And now, sir, brother, set the time. Little-known facts about the most infantile Tsar Ivan V

Sophia, as she had expected, was sent to a monastery with certain precautions that increased the severity of the punishment. Peter established a relationship with his brother. He wrote him the following letter:

“Brother, Tsar Tsar John Alekseevich, with your daughter-in-law, and with your wife, and with your birth in the mercy of God, hello! It is known to you, Sovereign, that I am repairing, and I will also forgive your permission about this: that by the grace of God, the scepter of the reign of our ancestral Russian kingdom was handed over to us, two persons, as the conciliar action of 190 testifies to this to our mothers in the Eastern churches: also by our surrounding brethren the sovereign knows about our statehood; and the third person, to be with us in equal rule, was not at all remembered. And how our sister Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna taught our state to control our will, and in that possession what was contrary to our people, and the burden and our patience on the family, you, sir, know about that. And now our villains Fedka Shaklovity and his comrades, not satisfied with our mercy, breaking their promise, plotted with other thieves to kill us and our mother’s health, and they were guilty of this through search and torture. And now, sir brother, the time has come for both of our persons to rule the kingdom entrusted to us by God themselves, even though we have come to the extent of our age, and for the third shameful person, our sister (Ts. S. A.) with our two men’s persons in titles and in We do not deign to settle matters; To this end, your will, my brother’s sovereign, would have bowed, because it taught you to enter into affairs and write yourself in titles without our permission; Moreover, she also wanted to be married with a royal crown, to further our offense. Is it 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: grant me, sir, your fatherly will, for best benefits ours and for the peace of the people, without sending to you, sir, to carry out according to the orders of the truthful judges, and to change the indecent ones, so that our state can be calmed and soon made happy. And how, sir, brother, let’s happen together and then we will put everything on the measure, and I, sir brother, am ready to honor you like a father. And I was ordered to verbally convey something else to you, sovereign, to our faithful boyar, Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Prozorovsky. And against this writing and verbal order of mine, give me a rebuke. “Your brother Tsar Peter, who wrote in sorrow, wishes you health and strikes you with my forehead.”

Ivan Proskurov was instructed to suggest that the princess quickly choose a monastery for herself. After some hesitation, she complied and designated the newly built Novodevichy Convent near Moscow.

But this was only a temporary reign. From Ivan, who silently accepted the accomplished facts and spoke only in ceremonies, and Peter, who, after the end of the crisis, returned to his entertainment and then faded away, power fell to the real heroes of the moment. Most of it was first received by Boris Golitsyn, a native Muscovite, the living opposite of his cousin Vasily; Then, when his help to a guilty relative, which compromised him, aroused the anger of the Naryshkins, power passed to the Naryshkins themselves and other relatives of the Queen Mother. But the hour had not yet struck for the future great man. The serious struggle in which he was temporarily involved did not yet force him out of adolescence. But this struggle still had a great influence on his fate, on the development of his character and inclinations. The young king leaves his former comrades, finds others who quickly take the place of the old ones in his heart and who are called upon, if not to create with him the history of a great reign, then at least to show him the way and guide his steps.

BOOK TWO

AT THE SCHOOL OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD

On a hike. School of War. Creation of a fleet. Capture of Azov

They spoke differently about the comrades of foreign origin who now appeared among those around Peter, confusing numbers and facts so that Patrick Gordon was considered long before the fall of Sophia as one of the trusted and educators of the young tsar, and Lefort was considered the main organizer and creator of the coup of 1689. In fact, both of them met Peter only during his stay at Trinity and much later became his close friends. Gordon belonged to the society of Vasily Golitsyn, Lefort was of no importance.

