Peter 1 executed his son. Tsarevich Alexey. Fatal love for a serf spy. Under the yoke of accusations

Tsarevich, eldest son of Peter the Great from his marriage to Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, b. 18th February 1690, d. June 26, 1718 Almost nothing is known about the first years of the prince’s life, which, as must be assumed, he spent mainly in the company of his mother and grandmother who dearly loved him. The influence of his father, who spent most of his time outside the home (in 1693 and 1694 in Arkhangelsk, in 1695 and 1696 in the Azov campaigns) and was distracted from the family by endless and varied government concerns, could not greatly affect his son. In letters to his mother and grandmother, “Oleshanka” is often mentioned. Little more is known about the prince's initial upbringing. Already in 1692, Karion Istomin compiled an ABC book for him, which was engraved by the famous Bunin. As Pekarsky believes, the primer of 1696 was printed for the prince. In addition to greetings in verse and prose, it contained various soul-saving articles, prayers and commandments. In 1696, the teacher Nikifor Vyazemsky was invited to the Tsarevich, with whom Peter, as can be seen from Vyazemsky’s response letters, corresponded about the Tsarevich’s teachings. In eloquent letters, the teacher informed Peter that Alexey “in a short time (having learned) letters and syllables, according to the custom of the alphabet, teaches the book of hours.” In the same 1696, Karion Istomin wrote a small grammar in which he outlined “the teaching of the nature of writing, the stress of the voice and the punctuation of words.” The dedication proved, with the help of texts from the Holy Scriptures, that the goal of the teaching is to achieve the kingdom of heaven, and the teaching itself consists of knowledge of the books of the Old and New Testaments. These and similar instructions, says Pekarsky, were the only ones the prince heard in childhood, almost until he was 12 years old, and undoubtedly had an influence on his subsequent way of thinking: when he came of age, he loved to talk “from books about the elders,” sang poems from church services and etc. “My disobedience to my father,” the prince later said, “is that from my infancy he lived somewhat with his mother and with the girls, where he learned nothing other than hut amusements, but rather learned to be prude, which is why I inclined by nature." The gap between father and mother must have affected the child's sympathies. Being under the influence of his mother, the prince could not love his father and gradually became imbued with dislike and disgust for him, especially since in the person of Evdokia and with her everything old Moscow-Russian was insulted: customs, morals and the church. From the data of the search case about the last Streltsy riot, it is known that already at that time the people seemed to understand that the force of circumstances would put the son in a hostile relationship with his father. The archers, who decided to kill the boyars - adherents of Peter and the Germans - thought, in the event of Sophia's refusal, to take the prince to the kingdom; rumors spread that the boyars wanted to strangle the prince; already at that time he seemed to be an opponent of the Germans and, therefore, of his father’s innovations. The wives of the archers said: “It’s not just the archers who are disappearing, the royal seeds are also crying.” Tsarevna Tatyana Mikhailovna complained to the Tsarevich about Boyar Streshnev that he starved them to death: if it weren’t for the monasteries that fed us, we would have died long ago. And the Tsarevich told her "Give me time, I'll pick them up. The Emperor loves the Germans, but the Tsarevich does not," etc.

After the imprisonment of Queen Evdokia in 1698, Alexei was taken by Princess Natalya Alekseevna from the Kremlin chambers to the village of Preobrazhenskoye. The following year, Peter decided to send him abroad for education; it is possible that this decision was influenced by the aforementioned conversations between the archers. A Saxon diplomat, General Karlovich, who was in Russian service, was supposed to accompany Alexei to Dresden and supervise his studies there; Lefort’s son was also supposed to arrive there from Geneva for joint studies with Alexei; but Karlovich was killed in March 1700, during the siege of Dunamünde. Why did Peter, despite intense requests in 1701 and 1702? the Viennese Court to send the prince “for science” to Vienna, abandoned this plan - unknown; but it is curious that already at this time rumors about this plan of Peter greatly embarrassed such zealots of the purity of Orthodoxy and enemies of the evil West as the Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheus; having decided to replace sending his son abroad with an invitation to a foreigner to be his tutor, the tsar chose the German Neugebauer, who had previously been in Karlovich’s retinue and in whose company Alexey spent about a year; this choice, however, turned out to not be particularly successful: Neugebauer was an educated man, but his constant clashes, and of the most rude nature, with the Tsarevich’s Russian associates, especially with Vyazemsky, were, of course, not a good educational example; in addition, Neugebauer did not want to obey Menshikov, who at that time was, as they say, entrusted with the main supervision over the upbringing of the prince. In May 1702, in Arkhangelsk, where Alexei accompanied his father, a major clash occurred between Neugebauer and Vyazemsky, during which the former burst into abuse against everything Russian. Removed from office, he responded with a number of pamphlets, in which, among other things, he said that the 11-year-old prince was forced by his father to humiliate himself before Menshikov, etc. In the spring of 1703, Neugebauer’s place was taken by the famous Baron Huyssen, who compiled a broadcast consisting of 9 chapters, divided into §§, a plan for the upbringing of the prince. After a detailed discussion of moral education, Huyssen recommends, first of all, reading the Bible and studying French, as the most common language; then you should begin studying “History and geography, as the true foundations of politics, mainly according to the works of Puffendorf, geometry and arithmetic, style, calligraphy and military exercises”; after two years, it is necessary to explain to the prince: “1) about all political affairs in the world; 2) about the true benefit of states, about the interest of all sovereigns of Europe, especially the border ones, about all military arts,” etc. d. Taught by Neugebauer’s experience, the new mentor rejected the appointment to the post of Chief Chamberlain under the Tsarevich and proposed Menshikov in his place, under whose command he, as he said, would willingly be. To him, “as the supreme representative,” Huyssen submitted reports on the upbringing of the prince. Little is known about the results of this upbringing. Huyssen, in a letter to Leibniz, spoke in the best possible way about the prince’s abilities and diligence, noting his love of mathematics, foreign languages ​​and his ardent desire to see foreign countries; Count Wilczek, who saw him in 1710, also spoke about the prince. In view of the fact that the prince continued to study German declensions back in 1708, doubt was expressed that Huyssen’s activities were really as successful as he claimed, but from Wilczek’s report it is known that in 1710 the prince actually spoke German and Polish quite satisfactorily. The prince, it seems, never knew the French language, the knowledge of which Huyssen attached special importance to. Huyssen reported that the prince read the Bible in Slavic five times and once in German, that he diligently re-read the works of the Greek church fathers, as well as books printed in Moscow, Kiev or Moldova, or manuscripts translated for him; Wilczek says that Huyssen translated and explained to the prince the very widespread work of Saavedra at that time, “Idea de un Principe politico christiano”, from which the prince allegedly knew the first 24 chapters by heart and read with him the famous works of the Roman historians Quintus Curtius (De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni) and Valery Maxim (Facta et dicta memorabilia). However, it was hardly possible to expect particularly brilliant success from studying with Huyssen, even given the prince’s very good abilities: Peter constantly took his son away from his studies, perhaps because he wanted to accustom him to the labors and worries of wartime and bring him closer to to yourself. Upon returning from Arkhangelsk in 1702, the prince in 1703, even before the start of the training, took part, as a soldier in a bombardment company, in the campaign to Nyenschantz, and in March 1704 he went with Huyssen to St. Petersburg, and from here to Narva, under the siege of which he remained all the time. At the beginning of 1705, Peter again deprived him of his leadership, sending Huyssen abroad. The proposal of the French court to send the prince to Paris to be raised was rejected, and thus he was left without proper leadership for a long time. Many were inclined to consider this attitude of Peter towards his son deliberate and attributed it partly to the influence of Menshikov. Be that as it may, this circumstance is fatal for the entire subsequent life of Alexei Petrovich: during this particular time he became friends and became close to a whole circle of people, whose influence finally determined the direction of his sympathies. To this circle belonged several Naryshkins, who entered the Tsarevich, as Pogodin suggests, due to their relationship with Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, Nikifor Vyazemsky, the Kolychevs, the Tsarevich’s housekeeper Evarlakov and a number of clergy: the Annunciation sergeant Ivan Afanasyev, Archpriest Alexei Vasiliev, priest Leonty Grigoriev from Gryaznoy Sloboda in Moscow, the prince's confessor, archpriest of the Verkhospassky Cathedral Yakov Ignatiev and others. All these persons formed a close, friendly circle around the prince and for several years maintained relations with him, surrounded by all sorts of precautions. Such secrecy and mystery indicate that all these persons belonged to a party whose sympathies did not lie with Peter; most of them were representatives of the clergy, the class most dissatisfied with the king’s innovations. Meanwhile, it was precisely the clergy that the prince had a special affection for. “He had a great passion for priests,” according to his valet Afanasyev. The Tsarevich subsequently accused Vyazemsky and the Naryshkins, his first leaders, of not preventing the development of these inclinations in him. Peter was also convinced of the harmful influence of the clergy on Alexei; This influence was also noted by foreigners. “If it weren’t for the nun, the monk, and Kikin,” said the Tsar, “Alexey would not have dared to commit such unheard-of evil. O bearded men! The root of much evil is the elders and priests.” In Weber's reports there is an indication that the clergy distracted the prince from all other interests. Particular influence among the members of the circle was enjoyed by Alexei Petrovich’s confessor, Ignatiev, the only energetic personality among his Moscow friends, whose relationship with the prince was more than once compared with Nikon’s attitude towards Alexei Mikhailovich and in whose speeches Pogodin heard the speeches of Pope Gregory VII himself. Alexei was very attached to his confessor. “In this life,” he wrote to him from abroad, “I have no other such friend. If you had been transferred from here to the future, then I would be very undesirable to return to the Russian state.” Ignatiev tried to maintain in Alexey the memory of his mother, as an innocent victim of his father’s lawlessness; he said how the people loved him and drank to his health, calling him the Russian hope; through the mediation of Ignatiev, relations apparently took place between the prince and his imprisoned mother. These persons constituted the constant “company” of the prince, each member of which had a special nickname “for mockery of the house,” as Alexei Naryshkin put it; the company loved to feast, “to have fun spiritually and physically,” as Alexey Petrovich said, and it is possible that at this time the prince became addicted to wine. All members of the company were bound by the closest bonds of friendship, and the prince did not leave the influence of some of them throughout the rest of his life. All of Peter’s attempts to destroy the influence of these “big beards,” these “obscene people who had rude and frozen habits,” remained unsuccessful. Historians, defenders of Tsarevich Alexei, explained this failure by the fact that the father, not loving his son and always treating him despotically harshly, thereby only strengthened the feelings that arose in the prince from childhood: enmity towards his father and all his aspirations. In fact, there is very little direct indication of the nature of the relationship between father and son during this time and the detrimental influence for Alexei that Catherine and the Menshikov are said to have had on Peter, and when judging all this one must be content with various assumptions. Thus, Huyssen contains indications that the tsar treated his son strictly and ordered Menshikov to treat him without flattery. The Austrian ambassador Player talked about rumors that in the camp near Nyenschanz Menshikov, grabbing Alexei by the hair, threw him to the ground, and that the tsar did not make any reprimand to his favorite for this. The fact that Menshikov scolded Tsarevich Alexei in public with “vilifying words” was later recounted by the Tsarevich himself. The severity of the attitude is also visible in Peter’s speech to Alexei in Narva, as reported by Huyssen. “I took you on a campaign,” Peter said to his son after the capture of Narva, “to show you that I am not afraid of labor or danger. I may die today or tomorrow, but know that you will get little joy if you do not follow my example ... If my advice is carried away by the wind, and you do not want to do what I wish, then I will not recognize you as my son: I will pray to God that He will punish you in this and the future life.” So early Peter foresaw, if you believe Hussein’s story, the possibility of a collision with his son. The idea expressed by Solovyov that Peter did not suspect any influence harmful to his son in anyone around him and was only afraid of the connection with Suzdal and the influence of his mother, seems to be partially confirmed by the fact that he only learned from his sister, Natalya Alekseevna, about the prince’s visit mother at the end of 1706 (or beginning of 1707), he immediately summoned Alexei to his place in Poland (in the town of Zholkva) and, “expressing his anger to him,” made the first serious attempt to involve the prince in government activities. From this moment a new period begins in the life of Alexei Petrovich.

