Orel gave the world many great Russian writers, poets and other cultural figures. Few people know that such famous writers as Fet, Turgenev, Leskov and many others were born in this glorious region, and the Oryol writers themselves treat their homeland with awe and love.

The biography of the Oryol writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev begins in 1818. Memories of childhood left a deep imprint on the writer's work. Even at an early age, sympathy for others, and hostility to serfdom, arose in him.

Turgenev studied in St. Petersburg, Moscow and abroad. In 1842 he received the title of Master of Philosophy. Acquaintance with V. G. Belinsky changed his life: Turgenev dedicated it to literature.

In 1847, the first issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published with the story Khor and Kalinich, which would later be included in the cycle of the now known Hunter's Notes. In view of the anti-serfdom sentiments that oozed democratically minded author's stories, the writer was arrested and exiled to Spasskoe-Lutovinovo.

After a long stay in exile, Turgenev returns to St. Petersburg. In the 1850s, the most significant works of the writer from the Oryol region were published: Mumu, Asya, Rudin, Noble Nest. It was these stories that brought the author fame.

In the 60s, revolutionary sentiments intensified in the country, which led to the writer's break with Sovremennik, but democratic ideas can still be traced in his work. A striking example of this are the novels "Fathers and Sons" and "On the Eve", around which heated debates arose. Turgenev was forced to live abroad until the 1970s.

Despite the stormy activity, the writer yearns for his homeland. In 1876 he returned and worked on the novel Nov. Turgenev understands that he wants to stop wandering and live out his life in his native land.

In 1882, Ivan Sergeevich fell ill, and a year later he died in France from spinal sarcoma.

The writer's work is saturated with love for the Oryol region. Now a monument has been created in Orel, as well as a museum of the Orel writer Turgenev. In addition, the Spasskoe-Lutovinovo Museum-Reserve of I. S. Turgenev is located in the Mtsensk District.

Nikolay Leskov

The list of Oryol writers is replenished by the talented prose writer Nikolai Semenovich Leskov. The writer is known for such works as "Lefty", "Nowhere", "On the Knives", "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", "Cathedrals", "Spender".

Leskov was born in 1831 on February 4 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol district. The writer of the Oryol Territory was the eldest son among four more children. At the age of 10, Nikolai was sent to study at the Oryol provincial gymnasium.

In the service of a private agent at Schcott and Wilkins, Leskov spent 3 years traveling around Russia: it was these travels that inspired him to write.

In 1860, he was already published in the "Economic Index", "Modern Medicine" and "Saint Petersburg Vedomosti". At the beginning of his career as a writer, Nikolai worked under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky, and also used many other names.

A year later, Leskov moved to St. Petersburg, where he began to publish his notes and articles in local magazines.

Leskov died in 1895 of an asthma attack that plagued him for the last few years of his life.

Oryol remembers the Oryol writer: a monument to Nikolai Leskov is erected here, and the writer's house-museum is also open.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was brought up at home until the age of 11, and in 1881 he went to the Yelets district gymnasium, but after the winter holidays in the 4th grade, he announced to his parents that he did not want to return. He tries to write his first poems already at the age of 8, and by the age of 17 he writes more serious works and is published in printed editions.

Ivan Alekseevich is not a famous Orlovian writer. He was born in Voronezh. However, the great writer spent at least three years in Orel, about which he spoke warmly in his memoirs. Oryol writers and poets, as well as local nature, largely influenced the writer's work.

In 1920 Bunin emigrated to France. All these years, the writer has been keeping a diary called "Cursed Days", in which he poured out all his hatred for the Bolsheviks. In France, Ivan gives lectures and publishes journalism. Bunin leads an active social life and tries with all his might to help writers and Russian emigrants. Ivan Alekseevich is engaged in a stormy literary activity, which made him one of the main figures of the Russian diaspora. Ivan Bunin received many literary and socially significant awards in his life.

The writer died in Paris in 1953.

Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev occupies an honorable place in the list of Oryol writers and poets. Born in 1803 in the village of Ovstug, Bryansk district, Oryol province, he spent all his childhood in these parts.

While studying at Moscow University, Tyutchev belonged to the circle of S. E. Raich, which was characterized by a combination of the academic school of literature with a manifestation of interest in the political life of the country. The pre-Decembrist moods turned out to be close to the young Tyutchev. The poet begins to publish in Northern Lira and Galatea.

In the spring of 1822, Fyodor was appointed supernumerary secretary of the Russian mission in Munich. During this period, the question of the meaning of being comes through in the poet's poems: the writer is confused and confused, a keen sense of the tragedy of human life breaks the poet's soul, prompting reflections on the meaning of the individual on the scale of the universe. In addition, Tyutchev's thoughts are directed towards the fate of the Motherland, which also worries him a lot.

After spending 22 years in Italy and Germany, Fedor Ivanovich returns to Russia, to St. Petersburg. Every summer the poet visits his native Ovstug, who has not left his heart even after so many years. In 1855, stung by the sight of impoverished Russian villages, he wrote a heartbreaking poem "These Poor Villages", which was soon heard throughout the country.

In his small homeland, in Ovstug, the poet wrote the works “The Enchantress in Winter”, “There is in the original autumn” and many others. The poet himself never aspired to popularity and did not take to heart the literary role of his poems. Only in 1854, yielding to the persuasion of I. S. Turgenev, Fyodor Tyutchev chooses several of his works for a separate publication, which later will bring great fame to the poet.

Orlovsky writer and poet died in 1873 in St. Petersburg, where he was buried.

The writer of the Oryol region Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet was born in the village of Novoselki, Mtsensk district, in 1820. His love for poetry manifested itself quite early: Athanasius from childhood tried to compose, translating nursery rhymes from German.

At the end of the boarding school, Fet enters the verbal department at Moscow University. Soon he began to publish his poems in the magazines Moskvityanin, Domestic Notes and Library for Reading. The poet's talent was recognized even by the great critic and writer V. G. Belinsky, and already in 1840 the poet published his collection "Lyrical Pantheon".

This period saw the flowering of Afanasy Afanasyevich's creativity. He writes love and landscape lyrics: “Wonderful Picture”, “Bacchante”, “Sad Birch”, “Don’t wake her up at dawn” and many others.

In the 50s, Fet became close to Sovremennik, his poems often appeared on the pages of the magazine. Fet's new collections have been released, highly appreciated in the literary environment.

In 1860, Fet bought a plot in the Mtsensk district and became a landowner. In 1863, the poet published the collection Poems and was silent for a long time. The next collection "Evening Lights" appears only in 1883. But by that time, the poet’s talent had not dried up at all: Fet again sang of beauty and love, and also raised important philosophical questions.

Afanasy Fet died in 1892 in Moscow.

The list of compatriot writers who lived in included Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin, who was born in 1763 in the village of Livny. Rostopchin is known as a statesman and literary figure. Having received an excellent home education, at the age of 10 he was enrolled in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. The next years he builds his military career until he receives the rank of lieutenant commander of the Life Guards in 1789. The following years, Rostopchin takes part in many wars, as a result of which in 1799 he was elevated to the rank of count of the Russian Empire for numerous merits.

Two years later, Rostopchin retires. Fedor spends a long period of his life in his own estate Voronov, where he begins his literary activity, adding to the number of writers born in the Oryol province.

As a result of his work, in 1807, the book “Thoughts aloud on the Red Porch ...” was published, with the help of which he won great fame. In the same period of time, the story “Oh, the French!” Was born, as well as a couple of comedies, the most famous was “News, or the Killed Alive”.

After the events of 1812, Fyodor Vasilyevich gained the fame of the initiator of the Moscow fire, but he publicly renounces this version, reinforcing his words with his own work, The Truth About the Fire of Moscow.

In 1814, Alexander I dismissed Rostopchin from the post of Moscow commander in chief. Since 1823, Fedor has been living in Moscow, being retired due to illness. Rostopchin died in 1826.

Among the Oryol writers, they also name Alexei Nikolaevich Apukhtin, who was born in 1840 in the city of Bolkhov in the Oryol province.

The first poems of the poet appear in the publication "Russian Disabled" - this is the work "Epaminoid", dedicated to the hero of Sevastopol, Admiral Kornilov, as well as the poem "Imitation of Arabic". At the school, Alexey writes a lot and with pleasure: in his work of this period, the influence of the poetry of A. Pushkin, E. Baratynsky and M. Lermontov can be traced. Sadness began to be read in the poems, reflections on death and the meaning of life are not uncommon. The theme of disappointment grows stronger, becoming the hallmark of the author.

In 1858, Apukhtin heeded Turgenev's advice and moved away from sad themes in his work and wrote the poem "The Village of Kolotovka", but never finished it. In this work, the poet reproduces the Oryol fortress village - the motive of the poems in many respects has something in common with Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter".

In the early 60s, Apukhtin decides to move away from civilian topics and calls himself the creator of "pure art" in his poem "Modern Vitiyam". Apukhtin foresees the deepening darkness in the near future, which is reflected in his works “A joyless dream has exhausted me”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Flies”, “I defeated her, fatal love”, “Meeting”. But such creativity did not find a response from readers and critics, and Apukhtin's works cease to be printed.

By 1864, he returns to St. Petersburg, the almost forgotten name of the poet regains popularity with his new poems, which begin to be published in local literary magazines. In 1886, the poet decides to publish the first collection of poems, which later will gain great popularity.

Alexey invents his own genre - a poem-confession. It included "A Year in the Monastery", written in the village of Oryol, as well as "Before the operation", "With a courier train", "Crazy" and "From the papers of the prosecutor".

Of no less interest are prose works: "The Archive of Countess D.", "The Diary of Pavlik Dolsky", "Between Life and Death". The stories continue the theme of personal narrative, typical of his poetry, now expressed in the form of a monologue, letters, diaries.

Work on prose was the last literary work of the writer: since 1893, Alexei could no longer get out of bed. Apukhtin died in the same year in St. Petersburg.

Pavel Yakushin

Pavel Ivanovich Yakushin - Orlovets writer, was born in the village of Saburovo, Maloarkhangelsky district, Oryol province in 1822. He is a researcher of folk art. Even in his gymnasium years, Pavel stood out for his giftedness and willfulness. Being in the fourth year of the mathematical faculty of Moscow University, Yakushin made acquaintance with P.K. Kireevsky and parted with science on his advice, setting off on wanderings around the Volga cities. Before him, no one in Russia had collected the treasures of folk poetry in this way. Pavel Ivanovich made several campaigns, as a result of which he recorded many historical, ritual and lyrical songs from his native Oryol region.

Kireevsky ordered Pavel to publish the collected songs, which Yakushin did in the 50s. The folk songs of P. I. Yakushin were published in 1860 and 1865, and his folklore notes were included in the well-known collection of A. N. Afanasyev “Russian Folk Tales”.

In 1860, letters were published in the Sovremennik magazine in which Yakushin describes the creation of a fortress at the confluence of the Orlik and Oka rivers, and also retells folk legends about Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible.

Yakushin did a lot for folk literature and the preservation of cultural heritage. Pavel died in a Samara hospital.

Leonid Andreev

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev was born in Orel in 1871. At the age of 20, he entered St. Petersburg University, from where he was expelled two years later. After that, he entered Moscow University and was educated as a lawyer.

He began writing as a student. At the end of his studies, he publishes court reports and feuilletons, as well as some stories and essays. In 1901 he published his book "Stories", which soon brought him fame.

Early literary works contained many ideas that originated in the author’s head back in Orel: in the plots of the stories “Hotel”, “Buyanikha”, “Angel”, “Bargamot and Garaska”, the destitute Oryol Pushkarnaya was easily recognized. Oryol's realities are also inspired by Andreev's stories such as "Spring", "He, she and vodka", "Spring Promises", "On the River". All these works are permeated with disappointment in the world, acute despair and compassion for human pain.

Leonid Andreev warmly treated the Social Democrats and periodically provided his room for underground meetings of members of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, for which he was subsequently arrested. In the Taganka prison he writes about the revolution with great inspiration. During this period, “In Memory of Vladimir Mazurin”, “To the Stars”, “From a Story That Will Never Be Finished”, “The Story of the Seven Hanged Men” and “The Governor” appear.

