The highest mountains of different continents. The highest mountain in the world How much does it cost to conquer Everest
International Mountain Day, established by the UN, is celebrated 10 times today. Every year the holiday has a special theme. In 2013, it sounds like this - "Mountains: Key to a sustainable future." Mountains occupy almost 27 percent of the earth's land and, of course, play a crucial role in human life. "RG" has collected unusual, curious and somewhat mystical facts about the greatest peaks of the world.
divine mountain
Chomolungma (translated from Tibetan "Divine") or Everest - the universally recognized "navel of the Earth."
The height of the mountain is 8848 meters. By the way, despite this, the most distant point from the center of the Earth is the top of the Ecuadorian extinct volcano Chimborazo, since the equatorial radius of the Earth is 21 kilometers higher than the polar one.
Everest is the record holder among mountains. It is also "the highest landfill in the world". In 2008, the China Daily published information that the Chinese authorities decided to limit the access of tourists to Everest in an attempt to preserve the fragile ecology of the region. And no wonder: every year only the Chinese side of the peak is visited by about 40 thousand tourists. According to approximate estimates of environmentalists, they leave behind 120 tons of garbage: bottles, bags and cans, oxygen tanks, ropes and broken ladders.
Climbing the highest point on the planet has always been the dream of many brave and desperate people. Not everyone managed to conquer the mountain: the dead here number in the hundreds. Local residents, sacredly observing thousand-year traditions, periodically demand burial ceremonies for dead climbers. Like, their souls appear here from time to time: they walk in the form of shadows, sometimes they ask for food and even steal warm clothes.
Ancient Everest is no stranger to progress: since 2010, there is cellular communication (provided by a Chinese operator) and even high-speed 3G Internet covering the top of the mountain.
stone guard
Aconcagua - the highest point of the American continent, South America, the western and southern hemispheres - rises to 6962 meters.
It was previously believed that Aconcagua is an extinct volcano, but modern research claim that it is not.
Scientists do not know for certain the origin of the name of the peak. The most popular version is Ackon Cahuak, which means "Stone Guardian" in the language of the South American Indian people of Quechua.
On Aconcagua there is an amazing phenomenon - "Bianco Bente" ("White Wind"). Here is how one of the conquerors of the Argentine peak described it: “It snowed in the evening. Clouds appeared. fluff for a temperature of -40! At least half a meter of snow fell."
Despite the icy wind, corrosive dust and the scorching sun, the mountain is popular with tourists and is considered, by the way, technically easy. Climbing along the simplest route is carried out through intermediate points, one of which is the legendary Inca Bridge. On this miraculous road, according to legend, the heir to the throne of the Inca Empire went to a distant mountainous region to be cured of an illness there.
25th President
McKinley is a two-headed mountain in Alaska. This highest point North America named after the 25th President of the United States.
It is believed that the mountain was first mapped by the Russian navigator and polar explorer, Admiral Wrangel. From 1799 to 1867, McKinley was the high point of the Russian Empire until it was sold to the United States on March 30, 1867 for $7.2 million.
When Alaska was still Russian territory, the peak was called unpretentiously: Big Mountain. At the same time, the Athabaskan Indians, who inhabited the western regions of the United States and Canada, called the peak "Denali", which means "Great".
McKinley is one of the most difficult peaks to conquer. Firstly, meteorologists recorded really harsh frosts here - up to minus 83 degrees Celsius. Secondly, due to the high latitude, the air here is very rarefied. By the way, the southern "head" is higher than the northern one, therefore the conquest of this particular peak is considered especially honorable among fans of extreme sports.
Mountain that sparkles
Kilimanjaro is located in the northeast of Tanzania. This is the highest point in Africa: 5895 meters above sea level.
Researchers to this day cannot decide where the name of the mountain came from. According to one version, the word "Kilimanjaro" comes from the Swahili language and means "mountain that sparkles." According to another, the name comes from a word of the native language and means "one who defeats the bird / leopard / caravan".
Kilimanjaro is a potentially active volcano. And although there are no documented eruptions, local legends speak of volcanic activity 150-200 years ago. True, scientists do not predict other activity, except for the current gas emissions.
Another legend speaks of unusual inhabitants of these places. Locals tell stories of the Pygmies, a folk no taller than normal children who once dwelt in the caves and ravines of the mountain. There are also stories about mountain gorillas that lived many years ago in dense tropical forests on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
The snow cap that has covered the top of the mountain since the last Ice Age is rapidly melting. In March 2005, it was reported that the peak was almost completely free of ice for the first time in the last 11,000 years. True, this news did not cause a stir among environmentalists: it is believed that this is not caused by a change in temperature, but by a reduction in the number of snowfalls.
The mountain that brings happiness
Elbrus is a former volcano on the border of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. This is the highest peak in Russia: 5642 meters - in the western part of the cone, 5621 meters - in the east.
The mountain has a record number of names. The word "Elbrus" is Iranian "high Mountain", or Iranian "sparkling, brilliant". The second interpretation, according to some researchers, is more likely. The Georgian name Yalbuz goes back to the Turkic yal - "storm" and buz - "ice". Other names of the mountain: Mingi tau - the eternal mountain (Karachay-Balkar), Kuskhemahu - the mountain that brings happiness (Adyghe), Urym ihymyua - the top of the Byzantine road (Abaza) and so on.
The mountain could have had another name - Hitler's Peak - if the Wehrmacht's 1st Mountain Rifle Division had managed to hold the top. The conquest of Elbrus was not included in the plans of the German High Command. In his memoirs, the Führer's personal architect Albert Speer grumbled: "It was a pointless business." By the middle of the winter of 1942-1943, the Wehrmacht was knocked out from the slopes of the mountain: Soviet mountaineers hoisted Soviet flags on the peaks.
According to one version, the German soldiers hoped not only to assert themselves by placing a banner on the top of the mountain, but also to find the entrance to the legendary Shambhala. According to legend, it is the Elbrus region that hides the very legendary Hall of earthly and extraterrestrial knowledge, which Pharaoh Cheops could not find yet. And Hitler, as you know, was fond of mystical currents. Historians have recorded the stories of old-timer shepherds: one day, as if the Germans brought shaven-headed people with oriental features to the local plateau. These " Tibetan monks"were supposed to help find the doors camouflaged in the mountains.
Father of the fleet of two oceans
The Vinson Massif is the highest mountain in Antarctica. At their highest point they reach 4892 meters.
The summit was discovered relatively recently - in 1957. And the actual accident - an American plane flew over the mountains. At the same time, the mountain system, which includes Vinson, was also discovered from the air: in 1935, by the American businessman and polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth.
The mountains were named in honor of the American Democratic politician, Congressman from the state of Georgia, Carl Vinson. He was known for being elected to Congress successfully for more than 50 years, of which 29 years was the chairman of the Naval Committee and the Committee on Armed Services. In the US, he is known as the "Father of the Two Oceans". By the way, Vinson became one of the few Americans, after whom an aircraft carrier ship was named during his lifetime.
The mountain attracts only the most desperate lovers of extreme sports. In summer (November-December), the blinding sun shines here around the clock. The weather is relatively warm by local standards: about minus 30 degrees Celsius. In winter, a real hell sets in in the region of the massif - strong winds, continuous darkness of the Antarctic night and frosts down to minus 70 Celsius.
white mountain
Mont Blanc is a 4810 meters high crystalline massif in the Western Alps. Its name translates as White Mountain.
Under the mountain, by the way, an automobile tunnel with a length of 11.6 kilometers was laid. It connects France and Italy. The passage through the tunnel is paid: in March 2013, for the pleasure of driving through the mountain, they took about 41 euros.
In ancient times, the mountain was surrounded by mystery. The first documentary mention of it dates back to 1088 AD. On the map of the possessions of the Benedictine monks in the city of Chamonix, it is designated as Rupes Alba ("White Mountain"). However, for centuries, the locals called it the "Cursed Mountain", believing that demons and dragons live there.
Ancient weapons and tools found in the Alps indicate that people inhabited these places 50 thousand years ago. It is known that they were nomadic hunters. In the Middle Ages, in a harsh climate, people settled here for a very short period: in summer they climbed into the mountains, where they grazed cattle on rich pastures, and with the onset of winter they descended into the valleys.
Polish-Australian flavor
Kosciuszko is the highest peak of the Australian continent. Its height is 2228 meters.
The first person to conquer the summit was the Polish traveler Paweł Edmund Strzelecki. It was he who gave the mountain the name of his compatriot - military and political figure of the XIX century Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
Locals, by the way, cannot pronounce this name, even if they try very hard, so in Australia it is useless to ask "how to get to Mount Kosciuszko" - they will understand only if you pronounce the name as "Koziosko".
Professional climbers say: in the Australian Alps, everything is quite simple. The top is one of the most equipped. There are trails here, if you want - run, if you want - jump, if you want - ride a bike. At an altitude of 2000 meters there is enough oxygen in the air, although it is a bit dry.
Kosciuszko is perhaps the only place on the entire continent where you can touch the real snow.
Anyone who has ever been in the mountains remembers them for life. This is such an incredible sight that it is simply unrealistic to forget. Here, being at a height, you understand what kind of insect you really are. Here your soul and body rest, here you can truly relax, feel the cold mountain air, think about something high...
Which mountains are the most popular? Probably the ones you fly down on skis or snowboards. However, over time, you realize that you want to climb higher and wonder - which mountain is the largest in the world? It turns out that the answer is simple - this is Everest, which we were told about at school more than once.
Chomolungma (8852 m)
Everest (or, as it is also called, Chomolungma), which is part of the huge Himalaya mountain system and is located on the territory of Nepal and China, reaches a height of 8852 above sea level! To get to the top, travelers spend weeks and months, and once they get there, they resort to using an oxygen mask - if this is not done, you can stay on top forever, because the air there is very rarefied. For all the time, only about 4,000 people were able to conquer the peak, and about 500 more volunteers try to do it every year, but not everyone succeeds.
Everest has a very interesting climate. Tropical plants grow at the foot of the mountain, while at the top it is incredibly cold (up to -70 at night), and the wind speed reaches several hundred meters per second. Even if under such weather conditions you managed to get to the peak, you won’t stay there for long. Firstly, the rarefied atmosphere, secondly, severe frost, and thirdly, it is necessary to go down in time, while it is still light. By the way, going down is not much easier than going up. However, many travelers are not at all afraid of this.
Not so long ago, scientists discovered a mountain on Mars, whose height is as much as 21.2 kilometers, that is, it is more than twice as high as Everest. Probably, climbers would be happy to climb it, but we can’t fly to the red planet yet, alas.
Chogori (8611 m)
Chogori is the second highest mountain peak after Everest. It was first discovered by researchers in 1856 and at that time they decided to call it K2 in honor of the second peak of the Karakorum. However, years later the mountain got its current name.
Interestingly, the British tried to climb Chogori for the first time at the beginning of the 20th century, but they managed to do it. The Italians were the first to conquer the mountain in 1954.
For a long time it was believed that it was Chogori that was the highest mountain on the planet, since many researchers claimed that its height could reach 8900 meters. And only in 1987, full-fledged measurements were taken, thanks to which it turned out that the true height of Chogori is 8611 m.
Climbing Chogori is technically very difficult, so until the mid-2000s, only about 250 people climbed the mountain, and another 60 died during the ascent. At the same time, successful attempts to climb occurred only in the warm season. Those who tried to conquer the mountain in winter invariably perished.
Kangchenjunga (8586 m)
Kanchenjunga is a mountain range in the Himalayas and is located on the border of India and Nepal. The massif consists of five peaks and all of them are incredibly high, but above all Kanchenjunga Main.
It is not known exactly when the massif was discovered, but it was for a long time that it was considered the highest mountains until the middle of the 19th century. The first attempts to conquer the summit began in 1905, when the expedition led by Aleister Crowley was able to climb only to a height of 6200 meters. The next attempt took place in 1929, but it also ended in failure. But the expedition members led by Charles Evans were finally able to reach the peak on May 25, 1955. The ascent took place from the side of the Yalung glacier.
Usually, with the development of technology, mortality when climbing mountains falls, but this does not apply to Kanchenjunga. The fact is that the number of cases that end tragically is only increasing. Interestingly, almost all the women who tried to conquer the mountain died. The locals even have a legend - they say that the mountain kills all women who try to climb it because of jealousy.
Lhotse (8516 m)
Lhotse is part of the Mahalangur Himal mountain range, located on the border of China and Nepal. It has three peaks, the height of the main of which reaches 8516 m.
The first successful conquest of the peak took place in 1956 - then the participants of the Swiss expedition were able to do it. In 1990, the Russians, led by A. Shevchenko, were able to climb the mountain along the South Face. At the moment, their record has not been conquered, since climbing Lhotse this way is incredibly difficult. One of the participants of that expedition says that this happened only due to the fact that the Soviet Union was able to bring together 17 excellent specialists who knew how to work harmoniously with each other.
According to 2003 data, the total number of those who got to the top is about 240, and about 12 died.
Makalu (8481 m)
Number five on our list of the highest mountains is Makalu or the Black Giant. This is a mountain range located in the Himalayas. It has several peaks, the main of which reaches a height of 8481 m.
Like several other participants in our rating, the mountain is located on the border of China and Nepal, located 22 km from Chomolungma. According to historical data, Makalu has been known to Europeans since at least the beginning of the 19th century, but the first attempts to conquer the peak began to occur only in the middle of the 20th century. Why? The explanation is simple - most experts at that time wanted to conquer the highest mountains, which were Everest and Lhotse, and the rest were much less interested in them. However, over time, this situation has changed radically.
The first successful ascent to the main peak was made in 1955 by a French group led by Jean Franco. They climbed the mountain along the northern route. Later there were successful ascents on other routes. If we talk about the Slavs, then the Ukrainians from the city of Sumy were the last to climb Makalu, whose journey took two whole months.
Cho Oyu (8188 m)
Another mountain peak in the Himalayas, located on the border of Nepal and China, is Cho Oyu, whose height reaches 8188 m. It belongs to the Mahalangur Himal mountain range and is part of the Chomolungma mountain range.
Not far from Cho Oyu there is the Nangpa La pass, covered with ice. Its height reaches 5716 m. It is through it that the trade path passes, along which the inhabitants of Nepal get to Tibet. From the side of the latter, it is very easy to climb the mountain, but from the side of Nepal, it is incredibly difficult to do this, since a sheer wall lies in wait for travelers.
The first successful ascent to the peak occurred in 1952.
Dhaulagiri (8167 m)
Continuing our list, it is impossible not to mention Dhaulagiri or the White Mountain, as it is sometimes called. Dhaulagiri is a mountain range in the Himalayas, which has many peaks, the highest of which is Dhaulagiri I - its height reaches 8167 m.
The first ascent to the mountain took place in the middle of the 20th century, but a successful conquest occurred only in 1960, when a team of the best European climbers decided to climb to the top. This took place in May, and the first winter ascent was made by the Japanese Akio Koizumi in 1982, together with the Sherpa Nima Wangchu.
Manaslu (8156 m)
Completes our list of Manaslu (Kutang), located in the Himalayas. The mountain is part of the Mansiri-Himal mountain range, which is located in northern Nepal. Manaslu has three peaks: main, eastern and northern. The first is the highest of them, its height reaches 8156 m.
The first successful ascent to the summit was made in 1956. The number of deaths during the ascent for the entire time was about 20 percent, which is a lot, although you can’t tell from the photo.
Today, the mountain and its surrounding areas are part of the Manaslu National Park, which was founded 15 years ago.
Located on the banks of the river Rozhai near Moscow, the village with the name Menshovo has been known since the 16th century. The first mention of it is found in the sentinel book of that century. Who it originally belonged to is unknown. It is possible that Menshovo and the nearby village, and then the village of Akulinino, belonged to the same owner, so this article will also touch upon the history of the second settlement, known since 1537. This year, the village "Akulininskaya" in Rostunov camp, along with the "repairs", was transferred to the Borovsky patrimony Vasily Artemyevich Ushakov to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.
The next mention of this village is found in the scribe books of the Borovsky district of 1627-1629. There is the following entry about her: “The Rostun camp is a village that was the wasteland of Akulinin, on the river on the Opoka, behind Semyon Semyonov’s son Panin, according to the Sovereign’s letter of 133 (1625 - M.N.), signed by the clerk Tretyak Korsakov, his father’s old Semyonov’s purchased patrimony, that his father bought it from Ivan Stupishin. Apparently, at the beginning of the 17th century, Akulinino became deserted and became a wasteland, passing into the possession of Ivan Stupishin, and then to Semyon Panin. It follows from the scribe books that at the time of their compilation, there were four courtyards in the village: one votchinnik, one clerk, and two business people's courtyards (five residents). Semyon Semyonovich Panin is listed in the boyar lists of 1606-1607 as an employee in the city of Kozelsk, where he was given 400 families of land on an estate or patrimony.
In 1646, Akulinino was mentioned as a village, in which there was one peasant yard and two bobyl yards. In total, nine people lived in this settlement that year.
