A dark page in the history of the Romanov dynasty. Tsarevich Alexei
Faces of history
Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof. N. N. Ge, 1871
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich was born on February 18, 1690 in the village of Preobrazhensky near Moscow in the family of Tsar Peter I and Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna, nee Lopukhina. Alexei's early childhood was spent in the company of his mother and grandmother, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, and after September 1698, when Evdokia was imprisoned in the Suzdal Monastery, Alexei was taken in by his aunt, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. The boy was distinguished by curiosity and the ability to learn foreign languages, by nature he was calm, prone to contemplation. He early began to be afraid of his father, whose energy, irascibility and propensity for transformation repelled rather than attracted Alexei.
The prince was educated by foreigners - first the German Neugebauer, then Baron Huissen. At the same time, Peter tried to involve his son in military affairs and periodically took him with him to the front of the Northern War.
But in 1705, Huyssen entered the diplomatic service, and the 15-year-old prince, in essence, was left to his own devices. His confessor, father Jacob, began to exert a great influence on him. On his advice, in 1707, the prince visited his mother in the Suzdal monastery, which caused the wrath of Peter. The father began to load his son with various assignments related to the army - for example, Alexei visited Smolensk, Moscow, Vyazma, Kyiv, Voronezh, Sumy with inspections.
At the end of 1709, the tsar sent his son to Dresden, under the pretext of further study of the sciences, but in fact wanting to arrange his marriage to a German princess. Sophia-Charlotte of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was chosen as a candidate, and although Alexei did not have special sympathy for her, he did not argue with his father's will. In October 1711, in Torgau, in the presence of Peter I, Alexei married Sophia. As expected, this marriage did not become happy. In 1714, Alexei and Sophia had a daughter, Natalia, and on October 12, 1715, a son, Peter. Ten days later, Sophia succumbed to the effects of childbirth.
By this time, the king was already very dissatisfied with his son. He was annoyed both by Alexei's addiction to wine and his association with people who were a covert opposition to Peter and his policies. The behavior of the heir before the exam, which Alexei had to pass after returning from abroad in 1713, caused a particular fury of the king. The prince was so afraid of this test that he decided to shoot himself through his left hand and thus save himself from having to make drawings. The shot was unsuccessful, the hand was only seared with gunpowder. Peter became so angry that he severely beat his son and forbade him to appear in the palace.
In the end, the tsar threatened to deprive Alexei of hereditary rights if he did not change his behavior. In response, Alexei himself renounced the throne, not only for himself, but also for his newborn son. “Before I see myself,” he wrote, “I’m inconvenient and indecent for this matter, I’m also very deprived of memory (without which it’s possible to do nothing) and with all my mental and bodily powers (from various diseases) I have weakened and become indecent to the government of a large number of people, where it requires a man not as rotten as me. For the sake of the legacy (God grant you long-term health!) Russian after you (even though I didn’t have a brother, and now, thank God, I have a brother, to whom God grant health) I don’t pretend and I won’t pretend in the future. Peter I was dissatisfied with this answer and once again urged his son to either change his behavior or take the veil as a monk. The prince consulted with his closest friends and, having heard from them a significant phrase that “the hood will not be nailed to the head”, agreed to be tonsured. However, the tsar, who was serving abroad, gave Alexei another six months to think.
It was then that the prince matured a plan to flee abroad. The closest assistant to the prince was the former close associate of Peter I, Alexei Vasilyevich Kikin. In September 1716, Peter sent a letter to his son, ordering him to immediately arrive in Copenhagen to take part in hostilities against Sweden, and Alexei decided to use this pretext to escape without interference. On September 26, 1716, together with his mistress Efrosinya Fedorova, her brother and three servants, the prince left St. Petersburg for Libau (now Liepaja, Latvia), from where he went to Vienna via Danzig. This choice was not accidental - the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, whose residence was in Vienna, was married to the sister of the late wife of Alexei. In Vienna, the prince appeared to the Austrian Vice-Chancellor Count Shenborn and asked for asylum. As a token of gratitude for the hospitality, Alexei offered the Austrians the following plan: he, Alexei, waits for the death of Peter in Austria, and then, with the help of the Austrians, occupies the Russian throne, after which he dissolves the army, fleet, transfers the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow and refuses to conduct an offensive foreign policy .
In Vienna, they became interested in this plan, but they did not dare to openly provide shelter to the fugitive - Charles VI did not enter into a quarrel with Russia. Therefore, under the guise of a criminal Kokhanovsky, Alexei was sent to the Tyrolean castle of Ehrenberg. From there, through secret channels, he sent to Russia several letters addressed to influential representatives of the clergy, in which he condemned his father's policy and promised to return the country to the old path.
Meanwhile, the search for the fugitive began in Russia. Peter I ordered the Russian resident in Vienna, Veselovsky, to find the prince at all costs, and he soon found out that Erenberg was the residence of Alexei. At the same time, the Russian tsar entered into correspondence with Charles VI, demanding that Alexei be returned to Russia "for paternal correction." The emperor evasively replied that he did not know anything about Alexei, but, apparently, he decided not to contact the dangerous fugitive further, because they decided to send Alexei from Austria to the fortress of St. Elmo near Naples. However, Russian agents "figured out" the fugitive prince there too. In September 1717, a small Russian delegation headed by Count P. A. Tolstoy came to Naples and began to persuade Alexei to surrender. But he was adamant and did not want to return to Russia. Then I had to go for a military trick - the Russians bribed the secretary of the Neapolitan viceroy, and he "secretly" told Alexei that the Austrians were not going to defend him, they were planning to separate him from his mistress and that Peter I himself was already going to Naples. Hearing about this, Alexei fell into a panic and began to seek contacts with the Swedes. But he was reassured - they promised that he would be allowed to marry his mistress and lead a private life in Russia. Peter's letter of November 17, in which the tsar promised complete forgiveness, finally convinced Alexei that everything was in order. On January 31, 1718, the prince arrived in Moscow, and on February 3, he met with his father. In the presence of the senators, Alexei repented of his deed, and Peter confirmed his decision to forgive him, setting only two conditions: the renunciation of the rights to the throne and the extradition of all accomplices who helped the prince to escape. On the same day, Alexei renounced his right to the throne in the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral in favor of his three-year-old son Peter.
On February 4, the interrogations of Alexei began. In the "interrogation sheets" he told in detail everything about his accomplices, in fact, shifting all the blame on them, and when they were executed, he decided that the worst was over. With a light heart, Alexey began to prepare for the wedding with Efrosiniya Fedorova. But she, who was returning to Russia separately from the prince due to childbirth, was immediately arrested and, during interrogations, told so much about her lover that she actually signed his death warrant. Now it became clear to Peter that his son was not only influenced by his environment, but he himself played an active role in the conspiracy. At a confrontation with Fedorova, Alexei initially denied, but then confirmed her testimony. On June 13, 1718, Peter I withdrew from the investigation, asking the clergy for advice on what to do with his traitor son, and ordering the Senate to give him a fair sentence. The Supreme Court of 127 people decided that “the prince hid his rebellious intent against his father and his sovereign, and the intentional search from ancient years, and search for the throne of the father and in his belly, through various insidious inventions and pretense, and hope for the mob and desire father and sovereign of his imminent death. On June 25, guarded by four guard non-commissioned officers, the prince was taken from the Peter and Paul Fortress to the Senate, where he heard the death sentence.
Further events are covered with a veil of secrecy so far. According to the official version, on June 26, 1718, at 6 pm, Alexei Petrovich died suddenly at the age of 28 from a “strike” (brain hemorrhage). But modern researchers suggest that the true cause of Alexei's death was torture. It is also possible that he was killed on the orders of Peter I. The prince was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the presence of his father. The son of Alexei Petrovich ascended the throne of the Russian Empire in 1727 under the name of Peter II and ruled for three years. In his reign, the official rehabilitation of Alexei took place.
Like many historical figures with a complex and unusual fate, the figure of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich has long been a "tidbit" for historical novelists, playwrights, fans of "conspiracy theories", and more recently film directors. There are many interpretations of Alexei's life - from unconditional condemnation of "complete insignificance and a traitor" to an equally unconditional sympathy for a subtle and educated young man, ruthlessly trampled on by his own father. But no matter how subsequent generations treated him, there is no doubt that Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich was one of the most mysterious and dramatic figures in Russian history.
Vyacheslav Bondarenko, Ekaterina Chestnova
Is Peter I to blame for the death of his son Alexei Petrovich?
ALEXEY PETROVICH (1690-1718) - Tsarevich, the eldest son of Tsar Peter I. Alexei was the son of Peter from his first marriage with E. Lopukhina and was brought up in an environment hostile to Peter. Peter wanted to make his son continue his work - the radical reform of Russia, but Alexei avoided this in every possible way. The clergy and boyars surrounding Alexei turned him against his father. Peter threatened Alexei to deprive him of his inheritance and imprison him in a monastery. In 1716, Alexei, fearing his father's wrath, fled abroad - first to Vienna, then to Naples. With threats and promises, Peter returned his son to Russia, forced him to abdicate the throne. However, Alexei did it with joy.
“Father,” he wrote to his wife Efrosinya, “took me to eat and treats me mercifully! God grant that it will continue in the same way, and that I may wait for you in joy. God forbid that I live happily with you in the countryside, because you and I did not want anything, only to live in Rozhdestvenka; you yourself know that I do not want anything, if only to live with you to death.
In exchange for abdication and admission of guilt, Peter gave his son the word not to punish him. But the abdication did not help, and Alexei's desire to get away from political storms did not come true. Peter ordered an investigation into his son's case. Alexey simply told about everything he knew and planned. Many people from Alexei's entourage were tortured and executed. The prince did not escape torture either. On June 14, 1718, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and on June 19, torture began. The first time they gave him 25 blows with a whip and asked if everything that he showed earlier was true. On June 22, new testimony was taken from Alexei, in which he confessed his plan to overthrow the power of Peter, to raise an uprising throughout the country, since the people, in his opinion, stood for old beliefs and customs, against his father's reforms. True, some historians believe that some of the testimony could have been falsified by the interrogators to please the king. In addition, as contemporaries testify, Alexei was already suffering from a mental disorder at that time. The Frenchman de Lavie, for example, believed that “his brain is out of order”, which is proved by “all his actions.” In his testimony, the tsarevich agreed that the supposedly Austrian emperor Charles VI promised him armed assistance in the struggle for the Russian crown.
