Frederic Cesar de La Harpe was born on April 6, 1754. During the Great French Revolution he removed the noble particle "de" from the spelling of the surname. After receiving his education, he was a lawyer in Bern.
In the eighties of the 18th century, La Harpe was invited by Catherine II to Russia to become the tutor of her grandson, the future Russian emperor Alexander I. With this appointment, he left his mark on the history of Russia.
In 1795, Frederic Cesar La Harpe was removed from his post as educator of the heir to the Russian throne. The main reasons were liberalism and commitment to the ideals of the French Revolution. The situation was simple. After the start of the revolution, Frederic Cesar La Harpe proposed reforms to the Bernese government. This undertaking gave rise to consider him one of the instigators of unrest in the canton of Vaud, subordinate to Bern. Enemies brought this information to the St. Petersburg court. So Frederic Cesar Laharpe lost his place at the royal court.
Having sold his estate Janto in 1797, he went to Geneva, and then from Geneva to Paris. There are several pamphlets published by La Harpe in France criticizing Bernese aristocratic rule. In the Helvetic Republic
Frank correspondence of the emperor with his tutor and close friend was first published in Russia
In December last year 240 years have passed since the birth of the most mysterious Russian emperor - Alexander I the Blessed. As soon as his contemporaries called him: "a real deceiver" (M.M. Speransky), "the ruler is weak and crafty" (A.S. Pushkin), "The Sphinx, not solved to the grave" (Prince P.A. Vyazemsky), "this is a true Byzantine ... subtle, feigned, cunning" (Napoleon) ...
Jacques Page. Portrait of Frederic-Caesar La Harpe. 1803. Francois Gerard. Portrait of Alexander I. 1830s.
But there was another point of view.
"Alexander was not ordinary and limited person... This person is deeply melancholy. Full of great ideas, he never realized them. Suspicious, indecisive, lacking self-confidence, surrounded by mediocrities or retrogrades, he, in addition, was constantly tormented by his semi-voluntary participation in the murder of his own father. Crowned Hamlet, he was truly unhappy"1, - wrote Alexander Ivanovich Herzen.
Nowadays, historians have unique opportunity get closer to unraveling the character of a remarkable monarch.
Professor of Moscow State University Andrey Yuryevich Andreev and his colleague from Lausanne, Mrs. Daniel Tozato-Rigo, did a titanic job and prepared for printing a major three-volume large format - a complete correspondence between Emperor Alexander I and his Swiss mentor Frederic-Cesar Laharpe (1754-1838). Before us are almost three thousand pages - 332 letters and 205 documents of the Appendix, not counting the List historical realities, Annotated Name Index and Annotated Index geographical names. In a word, we have before us a capital and carefully funded academic publication of a first-class historical source.
Let us dive into these beautifully edited and lovingly illustrated volumes. The crowned Hamlet awaits the verdict that the court of History will pass on him.
Cards drawn by La Harpe to teach French to the Grand Dukes.
Between the tutor, who was granted the rank of prime minister of the Russian army, and Grand Duke Alexander, a trusting relationship was immediately established - despite such different age and social status.
La Harpe taught the pupil many useful things:
Disorder and carelessness in business are hateful.
The king must work.
You have to get up at six in the morning.
Do not allow yourself to be deceived.
The king should be for his subjects a model of a loving husband.
Do not succumb to aversion to power.
The pupil responded to the teacher with sincerity. In the famous letter to La Harpe from Gatchina dated September 27 (October 8), 1797, the crown prince formulated his cherished dream: after accession to grant Russia a constitution: "After which I will completely lay down my power and, if Providence pleases us, I will retire to some quiet corner, where I will live peacefully and happily, seeing the prosperity of my fatherland and enjoying the spectacle of this. That's what my intention, dear friend.
Let's think about it: the Tsarevich entrusted La Harpe with the most important state secret! You don't write to a teacher like that. So they write only to a friend - close and only.
Gerhard von Kugelgen. Portrait of Paul I with his family. 1800 year.
A painful goodbye...
