"He is a very handsome man"

Ivan III is one of the most prominent rulers in Russian history. Paradoxical is the fact that his image in works of art is rare. In this regard, the prince is many times inferior to such monarchs as St. Vladimir or Ivan the Terrible.

Both the intravital verbal portrait of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and his lifetime image have survived to this day. True, they are extremely conditional, but, interestingly, they refer to different ages of our hero.

In a three-part crown

Description of Ivan III left a Venetian diplomat and traveler Ambrogio Contarini. On behalf of the Most Serene Republic, he traveled with an embassy to Persia and spent four months on his way back (late 1476 - early 1477) in Moscow, where he was received by the Grand Duke and his wife Sophia Paleolog. Subsequently, Contarini published an essay about his journey, in which, in particular, we find the words dedicated to Ivan III: “The mentioned sovereign is 35 years old; he is tall but thin; In general, he is a very nice person.” It is noteworthy that the diplomat almost exactly indicates the age of the ruler, although it is clear that from this description we can imagine the appearance of the Grand Duke only in the most general terms. There is an assumption that Ivan III was noticeably stooped, since in some sources he is mentioned with the nickname Humpbacked, but the reliability of this information can be doubted.

Veil of Elena Voloshanka. End of the 15th century

The lifetime image of Ivan III dates back to the very end of the 15th century. We are talking about the famous embroidered veil, created, apparently, in the workshop of the daughter-in-law of the Grand Duke Elena Voloshanka (the veil is kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow). According to researchers, it represents a solemn ceremony on the feast of Palm Sunday on April 8, 1498 with the removal of the icon of Our Lady Hodegetria. Among those present, it is believed that the entire grand ducal family is depicted, including Dmitry Vnuk (he is shown with a halo, as if he was married to a great reign), the future Vasily III (only in a crown, without a halo) and Sophia Paleolog. In the middle row on the left, the procession is led by a man in a three-part crown and also with a halo over his head - obviously, this is Ivan III himself, an old man with gray hair and a long bifurcated gray beard. In 1498, the Moscow ruler turned 58 years old, but it is quite possible that he looked exactly as depicted on the veil. In any case, the images of other men of the grand-ducal family are also very individual here.

Portraits in profile and full face

The icon "Our Lady of Bogolyubskaya, with the coming ones" from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums dates back to the first third of the 16th century. On it, in the first row, after Metropolitan Jonah, Prince Vasily the Dark and his son Ivan are depicted - a relatively young man with a light blond small beard. Of course, this image is purely arbitrary. The images of Ivan III on the numerous miniatures of the 16th century Illuminated Chronicle are just as conditional. There, Ivan Vasilyevich appears at different ages - both as a very young beardless youth and a husband wise over the years: the movement of time symbolizes the appearance and increase in the size of a beard.

Portrait of Ivan III. Titular. 1672

Very striking and most often reproduced when it comes to Ivan III, is his profile portrait from the book of the French traveler Andre Thevet "General Cosmography", published in Paris in 1575. This is certainly the most artistic of all the early images of the Grand Duke, although its historical accuracy is doubtful. Ivan III is shown here as a bearded middle-aged man with rather large features and a large nose (noted also in the engraved portraits of his son Vasily III and the classical portraits of Ivan the Terrible), dressed in some kind of fur jacket. On the head of the ruler is a cap-crown with ermine fur, and in his hand is a saber with a handle in the form of an eagle's head. The portrait is very realistic, which is why it makes such a convincing impression.

Ivan III distributes estates. Front Chronicle of the 16th century

Images of Ivan Vasilyevich, dating from the 17th century, characterize the standard approach. The features of the prince’s face on the fresco of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin (paintings were made in 1652-1666), located above the place of his burial, are poorly distinguishable, but a small forked beard and slightly curly hair are noticeable - we see the same in many of the princes depicted here. A very similar portrait of Ivan III is placed in the "Titular" of 1672. Only here curly hair and gray beard. One can note the elongated nose and relatively thin facial features of the ruler. This is, as it were, a classic, almost ideal type of appearance - similar to the almost ideal image of the grand duke's rule. When designating the gray hair of Ivan III, the artists of the "Titular" clearly focused on the life expectancy of the prince known to them.

Between Dmitry and Peter

The next stage in the iconography of the first sovereign of all Russia is associated with historical painting and sculpture of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. However, this iconography is more than modest.

