April 12, Troitskoye village, Oryol province) - naval officer, member of a research expedition to Novaya Zemlya. Member of the Northern Society. During the events of December 14, 1825, together with the officers and sailors of the Guards crew, he went to Senate Square. He was convicted in the VIII category. Author of the physical and geographical description of the island of Novaya Zemlya. Poet.

Brothers - Peter (23.04.1807 - 26.08.1889), Pavel (2.09.1808 - ?), Dmitry (28.10.1811 - ?), Michael(b. 08/21/1812 -?).

According to family tradition, the sons devoted their lives to military service - Pavel served as an ensign of the Retinue of His Imperial Majesty in the quartermaster unit. Peter, Dmitry and Michael graduated from the Alexander Noble Military School in Tula [~ 2] .

Nikolay Chizhov in 1813-1817 he was brought up in Nikolaev "in a noble boarding school, which he kept from 1813 to 1817. teacher of the Black Sea Navigator School, Mr. Golubev. From August 30, 1813 he was recorded as a midshipman in the fleet. He studied maritime disciplines with Druzhinin, a teacher at the navigation school. Participated in voyages across the Black Sea on the yacht "Tverdaya" and the brig "Alexey" from Nikolaev to Ochakov and Odessa. February 9, 1818 was promoted to midshipman and transferred to the Baltic Fleet.

In 1818-1820 he served " on the coast» in the 2nd naval crew in St. Petersburg. In 1821 he was sent to Arkhangelsk to participate in an Arctic research expedition on the Novaya Zemlya brig under the command of F.P. Litke. In the April issue of the St. Petersburg magazine "Son of the Fatherland" for 1823, in a review article "On Novaya Zemlya", Chizhov summarized the results of topographic work performed there and collected information about toponymy, climate and wildlife, nearby islands and the state of the ice cover, the history of discovery and prospects for economic development of the territory. He wrote about the possibility of developing fisheries in the North:

The cheapness in the city of Arkhangelsk of all supplies for building ships could make such an industry very profitable, especially in the vicinity of the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard, and Pomors would be the best sailors on whaling ships. If such crafts were carried out under the guidance of enlightened people, they could bring innumerable benefits.complex characteristics of one of the largest islands in the Russian Arctic

Upon returning from the Arctic expedition, N.A. Chizhov continued to serve in the 2nd naval crew. Participated in escorting ships built for the Baltic Fleet to Kronstadt. April 21, 1824 promoted to lieutenant. In 1825, as part of the crew of the 36-gun frigate "Elena", launched at the Solombala shipyard, he moved from Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt.

He was on close terms with the Bestuzhev brothers. Later, he noted the influence of N. A. Bestuzhev on the formation of his own way of thinking: "". From the end of September 1825 he served in Kronstadt and lived in the apartment of midshipman P. A. Bestuzhev, adjutant to the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, at whose suggestion he joined the Northern Society in November 1825 - "only out of love for the good of my compatriots." According to midshipman of the Guards crew A.P. Belyaev, the Decembrists considered N.A. Chizhov in the event of an uprising " able to operate in Kronstadt».

I brought him my articles, he corrected them and gave his advice: thus, accustomed to respecting him as my mentor, I insensitively borrowed from him the way of thinking

Accepted by the members of the Northern Society just a month before the uprising, N. A. Chizhov did not participate in the meetings of the conspirators who discussed plans of action. N. A. Bestuzhev warned him that “ guards regiments will not swear"and that you need to be on the Senate Square," when the rebels converge» . N. A. Chizhov, who understood the purpose of the secret society to "", thought that "". Events, however, unfolded contrary to the plans of the leaders of the conspiracy. On the morning of December 14, having met I. I. Pushchin and K. F. Ryleev at the appointed place of assembly, who were heading to the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment, Chizhov convinced them that “ no attempt to raise the Izmailovsky regiment can be successful”, and headed to the barracks of the Guards crew. He was the first to inform the guards about the indignation in the Moscow regiment and that several of his companies were already on Senate Square. Together with the officers and sailors of the crew, Fleet Lieutenant Chizhov also came there. Left the square, making sure that " this enterprise can not be any success».

limit autocracy, following the example of other European peoples, alleviate the lot of the lower class of people and provide them with the means to enjoy the benefits provided by enlightenmentsociety could hope that the people and the troops would understand their own benefits and would be its support, and that all well-meaning people would take part in this matter, even if they did not belong to society

In September 1826 he was delivered to Olekminsk, Yakutsk region. On April 28, 1829, in a letter to the emperor that remained unanswered, he asked for an assignment to the army in the Caucasus in order to " wash away with your blood the delusions and deeds of young years". In 1832, another request for a transfer from Olekminsk - now for health reasons to Yakutsk - was instructed: “ Transfer to another place, but not to Yakutsk". In January 1833, N. A. Chizhov was sent to the Alexander distillery, and after some time - to the village of Moty, Irkutsk province.

At the request of his mother, from September 16, 1833, he was allowed to serve as a private in the Siberian linear battalions, first in Irkutsk, and then in Tobolsk. June 15, 1837 promoted to non-commissioned officer. In Tobolsk, Chizhov's social circle expanded, which included the Decembrist M. A. Fonvizin, who was transferred here to the settlement, the poet P. P. Ershov, the Polish exile Konstantin Volitsky, who wrote about the former naval officer in his memoirs that:

education and noble feelings earned him the respect and affection of all of us

In April 1848, the county police officer, on duty, wrote to the Oryol governor P. I. Trubetskoy that N. A. Chizhov "".

on finding him the manager of the estate of Princess Gorchakova in the village of Troitskoye, Pushkino, then, on the 12th of this April, he died

The poetic talent of N. A. Chizhov was revealed during the years of Siberian exile. In a poem dated June 27, 1828, " Cranes»

The surname Chizhov was widespread in the Tula province. But there are only two noble families of the Chizhovs, more precisely, one, divided into two branches, which at different times fell into the sixth part of the genealogy book of the Tula nobility. The great-grandfather of the Decembrist Fyodor Chizhov lived approximately at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The surname Chizhov comes either from the personal non-calendar name Chizh, or from a similar nickname. Who was its first bearer in the Tula noble branch (ancestor), we do not know.

The noble family of the Chizhovs was glorified not only by the Decembrist. In the capital's scientific world, the name of his cousin Dmitry Semyonovich was known, in whose apartment Nikolai Alekseevich took refuge on the day of the December speech. The mathematician D.S. Chizhov (1785 – 1852) is repeatedly mentioned in the documents on the case of his nephew. A graduate of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, Dmitry Semyonovich was among those who were sent to Europe to prepare for a professorship. In 1816 he received the title of ordinary professor of mathematics. In 1819 he was elected the first dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University with the simultaneous head of the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics. In 1832, through bureaucratic obstacles, he not without difficulty paved the way to great science for his namesake Fyodor Vasilyevich Chizhov. For a number of years at the university he read applied mechanics. In 1836-1840 he was vice-rector of the university, elected unanimously. Since 1846 he was retired with the rank of honorary professor.

At a critical moment on December 14, 1825, Nikolai Chizhov went to his uncle's apartment, not only because in his position there was nowhere else to go. The point was also that Dmitry Semyonovich, according to the unanimous recognition of his contemporaries, had a gentle character, responsiveness and compassion for someone else's misfortune. He was an altruist in the full sense of the word. Dmitry Mendeleev remembered him until the end of his days, since D.S. Chizhov in 1850 helped him enter the Main Pedagogical Institute, despite the fact that that year was considered unacceptable (!). Chizhov's friendship with Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev, the father of the future scientist, played a role. D.S. Chizhov died on May 27, 1852.

Observing the chronological sequence, we should name the Decembrist next of the famous Chizhovs, who will be told about after a series of his other relatives has passed before us.

a succession of the rest of his relatives will pass. The younger brother of Nikolai, Peter, was married to Evfimiya Dmitrievna Arsenyeva. Her uncle, Mikhail Vasilyevich Arseniev, was the grandfather of M. Yu. Lermontov. The historical destinies of the Chizhov and Arsenyev families crossed again - in the 20th century. The fourth cousin of Evfimiya Dmitrievna, the Governor of Courland, Nikolai Ivanovich Arsenyev, was the grandfather of the genealogist V. S. Arsenyev, the very one who was the first to speak in Tula local history about his relative N. A. Chizhov.