Directly from Zholkva, the prince went to Smolensk with various instructions concerning the supply and inspection of recruits and the collection of provisions, and in October 1707 he returned to Moscow, where he was destined for the role of ruler: in view of the expected attack of Charles XII on Moscow, Alexei was entrusted with supervision of work to strengthen the city. According to everyone, the prince showed quite active activity at that time (this was also noted by foreigners who were then in Moscow). The king's orders were transmitted through him, he himself took strict measures, such as, for example, to collect serf officers and minors, and monitored the progress of serf work; Captured Swedes were under his supervision, he sent Peter news of military operations against Bulavin, etc. In August 1708, the prince went to Vyazma to inspect stores, at the beginning of 1709 he led five regiments collected and organized by him to Little Russia, which he presented to the king in Sumy; Peter was apparently pleased. But, says Kostomarov, “these were the kind of cases where it was impossible to see: whether he himself acted, or others for him.” On the way to Sumy, Alexei caught a cold and became so ill that Peter did not dare to leave for some time; Only on January 30th did he go to Voronezh, leaving his doctor Donel with his son. In February, having recovered from his illness, the prince went by order of his father to Bogodukhov and on the 16th reported on the reception of a recruit; Following this, he came to his father in Voronezh, where he was present at the launching of the ships "Laska" and "Eagle", and then, in April, together with Natalya Alekseevna, he accompanied his father to Tavrov and from here returned to Moscow during Holy Week. Carrying out the assignments assigned to him, the prince constantly reported on the progress and results of his activities. Based, by the way, on these letters, Pogodin concludes that the prince was “not only not stupid, but even smart, with a remarkable mind.” Simultaneously with his government activities, the prince continued his education. He studied German grammar, history, drew an atlas, and in October 1708, upon the arrival of Huyssen, he took up the French language. Upon his return to Moscow in 1709, the prince informed Peter that he had begun to study fortification from a visiting engineer whom Huyssen had found for him. Peter, apparently, was interested in his son’s activities. After spending the summer of 1709 in Moscow, the prince went to Kyiv in the fall and then had to remain with that part of the army that was intended to act against Stanislav Leshchinsky. In October 1709, his father ordered him to go to Dresden. “Meanwhile, we order you,” wrote Peter, “that while you are there, you should live honestly and be more diligent in your studies, namely languages ​​(which you are already learning, German and French), geometry and fortification, and also partly in political affairs.” The following were chosen as the Tsarevich's companions and interlocutors: Prince Yuri Yuryevich Trubetskoy and one of the chancellor's sons, Count Alexander Gavrilovich Golovkin. Huyssen also went with the prince. The instructions given by Menshikov to Trubetskoy and Golovkin instructed them to observe incognito in Dresden and that the Tsarevich “in addition to what he was told to study, play florettes and learn to dance in French.” Teaching was not, however, the only purpose of sending the prince abroad; it is possible that it was only a pretext. Already at the time when the prince was studying German declensions and doing arithmetic in Moscow, negotiations were underway regarding his marriage with some foreign princess - negotiations about which he, it seems, knew nothing. At the beginning of 1707, Baron Urbich and Huyssen were busy in Vienna choosing a bride for the prince, and initially settled on the eldest daughter of the Austrian emperor. “If the rumors about sending the prince to Vienna for education come true,” Vice-Chancellor Kaunitz responded to the request made to him, “and the imperial family gets to know the prince’s character better, then the marriage will not be impossible.” After such an evasive answer, Urbich pointed to Princess Sophia-Charlotte of Blankenburg and suggested, for a more successful course of negotiations, to send the prince abroad for a year or two, to which Peter agreed. Thanks to the efforts of King Augustus, who wanted to serve Peter, as well as the impression made by the Battle of Poltava, the negotiations, despite various intrigues (by the way, from the Vienna Court, which did not abandon the thought of the prince’s marriage with the Archduchess), took a rather favorable turn , and a draft marriage contract had already been drawn up in Wolfenbüttel.

Meanwhile, the prince arrived in Krakow in December 1709 and stayed here, awaiting further orders, until March (or April) 1710. The description of him made, on behalf of the Vienna Court, by Count Wilczek, who saw the prince personally. Vilchek describes Alexey as a young man, above average height, but not tall, broad-shouldered with a wide-developed chest, thin waist, and small legs. The prince's face was oblong, his forehead high and wide, regular mouth and nose, brown eyes, dark chestnut eyebrows and the same hair, which the prince combed back without wearing a wig; his complexion was dark-yellow, his voice was rough; his gait was so fast that none of those around him could keep up with him. Vilchek explains by his bad upbringing that the prince does not know how to hold himself and, being of good height, seems stooped; the last sign, he says, is a consequence of the fact that the prince lived exclusively in the company of women until the age of 12, and then ended up with the priests, who forced him to read, according to their custom, sitting on a chair and holding a book on his lap, in the same way and write; in addition, he never studied either fencing or dancing. Vilchek attributes the prince’s taciturnity in the company of strangers to his bad upbringing; according to him, Alexey Petrovich often sat thoughtfully, rolling his eyes around and hanging his head first in one direction or the other. The prince's character is more melancholic than cheerful; he is secretive, fearful and suspicious to the point of pettiness, as if someone was making an attempt on his life. He is extremely inquisitive, constantly buys books and spends 6 to 7 hours reading every day, and from everything he reads he makes extracts that he does not show to anyone. The prince visited the churches and monasteries of Krakow and attended debates at the university, taking an interest in everything, asking about everything and writing down what he learned upon returning home. Wilczek especially points out his passionate desire to see foreign countries and learn something, and believes that the prince will make great success in everything if those around him do not interfere with his good endeavors. Describing the prince’s lifestyle, Vilchek reports that Alexei Petrovich gets up at 4 a.m., prays and reads. At 7 o'clock Huyssen arrives, and then other close associates; at 9½ the prince sits down to dinner, and he ate a lot and drank very moderately, then he either reads or goes to inspect the churches. At 12, Colonel Engineer Kuap arrives, sent by Peter to teach Alexei fortification, mathematics, geometry and geography; These classes will take 2 hours. At 3 o'clock Huyssen comes again with his retinue and the time until 6 o'clock is devoted to conversations or walks; At 6 o'clock there is dinner, at 8 - the prince goes to bed. Speaking about the prince’s entourage, Vilchek notes the good education of Trubetskoy and Golovkin; Trubetskoy enjoys special influence on the Tsarevich, and not always in a favorable sense, since he began to draw the Tsarevich’s attention too early to his high position as the heir to such a great state. Huyssen, on the contrary, did not enjoy, according to Wilczek, special authority. Arriving in Warsaw in March, the prince exchanged a visit with the Polish king and went through Dresden to Carlsbad. On the way, he examined the mountain mines of Saxony, and in Dresden, the sights of the city and was present at the opening of the Saxon Landtag. Not far from Carlsbad, in the town of Schlakenwerte, the first meeting of the bride and groom took place, and the prince, it seems, made a pleasant impression on the princess. When Alexey found out about his upcoming marriage is unknown, but it seems that in this important event he generally played a rather passive role. Shafirov, in a letter to Gordon, reported that Peter decided to arrange this marriage only if the young people liked each other; In accordance with this, Count Fitztum reported from St. Petersburg that the tsar was giving his son a free choice; but this freedom was in reality only relative: “...and on that princess,” Alexey wrote to Ignatiev (as Solovyov suggests, at the beginning of 1711), “they had already matched me a long time ago, however It wasn’t entirely revealed to me from my father, and I saw her and this became known to the priest and he wrote to me now, how I liked her and whether it was my will to marry her, and I already know that he doesn’t want to marry me to a Russian, but to the one here, the one I want, and I wrote that when it is his will, that I should be married to a foreigner, and I will agree with his will, so that I can marry the above-mentioned princess, whom I have already seen, and it seemed to me that she is a kind person and it would be better for me not to find her here "Meanwhile, back in August 1710, the prince, having learned that the newspapers considered the issue of marriage resolved, became very angry, declaring that his father had given him a free choice. Returning from Schnackenwerth to Dresden, the prince began his interrupted studies. From correspondence between Princess Charlotte and her entourage, we learn that Alexey Petrovich led a secluded life, was very diligent and did everything he did very diligently. “He is now taking,” Princess Charlotte wrote to her mother, “dancing lessons from Boti, and his French teacher is the same one who gave lessons to me; he is also studying geography and, as they say, is very diligent." From another letter to Princess Charlotte it is clear that the prince was given French performances twice a week, which, despite his lack of knowledge of the language, gave him great pleasure. "The sovereign prince is found in good health,” Trubetskoy and Golovkin wrote to Menshikov (in December 1710) from Dresden, “and he is diligent in the sciences shown, in addition to those geometric parts about which we reported on December 7th, he also learned prophondimetry and stereometry, and so with God's help I completed all geometry." The classes did not interfere, however, with the prince and his close associates (Vyazemsky, Evarlakov, Ivan Afanasyev) "having fun spiritually and physically, not in German, but in Russian"; "we are “We drink in Moscow,” Alexey wrote to Ignatiev from Wolfenbüttel, “to wish you great blessings before.” At the end of September, the prince visited Princess Charlotte in Torgau; he seemed pleased, and in his behavior, as Princess Charlotte wrote, he changed for the better; Having returned to Dresden, he decided to propose to the princess. In January 1711, Peter's official consent was received; Several letters from the prince to the bride's relatives date back to this time; the letters - rather meaningless - were written in German, and, as Guerrier suggests, in someone else's hand; some of them were copied by the prince in crooked, incoherent letters on pencil-lined paper. In May, the prince went to Wolfenbüttel to meet the bride’s parents and, according to his father’s instructions, take part in drawing up the marriage contract. To clarify some points of this agreement, Privy Councilor Schleinitz was sent to Peter in June, who came to him in Yavorov. “I would not like,” Peter told him in a conversation, “to delay the happiness of my son, but I would not want to give up the pleasure myself: he is my only son, and I would like, at the end of the campaign, to be present at his wedding.” In response to Schleinitz's praise of the Tsarevich's excellent qualities, Peter said that these words were very pleasant to him, but that he considered such praise to be exaggerated, and when Schleinitz continued to insist, the Tsar spoke of something else. When asked what to tell Alexey, Peter answered: “Everything a father can tell his son.” According to his stories, Ekaterina Alekseevna was very kind to Schleinitz, and she was very happy about the Tsarevich’s marriage. In October 1711, the wedding of Alexei Petrovich was celebrated in Torgau, which was attended by Peter, who had just returned from the Prut campaign. On the fourth day after the wedding, the prince received his father's order to go to Thorn, where he was supposed to oversee the procurement of provisions for the Russian army, intended for the campaign in Pomerania. Having remained, with Peter's permission, for some time in Braunschweig, where the wedding festivities took place, Alexey went to Thorn on November 7, where he took up the assignment entrusted to him. In May of the following year he went to the theater of war, and Princess Charlotte, by order of Peter, moved to Elbing. The prince's relationship with his wife during this first period of their life together seems to have been quite good; Princess Charlotte was given great joy by rumors that reached her about a strong clash that supposedly took place because of her between Alexei Petrovich and Menshikov. This was also the attitude towards the daughter-in-law of Peter and Catherine, who were passing through Elbing. Peter told Catherine that his son did not deserve such a wife; He said much in the same way to Princess Charlotte, who wrote to her mother that all this would have pleased her if she had not seen from everything how little the father loved his son.