The denouement was short.
On June 24, Alexei was again tortured, and on the same day the supreme court, which consisted of the generals, senators and the Holy Synod (a total of 120 people), sentenced the prince to death. True, some of the judges from the clergy actually evaded an explicit decision about death - they cited extracts from the Bible of two kinds: both about the execution of a son who disobeyed his father, and about the forgiveness of a prodigal son. The solution to this question: what to do with the son? - they left it to their father - Peter I. The civilians spoke out bluntly: to execute.
But even after this decision, Alexei was not left alone. The next day, Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev, sent by the Tsar, came to him for interrogation: what do the extracts from the Roman scientist and historian Varro, found in the papers of the prince, mean. The prince said that he made these extracts for his own use, "to see that before it was not the way it is now," but he was not going to show them to the people.
But the matter did not end there either. On June 26, at 8 o'clock in the morning, Peter himself came to the fortress to the prince with nine close associates. Alexei was again tortured, trying to find out some more details. The prince was tortured for 3 hours, then they left. And in the afternoon, at 6 o'clock, as it is written in the books of the office of the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Alexei Petrovich passed away. Peter I published an official notice, which said that, after hearing the death sentence, the prince was horrified, demanded his father, asked his forgiveness and died in a Christian way - in complete repentance from his deed.
Opinions about the true cause of Alexei's death differ. Some historians believe that he died from the unrest experienced, others come to the conclusion that the prince was strangled on the direct orders of Peter in order to avoid public execution. The historian N. Kostomarov mentions a letter written, as it says, by Alexander Rumyantsev, which spoke of how Rumyantsev, Tolstoy and Buturlin, at the royal command, strangled the prince with pillows (although the historian doubts the authenticity of the letter).
The next day, June 27, was the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, and Peter arranged a celebration - a hearty feast, fun. However, really, why should he be discouraged - after all, Peter was not a pioneer here. Not to mention ancient examples, not so long ago, another Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible, killed his son with his own hands.
Alexei was buried on June 30. Peter I was present at the funeral together with his wife, stepmother of the prince. There was no mourning.
Continued conflict
The young children of Alexei Petrovich were not the only replenishment in the royal family. The ruler himself, following his unloved son, acquired another child. The child was named Pyotr Petrovich (his mother was the future). So suddenly Alexei ceased to be the sole heir of his father (now he had a second son and grandson). The situation put him in an ambiguous position.
In addition, such a character as Alexei Petrovich clearly did not fit into the life of the new St. Petersburg. A photo of his portraits shows a man a little sickly and indecisive. He continued to fulfill the state orders of his powerful father, although he did this with obvious reluctance, which again and again angered the autocrat.
While still studying in Germany, Alexei asked his Moscow friends to send him a new confessor, to whom he could frankly confess everything that bothered the young man. The prince was deeply religious, but at the same time he was very afraid of his father's spies. However, the new confessor Yakov Ignatiev was indeed not one of Peter's henchmen. One day, Alexei told him in his hearts that he was waiting for the death of his father. Ignatiev replied that many Moscow friends of the heir wanted the same. So, quite unexpectedly, Alexei found supporters and embarked on a path that led him to death.
Difficult decision
In 1715, Peter sent a letter to his son, in which he confronted him with a choice - either Alexei corrects himself (that is, he begins to engage in the army and accepts his father's policy), or goes to the monastery. The heir was in a dead end. He did not like many of Peter's undertakings, including his endless military campaigns and cardinal changes in life in the country. This mood was shared by many aristocrats (mainly from Moscow). In the elite, there really was a rejection of hasty reforms, but no one dared to openly protest, since participation in any opposition could end in disgrace or execution.
The autocrat, having delivered an ultimatum to his son, gave him time to think over his decision. The biography of Alexei Petrovich has many similar ambiguous episodes, but this situation has become fateful. After consulting with those close to him (primarily with the head of the St. Petersburg Admiralty, Alexander Kikin), he decided to flee Russia.
Escape
In 1716, a delegation headed by Alexei Petrovich set off from St. Petersburg to Copenhagen. Peter's son was in Denmark to see his father. However, while in Gdansk, Poland, the prince suddenly changed his route and actually fled to Vienna. There Alexei began to negotiate for political asylum. The Austrians sent him to secluded Naples.
The plan of the fugitive was to wait for the death of the then sick Russian tsar, and after that to return to his native country to the throne, if necessary, then with a foreign army. Alexei spoke about this later during the investigation. However, these words cannot be accepted with certainty as the truth, since the necessary testimony was simply knocked out of the arrested person. According to the testimonies of the Austrians, the prince was in hysterics. Therefore, it is more likely that he went to Europe out of despair and fear for his future.
In Austria
Peter quickly found out where his son had fled. People loyal to the tsar immediately went to Austria. An experienced diplomat Pyotr Tolstoy was appointed head of an important mission. He reported to the Austrian Emperor Charles VI that the very fact of Alexei's presence in the land of the Habsburgs was a slap in the face of Russia. The fugitive chose Vienna because of his family ties to this monarch through his short marriage.
Perhaps, in other circumstances, he would have protected the exile, but at that time Austria was at war with the Ottoman Empire and was preparing for a conflict with Spain. The emperor did not want at all to receive such a powerful enemy as Peter I in such conditions. In addition, Alexei himself blundered. He acted in panic and was clearly unsure of himself. As a result, the Austrian authorities made concessions. Pyotr Tolstoy received the right to see the fugitive.
Negotiation
Pyotr Tolstoy, having met with Alexei, began to use all possible methods and tricks to return him to his homeland. Kind-hearted assurances were used that his father would forgive him and allow him to live freely on his own estate.
The envoy did not forget about clever hints. He convinced the prince that Charles VI, not wanting to spoil relations with Peter, would not hide him in any case, and then Alexei would definitely end up in Russia as a criminal. In the end, the prince agreed to return to his native country.
Court
On February 3, 1718, Peter and Alexei met in the Moscow Kremlin. The heir wept and begged for forgiveness. The king pretended that he would not be angry if his son renounced the throne and inheritance (which he did).
After that, the trial began. First, the fugitive betrayed all his supporters, who "persuaded" him to a rash act. Arrests and regular executions followed. Peter wanted to see his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina and the opposition clergy at the head of the conspiracy. However, the investigation found that a much larger number of people were dissatisfied with the king.
Death
Not a single short biography of Alexei Petrovich contains accurate information about the circumstances of his death. As a result of the investigation, which was conducted by the same Peter Tolstoy, the fugitive was sentenced to death. However, it never took place. Alexei died on June 26, 1718 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was held during the trial. It was officially announced that he had a seizure. Perhaps the prince was killed on the secret orders of Peter, or perhaps he died himself, unable to endure the torture he experienced during the investigation. For an all-powerful monarch, the execution of his own son would be too shameful an event. Therefore, there is reason to believe that he instructed to deal with Alexei in advance. One way or another, but the descendants did not know the truth.
After the death of Alexei Petrovich, a classical point of view developed about the causes of the drama that had happened. It lies in the fact that the heir came under the influence of the old conservative Moscow nobility and the clergy hostile to the king. However, knowing all the circumstances of the conflict, one cannot call the prince a traitor and at the same time not bear in mind the degree of guilt of Peter I himself in the tragedy.
.Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich (Alexei Petrovich Romanov; February 18, 1690, Preobrazhenskoye - June 26, 1718, St. Petersburg) - heir to the Russian throne, the eldest son of Peter I and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina.
Unknown artist Portrait of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich Russia, XVIII century.
Demakov Evgeny Alexandrovich. Peter I and Evdokia-Lopukhin
Alexey Petrovich was born on February 18 (28), 1690 in Preobrazhensky. Baptized on February 23 (March 5), 1690, godparents - Patriarch Joachim and Princess Tatyana Mikhailovna. Name day on March 17, heavenly patron - Alexy, man of God. It was named after his grandfather, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich
Joachim, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'
Alexis man of God
Portrait of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
In the early years he lived in the care of his grandmother Natalya Kirillovna. At the age of six, he began to learn to read and write under Nikifor Vyazemsky, a simple and poorly educated man, whom he sometimes beat. Likewise thrashed "honest brother of his guardian" confessor Yakov Ignatiev.
Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, nee Naryshkina (August 22 (September 1), 1651 - January 25 (February 4), 1694) - Russian queen, second wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, mother of Peter I.
After imprisonment in a monastery in 1698, his mother was transferred under the care of his aunt Natalya Alekseevna and transferred to her in the Transfiguration Palace. In 1699, Peter I remembered his son and wanted to send him along with General Karlovich to study in Dresden. However, due to the death of the general, the Saxon Neugebauer from the University of Leipzig was invited as a mentor. He failed to bind the prince to himself and in 1702 lost his position.
Family portrait of Peter with Catherine, son Tsarevich Alexei and children from his second wife
Musikisky, Grigory Semenovich Miniature on enamel
Tsarevna Natalya Alekseevna (August 22, 1673 - June 18, 1716 - beloved sister of Peter I, daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich and Natalia Naryshkina.
The following year, Baron Huissen took the place of educator. In 1708, N. Vyazemsky reported that the prince was studying the German and French languages, studying "four parts of tsifiri", repeats declensions and cases, writes an atlas and reads history. Continuing to live far away from his father, in Preobrazhensky, until 1709, the prince was surrounded by people who, in his own words, taught him "to have hypocrisy and conversion with priests and blacks and often go to them and drink."
Transfiguration Cathedral and the Imperial Palace.
Then, at the time of the Swedes’ advance into the interior of the continent, Peter instructs his son to monitor the training of recruits and the construction of fortifications in Moscow, but he remains dissatisfied with the result of his son’s work - the king was especially angry that during the work the prince went to the Suzdal monastery, where his mother was.
