillery and even rocket fire, destroying one-third of the city, the UK seizes Copenhagen, and the entire Danish fleet. Denmark is a long-time ally of Russia, Alexander the First, based on treaties of peace concluded earlier with Sweden, demands that the latter close its ports for the British. The Swedes do not agree, enter into a military alliance with the British, then the Russian emperor declares war on both of these states.

The war with England represents three or four fighting clashes, conducted without special bitterness. The Russian scientific vessel “Diana” is delayed in the South African port. On the Baltic Sea, an artillery duel lagging behind the main forces, the Russian 74-gun Vsevolod, with English, and also the 74-gun “Implacable”, takes place near Hanko Island. “Vsevolod” loses 300 people killed, “inexorable” – 8 people. The Russian ship replenishes the team and participates in the next battle with the English “Centaur”; perished, according to averaged data, 5 English sailors and 40 Russian. “Vsevolod” runs aground, his team captives the English, the ship is burned. In the summer of 1809, also in the Baltic Sea, the British attack and capture 6 Russian gunboats (two guns, forty crew members) of boats. In the battle, 17 British and 56 Russian sailors perish.

In August 1808, in the bay of Lisbon (Portugal), the British blockaded the Russian squadron of Admiral Senyavin, seven battleships and one frigate, battered by storms and battles that had been repaired for the Baltic Sea after the end of the Russo-Turkish war. She is now confronted by 15 battleships, 10 frigates and a Portuguese coastal battery. The diplomatic Russian admiral is making concessions – the fleet is, as it were, transferred to storage; without changing crews, with raised flags, the year stands in British Portsmouth, and, after the end of the military conflict, September 9, 1809, returns to the port of Riga.

The military conflict with Sweden begins in fact, on February 9, 1808, when Russian troops cross the Finnish border (Finland at the time – part of Sweden). Formally, the war is declared on March 16. It is not popular either in Russia or Sweden, and it is developing rather sluggishly. The Swedes are smashing several small Russian detachments; helping them in this Finnish population. The Russian army will be anchored in Ostrobothnia, the middle part of Finland.

In accordance with the Napoleonic plan of the Russian command, the army, taking advantage of the rare phenomenon of the freezing of the Gulf of Bothnia, must pass to Stockholm by ice, capture it and destroy the Swedish fleet standing in the roadstead. The bold idea, in general, succeeds: off the coast Russian troops smash the vanguard of the Swedish army, seize 2,000 prisoners, 150 military and merchant ships, pose an immediate threat to Stockholm. The Swedes sit down at the negotiating table, sign a truce, the Russian army withdraws from the shores of Sweden.

In 1809, after the change of the ruler, the Swedes send additional forces to Finland, but attempts to restore the state of things are not at all effective. The Finns themselves are imbued with the idea of broad autonomy, which Alexander the First offers them and they stop their guerrilla war. Eventually, on September 17, 1809, a peace treaty was signed in Friedrichsham. The Swedes are taking the continental blockade of England, giving way to Finland and the Åland Islands to the eternal possession of the Russian Empire. Losses are almost equal; about seven thousand people on each side.

In 1808 and 1810, Napoleon, wishing to become recognized as a European court by the monarch, sends the Russian royal house proposals for marriage with the sisters of Alexander, respectively, first with Catherine, then Anna. This request is politely rejected. However, Bonaparte is deeply offended. He still marries, now on the Austrian princess, thereby, among other things, provides the French Empire with a strong rear, and military support.

Meanwhile, Russia is holding the continental blockade of Great Britain. The export of food stops, the price of bread falls by half. The domestic light industry is rising from its knees, in particular, the production of technically complex luxury goods. But, the nobility is already accustomed to the goods produced in England and therefore Russia trades with the “Lady of the Seas” through neutral countries. The French government knows this.

Napoleon proclaims the idea of expanding the Duchy of Warsaw to the borders of the Commonwealth, which is impossible without the rejection of part of Russia’s ancestral lands from Russia. The French emperor views the advance of Russian army units to the borders of the Duchy as an immediate threat to his vassal.

The main plan of Bonaparte is a huge allied (or, more accurately, dependent) Poland, which includes Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. A world with a diminished Russia. Full-fledged continental blockade of England, then the occupation of the whole of Great Britain. Theoretically, a trip to India, the return and increment of French colonial possessions (the First Empire), hypothetically – Napoleon becomes the ruler of the whole world. It is not so impossible – England owns 27% of the earth’s land, which, together with the colonies of France itself, as well as the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, which is included in the composition of the suzerain by the Commonwealth, is more than half the territory of the Earth.

This plan, however, does not fit the liberation of Russian peasants from serfdom. At the beginning of his career, Bonaparte is forced to serve the Convention and the Republic, introduces the progressive Civil Code, destroys the basis of the feudal system. However, he despises “ordinary people”, and tries not to resort to their assistance, if possible. He is not at all a revolutionary and a benefactor of the people, rather, a French chauvinist. In parts of Belarus and Lithuania, at the beginning of the summer of 1812, Napoleon abolished serfdom. Peasants, first of all, are taken to plunder and destroy their former oppressors, landlords, and their families. To the French army at the same time, they do not become much more loyal. First of all, Napoleon is interested in supplying his troops. Three weeks later he returns the peasants to the landlords, provides protection, so that the grateful nobles themselves collect provisions and pass it to the French foragers. So, in general, it happens, although it should be taken into account that the aristocracy of the county counted on the revival of the Commonwealth, therefore it was quite hospitable to the conquerors. Counting his experience with the liberation of serfs unsuccessful, Napoleon projected his conclusions to the whole of Russia, not paying attention to the fact that the Russian nobles with their high position are quite satisfied. Yes, there is autocracy here, but it is limited, to the extreme case of landowner discontent, with an apoplectic blow (a snuffbox in the temple). Gold, saved during the expropriation of peasant stocks (it had enough in Bonaparte), the inclination to plunder churches and monasteries, arrogance, will subsequently turn into rivers of blood of French soldiers.

Napoleon’s army consists of: 20,000 Prussian soldiers-Prussia is offered some territories of the present Baltic states, 30,000 Austrians, 100,000 Poles, 21,000 Italians, 300,000 French, 8,000 former Russian prisoners of war who believe that they are liberating the country from serfdom, and also parts from other subordinate countries of the French Empire – only about 608,000 people (there are also large figures). The Russian army is divided into three parts, totaling 420,000 people.

Food stocks are calculated only for 50 days. Bonaparte expects to win a frontier general battle, after which his troops would almost seamlessly enter Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The invasion begins on the Neman river, near the city of Kaunas of present-day Lithuania, on the evening of June 23, 1812. In the north, the Prussian troops storm Riga. After the capture of this city, they would have to go to Petersburg, but the recent allies of Russia in the fighting are not particularly zealous.

The border battle is not impossible: on the eve of the war a huge fortified Drais camp is being built, in which Russian troops would have to restrain the 600,000th enemy army. Alexander the First declines to such a decision, but the higher officers urge the emperor to first abandon this plan, then leave the headquarters and go to St. Petersburg.

September 7 near the village of Borodino, 125 kilometers south of Moscow, there is a general battle. The number of the French army at this stage is 135,000 men, with 587 cannon, 15,000 non-combatants (helping to endure wounded, etc.) Russian – 120,000 people, 624 guns, plus 20,000 militias without firearms, usually performing a supporting role.

Napoleon’s plan is drawing a distracting blow to the center of enemy positions, an attack by the main forces on the left flank of the Russian army, its encirclement and destruction. M. Kutuzov, on the whole, all this foresees, and the troops on this site strengthens. The chief of staff, Bennigsen, somewhat distorts the commander’s intention, removing the reserve corps from the shelter too early, practically, under the fire of French artillery.

At noon, Russian troops on the left flank very successfully counterattack, while in the front ranks there is Marshal Bagration himself. A fragment of the core hurts the commander, the news of this instantly demoralizes the army. The retreat begins. The onslaught of the French is somewhat weakened after the raid on their rear by 2500 Cossacks General Platov. The troops regroup, Napoleon leaves the left flank of the Russians, rushes to the center, beats redoubts, at the cost of almost all the heavy cavalry, and stops. At seven o’clock in the evening the French emperor takes his troops from the battlefield.

At night, having collected almost all of his wounded, the Russian army departs to Mozhaisk, 105 kilometers west of Moscow. About 20 000 seriously wounded remain in the capital and later, in the majority, die in a huge fire.

Losses of the parties; Russian army 42 000 killed (30% of the composition), the army of Napoleon – 35 000 people (25%). Only in the autumn of 1812, after the exodus of the French from Moscow (who stayed there for 36 days), it becomes possible to bury, remaining until then unburied 54,000 bodies. Some of them are burned on huge bonfires. It is widely believed that the “General Frost” broke the colossal invasion army, but it should be noted that, at the beginning of the cold, only a third of the original composition remained from it.

After the battle of Maloyaroslavets, Napoleon realizes that he will not be able to gain a foothold in the south of Russia, and leaves the plundered by his troops, the Smolensk road. Only on November 14, evacuation begins for Berezina, but in a very inhospitable Vilna (modern Vilnius), several thousand soldiers and officers are killed from cold and hunger. About 30,000 people remain alive, including soldiers of the German corps of McDonald. Of the Imperial Guard, numbering at the beginning of the invasion 47 thousand people survive four hundred or five hundred. Prisoners and deserters more than 100 thousand, a significant part of them voluntarily remain in Russia after the fall of the empire of Bonaparte. The total losses of the Russian Empire at this stage are 120,000 military men and, probably, 300—400,000 peasants.

Pursuing the enemy, the Russian army occupies almost all the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815, according to the agreements of the Vienna Congress, it becomes part of Russia, the population is sworn in by the Russian sovereign. At the same time, some attributes of autonomy remain; so, for example, the Polish zloty will be replaced by the Russian ruble only in 1832. Formally neutral Dresden is seized, Leipzig and Berlin are liberated. In the battle of Lutzen, the troops of Napoleon fearlessly attack the Russian-Prussian troops, which are extremely full of artillery, bear twice the heavy losses (about 20,000), but force, as a result, the allies from Saxony to retreat. Two more such Pyrrhic victories followed, then Bonaparte calls for a truce. The Sixth Coalition, meanwhile, is being strengthened by Sweden, for its military services, Norway, which has bargained for itself (the Danish possession), and a number of other European monarchies. Under Leipzig, Napoleon offers peace in return for all the countries captured by his troops, with the condition only of the return of the French colonies. Numerous, confident allies reject such a decision and, on October 16, 1813, the grandiose multi-day battle of the Napoleonic wars, the Battle of the Nations, is boiling. Coalition forces – 300 thousand people, 1,400 guns, France – 200 thousand, 600 guns. The battle lasts until October 19, boiling down to a chain of fierce battles. German soldiers in the camp of Bonaparte are moving to the side of the Coalition, solving the outcome of the whole affair. Napoleon retreats, losing killed, wounded (who can not be evacuated) and captives 80,000 people, and 325 guns. The losses of the allies are 54,000, half of them are soldiers of the Russian expeditionary army. Six months later, on April 11, 1814, in the suburbs (captured) of Paris, Fonteblo, Napoleon signed a renunciation of the throne – for himself and his heirs.

…After a series of battles in the suburbs, which brought about an equal number of victims – 6—8 thousand people, and demonstrations of a formidable artillery battery, which had previously performed an unexpected maneuver, the Russian troops took Paris without a fight. There are almost no excesses with the civilian population. Officers pay for liquor through receipts, or put bottles under the table, thus deducing them from the field of view, writing out an account, not too picky waiters. Later for all this, the Russian emperor, or more precisely, the working people under his supervision, will pay. The imposition of “reprisals” or, in other words, military indemnities on France, is a perfectly reasonable offer of Great Britain, the “kindest” Alexander the First rejects.

Lower ranks go beyond the boundaries of the settlement, on the streets of the capital without the written permission of commanders is prohibited, under pain of arrest by the French National Guard, (with the filing of Alexander the First) and subsequent severe punishment. Nevertheless, (or even, including, for this reason) during the year and a half of the occupation, about 40,000 Russian soldiers desert, let’s say softer – leave their army, for the Victory has already been achieved, the French women at that time are very friendly, nice, well provided, local authorities welcome the emergence of new citizens; men, after the Napoleonic adventures, in France is not enough just catastrophically.

On the wave of successes in foreign policy Alexander the First believes that everything is fine in his state; does not in the least hurry with the abolition of serfdom and other major transformations. His opinion is shared by most of the Russian nobility.

In 1816 the Baltic peasants were liberated, however, without land allotments. As always, “lucky” only not completely loyal to Russia, the inhabitants of the outskirts of the empire. Initially free residents of the Russian Pomerania, the Caucasus, the Far East, Alaska, as well as parts of the Asian possessions, Finns and, to some extent, Cossacks.

Belarusian-Lithuanian (to modern Lithuania has no direct relationship), the Polonized nobility, counting on the restoration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, is subjected to the so-called “dissembling the gentry.” A certain number of people, as a result, lose their high status.

The new toy of the emperor – invented by him military settlements. Some of their similarity already exists in Germany – landwehr, a rural settlement in which a weapons warehouse for training is located, and the young villagers are trained by a retired officer in their spare time. At the same time, we note that there is a ban on any corporal punishment. In general, the landwehr is popular, the youth, who are exempt from conscription, consider these infrequent military exercises quite amusing. Almost half of the army in war time is made up of militiamen from the landwehr, they serve very well.

Remind military settlements and “arable soldiers”, respectively, Cossack villages and Cossacks – but in the latter case, the organization and life are created by free people, at their discretion, and therefore are viable.

