Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsky spoke about it at a press conference in Moscow. He said that the commission that deals with the autopsy, it was found that the tomb of the emperor, in all likelihood, had already been opened. “When we were able, being alone in the Peter and Paul Fortress, to carefully examine and examine the tombstone before starting work,” he said, “we discovered very unexpected and interesting moments”: the slab - the cover of the tombstone was shifted. And when the lid was removed, all doubts immediately disappeared: the tombstone, of course, was opened. Gone were the metal ties that connected the marble lids of the tombstone. Eight slots - top and bottom, and they are empty. Inside there was rubbish, roughly packed corners of the tombstone, white traces of roughly smeared, apparently, late gypsum - nothing like this happens at royal burials. “And here,” the bishop showed photographs to journalists, “the roughly packed corners of the tombstone. The pins connecting the corners of the marble walls are available somewhere, and somewhere they are absent. But - also a strange thing, this is the same plate that we have yet to raise. She also had damage: the corner was either beaten off in order to pry the slab from below, or, when the slab was already removed, it was broken and laid again in this way.
However, Bishop Egoryevsky did not draw hasty conclusions. “Only when we open the slab will it be possible to tell whether the grave has been invaded or not,” he said. The official conclusion of the commission is as follows: "The tombstone has traces of opening: the absence of fasteners, gypsum smudges, internal contamination of the surface." That is: the tombstone over the grave of Alexander III was dismantled and assembled again.
decision to exhume
The decision to exhume Emperor Alexander III was made by the church as part of the work of the commission for the study of the alleged remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria found in Yekaterinburg in 2007. At the end of September, the alleged remains of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who were buried in the cathedral in 1998, were exhumed. Blood samples were also taken from the clothes of Emperor Alexander II, who was killed by terrorists. In October, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia asked the government to conduct comparative genetic studies of the alleged remains of Nicholas II and his father, Emperor Alexander III. According to the Russian Orthodox Church, the positive results of such an examination will be indisputable proof of the authenticity of the remains of Nicholas II and his family. The results of previous examinations, repeatedly carried out in laboratories in Russia, the USA and England, are considered insufficient by the ROC to determine the authenticity of the royal remains.
According to the working group, it is planned to hold a burial ceremony for the recently found and still unburied alleged remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria in February. At the same time, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia convenes an unscheduled Council of Bishops.
At the command of Peter
Peter I decided to turn the Peter and Paul Cathedral into a tomb, following the example of the first Christian emperor Constantine, who built the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople in the 4th century with the intention of turning it into his mausoleum. For two centuries, almost all Russian emperors from Peter I to Alexander III were buried in the cathedral (with the exception of Peter II, who died in Moscow and was buried in the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral, as well as John VI Antonovich, who was killed in the Shlisselburg fortress) and many members of the imperial surnames. Prior to that, all the Grand Dukes of Moscow, starting with Yuri Daniilovich - the son of Grand Duke Daniel of Moscow and Russian tsars - from Ivan the Terrible to Alexei Mikhailovich - were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin (with the exception of Boris Godunov, who was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra).
During the XVIII - the first third of the XIX century. Peter and Paul Cathedral was the burial place, as a rule, only crowned persons. Since 1831, at the behest of Nicholas I, the grand dukes, princesses and princesses were also buried in the cathedral. In the XVIII - the first third of the XIX centuries, emperors and empresses were buried in a golden crown. Their bodies were embalmed, the heart (in a special silver vessel) and the rest of the insides (in a separate vessel) were buried at the bottom of the grave the day before the funeral ceremony.
In the first half of the 18th century, tombstones made of white alabaster stone were placed over the burial places. In the 1770s, during the restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral, they were replaced with new ones made of gray Karelian marble. Tombstones were covered with green or black cloth with coats of arms sewn on top, and on holidays - with golden brocade overlaid with ermine. In the middle of the 19th century, the first tombstones made of white Italian (Carrara) marble appeared. In 1865, by decree of Alexander II, it was necessary to make all tombstones, "which have fallen into disrepair or are not made of marble, made of white, following the model of the last executed." Fifteen tombstones were made from white Italian marble. In 1887, Alexander III ordered that the white marble tombstones on the graves of his parents Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna be replaced with richer and more elegant ones. For this, monoliths of green Altai jasper and pink Ural rhodonite were used.
By the end of the 19th century, there was practically no room for new burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Therefore, in 1896, next to the cathedral, with the permission of the emperor, the construction of the Grand Duke's Tomb was started. From 1908 to 1915 13 members of the imperial family were buried in it.
Romanovs agree
Members of the Romanov family reacted positively to the decision to exhume Alexander III and conduct new examinations. “A new study of the Yekaterinburg remains - with the participation of the church - is able to provide results that can be trusted. I believe the word of the patriarch," Olga Nikolaevna Kulikovskaya-Romanova, widow of Nicholas II's nephew Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovsky-Romanov, said in an interview with TASS at a memorial service for Alexander III.
Kulikovskaya-Romanova is also convinced that in the search for truth, not everything comes down to genetic research. “Let them conduct historical research, as well as anthropological comparisons with the burials of the indigenous inhabitants of the Urals. The royal family was in the Urals for only a year (from imprisonment in Tobolsk to moving to Yekaterinburg), and their remains cannot have the properties that the indigenous inhabitants of this region have ", she noted. According to her, what is needed here is "honest work, and not wishful thinking."
“Yes, I heard that they are going to open the tomb of Alexander III,” Countess Xenia Nikolaevna Sheremeteva-Yusupova, the granddaughter of Prince Felix Yusupov, who lives in Greece, told us by phone. Her mother was the great-granddaughter of Alexander III, and therefore DNA tests had already been taken from her earlier to determine the authenticity of the royal remains. “Well,” she said, “if the patriarch made such a decision, then I have nothing against it. Although, it seems to me, the authenticity of the royal remains has already been confirmed quite convincingly.”
Were the graves looted?
So, what could happen in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? “No one can say for sure about anything concrete. Only hypotheses... What else to say? Bishop Egoryevsky said at the end of the Moscow press conference. - Just remember the Gospel: "There is nothing secret that would not become obvious, nor hidden that would not become known and would not be revealed."
Work in the cathedral continues, and the mystery of the tomb of Alexander III may be revealed in the coming weeks. However, already the first results of the beginning of the procedures for opening the tomb, as it seems, confirm the old suspicion that the imperial graves in the cathedral were opened and, possibly, they were looted.
In the USSR, no one ever wrote anything about the looting of the imperial tombs in the Peter and Paul Cathedral by the Bolsheviks. Many guides to the Peter and Paul Cathedral still write that "for many years no one disturbed the peace of these graves." Actually it is not. The treasures of the imperial tomb have been coveted for a long time. Back in 1824, the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine reported that while traveling in Russia, Madame de Stael wanted to have a souvenir from the tomb of Peter I. She tried to cut off a piece of the brocade coverlet, but the church watchman noticed this, and Madame had to hastily leave the cathedral.
And they began to rob graves immediately after the revolution. By 1917, there were more than a thousand wreaths, including gold and silver ones, on the walls of the cathedral, columns and at the graves of emperors. Practically on every grave and near it there were ancient icons and precious lamps. So, above the tomb of Anna Ioannovna there were two icons - the Mother of God of Jerusalem and St. Anna Prochitsa - in gold salaries, with pearls and precious stones. The diamond crown of the Order of Malta was fixed on the tombstone of Paul I. On the tombstones of Peter I, Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II lay gold, silver and bronze medals, stamped on the occasion of various anniversaries. A silver bas-relief depicting a monument to the tsar in Taganrog was mounted on the wall near the tombstone of Peter, and an icon with the face of the Apostle Peter hung in a gold frame nearby, notable for the fact that its size corresponded to the growth of Peter I at birth.
