Thank God we are legal. Foreigners were surprised by life in Crimea: “Thank God, we are in Russia

Various dubious parables were circulating in St. Petersburg high society, claiming to be historically accurate. According to one of them, Alexander III Having learned from Pobedonostsev that the real father of Paul I was not Peter III, but Saltykov, he allegedly crossed himself and said: “Thank God, we are Russians.” And having heard from historians that this was not so, he crossed himself again and said: “Thank God, we are legal.”

The fate of humanism in XXI century

It’s easy to talk about some elite bunch, with specific goals establishing its relationship with some Tibetan-Himalayan influences over long periods of time.

It is also easy to talk about how exactly this clot, you see, is connected with the last Russian empress, aka Alice of Hesse, and other both our domestic and foreign structures, constantly reaching out specifically to the Tibetan-Himalayan zone.

But if we want to fill the phrase “elite clot” with some meaning, it is not enough for us to simply establish connections between Count Saint-Germain and Tibetan-Himalayan trends, as well as connections between this count and Karl of Hesse-Kassel, reaching out to both the count and Tibetan-Himalayan themes, and to all alchemical issues, and to Asia in general.

It is also not enough to establish connections between the same count and the mother of Catherine II. As well as connections between the Count of Saint-Germain and the so-called Rosicrucian and near-Rosicrucian groups in Europe and Russia. Moreover, these groups considered the Count of Saint-Germain their mentor, an intermediary between them and various kinds of higher powers.

I will not hide from the reader that in everything connected with this elite bunch, there are completely unusual plots. And that I will now present other stories, boring and ordinary, precisely in order to move from them to something completely extraordinary and at the same time completely confirmed from a historical point of view. But no unusual plots by themselves can lead us to the necessary trail. Only their combination with something completely routine from a historical point of view can, I am sure, open the door to a world that truly interests us. Therefore, before moving on to the exotic, I will present some routine information that does not at all belong to the category of generally known things. And what kind of historical information in general can now be classified as generally known in our country? It is all the more important to first inform the reader of such, on the one hand, routine, and on the other, now no longer generally known, information.

Her father is a major general in the Prussian army, Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst.

Her mother is the general's 17-year-old wife, Johanna Elisabeth. Johanna Elisabeth belonged to the princely family of Holstein-Gottorp.

I include as routine information everything related to the German elite families in question - Anhalt-Zerbst, Holstein-Gottorp and others.

When did the Romanovs first become related to the German princely houses of Europe?

In 1710, when the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ivanovna (Ioannovna), the daughter of Peter’s elder brother, Ivan Alekseevich, married the Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm, a representative of the princely dynasty of the Kettlers.

The second time this happens is on October 13, 1711, when the unfortunate heir of Tsar Peter the Great, Alexei, marries the Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Sophia-Charlotte.

The third time the marriage union of representatives of the Romanovs and the German princely houses took place in 1716, when Ekaterina Ivanovna (Ioannovna), the elder sister of the future Empress Anna Ioannovna, was married to Duke Karl-Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

For the fourth time, Karl Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, becomes a candidate for the same marriage. The marriage union is concluded between him and the daughter of Peter the Great, Anna Petrovna...

Holstein-Gottorp... Stop!

If up to this point I described successively all the marriage alliances that cemented the kinship of the Romanovs and the German princely houses of Europe, now, having reached the first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp family, I refuse to observe such a sequence. Because if it is followed, my research common problems will inevitably turn into a more or less detailed study of certain private, although important for understanding our history, genealogies.

Therefore, skipping the fifth, not very important for us, case of the marriage of the Romanovs with the German princely houses, I inform the reader that the daughter of Peter the Great, Anna Petrovna, gave birth to a son from Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp - Karl Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.

This Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, being the son of one of the daughters of Peter the Great, Anna Petrovna, was thereby the nephew of another daughter of Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, known in history as Russian empress Elizabeth.

Since Elizaveta Petrovna was not married to any representative of one or another dynasty worthy of succession to the throne, she could not transfer rule through the mechanism of direct succession to the throne. Therefore, Elizabeth ordered her closest relative, the son of her elder sister Anna Petrovna, Karl Peter Ulrich, to be brought to St. Petersburg.

As for Anna Petrovna herself, she, having given birth to Karl Peter Ulrich on February 10, 1728, died a month later. The cause of death was the consequences of an unsuccessful birth, complicated by pneumonia.