The emperor conveys his idea to the very executive officer, Count Arakcheev. He starts dealing with all his official zeal. To begin with, a battalion of lower ranks of the regiment settles in Novorossia, with wives and families. The servicemen who are completely weaned from agricultural work are resisting; then in the course go steeples and rods. But, these people are now not peasants in the full sense of the word – sowing, haymaking, harvesting, etc., are not performed when the time really comes, but according to the schedule approved by the higher-ups.

General Ermolov is trying his hand at the North Caucasus, in forging a peaceful life. Given the fanaticism of the mountain tribes, their hostile attitude towards the Russians, he decides that it is absolutely impossible to establish peaceful relations with them. The troops conduct a planned siege of the Caucasus – they build roads, cut through the woods clearings, and establish new fortresses. This activity is bearing fruit, but, in 1825, Nicholas I recalled Yermolov in connection with suspicion of ties with the Decembrists (they really assumed that the general would assume the post of minister of war) and would resign.

In 1818 under the patronage of Russia pass, first the Elder, then the Junior and Middle Kazakh Juzes (a kind of large clans). Since 1822, under the decree of Alexander the First, the khan’s power in zhuzes is abolished.

At the end of life, Alexander loses interest in politics, strikes mysticism, travels a lot and, on December 1, 1825, dies in Taganrog from a severe cold and “brain inflammation.” According to the legend, which can be authentic, the emperor dramatizes his death and begins a wandering life under the name of Fedor Kuzmich. The first documentary information about this person appears in the autumn of 1836; For vagrancy the 60-year-old elder receives 20 blows with a whip and is sent to Siberia. In Tomsk province, he acquires freedom of movement, teaches children to read and write, while taking only food as a payment. In 1850, the famous writer Leo Tolstoy visited the wanderer, spending the whole day in conversations with him. There is information about the correspondence of Kuzmich (initially completely illiterate) with Nikolay First and Alexander II.

Fedor Kuzmich is introduced in 1864 in Tomsk, leaving encrypted, and not read with all the authenticity of the note. In place of the crypt, a chapel is put, in 1936 it is destroyed. In place of the ruins are found relics, in 1995, they find refuge in the Kazan Church of the Tomsk Virgin Mary-Alekseevsky Monastery.

On November 27, 1825, the population of Russia, as well as the Senate and the Synod, was sworn in to the brother of Alexander the First, Constantine. But Constantine himself does not want to rule, suggesting that otherwise “… they will strangle me, as they strangled my father.” He is comfortable enough in Warsaw, the Kingdom of Poland, where the prince is in fact the governor of the Russian monarch. In addition, he does not have his legitimate children, he concluded a morganatic marriage with the Polish countess, which in the future can cause complications in the succession to the throne.

At the beginning of the reign, Nicholas the First had to give orders for the execution of five members of the uprising, the so-called Decembrists. More such orders are not required; for the lower ranks they are replaced by corporal punishment, which usually have the same sad result. That is why Nikolai Pavlovich receives from the Russian people the unofficial epithet “Palkin”. If the coup succeeds, a civil war would most likely occur, but, as it seems, this blood would lead the great terror and revolution of 1917.

In 1817, Nicholas, then still not considered the main pretender to the throne, married Friederike Louise Charlotte of Prussia, the daughter of Prussian King Frederick William III. As usual, the bride takes Orthodoxy, the name of Alexander Fedorovna, teaches Russian, but this does not reach the degree of perfection of Catherine II, and, as a rule, prefers to speak German.

The Interregnum and the Decembrist uprising are seen in Persia as a convenient moment for unleashing a war against Russia, returning the lost lands. The main goal of the Iranian Shah is Tiflis (Tbilisi). The first blow, July 16, 1826 on the Russian territory is inflicted by the 16 thousandth detachment of the Erivan (part of the territory of present-day Armenia and Turkey) serdar (leader), supported by the Kurdish cavalry of 12 thousand people. Then, on July 18, the border river Araks is crossed by the 40,000-strong army of Abbas Mirza. Russian troops are few and scattered, individual posts can not contain the onslaught of the enemy. The local Muslim population joins the Iranians, Armenians find refuge in the mountainous terrain, or fortresses with strong enough garrisons. On September 15, the Russian detachment smashes the 18,000-strong avant-garde of the Iranian army on the approaches to Tiflis with a swift bayonet attack: the losses of the parties, respectively, 27 and 2,000 people. Furthermore, on October 13, a separate Caucasian corps crushes the 35,000-strong Iranian army near the city of Elisavetpol (Ganja, now Azerbaijan), losing 60 people against 2000. Erivan (Yerevan) is being liberated, the military forces of the Persians are being forced into Iranian Azerbaijan (the historical region of Iran). On February 22, 1828, the Turkmanchai Peace Treaty was signed – the possessions of Russia were confirmed, the Armenian region (including Karabagh-Karabakh) was created from the territories of the Nakhichevan and Erivan khanates, as well as the Eastern (Persian) Armenia, to which 30,000 Armenians were resettled, 20 million rubles in silver.

In 1828 another Russian-Turkish war begins. Before that, the united Russian-French-English fleet, helping the Greek national revolution, broke the Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the Navarino battle (1827). In the Ionian Sea (between Greece and Italy), after refusing to accept an ultimatum, the murders of an English parlementer, go to the bottom of 60 ships of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet, the allies do not lose a single one. Offended Turkey closes the Bosporus Strait, and this is the reason for declaring really large-scale military actions.

The Russian 100,000-strong corps, acting against the 200,000-strong army Ports on the territory of present-day Romania and Bulgaria, in a series of battles, sieges of fortresses, etc., is making significant progress. In Transcaucasia, in the east of modern Turkey, several originally Ottoman cities are captured – Kars, Poti and Bayazet. It also surrenders Adrianople, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire (west of Turkey), Russian regiments march unhindered to Constantinople. Sultan agreed to all conditions, September 14, 1829 in Adrianople (Edirne) signed the Adrianople Peace Treaty. The possessions of Russia are confirmed, for the Russian and foreign ships the Bosporus opens. Poti and Anapa become part of the Russian Empire. The Porte recognizes the autonomy of Serbia, as well as the Moldavian and Valassian principalities. The governments of these state formations are now being formed under the control of Russia.

But, between Turkey and Russia, there are moments of complete mutual understanding. In 1831, Istanbul was threatened with the seizure of troops by the former vassal of Porta, Muhammad Ali of Egypt. The Sultan requests assistance from Russia, then on the shores of the Bosporus a 10,000-strong corps of Russian troops is landed. It prevents the capture of Istanbul and the possible disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

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1. Banknote 5 rubles, circulation 1830—1849 g. Signature of the cashier is made manually. She is the same: “blue-eyed, cyanosis, titmouse”

2. Banknote 10 rubles, circulation 1819—1849. Nicknames: “red, rubella, cancer”. A live goose is worth a ruble twenty, a dozen eggs 23 kopecks, a kilogram of fresh 25 kopecks.

The salary of an official of the lowest, 14th grade (collegiate assessor) is 35 rubles per month (banknotes). The usual “fatness” of bribes at this level is 150 rubles a year. The sovereign is indulgent towards this phenomenon. However, there is practically no corruption at the highest level, and the officials are fully competent.

3. Nicholas the First Emperor of All-Russia, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland (1796 – 1855). The cause of death is a severe cold, or, against the background of failures in the Crimean War, the acceptance of poison.

4. Konstantin Pavlovich (Romanov), adjutant-general, emperor of several days, the nominal governor of the kingdom of Poland (1799 – 1831). He died of cholera.

5. Alexander Pushkin, poet, the founder of the modern Russian literary language. Birth May 26, 1799 according to the modern (Gregorian) calendar, in the family of a non-titled (not having generic titles, such as the baron, earl …) noble family – what is happening, according to legend, from Ratmir (Ratshi), servant and friend of Alexander Nevsky. The birthplace is Moscow, the German settlement, a settlement now dissolved in the Lefortovo and Baumanskaya streets. The younger brother – Lev – personal secretary of the writer, combat officer, sister – Olga… nothing special marked, except that in childhood she was very friendly with Alexander. Since 1811 – six years of study at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. The first issue of this educational institution is marked by a surge of manifested and flourished talents. Since 1817, the work of a collegiate assessor (which is roughly equivalent to the rank of lieutenant), in so far as – in the College of Foreign Affairs. Further succession – travel, quarrels, reconciliation, flirting with beautiful ladies (Natalia Goncharova – one hundred and thirteenth love), writing poems. The poet’s account is 32 duels, of which 29 are canceled. On one of the fights, the duelists miss, on the second – Pushkin, in which an opponent has already fired, refuses satisfaction. The third conflict – with J. Dantes, who spoke in defense of the adoptive father, the Dutch ambassador, Louis Heckern, ends tragically.

The duel is set by very strict rules. Opponents are twenty paces from each other and at a signal they converge to the barrier indicated in five meters, thrown by greatcoats. During the passage of this path, a shot is fired. Dantes wounded Pushkin in the stomach. Alexander changes the pistol, the barrel of which is packed with snow, pulling the trigger. The bullet punches his hand and stops on his chest – supposedly stopped by a massive button. It is widely believed that by the time of the duel, d’Anthes prepares a cuirass made of high-quality steel.

The Baron, as well as the adoptive father, is expelled from Russia. Subsequently, Dantes holds high positions in the government of France.

Nicholas the First covers all the debts of the poet from the treasury (138 thousand rubles, of which 94 thousand are card losses), takes part in the fate of four of his children – Alexander, Maria, Natalia and Gregory, in essence, forms the cult of poetry of Pushkin at the state level.

6, 6a Aboriginal Russian (somewhat already forgotten) dish – kulebyaka. For the Eaters of Time. A symbol of traditional Russian cuisine of the nineteenth century. The name comes from the words “kolob” – a small bread, or “kulebyachit” – “cook, roll the dough”. The main idea: fresh pancakes separate the pie fillings, not allowing their taste to interrupt each other. As stuffing is used forcemeat of meat of all sorts, cabbage, buckwheat porridge, steep eggs, fish, mushrooms, onions. In shape, the ready-made pie resembles a loaf, as a rule, it is decorated with dyed pigtails from above. To the table, as a rule, it is served chopped into portions slices. Variety kulebyaki – holiday kurik, higher, rounded, reminiscent of the “cap of Monomakh”, with stuffing from chicken, buckwheat porridge and eggs with onions – also separated fresh pancakes.

7. Pies. A traditional Russian dish, a patty with a hole from the top (“unbuttoned”). In the open middle, right after baking, melted butter, meat or fish broth with shredded parsley is poured. The filling of red fish, or rice with onions and steep eggs is covered with a piece of Caspian sturgeon.

…A new Polish ripens, the so-called. “November” uprising, under the slogan of restoring the Commonwealth within the borders of 1772 (ie with Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Jews and Lithuanians). But not only exorbitant ambitions drive rebels. The reason for the discontent is preliminary censorship, the cancellation of the (Napoleonic) jury trial, as well as the rumors that Polish troops should become the vanguard of the Russian army in the invasion of Belgium (where a bloody religious conflict erupts). In any case, the deeply conspiratorial and ramified, Patriotic (Masonic) Society has long been formed, and it wants not to reason, but to act.

November 29, 1830 conspirators attack the army barracks. The six faithful oaths of the Polish generals die. Captures the Belvedere Palace, in which the failed monarch takes refuge, Konstantin Pavlovich, however, this bird flies away on time. Further, the passive governor refuses to take part in any hostilities, declares that the whole fight is a conflict exclusively between the Poles and his brother, Nikolay the First, dissolves the Russian regiments, retires beyond the Vistula.

Members of the Patriotic Club diligently clean the Polish government, so-called. The Administrative Council. More and more points of view are emerging, anarchy is reigning and, in this mess, a certain general, Josef Khlopitsky declares himself a dictator. The conditions of peace sent to St. Petersburg are reduced, practically to the same thing that Poland has under the Constitution of 1815; except for the point on the restoration, in fact, of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Russian monarch does not promise anything other than an amnesty. The Saeima makes a decree on the detonation of Nikolai the First (and his heirs) on the Polish throne. A full-scale war begins.

European countries hold benevolent neutrality, close their borders to supply the rebels with weapons, ammunition, etc. The most disturbed by what is happening in Poland is England – she sees here the continuation of the Jacobin and Napoleonic epics.

The dispersed Russian troops suffer at first a number of serious defeats, or, at least, achieve a draw result. Then the centers of the uprising in Volhynia and Lithuania are suppressed. The situation is somewhat straightened and, on May 26, 1831, a battle will take place near the Polish Ostroleka. The forces of the parties: the Kingdom of Poland – 30 thousand people, 74 guns, Russia – 35 thousand, 148 guns. An important role in this conventional frontal battle is played by artillery; Russian gunners take a more advantageous position, shoot more accurately and more often. Irrevocable losses of the parties: Poles – 9 thousand, Russians – 5 thousand people. Polish troops retreat to Warsaw. The besieged capital raises excitement, the government is replaced. Everyone understands what will happen soon, and absolutely do not want to participate in it.

During the negotiations for the surrender of Warsaw and surrender, the 32,000-strong Polish army promptly leaves the city, withdraws beyond the Vistula and disarms there by the Austrians. On September 7, Russian troops enter Warsaw solemnly. The poet Alexander Pushkin writes patriotic poems, which, as a rule, are not presented to the Soviet and Russian readers in poetry collections:

Presenting a discord between the Poles’ striving for freedom and admiration for the executioner of the French Republic, Emperor Napoleon:

On February 26, 1832, the Organic Statute appeared. According to it, the Polish Kingdom is declared an organic part of Russia, the Polish army, the Sejm, the national monetary system are abolished. Many Poles with families settle in different countries of Europe, spreading there seeds of enmity towards Russia. Polish women introduce, in their environment, a new custom – they wear black ribbons in their hair – “a sign of mourning for the lost Motherland”.