In 1678, this village already belonged to Semyon Timofeevich Kondyrev. The Kondyrev family descended from Mark Demidovich, who left Lithuania for Tver. His great-grandson Ivan Yakovlevich received the nickname Kondyr, and all his descendants became known as Kondyrevs. Members of this clan did not differ in wealth and kinship until the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. Their rise to high ranks began precisely under this king, and the rise to the top of the career ladder occurred under his sons, Tsars Fedor and Peter Alekseevich. The two brothers of Semyon Kondyrev, Peter and Ivan, rose to the rank of boyars by the end of the 17th century. In 1652, Semyon Timofeevich served as governor in Perm. By 1677, he was already in the rank of a Duma nobleman, and in 1678 he became a roundabout. From 1680 to 1682, Semyon Kondyrev served as governor in Solikamsk, his last place of service was the province in Cherdyn.
In 1678, there were ten households of peasants and beavers and one household of a "backyard man" in Akulinino. In 1687, Kondyrev's son Efim Semenovich built a wooden church in this village in the name of the Archangel Michael, as well as the yards of a priest, sexton, sexton and mallow, allocated 20 acres of arable land and mowing for the clergy. This year, on the newly formed parish, in which, in addition to the yards of the clergy and clergy, there was one yard of the estate, eighteen peasant yards, five yards of business people, three yards of grooms, the church authorities imposed a tribute in the amount of "one ruble five money, hryvnia arrivals." After the death of the votchinnik, the village passed to his sister Irina, and then to the brothers, the princes Obolensky Mikhail and Vasily Matveyevich.
The clan of princes Obolensky has deep historical roots. The grandson of Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Prince Konstantin Yuryevich received the city of Obolensk as an inheritance and became the ancestor of the princely family of Obolensky. Until the middle of the 16th century, the princes Obolensky were one of the most influential people at the court of the great princes and kings of Moscow. But then they moved into the shadows and did not hold important government posts until the reign of Peter the Great. Prince Mikhail Matveyevich Obolensky in 1706 was a room steward and by 1721 had risen to the rank of governor of the Arzamas province. His brother Prince Vasily Matveyevich at the beginning of the 18th century was in the "initial people", but died in his youth in 1707.
Both brothers owned several estates in different districts of the Russian kingdom. Among the possessions of Prince Mikhail located in Dmitrovsky, Galitsky, Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas districts, there was also a patrimony in the Moscow district - a quarter of the village of Alekseevsky, Dolmatovo, too, "half three yards", as well as in Borovsky district - half of the village of Akulinino, "half a pole of the yard ". In total, Mikhail Obolensky owned 272 yards. His brother owned estates in Galicia, Arzamas, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Dmitrovsky counties. In the Moscow district, he owned half of the village of Alekseevsky, Dolmatovo, too, two yards, and in the Borovsky district in the village of Arkhangelsk, Akulinino, too, "half a pole of the yard." Prince Vasily Matveyevich Obolensky was the owner of 325 households.
In the census books of the Borovsky district of 1705, it is written: “behind the steward princes Mikhail and Vasily Matveev, the children of Obolensky, the village of Akulinino, in the village the church of Michael the Archangel, near the church in the courtyard of priest Ivan Konstantinov, with children Peter and Ivan, and in the village there are 15 peasant households in there are 69 of them. In 1739, Yakov Ivanov was a priest at the Akulininskaya church.
In the same 1739, Prince Mikhail Obolensky divided his estates between his sons Ivan and Alexander. Prince Ivan Mikhailovich got estates in Dmitrovsky and Orlovsky counties, and Prince Alexander Mikhailovich in Moscow and Borovsky counties.
In the middle of the 18th century, the village of Akulinino had several owners from among the princely Obolensky family. The village was divided between the son of Prince Mikhail Matveyevich - Alexander, and his uncle - Prince Matvey Matveyevich Obolensky. The latter in 1743 built, next to the village on a hillock, a one-altar stone church, one-story with an equilateral cross. Its dimensions were small: 17 meters long, 8.5 meters wide and 27.7 meters high. The smooth outer walls were decorated with stone cornices in the form of belts, brought together in a semicircle, the windows were barred with iron bars. The iron roof painted with verdigris was crowned with a blind lantern with an eight-pointed iron cross with a princely crown at the top. Inside the church were three doors sheathed with iron. An altar with two windows was separated from the middle temple stone wall. The solea was made of stone and rose one step above the floor. The walls of the church adjoined choirs, arranged with a shield. The bells were placed on wooden poles.
About another owner of the village of Akulinin, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Obolensky (1712-1767), it is only known that he rose to the modest army rank of prime minister, and was married twice: first marriage to Anna Alekseevna Naryshkina; the second on Anna Mikhailovna Miloslavskaya (1717-1794). From his second marriage he had a son, Peter.
During the 4th revision of 1787, the village "Arkhangelskoye, Akulinino, too", belonged to the son of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich - court adviser Prince Peter Alexandrovich Obolensky (1742-1822). That year, he himself lived in Moscow, and 94 male souls lived in his village. Perhaps at this time, the village of Menshovo also belonged to him. In 1804, the court adviser, Prince P. A. Obolensky, made a new four-tiered iconostasis with carvings on a red field in the Akulininsk temple, put his old icons in order, supplementing them with new ones. It was all painted with a "milky color", varnished and gilded.
Prince Peter Alexandrovich Obolensky was married to Princess Ekaterina Andreevna Vyazemskaya (1741-1811). Through her, he was a relative of the famous poet and author of memoirs - Prince Peter Andreevich Vyazemsky. In his youth, Prince Peter Vyazemsky often visited the Obolenskys. In 1795, the eldest son of Peter Alexandrovich, Andrei, married the daughter of a wealthy neighbor on the estate near Moscow, the owner of the estate of Troitskoye-Ordyntsy, Andrei Yakovlevich Maslov, Martha. Obviously, as a dowry for his wife, he received an estate with the village of Troitskoye. The following year, Marfa Andreevna, having given birth to a daughter, died, and Prince Andrei Petrovich inherited her rich estate near Moscow, a Moscow house, another real estate, as well as up to four thousand serf souls. The young widower was brought up in respect for his parents, and his entire large family, headed by his parents, began to use the unexpected inheritance from his unfortunate first wife. Pyotr Alexandrovich and his whole family moved from his estate Akulinino to his son's estate, Troitskoye-Ordyntsy. The future poet and friend of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, came there in his youth.
A few decades later, the aged Prince Vyazemsky, with nostalgia for his youthful years, recalled in his essay “The Moscow Family of the Old Way of Life” about Peter Alexandrovich and his large and friendly family. Memories of the owner of a large estate, which included the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo, are worth citing them verbatim.
“Prince Pyotr Alexandrovich Obolensky, the ancestor of the multigenerational offspring of the Obolenskys, was at one time a great original. For the last 20-30 years he lived in Moscow as an almost hopeless couch potato. He did not see or know anyone from outsiders. At home, he was engaged in reading Russian books and turning skills. He was probably rather indifferent to everything and everyone, but he valued his habits. His day was strictly and to the brim demarcated; there were no inter-band properties and plots here: everything had its definite place, its own edge, its own time and its own measure. Of course, he went to bed early and at the appointed hours, got up and dined; he always dined alone, although his family was crowded at home. The old man was clean, fresh, tidy, even dapper; but his dress, of course, did not change according to fashion, but always kept the same cut that he adapted to himself. All household or room accessories were distinguished by elegance. English comfort had not yet been transferred into our language and into our manners and customs; but he guessed it and introduced it to himself, that is, his own comfort, not following either fashion or innovation. In the autumn, even at a rather elderly age, he went out with his six sons on a dog hunt for hares. No matter how shy he was, or at least no matter how he shied away from society, he was not unsociable, stern and senilely obnoxious. On the contrary, an often kind and somewhat subtle smile lit up and enlivened his infantile-old face. He sometimes liked to listen and make jokes himself, or merry speeches, which in French are called gaudrioles, but we don’t know how to call them decently, and which usually have a special charm for old people, even those who are immaculately chaste in morals and in life. - being: the evil one is always something, one way or another, but slightly lures us into his snares. Prince Obolensky was not burdened by his loneliness or specialness, but he loved that his children - all already adults - came to him one by one, but not for a long time. If they somehow forgot and stayed up too long, he, smiling amiably and ingenuously, used to say to them: dear guests, am I detaining you? Here instantly the room was cleared before a new visit. In my childhood, I was always pleased when he let me into his elegant and bright cell: I unconsciously guessed that he did not live like others, but in his own way.
Prince P. And Obolensky was married to Princess Vyazemskaya, the sister of Prince Ivan Andreevich. In the course of their marital cohabitation, they had twenty children. Ten of them died at different times, and ten outlived their parents. Despite the accomplishment of her twenty female exploits, the princess was in her old age, and to the end of her vigorous and strong, tall growth, kept herself upright, and I don’t remember that she was sick. Such were our old-world landowner constitutions. The soil was not exhausted or impoverished by fertile vegetation. Without any preparatory education, she had a clear, positive and firm mind. Her character was the same. In the family and household, the princess was the prince and steward, but without the slightest claim to this dominion. It took shape of itself for the common benefit, for the common pleasure, from a natural and unexpressed agreement. She was not only the head of her family, but also its connection, concentration, soul, love. It contained moral rules, native and deeply rooted. On one of the visits to Moscow of Emperor Alexander, he paid special attention to the beauty of one of her daughters, Princess Natalia. The emperor, with his usual courtesy and attentiveness to the fair sex, distinguished her: he talked with her in the Noble Assembly and in private houses, more than once at balls he passed polonaises with her. Of course, Moscow did not let this pass by its eyes and opinions. Once, the family was talking about this in front of the princess mother and jokingly made various assumptions. “First of that, I will strangle her with my own hands,” said the Roman matron, who had no understanding of Rome. Needless to say, the royal red tape and all the comic predictions did not leave any trace on their own.
This family constituted a special, so to speak, Obolensky world. Even in the then patriarchal Moscow, rich in many families and especially many girls, it differed from others in some complacent, bright and sharp imprint. There were six sons and four daughters. There was a time when all the brothers, still far from old, were retired. This was also a peculiarity in its own way in our service morals. Some of them, already in the reign of Alexander, still flaunted, on major holidays, in the military uniforms of Catherine's time: here they showed off a special cut, multi-colored cuffs, red camisoles with gold braids and, I remember, yellow trousers. All of them lived for a long time with their mother and with their mother. everyday dinner table was already a decent size, and the festive one grew two and three times. Especially in the summer and autumn months, in the suburbs, this family life took on an unusual dimension and character. In addition to the family in its entirety, other relatives also came there to visit. A small house, small rooms had some kind of elastic property: the reproduction of bread, rooms, beds, and for lack of their reproduction of sofas, the reproduction of grubs and feed for horses for visiting servants, all this by some miracle, according to the hostess, took place in this the Old Testament side. And the owners were not rich people at all. I remember that in my adolescence, on the orders of the princess, they always assigned me a bed for the night - not a bed, a sofa - not a sofa, but something narrow and rather short, which she called, I don’t know why, a boat. Where is this boat? Is she alive? What happened to her? How I would like to see her, and although even more crouched than during it, lie down in her. I remember her with fondness. I am sure that I would have found in her now the former and carefree dream, with bright dreams and a joyful awakening. But much water has flowed under the bridge since that time, light and transparent, muddy and agitated; with her, no doubt, my boat also flowed away and shattered into smithereens. In any case, we Russians are not antique dealers and careless in relation to family furniture, utensils, portraits of ancestors. We are accustomed to and love to heal from this current day.
From the same essay it is known that in the autumn months old prince, together with his sons and numerous guests hunted hares with dogs. Pyotr Vyazemsky recalled: “Hunting and all its accessories were well and richly arranged. In the intervals during the hunt for hares, the hunt for cards was also diligently going on; not in the form of a win, because everyone had their own, and that the game was small. Everyone played here: fathers and children, husbands and wives, old and young. At dinner they usually ate different types and preparations, all the hares hunted the day before. It is possible that, chasing poor hares in the surrounding fields, the hunters, together with the owners of the estate, drove to the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo, where in the half-forgotten master's houses, they rested from the noise of shots and the frantic horse race.
Peter Alexandrovich had a large family. These are the sons: Andrei (1769-1852), Ivan (1770-1855), Nikolai (1775-1820), Vasily (1780-1834), Alexander (1780-1855), Sergei; and daughters: Maria (1771-1852), married to D.S. Dokhturov, Varvara (1774-1843), married to Prince A.F. Shcherbatov, Elizaveta (1778-1837), Natalya, married to V.M. Mikhailov.
Even during his lifetime, Prince Peter Alexandrovich divided his estates among the children. The eldest son Andrey got the village of Akulinino, the second son Ivan got the village of Menshovo.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the village of Menshovo was located in the parish of the Church of the Archangel Michael, which was in the village of Arkhangelskoye, Akulinino, too, and belonged to the son of Prince Peter Alexandrovich - Guard Captain-Lieutenant Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. The nearby village of Akulinino, Arkhangelsk, also belonged to his brother, the real state councilor, Prince Andrei Petrovich Obolensky. At the time of the revision in 1816, 65 male and 54 female peasants lived in the village, a total of 119 souls. One peasant from this village was owned by the third brother - State Councilor Prince Alexander Petrovich Obolensky. In the village of Menshovo for the same year, yard people lived: male 2, female 2; peasants: male 43, female 37, total 84 souls. The presence of courtyard people in Menshovo suggests that there was a landowner's estate in this village.
But the absence of courtyard people recorded outside the village of Akulinin suggests that no one lived in the manor house located in it, but the landowner's house continued to exist. Yard people from Akulinino, at the end of the 13th century, were transferred to the Trinity Estate.
Unlike the owner of Menshovo, Prince Ivan Obolensky, who did not reach high ranks and retired with the rank of captain-lieutenant of the guard, his older brother, Prince Andrei Obolensky, made a good career and rose to the rank of trustee of the Moscow educational district.
In the lists of the nobles of the Podolsk district, who have the right to participate in the noble elections for 1816, two Obolensky princes are recorded: Andrei Petrovich and Ivan Petrovich. Both are listed as living in Moscow.
For 18 years (until the 8th revision of 1834), the population of Menshovo increased. Yards lived in it: 8 males, 9 females; peasants: male 47, female 43 souls, total 107 souls. He also owned the village of Stolbishchevo, where 60 serfs lived. The village of Akulinino was registered as a Life Guard Captain - Lieutenant Princess Elena Ivanovna Obolenskaya. 177 souls of both sexes lived in this village.
Princess Elena Ivanovna Obolenskaya, nee von Stackelberg, was the wife of Prince Ivan Petrovich, and Prince Andrei Petrovich gave her the village of Akulinino. If you believe the date of birth of Elena Ivanovna mentioned in reference books (1758), then she was 12 years older than her husband. Her father, the director of the Livonian College of Economics, Baron Fabian Adam von Stackelberg, came from a noble Baltic family, whose representatives transferred to the Russian service under the emperors Peter I and Anna Ioannovna. Under Empress Catherine II, Stackelberg's two daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, were her ladies-in-waiting. In 1767, while accompanying the young Empress of Russia on her journey along the Volga, Elizaveta Ivanovna met Count and Chevalier Vladimir Grigoryevich Orlov, President Russian Academy Sciences. Elizaveta Ivanovna was not a beauty, and until the age of 27 she wore girls, but her kind nature attracted the attention of Grigory Orlov, the brother of the tsarina's favorite, and the next year they got married. The second sister Ekaterina Ivanovna was the wife of Count Tizenhausen. Both sisters had great influence at the imperial court, which cannot be said about their younger sister Elena. The marriage of Ivan Petrovich and Elena Ivanovna took place in 1790.
From the results of the audit of 1850, it can be seen that the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo still belonged to the guard captain - lieutenant Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. The population of Menshovo consisted of 105 people, of which yard people: 9 males, 8 females; peasants: male 41, female 47 souls. According to the Nystrem reference book for 1852, Prince I.P. Obolensky lived in his estate in the village of Akulinino, the population of which was: 83 males, 87 females, 50 males in Menshovo, 45 females, 34 males in Stolbishchevo, 23 females.
Ivan Petrovich Obolensky died in 1855. Princess Elena Ivanovna died even earlier - in 1846. They did not have children and their estate near Moscow with the village of Akulinino, the village of Menshovo and the village of Stolbishchevo, Ivan Obolensky bequeathed to his niece, the daughter of his brother Alexander Petrovich, Princess Obolenskaya Agrafena Alexandrovna (1823-1891). It was behind her, during the last 10th revision of 1858, that the estate was recorded. Then only 179 souls lived in 20 courtyards; in the village of Menshovo in 9 yards 97 souls, in the village of Stolbishchevo 9 yards 79 souls.
Prince Alexander Petrovich Obolensky, like his brother, died in 1855. From his marriage to Agrafena Yurievna, nee Neledinskaya-Meletskaya (1789-1829), he had children: Catherine (1811-1843), Andrei (1813-1855), Sophia (1815-1852), Vasily (1817-1888), Sergei (1818 -1882), Varvara (1819-1873), Mikhail (1821-1886), Dmitry (1822-1881), Agrafen (1823-1891), and Yuri (1825-1890).