Disaster erupted after the revolution. In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all icons and lamps, gold, silver and bronze medals from the graves, gold, silver and porcelain wreaths were removed, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow. The further fate of the exported cathedral valuables is unknown.
No documents but...
The story of the Russian emigrant Boris Nikolaevsky has come down to us. Here is what it says: "Paris, Latest News, July 20, 1933. Headline: "Tombs of Russian Emperors and how the Bolsheviks opened them": "In Warsaw, one of the members of the Russian colony has a letter from one of the prominent members of the St. Petersburg GPU with a story about the opening by the Bolsheviks of the tombs of Russian emperors in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The autopsy was carried out in 1921 at the request of "Pomgol", who came up with a project of confiscation in favor of the starving jewels enclosed in imperial coffins. "The Krakow newspaper" Illustrated Courier Zodzenna "cites this historical letter:
"... I am writing to you, - this is how this document begins, - under an unforgettable impression. The heavy doors of the tomb open, and the coffins of emperors, set in a semicircle, appear before our eyes. We have before us the whole history of Russia. The GPU commissar, who is the chairman of the commission, ordered to start with the youngest ... Mechanics open the tomb of Alexander III. The embalmed corpse of the king is well preserved. Alexander III lies in a general's uniform, richly decorated with orders. The ashes of the king are quickly removed from the silver coffin, rings are removed from his fingers, orders studded with diamonds are removed from his uniform, then the body of Alexander III is transferred to an oak coffin.The secretary of the commission draws up a protocol, which lists in detail the jewels confiscated from the deceased tsar.The coffin is closed, and seals are placed on it.
The same procedure takes place with the coffins of Alexander II and Nicholas I. The members of the commission work quickly: the air in the tomb is heavy. The line behind the tomb of Alexander I. But here the Bolsheviks are in for a surprise. The tomb of Alexander I is empty. This can obviously be seen as a confirmation of the legend, according to which the death of the emperor in Taganrog and the burial of his body was a fiction, invented and staged by him in order to end the rest of his life in Siberia as an old hermit.
Creepy minutes
The Bolshevik commission had to endure terrible moments during the opening of the tomb of Emperor Paul. The uniform, fitting the body of the late king, is perfectly preserved. But Pavel's head made a nightmarish impression. The wax mask that covered his face melted from time and temperature, and from under the remnants one could see the disfigured face of the murdered king. All those involved in the gloomy procedure of opening the tombs were in a hurry to finish their work as soon as possible. Silver coffins of Russian tsars, after transferring the bodies to oak, were installed one on top of the other. Longer than others, the commission was busy with the tomb of Empress Catherine I, in which there was a very large amount of jewelry.
... Finally, we reached the last, or rather, the first tomb, where the remains of Peter the Great rested. The tomb was difficult to open. The mechanics stated that apparently there was another empty one between the outer coffin and the inner one, which made it difficult for them to work. They began to drill the tomb, and soon the lid of the coffin, placed vertically to facilitate work, opened and Peter the Great appeared in full growth before the eyes of the Bolsheviks. The members of the commission recoiled in surprise in fear. Peter the Great stood as if alive, his face was perfectly preserved. The great tsar, who during his lifetime aroused fear in people, once again tried the power of his formidable influence on the Chekists. But during the transfer, the corpse of the great king crumbled to dust. The terrible work of the Chekists was completed, and the oak coffins with the remains of the kings were transported to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where they were placed in the basement ... "
eyewitness accounts
We repeat, no documents about this monstrous action, if it actually took place, or even an inventory of the treasures seized by the Bolsheviks from the coffins, have been preserved. However, in addition to Nikolaevsky's article, a number of memoirs collected by historians have come down to us, which confirm that everything described above could actually happen. Here, for example, is the testimony of Professor V.K. Krasusky: “While still a student, in 1925 I came to Leningrad to my aunt Anna Adamovna Krasuskaya, an honored worker of science, professor of anatomy at the Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. In one of my conversations with A.A. Krasuskaya told me the following: “Not so long ago, the opening of the royal tombs was carried out. The opening of the tomb of Peter I made a particularly strong impression. Peter’s body is well preserved. He really looks very much like the Peter depicted in the drawings. , weighing a lot. Values were seized from the royal tombs. "
And here is what Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor V.I. Angeleyko (Kharkov) L.D. Lyubimov: “I had a comrade Valentin Shmit in my gymnasium. His father F.I. Schmit headed the department of art history at Kharkov University, then moved to work at Leningrad University. In 1927, I visited my friend and learned from him that his father in 1921 participated in the commission for the seizure of church valuables and in his presence the graves of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were opened. The commission did not find the body in the grave of Alexander I. He also told me that the body of Peter I was very well preserved.”
And here are the memoirs of D. Adamovich (Moscow): “According to the now deceased professor of history N.M. Korobov... I know the following. A member of the Grabbe Academy of Arts, who was present at the opening of the royal graves in Petrograd in 1921, told him that Peter I was very well preserved and lay in the coffin as if alive. The Red Army soldier who had helped during the autopsy recoiled in horror. The tomb of Alexander I turned out to be empty.”
Why did they have to be taken out!?
The text of a dramatic letter describing the robbery of the remains and tombs of the kings in the Peter and Paul Cathedral was first published back in 1989 by Soviet historian Natan Eidelman. He was engaged in research into the mysterious fate of Emperor Alexander I, who, according to legend, staged his own death, and then disappeared somewhere in Siberia, where he supposedly lived until the end of his days under the guise of an old man Fyodor Kuzmich. For Eidelman, the information that the grave of Alexander I, when opened by the Bolsheviks in 1921, turned out to be empty, served to confirm the hypothesis that the stories about the imaginary death of the emperor, which were considered fantastic, could actually turn out to be true. Eidelman, carried away by the “case of Fyodor Kuzmich”, did not pay attention to the final phrase in the letter cited by Nikolaevsky, which stated that “oak coffins with the remains of the kings were transported to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, where they were placed in the basement ...”
"Transferred to St. Isaac's Cathedral ...". If this was indeed the case, then why!? After all, after the corpses were robbed, it would be easiest to return them to their original place - to bury them in the same Peter and Paul Cathedral. But no! For some reason they are taken out. But, excuse me, because this is a whole transport operation! It is necessary to adjust trucks, load coffins on them, transport them to the other end of the city, then unload them, transfer them to the basement of St. Isaac's Cathedral, etc. This requires a whole team of loaders, security, cars, gasoline, which at that time was sorely lacking in Petrograd , like everything else. And why even start all this rigmarole, if, we repeat, it was much easier to lower the ashes of the robbed into their own graves? This means that there must have been some good reason for carrying out this difficult operation. What? There are probably only two options: the ashes of the emperors, either they wanted to covertly bury in another place, or .... intended to destroy!
But the version of the burial in another, hidden place (say, in order to deprive the monarchists of the opportunity to worship the royal coffins) also looks ridiculous. To move through the city center and quietly bury a whole bunch of coffins is simply impossible. A whole team of performers would have to take part in this operation, and then the new burial place would inevitably become known. Then the probable version is the version of the deliberate destruction of the imperial remains. This is what the Bolsheviks should have done, who, without hesitation, shot the living members of the royal family, and, of course, would not stand on ceremony with the dead. After all, in those days in Russia literally everything that was connected with the royal power was mercilessly destroyed: monuments to emperors, crowns on houses and gates of palaces, portraits of kings, etc.