Soon Andreev is overtaken by a spiritual crisis, which leads to pessimistic works in which a person's life becomes like a meaningless run on the spot. Among these stories is Red Laughter, which was a reaction to the Russo-Japanese War. The story made a huge impression on readers, and subsequently began to be translated into other languages.

A distinctive feature of the author's work was bright expressiveness, which began to manifest itself in the stories "The Life of Vasily of Thebes", "Laughter", "Nabat" and "Lie". Andreev also creates a number of expressionist works, such as "Tsar Hunger", "The Life of a Man" and "Anatema".

Until the end of his life, the writer did not break his connection with his native Eagle. He often came to his homeland, arranging various social and cultural events, supporting literary activities and young authors. The Oryol theme often sounds in the work of Leonid: the novel "Sashka Zhegulev", the play "Youth" and many others.

During the revolution, Andreev found himself outside his native country, to which he was no longer destined to return: he died two years later.

The house of Leonid Andreev became a museum of the Orel writer: he spent many years there in his childhood and youth.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin was born in 1873 in the village of Khrushchevo, Yelets district, Oryol province.

In 1902, Prishvin graduated, after which he worked as an agronomist for a long time, collaborating with agronomic journals. Then he wrote a series of works on the topic of agriculture.

In his first works “Behind the Magic Kolobok” and “In the Land of Frightened Birds”, Prishvin describes his northern travels. In these essays, the author admires the immense beauty of Russian nature and the talent of the common people, who managed to maintain faith in goodness in the difficult conditions of political oppression.

Prishvin's subsequent travels were also reflected in his works: "Adam and Eve", "Lake Krutoyaroe", "Black Arab", "At the Walls of the Invisible City". In them, he describes ordinary Russian people whom he met on his way.

In 1912-1914, a three-volume collection of the author was published by the Znanie publishing house: all works are united by the socio-philosophical idea of ​​the eternal search for happiness.

During the First World War, the writer writes front-line correspondence in the publications Rech, Birzhevye Vedomosti, and Russkiye Vedomosti.

Shortly after the Great October Revolution, Mikhail Prishvin lived for a period in the Oryol Territory, where he worked on research and taught.

In 1923, he publishes essays called "Shoes", which raises the issue of revolution and art. The book “Springs of Berendey” led to a new stage in the development of the writer’s work, in the center of the plot of which is the Earth. Also in the 1920s, Mikhail began work on the autobiographical novel Kashcheev's Chain, which he worked on until the end of his life.

In the 1930s, Prishvin again went on a journey. Based on the materials collected during his travels, he writes the books “Undressed Spring”, “Berendeev Thicket”, “Caucasian Stories”, as well as poems in prose “Phacelia” and “Forest Drop”. The pinnacle of the literary works of Mikhail Prishvin was the poem "Ginseng".

Prishvin wrote a lot for children: his collections "Zhurka", "The Beast Chipmunk", "Golden Meadow", "Grandfather's Boots" and "Pantry of the Sun" remain popular to this day.

In the early days of the World War, he wrote the story "The Blue Dragonfly", which expresses the author's confidence in victory over the enemy. By 1943, “Stories about Leningrad Children” were published, where he praised the mothers of besieged Leningrad. A year later, he writes "The Tale of Our Time", also dedicated to sad events.

Mikhail dedicates his old age to diaries, intending to publish them in a separate book. He also finishes work on the novel-tale "The Sovereign's Road" and finishes the story-tale "Ship Thicket". The last written works were the result of Prishvin's creative searches.

Mikhail Mikhailovich died in Moscow in 1854.

How many talented authors the city of Oryol has given birth to: Oryol writers, to whom so many museums in the city are dedicated, are a real legend of these parts. Just as famous authors remembered their homeland, so it still keeps the memory of the great minds born on these lands. Some of the writers deserve a separate museum, but the museum of Oryol writers in Orel also carefully preserves the history, which forever fixed the memory of their talented fellow countrymen.

TURGENEV IVAN SERGEEVICH (1818 - 1883)

The great Russian writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born in Orel. According to his father, Turgenev belonged to an old noble family. Mother, nee Lutovinova, a wealthy landowner; in her estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo (Mtsensk district of the Oryol province) the writer's childhood passed.

In 1833, the future writer entered the verbal department of Moscow University, and in 1834 he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. An indelible mark on the soul of young Turgenev was left by falling in love with Princess E. L. Shakhovskaya, who at that time was experiencing an affair with his father. This deep feeling was reflected in the story "First Love" (1860).

In May 1838 Turgenev went to Germany. The catastrophe of the steamship "Nicholas I", on which the writer sailed, will be described by him in the essay "Fire at Sea". In Berlin, he met the ideologist of Russian anarchism M. A. Bakunin. Upon arrival in Russia, Ivan Sergeevich visits the Bakunin estate Premukhino, converges with this family. Soon, Turgenev's romance with T. A. Bakunina begins, which does not interfere with his connection with the seamstress A. E. Ivanova (she will give birth to Turgenev's daughter Pelageya).

In January 1843, Turgenev entered the service of the Ministry of the Interior. In the same year, he met the singer Pauline Viardot (Viardot Garcia). In May 1845, Turgenev retired. From the beginning of 1847 to June 1850 he lived abroad. In France, Turgenev witnessed the revolution of 1848. The main work of this period was the "Notes of a Hunter", which is a cycle of lyrical essays and stories.

In April 1852, in response to the death of N.V. Gogol, banned in St. Petersburg and published in Moscow, Turgenev was sent to the congress to write the story "Mumu". In May he was exiled to Spasskoe.

Until July 1856, Turgenev lives in Russia: in winter, mainly in St. Petersburg, in summer in Spassky, he works in the editorial office of Sovremennik. In the future, Turgenev's year will often be divided into "European, winter" and "Russian, summer" seasons.

In 1863, there is a new rapprochement between Turgenev and Pauline Viardot. His pan-European fame is growing: in 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In 1880, Turgenev takes part in the celebrations in honor of the opening of a monument to Pushkin in Moscow. In 1879-81. the old writer is experiencing a stormy passion for the actress M. G. Savina, which adorned his last visits to his homeland.

Turgenev's death was preceded by more than a year and a half of a painful illness (cancer of the spinal cord). The funeral in St. Petersburg turned into a mass demonstration. The great writer died in the town of Bougival, near Paris, and was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

LESKOV NIKOLAI SEMYONOVICH (1831 - 1895)

Born on February 4 (16 n.s.) in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, in the family of an official of the criminal chamber, who came from the clergy. Childhood years were spent in the estate of the Strakhovs' relatives, then in Orel. In the wilderness of Oryol, the future writer was able to see and learn a lot, which later gave him the right to say: “I did not study the people by talking with St. Petersburg cabbies ... I grew up among the people ... I was my own person with the people ... I was that people are closer than all priests ... "In 1841-1846. Leskov studied at the Oryol gymnasium, which he failed to graduate from: in the sixteenth year he lost his father, and the family's property was destroyed in a fire. Leskov joined the Oryol Criminal Chamber of the Court. In 1849, with the support of his uncle, Kyiv professor S. Alferyev, Leskov was transferred to Kyiv as an official of the Treasury. In the house of his uncle, his mother's brother, a professor of medicine, under the influence of progressive university professors, Leskov's keen interest in Herzen, in the great poet of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko, in Ukrainian culture, awakened, he became interested in ancient painting and architecture of Kyiv, later becoming an outstanding connoisseur of ancient Russian art.

In 1857, Leskov retired and entered the private service of a large trading company, which was engaged in the resettlement of peasants to new lands, and on whose business he traveled almost the entire European part of Russia. In January 1861, Leskov settled in St. Petersburg with the desire to devote himself to literary and journalistic activities. He began to publish in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Then he travels extensively in Europe.

In the spring of 1863 Leskov returned to Russia. Knowing well the province, its needs, human characters, details of everyday life and deep ideological currents, Leskov did not accept the calculations of the "theoreticians" cut off from Russian roots. He talks about this in the story "Musk Ox", in the novels "Nowhere", "Bypassed", "On the Knives". They outline the theme of Russia's unpreparedness for the revolution and the tragic fate of people who connected their lives with the hope of its speedy implementation. Hence the disagreement with the revolutionary democrats. In 1870 - 1880. Leskov overestimated a lot; acquaintance with Tolstoy has a great influence on him. National-historical issues appeared in his work: the novel "Cathedrals", "The Seedy Family". During these years, he wrote several stories about artists: "The Islanders", "The Sealed Angel".

The talent of a Russian person, the kindness and generosity of his soul have always admired Leskov, and this theme has found its expression in the stories “Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea)”, “Dumb Artist”, “The Man on the Clock”. Satire, humor and irony occupy a large place in Leskov's legacy: "Selective Grain", "Shameless", "Empty Dancers", etc. The writer suffered from angina pectoris for many years. In the winter of 1895, his illness worsened, and on February 21 (March 5), Nikolai Leskov died.

FET AFANASIY AFANASIEVICH (1820 - 1892)

Born on November 23 (December 5), 1820 in the village of Novoselki near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province. A few months before his birth, his mother ran away from her husband with the Russian landowner Shenshin. At baptism, the boy was recorded as the legitimate son of Shenshin. But when he was fourteen years old, the Oryol spiritual consistory considered this record legally illegal. The boy was supposed to bear the surname of the father of the Hesse-Darmstadt subject Fet. He was deprived of all the privileges given to hereditary nobles. To return the lost position became an obsession that determined his entire life path. Then he was sent to a German boarding school in Verro (Estonia).

In 1837, Fet arrived in Moscow and soon entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University, wrote poetry. In 1845, Fet entered as a non-commissioned officer in a cuirassier regiment stationed in the Kherson province - he dreamed of becoming a hereditary Russian nobleman, and the very first officer rank gave him the right to do so. In the years of Kherson, Maria Lazich, who was in love with him and loved by him, died in a fire (probably committed suicide), whom he did not dare to marry due to his poverty. The masterpieces of Fet's love lyrics are dedicated to her memory: "Irresistible Image", "Old Letters", "In the Silence and Darkness of the Mysterious Night", and others.

In 1853, Fet seeks a transfer to the Guards Regiment, stationed not far from St. Petersburg. He was never able to rise to the nobility, as new imperial decrees constantly raised the bar for military rank. In 1858

Fet retired with the rank of staff captain (he corresponded to the major), while the nobility gave only the rank of colonel. The poet again abruptly changes his life path. Married in 1857 to M.P. Botkina, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, he corrected his material affairs. In 1860, he bought the Stepanovka farm in his native Mtsensk district, in the places where the Shenshin family estates were located. Fet turned out to be an excellent owner, becoming a respected person among the landlord neighbors; For 11 years he held the honorary position of justice of the peace. Since 1862, he has been publishing essays in Russkiy Vestnik and other journals, in which he describes in detail his economic work.

In 1873, he managed to achieve the return of the Shenshin surname, hereditary nobility and hereditary rights. He returned to literature only in the 1880s, having become rich and bought a mansion in Moscow. After a long break, he again begins to write poems, which are published under the title "Evening Lights" in several hundred copies. Two volumes of memoirs appeared.

By the end of his life, Fet began to overcome senile ailments - his eyesight deteriorated sharply, he was tormented by attacks of suffocation. He died in Moscow on November 21 (December 3), 1892. By nature, it was a premeditated suicide: Fet suffocated while trying to commit suicide with a stiletto or a knife.

ANDREEV LEONID NIKOLAEVICH (1871 - 1919)

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev was born on August 9 in the city of Orel in the family of an official. At the age of 11, he entered the Oryol Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1891. In his youth, he did not think of becoming a writer.

At the age of 26, after graduating from the law faculty of Moscow University, the future writer was going to become a barrister, but unexpectedly received an offer from a lawyer friend to take the place of a court reporter in the Moskovsky Vestnik newspaper. Having received recognition as a talented reporter, literally two months later he already moved to the Kurier newspaper. Thus began the birth of the writer Andreev: he wrote numerous reports, feuilletons, and essays.