Two more brothers of the Decembrist - Pavel and Alexey Alekseevich - married Tula noblewomen. Brother Mikhail was married to a princess from the Kasatkin-Rostovsky family, a branch of the offspring of the ruling Rostov princes (from the Rurikids).

The fact that almost all Decembrists were related is supported by the Chizhovs' dynastic ties with other Decembrist families. The daughter of Pavel Alekseevich Chizhov, Elizaveta, married the famous hero of the Eastern War and public figure A. A. Kireev. Through him, the Chizhovs became related to the family of a member of the Society of United Slavs I. V. Kireev. Another daughter of the same Pavel Chizhov, Nadezhda, married the Courland nobleman I. A. Fokht, a relative of the Decembrist I. F. Fokht. The grandson of Honored Professor D.S. Chizhov, Dmitry Alekseevich Chizhov, married a relative of the Decembrist M.A. Nazimov.

Of the other connections, the marriages of the Chizhovs with the Ignatievs, Perfilyevs and Elagins deserve attention. These surnames are known to every historian, as they were worn by many major administrative figures and writers. Sergei Apollonovich Chizhov (No. 34 of the pedigree) was married to Perfilieva from the Kostroma nobles. It would be possible to stop attention on his personality, since his position is indicated in the murals: “Tula vice-governor”. However, his name is missing in the reference literature. The information in this edition ends with the beginning of the 20th century. The age of S. A. Chizhov testifies that he really could have been in the public service in the last years of the Autocracy.

Thus, the noble family of the Chizhovs, as they say, wrote a glorious page in the domestic annals not only by the literary activity of Nikolai Alekseevich ...

We almost do not know what estates in the European part of Russia belonged to the Chizhovs in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But one of them, Pokrovsky, is known in more detail thanks, firstly, to pre-revolutionary statistical codes, and secondly, to publications in the Tula and Chernskaya press.

“... the mother of a Decembrist in 1822 in the village of Pokrovsky, Chernsky district, had 149 male and 185 female peasants.”

By the middle of the 19th century, the village of Pokrovskoye (Pokrovskoye on Plav) in the Chernsky district had 1,400 parishioners, of which 1,300 were landlord peasants. Under the communists, it was divided into Pokrovskoe 1st and Pokrovskoe 2nd. Today it is the territory of the Teplo-Ogaryovsky district of the Tula region. The villages lie on opposite banks of the Plav River. The name Pokrovskoye was formed by the name of the main temple in honor of the Orthodox holiday of the Intercession of the Virgin, celebrated on October 14.

Almost one and a half thousand inhabitants - a very solid number for the village of those times. For contrast, we present data on the current state of this large, as we have seen, settlement in the past. As of January 1, 2000, there are 7 people living in Pokrovsky 1st, 84 people in Pokrovsky 2nd.

In the Tula periodicals of the seventies of the twentieth century, there are allegations that the future Decembrist was born in Pokrovsky, but this information is systematically generated by a trivial desire to attribute as many glorious names as possible to their native places. Chizhov was born in St. Petersburg - this follows from his testimony. His father served as a military adviser there.

The answers of the Decembrists to the Investigative Committee, containing information about birthdays, are fully published in the multi-volume book "The Revolt of the Decembrists" and the reference book "Decembrists". However, a few years after the publication of this last source, the date 1799 was again indicated in the Tula bulletin, which arose from Chizhov's indication in the service record ("25 years old" from birth). There is no doubt that Chizhov's biographers are well acquainted with another date, which he put down in the investigative file with his own hand: “My name and fatherland: Nikolai Alekseevich, I was born in 1803, on March 23, in St. Petersburg”. We do not see references to this date in all articles about Chizhov. Sometimes it is accompanied as gleaned "from other information."

Like any professional sailor, Chizhov was accurate. In this we are fully convinced by the chronological calculations of the track record. If we take into account the severity and responsibility of the moment at which he named the date March 23, 1803, we will get the best evidence in favor of its fidelity.

A real, without fiction, biography of Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov is unlikely to be written for the simple reason that historians have an insignificant amount of information about this person. Education at the Golubev boarding house (whose initials are not indicated anywhere); sailing to Odessa, fortunately, reflected in a brief description, thanks to which it came down to posterity; a major expedition by F. Litke to Novaya Zemlya and, as a result, a scientific article by Chizhov in “Son of the Fatherland” 1) .

The next stage of Chizhov's semi-illusory biography is his appearance in the barracks on December 14, 1825; exile and literary pursuits; participation in P. P. Ershov’s home performances ... Finally, the last recorded event is the issuance of an order to restrict residence.

What was the person who was the first to compile a physical and geographical description of remote islands, the first to process the Yakut folklore, and finally, the first who can be considered the “parent” of Kozma Prutkov?

The description of the appearance of the suspect Chizhov depicts him as a blond of almost two meters in height, with a "white face" ... A psychological portrait emerges from fragmentary reviews of his relationship with his contemporaries. It turns out that he was sociable, ironic, open-minded (obviously, a hereditary trait - everyone said the same about his uncle); wrote easily and quickly, just as resolutely and quickly asserted himself in military and naval affairs ...

As correctly identified by M.K. Azadovsky, lieutenant of the second naval crew, topographer and poet “N. A. Chizhov is one of the least known figures of the Decembrist movement. Biographical information, almost without exception, is drawn from Chizhov's handwritten notes made during the interrogation and investigation in 1825-1826. Based on the track record and answers to question points, a short biography of Chizhov is drawn. In this peculiar model of biography, Chizhov, one of the few persons under investigation, indicated a number of names from his past. He names the boarding school teachers, crew commanders, Admiral Litke. Two pages of text are a summary of the biography of a twenty-five-year-old officer.

Along with indicating the exact dates of business trips and assignments, Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov draws the attention of the Investigative Committee to another side of his activity - the spiritual. By the time of the uprising and arrest, Chizhov had already shown himself as a writer - he was noted in the magazine "Son of the Fatherland" with two essays. Moreover, his description of Novaya Zemlya, which he clearly cherished (and had every reason to do so), was noticed in the scientific community and remains to this day a valuable monument of physical and geographical journalism. Chizhov did not consider it necessary to expand on the verses in his testimony to the Investigative Committee (he correctly assessed the mental abilities of statesmen who judged not only him, a novice poet, but also poets - K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Marlinsky, Prince A. I. Odoevsky ). But, perhaps, he, following the poetic idols of the youth, equated poetry with "trinkets".

Sailing to the shores of Novaya Zemlya and the study of this archipelago in 1821-1824 strengthened the name of Chizhov in national history much more convincingly than participation in the Decembrist movement. In specialized literature, one can everywhere find indications that Litke's expedition ended with a description of unexplored territories. At the same time, we did not come across the name of Chizhov in any modern publication. There is hardly any doubt that the islands were described by the writer Chizhov, and not by anyone else. For him, such work was a continuation of the same literary activity that aroused the desire to capture the Odessa Garden and, most likely, something that has not survived to this day. On Novaya Zemlya, Chizhov set to work enthusiastically and, unlike Odessa, without unnecessary emotions. The description of Novaya Zemlya is completely devoid of a touch of fashionable romanticism. "Odessa Garden" is a deeply personal, political work, it shows an oppositional mood. In addition, the story about the beauties of Odessa, which has the subtitle "An excerpt from the Memories of the Black Sea", was inspired by a moment of spiritual uplift. It is possible that Chizhov sketched several such sketches. Feeling a literary talent in himself, he could be inspired by any object and easily convey his experiences to the reader. N. I. Grech was not mistaken when he put Odessa Garden in a journal (having, by the way, rendered an enormous service to posterity, since he saved a good thing from oblivion).

The report on Novaya Zemlya was written as if by a different person - a real researcher who, only once, cannot resist and hide his attitude towards the stupidity of the impractical Arkhangelsk peasants. Acutely worried that resources are not being used due to the inactivity of local “business people”, he thereby answers the question of why the British and Dutch really own the sea, while for Russians the alpha and omega of everything is an insult that never turns into action.