I am sure that the graves of the emperors are empty, was the historian Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy, who is a descendant of a well-known family among Russian emigrants. A few years ago, he spoke about this, stating that, apart from the grave of Empress Maria Feodorovna, who has already been reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to the grave of her husband Alexander III, all other sarcophagi standing in the cathedral are empty.
A certain Boris Kaplun
There is also a specific fact that indirectly confirms the version of the destruction of the ashes of Russian tsars. At the opening of the tombs in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, there was a certain Boris Kaplun, the nephew of the powerful head of the Petrograd Cheka, Moses Uritsky. Noteworthy is the story of the writer Nadezhda Pavlovich, to whom Kaplun conveyed information about the opening of the royal tombs:
“On that day, Boris was excited: he had just taken part in the opening of the royal tombs with a detachment of Red Army soldiers. "Why?" we asked. - "To check the rumor that royal treasures are hidden in the royal coffins." At that time, there were cases when, imitating old romantic stories, some people arranged fictitious funerals in order to get hidden wealth “out of the ground” at the right time.
“So what, did you find it?” “No, they didn't. Peter the Great was preserved better than others - he had a diamond ring on his finger, which we thought to take off for the museum, but did not dare.”
But even that would be nothing, few people could come to the cathedral just out of curiosity, especially since this could not have been any difficulty for a relative of the head of the Cheka. But the thing is that the mentioned Kaplun was ... the creator of the first crematorium in Petrograd and in general in Russia!
Crematorium from the Bolsheviks
The crematorium in Petrograd was created on the personal initiative of Leon Trotsky, as an element of the "new proletarian culture" and the ritual of the "red fire burial", although the Russian Orthodox Church has always sharply opposed this terrible rite. Having seized power in Russia, the Bolsheviks enthusiastically sang: “We are ours, we will build a new world ...” But they started in Petrograd with only two construction projects: a monument to the “victims of the revolution” on the Field of Mars - that is, a cemetery in the very center of the city, and with construction of the first crematorium in Russia. And it was not entirely accidental. After the destruction of the Romanov imperial family near Yekaterinburg, the Russian Orthodox Church became the main enemy of the new rulers of Russia. Therefore, it was decided to deprive her of one of the main functions in the eyes of the people - to see her off on her last journey and bury the dead. In early 1919, Lenin signed a decree on the admissibility and even preference for the cremation of the dead. And Leon Trotsky appeared in the Bolshevik press with a series of articles in which he called on all the leaders of the Soviet government to bequeath their bodies to be burned. That is why the construction of the first crematorium was promoted as a kind of "Department of godlessness". It was under this slogan that the magazine "Revolution and the Church" announced in 1920 a competition for a project for its construction. At the same time, communist “red” funerals were encouraged in every possible way: musicians walked in front, then they carried a red coffin, and Komsomol members and communists with red flags and singing the Internationale followed the body. And, of course, no priests.
Ivan Bunin in Cursed Days wrote with horror: “I saw the Field of Mars, on which they had just performed, as a kind of traditional sacrifice of the revolution, the comedy of the funeral of the heroes who allegedly fell for freedom. What a need, what it was, in fact, a mockery of the dead, that they were deprived of an honest Christian burial, boarded up in red coffins for some reason and unnaturally buried in the very center of the city of the living!
In the premises of the former baths
The crematorium appeared in Petrograd in 1920 on the 14th line of Vasilyevsky Island in the premises of the former baths. They planned to first make a "fire altar", as the revolutionaries called the crematorium, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, but it did not work out. The first burning was carried out on December 14 - the deceased, whose corpse was to be set on fire, was solemnly selected in the city morgue. The procedure was supervised by the person in charge of the crematorium, Boris Kaplun. The artist Yuri Annenkov, who was present at the time, recalled: “In a huge barn, corpses covered with their tatters lie on the floor shoulder to shoulder, in endless rows. The management and administration of the crematorium were waiting for us there.
“The choice is given to the lady,” Kaplun said kindly, turning to the girl.
The girl gave us a look full of horror, and, taking a few timid steps among the corpses, pointed to one of them (her hand was, I remember, in a black glove). On the chest of the chosen one lay a piece of dirty cardboard with a pencil inscription: Ivan Sedyakin. Social Gender: Beggar.
“So, the last one becomes the first,” Kaplun announced and, turning to us, remarked with a grin:
“All in all, pretty funny trick, huh?”
Well-known writers, painters, artists went to admire the "fire ceremonies" after an exquisite dinner at the Chekist Kaplun: Gumilyov, Annenkov, Bely, the famous ballerina Spesivtseva. This occupation was considered progressive, like going to Meyerhold's experimental theater. Chekists often suggested: “Why not go to the crematorium?” - as they used to say: “Shouldn’t we go to the Cuba or Villa Rode?” (before the revolution, the most luxurious St. Petersburg restaurants were called like that).
However, the inhabitants of the city took the innovation without any enthusiasm. In March 1921, the crematorium stopped working. The hastily constructed furnace failed.
Controversy over coffins
Meanwhile, the museum workers of the Peter and Paul Fortress, until recently, stubbornly insisted that no one had ever opened the imperial graves. Such statements have been repeatedly made, for example, by the current director of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (located in the Peter and Paul Fortress) Alexander Kolyakin. . So, when the correspondent of the Interfax agency asked him this question, A. Kolyakin categorically stated: “Nonsense. There has been talk about it, but it's just a rumor."
By the way, today, when the traces of the autopsy have become obvious, one should be strictly asked from these museum workers: why didn’t they notice earlier that the slab on the tomb of Alexander III was shifted? Why was it noticed only by the commission that came from Moscow? Does this mean that the guardians were careless in their duties and did not see the obvious for many years? Or didn't want to see? And I would like to get answers to these questions.
Other doubters are critical of Nikolaevsky's publication, pointing out the absurdities and inaccuracies in the article, in their opinion. Here is what one of these critics writes, for example: “So, the most detailed story about the autopsy is this one: “In Warsaw, one of the members of the Russian colony has a letter from one of the prominent members of the St. Petersburg GPU with a story about the autopsy ... produced in 1921 year at the request of "Pomgol" ... The Krakow newspaper "Illustrated Courier Tsodzenny" cites this historical letter.
“... I am writing to you,” this is how the letter begins, “under an unforgettable impression ... the coffins of emperors appear before our eyes ... The GPU commissar, who is the chairman of the commission, ordered to start with the youngest ... The terrible work of the Chekists was completed, and oak coffins with the remains of the kings were transported to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where they were placed in the basement ... "".
So, "a prominent member of the St. Petersburg GPU" writes about what he saw with his own eyes in 1921: "The commissar of the GPU, who is the chairman of the commission, ordered ...". Stop - in 1921 there were no "GPU commissars": firstly: only "on February 6, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) under the NKVD of the RSFSR", and secondly, the commissar there was one: from 1919 to 1923 - the notorious Dzerzhinsky.
Further: “the autopsy ... was carried out in 1921 at the request of Pomgol” - nonsense, Pomgol could not demand anything: on July 21, 1921 it was formed, and already “On August 26, 1921, Lenin asked Stalin to put the question to the Politburo about the immediate dissolution of Pomgol and the arrest or exile of its leaders, allegedly on the grounds that they "do not want to work." He also demanded that the press be told "in hundreds of ways" to "ridicule and harass at least once a week for two months" its members. In the pro-Soviet press, the Committee was mockingly called Prokukish - from the names of the organizers - S. N. Prokopovich, E. D. Kuskova and N. M. Kishkin. from gold, silver and stones, the removal of which cannot significantly affect the interests of the cult itself.