So, Anna Petrovna died, and her son Karl Peter Ulrich, summoned by his aunt Elizaveta Petrovna to St. Petersburg, was to become either the new Russian emperor or the Swedish king: according to his mother, Karl Peter Ulrich was the grandson of Peter the Great, and according to his father, the grandson sisters of the Swedish king Charles XII.

As a result, Karl Peter Ulrich, referred to in official sources as the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (he became the sovereign Duke of Holstein-Gottorp in 1745), after the death of Elizabeth Petrovna became emperor and autocrat of All-Russian Peter III.

Well, so... Specialists involved in the classification of individual Romanov clans call Peter III first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp (Oldenburg) branch of the Romanovs on the Russian throne. Let us pay attention to this essential detail - experts are not talking about the Romanovs as such, but about the Holstein-Gottorps, who reign in Russia under the name (and one might say, under the mask) of the Romanovs. This first Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp reigned in Russia for about six months. After which he was overthrown by his wife Catherine II.

So, we are dealing with a sort of Russian imperial couple: Peter III, actually Holstein-Gottorp, and future Catherine II, she is the daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst, who came from the Zerbst-Dornburg line of the House of Anhalt, and Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, daughter of Prince Christian August of Lübeck, Princess of the House of Holstein-Gottorp.

Catherine II's mother was a great-aunt to Catherine II's husband. Both the mother of Catherine II and the husband of Catherine II were representatives of the Holstein-Gottorp House.

There is indeed a certain Holstein-Gottorp branch of the Romanov dynasty. Or the Romanov branch of the Holstein-Gottorp. Those who have not liked the Romanovs for centuries talk about the Romanov branch of the Holstein-Gottorp family. Those who have had a less negative view of the Romanovs for centuries talk about the Holstein-Gottorp branch of the Romanov dynasty. But only those who do not want to know the truth at all can talk about the Romanovs as such.

But were there other, also German, branches of the Romanov dynasty? Yes they were. And they fought with the Holstein-Gottorp branch that we are now discussing. In order to discuss this struggle, we will have to delve even deeper into the dynastic routine.

After the death of Peter the Great, a dynastic struggle began, which in particular included the “Petrovtsy”, that is, the family of Peter himself, and the “Ivanovo”, that is, the family of Peter the Great’s elder brother Ivan Alekseevich.

Among the “Petrovites” is Elizaveta Petrovna.

Among the “Ivanovo residents” are Anna Ioannovna and Anna Leopoldovna. The last one was overthrown by Elizabeth Petrovna during a palace coup and, having been overthrown, became empress.

Anna Leopoldovna is the daughter of Ekaterina Ivanovna. And Ekaterina Ivanovna, the daughter of Peter the Great’s brother Ivan, belongs to the “Ivanovoites,” which means Anna Leopoldovna belongs to the “Ivanovoites.” Another thing is that the husband of Ekaterina Ivanovna - the mother of Anna Leopoldovna - was Duke Karl-Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Anna Leopoldovna owed her accession to the Empress Anna Ioannovna. This Anna Ivanovna, who herself belonged to the “Ivanovoites” (she is the daughter of Ivan Alekseevich, the elder brother of Peter the Great), fiercely hated the “Petrovites”. That is, any direct descendants of Peter the Great. And she hated Elizaveta Petrovna, the head of the “Petrovites,” with particular ferocity.

Unable to transfer power to her direct heir, Anna Ivanovna transferred it to Anna Leopoldovna. Anna Leopoldovna's fiancé was Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick-Bevern-Lunenburg. It was openly said that this prince was promoting the interests of Austria in Russia and that other suitors of Anna Leopoldovna were undesirable, because they would promote the interests of Prussia.

Anna Leopoldovna was almost forcibly married to Anton-Ulrich, who by that time had already served for several years in Russian army and prove yourself to be a brave officer. This happened in 1739.

In 1740, Anton-Ulrich and Anna Leopoldovna had a son, Ivan. And in the same year Anna Ioannovna died. The regent under Anna Leopoldovna became Anna Ioannovna's favorite Biron, who was soon overthrown by another Anna Ioannovna's favorite, Field Marshal Minikh.

