Russian Tsar in 1682-1696 from the Romanov dynasty
short biography
John (Ivan) V Alekseevich(September 6, 1666, Moscow - February 8, 1696, ibid.) - Russian Tsar in 1682-1696 from the Romanov dynasty. Son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Quiet and Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. Elder half-brother and co-ruler of Peter I. Father of Anna Ioannovna, Empress of All Russia.
When in 1682 his elder brother, Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, died without leaving an heir, 15-year-old Ivan Alekseevich, as the next in seniority, was to inherit the throne.
Ivan Alekseevich was sickly and incapable of governing the country since childhood. Therefore, it was proposed to remove him and choose his half-brother 10-year-old Peter, the youngest son of Alexei Mikhailovich, as the next king.
They said about Ivan Alekseevich that he was weak-minded, which may have been a consequence of illness (epilepsy, aggravated by scurvy, a chronic illness of the children of Maria Miloslavskaya) and the libel of the Naryshkins, which they spread during the period of a fierce struggle for power with the Miloslavskys. It is known for certain that, being at the very center of this struggle, Ivan Alekseevich never tried to take an active part in it and did not show interest in government activities. Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, who was a younger contemporary of Ivan and one of the associates of Peter I, wrote about him as “a man of a contented mind.”
Rise to power
Both brothers, one due to ill health, the other due to age, could not participate in the struggle for power. Instead of them, their relatives fought: for Ivan - his sister, Princess Sophia, and their Miloslavsky relatives, relatives of his mother; for Peter - the Naryshkins, relatives of Alexei Mikhailovich’s second wife. The matter did not happen without a bloody mutiny of the archers.
As a result, Patriarch Joachim proposed to proclaim both kings at once: Ivan as the senior king, Peter as the junior king, and to appoint Princess Sofya Alekseevna as regent for them.
On June 25, 1682, Ivan V Alekseevich and Peter I Alekseevich were crowned kings in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Moreover, the “senior” king was crowned with an authentic Monomakh hat and a large outfit, and copies were made for the “junior” one. A special throne with two seats was built for them, currently kept in the Armory.
Until 1689, the reigns of both Ivan and Peter were nominal; in fact, power was exercised by Princess Sofia Alekseevna, who relied on the Miloslavsky clan and her favorites - V.V. Golitsyn and F.L. Shaklovity.
In 1689, the confrontation between Sophia and Peter came to a head, as a result of which Sophia was removed from power. At this time, Peter sends a message to Ivan from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in which he writes:
And now, sir brother, the time has come for both of our persons to rule the kingdom entrusted to us by God themselves, since we have come to the extent of our age, and we do not deign to have a third shameful person, our sister, with our two male persons in titles and in the dispensation of affairs; That’s why your will, my brother’s sovereign, would have bowed, because it taught you to enter into affairs and write your own title without our permission; Moreover, she also wanted to get married with a royal crown, to further offend us. It’s shameful, sir, at our perfect age, for that shameful person to own the state bypassing us! To you, the sovereign brother, I declare and ask: allow me, sir, by my fatherly will, for our better benefit and for the peace of the people, without being sent to you, the sovereign, to carry out the orders of truthful judges, and to change the indecent ones, so as to calm our state and make you happy soon. And how, sir, brother, let’s happen together, and then we will put everything on the measure; and I, the sovereign brother, are ready to honor you like a father.
At that time, it was very important for Peter to enlist the support of his brother, or at least his non-interference.
Participation in government affairs
Although Ivan was called the “senior tsar,” he was almost never directly involved in state affairs, except for ritual ceremonies that required the participation of the tsar, and devoted himself entirely to his family.
It is quite well known that at the very beginning of his official reign, Peter (later the Great), firstly, was a “junior tsar”, since he shared the throne with the “elder tsar” - his half-brother Ivan Alekseevich, and secondly, both tsars were actually subordinate ruler Sophia, who sat above them on a specially ordered throne.
True, not for long.
Sitting on the “lower throne” did not interest Peter at first due to his youth: a ten-year-old boy did not at all like to sit for hours like an idol in ceremonial clothes, symbolizing who knows what. But when his drinking companions lucidly explained to him that the “tsar” was not just pure green melancholy, but an incredible opportunity to fulfill any of his desires, ruler Sophia, who had played into unfeminine political games, was quickly imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent. And the “elder tsar”, brother Ivan...
But in general, this story needs to be told without cuts and slowly. Otherwise, it will be unclear how the next Russian Tsar became not the most legitimate heir to the Russian throne, but Naryshkina’s nimble offspring. A usurper and, as it turned out later, quite a hypocrite and a liar.
When in 1682, quite unexpectedly for everyone, Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich died, without leaving or appointing an heir, according to the law, his younger brother, 15-year-old Ivan Alekseevich, was supposed to sit on the throne, as the next in seniority. There would be nothing out of the ordinary in this: at approximately this age, almost all representatives of the Romanov dynasty became kings.
But, as it unexpectedly turned out, Ivan “has been sickly since childhood and incapable of ruling the country.” The Naryshkins, of course, found this out, presumably after conducting a conscientious study of the physical and mental state of the royal youth. They couldn’t help but deceive: they were passionate about Russia, they were afraid that under an incapacitated tsar it would fall into the greedy boyar hands and... Well, of course, the state would perish. But there is a way to save her: declare the youngest son of the late Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina tsar, make her regent and - Russia is saved.