Further, it seems doubtful that a "prominent member of the St. Petersburg GPU" in a private letter used the words: "Terrible work of the Chekists ....". Further, about the opening by the Bolsheviks of the tombs of Russian emperors "... in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral": "The heavy doors of the tomb are opening , and before our eyes appear the coffins of emperors, set in a semicircle ... "
Stop. There is not and never was any "tomb of Russian emperors" in the Peter and Paul Cathedral - the cathedral itself is the tomb, it contains marble sarcophagi of the same type. What "coffins in a semicircle"? Is it that someone, laborers, probably, even before the arrival of the commission "with the GPU commissar at the head" took out all the coffins from the sarcophagi and arranged them in a semicircle? Yeah, I also put papers on top, "hoo is hoo" ... "
The comments are reasonable, but only at first glance. All of them are easy to either refute or explain. If a former employee of the Cheka ended up abroad, then it means that we are talking about a fugitive (there were many of them), and therefore one could well write: “the terrible work of the Chekists.” In the cathedral, “there is no imperial tomb”… No, there is, as many historical books call the imperial tombstones standing there – “Imperial tomb”. In contrast to the Grand Duke's tomb, which was added later.
“Coffins in a semicircle” - the opening was carried out in the twilight, by the light of torches, then there was no electricity in the cathedral, and therefore, probably, it might well have seemed to the Chekist who visited the cathedral for the first time that the tombs were standing in a semicircle.
"Pomgol" could not demand anything. True, he couldn't. But how could the Chekist know, who had nothing to do with his activities? And besides, the Bolsheviks often covered up their actions in order to divert the anger of the population from themselves. They say that it is not we who seize valuables, but Pomgol requires it.
"The only commissar was Dzerzhinsky." Well, this is generally a ridiculous remark. In those days, "commissioner" was called any person with a leather jacket and a revolver. Moreover, the article was written for a foreign newspaper, and there, in general, any security officer without fail was also a commissar.
Sobchak's testimony
There is another interesting piece of evidence. Writer Mikhail Zadornov said in LiveJournal that at one time the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, told him about the secret of the royal graves. According to Zadornov, while walking along the sea coast of Jurmala, he asked Sobchak, who was the mayor during the reburial of the family of Nicholas II in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998: “I heard that other sarcophagi were being opened at that time. Tell me, I promise you that for ten years I won’t tell anyone about our conversation, in the sarcophagus of Alexander I are his remains? After all, a comparative analysis was carried out by several Russian tsars. According to Zadornov, Sobchak paused and quietly replied: "It's empty there ..."
The current heirs of the “commissars in dusty helmets” are strenuously trying to refute the very possibility of a blasphemous autopsy and robbery of graves. Yes, there are graves! In Leningrad, the Bolsheviks plundered and demolished entire cemeteries, barbarously destroyed the burial places of many famous Russian people! Already in our times, when the streets in the center of St. Petersburg were being repaired, pieces of marble gravestones were found under the asphalt, which were removed from the graves and then used as building material for the construction of sidewalk curbs, in the foundations of houses. So it is possible that when the coffin of Alexander III is opened, new surprises await us ...
Recently, the public has been excited by the question of reburial of the alleged royal remains - this time the holy Tsarevich Alexy and the holy Grand Duchess Mary. Supporters of the authenticity and, accordingly, the burial of these remains refer to the so-called. a note by Y. Yurovsky, according to which the bodies of the executed members were not destroyed, but buried in the Porosenkov Log near Yekaterinburg. Opponents of the identity of the found remains also have their own arguments.
But in connection with these disputes, the question arises of another dark historical secret of the twentieth century.
However, let us first recall the wild campaign to destroy royal monuments, which began in 1918 with a monument to a terrorist killed in the Kremlin - then V.I. Lenin himself threw the rope over the cross, and then urged his comrades to pull its ends and quickly overthrow the hated monument to him.
Through the efforts of the Bolsheviks on the territory of the Soviet Union, all monuments to the liberator Tsar Alexander ΙΙ were destroyed. Only the one that turned out to be standing on already foreign territory survived - in Finland. As for his son Alexander ΙΙΙ, the only surviving monument to him, created by P. Trubetskoy, was left rather as a ... historical curiosity.
Even a number of monuments to Peter the Great were destroyed, in particular the monument depicting him as a master shipbuilder. Those monuments to royal people that were not demolished (the Bronze Horseman, monuments to Nicholas I, Catherine II) were preserved only at the insistence of the most sensible representatives of the intelligentsia and because of their artistic value.
All icons and lampadas were removed from the royal graves, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow.
The looting of the royal graves in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg also belongs to barbaric actions. By 1917, there were more than a thousand wreaths on the walls of the cathedral, columns and at the graves. Almost every grave and near it were icons and lamps. On the tombstones of Peter I, Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II lay gold, silver and bronze medals, stamped on the occasion of various anniversaries. In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all icons and lamps, gold, silver and bronze medals from the graves, gold, silver and porcelain wreaths were removed, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow. The further fate of the exported cathedral valuables is unknown.
But the looting didn't end there. Documents on the opening of the royal tombs have not been preserved, but a number of memoirs have come down to us, testifying to this.
Here are the words of Professor V.K. Krasusky (Koltushi near St. Petersburg):
“Peter had a large golden cross on his chest… Valuables were seized from the royal tombs”
“While still a student, I arrived in Leningrad in 1925 to my aunt Anna Adamovna Krasuskaya, an honored worker of science, professor of anatomy at the Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. In one of my conversations with A.A. Krasuskaya told me the following: “Not so long ago, the opening of the royal tombs was carried out. The opening of the tomb of Peter I made a particularly strong impression. Peter's body is well preserved. He really is very similar to the Peter, who is depicted in the drawings. On his chest he had a large golden cross, which weighed a lot. Values were confiscated from the royal tombs.”
Knowing A.A. Krasuskaya as a very serious scientist and person, I cannot admit the thought that everything she told me was based only on rumors. She could only say what she knew well about the opening of the tombs.
And here is what Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor V.I. Angeleyko (Kharkov) L.D. Lyubimov:
“I had a comrade Valentin Shmit in my gymnasium. His father F.I. Schmit headed the department of art history at Kharkov University, then moved to work at Leningrad University. In 1927 I visited my friend and learned from him that in 1921 his father had taken part in the commission on the graves of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and in his presence the graves of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were opened. The commission did not find the body in the grave of Alexander I. He also told me that the body of Peter I was very well preserved.
And here are the memoirs of D. Adamovich (Moscow):
“The tomb of Alexander I turned out to be empty: there is no coffin, no body”
“According to the late professor of history N.M. Korobov ... I know the following. A member of the Grabbe Academy of Arts, who was present at the opening of the royal graves in Petrograd in 1921, told him that Peter I was very well preserved and lay in the coffin as if alive. The Red Army soldier who had helped during the autopsy recoiled in horror. The tomb of Alexander I was empty.
The story of the writer Nadezhda Pavlovich deserves attention. Information about the opening of the royal tombs was given to her by Uritsky's nephew Boris Kaplun:
“On that day, Boris was excited: he had just taken part in the opening of the royal tombs with a detachment of Red Army soldiers. "Why?" we asked. - "To check the rumor that royal treasures are hidden in the royal coffins." At that time, there were cases when, imitating old romantic stories, some people arranged fictitious funerals in order to get hidden wealth “out of the ground” at the right time.
“So what, did you find it?” “No, they didn't. Peter the Great was preserved better than others - he had a diamond ring on his finger, which we thought to take off for the museum, but did not dare.
It is not completely clear whether all the graves were opened, and most importantly, the problem arises: in what condition, after the looting of the 1920s, are the remains of Russian emperors in their graves? For all its complexity and delicacy, this question requires a calm and professional answer and solution.