In monumental sculpture, the image of Ivan III was depicted twice on the same monument. This famous monument (the author of the project is Mikhail Mikeshin) was solemnly opened for the millennium of Russia in Veliky Novgorod in 1862. Despite the fact that for Novgorod the activities of Ivan III had a rather tragic connotation, it was decided to pay tribute to the Grand Duke as the creator of a unified Russian state. His sculptural image took a place among the large figures of the most significant rulers of Russia (the middle tier of the monument-bell), symbolizing several important stages of Russian history (Rurik, St. Vladimir, Dmitry Donskoy and Peter the Great are represented here). The composition "The Foundation of the Autocratic Kingdom of Russia", in the center of which the figure of Ivan III rises, is located just between the sculptural groups of Dmitry Donskoy and Peter the Great.

The image of Ivan III is depicted twice on the Millennium of Russia monument, opened in Novgorod in 1862.

Here Ivan III Vasilievich is the sovereign of all Russia, the founder of Russia - a new, independent state. Symbolic are his royal vestments, a cap-crown on his head, a scepter and an orb in his hands. The last two regalia, as is known, appeared in Russian ceremonial only at the end of the 16th century, so their pairing with the figure of the Grand Duke (like the royal vestments) is an obvious anachronism. Nevertheless, it was important for the creators of the monument to emphasize the new status of the united power, which dates back precisely to the era of the first Ivan Vasilyevich. It is noteworthy that the scepter is crowned with a double-headed eagle of the Byzantine type, indicating both the origins of the formation of state heraldry and the continuity from Byzantium.

It is also significant that in this composition, a Tatar bows down to one knee before the Grand Duke (which symbolizes not only the liberation from the Horde dependence, but also the beginning of the subordination of the Tatar states to Moscow), and on the other hand of the sovereign are the figures of the defeated Lithuanian and Livonian knights (which means victories in the wars with Lithuania and the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea). Ivan III himself, with a full forked beard and large mustaches, appears resolute, even stern, his stern gaze is directed forward into the future. The image is extremely realistic and textured.

For the second time, the figure of the prince is placed in a frieze, which is a gallery of many of the most prominent figures in Russian history. Here Ivan III (dress, scepter, gaze - everything is the same as in the upper part of the monument) is shown sitting on a throne, which is again crowned with a double-headed eagle. Finally, at the throne, we also see a shield with the image of a two-headed eagle - exactly copied from the miniature of the Gospel, which belonged to Dmitry Palaiologos. Below is the date: 6980, that is, 1472, the year of the marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleolog. Thus, the continuity of Russia from Byzantium was again unambiguously affirmed, which was reflected, among other things, in heraldry. In fairness, it must be said that Marfa Posadnitsa also took her place among the outstanding figures of Russian history on this frieze.

Khan's charter

One of the central events of the reign of Ivan III was the overthrow of the Horde yoke. And domestic historical painters, of course, could not pass by the famous legend about how the Grand Duke of Moscow tore up the Khan's charter.

The most famous (and the best from an artistic point of view) work on this subject was the painting by Nikolai Shustov (1834–1868) "John III breaks the Khan's charter". It was completed in the same year that the Millennium of Russia monument was erected in Novgorod, and its content corresponded to the then heightened interest in Russian history that arose at that time. For this competitive work, the author, at that time a student of the Academy of Arts, was awarded a small gold medal. The painting itself is now kept in the Sumy Art Museum, and the preparatory sketch, approved by the Council of the Academy, is in the Tretyakov Gallery.

John III breaks the khan's charter. Hood. N.S. Shustov. 1862

Ivan III is shown on it at the moment of making a decisive gesture-act. Before us is a tall man with a bushy dark beard, long mustaches, a hooked nose and an eagle eye, dressed in a royal golden dress with barm, an ermine mantle (another obvious anachronism) hangs from his shoulders, and the head of the prince is crowned with a Monomakh's cap. His whole figure expresses anger and determination. Tearing the letter to pieces, he throws its fragments down towards the raging and almost defeated Horde ambassadors, who are firmly held by the Russian soldiers. Of course, the interior, against which the action unfolds, and the clothes of the characters, do not correspond to the era of Ivan III, although the artist studied historical materials when creating the picture, trying to achieve greater authenticity. Shustov no longer participated in the competition for a large gold medal, announced the following year: among the fourteen students of the Academy of Arts, he left its walls, joining the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, which was the prototype of the Association of Wanderers. Unfortunately, a few years later, the talented painter died at a relatively young age.