Many high-born boyars actively did not like this option for saving the state, primarily because they did not like the Naryshkins themselves - tenacious, not always distinguishing theirs from others, caring exclusively about their own interests. There were many people ready to become faithful assistants and support to the rightful Tsar Ivan. The problem was only one thing: Ivan himself showed incredible indifference to the opportunity to take the throne.
That is, he did not refuse it outright. He was ready to do everything that the anointed of God was supposed to do, such as: sit on the throne in royal attire, decently hold the scepter and orb and pretend to listen to the boyars, ambassadors, and so on. That is, he did not refuse to reign. But he categorically did not want to rule. Since childhood, he was exclusively attracted to the church and everything connected with it.
In Europe, the youngest son of any royal house, whether he had such a desire or not, almost automatically became a high-ranking clergyman or even entered a monastery. There are a lot of precedents. But nothing like this ever happened in Russia: kings were tonsured as monks only on their deathbeds, just before their death. So Ivan could only console himself with the countless hours of church services, which he endured without the slightest hint of fatigue.
Weak and sickly? Try to stand through an ordinary church service, and not just stand, but cross yourself, bow, speak the right words V right time and bow to the ground at the appropriate moments. I assure you, this activity is not at all for the weak. But Ivan was announced as such precisely when the candidacy of Peter, a lively and healthy man, a descendant of the Naryshkin family, and not the Miloslavskys, actually arose. Before this, no one actually thought about the youngest son of Maria Miloslavskaya.
And now they loudly and publicly declared that “Ivan, sad-headed by nature, is also prone to stuttering, has poor vision and suffers from scurvy.” Well, where can such a thing go to the throne? There is no need that in Rus' there were kings who were very sorrowful, tongue-tied, and completely blind. Yes, there were, but there is no need for more of them, put Peter on the throne - and that’s it!
Who knows, perhaps everything would have happened exactly according to this scenario if the smart, powerful and wildly ambitious Princess Sophia had not intervened in the events. She was ready to become a support for brother Ivan, to help him rule the state, to free him from annoying current affairs. In turn, those boyars who hated the Naryshkins were ready to help her. This couldn’t end in anything other than another bloody mess, and that’s what it did: the Streltsy rebelled, broke into the Kremlin and chopped into small pieces everyone who didn’t suit them for one reason or another.
The Naryshkins suffered the most, of course, but the rest of the boyars were scared to death of the people’s anger and came up with a compromise: to place both heirs to the throne on the throne at once, and above them, for help and supervision, the ruler, Princess Sophia. At that time, this was the only more or less acceptable way out. If only because Sophia’s favorite and closest adviser, Prince Vasily Golitsyn, thought so, by the way, one of the smartest people of its time.
By the way, an urgently convened Council of the clergy and all ranks of the people of Moscow, under pressure from the Streltsy, found dual power very useful, especially in case of war. What happens in war is that people get killed. No one was embarrassed that in the event of hostilities, neither Ivan, indifferent to the bustle of the world, nor Peter, because of his youth, could lead the army. It was already clear to everyone that the army, as always in recent years, would be led by Golitsyn.
On June 25, 1682, Ivan V Alekseevich and Peter I Alekseevich were crowned kings in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. I note that the “senior” king (“poor and weak-minded”) was crowned with an authentic Monomakh’s hat and a large outfit, and copies were made for the “junior” one. That is, it is obvious that the “elder tsar” was still taken quite seriously, at least at the ceremonial level, and “Petrushka” was used as an understudy - really, you never know...
Seven years after this, the reigns of both Ivan and Peter were purely decorative; in fact, power was exercised by Princess Sofia Alekseevna, who relied on the Miloslavsky clan and her favorites. An interesting detail: it was Sophia who did everything possible to bring Peter together with Lefort, a famous adventurer warmed up by her brother Fyodor. The princess hoped that Lefort would quickly get the boy drunk and corrupt - he had the appropriate inclinations, but then it was possible to arrange an accident. But Lefort turned out to be more cunning and far-sighted than the “many-wise” Sophia: he preferred the friendship of the strange royal youth to the favor of the princess. However, he could combine them.
When Tsar Ivan turned eighteen, Sophia became seriously concerned about the issue of his marriage: a married Tsar, and even with a possible heir, was already serious. In addition, it made it possible to do without the physical removal of Peter: the possible birth of a legal heir from the Miloslavsky family radically changed the situation.
The Greek historian Theodosi says that Ivan’s marriage was planned by Prince Vasily Golitsyn, who, considering violent measures against Peter extremely dangerous, advised Sophia:
“To marry Tsar John, and when he receives a son, who naturally has to be his father’s heir, then it may not be difficult for Peter to be forced to accept the monastic rank, and she, Sophia, again due to the infancy of John’s son, will remain in the same dignity, which she desires..."
Kostomarov writes more carefully, but with a characteristic caveat:
“There is an assumption that in this choice of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich there was the participation of Princess Sofia: this is confirmed, firstly, by the fact that Sofia had already previously treated Praskovya’s parent favorably, who had previously been granted the title of boyar; secondly, by the fact that, due to his dementia, Tsar Ivan Alekseevich was hardly able to decide on an important step in life without the influence of others.”