The first burials in the cathedral
The first burials of members of the royal family appeared at the beginning of the construction of the cathedral. Several crypts are located near the western wall. Relatives of Peter I are buried here: the widow of the elder brother of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, Tsaritsa Marfa Matveevna; son - Tsarevich Alexei, one of the first political prisoners of the fortress; Aleksey's wife is Crown Princess Charlotte-Christina-Sofia; half-sister of Peter, Princess Maria Alekseevna. In the middle of the XIX century. bronze plaques appeared on the wall above the graves, at the beginning of the 20th century. white marble tombstones were installed under the stairs leading to the bell tower.
Before the founding of St. Petersburg, men - representatives of the ruling family - were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, women - in the Ascension Monastery. With the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, the Peter and Paul Cathedral becomes the burial place of Russian emperors. Almost all emperors are buried here, starting from Peter I and ending, according to the official version, Nicholas II. The exceptions are Peter II and John Antonovich.
Decoration of the grave of Peter the Great
Peter I died on January 28, 1725 at the age of 53 after a short illness. The circumstances of the emperor's funeral were mentioned above. By the time of the accession to the throne of Empress Anna Ioannovna, four coffins had gathered in the center of the cathedral in a temporary wooden church, and the remains of Peter I and Natalya Petrovna remained unburied for six years. The construction of the stone cathedral was nearing completion. In 1731, the floor was lined with Putilov slabs. At that time, finishing work was being completed, and by decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna, the bodies of Peter I and his wife, Empress Catherine I, were buried at 11 am on May 29, 1731. Both coffins (Peter I and Catherine I) were placed in a single crypt in front of the iconostasis in the south nave, in front of the icon-case with the image of the Apostle Peter, the patron saint of the emperor. From above, tombstones made of "alabaster white stone for memories of the pre-birth" were installed.
During the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, it was decided to turn the Peter and Paul Cathedral into a kind of mausoleum of Peter the Great. "Daughter Petrova" was occupied with the idea of perpetuating the memory of her great father. The initiative was taken by M. V. Lomonosov, who in 1758 proposed a tombstone and decoration of the cathedral with mosaic paintings, which caused an ambiguous reaction from his colleagues. Lomonosov's contemporary Jakob Stehlin wrote that artists would laugh at fiction and pity the church if it was lined with "glass". J. Shtelin also took part in the competition. His project, which was very different from Lomonosov's, with "extremely brilliant light", the figures of "Eternity", holding a "crown spread with stars" and "Glory", blowing a trumpet entwined with laurel branches, suggested a magnificent baroque composition.
The grave of Peter I. Photo 1942
Lomonosov proposed to create a figure of Peter I on a mosaic pedestal “like a porphyry stone, set with silver”, surrounded by eight mosaic columns “like azure stone” and four pairs of silver statues: Wisdom and Courage, Diligence and Constancy, Justice and Mercy, Love and Fidelity. Obviously, in some ways the composition had to resemble Castrum Doloris, the memory of which was still alive. The construction was planned to be large - 8.5 m wide and almost 15 m high. The author wanted “To build all this from cast copper, and where necessary, also forged ... the elevation, except for the statue and decorations, to be made of black Russian marble, and the copper is hot to gild everywhere in the fire.” Lomonosov was going to decorate the composition with twelve mosaic panels depicting the most significant episodes of Peter's activity and allegorical scenes. The great Russian scientist sought to tell about the state activities of Peter, about the suppression of the Streltsy rebellion in Moscow, about the "Great Embassy" abroad. Separate mosaics were dedicated to the creation of the Russian fleet, the capture of Azov, the Poltava and Gangut battles. Finally, the author was going to capture the foundation of St. Petersburg, Kronstadt and Peterhof, the establishment of a new government body - the Senate, etc. The cycle was supposed to be completed by the scene of Peter's burial. Lomonosov wrote about her: “This picture will be extraordinary. Along the Neva river, covered with ice, a ceremony in black dresses, torches, a canopy, glitter from the firing of cannons, all this can be seen through the falling thick snow ... "From the grandiose project, two large paintings were made in the mosaic:" The Poltava Battle "and" The Capture of Azov " (the second of them was not completed and died). A competition was announced, but the energetic Lomonosov had already begun work on the Poltava Battle mosaic for this project, which included, among other things, major alterations to the cathedral. After the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, the project was frozen, M. V. Lomonosov died on April 4, 1765, his plan remained unfulfilled.
The decoration of the graves in the Peter and Paul Cathedral changed over time. The original tombstones were subsequently replaced. In the description of the cathedral, compiled in the XIX century. P. Svinin, it is said: “These sarcophagi are made of granite, without any decorations, in the form of oblong quadrangular bars and covered with rich brocade robes. On each of them, in the front part, a bronze plaque is attached, on which is depicted the name of the reposed high person, the year of her birth, death and the time of her reign. It was impossible to accurately examine the tombstones for visitors to the cathedral due to the fact that they were covered with "rich brocade attire."
In fact, the sarcophagi were carved not from granite, but from gray Ruskeala marble, which became known from documents dating back to the time they were replaced by white marble monuments that still exist today. It is difficult to say exactly when these tombstones appeared in the cathedral, but most likely during the reign of Catherine II, if we correlate the time of the appearance of Ruskeala marble in St. Petersburg and the first mention of the new material for sarcophagi.
In the 1840s Tombstones made of white Italian marble began to appear in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, obviously, the first of them adorned the burial of the daughter of Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, who died in 1844.
During the reign of Alexander II, it turned out that the condition of the tombstones did not correspond to the status of the people buried under them. Many boards were broken, poorly polished, had patches. In 1866–1867 over the graves of representatives of the Romanov dynasty, new white marble tombstones appeared, made according to a single model of white Carrara marble. The project of the new tombstone was made by the architect A. A. Poirot, the merchant of the II guild G. A. Balushkin was engaged in the execution of the order. On the upper cover of all the sarcophagi, made in the form of a quadrangular prism, bronze eight-pointed crosses gilded with pure gold are strengthened, bronze gilded double-headed eagles - the coats of arms of the Russian Empire - are placed at the corners of the imperial tombstones. Eagles and crosses are made at the factory of F. Chopin. Grand ducal burials were not decorated with double-headed eagles. On the side wall of the tombstones in the heads are bronze plaques with the name of the buried, title, date, place of birth and death, date of burial. The texts on bronze plaques were compiled by the famous historian N. G. Ustryalov.
At the same time, similar white marble monuments appeared above the crypt with the remains of Peter I and Catherine I. When these tombstones were installed, they were displaced against the graves. The tombstone of Catherine I stands almost above the coffin of Peter I, and the tombstone of Peter I stands almost above an empty place. On the grate separating the imperial burials in the south nave of the cathedral in front of the iconostasis, opposite the grave of Peter I, there is a tablet with the inscription "Peter I the Great." The title of "Father of the Fatherland, the Great and Emperor of All Russia" was awarded to him by the Senate and the Synod after the victorious end of the Northern War in October 1721. The text on the board at the head of the grave read: "Peter the Great Father of the Fatherland Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, etc., etc. , etc. Born in Moscow in 1672, May 30 days. Ascended to the throne in 1682, April 27th. He died in St. Petersburg in 1725, on January 28th. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of 1725, March 10th.
A plaque on the northern wall dedicated to the young children of Peter I and Catherine I buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral
Double-headed eagle on the imperial tombstone
The Peter and Paul Cathedral was open for visits not only to the royal family. Citizens and guests of the capital of the Russian Empire came to bow to the ashes of the rulers. Gradually, a kind of memorial museum was formed from offerings on many graves. Visitors paid special attention to Peter the Great. Almost every successor to the reformer tsar on the Russian throne tried to contribute to the formation of the decoration of his burial place.