Chizhov's participation in the expedition to Novaya Zemlya did not go unnoticed by his descendants, who gave his name to a small cape on the Kola Peninsula. By carefully reading the article "On Novaya Zemlya", we can vividly imagine how energetic its author was in the work of the expedition and fearless in his research. The icy islands are overwhelmed all year round by winds about which there are legends. Not only in "ancient" times, but also at the beginning of the 20th century, there was nowhere to hide from the elements. And yet, the polar explorers from the Litke team brought the matter to an end. Their expedition was the first to return from Novaya Zemlya in triumph.

Within the framework of the commentary, we cannot set ourselves the task of giving a description of the current state of the archipelago (it is available in specialized literature). If this were to be done, it would have to include an impressive amount of information about the flora, fauna, resources, and climate of the islands. Chizhov himself makes notes to the material when it comes to the animal world, and gives the Latin names of plants, thus giving scientific significance to his work.

Chizhov's literary activity lasted about twenty years. Of the four periods of his biography, three turned out to be times of wandering: two voluntary (the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean) and one forced (Yakutia - Tobolsk, the Kyrgyz steppes). Only the fourth period - life in the Chernsky district of the Tula province - concluded him in the circle of his family (mother, sisters, nephews) and subordinates in households on estates. But this period is completely unknown to us. Did Chizhov write anything, wandering between estates in petty economic worries? When and where did he die and why? Maybe the gloomy Yakutia undermined his health or he was overtaken by an unnatural death, which was inconvenient to report and therefore its date was lost?

In any case, he remained in history as a writer, a scientist (without a degree or title), who did as much as he was allotted.

The main circumstance due to which Chizhov, as a writer, very rarely draws attention to himself, is connected with his age belonging to the poets of the early 19th century and lies in the established tradition of considering all Russian literature as something secondary after Pushkin. The indestructible principle of literary critics to divide literature and art into periods depending on the life frames of several geniuses (Pushkin's period, Nekrasov's, Tolstoy's, Chekhov's ...), sadly to admit, almost always prevents us from understanding and independently evaluating the work of the "second" and "third" writers sent into the shadow of the great ones.

Despite the fact that Chizhov's first publications appeared in 1823, A. S. Pushkin did not react to them in any way, and therefore Chizhov's poems did not interest anyone for the next hundred years. If attention was paid to her, it was only in connection with the participation of the poet in the activities of the Northern Society. In essence, the same principle worked - creativity was analyzed in the context of political events.

In the cold-blooded tone of Chizhov's answers to the investigation, one can feel his complete confidence in his own innocence. In essence, he was innocent, for Pyotr Bestuzhev outlined all his “guilt” in a nutshell. Formally joining a secret society, Chizhov did not participate at all in its activities, he did not leave any special memories of himself, on the unfortunate day of December 14 he appeared on the square and immediately left it to inform the soldiers about the murder of Count M. A. Miloradovich and N. K. Stürler. And yet, in all reference books, Chizhov is designated as a participant in the uprising on Senate Square. Despite the fact that these data were presented by fairly authoritative historians, the generalized wording "participant in the uprising" still does not fit Chizhov. If we talk about Chizhov’s behavior that day, it is necessary to turn to the “program” article by I. D. Yakushkin “December Fourteenth” as the most scrupulous and favorite chronicle of the troubled day by historians. “Pushchin and Ryleev arrived at the assembly site in the morning, but, not finding any troops there, they went to the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment. On the way they met midshipman Chizhov, who had just left the barracks; he assured them that no attempt to raise the Izmailovsky regiment could be successful.

Did despair sound in Chizhov's voice? Most likely not, since the rest of his actions did not betray in him a desire for bloodshed. Chizhov was simply not like that, he did not have, on the one hand, recklessness and violence, on the other, a cold strategic mind capable of theoretically substantiating the need for regicide.

Among those who left the square and returned to the barracks themselves, many were "left unattended" by the Tsar's personal desire. A friend of N. A. Chizhov, Alexander Litke, turned out to be in this number. Most of those who left the square received royal forgiveness, but the Investigative Committee (read: tsar) developed a wary attitude towards Chizhov. It is not difficult to guess why: those same literary pursuits played a fatal role. The behavior of the Investigative Committee clearly traces the age-old tradition of the attitude of the Russian authorities towards the scientific and literary world. As a man of talent, Chizhov stood out from the general ranks of those under investigation: in his evasive written replies, the Committee could not fail to see a dangerous person capable of "shaking the foundations."

It has long been noted that the sailors of the Decembrists were the most unlucky. Even some of their distant descendants told us in private conversations that the officers of the Guards crew cannot be considered fully Decembrists, since they accidentally got involved in someone else's business, etc. But after all, it is the sailors who own the answers that are original in terms of presentation - answers that were given by people who are persistent, confident in the rightness of their cause and who did not want to betray like-minded people in the name of their own salvation. Of the sailors, Nikolai Bestuzhev received the greatest fame for his many talents and personal qualities. It was he and his brother Peter (the author of Memoirs) who became Chizhov's guides to secret societies.

Guards crews trace their history from February 16, 1810 to March 11, 1917. Initially, the guards crew consisted of sailors from the court rowing and yacht teams. In 1812, numbering 500 officers and sailors, the crew took an active part in the Patriotic War: in the battles near Smolensk (August 4, 1812), at the river. Kolocha (August 26, 1812), near Bautzen (May 9, 1813) and at Kulm (August 17, 1813). With such activity of naval officers, it is difficult to imagine that they could remain aloof from the activities of secret societies. The Bestuzhevs could not but offer sailor Chizhov participation in the opposition.

In the investigative testimony, Chizhov, intentionally or really out of ignorance, does not report anything new; The facts concerning the Bestuzhevs are already known to the Committee, and Chizhov apparently knows this. In any case, the ill-wishers of the Decembrists, declaring their "impartial" trial of history, have nothing to blame for Chizhov.

The zealous Investigative Committee, ridiculed hundreds of times in the literature about the Decembrists for diligence in choosing punishments, on July 10, 1826, determined Chizhov to be exiled to Siberia forever. Over the following weeks, many sentences were commuted (today, as if we are living in the 1830s, it has become fashionable to attribute every relaxation in favor of the opposition to Tsar Nicholas I), and on August 22, Chizhov received 20 years.

On July 29, 1826, on a prison cart, he left for the city of Olekminsk, Yakutsk region. The details of the one and a half month journey have sunk into history, it is not even known what date he reached the edges, which soon inspired him to poetic creations.

Almost immediately upon arrival in Olekminsk, smitten with impressions from what he saw "the abysses of the earth," Chizhov began to write petitions for a transfer, at least to Yakutsk. Considering that already in 1832 the request was partially granted (“transfer, but not to Yakutsk”), we can assume that he was relatively lucky. The special highest clarification “but not to Yakutsk” probably does not need explanations.

He was transferred to the Irkutsk province, to the Alexander distillery, but it seems that few of the Decembrists and other contemporaries who mention Chizhov in various records (memoirs, letters, articles) knew about this. In these documents, there are erroneous indications of the location of Chizhov. True, recalling this period, a member of the Southern Society M. I. Muravyov-Apostol correctly named Chizhov’s place of residence, but his notes were not without another oversight: “the city of Olekminsk, where Andreev and Chizhov Al[eksander] Nik[olayevich] were exiled , midshipman ". In the cited edition, commentators not only did not notice the error, but “clarified” the already incorrect initials with square brackets.

In the "Notes" of I. D. Yakushkin we read: "Chizhov was settled in Gizhiga ...".

So, from January 25 to September 16, 1833, Chizhov was at the Alexander distillery in the Irkutsk province, from September 1833 he was assigned as a private in the 14th battery of the 4th brigade of the 29th infantry division of the Siberian linear battalion in Irkutsk.

The transfer in November 1833 to the 1st battalion in Tobolsk was the most important event in Chizhov's life in exile. In Tobolsk, many of the Decembrists transferred there settled in. Chizhov made a strong friendship with the Fonvizins. This can be argued based on the letters of M. A. Fonvizin. Written reviews about Chizhov are generally scarce, but what remains allows us to think about Chizhov's openness, sociability and his desire to have good friends, but only from people of his circle with the same intelligence. We are convinced of this by the history of Chizhov's relationship with Naval Lieutenant Due.