Catherine II, perceptively noting that between her beloved grandson and his tutor established trusting relationship, decided to take advantage of this (Rodina talked about this intrigue in N5 for 2016). She honored La Harpe with a lengthy two-hour audience during inner chambers. The Empress intended to deprive her son Pavel Petrovich of the right to inherit the throne and, bypassing her son, to transfer the throne to her eldest grandson Alexander. Grand Duke Alexander had to be prepared in advance for coming change his fate.
To do this, according to the plan of the empress, it was La Harpe who was able to do this: "Only he alone could young prince exert the necessary influence.
So the Swiss was involved in the epicenter of a very serious political intrigue. But he had the intelligence and tact not to accept the role offered to him. The wounded Empress did not forgive this. Laharpe was dismissed, having paid 10 thousand rubles instead of the due pension. However, this was enough for La Harpe to acquire a beautiful estate on the shores of Lake Geneva.
May 9, 1795 Grand Duke in order to last time to hug a friend before leaving, quietly left the palace and arrived incognito in a hired pit carriage at La Harpe's apartment. Alexander embraced his friend and wept bitterly. "Our parting was painful" 4 . Then the Grand Duke uttered what later became famous phrase that he owes everything to La Harpe except his birth.
Seeliger Karl Wilhelm. Allegory of the accession to the throne of Alexander I.
... and a long-awaited meeting
Shortly after his accession to the throne, Emperor Alexander hastened to send the Swiss to St. Petersburg. La Harpe was not slow to arrive. The emperor came to him twice a week to discuss urgent matters of state. "The days of Alexander's wonderful beginning" is impossible to imagine without La Harpe. According to the authoritative testimony of Nicholas I, for his older brother Alexander, "heartfelt relations" with La Harpe "became a need of the heart"5.
We can safely say: for 35 years, the Swiss was almost the only friend fickle sovereign. History does not know of another example of such a long friendly relationship between an august person and a private person. This is convincingly evidenced by the letters of Alexander, among which, according to La Harpe, "there are those who deserve to be cast in gold." And even more so - the letters of La Harpe himself to Alexander, many of which would be more correctly called scientific treatises.
The emperor sympathetically read the master's lengthy letters. "Undoubtedly, he was not made of the dough that all other sovereigns, once for three decades allowed ordinary citizen address yourself letters, ... in every line of which frankness is visible, even rare between equals, "6 - La Harpe admitted.
Letter from Grand Duke Alexander La Harpe. 1795
What did the "simple citizen", who possessed a pragmatic mind and encyclopedic knowledge, write to the sovereign about?
Do not abuse trifles, because you can drown in them, but solve all issues yourself, so that the nobles and ministers of the imperial decision could not guess.
Civilize your fellow citizens.
The Russian Empire needs, first of all, not lyceums and universities for the nobility, but elementary rural schools for the common people.
Plant gardens and plant forests. Master the production of your own sugar in the country and do not spend money on its purchase. AT Russian Empire three climatic zones, without knowing it, she has enormous agricultural wealth: why import what you can grow yourself.
La Harpe urged the tsar to proceed with the gradual abolition of serfdom, "without which Russia will remain forever dependent and weak, and the story of Stenka Razin and Pugachev will be repeated in its expanses whenever enemies and rivals decide to expose it to this danger"7.
And the Swiss wrote about privacy the sovereign, impartially blaming Alexander for the lack of legitimate children and unobtrusively condemning the long love affair with Maria Antonovna Naryshkina, from whom the daughter Sophia was born:
"... Do you really think that if you are an emperor, you have the right to do so?"8
Reflection on the throne
Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna's favorite lady-in-waiting Roxana Skarlatovna Sturdza (married Countess Edling) claimed that La Harpe repeatedly used "the influence that he always had over the conscience of his pupil" 9 . However, La Harpe himself was not inclined to exaggerate the degree of his influence on the autocrat. "The truth is that the Emperor obeyed only own heart and superior mind."
The Swiss urged the monarch to become "emperor of the people" and "emperor-citizen" 11 . Along with Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, he purposefully inspired the sovereign with the idea of his future responsibility to History: "... Do not forget for a moment that your first and most sacred obligations are obligations to Russia, that Russia has been waiting for you for ten centuries! From current decisions Your judgment largely depends on what posterity will make about your reign, ... and it will judge according to the facts, according to what you did and what you did not do "12.