Inside Russia, meanwhile, the world. Terrorism, as such, is not yet in sight. There is a strict regulation of everything, but the rules do not change on the move, and, having understood them, it is easy to conduct their business. The education system, industry, trade and banking system are strengthened. Corruption exists, mainly, only in the lowest levels of officialdom. The number of state, practically free peasants is increasing; they freely move around the country, buy, sell, conclude legally registered contracts. The state extends its protectorate to serfs, treating them primarily as citizens, sometimes arresting the estates of the landowners for inhuman treatment of their subordinates.

However, the firmness of this system gives rise to problems that arise in a military conflict. The very beginning of the Crimean War is an example of intransigence, inability to “unravel” the technical misunderstanding, which becomes casus belli first, the cause for war, and then a heavy defeat. So, in 1853, in order to exert pressure on Turkey in the matter of control over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Russia introduces troops to Wallachia and Moldavia. Nikolay the First absolutely does not wish to hear opinions of England and Austria in this occasion. Meanwhile, Britain, and without large-scale wars in the East, by means of cleverly drafted free trade agreements, etc., makes Turkey a dependent country, an important market for the sale of its industrial goods. The emperor is also not interested in the fact that Napoleon the Third, and the French people in general, is tired of the world, maybe wanting to take revenge for past defeats and to play with muscles. Moreover, Nicholas provokes the French monarch, pointing out in his congratulatory telegram: “Monsieur mon ami” (“dear friend”) instead of the permissible “Monsieur mon frère” (“dear brother”) protocol. In fact, the dynasty of Bonaparte is excluded from the succession by the Congress of Vienna, everything is correct, but, in this case, one could accept the state of things as it is. All these accumulated little things lead to the fact that on October 16, 1853 Turkey, and after a while two more world empires – France and England, also joined them Sardinia, the largest Italian kingdom, declare war on Russia. Knowing the outcome of the conflict in advance, one could suggest to the emperor: human rights in Wallachia, Moldova and Montenegro (where recently, in the suppression of the national uprising, Ottoman troops display unacceptable brutality) – that’s what you need to declare casus belli, and in colors to advocate the need for armed intervention throughout Europe. Then, give orders to enter the Russian expeditionary corps in the Danube princedoms, etc. But, there is no such adviser in the environment of the Russian emperor: only court flatterers have remained. Nikolai forgets that somewhere there are people who have their own opinion, and they also have loud guns.

From the war can not escape, but, at least, it needs an important reason not to lose face. In this military conflict, neither side looks like a fighter for the truth, neither for freedom, nor for faith.

November 30, 1853, the Sinop naval battle takes place. Near the town of Sinop (roughly the middle of the Black Sea coast of Turkey), the Port prepares forces for landing in Sukhumi and Poti. The detachment of ships P. Nakhimov blocks the bay, waits for the arrival of the main forces and makes an attack, trying to enter between coastal batteries and the Turkish fleet. The rest can be called “carnage” – without special military tricks, mixing ships and swapping volleys. Both sides have a novelty of military thought, bomb weapons – a cross between a large-caliber mortar and a mortar. Russian gunners for the first time in history, and quite successfully use a particularly large caliber, allowing the canopy to shoot 25 kg of explosive (with a high content of gunpowder) projectiles. The Turkish fleet and coastal batteries lose 3,000 people killed and wounded, and 200 sailors, including commander of the fleet Osman Pasha, are taken prisoner. Lit up, 7 frigates are thrown ashore, 3 corvettes, a steamer and a lot of small boats, down to fishing boats, 3 transport damage, 2 coastal batteries are destroyed. The Russian fleet loses about 150 people dead, 3 linear ships receive damage. In the battle, Russian steam-and-fregas (using propellers, speed at this point 15 km h) also participate, but they come to the end of the battle; Sinope battle becomes the swan song of sailing ships of the line.

In Europe, however, this victory is perceived very gloomily, indicating that, according to the rules of warfare, one can not attack ships at anchor in the port, especially the lower class and smaller displacement. But, most importantly, England and France pledged to observe armed neutrality only so long as the Russian Empire defends itself. When it moves to active military operations, on foreign territory, these two colossal colonial powers declare war on Russia. That’s it, March 27, 1854 is happening.

So, on April 22, 1854, the Anglo-French squadron evacuates consuls and foreign citizens from Odessa. One of the allied frigates, without the flag of the parliament, begins maneuvers in the immediate vicinity of the shore. He is fired from the port’s mole (according to one version, warning shots). Using this pretext, nine ships are on a raid in the harbor, subject the city and port to a large-scale bombardment. Rowboats, armed with small-caliber guns, almost approaching the shore, also take part in the bombardment. As a result, 250 city residents are dying, the buildings of the port and adjacent territories of Odessa are being destroyed, all Russian and neutral commercial vessels are sinking. The fire of coastal batteries damages 4 frigates, losses on them are 3—4 seamen.

In June 1854, allied forces – 34 battleships, 55 frigates (most of them – steam) block the Russian fleet – 14 linear sailing ships, 6 frigates and 6 steam-ship frigates in the bay of Sevastopol. Simultaneously, a landing of 62,000 landing troops is carried out, on 350 ships, in Evpatoria. Halfway to Sevastopol, he is welcomed by the 35,000-strong Russian army. The commander-in-chief, A. Menshikov, the great-grandson of Peter the Great’s companion, expresses the phrase becoming the common name – “We throw the hats off” and invites the inhabitants, as to the performance, to contemplate the forthcoming battle.

The French and the British advance separately, seeking to embrace the positions of Russian troops from the flanks. The first one is luckier – Menshikov’s regiments located near the sea fall under the crushing fire of ship artillery, and, having lost their losses, depart. British parts are mixed during the movement, however, hiding in the folds of the terrain, practically do not bear damage from the canister. Most Russian officers in the old manner are building their subordinates in, representing an excellent target, a dense square. Soldiers, now obeying the voice of their reason, are scattered from the columns, in some cases the pitying allies give them a close fight. The battle is now a series of random bayonet fights. Demoralized by the ongoing chaos, and, most of all, accurate shooting from long-range rifled rifles – the so-called. the Russian troops retreat. The Allies, believing that they fought not with the whole army, but only with its vanguard, stop, missing an excellent opportunity to seize Sevastopol from the course. Losses of the parties: allies (excluding Turkish troops) – 3,300 people, the Russian army – 5,700 people.

Admiral Nakhimov wants to go to sea, fight and die with honor. The commander-in-chief declines this proposal and orders the Russian fleet (the oldest ships) to be flooded along the fairway of the bay.

The base of the British expeditionary force is located 15 kilometers south-east of Sevastopol, Balaklava. October 25, 1854, a 16-thousand Russian detachment of Cossacks and the hussar, having fled Turks, attacks a number of structures that scouts erroneously mistaken for a fleet of artillery pieces. However, this is the camp of English dragoons and Scottish infantrymen. The dragoons retreat. To counter the broad front for the Cossacks’ attacks, the Scotsmen dressed in red uniforms line up with two rows instead of four, thus forming a “thin red line” bristling with steel. Quoted phrase, after the appearance on the pages of the newspaper “Times” becomes a widespread speech turnover, meaning defense by all means and the latest forces.

The troops occupy the starting positions, but then a new memorable event follows. The commander of the British forces, General Reglan (later named in his honor jacket), from the hill notices how the Russian cavalry evacuate the nine Turkish guns fired on the redoubts, orders them to intercept them. The order arrives in the elite elite Guards squadron located on the plain. From the words of the messenger and a short note, the commander can not in any way understand which guns he is talking about, and decides that he should attack a battery of heavy guns located at the very end of the valley, which is covered up practically by the whole Russian army. Six hundred people rush along the plain, under the frontal and flanking (roughly speaking – lateral) fire, get to the guns and retreat, losing half the composition during the battle, killed, wounded and captured, and almost all horses.

Attack becomes “legendary”, is reflected in Anglo-Saxon literature and cinema. It is unlikely that she, however, would receive so much attention if the offspring of the most aristocratic families of England were not serving in her, and British officers, accustomed to think, as a rule, with their heads, did not show this time helplessness. By the way, in the British army, at this time, the custom of selling military ranks for money is common. Such an order can embarrass, but only at first glance. Presumably, people who have issued a large amount for the rank, hold on to it, take the initiative, constantly improve their competence. The same officers who get to senior positions already in old age, perhaps in peacetime, through complex intrigues or the usual linear advance, already do not want anything, except as a secured quiet old age.

In mid-May 1854, 67 Allied ships appeared on the roadstead in front of Krondstadt, luring mainly the sailing fleet of Russian (26 linear, 7 frigates, 7 steam-fouling) for the battle. Not having waited for this, and having convinced that in many places sea mines are exposed (only 600 pieces), squadrons leave. Later, in the spring of 1855, two British frigates would explode on the pyrotechnical explosive devices of E. Nobel. Ships will get rid of small damages – the charge of black powder is only 4, 5 kilograms, however, the psychological effect of using new weapons exceeds all expectations.

In July 1854, two British steamshopfregat, shelled out of 120 guns Solovetsky monastery – the proposed base for an attack on Arkhangelsk. They are answered by 10 old, caught in a monastery on storage, guns (invalid team of Gunners, 50 people). Attempt to land the naval landing is broken.

…August 29, 1854 in Petropavlovsk (now – “Kamchatkii”) Anglo-French fleet landed 926 paratroopers. About 400 of them die or are taken prisoner, the losses of the Russian garrison are 40 people. In anticipation of a second visit, the whole city is dismantled by a log, civilians, ships, garrison, evacuated. Therefore, on May 20, reinforced to fourteen pennants squadron finds on the site of the administrative center of Kamchatka, only a deserted place, not at all suitable for long-term basing. The allied fleet is sent to pursue four transports with residents of Petropavlovsk and the military, as well as two linear warships, and locks them in the De-Kastri (now Chikhachev) bay from the south. At night, the convoy is anchored and leaves to the north, at the mouth of the Amur River. There, on the site of the border post, Nikolayevsky settlers founded a new Russian city – Petropavlovsk-on-Amur. The Allied fleet, whose captains do not know that Sakhalin is an island, still awaits the appearance of ships “from the Gulf” for a long time.

Then follow – November 5 – Inkerman battle, a futile assault on the heights near Sevastopol, 3,300 killed against 880 British and French soldiers. A small respite – on November 14, as a result of a severe storm, 53 ships of the Allies sink (including steam), 25 of them transports. On February 17, 1855, an attempt was made to unblock the captured Evpatoria. The besieged fight off the assault with artillery fire, inflicting damage on the Russian army of 750 people, losing their 300; Ottomans regain their former reputation, their fighting spirit is growing stronger. May 24, the Anglo-French fleet occupies Kerch, burns all ships and even fishing boats in the bay. August 16 – a battle against the Chernaya River, a senseless attack by Russian troops on little significant heights, 1,760 people killed and wounded by the Allies, 8,300 – soldiers and officers of the Russian army. Simultaneously, the Black Sea is traversed by the enemy’s steamfregas, sometimes firing the shore or engaging in skirmishes with each other.

In the Sea of Azov, the Anglo-French fleet bombards or burns, landing troops, coastal towns and villages, including Taganrog and Mariupol.

Sevastopol and its strategically important heights are subjected to massive artillery shelling. Further, on September 8, the French troops take Malakhov Kurgan. Russian units leave the southern, urban part of Sevastopol and pass to the fortified bay. Allies are sent to Nikolaev, the second strategically important base of the Russian fleet. At the mouth of the Dnieper, they are firing from the armored platforms of the coastal fortress of Kinburn, seizing it, leaving the garrison and descending for the wintering to Sevastopol.

All parties to the conflict are exhausted, criticized by civil society, and are fully prepared to negotiate peace. On March 18, 1856, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. Russia agrees on the freedom of navigation on the Danube, renounces the protectorate over Serbia, the Moldavian principality and Wallachia. Returns the Turkish city of Kars along with the surrounding territories, in exchange for “all other places occupied in the Crimea by the Allied forces.” The Black Sea is declared neutral; and Porte, and Russia, and any other state in peacetime is forbidden to have a navy here. The fortifications of Sevastopol are being destroyed.

Well, and, yes; The key to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem remains with the representative of France. Nicholas could have guessed himself that the moral right to patronize Christians from a man who rules the country where Christians are sold – even with the land, at least without, can not be.

Russia suffers a minimal loss of territory, but the Triple Alliance of Emperors-winners remains in the past, the primacy in Europe from Petersburg moves to Paris.

Losses of the parties: Russia – 140 thousand people, France – 97 thousand, the Ottoman Empire – 45 thousand, Great Britain – 22 thousand, Sardinia (a large island off the coast of Italy, the strongest then Italian state) – 2 thousand people. All losses of the allies – 166 thousand people.

The failure of Russia ruinously affects the health of the emperor. Raise his tone can send a message about the capture of Evpatoria, the initiator of the assault is the very Nikolay the First. But, on the evening of February 29, the courier brings news of the siege and heavy losses of the Russian army. The Emperor, as if intentionally accepting a review of marching battalions in a light uniform, already infected with the flu; the disease gives complications and, on March 2, 1855, the monarch dies.

On the same day, the throne is occupied by the son of Nicholas I, 37-year-old Alexander II. He is married to the 30-year-old princess of the Hessian house Maximilian Augustus Sophia, perhaps the receptionist, the daughter of the “Great” (this word prefix means the middle between the king and the duke) of Duke Ludwig II (Germany).