It is unlikely that the smart princess and the even smarter Golitsyn would have decided to marry the feeble-minded, weakened, “sorrowful head” and even incapable of married life Ivan. And none of the boyars would support them in this venture. So they thought – and quite rightly so! – Ivan is a quiet and meek young man who needs a reliable guide – and that’s all.
In addition, one might think that there are no absolutely sane, healthy and even intelligent people who get married solely under pressure from loved ones, because they themselves are terrified of this step. Ivan was not afraid - just, as usual, he soared in the clouds and thought little about worldly things. But when they told him that he needed to choose a wife, he demanded that everything be done according to his grandfather’s customs: viewing the first beauties and choosing from them the future queen.
Compare with the attitude of normal Peter towards marriage: “Yes, Mama, marry whoever you want!” - he said on the run and rushed off to finish playing another war game (or another drinking binge). Which of them behaved more mature and wiser, do you think?
At the same time, let's compare the portraits of Ivan and Peter. They are incredibly similar physically. The same big ones dark eyes(only Peter is “crazy”, and Ivan is meek), the same dark curly hair, the same beautifully sculpted mouth (only Peter’s is compressed with a nervous grimace, and Ivan’s is with a barely noticeable smile). If you ask a psychiatrist which of the brothers is grieving, the choice will undoubtedly fall on Peter, and not on his no less handsome, but somehow peaceful brother.
But there were no psychiatrists then, and even if there were, there were no idiots to ask them such questions. Therefore, in history, Peter remained the Great, and Ivan remained a fool, although I personally consider both to be a very strong exaggeration.
The girl chosen by Ivan, Praskovya Saltykova, was considered the first beauty of Russia: tall, stately, plump, blooming brunette. However, Sophia did not like her too much because of the unreliability of her family (the Saltykovs had a habit from time to time of putting their own interests above the state ones and serving their enemies). And the chosen one herself did not really strive to become a queen, although she was two years older than the groom (at that time, she spent too much time as a girl). Sophia tried to play on this and persuade her brother to choose another bride, but he, with all meekness and gentleness, insisted on his own:
- I love this girl. But I don’t need anything else and it’s better not to marry at all, don’t be angry, dear sister.
On January 8, 1684, on the eve of the wedding, “... the tsar had a table for the boyars, boyars, relatives of the father and the bride. Ivan and Praskovya were sitting at a special table. The royal confessor, the archpriest, blessed the bride and groom, ordered them to kiss, and the boyars and noblewomen rose with congratulations; After the table, the bride was sent home, and the guests left.
... January 9, 1684, Wednesday, Tsar Ivan spent the entire morning in the cathedrals: he served a prayer service; He sang at the graves of his sovereign ancestors, venerated the shrines, and asked the patriarch for his blessing for his marriage.
Meanwhile, preparations were completed: cleaning the chambers, wedding tables, arranging dishes, etc. and so on, and the celebration began with the fulfillment of those smallest customs that were sanctified in the eyes of the characters by the passage of years and centuries of use...
...After the wedding and the wedding table, the eminent guests, having led the Tsar and Tsarina to the bedchamber, sat down at the table, waiting for the hour of battle, when the friend would bring the news that good things had happened to the Tsar.”
“And on the morning of the next day, as was usual, different soap houses were prepared for the king and the queen, and the king went to the soap shop, and upon leaving it they laid on him a shirt and ports, and another dress, and the bed servant was ordered to keep the old shirt. And how the queen went to the soap shop and her closest wives with her, and examined her shirt, and having examined the shirt, they showed it to a few related wives so that her virginity was complete, and those shirts, the king’s and the queen’s, and the sheets, having gathered together, they kept to a secret place."
Subsequently, many historians and novelists “convincingly” proved that Tsarina Praskovya gave birth to children not from her legal husband, but from Vasily Yushkov, a sleeping bag specially assigned to her by Sophia. After all, for the first five years of marriage, Praskovya did not become pregnant. The version is beautiful, only Yushkov’s sleeping bag was assigned to Queen Praskovya by her brother-in-law, Tsar Peter, and after she was widowed. Perhaps it was then that Yushkov became her lover - no one was holding a candle, Queen Praskovya was no longer interested in anyone at all, and she herself did not seek to attract undue attention to herself.
Novelists recent years they agreed to the point that the royal spouses generally lived like brother and sister, although they slept in the same bed almost every night, and that Ivan could not fulfill his marital duty even on his wedding night. From inevitable shame and a monastic hood (there would be no traces of deprivation of virginity), the newlywed was saved... well, of course, by the same “junior tsar” Peter, who was a groomsman at the wedding and poked his curious nose into the chambers of the newlyweds, where Praskovya burst into tears of fear . A twelve-year-old boy quickly solved a state problem in the usual way, without disturbing anyone. sweet Dreams the newlywed, nor the other friends who were guarding in the entryway and corridors, and in parting he winked at the young woman, who was stunned by worries:
- A brother-in-law's first friend!