A whole series of business letters from the prince to his father date back to this time, about various activities to collect provisions and about the difficulties with which he had to struggle. In February 1713, Alexei, together with Catherine, went to St. Petersburg, then participated in Peter’s Finnish campaign, traveled on instructions to Moscow, and during the summer months he observed the cutting of timber for shipbuilding in the Novgorod province. On August 17, 1713, he returned to St. Petersburg.

This was the external course of events in the prince’s life before his return to St. Petersburg. From this time a new period begins. Soon after Alexei Petrovich arrived in St. Petersburg, the hostile relationship between him and his father ceased to be a secret; It is therefore necessary first of all to clarify the question of what these relations were like in the previous time. Alexey Petrovich himself spoke about this later, that while his father entrusted him with instructions and transferred control of the state, everything went well; but this statement can hardly be given much significance. The source for clarifying this issue is the correspondence of this prince with Moscow friends, relations with whom were not interrupted either by his travel abroad or by marriage. More than 40 letters from the prince to Ignatiev have been preserved, written from everywhere he visited during this time. This correspondence partly explains the nature of the relationship between father and son. The mysterious, incomprehensible hints with which all of Alexei’s letters are filled, the secrecy with which he surrounded his relations with friends, undoubtedly indicate that in reality the relationship between father and son was only good in appearance. The secrecy reached the point that the friends used the “digital alphabet,” and the prince, in addition, asked Ignatiev: “what is more secret, send through Popp or Stroganov.” Alexei’s only feeling for his father was, it seems, an insurmountable fear: while still in Russia, he was afraid of everything, he was afraid even to write to his father “idly,” and when the tsar once reprimanded him, accusing him of laziness, Alexei did not limit himself to tearful assurances that he slandered, but begged for Catherine’s intercession, then thanking her for the mercy shown and asking her “to continue not to be abandoned in any incidents that happen”; The Tsarevich’s letters not only to Peter, but also to Menshikov are imbued with fear and servility. Long before leaving abroad, soon after the tsar expressed anger to his son in Zholkva for visiting his mother, the tsarevich’s friends considered themselves entitled to save themselves for him, they even feared for his life, as Pogodin suggests. Reporting that he received a letter from his father with an order to go to Minsk, the prince adds: “My friends are writing to me from there, telling me to go without any fear". The mystery of many of the letters gave rise to assumptions that already at this time the prince’s friends were expecting some kind of change in circumstances in his favor and were plotting something against Peter; As particularly mysterious in this sense, they pointed to one undated letter from Narva, which Solovyov, without any particular reason, as it seems, dates back to the time of the prince’s flight abroad; In this letter, the prince asks that they no longer write to him, but that Ignatiev pray that something " It happened quickly, but I hope it won’t delay.” In other letters there were indications that the prince, already when he was in Warsaw, was thinking not to return to Russia; This assumption was caused by some orders made by the prince from Warsaw to his Moscow friends, such as. about the sale of things (with the invariable addition “in a prosperous time”, when the “highest ones” will not be in Moscow), about the release of people, etc. The Tsarevich’s trip abroad, without stopping his relations with Moscow friends, made them so in an even more mysterious way. Wanting to have a confessor, the prince did not dare to ask for it openly, and had to turn to Ignatiev with a request to get a priest in Moscow, who was instructed to come secretly, “putting on the priestly signs,” that is, changing clothes and shaving off his beard and mustache: “about shaving beard, the prince writes, he would not have doubted: it is better to overstep a little than to destroy our souls without repentance"; he had to “suffer the high horse ride” and “be called an orderly, but except for me,” adds the prince, “and Nikifor (Vyazemsky) no one will know this secret. And in Moscow, as much as possible, keep this secret.” The prince was especially afraid that his father would not suspect his relations with Queen Evdokia through his Moscow friends. Several letters have been preserved in which Alexey begged Ignatiev not to go “to the fatherland, to Vladimir,” to avoid communicating with the Lopukhins, “since you yourself know about this, that this is not good for us and you, and especially harmful, for this reason it is necessary to preserve this very much.” ". The fear that his father instilled in him is well characterized by the stories of the prince himself about how, upon his arrival in St. Petersburg, he was asked by Peter if he had forgotten what he had studied, and fearing that his father would force him to draw in front of him, he attempted to shoot himself in the hand . This fear reached the point that Alexei, as was later related, confessed to his confessor that he wished his father to die, to which he received in response: “God will forgive you. We all wish him death because there are many burdens among the people.” With this last testimony, which, like many others, was obtained through interrogation, partly, perhaps, through torture, and could arouse some doubt, it is necessary to compare the statements of the tsar himself, who in 1715 said that he not only scolded son, but “even beat him and for how many years, almost, did not speak to him.” Thus, there is no doubt that long before the prince’s arrival in St. Petersburg, his relationship with his father was not good; They did not change for the better upon their return.

Deprived of the company of Ignatiev, from whom he still occasionally received letters and who sometimes visited St. Petersburg, the prince became close to another, no less energetic person, Alexander Kikin (his brother was previously the treasurer of the prince). Having previously been close to Peter, Alexander Kikin fell into disgrace and became his worst enemy. Vyazemsky and the Naryshkins remained with the prince; Aunt Marya Alekseevna also influenced him. According to Player's story, the prince, on whom German morals had no effect, drank and spent all his time in bad company (Peter later accused him of debauchery). When Alexei Petrovich had to attend ceremonial dinners with the Tsar or Prince Menshikov, he said: “It would be better for me to be in hard labor or lying in a fever than to go there.” The prince's relationship with his wife, who did not have the slightest influence on him, very soon became very bad. Princess Charlotte had to endure the most rude scenes, including the proposal to go abroad. While drunk, the Tsarevich complained about Trubetskoy and Golovkin that they had forced a devil wife on him and threatened to impale them afterwards; under the influence of wine, he allowed himself more dangerous frankness. “People close to father,” said the prince, “will sit on stakes. Petersburg will not be behind us for long.” When they warned Alexei Petrovich and said that they would stop coming to him with such speeches, he replied: “I don’t give a damn about everyone, if only the mob would be healthy for me.” Obviously remembering Yavorsky’s speech and feeling dissatisfied with him, mainly among the clergy, the prince said: “When I have time without my father, then I will whisper to the bishops, the bishops to the parish priests, and the priests to the townspeople, then they will reluctantly make me ruler.” . And among the noblest dignitaries close to Peter, the prince, as he himself said, saw sympathy for himself: these were representatives of the prince’s families. Dolgorukovs and Golitsyns, dissatisfied with the rise of Menshikov. “Perhaps, don’t come to me,” said Prince Yakov Dolgorukov, “others who come to me are watching me.” “You are smarter than your father,” said Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, although your father is smart, he just doesn’t know people, and you will know smart people better” (i.e., you will eliminate Menshikov and elevate the Dolgorukovs). The Tsarevich considered both Prince Dimitry Golitsyn and Boris Sheremetev, who advised him to keep with Peter “a little one so that he would know those at his father’s court,” and Boris Kurakin, who asked him back in Pomerania whether his stepmother was kind to him, his friends.

In 1714, Alexei Petrovich, whose doctors suspected developing consumption as a consequence of a wild life, took, with Peter’s permission, a trip to Carlsbad, where he stayed for about six months, until December.

Between the extracts from Baronius, made by the prince in Carlsbad, some are quite curious, and indicate how busy Alexey Petrovich was with his hidden struggle with his father: “It is not the Caesar’s business to suppress a free tongue; "To call everyone who, even in the slightest sign, is separated from Orthodoxy. Valentine the Caesar was killed for damaging church statutes and adultery. Maxim the Caesar was killed because he trusted himself to his wife. Chilperic, the French king, was killed to take away his estate from the church." Already before this trip, the prince, partly under the influence of Kikin, was seriously thinking about not returning to Russia. Having failed to carry out his plan, he even then expressed fear that he would be forced to cut his hair. At this time, the prince was already in connection with the “Chukhonka” Afrosinya. In the absence of her husband, Princess Charlotte, to whom Alexei never wrote, gave birth to a daughter; the latter circumstance greatly delighted Catherine, who hated her daughter-in-law for fear that she would give birth to a son, to whom her own son should be a subject. Princess Charlotte was very offended that Peter took some precautions by ordering Golovina, Bruce and Rzhevskaya to be present at the birth. To characterize how at that time society looked at the tsar’s relationship with his son, a curious akathist to Alexei the man of God, published by Tepchegorsky in the same 1714, in which the prince is depicted kneeling before Peter and laying a crown, orb, and sword at his feet and keys.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, the prince continued to lead his previous lifestyle and, according to the story of Princess Charlotte, almost every night he got drunk to the point of insensibility. Catherine and Charlotte were pregnant at the same time. On October 12, 1715, Charlotte gave birth to a son, Peter, and died on the night of the 22nd; On October 28, Catherine gave birth to a son. The day before, on the 27th, Peter gave his son a letter signed on October 11th. Reproaching him mainly for negligence in military affairs, Peter said that Alexei could not excuse himself with mental and physical weakness, since God had not deprived him of his reason, and demanded from the prince not work, but only a desire for military affairs, “which the disease cannot wean off." “You,” said Peter, “if only you could live at home or have fun.” Neither the scolding, nor the beatings, nor the fact that he had not spoken to his son for “how many years” had any effect, according to Peter. The letter ended with a threat to deprive his son of his inheritance if he did not reform. “And don’t imagine that you are my only son... It’s better to be a good stranger than your own indecent one.” The fact that Peter gave the letter, signed on the 11th, i.e. even before the birth of his grandson, only on the 27th, gave rise to various assumptions. Why did the letter lie there for 16 days and was it really written before the birth of the grandson? Both Pogodin and Kostomarov accuse Peter of forgery. When Alexey's son was born, th O , according to Player, caused Catherine great annoyance, Peter decided to carry out his intention to deprive his son of his inheritance. Only, observing the “anstatt”, he signed the letter retroactively; had he acted differently, it would have immediately seemed that he was angry with his son for giving birth to an heir. On the other hand, it was necessary to hurry, since if Catherine had a son, the whole thing would look like Peter was striking Alexei only because he himself had a son from his beloved wife, and then he could not say: “It would be better if someone else’s kindness than one’s own indecent one.” “If Peter,” says Kostomarov, “had no intention of depriving his grandson of the throne, why would he give his son such a letter, which was supposedly written before the birth of his grandson.” Soloviev explains the matter more simply. Peter, as you know, was very ill during the birth of Princess Charlotte and her illness, and therefore could not give the letters. If, says Solovyov, there was no such reason, then it is quite natural that Peter postponed such a difficult, decisive step. Having received the letter, the prince was very sad and turned to his friends for advice. “You will have peace as soon as you get away from everything,” Kikin advised, “I know that you cannot bear it due to your weakness, but it was in vain that you did not leave, and there is nowhere to take it.” “God is willing, yes the crown,” says Vyazemsky, “if only there is peace.” After this, the prince asked Apraksin and Dolgorukov to persuade Peter to deprive him of his inheritance and let him go. Both promised, and Dolgorukov added: “Give me at least a thousand letters, when that happens... this is not a record with a penalty, as we previously gave among ourselves.” Three days later, Alexey sent his father a letter in which he asked to deprive him of his inheritance. “As soon as I see myself,” he wrote, “I am inconvenient and inappropriate for this matter, I am also very devoid of memory (without which nothing can be done) and with all my mental and physical strength (from various illnesses) I have become weak and indecent for the rule of so many people, where I require a person who is not as rotten as I. For the sake of the legacy (God grant you many years of health!) Russian after you (even if I didn’t have a brother, but now thank God I have a brother, to whom God bless him) I don’t pretend to be in the future I won’t apply.” Thus, Alexey refuses for unknown reasons and for his son. Dolgorukov told Alexei that Peter seemed pleased with his letter and would deprive him of his inheritance, but added: “I took you off the chopping block from your father. Now you rejoice, nothing will happen to you.” Peter, meanwhile, fell dangerously ill and only on January 18, 1716, a response to Alexei’s letter came. Peter expresses displeasure that the prince allegedly does not respond to reproaches for his reluctance to do anything and excuses himself only by his inability, “also, that I have been dissatisfied with you for several years, everything is neglected here and not mentioned; for this reason I argue that It’s not a matter of looking at your father’s forgiveness.” Peter no longer finds it possible to believe in renouncing his heritage. “In the same way,” he writes, “even if you truly wanted to keep (that is, an oath), then you can be persuaded and forced by large beards, which, for the sake of their parasitism, are now not found in avantage, to which you are now strongly inclined” and before." For this reason, it is impossible to remain as you want to be, neither fish nor meat, but either abolish your character and unhypocritically honor yourself as an heir, or become a monk: for without this my spirit cannot be calm, and especially since I am in little health now became. To which, upon receiving this, give an answer immediately. And if you do not do this, then I will deal with you as with a villain." Friends advised the prince to cut his hair, because the hood, as Kikin said, “is not nailed to the head”; Vyazemsky, in addition, advised letting his spiritual father know that he was going to the monastery under duress “for no guilt,” which was in fact done. On January 20, Alexei answered his father that “due to illness he cannot write much and wants to become a monk.” Not satisfied with the first answer, Peter was not satisfied with this either. Renunciation was not enough for him, for he felt his son’s insincerity; just like Kikin, he understood that the hood was not nailed down, but he did not know what to decide, and demanded the impossible from the prince - to change his character. This indecisiveness of Peter also explains the inconsistency in his course of action - changing the demand every time, after his son agrees to everything. Both sides delayed the final decision. Leaving abroad at the end of January, Peter visited his son and said: “This is not easy for a young man, come to your senses, don’t rush. Wait six months.” “And I put it aside,” the prince said later.

