Chizhov Nikolai Alekseevich.
Illustration from the book:
Chizhov Nikolai Alekseevich. Writings and materials. Tula. 2007.
The version of the portrait was created by L. V. Ermolaeva on the basis of a description of the appearance in the investigative case and taking into account the genetic similarity with his cousin uncle Dmitry Semyonovich.

Chizhov Nikolay Alekseevich (b. according to his own testimony 23.3.1803 - 1848). Lieutenant 2nd Naval Crew.

Born in St. Petersburg. Father - military adviser (1812) Alexei Petrovich Chizhov (died before 1822), mother - Praskovya Matveeva, owned 551 souls and a small stud farm in the Chernsky district of the Tula province, cousin uncle - Honored Professor of St. Petersburg University Dmitry Semenovich Chizhov. He was brought up in Nikolaev in the boarding school of the teacher of the Black Sea Navigation School Golubev, enlisted in the Black Sea Fleet as a midshipman - 30.8.1813, studied marine sciences under the guidance of the teacher of the navigation school Druzhinin, in 1814, 1816 and 1817 sailed from Nikolaev to Ochakov and Odessa, midshipman - 9.2.1818 , in 1818 he was transferred to St. Petersburg in the 2nd naval crew and was "near the shore", in 1821 he sailed under the command of F.P. Litke to Novaya Zemlya (a cape on the Kola Peninsula is named after him), lieutenant - 21.4.1824, from September 1825 he served in Kronstadt.

Member of the Northern Society (1825), participant in the uprising on Senate Square.

Arrested - 12/17/1825 at the apartment of Professor Chizhov and placed "specially on guard at the Petrovsky Gates" ("Chizhov, who was sent at this time, should be placed especially in the guardhouse").

Convicted of the VIII category and confirmed on 10/7/1826 sentenced to exile in Siberia for a permanent settlement, the term was reduced to 20 years - 22/8/1826. Sent to Olekminsk, Yakutsk region - 29.7.1826 (signs: height 2 arshins 8 1/2 inches, “white face, blue eyes, large, straight nose, light brown eyebrows, hair and sideburns, shaves his beard, has spots on his hands from cow grafting smallpox”), arrived there in September, his petition in 1832 for transfer to Yakutsk was followed by the highest resolution: “Transfer to another place, but not to Yakutsk”, after which, by order of the Governor-General A.S. Lavinsky was transferred to the Aleksandrovsky distillery of the Irkutsk province, delivered there - 1/25/1833, in the same year he was transferred to the village. Moty of the Zhilkinsky volost of the Irkutsk district. At the request of his mother, he was allowed to enlist in one of the Siberian linear battalions, enlisted in the 14th battalion of the 4th brigade of the 29th infantry division (Irkutsk) - 16/9/1833, transferred to the 1st battalion in Tobolsk - 11/25/1833, non-commissioned officer - 15/6/1837 , warrant officer - 15.2.1840, appointed assistant chief of the food detachment at the headquarters of the Siberian Corps - 6.9.1840, dismissed on a four-month vacation in the Tula province - 12.6.1842, dismissed from service - 26.2.1843 with permission to live in the village. Pokrovsky, Chernsky district, Tula province, allowed to live in the village. Troitsky Oryol province and in other provinces where there are estates of Prince. Gorchakova, whom he managed, while maintaining secret supervision.

Died single. He wrote and published poetry.

Brothers (1826): Peter, officer of the 6th carabinieri regiment; Pavel, ensign in the retinue of the quartermaster; Dmitry, Mikhail - in 1826 studied at the Tula Alexander Noble Military School.

VD, XV, 257-263; GARF, f. 109, 1 exp., 1826., file 61, part 109.

Used materials from the site of Anna Samal "Virtual Encyclopedia of the Decembrists" -

Then there was no Internet yet, which promises that everything can be found on its sites. Known to all history buffs, books about the Decembrists by Academician M.V. Nechkina and her brilliant student N.Ya. Eidelman has just begun to be published in scientific journals in the form of separate articles. And before the appearance of the "biographical guide" Decembrists ", which provides accurate data on each of those involved in the uprising on Senate Square, there were almost 40 years. True, there was the "Alphabet of the Decembrists", but, published in 1927, even then it already became a bibliographic rarity. Therefore, very little was known about the personalities of the heroes of December 14, who involuntarily became our countrymen. Sometimes, except for the names and main dates of life from the same "Alphabet", almost nothing. Often even now the same data wander from one article to another.

Mikhail Ivanovich corresponded with the museums and archives of Omsk, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, and gradually found out that not four, but seven Decembrists were serving their sentences in our city: ensigns L. I. Vronsky, I. S. Vysotsky, N. P. Kozhevnikov, S. M. Palitsyn, lieutenants M. D. Lappa and V. O. Sizinevsky and lieutenant of the fleet N. A. Chizhov.

True, some of them stayed with us for a very short time - some passing through, and some on business. Each of them changed places of reference or service more than once. None of them was immediately sent to our city and, except for one, was not in it until the end of his days, so other cities of Siberia, Kazakhstan and Russia can also claim to be "Peter and Paul Decembrists".

A few years ago, fate brought me to Tula for the first time. A relative, digging up fragments of porcelain and clay shards in the country beds, grumbled: “Did the Decembrist have a kitchen here ?!”. In response to my surprise, he said that the forest around the dacha village is an overgrown park planted in the 40-50s of the 19th century by the family of the Decembrist Naryshkin. “There is a hill preserved! Probably some kind of cupid stood on it!

In the same forest, they showed me a small obelisk with the image of a torch and the inscription: “Here stood the house of the Decembrist M.M. Naryshkin.

Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich is a very famous person, one of the leaders of the uprising and ... a "neighbor" of the Petropavlovtsy: after eight years of hard labor, he was sent to a settlement in Kurgan, and after another 5 years, "by the grace" of the heir Alexander Nikolayevich, who traveled around Siberia, he was sent as a soldier to the Caucasus. So much has been written about Mikhail Mikhailovich, a prince, a relative of the tsars, a demoted colonel, and his wife Elizaveta Petrovna! She was among the 11 wives who accomplished the "feat of selfless love", going to him in Siberia, then to the Caucasus. When the former colonel at the age of 48 again rose to the first officer rank, he was "dismissed from service." My wife bought the estate Vysokoye in advance, 7 km from Tula. After retiring, Naryshkin began to live in it, plant forests, grow wheat and potatoes and, as before in Siberia, help friends. Almost all of his “brothers on December 14”, who received such a right, came to visit “Big Michel”, who did not have the right to travel even to Tula.