The village of Stolbishchevo, most likely, was sold, and began to contact the Penza Kiselevskaya almshouse. In 1859, in Penza, according to the will of State Councilor Alexander Grigorievich Kiselev, his wife Maria Mikhailovna built an almshouse. In it, at the request of the testator, until the end of their days they had to live: the elderly, the poor, the crippled, all the weak people of both sexes, without distinction of religion and rank. By the name of the city where the almshouse was founded and by the name of the founder, it was called Penza-Kiselevskaya. And in the village of Stolbishchevo, a landowner sold a piece of land that had been divided with local peasants, on which a house was built for the residents of the Penza Kiselevskaya almshouse.
Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna never married, and by the beginning of 1860 she had shared part of her estate with her relatives. The village of Menshovo passed to her sister Varvara Alexandrovna (1819-1873), who married Alexei Aleksandrovich Lopukhin (1813-1872).
Menshovo under the Lopukhins
The life story of Varvara Alexandrovna's husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin, is remarkable, first of all, because at the time of his youth, he was a close friend famous poet Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov.
Their acquaintance took place in late 1827 - early 1828. At this time, Mikhail Lermontov settled in Moscow, in a house on Molchanovka, rented by his grandmother E.A. Arsenyeva. Nearby was a house belonging to Alexander Nikolaevich Lopukhin, Alexei's father. A.P. Shan Giray recalled: “The Lopukhins family lived next to us, an old father, three maiden daughters and a son; they were with us like family and very friendly with Michel, who was not there for a rare day. Mikhail Lermontov became friends with Alexei and his sisters: Maria and Varvara, to the latter he had a cordial affection. The image of Varenka Lopukhina was embodied in the novels Vadim and A Hero of Our Time. Many poems were dedicated to her, including: "Ishmael Bey" and "Demon". Several portraits of her, made by the hand of Mikhail Lermontov, have been preserved.
For several years Lermontov and Lopukhins lived next door. The rapprochement between Mikhail and Alexei was also facilitated by the fact that they studied together at the Noble Boarding School at Moscow University. After graduating from a boarding school, young friends entered Moscow University in 1830. After the departure of Mikhail Yurievich from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1832, he corresponded with Alexei Lopukhin until his death in 1841. One of his contemporaries noted: “Only a very few, and among them A.A. Lopukhin, deeply appreciated his friendship and believed in his high soul, and retained this attitude after death.”
However, there were difficult moments in the friendship between Lopukhin and Lermontov. In the summer of 1833, Alexei Lopukhin became interested in the famous "coquette" Ekaterina Sushkova, who was looking for a rich groom. The matter went to the engagement, which the relatives and acquaintances of Alexei Alexandrovich did not want. One of his cousins, Alexandra Vereshchagin, asked Lermontov to try and break off the engagement. Being familiar with Sushkova and knowing her character, Mikhail Yuryevich decided to "help" a friend. Being with him and Sushkova at the balls, he was able to divert the attention of the secular coquette from Lopukhin and attract him to him. Ekaterina Sushkova, having fallen in love with Lermontov, stopped paying attention to the prospective groom. Alexey Alexandrovich, without reproaching his friend for anything, although in his heart he was jealous of him, abandoned the idea of marrying Sushkova. Having upset, thus, the engagement of a friend, Mikhail Yuryevich, he himself stopped meeting with Sushkova.
In this way, the great Russian poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, knowing nothing about the village of Menshovo, indirectly influenced its history. After all, if Alexei Lopukhin married Ekaterina Sushkova, then a representative of another noble family would become the owner of Menshovo. And so, five years after the failed wedding with Sushkova, Alexei Lopukhin married Princess Varvara Obolenskaya.
In 1838, the wedding ceremony of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna took place. And on February 13 of the following year, the first-born Alexander was born to the young couple Lopukhins. In a letter from the Caucasus, Mikhail Yuryevich congratulated his friend of youth and sent a poetic message dedicated to the newborn:
Sweet birth of a child
Hail my belated verse.
May blessings be with him
All the angels of heaven and earth!
May he be worthy of his father;
Like his mother, beautiful and loved;
May his spirit be at peace
And in truth it is firm, like God's cherub.
Let him not know before the deadline
No pangs of love, no glory of greedy thoughts;
Let him look without reproach
On the false brilliance and false noise of the world;
Let him not look for reasons
Other people's passions and joys,
And he will come out of secular mire
White in soul and unharmed in heart!
After graduating from the university, Alexey Alexandrovich, being in the court rank of a chamber junker, served in a civil department. One of the places of his service was the Moscow Synodal Office. From the end of 1850, he and his family began to constantly come to the Menshovo estate for the summer. Alexei Lopukhin retired with the rank of real state councilor. Most of his life, having lived in Moscow, in his own house on Molchanovka, Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin died in 1872 and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery.
The Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), in the fund of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy, contains the correspondence of his wife Sofya Alekseevna, daughter of Alexei Lopukhin. From these papers it follows that already in 1857, the children of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna Lopukhins spent the summer season, under the supervision of their mother, teachers, tutors and servants, in the Menshovo estate. Alexey Alexandrovich himself, being in the service, could come there only on his days off.
Also in this fund are the memoirs of the grandson of Alexei and Varvara Lopukhins - Evgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy. Below is an excerpt from his mother Sofya Alekseevna. In the middle - late 1850s, she, together with her family, spent the summer months in Menshovo and this is the memory she left of herself.
“She grew up freely, cheerfully along with others among the Lopukhin freemen. One hill in Menshov is still called “Sonya Gora” in her honor, because there once, as a girl, escaping from the supervision of her elders, she jumped on an unsaddled peasant horse and rushed along the mountain. The locals still call the mountain located on the right side of the road from the bridge over the Rozhaya to the village of Menshovo "Sonina Gora". Thanks to the memoirs of Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy, it now becomes clear in honor of which Sonya and for what reason, this mountain got its name.
In total, the Lopukhins family had eight children: Alexander (1839-1895), Maria (1840-1886), Sofia (1841-1901), Lydia (1842-1895), Boris (1844-1897), Olga (1845-1883), Emilia (1848-1904) and Sergei (1853-1911). By 1861, only daughter Sophia flew out of her parental nest, marrying Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy that year. After the wedding, the young people went on a trip to the southern estates of Prince Trubetskoy, and all the relatives of the young wife, missing and worrying about her, bombarded her with letters. From these letters, some details from the life of the Menshovo estate became known.
On May 31, 1861, the Lopukhins family left their Moscow home, in two carriages and a tarantass, to their Menshovo estate near Moscow. The convoy with various supplies left even earlier. Mother Varvara Alexandrovna took her children, daughters Maria, Lydia, Olga and Emilia, and younger sons Sergey and Vladimir, to live in the village. (The last child - Vladimir died at a young age). They were accompanied by governesses and nannies: Sofya Ivanovna, Clara Ivanovna and the Englishwoman Miss Boni. A little later, the eldest sons Alexander and Boris arrived in the "village", the latter studied at the gymnasium and took exams at the beginning of the summer. Alexander, having twice visited Menshovo and stayed there for two and a half days, left for the whole summer to stay with his sister Sonya Trubetskoy. Having stayed with his sister, by the end of the summer, he again returned to Menshovo.
Usually on Friday evening, for the weekend, the head of the family, Alexei Alexandrovich, came to the estate. Guests sometimes came along with him. Almost constantly on weekends, there was a family friend and, most likely, a subordinate of Lopukhin, a certain Novikov. Of the other names who were in Menshovo that year, cousins and second cousins uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters are mentioned in the letters. Among them: Sofya Yurievna Samarina, Dmitry Pavlovich Evreinov, Countess Maria Fedorovna Sollogub, with her son Fedya and his tutor Nikolai Ivanovich Orfeev, Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, with his daughter Masha, admirers of Lida Lopukhina - Volodya Davydov and Valuev, Sophia's former admirer - Prince Shakhovskaya and other persons named only by their first names. The adult company was also made up of: Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya (“Aunt Grusha”), who lived in her estate in the village of Akulinino, relatives who came to her: Lina, Lika and Katya Samarina, and also Aunt Masha who came to Menshovo with the Lopukhins. Maybe this was the same Maria Lopukhina, with whom Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was in friendly correspondence. Also, neighbors came to visit Menshovo and Akulinino, including the landowners Ershovs who lived in their Vorobyevo estate: Varvara Sergeevna, her son Ivan Ivanovich with her granddaughter Masha.
The RGALI funds also contain letters describing the life of Princess Sophia Trubetskoy.
"Daddy" - this is how Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin was called in the letters, most often he reported family details in his letters. One of them concerned "Aunt Grusha" (Agrafena Obolenskaya). Without her own home in Moscow, she lived in a rented apartment. The next winter, the owners of the house refused her an apartment, and she was going to live until next summer in Akulinino. The house left in this estate near Moscow from Prince Ivan Obolensky was still strong, and "Aunt Grusha" lacked money. Lopukhins repeatedly came and even came on foot to visit Agrafena Alexandrovna at her estate. She did not visit Menshov very often.
On one of these visits to Akulinino, Alexei Lopukhin found himself in an unexpected situation. In a letter dated June 26, he wrote: “... On Friday, I was supposed to arrive at Akulinino at 8 o'clock (in the evening), but I drove up to dear Rozhay and for the first time he did not let me through; there was such heavy rain in the vicinity of Menshov, even in Vorobyevo, according to the locals, there was knee-deep water on level ground, that I finally saw Rozhai giving birth and, having reached the Vorobyov mill, crossed the dam and begged for horses there, but the driver certainly wanted to take me to tarantase, which is why it took a long time to get ready for the journey. At 10 o'clock I arrived in Akulinino ... ". There were already guests in Akulinino, members of his family and close relatives who had arrived in advance: Lelya with her husband and Lina Samarina. Having celebrated the birth of Aunt Grusha, the Lopukhins family went to Menshovo. “... We set off from Akulinino in the following order: Mama, Aunt Masha, Klara Ivanovna and Emilia got into the carriage, into the tarantass: Olga, Mitya Evreinov, Novikov, Garder and I ... Masha and Lida stayed overnight in Akulinino for Lina, who the next day I came to Menshovo with my aunt Grusha and my sisters.... Give birth the next day again without water, because in Turgenev the dam broke and the water left.
In a letter dated July 4, “Papa” informed his daughter Sonya of village news: “... In general, in Menshov and Akulinin, everyone is busy foreign policy, and Aunt Grusha and Katya study German and English. ... Without me, there was an incident in Menshov. One woman hired a peasant as a worker, and he, having drunk, did not want to work and was rude to her, for which she scolded him, and he dragged her away, so that not only her hands were in action, but also her legs. Last Sunday they were tried and the young man was dashingly whipped, which the Menshov peasants did not yet know and did not try ... ".
That year, all the landowners were in anxious expectation of how their former peasants would behave after the abolition of serfdom. Alexei Alexandrovich wrote about this. In a letter dated July 13, he reported: “... On Sunday I saw Ershov (Ivan Ivanovich - M.N.) and Masha (his daughter - M.N.). The first returned from his journey, was in Tula, Ryazan and Penza, that is, in these provinces, and it is strange to hear his stories. He, who preached that the peasants would not work, says that they are doing three times against the former and are so meek and calm that they are like lambs. In the same letter, "Papa" said that due to the heat, mowing is bad, and the bread will not be very good.
In one of his last letters from Menshovo, he described the celebration of the name day of Masha Ershova, in the estate of Vorobyevo. “... The next day, Aunt Masha went to Vorobyevo for mass and received an invitation to everyone. In the evening, with the whole family, except for Novikov and Alyosha Trubetskoy, we went to Vorobyevo, where we found Vasily Andreevich Obolensky, Demidov, the mayor with his son, the doctor and Ogarev. Vasily Andreevich simply hit on Masha and Lidinka, who struck him with their ribbons, as if their color was good and Masha was very adventurous. The table was prepared between the house and the church, on the high road, chocolate cake, cottage cheese, varenets, peaches, cherries, raspberries and melon, which was banished in honor of me and served after. Masha Ershova cut the cake and treated it, but this time not in a blue dress, but in a muslin dress with a trim of solferino ribbons. Returning home in the evening, the Lopukhins and their guests saw a big fire that was taking place in Ilyinsky. The flame was so great that it could be seen in Menshovo.
At the very beginning of August, Alexey Alexandrovich fell ill and did not come to Menshovo again that summer. As it turned out, he contracted a dangerous disease - smallpox. His wife Varvara Alexandrovna, in mid-August, came from the village to look after him and also became infected. In a letter dated July 6, Varvara Lopukhina presented the daily routine of all family members. “... I will describe our day to you: We all get up at different hours, I am naturally later than others, but much earlier, however, the former. At 12 o'clock I am always ready, and sometimes at 11 I am already in the living room. So, until 11 o'clock Sofya Ivanovna walks with the boys in the garden, and at 11 they come to greet me, bring either mushrooms or berries that they have collected. Then they go swimming, and I either do the accounts or read. At 1 o'clock they have breakfast, and I drink rye coffee. Then I embroider a Papa pillow in the hoop. At 2 o'clock Sofya Ivanovna and I teach the children until 4 o'clock, and at 4 they go swimming again, and I sit down at the embroidery frame, and Borya makes me a reading. At 5 o'clock we have lunch, after, sometimes I will play two or three games of billiards, without energy, because I am surrounded by bad players, whom I always win without difficulty, then we all sit together, chatting until 8 o'clock. At 8 o'clock we always go for a walk, after which we drink tea and never go to bed later than 11 o'clock. Masha reads, then embroiders, Lidia reads, embroiders, and plays the piano, Olga and Emilia study all morning and also play music. Aunt Masha, now with Masha, now with Borey, reads, and more than ever, it seems she is bored, poor thing.
Here is our day on weekdays. When Papa and Novikov appear, well, then there is a big vacillation, as it always happened with them, and we go to bed much later, and we have tea long after dinner, and the evening walks are long, and then the day must be ended by millers, the goal of which will certainly be left to Novikov the miller, so that later I can ask him how much loss he suffered when the mill in Turgenevo burst through.
Despite the fact that among the nobility, summer holidays in the countryside were considered the best pastime of the year, and the entire urban population strove to breathe fresh, clean air in nature, among the Lopukhin family there was a person who was not very happy about the trip to the estate near Moscow. This special was the eldest daughter Maria. The fact is that she was sick, could hardly move. She understood that her personal life was unlikely to work out, and mental suffering was added to physical suffering. In addition, she admitted in a letter to her sister Sonya that she loved Novikov, but she hardly hoped for a mutual feeling, although he paid her more attention than other sisters. Probably, the disease at an earlier age did not have such an effect on physical condition and the psyche of Masha, and she recalled with pleasure the past years spent in the village. “Tolya it happened (Menshov Society - M.N.) during, for example, poetry and our hiking trip from Menshovo. How then our society was crowded, cheerful and pleasant.
Nevertheless, fresh air, pleasant weather, relief from illness and good company did their job, and by the middle of summer Maria had cheered up. In a letter dated July 15, she humorously described the story that happened during the celebration of the birthday of Begichev who came to visit and his younger brother Volodya. “... Everyone, including Aunt Grusha and Katya, went for a walk with songs in wonderful moonlight and in fine weather. ... We returned from a walk at almost an hour; they reached Vorobyov, where they made a terrible alarm. Part of the Ershov house was already asleep, while the other part was waiting for the departure of the police chief and Demidov (the conciliator - M.N.), who had already been given horses to also lie down; when suddenly they heard terrible singing and shouting at the church and saw a crowd of people. Alarmed during the day by the stories of Verderevsky (the owner of the Skobeevo estate - M.N.), also an intermediary, about one indignation, the Ershovs imagined that it was the indignant peasants who came to them, and were afraid to go out. But the police officer and Demidov, how the authorities came to look at them, having previously sent for a Cossack. When they saw that they were ours, the Ershovs also came out, and Ivan Ivanovich, frightened, led them with torches to a dirt shed, where he treated them to cherries and peaches. That's what fear means; Ershov rarely and not a crowded company leads during the day to a dirt shed, but here he led a whole crowd of 12 people, and even at night. Having eaten to satiety with cherries, ours returned home with songs and Dad, Mom and I went out to meet them. Arriving home, we sat down to supper and all the time laughed terribly when Begichev told about their adventure.
Even before the news of the seriousness of Papa's illness, the Menshov summer residents had a new fun. On August 4, Maria wrote: “Our whole company is very busy looking for porcini mushrooms, of which there are now a lot, and Seryozha told you to tell you that today in the morning they found 45 porcini mushrooms, which is very fun.” Masha's condition improved so much that she went to the forest and also found some mushrooms. After the departure of "Mama" to Moscow, as the eldest in the family, Maria became the mistress of the estate. She looked after younger brothers and sisters, gave instructions to the servants about the housework. In mid-September, having recovered a little from his illness, “Papa” gave her instructions in writing to repair the shed in the estate and to send things brought back from Moscow. After the recovery of "Papa" and "Mama", "Aunt Grusha" considered that in gratitude for God's mercy, "Papa" should pay "rug" (payment in money and supplies) to the Akulinin priest. In a letter to his daughter Maria, “Mama” conveys his answer: “... the Pope thanks Aunt Grusha because she decided that he should give a hug to the priest Akulinsky. However, he does not recognize the obligation to give it to him. In the Dormition (church on the Korytensky churchyard - M.N.), not one of the parishioners pays or gives anything to the priest and the whole reckoning, and only the Pope is responsible for everything, then why should he, in fact, give to the maintenance of the Akulinsky priest ".