The Danish ambassador Westphalen says that Catherine, intending to follow Peter abroad, was afraid to leave Alexei in Russia, who, in the event of Peter’s death, would take over the throne to the detriment of her and her children: therefore, she insisted that the king resolve the prince’s matter before leaving Petersburg ; he did not have time to do this, forced to leave earlier.

Remaining in St. Petersburg, the prince was embarrassed by various rumors. Kikin told him that Prince. You. Dolgorukov allegedly advised Peter to carry him everywhere with him so that he would die from such red tape. Various revelations were conveyed to the Tsarevich by his friends: that Peter would not live long, that Petersburg would collapse, that Catherine would live only 5 years, and her son only 7, etc. The thought of escape was not abandoned. Kikin, leaving abroad with Tsarevna Marya Alekseevna, said to the prince: “I’ll find you some place.” During the 6 months given to him for reflection, Alexey wrote to his father, and Peter reproachfully noticed that his letters were filled only with comments about his health. At the end of September, he received a letter from Peter, in which the Tsar demanded a final decision, “so that I have peace in my conscience, what can I expect from you.” “If you get the first thing (that is, you decide to get down to business), wrote Peter, then don’t hesitate for more than a week, because you can still be in time for the action. If you get the other thing (that is, you go to the monastery), then write it down where and in what time and day. Which we again confirm, so that this is done of course, for I see that you are only spending time in your usual barrenness.” Having received the letter, the prince decided to carry out the escape plan, which he informed his valet Ivan Afanasyev Bolshoi and another of his household, Fyodor Dubrovsky, to whom, at his request, he gave 500 rubles to send his mother to Suzdal. On the advice of Menshikov, he took Afrosinya with him. This was treacherous advice, Pogodin and Kostomarov believe: Menshikov should have known how such an act would harm Alexei in the eyes of his father. Before leaving, the prince went to the Senate to say goodbye to the senators and at the same time said in the ear of Prince Yakov Dolgorukov: “Perhaps, don’t leave me” - “I’m always glad,” Dolgorukov answered, “just don’t say any more: others are looking at us.” Having left St. Petersburg on September 26, the prince near Libau met with Princess Marya Alekseevna, who was returning from abroad, with whom he had an interesting conversation. Having informed his aunt that he was going to his father, Alexey Petrovich added with tears: “I don’t know myself from grief; I would be glad to have somewhere to hide.” His aunt told him about the revelation that Peter would take Evdokia back and that “Petersburg will not stand behind us; it will be empty”; She also reported that Bishop Dmitry and Ephraim, and Ryazansky and Prince Romodanovsky were inclined towards him, being dissatisfied with the proclamation of Catherine as queen. In Libau, Alexey met with Kikin, who told him that he had found refuge for him in Vienna; the Russian resident in this city, Veselovsky, who admitted to Kikin his intention not to return to Russia, received assurance from the emperor that he would accept Alexei as a son. In Libau, it was decided to take some precautions, which were mainly aimed at transferring to other persons (Menshikov, Dolgorukov) the suspicion that they knew about the flight of the prince and contributed to it. When several weeks passed and the prince was nowhere to be heard, a search began. Those close to the prince who remained in Russia were horrified; Ignatiev wrote to Alexei in St. Petersburg, begging him to tell him something about himself; Catherine was also worried in her letters to Peter. Foreigners living in Russia were also excited. Particularly interesting is the letter from Player, who reported various rumors, such as, for example, that the guards and other regiments had made a reservation to kill the tsar, and to imprison the queen and her children in the very monastery where the former queen sat, to release the latter and give the reign to Alexei, as the real heir. “Everything here is ready for outrage,” wrote Player. Peter soon realized where Alexei had disappeared, gave the order to General Weide to look for him and summoned Veselovsky to Amsterdam, to whom he gave the same order and a handwritten letter to hand over to the emperor. Veselovsky traced the path of the prince, who was traveling under the name of the Russian officer Kokhansky, to Vienna; here Kokhansky’s trace was lost and instead of him the Polish gentleman Kremepirsky appeared, asking how to get to Rome. Captain Alexander Rumyantsev, sent by Veselovsky to the Tyrol Guard, who was sent by Peter for the search, reported that Alexey was in Ehrenberg Castle.