- Have you heard anything, did the Decembrist Chizhov visit Vysokoye? I asked a relative.

- I read that Chizhov is also from Tula, from Cherni. His mother had an estate there. He hardly ever been here. After all, they were allowed to drive away from the place of exile only 30 km, and then with the permission of the authorities, ”the source confirms and adds:“ Recently, it was said on television that our local historian Mayorov wrote a book about Chizhov.

Then run to the library!

The Department of Local History gave out a small stack of brochures with the same name "Decembrists - Tula". The very first was issued for the 100th anniversary of the uprising - in 1926. Each contains half a page about N.A. Chizhov, but even there is the same short information as in the articles of local historians of Petropavlovsk: the main dates of life, the essence of the “crime” and where he served his sentence. More about Chizhov: “He lived in the estate of his mother Pokrovskoye in the Tula province. Wrote poetry."

Mikhail Mayorov, scientific secretary of the Tula Local History Society, and his mother Tatyana Viktorovna, professor at the Tula Pedagogical University, are the authors of several books on toponymy and genealogy. Their research confirms the idea that all nobles are relatives. Among the Decembrists there were many brothers, cousins ​​and more distant relatives. Having studied the family ties of Tula celebrities, the Mayorovs established: N. Chizhov and M. Lermontov were relatives through the Arsenyevs. This is the first discovery.

But the main thing is different. All articles about the Decembrist say that he wrote poetry, but before the December events of 1825 there were only three of his publications: a sketch “Memories of the Black Sea. Odessa Garden”, several lyrical poems and an essay on the polar voyage of the frigate “On Novaya Zemlya”. The poems remained unnoticed by critics and pen brothers, but the essay on the northern seas is still appreciated by geographers.

The merit of M. Mayorov, the compiler of the book “Nikolai Chizhov. Works and Materials”, in the fact that he found these publications lost in old magazines, and in the archives - the poet’s manuscripts and dozens of his mother’s appeals to the authorities with requests to forgive her unfortunate son and mitigate the punishment. In the Velvet book "The nobility of the Tula province" Chizhovs are recorded - four brothers of the Decembrists. He himself was deprived of the "rights of the state", so even his mother in petitions calls him simply Chizhov, without a title.

Now it is clear what is hidden behind the two words “wrote poetry” in the reference book “Decembrists”: poetic creativity before the uprising and for 20 years of life in Siberian towns was N.A. Chizhov. Poems and essays accumulated for a whole book of 200 pages.

Over the seas, over the waves

M. Mayorov called his hero a "ghostly Decembrist", about whom, it would seem, everything is known and everything is a mystery. But there are no such secrets that local historians would not reveal.

Let's go through the points of the long-known "questionnaire" filled out by N. Chizhov himself during the investigation into the "secret societies" case. It is from him that they usually draw information about the Decembrist.

Nikolai Chizhov can be considered a hereditary sailor. His father, a retired military adviser to the Black Sea Fleet, Aleksey Petrovich Chizhov, lived in his Tula estate Pokrovskoye near the town of Chern. But his soul ached for the Black Sea Fleet, which was then in decline compared to the Baltic. The Chizhovs' estate was quite small - 550 serfs and a small stud farm. So four of their sons graduated from military schools. They studied "on the state budget", in the current way - on the budget.

“Over there, near the Museum of Weapons, there was the Alexander Military School,” my guide-dacha resident waved his hand towards the magnificent building in the form of a heroic helmet. “The Chizhov brothers and Lermontov’s father studied there.”

The memory of the Decembrists in Tula at every step! The province brought up 11 rebels, and even some lived here after the "pardon".

“Due to my infancy, I was sent to the Black Sea Navigator School in the city of Nikolaev,” Nikolai Chizhov wrote. Note that it was not “recorded”, like most of the noble undergrowths who chased pigeons at home, while they themselves were in the service and received ranks, but “given away”. In 1813, a ten-year-old boy was taken by his parents to the city of Nikolaev and placed in a boarding school at the School of Navigators. He became a midshipman. He lived at a boarding school with his teacher and studied the most complex exact sciences, "useful to maritime affairs." Black Sea midshipmen studied hard and served on ships, and did not chase mythical spies with swords, as in the famous films of Svetlana Druzhinina. In winter, classes. In one of them there was even a disassembled ship - a visual aid. In the other, there is a huge globe with seas, oceans and continents plotted on it. According to him and navigational charts, routes for future voyages were laid. A bronze copy of a huge ball still stands in the courtyard of the Nikolaev Naval School. In summer, future sea wolves swam along the Black Sea coast - from Nikolaev to Ochakov and Odessa and back. Gained experience.

There were two disciplinary books in the school. Misdemeanors of midshipmen were recorded in the "black". Once in it, it was possible to leave the school only with the lower rank. In the "Golden Book" - the names of the best midshipmen. Nikolai Chizhov is among them: on February 9, 1818, he received the first naval officer rank of midshipman and, upon graduation, was transferred to St. Petersburg in the 2nd naval crew. At first he "served on the coast", in Kronstadt - then the main naval base of the Baltic Fleet.

Until 1820, on the frigate "Elena", a 17-year-old assistant navigator went to Arkhangelsk and back. There, apparently, he met the young, but already famous navigator Fyodor Litke (1795-1882) and became friends with his brother Alexander, with whom five years later he would come shoulder to shoulder to Senate Square, but Alexander would be acquitted. Fedor had recently returned from a round-the-world voyage to Kamchatka and was preparing for an expedition to Novaya Zemlya. At that time, there was the same close attention to the North as now, only the sea route was still almost unexplored.

It is easy to imagine how happy Chizhov was when in 1821 he was appointed to the command of the frigate Novaya Zemlya, on which the polar expedition of F.Lithuania set off to the northern seas. Among the sailors there were many romantics who dreamed of circumnavigating the world and discovering new islands. Chizhov is among them. The sailors under the command of F. Litke in four expeditions carried out the first topographical studies of the western shores of the desert Novaya Zemlya, mapped their outlines, explored the depths of the fairway and dangerous shallows. They conducted meteorological observations, studied the flora and fauna of the White Sea. F. Litke noted that Nikolai Chizhov worked with such inspiration that a cape named after him appeared on the map of the Kola Peninsula.