In 1828, the government of Norway appointed Lieutenant Due to a scientific round-the-world expedition to explore, among other things, the northern outskirts of Eurasia. Due was instructed to go down the Lena to the supposed location of the magnetic 17th pole, which he did in March 1829, and the expedition moved to Okhotsk to reach the ocean. Showing an increased interest in ethnography and history, Douai could communicate with the local population only through translators or with the help of educated exiled settlers. The news of his activities quickly spread throughout Siberia and reached Chizhov, who hurried to meet Douai at the opportunity - not so much as an interesting person, but also with a sailor. For Chizhov, a former professional sailor, this was an outlet. M. I. Muravyov- The Apostle names yesterday's naval officers Chizhov and Bestuzhev among those who fell in love with Douai and communicated closely with him.

All these years (1830s) Chizhov served as a private until June 15, 1837 he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and on February 15, 1840 he received the rank of warrant officer.

People from Chizhov's entourage were part of the Russian intellectual elite in Siberia. In the correspondence and memoirs of friends and friends of Chizhov (Count F.P. Litke, M.A. Fonvizin, M.I. Muravyov-Apostol), Nikolai Alekseevich is mentioned extremely rarely. Fonvizin, in his letters to I. D. Yakushkin, limited himself to greetings from Chizhov, reporting only once about the promotion of his friend. In Tobolsk exile in March 1839, Chizhov was assigned "to fight the Kirghiz in the steppe" and was promoted for participation in that expedition, the essence of which remained unclear to us. His friend M. A. Fonvizin wrote to I. I. Pushchin at the end of 1839: “Our Chizhov is presented as an officer for an expedition in the steppe.” The head of the steppe expedition was “colonel, then major general, Ivan Nikolaevich Gorsky – commander of the 1st brigade of the 23rd infantry division”. It also tells about how he almost suffered as a result of a denunciation for organizing an imaginary underground circle in Tobolsk.

V. F. Raevsky’s relative by wife I. V. Efimov specified in his review of “Memoirs of L. F. Lvov”: “... in 1829, Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (Marlinsky) and Count Zakhar Grigorievich Chernyshev; in Olekma - N. A. Chizhov<…>Of these, Bestuzhev, Chernyshev (back in 1829), Chizhov<...>were transferred to the Caucasus to the rank and file. The inclusion here of Chizhov in the Caucasian group of former Decembrists is motivated not so much by the lack of knowledge of the memoirist I. V. Efimov, but by the logic of his thinking. The Decembrists were released to European Russia through the focus of the Caucasian War. Characteristic is the remark of A.F. von der Briggen in a letter to his daughter, containing a response to a written assurance of the sworn enemy of the Decembrists, Minister of War A.I. Chernyshev: “It is also unfair that only those who deserved this favor by serving in the Caucasus, for Chizhov, who took part in December 14, having risen from a soldier in Siberia to an officer's rank, returned home a year ago.

Chizhov secured a four-month vacation in the Tula province by the autumn of 1842. Judging by historical evidence, he spent the last quarter of that year with his mother. One can imagine this meeting if we remember how many letters and petitions were sent by Praskovya Matveevna to the Tula noble deputy assembly over the past 16 years. The GATO funds contain several of her letters, in which Nikolai is mentioned only twice. Anyone who looks into these documents in order to learn something new about the Decembrist will certainly pay attention to the style, nature of these references: among the other children of the petitioner, the name Nikolai without a date of birth and in general any information is affixed in a brief pedigree list, necessary for entering the next family member in the noble book.

But one way or another, Nikolai Chizhov achieved his arrival home through joint efforts with his mother, and at the end of the vacation, the Decembrist did not return to Siberia. There is no doubt that the exile broke his health, and this circumstance played a major role in deciding the question of his future fate.

Chizhov was entrusted with the management of the estates of Princess Gorchakova. In accordance with the rules that dictated the conditions of life and service of yesterday's "state criminals", he could manage only those estates that were in the nearest district, and live in any of them with secret supervision. Of the territories allowed for living, two Gorchakov's possessions are mentioned: the villages of Pokrovskoye in the Tula province and Troitskoye in the Oryol province.

The name of Princess Gorchakova remains unsolved. An appeal to genealogies will give little - personal names and dates of life of most princely wives and widows are missing. But at the same time, it can still be assumed that during the years of managing the Chizhov estates, one of these Gorchakovs could be alive. This is the wife (or already the widow) of the ill-fated Prince Vasily Nikolaevich Gorchakov (b. 1771), who made up household capital, was exiled to Siberia for money scams and, perhaps, ended his days there. In girlhood she was Stromilova, the name, unfortunately, has been lost. Less likely is another version, according to which it could be the widow of Prince N.I. Gorchakov, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lukina. Being a landowner from Chern, she really owned these vast places, but she was born and died no one knows where and when, outliving her husband, who died back in 1811. It is unlikely that she lived until the end of the 1840s.

The experience of the bibliography dedicated to Chizhov is presented at the end of this edition. The total number of publications about the Decembrist in the periodicals and books of Eastern Siberia significantly exceeds the volume of Tula studies.

In brochures with the same name "Decembrists-Tula" Chizhov is given one page in each of them. Despite the fact that his lyrics have already been published several times, none of these pamphlets presents samples of them. The political orientation of the brochures shifted the focus and did not allow readers to get acquainted with at least a few lines of the romantic poet.

Following this, we should recall a few fleeting notes in the Tula newspapers and the mention of N. A. Chizhov in the Tula Biographical Dictionary. In the first volume of the collection "The Pride of the Land of Tula" you can read a fictionalized essay about Chizhov by D. M. Romanov, written in a fascinating form. This essay is the only large-scale work of fiction about Nikolai Chizhov, except for the biographical study by M. L. Sergeev. With the exception of brief references in anthologies, in the articles of the Siberian historian A. Sheshin, an index of literature and, perhaps, episodic scenes in two books, it is still problematic to find anything solid about Chizhov’s personality and works.

For all the time that has passed since the death of Chizhov, the exact date and place of which are unknown, his works have never been published as a separate edition. The existing literature about him, consisting of essays, which, as a rule, repeat the same information, is not systematized in the same way. Some bibliographic indexes suffer from incompleteness.

Not the last role is played by the fact of the loss of some works, especially the loss of his publicistic articles 2) .

Moreover, if there are a number of studies on Chizhov's poems, then other aspects of his biography, with the exception of the period of his stay in Tobolsk, still remain terra incognita for both philologists and historians.

The present edition adheres to the following principles: The author's spelling is retained, except in cases where the absence of clear punctuation rules may lead to a change in meaning (for example, separating tenses with commas, etc.). In the article "Odessa Garden" it was decided to leave the capital letter in the names of peoples (for an explanation, see note No. 7 to this article).

The version of the portrait of N. A. Chizhov was created by L. V. Ermolaeva on the basis of a description of his appearance in the investigative case and taking into account the genetic similarity with his cousin uncle Dmitry Semyonovich, whose image is known from many reference publications (primarily related to the history of Russian universities).

Tatyana Viktorovna Mayorova (Tula) and Albina Vasilievna Gluk (Irkutsk) kindly helped us in the work on this edition, for which we express our sincere gratitude to them.

M. V. Mayorov

Notes:

1) The brothers Alexander and Fyodor Litke were involved in the secret opposition of the 1820s. Who knows what Chizhov and F. Litke talked about during the four years on the expedition, and whether it was Chizhov who introduced the phlegmatic admiral to the activities of a secret society? ..

2) Two of them - "A Few Thoughts on Russian Poetry" and "On Love for the Fatherland" are mentioned in Sat. “Their union with liberty is eternal” (Compiled by S.S. Volk. - M., 1983).

Literature:

1. Arseniev V. S., Kartavtsov I. M. Decembrists-Tula. - Tula: Tulpechat, 1927.

2. Chernopyatov V.I. [The nobility of the Tula province]. Pedigree. Part I – III (XII): Materials. Part 1. - M. [b.g.] - S. 35.

3. Provinces of the Russian Empire: History and leaders 1708-1917. - M., 2003.

4. Tarasov N. P. Decembrists in documents and materials of the state archive of the Tula region //
Decembrists-Tulaks / Under the general. ed. and with enter. article by V. I. Krutikov. – Tula: Approx. book. publishing house, 1977. - S. 79.