Evdokia Lopukhina in monastic vestments
Suzdal, Intercession Monastery. Artist Evgeny Dubitsky
In 1707, Huyssen proposed to Alexei Petrovich as a wife Princess Charlotte of Wolfenbüttel, the sister of the future Austrian Empress.
"Ceremonial portrait of Princess Sophia-Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel"
Unknown artist
In 1709, accompanied by Alexander Golovkin and Prince Yuri Trubetskoy, he traveled to Dresden to teach German and French, geometry, fortification, and "political affairs." At the end of the course, the prince had to pass an exam in geometry and fortification in the presence of his father. However, fearing that he would force him to make a complex drawing with which he might not be able to cope and thereby give himself a reason to reproach, Alexei tried to injure his hand with a pistol shot. Enraged, Peter beat his son and forbade him to appear at court, but later, having tried to reconcile, he canceled the ban. In Slakenwert, in the spring of 1710, he saw his bride, and a year later, on April 11, a marriage contract was signed. The wedding was magnificently celebrated on October 14, 1711 in Torgau.
Alexey Petrovich Romanov.
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich Romanov
Franke Christoph Bernard.
The portrait from the collection of the Radishchev Museum in Saratov, most likely, was painted by one of the court painters of Augustus the Strong. This is the earliest known pictorial portrait of Charlotte Christina Sophia. It is possible that it was written in connection with the upcoming wedding in 1711.
Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Johann Paul Luden
Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Unknown artist
G.D. Molchanov
In the marriage, the prince had children - Natalia (1714-1728) and Peter (1715-1730), later Emperor Peter II.
Birth of Peter II
Peter II and Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna
Louis Caravaque
Shortly after the birth of her son, Charlotte died, and the prince chose a mistress from the serfs of Vyazemsky, named Efrosinya, with whom he traveled to Europe and who was later interrogated in his case and was acquitted.
Ekaterina Kulakova as Efrosinya in Vitaly Melnikov's feature film "Tsarevich Alexei"
Stills from the film "Tsarevich Alexei"
Escape abroad
The death of a son and the death of his wife coincided with the birth of the long-awaited son of Peter himself and his wife Catherine - Tsarevich Peter Petrovich.
Tsarevich Pyotr Petrovich (October 29 (November 9), 1715, St. Petersburg - April 25 (May 6), 1719, ibid.) - the first son of Peter I from Ekaterina Alekseevna, who died in infancy.
As Cupid in a portrait by Louis Caravaque
This shook the position of Alexei - he was no longer of interest to his father even as a forced heir. On the day of Charlotte's funeral, Peter gave his son a letter in which he scolded him for "shows no inclination towards state affairs", and urged to improve, otherwise threatening not only to remove him from inheritance, but even worse: “if you are married, then be known that I will deprive you of your inheritance like a gangrenous ud, and don’t think to yourself that I’m only intimidation I write - I will fulfill it in truth, for for My Fatherland and the people I did not regret my belly and do not regret it, then how can I pity you indecently.
Posthumous romanticized portrait of Peter I. Painter Paul Delaroche (1838).
In 1716, as a result of a conflict with his father, who demanded that he decide as soon as possible on the issue of tonsure, Alexey, with the help of Kikin (the head of the St. Copenhagen, but from Gdansk he secretly fled to Vienna and conducted separate negotiations there with European rulers, including a relative of his wife, the Austrian Emperor Charles. To maintain secrecy, the Austrians transported Alexei to Naples. Alexey planned to wait on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire for the death of Peter (who was seriously ill during this period) and then, relying on the help of the Austrians, become the Russian Tsar.
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich Romanov
According to his testimony during the investigation, he was ready to rely on the Austrian army to seize power. In turn, the Austrians planned to use Alexei as their puppet in the intervention against Russia, but abandoned their intention, considering such an enterprise too dangerous.
It is not impossible for us to achieve some success in the lands of the king himself, that is, to support any rebellions, but we actually know that this prince has neither sufficient courage nor sufficient intelligence to derive any real benefit or benefit from these [ uprisings]
- from the memorandum of Vice-Chancellor Count Schönborn (German) to Emperor Karl
Portrait of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor"
The search for the prince did not bring success for a long time, perhaps for the reason that A.P. Veselovsky, the Russian ambassador to the Vienna court, whom Peter I instructed to find Alexei, was at the same time with Kikin. Finally, Russian intelligence tracked down the location of Alexei (Erenberg Castle in Tyrol), and the emperor was demanded to extradite the prince to Russia.
Ehrenberg Castle (Reutte)
Tannauer Johann Gonfried. Portrait of Count Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy. 1710s
Portrait of an associate of Peter I Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev (1680-1749)
Borovikovsky, Vladimir Lukich
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire refused to extradite Alexei, but allowed P. Tolstoy to be admitted to him. The latter showed Alexei a letter from Peter, where the prince was guaranteed forgiveness of any guilt in the event of an immediate return to Russia.
If you are afraid of me, then I reassure you and promise you by God and His judgment that there will be no punishment for you, but I will show you better love if you obey my will and return. But if you don’t do this, then, ... as your sovereign, I declare for a traitor and I will not leave all the ways for you, as a traitor and scolder of my father, to commit, in which God will help me in my truth.
- from Peter's letter to Alexei
The letter, however, failed to force Alexei to return. Then Tolstoy bribed an Austrian official to "by secret" told the prince that his extradition to Russia was a settled issue
And then I exhorted the secretary of the viceroy, who was used in all transfers and the man is much smarter, so that, as if for a secret, he said to the prince all the above words, which I advised the viceroy to announce to the prince, and gave that secretary 160 gold chervonets, promising him to reward him in advance that this secretary did
- from Tolstoy's report
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich
This convinced Alexei that the calculations for Austrian aid were unreliable. Realizing that he would not receive help from Charles VI, and fearful of returning to Russia, Alexei, through the French officer Dure, secretly wrote a letter to the Swedish government asking for help. However, the answer given by the Swedes (the Swedes undertook to provide Alexei with an army to enthrone him) was late, and P. Tolstoy managed to get Alexei's consent to return to Russia by threats and promises on October 14 before he received a message from the Swedes.
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich
The case of Tsarevich Alexei
After returning for a secret flight and activities during his stay abroad, Alexei was deprived of the right to the throne (manifesto on February 3 (14), 1718), and he himself took a solemn oath to renounce the throne in favor of brother Peter Petrovich in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin in the presence father, higher clergy and higher dignitaries.
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich
At the same time, forgiveness was announced to him on the condition of recognizing all the misdeeds committed (“Yesterday later, I received forgiveness on the fact that all the circumstances were conveyed to my escape and other things like that; and if something is hidden, then you will be deprived of your stomach; ... if you hide something and then obviously will be, don’t blame me: since yesterday it was announced before all the people that for this pardon not pardon”).
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich Romanov.
****
The very next day after the abdication ceremony, an investigation began, entrusted to the Secret Chancellery and headed by Count Tolstoy. Alexey, in his testimony, tried to portray himself as a victim of his entourage and shift all the blame on his entourage. The people around him were executed, but this did not help Alexei - his mistress Efrosinya gave exhaustive testimony, exposing Alexei in a lie.
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. Gritbach steel engraving
In particular, it turned out that Alexei was ready to use the Austrian army to seize power and intended to lead a rebellion of Russian troops if the opportunity arose. It got to the point that hints of Alexei's attempts to contact Charles XII slipped through. At the confrontation, Aleksey confirmed Efrosinya's testimony, although he did not say anything about any real or imaginary ties with the Swedes. Now it is difficult to establish the full reliability of these testimonies. Although torture was not used at this stage of the investigation, Efrosinya could have been bribed, and Aleksei could give false testimony out of fear of torture. However, in cases where Efrosinya's testimony can be verified from independent sources, they are confirmed (for example, Efrosinya reported letters that Alexei wrote to Russia, preparing the ground for coming to power - one such letter (unsent) was found in the archives of Vienna).
Death
Based on the facts that surfaced, the prince was put on trial and condemned to death as a traitor. It should be noted that Aleksey's connections with the Swedes remained unknown to the court, and the guilty verdict was issued on the basis of other episodes, which, according to the laws in force at that time, were punishable by death.
The prince died in the Peter and Paul Fortress on June 26 (July 7), 1718, according to the official version, from a blow. In the 19th century, N. G. Ustryalov discovered documents, according to which, shortly before his death (already after the verdict was passed), the prince was tortured, and this torture could have become the direct cause of his death. According to the records of the office, Alexei died on June 26. Peter I published an official notice stating that, after hearing the death sentence, the prince was horrified, demanded his father, asked his forgiveness and died in a Christian way, in complete repentance from his deed.
Alexei Zuev as Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Vitaly Melnikov's feature film "Tsarevich Alexei"
There is evidence that Alexei was secretly killed in a prison cell on the orders of Peter, but they strongly contradict each other in details. Published in the 19th century with the participation of M. I. Semevsky "letter from A. I. Rumyantsev to D. I. Titov"(according to other sources, Tatishchev) with a description of the murder of Alexei is a proven fake; it contains a number of factual errors and anachronisms (which was pointed out by N. G. Ustryalov), and close to the text retells the official publications about the case of Alexei that had not yet been released.
Alexei Zuev as Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Vitaly Melnikov's feature film "Tsarevich Alexei"
In the media, you can find information that during his lifetime, Alexei was ill with tuberculosis - according to a number of historians, the sudden death was the result of an exacerbation of the disease in prison conditions or the result of a side effect of medicines.
Alexei was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the fortress in the presence of his father. Posthumous rehabilitation of Alexei, withdrawal from circulation of manifestos condemning him and aimed at justifying the actions of Peter "The Truth of the Monarchs' Will" Feofan Prokopovich occurred during the reign of his son Peter II (since 1727).
Chapel of St. Catherine with the graves of Tsarevich Alexei, his wife and aunt Princess Maria Alekseevna
In culture.
The personality of the prince attracted the attention of writers (beginning with Voltaire and Pushkin), and in the 19th century. and many historians. Alexei is depicted in the famous painting by N. N. Ge "Peter interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof"(1871).
Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof. N. N. Ge, 1871
In Vladimir Petrov's feature film "Peter the Great" (1937), Nikolai Cherkasov played the role of the prince with high dramatic skill. Here the image of Alexei Petrovich is interpreted in the spirit of official historiography as an image of a protege of obsolete forces within the country and hostile foreign powers, an enemy of Peter's reforms and the imperial power of Russia. His conviction and murder are presented as a just and necessary act, which during the years of the film's production served as an indirect argument in favor of Stalin's repressions. At the same time, it is absurd to see a ten-year-old crown prince as the head of the boyar reaction by the time of the Battle of Narva.
Glass of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich (17th century).
In Vitaly Melnikov's feature film "Tsarevich Alexei" (1997), Alexei Petrovich is shown as a man who is ashamed of his crowned father and only wants to live an ordinary life. At the same time, according to the filmmakers, he was a quiet and God-fearing person who did not want the death of Peter I and the change of power in Russia. But as a result of palace intrigues, he was slandered, for which he was tortured by his father, and his comrades were executed.
A. N. Tolstoy, "Peter the Great" - the most famous novel about the life of Peter I, published in 1945 (Alexey is shown as a minor)
D. Mordovtsev - the novel “The Shadow of Herod. (Idealists and Realists)"
D. S. Merezhkovsky - the novel “Antichrist. Peter and Alexey"
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich
The film "Tsarevich Alexei" (1995)
Peter was closer to the northern, Protestant cultural tradition with its rationalism, orientation to practical knowledge and skills, and entrepreneurial spirit. The prince, on the other hand, gravitated towards the softer, calmer and “playful” culture of the South European Baroque. In a sense, Alexei could be considered a person even more European-educated than his father. In any case, there was no cultural or religious gap between them.
Official version
On June 27, 1718, St. Petersburg solemnly celebrated the ninth anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Poltava. Military ships decorated with flags passed along the Neva in front of the Summer Palace of Peter the Great, the residents of the city heard the traditional cannon salute, and then enjoyed the spectacle of fireworks. Those few observers and participants in the celebration who knew that the night before the life of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich had ended, could only be surprised at the equanimity of his father. On the same day, instructions were sent to Russian ambassadors in European capitals on how to describe and explain the death of the prince. Its cause was declared an apoplexy, which allegedly struck Alexei during the announcement of the death sentence, but, however, did not prevent him from taking communion in the presence of ministers and senators and reconciling with his father before his death. And although this idyllic picture did not look too convincing, it was clear that the denouement of many months and painful drama had finally come.
The generally accepted explanation of the tragic fate of the prince is well known. It says that Alexei, who grew up in an atmosphere hostile to Peter and all his undertakings, fell under the pernicious influence of the reactionary clergy and the backward Moscow nobility. And when the father missed it, it was already too late, and all efforts to re-educate his son only led to the fact that he fled abroad. During the investigation, which began upon his return, it turned out that, together with a few henchmen, Alexei was impatiently awaiting the death of the king and was ready to destroy everything he had done. The court of senators and high dignitaries sentenced the guilty of treason to death, which became a kind of monument to the principles of Peter I.
It is easy to see that the stated version is too schematic to be similar to the truth. Rather, it resembles those hastily constructed explanations that are created for propaganda purposes "hot on the heels of events" and sometimes turn out to be surprisingly tenacious. What actually caused the conflict of the king-transformer with his own son and heir?
A. Menshikov - the ideal man of the era of Peter, who went through his career from a batman to a field marshal ^ Unloved child
Alexei was born in the royal residence near Moscow - the village of Preobrazhensky on February 18, 1690, a little over a year after the wedding of the tsar and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina. He was only two years old when Peter began an affair with the merchant's daughter Anna Mons, whom he met in the German Quarter, and only four when he finally left Evdokia. That is why the boy's childhood passed in an environment far from quiet family happiness. And in 1698, he actually lost his mother: Peter, forced to interrupt his trip to Europe because of the news of the Streltsy revolt, returned to Moscow unusually irritated and, among other things, immediately sent his wife to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, ordering her to be tonsured as a nun. The upbringing of Alexei was taken up by his aunt Tsarevna Natalya Alekseevna, whom he did not particularly like. Nikifor Vyazemsky and German educators were assigned as teachers to the prince: first Martin Neugebauer, and then Heinrich Huissen, the general supervision of them was to be carried out by the tsar's favorite, Alexander Menshikov, appointed chief chamberlain. However, the Most Serene Prince did not burden himself too much with unusual duties.
It is known that the heir received a good education, knew German and French, Latin, and was very fond of reading. In 1704, a fourteen-year-old boy was called by his father into the army and watched the siege and assault of Narva. “I took you on a hike to show you that I am not afraid of work or danger. I may die today or tomorrow; but know that you will get little joy if you do not follow my example ... - Peter said to his son. “If my advice is carried by the wind, and you do not want to do what I want, then I will not recognize you as my son: I will pray to God to punish you in this and in the next life.” What could cause such a rebuff? Lack of interest in military affairs? Flashed suddenly hostility to those who surrounded Peter?
Alexei's relationship with his father sorely lacked warmth, but they had more than enough mutual suspicion and distrust. Peter carefully watched to ensure that Alex had no contact with his mother. The prince was constantly afraid of surveillance and denunciations. This unrelenting fear has become almost manic. So, in 1708, during the Swedish invasion, Alexei, who was instructed to oversee the preparation of Moscow for defense, received a letter from his father reproaching him for inaction. The real reason for the dissatisfaction of the king, most likely, was Alexei's visit to the monastery to his mother, which was immediately reported to Peter. The prince immediately turns to his new wife and the tsar's aunt for help: “Katerina Alekseevna and Anisya Kirillovna, hello! I beg you, please, inquiring, write down why the sovereign-father is angry with me: please, please write that I, leaving the business, go for idleness; why am I now in great doubt and sorrow.”
Two more years later, the prince was sent to Germany - to study and at the same time select a suitable matrimonial "party" among foreign princesses. From abroad, he turns to his confessor Yakov Ignatiev with a request to find and send him an Orthodox priest for confession: “And if you please, announce this to him, so that he goes to me secretly, laying down priestly signs, that is, he shaved his beard and mustache ... or his entire head shave and put on false hair, and put on a German dress, send him to me by courier ... and tell him to say my batman, but he would not be called a priest at all ... "
What is Alex afraid of? The fact is that the father encourages denunciation and is not inclined to reckon even with a secret confession, since he considers the "interests of the state" above any sacred sacraments. In the head of the prince, there are many thoughts that are not at all filial. And then there's the need to marry a foreigner! Behind all these hardships before serious studies! Therefore, when a few years later, after the prince's return to Russia, his father, as usual, tried to check his progress in drawing, he was so frightened that he did not find anything better than to shoot himself in the right hand.
The easiest way, following the famous historian S.M. Solovyov to exclaim: “The whole person is in this act!” But didn’t the oppressive atmosphere that surrounded Peter make the prince so? The king was very little like a prudent and just ruler. Hot-tempered and harsh, he was terrible in anger and very often punished (including humiliating beatings), without even delving into the circumstances of the case. Alexey grew up weak-willed? But Peter would not have tolerated any will next to him that was not completely and undividedly subordinated to his own! He considered people only obedient instruments in his hands, not paying attention to their desires and even more so feelings.
The environment of the great reformer was systematically taught not to have "their own judgment"! According to the famous modern historian E.V. Anisimov, "characteristic of many of Peter's associates was a feeling of helplessness, despair, when they did not have the exact orders of the tsar or, bending under a terrible burden of responsibility, did not receive his approval." What can we say about a son, who, by definition, is psychologically dependent on his father, when such dignitaries as General Admiral and President of the Admiralty College F.M. Apraksin, they wrote to the tsar in his absence: “... Truly, in all matters, we wander like blind people and do not know what to do, a great disorder has become everywhere, and where to resort and what to do in the future, we do not know, money is not being taken from anywhere, all things are getting worse.”
The myth of father and son
This acute sense of "God-forsakenness" was only one of the manifestations of the universal myth that Peter persistently created and affirmed. The tsar presented himself not as a reformer (after all, reforms involve the transformation, "improvement" of the past), but as the creator of a new Russia "out of nothing." However, having lost the symbolic support in the past, his creation was perceived as existing solely due to the will of the creator. The will will disappear - and the majestic building is in danger of crumbling to dust ... It is not surprising that Peter was obsessed with thoughts about the fate of his heritage.
But what should be the heir and executor of the creator? A modern researcher of imperial mythology, Richard Worthman, was the first to draw attention to the striking contradiction between the requirements that Peter made to Alexei - to be the successor of his work and the very essence of this work: “The son of the founder cannot himself become the founder until he destroys his inheritance” ... Peter ordered Alexei to follow his example, but his example is that of an angry god whose goal is destruction and the creation of a new one, his image is that of a conqueror who rejects everything previous. By assuming the role of Peter in the myth, Alexei will have to distance himself from the new order and master the same kind of destructive force. The conclusion that the American historian makes is completely logical: "Aleksei Petrovich had no place in the reigning myth."
In my opinion, there was such a place. But the plot of the myth assigned him the role not of a faithful heir and successor, but ... a sacrifice made in the name of the strength of the entire building. It turns out that in a certain symbolic sense, the prince was doomed in advance. Surprisingly, this circumstance caught the people's consciousness very subtly. At one time, folklorist K.V. Chistov discovered an amazing fact: folklore texts about the execution of Tsarevich Alexei by Peter appear a decade before the actual execution and long before the first serious conflicts between father and son! It is worth noting that in the traditional mythology of various peoples, the heir (younger brother or son) of the creator god very often acts as either an inept imitator who only perverts the meaning of creation, or a sacrifice voluntarily made by the creator. The biblical motives for the sacrifice of a son can be considered a manifestation of this archetype. These considerations, of course, do not mean that the prince's life should have ended exactly as it did. Any myth is not a rigid scheme, but rather a “role-playing game” that allows for various development options. Let's try to follow its ups and downs.