After the campaign, in 1823, N.A. Chizhov published an essay "On Novaya Zemlya". It was an artistic and at the same time scientific report on the Arctic expedition and reflections on the future of the North and Siberia. If only Nikolai Alekseevich knew what role the end of the earth would play in his life very soon!

It is curious that F.P. Litke published his work about four of his northern expeditions three years later, but the story about the first of them was the same - written by N.A. Chizhov: his romantic style is felt in a strict scientific report. Experts believe that the description of Novaya Zemlya compiled by midshipman Chizhov was noticed in the scientific community and now remains a valuable monument of physical and geographical journalism.

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov continued to serve in Kronstadt after the expedition. On April 21, 1824, he received the rank of lieutenant.

December 14, 1825

"The rebellion cannot end in success - otherwise it is called differently," said the poet. The performance on Senate Square was also called differently: turmoil, rebellion, rebellion, the first Russian revolution. Its participants were also evaluated differently.

The first stage of the semi-illusory biography of Nikolai Chizhov is his appearance in the barracks of the Second Guards Crew, and then on Senate Square. So little has been written about this that some biographers doubt whether he can be considered a Decembrist. Borovkov, the secretary of the commission of inquiry, said this more clearly than others in The Alphabet of Secret Malicious Societies. Chizhov Nikolay Alekseev. Lieutenant of the 2nd Naval Crew. Admitted to the Northern Society a month before the outrage. He knew the goal - the restriction of autocracy. On December 14, he was in the Guards carriage and was the first to report there about the indignation of the Moscow regiment and about the arrival of several companies of it on Petrovsky Square with a crew, and he went there himself. By the verdict of the Supreme Criminal Court, he was sentenced to exile in Siberia for an indefinite settlement. By the highest decree on August 22, it was ordered to leave 20 years in the settlement.

Now, in the era of constant rewriting of our "unpredictable history", what has not been said about the Decembrists! But not about why they, risking their lives, took to the square. When, a month before the “outrage”, one of the Bestuzhev brothers suggested that Nikolai Chizhov join a secret society, he answered without hesitation: “If it is for the good of the people, I agree!” And on December 14, 1825, two fleet officers Mikhail Bestuzhev and Nikolai Chizhov took their crews to Senate Square - more than 1,100 sailors, built them in the square "To attack!" ... But "the mutiny cannot end in success ..."

Arrested, Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov, to the question of the members of the “highest-established secret committee” to investigate the events of December 14, “What prompted you to join a secret society?” gave a worthy answer: "I entered with a single purpose: for the benefit of my compatriots, in the name of this sacred feeling, I was invited to it." Apparently, the answer angered Nicholas I so much that he wrote to the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Sukin: “Chizhov, who is sent at this time, should be put especially in the guardhouse.” One can guess why Chizhov was given such an honor. Whether for bold and honest answers, or for the fact that he was a poet and already dangerous.

Little has been written about the Decembrist sailors. It would seem that they were punished mildly: of the 26 sailors under investigation, only 19 were convicted by the Supreme Criminal Court, and the sailors - by a specially created commission of inquiry. The investigation hushed up the performance of the guards crews in order to hush up this embarrassment - the participation of his personal guards in the uprising, at the request of Nicholas I. The sailors were represented as deceived by some "villains". In addition, during interrogations, experienced naval officers pointed out to the newly-baked king what a plight the fleet was in.

The further fate of the Decembrists - sailors, in particular, and N.A. Chizhov, is tragic. Pushkin, having learned about the massacre of the participants in the uprising, among whom were his friends, said: “... the hanged are hanged; but hard labor of 120 friends, brothers, comrades is terrible.” “Exile to Siberia forever”, even though it was replaced by 20 years, was really terrible. But even this was not enough for the philanthropic emperor. Before sending the condemned to distant places, naval officers had to endure the humiliating procedure of civil execution. State criminals were brought on longboats from the Peter and Paul Fortress, brought to the deck of the flagship "Prince Vladimir" and placed in the middle of the sailors built in the square. After the verdict was read over the heads of the officers, the sawn swords were broken, the epaulettes were torn off and, together with the uniforms removed, were thrown overboard. Then the "executed" were again taken to the casemates of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Carts were already standing at its gates to take them to Siberia.

It is interesting that the sailors were not punished as severely as the soldiers: not a thousand privates, but only about 120 were assigned to the regiments of the Caucasian Corps, including about 70 people sent to the Caucasus to participate in the hostilities of the Russian-Persian war as part of a special Consolidated Guards Regiment. Someone needed to serve on the ships. But "the cause of the Decembrists was not lost": immediately after the uprising, the reform of the fleet began.

In places far away

On August 11, 1826, N.A. Chizhov was taken by courier Yefimov to Omsk, then to Irkutsk, where he learned that Olekminsk was assigned to him as a place of exile.

Hardly any of our readers know what Olekma or Olekminsk is. This is the very "remote place" where Makar did not drive calves - a tiny town in the south, but in the south of Yakutia. Even now it has about 10 thousand inhabitants, and in the first half of the 19th century there were about 200 people, mostly exiles. "Next door" - only 650 km! - lived in exile M.I. Muravyov-Apostol (1793-1886), brother of the hanged Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol (1795-1626). The future inhabitant of Bukhtarminsk, Matvey Ivanovich, described what the Yakut towns were like, where "friends on December 14" were sent forever. There are four brick houses in his Vilyuisk. Those who followed the exiles and reported their behavior to the high authorities in St. Petersburg lived there. And around - 40-50 Yakut yurts. They don't look like Kazakh ones at all. These are tiny huts made of logs with a fireplace in the center and a window made of ice. Once Matvey Ivanovich returned from a walk, and Yakut hunters were sitting by his stove. Warmed up, silently got up and left.