5. Köppen P.I. Cities and villages of the Tula province in 1857 / Under observation. acad. P. I. Köppen. - St. Petersburg,
1858; Tula, 2004. - P. 151.

6. Tula region: Administrative-territorial structure. - Tula, 2000. - For official
use. - S. 81.

8. Revolt of the Decembrists: Documents / Ch. arch. ex. Centre. State. ist. archive of the USSR in Moscow; Ed. M. V. Nechkina. T. XV. - M., 1925, 1979. - (Uk.).

9. Decembrists: Biographical guide / Ed. M. V. Nechkina. – M.: Nauka, 1988. – S. 196.

10. Bot V. I. 200 years since the birth (1799) N. A. Chizhova // Tula region. Memorable dates for 1999: Decree. lit. - Tula, 1998. - S. 85-87.

11. Revolt of the Decembrists: Documents / Ch. arch. ex. Centre. State. ist. archive of the USSR in Moscow; Ed. M. V. Nechkina. T. XV. - M., 1925, 1979. - S. 258-261.

13. Azadovsky M. K. Pages of the history of Decembrism. - Irkutsk: East Siberian Prince. publishing house, 1991-1992. T.1. - S. 181.

14. Chizhov N. A. On Novaya Zemlya // Son of the Fatherland. - 1823. - Ch. 83. - No. 4. - S. 157-174.

15. Chizhov N. A. Odessa Garden (an excerpt from the memories of the Black Sea) // Son of the Fatherland. - 1823. - No. 12.

16. Yakushkin I. D. Notes, articles and letters of the Decembrist I. D. Yakushkin / Ed. and comment. S. Ya. Shtreikh. - M .: Nauka, 1951. - (Literary monuments). - S. 149.

17. Muravyov-Apostol I. M. In Siberia // Memoirs of the Decembrists: Southern Society / Collected. texts and general ed. prof. I. V. Gunpowder and prof. V. A. Fedorova. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow. un-ta, 1982. - (University Library). - S. 203.

18. Yakushkin I. D. Notes, articles and letters of the Decembrist I. D. Yakushkin / Ed. and comment. S. Ya. Shtreikh. - M .: Nauka, 1951. - (Literary monuments). - S. 104.

19. Muravyov-Apostol I. M. In Siberia // Memoirs of the Decembrists: Southern Society / Collected. texts and general ed. prof. I. V. Gunpowder and prof. V. A. Fedorova. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow. un-ta, 1982. - (University Library). - S. 211.

20. Fonvizin M. A. Works and letters: In 2 vols. T. 1. Diary and letters / Ed. preparation S. V. Zhitomirskaya and S. V. Mironenko. - Irkutsk: East Siberian Prince. publishing house, 1979. - (Polar Star). - S. 162, 172.

21. Ibid., p. 412

22. Efimov I. V. From “Notes on the memoirs of L. F. Lvov” // Decembrists in the memoirs of contemporaries / Comp., obshch. ed., entry. Art. and comment. prof. V. A. Fedorova. - M .: Publishing House of Moscow. un-ta, 1988. - (University Library). - S. 416.

23. Briggen, von der A. F. Letters, historical writings / Ed. preparation O. S. Talskoy. - Irkutsk: East Siberian Book Publishing House, 1986. - (Polar Star). - S. 196, 495.

24. GATO. F. 39. Op. 2. D. 2569.

25. Decembrists-Tulaks / Under the general. ed. and with enter. article by V. I. Krutikov. – Tula: Approx. book. publishing house, 1977. - S. 6, 9-10, 15, 16-17, 65, 79.

26. Chizhov Nikolay Alekseevich // Tula biogr. words. - Tula: Peresvet, 1996. T. 2. - S. 307-308.

27. Romanov D. M. “I think a high aspiration” // Pride of the land of Tula. T. 1. - Tula: Priok. book. publishing house, 1982.– S. 37-44.

28. Sergeev M. “In vain I want to flutter wings ...”: (Pages of the life of the Decembrist N. A. Chizhov) // Fatherland: Local Lore Almanac. - M., 1990. - S. 197-206.

30. Sheshin A. B. Nikolai Chizhov / Transbaikal worker. - 1985. - December 6; He: Siberian poems by Chizhov // Polar Star. - 1991. - No. 4. - S. 168-174.

31. State archives of the RSFSR: Reference guide / Comp. E. M. Korneva and others - M .: Sov. Russia, 1980. - S. 100.

32. Selivanov Vl. Decembrists. - L., 1925. - P. 138 (Literature is indicated, 5 titles).

33. Egorov I. Sailors-Decembrists. - L., 1925.

K:Wikipedia:Articles without images (type: not specified)

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov(March 23, 1803, St. Petersburg - April 12, 1848, Troitskoye village, Orlovsky district, Orel province) - naval officer, member of a research expedition to Novaya Zemlya. Member of the Northern Society. During the events of December 14, 1825, together with the officers and sailors of the Guards crew, he went to Senate Square. He was convicted in the VIII category. Author of the physical and geographical description of the island of Novaya Zemlya. Poet.

Biography

Origin and education

Brothers - Peter (23.04.1807 - 26.08.1889), Pavel (2.09.1808 - ?), Dmitry (28.10.1811 - ?), Michael(b. 08/21/1812 -?).

According to family tradition, the sons devoted their lives to military service - Pavel served as an ensign of the Retinue of His Imperial Majesty in the quartermaster unit. Peter, Dmitry and Michael graduated from the Alexander Noble Military School in Tula.

Nikolay Chizhov in 1813-1817 he was brought up in Nikolaev "in a noble boarding school, which he kept from 1813 to 1817. teacher of the Black Sea Navigator School, Mr. Golubev. From August 30, 1813 he was recorded as a midshipman in the fleet. He studied maritime disciplines with Druzhinin, a teacher at the navigation school. Participated in voyages across the Black Sea on the yacht "Tverdaya" and the brig "Alexey" from Nikolaev to Ochakov and Odessa. February 9, 1818 was promoted to midshipman and transferred to the Baltic Fleet.

Service

In 1818-1820 he served " on the coast» in the 2nd naval crew in St. Petersburg. In 1821 he was sent to Arkhangelsk to participate in an Arctic research expedition on the Novaya Zemlya brig under the command of F.P. Litke. In the April issue of the St. Petersburg magazine "Son of the Fatherland" for 1823, in a review article "On Novaya Zemlya", Chizhov summarized the results of topographic work performed there and collected information about toponymy, climate and wildlife, nearby islands and the state of the ice cover, the history of discovery and prospects for economic development of the territory. He wrote about the possibility of developing fisheries in the North:

« The cheapness in the city of Arkhangelsk of all supplies for building ships could make such an industry very profitable, especially in the vicinity of the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard, and Pomors would be the best sailors on whaling ships. If such crafts were carried out under the guidance of enlightened people, they could bring innumerable benefits.»

Upon returning from the Arctic expedition, N.A. Chizhov continued to serve in the 2nd naval crew. Participated in escorting ships built for the Baltic Fleet to Kronstadt. April 21, 1824 promoted to lieutenant. In 1825, as part of the crew of the 36-gun frigate "Elena", launched at the Solombala shipyard, he moved from Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt.

He was on close terms with the Bestuzhev brothers. Later, he noted the influence of N. A. Bestuzhev on the formation of his own way of thinking: “ I brought him my articles, he corrected them and gave his advice: thus, accustomed to respecting him as my mentor, I insensitively borrowed from him the way of thinking» . From the end of September 1825 he served in Kronstadt and lived in the apartment of midshipman P. A. Bestuzhev, adjutant to the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, at whose suggestion he joined the Northern Society in November 1825 - "only out of love for the good of my compatriots." According to midshipman of the Guards crew A.P. Belyaev, the Decembrists considered N.A. Chizhov in the event of an uprising " able to operate in Kronstadt».