"We all wish him dead"
Obeying the command of Peter, Alexei was forced to choose a life partner abroad. On October 14, 1711, in the Saxon city of Torgau, in the presence of the king, he marries a relative of the Austrian emperor Charles VI (his wife's sister) Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. This marriage could hardly be called happy. Even after moving to Russia, the princess remained an estranged and distant foreigner who did not want to get close to either her husband or the royal court. “As soon as I don’t come to her, everything gets angry and doesn’t want to talk to me,” the drunken prince complained to his valet Ivan Afanasyev. If Peter expected that she would help him establish some kind of understanding with his son and awaken him from apathy, he miscalculated. On the other hand, the German princess turned out to be quite capable of what was expected of her in the first place. In 1714, the couple has a daughter, Natalia, after which the princess writes to Peter that although she skipped giving birth to an heir this time, she hopes to be happier next time. The son (the future Emperor Peter II) really was born already in 1715. The princess is pleased and accepts congratulations, but after that her condition deteriorates sharply and ten days after giving birth on October 22 she dies.
Meanwhile, a few days later, the first son was born to the wife of the Tsar Catherine (he died at the age of four). The baby was also named Peter. As a result, the only heir before that - Alexei - ceased to be such. It must be said that the prince, having returned shortly before once again from abroad (he was treated on the waters in Carlsbad), was then in a rather strange position. He clearly did not fit into Petersburg life, apparently, invariably irritated his father, from this he closed himself even more and did everything inappropriately. Peter tried to carry out the few orders literally, but did not show any enthusiasm. In the end, the king seemed to give up on him. The future was drawn to the prince in a gloomy light. “To be tonsured to me, and if I don’t have a tonsure, then I willy-nilly they will tonsure,” he shared his thoughts with those close to him. “And it’s not that now from my father, and after him I should expect the same for myself ... My life is bad!”
Initially, not having a great desire to live the life that his father lived, by this time the prince was simply not able to overcome the abyss that deepened between them. He was weighed down by the current situation and, like any person who was not very strong in character, he was carried away by his thoughts to another reality where Peter did not exist. Waiting for the death of a father, even wishing for it, is a terrible sin! But when the deeply believing Alexei confessed to him in confession, he suddenly heard from his confessor Yakov Ignatiev: "God will forgive you, and we all wish him death." It turned out that his personal, deeply intimate problem had another dimension: the formidable and unloved father was also an unpopular sovereign. Alexei himself automatically turned into an object of hopes and hopes of the dissatisfied. What seemed like a worthless life suddenly found some meaning!
Various Europeans
Contrary to popular notions, Peter and his policies aroused discontent not only among the reactionary "adherents of antiquity." It was hard not only for the people, who were exhausted from exactions and did not understand either the goals of endless wars or the meaning of numerous innovations and renaming. The clergy were indignant at the trampling of traditional values and the spread of strict state oppression to the church. Representatives of the elite are endlessly tired of the constant changes and new responsibilities assigned to them by the king, because there is no corner where one could hide from the restless ruler and take a breath. However, the general protest seemed to be hidden under a bushel, manifesting itself only in muffled murmurs, secret conversations, dark allusions and vague rumors. During the life of Peter, the dissatisfied were simply not capable of any specific actions. The prince plunged into this atmosphere.
Yes, sometimes the protest against what Peter was doing took the form of a “struggle for traditions.” But it did not come down to a denial of European values, if only because Europe was not something uniform and external in relation to Russia. Interest in European culture in its various forms was by no means peculiar only to Peter, and it manifested itself not at the end of the 17th century, but earlier.
Analyzing the circle of reading and intellectual interests of Tsarevich Alexei, the American historian Paul Bushkovich came to the conclusion that “the struggle between Peter and his son did not take place on the basis of a textbook conflict between Russian antiquity and Europe. Both of them were Europeans, but different Europeans. Peter was closer to the northern, Protestant cultural tradition with its rationalism, orientation to practical knowledge and skills, and entrepreneurial spirit. The prince, on the other hand, gravitated towards the softer, calmer and “playful” culture of the South European Baroque. In a sense, Alexei could be considered a person even more European-educated than his father. In any case, there was no cultural or religious gap between them.
This does not mean that Alexei did not have fundamental differences with his father in understanding how Russia should develop. The political program of the prince, as far as can be judged from the surviving data, boiled down to the end of the war, the reduction of the army and especially the navy and the easing of taxes, and the abandonment of St. Petersburg as the capital. Thus, everything related to the image of Peter as a conqueror, conqueror and creator of the “new world”, where the prince was forbidden to enter, caused him the greatest rejection. The new capital was naturally perceived as the center of this world, and everything connected with it (the navy, the Northern War, taxes, which went mainly for the construction of St. Petersburg and the war) aroused its rejection. Thus, the prince was really preparing to play the role of a "creator in reverse", the opposite of the symbolic role of his father.
It is difficult to say what exactly the next “renaming of everything” could result in if he was on the throne, but, as the experience of subsequent reigns showed, it could hardly be a question of a real, and not a symbolic, rejection of what has been achieved and a return to the mythical “Moscow antiquity." It is noteworthy that most of the prominent figures who expressed sympathy for Alexei were not and could not be supporters of any traditionalist "reaction". Like the prince himself, there was too much “irrevocably new” in their life and worldview. To be convinced of this, it is enough to list some of them: the brilliantly educated Ryazan Metropolitan Stefan (Yavorsky), a native of Ukraine, who was considered a “foreigner” in Rus', a major military leader, Field Marshal Count B.P. Sheremetev, Senator Prince D.M. Golitsyn, who later became famous for his desire to limit the autocracy, his brother, a brilliant commander and future field marshal, Prince M.M. Golitsyn, senator and head of the Military Commissariat Prince Ya.F. Dolgoruky, known for his courage and incorruptibility, his relative, military leader and statesman Prince V.V. Dolgoruky, senator and relative of the tsar himself Count P.M. Apraksin, Senator M.M. Samarin, Moscow Governor T.N. Streshnev, Senator Count I.A. Musin-Pushkin. It was the color of the Peter's elite!
Listing some of these names, S.M. Solovyov cites only two possible reasons for their dissatisfaction: the dominance of "upstarts" like Menshikov and the marriage of the tsar to the rootless "Chukhonka" Catherine. But Menshikov at the time described had already largely lost his influence, and with regard to Catherine, the same V.V. Dolgoruky, for example, said: “If it weren’t for the queen’s cruel temper on the sovereign, we wouldn’t be able to live, I would be the first to change.” The nature of the opposition of dignitaries was deeper and lay not so much in the personal as in the political plane. At the same time, there was apparently no mention of any such conspiracy. Aleksey, who was afraid of his shadow, was completely unsuited for the role of the head of the conspirators, and those who sympathized with him did not show much desire to risk their heads.
The scale of discontent became clear to Peter himself later. In October 1715, an exchange of principled letters took place between him and the prince. At the same time, both were in St. Petersburg, and the correspondence showed not only the depth of mutual alienation, but also the official significance that Peter attached to it. In the first letter, the tsar reproached his son for not being interested in "governing state affairs", "most of all" in military affairs, "how we came from darkness to light, and whom we did not know in the world, are now revered." In his characteristic expressive manner, expressing anxiety about the fate of the “implanted and returned”, Peter complained: “I will also remember this, what an evil disposition and stubborn you are! For how much I scolded you for this, and not only scolded you, but also beat you, besides, for so many years I have not spoken to you; but nothing has managed to do this, nothing is useful, but everything is for nothing, everything is on the side, and you don’t want to do anything, just to live at home and have fun with them ... ”The letter ended with a threat to deprive the prince of his inheritance if he did not“ convert ”.
Having received the letter, the prince rushed to his close people. All of them, fearing the worst, advised him to abdicate. Three days later, Alexei sent a reply to the tsar, which was a formal renunciation of the crown in favor of the newly born brother Peter. Dissatisfied with such an answer, the king replied that no oath renunciations could calm him down: “For the sake of staying as you wish to be, neither fish nor meat, it is impossible; but either abolish your character and unhypocritically honor yourself with an heir, or be a monk.
He didn’t want to go to the monastery, especially since Alexei became seriously attached to Afrosinya, the serf of his tutor Nicephorus Vyazemsky. The constant adviser of the prince, Alexander Kikin, advised agreeing to be tonsured: “After all, the hood is not nailed to the head, you can take it off.” As a result, in another letter to his father, Alexei declared that he was ready to become a monk. The situation has clearly reached a dead end, since Peter could not help but understand that even in the monastery, the son is a potential threat. Wanting to buy time, he invites him to think about everything. However, six months later, already from a foreign campaign, the tsar again demands an immediate decision: either to a monastery, or - as a sign of goodwill to change - to come to his army.
Escape to Vienna: A Failed Conspiracy
By that time, under the influence of Kikin, Alexei had already matured a plan - to flee abroad. The tsar's letter provided a convenient excuse to leave for Europe. Having announced that he had decided to go to his father, the prince left Petersburg on September 26, 1716. And late in the evening of November 10, he was already in Vienna, appeared at the house of the Austrian Vice-Chancellor Count Schönborn and, running around the room, looking around and gesticulating, declared to the dumbfounded count: “I come here to ask the Caesar, my brother-in-law, for protection, so that he saves my life: they want to destroy me; they want to take away the crown from me and my poor children ... but I’m not guilty of anything, I didn’t anger my father in anything, I didn’t do him any harm; if I am a weak person, then Menshikov brought me up like that, drunkenness ruined my health; now my father says that I am not fit for either war or government, but I have enough intelligence to manage ... "
What did the prince want to achieve by coming to Vienna? His actions were clearly dictated by desperation. Alexei fled not to realize some plans (as once Grigory Otrepiev - the self-styled Tsarevich Dimitri), but because he was oppressed and frightened. But the attempt to hide from the real world, of course, was doomed to failure. But, perhaps, the prince became a toy in the hands of forces hostile to his father? The later investigation, despite the cruel torture of the accused, did not reveal any far-reaching intentions even among the people closest to him, directly involved in the escape: Kikin and Afanasyev. True, once abroad, the prince really followed with attention and hope the rumors leaking from Russia about the growing dissatisfaction with the tsar and about the unrest expected in the country. But this fact only set off his own passivity.