Due to the illness of their parents, Lopukhina's children returned to the Moscow House only at the end of September, and for the last month and a half, Maria had no time for rest. In addition, Novikov also fell ill with smallpox, and fear for the life of a loved one was added to the worries about the health of his parents.
The letters of the third sister, 18-year-old Lida, a girl of marriageable age, are full of enthusiasm and affection for village life. Judging by the letters, she was a cheerful and pretty girl, around whom many young gentlemen constantly hovered. Sister Sophia strongly advised her to fall in love with one of them, but Lidia, as her family called her, only carelessly dismissed her sister's words, pushing marriage to the future. And her letters mention interesting details from the life of a noble family in the village.
On June 23, a family holiday was celebrated in Akulinino. The owner of the estate, Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, was congratulated on her birthday. Varvara Alexandrovna and her daughters Masha and Lidya came to Akulinino from the Lopukhins family. According to an old tradition, former serfs came to congratulate the hostess. After congratulations, Aunt Grusha gave them wine to drink. Kurgan men and women led round dances, dancing to the sounds of an accordion. As always, there were drunks and a respectable company: “one peasant who was very drunk and therefore lied terrible trifles was very amused.”
Like "Mom", Lydia described her daily routine in a letter. “I get up at 9-10 o’clock, after tea before breakfast, that is, until 12 o’clock I read Macaulay’s story with Miss Boni, then breakfast. Until 3 o’clock I play the piano, I analyze Obolensky’s sonatas (which I think I will never give him) and various pieces in your memory, then we go for a swim, and in the afternoon we walk until tea, then there are millers or just a conversation. Often in the evening, the Menshov company went to visit Akulinino. “Yesterday we all visited Aunt Grusha in the evening, and she made tea with all kinds of berries in her park, the evening was delicious, and we had a very pleasant time.”
Brother Boris, unlike the sisters, did not indulge his sister with letters. Perhaps the reason for this was his state of love. The 16-year-old high school student, as often happened in noble families, became interested in the young governess of his younger brothers, Sofya Ivanovna. The condition of the young man was noticed, but they did not attach any importance to this. For a few days, Boris was visited by his friend from the gymnasium Garder. Judging by the fact that, apart from a brief mention of his presence in the letter, nothing else was reported, he did not attract attention to himself.
Sister Olga's letters contain little information about family life in the countryside. The younger sister wrote more about herself. Bathing in the river Rozhai, picking strawberries and mushrooms, playing four hands with Lida on the piano, these were her main entertainments. Parents began to accustom the girl to the household and instructed her to deal with the barnyard. Of course, she didn't milk the cows or clean the dung. But to take milk and cottage cheese from the workers, to buy eggs and other supplies was part of her duties. Olga set to work with ardor, only the cows given by Aunt Grusha, on grazing, constantly fled to their usual Akulinino, and they had to be constantly returned to Menshovo.
The younger sister Emilia, following the example of adults, also described her daily activities in the village. “We spend time almost exactly the same as last year: we get up at half past six, we go swimming at seven, Olga plays the piano from eight to nine, tea at nine o’clock, after tea I play, then we have lessons until breakfast, from breakfast until four o'clock again lessons, at four we swim again, and after dinner, we either walk or swim again. On Mondays we go to Akulinino to take a music lesson, and on Thursdays, Katya comes to us.” Of the other entertainments in which Emilia also took part, there was fishing in the Rozhayka River. Today we were fishing and caught only four crucian carp, which went to Papa's ear.
Even the little brothers Seryozha and Volodya wrote letters to their sister Sonya. In large letters, first written in pencil and then outlined in ink, most likely with the help of the tutor Sofya Ivanovna, Seryozha wrote to his sister: “Fishing and billiards occupy me very much and I would be glad to fish with Novikov all day, because we are both addicted and enter in excitement. Sergey has made a garden for us, and we salt our cucumbers and eat peas, beans and other vegetables.” Swimming in the Rozhai River was another entertainment for the boys. Seryozha learned to swim that summer.
Due to the illness of the parents, the end of the summer season of 1861 turned out to be crumpled. The first autumn frosts had already begun, but the children continued to be in the village. The parents did not want to expose them to the risk of contracting smallpox and returned them to Moscow only on September 27, when the danger had passed.
In the same 1861, after the abolition of serfdom, part of the landed estates was transferred to the peasants freed from serfdom. In subsequent years, the landowners were to receive a ransom for it from the peasant rural society. However, the land acquisition process dragged on for long years, and the peasants, until the purchase of land, were considered "temporarily liable" to their former landowners. They continued to work out the corvée and pay dues.
In 1865, the lands of the village of Akulinino belonged to Princess Obolenskaya and the Akulinin rural society, which included 85 temporarily liable peasants. The land was divided as follows: the peasant allotment was 270 tithes 2085 sazhens, the landowner's plot - 571 tithes 273 sazhens. The lands of the village of Menshovo were registered with Lopukhina and the Menshov rural society. The wasteland of Bankova was also part of these lands. In the society of peasants in the village of Menshovo, there were 48 temporarily liable peasants, the allocated allotment of which was 156 acres, while the landowner owned 102 acres, 1200 sazhens. Stolbishchevskoe rural society, which included 37 temporarily liable peasants, was allocated 159 acres 848 sazhens of land. No land was recorded for the Penza-Kiselevsk almshouse.
Since the mid-1860s, the village of Akulinino, the village of Menshovo and the village of Stolbishchevo were part of the Rastunovsky volost of the Podolsky district. By the mid-1870s, the borders of the volosts of the Podolsky district were redrawn. In the south-east of the county, the Shebantsevskaya volost was formed, whose borders included the settlements: Akulinino, Menshovo and Stolbishchevo.
And life in the Lopukhins' Menshovo estate near Moscow continued to revive only in the summer months. The children of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna grew up, the sons, having graduated from various educational institutions, entered the service, and on rare days they could be seen in such a favorite place of their summer vacation. Each of them reached a high position.
All the sons of Alexei Lopukhin chose a legal career for themselves. Their nephew, Yevgeny Trubetskoy, remembered them that way. “There were no nihilists and freethinkers among my uncles Lopukhins; but it is characteristic that, unlike the uncles Trubetskoys, who all began their service in the guards, my uncles Lopukhins were all judicial figures, and liberal ones at that: the soft soul and flexible mind of the Lopukhins immediately took on the appearance of the “epoch of great reforms.” Thanks to this, the entire atmosphere in which we grew up was saturated with the liberalism of that time of a special, judicial type.
The eldest son, Alexander, in honor of whose birth Mikhail Lermontov wrote a poem, after studying in His Majesty's Corps of Pages, chose the civil service, and already in 1866 served as a justice of the peace in Moscow, and in 1867 as a comrade (deputy) prosecutor at the Moscow District Court . In the 1870s, he was already the prosecutor of the St. Petersburg Court of Justice. It was he who, in 1878, participated as a prosecutor in the famous open trial in the case of the terrorist Vera Zasulich, who shot at the St. Petersburg mayor F.F. Trepov. The well-known lawyer A.F. Koni presided over the trial. Experienced experts so conducted the hearing on a loud court case that V. Zasulich was acquitted by the jury. For the "unsuccessful" conduct of this case, both Koni and Lopukhin were removed from their posts. In 1879, Alexander Lopukhin was sent to Turkey, where he served as chairman of a special commission at the imperial embassy in Constantinople. In 1882, Alexander Alekseevich served as chairman of the Warsaw District Court. He rose to the rank of real state councilor and was awarded the court rank of chamberlain. He was married to Elizaveta Dmitrievna Golokhvastova (1841-1909) and had sons Alexei (1864-1928), Dmitry (1865-1914), Boris, Yuri and Viktor (1868-1933).
The middle son of Alexei Alexandrovich, Boris, also chose the profession of a lawyer. A graduate of the law faculty of Moscow University, he rose to the position of prosecutor of the Warsaw District Court, and then chairman of the Yaroslavl District Court. Boris Alekseevich, like his elder brother, had the rank of a real state councilor. From his marriage to Vera Ivanovna Protasova, he had sons Vladimir (1871-after 1940), Eugene (1878-after 1940) and a daughter Vera.
Above all, the youngest, Sergey, climbed the career ladder. Participating as a volunteer in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Sergei Alekseevich was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree and the Romanian Iron Cross for personal heroism. Being in the position of a comrade of the Tula prosecutor, Sergei Lopukhin was appointed senator of the criminal cassation department. In 1902, he was already the prosecutor of the Kyiv Court of Justice. In 1906, another promotion awaited him. Sergei Alekseevich was invited to the Russian capital, to the post of chief prosecutor of the Senate. At the end of his career, Sergei Lopukhin held the rank of privy councilor and senator. He was on friendly terms with the great writer Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, visited him at the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where he played in amateur performances. Married to Countess Alexandra Pavlovna Baranova (1854-1934), he had children: Nikolai (1879-1952), Anna (1880-1972), Alexei (1882-1966), Raphael (1883-1915), Peter (1885-1962 ), Maria (1886-1976), Catherine (1888-1965), Mikhail (1889-1919), Tatyana (1891-1960), Eugene (1893-1967).
Of the five daughters of the Lopukhins, two: Maria and Lydia never got married, and lived out their lives as old maids. Olga married A.S. Ozerov, and Emilia for Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist. Sofya Alekseevna in 1861 was married to Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. Some features of the maternal character were mentioned in his memoirs by Sophia's son Yevgeny Trubetskoy. “... The general gaiety and cheerfulness of Lopukhin's appearance in her soul was combined with that spiritual burning, which in her brothers and sisters gave only sparks, and in her flared up into a flame.
That first occasion, when she learned that a yard servant had been flogged, was for her a day of deep spiritual shock. It was a whole storm of indignation, a rebellion against his father, accompanied by sleepless nights spent in sobs. For a long time she felt alienated from him; in the Lopukhin family this was, as far as I know, the only case of alienation so profound.
To overcome this alienation, it took that higher spiritual development and that spiritual breadth, which subsequently gave her the opportunity to understand that this section was not so much the grandfather’s personal fault, but the common fault of his environment and, moreover, inherited fault.
It was not cerebral, cold "liberalism", because cerebral rationality and coldness in Mama did not spend the night at all. It was the soul - the same soul that later spiritualized Akhtyrka, filled with previously unknown grace the beautiful architectural forms of her estate and locality, created by another loving maternal hand. Through her, that invasion of Men'shov into Akhtyrka took place, which created the whole spiritual atmosphere of our childhood and adolescence. But at the same time, it was the transformation of Menshov himself, because Mama was much more serious, stronger and deeper than the average Menshov level.
The family of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy spent most of the summer months in the family estate of his father "Akhtyrka", located near the modern city of Sergiev Posad near Moscow. But sometimes the Trubetskoy children were also taken to their maternal grandmothers in Menshovo. Talking in his memoirs about his childhood, Evgeny Trubetskoy constantly compared the orders that existed in two estates near Moscow. Later, fate would link the family of Nikolai Petrovich and Sofya Alekseevna with the Menshovo estate for a long time. In the meantime, let's continue the story about the Lopukhins family.
Over time, the Lopukhins' children left their home and only unmarried daughters Maria and Lydia remained with their parents. Father, mother and daughters formed the permanent basis of that society, which continued to come to Menshovo for the summer. The rest of their children, already with their children, began to come to the estate of their parents near Moscow only to visit, for several days or weeks. Here they were always welcomed. Yevgeny Trubetskoy recalled with pleasure: “Grandfather and grandmother were completely different here. There was no distance between us and them. They doted on their grandchildren and spoiled them as best they could. Grandfather Trubetskoy, we said "you", and with grandparents Lopukhins were "you". And there were no "forms" in our relations with them. We also adored “grandfather and grandmother Lopukhins”, but we did not allow them to refuse anything. When one day I got so naughty that my grandfather was forced to stand up for discipline, I called him a fool, for which I was immediately spanked. This was one of my first big disappointments in life. How, this grandfather, who looks into my eyes with such love, pokes his finger in my stomach and says to me so affectionately - “darling belly” - this same grandfather suddenly fights! And I began to cry - not from pain, of course, because the slap was "fatherly", but from insult. And grandfather kissed me and consoled me with a burning glass, with which he immediately burned the paper to my great joy.
This grandfather Alexey Alexandrovich was also a bright type in his own way. I remember that we children almost always found him lying in bed. For weeks he did not get up, and we considered him ill. But, nothing happened, grandfather was perfectly healthy. Suddenly, without any reason, he got up for several weeks, and then lay down again. Subsequently, I learned that this periodic lying was caused by a deep and incomprehensible tragedy for us children. The “disease” that periodically forced grandfather to lie down was something like a paralysis of the will, and it was caused, oddly enough, by the act of February 19th. Until that time, his affairs were not bad; judging by the stories of my aunts - his daughters, who vaguely understood the business side of life, under serfdom "everything was done by itself, incomes were obtained by themselves", and after that the grandfather had the task of taking up the arrangement of his own economy. He went into complete prostration and, overwhelmed by the consciousness of his helplessness, "turned into some kind of Oblomov." Managers stole, income was not received, things "of themselves came into disorder", and grandfather retired with heavy thoughts in his bed. In such a state of mind, we children were his salvation. And in his special tenderness for us, besides his loving heart, all the pain of the suffering soul was also expressed.
However, everyone in the Lopukhins' house treated us with the same love - my grandmother, and aunts, and the old woman - my mother's nanny - Sekleteya Vasilyevna from the former courtyards - a representative of the now disappeared type of "Pushkin's nanny". For my unmarried aunts, their nephews and nieces were almost the only interest in their lives, which is not surprising, since only in us they could find satisfaction for the motherly feeling inherent in any woman.
Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy was born in 1863 and his memories of the Lopukhins' grandparents are connected with the late 1860s and early 1870s. A particularly crowded society gathered in Menshovo in 1869. In addition to the parents of the Lopukhins, and their unmarried and unmarried children, they rested here from several months to several days: the family of the eldest son Alexander - wife Liza and children: Alyosha, Mitya and Borya; the family of the daughter - Princess Sophia Trubetskoy, husband and children; daughters - Countess Emilia Kapnist, families of Lina and Lely Samarin, Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, Evreinovs, Lvov and Smirnov, uncle Yusha (relative). For the older Lopukhins, it was a wonderful time. The whole family and people close to her were together and enjoyed the beautiful nature of the Moscow region and the good weather. But unfortunately for them, it was one of the last happy years of their lives.
Alexey Alexandrovich Lopukhin died in 1872, and his wife Varvara Alexandrovna died the following year. The summer months of 1872-1873 were spent by the Lopukhins at a rented dacha in the suburbs of Moscow - Butyrki. Most likely, this was due to the fact that in the previous year, due to a strong wind, the roof of the Menshovsky house was damaged. In addition, Varvara Alexandrovna became seriously ill, and she needed constant medical supervision. It turned out to be cheaper to rent a cottage than to repair an old house. Lopukhins have done this before. It is possible that in the mid-1860s, for a year or several years, the estate in Menshovo was empty. This can be assumed from a letter from Princess Sofya Trubetskoy to her husband dated May 22, 1867: “Mom went to Meshcherskoye, which turned out to be worthless, and therefore they hired carpenters to fix the Menshovsky house and probably move there, they took 300 rubles from them to make the kitchen and that’s it. necessary amendments.
After the death of the Lopukhins' parents, the estate in Menshov was not used for several years. Only in the spring of 1879, under the supervision of Emilia's husband, Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist, the buildings of the Menshov estate were repaired. Since that year, the families of the Lopukhins, Trubetskoys, Kapnists and their relatives and friends spent part of the summer in Menshov. Kapnist and Trubetskoy also had their own estates, so representatives of their families were here infrequently and not for long. But the Lopukhin sisters Maria and Lydia became mistresses in the parental estate.
Evgeny Trubetskoy in his memoirs gave a wonderful description of Menshov at that time. “In the Lopukhins-Menshov, near Moscow, there were two bright wooden landowner's houses with mezzanines on a hill above the river. The contrast with the Akhtyrka house was, of course, complete: that one was magnificent, while these were pretty and cozy. Yes, and the area is Menshovskaya, with a small neglu side river, with laughing, as if washed birch forests, was in complete harmony with the house and was a vivid contrast with mydense spruces and pines of the Akhtyrsky park. Everything in the houses was simple, and, of course, there could be no talk of any “highest exits” in such an environment. Also in the park with small picturesque ravines, with bridges knocked together on a living thread, there were no pavilions or any kind of undertakings, but for that everything together was infinitely sweet, cozy and cheerful, all the more so since there were no strict faces of ancestors hung on the walls. There was nothing here that could arouse a hooligan-anarchist feeling of protest in a child.