Why was the monarch in no hurry, following the advice of his teacher, to carry out fundamental reforms to modernize the Russian Empire? He was not a coward. In 1813, during the battle of Dresden, General Jean Victor Moreau, who was watching the battlefield near the sovereign, was killed by a French cannonball. If the core had deviated a few meters to the side, the Russian Tsar would have become its victim. Alexander was not afraid of attempts on his life, making alone, without protection, long walks around St. Petersburg, residents of the capital were well aware of them. "The Emperor, as everyone knows, used to walk along the Fontanka in the morning. Everyone knew his hours..." 14 - recalled Anna Petrovna Kern. When La Harpe decided to discuss the problems of personal security with Alexander, the tsar answered briefly: "My only defender against new assassination attempts is a clear conscience" 15 .
But Alexander's desire to "be a man on the throne" and always act according to his conscience caused discord with himself. Remember key phrase from the famous monologue of the Prince of Denmark: "How does conscience make cowards of us all"? The crowned Hamlet continually experienced painful doubts and hesitations. Reflection often triumphed in him over the thirst for action. And this despite the fact that, having made a decision and made his choice, Alexander, like Hamlet, acted fearlessly and decisively, slew the enemies skillfully and accurately.
His last order before his death was the order for the arrest of members secret society- Ensign Fyodor Vadkovsky and Colonel Pavel Pestel, and last words: "Monsters! Ungrateful!"
K. Goldstein. So will the republic. Pavel Pestel's speech at the meeting northern society In Petersburg. 1925
Nomadic Monarch
The monarch, not trusting the official reports of the ministers, wanted to see with his own eyes how his subjects live. He was well aware of the ordeals of honored people: "with us, many Russians find themselves without jobs, because they cannot be found ..."16. Therefore, Alexander I ruled a vast empire not from a palace office, but from a road carriage open to all winds and deprived of minimal amenities, in which he spent most his reign.
"A nomadic despot" - this is how Pushkin attested to the monarch.
I. Kraft. Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg, Alexander I, Franz I and Friedrich Wilhelm III at the Battle of Leipzig on October 19, 1813.
Alexander I was not pampered, did not shy away from Spartan life and was not afraid of accidents. high road. At hand he always had small pocket pistols and a leather suitcase with a folding camp bed. On the way, the emperor slept on a red morocco mattress stuffed with straw, and put a morocco pillow stuffed with a horse's mane under his head.
Wherever he has been!
In 1816 he visited Tula, Kaluga, Roslavl, Chernigov, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Warsaw, Moscow. In 1819 he went to Arkhangelsk, then through Olonets to Finland, visited the monastery on the island of Valaam and reached Torneo. In 1824 he visited Penza, Simbirsk, Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Zlatoust factories, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Vyatka, Vologda, and from there returned to Tsarskoe Selo via Borovichi and Novgorod.
In 1825, Alexander decided to make a trip to the south of Russia, to the Crimea, to the Caucasus, and then even to visit Siberia, but he only reached Taganrog.
Pushkin is credited with the epigram:
Spent all my life on the road
And he died in Taganrog.
Reflection did not prevent the crowned Hamlet from doing things, with the exception, perhaps, of the most important thing: he did not dare to embark on reforms to modernize the Russian Empire. And he explained his own inconsistency briefly: "There is no one to take it." Ideal and reality are at odds. The unattainability of the former ideal, its unconditional loss in last years reign - this is the basis of a truly Shakespearean tragedy experienced by the emperor.
Once, Alexander I could not resist a bitter remark that "if he had not been mistaken so often in those whom he invested with his trust, then his reform projects would have long ago been put into practice"18.
Perhaps the only one to whom this could not apply one iota was Frederic-Caesar Leharp.
LOOKING THROUGH THE YEARS
"They respect and fear Russia"
Other advice from La Harpe, especially about the relationship between Russia and the West, has not lost its relevance today.