It is perhaps worth ending this review with a story about the only image of Ivan III in Soviet cinema. In 1958, a wonderful two-part feature film "Journey Beyond Three Seas" was released on the screens of our country, shot together with Indian filmmakers. In it, the young Ivan Vasilievich appears, whose role is played by the actor Leonid Topchiev. Ambassador Vasily Papin, accompanied by Afanasy Nikitin and other merchants, goes to an audience with the prince just when the angry Tatar ambassadors leave the sovereign's court, and Ivan III himself, like the young Peter the Great, with his impulse and indomitable energy, as it were, symbolizes the new Russia, opening way to unknown countries and to your own free future.

Evgeny PCHELOV, Candidate of Historical Sciences

October 5th, 2015

"From the late 60s to the 90s, there was a powerful conglomerate of mountaineering sections in the region. The names of Samara and Togliatti athletes thundered throughout the country. And the alpine training system was developed throughout the country. Prices for tickets to sports camps in the Caucasus, Elbrus, Urals were symbolic. The guys who were engaged in sections had the opportunity to visit many peaks of the country. Now mountaineering has turned into a business. Climbing rules are not observed even by instructors. What can we say about tourists who go to the mountains as if for a walk. And for all mountaineering in the country now one person is actually responsible at the rate of a civil servant ... All the rest are social activists. But in Samara now there is a revival of mountaineering traditions .." (from an interview with I.T. Dusharin)

Ivan Trofimovich Dusharin - climber, coach. Master of Sports of the USSR (1982), Master of Sports of Russia of international class (1992), "Snow Leopard", instructor-methodologist of the 1st category (1980). Vice President of the Russian Mountaineering Federation, Chairman of the Educational and Methodological Commission of the Russian Mountaineering Federation. Repeated winner of championships and championships in mountaineering. He made about 300 ascents to the peaks in various mountainous regions of the country and the world. Including 4 peaks above 8000 m: Everest (8848 m) - three times, K2 (Chogori) (8611 m), Nanga Parbat (8125 m), Cho Oyu (8201 m), as well as 27 ascents to peaks above 7000 m .

Ivan Trofimovich was born on November 1, 1947 in the city of Pokhvistnevo, Kuibyshev Region, in a large family.

1955-1963 studying at the eight-year school No. 3 in Pokhvistnevo.
1963-1967 studied at the Kuibyshev Machine-Building College, which he graduated in December 1967.

He began his sports career in 1964 with the mountaineering section. His first ascent took place in 1964 on the peak of Adygene (4510 meters, Tien Shan).

Since 2007, Ivan Trofimovich has been a senior coach at the Central School of Instructors of the Russian Mountaineering Federation. Since 2007, he has been the head of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Mountain Training of Military Personnel and Special Forces. For two years, under his leadership, a number of large-scale training camps were held in the mountains and more than 80 mountain training instructors were trained.

Ivan Trofimovich Dusharin is the author of the book “On the String Through the Abyss” (Moscow: Vneshtorgizdat, 2007) and the book “Across the Mountains to Yourself” (photo album). PIOLET D'OR nominee in 1998 for the first ascent (directissima) of the north face of Changabeng, 6864 m, India.
Awards and medals:
- Order of Friendship of Peoples
- Silver medal of VDNKh
- certificates, diplomas and medals of Championships and Championships in mountaineering.
On April 24, 2008, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, he was awarded a state award - the medal "FOR STRENGTHENING THE COMMONWEALTH IN BATTLE".

Married, has two sons and a grandson.

Autograph session, Togliatti, 2014

Ivan Dusharin at the presentation of his new book ()

Climber Dusharin made over 300 ascents, conquered 18 peaks - seven thousandths. His first ascent took place in 1964 on the peak of Adygene (4510 meters, Tien Shan). In 1978 he conquered Communism Peak (7495 meters, Pamir, Soviet-American expedition), in 1983 Korzhenevskaya Peak (7150 meters), in 1991 Ankogua Peak (Patagonia, Argentina), in 1992 Everest (8848 meters, Himalayas, Nepal ), in 1995 Mont Blanc (4810 meters, France), in 1996 K-2 (8611 meters, Chogori, China), in 1997 the peak of Nanga Parbat (8125 meters, Pakistan), in 1998 the peak of Changa Berg ( 6864 meters, India).