Truly, there are no limits to a woman’s imagination, especially when you need to add more “strawberries” to the ordered text, and her in real story, as luck would have it, not at all. Peter could not be a groomsman at Ivan’s wedding - due to his young age and his usual distance from the court together with his mother. He could not get into the bedchamber of the newlyweds unnoticed: there was a custom to protect even chimneys over the marriage chamber, besides, everyone was vigilant, awaiting the fulfillment of the sacrament of marriage. But what a spicy version!
Yes, there is the document cited above, indicating that the newly-made queen was pure and lost her virginity to her husband on her wedding night. But who is interested in these boring little things - marital relationships? Here is a lover-brother-in-law, ten years younger than his fleeting mistress - yes! It’s a pity that Praskovya didn’t get pregnant that same night - what a romance could have been concocted, what an intrigue to spin!
Meanwhile, if anyone then had the slightest doubt about the legality of the origin of the Ivanov princesses, Anna Ioannovna would not have seen the Russian throne like her own ears. The Russian nobility would not have let her near him at gunpoint, the daughter of a sleeping bag. But, apparently, contemporaries were much better informed than historians about the “marriage conditions” of Tsar Ivan. Or their imagination was less wild than that of their descendants.
Although I’m wrong here: everything was fine with fantasy there too: they whispered about the same Peter that he was adopted by Natalya Kirillovna from some kindness of a young man, and not from his legal spouse. But the fact is that this was also unrealistic: prison life did not allow absolutely anything to be kept secret: the servants slept in the corridors, under the doors, under the stairs, sometimes in the sovereign’s bedroom itself, right on the bench or simply on the floor. No matter how hard Princess Sophia tried to protect her love affair with Vasily Golitsyn from prying eyes, the last scullery maid in the Kremlin knew about it. And if the husband’s wife, the queen, had a sin with someone... and the very next day she would become a blueberry in a distant monastery. For mere suspicion they were punished no less severely, but for the fact...
So let's leave the romantic stories to the novelists. In marriage, in a special chamber in the Kremlin, Praskovya and Ivan lived for twelve years in complete harmony and mutual love that came with time, giving birth to five children - alas, only daughters, to the indescribable chagrin of Sophia and all the Miloslavskys. It would be better if Praskovya turned out to be barren - they could tonsure her as a nun and find Ivan another wife. But Ivan loved his daughters madly, and when two of them died in infancy, he took it as a real tragedy.
The queen, together with her sovereign husband, did not miss a single service, visited monasteries, made deposits, participated in religious processions, and distributed alms to the poor brethren and convicts. The queen did not do any business - only her “female” business, she reviewed canvases, tablecloths and other things delivered from the settlements who worked for the palace; she was in charge of the handicrafts of her craftswomen in the small rooms, where all sorts of work was done, even dolls were sewn for the royal children. Often the queen herself embroidered with gold and silk in the church and monastery, and made some items from dresses for herself, the sovereign and children: necklaces, collars, shirts, towels.
But the main and unchanging task of the queen’s life was prayer and alms in all kinds and forms, according to the rule of that time: “call the clergy and the poor and the weak, the poor, the sorrowful and strange strangers into your home and feed, drink and warm them according to your strength.” The queen gave generous alms to monasteries and churches during her pilgrimage. The church commemoration of the deceased royal relatives was accompanied by the feeding of the clergy and the poor; the latter gathered at the royal mansions on all memorial days.
That is, the queen led almost the same lifestyle as the king. And no one called her relaxed and weak-minded. On the contrary, her piety and good behavior were extolled to the skies. Well, where is the logic? Although Praskovya Feodorovna more often communicated with the “common people”: in addition to the beggars, many poor women turned to the queen with petitions about their needs, submitting them on holidays or the name day of one of the members royal family. There were many orphan girls living in the palace, who were taken in at the request of the supreme noblewomen or at the request of the queen herself. Also a holy fool?
The queen lived with her husband, according to custom, in different chambers separately.
“And on the Lord’s holidays, and on Sundays, and during fasting, the king and queen rest separately in their chambers; and when it happens that they will sleep together, and at that time the king sends the queen, orders him to go to bed with him, or he wants to go to her. But those who spend the night sleeping together, and in the morning go to the soap shop separately and do not come to the cross, are thus placed in uncleanness and sin...”
They were an extremely friendly and pious couple, who even at that time stood out for their piety and zealous performance of all rituals. This doesn’t look like madness, as you please.
The only “oddity” of Ivan was that he was not at all interested in vain worldly affairs, did not delve into state affairs, and did not support any of the existing boyar groups. He was interested in two things: church and family, and he treated both with equal reverence. And he couldn’t stand conflicts, especially open skirmishes. In 1689, when Princess Sophia again tried to incite the archers to revolt, using the name of Ivan Alekseevich as a banner of struggle against Peter’s party, Ivan wrote to his dear sister to leave him alone, because he “will not quarrel with my dear brother in anything.” .
This means that at that time no one considered the “elder king” to be relaxed and weak-minded. Otherwise, it would not have occurred to Sophia to appeal to the name of her younger brother in order to use him to inspire the archers to deal with the Naryshkins.
When the time came for the independent rule of Peter I, his elder brother still kept aloof and “remained in unceasing prayer and firm fasting.”