Anton-Ulrich and Anna Leopoldovna were openly called the “Brunswick couple.” Or - the Brunswick branch of the Romanov dynasty. Here are two branches: Holstein-Gottorp and Brunswick. And the war between them. It is also a war between Prussia and the Austrian Empire.

The guard officers, idolizing Peter the Great, had every reason to fight on the side of the “Peter’s men,” and therefore Elizabeth. And they, of course, did not like the “Ivanovo”, and therefore the Brunswick branch.

When the Brunswick couple sent into disgrace that same Field Marshal Minich, who, having dealt with Biron, elevated this couple to the throne, an anti-Brunswick guards conspiracy began to rapidly take shape in favor of the “Petrine men,” that is, in favor of Elizabeth.

This conspiracy, which put an end to the omnipotence of the Brunswick branch of the Romanovs and established the omnipotence of their Holstein-Gottorp branch, took place on the night of November 24-25, 1741.

The Brunswick surname was not just removed. At first they wanted to deport Anna Leopoldovna and Anton-Ulrich to their homeland, then, before reaching Riga, they put them in prison, then they began to transport them from one prison to another.

Anna Leopoldovna died quite quickly. Anton-Ulrich survived. He knew nothing about the fate of his son Ivan Antonovich.

Other representatives of this family were first persecuted, then, under Catherine, they were given some relief, but they did not play any role in the history of Russia. Unlike the representatives of the Holstein-Gottorp branch.

The reader is now convinced that from the moment of the accession to the throne of Peter Fedorovich, belonging to the Holstein-Gottorps (aka - Russian Emperor Peter III), and especially from the moment when Catherine II, who overthrew her husband and also belonged to the Holstein-Gottorps, became empress, narrow specialists in genealogy and history of the ruling families began to legitimately call the Romanov dynasty “Holstein-Gottorps-Romanovs”. The reader is convinced that such naming is not slanderous, but historically objective. But if it came down to conversations among genealogists! No, reader. The Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov theme has long been not only historical and genealogical, but also elite-political in nature. Otherwise we would not have discussed it.

Prince Pyotr Vladimirovich Dolgorukov (1816–1868) is, to put it mildly, far from an impeccable figure. I am ready to join the most negative assessments of this figure. But even if all the reproaches against Dolgorukov are taken at face value (and in fact, these reproaches are divided into fair and unfair), this in no way affects the professional reputation of Dolgorukov, who was one of the largest specialists in Russian genealogy.

And yet, Dolgorukov’s appeal to Tsar Alexander II, which I want to quote, cannot be considered only as evidence of the particular slander of this publicist. Although, of course, in terms of slander, Pyotr Vladimirovich, as they say, hides all conceivable and inconceivable records of his time. By the way, to me personally, of all the truly disgusting tricks of Dolgorukov, one of his tricks is especially disgusting - feeding guests a pie with the meat of his beloved Great Dane. And not because I feel sorry for the guests, but because I feel sorry for the Great Dane.

But you can be a disgusting person and good specialist. Dolgorukov combined this professionalism and human disgust. And us in in this case I'm interested in professionalism.

Even if in Dolgorukov’s address to Alexander II slander had completely prevailed over professionalism (and this, of course, is not the case), then Dolgorukov’s address still represents a vivid document of the era. There was a heated elite political debate surrounding this address. So it should still be reproduced. This is what Dolgorukov writes to Alexander II, calling him “executing the position of Romanov in Russia”:

“You know, Sovereign, that my ancestors were great princes and ruled Russia at a time when Your Majesty’s ancestors were not yet counts of Oldenburg.”

This means that the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, is the ancient Russian government, and the so-called Romanovs are not at all so great from the point of view of birth. And this is something that ended soon after Peter the Great and was actually replaced by Holstein-Gottorp (or, which is actually the same thing, Oldenburg) foreigners who did not have special treatment to the Romanovs, and those who perform their positions in Russia.

In the Russian aristocracy that did not consider itself a Romanov, the imperial family was called Holstein-Gottorp. So it’s not just specialists who use this name, reader. It was widely used in elite wrestling. And as a result, it became one of the important components in the overthrow of the Romanovs.