The fate of the Russian peasants to the new tsar, as follows from his speeches before the nobility, is not particularly interesting, however, the monarch points out that the need for the abolition of serfdom is overdue, and “it is much better that it happens from above than from below.” The emperor is offered such a solution: two-thirds of the landlord possessions are pledged, under the security of the loans taken from the state, it is necessary to pay only a small difference in order to redeem them, transfer the peasants attached to the estates into state ones, and then completely free them.

But such a brilliant plan of the manager of the state property of the official V. Kiselev, the tsar and the nobility is rejected. Too it would be for ordinary people nice, magical and clear. Get the freedom in a jiffy, yes even the estates of your former serf-owners in addition? Why, it is possible to avoid the revolution in the future, and to eliminate the nobility (physical)! The answer is no!

A very difficult to understand Manifesto of 17 acts “On the Most Gracious Granting to Free Serfs of the Rights of the Condition of Free Rural People” is published in Moscow on March 5, 1861. The main provisions: peasants are released, they are transferred to their movable property, as well as personal houses and buildings. From this moment the master does not have the right to sell people, to resettle them, to force them to make marriages, at his own discretion. The landlord allocates a certain field allotment to the rural society (namely, to the “world”, a certain likeness of the Soviet collective farm). The community council distributes the land among the peasant participants at its own discretion. Further, attentively: a person has no right to refuse a given site within 9 years, even if he could immediately redeem it completely. While the legalized act of sale has not occurred, the plowman must work out the corvee or pay the rent, that is, be in a so-called temporary-obligated condition. What kind of punishment is envisaged in case of disagreement and then carry out the processing of this duty, the Manifesto does not disclose, as well as other details; obviously, accrual of arrears to the rural world, to an individual, a debt prison, and so on. In reality, a house, movable property, but not a means of production-land itself and draft animals-can be selected for arrears.

The peasant has the right immediately (or more precisely, in two years) to give up the right to purchase land; then he gets a quarter of the established minimum of the allotment and becomes free, albeit without any means of subsistence.

If, after 9 years, the head of the family refuses his land (usually 5 acres for the male soul, including children), he is released from any obligations to the landowner and the state.

When (not less than 9 years later) the peasant feels that he is ready to bear an increased financial burden, and wants to leave the site at his place, he applies to a state institution that pays out the money ransom to the landowner. The initial payment is 20% directly to the land owner. Since then, on the one hand, a person tears up all legal relations with the landowner, in effect, redeems himself and the family from slavery; on the other hand, he gets into debt bondage, paying the entire amount to the state for 49 years, from 6% per annum.

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1. Ten rubles in 1854, i.е. the Crimean War. An adult healthy person is then, according to high metropolitan rates, 150—200 r.

2. Three rubles, in circulation 1898. In 1872, a cow costs 30 rubles, with an average salary of a skilled worker of 28 rubles a month. Inflation is low, because such prices go right up to 1914.

3. Fifty rubles, the issue of 1899, the “pay” of a lower-ranking official.

4. Alexander II Nikolaevich (Liberator), the Emperor of All Russia. Birth – 1818, Moscow, Bishop’s House (now destroyed) Chudova Monastery, Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna. In his youth – military service, long trips around Russia. The main milestones of the life journey: the refusal to expand into Alaska and the overseas territories, the necessary or not necessary joining (already, in general, thoroughly occupied) of Central Asia, the war in the Balkans, the unwieldy, cumbersome and predatory liberation of peasants from serfdom. He is married twice – the second time to Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova (a morganatic marriage), only six children.

Killed March 13, 1881, the explosive device activist “Narodnaya Volya” (sixth attempt).

5. Alexander the Third, Peacemaker (1845 – 1894). Believed that his father’s murder was the result of liberal reforms, and not their insufficiency. For some time he managed to “tighten the nuts” of safety valves, limit self-government and freedom of speech – but already ten years after his departure, the steam boiler of the state gives a catastrophic crack.

6. The symbol of time and new trends is Carl Heinrich Marx (1818—1883). The birth is in Trier, Prussia, the family of the lawyer Henry Marx, from the clan of rabbis, baptized into Lutheranism, so as not to lose the rank of judicial adviser. 1837 – marriage to Jenny von Westfallen, from an aristocratic German clan, born in 1814. Work as a journalist, conflict with the authorities, moving to Paris, joining revolutionary and simply radical circles, in one wonderful cafe acquaintance with a friend-for-all-life Friedrich Engels. In the end, moving to London, casual earnings, living on the verge of starvation, financial support from Friedrich, work on fateful “Capital.” The organization of the First International, or the “International Working Men’s Association.” After the death of his wife, with whom Marx lived for 40 years, he made seven children, of whom four, alas, died at an early age, the chief communist lives for two years and dies as a stateless person, on March 14, 1883, in London.

The content of “Capital” is a description of the activities of the monopolies, capitalist industries, etc., with an emphasis on the fact that all this is wrong. However, how to do everything well, Marx, and also Engels, do not indicate. In addition, in letters to each other, or scientific works, friends make entertaining observations of the lives of certain peoples. Characteristic lines are: “… The Poles have never done anything in history other than daring pugnacious stupidities. And there can not be a single point where Poland, even if compared to Russia, would successfully represent progress or accomplish something of historical significance. On the contrary, Russia does play a progressive role in relation to the East. Despite all its meanness and Slavic mud, Russia’s dominance plays a civilizing role for the Black and Caspian seas and Central Asia, for the Bashkirs and Tatars: and Russia has perceived far more elements of enlightenment and especially elements of industrial development than, by the very nature of its gentry-sleepy, Poland. The advantage of Russia is the fact that the Russian nobility, starting with the emperor and Prince Demidov and ending with the most recent boyar of the fourteenth grade, who only has that his “noble” background, is engaged in industrial production, flaunts, puffs up, takes bribes and improves all kinds of Christian and Jewish affairs. The Poles never knew how to assimilate foreign elements. The Germans in the cities remained and remain Germans. Meanwhile, every Russian German in the second generation is a living example of how Russia knows how to Russify Germans and Jews. Even Jews grow there “Slavic cheekbones…”.

On the other hand, Marx and Engels agree that the Russian people, most likely creating territorial, rather than blood-related communities, are not historical; and therefore, sooner or later, he will have to leave many lands acquired. “Capital” is a dual thing, it is well suited to people who deny the clarity of definitions, responding to all the reproaches “You just misunderstood me.”

…Landowners from control over the redemption of land are exempted, this is the responsibility of the state bank. The former (and, to a large extent, real) slave owners, year after year, receive a solid rent from the treasury.

The first two years after the publication of the Manifesto, the world and the landlords draw up Charter Charters; they determine how many, to whom, who should, the amount of land available, the children of the male, the conditions for the release of individuals, etc. During this time, peasants and household people (6.5% of the total number of serfs) actually remain slaves, perform orders of the landlord, also subject to corporal punishment. Further, the landless domestic servant is completely emancipated. Temporarily-obligated peasants who use landed estates before they “stand on ransom” are in practically the same feudal dependence, with all its degrading attributes.

It is extremely advantageous for landowners to lease land to peasants. Not only that, in the end, they will receive for the site three to four times more than its market value, property, or at least an extremely dependent person, almost like “in the good old days” is also not decided “to stand on ransom “peasant. Therefore, the nobles are trying to surround the plots of farmers with their own, alienated within the same peasants’ slices, separating the first from the village, reservoirs, pastures, roads, etc., forcing them to rent, and then to buy them as well.

In 1881, the share of peasants who had not yet risen to buy land, an average of 20%. To accelerate this process, the government issues a decree on compulsory transition to redemption within 2 years. Most farmers are exempt from bondage, in fact, it ceases to be dependent on the state bank only in 1906, when insurgents burn up to 17% of landlord estates, and Cossack detachments for suppressing these unrest are no longer sufficient.

In the same year, in particular, the publication of educational and scientific literature in the Ukrainian language (Emsky ukaz) is limited, and the center of development of this branch of national culture moves from Kiev to Austro-Hungarian Lviv.

…In 1865 a small Russian detachment captured Tashkent, the capital of the Kokand Khanate. Kokand (future Uzbekistan and part of Turkmenistan) becomes a protectorate of Russia. A year later the emir of Bukhara (the territory of present-day Uzbekistan) confiscates the property of Russian merchants, insults the representatives of the Russian diplomatic mission. In early May 1866, numbering 3,500 people, with 16 guns, the Russian detachment approaches Samarkand. He is confronted by the Bukhara army of 45 thousand. As a result of a decisive attack, the emir’s army flees, leaving the gunners with 21 guns. Residents of Samarkand army of the emir in the city is not allowed.

In the capital remains a garrison of 600 people, most of them wounded. Initially loyal to the presence of Russian troops, after the departure of the main forces, the 65,000 population displays aggression. The detachment takes refuge in the citadel, which is subjected to a series of fierce attacks. Remaining loyal to the Russians, a local resident notifies the army of a riot, she returns and suppresses unrest. In the end, the Emir manages to find a common language, he gives Russian merchants freedom of movement, protection, and himself, later, uses the services of the tsarist army to suppress insurgencies. In 1872, Bukhara was reorganized into the Zeravshan District and was losing its independence. Approximately the same fate awaits the remaining khanates and emirates. The meaning of this accession of a significant part of Russian society is incomprehensible. The arguments of the Russian monarchs are unreasonable: the wars in Asia de prevent the participation of Russia in European conflicts.

In 1863, unrest began in Poland. Poles defiled Orthodox churches, knocked down written in Russian, and any other language, signs, overwhelmed ethnic Russians with threats. The Russian government makes concessions, restores the self-governing bodies adopted in the Kingdom of Poland, conducts liberal reforms, but the Polish underground organizes all new terrorist acts against the tsarist officers and civilians. Their main goal is the restoration of the Commonwealth within the borders of 1772.

Another viceroy is being decided on, perhaps, not the smartest step – to conduct a recruitment kit that includes 12,000 potentially dangerous young people. In response, since January 22 separate rebel units have been attacking Russian troops. A flywheel of terror is developing. The so-called “daggers”, passing to the territory of Belarus, which is rather loyal to Russia (and has not become a real “Rzeczpospolita”), secretly or explicitly kill Orthodox peasants, as well as priests.

Russia concludes an agreement on mutual assistance with Prussia, for which Poland has long been a painful headache.

In the end, the insurgents lose 30 thousand people, the Russian troops – 3,500, while 2,000 civilians are killed as a result of terrorist attacks. Evacuated to Siberia 12 thousand people. The most active survivors of the insurrection are moving abroad, trying to propagate there in the spirit of the first wave of emigration, but they are almost not listened to there. In Poland, it is prohibited to use Polish in public places and business correspondence, wearing mourning (shocking ribbons in female hairstyles), all sorts of Polish differences.

By the mid-seventies of the nineteenth century, Europe’s public consciousness was already fully prepared for the severe condemnation of Turkey’s policy in the Balkans. A number of national uprisings (Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina) are suppressed by Oshmans-Bashi-Bazouks with unprecedented cruelty, causing the overwhelming majority of Europeans sympathy and anger. Porta no longer looks like a defenseless victim, and Russia – an instrument in the hands of the monarch, with the help of which he wants to acquire additional glory for himself. The new emperor behaves prudently, will coordinate important actions with the governments of other world powers.

In March 1871, taking advantage of changes in the international situation, with the support of the German Chancellor Bismarck. Russia restores the right to keep the Navy on the Black Sea.

In June 1876, Serbia, and then Montenegro, declare war on Turkey, suffer a series of devastating defeats, and appeal to European governments for mediation in the settlement of the conflict. The London protocol, signed by representatives of the six European powers, brilliantly rejects Porta, and thereby dismantles the provisions of the Paris Treaty, which protected it from the struggle with Russia one on one.

April 24, 1877 Russia declares war on Turkey.

In May, Russian troops enter the territory of Romania and, gathering allied forces, go to Constantinople. June 27, with the support of torpedo boats, they set up a pontoon crossing across the Danube, with a minimum (1,100 people) losses speeding up the river. The next goal is the fortified town of Pleven (Pleven) located at the crossroads of strategically important roads. The Turkish divisions (20,000 men, 57 guns) manage to occupy it somewhat earlier than the Russians. The first assault, despite initial successes, is unsuccessful. The second attack takes place ten days later, with the support of fire, 140 guns. The Turks lose 1,000 dead, the Russians 3500. The Romanian troops join the siege, receive reinforcements and Osman. The ratio of forces is now 83 thousand people, 424 guns against 34 thousand captured, with 72 cannons. The third assault, which took place on September 11, suffers a complete failure, the losses of Russian-Romanian troops after three attempts to capture the city reach 35,000 people killed and wounded.

Russian command passes to the tactics of the complete blockade of Plevna, with large losses captures a number of small fortresses, cuts communications. As a result, the 50,000-strong Turkish garrison is one on one with the 125 thousand Russian-Romanian army that surrounded it in the city walls. In the evening of December 10 exhausted by hunger and fever, Turkish troops are making an attempt to break through. The forward units pass 3 lines of trenches, capture 6 cannons, almost completely destroy the Siberian Regiment (1,700 people), but stop under the unbearable fire of hundreds of guns. Not retaining the attack of the reinforcements that have arrived, the Ottoman army is fleeing and capitulating. 43 thousand people fall into captivity.

Then 300 thousand Russian-Romanian army, almost without resistance, passes the Balkans, captures 30 thousand troops, disperses the remaining 150 thousand, captures the Turkish Adrianople. Seven days later, the fighting in this theater of operations is over.