On June 26, 1770, the Russian fleet under the command of Count A. G. Orlov defeated the Turkish fleet in the Chesme Bay. Thus, during the time of Catherine II, Peter I's long-standing dream of Russia's access to the Black Sea, through which an exit to the Mediterranean Sea was opened, was realized.
On August 29, 1770, on the day of Remembrance of all those killed on the battlefield, Catherine II ordered in her presence to hold a service in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in memory of all those who fell in the battle against the Turks with a special "expression of gratitude to the immortal founder of our naval forces." At the end of the memorial service, Catherine II, as the political successor of Peter the Great, accepted from General Feldzeugmeister Count Z. G. Chernyshev the banner of Captain Pasha, taken by the Russians during the “breaking of the Turkish forces”, knelt down, laid it at the foot of the grave of Peter I with the words : "Yours from yours I bring to you." This moment was immortalized by the German artist Andreas Kaspar Huhne, who was invited by the Empress to create historical canvases, in the painting “Catherine the Great lays Chesme trophies on the tomb of Peter I”.
In 1803, the 100th anniversary of St. Petersburg was celebrated. Naturally, the grave of the founder of the city was not ignored. On May 16, 1803, during the celebration of the first significant anniversary of the city, Minister of Justice G. R. Derzhavin and the oldest of the senators, Count A. S. Stroganov, presenting a deputation from the city to Alexander I in the Winter Palace, presented him with a gold medal created by a German artist K. Leberecht. On one side of the medal was depicted the profile of Peter with a wreath and the inscription "From grateful offspring", and on the other side - Hercules with a club, shield and plan of the fortress. On May 17, the emperor ordered the Senate to place this medal with "appropriate honor and decent rites on the coffin of the Father of the Fatherland, as an unforgettable testimony before the coming centuries, as long as his memory is sacred to Russia." At this time, a large number of medals, wreaths, both gold and silver, and simple ones, from various deputations of St. Petersburg, other cities and countries, were brought to the grave.
During the reign of Nicholas I, on his orders, to decorate the grave of Peter, a measured icon with the face of the Apostle Peter, painted by Simon Ushakov and Fyodor Kozlov, was taken from the court sacristy and delivered to the cathedral in 1827. This icon was famous for representing the measure of Peter's growth at birth - 11 inches (49 cm).
In 1872, the 200th anniversary of Peter I was celebrated. A special ceremony resulted in the laying of a gold medal by Emperor Alexander II on the grave of Peter, knocked out in honor of the anniversary. With her were officers from the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments. “Around the tomb, decorated with greenery. there were eloquent witnesses of the glorious era: the insignia of St. Andrew the First-Called, a simple Transfiguration green uniform, a breastplate, a dilapidated, shot-through triangular hat and a sword - all these things were on the emperor on the day of the Poltava battle.
During the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, a medal with the profiles of the emperors Peter I and Nicholas II, knocked out in honor of this event, was placed on the grave of Peter. In 1904, a medal was added to the grave, created in memory of the 200th anniversary of the capture of the city of Narva. In 1909, the glorious anniversary of the Poltava victory was celebrated, according to the established tradition, “on the tomb of the sovereign winner of the Swedes near Poltava” were placed medals knocked out on this occasion - gold and silver. On the engraving presented in the album dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Peter, two medals are clearly visible, lying on the tombstone, above the grave - Pieta on a bracket, above it - a kind of relic in a case, which is not possible to see, to the left of the Pieta - in a frame icon depicting the Apostle Peter.
From the “Brief Description of the Court Peter and Paul Cathedral”, compiled by M. S. Verevkin, we learn that by 1913 on the tomb and near the burial place of Peter there were: four lamps, in particular, from the “first Life Guards” and the ranks of the garrison of the Kronstadt fortress , silver wreaths, among which stood out a wreath from the inhabitants of Okhta with the image of the Okhta shipyard, the first village of Okhta carpenters, the Archimedes boat, their last construction, and the first church on Okhta.
On the tomb were medals: 1. Gold "From grateful offspring in remembrance of the centenary of the founding of St. Petersburg." 2. Golden "In memory of the bicentenary of the birth of Emperor Peter the Great." 3. "In memory of the bicentenary of the St. Petersburg City Society." 4. Gold medal with the image of Peter the Great in honor of the bicentenary of the Poltava victory. 5. Bronze medal in memory of the same event. 6. Silver medal dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the capture of the city of Narva. On this medal were placed images of Peter the Great and Emperor Nicholas II, who reigned at that time.
The image of the Apostle Peter was set in a golden robe and a gilded wooden icon case. In addition, a bas-relief model of the monument to Peter the Great in Taganrog, erected in 1898 in honor of the founding of this city in 1698, hung on a silver board on the wall. The grave was also decorated with the flag of the captain-pasha, taken at Chesma and laid by Catherine II.
The offerings of Peter I himself were preserved in the cathedral. So, at the beginning of the 20th century. it contained eight carved ivory icons, the execution of which is usually attributed to the autocrat, although only one of them was signed. Four icons were hung in the altar in front of the altar, and on one of them there was an inscription: “On the 4th day of January 1716, the Royal Majesty granted the Empress from his labors,” the other four icons were placed in a special icon case, which had the shape of the Savior’s manger and stood in front of the iconostasis .
In front of the local icon of the Apostle Peter next to the grave of the founder of St. Petersburg, in a special glass case, there was an ivory chandelier made by the emperor. In 1724, it was donated by the Tsar to the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, located on the Olonets mineral waters, in the chandelier in the middle, the Emperor placed the following note in his own hand: “This is brought as a token of thanksgiving to the Lord God for the healing waters. Made on March 14th, 1724." The chandelier was transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral on the day of its consecration in 1733. Various geometric figures are strung on the central rod 72 cm long, separated from each other by four ebony disks, seven horns with profits and rosettes extend from the larger one. Peter believed in the miraculous power of mineral waters and repeatedly resorted to treatment with them both abroad and at home. During his visits to Karelia, he lived and worked in his free time in a specially equipped turning room, without ceasing to do his favorite turning work even on vacation. A.K. Nartov constantly accompanied the tsar and "grind" together with the sovereign. When they were preparing for the consecration of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, Nartov reported the chandelier to Empress Anna Ioannovna, who ordered it to be delivered to St. Petersburg and, as the legend says, “opened the apple, read the charter (note of Peter I) with emotion and showed it to others.” By the beginning of the XX century. the text of the emperor's note was carved on a silver hoop that surrounded the glass case of the chandelier.