In 1885, a change was made to the “Institution on the Imperial Family”. According to this change, the great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons of the emperor were deprived of the title of grand dukes and princesses. For them the title “prince of the imperial blood” was established (which blood exactly is unclear). The enemies of the Romanovs rejoiced at this. And one of the Romanovs, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Romanov (1832–1909), last son Emperor Nicholas I and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (who, like all the other Romanovs, was actually a representative of various kinds of German families, married to a German princess, and so on), wrote: “This is all the St. Petersburg high society, which rejoices at this measure, saying that they are Rurikovichs, and we are Holstein Germans, in whom there is no Romanov blood left. And what would the Dolgorukovs or Obolenskys say if the title that belonged to them was taken away from their offspring? And without trial, without committing a crime, etc.”

Various dubious parables were circulating in St. Petersburg high society, claiming to be historically accurate. According to one of them, Alexander III, having learned from Pobedonostsev that the real father of Paul I was not Peter III, but Saltykov, allegedly crossed himself and said: “Thank God, we are Russians.” And when he heard from historians that this was not so, he crossed himself again and said: “Thank God, we are legal.”

According to another parable, Emperor Alexander II allegedly spoke about his illegitimate son from Dolgorukova: “He is a real Russian. At least Russian blood flows in him.”

And now, if we move from parables, which are important insofar as they convey the historical atmosphere, to something historically reliable, then we cannot fail to mention the letter written by Alexander III in 1886. The letter is addressed to Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827–1907), Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, one of the main ideologists “especially close to the Sovereign”:

“There are gentlemen who think that they are the only Russians, and no one else. Do they really imagine that I am a German or a Chukhonian? It’s easy for them with their farcical patriotism when they are not responsible for anything.”

The so-called Gotha Almanac (Almanach de Gotha) is the most authoritative reference book on the genealogy of the European aristocracy. It was published annually from 1763 to 1944 in German and French. This leading dynasty ruling in Russia historical source according to genealogy, he persistently called it “Holstein-Gottorp-Romanovs”. The almanac was also repeated by other foreign historical publications.

The last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, aka Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, demanded that the editors of the directory remove the first two elements of the surname. And she threatened that otherwise she would ban the import of the yearbook into Russia.

In his book “At the Court of the Last Emperor. Notes from the Head of the Office of the Ministry of the Court” Alexander Alexandrovich Mosolov (1854–1939) pointed out that it was necessary to reason with the Empress. Like, “according to the editors of the Almanac, the name of the dynasty is historically accurate (Emperor Paul is the son of Duke Peter of Holstein-Gottorp) and cannot be changed”.

Mosolov, admonishing the empress, warned her that the prohibition of the Almanac “will cause a pan-European scandal. The most aristocratic, legitimist “Almanac” is prohibited for import into Russia. Of course, they will search for these two words(meaning the words Holstein-Gottorp - S.K.), causing the ban, there will be gossip throughout the capital and abroad. The almanac will be secretly smuggled into Russia by diplomats and will provide food for discussion of the delicate dynastic issue(not a weak word - S.K.), completely unknown to the general public. Believe me, Your Majesty, they have been printing this headline for years, and no one pays attention to it. It’s better to ignore him than to make a fuss.”

Since the history of the princely houses of Europe in general and the German ones in particular is quite complicated, I will have to provide the reader with some more private information.

The Holstein-Gottorps are a German ducal dynasty, a junior branch of the Oldenburg dynasty. Oldenburg dynasty - dynasty German origin, originating from a certain Egilmar, Count of Lerigau, mentioned in the North German chronicles for 1091. The Oldenburgs controlled territory in northwestern Germany. For some time they ruled in Denmark and Norway. The Oldenburg family is divided into several lines. There is, for example, the Holstein-Sondenburg line, which splits into the Augustenburg and Glucksburg-Beck lines. For some time, representatives of the Holstein-Sondenburg branch of the House of Oldenburg (Glücksburg) ruled in Norway and Greece.

But we are, of course, interested in the younger line of the House of Oldenburg. This is what is called the Holstein-Gottorp line. The founder of this line or branch of the House of Oldenburg was Duke Adolf, son of King Frederick I of Denmark (1471–1533). The younger Holstein-Gottorp branch of the House of Oldenburg owned lands in Holstein, a region in northwestern Germany that is the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein. Holstein, reader, is not an easy region. And also very mysterious.

IN early Middle Ages western part the future Holstein was inhabited by the Saxons, and the eastern part by the Vagrian Slavs, who were part of the alliance of the Obodrites. The main fortification of the Vagr was Starigard (Stargrad), later renamed - what do you think, reader, what? That's right - to Oldenburg!