“Is it really impossible for Russia to exist and flourish without foreign help? I am convinced of the opposite. Moreover, my cherished conviction is that she will be especially formidable, powerful, influential, if without fuss, never threatening anyone either in words, or in writing, or in deed, without giving out her secrets to her neighbors, she will watch what is happening so that at the decisive moment, strike with lightning speed and not according to other people's prescriptions, but according to one's own understanding.
No one dares to challenge this giant for fear of being slain by the first blow, for neither diplomacy, nor diplomats, nor intriguers upper class, nor the intriguers of the lower class are able to repel a blow delivered swiftly, with an irresistible hand.
When Russia acts independently, the Sovereign behaves proudly and majestically, and her opponents themselves are forced to admit this in the depths of their souls. They respect and fear Russia; they see in it a dark cloud hiding in its bowels hail, lightning and deadly streams, which in the imagination seem even more terrible than in reality.
A. Kivshenko. The entry of Russian and allied troops into Paris.
BRIEFLY ABOUT THE MAIN
"The ignorant and semi-knowledgeable were the scourge of Russia..."
A few aphorisms of La Harpe addressed to us
Until now, ignorant and half-witted people have been the scourge of Russia, ... it is urgently necessary to replace them not with empty talkers, but deeply educated people, capable of developing with all clarity those true rules on which science is based.
No talents give the right to be freed from control, especially in Russia, where they are accustomed to please the viziers and submit to arbitrariness.
In the matter of administration, and especially in the matter of education, everything that glitters is either useless or harmful.
Nations perish when their rulers nip the social spirit in the bud.
It is necessary for Russia to remain in readiness, to preserve its dignity and its secrets, and, most importantly, not to hand over notes without having two hundred thousand people at the ready, capable of immediately achieving their execution.
People pass, institutions remain.
After the victory over Napoleon and the capture of Paris (the tsar entered the capital of France riding a white stallion named Eclipse, presented to him by Napoleon in 1808), at the moment of the highest personal triumph, Alexander the Blessed again remembered his mentor and friend, conferring on him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called - the highest award Russian Empire.
Frederic La Harpe is remembered in Russia as the educator of one of the monarchs - Alexander I, but in Switzerland - as an outstanding statesman who left a noticeable mark on the history of his homeland.
Frederic Cesar de La Harpe was born on April 6, 1754 in the small and friendly town of Rolle near Lausanne, located on the northern shore of Lake Geneva. His family belonged to the local elite. Educated at the famous University of Tübingen, 20-year-old doctor of law Laharpe got a job as a lawyer at the highest court of appeal in Lausanne. But suddenly, in 1782, a conscientious lawyer was expelled from Switzerland. What happened?
Freedom to "country In"!
The first period of La Harpe's life in Switzerland coincided with the tyranny of the oligarchic republic of German-speaking Bern, where only Bernese noble families were politically full. It was they who, in fact, determined the composition of the unicameral assembly, which passed laws that did not take into account the interests of the inhabitants of the southwestern part of Switzerland at all. La Harpe's homeland, the territory of Lausanne, whose population spoke French, also adjoined these lands.
They called their small homeland"the country of Vaud" (le Pays Vaud). Many of them, including including La Harpe, tried to justify the rights of this "country" to separate from the "big brother". And all because the Bernese guild privileges, which gave them the right to pay less taxes than the inhabitants of the "country of Vaud", deprived skilled watchmakers from Lausanne of earnings. Bernese officials strove to rip off their French-speaking neighbors more.
Having rebelled against impudent injustice, La Harpe offered his compatriots a simple way out: Col Berne democracy is good only for Bern and its immediate surroundings, then it is necessary to separate from them. The authorities, having exposed a young lawyer who wrote pamphlets that today would be recognized as separatist, expelled him from Switzerland.
The disgraced Frederick went to Italy, where he was noticed by the German publicist Friedrich Melchior Grimm and recommended to Catherine II. In the second half of the 18th century, Swiss tutors and teachers enjoyed the highest confidence in Russia. They were reputed to be serious and modest workers, and also possessed elegant manners, which could not but attract the families of the Russian nobility. Therefore, it is not surprising that a French-speaking Swiss resident was also invited to raise the young grandson of the Russian Empress.