Well, idiot, what should I take? He doesn’t make any conspiracies, nor does he try to snatch the throne from under his brother. Holy fool, God forgive me.
So this version went down in history and took a strong position in it: Ivan Alekseevich did not rule because he could not do this due to his feeble mind and general relaxation. The fact that he simply did not want to rule did not fit into the minds of his contemporaries, and his descendants did not bother themselves too much with reflection. Although Ivan Alekseevich was exactly no different from the son of Ivan the Terrible - Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich - about whom his own father said in his hearts:
- A faster and a silent man, he should be a monk, not a king!
And Fyodor was a tsar - with his wise wife Irina and no less wise brother-in-law Boris Godunov, gently refusing to delve into state affairs that were not interesting to him. Well, they write plays about him, which are still performed, but no one has even written a tiny book about Tsar Ivan Alekseevich. Idiot...
Oh, how all this facilitated the transfer of power into the hands of the rapidly maturing Peter! Mature, but by no means wiser. Which, by the way, I would generally be careful not to call normal: he was, to put it mildly, a fool, and, to put it more harshly, he was a fitful and impatient sadist. If this is considered the norm... sorry.
Speaking of Peter. Why, after Sophia’s imprisonment in a monastery, did he need to write a lengthy letter to the “weak-minded brother” with a direct request for assistance?
“And now, sir brother, the time has come for both of our persons to rule the kingdom entrusted to us by God themselves, since we have come to the extent of our age, and we do not deign to have a third shameful person, our sister, with our two male persons in titles and in the dispensation of affairs; That’s why your will, my brother’s sovereign, would have bowed, because it taught you to enter into affairs and write your own title without our permission; Moreover, she also wanted to get married with a royal crown, to further offend us. It’s shameful, sir, at our perfect age, for that shameful person to own the state bypassing us! To you, the sovereign brother, I declare and ask: allow me, sir, by my fatherly will, for our better benefit and for the peace of the people, without being sent to you, the sovereign, to carry out the orders of truthful judges, and to change the indecent ones, so as to calm our state and make you happy soon. And how, sir, brother, let’s happen together, and then we will put everything on the measure; and I, the sovereign brother, are ready to honor you like a father.”
Ready to honor his father... Naturally, at that moment Peter needed his brother’s support like air: the “elder” was the king. Well, if he “doesn’t want to” support the tough measures of the “junior” Tsar - and then what? The boyar Duma would undoubtedly have sided with Ivan Alekseevich, he was his own, “correct”, no match for the “Kukui devil”.
Relaxed, weak-minded... Yes, completeness! This is how he became, “by nature, sorrowful” - he became later, in the obsequious and flattering memoirs of his “contemporaries” who were trying to flatter the new ruler. After all, before the death of his elder brother, Peter was not particularly weird - he was afraid that he, the actual understudy, almost a usurper, would be fine if only they were imprisoned in a monastery.
Ivan Alekseevich lived longer than all the male offspring of Queen Maria Miloslavskaya, whom, by the way, no one considered “relaxed.” He died suddenly (apparently from a heart attack) in his thirtieth year at the beginning of 1696 in Moscow and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
Two years earlier, the Dowager Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, who had never been ill with anything, even the notorious “scurvy,” also died suddenly at the forty-third year of her life.
Pyotr Alekseevich finally became an autocrat.
After the death of her husband, the widow, along with her three surviving daughters, settled in the countryside royal residence of Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Izmailovo. The position of butler was apparently filled by her brother Vasily Fedorovich Saltykov, assigned to her by Peter in 1690. In documents of the 18th century, the dowager queen continues to be called “Her Majesty Empress Tsarina Praskovea Feodorovna.”
But the thirty years of her widow’s life under the “reformer tsar” is a topic for a separate story: it is too tightly intertwined with the history of Russia, although Praskovya Fedorovna, the last Russian tsarina, always kept a low profile.
And the definition of “relaxed and sorrowful in head” is becoming more and more firmly attached to her late husband. For Russia should have realized what a great happiness befell her: instead of the “fool”, he ascended the throne...
Some, however, said - Antichrist. But you never know what they’re talking about...
In 1689, Shaklovity began to agitate the Streltsy commanders to submit a petition to crown the ruler as king. The proposal did not receive support, and the princess “did not indicate that this matter should be done.” In the same year, the coronation portrait of Sophia began to spread in Russia and abroad - in royal vestments and with a scepter, and in Moscow Shaklovity again gathered the archers to organize her “elections” for the kingdom according to the model of 1682.
At these meetings, if you believe the testimony of the archers at the investigation, there was talk of “letting go the bear, Queen Natalya” and Peter himself: “Why should he let him go? Why did it happen? There were proposals to plant a grenade in the tsar’s sleigh or to kill him during a fire. Judging by the materials of the investigation, it seems that no objections followed, nor, indeed, any decisive actions. Apparently, the archers did not trust the princess and did not want to destroy Peter’s supporters without an official order. Sophia never decided to give it up, especially since there was no unity in the ranks of her adherents - for example, Sylvester Medvedev opposed the assassination attempt on the leaders of the competing “party” B. A. Golitsyn and L. K. Naryshkin.