In the Caucasus, the Turkish presence itself, as well as the active emissaries of the Porte, create unrest; rebel Dagestanis, Chechens and Abkhazians. Russian troops capture the cities of Kars, Arzurum, displacing the Turks from the Black Sea coast; after this, the excitement of the local tribes ceases.

The Tsar’s troops stop 100 kilometers from Constantinople. Demonstrating the undesirability of seizing the capital Ports of Russia, Britain and France send a combined fleet to the Straits. January 19, 1878, the San Stefan peace is signed, now celebrated in Bulgaria as Independence Day, but it proves to be only a preliminary agreement. Recently allied Romania, becomes in a position hostile to Russia, and in order to prevent possible excesses, Russian troops occupy Bucharest.

Further, Alexander II turns to the old secret treaties, gets mixed up in them, is nervous and, to a large extent, neutralizes the victories of Russian weapons. Perhaps the special gifts of Austria are due to the fact that the emperor himself is a representative of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, an ethnic German, like his wife. Union Bulgaria declines, in comparison with the territory indicated by the protocols of the San Stefan world three times. Its part – Macedonia, returns to Turkey without changes in status. Another province, Rumelia, becomes autonomous in the Porta. Not completely independent Bulgaria, continues to pay tribute to Turkey, although Ottoman troops and have no right to be on its territory (the next year the Bulgarians arbitrarily stop these payments).

After Turkey, Thrace and Albania remain.

Montenegro, Serbia and Romania receive independence.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is occupied by Austria.

As a result of the exchange of territories, Russia takes South Bessarabia from Romania.

Loss of 30 thousand people on each side killed in battle, not counting those who died from wounds and diseases.

In 1866, with the submission of the governor-general of Eastern Siberia, Count N. Muraviev-Amursky, whose portrait adorns the present five-thousandth note (the Motherland must know its “heroes”), the question of selling Alaska to the United States is being studied. In the end, on March 30, 1867, a territory of 1.5 million square kilometers, inhabited by 2,500 Russian and 60,000 Eskimos, is sold for $ 7,2 million (which is equal to the cost of a three-storey capital building). The money goes to the development of the network of railways (according to other sources, it comes to the personal property of the monarchical family).

In 1875, the St. Petersburg Treaty on the Territory Exchange was concluded with Japan (the Russian diplomat AM Gorchakov). The Land of the Rising Sun refuses territorial claims to Sakhalin, in exchange receives the entire chain of the Kuril Islands stretched out. Russia in fact is deprived of access to the Pacific Ocean. Japan has the opportunity at any time to begin the blockade of Sakhalin and the entire Far East (which it will use in 1905).

The government of Alexander II refuses to colonize Papua New Guinea, overseas territory goes to Austria and Australia.

The sparsely populated overseas colonies are an opportunity to create New Russia, in physical isolation from previous forms, to test effective methods of leadership and management, risky but necessary social projects. The Russian nobility rejected this possibility, and as a result left the stage.

The protest mood is growing in the country. Particularly active participants of underground organizations “Earth and Freedom”, “Narodnaya Volya” (“The will of the people”) and (the left wing of the latter) “Black redistribution”.

March 13, 1881 on the Ekaterininskaya Embankment of St. Petersburg, two explosions rumble – Alexander II, the bomber of the “Narodnaya Volya” Ignatiy Grinevitsky (an ethnic Pole), the Cossack of his Majesty’s Convoy and a 14-year-old boy from a nearby shopping mall.

The next day, the Russian throne is occupied by Alexander the Third, the second son of Alexander II from his first marriage. His elder brother, Nikolai, died suddenly of a spinal cord tuberculosis during his travels in Italy (21 years), and, in order to prepare for the succession of the throne, Alexander, in particular, studies an additional course of sciences, including. a series of lectures on Russian history S. Solovyov.

Alexander the Third is married to Maria Sophia Friederike Dagmar, the daughter of a prince, and then the King of Denmark Christian Ninth, in Orthodoxy she received the name of Maria Feodorovna (all foreign empresses are Fedorovna, in honor of the family icon). They have six children; the eldest is Nikolai, who later becomes the last (or, last but one) all-Russian emperor.

The first step of Alexander III as a monarch is the cancellation of the discussion of the “Constitution of Loris-Melikov”. This Constitution (Minister of Internal Affairs, Count, ethnic Armenian) is the shadow of the Zemsky Sobor of the seventeenth century, a meeting of all estates to solve an epochal question. It could become the basis for the development of the ideas of the Constitutional Monarchy, maybe even the Republic. The authority of Alexander II during the last years of the reign was clearly unsteady, it is not known whether this project would be accepted by the conservative nobility. We know definitely only that under Alexander the Third the autocracy gained a second wind, so that the majority began to feel that there was absolutely no need to make any significant changes.

The dynasty is an attempt to concentrate important moral qualities in a certain circle, to carry out a certain selective work. Is it possible? Apparently, yes, although such delicate questions of genetics try not to sound. In the case of Russia, there is a dissonance: the bearer of the gene material, the mentality – from the dwarf princedom gets on Wednesday, where people are accustomed to think on other scales. Consciousness of the monarch, born in such a marriage, gives a break.

It’s another matter if Russia continued, as in the 11th (golden) century, to remain internally divided into large, legally independent but united by the mentality and economy of the kingdom states, always united in the face of an external threat. In a kindred spiritual environment, genetically divided dynasties, one could select princes and princesses for the common throne. The body consists of separate cells performing their symphony of reactions, but, they are a whole organism. Variety – in unity, this could be the slogan of Great Russia. Let’s notice, at that time Russian princedoms are so influential that the marriage union with representatives of dynasties of Novgorod, Kiev, is considered honorable in the countries of all Central Europe.

…The next step is the decree “On the reduction of gymnasium education” (circular about cook children). It recommends that principals of educational institutions accept only representatives of higher, well-to-do classes; thus “… gymnasiums and progymnasiums will be freed from the arrival of children of coachmen, lackeys, cooks, laundresses, small shopkeepers and the like, whose children… should not at all strive for secondary and higher education.”

On March 1, 1887, the emperor experiences an attempt on his person. Among the five participants of the terrorist act – Lenin’s elder brother, Alexander Ulyanov, a student of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University. They are all hanged in the Shlisselburg Fortress.

With terrorism it is finished. The state renounces the practice of secret treaties, colonial wars and territorial acquisitions. The only clash in Asia during this period was the admonition of the Afghan emir, who wished a part of the Turkmen (Russian) lands. Railways, many large enterprises are nationalized and, guided by competent officials, begin to bring profit to the state. Thanks to economic growth and open policy, Russia is gaining a decisive voice in European affairs. A small omission – the fall of Bulgaria from an alliance with Russia, even its war with Serbia. It is interesting that the King of Serbia Milan the First, sending conscripts to the battlefield, stated that they are going to help Bulgaria against Turkey; but in the end they still had to shoot at the Bulgarians. Russia does not interfere in this anemic conflict – but acquires the friendship of the influential Porte.

Alexander the Third prevents the military conflict between France and Germany – declaring a “customs war” against aggressive Germans. In the end, the “iron chancellor” Bismarck concedes, the relations between Russia and France are rising to unprecedented heights.

In 1888, injuries sustained in the wreckage of the Tsar’s train, provoke Alexander’s development of kidney disease. And, on November 1, 1894, the king, sitting in an armchair, dies.

An hour and a half later, in Livadia Palace (Crimea), his son Nikolai the Second takes the oath of allegiance to the throne.

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1. Nikolai Second Alexandrovich, the Emperor of All Russia, the King of Poland and the Grand Prince of Finland with his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Birth: 1868, Tsarskoe Selo (Petersburg), the eldest son of Emperor Alexander the Third and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Home schooling is thirteen years old. At the same time, eminent scientists who lecture do not have the right to ask questions to the student, and, therefore, to obtain comprehensible answers in order to verify the mastery of the material. Next – the service of a junior officer in the ranks of the Preobrazhensky regiment, a trip around the world on the cruiser “Memory of Azov”, receiving two blows with cold weapons during a visit to Japan. The main credo of Nicholas II – Regis voluntas suprema lex esto (radis voluntas suprema lex esto) – “The desire of the king becomes law.” In combination with the conditions prevailing at that time, and the character of the “unrequited” monarch, by July 17, 1918, this principle leads him to the basement of engineer Ipatiev’s house (Ekaterinburg, in Soviet times – Sverdlovsk), under the bullets of the Chekists.

2. Alexey Romanov, Heir Tsesarevich and the Grand Duke. Birth – 1904, Peterhof, son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Since childhood, he has hemophilia: even a minor trauma, instead of the usual bruise, causes profuse internal bleeding, forming hematoma, the size of an apple. Often the joints of the hands and feet swell; in this case the heir is carried by the servant on his hands. Danger of nasal bleeding, while external cuts can be closed.

The people (and the whole world) do not know about the illness of the Tsarevich, they do not sympathize with the royal family; all this secrecy goes to the Imperial House in a minus.

The emperor and his family were canonized (ranked saints) in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (RZPTs), in 2000 they were glorified as martyrs by the decision of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

3. Rasputin Grigory Efimovich, 1869 – 1916, a peasant, a friend of the Russian emperor’s family, a native of the village of Pokrovskoe of the Tobolsk province (now the Tyumen region). It is believed that he entered with women from the so-called “high society” into an intimate relationship, but there is no evidence to that. Actually, Gregory – the only man with whom you can talk – just talk about things, for the ladies of this circle considered the strictest taboo.

…The new emperor marries Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse (German Empire) Ludwig the Fourth and the Duchess of Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria of England. The name of the princess is composed of her own (Alice), the names of mothers and sisters. Suffering from remorse, now Alexandra Feodorovna, replaces the Lutheran faith in the Orthodox faith, but then, as it seems, is fully mastered. The wedding and the honeymoon take place less than a month after Alexander III’s death, on November 26, in an atmosphere of mourning and requiem. Subsequently, the spouses are born children – four daughters and who received a gene for hemophilia from Queen Victoria, son Alex.

Relations Alexandra (simply – Alix) with the Russian imperial court, in general, the surrounding people do not add up; The empress considers herself infallible, and intolerant of someone else’s opinion. A born Dane, popular in the world, the influential widow of Alexander III, dislikes the Germans (who at one time brought a lot of suffering to their historical homeland), this feeling also extends to the “daughter-in-law” who came after the coffin. At one time he did not approve of the German Emperor’s enthusiasm for the father, but Nikolai insisted on choosing, having threatened to renounce the throne, to accept a monastic order.

Nevertheless, becoming a monarch and not a monk, the young emperor in a speech before the deputies of his loyal subjects, points to “inadmissibility of meaningless dreams about the fate of zemstvo representatives in matters of internal management.” The speech of the “anointed” is greeted with applause, but it is this speech that becomes the starting point for the growth of discontent.

The coronation takes place on May 26, 1896, in Moscow. After 4 days, on May 30, the Khodynka field is organized, including the distribution of gifts, solemn events. Gingerbread, pound bread, sweets, 200 g of sausage, nuts, raisins, prunes and porcelain goblet are wrapped in a cotton scarf. At five o’clock in the morning on a field in a square kilometer are going to 500 thousand (according to other sources, up to a million) people. A rumor spreads through the crowd that the barmaids give out gifts “only to their own”. The people rush to the wooden buildings, 1,800 policemen can not contain them. The direction of the flow of people – along the ravine and the pits, left from the dismantled pavilions. People fall into depressions, new human waves are rolling through them. The number of deaths, according to official figures – 1,383 people, according to unofficial – 4,000, in addition, about 1,500 injured and injured.

By noon, the place of the catastrophe has been cleared of traces of drama that has taken place. At two o’clock on the field comes Nicholas II, he is met by new crowds and sounds of the orchestra. In the evening, festivities continue in the Kremlin Palace, then crowned wives are dancing at the ball of the French ambassador. For reasons of the king, although the Khodynka disaster is the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the bright coronation holiday. The entry in the diary of Nicholas II; “I learned about this at 10 1/2 o’clock before the report of Vannovsky; A disgusting impression left of this news. … Skirting tables, went to the Kremlin. … Let’s go to the ball to Montebello. It was very beautifully arranged, but the heat was unbearable.”

The imperial family sacrificed 90,000 rubles to the victims (100 million were spent for the coronation all over the country) and 1,000 left after all the banquets and bottles of Madeira.

The principle of building relations between the royal family and the people is quite clearly represented from the correspondence of Alexandra Feodorovna with her grandmother, the British Queen Victoria:

Victoria: “I’ve been ruling for more than 50 years, and yet, every day I have to think about what I need to do to keep the love of my subjects and make it stronger… Your main duty is to win their love and respect.”

Alexander-Alisa: “You are mistaken, dear grandmother. Russia is not England. Here we do not have to do anything to deserve the people’s love. The Russian people revere their king as a divine creature.”

In March 1905, the long-standing dream of Nicholas II again comes to life: to go to monkhood, of course, with a good view of becoming a Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. This idea breaks out at a meeting with the metropolitans of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and also the deputy chief procurator of the Holy Synod, V. Sabler, at the very moment when the priests are promoting their own, also long-thought-out idea of the restoration of the patriarchate. The king suddenly proposes his candidacy: implying that at the same time there will be a renunciation of the throne in favor of Tsarevich Alexei. The Synods respond with silence.

The economy of the country is developing very well. Russia ranks first in the production and export of grain, butter, per capita GDP is 3, 3 times less than that of world leaders – Britain and the US, and this gap is constantly decreasing. The duration of the working day of “ordinary people” since 1903 is limited to “only” 11.5 hours, on Saturday – 10 hours. The average salary is 26 rubles, with a living wage of 21 rubles for an idle man; if transferred to gold, 27 modern (early 2016) thousand rubles. A kilogram of lamb or beef in 1915 costs 25 kopecks. A glass of vodka in the tavern 10 cents, a bottle of vodka “Moscow Special” – 17.5 kopecks, a loaf of bread 5 cents. Perhaps this is acceptable, but about 40% of the worker’s salary goes to arbitrarily assigned fines.