Chronology of ascents:
- 1979 Climbing Dalar Peak and Ak-Kaya Peak (first ascent) - 4th place in the USSR Championship in full-time rock class.
- 1980 Climbing the Dzhigit Peak along the northern wall (Slyosov route) - 1st place in the championship of the Central Sports Association of the Children's Sports Association "Trud". The first ascent of the Oguz-Bashi peak along the northern wall - 6th place in the USSR championship in the technical class.
- 1981 Climbing the peak of South Karaganda along the western wall - 2nd place in the championship of the Central Sports Association of the Children's Sports Association "Trud".
- 1982. Alpine camp "Dugoba". Climbing Constructors Peak (first ascent) along the center of the southern wall. Peak Leningradets in the center of the north-eastern wall (first ascent) - 1st place in the championship of the Central Sports and Sports Association "Trud". Peak XXII Olympiad (first ascent) on the right side of the center of the eastern wall. Peak Uzbekistan along the northern wall. Peak Sagu on "feathers". According to the points scored for the most difficult ascents and prize-winning places in the CA championships, I. Dusharin fulfilled the norms of the master of sports of the USSR.
- 1983 International Alpine Camp "Pamir-83". Climbing the seven-thousand-meter Korzhenevskaya peak along the southern wall (Dobrovolsky's route). Climbing Lenin Peak (via Razdelnaya).
- 1984 Climbing Wil Pat Peak. International Alpine Camp "Pamir-84", E. Korzhenevskaya Peak. To the peaks of Khokhlov and Communism along the northwestern buttress of the eastern ridge (through Khokhlov peak).
- 1985 Climbing Peak Box. Peak Lithuania along the 4th bastion of the southwestern wall.
- 1986 In the international alpine camp "Pamir-86" ascents to the Korzhenevskaya peak, to the Clara Zetkin peak along the western wall.
- 1987 To Lenin Peak through the Lipkin Rocks. Traverse of Khokhlov and Communism peaks through BPP and Khokhlov peak. To Korzhenevskaya Peak along the southern ridge.
- 1988 Climbing the Khan-Tengri peak along the southwestern slope.
- 1989 In the international alpine camp "Pamir-89" ascents to Korzhenevskaya Peak along the southern ridge, to Lenin Peak (through Razdelnaya). In the Tien Shan, climbing the seven-thousander Pobeda peak from the Dikiy pass through the peak of Vazha Pshavela.
- 1990 Expedition of the alpclub "Vertical" to South Inylchek. To Evgenia Korzhenevskaya Peak from Moskvin Glacier (along the Romanov route). To the peaks of Khokhlov and Communism along the northern slope from the Walther glacier.
- 01/26/1991. Summit of Aconcagua (Argentina), 6959 m.
- 10.02.1991. Fitz Roy (Argentina, Patagonia), 3750 m (American route). Blucher Peak along the northern wall of the northern ridge in Karakol. Khan Tengri on the southwestern slope.
- 05/12/1992. Climbing Mount Everest via the South Col.
- 1993 A rally in VAZ (Niva) cars along the route Togliatti - Lenin Peak - Togliatti (10,000 km), including more than 1,000 km along mountain roads.
- 1994 International Alpine Camp "Navruz" (Pamir). Peak Korzhenevskaya along the southwestern ridge. Khokhlov and Communism peaks along the northern buttress from the Walther glacier (Bezzubkin route) - 1st place in the CIS championship in the high-altitude class. Peaks of Khokhlov and Communism through the BPP. Peak Korzhenevskaya.
- 1995 May 21 McKinley (USA, Alaska), 6194 m, classical route. Mont Blanc de Tekul (France, Alps, Chamonix). Mont Blanc (France), 4810 m. Petit Drew (France, Chamonix).
- 1996 Expedition to Karakoram. Climbing K-2 (Chogori), 8611 m, along the northern ridge from the territory of China.
- 1997 International expedition to Pakistan (Himalayas). Climbing Nangaparbat, 8125 m, along the Diamir wall - 1st place in the CIS championship in the high-altitude ascent class.
- 1998 International expedition to the Indian Himalayas. Climbing the top of Changabeng, 6864 m, in the center of the northern wall (first ascent) - 2nd place in the championship of Russia in the high-altitude technical class of ascents.
- year 2000. Peak Dior (Pakistan, Hindu Kush), 5499 m, along the northern face (first ascent).
- 2002. Peak of Cho-Oyu (China, Tibet), 8201 m, along the northern slope.
- 2003. Pakistan, Karakoram. First ascent to the nameless peak, 6850 m, near the Hispar glacier.
- 2005 year. China, Tibet. The summit of Everest from the North Col.
- 2006 China, Kun-Lun. Peak Kokodak, 7210 m (first ascent).
- 2007. Pakistan, Karakorum_(mountain_system). Expedition to (K-1) Masherbrum, 7821 m. Height reached 6800 m.
- 2008. France, Alps, Chamonix, Climbing Mont Blanc, 4810 m.
- 2010 Pakistan, Karakorum_(mountain_system). Expedition to Kanzhut Shar, 7826 m. Height reached 7450 m.
- year 2012. China, Tibet. Mount Everest (see video).