Another chandelier mentioned in 1818 by P. Svin'in attracted special attention. It was a large bone chandelier, composed of chiseled figures of various shapes, separated by ebony disks with 26 horns with supports arranged in four tiers, located opposite the Royal Doors. Obviously, Svinin somewhat exaggerated the size of the work, but, nevertheless, its size is unusual: the length of the central rod is 2.25 m, the largest diameter of the belt with horns is 1.2 m. Pig to the king himself: “... one of them shows the image of the artist himself, the other shows the Poltava battle, the third shows the first naval battle with the Swedes, during which the enemy, that is, the Swedish, admiral was captured, the fourth was adorned with a signature.” There is no exact information about when, by whom and for what purpose this amazing work was made, but it can be assumed that it was immediately intended for the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Probably, all the turners of the Nartov workshop were engaged in the work, Peter I himself took part in it, leaving his autograph on one of the carved figures, but the chandelier was not finished during the life of the emperor. After the death of Peter I in 1725-1726, most likely at the suggestion of Nartov, who decided to give this chandelier a memorial character, the carver I. Zakharov carved four medallions mounted in a chandelier. Two medallions are dedicated to Peter's victories on land and at sea - the Battle of Poltava and the Battle of Gangut. The third medallion reproduces the front side of the medal issued for the death of Peter I. Svinyin has it designated as a medal representing the image of the artist. On the fourth - an inscription in Russian and Latin: "The work of the laborious hands of Peter the Great Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia in 1723." In connection with this inscription, confusion arose with the year of authorship and the year of creation of the work, which continues today. It is impossible that a posthumous commemorative medal was immortalized in bones in 1723, if Peter died in 1725, it is all the more difficult to imagine that he himself took part in its manufacture. Most likely, the amazing chandelier was the result of the joint work of the turners of the workshop of A.K. Nartov and, of course, Peter I himself. It is clear that the issue of attribution and dating of the work has not been fully worked out. Since the end of the 20s. 18th century the chandelier hung in the central nave of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, occupying a place of honor in it. In the 30s. 19th century By order of Emperor Nicholas I, this chandelier was transferred to the Kunstkamera, from where it moved to the State Hermitage Museum, where it is still kept.
Pavel Svinin also spoke about the life-giving ivory cross made by Peter himself, which was in the altar behind the throne. The chandelier and the cross are also depicted in photographs taken by Colonel V.P. In the photograph of K. Bulla of the beginning of the 20th century. lampadas, wreaths, icons, a bas-relief of the monument to Peter I, installed in Taganrog, on the southern wall of the cathedral above the grave on a special bracket - Pieta, which adorns this grave to this day, are clearly visible.
Unfortunately, much of the precious decoration of the cathedral disappeared after 1917. In May 1919, by order of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Duke's tomb were closed and sealed, and the rich decoration of the temple began to disappear. In April 1922, the remnants of church valuables were confiscated to help the starving, as the official version said. However, not everything was seized, some items remained in their historical places. In 1926, the cathedral came under the jurisdiction of the Museum of the Revolution, in 1954 - the State Museum of the History of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
During the Great Patriotic War, our soldiers, going to the front, visited the graves of the great Russian commanders: A. V. Suvorov in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, M. I. Kutuzov in the Kazan Cathedral, Peter I in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. During the war years, the tomb of Peter the Great received a strict decoration designed by the architect Ya. O. Rubinchik. The rest of the pre-revolutionary decoration of the burial was preserved and new elements were added. The photographs taken by A. A. Grigoriev in 1944 and stored in the KGIOP of St. Petersburg show that many of the original museum of offerings to the grave of the founder of the city have been preserved since pre-revolutionary times. In front of the grate separating the graves of the emperors of the 18th century, a carpet path was laid, palm trees in tubs stand between the graves, draperies descend from above. At the tombstone of Peter I, four wreaths, two icon cases with icons are clearly visible, above the grave on a bracket - Pieta by G. Zordzoni, a banner is placed above it, next to the Pieta - a frame with an icon (obviously, a "measured icon"), as in the photograph of the beginning XX century, made by K. Bulla. The decision of the composition that appeared on the southern (closed) gates of the cathedral was new. They were draped, in the niche of the gate on a high stand was placed the head of Peter, made by Marie Anne Collot for the monument to Peter I - for the Bronze Horseman. Above is an inscription with the words of the tsar, spoken by him before the battle of Poltava: “And know about Peter that life is not dear to him, if only Russia lived”, above it are the dates: “1672-1725” - the years of the emperor’s life.
M.-A. Kollo. Head of Peter I
The order of Peter the Great before the Battle of Poltava: “The Russian army knew that the hour had come, which laid the state of the entire fatherland in their hands: either the abyss of weight, or Russia would be born in the best form. And they would not think of being armed and placed themselves for Peter, but for the state handed over to Peter, for their kind, for the people of all Russia, who hitherto stood as their own weapon, and now expects extreme fortune from them. Below, they would be embarrassed by the glory of the enemy, as if invincible, which is false to be repeatedly, but they themselves have already shown. If only they had this before their eyes in this action, that God Himself is really at war with us, about which the Lord, mighty in battles, has already testified to them with His help in many military actions, they would have looked at that one. And they would know about Peter that his life is inexpensive for him, if only Russia and Russian piety, glory and prosperity would live. Of course, to place such a long inscription, even in a translation into modern language, especially keeping the words about the Orthodox faith, God and the church, was impossible at that time; "piety, glory and prosperity" were also irrelevant. At the height of the Great Patriotic War, one simply had to survive, and this mood was reflected in an abbreviated quote.
How the grave of Peter I looked in 1951–1967 can be judged from photographs taken by A. A. Grigoriev. In 1957, there were no wreaths, but icon cases with icons were preserved, and in 1967 there were no more icons, on the lid of the tombstone there are distinguishable holes left from the medals that once decorated the grave, only the Pieta on the wall, installed on its historical bracket.
Sculptor Y. Tyukalov with a bust of Peter I. Photo by the author, 2009
By the 300th anniversary of the emperor's birth, the design of the grave has changed. In preparation for the celebration of the anniversary of Peter the Great, celebrated on May 30, 1972, researchers from the State Museum of the History of Leningrad discussed various options. It was proposed, in particular, to decorate the emperor's grave with a sculptural portrait made by Marie Anne Collot for the Bronze Horseman, apparently, a project was considered to repeat the decoration of the grave for the period of the Great Patriotic War. In the end, the methodological council settled on a copy of the bust of the emperor, made from the work of C. Albacini, which the Italian sculptor of the second half of the 18th century. created, apparently under the influence of the lifetime image of Peter the Great, made by K.-B. Rastrelli in 1719. According to the documents stored in the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the “copy from the original” entered the collection in 1972, although in fact it was not a marble bust that was taken, but a copy of XIX kept today in the collection of the Academy of Arts in. from the work of C. Albachini. For a very short time, a plaster bust, tinted in bronze, stood next to the grave of Peter, but soon it was replaced by a sculptural portrait by Yu. According to the master's memoirs, by 1972 the bronze-tinted gypsum bust, installed at the grave of Peter I, was dusted and, probably, dropped, as a result of which it was deformed.
There are many myths about this bust, and most importantly, the sample used by the modern master as a model, but the issue remains poorly understood.
In 1972, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the emperor, his grave was decorated with banners: the St. Andrew's naval flag - the founder of the Russian fleet and the company guards banner of the time of Peter the Great - the reformer and organizer of the Russian army. The flags disappeared in the 1990s.
Currently, the grave is decorated with 7 medals, which are copies of historical ones and dedicated to the 100th and 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter I, the 200th anniversary of the capture of Narva, the 200th anniversary of the Poltava battle, as well as 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava (silver copies). In 2003, a medal for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg was added to the collection.
In the 1980s The Pieta by the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Zordzoni returned to the gravestone of Peter I, which had adorned the grave since the 18th century. This is a multi-figure composition, in its center is a reclining half-naked figure of Christ, covered with a veil. There are five figures around it. The head of Christ lies on the left hand of the Virgin Mary, sitting in a mournful pose, the right, laid aside hand, is kissed by an angel. Mary Magdalene knelt at the feet of Jesus Christ, supporting his feet. The left hand of the deceased is kissed by a young man, to the right of which is placed the figure of an angel. At the bottom, the marble is processed in the form of a rock relief with flowers carved on it. This sculptural group can be identified with the Pieta, acquired by S. Raguzinsky in Venice and brought to Russia in 1717. In the inventory of the Summer Garden sculpture of 1728, the “Descent of Christ from the Cross” was mentioned, which was in the Grotto, but already in the inventory of 1736 the work does not appear. Subsequently, the group was moved to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where around 1756 Jacob Stelin wrote about it. Most likely, Pieta has been in the Peter and Paul Cathedral since the time of Empress Anna Ioannovna, from the moment when the body of Peter I was finally buried on her orders and the formation of a special decoration for this grave began. As mentioned above, the Pieta was preserved over the burial place of the emperor until the end of the 1960s. After a brief absence in the 1970s and 1980s, she was returned to Peter's grave. At the beginning of the XXI century. on the southern wall of the cathedral, a Pieta bracket, which disappeared in the 1970s, was restored. for unknown reasons.