A clever diplomat P.A. Tolstoy persuaded Alexei to return from Naples to Russia (1717). Meanwhile, the Austrian government and the emperor found themselves in a very difficult situation. Peter quickly enough was able to establish exactly where the fugitive was, and sent emissaries to Vienna - Captain A.I. Rumyantsev and highly experienced diplomat Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy. Charles VI was informed that the very fact that Alexei was on the territory of his state was perceived by the tsar as an extremely unfriendly gesture towards Russia. For Austria, which was then at war with the Ottoman Empire and preparing for war with Spain, Peter's threats were not an empty phrase. Alexei was again unlucky: in other circumstances, his relative-emperor could have tried to play the card that so unexpectedly came into his hands. In addition, the Austrians quickly became convinced that it was impossible to rely on Alexei. As a result, Vienna chose to be compliant. Tolstoy got the opportunity to meet with Alexei (by that time he had been transferred to Naples) and use all his talents in order to persuade the prince to return.
All means were used. The role of the gingerbread was played by the king's promises to forgive his son, allow him to marry Afrosinya and let him live in the village. As a whip, the threat to separate him from his mistress was used, as well as the statements of one of the Austrians (bribed by Tolstoy) that the emperor would prefer to extradite the fugitive than protect him by force of arms. It is characteristic that, perhaps, the prospect of his father's arrival in Naples and meeting him face to face affected Alexei most of all. “And this made him so afraid that at that moment he told me that he would certainly dare to go to his father,” Tolstoy reported. A significant role, apparently, was played by the position of Afrosinya, who was expecting a child, whom Tolstoy managed to convince or intimidate. As a result, consent to return was torn out unexpectedly quickly.
Luck came to Tolstoy just in time, because at some point Alexei, who doubted the readiness of the Austrians to defend him, tried to make contact with the Swedes. For the main enemy of Peter, King Charles XII, who was in a catastrophic situation, this was a real gift. It was decided to promise Alexei an army to invade Russia, but the Swedes simply did not have enough time to start negotiations. It is worth noting, however, that this act of the prince, which really contained all the signs of treason, did not surface at the subsequent investigation and remained unknown to Peter.
From the torture speeches of Alexei
On June 1718, on the 19th day, Tsarevich Alexei said on the wanted list: he wrote about someone in his former confessions and said before the senators, then everything is true, and he didn’t start up against anyone and didn’t hide anyone ...
He was given 25 strokes.
Yes, on the 24th day of June, Tsarevich Alexei was asked in the dungeons about all his affairs, what he wrote to whom with his own hand and on inquiry and on the wanted list, and then everything was read to him: that he wrote everything truthfully, didn’t he slander anyone and didn’t hide anyone? To which he, Tsarevich Alexei, after listening to exactly that, said, he wrote something, and on questioning he told the very truth, and did not slander anyone and did not hide anyone ...
He was given 15 hits.
Last meeting
The meeting of father and son took place on February 3, 1718 in the Kremlin Palace in the presence of the clergy and secular nobles. Alexei wept and repented, but Peter again promised him forgiveness on the condition of unconditional renunciation of the inheritance, full recognition and extradition of accomplices. The investigation actually began the very next day after the ceremonial reconciliation of the prince with his father and his solemn abdication from the throne. Later, the Secret Chancellery was created specifically to investigate the alleged conspiracy, headed by the same P.A. Tolstoy, whose career after the successful return of Alexei to Russia clearly took off.
The first cruel tortures were those whose closeness to the prince was well known: Kikin, Afanasiev, confessor Yakov Ignatiev (all of them were then executed). Arrested at first, Prince Vasily Dolgoruky escaped with exile. At the same time, the mother of Tsarevich Evdokia (in monasticism - Elena) Lopukhina and her relatives were interrogated, and although no involvement in the flight was established, many of them paid with their lives for the hopes for the imminent death of Peter and the accession of Alexei.
The first wave of trials and repressions ended in Moscow, and in March Alexei and Peter moved to St. Petersburg. However, the investigation did not end there. Tolstoy felt the tsar's insistent desire to see in his son the head of a conspiracy and strove to find this conspiracy. By the way, it is the events of this period of investigation that are depicted in the famous painting by N.N. Ge. The testimony of Afrosinya about the thoughts and words of the prince abroad turned out to be a turning point: about his hopes for a rebellion or the imminent death of his father, about the letters that he sent to the bishops in Russia, wanting to remind them of himself and his rights to the throne. Was there a "crime" in all this? Of course, Aleksey was mainly blamed for intentions, not deeds, but, according to the then legal concepts, there was simply no fundamental difference between the one and the other.
The prince was tortured several times. Broken long before the physical torture, he did his best to save himself. Initially, Peter was inclined to lay the blame on Alexei’s mother, his closest advisers and the “bearded men” (clergy), but over the course of six months of the investigation, a picture of such a large-scale and deep dissatisfaction with his policies among the elite emerged that there could be no punishment for all the “defendants” in the case. speech. Then the tsar resorted to a standard move, making the suspects judges and thus placing on them a symbolic responsibility for the fate of the main accused. On June 24, the Supreme Court, which consisted of the highest dignitaries of the state, unanimously sentenced Alexei to death.
We will probably never know exactly how the prince died. His father was least of all interested in divulging the details of the unheard-of execution of his own son (and there is almost no doubt that it was just an execution). Be that as it may, it is after the death of Alexei that Peter's transformations become especially radical, aimed at a total break with the past.
Alexei Petrovich (1690-1718) - Tsarevich, son of Peter I and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina. He reacted negatively to his father's reforms, which caused his anger. In 1716 he secretly left for Vienna; returned to Russia and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Under torture, he betrayed his accomplices and confessed to betraying his father's cause. Sentenced to death by the Supreme Court and found dead two days later in the Peter and Paul Fortress under unclear circumstances.
Orlov A.S., Georgiev N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 14.
Alexei Petrovich (02.18.1690-26.06.1718), tsarevich, eldest son of Peter I from his first wife E.F. Lopukhina. Until the age of 8, he was brought up by his mother, in an environment hostile to Peter I. He was afraid and hated his father, reluctantly carried out his instructions, especially of a military nature. The lack of will and indecisiveness of Alexei Petrovich were used by the political enemies of Peter I. In 1705-06, the opposition of the clergy and the boyars, which opposed the reforms of Peter I, grouped around the prince. 1711 Alexei Petrovich married Princess Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (d. 1715), from whom he had a son, Peter (later Peter II, 1715-30). Peter I, threatening deprivation of inheritance and imprisonment in a monastery, repeatedly demanded that Alexei change his behavior. In 1716, fearing punishment, Alexei fled to Vienna under the protection of the Austrian emperor. Charles VI. He hid in the castle of Ehrenberg (Tyrol), from May 1717 - in Naples. By threats and promises, Peter I achieved the return of his son (Jan. 1718) and forced him to renounce his rights to the throne and extradite his accomplices. On June 24, 1718, the Supreme Court of the generals, senators and the Synod sentenced Alexei to death. According to the existing version, he was strangled by the close associates of Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Used materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru
Alexei Petrovich (18.II.1690 - 26.VI.1718) - Tsarevich, eldest son of Peter I from his first wife E. P. Lopukhina. Until the age of 8, he was brought up by his mother, in an environment hostile to Peter I. He was afraid and hated his father, reluctantly carried out his instructions, especially of a military nature. The lack of will and indecision of Alexei Petrovich was used by the political enemies of Peter I. In 1705-1706, the reactionary opposition of the clergy and boyars, which opposed the reforms of Peter I, was grouped around the prince. In October 1711, Alexei Petrovich married Princess Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (d. from whom he had a son, Peter (later Peter II, 1715-1730). Peter I, threatening deprivation of inheritance and imprisonment in a monastery, repeatedly demanded that Alexei Petrovich change his behavior. At the end of 1716, fearing punishment, Alexei Petrovich fled to Vienna under the protection of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI. He hid in the Ehrenberg castle (Tirol), from May 1717 - in Naples. By threats and promises, Peter I achieved the return of his son (January 1718) and forced him to renounce his rights to the throne and extradite his accomplices. On June 24, 1718, the supreme court of the generals, senators and the Synod sentenced Alexei Petrovich to death. According to the existing version, he was strangled by the close associates of Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 1. AALTONEN - AYANS. 1961.
Literature: Solovyov S. M., History of Russia, St. Petersburg, book. 4, vol. 17, ch. 2; Ustryalov N., History of the reign of Peter the Great, v. 6, St. Petersburg, 1859; Pogodin M.P., The trial of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, M., 1860; The execution of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. Reported by L. A. Karasev, "PC", 1905, Aug. (book 8); Essays on the history of the USSR ... Russia in the first quarter. XVIII century., M., 1954.
Alexei Petrovich (02/18/1690, Preobrazhensk village near Moscow - 06/26/1718, St. Petersburg) - Tsarevich, eldest son of Peter I and his first wife Evdokia Lopukhina. After the conclusion in 1698 of Queen Evdokia in the Intercession Monastery, he was brought up by Peter's sister, Princess Natalia. A strong influence on the prince had his confessor Yakov Ignatiev. Alexei was well-read, knew several foreign languages. As heir to the throne, he carried out his father's instructions during the Northern War: supervising the work to strengthen Moscow (1707–1708), inspecting warehouses in Vyazma (1709), etc. In 1709–1712 he traveled around Western Europe to continue his education, as well as to choose a bride . In October 1711 in Torgau he married Sophia-Charlotte of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (baptized Evdokia, died in 1715). Aroused the wrath of Peter I and the threat of removal from the throne and monastic vows because of the unwillingness to break with the opponents of the reforms carried out by the king. At the end of 1716, he fled with his mistress Euphrosyne to Vienna under the protection of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI. He hid in the Ehrenberg castle (Tyrol), and from May 1717 - in Naples. In January 1718, Peter I, with the help of P. A. Tolstoy, achieved the return of his son, forced him to renounce his rights to the throne and extradite his “accomplices”. On June 24, 1718, the Supreme Court sentenced Alexei to death. According to one version, he was strangled by the close associates of Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
L. A. Tsyganova.
Russian historical encyclopedia. T. 1. M., 2015, p. 272.