Ivan Trofimovich Dusharin. An excerpt from a diary. Everest:
“The first steps of a steep ascent are very difficult. I try to keep up with Abramov, who is walking in front, but I fail. I ask Passang Sherpa:
- Oxygen oh kay? For liter?
He confirms that everything is OK. For a personal check, you need to take off your backpack, and this is a waste of time. And behind me the rest of the climbers. I endure. I breathe like a locomotive, with all the power of the lungs. But the gap between the first two and me is not shrinking.

In this mode, I will not reach the mountain, flashed through my head. What a dead man I am! Or is it a disease, antibiotics have weakened the body so much?

Finally, the first short rest. Luda ahead. I approach them. He breathed hard.

Lyuda, look at my oxygen supply? Everything is fine? Something is very hard for me. I can't keep up with you, I turn to the captain of our team.

Ivan Trofimovich, your oxygen supply costs 2 liters, and when climbing, you need four liters per minute. Who set you up like this?

Passang. Although, I not only told him the handicap, that is, four, but also showed it on my fingers.

Well, I've put everything right for you.

Thank you, you are smart!

The movement began, I already freely kept the desired pace and did not suffocate so much, and I could even think about something, evaluate: And what are we doing? What is climbing Everest?

The poetic talent of the famous Kizhi storyteller Trofim Grigoryevich Ryabinin was inherited by his youngest son Ivan.

The village of Seredka is the birthplace of the storyteller Ivan Trofimovich Ryabinin. This village, like Garnitsy, is located on Bolshoi Klimenetsky Island. The second representative of the Ryabinin epic tradition, Ivan Trofimovich Ryabinin, was born and spent his youth here.

In total, Trofim Grigoryevich Ryabinin had 14 children. Only seven people survived. The last son, Ivan, was born on September 17 (O.S.), 1845.

In those years, T.G. Ryabinin is considered a serviceable householder, although not one of the most prosperous. He raised four sons. Two of them, taken as soldiers, died in the service. Two others, Gavrila and Ivan, lived with their father. In the parental home, while doing common work on long winter evenings, they join the storytelling art - “old people to pull”, especially the younger Ivan. “What a malga my Vanka, and he has already learned to sing from me, although not quite yet. As he rides through the village, he sings about ratai - there is a groan in the village, ”Trofim Grigorievich once mentioned in a conversation with P.N. Rybnikov.

Gavrila's father was not pleased. It is no coincidence that the storyteller's repertoire included and firmly held in it the novelistic epic "Woe", which tells about a drunkard who ruined his young life. T.G. Ryabinin was a serious man, adhered to strict moral rules. Therefore, he separates Gavrila from the family, and he manages the household on his own. Trofim Grigoryevich expelled him from the family as decisively as Alyosha Popovich from among the heroes he sang. Having condemned the mischievous Alyosha, who violated the duty of brotherhood, in the epic about Dobrynya and Vasily Kazimirovich, he once and for all refuses his positive image.

The youngest, Ivan, continues to live with his father. Having got a family, he stays in his parents' house. And this agreement between them is understandable. After all, Ivan, like his father, does not drink wine, does not smoke tobacco, earnestly observes fasting, during which he eats only cabbage and kvass. He is a happy family man, a tireless worker, a man of touching simplicity and peace of mind. So will respond about him later, already in the 90s, E.A. Lyatsky.