In the city of Stargrad, which his overthrowers later called Oldenburg, there was the residence of a Vagrian (West Slavic) prince and a Vagrian (West Slavic) pagan sanctuary.

At the beginning of the 10th century, the Vagrians were conquered by Emperor Otto I the Great (912–973), Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Italy. It was under Otto I that the Holy Roman Empire was created. Otto I converted the Wagrians to Christianity, retaining their own princes.

In 968, a bishopric was created in Stargrad.

However, it was crushed by the Slavic uprisings of 963 and 990, when the Vagras crushed both the bishopric and German power.

Later, the Wagers were again conquered by the Germans.

But in 1066, the Wagers raised a new uprising and freed themselves from the rule of the Germans for another 100 years.

So the city of Oldenburg, which is the capital of the German family of Oldenburgs, is the Slavic Stargrad. And Stargrad is a city that is a particularly stubborn point of Slavic resistance to German colonization. Can you smell, reader, what exactly this smells like?

If the Russians are Slavs, then the Oldenburgs, as Germans, have the most ancient experience of war and colonization of the Slavs. The experience that they first realize with the Vagrs on their base territory, and then, in a sense, they realize in Russia, which is alien to them, which has become the fiefdom of their home, which is deeply and consistently anti-Slavic.

The patrimony of their home, which has been anti-Slavic since ancient times.

That German house, which, much more than the Teutonic Order, had to overcome the fierce resistance of the particularly anti-German Slavs, the Vagras, who either submitted to the Germans, or overthrew them time after time with their mighty victorious uprisings.

IN last time The Vagrian Slavs overthrew the Germans in 1066 and subsequently resisted them for a hundred years. The resistance was given on the basis Slavic paganism. The most famous pagan Slavic leader of this time is the pagan prince Kruko (or Kruto).

Kruto (otherwise Krutoy) belonged to the West Slavic tribe of Ruyans, which inhabited the island of Rügen (in Slavic, Ruyan) from the 6th century AD. On the island there was a sanctuary of Svyatovit. That was the name of the god of war and victory among these Western Slavs. Svyatovit is the god of fertility, opposing Chernobog. One could talk a lot about this type of Slavism, about some of the images that the religion of this Slavism gave birth to, about the borrowing of these images into later literature, for example, in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.

But the main thing, of course, is that the Oldenburg Germans fought indomitably with the Slavs, for whom German Oldenburg is their glorious Stargrad. And the German Rugen is their Ruyan, where on the northern cape of Akron there was a temple of the Slavic Vendian god Svyatovit.

This temple was burned by the conqueror, the Danish king Valdemar I the Great, who, being the great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, born in Rus' in the house of his grandfather, and the son of the leader of the Slavic Obodrites, becoming the king of Jutland and Duke of Schleswig, began to fight with the Vendian Slavs (aka - Polabian Slavs, they are also Ruyans), who by that time had greatly pushed back the Danes. Waldemar I the Great fought with the Wends, taking as an ally Henry the Lion, who led in 1147 crusade against the Slavs (by the way, the first campaign ended in failure).

Henry the Lion and Waldemar I the Great were united not only by the fight against the Slavs, but also by dynastic marriages. In total, Waldemar made more than 20 land and sea voyages. Greatest success His campaign of 1168 culminated when the island, which was the capital of the Ruyans, was taken and the Ruyan sanctuary was destroyed.

During the wars with Valdemar I, the Ruyans lost their independence, and the Ruyan prince Jaromar or Jaromir (1168–1218) along with his brothers converted to Christianity and recognized vassal dependence on Denmark. The forced conversion of the Ruyans to Christianity lasted for centuries, but in 1234 the Ruyans threw off Danish rule for the last time and even sharply expanded their possessions.

The son of Prince Jaromar II, Wislaw II (1240–1302), recognized the vassalage of the mainland (and only the mainland) part of his principality from the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg.

The last Ruyansk prince was Wisław III (1265–1325), who was in difficult relationships with Danish and other non-Slavic forces, who constantly forced him to one form or another of vassalage, imposed succession agreements on him, and so on. In 1404, the last inhabitants of Ruyan who spoke Slavic died.