Involvement in rebellion and punishment

Accepted by the members of the Northern Society just a month before the uprising, N. A. Chizhov did not participate in the meetings of the conspirators who discussed plans of action. N. A. Bestuzhev warned him that “ guards regiments will not swear"and that you need to be on the Senate Square," when the rebels converge» . N. A. Chizhov, who understood the purpose of the secret society to " limit autocracy, following the example of other European peoples, alleviate the lot of the lower class of people and provide them with the means to enjoy the benefits provided by enlightenment", thought that " society could hope that the people and the troops would understand their own benefits and would be its support, and that all well-meaning people would take part in this matter, even if they did not belong to society» . Events, however, unfolded contrary to the plans of the leaders of the conspiracy. On the morning of December 14, having met I. I. Pushchin and K. F. Ryleev at the appointed place of assembly, who were heading to the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment, Chizhov convinced them that “ no attempt to raise the Izmailovsky regiment can be successful”, and headed to the barracks of the Guards crew. He was the first to inform the guards about the indignation in the Moscow regiment and that several of his companies were already on Senate Square. Together with the officers and sailors of the crew, Fleet Lieutenant Chizhov also came there. Left the square, making sure that " this enterprise can not be any success».

In exile

In September 1826 he was delivered to Olekminsk, Yakutsk region. On April 28, 1829, in a letter to the emperor that remained unanswered, he asked for an assignment to the army in the Caucasus in order to " wash away with your blood the delusions and deeds of young years". In 1832, another request for a transfer from Olekminsk - now for health reasons to Yakutsk - was instructed: “ Transfer to another place, but not to Yakutsk". In January 1833, N. A. Chizhov was sent to the Alexander distillery, and after some time - to the village of Moty, Irkutsk province.

At the request of his mother, from September 16, 1833, he was allowed to serve as a private in the Siberian linear battalions, first in Irkutsk, and then in Tobolsk. June 15, 1837 promoted to non-commissioned officer. In Tobolsk, Chizhov's social circle expanded, which included the Decembrist M.A. Fonvizin, who was transferred here to the settlement, the poet P.P. education and noble feelings earned him the respect and affection of all of us» .

In April 1848, the district police officer, on duty, wrote to the Oryol governor P. I. Trubetskoythat N. A. Chizhov " on finding him the manager of the estate of Princess Gorchakova in the village of Troitskoye, Pushkino, then, on the 12th of this April, he died» .

Poetic creativity

The poetic talent of N. A. Chizhov was revealed during the years of Siberian exile. In a poem dated June 27, 1828, " Cranes he wrote about the bitter fate of the exile:

The ballad " Nucha"Written based on the themes and images of the Yakut folklore." The archive of the Irkutsk region preserved a case (begun on September 19, 1832 - completed on March 23, 1833) on the investigation into the circumstances of the publication bypassing censorship " poems by the state criminal Chizhov, published in the "Moscow Telegraph" 1832, N8».

In addition to the ballad Nucha (Yakut story)"During the life of the author, two more of his poetic works were published:" Russian song"-" Literary additions "to" Russian invalid "(1837) and" air maiden"- almanac "Morning Dawn" (1839).

In March 1837, Chizhov, in collaboration with P. P. Ershov, wrote a vaudeville " Skullcap”, some of whose verses were used by V. M. Zhemchuzhnikov in the text of the operetta“ Skullcap, that is Phrenologist”, published by the Sovremennik magazine in 1860 and included in the collected works of Kozma Prutkov.

Among the lost journalistic works of the Decembrists was an article by N. A. Chizhov “ A few thoughts on Russian poetry» .

Some of Chizhov's poems remained unknown for a long time and were published only in 1947. As M. V. Nechkina wrote, there was “ the wonderful poet of that galaxy, the Decembrist N. Chizhov, an active participant in the uprising on December 14, 1825, was recovered from oblivion.» .

Memory

The name of N. A. Chizhov, a sailor - explorer of the Russian Arctic, is one of the capes of Ekaterininsky Island in the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea. 69°12′54″ s. sh. 33°27′59″ E d. /  69.215022° N. sh. 33.466411° in. d./ 69.215022; 33.466411(G) (I).

N. A. Chizhov is devoted to the pages of the books of V. M. Pasetsky “ In pursuit of the mystery of the century" and " Geographical studies of the Decembrists"and Frumenkov G. G. and Volynskaya V. A. " Decembrists in the North».

In 1919, in the city of Nikolaev, the former Glazenapovskaya street was renamed Dekabristov street, in memory of the participants in the events of December 14, 1825, among which were " natives of the city of Nikolaev brothers Alexander and Joseph Poggio and a graduate of the Nikolaev navigation school Nikolai Chizhov”, and in memory of N.A. Chizhov personally, a street was named in another district of the city - Salt.

The surviving remains of a family estate in the village of Pokrovskoye, Teplo-Ogaryovskoye district, in which the Decembrist N.A. Chizhov lived after exile, are included in the register of historical and cultural monuments of the Tula region of federal and regional significance.

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Links

• Decembrists. Biographical guide / Edited by M. V. Nechkina. - M .: Nauka, 1988. - S. 196, 336. - 448 p. - 50,000 copies.
• Levandovsky L.I.// Brief literary encyclopedia. T. 8. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1975. - Stlb. 518.
• Decembrists. Anthology in two volumes. T. 1. Poetry - L .: Hood. lit., 1975. - 496 p.

An excerpt characterizing Chizhov, Nikolai Alekseevich

- You're still afraid! Eh, you learned people,” said a third courageous voice, interrupting both of them. - Then you, artillerymen, are very learned because you can bring everything with you, both vodka and snacks.
And the owner of the manly voice, apparently an infantry officer, laughed.
“But you’re still afraid,” continued the first familiar voice. You're afraid of the unknown, that's what. No matter how you say that the soul will go to heaven... after all, we know that there is no sky, but there is only one sphere.
Again the courageous voice interrupted the gunner.
“Well, treat yourself to your herbalist, Tushin,” he said.
“Ah, this is the same captain who stood at the sutler without boots,” thought Prince Andrei, recognizing with pleasure the pleasant philosophizing voice.
“You can get a herbalist,” said Tushin, “but still comprehend the future life ...
He did not agree. At this time, a whistle was heard in the air; closer, closer, faster and more audible, more audible and faster, and the core, as if not having finished everything that was needed, exploding spray with inhuman force, plopped into the ground not far from the booth. The earth seemed to gasp from a terrible blow.
At the same instant, little Tushin jumped out of the booth, first of all, with his pipe bitten on his side; his kind, intelligent face was somewhat pale. Behind him came the owner of a courageous voice, a dashing infantry officer, and ran to his company, buttoning up as he ran.