Probably, Ivan would have lived under his father's wing, under the roof of his parents' house, had it not been for trouble. After seven years of married life, Ivan's wife dies.

For the first time Ivan married in 1872 Anna Elizarovna Krugovoi from the village of Givesnavolok, located on the same Klimenets Island. In the family of Ivan Trofimovich, five daughters were born, who died before they reached the age of three. In 1879, his wife died during childbirth, and a few months later, in the same year, Ivan Trofimovich married a second time to the widow of Gerasim Yakovlevich Andreev, the grandson of Ignatius Andreev, whom Trofim Grigorievich Ryabinin called his teacher.

Ivan Trofimovich moves to his wife's house in the village of Garnitsy. So Ryabinin-son returns to the family nest, which his father left in his youth. By this time, Ivan becomes the heir to the poetic talent of T.G. Ryabinin, having managed to adopt the main part of his repertoire - 15 epics. Being a zealous Old Believer, the younger Ryabinin also sang spiritual poetry.

Ivan Trofimovich was a first-class performer of epics. A comparison of texts from him and from his father showed that both he and the subsequent Ryabinins treated the perception of the text with great care. Their epics also varied, but less significantly. The epic songs adopted by Ivan Trofimovich mostly repeated the texts of his father almost verbatim and carefully preserved the tradition dating back to the second half of the 18th century. “That’s why she is an old man, that as the old people sang, so we need to sing. You know yourself - it’s not composed by us, it won’t end with us, ”said Ivan Trofimovich.

In the 90s of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fame of the Ryabinins was revived again thanks to Ivan Trofimovich's trips around Russia and Europe. The new wave of interest in the folk epic heritage was not accidental. During these years, the formation of an extremely authoritative “historical school” in Russian folklore was underway, and epics were at the center of scientific interests. In the musical life of Moscow and St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century, remarkable events took place every now and then, in which the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography was involved. In the winter of 1894, the storyteller Ivan Trofimovich Ryabinin "introduced the character of his singing" to the capital. Looking much younger in his fifties, with no signs of graying in his blond hair and beard, "small in stature, dressed in an old-fashioned undershirt, with a quiet, thoughtful speech and unhurried movements," he gave the "impression of a calm and reasonable person." In the "Ethnographic Review" E.A. Lyatsky writes about Ivan Trofimovich: “Belonging to the adherents of the “old faith”, Ivan Trofimovich jealously guards its tenets: he does not drink wine, does not smoke, strictly observes all fasts, during which he eats only cabbage and kvass, and comes to the house where he is invited to sing, only with his glass in his pocket ... The capital has not changed Ryabinin's tastes or habits in anything. At his “Vater” (in rooms on the corner of Vozdvizhenka and Mokhovaya), he devoted all his free time to his village business - knitting nets, for which he prudently seized the necessary gear, “clubs” and “toncers”.

The atmosphere of I.T. Ryabinina was extremely simple: “An ordinary pulpit was put forward in the middle of the hall, a table and a chair were placed, a decanter of kvass stood on the table, teachers, their families, parents and relatives of the pupils who took advantage of the opportunity were placed around, then a picturesque group of the students themselves ... A few more moments - dead silence reigned and ... a sincere, somewhat stifled, but soft and high tenor voice was heard in the hall, immediately captivating the listeners with the originality and beauty of the melody, "this is how the narrator E.A. Lyatsky.

The narrator sang for the most part the same epics: about Volga and Mikula, Ilya of Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber, Dobrynya and spiritual verses on the Crucifixion and on Sunday. At the end of each epic, there was no end to the enthusiasm and applause, but Ryabinin treated them, outwardly at least, indifferently.

According to E.A. Lyatsky, I.T. Ryabinin was very displeased with proposals to release something while singing the epic or not to sing the entire epic, but only the beginning of each. Such treatment of the text of the epic was blasphemous for him. "How so? he wondered. - It’s quite unusual for me to sing like that, for example ... How will it be? I’ll sing the beginning of the blade of grass for you, as you say - stop, or maybe the best words are said right at the end! .. One prank!

With money from performances in 1894, I.T. Ryabinin built the famous house in Garnitsy, which, unfortunately, was destroyed after the Great Patriotic War. Today its place is marked with a cross.