The teacher and his student quickly found mutual language. La Harpe's judgments about people's freedom and justice fascinated and impressed the young monarch, but by no means Imperial Courtyard. Particularly dissatisfied with the new teacher was Tsarevich Pavel, irritated by the political and moral tales that filled the children's imagination with ideas in the spirit of liberalism.
Frederick did not stop leading political activity in their homeland, even from their refuge - Russia. What the Swiss authorities were not slow to inform Catherine II about. But the queen for the time being did not pay attention to these denunciations. Cooling towards the Swiss came only after La Harpe refused to fulfill it. special assignment- to persuade the pupil to become the heir to the throne, bypassing his father, who is not pleasing to Empress Pavel ...
In 1795 La Harpe had to leave Russia. However, in parting, Catherine II elevated Frederick to the rank of colonel and appointed him a lifelong pension.
Helvetic Republic
After St. Petersburg, Frederic La Harpe (under the influence of the revolution got rid of the noble particle “de” in his name) settled in Paris. Just at this very time, Napoleon's army was triumphantly approaching the Swiss borders. Seeing this, Frederick began his game. He incited the French government to intervene in Swiss affairs. With the help of the Directory, he intended to gain independence for the "country of Wo". He called on his fellow countrymen for a decisive separation from Bern, only in this case they would be free ... and on January 24, 1798 this happened. Four days later, French troops invaded Switzerland - the old Swiss Confederation broke up.
On April 12, 1798, in Aarau, under the control of the French government, the Helvetic Republic was proclaimed, consisting of 22 cantons (in other words, territorial-administrative units), including Vaud. Its constitution was drawn up on the model of the French. Now everyone, regardless of their class, were equal before the law. abolished feudal right, all customs barriers within the country were removed. executive branch consisted of five people, one of whom was appointed La Harpe. Subsequently, it was these five people who were responsible for the internal state system.
Meanwhile, La Harpe had no reason to celebrate. The French actually enslaved the Helvetic Republic, imposing huge indemnities on it. No matter how La Harpe tried to reason with the "allies", assuring them that predatory extortions were inclining the Swiss to the side of the opponents of France - the Austrians and Russians, everything was in vain.
In order to somehow rectify the situation, La Harpe even decided on a coup d'état. On the night of December 8-9, 1799, he planned to achieve the proclamation of himself as the first consul of the republic, stabilize the situation in the country and get rid of foreign conqueror. But the plan failed: power finally passed to the French, and La Harpe himself was taken to Paris, where Bonaparte insistently asked him not to interfere in politics anymore.
The fiascoed Frederic settled on an estate near Paris, closely and with the deepest chagrin following the events in Switzerland.
On January 29, 1803, Napoleon officially declared: “It is recognized by Europe that Italy, Holland and Switzerland are under the rule of France ... I will never tolerate any other influence in Switzerland than my own, even if it costs me 100,000 people.” Such was his invariable method: to present the point of his sword as the last argument...
last fight
By the middle of 1801, La Harpe accepted the invitation of Alexander I and hurried to Russia. The only way he could help his homeland was to secretly support his former student Alexander I in the fight against Napoleon, which he did. AT Historical archive Petersburg, there is a letter from La Harpe to Emperor Alexander I, dated February 22, 1812: “... I hope, sir, that you are able to withstand a thunderstorm ... Make your business popular, sir, and you will find new Pozharsky, new Sukhoruki if you do not renounce yourself, if you find patriotic, energetic and brave advisers, true Russians, whose motto will be: win or perish.
After allied forces threw down the pro-Napoleonic regime in Switzerland, Alexander I was able to thank his teacher. He supported La Harpe on Congress of Vienna and recognized the independence of the canton of Vaud, for which Frederic La Harpe had fought for so long. But the victory again turned out to be bitter.
The new Federal Treaty did not give Switzerland more freedom than under Napoleon. Now there was no single capital in the country: the Federal Council met alternately in Bern, Zurich and Lucerne, moving from city to city every two years ... What can I say, 20 different measures of length began to be used in Switzerland! “The federal treaty is a shameful document containing everything that will inevitably lead to civil war”, La Harpe wrote bitterly in his memoirs. And so it happened, but after his death.