But even there, at the end of the world, “in the abysses of the earth”, living in the same yurts, Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov and his “brother by misfortune, by fate” A.N. Andreev (1803 or 1804-1831) created a small circle, which included Olyokma intellectuals: Dr. Orleansky, merchants Podyakov and Dudnikov, police officer Fedorov. They organized readings of books and magazines, social festivities, subscribed to progressive magazines. “Wishing to benefit the population of Olekminsk”, A. N. Andreev and N. A. Chizhov built the first mill in the city at their own expense, taught local residents to plant potatoes, which were outlandish then. Fairs were a great holiday, to which Russian merchants brought their goods and exchanged them for furs, venison and fish.

When now someone whines how unbearable life is, let him remember these 20-year-old boys - "a hundred ensigns who decided to change Russia", who ended up in "wild Siberia" among the "wild" peoples. By the way, they themselves never called the locals that way and carried their cross with dignity - the punishment "for intent", i.e. for seditious thoughts.

ON THE. Chizhov did not leave literary studies there either. He studied Yakut folklore, compiled the first Russian-Yakut dictionary, and translated several folk tales. In the Republic of Sakha, he is considered the first Yakut ethnographer.

One can imagine what impression Chizhov made on the short, swarthy Yakuts - tall, about 190 cm tall, blond with blue eyes and a large straight nose! Rare reviews about Nikolai Alekseevich, preserved in the memoirs and letters of his comrades in misfortune, say that he was cheerful, sociable, patient and not at all prone to some kind of "violence". But what about the uprising of 1825? Modern historians often write that at that time the sailors generally got involved in other people's business.

In Yakutia, fate gave Nikolai Alekseevich a meeting with a man equal to him in mind and education. In 1828, the Norwegian government sent Lieutenant Douai on a round-the-world scientific expedition to explore the northern outskirts of Eurasia. Douai was instructed to go down the Lena to the supposed location of the Earth's magnetic pole. For Chizhov, in the past a professional sailor, explorer of the North, communication with the explorer was a real outlet. M. I. Muravyov - The Apostle names the names of yesterday's naval officers Chizhov and Bestuzhev among those whom Douai fell in love with. Chizhov closely communicated with him, was with the guests as an interpreter and an expert on local customs and folklore. In March 1829, Douai completed the task, and his expedition moved to Okhotsk to reach the ocean.

After five years of living in Olekma, N. Chizhov found himself in the center of a loud scandal. Such that a gendarme rode up from St. Petersburg itself. In violation of the ban on correspondence, and even more so on publication, a poem by N. A. Chizhov “Nucha” appeared in the Moscow Telegraph magazine. Oh, what a scandal it was - for the whole of Eurasia! How dare you send poetry! Who dare?! Correspondence of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia A.S. Lavinsky with the Third Department of "His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery", interrogations of Chizhov and other residents of Olekminsk. No one confessed to the crime and did not betray his accomplices.

But "Nucha" is just a harmless poetic reworking of the Yakut legend. Nucha (which means "Russian") does not sacrifice to the gods, and therefore dies in the darkness of the night. All local residents who followed the rules of communication with the gods survived. It is not known what political hint the powers that be saw here, but the checks fell upon the Olekma officials fairly. Local and Irkutsk peace officers received a scolding. A notebook with poems was confiscated from Chizhov. Thanks to the vigilant guards - the notebook has been preserved in the archives and the poems have come down to us.

The incident had important consequences for the exile. Even upon arrival in Olekminsk, killed by the impressions of what he saw "the abysses of the earth", Chizhov began to write petitions for a transfer, at least to Yakutsk. Letters from his mother Praskovya Matveevna (his father died in 1822), as well as from his uncle, professor of mathematics at St. Petersburg University, in whose apartment Nikolai was arrested, were sent from the Tula estate to various departments.

After a noisy incident with a notebook, Nikolai Alekseevich was "pardoned" for the second time: he was granted the highest permission "to be transferred, but not to Yakutsk." Probably, the sailor was very dangerous for the capital of Yakutia! But at that time she was literally flooded with other exiles - from the clergy, dismissed from various dioceses for a wide variety of offenses: bad behavior, drunkenness, rudeness, depraved life, insolence to parents and other sins. It is not known which denominations these exiles were representatives of. The authorities made an attempt to correct the sinners through labor, but nothing came of it. A contemporary writes that exiles of this category “literally terrorized the townspeople: they went from house to house, extorted, begged and rowdy while drunk, sang “whole masses” in taverns and thus earned money from a drunken company.”

At the distillery

Apparently, in retaliation for the scandal with poetry, at the direction of A.S. Lavinsky, Chizhov was transferred to the Irkutsk province, to the Aleksandrovsky distillery. This terrible place - the future Alexander Central - was already known to some of the Decembrists. In 1826, A. Muravyov, V. Davydov, the Borisov brothers visited there, who stayed here for only about five weeks, from August to October 6. Noble criminals were not used for hard work. Only sent to the forest for firewood. The criminals took pity on the "unfortunate" and carried out the norm for them. At the same time, other exiles at the factory “... stood naked for days in the suffocating heat near the stoves or in the shutters by the sourdough, when wet hands shiver with a caustic unbearable chill, and all half-rotted clothes are covered with hoarfrost - rusty. A person becomes like a white fluffy bird. From cold and dampness, convicts experience constant trembling all over their bodies, and many die on the spot. Others are taken out of the buckets of sourdough dead... There were times when they invented bread for the workers from the stillage.” The specificity of vodka production is the death of workers from alcoholism. Nobody mourned for the dead. There were always enough convicts and exiles in Siberia: some died - they immediately brought others. In such conditions, for more than six months - from January 25 to September 16, 1833 - Nikolai Alekseevich also worked at the Alexander distillery.

Perhaps the deterioration of health, which his mother referred to in petitions, was not just a pretext for trying to free her son from Yakut captivity. This could be true, and Chizhov was transferred from the distillery to the village of Moty. Nothing is known about the life of the Decembrist in this godforsaken corner.
The village still exists. It is located only 50 km from Irkutsk, but it can only be reached in winter - on the ice of the frozen Irkut River. A beautiful place attracts tourists. They compare the red rocks on the banks of the river with the world-famous canyon in the United States - the "Grand Canyon".
Even in Soviet times, there were never more than 500 people in the village. And the times of Chizhov and at all. What were then the villages where the Decembrists were exiled can be judged by the descriptions of another bearish corner - the village with the "poetic" name Dead Kultuk. According to the memoirs of the Decembrist Nikolai Ivanovich Lorer, who was exiled in this gloomy place, in 1833 the Dead Kultuk was "... a dozen huts serving as dwellings for the Tungus, Samoyeds and settlers." There was only one hut in the village - the rest were yurts. It is unlikely that the village of Moty was very different from Dead Kultuk. True, there are still three 300-year-old houses in it. It is possible that the Decembrist Chizhov or someone of his comrades in misfortune lived in one of them.