And, strange to say, I remember four generations in Menshov; during this time, everything was rebuilt there twice, so that one house was made up of the remains of two houses, the names of the owners also changed, because Menshovo passed through the female line. And yet, the Menshevik tradition and the Menshevik way of life are still the same. Still, Menshovo is full of sweet, cheerful, cheerful, mostly female youth. All the same there is the atmosphere of an open house, where people come easily, without observing strict and ponderous forms. All the same, all the rooms are always invariably full of guests, overflowing the house to the last limits of capacity. All the same, young people, attracted by female youth, predominate among the guests. How many fell in love and got married there! In the words of a dead Moscow old woman, the god Amor visited there often, if not continuously. Needless to say, in Menshov, amid the unimaginable hubbub and the constant bustle of incessant arrivals and departures, it was difficult to do anything seriously. The atmosphere of some uninterrupted spring festival of the flowering of youth prevailed there; a generation of adorable children who then grew up to resume the same tradition of merrily in love noise again. I was in Menshov for the first time five years old and have retained for the rest of my life the impression of a spring daydream, which then resumed when I arrived there as a young man, and now resumes when I go there. And I've been in my sixties for a long time.
When I met Menshov, the flowering of my aunt Lopukhins was already coming to an end. This was already in the second half of the sixties. Then, as in subsequent generations, this flowering was not a barren flower. Comparing the Menshevik freemen with the Akhtyrka style of grandfather Pyotr Ivanovich, I cannot but see that it was precisely this Menshevik freemen and gaiety, which later invaded Akhtyrka, prepared an extremely important turning point in life understanding. The free relationship of fathers and children, grandchildren and grandfathers facilitated the transition from old Russia to new. The Lopukhins family in the sixties was much more modern than the Trubetskoy family. Thanks to this, the dispute between fathers and children manifested itself here in other forms, incomparably milder: despite this dispute, the distance between generations still did not turn into an abyss.
The Lopukhins and their relatives spent the summer months in Menshovo until 1884. And in the following year, 1885, this estate was handed over as a dacha and not to anyone, but to the already famous artist Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov at that time. It is not known whether the Lopukhins knew Polenov before, but be that as it may, for two years -1885 and 1886, members of the Polenov family and his friends used the estate in Menshovo in the summer. This period in the history of Menshov will be discussed in a separate article.
Concluding the story about the members of the Lopukhin family who lived in the Menshovo estate in 1850 - 1880, we will finally mention their relatives and friends who visited them and left a memory of themselves in Russian history. The husband of Emilia Nikolaevna Lopukhina - Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist (1842-1904), Privy Councilor, in 1880 - 1895 was a trustee of the Moscow educational district, and since 1895 he was appointed a senator. He rarely visited Menshovo, because he himself had a rich estate in Ukraine - Obukhovka.
The son of Alexander Alekseevich Lopukhin - Alexei (1864-1928), who in childhood visited his grandfather and grandmother Lopukhins in their estate near Moscow, rose to the rank of director of the police department of the Russian Empire (1903-1905). He became famous for the fact that, after retiring, he gave out the Okhrana agent Azef to the Socialist-Revolutionaries. For divulging official secrets, he was arrested and convicted: to the deprivation of all rights of the state and five years of hard labor, replaced by exile in Siberia. In December 1912, Alexey Alexandrovich Lopukhin was pardoned and reinstated.
Dmitry Pavlovich Evreinov (1842-1892) stood out from a number of his relatives in that he was known as a "nihilist" among them. Indeed, after spending part of the summer in Menshov and gaining strength, in the fall of 1861, a student at Moscow University, Dmitry Evreinov, participated in riots in his educational institution. In May 1862, he was arrested on charges of "distributing outrageous appeals" and until mid-August he was kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Thanks to the intercession of high-ranking relatives, Dmitry Evreinov was not severely punished, he was only sent to Tula to his sister, who took him "on bail." He no longer participated in the revolutionary movement, and in 1865 police supervision was removed from him.
Count Fyodor Lvovich Sollogub (1840-1890) was engaged in theatrical painting, drew sketches for theatrical costumes, and was the head of the furnishing department on the stages of the Moscow Imperial Theaters. He taught at the Moscow Drama Schools. In the time of the Lopukhins, Menshovo was visited in the summer months by other representatives of the Moscow noble aristocracy close to them, mostly women and children.
Menshovo under the princes Trubetskoy.
Maria Alekseevna Lopukhina died in 1886. The Menshovo estate remained in the possession of the sisters: Lidia Lopukhina and Sophia Trubetskoy. Since 1887, this estate near Moscow was placed at the disposal of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. The daughter of Nikolai and Sophia Trubetskoy, Princess Olga, who compiled the written chronicle of the Trubetskoy family, explained this event in this way. “Aunt Lidya (Lopukhina) spent this summer in Skobeevka (with her aunt Agrafena Aleksandrovna Obolenskaya), because her old house in Menshov was being rebuilt so as to accommodate our entire family. After a long and fruitless search for an estate that could meet the requirements of the family, and at the same time would not place too much of a burden on the budget, Papa and Mama settled on the idea of making an extension to the old Menshov house and living there with Aunt Lydia, who was too sad to return there alone after the death of Aunt Masha.
An old friend and kind neighbor on the estate, Vladimir Ivanovich Ershov, took over the restructuring of the house. An unidentified architect was hired to rebuild the house. In accordance with the wishes of Nikolai Petrovich: “so that the hall is built in such a way that there is room for setting up a stage,” he separated the living room from the hall with an arch, “which turned out to be really very convenient for charades and performances.” The only drawback of the house repair was that inside it, after the reconstruction, there were many defects. According to Olga Trubetskoy, V.I.
Agrafena Obolenskaya and Lydia Lopukhina, who lived in nearby Skobeevka, could not calmly look at the repair of the house. Both wept and felt sorry for the rebuilt old Menshov house, which was thoroughly dismantled. Without windows, without doors and in some places without a foundation, it reminded them of a devastated plucked nest. In addition, the construction was carried out slowly, but Ershov assured: "that this inaction is necessary and begged not to rush it." Nikolai Petrovich occasionally looked at the construction site, but did not constantly live there. The house in the Menshovo estate was completely renovated by the summer of 1888.
The new informal owner of Menshovo, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy (1828-1900), left a significant mark on the history of the development of musical art in Russia and Moscow. Mentions of his activities are available in all reference books and encyclopedias. Having devoted his youth to music, having spent most of his personal funds on organizing various musical events, the later half of his life, he had to look for money to support his family.
Born into a noble and wealthy family of a general, Prince Peter Trubetskoy, Nikolai Petrovich received an excellent education in the Corps of Pages. In his youth, he fought, participated in the Hungarian and Crimean companies. Then he moved to the civil service. Music was his passion. Without a special musical education, he played the piano perfectly, sang and composed music. For a long time, Nikolai Petrovich became chairman of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society. Being in close friendship with the musicians brothers Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy, together with Nikolai Rubinstein, became a co-founder of the Moscow Conservatory. Thanks to his efforts, symphony and quartet concerts began to be held regularly in Moscow, a conservatory was opened, in which gifted children received musical education.
Being engaged in public affairs, Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy squandered most of his funds. Trying to make up for the lost, he decided to take up agriculture. Nikolai Petrovich acquired an estate in the south of the Russian Empire, and engaged in the cultivation and sale of bread, as well as sheep breeding. A few years away from his family, he spent in his southern estate - Sidor. However, his undertakings were unsuccessful, neither he nor the managers hired by him were able to earn money to support the family. Being on the verge of ruin, Nikolai Petrovich entered the service, and from 1876 to 1885 he served as vice-governor of the Kaluga province. But even the salary of a high-ranking official was not always enough for family needs, and he did not take bribes. The family estate Akhtyrka, as well as Sidor, had to be sold. Having released his eldest sons, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy retired and in 1887 moved with his family to live in Moscow. Beginning in 1888, he spent the summer months in a family environment, in a quiet and peaceful corner of the Moscow region - the Menshovo estate.
And the family of the prince, according to the tradition of those years, was large. From two marriages, he had eleven children. For the first time, he was married to Countess Lyubov Vasilievna Orlova-Denisova, who died in her youth. From this marriage he had three children: Peter (1859-1911), Sophia (married to Vladimir Glebov) and Maria (to Grigory Ivanovich Christie). From the second marriage with Sofya Alekseevna Lopukhina were born: sons Sergey (1862-1905), Eugene (1863-1920) and Grigory (1874-1930), as well as daughters: Elizabeth (for M.M. Osorgin), Antonina (for F. D. Samarin), Marina (for Prince Nikolai Gagarin), Varvara (1870-1933, for G. G. Lermontov) and Olga (04/26/1867-1947).
By 1888, his older children were already living independently, had families and their own young children. The eldest son from his first marriage, Peter, owned the Uzkoye estate near Moscow, so if he ever visited Menshovo, it was very rare, just like his sisters Sophia and Maria. But the children from the second marriage preferred Menshovo to Uzky. The eldest sons Sergei and Evgeny, after graduating from Moscow University in 1885, devoted themselves to science. By 1888 both were living near their parents' summer residence. Sergei was left at the department to prepare for the title of professor, and in 1888 he was admitted to the number of privat-docents of Moscow University. Eugene, having passed the military training and received an officer's rank, went into the reserve. In 1886 he became assistant professor at the Demidov Law Lyceum in Yaroslavl. On ordinary days, he lectured once a week, so for the remaining six days he left for Moscow. So, starting from 1888, all members of the family of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy, who spent the whole summer, and who for several days, spent in the Menshov estate.
The Chronicle of the Trubetskoy family compiled by Olga Nikolaevna Trubetskoy will help to tell about this. So, on June 6, 1888, most of the members of the Trubetskoy family arrived at the renovated manor house. “Dad moved earlier than others and, together with Alexandra Ivanovna and Alexander, arranged the furniture in the house as best he could and prepared all the rooms. He worked hard and was looking forward to our arrival and first impressions.” But Olga's first impression was unimportant. “The house had just been painted red and, as happens when painting with a mummy, the color was too bright and light, and hops had not yet been planted around, which brightened up the house so much later. There was no balcony at the entrance either, and the porch was very uncomfortable, to say the least. On the other hand, everything inside was so fresh, bright and tidy, and the large hall was so pretty that we soon came to terms with appearance house, which gradually became, if not more beautiful, then more comfortable. At the same time, the surrounding nature immediately captivated. Papa was very pleased with the upper terrace and the terracotta vases that he placed on the pedestals of the balustrade, there were no flowers in them yet, and their appearance did little to decorate, but the Pope demanded that they be admired.
Gradually, the entire Trubetskoy family, with the exception of their daughter Elizaveta, who married Mikhail Mikhailovich Osorgin and lived in the Kaluga estate of the Osorgins - Sergievskoye, gathered in Menshovo and its environs. Sergei Nikolaevich in October 1887 married Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna Obolenskaya and decided to live with his small family, separately, but not far from everyone. A house in the Prokhorovo estate, located a few miles from Menshov, was hired for him. Sister Olga herself went to equip a temporary, but still a family nest of newlyweds. Another place where all the Trubetskoys came this summer was the Skobeevo estate. Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, Aunt Grusha, continued to live there during the summer months. Driving there and from there, they could not pass the estates of Vorobyevo, where the Ershov family always willingly accepted them, Olga Trubetskaya was very close to Vera Ershova and Maria Khitrovo, who lived with her. Another relative of the Trubetskoy family, Sonya Evreinova, lived with Aunt Grusha.
This summer, the company of young girls gathered in Menshov was only brother Grisha, who came to visit Vorobyevo Bobby (Boris?) Nechaev and Nikolai Andreevich Kislinsky - a domestic man in the Trubetskoy family. Already adult brothers Sergey and Evgeny and sister Olga were more engaged in entertainment for adults, although they enjoyed riding around Rozhai on a boat. Sergei constantly came from Prokhorovo to Menshovo, where he enjoyed playing tennis with his brothers, Kislinsky and Olga. Eugene simply adored this game and if he didn’t play in the morning, then he didn’t go by himself. Hunting was his other pastime. Olga, on the other hand, preferred horseback riding (she went to Meshcherskoye, Turgenevo and Odintsovo), swimming in the river and reading. She did not like to walk, as she had been lame since childhood.
Adults enjoyed the wonderful nature, fresh air, strangled conversations. From time to time, relatives and friends came to Menshovo to stay for a few days. This summer was Uncle Kapnist, a friend of Varvara's daughter - Anna Sytina. Olga decided to celebrate the end of the summer season with a home performance. “... now Borya (Lopukhin) has a letter to bring plays, on 20 (August) - he was here, on 22 - the roles were rewritten, on 26 we already played “Trouble from a Gentle Heart” and “By the Nest and the Bird”. All the preparations for the performance were made by the Trubetskoy children in secret from the adults. The appearance of the stage and the curtain was explained not as a performance, but as a charade. Olga's idea was a success, and perhaps for the first time in the entire existence of the settlement, a theatrical performance took place in the vicinity of Menshovo.
The last day when most members of the Trubetskoy family and their guests were in Menshovo was August 30th. “…Yesterday, before the end, the house was overcrowded. Petya-brother (Peter Nikolaevich Trubetskoy), Vasya and Yusha Davydov, aunt Grusha arrived. However, even in September, life in this corner of the Moscow region did not stop. After the departure of relatives, Sergei Trubetskoy and his wife moved to the Menshov House, where he prepared his dissertation. Dad and Vladimir Ivanovich Ershov went on some business to Malvinsky (Malvinskoye-Otradnoye). The guests continued to visit the Trubetskoys even on cool October days. Aleksey Lopukhin and Sergey Ozerov came to Menshovo in autumn. Finally, by the onset of cold weather, that is, by mid-October, life in the Menshovo estate came to a standstill.
Dacha life in Menshov continued in the next summer of 1889. The Lopukhins, the old Osorgins, the Samarins, Lydia Beklemisheva, Andrey Ozerov and other relatives, some for a day and some for several weeks, came to visit the family of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. There were not enough places for everyone, and then the guests who appeared without an invitation, and therefore without a place, were received by Aunt Grusha in Skobeevo. It was she who settled Peter and Lina Samarina. Olga Trubetskaya wrote to her brother Yevgeny: "... it's terrible that we had people."
This year Olga became seriously interested in photography. She bought a camera and took, developed and printed the photographs herself. She had a particularly wide field of activity in Menshovo. Indeed, in addition to the Menshov summer residents and their neighbors, it was possible to shoot beautiful picturesque views near the estate. But even this seemed not enough. Olga Nikolaevna, together with her sisters and friends, also took up artistic photography. Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya, who moved from Menshovo to Moscow in September, wrote to her son Zhenya, who lived in Yaroslavl: “... Yesterday they sent me a fantastic picture from The Demon: on a steep cliff, Manya Khitrova portrays the Demon, only the witch came out rather than the Demon, and below Maria dressed as Tamara, she fetches water, and it turned out very nice and the place chosen was wild. The location of this survey was the steep banks of the Rozhai River in the vicinity of Menshovo. Photographs taken by Olga Trubetskoy of Menshov's dacha life were popular among her relatives, and she had to make several sets of them to order. Her sister Marina helped her with this. Where are these photos now? How interesting it would be to look at the life that raged in Menshovo 120 years ago.
According to a newly emerged tradition, the name day of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy was celebrated in early October, in Menshovo. For this celebration, the adult Trubetskoy arrived there for several days. The Trubetskoy children had not left there since the summer, and the whole of September was left to their own devices. Arriving to them in Menshovo, Sofya Alekseevna wrote in surprise to her son Evgeny: “... Everything is here time runs such fun, such revival and even some kind of ecstasy, that I somehow got out of the darkness into a dazzling light that I can’t bear at all.
At the end of the summer season, friends of the Trubetskoy sisters came to Menshovo. Here were Maria Rachinskaya and her brother Alexander, Boris Lopukhin, Alexei Kapnist, Maria Khitrova and other neighbors from Vorobyevo. A surprise was arranged for the birthday boy, a charade was played. Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya wrote: “... Whoever was cute in a charade was Marina, who danced a whole ballet. Manya Khitrova taught her different ballet dances, and she is so graceful and sweet, and she dances like ballet. ... Yesterday she portrayed hellfire in the realm of Pluto, and danced a quick dance in a lovely red and black costume, lit by sparklers, and she was lovely as sweet. Finally, after the celebration of the name day, all the Trubetskoys, their relatives and friends left Menshovo to return to it next summer.
Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina also spent the whole summer of 1889 in her estate near Moscow. In winter, trouble happened to Aunt Lida, she had a stroke, after which partial paralysis set in. One type of medicine was fresh country air. Lidia Alekseevna was brought to Menshovo for the summer. A paramedic came with her, who constantly monitored her condition. From Moscow, Dr. Roth visited her from time to time. And I must say, being in nature helped the patient a little. Lidia Alekseevna's numb arm and leg were gradually returning to their former sensations.
The following year, 1890, was significant for the Menshov estate in that it was visited by the famous Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov. The acquaintance between him and Sergei Trubetskoy took place in 1888. From that moment, Trubetskoy became a student of Solovyov and one of his best followers. In 1889, Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy defended his master's thesis at Moscow University entitled "Metaphysics in Ancient Greece". This work significantly increased his reputation among Russian philosophers. The dissertation was also published as a book. Recognized experts in this field began to pay attention to his philosophical works. And Sergei Nikolaevich moved from the category of students to the category of friends of the famous philosopher. The arrival of Vladimir Solovyov in Menshovo was already a visit by an older friend to a younger one.