Meanwhile, back in November, the prince appeared in Vienna to Vice-Chancellor Schönborn and asked for protection from the emperor. In terrible excitement, he complained to his father, that they wanted to deprive him and his children of their inheritance, that Menshikov deliberately raised him this way, drugging him and ruining his health; Menshikov and the queen, said the prince, constantly irritated his father against him, “they certainly want my death or tonsure.” The prince admitted that he had no desire to become a soldier, but noticed that, nevertheless, everything went well when his father entrusted him with control until the queen gave birth to a son. Then the prince said that he had enough intelligence to govern and that he did not want to cut his hair. This would mean destroying soul and body. to go to your father means to go to torment. The council assembled by the emperor decided to give the prince asylum, and on November 12, Alexei Petrovich was transported to the town of Weyerburg, closest to Vienna, where he stayed until December 7. Here the prince repeated to the imperial minister sent to him what he had told in Vienna and assured that he had not plotted anything against his father, although the Russians loved him, the prince, and hated Peter because he had abolished ancient customs. Begging the Tsar in the name of his children, the Tsarevich began to cry. On December 7, Alexey Petrovich was transported to the Tyrol castle of Ehrenberg, where he was supposed to hide under the guise of a state criminal. The prince was kept fairly well and complained only about the absence of a Greek priest. He corresponded with Vice-Chancellor Count Schönborn, who provided him with new information and, by the way, reported the above-mentioned letter from Player. Meanwhile, Veselovsky, having learned, thanks to Rumyantsev, about the whereabouts of the prince, handed over to the emperor, in early April, a letter from Peter, in which he asked, if the prince was secretly or openly in the Austrian regions, to send him to his father “for fatherly correction.” The emperor replied that he knew nothing, promised to investigate the matter and write to the king, and he immediately turned to the English king with a request whether he would like to take part in the defense of the prince, and the “clear and constant tyranny of his father” was exposed. The emperor wrote a very evasive answer to Peter, which insulted him, in which, completely silent about Alexei’s stay within Austrian borders, he promised him that he would try to prevent Alexei from falling into enemy hands, but was “instructed to preserve his father’s mercy and follow his father’s paths in the right of one's birth." Secretary Keil, sent to Ehrenberg, showed Alexei both Peter’s letter to the emperor and the letter to the English king, informing him that his refuge was open and that it was necessary, if he did not want to return to his father, to go further away, namely to Naples. After reading his father’s letter, the prince was horrified: he ran around the room, waved his arms, cried, sobbed, talked to himself, and finally fell to his knees and, shedding tears, begged not to give him away. The next day, with Keil and one minister, he went to Naples, where he arrived on May 6th. From here the prince wrote letters of gratitude to the emperor and Schönborn and gave Keil three letters to his friends, the bishops of Rostov and Krutitsky and to the senators. In these letters, of which two have survived, Alexey Petrovich reported that he had fled from anger, since they wanted to forcefully tonsure him, and that he was under the patronage of a certain high person until the time “when the Lord, who has preserved me, commands me to return to the fatherland again, under which In any case, please don’t leave me forgotten.” Although these letters did not reach their destination, they served as one of the main reasons for Peter, who learned about them, to treat his son especially strictly. Meanwhile, the last refuge of the prince was discovered by Rumyantsev. In July, Peter Tolstoy appeared in Vienna, who, together with Rumyantsev, was supposed to achieve the return of the prince to Russia. They were supposed to express Peter's displeasure at the emperor's evasive answer and his interference in the family feud. In the instructions, Peter promised Alexei a pardon, ordered Tolstoy to assure the emperor that he did not force Alexei to go to him in Copenhagen, and to insist on the extradition of Alexei, or at least on a meeting with him, “announcing what they have from us to him and to in writing, and in words, such proposals as they expect will be pleasant to him.” They had to show the Tsarevich all the madness of his act and explain to him that “he did it in vain without any reason, for he did not need any bitterness or bondage from us, but we trusted everything to his will... and We will parentally forgive him this act and accept him back into our mercy and promise to support him as a father in all freedom and mercy and contentment without any anger or coercion.” In a letter to his son, Peter repeated the same promises even more persistently and reassured him by God and the court that there would be no punishment for him. In case of refusal to return, Tolstoy had to threaten with terrible punishments. The conference convened by the emperor decided that it was necessary to admit Tolstoy to the prince and try to drag out the matter until it became clear how the king’s last campaign would end; in addition, we must hurry to conclude an alliance with the English king. But it is, in any case, impossible to hand over the prince against his will. Viceroy Daun in Naples was given instructions to persuade the prince to see Tolstoy, but at the same time to assure him of the emperor's intercession. The Tsarevich's mother-in-law, the Duchess of Wolfenbüttel, who was in Vienna, also wrote to him after Tolstoy authorized her to promise the Tsarevich permission to live anywhere. “I know the prince’s nature,” said the duchess, “his father works in vain and forces him to do great things: he would rather have a rosary in his hands than pistols.” At the very end of September, the ambassadors arrived in Naples and had a meeting with Alexei. The Tsarevich, having read his father’s letter, trembled with fear, fearing that he would be killed, and he was especially afraid of Rumyantsev. Two days later, on the second date, he refused to go. “My affairs,” Tolstoy wrote to Veselovsky, “are in great difficulty: if our child of the protection under which he lives does not despair, he will never think of going.” In order to overcome the “frozen stubbornness of our beast,” as Tolstoy called the prince, he took the following measures: he bribed Down’s secretary, Weingardt, who convinced Alexei that the Tsar would not defend him with weapons, persuaded Down to threaten him by taking Afrosinya away from him, and informed him that Peter himself was going to Italy. Having thus received “nasty information” from three sides and frightened mainly by the news of Peter’s arrival, the prince decided to go after Tolstoy promised to obtain permission for him to marry and live in the village. According to Westphalen's story, Tolstoy, as soon as he took on Peter's instructions, decided to get closer to Afrosyne and promised to marry his son to her; she allegedly influenced the prince. Informing Shafirov about the unexpectedly successful outcome of his mission, Tolstoy advised agreeing to Alexei’s request, because then everyone would see “that he didn’t leave because of any insult, just for that girl,” by this he would upset the Tsar, and “reject the danger of his decent marriage to a good quality, otherwise it’s still unsafe here...", in addition, "even in his own state it will show what his condition is." Before leaving Naples, the prince went to Bari to venerate the relics of St. Nicholas, and in Rome he visited the sights of the city and the Vatican. He slowed down his journey, wanting at all costs to get permission to marry Afrosinya abroad. Fearing that Alexei might change his intentions, Tolstoy and Rumyantsev arranged it so that the prince did not appear in Vienna to the emperor, although he expressed a desire to thank him. The Emperor, assuming that Alexei was being taken away by force, ordered the Moravian governor, Count Coloredo, to detain the travelers in Brunn and see, if possible, alone with the prince, but Tolstoy finally opposed this. On December 23, the Tsarevich, in the presence of Tolstoy and Rumyantsev, announced to Coloredo that he did not appear before the emperor only because of “traffic circumstances.” At this time, as Kostomarov suggests, the prince received a letter from Peter dated November 17, in which the king confirmed his forgiveness with the words: “in which be very reliable.” On November 22, Peter wrote to Tolstoy that he allowed Alexei’s marriage, but only within Russia, because “getting married in foreign lands would bring more shame,” he asked to reassure Alexei “firmly with my word” and confirm his permission to live in his villages. Absolutely confident after all these promises in the happy outcome of the matter, the prince wrote letters full of love and caring to Afrosinya, who, due to pregnancy, was traveling more slowly, by a different route - through Nuremberg, Augsburg and Berlin. Already from Russia, just before arriving in Moscow, he wrote to her: “Everything is fine, I hope they will fire me from everything, that we will live with you, God willing, in the village and we will not care about anything.” Afrosinya reported in the most detail about her path; From Novgorod, the prince gave orders that a priest and two women be sent to her for help in case of childbirth. The player says that the people expressed their love to the prince during his passage. If previously many rejoiced when they learned that the prince had escaped from the Tsar, now everyone was filled with horror. There was little faith in Peter's forgiveness. “Have you heard,” said Vasily Dolgorukov, “that the fool prince is coming here, because his father allowed him to marry Afrosinya? I wish him no marriage! Damn him, everyone is deceiving him on purpose.” Kikin and Afanasyev discussed how to warn the prince so that he would not go to Moscow. Ivan Naryshkin said: “Judas Peter Tolstoy deceived the prince, lured him out.” On January 31, the prince arrived in Moscow, and on February 3, he was brought to Peter, who was surrounded by dignitaries; Having fallen at his father’s feet, the son admitted that he was guilty of everything and, bursting into tears, asked for mercy. The father confirmed his promise to pardon, but set two conditions that were not mentioned in the letters: if he renounces the inheritance and reveals all the people who advised flight. On the same day, a solemn abdication followed and the publication of the previously prepared manifesto on depriving the prince of the throne followed. Tsarevich Peter Petrovich was declared the heir: “for we have no other heir.” The next day, February 4th, the process began. Alexey Petrovich had to fulfill the second condition and open up like-minded people. Peter offered Alexei “points” in which he demanded to reveal to him who the advisers were in the decision to go to the monastery, in terms of escape, and who forced him to write letters to Russia from Naples. “And if you hide something,” Peter ended with the same threat, and then it will obviously happen, don’t blame me: it was also announced yesterday in front of all the people that for this, sorry, no problem.” The Tsarevich confessed on February 8th in his conversations with Kikin, Vyazemsky, Apraksin and Dolgorukov; discovered that he wrote letters to the Senate and to the bishops under the compulsion of Secretary Keil, who said: “there are some reports that you died, others say that you were caught and exiled to Siberia; for this reason, write.” Immediately after this testimony, Kikin and Afanasyev were captured in St. Petersburg, tortured there and brought to Moscow; Here they confessed under terrible torture. Senator Prince Vasily Dolgorukov was arrested and sent to Moscow; Everyone involved in the case was also brought there. With each torture, the circle of those arrested expanded; Thus, the priest Liberius, who was with the prince back in Thorn and Karlsbad, was tortured because he wanted to get to him in Ehrenberg. Before Peter returned to St. Petersburg, travel from this city to Moscow was prohibited; the western border was locked to prevent the escape of anyone involved in the matter; however, news appeared in one of the Dutch newspapers about the arrival in Breslavl of one escaped servant, Alexei, who was mistaken for himself. Queen Evdokia and her entourage were immediately involved in the prince’s case; with each new torture, the hatred that was felt towards him among the clergy and among the people was revealed to Peter. Glebov and Dosifey were executed; the latter, admitting that he wanted the death of Peter and the accession of Alexei Petrovich, said: “Look, what’s in everyone’s hearts? Please let your ears go to the people, that O people say." At his execution, according to Weber, Alexey was supposed to be present in the closed carriage. Kolesov was the clerk Dokukin, who refused to swear allegiance to Peter Petrovich, blasphemed Peter and Catherine. Weber wrote that the tsar could not trust even his closest confidants, that a conspiracy was discovered in which almost half of Russia was involved, and which consisted in the fact that they wanted to elevate the prince to the throne, make peace with Sweden, and return all acquisitions to her. These stories about conspiracies are found among all modern foreigners; they show what excitement the society was in, and make it possible to understand the moral state of Peter at this time. The prince, who betrayed everyone, considered himself completely safe. “Father,” he wrote to Afrosinya, “he took me to eat with him and is treating me mercifully!” God grant that this will continue in the future too, and that I may wait for you in joy. Thank God that we were excommunicated from the inheritance, so that we can remain in peace with you. God grant that we live happily with you in the village, since you and I wanted nothing more than to live in Rozhdestvennoe; you yourself know that I don’t want anything, just to live with you in peace until death.” But the prince was cruelly mistaken: Peter far from considered the matter over, trying hard to get Alexei’s letters to the senators from Vienna and find out whether they were really written according to at Keil's instigation. On March 18, taking Alexei with him, the Tsar returned to St. Petersburg. In mid-April, Afrosinya arrived, but there was no talk of Peter fulfilling his promise regarding marriage: Afrosinya was imprisoned in a fortress. Weber's reports date back to this time that The prince did not go out anywhere and at times, as they said, he lost his mind.According to Player's story, the prince on the Holy Day, during the usual congratulations of the queen, fell at her feet and did not get up for a long time, begging her to ask her father for permission to marry.

In mid-May, Peter went with his son to Peterhof, where Afrosinya was brought and interrogated. From the report of the Dutch resident De Bie it is clear that Afrosinya’s testimony was significant in the sense that if Peter himself (i.e. Alexei) still “respected him (that is, Alexei) more for the one who carried out, as De Bie puts it, than for the conductor and head of that plan , then now, after Afrosinya’s testimony, he could come to a different conclusion. Afrosinya testified that the Tsarevich wrote letters to the bishops without coercion, “so that they would be swept up,” that he often wrote complaints to the Tsar about the sovereign, told her that there was a riot in the Russian army, and there was an uprising near Moscow, as he learned from newspapers and letters. Hearing about the unrest, he rejoiced, and when he learned about the illness of his younger brother, he said: “You see what God is doing: the priest is doing his own, and God is doing his.” According to Afrosinya, the prince He left because the sovereign sought in every possible way so that he would not live, and added that “although the priest does what he wants, only as the senates want; I bet the senates won’t do what the priest wants.” “When I become a sovereign,” said Alexei Petrovich, “I will transfer all the old ones and choose new ones for myself, of my own free will I will live in Moscow, and I will leave Petersburg as a simple city; I will not keep ships; I will keep the army only for defense, but I don’t want to have a war with anyone, I will be content with the old possession, I will live in Moscow for the winter and Yaroslavl for the summer.” Further, according to Afrosinya, the prince expressed the hope that his father would die, or there would be a riot In a confrontation with Afrosinya, the prince tried to deny it, but then he began to talk not only about his actions, but also about all the conversations he had ever had, about all his thoughts, and told things that he was not even asked about He slandered Yakov Dolgorukov, Boris Sheremetev, Dmitry Golitsyn, Kurakin, Golovkin, Streshnev, calling them friends who, as he thought, were ready, if necessary, to take his side. He spoke about the hopes with which he was filled before fleeing: that after death father (who was expected soon), senators and ministers will recognize him, if not as a sovereign, then at least as a ruler; that General Bour, who stood in Poland, Archimandrite Pechora, whom all of Ukraine believes, and the Bishop of Kiev will help him. “And so everything from Europe “My border would be,” added the prince. To the strange question whether he would have joined the rebels during his father’s life, the prince replied: “Even if they sent me (that is, the rebels) while I was alive, if they were strong, then I could go.” On June 13, Peter gave two announcements: to the clergy, in which, saying that he could not “heal his own illness,” he called on him to give him instruction from the Holy Scriptures, and to the Senate, asking him to consider the case and make a decision, “not fearing that if this matter is worthy of a light punishment, then I would be disgusted." On June 14, Alexey was transported to the Peter and Paul Fortress and placed in Trubetskoy. The clergy answered on June 18 to Peter that it was a matter for the civil court to resolve the issue of the prince’s guilt, but that it was the will of the king to punish and have mercy, and cited examples from the Bible and the Gospel for both. But already on June 17, the prince spoke before the Senate about all his hopes for the people. These testimonies led to interrogations of Dubrovsky, Vyazemsky, Lopukhin and others, in the presence of the prince. In the interrogations that followed (partly under torture), the prince explained the reasons for his disobedience by his upbringing and the influence of those around him and made a confession, which was not required of him, that he, without sparing anything, “would have accessed the inheritance even with an armed hand and with the help of the emperor.” . On June 24, the torture was repeated, it seems, after the death sentence was signed by members of the Supreme Court (127 people). The verdict included, among other things, the idea that the promise of forgiveness given to the prince was not valid, since “the prince concealed his rebellious intent against his father and his sovereign, and the intentional search from long ago, and the search for the throne of his father and under his belly , through various insidious inventions and pretenses, and hope for the mob and the desire of his father and sovereign for his speedy death." The next day the prince was asked for what purpose he made extracts from Baronius; On June 26, at 8 o’clock in the morning, as recorded in the garrison book, they arrived at the garrison: “His Majesty, Menshikov and other dignitaries and a dungeon was committed, and then, having been in the garrison until 11 o’clock, they left. On the same date, At noon at 6 o'clock, while on guard, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich died."

If this news of torture on the 26th refers to Alexei, then it is natural to assume that his death was a consequence of torture. There are a number of stories about this immediate cause of the prince’s death. So, they said that the prince was beheaded (Player), that he died from the dissolution of his veins (De Bie), they also talked about poison; in the famous letter from Rumyantsev to Titov, which aroused many disputes regarding its authenticity, it is described in the most detailed way how the author of the letter with three other persons, on the instructions of Peter, suffocated Alexei with pillows. The Saxon resident said that on June 26, the king began to beat his son with a whip three times, who died during the torture. There were stories among the people that the father executed his son with his own hands. Even at the end of the 18th century, stories appeared that Adam Weide cut off the prince’s head and Anna Kramer sewed it to his body. All these rumors that spread among the people led to a whole series of searches (such, for example, as the Korolka case); Player and De Bie also paid for the messages they sent abroad and for their conversations. In the rescript that followed, Peter wrote that after pronouncing the sentence, he hesitated “like a father, between a natural feat of mercy and due care for the integrity and future security of our state.” A month after the death of Alexei, the Tsar wrote to Catherine: “What she ordered with Makarov, that the deceased discovered something - when God deigns to see you (“that is, we’ll talk about it when we see you,” Solovyov complements this phrase) I heard such a wonder here about him, which is almost worse than everything that has clearly appeared.” Was it not about Alexei’s relations with Sweden, as Solovyov suggests, that Peter heard; There is news that the prince turned to Hertz for help. Immediately after the death of the Tsarevich, Peter issued an “Announcement of the search and trial, by decree of His Tsar's Majesty, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich was sent to St. Petersburg.” This announcement was translated into French, German, English and Dutch. In addition, several brochures were published abroad, which proved the justice of the actions against Alexei Petrovich. Soon after the death of the prince, impostors appeared: the beggar Alexei Rodionov (in the Vologda province, in 1723), Alexander Semikov (in the city of Pochep, at the end of the reign of Peter and the beginning of the reign of Catherine), the beggar Tikhon Truzhenik (among the Don Cossacks, in 1732 .). A certain Minitsky turned out to be especially dangerous, who in 1738 gathered quite a lot of followers around him near Kyiv and in whom the people believed.