Prince Andrei stopped on horseback on the battery, looking at the smoke of the gun from which the cannonball flew out. His eyes darted across the vast expanse. He only saw that the hitherto motionless masses of the French were swaying, and that there really was a battery to the left. It hasn't blown smoke yet. Two French cavalry, probably adjutants, galloped up the mountain. Downhill, probably to strengthen the chain, a clearly visible small column of the enemy was moving. The smoke of the first shot had not yet dissipated, when another smoke and a shot appeared. The battle has begun. Prince Andrei turned his horse around and galloped back to Grunt to look for Prince Bagration. Behind him he heard the cannonade becoming more frequent and louder. Apparently, ours began to respond. Below, in the place where the parliamentarians were passing, rifle shots were heard.
Lemarrois (Le Marierois) with a formidable letter from Bonaparte had just galloped to Murat, and the ashamed Murat, wanting to make amends for his mistake, immediately moved his troops to the center and bypassing both flanks, hoping even before evening and before the arrival of the emperor to crush the insignificant one standing in front of him, squad.
"Began! Here it is!" thought Prince Andrei, feeling how the blood began to rush to his heart more often. “But where? How will my Toulon be expressed? he thought.
Passing between the same companies that ate porridge and drank vodka a quarter of an hour ago, he everywhere saw the same quick movements of soldiers lining up and dismantling their guns, and on all faces he recognized the feeling of animation that was in his heart. "Began! Here it is! Scary and fun! spoke the face of every soldier and officer.
Before he even reached the fortification under construction, he saw in the evening light of a cloudy autumn day horsemen advancing towards him. The front man, in a cloak and cap with fur coats, rode a white horse. It was Prince Bagration. Prince Andrei stopped, waiting for him. Prince Bagration stopped his horse and, recognizing Prince Andrei, nodded his head to him. He continued to look ahead while Prince Andrei told him what he had seen.
Expression: "It has begun! here it is!" it was even on the strong brown face of Prince Bagration with half-closed, cloudy, as if sleepy eyes. Prince Andrei peered into this motionless face with restless curiosity, and he wanted to know whether he was thinking and feeling, and what he thought, what this man felt at that moment? "Is there anything at all behind that motionless face?" Prince Andrei asked himself, looking at him. Prince Bagration bowed his head, in agreement with the words of Prince Andrei, and said: “Good,” with such an expression as if everything that happened and that he was told was exactly what he had already foreseen. Prince Andrei, shoved from the speed of the ride, spoke quickly. Prince Bagration uttered the words with his oriental accent especially slowly, as if suggesting that there was nowhere to hurry. However, he trotted his horse in the direction of Tushin's battery. Prince Andrei, together with his retinue, went after him. Prince Bagration was followed by: an officer of the retinue, the prince's personal adjutant, Zherkov, an orderly, an officer on duty on a beautiful english horse, and a state official, an auditor, who, out of curiosity, asked to go to battle. The auditor, a stout man with a full face, looked around with a naive smile of joy, shaking on his horse, imagining a strange sight in his camlot overcoat on a furshtat saddle among hussars, Cossacks and adjutants.
“He wants to see the battle,” Zherkov said to Bolkonsky, pointing to the auditor, “but it hurt in the pit of the stomach.
“Well, that’s enough for you,” said the auditor, with a radiant, naive, and at the same time sly smile, as if he were flattered that he was the subject of Zherkov’s jokes, and as if he deliberately tried to appear more stupid than he really was.
- Tres drole, mon monsieur prince, [Very funny, my lord prince,] - said the officer on duty. (He remembered that in French the title prince is somehow especially pronounced, and he could not fix it in any way.)
At this time, they were all already approaching Tushin's battery, and a cannonball hit ahead of them.
- What did it fall? the auditor asked with a naive smile.
“French cakes,” said Zherkov.
- This is what they beat, then? the auditor asked. - What a passion!
And he seemed to be full of pleasure. As soon as he finished, an unexpectedly terrible whistle was heard again, suddenly ending with a blow to something liquid, and sh sh sh slap - a Cossack, riding a little to the right and behind the auditor, with his horse collapsed to the ground. Zherkov and the officer on duty crouched down in their saddles and turned the horses away. The auditor stopped in front of the Cossack, examining him with attentive curiosity. The Cossack was dead, the horse was still beating.
Prince Bagration, screwing up his eyes, looked around and, seeing the reason for the confusion that had occurred, turned away indifferently, as if saying: is it worth doing stupid things! He stopped the horse, with the reception of a good rider, leaned over a little and straightened the sword caught on the cloak. The sword was an old one, not like the one worn now. Prince Andrey recalled the story of how Suvorov in Italy presented his sword to Bagration, and at that moment this memory was especially pleasant to him. They drove up to the very battery at which Bolkonsky stood when he was examining the battlefield.
- Whose company? - Prince Bagration asked the fireworks, standing by the boxes.
He asked: whose company? but in essence he was asking: are you not timid here? And the fireworker figured it out.
“Captain Tushin, Your Excellency,” shouted a red-haired fireworker with a freckled face, stretching out in a cheerful voice.
- So, so, - said Bagration, thinking something, and drove past the limbers to the extreme gun.
While he was driving up, a shot rang out from this cannon, deafening him and his retinue, and in the smoke that suddenly surrounded the cannon, artillerymen were visible, grabbing the cannon and, hastily straining, rolling it back to its original place. A broad-shouldered, huge soldier of the 1st with a banner, legs wide apart, jumped back to the wheel. The 2nd, with a trembling hand, put a charge into the muzzle. A small, round-shouldered man, officer Tushin, stumbled on his trunk and ran forward without noticing the general and looking out from under his small hand.
“Add two more lines, that’s exactly what will happen,” he shouted in a thin voice, to which he tried to give a youthfulness that did not suit his figure. - Second! he squeaked. - Crush, Medvedev!
Bagration called out to the officer, and Tushin, with a timid and awkward movement, not at all like the military salute, but like the priests bless, putting three fingers to the visor, approached the general. Although Tushin's guns were assigned to bombard the hollow, he fired fire-brandskugels at the village of Shengraben, visible ahead, in front of which large masses of the French advanced.
No one ordered Tushin where and with what to shoot, and he, after consulting with his sergeant major Zakharchenko, for whom he had great respect, decided that it would be good to set fire to the village. "Good!" Bagration said to the report of the officer and began to look around the entire battlefield that opened before him, as if thinking something. On the right side, the French came closest. Below the height on which the Kyiv regiment stood, in the hollow of the river, the erratic rumble of guns was heard, and much to the right, behind the dragoons, the retinue officer pointed out to the prince at the French column that was bypassing our flank. To the left the horizon was limited to a close forest. Prince Bagration ordered two battalions from the center to go for reinforcements to the right. The retinue officer dared to remark to the prince that after the departure of these battalions, the guns would be left without cover. Prince Bagration turned to the retinue officer and looked at him with dull eyes in silence. It seemed to Prince Andrei that the remark of the retinue officer was just and that there really was nothing to say. But at that time an adjutant galloped up from the regimental commander, who was in the hollow, with the news that huge masses of the French were coming down, that the regiment was upset and was retreating to the Kyiv grenadiers. Prince Bagration bowed his head in agreement and approval. He walked at a pace to the right and sent an adjutant to the dragoons with orders to attack the French. But the adjutant sent there arrived half an hour later with the news that the dragoon regimental commander had already retreated beyond the ravine, for strong fire had been directed against him, and he was wasting people in vain and therefore hurried shooters into the forest.
- Good! Bagration said.
While he was driving away from the battery, shots were also heard to the left in the forest, and since it was too far to the left flank to have time to arrive on time himself, Prince Bagration sent Zherkov there to tell the senior general, the same one who represented the regiment to Kutuzov in Braunau, so that he retreats as quickly as possible behind the ravine, because the right flank will probably not be able to hold the enemy for a long time. About Tushin, and the battalion that covered him, was forgotten. Prince Andrei carefully listened to the conversations of Prince Bagration with the chiefs and to the orders he gave, and to his surprise he noticed that no orders were given, and that Prince Bagration only tried to pretend that everything that was done out of necessity, chance and the will of private chiefs, that all this was done, if not by his order, but according to his intentions. Thanks to the tact shown by Prince Bagration, Prince Andrei noticed that, despite this randomness of events and their independence from the will of the chief, his presence did an extremely great deal. The commanders, who drove up to Prince Bagration with upset faces, became calm, the soldiers and officers greeted him cheerfully and became livelier in his presence and, apparently, flaunted their courage in front of him.