Until now, in these places there are legends about robber treasures in the taiga, evil spirits. Already in Soviet times, it was even possible to find something from those “cache”, and a UFO was seen above the reddish rock Shamanka.

Soldier's strap

There have always been a lot of robbers, runaway convicts and other dangerous people in Siberia. From the same Alexander distillery, hard labor often fled. To supervise them at the beginning of the XIX century. the plant consisted of only 30 Cossacks. They had a lot of duties: to observe all the external and internal order in the plant, to guard the wineries, wine cellars, grain and material stores, to stand at the cash treasury. And also follow the workers into the forest, watch how the firewood is being harvested, and carry all the guards around the plant. Of course, it was impossible to maintain order with such a number of Cossacks. The workers were constantly running away from the factory, taking government things with them, stealing wine, and robbing the roads.

Speaking of the Siberian lines, they usually mean the Cossacks. But besides the Cossack military formations, there were line battalions. It was a special category of troops, designed to cover the borders of the empire in hard-to-reach places. These soldiers, in addition, escorted and guarded convicts and exiles, guarded prisons and factories where convicts worked. Service in these troops was very difficult and not prestigious. There were usually not enough people in the line battalions - they were replenished with former soldiers and officers whose term of exile had ended. Although Chizhov lived in Siberia for only 7 years out of the prescribed 20, from September 1833 he was again "mitigated" his punishment - he was sent to the soldiers, and this is a chance to curry favor as an officer and retire. He was appointed as a private in the 14th battery of the 4th brigade of the 29th infantry division of the Siberian linear battalion in Irkutsk. The line units were constantly reformed, transferred from one place to another. So, in November 1833, the Decembrist Chizhov ended up in the 1st artillery battalion in Tobolsk.

Tobolsk and beyond everywhere

Tobolsk local historians are proud that in their city in the first half of the 19th century there was the largest number of Decembrists (although what is there to be proud of?). Of the 40 "state criminals" settled before and after hard labor in the province, fifteen lived in Tobolsk.

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov was one of the first to arrive in the city. He was still a soldier, always very lonely, which can explain the absence of his name in the letters and memoirs of the Decembrists. His name is occasionally found in the correspondence of the Fonvizins, wonderful people who warmly treated all their comrades in misfortune.

In Tobolsk, N.A. Chizhov first met a group of Poles who had been sent to the army for participating in the uprising of 1830-1831. His closest friend was the military bandmaster, a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, Constantius Valitsky. Not very long ago, local historians found his memoirs in Polish and translated them. Here is what the musician wrote: “From the Russians, there was then Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov, a former lieutenant of the fleet, who ... was pardoned as a simple soldier in Tobolsk. He was Russian, but education and noble feelings earned him respect and affection from all of us. A particularly close friendship connected these two friends with Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov (1815-1869), who returned to Tobolsk in 1836 after graduating from St. Petersburg University. He is also considered our "countryman", because. As a child he lived in Petropavlovsk.

The young teacher of the gymnasium, the author of the already famous fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse", became a friend and guardian of N.A. Chizhov and K. Valitsky. Together they composed "pies" and staged musical performances in the theater of the Tobolsk gymnasium, created by P.P. Ershov. The plays and "couplets" were written by Ershov and Chizhov, and the music by Valitsky. In 1836, the junker “Chernyavsky and Chizhov,” recalled Valitsky, “wrote a play ... like an operetta, called “A lucky shot, or a hussar is a teacher.” There was another performance - "Yakutian Gods", staged by friends, obviously under the impression of Chizhov's stories about his life in Olekminsk. Unfortunately, the tests of the "operettas" have not been preserved.

So, thanks to Ershov, and in the military service, Chizhov was able to engage in literary work. His works were published in the Literary Supplement to the Russian Invalid, in the almanac Morning Dawn and other metropolitan publications. On February 12, 1837, Pavel Petrovich wrote to a friend in St. Petersburg: “Fulfilling my promise, I am sending you, dear Grisha, “The Air Maiden” and several small poems by my friend Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov. It would be very nice if you gave them to the Library for reading; and even better, if our poet received some kind of reward for them. Such an allowance would not be superfluous in his position. But what is there to interpret a lot: you are sweet, glorious, and the verses stand for your dignity with a mountain. Read! The letter contains five Decembrist poems rewritten by Ershov, three of which were not yet published.

These were poems "in the folk spirit", which could become the words of a folk song. These were created by many of Chizhov's contemporaries. "Russian Songs" were written by Delvig, Lermontov, Koltsov, Polezhaev and other poets of the 1820-1830s.

Judging by Yershov's letters, it was he and Chizhov who invented the "witty" Kozma Prutkov, who was resurrected in the magazines Sovremennik and Iskra in the 1850s and 60s. There was also a poetic musical production of "Skulls, that is, a Phrenologist", ridiculing the then passion for phrenology, one of the first pseudosciences about the relationship between the human psyche and the shape of his skull.

P.P. Ershov wrote to a friend in St. Petersburg: “Chizhov and I are cooking a vaudeville of the Skulls, in which Gall (the founder of phrenology. - A.K.) will receive a wonderful lump. Buyers - a feast for the eyes! I’ll send them to you after the first performance.”

The publishers announced Pyotr Fedotych Prutkov, Kozma's father, as the author of The Skull. It was a hilarious, witty parody not so much of phrenologists as of meaningless plays with an obligatory "sugary ending", of which there were quite a few in the repertoire of Russian theaters.

"All nobles are relatives." Or co-workers. On December 14, 1825, Nikolai Chizhov went to his uncle Dmitry Semenovich's apartment, not only because in his position there was nowhere else to go. The point was also that the professor of mathematics, and later vice-rector of St. Petersburg University, Dmitry Semyonovich Chizhov, was distinguished by his gentle nature, responsiveness and compassion for someone else's misfortune.