Thus, the House of Oldenburg in general and its younger branch in particular were formed on the ruins of the Western Slavs just discussed. The Oldenburg rulers were forced to coexist with these Slavs, fight with them, advance, retreat, maneuver.

A careful reading of historical chronicles reveals that the Oldenburg rulers entered into complex dynastic ties, vaguely reminiscent of those that later led to the formation of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov phenomenon we are discussing in the very distant past.

I would like to emphasize these connections again: remotely reminiscent of what we have just discussed arose many centuries before Peter III and Catherine II.

I will give one of the most striking examples.

(To be continued.)

“Thank God we are legit!”
/Published in "Russian Word", Prague /

They say that in 1754, the courtiers of the Russian imperial court were whispering about which middle name would be more suitable for the newborn Paul, the son of Grand Duchess Catherine - Petrovich or Sergeevich? Later this rumor turned into a question whether Pavel was interrupted I Romanov bloodline? This can be answered quite definitely - no, she was not interrupted. But the history of the dynasty definitely bent into the realm of fantasy and fiction.

There is a funny historical anecdote: Alexander III allegedly instructed Pobedonostsev, his teacher and respected adviser, to check the rumor that the father of Paul I was not Peter III, but Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov, the first lover of the future Empress Catherine II. Pobedonostsev first informed the emperor that, in fact, Saltykov could be the father. Alexander III rejoiced: “Thank God, we are Russian!” But then Pobedonostsev found facts in favor of Peter’s paternity. The emperor, however, rejoiced again: “Thank God, we are legal!”

The moral, if it can be deduced from the joke at all, is simple: the nature of power is not in the blood, but in the ability and desire to rule, the rest can be adapted to this. At least that's the nature of imperial power - every empire pulls with it great amount unresolved contradictions, one more - no big deal.

However, how could this plot and with it numerous variations on this theme arise? Oddly enough, it was largely created by Catherine II. In her “Notes,” she writes about the beginning of her romance with Saltykov in the spring of 1752: “During one of these concerts (at the Choglokovs), Sergei Saltykov made me understand the reason for his frequent visits. I didn’t answer him right away; when he again began to talk to me about the same thing, I asked him: what does he hope for? Then he began to draw me as captivating as full of passion a picture of the happiness he was counting on..."

Next, all the stages of the novel are described in detail, down to the rather intimate ones - rapprochement in the fall of 1752, pregnancy, which ended in a miscarriage on the way to Moscow in December, a new pregnancy and miscarriage in May 1753, the cooling of the lover, which made Catherine suffer, the strict supervision established for Grand Duchess in April 1754, which meant the removal of Sergei Saltykov. And Pavel, as you know, was born on September 24, 1754. Peter is mentioned in this chapter of the notes only in connection with his drunkenness, courtship of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting and other ladies, as well as the suspicions that arose in him regarding Sergei Saltykov. From this whole story it follows that Saltykov could be Pavel’s father. Moreover, the author of the Notes creates this impression deliberately.

However, Catherine does not have to be particularly trusted. She had to different ways justify his seizure of power. After her husband's overthrow, she created so many stories about him and their relationship that historians trying to sort out what is true and what is not will have their work cut out for a long time. (What is, say, Catherine’s fable about a rat allegedly condemned and hanged by Peter on the gallows, having eaten two of his toy soldiers. It’s impossible to hang a rat like a human. The rat’s neck is too powerful for this. And the rope will slip off it. The story is insignificant, and come on, historiographers since the time of S. Solovyov have trustingly repeated it again and again.).

This story, too, requires research into the motives of Catherine, who for some reason casts a shadow on her own son.

According to historian S. Mylnikov, author of a book about Peter III, Catherine was afraid of potential supporters of Paul, who could demand the throne for a ruler with royal blood in return for a foreigner who had usurped power and had no right to it. Before the coup, a proposal was made (by N. Panin, Paul’s mentor) to declare Catherine not an empress, but a regent of the young heir until he came of age. Although it was rejected, it was not completely forgotten.

The empress's move was quite logical from the point of view of political struggle - she once again told her opponents that Paul did not have this blood - not a drop! And she has no more rights to the throne than her mother. But perhaps Catherine was motivated by other considerations. Maybe she's in Once again put herself, her needs, desires and talents in the foreground instead of some kind of royal blood that created a husband she despised and, in general, was worthless.