Born in 1635 into a family of petty lords, royalists and Catholics, Patrick Gordon had been languishing in Russia for 30 years, holding minor positions that he did not like at all. Before coming here, he had already served the emperor, the Swedes against the Poles and the Poles against the Swedes "He was dearly a genuine Dugald Dolgetty", say his English biographers. His knowledge was limited to memories of the rural school he attended in his homeland, near Aberdeen; his military background includes commanding a dragoon regiment in Germany and Poland. Alexei in 1665 and Sophia in 1685 entrusted him with diplomatic missions; he traveled to England twice with instructions regarding the privileges of English merchants, fulfilled them with honor, but received only a glass of vodka, which Peter, then a fourteen-year-old boy, brought to him upon his return from his second trip. He considered himself offended, asked for resignation, but, not receiving it, joined the dissatisfied. Meanwhile, he took part in the devastating Crimean War and received the rank of general. Naturally intelligent and active, with good connections in his homeland, he thought that he had the right to more high position. Personally known to Kings Charles and James of England, cousin Earl Gordon, who was governor of Edinburgh in 1686, he was a recognized representative of the royalist Scottish colony of Sloboda. Speaking Russian and loving to drink, he enjoyed a certain popularity among the Muscovites themselves. With his lively mind, appearance of a civilized man and energetic appearance, he should have attracted the attention of Peter. Peter always gave preference to people with strong temperaments. Patrick Gordon suffered from a stomach ailment from which he died; but in 1697, at the age of 64, he ended his diary with the words: “These days I noticed for the first time a decrease in health and strength.”

Franz Lefort came to Moscow in 1675 with fifteen foreign officers to seek his fortune. Swiss by birth, he belonged to a family that, during the Reformation, left the city of Coney - where it was called Liforti - to settle in Geneva. His father was a pharmacist, therefore, he belonged to the highest merchant class. Around 1649, women of this class received from the reform chamber the right to “wear dresses of double taffeta with flowers.” At the age of eighteen, Franz left for Holland with 60 florins and a letter of recommendation from Prince Charles of Courland to his brother Casimir. Charles lived in Geneva, Casimir served in Holland with a corps of troops. He did young man his secretary, giving him instead of a salary his old dress, worth 300 ducats, and money for cards. The reward was large, but poorly secured. Two years later, Lefort went to Arkhangelsk. His first thought was to leave. But at that time it was impossible to leave Russia when and how you wanted: foreigners were strictly monitored, and those leaving were considered spies. Lefort remained in Moscow for two years, thinking that he would die of hunger. He tried to get into the retinue of one of the prominent members of the diplomatic corps, knocked on the thresholds of the Swiss Danish ambassador and the English kitchen. But he could not settle down anywhere; little by little, however, he acquired friends among the residents of Sloboda, influential patrons, and even a pretty patroness, the widow of a foreign colonel, a very rich woman. In 1678, he finally decided to settle in Russia and began by getting married. It was necessary condition. It was necessary to have a family and a home to dispel mistrust. He married Elizaveta Sukhaya, the daughter of a native of the city of Metz, a Catholic, with a fairly good dowry and excellent connections. Mrs. Sukhey's two brothers, two Bockhovens, Dutch by birth, had an important position in the army; Patrick Gordon was the son-in-law of one of them. Lefort thus chose a military career, for which, however, he had neither love nor calling.

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

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 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 planning 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, suggests 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 exit 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 the 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.

Russian Tsar in 1682-1696, from the Romanov dynasty. The son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich “The Quietest” and Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna, née Miloslavskaya.

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, as the next king. youngest son Alexey Mikhailovich.

They said about Ivan Alekseevich that he was weak-minded, which, perhaps, was 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. It is also possible that his indifference, and perhaps even aversion to higher power, was perceived by his contemporaries as a clear sign dementia.

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 the Miloslavskys, 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. A special throne with two seats was built for them, currently kept in the Armory.

Until 1689, the reign of both Ivan and Peter was 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:

The message is obviously addressed to a completely reasonable person, and this is not just a form of etiquette: at that time it was very important for Peter to enlist the support of his brother, or at least his non-interference.

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.

From 1682 to 1689, Sophia ruled; in 1689, actual power passed to the Naryshkin clan, nominally headed by Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, after whose death in 1694 power was concentrated in the hands of Peter.

Ivan Alekseevich lived longer than all the male offspring of Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna, but by the age of 27 he was completely decrepit, had poor vision and was stricken with paralysis.

At the age of 30, on January 29 (February 8), 1696, he died suddenly in Moscow and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.