The famous chemist D. I. Mendeleev remembered these qualities of character until the end of his days. The uncle of the Decembrist D.S. Chizhov in 1850 helped him enter the Main Pedagogical Institute, despite the fact that that year was considered unacceptable. Uncle Chizhov's friendship with Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev, the father of the future scientist, whom the professor's nephew met in exile, played a role. Later, in Tobolsk, the Mendeleev family became related to the Decembrists. The eldest daughter of the Mendeleevs, Olga Ivanovna, was married to the Decembrist N.V. Basargin, and son Pavel is married to the daughter of the Decembrist A.E. Mozgalevsky - Polina. The Decembrists taught Dmitry to play chess, take pictures, glue and make cases, boxes, suitcases. And his son Vladimir became such a famous photographer in Russia that in 1891 he accompanied the future Tsar Nicholas II during his foreign trip and made a wonderful photo album about him.

We add: on the daughter of D.I. Mendeleev, "a beautiful stranger", the poet A. Blok was married, whose great-grandfather, G.S. Karelin, at one time examined the nature of almost all of Kazakhstan.

The Big Trouble and its Aftermath

“In the summer of 1837, a rumor spread that the heir to the Russian throne, the future Alexander II, was undertaking a trip to Russia and intended to visit the Tobolsk province, a region where there are so many suffering people,” the Decembrist N.I. wrote in his memoirs. Laurer. “The king’s son was greeted very magnificently, noisily.” The honored guest was shown, as usual, to this day, the "achievements" of the province. Later, the Tobolsk historian and local historian N.A. Abramov said: “... His Highness reviewed the line battalion (Private Chizhov served there. - A.K.). I was at the corps headquarters, and during the review of the printing house there, Chizhov’s poems were imprinted:

The sun rises new

Over Siberia cold

And the dark North is pouring

Life is a ray of joy."

The heir and his retinue were accompanied by the new governor of Western Siberia, who was also the commander of the Siberian Corps, P. D. Gorchakov. Getting acquainted with the city a year ago, he could not help but pay attention to the "cultural sights" and the pride of Tobolsk - the Yershov Theater and the military orchestra conducted by Constantius Valitsky. Chizhov really liked the new boss - educated, smart, calm. Perhaps the governor and the soldier were connected by ties of fellowship. In the Tula province there were estates not only of Chizhov's mother, but also of Gorchakov's wife. But even the governor-general could not just, of his own free will, release the exiled Decembrist soldier. Enjoyed a high visit.

The “suffering people” submitted petitions to the accompanying Tsarevich V.A. Zhukovsky. Obviously under the influence of the poet “life is a ray of joy,” the crown prince wrote to his father, Emperor Nicholas I: “Gorchakov, taking advantage of my arrival here, dares to intercede for asking for forgiveness for some unfortunate people who truly deserve it; he, it is true, would not ask for the unworthy. Firstly, he asks for permission to promote Chizhov from the rank and file of the 1st line Siberian battalion to non-commissioned officers, testifying to his diligent and zealous service and quiet, modest behavior.

The tsar granted the request of the heir to the throne: June 15, 1837 N.A. Chizhov was promoted to non-commissioned officer. The exiles living in Kurgan were less fortunate: they were also "pardoned" then - they were sent to the Caucasus as privates. However, our steppes were no less dangerous.

There is “ghostly information” that the Decembrist spent the next two years in Petropavlovsk, in the fortress of St. Peter, and from where expeditions to the steppe were often sent.

Friend N.A. Chizhov M. A. Fonvizin at the end of 1839 wrote to I. I. Pushchin: “Our Chizhov is presented as an officer for an expedition in the steppe.” Usually such "business trips" are associated with the uprising of Kenesary Kasymov, but his detachments then rushed mainly near Akmola and in the south. In the "Kyrgyz-Kaisak steppe" there were many other incidents, such as inter-clan skirmishes, attacks on caravans going north from Tashkent or Bukhara, and simply robbery attacks on auls, captivity of people and theft of livestock from auls and Cossack villages. By order of P.D. Gorchakov, detachments of 50 Cossacks or soldiers were formed in the fortresses to protect caravans and repel attacks on villages. They went to the steppe. Non-commissioned officer Chizhov probably took part in such expeditions and distinguished himself.

When Omsk became the capital of Western Siberia, Prince Gorchakov moved there and took Chizhov with him. There, on February 15, 1840, he received the rank of ensign. “Chizhov has been promoted to warrant officer and holds the position of senior adjutant at the headquarters,” I.I. Pushchin to the Decembrist I.D. Yakushkin. By order of September 6, 1840, N.A. Chizhov was appointed assistant chief of the food detachment at the headquarters of the Siberian Corps. At that time, he could also visit Petropavlovsk on business.

Pardon

Ensign Chizhov did not "rule things at the headquarters" for long. On June 12, 1842, Nikolai Alekseevich received a four-month vacation and left for his homeland. Nikolai Alekseevich never returned to Siberia: on February 26, 1843, due to illness, he was dismissed. He was allowed to live in his native estate - in the village of Pokrovskoye, Chernsky district, Tula province, "with the preservation of secret supervision." There, after 17 years, for the first time after separation, he met with his brothers and saw his nephews.

Probably, the Decembrist managed to escape from Siberia, thanks to the patronage of Prince N.D. Gorchakov. He became the manager of the Oryol and Tula estates of his wife Natalya Dmitrievna. But even meticulous local historians failed to establish where all her estates were.

But Chizhov did not have to use another "alms" that he extended to those "involved in the incident of December 14" on the day of the coronation of Alexander II in 1865, "granting permission to live wherever he wishes, within the empire, not excluding the capital." Seven years before the "most merciful command" he was no longer alive.

Many local historians write where and from what N.A. Chizhov died is unknown. But in the archives of the city of Orel, a message from the district police officer to the Oryol governor P.I. Trubetskoy that Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov “died on the 12th of this April 1848 when he was the manager of the estate of Princess Gorchakova in the village of Troitskoye, Pushkino.” The deceased was 45 years old.

A long time ago, back in the North, the Decembrist poet wrote a sad poem "Tomb":

“In the silent valley, to the voice of the people,

Sometimes barely audible from the road big,

Sad as the memory of the past days,

You can see the tomb under the slope of the branches.

It almost happened...