The tragic fate of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich gave rise to a number of attempts to one way or another explain the sad outcome of his clash with his father, and many of these attempts suffer from the desire to find one specific reason for the explanation - Peter’s dislike for his son and the cruelty of his character, the complete inability of his son, his commitment to Moscow antiquity, the influence of Catherine and Menshikov, etc. The researcher of this episode first of all turns, of course, to the personality of the prince himself, reviews of whom are quite contradictory. Reviews about the prince’s character and spiritual qualities are no less contradictory. Some noted, as characteristic, features of gross cruelty in the character of the prince, and it was pointed out that in fits of anger the prince tore the beard of his beloved confessor and mutilated his other associates, so that they “cry out in blood”; Nikifor Vyazemsky also complained about Alexei’s cruel treatment. Others, in his treatment of friends, in the participation that he constantly took in their fate, saw a kind heart, and pointed, among other things, to his love for his old nurse, expressed in correspondence that lasted for years. Neither one nor the other traits in the character of Alexei Petrovich give, however, the right to any precise conclusion. What seems certain is that the prince was not, as they liked to imagine him at one time, either an unconditional opponent of education, or a person devoid of all intellectual interests. As proof of the first, his letter to Ignatiev is usually cited, in which he orders him to “take and send Peter Ivlya to school to study, so that he does not waste his days in vain,” orders him to teach him Latin and German, “and, if possible, French.” ". The same is evidenced by Vilczek’s story about the pleasure with which the prince traveled abroad. That the prince was not completely devoid of intellectual interests is evident from his love for books, which he constantly collected. In his letters from Germany, he took care that the books he had collected while he was in Moscow would not be lost; on his way abroad in Krakow, he, as is known from Wilczek’s report, bought books, in the same way during his second trip in 1714 to Carlsbad; books were sent to him, at his request and “on his own behalf,” by Prince Dmitry Golitsyn from Kyiv, as well as by the abbot of the Kyiv Golden-Domed Monastery Ioannikiy Stepanovich. But the composition and nature of the books acquired by Alexei Petrovich shows the one-sided direction of his sympathies, which, of course, could not meet with sympathy from Peter. Thanks to the receipt and expenditure book that the prince kept during his travels in 1714, the names of the books he acquired are known: most of them contain theological content, although, however, there are several historical and literary works. The library of the prince in the village of Rozhdestvenskoye was compiled exclusively from theological books, which was described in 1718 during the search. Foreigners also pointed out the prince's passion for theological books. Thus, Weber reports that the prince’s reference book was Ketzerhistorie Arnold. The prince’s interest in everything theological is even better characterized by the extracts that he made from Baronius in Carlsbad: all of them concerned exclusively rituals, issues of church discipline, church history, controversial points between the Eastern and Western churches; the prince paid special attention to everything related to the relationship of the church to the state, and was very interested in miracles: “cities in Syria, the prince writes, were transported six miles by the shaking of the earth with people and a fence: it will be true - a miracle in truth.” remark that “such notes, which would have done honor to Tsarevich Alexei’s grandfather, the quiet Alexei Mikhailovich, went against what might have occupied Alekseev’s father.” Thus, the Tsarevich, it seems, is not stupid and, in any case, inquisitive, seems educated, to be maybe even in a certain sense an advanced person, but not of the new generation, but of the old one, the era of Alexei Mikhailovich and Fyodor Alekseevich, which was also not poor in educated people for its time. This contrast between the personality of father and son can be traced further. The Tsarevich was not a person incapable of any activity: everything that is known regarding his fulfillment of the orders assigned to him by Peter does not give the right to such a conclusion; but he was only a submissive performer and certainly did not sympathize with the activities that Peter demanded of him. In correspondence with relatives, Alexey seems to be a managerial person: he was obviously a good owner, he loved to work on reports on the management of his own estates, make comments, write resolutions, etc. But such activities, of course, could not satisfy Peter, and instead of love for the activity that he demanded from everyone, the love of military affairs, he encountered in his son, which he himself later admitted, only instinctive disgust. In general, a whole series of instructions gives the right to see in the prince an ordinary private person, as opposed to Peter - a person who is completely imbued with state interests. This is how Alexey Petrovich appears in his numerous letters, in which there is the most detailed information about his pastime, in which remarkable concern for his friends is visible, and at the same time, over a number of years, there is not a single indication that he was at all interested in the activities of and his father’s plans, and meanwhile, the years to which all this correspondence relates were years of the most intense struggle for Peter. Thus, Peter, understanding his son perfectly, had reason to consider him incapable of continuing his father’s work. This opposition of two natures must be recognized as the main cause of the catastrophe; at the same time, however, family relationships and the tsar’s tough temperament played a very important role. Peter hardly ever had tender feelings for his son, and his cold treatment, together with a careless upbringing, contributed, of course, to the fact that the son became a man who certainly did not understand his father’s aspirations and did not sympathize with them. The Tsar’s marriage to Catherine, in general, had, of course, an unfavorable effect on the fate of the Tsarevich, but what role the influence of Catherine and Menshikov played in the sad outcome of the collision is difficult to decide; Some explain everything by this influence, others, like Solovyov, deny it absolutely. There is no doubt that if Alexei Petrovich was by nature a different person and if there were sympathies between him and his father, then it is unlikely that family relationships alone, it is unlikely that Catherine’s influence alone could have led to such a catastrophe; but given all the other data, the influence of Catherine (about which all foreigners talk) and family relations in general undoubtedly affected the fact that Peter, without any reason, together with the prince, disinherited all his offspring, giving the throne to Catherine’s children. This influence, however, was apparently exercised very cautiously; Outwardly, Alexei Petrovich’s relationship with his stepmother was always the best, although in his letters to her one can feel servility and fear; he was always very respectful to her and made various requests, which she fulfilled. Shortly before his death, he begged her for intercession. As for Menshikov, it is known that the prince hated him. The methods that accompanied the efforts to return the prince from abroad, and the search case itself, are striking in their cruelty, but part of this cruelty must, of course, be attributed to the mores of the time and the picture that the search case revealed to Peter. Alexey Petrovich could not, however, be considered a spiritual representative of the masses that were outraged by innovations, and he personally was not positively capable of fighting Peter, but this mass, nevertheless, pinned all their hopes on him, deeply sympathizing with him and becoming always on his side, as a representative who could unite all groups of dissatisfied people. Much later, the accession to the throne of the rejected son Alexei Petrovich and the return to Moscow of Queen Evdokia caused a movement among the supporters of the prince and adherents of Moscow antiquity. Already in 1712, Peter undoubtedly knew about this sympathy for the prince: this year, on St. Alexey, Stefan Yavorsky preached a sermon in which this sympathy found clear expression. This is also the significance of the search case about Tsarevich Alexei; This case, as well as the closely related case of Queen Eudokia, did not give any indication of the existence of any conspiracy, but it revealed to Peter how strong the displeasure was against all his aspirations, how widespread it was in all classes of society; it also showed him that the personality of the prince was lovingly opposed to the personality of the king.

N. Ustryalov, "History of the reign of Peter the Great", vol. VI, St. Petersburg. 1859 - M. Pogodin, “The Trial of Tsarevich Alexei” (Russian Conversation, 1860, No. 1). - M. Pogodin, “Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, according to newly discovered evidence” (“Readings in the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities” 1861, book 3). - "Letters of Russian Sovereigns", vol. III. - P. Pekarsky in the Encyclopedic Dictionary compiled by Russian scientists and writers, vol. III. 1861 - S. Solovyov, “History of Russia”, vol. XVII, ch. II. - N. Kostomarov, "Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich" ("Ancient and New Russia" 1875, vol. I). - A. Brückner, "Der Zarewitsch Alexei (1690-1718), Heidelberg, 1880. - E. Herrman, "Peter der Grosse und der Zarewitsch Alexei" (Zeitgenössische Berichte zur Geschichte Russlands, II), Leipzig, 1880 - Report Count Wilczek, who, on behalf of Count Schönborn, visited the prince in Krakow, under the title: “Beschreibung der Leibs und gemiths gestalt dess Czarischen Cron-Prinsen” 5 Feb. 1710 (manuscript from the Vienna State Archives) and a number of small articles: M. Semevsky, "Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich" ("Illustration", vol. III, 1859); M. Semevsky, "Supporters of Tsarevich Alexei" ("Library for Reading", vol. 165, 1861); M. Semevsky, “The Nurse of Alexei Petrovich” (“Dawn”, vol. IX, 1861); Pekarsky, “Information about the life of Alexei Petrovich” (Contemporary, 1860, vol. 79).

(Polovtsov)

Alexey Petrovich, son of Peter I

(1690-1718) - Tsarevich, the eldest son of Peter I from his marriage to Evdokia Lopukhina. Until the age of 8, A.P. lived with his mother, in an environment hostile to Peter, amid constant complaints about his father, a stranger to the family. After the imprisonment of Queen Evdokia in a monastery (1698), A.P. came under the care of the Tsar’s sister, Natalia. According to the bar. Huyssen, his teacher, A.P. studied willingly, read a lot (chief books, spiritual books), and was inquisitive; He was not good at military sciences, and he could not stand military exercises. Peter often took his son away from his studies: for example, A.P., as a soldier of a bombardment company, took part in the campaign against Nyenschanz (1703) and in the siege of Narva (1704). After Huyssen left abroad (1705), A.P. was left without specific occupations and lived in the village. Preobrazhensky, left to his own devices. Quiet and calm, more inclined to desk work, A.P. was the complete opposite of his fidgety father, whom he did not like and was afraid of. Little by little, a circle of people dissatisfied with Peter and his policies forms around the prince. Most of all the clergy were here, but representatives of the largest nobility were also drawn here, pushed into the background by “new people” like Menshikov. His confessor, Archpriest Yakov Ignatiev, Peter’s sworn enemy, had a special influence on A.P. He tirelessly repeated to A.P. how the people loved him (the prince) and how good it would be without the priest; he also helped A.P. correspond with his mother and even arranged a meeting with her. Peter found out about this by chance, became very angry and beat the prince, which he did on other occasions. To distract his son from the “big beards,” from 1707 Peter gave him a number of important assignments: to monitor the delivery of provisions for the troops, form regiments, monitor the fortification of the Kremlin (in case of an attack by Charles XII), etc., strictly punishing for the slightest omission. In 1709 A.P. was sent to Dresden to study science, and in 1711, by order of his father, he married Sophia-Charlotte of Blankenburg. Returning to Russia soon after the wedding, A.P. participated in the Finnish campaign, monitored the construction of ships in Ladoga, etc. And Peter’s orders, and his fist reprisals with his son, and his marriage with a foreign woman - all this extremely embittered the prince and caused He has a blind hatred of his father, and at the same time a dull animal fear. A.P. carried out all his father’s instructions carelessly, and Peter finally gave up on him. Anticipating the inevitable clash between A.P. and his father, the prince’s friends advised him not to return from Carlsbad, where he had gone in 1714 for water. However, the prince, fearing his father, returned. In 1714, Charlotte had a daughter, Natalia, and in 1715, a son, the future Emperor Peter II; a few days after his birth, Charlotte died. Meanwhile, among the “new people” surrounding Peter, who feared for their position, the question of removing A.P. from the throne was raised. Peter himself more than once addressed his son with long messages, exhorting him to come to his senses, threatening to deprive him of his inheritance. On the advice of friends, A.P. even agreed to be tonsured as a monk (“the hood is not nailed to the head, it will be possible to remove it when necessary,” said one of them, Kikin). Peter, however, did not believe his son. At the end of 1716, A.P. finally fled to Vienna, hoping for the support of Emperor Charles VI, his brother-in-law (the husband of the late Charlotte's sister). Along with A.P. was also his favorite, a former serf, Euphrosyne, with whom A.P. became acquainted while his wife was still alive, fell in love with her very much and wanted to marry her. A.P.’s hopes for the emperor were not justified. After much trouble, threats and promises, Peter managed to summon his son to Russia (Jan. 1718). A.P. renounced his rights to the throne in favor of his brother, Tsarevich Peter (son of Catherine I), betrayed a number of like-minded people and waited until he was finally allowed to retire into private life. Meanwhile, Euphrosyne, imprisoned in the fortress, revealed everything that A.P. had hidden in his confessions - dreams of accession to the throne when his father dies, threats to his stepmother (Catherine), hopes for rebellion and the violent death of his father. After such testimony, confirmed by the prince, he was taken into custody and tortured. Peter convened a special trial of his son from the generals, the Senate and the Synod. The Tsarevich was repeatedly tortured - beaten with a whip on the rack. On 24/VI 1718 the death sentence was pronounced. According to the story of A. Rumyantsev, Peter’s orderly, who took a close part in A.P.’s case, Peter, after pronouncing the sentence, instructed P. Tolstoy, Buturlin, Ushakov and Rumyantsev to “execute (A.P.) by death, as befits the execution of traitors to the sovereign and to the fatherland,” but “quietly and inaudibly,” so as “not to disgrace the royal blood by popular execution.” The order was immediately carried out: A.P. was suffocated in prison with two pillows on the night of 26/VI. Peter dealt harshly with like-minded people of A.P., many were wheeled, impaled, beaten with a whip and exiled to Siberia and other places.