The first story "Bargamot and Garaska" (1898), published in the "Courier", attracted the attention of readers and delighted Gorky. The plots of many works of this time are directly prompted by life ("Petka in the country"). In 1889 -1899. there are new stories by L. Andreev, including "Grand Slam" and "Angel", which distinguishes from the first stories (based on cases from life) the author's interest in a case in a person's life.

In 1901, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Knowledge", headed by Gorky, publishes "Stories" by L. Andreev, including the famous story - "Once Upon a Time". The success of the writer, especially among young people, was enormous. Andreev was worried about the growing alienation and loneliness of modern man, his lack of spirituality - the stories "City", "In a big helmet". Early Andreev is concerned about the themes of fatal accident, madness and death - "Thought", "The Life of Vasily of Thebes", "Ghosts". In 1904, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, Andreev wrote the story "Red Laughter", which determined a new stage in his work. The madness of war is expressed in the symbolic image of the Red Laughter, which begins to dominate the world. During the 1905 revolution, Andreev assisted the revolutionaries, for which he was arrested and imprisoned. However, he was never a convinced revolutionary. His doubts were reflected in his work: the play "To the Stars", imbued with revolutionary pathos, appeared simultaneously with the story "So it was", which skeptically assessed the possibilities of the revolution.

In 1907 - 1910. published such modernist works as "Sava", "Darkness", "Tsar Hunger", philosophical dramas - "The Life of a Man", "Black Masks", "Anatema". During these years, Andreev began to actively cooperate with the modernist almanacs of the Rosepovnik publishing house. In the 1910s none of Andreev's new works becomes a literary event, nevertheless, Bunin writes in his diary: "Still, this is the only one of the modern writers to whom I am attracted, whose every new thing I immediately read." Andreev's last major work, written under the influence of world war and revolution, is "Notes of Satan". Andreev did not accept the October Revolution. In December 1917, when Finland gained independence, the writer and his family stayed in a Finnish dacha.

Writing talent was inherited by the son of Leonid Andreev - Daniil - a famous writer, poet and philosopher, author of the treatise "Rose of the World".

BUNIN IVAN ALEKSEEVICH (1870 - 1953)

Born October 22, 1870 in Voronezh, in the family of an impoverished nobleman, who belonged to an old noble family. The first three years of Ivan Bunin's life were spent in Voronezh, then on the Butyrki farm in the Yelets district of the Oryol province. In 1881 he entered the gymnasium in Yelets, but studied there for only five years, since the family had no funds for the education of his youngest son. Bunin was helped by his elder brother Julius to master the program of the gymnasium and the university. In May 1887, for the first time, the St. Petersburg weekly magazine Rodina published one of his poems. Since the autumn of 1889, Bunin has been working in the editorial office of the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper, where he met his future wife Varvara Pashchenko, who worked as a proofreader for the newspaper. Bunin entered the service in Poltava as a librarian of the zemstvo council, and then as a statistician in the provincial council. In January 1895, after the betrayal of his wife, Ivan Bunin left the service and moved first to St. Petersburg, and then to Moscow.

In 1898, Bunin married Anna Tsakni, a Greek woman. Family life again turned out to be unsuccessful and in 1900 the couple divorced, and in 1905 their son Nikolai died. In 1906, Bunin met Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva in Moscow, who in 1907 became his wife and faithful companion for the rest of her life. Later, Muromtseva wrote a series of memoirs about her husband ("The Life of Bunin" and "Conversations with Memory"). In February 1920, Bunin emigrated first to the Balkans, then to Paris. From the summer of 1923 he moved to the Alpes-Maritimes and came to Paris only for some of the winter months. In 1933, Ivan Bunin, the first Russian writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The official Soviet press explained the decision of the Nobel Committee by the intrigues of imperialism.

In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, the Bunins settled in the south of France, in Grasse, at the Villa Jeannette, where they spent the entire war. Bunin repeatedly expressed a desire to return to Russia, in 1946 he called the decree of the Soviet government “On the restoration of citizenship of the USSR subjects of the former Russian Empire ...” a “generous measure”, but Zhdanov’s decree on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” (1946 .), which trampled on A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, led to the fact that Bunin forever abandoned his intention to return to his homeland. The last years of the writer were spent in poverty. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died in Paris. On the night of November 7-8, 1953, two hours after midnight, Bunin died: Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was buried at the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, near Paris.

Among the works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin: "Poems", "To the End of the World", "Under the Open Sky", "Antonov Apples", "Pine Trees", "New Road", "Leaf Fall", "Chernozem", "Temple of the Sun", " Village”, “Dry Valley”, “Brothers”, “Cup of Life”, “Mr. from San Francisco”, “Cursed Days”; diary entries about the events of the October Revolution and its consequences, and others.

ZAITSEV BORIS KONSTANTINOVICH (1881-1972)

Born on January 29 in the city of Orel in the family of a mining engineer. In Kaluga, he graduated from a classical gymnasium and a real school. In 1898 he entered the Imperial Technical School, but a year later he was expelled for participating in student unrest. He goes to St. Petersburg, enters the Mining Institute, but soon leaves it, returns to Moscow and, having successfully passed the exams again, becomes a student at the law faculty of the university, but after studying for three years, he leaves the university. Passion for literature becomes a matter of life. In 1902, Boris Zaitsev was a member of the Moscow literary circle Sreda. The first successful publications open the way for Zaitsev to any magazines. The main advantage of his stories, novels, novels, plays was the joy of life, the bright optimistic beginning of his worldview.

In 1906, his acquaintance with Bunin turns into a close friendship, which will last until the last days of their lives, although at times they quarreled, however, very quickly reconciled. In 1912 he marries, a daughter, Natasha, is born. Among these events of his personal life, he completes work on the novel The Far Land and starts translating Dante's Divine Comedy.

Zaitsev lives and works for a long time in his father's house in Pritykino, Tula province. Here he receives the news of the beginning of the First World War and the agenda for mobilization. The thirty-five-year-old writer became a cadet at a military school in Moscow, and in 1917 became a reserve officer in an infantry regiment. He did not have to fight - the revolution began. Zaitsev is trying to find a place for himself in this collapsing world, which is given with great difficulty, revolts a lot, and turns out to be unacceptable. He participates in the work of the Moscow Educational Commission. Further, joyful events (book publications) are replaced by tragic ones: the son of his wife (from his first marriage) is arrested and shot, his father dies.

In 1921, he was elected chairman of the Writers' Union, in the same year cultural figures joined the famine relief committee, and a month later they were arrested and taken to Lubyanka. A few days later, Zaitsev was released, he left for Pritykino and returned in the spring of 1922 to Moscow, where he fell ill with typhus. After recovery, he decides to go abroad with his family to improve his health. Thanks to the assistance of Lunacharsky, he receives a visa and leaves Russia. First he lives in Berlin, works a lot, then in 1924 he comes to Paris, meets with Bunin, Kuprin, Merezhkovsky and forever remains in the capital of emigrant abroad.

Until the end of his days, Zaitsev actively works, writes and publishes a lot. He carries out what he has long planned - he writes artistic biographies of people dear to him, writers: "The Life of Turgenev" (1932), "Zhukovsky" (1951), "Chekhov" (1954). In 1964, he wrote his last story, The River of Times, which would also give the title to his last book.
January 21, 1972 Zaitsev died in Paris and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois.

PRISHVIN MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH (1873 - 1954)

Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin was born on February 4, 1873 in the Khrushchevo estate of the Yelets district of the Oryol province (Lipetsk region), into a merchant family. In 1883, Prishvin entered the Yelets Gymnasium, but was expelled from the 4th grade "for impudence to the teacher." I had to finish my studies at the Tyumen real school. In 1893-1897. Mikhail studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute. In 1897, he was arrested for participating in Marxist circles, spent a year in the Mitav prison, and then sent into exile for two years in Yelets.
In 1900-1902. Mikhail Prishvin studied at the agronomy department of the University of Leipzig, after which he worked as a zemstvo agronomist, published several articles and books in his specialty. “In his distant youth, Prishvin fell in love with a student girl: it was abroad. The young man was not yet ready for the realization of active love: falling in love was only an excuse for his poetic flight. The bride, with feminine insight, understood everything and refused. The young man "soared" from this refusal even higher and the unsatisfied feeling switched entirely to poetry.
He returned to his homeland. The bride remained in England, withered and withered as a bank clerk. On the border of mental illness, suffering from loneliness, constantly thinking about the lost bride, Prishvin converges with a simple illiterate "first woman that came across and a very good woman" and lives with her (Efrosinia Pavlovna) all her long life. Efrosinia Pavlovna bore the writer two sons: Lev Mikhailovich Prishvin-Alpatov and Peter Mikhailovich. But before old age, he sees in a dream the lost bride. -
Mikhail Prishvin began to publish in 1898. In literary circles, his name becomes known in 1907-1908. During the First World War, the writer was a war correspondent, in 1918-1922. worked as a rural teacher in the Smolensk region. In 1919, when Prishvin lived in Yelets, during the invasion of the city of the Cossacks, Mamontov Prishvin was almost shot, mistaking him for a Jew. Since 1923 the writer moved to Moscow. where in 1937 he managed to get an apartment in the house of writers, opposite the Tretyakov Gallery. “When arranging a secluded dwelling, Prishvin chose an apartment higher, on the sixth floor, - an “obstacle” for Efrosinia Pavlovna (Prishvin’s wife), so that she, afraid to use the elevator, came to Moscow less often.”
Mikhail Prishvin died on January 16, 1954 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery.

Among the works of Mikhail Prishvin are essays, short stories, short stories, novels: “In the Land of Fearless Birds” (1907; collection of essays), “Behind the Magic Kolobok” (1908; collection of essays), “At the Walls of the Invisible City” (1909; collection), "Adam and Eve" (1910; essay), "Black Arab" (1910; essay), "Glorious Tambourines" (1913), "Shoes" (1923), "Springs of Berendey" (1925-1926), "Ginseng" ( the first title is "The Root of Life", 1933; story), "Calendar of Nature" (1935; phenological notes), "Spring of Light" (1938; story), "Undressed Spring" (1940; story), "Phacelia" (1940; poem in prose) and others.

NOVIKOV IVAN ALEKSEEVICH (1877-1959)

Ivan Alekseevich Novikov was born on January 1, 1877 in the village of Ilkov, Mtsensk district, Oryol province. Graduated from the Moscow Agricultural Institute (1901). In 1899, Novikov published his first story, Sergei Ivanovich's Dream. In 1901, under the pseudonym M. Green-eyed, he published the play "On the Road", in 1904 - a collection of stories "Search", in 1906 - the novel "From the Life of the Spirit", in 1908 - a collection of poems "To the Holy Spirit". Starting as a realist, Novikov became interested in symbolism and mysticism in 1904-1910 (the novel The Golden Crosses, 1908), then returned to realism again. The writer focuses on the images of a disappointed intellectual seeking salvation in love (the story "Kalina in the front garden", 1917; "The Tale of the Brown Apple", 1917), the ideal Russian woman (the stories "Jeanne d'Arc", 1911 g., "The Miracle of St. Nicholas", 1912), youth of the beginning of the century (the novel "Between Two Dawns", the second name is "The Orembovsky House", 1915).
In the 1930s, Novikov turned to historical themes (“City, Sea, Village”, 1931). His most significant work is the novel "Pushkin in Exile" (Part 1 - "Pushkin in Mikhailovsky", 1936; Part 2 - "Pushkin in the South", 1943) - a historical and artistic canvas on a documentary basis. The action of the novel develops slowly, consistently, in detail. Novikov is a master of a psychological portrait, a picturesque landscape, a subtle lyricist and a connoisseur of the language. A. S. Pushkin is also dedicated to his play "Pushkin in the South" (1937), the screenplay "Young Pushkin" (1949). Novikov worked hard on The Tale of Igor's Campaign; in 1938 he made a verse translation of it; in the article "The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Its Author" (1938). Novikov put forward a hypothesis about the author of the monument. He owns a poetic translation of "Zadonshchina" (1949).
In the last years of his life, Novikov returned to poetry of a lyrical and philosophical plan (the collection Under the Native Sky, 1956) and wrote the books Turgenev is an artist of the word. About “Notes of a Hunter” (1954), a book of essays on the style of Russian writers “The Writer and His Work” (1956)
Ivan Alekseevich Novikov died on January 10, 1959.