Alexei Petrovich (February 18, 1690, the village of Preobrazhenskoye, near Moscow, - June 26, 1718, St. Petersburg), prince, eldest son Peter I from his marriage to Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina . He spent the first years of his childhood mainly in the company of his mother and grandmother ( Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina ), since Peter in 1693-1696 was first busy with shipbuilding in Arkhangelsk, and then undertook the Azov campaigns. After the imprisonment of Empress Evdokia in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery in 1698, Tsarevich Alexei was taken to the village of Preobrazhenskoye by Peter's sister, Tsarevna Natalya Alekseevna . In 1699, Peter intended to send the prince abroad for education, but then changed this plan and invited the German Neugebauer to be his tutor. In 1703 he was replaced by Baron Huyssen; according to the reviews of the latter, the prince was diligent, loved mathematics and foreign languages, and was eager to get acquainted with foreign countries. Studies in the sciences were interrupted, however, at the request of Peter either by a trip to Arkhangelsk in 1702, then by participation in the campaign to Nyenschantz, or by presence in 1704 during the siege of Narva. In 1705 Huissen was sent by Peter abroad on a diplomatic mission, and the prince was left without a leader. The tsarevich's confessor, Archpriest of the Verkhospassky Cathedral Yakov Ignatiev, who tried to keep in him the memory of his mother as an innocent sufferer, had a special influence on Alexei. At the end of 1706 or at the beginning of 1707 the prince visited his mother in the Suzdal monastery. Upon learning of this, Peter immediately called him to him and expressed his anger to him. In the autumn of 1707, Alexei was entrusted with overseeing the work to strengthen Moscow in case of an attack. Charles XII , in August 1708 he was also entrusted with the inspection of food stores in Vyazma. In the autumn of 1708, Alexei continued his studies with Huissen, who had returned from abroad. At the beginning of 1709, the prince presented to the tsar in Sumy five regiments assembled and organized by himself, then he was present in Voronezh when the ships were launched, and in the fall he went to Kiev to be with that part of the army that was intended for operations against Stanislav Leshchinsky. In 1709 he went on a trip abroad to continue his education, as well as to choose a bride (back in 1707, Baron Urbich and Huissen were instructed by Peter I to find a bride for the prince). To their question about the possibility of matchmaking with the eldest daughter of the Austrian emperor, Vice-Chancellor Kaunitz answered rather evasively. As a result, Baron Urbich turned his attention to Princess Sophia-Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and suggested that Peter send the prince abroad so that it would be more convenient to negotiate. On the way to Dresden, Alexey Petrovich spent three months in Krakow. According to the description of a contemporary, Alexei Petrovich was very thoughtful and taciturn in unfamiliar society; rather melancholic than cheerful; secretive, timid and suspicious to the point of pettiness, as if someone wanted to encroach on his life. At the same time, the prince was very inquisitive, visited the churches and monasteries of Krakow, attended debates at universities, bought many books, mainly theological content and partly historical, and daily used 6-7 hours not only for reading, but also for extracts from books, and did not show his extracts to anyone. According to Wilchek, Alexei Petrovich “possesses good abilities and can make great progress if others do not interfere with him”. In March 1709, Alexey Petrovich arrived in Warsaw, where he exchanged visits with the Polish king. In October 1711 in Torgau, in the presence of Peter I, who had just returned from the Prut campaign, Alexei Petrovich married Sophia-Charlotte of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (Eudokia was baptized, died in 1715; their children are Natalya (1714-1728) and Peter (future emperor Peter II ). In 1714, with the permission of Peter I, Alexei Petrovich was treated in Karlsbad for consumption. Stubbornly not wanting to become a faithful associate of Peter I, he provoked the wrath of his father and the threat of removal from the throne and tonsure into a monastery. Peter I, in a letter to his son, outlined the reasons for his dissatisfaction with the prince and ended it with a threat to deprive his son of his inheritance if he did not improve. Three days later, Alexei Petrovich filed a reply to his father, in which he himself asked to be deprived of his inheritance. “Before I see myself,” he wrote, “to this matter I am inconvenient and indecent, also very deprived of memory (without which it is possible to do nothing) and with all the powers of the mind and body (from various diseases) I have weakened and become indecent to the rule of so many people, where it requires a man not as rotten as me. For the sake of heritage (God grant you many years of health!) Russian after you (even though I didn’t have a brother, and now, thank God, I have a brother, to whom God grant health) I don’t pretend and I won’t pretend in the future ". With this letter, the prince renounced the inheritance not only for himself, but also for his son. Peter was dissatisfied with the prince's tone. At the end of September, Alexei Petrovich received a letter in which Peter demanded an answer whether he intended to get down to business or wanted to enter a monastery. Then the prince carried out his long-standing intention and, with the help of A.V. Kikina's plan, at the end of 1716 he fled abroad with his mistress, the "chukhonka" Afrosinya. In November, Alexei Petrovich appeared in Vienna to Vice-Chancellor Shenborn and asked for protection from the injustice of his father, who wanted to tonsure him in order to disinherit himself and his son. Emperor Charles VI gathered a council, and it was decided to give the prince asylum; from November 12 to December 7, he stayed in the town of Weyerburg, and then was transferred to the Tyrolean castle of Ehrenberg. In early April 1717, Veselovsky handed over to Emperor Charles VI a letter from Peter with a request, if Alexei Petrovich was within the empire, to send it to him "for paternal correction." The emperor replied that he did not know anything, and asked the English king if he would take part in the fate of the prince, suffering from the "tyranny" of his father. The Austrian secretary Keil, who arrived at Ehrenberg on the orders of his emperor, showed the above-mentioned letters to the prince and advised him to leave for Naples if he did not want to return to his father. Alexey Petrovich was in despair and begged not to extradite him. He was escorted to Naples. A.I. Rumyantsev discovered this residence of the prince and, having arrived in Vienna with P.A. Tolstoy , demanded from the emperor the extradition of Alexei Petrovich, or at least a meeting with him. Tolstoy promised Alexei Petrovich to get permission to marry Afrosinya and live in the countryside. This promise encouraged the prince, and Peter's letter dated November 17, in which he promised to forgive him, completely reassured him. January 31, 1718 Alexei Petrovich arrived in Moscow; On February 3, he met with his father. The prince pleaded guilty to everything and tearfully begged for mercy. Peter confirmed the promise to forgive, but demanded the renunciation of the inheritance and the indication of those people who advised him to flee abroad. On the same day, the prince solemnly abdicated; a prepared manifesto was published about this, and the prince was declared the heir to the throne, "for we have no other heir of age." At a confrontation with Afrosinya, the prince at first denied, and then not only confirmed all her testimony, but even revealed his secret thoughts and hopes. On June 13, Peter addressed the clergy and the Senate with announcements. He asked the clergy to give him instructions from the Holy Scriptures on how to deal with his son, and instructed the Senate to consider the case and judge what punishment the prince deserved. On June 14, Alexei Petrovich was transferred to the Peter and Paul Fortress, interrogated and tortured several times. The members of the Supreme Court (127 people) signed the death warrant, which stated that “The prince concealed his rebellious intent against his father and his sovereign, and the search, intentional from ancient years, and the search for the throne of the father and with his belly, through various insidious fictions and pretense, and the hope for the mob and the desire of the father and sovereign of his imminent death”. On June 26, at 6 pm, Alexey Petrovich died. According to the version shared by some contemporaries, Alexei Petrovich was secretly strangled in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Materials of the book are used: Sukhareva O.V. Who was who in Russia from Peter I to Paul I, Moscow, 2005
Ge N.N. Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof.
Alexei Petrovich (1690, Moscow - 1718, St. Petersburg) - Tsarevich, eldest son of Peter Z and his first wife E.F. Lopukhina. In 1698, Peter I imprisoned the mother of Alexei Petrovich in the Suzdal monastery, and from childhood the tsarevich hated and feared his father. The tsarevich's mentors "in the sciences and moralizing" N. Vyazemsky, Neugebauer, Baron Huysen quickly succeeded each other and had little influence on Alexei Petrovich, who was distinguished by curiosity, interest in learning, especially spiritual writings, but who did not like military science and military exercises. Usually Alexei Petrovich lived in Moscow surrounded by boyars, who hated the reforms of Peter I. Alexei Petrovich was strongly influenced by his confessor Yakov Ignatiev. Clever, but inactive and hostile to his father, Alexei Petrovich hated his father's court: "it would be better if I were in hard labor or in a fever than to be there." Peter I sought to accustom his son to practical activities: in 1703 took him on a campaign as a soldier of a bombardment company, in 1704 forced him to participate in the capture of Narva; in 1708 he commissioned the collection of recruits and the construction of sinks. fortifications in case of an attack by Charles XII. The prince performed his duties reluctantly, which caused the anger of his father and was beaten by him more than once. In 1709, Alexei Petrovich was sent to Germany to continue his studies and to marry Princess Sophia Charlotte (d. 1715), who gave birth to Alexei Petrovich's daughter and son (the future Peter II). In 1713, Alexei Petrovich returned to Russia, where he was supposed to take an exam before his father, but, fearing that Peter I would require drawing drawings, he unsuccessfully tried to shoot himself in the hand, for which he was severely beaten and expelled by Peter I with a ban on appearing at court. After the birth of his son, Alexei Petrovich received a letter from his father, in which Peter I demanded either to reform or renounce the throne. On the advice of friends ("Vit, de, the hood is not nailed to the head: you can, de, take it off") Alexei Petrovich asked permission to go to the monastery. Peter I gave his son a six-month reprieve. Under the guise of a trip to his father in Denmark, Alexei Petrovich fled to Austria under the protection of Emperor Charles VI. In 1718, with threats and promises, Peter I managed to return Alexei Petrovich to Russia. At the request of his father, the tsarevich abdicated the throne, betrayed accomplices who knew the plan of his flight, but hid (this became known from his mistress Euphrosyne) that he intended to overthrow Peter I with the help of foreign troops (“when I am sovereign, I will live in Moscow, and Petersburg I will leave it just as a city; I will not keep ships; I will keep an army only for defense, and I don’t want to have war with anyone. 127 senior dignitaries (clergy, senators, generals) found Alexei Petrovich guilty of intending to kill his father and seize power and sentenced him to death. He died under torture or was strangled in the Peter and Paul Fortress. His death meant the victory of the reformists.