It used to be known that Soloviev came to Trubetskoy at the Uzkoye estate. Twice in 1890, he visited Sergei Trubetskoy and the Menshovo estate. This fact became known from the diary of Olga Trubetskoy. Unfortunately, she did not indicate on what days Solovyov came to their estate near Moscow. Probably, due to a very large influx of friends and relatives, this summer Olga Nikolaevna kept a diary in fits and starts, and she simply did not write down the dates of Solovyov's arrival. But already in the fall, recalling the impressions of the past summer, Olga Nikolaevna wrote down in her diary her interesting impressions of the visit of this extraordinary person.
“Summer passed in great turmoil: the house (in Menshovo) is constantly full of people. During this month (mid-August-September), the horror of how much we have been. Manya Rachinskaya came twice and all the Kapnists, Alyosha (Lopukhin?) almost every week. Solovyov, who came the first time for one day, and the second for two days, left a lot to talk about himself. His second appearance was more spectacular. We all had breakfast in a crowded and noisy campaign, the table was stretched to the whole hall. Suddenly, the front door opens and a huge figure of Solovyov with incredibly disheveled hair appears in it. There was a strong wind, he leaned out the window of the carriage, and the wind tore off his hat, and he arrived from Podolsk with his head uncovered, arousing the amazement of the townsfolk along the way in the villages and the curiosity of the boys who rushed after the cab as long as they had the courage. His appearance is already captivating. Aunt Grusha treated him with hostility and not without fear. For some reason, she considered him the Antichrist, and she was creepy with him. Mom was also not very trusting of him. There was a lot of controversy whether he posed or not. Long hair he was especially disliked and served as an argument for his posturing. All day he walked through the woods or through the garden with Seryozha, and we saw him only at dinner, breakfast, and tea, and during brief intervals of general sitting on the terrace after dinner and breakfast. Of course, he noticed how busy we all were with him, and turned up the heat in our sense. It was an unusually warm, dry evening after a hot day. Everyone poured out into the meadow, and went to the edge of the cliff to the three birches, to Linino's place, and Solovyov and Seryozha joined us. Solovyov warned us not to be frightened if we heard noise and even screams at night. It is sometimes haunted and recent times all some terrible animals, sometimes roosters of extraordinary size, sometimes monkeys, and sometimes they rush to peck or bite him, and then he screams. This announcement generated great excitement and laughter in the younger company. Soon everyone noticed some kind of white nimble cat, which was spinning around us, and when we moved on, she curled around Solovyov, drawing circles around him. In a long mackintosh, with a disheveled head, in the twilight of the approaching night, his figure was really unusual, and although he walked in front with Grusha and Seryozha, fragments of the conversations of the youth who walked behind reached him. “Don’t be afraid of this cat,” he said suddenly turning to them, “this is my poodle.” When they went to bed, the house still did not cease animation and laughter. Everyone was waiting for Solovyov's screams and figured out how to respond to this. I slept with Grusha Panyutina, and opposite, across the corridor - Solovyov. We also did not sleep for a long time and listened to the uproar in the sisters' room. Suddenly, someone softly knocked on the door to us, and a loud scratching was heard. We became uncomfortable. Grusha opened the door, and Solovyov’s cat turned out to be outside the door ... She had never appeared before or since, and her appearance at the door was completely unpleasant.
Of course, Solovyov did not come to Menshovo to shock or frighten the local and dacha audience, but to visit his friend and discuss questions of philosophy with him. In one of the letters from Berlin, where Sergei Trubetskoy went with his family in the late autumn of 1890, he wrote to his mother: “... Olga and you ask me about Solovyov’s article: it was not news to me, because Solovyov read it to me in Menshovo” . In the future, friendly relations between the Trubetskoy brothers and Vladimir Solovyov continued until his death. By the way, Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov died in the summer of 1900, while visiting Pyotr Nikolayevich Trubetskoy in his Uzkoye estate.
As usual, in the summer of 1891, members of the Trubetskoy family arrived at their estate near Moscow. But the mood of the holidaymakers was not particularly joyful. Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya began to give up quickly and strongly. Olga Trubetskaya wrote in her diary: "Aunt Grusha is sinking and aging with terrifying speed." It was her last summer in their native places. On October 22, 1891, she passed away.
The beginning of the summer season of 1892 took place in disputes between Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskoy and members of her family. After reading the just published article by Leo Tolstoy “The First Step”, Mother, who had not been able to stand Leo Tolstoy before, suddenly became his fan. She stopped eating meat dishes, and instead of linen tablecloths, she ordered that oilcloth she had bought be spread on the table. Dad, Eugene and even daughters took up arms against her. And almost to the face they mocked her new quirks.
From other details of this summer, Olga Trubetskoy remembered the appearance of a gypsy camp in the vicinity of Menshovo. In her diary for July 12, she wrote: “Today, a camp of gypsies appeared outside Posiberekha. We go there in a crowd and all the Valischevskys and Menshovskys also came to take a look. They spread beautifully through the undergrowth, but they themselves - despite the poetry of savagery - are unpleasant and alien and uncomfortable. Of the new faces, Mitya Istomin came to Menshovo this year.
On August 10, the birthday of Princess Marina Nikolaevna Trubetskoy was celebrated in Menshovo. Local peasants with children were also invited to the holiday, to the landowner's estate. Her older sister Olga wrote in her diary: “Marina turned 15 yesterday. It was celebrated in the evening with illumination. The Ershov girls lived here for 2 days. The holiday for the peasant children was complete - they played all day at the cash registers in the garden, squealing. In the evening, the illumination was lit, and the whole garden was filled with people, there were round dances, singing, and dancing. Everywhere people were buzzing. ... Noisy cries of approval were heard from the dancers in front of the porch, the clatter of feet, the monotonous rhythm of harmony was heard.
Throughout the summer of 1893 silence and boredom reigned in Menshov. Only for a few days, at the Trubetskoy estate near Moscow, Uncle Petya and Aunt Lina Samarina came to visit. Representatives of the Trubetskoy youth and their relatives gathered here only in September. Arriving from the estate of the Samarins Molodenki, Olga Trubetskaya found a cheerful and noisy company here. Among the guests here were Sergei Evreinov, Mikhail Osorgin, Prince Nikolai Gagarin and Dmitry Istomin. “The noise, the hubbub was terrible,” Olga recalled, “besides, the rain, not remembering itself, was pouring, and all this was noisy in the house.” To this it should be added that several young, charming girls gathered in the Menshov House for several days, and young representatives of aristocratic families tried to show themselves in all their glory. “Mitichka Istomin had a lively conversation with Linochka and sometimes “expressing himself in the words of a poet,” he would start declaring poetry. Nikolai Gagarin did not leave Marina and was in some kind of excited state. Poor Olga only watched the general fun, not participating in it. She only entered her impressions in her diary: "Aunt Lida and Mama are very pleased and animated by the resurrection of the former Menshov."
The following year, much more events took place in Menshovo worthy of mention in the family papers of the princes Trubetskoy. Olga Nikolaevna, having arrived in Menshovo from the Crimea in mid-May, felt at home here. Having gone for a few days to the estate of her brother Pyotr Nikolayevich Uzkoye, she wrote in her diary: “In Uzkoye there is no Menshov village and its beauty, there is no smell from flowering meadows, but in the mornings in Menshovo there are no such bright and cool corners on the terraces, nor this beauty of flowers, wealth, brightness of colors and the extraordinary aroma of roses, carnations, mignonette.
The main Menshov event of 1894 was the celebration of the 17th birthday of Sister Marina. Preparations for it began ahead of time, in a few weeks. Uncle Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin, who lived more than usual that summer in Menshovo, took the preparations for the celebration of the celebration into his own hands. Despite his age, he personally drew and cut banners, glued paper balloons and lanterns for illumination. He compiled a script according to which a solemn event, including a performance, was to take place. But there was little time left and they took the first comedy "Confusion" that came across. The performance was supposed to participate: Olga, Varvara and Grigory Trubetskoy, Sergey Evreinov. Uncle Petya Samarin took on the role of footman. Rehearsals began three days before the celebration. All Menshov's inhabitants lived for several days in anticipation of this holiday, looking at the sky with apprehension. And this summer was unusually rainy and everyone was afraid that it would rain again on this special day.
Finally, on August 16, 1894, guests began to arrive in Menshovo. Brothers Peter and Ivan Raevsky, Vladimir Evreinov, Dmitry Istomin, brothers, princes Evgeny and Sergey Shcherbatov, prince Nikolai Gagarin arrived. The weather was magnificent and flags and lanterns were hung in the garden for illumination. But towards the end of the day, the unbearable rain again charged and everyone hurried to take refuge in the house. But this evening was scheduled a dress rehearsal of the play. All guests, in order not to spoil the impressions of the upcoming performance, were sent to a room on the second floor. And the rehearsal took place in the hall where the stage was set. Tired of the chores, the hosts and guests went to bed early, looking forward to tomorrow's holiday. Marina was delighted, and no rain could spoil her mood.
On the morning of August 17, everyone was going to go to mass in Vorobyevo, but it was canceled. Then the lottery was announced. Dad won a knitted woolen hat, immediately put it on and walked around the house telling everyone how warm his head would be in winter. The weather mocked the residents and guests of Menshovo. The sun either shone and warmed, or hid behind rain clouds, from which cold rain poured. The youth took advantage of the sunny moments and ran out of the house to play tennis. Pyotr Fedorovich encouraged those who played with the establishment of a totalizator. They immediately forgot about the rain, and a gambling game began in which they did not spare themselves. As a result, Petya Raevsky and Zhenya Trubetskoy twisted their legs. For those who remained in the house, a hurdy-gurdy was poured on the balcony.
Maria Golitsyna and her husband drove up to breakfast. They were known as one of the best organizers of dances at the Moscow home balls, and they were greeted with great pleasure. The last guests also arrived at dinner: from the neighboring estate of Vorobyevo, its mistress Varvara Sergeevna Ershova, and from Moscow, the husband of Antonina's sister, Fyodor Samarin. From the letter of Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina it follows that the festive dinner ended with two shots from a cannon. But what kind of gun it was and where the Trubetskoys got it from, it was not possible to establish.
The dinner was followed by a performance and the adults not participating in it retired into the room at the card table to play vint. The performance was a success, the actors enjoyed the game, and the audience laughed at them. The performer was especially good leading role Grisha. Pyotr Fyodorovich, who played the small part of a lackey, went out to bow like a real artist, and he was applauded the most. After the performance, the actors also sang verses dedicated to Marina.
After the performance, everyone went to the garden, lit up with lanterns. Priests from neighboring churches, Prokhorovskaya and Akulininskaya, came to see the illumination. The last one brought his whole family with him. Lydia Lopukhina was surprised in a letter: “What a thirst for pleasure is needed to return at night in such weather and just swim, because they say there is a continuous river to Akulinino.” Illumination in the eyes of Aunt Lydia was very unsuccessful: "the rain was so dripping, in addition, during the performance they dragged candles from the lanterns." But the youth liked everything, they admired the beauty of the decorated alleys and walked until 11 pm.
The celebration ended with a ball. The hurdy-gurdy was brought into the hall and dancing began, which, in the opinion of the outdated Aunt Lydia, looked like a frenzy. At the mazurka, Marina, who received a large number of gifts, was presented by Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin with the main gift - a precious brooch with the number 17. This is how the most memorable day of the summer of 1894 passed in Menshovo. After him, the guests began to leave Menshovo. On August 27, Mom and her younger sisters left for the Crimea, while Dad, Aunt Lida, Olga and Grisha remained at the dacha. And since September, Olga Trubetskaya has remained all alone in Menshov. Since spring, she has taken up gardening and flowers. Taking the peasant Gavryushka as her assistant, she dug in the garden, and not sparing the old trees, put things in order in it. In the fall, Olga Nikolaevna started a small restructuring, or rather a new extension to the house. Dad, from this year, somehow moved away from economic affairs, and the sons Sergey and Evgeny, in correspondence with each other, worrying about his financial condition, consulted how to help him.
Unfortunately, Princess Olga Nikolaevna Trubetskaya brought the chronicle of her family only to 1894, and the details of the Trubetskoy's stay in Menshovo since 1895 are little known. However, in subsequent years, members of the Trubetskoy family continued to come to Menshovo. Moreover, the Trubetskoy family began to grow due to the children born, who simply needed fresh country air in the summer. Sergei Nikolaevich, from his marriage to Princess Praskovia Vladimirovna Obolenskaya (1860-1914), had children: Maria (1888-1934), Nicholas (1890-1938) and Vladimir (1891-1937). . By the way, Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna was the granddaughter of Prince Andrei Petrovich Obolensky, the brother of the former owner of the village of Menshov, Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. So, through marriage, the representative of the princely family of Obolensky returned to her ancestral patrimony.
Another brother, Evgeny Nikolayevich, married Princess Vera Alexandrovna Shcherbatova in 1889. They also had children: Sergey, Sophia and Alexander. To replace the younger children of Nikolai and Sophia Trubetskoy, their grandchildren came to the children's rooms of the Menshov House. The daughters of Nikolai Petrovich, having married, went to the houses of their husbands. But at the invitation of grandparents, grandchildren: Princes Trubetskoy and Gagarins, Lopukhins, Samarins and Osorgins, accompanied by their parents, visited them in the estate near Moscow.
In 1895, Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina died and the Menshov estate completely passed into the possession of Nikolai and Sophia Trubetskoy. However, they did not manage their beloved estate near Moscow for long. On July 19, 1900, in Menshovo, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy died of a broken heart. And the next year, his wife, Princess Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya, also died.
Together with them, their peers, who came to stay in Menshovo, also passed away.
A remarkable personality who visited the Trubetskoys more than once in their estate near Moscow was their distant relative Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin (1831-1901). After graduating from the law faculty of Moscow University, he entered the civil service. During the Crimean War, Petr Fedorovich entered the army and participated in the hostilities. After the announcement in 1861 of the manifesto on the liberation of the peasants, Pyotr Samarin quit his service and devoted himself to the arrangement of the peasants. He was the first conciliator in the Bogorodsk district of the Moscow province. He endowed his own peasants with much more land than should have been according to the Manifesto. He was the Tula provincial marshal of the nobility. In 1880, Pyotr Fedorovich retired from public affairs, lived in Moscow and from his estate Molodenki, Epifansky district, Tula province. He was a smart, educated, well-read man, possessing great erudition, reputed to be a connoisseur and lover of art. He owned a rich collection of rare etchings and engravings. His collection of works by Rembrandt was especially famous.
Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin was closely acquainted with Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Their acquaintance, which grew into friendship, took place in 1857. In the 1860s, Samarin often visited Tolstoy at his Tula estate Yasnaya Polyana. Lev Nikolaevich, 1860-70, made return visits to Molodenki. And they agreed on the basis of a common passion for hunting. But their outlook on life was radically different. Often their conversations ended in a quarrel. While they were young, they found the strength to forgive each other. But with age, impatience for other people's principles became more acute. In 1881, another dispute about the death penalty broke out in Yasnaya Polyana. Peter Samarin advocated that the participants in the assassination of Emperor Alexander 2 should be executed. Leo Tolstoy was categorically against it. There was an unpleasant scene, after which the relationship of friends cooled. They continued to meet, but the entries in the diary show that Lev Nikolayevich no longer considered Samarin his friend. Petr Fedorovich Samarin became the prototype of Sakhatov - the hero of Leo Tolstoy's comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment"
The Menshovo estate passed into the possession of their eldest son, Prince Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy. By this time he had achieved great success in his career. In the year of his father's death, he defended his doctoral dissertation at Moscow University and was appointed an extraordinary professor at the Department of Philosophy. Then he became one of the editors of the journal "Problems of Philosophy and Psychology". The brothers Sergei and Evgeny Trubetskoy, in the early 1900s, became on a par with the outstanding philosophers of that time. The older brother entered the history of Russian philosophical thought as the author of his own original concept, which he himself called "the theory of concrete idealism." Sergei Trubetskoy created fundamental works on the history of ancient philosophy, ontology, epistemology and cultural studies.
Sergey Nikolaevich combined scientific and teaching work with great social activities. From the very beginning of the formation of the liberal movement in Russia, he actively participated in its development. In 1902, he became an ordinary professor at his native university and received the rank of state councilor.
In September 1905, Doctor of Philosophy Sergey Nikolaevich Trubetskoy became the first elected rector of Moscow University. It was at this time that Russia was reforming public education and revolutionary uprisings. Students have always actively participated in demonstrations, and the university has been closed several times. All these experiences affected the young rector. On September 29, 1905, after a heated discussion in the office of the Minister of Public Education of the issues of reforming university education, Sergei Nikolayevich died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Prince Yevgeny Trubetskoy did not serve long at the Demidov Lyceum. In 1893 he was invited to teach at Kyiv University. About ten years of his life are connected with Kyiv. Here he was actively engaged in scientific work and became a professor of philosophy. During these years, Evgeny Nikolaevich rarely visited Menshovo. The summer months, he and his family, spent in "Nara" - the estate near Moscow of his wife's father, Prince Shcherbatov, located in the Vereisky district of the Moscow province. In 1906 Evgeny Nikolaevich moved to Moscow. But even after the move, he and his family rarely visited Menshovo. They had their own estate in the Kaluga province and district - Begichevka. There the family of Evgeny Nikolaevich spent most of the summer.