APUKHTIN ALEXEY NIKOLAEVICH (1840-1893)

Aleksey Nikolaevich Apukhtin, Russian poet and prose writer, was born on November 15 (27), 1840 in the city of Bolkhov, Oryol province, in the family of the Apukhtins, an old noble family. Childhood passed in the village of Pavlodar, in the father's family estate. The future poet studied at the St. Petersburg School of Law (1852-1859), where he became friends with P.I. Tchaikovsky. According to the composer's brother M.I. Tchaikovsky, Apukhtin enjoyed the patronage of I.S. Turgenev and A.A. Fet.
His first poems were imbued with anti-serfdom and civic motifs (the cycle "Village Essays", 1859) in the spirit of N.A. Nekrasov's poetry. In 1859, a cycle of small lyrical poems, Village Essays, was published in the Sovremennik magazine.
After 1862, he retired from literary activity, motivating this by the desire to stay out of the political struggle, away from any literary or political parties. He served in the Ministry of Justice, lived in a family estate in the Oryol province; in 1863-1865 - senior officer for special assignments under the governor; then in St. Petersburg he was listed as an official of the Ministry of the Interior; I have been abroad several times. In 1865, in Orel, he gave two public lectures on the life and work of A.S. Pushkin, which marked Apukhtin's final departure from democratic positions. In the same year he returned to St. Petersburg.
After a long break (with the exception of magazine publications in 1872-1873), he returned to print from the mid-1880s - first with separate poems, and then with the collection "Poems" (1886), which brought him quick fame as one of the best poets of the era of timelessness, who combined the "Anacreontic" hedonism of a sybarite with the sadness of a disappointed idealist, alien to the world of hypocrisy, vulgarity and self-interest. Proclaimed by Apukhtin himself, the dilettantism of his poetry manifested itself in a free variety of themes and genres (melancholic reflection, plot monologue, album or diary entry, "gypsy" romance, impromptu, friendly message, parody), while being distinguished by psychological authenticity, melodic and clear language, easily laying down on memory and on music (many of Apukhtin's poems are set to the music of Tchaikovsky and other composers - “To forget so soon”, “Does the day reign”, “Crazy Nights”, “Sleepless Nights”, etc. They are classic examples of Russian romance) .
The image of the “superfluous person” ripening in the poetic world of Apukhtin is confirmed both in the poem “A Year in the Monastery” (1885), and in the heroes of his prose - the stories “Countess D ** Archive” (1890); "The Diary of Pavlik Dolsky" (1891); in the fantastic story "Between Life and Death", all published in 1895, posthumously, as well as in an unfinished novel from the pre-reform period (published in 1898), critically depicting the life and customs of secular society.
Apukhtin died in St. Petersburg on August 17 (29), 1893.

ESENIN SERGEY ALEKSANDROVICH (1894 - 1925) AND
REIKH ZINAIDA NIKOLAEVNA (1894-1939)

Sergei Yesenin was born on November 3, 1894 in the village of Konstantinov, Ryazan province, into a peasant family. Composing poetry from childhood (mainly in imitation of A. V. Koltsov, I. S. Nikitin, S. D. Drozhzhin), Yesenin finds like-minded people in the Surikov Literary and Musical Circle, of which he becomes a member in 1912. He begins to print in 1914 in Moscow children's magazines (the debut of the poem "Birch").
Young Yesenin graduated from a rural school, then a church teacher's school in Spas-Klepiki. During Yesenin's conquest of fashionable literary salons in Petrograd, Zinaida Reich appeared in his life.
Zinaida Reich was born in the village of Near Melnitsy near Odessa on June 21, 1894. She met the novice poet Yesenin at the editorial office of the newspaper Delo Naroda, where she worked as a secretary-typist. Yesenin was published in this newspaper.
At the end of August 1917, the young people arrived in Orel with Alexei Ganin to celebrate a modest wedding, to meet the parents and relatives of Zinaida Nikolaevna. In Petrograd, the newlyweds rented 2 rooms on Liteiny. At the beginning of their life together, Yesenin was proud that he had a wife. But Sergei did not live with her permanently, although she gave birth to two children from him - Tatyana (1918) and Konstantin (1920). And then, as Mariengof said, Yesenin asked a friend to help him send Zinaida to Orel. “... I can’t live with Zinaida ... I told her - she doesn’t want to understand ... She won’t leave, and that’s all ... she won’t leave for anything - Tell her, Tolya, that I have another woman.”
Zinaida Reich and her daughter went to Orel. After the final break with Zinaida, Reich Yesenin easily treated casual meetings, drank with pleasure and scandalized in taverns ...
From the translator Nadezhda Volpin, Yesenin had a son Alexander.
In 1921, Yesenin married the American dancer Isadora Duncan, who lived in Moscow. After the wedding, they traveled to Europe and the USA, after returning to Russia they parted.
In the autumn of 1925, Yesenin married for the third time Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya. At the end of November, due to the threat of arrest, he had to go to a neuropsychiatric clinic. Sofia Tolstaya agreed with Professor P.B. Gannushkin about the poet's hospitalization in a paid clinic at Moscow University. The professor promised to provide him with a separate ward where Yesenin could do literary work.
Employees of the GPU and the police ran off their feet, looking for the poet. Only a few people knew about his hospitalization in the clinic, but there were informants. On November 28, security officers rushed to the director of the clinic, Professor P.B. Gannushkin and demanded the extradition of Yesenin, but he did not extradite his countryman for reprisal. The clinic is being monitored. After waiting for a moment, Yesenin interrupts the course of treatment (he left the clinic in a group of visitors) and leaves for Leningrad on December 23. On the night of December 28, Sergei Yesenin committed suicide at the Angleterre Hotel.
In the autumn of 1921, Zinaida entered the studio of Vsevolod Meyerhold. He made a great actress out of her, gave Zinaida a house, a family, adopted Yesenin's children. During this period, Yesenin appeared again in the life of Zinaida. They began to secretly meet, he began to visit the children more often, but these meetings only added bitterness and pain to their difficult relationship. Z. Reich, in one or another poem by Yesenin, meets lines dedicated to her. When she learned of his death, she immediately left for Leningrad. As Konstantin Yesenin testified, my father constantly carried a photograph of “my trinity” in his wallet until the last hour. On July 14, Zinaida Nikolaevna was seriously wounded by the NKVD (7-8 wounds were inflicted in the heart area, one in the neck) and died in the hospital from blood loss.

BULGAKOV SERGIY NIKOLAEVICH (1871-1944)

Sergiy Nikolaevich Bulgakov was born on July 16/28, 1871 in the town of Livny, Oryol province, into the family of a priest. He studied at the Oryol Theological Seminary until 1887, then at the Yelets Gymnasium, and from 1890 at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1894 and was left to prepare for a professorship.
In 1896, Bulgakov published his first book, On Markets in Capitalist Production, written from a Marxist standpoint. In 1898 he married Elena Ivanovna Tokmakova (1868-1945). In 1905, at the news of the Manifesto on October 17, Bulgakov, wearing a red bow, went to a demonstration along with students, but at some point, in his own words, “felt quite clearly the spirit of the Antichrist spirit” and, having come home, threw away the red bow in the toilet
In 1906, Bulgakov was one of the founders of the Union of Christian Politics, and in 1907 he was elected to the State Duma from the Oryol province as a non-party "Christian socialist", he published articles where he preached the ideas of Christian socialism. However, after the dissolution of the Duma in 1907, Bulgakov became completely disillusioned with the revolution and became a staunch monarchist. In 1909, he participated in the collection "Milestones", the authors of which called on the intelligentsia to turn from revolution to religion. On June 11, 1918, Bulgakov received the priesthood at the Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow.
Since 1919, Bulgakov was a professor at Simferopol University, where he taught political economy and theology. Later he lived in Yalta. On September 20, 1922, officers of the Cheka conducted a search at Bulgakov's. On October 13, he was arrested and taken to Simferopol. There, Bulgakov was informed of the decision to deport him abroad. On December 30, he sailed from Sevastopol to Constantinople, where he arrived on January 7, 1923. From Constantinople in the same 1923 he moved to Prague, and in 1925 he settled in Paris, where he became a professor of theology and dean of the Orthodox Theological Institute. Abroad, Bulgakov wrote and published almost exclusively theological works: The Burning Bush (1927), Jacob's Ladder (1929), St. Peter and John" (1926), "Friend of the Bridegroom" (1927), "Lamb of God" (1933), "Bride of the Lamb" (1945), "Comforter" (1936), "Apocalypse of John" (1948), "Orthodoxy" ( 1964), a collection of sermons "Church Joy", etc. He also created religious and philosophical studies "The Tragedy of Philosophy" (1927) and "Philosophy of the Name" (1953).
Bulgakov died in Paris on July 13, 1944 from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried on July 15, 1944 in the cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois.

BAKHTIN MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH (1895-1975)

The greatest thinker of the 20th century, whose works in the field of philosophy and philology are now considered classics, literary theorist and culturologist, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was born in Orel, in the family of a bank employee. He graduated from the classical department of the historical and philological faculty of Petrograd University. Since 1920 he began his pedagogical and literary activity, lived in Nevel, in Vitebsk, then in Petrograd.
In contrast to the "monologic" word of most writers, Dostoevsky's prose is "dialogical." The philosophical understanding of culture as a dialogue, which Bakhtin developed from observations of Dostoevsky's prose, led to a revolution in sociolinguistics and laid the foundation for modern cultural studies. Bakhtin showed that literature has its roots in "folk holidays" - carnivals and mysteries of antiquity. Now it is becoming clear that the point is not so much in the "nationality" of this culture, but in its traditional ritualism, which allows the transmission of legends from the depths of centuries by "living example", without written fixation.
In 1928, Bakhtin was arrested by the GPU and exiled to the city of Kustanai, staying there until 1936, he often and for a long time visited Leningrad and Moscow, where from the end of summer - the beginning of autumn 1937 to the end of 1937 - the beginning of 1938 lived without a residence permit with relatives, and then rented a house with his wife in Savelovo, near Moscow, often lived in the capital.
World science received in the person of Bakhtin not just one of the most profound thinkers of the 20th century. - The Russian scientist with his ideas of culture as a dialogue posed a problem for which Western philosophy was not ready. At the end of 1940, he finished his work on F. Rabelais (defended as a Ph. In 1963 - 1964 he repeatedly spent several months at the House of Creativity of Writers in Maleevka near Moscow, from October 1969 to May 1970 he was treated at the Central Clinical Hospital, then at the hospital Podolsk.
He died on March 17, 1975, and was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery.
Bakhtin's main works are "Problems of Dostoevsky's Creativity" (1929) and "The Creativity of François Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" (1965), where a number of the most important principles of modern literary criticism and philosophy of culture were formulated and substantiated, as well as a collection of articles "Issues of Literature and aesthetics” (1975) were first published in Moscow and caused a wide scientific and public outcry, creating a circle of friends, students and admirers around Bakhtin (S.G. Bocharov, S.S. Averintsev, V.N. Turbin, etc.)