The “fighter for freedom and independence” spent the last years of his life in Lausanne, where he died on March 30, 1838. Six years later, a small artificial island on Lake Geneva was named after him. An obelisk was erected on it with the words of Alexander I: "Everything that I am, I owe to the Swiss."
Alexandra Shepel
- (La Harpe) (1754 1838), Swiss political figure, an adherent of the ideas of the Enlightenment. In 1784 95 educator of the future Russian Emperor Alexander I. In 1798 1800 he was a member of the Directory of the Helvetic Republic. * * * LAGARP Frederic Cesar de LAGARP… … encyclopedic Dictionary
LAGARP (La Harpe) Frederic Cesar de (1754 1838) Swiss politician, adherent of the ideas of the Enlightenment. In 1784, 95 was the educator of the future Russian Emperor Alexander I. In 1798, 1800, he was a member of the Directory of the Helvetic Republic ...
La Harpe Frederic Cesar de (04/06/1754, Role, canton of Vaud, ≈ 3/30/1838, Lausanne), Swiss politician. By profession a lawyer. In the 80s. invited by Catherine II to Russia as an educator of her grandson, the future Russian ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Laharpe Frederic Cesar de- (1754 1838) Swiss, in 1784 95 the teacher led. book. Alexander Pavlovich (bud. Alexander I). A lawyer by profession, adhered to republican ideas and liberals. enlighten. views in the spirit of the encyclopedists and J. J. Rousseau, to which he instilled in his ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary
- (Fr. Frédéric César Laharpe; originally de La Harpe, but during the French Revolution changed the spelling of the surname by removing the noble particle de; April 6, 1754 March 30, 1838) Swiss general and statesman, in Russian history ... Wikipedia
Frederic Cesar Laharpe Frederic Cesar Laharpe (Fr. Frédéric César Laharpe; originally de La Harpe, but during the French Revolution changed the spelling of the surname by removing the noble particle de; April 6, 1754 March 30, 1838) Swiss general ... ... Wikipedia
Frederic Cesar Laharpe Frederic Cesar Laharpe (Fr. Frédéric César Laharpe; originally de La Harpe, but during the French Revolution changed the spelling of the surname by removing the noble particle de; April 6, 1754 March 30, 1838) Swiss general ... ... Wikipedia
Frederic Cesar Laharpe Frederic Cesar Laharpe (Fr. Frédéric César Laharpe; originally de La Harpe, but during the French Revolution changed the spelling of the surname by removing the noble particle de; April 6, 1754 March 30, 1838) Swiss general ... ... Wikipedia
- (1754-1838), Swiss politician, supporter of the ideas of the Enlightenment. In 1784-95 he was the educator of the future Russian Emperor Alexander I. In 1798-1800 he was a member of the Directory of the Helvetic Republic ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Emperor Alexander I and Frederic-Cesar Laharpe. Letters. The documents. In 3 volumes. Volume 1. 1782-1802, . For the first time in Russian, the correspondence of the Russian Emperor Alexander I and his Swiss mentor F.-S. Laharpe, who, after completing his service at the court of Catherine II ...
Could Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, who later became Tsarevich and heir to the All-Russian throne, and then emperor, have had a sincere and devoted friend?
What is friendship? Light hangover ardor
Resentment free talk,
The exchange of vanity, idleness
Ile patronage shame 1 .
Alexander Pushkin
"Friendship well, friendship cf. mutual affection two or more people close connection them; in a good sense, disinterested, enduring affection based on love and respect; in bad, a close relationship based on mutual benefits. There is truth in friendship" 2.
Vladimir Dal
No, of course, and Pushkin's lines are not about him. The sovereign does not and cannot have a true friend; "patronage shame" - this is not friendship.
Certainly not, and Dictionary"Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl is not about him. The narcissistic and two-faced Alexander I," the ruler of the weak and crafty, "could not have any lasting affection for anyone.
Here are just the first and second statements - historical myths. They are refuted by numerous facts recently introduced in scientific circulation. The emperor had a true friend. His Swiss mentor was Frédéric-César Laharpe.