After the failure of the second Crimean campaign in the summer of 1689, the contradictions between the court “parties” reached their climax. The denouement came on the night of August 7-8, when two archers arrived in Preobrazhenskoye, notifying Peter about the gathering of military men on alert in the Kremlin and Lubyanka “for unknown reasons.” The frightened king and a few people immediately galloped away from his residence and took refuge in the fortified Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Sophia didn’t seem to know what to do. These days she often prayed and went, surrounded by archers, to the Donskoy and Novodevichy monasteries. She sent the boyars and the patriarch to Peter and convinced her brother to return, but he refused. Joachim remained in Trinity; members of the sovereign's court, soldier and rifle regiments, and serving foreigners went over to the side of the seventeen-year-old king.
Sophia finally decided to go to her brother herself. But in the village of Vozdvizhenskoye, Peter’s envoys declared that if she dared to move further, then she would be “dishonestly dealt with.” Having failed, the princess returned to Moscow. She also tried to persuade the Streltsy, forced them to kiss the cross to be faithful to her... But the outcome of the court conflict was decided by the Streltsy commanders, who came to Trinity on August 30: the government of Sophia had lost its military support. Members of the Boyar Duma reached out to bow to Peter I. The archers themselves demanded that their chief Shaklovity be handed over for reprisal, and when the proud princess refused, they began to threaten her with rebellion.
As a result, Sophia capitulated. Shaklovity and his “accomplices” were put under investigation and executed on September 12. At the decisive moment, Golitsyn could not or did not want to fight for power - he left for his village near Moscow. Then he also appeared at Trinity, listened to the death sentence on behalf of young Peter, and then the news of the royal favor - exile to northern Kargopol. Sophia still managed to send a messenger with a letter and money - the last gift to dear Vassenka.
The fate of the princess herself was also decided. The younger tsar wrote to his brother that their sister “ruled the state ... by her own will,” and not by law, and her reign brought both damage to both sovereigns and “burdensomeness to the people.” Having briefly reported on the villainous intentions of Shaklovity and his accomplices, of which they were “blamed after being searched and tortured,” Peter outlined the main thing: “And now, sir brother, the time has come for both of our persons to rule the kingdom entrusted to us by God ourselves, even though we have come to the measure of our age.” our own, but we do not deign to be with the third shameful person, our sister Princess Sofia A[lekseevna], with our two courageous persons in titles and in the administration of affairs... It’s shameful, sir, at our perfect age for that shameful person owning the state is past us!” Ivan did not object - and he hardly had the opportunity to do otherwise. On September 7, a decree was issued to exclude the princess’s name from the title; she officially ceased to be a ruler and “moved” from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent.
Peter himself sincerely believed that his life was in danger; he informed his brother how Shaklovity and his friends “along with other thieves were plotting to kill us and our mother’s health, and they were guilty of this after being searched and tortured.” Peter’s associates B.I. Kurakin and A.A. Matveev also cited in their notes a version of the conspiracy: “Tsarevna Sofia Alekseevna, having gathered some Streltsy regiments to the Kremlin that night, with whom she wanted to send Shcheglovity to Preobrazhenskoye, so that this chateau could also set fire to the Tsar Kill Peter Alekseevich I and his mother, beat the whole court and declare yourself to the kingdom.” Subsequently, this assessment of events became generally accepted.
But back in the 19th century, some researchers expressed doubts about the existence of a conspiracy. Shaklovity’s investigative file, which has been preserved with some losses, allows us to speak about the absence of organized actions by Sophia’s supporters. All attempts to encourage the archers to take active steps in defense of the ruler were unsuccessful. The princess did not give sanctions to them, and her entourage was themselves afraid of an attack from Preobrazhensky - it was no coincidence that on July 25, on the day of the celebration of the name day of the Tsar's aunt Anna Mikhailovna, Shaklovity placed reinforced guards in the Kremlin on the occasion of Peter's arrival.
On August 7th, Sophia had no assembled troops at her disposal, and her actions look more like a retaliatory measure. On the evening of the same day, an anonymous letter was found in the Kremlin, “and in that letter it is written that amusing grooms, having gathered in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, wanted to come to their sovereign’s house at night on the 7th of August and beat them all, the sovereigns.” Shaklovity sent three archers to reconnaissance in Preobrazhenskoe - they hurried to Peter with a denunciation. The archers, urgently raised in the Kremlin and Lubyanka, did not have a specific plan for action, which was confirmed by the informers themselves, who did not provide any evidence of a threat to the life of the Tsar.
At the first interrogation, Dmitry Melnov and Yakov Ladygin betrayed the comrades and like-minded people who had sent them, led by the five-hundred-strong Stremyanny Regiment Larion Elizariev, Shaklovity’s confidant, and they, arriving at Trinity two days later, submitted detailed reports about plans to kill the “close people” of Tsar B. A. Golitsyn and Naryshkins and the alleged removal of the patriarch.
The testimony of L. Elizariev, I. Ulfov, D. Melnov, Y. Ladygin, F. Turki, M. Feoktistov and I. Troitsky became the basis for a search, which a month later brought Shaklovity and his associates to the chopping block. It was these seven who received not only a huge reward - a thousand rubles each, but also the right “to be in other ranks in which they want.”