I.T. made a particularly large and lengthy trip. Ryabinin in 1902. She took three months. The singer performed almost daily, and on other days two or three times. The trip began in the Marble Hall of the Winter Palace in the presence of the royal family. He was awarded the "Gold Medal to be worn around the neck" and a gold watch with a coat of arms. After performances in the best salons and scientific meetings of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Odessa, his skill was enjoyed in European capitals - Sofia, Belgrade, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw. Thanks to the teacher of the Petrozavodsk gymnasium P.G. Vinokurov, Ivan Trofimovich traveled half of Europe, and Russian epic poetry received wide public recognition far beyond the borders of the Fatherland. The Russian epic was understood by scientists and the public of the Slavic countries as an organic component of the great heritage of not only the Old Russian, but also the all-Slavic culture.

Of the entire vast repertoire of the epic narrator, only six texts of epics, historical songs and spiritual poems have come down to us in the records. Four musical texts were published, representing samples of two epic tunes and one tune of spiritual verse.

Ivan Trofimovich died in January 1910 and, due to his “commitment to schism,” was buried by the garnitsky peasants without a funeral service next to the Sennogub St. Nicholas Church.

On the churchyard of Sennaya Guba at the place where I.T. Ryabinin, a monument was erected with the inscription: "To the famous storyteller Ivan Trofimovich Ryabinin (1845-1910)".

The material was prepared by Lyudmila Afonina

For reference:

LYATSKY Evgeny Alexandrovich(3 (15) 8.1868, Minsk - 7.7.1942, Prague) - literary critic, ethnographer, literary critic, publicist, prose writer, poet. In 1889 he graduated from the Minsk Gymnasium and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University; was a student of W. F. Miller. From the age of 16 he went on folklore expeditions in Belarus. In his student years, he made presentations at the ethnographic department of the Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography (OLEAiE) at Moscow University; in the journal "Ethnographic Review" published a number of articles, reviews and bibliographic reviews.

The boy, on the contrary, was lively and temperamental, very sincere and sympathetic. In general, children were brought up very strictly, no pampering, excesses were allowed. The daughter grew up, graduated from the institute, defended her dissertation, has a family, works, brings up children. She changed her father's surname to her mother's surname. Subsequently, she went abroad to see off her husband on his last journey and to the beat and stayed. The fate of the son was more tragic. After graduating from an aviation school, he became a participant in the war, commanded, and not bad, an aviation regiment. After the death of his father, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years. After serving his sentence, he was released completely sick. He was retained his military rank and was given a pension, but he was offered to give up his father's surname, to which he did not agree.

After that, he was exiled to Kazan, where he soon died, in March 1962, at the age of 40.

THE MURDER OF S. M. KIROV

I especially want to talk about Kirov.

Most of all, Stalin loved and respected Kirov. He loved him with some kind of touching, tender love. Comrade Kirov's visits to Moscow and to the south were a real treat for Stalin. Sergei Mironovich came for a week or two. In Moscow, he stayed at Comrade Stalin's apartment, and I.V. literally did not part with him.

S. M. Kirov was killed on December 13, 1934 in Leningrad. Kirov's death shocked Stalin. I went with him to Leningrad and I know how he suffered, experienced the loss of his beloved friend. Everyone knows what a crystal-clear man S.M. was, how simple and modest he was, what a great worker and wise leader he was, everyone knows.

This vile murder showed that the enemies of Soviet power had not yet been destroyed and were ready at any moment to strike from around the corner.

Comrade Kirov was killed by the enemies of the people. His killer, Leonid Nikolaev, stated in his testimony: "Our shot was supposed to be a signal for an explosion and an offensive inside the country against the CPSU (b) and Soviet power." In September 1934, an attempt was made on Comrade Molotov, when he made an inspection tour of the mining regions of Siberia. Comrade Molotov and his companions miraculously escaped death.

ATTEMPT ON STALIN

In the summer of 1935, an attempt was made on Comrade Stalin. It happened in the south. Comrade Stalin was resting at a dacha not far from Gagra.

On a small boat, which was transported to the Black Sea from the Neva from Leningrad by Yagoda, Comrade Stalin took walks on the sea. He had only security with him. The direction was taken to Cape Pitsunda. Having entered the bay, we went ashore, rested, ate, walked, having been on the shore for several hours. Then they boarded the boat and went home. There is a lighthouse on Cape Pitsunda, and not far from the lighthouse on the shore of the bay there was a border guard post. When we left the bay and turned in the direction of Gagra, shots rang out from the shore. We were being fired upon.