GRANOVSKIY TIMOFEY NIKOLAEVICH (1813 - 1855)

The famous professor of history, was born on March 21, 1813 in the city of Orel into a middle-class landowner family. At the age of 13, Granovsky was sent to the Kistera Moscow boarding school, where he stayed for two years, and then until the age of 18 he remained at home in the city of Orel.
In 1831 he entered the service of the Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg. Bureaucratic work had little appeal for him, and Granovsky entered the Faculty of Law, studied literature, history, and philosophy. At the end of the course, Granovsky entered the service as secretary of the Hydrographic Department. Then Granovsky received a two-year assignment to Germany to prepare for a professorship in world history. Especially during this period, he became interested in philosophy. The study of Hegel contributed to Granovsky's desire to consider cultural history as a whole and outline progressive development in it. In 1849, a doctoral dissertation on Abbot Sugeria highlighted the history of the formation of the state in France.
Upon his return from abroad, he occupied a prominent position among the young "Westernizer" professors at Moscow University. As an admirer of Peter the Great, Granovsky did not consider his work finished and fully sympathized with the liberal ideas that swept Western Europe in the thirties and forties. Little by little, his disagreements in this respect with one of the people closest to him, Herzen, became apparent. Back in the mid-forties, Herzen joined materialism, while Granovsky defended the right to the existence of "romantic" ideals, without which personal and national life seemed incomplete to him. Granovsky did not sympathize with Herzen's activities abroad, although he was extremely burdened by the conditions of the then Russian life.
Granovsky avoided personal troubles in the service; but his spiritual condition during the reaction that followed 1848 was grave. He no longer found satisfaction in a professorship and had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to go into purely scientific work; for a long time he had been haunted by tides of melancholy and apathy; in the era of the Crimean War, this mood became unbearable, and Granovsky increasingly sought entertainment in a gambling and always almost unsuccessful card game.
Granovsky's body was never distinguished by its strength and could not endure the hard struggle of life for a long time. On October 4, 1855 Granovsky died at the age of 42 after a short illness.
Collected works of Granovsky has several editions. The main source for his biography is the work of A.V. Stankevich, the second edition of which is accompanied by a volume with Granovsky's correspondence (1897). Wed Annenkov, "A Wonderful Decade" (in "Memoirs and Essays", vol. III); P. Kudryavtsev, "Childhood and youth of Granovsky"; Grigoriev, “T.N. Granovsky before his professorship in Moscow” (“Russian Conversations”, 1856), R.Yu. Vipper (“The World of God”, 1905, and in the collection “Two Intelligentsia”), V.A. Myakotina (“From the history of Russian society”), P.N. Milyukov ("From the history of the Russian intelligentsia"), etc.

STOLYPIN PETER ARKADIEVICH (1868-1911)

Politician, Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin was born on April 2 (14), 1862 in the capital of Saxony - Dresden. He came from an old noble family, with roots dating back to the beginning of the 16th century.
At first he lived in the Serednikovo estate in the Moscow province, then moved to Lithuania. In 1878-1881. Stolypin lives and studies in Orel. The first education in Stolypin's biography was received at the Oryol Men's Gymnasium. Pyotr Stolypin was especially interested in studying foreign languages ​​and the exact sciences.
In June 1881, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin was issued a matriculation certificate. In 1881 he entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where, in addition to physics and mathematics, he enthusiastically studied chemistry, geology, botany, zoology, and agronomy. Among his teachers was D.I. Mendeleev.
In 1884, after graduating from university, he entered the service of the Ministry of the Interior, married O.B. Neidgart.
Two years later, Stolypin transferred to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property, where he held the position of assistant clerk, corresponding to the modest rank of collegiate secretary. A year later, he moved to the service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as the Kovno district marshal of the nobility and chairman of the Kovno congress of peace mediators. In 1899 he was appointed marshal of the nobility of Kovno; soon P.A. Stolypin was elected an honorary magistrate for the Insar and Kovno judicial magistrate districts. In 1902 he was appointed governor of Grodno. From February 1903 to April 1906 he was the governor of the Saratov province. At the time of Stolypin's appointment, about 150,000 inhabitants lived in Saratov, 150 factories and factories were operating, there were more than 100 educational institutions, 11 libraries, 9 periodicals. All this created the city the glory of the "capital of the Volga region", and Stolypin tried to strengthen this glory: a solemn laying of the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, a doss house took place, new educational institutions, hospitals were built, asphalting of Saratov streets began, the construction of a water supply system, installation of gas lighting, modernization of the telephone network. Peaceful transformations were interrupted by the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War.
The first revolution (1905-1907) found Stolypin at the post of governor of Saratov. The Saratov province, in which one of the centers of the Russian revolutionary underground was located, found itself in the center of revolutionary events, and the young governor had to confront two elements: the revolutionary, opposition to the government, and the "right", "reactionary" part of society, standing on monarchical and Orthodox positions . Already at that time, several attempts were made on Stolypin: they shot at him, threw bombs, the terrorists in an anonymous letter threatened to poison Stolypin's youngest child, the three-year-old son of Arkady.
To fight the insurgent peasants, a rich arsenal of means was used from negotiating to the use of troops. For the suppression of the peasant movement in the Saratov province, Pyotr Arkadievich Stolypin - the chamberlain of the court of His Imperial Majesty and the youngest governor of Russia - received the gratitude of Emperor Nicholas II.
April 26, 1906 P.A. Stolypin was appointed Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of I.L. Goremykin. On July 8, 1906, after the dissolution of the First State Duma, Goremykin's resignation was announced and his replacement by Stolypin, who thus became Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Having headed the cabinet of ministers, P.A. Stolypin proclaimed a course of social and political reforms. The agrarian ("Stolypin") reform was launched, under the leadership of Stolypin a number of major bills were developed, including the reform of local self-government, the introduction of universal primary education, state insurance of workers, and religious tolerance.
The revolutionary parties could not come to terms with the appointment of a staunch nationalist and supporter of strong state power to the post of prime minister, and on August 12, 1906, an attempt was made on Stolypin's life: bombs were blown up at his dacha on Aptekarsky Island in St. Petersburg. At that moment, in addition to the family of the head of government, there were also those who came to see him at the dacha. As a result of the explosion, 23 people were killed and 35 injured; among the wounded were the children of Stolypin - the three-year-old son Arkady and the sixteen-year-old daughter Natalya; Stolypin himself was not injured. As it soon became clear, the attempt was made by a group of Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists who separated from the Socialist Revolutionary Party; This party itself did not take responsibility for the assassination attempt. At the suggestion of the sovereign, the Stolypin family moves to a safer place - to the Winter Palace.
In a short time, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin was awarded a number of royal awards. In addition to several Imperial rescripts with an expression of gratitude, in 1906 Stolypin was granted the office of chamberlain, on January 1, 1907 he was appointed a member of the State Council, and in 1908 he was secretary of state.
Having fallen ill in the spring of 1909 with lobar pneumonia, Stolypin left St. Petersburg and spent about a month with his family in the Crimea, in Livadia. A talented politician, economist, lawyer, administrator, orator, Stolypin almost gave up his personal life, devoting all his strength to the Russian state: chairmanship of the Council of Ministers, which convened at least twice a week, direct participation in meetings on current affairs and on legislative issues (sessions often dragged on until the morning); reports, receptions, a thorough review of Russian and foreign newspapers, the study of the latest books, especially those devoted to issues of state law. In June 1909 P.A. Stolypin was present at the meeting of Emperor Nicholas II with Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. The meeting took place in the Finnish skerries. On the yacht Shtandart, a conversation took place between Prime Minister Stolypin and Wilhelm II, who subsequently, according to various testimonies, said: "If I had such a minister, to what height we would raise Germany!"
"The tsar was an extremely weak-willed person and just as stubborn. Nicholas II did not tolerate in his environment either people with a strong character, or those who surpassed him in intelligence and breadth of outlook. He believed that such persons "usurp" his power, "rub" the autocrat into the background, "violating" his will. That is why S. Yu. Witte did not come to the court, and now it was the turn of the second largest statesman after Witte in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century - P. A. Stolypin. The reforms conceived by him, did not threaten the foundations of the autocracy, but the revolution was defeated, and, as Nicholas II and his tipsters from the Council of the United Nobility believed, it was defeated forever, and therefore no reforms were required at all.Approximately from 1909, small, but systematic nit-picking and slandering of the extreme right to the tsar began to the head of government. It was decided to create a Naval General Staff of two dozen people. Since this caused additional costs, Stolypin decided to pass his states through the Duma, which approved held the budget. Immediately followed by a denunciation to Nicholas II, who was the "supreme leader of the army" and believed that all cases of the armed forces - his personal competence. Nicholas II defiantly did not approve the draft law on the states of the Moscow State School, passed through the Duma and the State Council. At the same time, the "holy old man" G. Rasputin, who had been circling at court for several years, acquired a significant influence on the exalted queen. The scandalous adventures of the "old man" forced Stolypin to ask the tsar to expel Rasputin from the capital. In response to this, sighing heavily, Nicholas II replied: "I agree with you, Pyotr Arkadievich, but let ten Rasputins be better than one hysteria of the empress." Having learned about this conversation, Alexandra Fedorovna began to hate Stolypin and, in connection with the government crisis when approving the states of the Naval General Staff, insisted on his resignation
In 1911 Stolypin resigned. Too few of his initiatives and plans are put into practice, besides, he is constantly forced to be distracted by the settlement of local conflicts, to stop the arbitrariness and bribery of city governors. However, Nicholas II does not accept the resignation. After a conversation with the emperor, Stolypin agrees to stay, but on the condition that a number of members of the State Council, whom the prime minister considers his opponents, be replaced by other people pleasing to him.
On September 1, 1911, another assassination attempt on the Prime Minister took place, which this time succeeds. Eser D. G. Bogrov shoots Stolypin in the opera. September 5, 1911 Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin dies in Kyiv. Buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

ROSTOPCHIN FYODOR VASILIEVICH (1763 - 1826)

Fedor Vasilyevich Rostopchin, a famous Russian statesman, was born on March 12 (23), 1763 in the village of Kosmodemyanskoye, Livensky district, Oryol province.
From the age of 10 he was listed in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment; in 1792 he received the title of chamber junker, "in the rank of brigadier."
In Moscow, in the city to which the attention of all Europe was drawn, patriotic agitation began on an unprecedented scale among the common people. The famous posters from Rostopchin calling not to be afraid of the enemy were very popular. New regiments and the largest militia in Russia were formed in Belokamennaya. With the approach of the Russian army, Moscow turned out to be the main base for its supply of weapons and food. Rostopchin himself actively nurtured the idea of ​​a people's battle near the walls of the ancient capital. Not receiving any instructions from the command about the fate of the city, the governor-general began the evacuation of state property and institutions. The fate of Moscow was decided without him, the count was not even invited to the military council on September 1. The next day, Russian troops left the city, and it immediately caught fire in several places. The French authorities, not without reason, accused Rostopchin of arson. This was supported by the testimony of the arsonists, a number of documents and eyewitness accounts. But the count himself refused to participate in the organization of a grandiose fire.
After the enemy troops left Moscow, the governor-general began to restore normal life. The city was gradually rebuilt, and under the leadership of Rostopchin, a reconstruction plan was drawn up. However, Muscovites gradually forgot their patriotic upsurge in the summer of 1812. They were replaced by grief over property lost in the fire of war. Public opinion began to look for the culprit of their hardships, and soon he was found - Rostopchin. After all, it was the governor-general who urged Muscovites to stay in the city, because it was he who promised that the city would not be surrendered to the enemy, and it was on his orders that their houses were set on fire. Surrounded by anger and distrust, Rostopchin tried to find support in St. Petersburg, but the tsar did not want to go against public opinion, and on August 30, 1814, the count was dismissed from the post of Moscow governor-general.
In an effort to improve his health, Rostopchin went abroad and met with an enthusiastic reception. Europeans honored him as a hero, as a man who defeated Napoleon. Even in Parisian theaters, performances stopped when Rostopchin entered his box. Surrounded by fame, the count returned to Russia only at the end of 1823, where he died on January 18 (30), 1826.
In addition to the mentioned posters, of which more than 16 are known and which were published in 1889 by A.S. Suvorin, Rostopchin owns a number of literary works; many of them were published by Smirdin in 1853; in 1868, M. Longinov compiled a complete list of Rostopchin's works, including works that were not included in the Smirda edition.
The most important works of Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin: "Materiaux en grande partie inedits, pour la biographie future du C-te Th. R." (Brussels, 1864; Russian translation in the second book of "The Nineteenth Century" by Bartenev, "Notes" were written long after the incidents described, as a result of which the view expressed in them often does not fit with reality), "The Truth about Moscow Fires" (Paris, 1827) , "The last days of the life of Empress Catherine II and the first day of the reign of Paul I" ("Readings of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities", 1860, book III), "News, or the Killed Alive" (comedy), "Oh, the French!" (the story, in "Notes of the Fatherland", 1842, book 10; both the comedy and the story were written with the aim of arousing the national feeling of the Russians), "About Suvorov" ("Russian Messenger", 1808, ¦ 3), "Journey through Prussia" ("Moskvityanin", 1849, book I), "Note on the Martinists", presented in 1811 to Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna" ("Russian Archive", 1875, ¦ 9); "Poetic autobiography" (ib., 1873, ¦ 5) etc. Rastopchin's extensive correspondence with Emperor Alexander I, Bantysh-Kamensky, Vorontsov, Rumyantsev and many others is published in the "Russian Archive" (most of all for 1873 and 1875), "The Archive of Prince Vorontsov", "The Archive of Historical and Practical information about Russia" and others. Rostopchin had an extensive library and archive, which he allowed many scientists to freely use.