Used materials of the book: Shikman A.P. Figures of national history. Biographical guide. Moscow, 1997
From the pre-revolutionary encyclopedia
Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich - the eldest son of Peter the Great from his first marriage to E.F. Lopukhina, b. Feb 18 1690, d. On June 26, 1718, Tsarevich Alexei for the first years of his life remained in the care of his grandmother, Natalya Kirillovna, and his mother, Evdokia Fedorovna; his father was too busy with vigorous social activities, from which rest is not at the family hearth, but at military amusements or in the German settlement. After the death of Natalya Kirillovna (in 1694), his mother took the main place in the life of the prince, which had an impact on the friendly relations in which he was with her in later times. For six years, Tsarevich Alexei began to learn to read and write from the hour book and primer from Nikifor Vyazemsky, a simple and poorly educated person, he also got acquainted with the "nature of letters, voice stress and punctuation of words" according to the grammar of Karion Istomin. In September 1698, after the imprisonment of Empress Evdokia in the Suzdal Monastery, the prince lost his maternal care and was transferred to his aunt, Natalya Alekseevna, in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. Here, however, under the guidance of his teacher N. Vyazemsky and the Naryshkins (Aleksey and Vasily) educators, he did little, with the exception of perhaps "hut fun" and "learned to be hypocrites more." He was surrounded at that time by the Naryshkins (Vasily and Mikhail Grigorievich, Alexei and Ivan Ivanovich) and the Vyazemskys (Nikifor, Sergey, Lev, Peter, Andrey). His confessor, the Verkhovospassky priest, then archpriest Yakov Ignatiev, the Annunciation sacrist Alexy, the priest Leonty Menshikov, who, in charge of the upbringing of the tsarevich, deliberately carelessly treated the matter in order to discredit Alexei Petrovich in the eyes of the tsar, had a bad influence on him. The king, however, decided it was (in 1699). send his son to Dresden to study science, but soon (perhaps under the influence of the death of General Karlovich, who was supposed to entrust this training) changed his mind.
The Saxon Neugebauer, a former student at the University of Leipzig, was invited to tutor the prince. He failed to bind the prince to himself, quarreled with his former teachers and annoyed Menshikov, and therefore in July 1702 he lost his position. The following year, Huissen took his place, a flattering man who did not want to take responsibility for the assignment entrusted to him, and therefore little reliable in his stories about the prince. But Huissen, obviously, did not care too much about the successful upbringing of Alexei Petrovich, since even after Huissen's departure in 1705, Tsarevich Alexei still continued to study. In 1708, N. Vyazemsky reported that the tsarevich was studying the German and French languages, studying the "four parts of tsifiri", repeating declensions and cases, writing an atlas and reading history. At this time, however, the prince entered a period of more independent activity. Already in 1707, Huissen (who was sent abroad on diplomatic missions) offered Princess Charlotte of Wolfenbüttel as his wife to Alexei Petrovich, to which the tsar agreed. During his journey to Dresden in 1709, a journey undertaken with the aim of teaching German and French, geometry, fortification and "political affairs", together with Alexander Golovkin (son of the Chancellor) and Prince. Yuri Trubetskoy, the Tsarevich saw the princess in Shlakenberg in the spring of 1710, and a year later, on April 11, a marriage contract was signed. The marriage itself was concluded on October 14, 1711 in Torgau (in Saxony).
The prince entered into marriage with a foreign princess of a non-Orthodox religion only on the orders of the king. His relationship with his father played a leading role in his life and was formed partly under the influence of his character, partly due to external circumstances. Prominent for his spiritual gifts, the prince was distinguished by a rather indecisive and secretive character. These features developed under the influence of the position in which he was in his youth. From 1694 to 1698, the prince lived with his mother, who at that time no longer enjoyed royal favor. I had to choose between my father and mother, and it was difficult to collapse. But the prince loved his mother and maintained relations with her even after her imprisonment, for example, he went on a date with her in 1707; by this, of course, he aroused a feeling of hostility in his father. I had to hide my attachment to my mother from my father's anger. The weak soul of the prince was afraid of the mighty energy of his father, and the latter became more and more convinced of the inability of his son to become an active champion of his plans, feared for the fate of the transformations, the introduction of which he devoted his whole life to and therefore began to treat his son severely. Alexei Petrovich was afraid of the struggle of life; he sought from her refuge in religious observance. It was not for nothing that he read the Bible six times, made extracts from Barony about church dogmas, rituals and miracles, bought books of religious content. The king, on the contrary, had a deep practical sense and an iron will; in the struggle, his strength grew stronger and multiplied; he sacrificed everything for the introduction of reforms, which his superstitious son considered contrary to Orthodoxy. When the tsarevich lived in Preobrazhensky (1705-1709), he was surrounded by people who, in his own words, taught him "to be hypocritical and to have conversion with priests and blacks, and often go and drink to them." In dealing with these subordinates, the prince, who knew how to bow before the strong will of his father, himself showed signs of self-will and cruelty. He beat N. Vyazemsky and tore "the honest brother of his guardian" confessor Yakov Ignatiev. Already at that time, the prince confessed to his closest friend, the same Yakov Ignatiev, that he wanted his father dead, and the archpriest consoled him with the fact that God would forgive and that they all wish the same. And in this case, the behavior of the prince in Preobrazhensky did not, of course, remain unknown to his father. Rumors also began to circulate among the people about the discord between the prince and the king. During the torture and executions after the Streltsy rebellion, the monastery stableman Kuzmin told the archers the following: “The sovereign loves the Germans, but the prince does not love them, the Germans came to him and spoke unknown words and the prince on that German dress burned and scorched him. Nemchin complained to the sovereign and he said: why do you go to him, while I'm alive, then you too.
Another time, in 1708, there were rumors among the dissatisfied that the tsarevich was also dissatisfied, surrounded himself with Cossacks, who, at his command, punish the boyars of the tsar's takakovs, and said that the sovereign was not his father and not the tsar. Thus, the rumor of the people personified in Tsarevich Alexei the hope of liberation from the heavy oppression of the Petrine reforms and gave a shade of political hostility to the hostile relations of two different characters; family discord began to turn into a struggle of parties. If in 1708 the tsarevich offered the tsar articles on the strengthening of the Moscow fortification, on the correction of the garrison, on the formation of several infantry regiments, on the investigation and training of minors, if in the same year he recruited regiments near Smolensk, sent Swedish Polonians to St. against the Don Cossacks, with Bulavin at the head, he went to inspect shops in Vyazma, in 1709 he brought regiments to his father in Sumy - then in later times he far from showed such activity and less and less enjoyed the confidence of the king. The prince's trips abroad hardly brought him any significant benefit. After the first of them (1709 - 1712), the prince mistreated his wife, indulged in drunkenness and continued to be friends with the priests. After the second - he entered into a relationship with Evfrosinya Fedorovna, a prisoner who belonged to his teacher N. Vyazemsky. At the same time, he began to show disobedience, stubbornness, and also an aversion to military affairs and began to think about escaping abroad. The king, apparently, did not know these secret thoughts, but nevertheless he noticed a change for the worse in his son. On the very day of the death of Crown Princess Charlotte, 22 Oct. 1715, the tsar demanded in writing from the tsarevich that he either reform or become a monk, and in a letter of 19 Jan. 1716 added that otherwise he would deal with him as "with a villain." Then Alexei Petrovich, supported by the sympathy of A. Kikin, F. Dubrovsky and the valet Ivan the Great, fled with Euphrosyne through Danzig to Vienna, where he appeared to Chancellor Schönborn on November 10, 1716. Enlisting the patronage of Emperor Charles VI (who was his brother-in-law), Alexei Petrovich traveled to Tyrol, where he stayed at the Ehrenberg castle on 7 December. 1716, and on May 6, 1717 arrived at the Naples castle of St. Elmo. Here he was caught by Peter Tolstoy and Alexander Rumyantsev, sent by the tsar. Despite the fears of the prince, Tolstoy managed to persuade him to go back to Russia (October 14), and during his return, Alexei Petrovich received permission to marry Evfrosinya Feodorovna, but not abroad, but upon entering Russia, so that there would be less shame. The first meeting between father and son took place on February 3, 1718. Following that, the prince was deprived of the right to inherit the throne, torture and executions began (Kikina, Glebova and many others). The search was initially carried out in Moscow, in the middle of March, then transferred to St. Petersburg. The prince was also tortured from June 19 to 26, when he died at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, without waiting for the death sentence to be carried out. From Crown Princess Charlotte, the prince had two children: daughter Natalia, b. July 12, 1714 and son Peter, b. Oct 12 1715 Alexei Petrovich was also supposed to have a child from Evfrosinya Feodorovna in April 1717; his fate remains unknown.
Literature:
N. Ustryalov, "History of the reign of Peter the Great", vol. VI;
Ustryalov N., History of the reign of Peter the Great, v. 6, St. Petersburg, 1859;
Solovyov S. M., History of Russia, St. Petersburg, book. 4, vol. 17, ch. 2;
S. Solovyov, "History of Russia", volume XVII;
A. Brikner, "History of Peter the Great";
M. Pogodin, "The Trial of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich" (in "Rus. Bes." 1860, book pp. 1 - 84);
N. Kostomarov, "Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich" (in "Ancient. and New. Ros." v. 1, pp. 31 - 54 and 134 - 152).
Kostomarov N. I. Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. (Regarding the painting by N. N. Ge). Autocratic lad. M., 1989;
Kozlov O.F. The case of Tsarevich Alexei // Questions of history. 1969. No. 9.
Pavlenko N. I. Peter the Great. M., 1990.
Pogodin M.P., The trial of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, M., 1860;
Essays on the history of the USSR ... Russia in the first quarter. XVIII century., M., 1954.