Prince Bagration, having driven to the highest point of our right flank, began to descend, where erratic shooting was heard and nothing was visible from the powder smoke. The closer they descended to the hollow, the less they could see, but the more sensitive became the proximity of the real battlefield itself. They began to meet the wounded. One with a bloody head, without a hat, was dragged by two soldiers by the arms. He wheezed and spat. The bullet hit, apparently, in the mouth or throat. Another, whom he met, was walking briskly alone, without a gun, groaning loudly and waving his hand in fresh pain, from which blood was pouring, like from a glass, onto his overcoat. His face looked more frightened than hurt. He was wounded a minute ago. Having crossed the road, they began to descend steeply and on the descent they saw several people who were lying; they met a crowd of soldiers, some of whom were not wounded. The soldiers walked uphill, breathing heavily, and, despite the appearance of the general, they talked loudly and waved their hands. Ahead, in the smoke, rows of gray overcoats were already visible, and the officer, seeing Bagration, ran screaming after the soldiers marching in a crowd, demanding that they return. Bagration rode up to the ranks, along which here and there shots quickly clicked, drowning out the conversation and shouts of command. All the air was saturated with gunpowder smoke. The faces of the soldiers were all smoked with gunpowder and animated. Others beat them with ramrods, others sprinkled them on the shelves, took out charges from their bags, and still others fired. But whom they were shooting at, this was not visible from the powder smoke, which was not blown away by the wind. Quite often, pleasant sounds of buzzing and whistling were heard. "What it is? - thought Prince Andrei, driving up to this crowd of soldiers. “It can't be an attack because they don't move; there can't be carre: they don't cost that much."
A thin, weak-looking old man, a regimental commander, with a pleasant smile, with eyelids that more than half covered his senile eyes, giving him a meek air, rode up to Prince Bagration and received him as the host of a dear guest. He reported to Prince Bagration that there was a French cavalry attack against his regiment, but that, although this attack was repulsed, the regiment lost more than half of its people. The regimental commander said that the attack was repulsed, giving this military name to what was happening in his regiment; but he really did not himself know what was happening in those half an hour in the troops entrusted to him, and could not say with certainty whether the attack was repulsed or his regiment was defeated by the attack. At the beginning of the actions, he only knew that cores and grenades began to fly all over his regiment and beat people, that then someone shouted: “cavalry”, and ours began to shoot. And so far they have been shooting not at the cavalry, which disappeared, but at the French foot soldiers, who appeared in the hollow and fired at ours. Prince Bagration bowed his head as a sign that all this was exactly as he wished and assumed. Turning to the adjutant, he ordered him to bring two battalions of the 6th Chasseurs from the mountain, past which they had now passed. Prince Andrei was struck at that moment by the change that had taken place in the face of Prince Bagration. His face expressed that concentrated and happy determination that a person has when he is ready to throw himself into the water on a hot day and takes the last run. There were no sleepy dull eyes, no feigned thoughtful look: round, hard, hawk-like eyes looked ahead enthusiastically and somewhat contemptuously, obviously not stopping at anything, although his former slowness and measuredness remained in his movements.
The regimental commander turned to Prince Bagration, begging him to drive back, as it was too dangerous here. "Have mercy, your Excellency, for God's sake!" he said, looking for confirmation at the retinue officer, who was turning away from him. "Here, if you please, see!" He let them see the bullets, which incessantly squealed, sang and whistled around them. He spoke in such a tone of request and reproach, with which a carpenter says to a master holding an ax: “Our business is familiar, but you will get your hands wet.” He spoke as if he himself could not be killed by these bullets, and his half-closed eyes made his words even more convincing. The staff officer joined in the exhortations of the regimental commander; but Prince Bagration did not answer them and only ordered them to stop firing and line up in such a way as to make room for the two battalions that were approaching. While he was speaking, as if with an invisible hand stretched from right to left, from the rising wind, the canopy of smoke that hid the hollow, and the opposite mountain with the French moving along it, opened up before them. All eyes were involuntarily fixed on this French column, moving towards us and meandering along the ledges of the terrain. The furry hats of the soldiers were already visible; it was already possible to distinguish officers from privates; one could see how their banner fluttered on the staff.

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December 14, 1825, when the Moscow regiment had already entered Senate Square, Lieutenant N.A. Chizhov and midshipman P.A. Bestuzhev. Their message about the performance of the Moscow regiment put an end to the sailors' hesitation. The guards fleet crew almost in full force moved to the square ...

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov was born in 1800 in St. Petersburg. "In infancy" he went with his parents to Nikolaev and was brought up in the Noble boarding school, which was then kept by the teacher of the Black Sea Navigation School Golubev. In 1813, Nikolai Chizhov was enlisted in the Black Sea Fleet as a midshipman, and from that time on "he studied ... the sciences necessary for a naval officer from a teacher ... navigational school ... Druzhinin", and in the summer he sailed the Black Sea. In 1818, Chizhov was promoted to midshipman and transferred to the Baltic in the 2nd naval crew.

At the beginning of 1821, Nikolai Chizhov was assigned to an expedition to explore Novaya Zemlya, and later (in 1823) his article "On Novaya Zemlya" appeared in the journal Son of the Fatherland. This was the first physical and geographical description of the islands in the literature.

Upon returning from a voyage to Novaya Zemlya, Chizhov served in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt in the 2nd naval crew and in April 1824 was promoted to lieutenant. A year later, he was appointed to the command of the 36-gun frigate "Elena", built in Arkhangelsk. On it, he sailed from Arkhangelsk to Kronstadt.

In late October - early November 1825, Nikolai Chizhov joined the Northern Society.

“I joined the secret society solely out of love for the good of my compatriots,” Nikolai Alekseevich wrote during the investigation. “Society could hope,” he explained, “that the people and troops would understand their own benefits and would be its support, and that all well-meaning people would take part in this matter, even if they did not belong to society.”

A few days before the uprising, Chizhov learned from Pyotr Bestuzhev that "Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich renounced his acceptance of the throne, and that the society decided to start acting openly with the change that should come from this." On the morning of December 14, Bestuzhev informed Chizhov about the gathering of the rebels on Senate Square. Arriving at the square, Nikolai Chizhov stood there only in the Moscow regiment and hurried to the Izmailovites, and then to the Guards naval crew. Together with the Guards crew, Chizhov entered the square.

Having lost hope for the success of the uprising, N. Chizhov went to Vasilyevsky Island to his uncle, professor of mathematics at St. Petersburg University D.S. Chizhov, where he was arrested on December 17. “Chizhov, who is sent here, should be placed in a special guardhouse,” Nicholas I wrote to the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The interrogations began. ON THE. Chizhov was classified as a state criminal of the 8th category and sentenced to deprivation of rank, nobility and exile to the settlement. Later, on the day of the coronation, August 22, 1826, the eternal link was replaced by a 20-year one.

On August 11, 1826, N. A. Chizhov was delivered by courier Efimov to Omsk, and in September he arrived in Olekminsk.

Five years later, a poem by N. A. Chizhov "Nucha" appeared in the Moscow Telegraph magazine - a poetic reworking of the Yakut legend. Correspondence of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia has begun

A.S. Lavinsky with the Third Department of "His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery", interrogations of Chizhov and other residents of Olekminsk, searches, during which Chizhov's notebook with poems composed in Yakut exile was taken away. The master authorities tried to find out who helped the exile publish the poem, but this remained a mystery.

In September 1833, at the request of his mother, the Decembrist was "identified" as a private in the 14th Siberian Line Battalion in Irkutsk, and in November of the same year he was transferred to the 1st Siberian Battalion stationed in Tobolsk.

Chizhov hoped that he would soon be promoted to an officer and that he would be able to retire. But years passed, and he still remained an ordinary. On April 6, 1836, Praskovya Chizhova again turned to Nicholas I with a request to alleviate the fate of her son. However, this time Chizhov was helped not by the requests of his mother, but by the intercession of the heir to the throne.

In 1837, traveling around Russia, accompanied by V.A. Zhukovsky and other mentors, the heir Alexander Nikolaevich arrived in Tobolsk. He inspected the city, and then "inspected the line No. 1 battalion." Private of the 1st Siberian Battalion Nikolai Chizhov and the Siberian poet Pyotr Ershov, a teacher at the local gymnasium, addressed the heir with greeting verses. These poems and the intercession of the commander of the Siberian Corps, Prince Gorchakov, did their job. On June 15, 1837, Nicholas I ordered "to make Chizhov a non-commissioned officer."

In military service, Chizhov continued to engage in literary work. His works were published in the Literary Supplement to the "Russian Disabled", in the almanac "Morning Dawn" and other publications.

Nikolai Alekseevich participated in the organization of amateur performances in the Tobolsk gymnasium, wrote plays. One of these performances, which took place in 1836, was recalled by Constanty Volitsky, a participant in the Polish uprising exiled to Tobolsk: "Chernyavsky and Chizhov wrote a little play ... like an operetta mixed with dialogic prose, called" A lucky shot, or a hussar teacher ".

Only in 1840 Chizhov was promoted to ensign, and in 1843 he finally managed to retire. However, the Decembrist was forbidden to live in the capitals, a secret police supervision was established behind him. Having visited his mother's estate in the Chernsky district of the Tula province, Chizhov since 1844 settled in the village of Troitskoye, Oryol province and district, and managed the estates of Princess Gorchakova.

On August 26, 1856, on the day of the coronation, Alexander II "benefactored" N. Chizhov: his children were granted "all the rights of hereditary nobility", and the Decembrist himself was allowed "to live wherever he wishes, within the empire, not excluding the capitals, and with the release from oversight."

However, it turned out that ensign Nikolai Chizhov could not take advantage of the "royal grace" - he died back in 1848.