A few years later, in the fall of 1697, the archer of the Stremyanny Regiment, Mishka Syrokhvatov, who was in the newly conquered Azov, declared “the sovereign’s business”, told the governor that it was Larion Elizariev and his friends who were Shaklovity’s most active supporters in 1689: they distributed money on his behalf and led the meetings. According to Syrokhvatov and the witnesses he presented, Elizariev and Feoktistov gathered archers at the retreat hut on a memorable August night, sent three people to Preobrazhenskoye “to check on the great sovereign” and, having received news of Peter’s departure, “set off on a Trinity campaign.” However, the informer did not receive a reward - according to instructions from Moscow, he was “beaten with a whip on a goat mercilessly” and left to live forever in Azov, and his report did not in the least harm the careers of those accused by him.
It appears that there was no real coup attempt. In an atmosphere of mutual suspicion, the actions of the archers, led by Elizariev, became the spring that set in motion the mechanism of all further events - if, of course, they were naive campaigners who mistakenly mistook the night gathering of the archers for preparing an assassination attempt on Peter I, and not provocateurs, pushing the king to take retaliatory steps. The above facts add touches to this version, but do not yet allow us to draw a final conclusion.
A ghostly chance to return to power and an active life appeared for the deposed ruler at the end of the century. The Streltsy regiments sent from Moscow to the Lithuanian border in 1698 were dissatisfied with their position. Their messengers now themselves sought to communicate with the disgraced princess and allegedly received letters (although it is still unclear whether Sophia herself or the Streltsy leaders wrote them on her behalf) calling for her to be released from captivity, to “beat her with her forehead” - asking her to “go to Moscow against former to the dominion” and not allow Peter into the city.
- Take into custody and do as told...
Have taken. They took me. Behind the churchyard they put father and son on a cart, on mats, and the bailiff and dragoons jumped in behind. The driver, in a torn overcoat and bast shoes, spun the reins, and the bad little horse dragged the cart from the monastery into the field. It was night, the stars were covered in dampness.
The Trinity campaign is over. Just like seven years ago, we spent time in the Lavra in Moscow. The boyars with the patriarch and Natalya Kirillovna, after thinking, wrote on behalf of Peter to Tsar Ivan:
“...And now, brother sir, the time has come for both of our persons to rule the kingdom entrusted to us by God ourselves, since the first ones have come to the measure of their age, and the third shameful We don’t deign to have a face, our sister, with our two male persons in titles and reprisals…”
Sophia was transported from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent at night without much noise. Shaklovit, Chermny and Obrosim Petrov had their heads cut off, the rest of the thieves were beaten with a whip in the square, in the suburbs, their tongues were cut out, and they were exiled to Siberia forever. Pop Medvedev and Nikita Gladky were later captured by the Dorogobuzh governor. They were terribly tortured and beheaded.
Rewards were awarded in land and money: boyars three hundred rubles, okolnichy two hundred and seventy, Duma nobles two hundred and fifty. The stolniks who arrived with Peter at the Lavra - thirty-seven rubles in money, those who arrived after - thirty-two rubles, those who arrived before August 10 - thirty rubles, and those who arrived before August 20 - twenty-seven rubles. City nobles were paid in the same order eighteen, seventeen and sixteen rubles. To all ordinary archers for loyalty - one ruble without land.
Before returning to Moscow, the boyars sorted out orders among themselves: the first and most important - Posolsky - was given to Lev Kirillovich, but without the title of guardian. Once the military and other needs had passed, it would have been possible to completely abandon Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn - the patriarch and Natalya Kirillovna could not forgive him for much, and especially for saving Vasily Vasilyevich from the whip and the block, but the boyars considered it indecent to deprive such a high family of honor : “Let’s go for it, - soon the orders will be knocked out from under us, - merchants, clerks without roots, foreigners and all sorts of vile people, look, they’re crawling to Tsar Peter for booty, for places...” Boris Alekseevich was given for food and honor order of the Kazan Palace. Having learned about this, he spat, got drunk that day, shouted: “To hell with them, but I have enough for mine,” and drunkenly rode off to his estate near Moscow to sleep it off...
The new ministers, as the foreigners began to call them then, removed some clerks and clerks from the orders and installed others and began to think and rule according to the old custom. There were no special changes. Only in the Kremlin palace did Lev Kirillovich wear black sables, slam doors imperiously, and prickly click his heels instead of Ivan Miloslavsky...
These were old, famous people - there was nothing to expect from them except ruin, extortion and disorder. In Moscow and Kukui - merchants of all hundreds, tax farmers, trade and craft people in the suburbs, foreign guests, ship captains - Dutch, Hanoverian, English - were waiting with great impatience for new orders and new people. There were various rumors about Peter, and many put all their hope in him. Russia - a gold mine - lay under the centuries-old mud... If not a new tsar will raise life, then who will?
Peter was in no hurry to go to Moscow. He left the Lavra with an army and marched to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, where the rotten timbers of the terrible palace of Tsar Ivan the Fourth still stood. Here General Sommer staged an exemplary battle. It lasted for a whole week, as long as there was enough gunpowder. And here Sommer’s service ended - the poor fellow fell from his horse and was injured.