But neither the Gorchakovs' manor house, nor the rural Trinity Church, nor the graveyard adjacent to it have survived to our time. Old-timers hardly remember that “not in a silent valley”, but on a hill, there were once three large houses and the Church of the Trinity, surrounded by a linden park and an orchard ... There, too, as in the place of the Naryshkin park near the village of Vysokoye, the forest rustles.

Inheritance

This is not all that remains to the descendants of Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov. His works are studied by specialists - literary critics, philologists. Geographers and sailors, studying the history of geographical discoveries, read the essay "On the New Earth".

The performance of the Decembrist sailors prompted Nicholas I, immediately after the massacre of them, to begin studying the state of the fleet. During interrogations, fleet officers spoke about the lack of funds allocated for the maintenance of the fleet, and abuses and embezzlement and unprofessionalism of officials of the Naval Ministry. They wrote that the fleet had become dilapidated, because. has not been modernized since the time of Peter I.

The new emperor himself understood the importance of the fleet for Russia. He took into account the statements of naval officers, participants in the uprising, about the disastrous state of the Russian fleet. They pushed Nicholas I to take decisive steps.

Already on December 31, 1825, he signed a rescript, noting in it: "Russia should be the third most powerful maritime power after England and France and should be stronger than the union of minor maritime powers." In 1826, the state of the new Russian fleet was approved.

"The cause of the Decembrists is not lost."

The ghostly Decembrist Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov remained in history as a writer, a scientist who did as much for the Motherland as fate allotted him.

Who can, let him do more.

print version

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov

Poet - Decembrist

Was in a settlement in the village of Moty, Irkutsk province 1826-1833

Reference:

Naval officer, polar explorer, poet and Decembrist

Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov born March 23, 1803 inPetersburg (according to other sources in 1799).

April 21, 1824 received the rank of lieutenant. In 1825, the lieutenant of the 2nd naval crew N.A. Chizhov was a member of the Northern Society and an active participant in the December 14 uprising on Senate Square. On December 17, 1825, he was arrested at the apartment of Professor Chizhov and placed "specially in the guardhouse." He was convicted in the VIII category and on July 10, 1826 was sentenced to exile in Siberia for a settlement forever, however, on August 22, 1826, the term was reduced to 20 years.

Source : http://resheto.ru/speaking/news/news3838.php

. CHIZHOV Nikolai Alekseevich (1803-1848) - Decembrist . Genus. March 23, 1803 in St. Petersburg in a military family. adviser. He was brought up in Nikolaev in the boarding school of the teacher of the Black Sea navigation school Golubev. Aug 30 1813 was recorded as a midshipman in the Black Sea Fleet, where he studied marine sciences. In 1814 and 1816-17, with the rank of midshipman, he participated in one of the first Arctic exp., headed by F.P. Litke to Novaya Zemlya. This voyage was described by Ch. in the essay "On the New Earth", published in the journal. "Son of the Fatherland" (No. 4, 1823). 21 Apr. 1824 Ch. was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, from Sept. 1825 served in Kronstadt. Adopted in Sev. about-in Nov. 1825. 14 Dec. was on Senate Square, in the ranks of the Guards naval crew. Arrested 17 Dec. 1825 and placed “specially on guard at the Petrovsky Gates” (“Chizhov, who was sent at this time, should be placed especially in the guardhouse”). Convicted of the 8th category and confirmed on July 10, 1826 sentenced to life exile in Siberia, then the term was reduced to 20 years. From 1826 to 1832 he served a link in Olekminsk, Yakutsk region. In 1833, by order of the East Siberian. Governor General A.S. Lavinsky was transferred to the Aleksandrovsky distillery of the Irkutsk province. In the same year moved to s. Moty Zhilkinskaya Vol. Irkutsk region . At the request of his mother, Ch. was allowed to join the privates in Sib. line battalion, he was enlisted in the 14th battalion of the 4th brigade of the 29th infantry division in Irkutsk (1833). Nov 25 transferred to the 1st battalion in Tobolsk. On June 15, 1837, he was approved with the rank of non-commissioned officer. In 1839-42 he served with the rank of ensign in Omsk, at the headquarters of the Sib. pom. early food department (located on Shtabnaya street, now - Taube street). Feb 26 1843 Ch. dismissed from service with permission to live in the village. Pokrovsky Chernsky st. Tula province., in with. Troitsky, Oryol Province. and in other provinces, where there are estates of the book. Gorchakova, which he managed with the preservation of secret supervision. He wrote poems, in which he sang the beauty of the Sib. nature. Based on the Yakut folklore of Ch., the ballads "Nucha" and "Air Maiden" were written. Died in 1848.

Palashenkov A.F. Memory and memorable places of Omsk and Omsk region - Omsk: Zap.-Sib. book. publishing house Omsk department, 1967.- S. 29-31; Decembrists. Biographer. directory. - M .: Nauka, 1988. - S. 196; Chizhov Nikolai Alekseevich // Decembrists and Sib. - M .: Sov. Ros. 1988.-S. 253.

A book about Decembrist Nikolai Chizhov published in Tula

The book "Nikolai Chizhov: research and materials" was compiled by the scientific secretary of the regional museum of local lore, Mikhail Mayorov. The introductory article to it tells about the life and work of this outstanding person and is accompanied by the first published genealogical tree of the Decembrist and explorer of the Russian North, who comes from the nobility of the Tula province.

Also, for the first time in this edition, the publication of the first scientific description of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago appeared. Mikhail Mayorov discovered in the diaries of the polar navigator and geographer Fyodor Litke (1797-1882) - it was previously believed that the first description of the archipelago was made in Litke's book "Four-fold trip to the Arctic Ocean on the Novaya Zemlya military brig" - evidence that that the first essay on Novaya Zemlya was written by Chizhov. The future Decembrist in 1821 participated in the expedition of Count Litke to Novaya Zemlya.

In 1823, Nikolai Chizhov published an essay "On Novaya Zemlya" in the journal "Son of the Fatherland". This is a kind of report and reflection on the Arctic expedition. In his essay, he gives a brief history of the discovery and exploration of the island, summarizes some of the results of the first and second voyages of Fyodor Litke, provides information about polar ice, coasts, small islands and bays suitable for mooring ships, characterizes climatic features, gives a description of vegetation, animals and birds of the southern part of Novaya Zemlya. Gives recommendations for the development of marine fisheries and trade. Chizhov's essay "On Novaya Zemlya" was the prologue to the appearance of Litke's capital work "Four-fold trip to the Arctic Ocean on the military brig Novaya Zemlya in 1821-1824" (St. Petersburg, 1828), on the pages of which midshipman Chizhov is also mentioned.