At the grave of the founder of St. Petersburg, you can always see fresh flowers brought by visitors to the museum.
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He founded the fortress, calling it St. Petersburg, in the name of his heavenly patron. This summer, along with other buildings, a wooden church was laid, which was named in honor of the saints and Paul. After the Poltava victory in 1709, St. Petersburg began to be built up with magnificent buildings, because now it is the capital of the Russian State.
dynasty necropolis
The Peter and Paul Cathedral is an outstanding architectural monument of the early 18th century, it is widely known, and the sparkling gold spire is one of the symbols of the city. But not everyone is aware that the cathedral is the burial place of the Russian Imperial House. , , as well as all subsequent crowned heads of the dynasty.
But contemporaries perceived the cathedral primarily as a crypt of the Romanov dynasty, only those sacraments that were dedicated to these sad events took place in it, baptisms and weddings were not held. The design of the mourning ceremonies was carried out by the best architects and artists of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, only contemporaries of the events could see the funeral processions, after all the decoration was dismantled and the temple took its usual form.
Traditionally, not only embalmed bodies were buried in hermetically sealed coffins in the cathedral, but also internal organs laid out in vessels. The day before the official ceremony, they were placed at the bottom of the grave. At this procedure, as a rule, only the members of the "Sad Commission" who were involved in organizing the funeral, and the clergy were present.
From the history of the cathedral
In 1712, on the birthday of the city, in front of many high-ranking persons, he laid the first stone of the cathedral on the site of a wooden church. The temple was consecrated in 1733. It is designed in the Baroque style and is one of the majestic monuments of architecture. The cathedral is a rectangular building located from west to east, a drum with a dome rises above its eastern part, and a bell tower with a gilded spire of 122.5 meters rises from the western side, which is still the tallest building in St. Petersburg. Since 1858, the temple has been called "Peter and Paul". In the second photo you see the interior of the cathedral where Peter the Great is buried.
Under the leadership of the king, the cathedral was built very quickly. Domenico Trezzini - a Swiss engineer - was appointed architect, he was given the best craftsmen. After 8 years, the construction of the cathedral was completed from the outside. Clocks with chimes were brought from Holland, they were purchased for a huge amount of money - 45,000 rubles. After 3 years, a gilded spire was installed. The iconostasis, the work on which Peter I laid on the shoulders of the architect Zarudny, was made for 4 years. Under his leadership, the artists Ivanov and Telega worked on the drawings.
Where is Emperor Peter the Great buried?
Most likely, already at the beginning of construction, the king, following the example of Constantine - the first Christian emperor - wanted to turn the cathedral into a tomb for his dynasty. Before the construction of the cathedral, all the tsars were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin (Boris Godunov rests in
For two centuries, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where Peter 1 is buried, was the burial place of almost all emperors before Alexander III and many family relatives, only John VI was buried elsewhere. The very first in 1708, still in a wooden church, was laid to rest at the age of one and a half years, Catherine, daughter of Peter 1.
Celebrity graves. Peter I and his descendants
Before the completion of construction, other burials were made in the cathedral. In the summer, in 1715, the remains of the daughters of Peter the Great, Natalia and Margarita, were brought here. In winter - the queen Marfa Matveevna (Apraksina), who was the wife of the king. In 1717, the son of Peter 1, Pavel, was buried, the next year, the soul of the eldest son of Peter 1, Alexei Petrovich, from his first wife Lopukhina, who was executed by order of his father for anti-state activities, rested. 5 years later, in 1723, Maria Alekseevna was buried here - the disgraced graves of Tsarevich Alexei and Tsarina Marfa Matveevna are located under the bell tower in the chapel of St. Catherine. The grave where Peter 1 is buried is pictured below.
It was here, in the unfinished cathedral, on March 8, 1725, that the body of Emperor Peter the Great, who had fallen asleep forever (January 28), was placed. According to the project of D. Trizini, a temporary wooden church was built inside the cathedral, and the deceased Peter the Great and his daughter Natalia, who died on March 4, were transferred there with a magnificent ceremony.
The tightly closed coffin, where Peter 1 was buried, was installed on a hearse lined with gold fabric, under a canopy. In the summer of 1727, a coffin was placed there with his dead wife, Empress Catherine 1.
Dust to earth
Empress Anna Ioannovna in May 1731 ordered that the ashes of the spouses be buried in the earth. The burial took place with a special ceremony on May 29. Among those present were persons from the Admiralty, generals, collegiate ranks. When the coffins were placed in a specially designated place at the Imperial Cemetery, 51 volleys were fired from the fortress.
Russian Emperor Peter the Great died in the Winter Palace in January 1725 at the age of 52. The cause of death was called inflammation of the bladder, which turned into gangrene. The emperor's body was exhibited in the funeral hall of the Winter Palace so that everyone could say goodbye to him. The period of farewell continued for more than a month. Peter lay in a coffin in a brocade jacket with lace, in boots with spurs, with a sword and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest. As a result, the corpse began to decompose, an unpleasant smell began to spread throughout the palace. The emperor's body was embalmed and transferred to Petropavlovsky. However, only 6 years later the body of the emperor was buried in the Royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, before that the coffin with the embalmed body simply stood in the temporary chapel of the cathedral still under construction.
The wife of Peter I Catherine survived her husband by only 2 years. Balls, entertainment and revelry, which the Dowager Empress indulged in day and night, greatly undermined her health. Catherine died in May 1725 at the age of 43. If Peter I, by birthright, was to rest in the Tsar's tomb, then his wife could not boast of a noble origin. Catherine I, born Marta Skavronskaya, was born into a Baltic peasant family. She was captured by the Russian army during the Great Northern War. Peter was so fascinated by the captive peasant woman that he even married her and crowned her. The body of the empress, like that of her husband, was betrayed only in 1731 by order of Anna Ioannovna.
Royal tombs
In the pre-Petrine era, all members of the ruling dynasty in Russia were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. All Moscow princes and tsars are buried there, starting with Ivan Kalita. During the reign of Peter I, there was no specific burial place for royalty. Members of the imperial family were buried in the Annunciation Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1715, the youngest daughter of Peter and Catherine, Natalia, died. The emperor ordered her to be buried in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul, which at that time had not yet been completed. Since that year, the Peter and Paul Cathedral has become the new royal tomb.
All Russian tsars rest within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral: from Peter I to Alexander III. The graves of Peter and his wife Catherine are located near the southern entrance to the cathedral. Their graves are small crypts, which are located under the stone floor. In these crypts there are metal arks with coffins. Above the graves are marble slabs, decorated with inscriptions and golden crosses.
History of the Peter and Paul Cathedral
The construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral began in 1712, Emperor Peter personally laid the first stone in its foundation. The work was led by the Italian architect Domenico Trezzini. The interior of the temple was striking in its luxury and splendor. The vaults were decorated with 18 paintings depicting scenes from the New Testament. The cathedral had a special royal place under a canopy, which was occupied by the monarch during divine services. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the cathedral and the tomb were closed and sealed. All church valuables were confiscated to help the starving. In 1998, the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their daughters Tatyana, Olga and Anastasia were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