KALINNIKOV VASILY SERGEEVICH (1866-1901)

Vasily Sergeevich Kalinnikov, a famous composer, was born in the village of Voiny, Oryol province, now the Mtsensk district of the Oryol region.
Kalinnikov came from a bureaucratic family, was educated at the Oryol Theological Seminary, where he began to study music and for some time conducted the choir. In 1884 he entered the preparatory classes at the Conservatory, however, not being able to pay tuition fees, he was expelled a few months later. Nevertheless, he managed to get a place at the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, where he studied bassoon and composition until 1891. Among his teachers were S.N. Kruglikov, A.A. Ilyinsky, P.I. Blaramberg. Kalinnikov also attended lectures by V.O. Klyuchevsky, which he read at Moscow University.

Having no reliable income, Kalinnikov was forced to periodically play the violin, bassoon or timpani in theater orchestras, as well as rewrite notes. The musician was supported by the music critic Semyon Kruglikov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky spoke approvingly of his talent, recommending him for the post of conductor of the Maly Theater in 1892. In addition to conducting, Kalinnikov also gave private lessons in music theory and singing during this period. In the autumn of 1893, the composer's health deteriorated sharply (there were signs of tuberculosis), and he left for the Crimea, where he spent the remaining years of his life, continuing to compose. He died prematurely on December 29, 1900 in Yalta.

Kalinnikov's style continues the traditions of Russian musical classics (composers of The Mighty Handful and P.I. Tchaikovsky). The most famous work of Kalinnikov is the First Symphony "g-moll", written in 1895 and dedicated to Kruglikov. First performed at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in Kyiv. It was a huge success and soon firmly entered the repertoire of both domestic and foreign orchestras.

Vasily Sergeevich Kalinnikov wrote: the cantata "John of Damascus", 2 symphonies, 2 orchestral intermezzos, an orchestral suite, symphonic paintings "Nymphs", "Cedar and Palm Tree", music for "Tsar Boris" by Count A. Tolstoy (overture and 4 intermissions), prologue to the opera "1812", ballad "Mermaid", string quartet, romances, piano pieces.

POLIKARPOV NIKOLAI NIKOLAEVICH(1892-1944)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov was born in the village of Georgievskoye, Oryol province, on June 10, 1892, in the family of a priest. After graduating from elementary school, he entered the Oryol Seminary. In 1911, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute at the shipbuilding department. In 1916, Polikarpov received an engineering degree and went to work in the aviation department of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works (RBVZ).
From 1918 to 1929, under the leadership of Polikarpov, at least ten types of aircraft were built and put into serial production, including the famous U-2.
In 1929, Polikarpov was among the "enemies of the people." He was charged with the fact that he is the son of a priest, and therefore is not able to imbue the Marxist-Leninist ideology, to believe in the bright ideals of communism. Officially, the designer was accused of "counter-revolutionary sabotage in the aviation industry."
In December 1929, Polikarpov was allowed to organize a design bureau in the dungeon of the Butyrskaya prison (TsKB-39 OGPU). D.P. began to work with him. Grigorovich, I.M. Kostkin, A.D. Nadashkevich, E.I. Mayorov. The work of the design bureau was provided by plant No. 39. It is not surprising that after some time the design bureau was transferred to hangar No. 7 of the factory airfield. A company of prisoners developed a very successful fighter, adopted by the Red Army Air Force under the designation I-5. On March 18, 1931, a sentence was signed for Polikarpov - ten years in prison.
In June 1931, after the successful completion of flight tests of the I-5 and the spectacular flight of test pilot Valery Chkalov in front of Stalin, Voroshilov and Ordzhonikidze, Polikarpov was given his freedom. The outstanding designer was rehabilitated only on September 1, 1956.
In the period from 1931 to 1944, Polikarpov created at least ten more types of aircraft, mainly fighters, including such landmark aircraft as the I-15, I-153 and I-16. Polikarpov's products at the time of creation have always surpassed their opponents. So it was with the I-16, the I-180 was better in flight characteristics than the Bf.l09E, Yak-1 or LaGG-3, second only to the MiG-3 and then only above 2700 m. Polikarpov's last I-185 fighter, ready for serial production in 1943, surpassed all Soviet fighters of that period in the entire altitude range. According to the set of characteristics, the La-7 and Yak-3 aircraft approached (but did not surpass) the I-185, but these aircraft appeared in 1944. The fat cross on the I-185 was put at the suggestion of Yakovlev.
It is widely believed that luck turned away from the king of fighters after the death of Valery Pavlovich Chkalov on the I-180 on December 15, 1938.
N.N. Polikarpov died on July 30, 1944.

RUSANOV VLADIMIR ALEKSANDROVICH (1875 - 1913?)

Born November 15, 1875 in Orel in a merchant family. His father died when Rusanov was still a child. Rusanov's mother placed him in a classical gymnasium, but he was soon expelled for poor progress. The same thing happened after he entered the real school. Dissatisfied with his studies, he became close to the revolutionary-minded youth. In 1894 he joined an underground circle, which in 1896 became part of the Social Democratic Workers' Union. In 1901, Rusanov was exiled for two years to the Vologda province in the city of Ust-Sysolsk.
In the autumn of 1903, together with his wife, Rusanov left for Paris, where he entered the Sorbonne University in the natural department, studied hard and hard. The brilliant completion of the theoretical course in 1907 gave him the right to defend his doctoral dissertation. In an effort to benefit his homeland, Rusanov decided to collect material for his dissertation on Novaya Zemlya, the geology of which was almost not studied, and the minerals were not explored.
On July 10, 1907, Vladimir Alexandrovich set off on his first voyage on the steamship "Koroleva Olga Konstantinovna" to Novaya Zemlya. Four more times, in 1908-1911, he visited the islands of Novaya Zemlya, each time enriching science with discoveries. In 1908, Rusanov went on an expedition to Novaya Zemlya as a geologist. He made the first ever overland voyage across Novaya Zemlya, crossing it from Neznaniy Bay to Krestovaya Bay on the western side of the island. In the spring of 1910, he was again invited to the Novaya Zemlya Expedition, but this time as its leader. The expedition ship "Dmitry Solunsky" under the command of the famous polar captain G.I. Pospelov left Arkhangelsk with five scientists and ten crew members on board. Breaking through the ice captivity, the ship made a detour of the entire northern island of Novaya Zemlya.
In 1912 V. A. Rusanov led an expedition to Svalbard. On the ship "Hercules" sailed 14 people. Twenty years later, Soviet coal mines were laid on the archipelago in exactly the places that V.A. Rusanov.
After completing work on Svalbard, three members of the expedition returned to the mainland, and the rest turned the schooner to the east. Only in late autumn, from Rusanov's last telegram, left by him on Novaya Zemlya for transmission to St. Petersburg, did they learn in the capital what goal the researcher had set for himself. There was no more news about the voyage of the Hercules ...
Only in 1934, on a nameless island, located near the shore of Khariton Laptev, was a pillar dug into the ground, on which the inscription “HERCULES. 1913". In the same year, on another island located in the Minin skerries, the remains of clothing, cartridges, a compass, a camera, a hunting knife and other things that belonged to the expedition members on the Hercules were found. Perhaps the place of death of the polar explorers is somewhere here. So far there are more questions than answers. The Arctic holds a secret...
V. A. Rusanov was one of the people who make up the pride of the country. “I am guided by only one thought: to do everything I can for the greatness of the Motherland,” he wrote. His deeds are proof of that. A bay and a peninsula on Novaya Zemlya, a glacier on Severnaya Zemlya, a cape on Franz Josef Land, and a mountain in Antarctica are named after V. A. Rusanov.

GENUSKAMENSKY

Buildings in the estate "Saburovskaya fortress" in the Oryol region are associated with the Counts Kamensky. The village of Saburovo passed to them in 1728, having been confiscated from the disgraced A.D. Menshikov. In 1732, the village was a palace, in 1742, by decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the village was returned to F.M. Kamensky, who owned it a little earlier. In 1755, the estate was granted to his son Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky, later a well-known military leader and public figure who was fond of literature and theatre. He began his military service in 1757 as a volunteer in the French army. Subsequently, he participated in the Seven Years (1756-1762) and Russian-Turkish Wars (1768-1774), where he distinguished himself in the battle of Khotyn, the siege of Bender, in the battle of Turno. In 1774 Lieutenant General M.F. Kamensky defeats the Turks at Eni Bazaar.
During the second Russian-Turkish war (1787-1791) he defeated the Turks at Gankur.
The beginning of the reign of Paul I brought M.F. Kamensky new ranks and awards. He received the rank of general of the infantry, and in 1797 he became a field marshal and count. The last military campaign of M.F. Kamensky - participation in the war with France in 1805-1807. On December 14, 1806, the field marshal resigned and retired to his estate.
Obviously, when M.F.Kamensky lived in Saburov, the fence of the estate was erected, resembling a fortress. Lancet openings and separate decorative details are close to the pseudo-Gothic of the end of the 18th century.
The last owner of the Saburovskaya fortress from the Kamensky family was Count Sergei Mikhailovich. He gained fame as a passionate theatergoer. In 1815 he opened a fortress theater - one of the first Russian theaters, later immortalized in literary works and memoirs of his contemporaries. The theater absorbed the count's considerable fortune and in 1827 he was forced to sell Saburovo, where his father, brother and grandfather were buried.
A monument of history and culture of federal significance, the former estate of the Counts Kamensky, the Saburovskaya fortress includes 4 towers, a theater building and the Church of Michael the Archangel. Adopted for state protection by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1327 of August 30, 1960
The Church of Michael the Archangel was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church for free use and is currently undergoing repair and restoration work.
The complex, with the exception of the church, is in an unsatisfactory condition and needs design, repair and restoration work. But in order to start state financing of such work, it is necessary to determine the balance holder responsible for the monument, which, meeting federal requirements, can organize restoration work on its territory. At present, the issue of transferring the ensemble to the regional ownership is being decided, since this will make it easier to find a responsible balance holder and begin the restoration of a truly unique monument of manor architecture.

DAVYDOV DENIS VASILIEVICH (1784-1839)

The famous partisan, poet, military historian and theorist, Denis Vasilyevich Davydov was born into an old noble family in Moscow on July 16, 1784; having received an excellent, at that time, home education, he entered the cavalry guard regiment, but was soon transferred to the army for satirical poetry, to the Belarusian hussar regiment (1804), from there he moved to the hussar Life Guards (1806) and participated in campaigns against Napoleon ( 1807), Swedish (1808), Turkish (1809).
The family estate of the poet is located in the village. Davydovo (Denisovka) of the current Krasnozorensky district of the Oryol region. He dedicated the poem "To my desert" to his native corner. A memorial sign to Denis Davydov was installed on the site of a manor house in the village of Davydovo in 1987. And five years later, the park-reserve "Denis Davydov's Estate" was opened here.
On the big Smolensk road, Davydov more than once managed to recapture military supplies and food from the enemy, intercept correspondence, thereby instilling fear in the French and raising the spirit of Russian troops and society. Davydov took advantage of his experience for a remarkable book: "Experience in the theory of partisan action." In 1814 Davydov was promoted to general; was chief of staff of the 7th and 8th army corps (1818 - 1819); in 1823 he retired, in 1826 he returned to the service, participated in the Persian campaign (1826 - 1827) and in the suppression of the Polish uprising (1831).
In 1832 he finally left the service with the rank of lieutenant general and settled in his estate. There he took up exclusively literary work, only occasionally visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1839, when in connection with the 25th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon, the grand opening of the monument on the Borodino field was being prepared, Denis Davydov proposed to transfer the ashes of Bagration there. This proposal was accepted, and he was supposed to accompany the coffin of the commander, but could not do this for health reasons. The disease crippled his strength, and on April 22, Davydov died at the age of 54. He was buried on his estate.
The strongest mark left by Davydov in literature is his lyrics. Pushkin highly appreciated his originality, his peculiar manner in "twisting the verse." As a poet, Davydov definitely belongs to the brightest luminaries of the second magnitude in the horizon of Russian poetry. As a prose writer, Davydov has every right to stand alongside the best prose writers of Russian literature. Pushkin valued his prose style even more than his poetic style.
Davydov entered the history of Russian literature as the creator of the genre of "hussar lyrics", the hero of which is a lover of wild life, at the same time a free-thinking person, an opponent of violence against a person ("Hussar Feast", "Song of the Old Hussar", "Semi-Soldier", " Borodino field). The last poem, written in 1829, is considered one of the best historical elegies in Russian romantic poetry.