White crow at the court
Professor of Moscow State University Andrey Yuryevich Andreev and his colleague from Lausanne, Mrs. Daniel Tozato-Rigot, did a titanic job and prepared for printing a major three-volume book - a complete correspondence between Alexander I and La Harpe (1754-1838). The Swiss were revered in Europe as exemplary tutors, and there is nothing surprising in the choice of Empress Catherine II as a mentor for her beloved grandson. So the staunch republican Laharpe began to serve at the Russian imperial court.
Between Laharpe, who was granted the rank of prime minister of the Russian army, and his little ward, a trusting relationship was immediately established. The mentor taught the Grand Duke many useful things.
Disorder and carelessness in business are hateful.
The future sovereign must be able to work independently.
You have to get up at six in the morning.
Entertainment should help work.
Do not allow yourself to be deceived.
Do not succumb to aversion to power.
The monarch should visit art galleries and encourage the arts.
The king should be for his subjects a model of a loving husband.
The future sovereign in his daily activities should take an example from geometers: "make it a rule for yourself to judge not before expressing, before studying all the facts without exception" ...
The proud Swiss swaggered about his independence. He did not look for patrons, did not take part in the struggle of court factions. But at the same time, he constantly counted money in a petty-bourgeois way, scrupulously emphasizing the sad fact that his salary is constantly decreasing due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the banknote ruble in relation to a full-weight silver coin.
Such a person was perceived at court as a white crow.
When La Harpe reminded the court of the sanctity of the treaty concluded with him, he was sent five hundred rubles as compensation. The Swiss regarded this as a sop and proudly refused. The valet who brought the money probably counted on a generous tip, but received nothing ...
The intrigue of the empress
Is it any wonder that after this story, La Harpe could not get either the horses or the carriage from the court stables, which were due to him under the contract. All court servants were one family, one brotherhood; the mentor of the Grand Duke suddenly ruined relations with everyone. But the arrogant Swiss did not even guess about it. And he continued to give his student lessons in freethinking, republican principles and liberalism.
It was to La Harpe that the future emperor wrote the famous letter from Gatchina dated September 27 (October 8), 1797, in which he formulated his cherished dream: "When my turn comes, then it will be necessary - of course, gradually - to prepare the nation to elect its own representatives and adopted a free constitution, after which I will completely lay down my power and, if Providence will favor us, I will retire to some quiet corner, where I will live peacefully and happily, seeing the prosperity of my fatherland and enjoying the spectacle of it. , dear friend" 3 .
Let's think about it: the Tsarevich entrusted La Harpe with the most important state secret! Mentor or teacher do not write like that. So they write only to a friend - close and only.
Empress Catherine II astutely noticed that trusting friendly relations had been established between her grandson and educator, and decided to take advantage of this. She honored La Harpe with a lengthy two-hour audience in the inner chambers. The Empress intended to deprive her son Pavel Petrovich of the right to inherit the throne and, bypassing her son, to transfer the throne to her eldest grandson Alexander. So, it is necessary to prepare him in advance for the coming change of fate. Who could do it?
According to the empress's plan, it was a friend of the Grand Duke La Harpe: "Only he alone could exert the necessary influence on the young prince" 4 .
So the Swiss was involved in the epicenter of a serious political intrigue. Catherine spoke in hints, La Harpe pretended that he did not understand them. He had the intelligence and tact not to accept the role offered to him. “I guessed her secret and had the good fortune not to allow me to be initiated into it, moreover, without arousing suspicion ... Forced to respect me, Catherine the Great has since become silent and no longer tried to lure her to her side, but tried to remove the uncomfortable witness” 5.
The Empress, however, observed decency. First, Laharpe was granted the rank of colonel in the Russian army, and then he was dismissed, having paid a lump sum of 10 thousand rubles instead of the due pension. It was a very solid sum for those times, for which La Harpe acquired a beautiful estate on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Farewell incognito
The unexpected resignation of La Harpe and his removal from the court were a serious blow to Grand Duke Alexander. The future sovereign was taught object lesson political cunning. He learned the real value of high-ranking courtiers and important nobles and made a bitter conclusion: I would not like to have these gentlemen as my lackeys.