And S. Mylnikov convincingly proves that Peter III certainly considered Paul his son. He compares the notice of the birth of his son, sent by him to Frederick II, with a similar notice of the birth of his daughter Anna, which was definitely from Catherine’s next lover, Stanislav Poniatovsky, which Peter knew about. Indeed, the difference between the two letters is great.

Another historian, N. Pavlenko, holds a different point of view. He writes: “Other courtiers who observed family life of the grand ducal couple, they whispered that the baby should be called Sergeevich, not Petrovich, after his father. That's probably what happened."

So who should you believe? Petra? Catherine's hints? To the long-lost whispers of the courtiers? Perhaps these paths are already too well-trodden and will not yield anything new.

I wonder what materials Pobedonostsev used. Aren't they portraits of participants in history? After all, facial features are inherited and belong to one of the parents - this was known even before the advent of genetics as a science. We can also do a little analysis using portraits.

They are before us - the “freak” (as Empress Elizabeth called her nephew in anger) Peter, the handsome Sergei and the loving Catherine. The latter recalled her young self as follows: “They said that I was as beautiful as day and amazingly good; To tell the truth, I never considered myself extremely beautiful, but I was liked, and I believe that this was my strength.” The Frenchman Favier, who saw Catherine in 1760 (she was then 31 years old), subjected her appearance to a rather harsh assessment: “One cannot say that her beauty is dazzling: a rather long, in no way flexible waist, noble posture, but her gait is cutesy, not graceful.” ; the chest is narrow, the face is long, especially the chin; a constant smile on the lips, but the mouth is flat, depressed; the nose is somewhat hunched; small eyes, but a lively, pleasant look; traces of smallpox are visible on the face. She is more beautiful than ugly, but you can’t get carried away with her.”

These and other assessments can be found in N. Pavlenko’s book “Catherine the Great”. Interesting in themselves, they confirm the correspondence of the descriptions and the portrait, we can use it with complete confidence.

Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov also has a long face, his facial features are proportional, his eyes are almond-shaped, his lips are small, elegant, his forehead is high, his nose is straight and long. Catherine wrote about him: “he was as beautiful as day, and, of course, no one could compare with him, either at the big court, much less at ours. He had no lack of intelligence, nor of that store of knowledge, manners and techniques that is given big light and especially the yard."

Peter III Catherine Sergei Saltykov

Paul I ( child portrait) Paul I adult (graphic sketch)

Rice. 1. “Parents” and son (fragments of portraits were used).

In comparison with them, Pyotr Fedorovich, of course, is catastrophically inferior in appearance - and is distinguished by a number of traits that only he could leave to his descendant. His face is quite round, even cheekbones. The forehead is sloping, the nose is shorter than that of Ekaterina and Sergei Saltykov, very wide at the bridge of the nose, the mouth is large, the eyes are narrow and set wide apart. And he was also ticklish.

Portraits of Paul show a clear resemblance to Peter. Especially adult portraits. Same face shape, sloping forehead, big mouth, short nose- even remembering the possibility of the existence of recessive traits, Saltykov and Ekaterina (both “beautiful as day”) would not have created such an ugly descendant, whom Admiral Chichagov called “a snub-nosed Chukhon with the movements of a machine gun.” If Pavel's father had been Sergei Saltykov, the shape of the face and forehead would have been different, the lips and nose would have been different - since in Catherine and Saltykov they were similar, sharply different from Peter's features. And, one must think, the character would have been different. There are so many features of Peter in Pavel’s face that you don’t even need a DNA test to say definitely - yes, Sergei Saltykov was not Pavel’s father. It was Peter III.

By the way, by the date of birth it is clear that the heir turned out to be a typical fruit of the holidays - so Catherine remembers that she celebrated New Year the empress - of course, with her husband. Apparently, that night, after the celebration, the future Paul was conceived.

The opinion of S. Mylnikov is confirmed that Saltykov’s paternity was deliberately played up by Ekaterina. Who was real father her son, no doubt, she knew perfectly well. Probably for this reason she behaved extremely coldly towards Pavel. As a child, she quietly left him in the care of nannies and did not see him for weeks. She wanted to force her already adult son to renounce his right to the throne in favor of his grandson, Alexander.