Alexey Petrovich- (16901718), prince, eldest son of Peter I from his first wife E. F. Lopukhina. Until the age of 8, he was raised by his mother in an environment hostile to Peter I, subsequently he feared and hated his father, and reluctantly carried out his instructions. In 170506 around Alexey... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1690 1718), prince, eldest son of Peter I from his first wife E.F. Lopukhina. Until the age of 8, he was raised by his mother in an environment hostile to Peter I, subsequently he feared and hated his father, and reluctantly carried out his instructions. In 1705 06 around A.P.... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Modern encyclopedia

Alexey Petrovich- (1690 1718), Russian prince. Son of Peter I and his first wife E.F. Lopukhina. He was well-read and knew languages. He was hostile to the reforms of Peter I. At the end of 1716 he fled abroad. He returned (January 1718), hoping for the forgiveness promised... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1690 1718), prince, son of Peter I. Became a participant in the opposition to his father’s policies. He fled abroad, and after returning he was sentenced to execution. According to the widespread version, he was strangled in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The eldest son of Peter I, was born on February 28 (February 18, old style) 1690 in the Tsar's residence near Moscow - the village of Preobrazhenskoye (now the Preobrazhenskoye district of Moscow), a little over a year after the wedding of Peter I and his first wife Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina.

The prince spent the first years of his childhood in the company of his mother and grandmother Natalya Kirillovna (father’s mother). In 1698, after the imprisonment of Queen Evdokia in a monastery, Alexey was sent to the village of Preobrazhenskoye to the care of Peter's beloved sister, Princess Natalya. Since 1701, its education was carried out by the German Martin Neugebauer, and from 1703 by the German baron, Doctor of Law Heinrich Huyssen.

The prince, as a soldier of the bombardment company, took part in the campaign against Nyenschanz (1703) and in the siege of Narva (1704).

In 1705, after Huyssen left abroad, Alexey Petrovich was left without specific occupations and lived in Preobrazhenskoye, where he became close to people who were unfriendly to the activities of Peter I - the nobles Naryshkin, the princes of Vyazemsky. His confessor, archpriest Yakov Ignatiev, had a great influence on him.

He helped the prince correspond with his mother, imprisoned in the Suzdal monastery, and arranged a meeting with her, which aroused the king’s anger.

In 1707, Peter sent Alexei Petrovich to Smolensk with instructions to inspect recruits and collect provisions. In the fall of 1707, he was entrusted with overseeing the work to strengthen Moscow in the event of an attack by the Swedish king Charles XII, and in August 1708, the prince was entrusted with inspecting food stores in Vyazma.

In the fall of 1708, Alexey Petrovich continued studying French with Huyssen, and then fortification (a military-technical science that develops the theoretical foundations and practical methods of protecting troops, the population and rear facilities through the construction and use of fortifications).

At the beginning of 1709, Alexei Petrovich presented the tsar in the city of Sumy with five regiments collected and organized by himself, was present in Voronezh during the launching of the ships, and in the fall went to Kiev to be with that part of the army that was intended to act against the Polish king Stanislav Leshchinsky, supporting the Swedish king Charles XII.

In 1709, to continue his studies, the prince was sent to Dresden (Germany), where he studied geometry, geography and French, took dance lessons and attended theatrical performances in French.

In 1711, Alexey Petrovich married Sophia-Charlotte of Blankenburg, the sister of the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke Charles VI of Austria, becoming the first representative of the reigning house in Russia after Ivan III to marry a princess from the family of a European monarch.

After the wedding, Alexey Petrovich took part in the Finnish campaign: he monitored the construction of ships in Ladoga and carried out other orders of the tsar.

In 1714, Charlotte had a daughter, Natalia, and in 1715, a son, the future Russian Emperor Peter II, a few days after whose birth Charlotte died. On the day of the death of the Crown Princess, Peter, who had received information about Alexei’s drunkenness and his connection with the former serf Euphrosyne, demanded in writing from the prince that he either reform or become a monk.

At the end of 1716, together with Euphrosyne, whom the prince wanted to marry, Alexei Petrovich fled to Vienna, hoping for the support of Emperor Charles VI.

In January 1718, after much trouble, threats and promises, Peter managed to summon his son to Russia. Alexei Petrovich renounced his rights to the throne in favor of his brother, Tsarevich Peter (son of Catherine I), betrayed a number of like-minded people and waited until he was allowed to retire for private life. Euphrosyne, imprisoned in the fortress, revealed everything that the prince had hidden in his confessions - dreams of accession to the throne when his father dies, threats to his stepmother (Catherine), hopes for rebellion and the violent death of his father. After such testimony, confirmed by Alexei Petrovich, the prince was taken into custody and tortured. Peter convened a special trial of his son from the generals, the Senate and the Synod. On July 5 (June 24, old style), 1718, the prince was sentenced to death. On July 7 (June 26, old style), 1718, the prince died under unclear circumstances.

Continuation of the conflict

The young children of Alexei Petrovich were not the only addition to 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 Alexey ceased to be the only heir of his father (he now had a second son and grandson). The situation put him in an ambiguous position.

In addition, such a character as Alexey Petrovich clearly did not fit into the life of the new St. Petersburg. Photos of his portraits show a man a little sick and indecisive. He continued to carry out state orders from his powerful father, although he did so with obvious reluctance, which again and again angered the autocrat.

While still studying in Germany, Alexey asked his Moscow friends to send him a new confessor, to whom he could openly confess about everything that was bothering the young man. The prince was a deeply religious man, but at the same time he was very afraid of his father's spies. However, the new confessor Yakov Ignatiev really was not one of Peter’s henchmen. One day Alexey told him in his hearts that he was waiting for his father to die. Ignatiev replied that many of the heir’s Moscow friends wanted the same thing. So, quite unexpectedly, Alexey found supporters and took the path that led him to death.

Difficult decision

In 1715, Peter sent his son a letter in which he faced a choice - either Alexey reforms (that is, begins to engage in the army and accepts his father’s policies), or goes to a monastery. The heir found himself at a dead end. He did not like many of Peter's undertakings, including his endless military campaigns and dramatic changes in life in the country. This sentiment was shared by many aristocrats (mainly from Moscow). There was indeed aversion to hasty reforms among the elite, but no one dared to openly protest, since participation in any opposition could end in disgrace or execution.

The autocrat, delivering an ultimatum to his son, gave him time to think about his decision. The biography of Alexei Petrovich has many similar ambiguous episodes, but this situation became 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 supposed to see his father in Denmark. However, while in Polish Gdansk, the prince suddenly changed his route and actually fled to Vienna. There Alexey began to negotiate for political asylum. The Austrians sent him to secluded Naples.

The fugitive's plan was to wait for the death of the then ill Russian Tsar, and after that to return to his native country to the throne, if necessary, then with a foreign army. Alexey spoke about this later during the investigation. However, these words cannot be taken with confidence as the truth, since the necessary testimony was simply beaten out of the arrested person. According to the testimony of the Austrians, the prince was hysterical. Therefore, it is more likely to say that he went to Europe out of despair and fear for his future.

In Austria

Peter quickly learned where his son had fled. People loyal to the Tsar immediately went to Austria. Experienced diplomat Pyotr Tolstoy was appointed head of the important mission. He reported to the Austrian Emperor Charles VI that the very fact of Alexei's presence on Habsburg land 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 at all want to get such a powerful enemy as Peter I under such conditions. In addition, Alexey himself made a mistake. He acted panicky and clearly lacked self-confidence. As a result, the Austrian authorities made concessions. Peter Tolstoy received the right to see the fugitive.

Negotiation

Peter Tolstoy, having met 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 shelter 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 cried 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 this the trial began. First, the fugitive betrayed all his supporters, who “talked” him into a rash act. Arrests and legal 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 brief 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 Pyotr 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 kept during his trial. It was officially announced that he had suffered a seizure. Perhaps the prince was killed on the secret order of Peter, or perhaps he died himself, unable to bear 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 ordered the execution of Alexei in advance. One way or another, the descendants never learned the truth.

After the death of Alexei Petrovich, a classic point of view emerged about the reasons for the drama that 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 Tsar. However, knowing all the circumstances of the conflict, one cannot call the prince a traitor and at the same time not keep in mind the degree of guilt of Peter I himself in the tragedy.

Tsarevich Alexei was born in February 1690 from the first marriage of Peter I with Evdokia Lopukhina. Little is known about the childhood of the young heir. The first years of his life he was mainly raised by his grandmother Natalya Kirillovna. At the age of eight, the prince lost his mother - Peter decided to send his unloved wife to a monastery. At the same time, the father began to initiate his son into government affairs, and after a couple of years - to take him on military campaigns. However, the heir made no progress in either field.

“When, at the height of the Northern War, King Charles XII of Sweden moved with troops to Moscow to capture it and dictate the terms of peace, Alexei, unlike Peter, who ordered to strengthen the Kremlin, asked one of his entourage to find a good place where he could hide. That is, Alexey was thinking not about Russia, but about himself. Peter I fought with his soldiers during the Battle of Poltava. But Tsarevich Alexei did not show any valor, he was completely unworthy of the title of a man,” said Pavel Krotov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, specialist in the history of Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, in a conversation with RT.

Alexey treated his father’s activities without any enthusiasm. Like his mother, the prince loved the “old times” and hated any reformist changes.

• Portraits of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and Charlotte Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
• Wikimedia Commons

In 1709, Peter sent his heir to study in Dresden. There, at the court of King Augustus, Alexey met his future wife, Princess Charlotte, who would later be called Natalya Petrovna in Russia. Two years later, by order of Peter I, their wedding took place.

By this time, Martha Skavronskaya, a former servant who was captured during the capture of the Swedish fortress and known as Catherine I, became the wife of Peter himself. The new empress gave birth to Peter two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth, and then another contender for the throne, Peter Petrovich.