Quickly putting Comrade Stalin on the bench and covering him with myself, I ordered the minder to go out to sea.

We immediately fired a burst of machine gun fire along the shore. The firing on our boat stopped.

Our boat was small, river and completely unsuitable for sailing on the sea, and we had a great chat before we landed on the shore. The sending of such a boat to Sochi was also made by Yagoda, apparently not without malicious intent - on a big wave it would inevitably capsize, but we, as people not versed in maritime affairs, did not know about this.

This case was referred for investigation by Beria, who was at that time the secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia. During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat was with an unfamiliar number, it seemed suspicious to him and he opened fire, although he had enough time to find out everything while we were on the shore of the bay, and he could not see us.

It was all one ball.

The assassination of Kirov, Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev, as well as the assassination attempts mentioned above, were organized by the right-wing Trotsky bloc.

This was shown by the trials of Kamenev and Zinoviev in 1936, the trial of Pyatakov, Radek and Sokolnikov in 1937, and the trial of Yagoda, Bukharin and Rykov in 1938. This tangle was unraveled and thus neutralized the enemies of Soviet power before the war. They could be the "fifth column".

MILITARY CONSPIRACY

Among the many accusations brought against Comrade Stalin after his death, perhaps the most significant is the accusation of the physical destruction of a group of military leaders of the Red Army headed by Tukhachevsky.

They have now been rehabilitated. At the 22nd Congress, the Communist Party of the USSR declared their complete innocence to the whole world.

On what basis were they rehabilitated?

They were convicted according to the documents. After 20 years, these documents were declared false ... But how should Comrade Stalin react to a document that convicted Tukhachevsky of treason, handed over by a friend of the Soviet Union, President of Czechoslovakia Benes? I do not admit the thought that other evidence was not collected besides this. If all the military leaders, as it is now claimed, were innocent, then why did Gamarnik suddenly shoot himself? I have never heard of such cases when innocent people were shot while waiting for arrest. After all, revolutionaries, always living under the threat of arrest, never committed suicide. In addition, this group of military men was not shot, like 26 Baku commissars, without trial or investigation. They were convicted by the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court.

The trial, it is true, took place behind closed doors, since the testimony at the trial had to deal with military secrets. But the court included such authoritative people known throughout the country as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov. The report on the trial indicated that the defendants had pleaded guilty. To cast doubt on this message means to cast a shadow on such unsullied people as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov.

Speaking about this process, I would like to dwell on the personality of the head of the military group Tukhachevsky. Personality, of course, very bright. A lot has already been written about him, in particular, such a venerable writer as L. Nikulin wrote a book about him. I would like to say a few words about this book and another book by Michael Sayers and Albert Kahn, The Secret War Against Soviet Russia. I want to dwell on the characterization of Tukhachevsky given by the authors of these books.

Their characteristics are exactly the opposite. Which of them is right? Who to believe? I personally met with Tukhachevsky, I knew him. It was known about him that he came from a noble landlord family, graduated from the Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School. But I never heard that his mother was a simple illiterate peasant woman. Nikulin writes that he received information about Tukhachevsky's childhood from a friend of his acquaintance, who tracked down a 90-year-old man who worked in his youth on the estate of Tukhachevsky's father. I recorded a conversation with him and sent it to Nikulin.

There is no doubt that Tukhachevsky was a highly educated person. Neither appearance, nor gestures, nor demeanor, nor conversation - nothing indicated in him a proletarian origin, on the contrary, blue blood was visible in everything.

Nikulin writes that Tukhachevsky was not a careerist, but according to other sources, Tukhachevsky, after graduating from the Alexander School, said: “Either at thirty I will be a general, or I will shoot myself.” The French officer Remy Ruhr, who was in captivity along with Tukhachevsky, characterized him as an extremely ambitious person who stops at nothing.

Subsequently, in 1928, Remy Ruhr wrote a book about Tukhachevsky under the pseudonym Pierre Fervac.

Tukhachevsky escaped from German captivity and returned to Russia on the eve of the October Revolution. He first joined the former officers of the tsarist army, then broke with them.

Sayers and Kahn write that to his friend Golumbek, when asked what he intended to do, Tukhachevsky replied: “Frankly speaking, I turn to the Bolsheviks. The White Army is unable to do anything. They don't have a leader."