The younger brother Grigory, having graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, chose a career as a diplomat and entered the service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Having been appointed to the post of attaché of the Russian embassy in Constantinople, by 1901 Grigory Nikolayevich had already become the first secretary of this embassy. According to some reports, he also held diplomatic posts in Vienna and Berlin. If during the years of service abroad, when he came to Russia on vacation in the summer, he undoubtedly visited his parents and brother Sergei, who lived in Menshovo.
After the death of Prince Sergei Nikolaevich, the estate on the banks of the Rozhai remained with his family, and passed to his wife Praskovya Vladimirovna Trubetskoy. In the archival fund of Prince N.P. Trubetskoy, by some miracle, a book with annual reports on the Menshovo estate for 1903-1910 was preserved. From this book you can find out about the income and expenses of the landlord economy of this estate. For all these years, expenses have always exceeded income, that is, this Trubetskoy estate near Moscow was unprofitable. The money was spent on salaries: the manager, the gardener, the cook, the shepherd, the water carrier and the worker. In addition, “grubs” were purchased with the landlord’s money, insurance was paid, duties (taxes) were paid, payments were made for performing rural work, repairing houses and other buildings, as well as stove heating. The revenue part included money received for: the sale of livestock (calves, foals) and the rental of horses. On the master's fields were grown: rye, oats, buckwheat, potatoes and cabbage. Perhaps part of the harvest was sold and the amount received from this was also included in the income. Economic issues at that time were not dealt with by the gentlemen, but by the manager hired by them, who compiled the annual reports. Most likely, the owners of the estate were dissatisfied with their managers, since three names are mentioned in the reports for these eight years: until August 1907 there was Boltukhov, then Shutov, and from August 1909 Mosalsky.
From the memoirs of the son of Sergei Nikolaevich - Vladimir, published under the title "Notes of a Cuirassier", it is known that the Trubetskoy continued to spend the summer months in the Menshov estate even after the family tragedy of 1905. Vladimir Sergeevich recalled the summer of 1911 spent in this estate near Moscow. “We, as usual, spent the summer with the whole family at the Menshov estate near Moscow, where I practiced semi-instrumental surveying of the area using the purchased scale, guided by the textbook of topography by Baron Brinken.
In view of the upcoming service, in the summer I rode a little every day on a horse bought from a Cossack from "His Majesty's own convoy." It was a medium-sized, but very well-behaved bay horse, to which, out of boyishness and style, for the sake of style, I personally cut off the tail and cut off the mane, giving the horse a stupid anglicized look and also calling it "Bang-bang." On this mustang, I was terribly reckless and did rather stupid tricks and all sorts of tricks, seriously imagining that I was comprehending the highest cavalry wisdom. All local and even distant ditches and fences I jumped over on a poor Pif-puff. He jumped for nothing, but with such enthusiasm and heart that he brought the unfortunate cattle to exhaustion and almost to the complete weakness of the forelimbs. So I prepared for the service in the cavalry. In the family, of course, they began to consider me already a wonderful cavalryman. …
In general, the summer of 1911 passed quietly for me, without events. This was the last summer that I lived with my mother, and I did not leave Menshov anywhere, with the exception of two trips to the Kaluga province to the bride, whom I still loved passionately.
And after 1911, the Trubetskoy manor house, all the summer months, was filled with their numerous relatives. Only since 1914 could the situation in the Menshovo estate change. This year, the owner of the estate, Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna Trubetskaya, died. Then, in 1914, the first World War. Unfortunately, nothing is known about this period in the life of the Trubetskoy family. But it may well be that the estate in Menshovo continued to be a kind of center where young members of noble aristocratic families came with pleasure to have fun: Trubetskoy, Lopukhin, Obolensky, Samarin, Gagarin, Osorgin, Kapnist, Mansurov, and other families related to the owners. The great turning point, which turned everything upside down in the fate of Russia, changed the course of life in this cozy corner of the Moscow region. After the October Revolution of 1917, the Trubetskoy estate near the village of Menshovo fell into disrepair.
The fate of the members of this princely family developed in different ways. Having moved from Kyiv to Moscow in 1906, Yevgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy served as a professor at Moscow University. He had a recognized authority in the field of legal philosophy. Evgeny Trubetskoy was an active publicist and defended the idea of the independence of the church from the state. His philosophical works are known in modern time. In addition to scientific work, he was also involved in politics. In 1907-1908, Evgeny Nikolayevich was a member of State Council. Trubetskoy participated in the organization and activities of a number of scientific societies: Psychological at Moscow University, Religious and Philosophical Society. Vl. Solovyov and others; lesser known. He was the initiator and participant of the publishing house "The Way" (1910-17). In 1918, for obvious reasons, he had to flee from Moscow to Ukraine, first to Kyiv, then Odessa. Together with the officers of the Volunteer Army, he moved to Novorossiysk, where he died in 1920 from typhus.
His younger brother Grigory Nikolaevich returned from abroad in 1906, where he held diplomatic posts. Together with his brother, from 1906 to 1910, he edited the socio-political magazine Moscow Weekly. In 1912, Grigory Trubetskoy returned to the diplomatic service and was an adviser on Middle Eastern affairs. In 1915 - 1915, he was the Russian envoy to Serbia. In 1917-1918, Grigory Trubetskoy was a member of the Local Council. In 1918, he left Bolshevik Moscow for the south of Russia, where in the Denikin government he served as head of the department for confessions. As part of the government of P.N. Wrangel, replaced P.B. Struve, who was in charge of foreign relations. In 1920, Grigory Nikolayevich emigrated from the Crimea abroad, first to Austria, then France. He participated in political life Russian emigration, collaborated with publications of the foreign Russian press. Prince Grigory Nikolaevich Trubetskoy died in 1930, in the suburbs of Paris.
In conclusion of the story about the owners of the Menshovo estate, we will mention the children of Sergei Nikolayevich Trubetskoy, who also spent their childhood and youth here. The eldest son Nikolai, following the example of his father and uncle, entered Moscow University in 1908, at the Faculty of History and Philology. Prior to that, he was fond of ethnography, folklore, linguistics, history and philosophy. Having finished his studies in the department of comparative linguistics in 1912, Nikolai Sergeevich was left at the department. Gradually, he became one of the leading Russian linguists, folklorists and Slavic scholars. The October Revolution did not contribute to his studies in science, and he moved from Moscow to the south, and then, in 1920, he emigrated from Russia to Bulgaria. Here he conducted research and teaching activities at Sofia University as a professor. The last years of his life, Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy spent in Austria, where he served as a professor of Slavic studies at the University of Vienna. He was not involved in politics, but nevertheless the Soviet authorities considered him their enemy, as well as the fascist Gestapo. Numerous searches in his apartment, the seizure of his work, the threat of arrest, brought him to the grave.
The author of the memoirs "Notes of a Cuirassier" - Vladimir Trubetskoy, who had a large family, could not go abroad and remained to live in Soviet Russia. All property was taken away and he had to survive more than live. During the time of the NEP, a temporary improvement came, and Vladimir Sergeevich, under the pseudonym V. Vetov, began to publish his stories in the journal World Pathfinder. But the terrible 30 years came. The magazine was closed, and one of its authors, Vladimir Trubetskoy, in 1934, together with his family, was exiled to distant Andijan. He was accused in connection with the foreign monarchist center, which was allegedly headed by his elder brother, who emigrated from Russia, Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy. Later, the accusation changed, and the former prince turned out to be "a member of a national fascist organization." It was there, in Central Asia, that Vladimir Sergeevich wrote, of course, not for publication, but for his relatives, the memoirs “Notes of a Cuirassier”. In the summer of 1937, Vladimir Trubetskoy was arrested. Its further fate is not difficult to predict. In this terrible year, the lives of several million former nobles, priests and ordinary people were cut short, on whom the suspicion of Soviet power fell.
The elder sister Maria Sergeevna, in 1910 she married Apollinary Konstantinovich Khreptovich-Butenev. Most likely, after 1917 they left Russia.
Menshov peasants.
Let's start the story about the life of the peasants of the village of Menshovo, as well as the village of Akulinino and the village of Stolbishchevo, from the time when their surnames began to appear, that is, from the 1870s. During these years, family lists of each village began to be compiled for all volosts of the Podolsk district. By the way, it was in the 1870s that these settlements became part of the newly formed Shebantsevskaya volost. The lists indicated the head of the family, the size of the hut and other buildings (gorenka, sheds, barns), the number of workers and the occupation of local peasants. In the village of Menshov, 15 families were recorded, of which only four heads had surnames. These are Vasily and Ivan Fedorovich Yachmenevs, who each lived in their own courtyard, Alexei Stepanovich Frolov and Andrei Vasilyevich Busharin. The village of Akulinino consisted of 27 households, but only one peasant, Sergei Ivanovich Lisenkov, had a surname. There was a tavern in the village. He was kept in the house of a landless, former courtyard Gavrila Abramovich. He himself lived as workers with the owners, and rented the house as a tavern to the Podolsk tradesman Ivan Petrov. for 25 rubles. No such lists have yet been found for the village of Stolbishchevo. All houses in these villages were one-story, wooden, thatched.
The Menshov rural society bought its land from the landowner only in 1877. Until that time, the inhabitants of the village were considered temporarily liable, and using the land allocated to them, they continued to work out the corvee from the former landowner and pay him dues. At the time of the redemption of the land, there were 48 revision souls in Menshovo. The land he bought was not yet divided among the children of the landowner and belonged to Princess Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskoy, Lydia, Alexander, Boris, Sergei, Maria and Olga Alekseevncham Lopukhin and Emily Alekseevna Kapnist. According to the statutory charter, the following was allocated to the share of the rural society: estate land - 2 acres 2294 sazhens; arable land - 118 dess. 1794 sazhens; hayfields - 16 dess. 360 sat.; shrub - 1 dess. 1320 sat.; under rivers and ponds - 2245 sazhens; under the roads and the street - 1 dess. 1032 sazhens; total 141 dec. 1845 sazhens. 1536 soots; hayfields - 3 dess. 524 sazhens; shrubs - 4 dess. 1200 sazhens; under the river - 720 sazhens; total 20 dec. 1580 sazhens. In total, 162 acres of 1025 sazhens were allocated to the Menshov rural society, with all the buildings on them.
In 1889, again in the volosts of the Podolsk district, statements began to be drawn up describing the household of the peasants. This time it was connected with the insurance of peasant property. In addition to describing the hut and outbuildings, these lists also indicated the livestock that the peasant had. By this time, most of the peasants were already recorded with surnames. In the village of Menshov for that year there were 17 courtyards, on which 47 wooden buildings were located. And they were owned by peasant families: the Boleznovs (2 families), the Morozovs, the Busharovs (2 families), the Yachmenevs (3 families), the Grigorievs, the Frolovs (2 families), the Mironovs (2 families), the Lavrentievs (2 families), the Rodionovs. Three Yachmenev families lived in the village, who were relatives but lived separately, each had its own yard.
In the village of Akulinino that year, there were 110 wooden buildings in 25 courtyards. Local residents bore the following surnames: Korolevs, Romanovs, Lisenkovs (2 families), Borisovs (2 families), Kuznetsovs (2 families), Lovyrevs, Yarkins, Pogodins, Tikhonovs, Monakhovs (3 families), Ermakovs, Shmarins (2 families), Sinitsyns , Novikovs, Borunovs, Privezentsevs, Semyonovs Mashkovs. In the village of Stolbishchevo, in 15 courtyards, there were 78 wooden buildings belonging to peasant families: Myasnovs, Chekmarevs, Chukanovs, Leonovs (2 families), Chikhachevs, Smyslovs, Kolobashkins, Gorlovs.
In 1888, the owner of the Menshovo estate, Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina, decided to renew the boundary signs and delimit the peasant allotment in the dacha of the village of Menshov. But she did not do this herself, but issued a power of attorney for the Privy Councilor, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. Apparently, disputes arose between the landlords and peasants over the use of land. In 1889 the disputed land was measured. The matter went to court, according to which, in 1892, the land was awarded to the Menshov peasants. The landowners did not agree with this decision and filed an appeal to a higher authority. How the case ended has not yet been established.
By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 202 inhabitants in the village of Akulinino, 108 in Menshovo, and 97 in Stolbishchevo. In the same year, a zemstvo school was located in the village of Akulinino. The trustee is the wife of Major General Elena Mikhailovna Ershova. Teacher Agrippina Alexandrovna Morozova. Priest Nikolay Kalugin
Menshovo in the years of Soviet power.
A telegram was sent to the Shebantsevo Executive Committee on the adoption of measures to protect the Menshovo estate. Of the artistic values, except for the mythological atlas, donated to the University earlier, nothing was found.
The so-called "Circassian genocide" is a card that several forces are now trying to play in the North Caucasus at once.
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The so-called "genocide of the Circassians" - a map that last years several forces are trying to play at once in the North Caucasus. To further aggravate the situation in a troubled region. The world community did not recognize the resettlement of Circassians in the 50-60s of the XIX century as genocide. But the Georgian parliament two years ago adopted a resolution recognizing the genocide of the Circassians by the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War. In this extremely controversial topic, we tried to deal with the candidate of historical sciences, senior researcher at the Center for Caucasian Studies at MGIMO Vadim MUKHANOV. PETER THE GREAT CAMPAIGN- Vadim Mikhailovich, whenever a discussion about the Caucasus arises on the Internet, somewhere between strong unprintable expressions and arguments about the difference in cultures, numerous voices are heard: why did Russia once come to the Caucasus? Did the empire just want to take over new territories? Or started a fight for local resources? When and for what? - The beginning of an active Russian policy in the Caucasus is associated with the name of the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great. After the victorious Northern War, he organized the Persian or Caspian campaign of 1722-23. Russian troops took control of the Caspian coast - this is the territory of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan. In addition, contacts were established with the Georgian rulers and the Armenian nobility. Many North Caucasian rulers brought the keys to Peter, political and economic relations were established. But under the weak successors of Peter in the first half of the 18th century, these conquests were lost, as Russia left the Transcaucasus. Then, under Catherine II, two very successful Russian-Turkish wars were held, where commanders Peter Rumyantsev and Alexander Suvorov shone. A manifesto was signed on the annexation of the Crimea and Kuban, as well as the Georgievsky Treaty of 1783, which recorded Russian patronage of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom. It was a serious advance to the Caucasus... - First of all, it is necessary to talk about resolving the issue of the security of the southern territories. After all, a military threat existed not only from the side of the Ottoman Empire, that is, today's Turkey, a fairly strong Crimean Khanate, but also from individual North Caucasian rulers who regularly raided. In the then south of Russia, after the Russo-Turkish wars, Novorossiya appeared, a large Christian population. They needed a line of defense against the raids of the Caucasian peoples, who were in a kind of power triangle: on the one hand, Russia, the northern power, on the other - Ottoman Empire, with the third - the Persian state. Already under Alexander the First there were two more wars: Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iranian. In the 20-30s of the 19th century, Russia was closely involved in the eastern issue, and as a result of the next two wars under the Andrianopol and Turkmanchay treaties, by the end of the first third of the nineteenth century, almost all of Transcaucasia was under the control of Russia. There were garrisons on the territory of modern Georgia and Armenia. Besides, Russian management was introduced in many Muslim khanates of Transcaucasia, partly - this is the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. But this did not apply to the North Caucasus, where the situation was close to being out of control. Those. there was an acute problem of communications: how Russian troops would get to Transcaucasia, if necessary, to help the Transcaucasian rulers defend themselves from attacks by formidable neighbors. HIGHLANDERS IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE- And at the same time, most of these territories are mountains, where army units could not move at speed along narrow paths. - Yes, the mountainous area was traditional for the North Caucasus. In 1795, there was a devastating raid by the Persian Shah Agha Mohammed. He ravaged several cities in Transcaucasia, including Tiflis. If you remember, Pushkin wrote after a trip to the Caucasus: "I met a lame woman in Tiflis." Agha Mohammed ordered, in memory of the devastation of the city, to cut the tendons of all dishonored women ... But the Russian command did not have time to bring military units from the Caucasian line in time to come to the aid of our co-religionists, the Georgians. After that, they began to intensively build the Georgian Military Highway ... But in general, this was the situation in the Transcaucasus. Many Transcaucasian rulers were interested in the arrival of Russian troops, who became a kind of guarantor of stability and security. Russia needed an energetic and determined military leader there. And Alexander the First appointed the well-known and popular in Russia general Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, who went down in history as the "proconsul of the Caucasus", to be responsible for the region. The classical Soviet dating of the Caucasian War is 1817-1864. At first, scattered North Caucasian rulers and societies opposed the Russian troops. Some operations were carried out, but, according to many historians, this is not yet a large-scale war. But soon the mountain communities came out against Russia as a consolidated front - the North Caucasian mountaineers were united by the imams of Chechnya and Dagestan, who created the so-called North Caucasian imamat. There were three imams, but for the majority, Imam Shamil is the most famous. All power - secular, military, civil - was concentrated in his hands. - Yes, and its end of the war is associated with the name of Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky, who arrived at North Caucasus in 1856. He abandoned the ineffective straight-line campaigns deep into the mountainous territory and began to advance the Russian fortified lines step by step. They did not just move forward, internal control was immediately established in these territories. Highlanders were attracted to the Russian service. The classics of Adyghe literature, idolized by modern Circassians - Shora Nogmov and Khan Giray - were also in the Russian service. Khan Giray generally rose to the rank of colonel ... But key moment in the war - 1859, when, after the siege of the high-mountainous village of Gunib, Imam Shamil was captured. After that, the war in the northeastern Caucasus ended. Only one theater of operations remained in the region - the northwest: this is the territory of modern Krasnodar Krai and Adygea. The Circassians finally capitulated only five years later.