In October, Peter went with only his amusing regiments to Moscow. Ten versts away, in the village of Alekseevskoye, he was met by large crowds of people. They kept icons, banners, and loaves of bread on dishes. On the sides of the road lay logs and blocks with stuck axes, and on the damp ground lay, with their necks on the logs, archers - elected - from those regiments that were not in Trinity... But the young king did not chop off heads, he was not angry, although he was not was friendly.
Chapter Five
Lefort was becoming a big man. Foreigners living in Kukui and visitors trade affairs from Arkhangelsk and Vologda, spoke of him with great respect. Clerks of Amsterdam and London trading houses wrote there about him and advised: if something happens, send him small gifts - best of all, good wine. When he was promoted to the rank of general for the Troitsk campaign, the Kukuis gathered together and presented him with a sword. Passing by his house, they winked meaningfully at each other, saying: “Oh yes...” His house was now cramped - so many people wanted to shake his hand, exchange a word, just remind him of themselves. Despite the late autumn, hasty work began on the superstructure and expansion of the house - they installed a stone porch with side entrances, decorated the front side with columns and stucco men. In the place of the courtyard, where there had previously been a fountain, they dug a lake for water and fire fun. Guardhouses for the musketeers were built on the sides.
Of his own free will, perhaps, Lefort would not have decided on such expenses, but this is what the young king wanted. During the Trinity sitting, Peter began to need Lefort, like a smart mother to a child: Lefort understood his desires at a glance, guarded him from dangers, taught him to see benefits and disadvantages, and it seemed that he himself loved him dearly, he was constantly near the king, not to ask how the boyars, sadly knocking their foreheads on the feet of the villages and little people, and for the common cause and common fun of both of them. Dressed, talkative, good-natured, like the morning sun in the window, he appeared - with bows, smiles - in Peter's bedchamber - and so the day began with fun, joyful worries, happy expectations. In Lefort, Peter loved his sweet thoughts about overseas lands, beautiful cities and harbors with ships and brave captains, smelling of tobacco and rum - everything that, since childhood, he had imagined in pictures and printed sheets brought from abroad. Even the smell from Lefort’s dress was not Russian, it was different, very pleasant...
Peter wanted his beloved’s house to become an island of this alluring foreignness - Lefortovo Palace was decorated for royal fun. No amount of money was spared, as much as could be extracted from the mother and Lev Kirillovich. Now that his own people were sitting upstairs in Moscow, Peter rushed to pleasure without looking back. His passions burst through, and here Lefort was especially needed: he wanted and didn’t know without him... And what could their Russians advise? - well, falconry or blind men - pulling Lazarus... Ugh! Lefort understood his wishes perfectly. It was like a hop leaf in the dark beer of Peter’s passions.
At the same time, work on the capital city of Preshpurg resumed - the fortress was being prepared for spring military fun. The regiments were lined with new clothes: the Preobrazhentsy in green caftans, the Semyonovtsy in azure, and Gordon’s Butyrsky Regiment in red. The whole autumn passed in feasts and dances. Foreign merchants and industrialists, between amusements in Lefort's palace, followed their line...
The newly built dance hall was still damp; the heat from two huge fireplaces made tall semicircular windows sweat, and opposite them on a blank wall were mirrors in the form of windows. The oak brick floors have been freshly waxed. The candles in the three-candlesticks on the wall with a mirror were lit, although it was only just beginning to twilight. Soft snow was falling. A sleigh drove into the courtyard between dusty heaps of clay and wood chips - Dutch - in the form of a swan, painted in niello and gold, Russian - long, in a box - with piled pillows and bear skins, heavy leather carts - with gears in a train, and simple cabman's sleighs, where, Some foreigner sat with his knees up, laughing, having hired a man for two kopecks from Lubyanka to Kukui.
In -1696 from the Romanov dynasty. Son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Quiet and Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. Elder half-brother and co-ruler of Peter I. Father of Anna Ioannovna, Empress of All Russia.
They said about Ivan Alekseevich that he was weak-minded, which may have been the result of an illness - epilepsy, aggravated by scurvy, a chronic illness of the children of Maria Miloslavskaya - and the slander of the Naryshkins, which they spread during the period of a fierce struggle for power with the Miloslavskys.
It is known for certain that, being at the very center of this struggle, Ivan Alekseevich never tried to take an active part in it and did not show interest in government activities. Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, who was a younger contemporary of Ivan and one of the associates of Peter I, wrote about him as “a man of a contented mind.”
Both brothers, one due to ill health, the other due to age, could not participate in the struggle for power. Instead of them, their relatives fought: for Ivan - his sister, Princess Sophia, and their Miloslavsky relatives, relatives of his mother; for Peter - the Naryshkins, relatives of the second wife of Alexei Mikhailovich. The matter did not happen without a bloody mutiny of the Streltsy.
At that time, it was very important for Peter to enlist the support of his brother, or at least his non-interference.
At the age of 27, foreign ambassadors described Ivan as senile, paralytic and almost blind. He died two years later, on February 8, 1696, and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral. It was to the advantage of co-ruler Peter that Ivan had several daughters, but no sons, since there was no confusion regarding the succession to the crown after his death. Peter had to become the sole ruler