Budgetaries – officials, doctors, as well as engineers at state-owned plants, receive a state pension. Only to the most military in 1914, this cash grant, on the length of service or a serious illness acquired and ordinary workers. To get a “full salary” should work, in total, 35 years, half – from 25. Condition – labor activity throughout its entire length should be “immaculate”. If the employee is “removed from office” by a court decision, a simple order from his superiors, or has served a sentence for a crime, the pension is simply reset. It can be earned again by settling on some other enterprise, but in this case the count of the service starts from the same scratch.

Russia produces a lot of grain, but its eaters also have a lot – 125 million. The government encourages the export of grain abroad, in the course put forward by Minister Vyshnegradsky the slogan “We will not eat, but we will take it out.” The peasants still have less land, the yield grows 1.25 times (three times less than in England). In 1891, the food crisis occurred in the Chernozem and Volga regions; a crop failure, in the absence of peasants significant stocks of bread (an average per capita rate of 190 kilograms of grain a year). At first the government does not believe in “panic-stricken zemstvos”, then, it must be admitted, it is taking urgent measures to save people. As a result, about 300 thousand people die, not actually from alimentary dystrophy (hunger), but satellites of malnutrition – various diseases (mainly cholera and typhus).

In the reign of Nicholas II such a famine will not happen again, however, questions of grain exports, stripes, periodic malnutrition, are put, and the government has no answer to them.

In December 1904, Russian troops hand over the Japanese to Port Arthur. This news shakes Russian society, but his emperor at that moment is merry, laughs, listens to anecdotes, recalls scenes of past hunts.

Patriotic mood in the country is replaced by despondency, the popularity of the emperor is reduced to a critical level.

Meanwhile, the acquaintance of the imperial family with Grigory Rasputin will take place. Prior to that, the “holy old man” travels extensively through the sacred places of Russia, visits Mount Athos and Jerusalem. Further, he comes to Moscow, where he is received by Orthodox bishops, they spread a rumor about the extraordinary abilities of “God’s man.” News reaches the ears of the empress.

So, on November 1, 1905, on a tea party, the first meeting of the emperor and two high-society ladies with Grigory Rasputin takes place.

Further meetings, already with the whole imperial family, take place about once a month. It’s not that the king loved a pilgrim, but he’s the only one who can stop the hysteria of his Alix. Grigory publishes naive, but, for his time, perhaps, readable works – “The Life of an Experienced Wanderer,” “My Thoughts and Reflections.” Many are convinced; in the words of a wanderer, there is something like that. Among the prophecies, the main thing is a will: “… I feel that I must die before the New Year. But I want, nevertheless, to open the Russian people, the Father, Mother Russian and the Children, what they will. If I am killed by simple robbers, by my brothers – Russian peasants, then you, the Tsar of Russia, do not be afraid, stay on the throne and reign, and do not be afraid for your children, for they will reign for another hundred years and beyond that. If the nobles kill me, then my blood will remain in their hands, and 25 years (before 1941 – the author) they can not wash it off. They will have to leave Russia. Then the brothers will kill the brothers, and they will kill each other. And 25 years there will be no nobles in the state. … If your relatives lead to my death, then none of your family – neither children nor relatives will survive two years later. They will all be killed by the Russian people…”.

There are also prophecies about the death of plants, that “a lot of spirits will return to earth and take the forms that they already had in the past.” Interesting is the prophecy, reminiscent of genetic experiments: “Irresponsible human alchemy, in the end, will turn ants into huge monsters that will destroy houses and entire countries, fire and water will be against them. In the end, you will see flying frogs, and butterflies will become vultures, and bees will crawl along the earth like snakes. And snakes will take possession of many cities… Mice and snakes will rule over the earth. Mice will hunt mice; and lost and stunned people will have to leave whole cities and villages under the onslaught of hordes of huge mice that will destroy everything and infect the earth.

…Plants, animals and people were created to be divided. But there will come a day when there will be no more borders. And then the person will become a half-human, half-plant. And the beast will become a beast, a plant and a man. In these boundless fields a monster, called a Cobaca…”.

In 1912, the Second Balkan War began. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro enter into taste, squeeze Porto, strive to pinch a piece from each other. The forces of the parties – Turkey 475 thousand people, the Balkan Union – 620 thousand. The battles are fierce, for the first time combat airplanes are deployed, only 8 years after the flight of the Wright brothers’ fragile shelves; they drop bombs on warships. The Balkans besiege the primordially Turkish cities, get to Istanbul, bring confusion to the souls of the Ottomans, and create a political crisis in the Porte. Losses of the parties killed are approximately equal: for 30 thousand people. Turkey loses its possessions in Europe. True, Serbia never gets access to the sea: it is now hampered by the Albania formed from the “nobody’s” territory, as well as Austria-Hungary, which has sharply opposed this newly-formed country.

All this time Russia collects donations, provides the Balkan Union of volunteer pilots, makes diplomatic efforts, etc., but, by and large, does not interfere in the conflict. The reason for this is the influence on the decisions of Tsar Grigory Rasputin. It was his admonitions that put off the outbreak of World War II for two years.

July 12, 1914 in the village of Pokrovskoe, the insane Khionia Guseva, strikes Rasputin with a knife in the stomach. Three years later this woman will be released from the hospital, in 1919 she will commit an attempt already on the patriarch Tikhon; after which its traces in History are completely lost.

Sooner or later, the First World War begins. July 31, Russia is launching a general mobilization. Germany announces to the Empire an ultimatum: “Stop the deployment of forces,” and, not having achieved the desired, on August 1, 1914, declares war.

Rasputin is in the Tyumen hospital until August 17 and, this time, the king is no longer able to reason with the king. Its basic provisions sound unacceptable, insanely, for the greater part of society in this century: the rejection of foreign Poland and the Baltic countries, withdrawal from the Russian-British alliance, a separate peace with Germany, then still imputable. Somewhat later, on December 30, 1916, he died in the palace of Yusupov, from the bullets of Russian nobles and (a control shot in the head) by British agent Oswald Rainer, incidentally, the friend of the executioner prince in Oxford. England wants Russia to wage this war.

Alternative version – a bullet in the forehead of Rasputin sent Dmitry Pavlovich (Romanov), a cousin of Nicholas II.

The Empress Alexandra orders her arrest of the killers (except for the Englishman from MI6). But, all of them are inviolable as “higher” noblemen, and, after the intervention of Nicholas II, “not to provoke society” are released. They will not suffer any punishment afterwards.

…In 1906 agrarian unrest reached a menacing extent. Forests of the landowners consider themselves theirs and require a certain payment for using them. Peasants believe that this is legalized robbery, such as charging money for air, and produce unauthorized felling. They also “dismantle” estates, breaking up barns and dismantling supplies, inventory, and taking away cattle. The homesteads themselves are rarely burned – in most peasants still respect personal property.

The government cancels redemption payments, but this is too little. Then the Minister of the Interior PA Stolypin, ignoring the sluggish sessions of the Duma, in October of the same year, introduced a law on the sale of state lands to peasants. The farmer finally gets a release from the “tsarist collective farm” – restricting freedom and the private initiative of “peace.” He has the right to demand this. The community’s land is being developed, instead of a few strips located in remote locations, the peasant (not even his family as a willful “peace”) receives a compact “cut”. Here you can put the household. Thus, the village crumbles into the farmsteads that have been adopted in Europe.

The idea is gaining popularity, but, to implement it, it needs new clarifications, a staff of professional surveyors, lawyers, and banking services.

Hundreds of thousands of peasant families move to the Far East. 500 thousand farms are based in Kazakhstan. In the summer of 1916, the government of Nicholas II made an attempt to mobilize part of the Kazakhs and Turkmens for rear work in the frontline areas; it will cause an uprising of the autochthonous population, attacks on the colonists. In the end, 600,000 locals migrate to China; call succeeds 100 thousand.

In 1911 the agrarian reform was deprived of the chief conductor – Count Stolypin; although it does not slip noticeably, but loses its scope, capable, perhaps, of leading to the triumph of law and private property.

July 1914 marked the introduction of “dry law”. Consumption of ethanol per capita is reduced tenfold, from 4.7 to 0.4 liters per year. Now, according to the Ministry of Health, 10 liters are drunk in Russia, taking into account the latent production and consumption – 15 liters, recommended by the World Health Organization (maximum) dose – 8 liters. Strong drinks are sold only in expensive restaurants. In 1917, already the Soviet government, prolongs the operation of this law. August 1923 – “dry law” is canceled, NEP comes. The civil war is over, the country is recoiling from the gap that has opened up in front of it.

Much later, on May 17, 1985, a decree “On strengthening the struggle against drunkenness” will be issued. And, again, the greatest state, overwhelmed by surpluses not calmed down by the oldest antidepressant of energy, self-destructs.

…In September 1915, Nicholas II assumes the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This decision is unconditionally supported by his wife, in all likelihood, approved by the German General Staff, but not by Russian ministers and generals. Germany by that time occupies a large part of Poland and the Baltic states – nominally the possessions of Russia. All the military failures of the Empire anyway, now directly undermine the authority of the king. Instead of establishing contact with elements of civil society, for example, active military-industrial committees, according to the ancient Russian custom, the suspicious Nikolai tries to ban everything. Of course, this does not suit him, and the people, for the good.

Still not so bad, the ambitious monarch overcomes dreams of the Straits and Constantinople, the shores of the Sea of Marmara and southern Thrace, the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. This is the alleged prize for the participation of the Russian Empire in the war. However, with all the clarity on this occasion, representatives of Britain and France at the Petrograd Conference of 1915, do not speak.

Soldiers do not understand what they are fighting for. Yes, Germany started the war, in response to the usually pre-emptive attack, the beginning of mobilization. But, all this could be prevented by diplomatic methods at the very beginning of the conflict. At least it was necessary – not to start active actions, to sit in dugouts, to drink “tsarist” 100 grams (suppose the emperor issued a popular manifesto on abolishing the “dry” law for the front). The Germans of the beginning of the century are quite normal people, why should they be killed? On paper, “hit the enemy” looks pretty beautiful, practice means kicking a bayonet into the stomach and a confused, horrible and painful look such as you are of a person. Even if the Germans occupied part of Poland and Lithuania – these are territorial entities and people alien to Russia, the Russian peasant, the soldier, personally, mentally, they are not needed.

At the end of 1916, irregularities with bread began. In the conditions of military hyperinflation, peasants massively hold grain, expecting further price increases (or maybe, somehow trying to bring their protest against the war to the tsar). All this leads to the fact that the government is beginning a transition to a surplus-purchase at firm prices. There are clashes with the police. The outreach practically fails. Instead of 772 million poods, only 170 poods can be collected. The rations for soldiers in the frontline zone (3 pounds of bread a day) are halved.

Something similar, however, is happening in other belligerent countries. In Germany, before the sea blockade, Britain imported up to a third of the food, “ersatzes” get a mass distribution – cheap substitutes for coffee, sausages and other products. In a broad turn – a rutabaga, a two-year-old plant of the Cabbage family (a vitamin tops with a heavy tuber).

Recipe for “Eaters of Time”:

Grigsbrot (“Kriegsbrot”) – “Military bread” – 55% of rye, 25% of wheat, 20% of potato powder, sugar and fats.

Pea sausage – pea flour with the addition of fat and beet juice. One measure of pea flour (crushed grain), two measures of water. Beat and put on a slow fire.

In a separate container mix a little water, vegetable oil, garlic, salt, pepper, beets or beet juice – to get the mass of the color of the doctor’s sausage. Beat. When pea mass turns into a thick mashed potatoes, mix with our pink sauce and slices of fat. Cook a little more, then pour into a container of cylindrical shape (a 0.5-liter plastic bottle with a cut-off neck).

We put the workpiece in the refrigerator.

From the sausage you can prepare sandwiches from the “First World”, or cook a nutritious soup.

Erzac coffee. Acorns are calcined in the oven, peeled off, while hot scrolls in the meat grinder. Acorn minced meat is laid out on baking trays for further drying in the oven with the door open.

Option – a drink from roasted beets.

Despite all such substitutes, 800,000 people die from malnutrition and accompanying diseases, in Germany, from 1914 to 1918.

In England and France, receiving resources from their numerous colonies, the nutritional situation is much better, although it is also not up to par. In addition, the population of the country, in which the monarch, after all, waking up, immediately begins to wonder how he would again and again gain the sympathy of his subjects, initially widely consolidated.

In the course, among other effective measures to awaken the spirit of the nation, “the delivery of a white pen.” Are engaged in this girl-patriotic activists (sometimes just feminists). In the previously widespread in the United Kingdom cock fights, it was noticed that, as a rule, birds and white plumage usually show weakness and cowardice. The girl hands, to any young man in civilian clothes who has turned up on the street, a pen of the corresponding color – and this means that she shows him contempt for cowardice.

Later, the government comes up with breastplates for soldiers on leave or for medical treatment, indicating that they are honestly “Serving the King and the Country.” The unspoken public agreement works clearly. The British Volunteer Army is fully operational.

Such actions of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, cadets, other public organizations and unions are popular in Russia: handing out gifts to soldiers, caring for the wounded, sending collected food to the front, etc. But, yes, the state apparatus sees these unauthorized, exempted from clerical reporting, the more effective actions, the resistance to oneself, and tries to ban it all deafly.

This does not benefit the public consent that is so difficult to be born.