On May 9, 1795, saying goodbye to a friend who was leaving for his homeland, Alexander uttered a phrase that later became famous: he owes everything to La Harpe, except for his birth. Knowing that he was being followed, the Grand Duke quietly left the palace and arrived incognito in a hired pit carriage at La Harpe's apartment. Alexander embraced his friend and wept bitterly. "Our parting was painful" 6 .
He presented the Swiss with two miniature portraits adorned with diamonds - his own and his wife, Elizaveta Alekseevna. Subsequently, when the Swiss erect an obelisk in memory of La Harpe, they will carve on a stone in the name of the All-Russian Emperor: "Everything that I am, I owe to the Swiss" 7 .
But La Harpe owed him a lot: “Undoubtedly, he was not made of the dough that all other sovereigns, once for three decades, allowed a simple citizen to address himself with letters ... in every line of which frankness is visible, even between equals rare " eight .
The letters that they exchanged at parting touch the heart ...
Farewell, my dear friend! How bitter it is for me to address these words to you! Remember that you are leaving here a person who is devoted to you, who does not find words to express his gratitude to you, who owes you everything except his birth.
Be happy, dear friend, this is what a person who is cordially attached to you, who respects you and has an inexplicable reverence for you, wishes you.
I can hardly understand what I am writing. For the last time I say to you: farewell, best of friends, do not forget me.
Alexander
My wife instructed me to tell you that until the end of her days she will remember everything that you have done for her ...
Once again: my dear friend, benefactor.
I have no words, Your Highness, to express how deeply imprinted in my heart your priceless friendship, your deeds, in short, all your treatment of me. The visit with which you honored me yesterday fills my soul with joy and sorrow, and, of course, I will never forget everything that you deigned to tell me.
Your speeches, your feelings, everything that concerns you, are forever imprinted in my heart. Your note touched me to the depths of my soul. O my dear Alexander, let me call you that, my dear Alexander, keep your friendly disposition, which you have proved to me so many times, and I will be faithful to you until my last breath.
However, it's time to end. I embrace you mentally in the hope of someday doing this again, not only in words. Believe that until the end of my days I will be your friend - since you have honored me with this title - the most devoted and most faithful of all your friends and servants.
F.-Cesar de La Harpe.
P.S. After his accession to the throne, Emperor Alexander hastened to send the Swiss to St. Petersburg. La Harpe was not slow to arrive. Twice a week the emperor came to his only friend to discuss pressing affairs of state. "The days of Alexander's wonderful beginning" is impossible to imagine without La Harpe.
After the victory over Napoleon and the capture of Paris, at the moment of his highest personal triumph, Alexander the Blessed again remembered his mentor and friend, granting him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called - the highest award of the Russian Empire.
To friends
May the seeker of proud glory
Sacrificing peace to her!
Let him fly into the bloody battle
For a crowd of heroes!
But haughty crowns
The singer of the forests is not deceived:
I'm happy without crowns
With a lyre, with true friends.
Let wealth torment passion
Hungry slaves!
Let them shower with gold
Let them from foreign countries
With loaded ships
Violent waves crush:
I'm rich without gold
With a lyre, with true friends.
Let the cheerful swarm noisy
It draws crowds!
Let them shine on their altar
Everyone will make a sacrifice!
I do not strive for their crowds -
I am without their noisy passions
Cheerful with his fate
With a lyre, with true friends.
Dmitry Venevitinov
1821
Notes
1. Pushkin A.S. Friendship // Pushkin A.S. complete collection compositions: In 19 vols. T. 2. Book. 1. M.: Sunday, 1994. S. 408.
2. Dal V.I. Explanatory Dictionary of Living Great Russian language: In 4 vols. T. 1. A-Z. M., 1994. Stlb. 1235.
3. Emperor Alexander I and Frederic-Cesar Laharpe: Letters. Documents: In 3 vols. / Comp., intro. Art. and comment. A.Yu. Andreev and D. Tozato-Rigo; per. from fr. V.A. Milchina. Managing editor S.V. Mironenko. T. 1. M.: ROSSPEN, 2014. S. 338.
4. Ibid. S. 363.
5 . There.
6. Ibid. S. 164.
7. Ibid. pp. 95, 163, 291, 388, 777.
8. Ibid. C. 4.