After the birth of an heir from his second marriage, Alexei's position weakened. By this time, he had two children from the German princess: Natalya and Peter (the future Emperor Peter II, the last representative of the Romanovs in the direct male line).

“Liberal writers (for example, Daniil Granin) have their own version: he believes that Peter’s wife, Catherine, was intriguing against Alexei. If Alexei were on the throne, then all of her offspring would be under threat. Objectively, it was important for Catherine to eliminate Alexei,” noted Pavel Krotov.

Shortly after the birth of their son, Alexei’s wife died. After the funeral of Natalya Petrovna in October 1715, the prince received a letter from his father, irritated by the lack of will and inability of the heir to state affairs: “... I thought with sorrow and, seeing that I could not incline you to good, for the sake of goodness I invented this last testament to write to you and it’s not enough to wait, even if you turn unhypocritically. If not, then be aware that I will greatly deprive you of your inheritance, like a gangrenous oud, and do not imagine that I am only writing this for fear: truly I will fulfill it, for for my fatherland and people I have not and do not regret my life, then How can I feel sorry for you indecently? It’s better to be someone else’s kindness than your own indecent one.”

In a response letter, Alexei renounced the inheritance and stated that he would never lay claim to the throne. But Peter was not satisfied with this answer. The emperor suggested that he either become less wayward and behave worthy of the future crown, or go to a monastery. Alexei decided to become a monk. But my father could not come to terms with such an answer. Then the prince went on the run.

In November 1716, under the fictitious name of a Polish nobleman, he arrived in Vienna, in the domain of Emperor Charles VI, who was Alexei's brother-in-law.

“Documentary evidence has been preserved that when Tsarevich Alexei fled to the West, to Austria, then to Italy, he entered into negotiations with the enemy of Russia, King Charles XII of Sweden, so that he would probably help him get the Russian crown. This is no longer worthy of the title of not only a ruler, but also a person,” emphasized Pavel Krotov.

The tragic end of the prodigal son

Having learned about his son’s escape, Peter I sent his associates, Peter Tolstoy and Alexander Rumyantsev, to search for him, giving them the following instructions: “They should go to Vienna and in a private audience announce to the Caesar that we have truly been informed through Captain Rumyantsev that our son Alexei has been accepted under the protection of the crown prince and was sent secretly to the Tyrolean castle of Ehrenberg, and was quickly sent from that castle, behind a strong guard, to the city of Naples, where he was kept on guard in the fortress, to which Captain Rumyantsev witnessed it.”

• Paul Delaroche, portrait of Peter I (1838)

Judging by this instruction, Peter called on the prodigal son to return to Russia, promising him all support and the absence of fatherly anger for disobedience. If the prince declared to Tolstoy and Rumyantsev that he did not intend to return to his homeland, then they were ordered to announce to Alexei the parental and church curse.

After much persuasion, the prince returned to Russia in the fall of 1717.

The emperor kept his promise and decided to pardon his son, but only under certain conditions. The prince had to refuse to inherit the crown and hand over the assistants who organized his escape. Alexei accepted all his father’s conditions and on February 3, 1718, renounced his rights to the throne.

At the same time, a series of investigations and interrogations of everyone close to the court began. Peter's associates demanded to know the details of the alleged conspiracy against the emperor.

In June 1718, the prince was put in the Peter and Paul Fortress and began to be tortured, demanding to confess to conspiring with foreign enemies. Under threats, Alexei admitted that he had negotiated with Charles VI and hoped that Austrian intervention would help him seize power in the country. And although Alexey wrote all his testimony in the subjunctive mood, without the slightest hint of the actual actions he took, it turned out to be enough for the trial. He was sentenced to death, which, however, was never carried out - Alexei suddenly died.

His death is still shrouded in mystery. According to the official version, Alexey took the news of the verdict very hard, which is why he fell into unconsciousness and died. Also, various sources indicate that the prince could have died from torture, was poisoned or strangled with a pillow. Historians are still arguing about what actually happened.

Alexei was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Since the death of the prince coincided with the celebration of the anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Poltava, the emperor decided not to declare mourning.

• Still from the film “Tsarevich Alexei” (1996)

“Peter eliminated him as a person who would destroy all the achievements of state reform. Peter acted like the emperors of Ancient Rome, who executed their sons for state crimes. Peter acted not as a person, but as a statesman, for whom the main thing was not personal, but the interests of the country, which were threatened by an unworthy son, in fact a state criminal. In addition, Alexey was going to lead the measured life of an ordinary person, and at the head of Russia there was supposed to be a “locomotive” that would continue the work of Peter,” explained Pavel Krotov.

The fate of Alexei’s children also turned out to be tragic. Daughter Natalya died in 1728. Son Peter, having ascended the throne in 1727, after the death of Catherine I, died three years later.

Thus, in 1730, the male line of the Romanovs was interrupted in a straight line.

ALEXEY PETROVICH
(18.II.1690 - 26.VI.1718) - Tsarevich, eldest son of Peter I from his first wife E. R. Lopukhina.
Until the age of 8, he was raised by his mother in an environment hostile to Peter I. He feared and hated his father and was reluctant to carry out his instructions, especially military ones. character. The lack of will and indecision of A.P. were used politically. enemies of Peter I. In 1705-06, the reactionary group grouped around the prince. the opposition of the clergy and boyars, opposing the reforms of Peter I. In Oct. 1711 A.P. married Princess Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (d. 1715), with whom he had a son, Peter (later Peter II, 1715-30). Peter I, threatening disinheritance and imprisonment in a monastery, repeatedly demanded that A.P. change his behavior. In con. 1716, fearing punishment, A.P. fled to Vienna under the protection of the Austrians. imp. Charles VI. He hid in Ehrenberg Castle (Tirol), from May 1717 - in Naples. With threats and promises, Peter I achieved the return of his son (Jan. 1718) and forced him to renounce his rights to the throne and hand over his accomplices. On June 24, 1718, the supreme court of the generals, senators and Synod sentenced A.P. to death. According to the current version, he was strangled by the associates of Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova.
1973-1982.

Death of Peter I's son Alexei

How did Alexei really die? No one knew this then, and no one knows now. The death of the prince gave rise to rumors and disputes, first in St. Petersburg, then throughout Russia, and then in Europe.

Weber and de Lavie accepted the official explanation and reported to their capitals that the prince had died of apoplexy. But other foreigners doubted it, and various sensational versions were used. Player first reported that Alexei died of apoplexy, but three days later he informed his government that the prince was beheaded with a sword or an ax (many years later there was even a story about how Peter himself cut off his son’s head); According to rumors, some woman from Narva was brought to the fortress to have her head sewn back in place so that the prince’s body could be displayed for farewell. The Dutch resident de Bie reported that the prince was killed by draining all the blood from him, for which his veins were opened with a lancet. Later they also said that Alexei was strangled with pillows by four guards officers, and Rumyantsev was among them.

The truth is that to explain Alexei’s death, no additional reasons are needed: beheading, bloodletting, strangulation, or even apoplexy.
Forty blows of the whip would have been enough to kill any big man, and Alexey was not strong, so mental shock and terrible wounds from forty blows on his skinny back could well have finished him off.

But be that as it may, Peter’s contemporaries believed that the death of the prince was the work of the king himself.
Many were shocked, but the general opinion was that Alexei's death solved all of Peter's problems.

Peter did not shy away from accusations. Although he said that it was the Lord who called Alexei to himself, he never denied that he himself brought Alexei to trial and sentenced him to death. The king did not have time to approve the verdict, but he completely agreed with the decision of the judges. He did not bother himself with hypocritical expressions of grief.

What can we say about this tragedy? Was it just a family drama, a clash of characters, in which a tyrannical father mercilessly torments and ultimately kills his pathetic, helpless son?

In Peter's relationship with his son, personal feelings were inseparably intertwined with political reality. Alexei’s character, of course, aggravated the confrontation between father and son, but at the heart of the conflict was the issue of supreme power. The two monarchs - one on the throne, the other awaiting the throne - had different ideas about the good of the state and set different goals for themselves.
But everyone faced bitter disappointment. While the reigning monarch sat on the throne, the son could only wait, but the monarch also knew that as soon as he was gone, his dreams would come to an end and everything would turn back.

Interrogations revealed that treacherous speeches were made and burning hopes for Peter's death were nurtured. Many were punished; So, was it possible to condemn these secondary culprits and leave the main one unharmed? This was precisely the choice that Peter faced, and it was the same one he proposed to the court. Peter himself, torn between his father's feelings and devotion to his life's work, chose the second.
Alexey was sentenced to death for reasons of state. As for Elizabeth I of England, this was a difficult decision of the monarch, who set the goal at all costs to “preserve” the state on which he had devoted his whole life to creating.

Biofile.ru›History›655.html

The purpose of this article is to find out the true cause of death of Tsarevich ALEXEY PETROVICH by his FULL NAME code.

Let's look at the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

1 13 19 30 48 54 64 80 86 105 122 137 140 150 174 191 206 219 220 234 249 252
A L E K S E Y P E T R O V I C H R O M A N O V
252 251 239 233 222 204 198 188 172 166 147 130 115 112 102 78 61 46 33 32 18 3

17 32 45 46 60 75 78 79 91 97 108 126 132 142 158 164 183 200 215 218 228 252
R O M A N O V A L E K S E Y P E T R O V ICH
252 235 220 207 206 192 177 174 173 161 155 144 126 120 110 94 88 69 52 37 34 24

Knowing all the twists and turns in the final stage of the fate of ALEXEY PETROVICH, it is easy to succumb to temptation and decipher individual numbers as:

64 = EXECUTION. 80 = STRAIGHTED.

But the numbers 122 = STROKE and 137 = APOPLEXY indicate the true cause of death.
And now we will make sure of this.

ROMANOV ALEXEY PETROVICH = 252 = 150-APOPPLEXIA OF THE M\brain\+ 102-...SIJA OF THE BRAIN.

252 = 179-BRAIN APOPLEXIA + 73-...SIYA M\brain\.

It should be noted that the word APOPLEXY is read openly: 1 = A...; 17 = AP...; 32 = APO...; 48 = APOP...; 60 = APOPL...; 105 = APOPLEXI...; 137 = APOPLEXIA.

174 = APOPPLEXIA OF THE MR\ha\
_____________________________
102 = ...BRAIN BRAIN

It seems that the most accurate decoding would be with the word STROKE. Let's check this with two tables: STROKE DEATH and DEATH BY STROKE.

10 24* 42 62 74 103 122*137*150* 168 181 187 204*223 252
I N S U L T O M DEATH
252 242 228*210 190 178 149 130*115* 102* 84 71 65 48* 29

We see the coincidence of the central column 137\\130 (the eighth - from left to right) with the column in the top table.

18* 31 37* 54* 73 102* 112*126*144*164*176 205 224 239*252
DEATH I N S U L T O M
252 234*221 215*198*179 150*140*126*108* 88* 76 47 28 13*

We see the coincidence of two columns 112\\150 and 126\\144, and in our table column 112\\150 is seventh from the left, and column 126\\144 is seventh from the right.

262 = APOPLEXIA OF THE BRAIN\.

Code for the number of full YEARS OF LIFE: 86-TWENTY + 84-EIGHT = 170 = 101-DEAD + 69-END.

Let's look at the column in the top table:

122 = TWENTY SUN\ is \ = STROKE
________________________________________
147 = 101-DECEASED + 46-KONE\ts\

147 - 122 = 25 = UGA\s\.

170 = 86-\ 43-IMPACT + 43-EXHAUS\ + 84-BRAIN.

170 = 127-BRAIN BLOW + 43-EXHAUSTION.

We will find the number 127 = BRAIN Stroke if we add up the letter codes that are included in the FULL NAME code only once:

L=12 + K=11 + S=18 + P=16 + T=19 + H=24 + M=13 + H=14 = 127.