…Focussed only on his family, despising millions of his own kind, the emotionally obtuse monarch of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, who imagines that everyone loves him, all these, in fact, now fiercely hate. In the midst of high-ranking officers, representatives of the bourgeoisie and ministers, the grain of the conspiracy is sprouting. The main idea is the renunciation of the lost charisma of Nicholas II (Bloody) from the throne in favor of a minor son. The regent is the younger brother of the tsar, Mikhail.

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1. A popular banknote of that time, 25 rubles (a room in a working hostel, for six months.) A simple horse is also 25 rubles. One ruble is pancakes with fresh caviar in a tavern to a dump, the price of 1911.

2. 50 paper kopecks in 1915, five loaves of bread already risen in price.

3. One of the first tanks in the world (armored combat vehicles) – “Netopyr”, a reflection of the technical thought of the time. The idea of caterpillars has not yet been mastered, the decrease in specific pressure on the ground is achieved by unnatural increase in the diameter of the wheels. Combat weight – 60 tons. Armament: two 76.2 mm. guns, 60 shots, eight 7.92 mm. machine guns “Maxim”. Booking: board, forehead 10 mm. Crew – 15 people. The height of the building is 9 meters (fourth floor). Estimated speed along the highway is 17 km. h, a reserve of 60 km. Specific power 8.5 hp In 1915 one specimen was built, due to incorrect centering of the mass, it immediately stalled, it was not accepted for service. If this is a response to the advance of German troops, then the answer is incorrect. According to the “conspiracy theory” the project was sponsored by officials acting in the interests of Great Britain. They also stopped the project of Perekhovshchikov’s “Outlander”, not quite considered, but promising, capable of becoming a wedge.

4. Caterpillar armored car “Austin-Kegress”, he, according to the opinions of quite competent contemporaries and “light Russian tank.” Weight 5.8 tons, crew 5 people, vertical booking 8 mm., Roof 6 mm. Armament: two 7.62 mm. machine gun “Maxim”. Specific power: 9 hp The speed on the highway is 25 km. h, the power reserve is 100 km. Ground pressure 0.3 kg. per sq. m. cm.

On tests the armored car shows itself from the best side. However, the production of military vehicles, which began in 1917, is frozen until 1919. Using the already available parts (in particular, about 200 ready-made propellers – the so-called “tapes”), workers at the Putilov plant collect 12 semi-track armored cars. Further, “Austin-Kegressy” with success (as far as it is possible at all under these conditions) is used by the Red Army in the battles of the Civil and Polish wars.

The designer of the caterpillar chassis is a French engineer-inventor, and also the manager of the garage of Nicholas II A. Kegress emigrates from Russia to his historical homeland after the October Revolution, works for Citroen, gives rise to a wide range of semi-track armored cars and tractors.

5. Heavy cannon-machine gun armored car “Putilov-Garford”. Weight, depending on the modification of 8.6—11 tons, the crew of 8—9 people, circular booking of 7 mm. (protects from an armor-piercing rifle bullet from 70 meters). Armament: 76.2 mm. gun (fodder) with 44 shots, three 7.62 mm. machine gun “Maxim”. Four-wheel drive. Two steering posts – front and rear. Engine power 30 hp, speed on the highway 18 km. h, the power reserve is 120 km. From 1915 to 1916, 48 cars were produced. Armored cars Putilov-Garford have high manufacturing quality, are actively used in the First World War, the Civil War and, even, according to some reports, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

Photos and characteristics of these types of military equipment in Russia are listed here separately to determine the overall situation with the military construction of the pre-revolutionary Empire. At the present time, the thesis that, without the October Revolution, the annihilation of millions of peasants, subsequently the intelligentsia and higher officers, the Soviet Union (the “Red Empire”) would not have created a developed heavy industry, and a well-armed Army. This is not quite true. Pre-revolutionary Russia is a medium-developed capitalist state. This provision is clearly marked even in Soviet history textbooks, which tend to tarnish our entire pre-revolutionary period. A defense order, bad or good, takes precedence over all other aspects of the life of the Russian state. Under the tsar, defense plants produce high-quality armored cars of many types, good artillery systems, small arms, battleships, cruisers, submarines, and, since 1914, for the first time in the world – strategic (and so to speak) Ilya Muromets bombers. Yes, some weapons are bought abroad, but this is quite common in the conditions of a severe military campaign of practice. The Soviet Union also acquires significant amounts of weapons, vehicles and food in the United States and Britain, during World War II. The real reason for some military failures – the tsarist army, or the Soviet army, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War – the lack of consolidation of society, the creation of a false picture of reality, the desire to shift the individual labor of thinking to a single “higher” personality.

6. One of the people of the era – Alexander Blok, poet of the Silver Age, 1880—1921. The son of a professor at the University of Warsaw and the daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University. He studied at the Faculty of Law, married the daughter of D. Mendeleev, and maintained contacts with other women. Adopted the revolution of 1917, working on wear and tear in the university, “I forgot how to write poetry.” In February 1919 he was arrested by the Petrograd Cheka on charges of an anti-Soviet conspiracy, released after the intervention of the People’s Commissar of Education, Lunacharsky, outwardly unscathed, but with a mental wound. Already after writing the “Twelve”, at the beginning of “socialist construction,” Blok believed that “the world revolution is turning into a world chest toad.” He died in a Petrograd flat from inflammation of the heart valves.

Pre-revolutionary poems are popular now, they connect mysticism, life and, for example, impressions of the pilots seen on the performance:

7. Maxim Gorky – Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, Russian, Soviet writer, 1868—1936. He was born in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the town of Kanavino, in the family of a carpenter. Peshkov’s grandfather, a domestic tyrant, “Eh viii”, colorfully depicted in “Childhood” – an officer demoted for ill-treatment of lower ranks. Traveling around Russia, working as a baker, cooker, etc., Gorky hones his literary talent, five times is nominated for the Nobel Prize, becomes a wealthy man, enjoys success with women. Sponsors the Bolshevik party, on the island of Capri, he establishes the God-building school – in which God is the quintessence of the organized human collective. These ideas are shared by two prominent figures of the RSDLP (b) – A. Bogdanov and A. Lunacharsky, one of the few who did not stain their name with murders.

In the twenties Alexei lives in Berlin, Marienbad (Czech Republic), Sorrento (Italy), returned to the USSR, where he is considered the founder of socialist realism. Again he leaves, appearing in the Soviet Union in 1928 and 1929. Then he visits the ELEPHANT (СЛОН) – Solovetsky special purpose camp, communicates with the prisoners (who read the newspaper “upside down” prominently) and writes a positive opinion about the regime.

Peshkov finally remained in the USSR since 1932. In 1934, after dinner with G. Yagoda, a son dies, Maxim Peshkov (the widow becomes the mistress of the NKVD People’s Commissar), two years later, at the dacha in Gorki, the writer ends his life. Four doctors are accused of poisoning Gorky with chocolate sweets and are being shot. Perhaps the writer was really poisoned by these very sweets, but on instructions from “above”, on the eve of meeting with foreign (uncontrollable) writers, who were about to tell something unnecessary about the existing system. A more likely version is that Gorky gets cold when he visits his son’s grave (pronouncing something like “I was there, where it’s so difficult to come back”) and dies of inflammation, and even stiffness, ie, calcification, lungs.

8. Parvus Alexander Lvovich – Israel Lazarevich Gelfand, another colorful brushstroke in the portrait of the era. The activist of the Russian and German Social-Democratic movement, a Marxist, whose main thesis is something like: “In order to defeat the capitalists, one must become capitalists themselves.” Birth – 1867, Berezino, Minsk province, the family of artisans. Study in Odessa, then Zurich, where Parvus converges (already a doctor of philosophy) with the group “Emancipation of Labor”. Gelfand becomes a literary agent of M. Gorky, popularizes his plays in Germany and other countries, puts in his pocket a solid commission/

The peak of the work of the revolutionary was in 1915, when Parvus managed to organize a stream of Kaiser money from Germany to Russia. These funds “work” in Ukraine, the Caucasus (through Constantinople), in Finland and Siberia – wherever a national split is planned. Organized strike strikes with unrealistic demands, acts of sabotage and sabotage. Simultaneously, the media controlled by Parvus form in the Entente countries, the USA, a negative opinion towards Russia. The Marxist and the tycoon explains to the German command how best to strike his country (to the South, and not to Petrograd). Through the manipulation of rumors, the owner of a number of newspapers, brings down the ruble exchange rate. All this in some way correlates with the happiness of ordinary Russian workers…

In the midst of fiery revolutionaries, Parvus is regarded as a very muddy personality – but he wants to be involved, known – and, although not without difficulty, buys their friendship for 20 million German marks, and somehow, gold rubles.

After the October Revolution, her chief treasurer expressed Lenin’s desire to become finance minister, but, having done his job, the “moor” is answered, perhaps not without malice: “The revolution does not tolerate anyone who has dirty hands.”

Germany in his citizenship denied Gelfand. Nevertheless, he settles in Berlin, surrounded by pleasant luxury and, through his media, warns Europe against the “invasion of Bolshevism.”

Dies in 1924, at the age of 54, from heart disease.

9. Pyotr Arkadevich Stolypin (right). (1862—1911). Quotation about the Russo-Japanese War: “How can a man go joyfully into battle, defending some leased land in unknown areas? The war is sad and heavy, not colored by the sacrificial impulse …». As you know, Tsar Nicholas II meets the news of the murder of Stolypin (the 11th attempt) with a certain amount of satisfaction. The monarch believes that the prime minister conveys the “divine” power of the emperor of the bourgeoisie. It is not insane for the soap that the tsarist secret police performs the unspoken desire of the emperor to eliminate his active alter-ego. The bullets of Bogrov fall into the hands and liver of the Prime Minister. Pogreben PS in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, at the place of the murder. Later the grave was asphalted.

10. Mordko Mordechai Gershkovich “Bogrov” (1887 – 1911). Assassin Stolypin. One of the causes of the Civil War in Russia. The anarchist, at the same time, is the regular informant of the security department (a fee of 150 rubles a month, three times the number of highly skilled workers). The main idea is “protest against tedious routine”. Quotation (after the death sentence): “Yes, I do not care if I eat two thousand more cutlets in my life, or I will not eat.”

11. Boris Viktorovich Savinkov, revolutionary, terrorist, political activist. Birth – 1879, Kharkov. One of the leaders of the militant organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries, an image of the time that evokes the idea of a romantic struggle against a colossal empire, combining living in expensive hotels, success with women, and killing “bad” officials. After the February Revolution – the head of the military ministry, the military governor of Petrograd. Emigration, return to Russia, arrest. At the trial, Boris Savinkov says something like: “I’ve committed so many terrorist acts, but you accuse me of something!?” The shooting is replaced by a ten-year sentence.

In prison, Savinkov has a separate well-equipped cell. According to the official version, he commits suicide by throwing himself out of the window (1925, Moscow).

The acting forces of Russia on the eve of the Revolution:

1. The Old Believers. According to the averaged data, there are 12% of the population in the country. Almost 90% of the richest merchants, industrialists, many soldiers are adherents of the pre-Niconian ritual. The reason for this state of affairs is the opportunity to conduct business in a circle of trusted people, without cobweb of documents, relying only on honesty, supporting “our” interest-free, sometimes, by agreement, irrevocable loans, advice and deed, full-fledged spiritual intercourse of lay people. Tempered by repressions of the tsarist regime, the ancient faiths are accustomed to surviving in the most difficult conditions, are in some opposition to the existing system, and are much aimed at “creating the Kingdom of God on earth” with their own head and hands. Communities (“Accord”, “Tolkas”) of the ancient faiths are very diverse, independent (their representatives and without the priests of the state church, are able to serve in the church), they need free space for self-expression, and not a viscous state “n-n-e-t “To all their efficient suggestions.

2. The Cossacks. The beginning of this subethnos is believed to be the Great Famine of 1601—1603, when many people, from “perpetual work and slavishness of the non-volatile” flee to “Ukrainians”, ie, very little populated lands of Russia. A term is derived from the Turkic word “kaz” – “goose”, in this context meaning “free (like a bird) nomad”. According to the census of 1897, there were three million Cossacks. It can be assumed that by 1918 – the time of the outbreak of the Civil War they were already three and a half million, 2.5% of the population of Russia. Russians, by and large, the Cossacks do not consider themselves, but they stay with the Empire in a fairly stable symbiosis. Sometimes they actively oppose the state (the first, recorded in the sources of the battle of the forces of the metropolis – in 1489, under Ivan the Third, against the Khlynov (Khlynov, Vyatka, modern Kirov) Cossacks, sometimes help him a lot in the struggle against external forces. Cossacks General Platov, successfully fighting against the forces of Napoleon.In the border (line) is not the peaceful North Caucasus, in particular impoverished noblemen (“monogamy”), take roots, become very active and battle-worthy “linear Cossacks.”

Undoubtedly, the Cossacks are the main support of the Russian autocracy, a kind of analogue of the “Internal Troops”. The fact that they do not fully identify themselves with the radical ethnos allows the tsarist government, without much thought, to direct them to “pacify” the peasants who are outraged by the landowners, the striking workers and students, and “small towns” in towns. However, a significant part of the Cossacks are fighting on the side of the “Red Empire”. Therefore, on April 20, 1936, by the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, restrictions on the service of the Cossacks are removed.

In the Civil War, the “white” Cossacks show themselves more likely, the original “free nomads”, rather than sensible state builders and saviors of Russia. It seems that the main thing for them now is to ruin the big cities of the center of the country, return to the original limits with trophies and organize their own isolated life. This is also the case during the “sovereignty parade” of 1991 – on November 20, a large “Cossack circle of the South of Russia” in Novocherkassk proclaims the merger of quasi-state Cossack entities into the Union of Cossack Republics of the South of Russia. However, this separatist undertaking, in a somewhat strengthened Russia, has no immediate continuation.