ERMOLOV ALEXEY PETROVICH (1772-1861)

Alexei Petrovich Yermolov was born into the family of the Mtsensk district marshal of the nobility, descended from the Tatar Arslan Murza, who arrived in Moscow in 1506. He received his education at the Noble Boarding School of Moscow University. In 1794 Ermolov became a participant in the suppression of the Polish uprising; for distinction during the storming of Prague, he was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. Two years later, Alexey Petrovich participated in the Persian campaign.
Since 1801, Yermolov was appointed commander of a horse artillery company. He participated in the campaigns of 1805 and 1806-1807. From August 1807 - commander of the 7th artillery brigade as part of the division of General Dokhturov. For differences in the battle of Gutstadt and Passage, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree. In the battles of Heilsberg and Friedland, he commanded the artillery of the left flank. He was promoted to major general.
From May 1811, Yermolov commanded the guards artillery brigade, and later - simultaneously the guards infantry brigade (life guards Izmailovsky and Lithuanian regiments). From March 1812 he was the commander of the Guards Infantry Division. After the outbreak of the Patriotic War of 1812, at the insistence of M.B. Barclay de Tolly Yermolov replaced F.O. Paulucci as chief of the General Staff of the 1st Western Army. The closest assistant to Barclay de Tolly, the opponent of the retreat. During the Battle of Borodino, he actually performed the duties of Chief of Staff M.I. Kutuzov. He personally led the counterattack of the 3rd Battalion of the Ufa Infantry Regiment against the "Raevsky Battery" occupied by the French, and was wounded.
After the battle, he served as chief of staff of the united armies. At the council in Fili on September 1 (13), Yermolov opposed the abandonment of Moscow and offered to give the French a battle. He distinguished himself in the battles of Maloyaroslavets, Vyazma, Krasny. In 1812 Yermolov was appointed commander of a reinforced detachment. From November 21 - Acting Chief of Staff of the 1st Western Army. From December 19, 1812 - commander of the artillery of the army in the field. After the unsuccessful battle of Lützen, Yermolov was accused of dishonesty and transferred to the post of commander of the 2nd Guards Infantry Division.
In the battle of Kulm, Yermolov led the 1st Guards Division, and after General A.I. Osterman-Tolstoy took over his corps. Since 1814, Alexei Petrovich commanded the Observation Army on the Austrian border. In 1815 - the commander of the guards corps. At the end of the campaign, Yermolov was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd class. Since 1816, he was appointed commander of the Separate Georgian (from 1820 - Caucasian) corps, managing the civilian part in Georgia, Astrakhan and the Caucasus provinces, and extraordinary ambassador to Persia. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1826-28. came into conflict with General I.F. Paskevich, resigned "due to domestic circumstances." In 1831 Yermolov became a member of the State Council. In 1837 he was renamed general of artillery. During the Crimean War in 1855, he was elected head of the militia in 7 provinces, but due to disagreements with the command he left the post. He died on April 11, 1861 in Moscow and, according to his will, was buried in Orel, next to his father, in the church of the Trinity cemetery.

KORF FYODOR KARLOVICH (1774-1823)

Fyodor Karlovich Korf - lieutenant general, participant in World War II - was born in 1774 in the family of a privy councillor.
He received an excellent education in his father's house. Enrolling at the age of thirteen as a vice-sergeant major in the Life Guards Horse Regiment, he was released in 1794 into the army as a captain and in the same year participated in the war with Poland. For bravery during the storming of Prague, he was awarded the Order of George 4th degree.
In 1800, Baron Korf was promoted to major general.
The campaigns of 1806 and 1807 were the beginning of his military fame. Appointed as a brigade commander, he participated in almost all the battles in Prussia and especially distinguished himself at the battle of Preussisch-Eylau, where he was wounded in the arm. For this battle, he was awarded the Order of George 3rd degree.
In 1809 he was with Russian troops in Galicia. In 1810 he was appointed Adjutant General and in 1811 the head of the 2nd Cavalry Division.
During the Patriotic War, Baron Korf participated in the battles near Vitebsk, Smolensk, at Borodino - for the courage shown in this latter he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general - and then in almost all cases during the pursuit of the French army, and especially distinguished himself in the battle of Vyazma.
After Borodin - again in the rearguard affairs, and after Maloyaroslavets - in the forefront of the army. In 1813, Korf took part in many rearguard battles. Near Levenberg, his cavalry captured two banners, 16 guns and 3,500 prisoners. In 1814 he took part in hostilities. Upon his return to Russia, he commanded a cavalry division, then a corps.
Korf died in Orel from a lung disease on August 30, 1823 and was buried in a cemetery near the bishop's house. On his grave, officers of the 2nd Cuirassier Division, using the funds they collected, erected a monument to the work of Professor Martos.

MYASOYEDOV GRIGORY GRIGORYEVICH (1834-1911)

Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov was born in the village of. Pankovo, Tula province (now the Oryol region) and belonged to an old noble family. As a child, the boy read a lot, often drew. His father strongly encouraged his interest in art.
The future artist began his studies at the Oryol Gymnasium, where the professional artist I. A. Volkov taught drawing.
In 1853 he entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. A difficult situation developed between the artist and his father. The father completely deprived his son of material assistance, and only a portrait of his father painted from nature in 1857 reconciled them. In 1862, Myasoedov graduated from the Academy of Arts in the class of historical painting, having received a large gold medal for the composition "The Escape of Grigory Otrepyev from the Inn on the Lithuanian Border" and was encouraged by a pensioner's trip. In 1863 he visited Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, worked in Paris, Spain. In Rome, he studied at a private academy. In 1867 he lives in Florence.
In 1869 he returned to Russia. In Moscow, he paints the painting "Spell", for which he received the title of academician. In the late 1860s, while abroad, Myasoedov came up with the idea of ​​organizing the Association of Wanderers. On December 16, 1870, the first general meeting of members of the TPHV was held, where a board was elected, which included Myasoedov. He became the author of the first statute of the TPHV and remained a permanent member of the board for forty years.
On November 29, 1871, the first traveling art exhibition was opened in St. Petersburg, which was then shown in Moscow, Kyiv and Kharkov. Myasoedov presented the painting "Grandfather of the Russian Navy" for this exhibition.
In March 1872, the 2nd traveling exhibition opened, which exhibited the most significant painting by Myasoedov - "Zemstvo is having lunch". This picture brought success to the artist. The painting reveals the main task of Wandering realism - "the desire for the real and everyday", noted by V.V. Stasov.
In 1876 the artist moved to a farm near Kharkov. He became interested in gardening and gardening. From this moment, one can note the beginning of a decline in his work. His attitude to peasant life is changing. Myasoedov was attracted by topics that reveal folk beliefs and traditions.
In the late 1880s, Myasoedov lived in Poltava in a large estate with a garden, a park and a pond. In autumn and winter, the artist left for the Crimea. One of his last works was the painting "Ripening Fields".
Like many Wanderers, Myasoedov experienced a crisis in the 1890s. He realized that his time was irrevocably gone. Shortly before his death, he was going to perform three large paintings under the single name "Holy Russia".
Grigory Grigoryevich died in 1911, in his estate Pavlenki near Poltava.

KURNAKOV ANDREI ILYICH (1916 - 2010)

People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR named after I.E. Repin, Professor of the Oryol State University Kurnakov Andrei Ilyich belongs to the generation of painters who began their journey into great art after the Great Patriotic War, in the forties.

He was born in 1916 in a working-class family on one of the outskirts of the city of Orel. Difficult childhood, passionate love for drawing from the first school years, graduated with honors from the Oryol Art School in 1937, work as an artist in the regional youth newspaper, four years of war, filial love for the Fatherland and native Orlovshchina - this is the "soil and fate" of the post-war creativity of the front-line soldier - the artist Andrei Kurnakov, which remain the subject of his creative searches and aspirations, a source of inspiration to the present.

Having already passed the Moscow studio for professional development under the famous painter B.V. Ioganson, being a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, the thirty-three-year-old Kurnakov, due to his character of constant dissatisfaction with what he had done and the desire for excellence, applied to the Kharkov Art Institute. In 1954, Kurnakov's diploma work "Weapon Found" was exhibited at the All-Union Exhibition in Moscow.

The high traditions of domestic landscape painting and the art of genre portraiture became the creative credo of the artist, which brought him wide fame and recognition. His many years of work in historical and genre painting, portraiture and landscape can be briefly called a story about a feat of arms, about working people, about the rich world of human feelings, about the natural beauties of Russia.
A special place in the work of A.I. Kurnakov is occupied by his small homeland and Turgenev's places, which for the artist are concepts of a special content that he finds in Orel, in the open spaces surrounding it, in its historical past, in the spiritual heritage and real cultural life, in the looks and souls of his fellow countrymen.

ZYUGANOV GENNADY ANDREEVICH (born in 1944)

Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov was born on June 26, 1944 in the village of Mymrino, Orel Region, into a family of rural teachers. In 1961 - 62 years. worked in his former school as a teacher of mathematics, as well as a teacher of elementary military training and physical education.
In 1962, Gennady Andreevich entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Oryol Pedagogical Institute. In 1963 - 66 years. passed urgent military service in the chemical troops on the territory of Belarus, Germany and the Chelyabinsk region. After the army, he was restored at the institute and graduated from it in 1969.
In 1969 - 1970. he taught at the Oryol Pedagogical Institute at the Department of Physics and Mathematics. In 1978 - 1981 studied at the main department of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, completed postgraduate studies with it as an external student. Doctor of philosophical science.
Since 1967 he was in the Komsomol, and since 1974 - in the party work. In 1970 - 1978 was a people's deputy of the Oryol regional and city Soviets. In 1983 - 1989 worked as an instructor in the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1989 - 90 years. He was Deputy Head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In June 1990, he was elected secretary of the Central Committee and member of the Politburo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR on humanitarian and ideological problems. In February 1991, Gennady Andreevich organized a conference "For a great, united Russia!", At which the Coordinating Council (CC) of patriotic movements was created, which in August 1992 was transformed into the CC of the people's patriotic forces of Russia. Since January 1992 - Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the People's Patriotic Forces of Russia. In the fall of 1991, Gennady Andreevich took part in the creation of the Russian All-People's Union (RUS). In June 1992, he was elected one of the four co-chairs of the Duma of the Russian National Cathedral (RNS). In October 1992 he joined the organizing committee of the National Salvation Front (FNS).
December 12, 1993 was elected to the State Duma of the first convocation. In 1995, he was elected a member of the Central Committee (former Central Executive Committee) of the Communist Party, and at the plenum on the last day of the congress - Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In the spring of 1995, together with the president of the RAU Corporation, Alexei Poberezkin, he headed the organizing committee of the Spiritual Heritage movement.
On December 17, 1995, he was elected to the State Duma of the second convocation. In the second round of the presidential elections in Russia on July 3, 1996, he took second place.
December 19, 1999 was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the third convocation. In the State Duma, he again headed the Communist Party faction. On March 26, 2000, he took second place in the presidential elections. Author of the books “Russia is my homeland. The ideology of state patriotism” (M., 1996), “Geography of victory. Fundamentals of Russian Geopolitics” (M., 1998), numerous newspaper and magazine articles on history and politics. He has the first sports category in athletics, military triathlon, volleyball. His wife, Nadezhda Vasilievna, works as an engineer at the Second Watch Factory. I have known my husband since my school years, when I studied a class lower in the same school with him, and then in the 10th grade I was his student. Son Andrei graduated from the Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman, engineer of OAO S. D. Broker. Daughter Tatyana works as a referent. Three grandchildren - Leonid, Mikhail and Eugene.