This little story once again confirms the description given to Catherine by the historian Ya. Barskov: “Lies were the queen’s main weapon: all her life she early childhood until old age, she used this instrument, wielded it like a virtuoso, and deceived her parents, lovers, subjects, foreigners, contemporaries and descendants.” The records of Catherine’s lies were her stories about the situation of Russian peasants: “Our taxes are so light that there is not a man in Russia who does not have a chicken whenever he wants, and for some time they have preferred turkeys to chickens” (letter to Voltaire, 1769) and “It used to happen before, when driving through villages, you saw little children in one shirt, running bare feet in the snow; Now there is not a single one who does not have an outer dress, a sheepskin coat and boots. Although the houses are still wooden, they have expanded and most of there are two floors of them” (letter to Bjelke, a friend of his mother, 1774). Peasants living in two-story huts, with children dressed in sheepskin coats and boots, preferring turkeys to chickens - there is, of course, an almost Manila dream in this and not only an element of deception, but also self-deception.

It was he who added a third contender to Pavel’s two fathers - Emelyan Pugachev. It must be said that it is an amazing irony of history: one future emperor has three fathers. The phantom Potemkin villages for which his mother's reign became famous. The phantasmagoria of his own reign with the non-existent but career-making lieutenant Kizhe (even though this is Tynyanov’s fiction, it is, as they say, completely authentic). A parricide son who either died in Taganrog or in Siberia. Everything seems to be imbued with that original fantasy of Catherine. Indeed, lies have long legs.

But what could Catherine do? Her role was that of a tightrope walker. Those who in those daring times did not understand that power had to be shared with a fairly wide circle, ended badly - take at least Catherine’s husband and son. The Empress, with her big plans, will and efficiency, was not the worst of the reigns according to the results of her reign. Russian monarchs. But she had to give up most of her good aspirations. One should also not attribute the merits of Russia at that time to her alone - the people with whom she had to get along and trust important posts were no less responsible for the country’s successes.

And here’s something else that concerns EVERYONE - “What are we going to eat?”

“Limiting factor” means that without its optimization, investing labor and capital in agriculture is USELESS.

The point of the speech is: “What will children and grandchildren eat if we don’t start soil liming now, while there is still a margin from the “pipe”?”

The Yalta International Economic Forum brought together many foreigners who managed to appreciate Russian Crimea.

The day before, the fourth Yalta International Economic Forum started in Crimea, which brought together more than three thousand foreign participants. Delegations from Syria, Poland, Germany and many other countries from five continents arrived on the Russian peninsula. In addition to their main mission, most of the foreign guests decided to study Crimea in more detail and see with their own eyes how the “captured” peninsula lives.

Czech Senator Jaroslav Dubrava was the first to voice his admiration for what he saw. He noted that he did not immediately understand where he had arrived, since already at the airport he was delighted with the huge modern terminal. The European senator was also surprised how quickly Russia was able to rebuild such complex object, and also admitted that he really liked the five-star hotel where the forum is taking place, and it was also built after the annexation of Crimea to Russia.

Photo source: Federal agency news - Evgenia Avramenko

The Czech guest emphasized that in his country everyone has long accepted the Russian Crimea, and only some politicians do not want to put up with this fact.

“But whether they like it or not, Crimea will always be Russian. Here, of course, huge changes have taken place in three years. New buildings, roads. I watched for several days and saw how people worked day and night. I want to talk about all this in the Czech Republic,” Dubrava emphasized.

The senator added that he had heard many false stories that supposedly residents of the peninsula “walk the streets and demand the return of the region to Ukraine.” He was personally convinced that this information was just another hoax, and that the Crimean population fully supported the Russian government.

“In the ten days that I spent here then, I did not meet a single such person, neither among the Russians nor among the Tatars. On the contrary, everyone said: “Thank God that we are already in Russia,” the senator said.

The Belgian representatives also could not help but note that Russian Crimea pleasantly surprised them. Thus, they especially noted the well-groomed area, friendly people, Tasty food and wonderful wine.

“I came to the forum in Yalta to personally look at everything, to talk to people. Everyone I was able to talk to is happy that the peninsula has been integrated into Russia,” said British MEP Bill Ethridge.

The British representative noted that London is concerned about relations with Russia and, in particular, the problem of Crimea. He expressed hope that within the framework of the Yalta Forum it would be possible to find consensus on many political issues.