3. The Jews. As you know, most of them went to Russia at the partition of the Commonwealth, in the time of Catherine II. By 1880, the Empire has five million people, 67% of the entire Jewish population. At one time, a “Pale of Settlement” was introduced for them, which does not allow migrating from the borders of present-day Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine into the interior of central Russia. Exceptions are made for merchants of the first guild, retired recruits, people with higher education, and Central Asian Jews. Such “special” representatives of the genus “aspiring to Zion” number only about 200 thousand.

One way or another, the residence of Jews in Russia is limited to Ivan the Terrible. Of course, we can not regard this monarch as a high spiritual authority. But, other Russian rulers – Peter the First, Elizabeth, Catherine II, as well, somehow tried to exclude the Jews from the reality of their government. A possible reason is the too high social, economic, any other activity of these well-developed, comprehensively developed, but deeply cooperated, internally isolated people. Sometimes this hyperactivity leads to the oppression or even enslavement of the indigenous population of the country.

One of the representatives of the ethnos is Dmitry Grigorievich Bogrov, who is also Mordko Mordechai Gershkovich. As you know, this, in this photo, a seemingly very worthy young man shoots Pyotr Stolypin, a man who avoids Jewish pogroms, one might say, that is very sympathetic to Jews, in retaliation for something incomprehensible once happened to the Jewish population, which allegedly “Should have provided for.” He himself also perishes. The peasant reform is decisively decelerated. In the near future, Bogrov’s act turns into the most brutal genocide of Jews in Ukraine (100—150 thousand people), the Civil War, and in a somewhat distant projection – the broad offensive of the German fascist troops, Babi Yar, Buchenwald, Oswenim, and others.

An important figure of the Revolution is Yakov Sverdlov, Yoshua Solomon Movshevich, formal head of the RSFSR, Chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee (by education – pharmacist). In fact – the technical director of the Revolution, or indeed, the entire post-revolutionary Russia. It is believed that for some time he alone replaced the two most important ministries. It is also believed that Sverdlov is involved in the execution of the royal family. But, at the time when the families of peasants, workers, classes, villages and cities were being destroyed, he was not the only one he wanted.

It is believed that Sverdlov was also involved in the attempt on VI Lenin, a man who, in Yakov’s opinion, tasted too much unjustified popularity. The shooting and even the burial (probably) of the accidental figure of this action – eserkas F. Kaplan is suspiciously rushed. In addition, the fact that Y. Sverdlov occupies the Lenin cabinet immediately after the shooting at the Michelson plant – a gesture very symbolic.

Note that in England, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries that are considered to be basically “Anglo-Saxon”, the attitude towards Jews is exactly what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed very precisely: “The British are not anti-Semites, because we do not believe yourself more stupid than Jews. “Indeed, the Anglo-Saxons, in large part, are very eager for everything new (with the preservation of old good traditions), appreciate oddballs, vigorously support compatriots in good, if risky undertakings, despite some external stiffness, create active “communities” (clubs, clubs on interests, public organizations). Here they are with the Jews on the same wave, in a pleasant mutual agreement, and that is why the axis of the British Commonwealth-US is in the lead on the planet Earth.

To be perfectly accurate, Jewish usurers were expelled (2000 people, that is, completely) from England under Edward the First, according to his edict of 1290, to Oliver Cromwell (1656). Jews were also expelled from Spain (if they refused to receive baptism in the three-month period) in 1492, 50—150 thousand people, Austria (1420), France (1182, again 1306), Germany, Portugal and the principality of Lithuania, in the 13—14 centuries. All of them settled in Poland, after the partition of which Catherine the Great and the German states, for the most part crossed the Russian Empire.

The Jewish religion and Protestantism, prevalent, primarily in the US (5.2 million and 160 million, respectively) have much in common. The Catholic and Orthodox churches are reluctant to recognize the very existence of the Old Testament, that is, the Hebrew Bible, and the fact that all the apostles and most of the early Christians are Jews. The theme of nationality, the whole complex long history of a certain Semitic people, represented in the 24 books of the Tanakh, seems to be something not so significant at all. Protestants (Baptists, Evangelists, etc. “denominations”), in contrast, pay a lot of attention to the study of the Old Testament. In many American films we see, here is how a certain person utters a quotation from Tanakh, and his interlocutor unconstrainedly indicates the chapter of the book and the number of the verse. So educated, educated in the Christian spirit, people recognize “their”.

Of course, the general reverence for Tanakh, unites Protestants and Jews. Further, in the history of those and others there is exile, the Great Exodus (the resettlement of the persecuted “heretics” into the New World). Third – the desire for the future, no matter how complex it may seem, trembling, tonic waiting for Armageddon and the coming of the greatest Messiah.

Protestants and Jews do not have churches with a complex, multistage hierarchy. A parishioner can become a priest or mentor. There are disadvantages in this, but also pluses. There is a great risk of error, the committing of sin, which is always manifested when a new one is being created, as well as some kind of arrogance, the self-image is always right. On the other hand, a person learns to act and think independently, broadly, organize active communities and effectively manage them. In Orthodoxy and Catholicism, parishioners are led by hierarchs, beyond superfluous questions and non-standard actions. Byzantium, who imported faith in Russia, was killed precisely because of a lack of active, enterprising people; military and civil rulers, inventors, industrialists (indifferent attitude to the novelty of military affairs – artillery); from the general mood “So that everything remains as before.”

4. Workers. With a population of 155 million (without Finland), by 1914 there were about 15 million workers in various industries. Of these, 4 million work in large enterprises, including (rail) transport. According to the testimony of an educated contemporary: “These are people dressed in their own way; trousers in European style, shirt color rifle, over the shirt vest and unchanged jacket, on the head – a cloth cap; then – they are mostly skinny people, with an underdeveloped chest, with a bloodless complexion, with nervously running eyes, with a carefree ironic look and manners that the people are knee-deep and whose disposition is not forbidden…”.

In the rooms of the workers’ hostels there are usually two or three families, sometimes up to seven. Places on the bunks are separated by curtains. Sometimes a semblance of a baby crib appears nearby – people manage to make love somehow.

In a somewhat better position are workers of state defense plants, earning up to 160 rubles. per month, with a moderate (11.5 hours) of working hours. However, further the beloved child – the military-industrial complex, in which he sees a panacea for all ills, the government does not extend care, giving citizens entirely to the power of the private entrepreneur. Those working hours are up to 18 hours a day literally. Money is given irregularly. And, above all, it is here, not in some foreign military ministries, that a hidden threat, a grain of hatred for the whole state, grows.

So, most of the factories work around the clock. Expensive, usually – written out from abroad machines, require the prompt return. A 12-hour working day is common. To be precise, it’s a whole day: two six-hour shifts. The sense of this schedule is that the proletarian, who has slept a bit, will work out in more than two outlets in more than one long shift. The working day at the same time loses its significance, the day, weeks and months blur into the gray haze of hopeless labor; the hail of the master, the spinning of the gears of the machine, and so on, to the like.

There are no vacations in principle. To at least somehow take a breath, the worker is forced to resign, change his place of work, wander around the country.

In 1905—1906 the owners of enterprises expose a large number of workers outside the gate, trying to protest, or simply, somehow, in a human way, to engage in a dialogue. Proletarians supplement the world of crime or the “flying squads” of insurgent-Socialist-Revolutionaries. The way back to highly skilled productive work for them, who are on the black list, is impossible. Since 1916, labor has been militarized. Protests are prohibited at all. Now the workers are no longer willing to give up their overtime orders, remaining at work for 18 hours quite officially.

There are now such clever people who proclaim: the worker must work as much as possible, but how else, after some time, everyone will be happily happy. But, one must think that every person on the planet considers himself to be a unique, unique personality, he wants to organize for himself a wonderful life, full of adventures, tests and unexpected turns. Attitude to yourself as a “cook’s son” (by the definition of Emperor Alexander III) or a cricket, due to know its own pole, causes internal tension, and readiness for large-scale social performances.

In addition, the economy is a very paradoxical thing. If the workers and peasants only work “like horses” day and night, they practically do not buy industrial goods (watches, furniture, beautiful utensils, conditionally, delicacies like coffee and sweets, “outfits,” books, cars), lose interest in anything other than simple food, and the market, without any special reason, is overstocked.This naturally leads the production in general, to a serious crisis.The working day of reasonable duration, the contractual capacity of the parties on wages and social protection, humane attitude to work tnikam – that’s what could prevent the horrific upheavals of a hundred years ago.

Orthodox Church. On the eve of the Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church is populated by 72% of the total population of the country. In exchange for abundant financial assistance, the state instructs the hierarchs of the church to conduct the propaganda propaganda, the formation of “loyalty feelings” among the population. In a word, the ROC, alas, falls into the heresy of phyletism (state religion), and catastrophically loses trust in “ordinary” parishioners, whose interests it should have defended in every possible way.

Before that, the Russian Orthodox Church has suffered two heavy blows. The first is the very moment of its appearance in Russia, from the presentation of not inspired prophets, monks-pilgrims, preachers, but the prince and his armed squad. The second is the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. As it suddenly turns out that for six and a half centuries people prayed and did not believe as they should. The Christian faith has taken root, has become universal, permeated the people’s soul, overgrown with numerous oral and written traditions. It could even be assumed that Vladimir’s baptism with “fire and sword” was an unfortunate misunderstanding, at the time when (988) the message spread that the Apocalypse would take place in the Millennium of the Nativity of Christ; and, therefore, the conversion of pagans into Christians should be accelerated by all means, for their own good. But no. The patriarch and the sovereign, after consulting with each other, again do everything their own way. Many poods of anathematized sacred Russian books are sent to the fire.

It must be understood that ritual has the highest value for people of the Middle Ages. The performance of the ritual in its original version seems to be akin, let’s say, to the control of the aircraft. Only when the pilot presses the buttons according to all instructions, the airplane flies, and delivers the person to the destination – in Paradise. Many people who want to save their souls depart from the latest regulations, even under pain of death. Sometimes the intensity of the struggle of the authorities with their own, sincerely believing subjects reaches the heat of persecution of heretics (and real sorcerers) by the Spanish Inquisition. In total, twelve or fifteen thousand ancient believers perish during the reign of the “Tishayshiy”, Feodor and Tsarevna Sophia. Peter the First, in the Galantian century that has already opened, largely alleviates the fate of these persecuted, however, imposes a double tax on them, and still, under pain of cruel punishment, forbids building their own temples (and sending rituals to the already existing ones). A number of state fines for non-attendance of the confession, improper appearance during the hearing of the service, etc., charged by a “good man” attached to the temple are introduced. Church hierarchs are entitled to salaries from the treasury. If earlier the lower parish clergy were selective – parishioners chose from their environment a suitable person (usually from spiritual families) and were sent with a charter to be “put” to the local hierarch, now they are no more.

The colorful vagrant “sacrificial” clergy disappears completely – from the abbots of small parishes, at times freely engaged in the service of prayer at home, the blessing of the meal, the reading of Sorokoust, etc. The spiritual rank is now firmly attached to the place of service. And, finally, the priest is obliged to help the government in the search and catching those who do not approve of the king’s activities, even if this leads to the discovery of the sacred mystery of confession.

Monks are ordered to reside in monasteries “non-existent”, any exit to the walls of the institution (two, three hours) can occur only on the written (with seals) permission of the abbot.

According to the “Spiritual Regulations” of Peter the Great, the spiritual schools of the seminary (from the Latin seminarium – nursery school) are being created. As we study the potential priests in such schools, we know, in particular, from N. Pomyalovsky’s book Essays on Bursa.

As a logical result, between the flock and the shepherds stands a wall of alienation and misunderstanding. The clergy is locked in itself, not refreshed by the influx of new forces from outside, it becomes just such an aspiring clan to survive.

To top it all off (not without the influence of Stolypin’s activities, obviously), the state is destroying the rural community, by and large, which is the original source of morality and religiosity.

Just as a branch of the state, the ROC supports an unpopular war with (far from being a fascist, quite Christian) Germany, urging the people to certainly bring it “to the victorious end.”

Before the October Revolution, there are 54,000 churches in Russia. But, most importantly, these are people. The parishioners, many of whom are languishing in total poverty, dull workers’ hostels, are leaving the church. A completely different cult awaits them.

The Russians. Admittedly, the common affiliation to this ethos does not at all alleviate the contradictions between the poor and the rich, educated and illiterate, nobles, the bourgeoisie, workers and peasants. Similar is possible in the countries of Central Europe – England, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland… The German worker in an interview with the capitalist, from which he intends to improve working conditions, also adds something like: “We are with you both soldiers, genosse …". It works. In Russia, the words “We are Russians” mean practically nothing. For many centuries, Russian kings have annexed large territories. Residents of the newly-acquired areas of the Empire at the same time (those who lost the war), at the caprice of the monarch, have freedoms, opportunities, in general, higher than the indigenous inhabitants of the central regions. A wealthy Caucasian mountaineer can easily buy a Russian girl for his use – quite decent – if only he had the money.

Strictly speaking, only noblemen have the right to acquire slaves, or merchants of higher guilds. But, at some desire, all the conventions can be easily settled with the help of intermediaries, transferring the living goods to the buyer so to speak, “in service.” The ethnonym “Russian” (it’s not even a noun, but an adjective, or a possessive pronoun “who are you?”) Is probably spoken with some shame. Russians do not help Russians on the basis of such a cause as a given nationality, or at least they are not inclined to give each other at least any preferences; because in this country the victors are revered as the rulers of the less defeated.