The new edition of Chizhov's works includes all the poems that have come down to us and two of his poems, a play signed by Kozma Prutkov. The book also contains materials from the investigation of the Decembrist, the genealogy of the Chizhov family, the most complete bibliography of publications of the participant in the uprising on Senate Square and literature about him to date. The drawings in the book were made by the artist of the regional house of folk art Lilia Ermolaeva.

On the Tula land, the name and work of the Decembrist Chizhov are little known. The last edition of his works dates back to the middle of the last century. Yes, and a new book dedicated to him was printed in the local printing house "Atreya" in a meager edition of 150 copies at the expense of the author of the collection: unfortunately, there were no sponsors in the homeland of the Deabrist who valued the memory of the countryman.
Reference
Naval officer, polar explorer, poet and Decembrist Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov was born on March 23, 1803 in St. Petersburg (according to other sources, in 1799). His father, a retired military adviser to the Black Sea Fleet, Aleksey Petrovich Chizhov, and his mother, Praskovya Matveevna, owned an estate in the village of Pokrovskoye, Chernsky district, Tula province, two brothers served as officers, and two studied at the Tula Alexander Military School. My cousin was an honored professor at St. Petersburg University and a full member of the Academy of Sciences.

Nikolai Chizhov received his initial upbringing in the private boarding school Golubev, then studied at the Black Sea Navigation School in Nikolaev, on August 30, 1813 he was promoted to midshipman and enlisted in the Black Sea Fleet. In 1814, 1816 and 1817 he sailed from Nikolaev to Ochakov and Odessa. February 9, 1818 received the first naval officer rank of midshipman and was transferred to St. Petersburg. In 1820 he served in Arkhangelsk, having been assigned to the polar expedition of F.P. Litke, and in 1821, under the command of the latter, sailed to Novaya Zemlya, conducted topographic studies of the western shores, as well as studies of flora and fauna, and meteorological observations. After the expedition, he served in Kronstadt.

April 21, 1824 received the rank of lieutenant. In 1825, the lieutenant of the 2nd naval crew N.A. Chizhov was a member of the Northern Society and an active participant in the December 14 uprising on Senate Square. On December 17, 1825, he was arrested at the apartment of Professor Chizhov and placed "specially in the guardhouse." He was convicted in the VIII category and on July 10, 1826 was sentenced to exile in Siberia for a settlement forever, however, on August 22, 1826, the term was reduced to 20 years.

On July 29, 1826, the Decembrist Chizhov was sent to Siberia and only in Irkutsk found out that the town of Olekminsk, Yakutsk region, was assigned to him as a place of exile. He spent seven years in the settlement, studied the nature of Siberia, ethnography and folklore of the Yakuts. At the request of his mother, he was enlisted as a private in the Siberian Line Battalion on November 16, 1833, and on June 15, 1837 he received the rank of non-commissioned officer and, finally, on February 15, 1840, he served as an officer's warrant officer. Later he received a four-month leave, and on February 26, 1843 he was dismissed from service with permission to live in the village. Pokrovsky, Chernsky district, Tula province, as well as in the village of Troitsky, Oryol province, where at one time he was the manager of the estate of Princess Gorchakova, with secret supervision. He died unmarried in 1848. His grave is unknown.

In Siberia, N.A. Chizhov created a number of poems - "Nucha", "Air Maiden", "Siberian Flowers", "Cranes" and others. Some are based on Yakut folklore. In Tobolsk, he became close to the poet P.P. Ershov, wrote verses, which were later included in Kozma Prutkov's operetta "Skulls". Literary experiments of N.A. Chizhov were published earlier. So, in 1823, in the journal "Son of the Fatherland", he published "An excerpt from the memories of the Black Sea" - "Odessa Garden", several poems. However, many of his works in verse and prose have not come down to us. Some facts of his biography require clarification. Contribution of N.A. Chizhov in the scientific study of the Arctic is undeniable, his geographical research in the area of ​​Novaya Zemlya became the property of Russian science at the beginning of the 19th century.

Nikolay Chizhov. Compositions and materials. Tula. 2007. (150 p.). The publication was prepared by the scientific secretary of the GUK TO "Association of TOIALM" M.V.

For the first time in 200 years, the writings of a Decembrist (not Chizhov, but a Decembrist in general) are being published on Tula land. The lyrics of N. A. Chizhov were published more than once in collections and periodicals, but his prose, published only once (1823), is almost inaccessible to the reader today. We tried to collect everything that was preserved from Chizhov's heritage. He wrote poetry, political and scientific articles, essays, together with P. P. Ershov created the first work of the future Kozma Prutkov. F. P. Litke (1821 - 1824), a member of the marine expedition, Chizhov compiled the first scientific description of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

Maiorov M. V. Nikolay Alekseevich Chizhov (Biographical sketch).

I. Alphabet of the Decembrists. From the reference book "Decembrists".

Borovkov A.D. From the "Alphabet of the Decembrists".

II. Nikolai Alekseevich Chizhov

Poems

To N.N.
Siberian flowers.
Cranes
Sigh
Russian song.
By ema
Nucha: Yakut story
Azadovsky M. K. Yakut poem
Decembrist Chizhov
Chizhov N. A. Air maiden: Yakut fantasy
Azadovsky M.K. Notes
Azadovsky M.K. Comments

Odessa Garden (Excerpt from Memories of the Black Sea.)
Maiorov M. V. Comments
About New Earth
Maiorov M. V. Comments

Bukhshtab B. Ya. Poems of the Decembrist in the legacy of Kozma Prutkov.
Chizhov N. A. and Ershov P. P. Cherepslov, that is, Phrenologist.

III. Investigation case 1825-1826.

IV. Pedigree of the Chizhovs (according to V. I. Chernopyatov).

V. Bibliography.

Publications of works by N. A. Chizhov.

Literature about N. A. Chizhov.

Index of names mentioned in the introduction, investigative file and bibliography of N. A. Chizhov.