The so-called "genocide of the Circassians" is a card that several forces have been trying to play in the North Caucasus in recent years. To further aggravate the situation in a troubled region. The world community did not recognize the resettlement of Circassians in the 50-60s of the XIX century as genocide. But the Georgian parliament two years ago adopted a resolution recognizing the genocide of the Circassians by the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War. In this extremely controversial topic, we tried to deal with the candidate of historical sciences, senior researcher at the Center for Caucasian Studies at MGIMO Vadim MUKHANOV.
PETER THE GREAT CAMPAIGN
Vadim Mikhailovich, whenever a discussion about the Caucasus arises on the Internet, somewhere between strong unprintable expressions and arguments about the difference in cultures, numerous voices are heard: why did Russia once come to the Caucasus? Did the empire just want to take over new territories? Or started a fight for local resources? When and for what?
The beginning of an active Russian policy in the Caucasus is associated with the name of the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great. After the victorious Northern War, he organized the Persian or Caspian campaign of 1722-23. Russian troops took control of the Caspian coast - this is the territory of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan. In addition, contacts were established with the Georgian rulers and the Armenian nobility. Many North Caucasian rulers brought the keys to Peter, political and economic relations were established. But under the weak successors of Peter in the first half of the 18th century, these conquests were lost, as Russia withdrew from Transcaucasia. Then, under Catherine II, two very successful Russian-Turkish wars were held, where commanders Peter Rumyantsev and Alexander Suvorov shone. A manifesto was signed on the annexation of the Crimea and Kuban, as well as the Treaty of St. George in 1783, according to which Russian patronage of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom was recorded. It was a serious advance to the Caucasus...
- And yet, the motives of these campaigns - the seizure of new territories, new trade routes?
First of all, it is necessary to talk about resolving the issue of the security of the southern territories. After all, a military threat existed not only from the Ottoman Empire, that is, today's Turkey, a fairly strong Crimean Khanate, but also from individual North Caucasian rulers who regularly raided. In the then south of Russia, after the Russo-Turkish wars, Novorossiya appeared, a large number of Christian populations. They needed a line of defense against the raids of the Caucasian peoples, who were in a kind of power triangle: on the one hand, Russia, the northern power, on the other, the Ottoman Empire, on the third, the Persian state.
Already under Alexander the First there were two more wars: Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iranian. In the 20-30s of the 19th century, Russia was closely involved in the eastern issue, and as a result of the next two wars under the Andrianopol and Turkmanchay treaties, by the end of the first third of the nineteenth century, almost all of Transcaucasia was under the control of Russia. There were garrisons on the territory of modern Georgia and Armenia. In addition, Russian administration was introduced in many Muslim khanates of Transcaucasia, partly in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. But this did not apply to the North Caucasus, where the situation was close to being out of control. Those. there was an acute problem of communications: how Russian troops would get to Transcaucasia, if necessary, to help the Transcaucasian rulers defend themselves from attacks by formidable neighbors.
HIGHLANDERS IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE
And at the same time, most of these territories are mountains, where army units could not move at speed along narrow paths.
Yes, the mountainous terrain was traditional for the North Caucasus. In 1795, there was a devastating raid by the Persian Shah Agha Mohammed. He ruined several cities of Transcaucasia, including Tiflis. If you remember, Pushkin wrote after a trip to the Caucasus: "I met a lame woman in Tiflis." Agha Mohammed ordered, in memory of the devastation of the city, to cut the tendons of all dishonored women ... But the Russian command did not have time to bring military units from the Caucasian line in time to come to the aid of our co-religionists, the Georgians. After that, they began to intensively build the Georgian Military Highway ... But in general, this was the situation in the Transcaucasus. Many Transcaucasian rulers were interested in the arrival of Russian troops, who became a kind of guarantor of stability and security. Russia needed an energetic and determined military leader there. And Alexander the First appointed the well-known and popular in Russia General Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, who went down in history as the "Proconsul of the Caucasus", to be responsible for the region.
The classical Soviet dating of the Caucasian War is 1817-1864. At first, scattered North Caucasian rulers and societies opposed the Russian troops. Some operations were carried out, but, according to many historians, this is not yet a large-scale war. But soon the mountain communities came out against Russia as a consolidated front - the North Caucasian mountaineers were united by the imams of Chechnya and Dagestan, who created the so-called North Caucasian imamat. There were three imams, but for the majority, Imam Shamil is the most famous. All power - secular, military, civil - was concentrated in his hands.
- This war dragged on right up to the middle of the 60s of the XIX century ...
Yes, and its end to the war is associated with the name of Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky, who arrived in the North Caucasus in 1856. He abandoned the ineffective straight-line campaigns deep into the mountainous territory and began to advance the Russian fortified lines step by step. They did not just move forward, internal control was immediately established in these territories. Highlanders were attracted to the Russian service. The classics of Adyghe literature, idolized by modern Circassians - Shora Nogmov and Khan Giray - were also in the Russian service. Khan Giray generally rose to the rank of colonel ...
But the key moment in the war was 1859, when, after the siege of the highland village of Gunib, Imam Shamil was captured. After that, the war in the northeastern Caucasus ended. Only one theater of operations remained in the region - the northwest: this is the territory of the modern Krasnodar Territory and Adygea. The Circassians finally capitulated only five years later.
HALF A MILLION EMIGRANTS
In the last years of the war and after it, a total of about half a million Circassians moved to Turkey. These figures are voiced by many historians.
It was a process of so-called muhajirism, from the word "muhajir" - a migrant for the faith. It must be said that this phenomenon has become widespread in the northwestern Caucasus. Because on the other side of the sea was Turkey of the same faith. The highlanders of the northeastern Caucasus did not have such close contact with the Ottoman Empire as the Circassians.
The Circassian world was focused on Turkey, many families intermarried with the Turks. In any case, the Circassians had a choice: the Russian administration offered them territories for resettlement. The talk that the Russian Empire in the Caucasus was engaged only in squeezing out the Circassians is not true.
Note that often the decision for ordinary Circassians was made by the elders and the nobility. If the village decides to leave for Turkey, where will you go? In addition, there were a large number of Turkish agitators. Do not forget that the Ottoman Empire at that moment was already a declining power, was under the strong economic and political influence of the Western powers. It was torn apart by riots, the power of the Sultan periodically staggered. There was a serious demographic crisis, after all. Therefore, the Sultan was interested in the fact that fellow believers from the Caucasus moved to certain territories.
Pre-revolutionary historians and subsequent generations of experts and scientists say that we are talking about the figure of half a million people who went first to the coast, and then on ships and boats - to Turkey.
This is where the tragedy began, there is simply no other way to call these events. First, they went to the coast in large masses, if you like, in a stream. Secondly, both empires were not ready for such a large-scale migration. Plus, thirdly, many Turkish shipowners who drove their ships and boats to the coast tried to cash in on the tragedy. The Circassians themselves did not sail the seas historically, they did not have their own ships. The Turks loaded onto the ships twice as many people as usual, and the overloaded ships simply sank... And in what conditions did the settlers find themselves on the Turkish coast? There is a mass of evidence that says that there they died in the hundreds from hunger and disease. Sometimes the only way to save relatives was to sell them to the Turks (especially girls and boys). This is the real tragedy of the situation when the Circassians rushed to "hospitable" Turkey, and found death there on bare stones.
Therefore, I do not consider it right to assess these tragic events as genocide on the part of Russia, where the task of the total destruction of the Caucasian peoples has never been discussed at the highest level.
Now life itself confirms this ... Even the names of several republics that are part of Russia indicate that Circassians and peoples of the Adyghe group live there: Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, the Republic of Adygea.
People often say about the Caucasus: "eternally rebellious." That is, this is an endless process since the very times when Russia came to this region?
No. After the end of the Caucasian war in the 60s of the XIX century, there were no military operations and similar events in the North Caucasus. And before the events of 1917, when the Russian Empire collapsed, the Caucasus was a full and integral part of the country. Yes, there were uprisings. Undoubtedly. But they periodically occurred in different parts of the empire. Sticking out that the Caucasus has always been an unstable region is, rather, political speculation and an attempt to manipulate public consciousness. I would like to emphasize that when the Caucasus was integrated into Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, there was no need to talk about any of its isolated position.
It is better to say something else: the Caucasus has always been a kind of litmus test for the country. When the central power of Russia was weakening, it was, first of all, felt on the outskirts. Including in the Caucasus ...
Greetings my inquisitive readers, or as they say in China "Nihao". You are probably wondering why I suddenly spoke in Chinese? Everything is simple! Today I would like to tell you about the most beautiful and at the same time dangerous Mount Everest.
Everest, or as the locals call it Chomolungma, is considered the highest point on earth above sea level. There are so many legends and stories around this amazing peak that you yourself begin to think “maybe I should risk conquering Everest?”
I’ll tell dreamers and just adventurers right away that even among trained professional climbers, not everyone dares to climb Chomolungma. It is only in photographs and videos that climbers smile with happiness, standing among the never-melting ice. In reality, this is an extremely life-threatening occupation. Only one attempt to climb Everest out of ten is successful. In other cases, many simply turn back when a few tens of meters remain to the top.
Everest height above sea level
Everything from the fact that the last meters are the most difficult and dangerous, and few dare to risk their lives once again. The height of Everest above sea level, according to officially accepted data, is 8848 meters, but disputes are still ongoing. China, for example, believes that the height of the highest mountain in the world is four meters less. They measured without taking into account the ice cap.
But the Americans established with the help of navigation devices that Everest is two meters higher, the Italians, in general, consider the mountain to be eleven meters higher than the official figure. In general, while there are disputes, the official height remains the same. But every year, the mountain grows by several centimeters, due to the constant movement of lithospheric plates.
Chomolungma: some historical facts
It is known from history that Everest used to be the bottom of an ancient ocean. But due to the beginning of the movement of the titanic plates, when the Indian lithospheric plate collided with the Eurasian one, a large mountainous Himalayan range rose. And Everest was at the head of it. The plates keep shifting, so in the near future the mountain will only grow. Of course, if it had not been trampled down by hundreds of tourists trying to climb to the top, it would have grown faster. Kidding.
There are many fans in the world who dream of conquering this mysterious mountain at least once in their lives. But often their dreams are not destined to come true, and the main reason for this is. After all, a full-fledged expedition needs something around $ 100,000. And this is not counting the fact that health should be just perfect. At a minimum, you should be able to run 10 kilometers of cross-country skiing. Least.
The best time to climb Everest
Everest is part of a large chain of mountain ranges of the Himalayas. Everest itself is surrounded by younger brothers, so you can see the mountain in its full glory only by climbing to the neighboring peaks.
In winter, the temperature at the peak of Everest can drop to -60 0 C. And in the summer, in the warmest month, July does not rise above -19 0 C. But spring is considered the most suitable season for climbing. In summer, there are frequent monsoon rains at the top. And in the fall it is already dangerous, due to the possible avalanches.
In which country is the highest mountain Everest located?
There were many disputes here, because Nepal and China were at enmity for a very long time, and when relative peace was established (although it looks more like an occupation than peace), it was decided to draw a border, just in the middle of the peak of Everest. Now officially the mountain is located on the territory of two states, and is equally considered the property of both countries. The southern part of Everest is located in Nepal and the northern part is in Tibet, an autonomous region of China.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Knchenjunga was considered the highest mountain, but thanks to the Welsh mathematician George Everest, who proved that Everest is higher, the scientific world recognized this fact. The mountain was named after him.
Temperature at the top of Everest
In general, on Everest, let's say, it's not hot. The temperature there never rises above 0 degrees. The coldest month is January. This month, the average level of the thermometer is -36 degrees Celsius, and can drop to -60C. The warmest month is July. You can comfortably “warm up” at minus 19 degrees Celsius (average value).
Where is the most beautiful view of Everest?
To see how beautiful Everest is, you need to overcome several obstacles.
First is to climb to the top of Kalapattar.
It is from her that a view of the glacier opens, as if Everest rises above the whole world.
Second- choose a good time to shoot, because due to poor visibility, you can spend the whole day and not take a single photo. The weather in the mountains is constantly changing, and every minute here is worth its weight in gold.
Everest conquerors: the most famous records of the Earth
The first to climb the peak of Everest was the scientist Edmund Hillary, with him was his assistant Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, a local resident and guide.
The youngest conqueror of the peak is 13-year-old American Jordan Romnro. Of course, the Japanese also did not stand aside, and it was the Japanese who became the oldest conqueror - 80-year-old Yuchiro Miura
The list goes on, a variety of records were set on the roof of our world. From it they rolled on a snowboard, sent messages and photos to social media, and much more.
The one who put on a great freestyle snowboarding show was Marco Siffredi. Not to be confused with Rocko.
Look at the photos of both Mount Everest itself and its surroundings, which the Internet is full of, and you will understand why the mountain attracts travelers from all over the world so much. By the way, Yandex did something like a virtual tour of Everest.
In its significance, Everest can be compared, perhaps with, which is considered the deepest in the world.
Although Everest is considered the roof of the world, other mountains of considerable height are not far behind the mountain - Lhotse, which is its neighbor. And the famous volcano in Russia and Europe - which is also one of the seven largest peaks in the world.
What does above sea level mean?
Interesting question, right? Scientists several centuries ago considered that it would be more correct to measure the height of the land, starting from the sea line. It is convenient and there are no unnecessary questions. After all, everything above the sea line is land and animals and people can live on it, and what is below is the seabed. Of course, it is also from the earth, only people cannot live there.
So, any measurement of the height of mountains and various ranges is measured in this way, from sea level. If the reporting point were different, then Everest would no longer be the largest peak in the world. And its place would be taken by the famous Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea, 4200 m high, going down another 6000 meters. Count for yourself.
The unusual story of conquering the summit of Everest
At times civil war in, many centuries ago, when a brother went to his brother, one young guy fell in love with a beautiful girl, but they were not destined to be together due to the fact that their families were enemies. The girl liked the guy too. After all, he was brave and strong, and most importantly, he did not retreat from his love. Despite prohibitions and enmity, he fought for his beloved.
But, unfortunately, the couple in love found out about their relationship and decided to forcibly marry the girl and take her to her husband in another village. The girl managed to convey a message to her lover about this event. And the guy in love decided to steal his beloved and run away from the enmity and war that was imposed on them.
On the day when the wedding ceremony was to take place, the bride was transported in a special wagon to the place where the groom was waiting. But on the way, a guy in love overtook the wagon and extorted escort, took his girlfriend, and they galloped as far as possible. But here failure awaited them, since the horse could not carry two for a long time, so it quickly ran out of steam. And at this time, a chase was sent for the fugitives.
And when the lovers were already catching up, the girl began to pray for their salvation. God, having heard such a sincere request to save his beloved, decided to help. Suddenly, a strong whirlwind rose under the couple, and carried them to the foot of Mount Chomolungma.
And since then, the highlanders who live in the most sacred place believe that they were chosen by the gods. Therefore, traditions are still sacredly honored.
How much does it cost to conquer Everest?
Anyone who has read about Everest knows that traveling is not cheap. And with average estimates, it will cost $ 100,000, or even more. Most of this amount will go to the fee that every tourist who wants to conquer the highest mountain pays. It is $35,000 and is revised every year.
Of course, many of you will be outraged, "robbery" and so on. But even with such numbers, there are enough applicants, and every year their number is growing. But every climber conquering Everest leaves behind mountains of garbage, and who will clean it up. After all, you can’t deliver transport to the mountain, because the air is very rarefied. And not every person dares to get up and clean up dirty tourists.
Of course, most of the equipment becomes unusable or simply unnecessary, for example, used oxygen tanks, and it is very difficult to carry the extra load to the top. After all, with every kilometer it becomes more difficult to go, and weight matters when you climb the peak.
For each person, the rise can last in different ways, from a month to 4. It all depends on the state of your health and the experience of climbing other mountain peaks.
Well, if you still dare to go on an expedition, then learn in advance everything about the mountain itself and the payment for additional services of guides and guides, this is not counting the porters and the climbing equipment itself. Make an estimate of the ascent, and go!
Good luck in conquering Everest and remember the wisdom of the highlanders living there for many generations: “Everest has a soul, it honors the attitude and character of the person who decided to conquer it. And if you do it only out of vanity, the mountain will never submit to you!”.
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