MUROMTSEV SERGEY ANDREEVICH (1850 - 1910)

Sergey Andreevich Muromtsev was born on September 23, 1850 in the family of a professional military man, a descendant of an old noble family.
Muromtsev's childhood years were spent on his father's estate in the Novosilsk district of the Tula province. Under the guidance of his mother, Anna Nikolaevna, who dearly loved him, Sergei received his initial education. The boy was distinguished by a sharp, inquisitive mind and a serious outlook on life beyond his years.
Once, a “Reference Book for Russian Officers” fell into his hands. From it, the future speaker of the State Duma learned how different states are governed. In an effort to better understand this difficult even for an adult, well-versed in politics, Sergei came up with an entertaining game of the state. The garden in his father's house became his state, where people's representatives gathered in one of the pavilions to develop new, fair laws, and in another pavilion these laws were approved by the second meeting of the elected. Life in his state was covered in a daily newspaper, which he wrote with enviable persistence with his own hand for two years.
Soon the Muromtsev family moved to Moscow, and Sergei began to study at the gymnasium. He graduated with a gold medal and in 1867 entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Here, the young man's abilities were noticed, and he was left at the department of Roman law to prepare a dissertation. A great scientific prospect opened up before him. In 1875, Muromtsev defended his master's, and two years later his doctoral dissertation. The scope of his scientific interests was also determined: Roman law and the theory of civil law.
As a professor at Moscow University, he spent ten years teaching, considering his main goal to train professional lawyers capable of continuing liberal reforms, which, ultimately, was to be crowned with the creation of a constitutional order. On the pages of the journal Legal Bulletin created on his initiative, materials were published on the state system in other countries, including those where the people had the opportunity to elect their representatives to the legislative assembly.
Like-minded people gathered around Muromtsev - professors, lawyers, lawyers for a joint oral discussion of such issues. This is how the "Legal Society" arose, which he headed from 1880 to 1899. After the participation of representatives of the society in the anniversary celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin, and Sergei Andreevich's speech in honor of the great poet, who he called "a mighty herald of the Russian revival", and his life - "the struggle of the individual for independence and free development", "Legal Society" was closed.
Even earlier, in 1884, Muromtsev (together with some liberal-minded professors) was dismissed from Moscow University "for the spread of liberalism" and "political unreliability." Expelled from the university environment, for the next two decades, Sergei Andreevich was engaged in practical jurisprudence and social activities, working in the Moscow City Duma and the Moscow Provincial Zemstvo.
Muromtsev did not remain aloof from political life: since 1903 he was a member of the Union of Zemstvo-Constitutionalists, the following year he was a participant in the work of the Zemstvo Congress, where he warmly supported the demand for the introduction of legislative popular representation.
In 1904, Russia began a "small victorious war" with Japan. The unsuccessful war with Japan showed that the preservation of the old order of government is disastrous, and representatives of the people themselves should be allowed to the state reorganization of Russia. In 1904 Zemstvo officials from all over Russia gathered in St. Petersburg. The issue of convening people's representatives was discussed, who, along with the existing power structures, could participate in state building. Catching the mood of his associates, Muromtsev immediately went to Moscow to persuade the Moscow City Duma to join this decision. Thanks to his active speech, the Moscow Duma adopted a constitutional statement. Calling for a radical reorganization of the organization of power in the Russian Empire - participation in the exercise of power functions elected from the people - Muromtsev remained "a lawyer to the marrow of his bones." He strove exclusively by legal means to achieve changes in the political system and was always opposed to any actions that went beyond the bounds of legality.
April 27, 1906 was the opening day of the First State Duma. One of the deputies from the Constitutional Democratic Party, elected in Moscow, was Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev. The first-thinking deputies faced a difficult task: to form the Duma leadership from the motley composition of the lower house, representing various, sometimes very polar political forces. And the main question, of course, was the question of electing the chairman of the Duma. According to the recollections of participants in those events, the candidacy of Muromtsev as the future chairman was discussed at private meetings of deputies, in party clubs. And yet, his election as head of the lower house was a unique phenomenon in Russian parliamentary practice. For his candidacy, at first 426 of 436 notes were submitted, and then the entire Duma unanimously recognized him as its chairman.
In response to the election, Muromtsev said: “A great deed is being done. The will of the people finds its expression in the form of a correct, permanent, legislative institution based on inalienable laws. A great deed imposes on us a great feat, calling for great work. Let us wish each other and ourselves that we all have the strength to carry him on our shoulders for the good of the people who chose us, for the good of the motherland.
This was Muromtsev's only speech delivered in the State Duma. He was convinced that the chairman should not take part in Duma discussions. His business is "to observe the honor and dignity of the Duma, maintaining strict order at its meetings and not allowing anyone to diminish its legal rights." And Muromtsev carried out this task so excellently that all the members of the Duma, without distinction of parties, admired his presidency and recognized him as their common leader.
Deputy N. Ogorodnikov gave a very accurate description of Muromtsev. “Until the very end of his short life,” he wrote, “the Duma remained under the rule of a very special reverence for the personality of its chairman ... He was ... the complete embodiment of precisely the dignity, the best nobility of a person, a citizen, a bearer of rights, this noble force of social ".
The main task of Muromtsev, who headed the First State Duma for 72 days, was the work on its Order (regulations). Such work was especially important in conditions when the laws adopted before the beginning of the activities of the Duma artificially limited the powers of the people's representation, and only the Nakaz could soften them to some extent. Muromtsev perfectly studied the regulations of various parliaments and took from them everything that most corresponded to the customs and views of the members of the State Duma. The order developed by him became the basis for the work for the thoughts of the following convocations. In 1907, after the dissolution of the first Duma and the resignation of his presidency, he published a book entitled "The Internal Regulations of the State Duma."
Another no less important issue that worried the chairman of the Duma was the question of the Duma minority. He did everything possible to eliminate, with the help of the Nakaz, "the exclusive influence of the ruling party in the chamber ... to ensure some versatility in the composition of the commissions."
Muromtsev undertook all efforts to develop norms for the activities of the lower chamber in conditions when the question of ending the practical activities of the first Russian parliamentarians did not leave the agenda. From the first days, the authorities made it clear to the Russian parliament about their attitude towards it. Already on May 15, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the question of the need to dissolve the State Duma was discussed.
Relations did not develop, and could not develop, between the supreme power and the disgraced professor of Moscow University. According to his position, Muromtsev had the opportunity to present himself directly to the Court and make "most obedient reports" personally to the emperor. However, he was received at the Court only three times. And only when the position of the State Duma became threatening and the question of its dissolution became a matter of days, Muromtsev decided at all costs to obtain an audience with the emperor in order to explain to him the current situation. But his request for an audience came too late. As Prime Minister Goremykin informed him on July 9, 1906, after the publication of the decree on the dissolution of the Duma, he was scheduled to receive him at 12:30 on July 10, but “only as a private person. Muromtsev refused such an audience.
Unfortunately, the process of developing the norms of parliamentary life by Muromtsev remained incomplete: 72 days after the start of work, the Duma was dissolved.
About 200 deputies, including Muromtsev, refused to obey the imperial decree on the dissolution of the Duma and decided to appeal to the voters. They gathered in Vyborg, where they decided to continue the meeting. Here the so-called Vyborg Appeal was adopted, in which the deputies urged voters not to pay taxes to the treasury and not to give recruits to the army until the activities of the Duma were resumed.
Muromtsev was not an active supporter of the adoption of the Vyborg Appeal, but the very participation in the act of disobedience predetermined his future fate. With a sense of great dignity, Sergei Andreevich held himself during the trial, with his head held high he entered the solitary prison cell of the Taganskaya prison, where he was to spend 90 days and nights. His authority among fellow prisoners remained unusually high.
The trials that Muromtsev had to endure after the dissolution of the first Duma were not limited to arrest and imprisonment. The noble assembly of the Tula province almost unanimously expelled him from their ranks.
After the dissolution of the Duma, Muromtsev lived for four years. Upon his release from prison, he returned to teaching. In addition to Moscow University, where Sergei Andreevich read the basics of civil law and the system of Roman law, he also worked in other higher educational institutions, including the Commercial Institute and Shanyavsky City University, Higher Women's Law Courses.
As for the political views of Muromtsev, they did not undergo significant changes in the last years of his life, although he withdrew from active work as part of the Kadet Party.
In addition to teaching, he gave all his strength to social activities. So, he became one of the organizers of the Peace Society in Moscow, chairman of the Court of Honor at the Society of Periodical Press and Literature.
By 1910, Muromtsev's health seemed to be thoroughly undermined. Those who were close to him in those days recalled that his gait became unsteady and senile, the classic profile of his face began to fall off. There was weariness in the voice and in the look of the sunken eyes.
Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev died suddenly, while sleeping, on October 4, 1910, at the age of sixty-one. The news of his death shocked everyone. According to the memoirs of his friend and party ally, Professor A.A. Kizevetter, on the day of his funeral, all of Moscow was on its feet. Everyone wanted to pay the last debt to the "first Russian citizen", as those who came to say goodbye to him called him.
The ashes of Muromtsev rest at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow.

SHATILOV IOSIF NIKOLAEVICH (1824 - 1889)

Iosif Nikolaevich Shatilov - famous arborist and agronomist, farmer and public figure, active state councilor, president of the Imperial Moscow Society of Agriculture, member of the Imperial Free Economic Society, the Imperial Society of Natural Science Lovers, the Forest Society (St. Petersburg and Moscow branches), the Imperial Moscow Society lovers of horse racing, the Society for the Promotion of Russian Merchant Shipping, the Imperial Moscow Society of Naturalists and many others - was born on April 6, 1824 in Moscow and received home education. He spent most of his childhood in the countryside.
His scientific studies began early, when he was barely 14 years old. In the autumn of 1838, he, along with his father, spent in a villa near the mountains. Monza in Italy, owned by the famous Italian traveler in South Africa, Gaetano Osculati, and under the guidance of the latter began to collect entomological collections. He came to St. Petersburg for the winter, and here he began to train for the Corps of Engineers of Communications. Meanwhile, his passion for natural science was growing, and he diligently attended lectures in zoology at St. Petersburg University, as well as the zoological museum of the Academy of Sciences. At home, he spent much of his time dissecting birds. The result of such an intense study of zoology was that he did not pass the exam for the Corps of Railway Engineers.
His further studies in zoology were already completely independent, and only partly some instructions were given to him by K. F. Rul'e and H. H. Steven. Devoting almost all his time to zoology, Shatilov finally passed the exam at Kharkov University only in 1843, after which he entered the service of the Kerch-Yenikalsk city administration and from that time, despite his 19 years, began to independently conduct agriculture in his the Japar estate, 20 versts from Kerch, containing 3,000 acres of land. Shatilov took an active part in the archaeological excavations then carried out near Kerch, which were led by M. I. Blaramberg, head of the Kerch Museum; the latter, however, quite often absented himself, and in such cases, Shatilov had to manage the excavations of the barrows quite independently.
In the early 1850s, he was elected marshal of the nobility in the Yalta district, and since 1852, together with his uncle, I.V. His friend, the learned zoologist G. I. Radde, came to see him here, and with the help of the latter, I. N. Shatilov began his collection of birds from the Tauride Peninsula. After Radde's departure, he continued to add to his collection and, for this purpose, ordered two preparators from abroad: Schmidt and Vidgolm. Only in 1869, when, in his opinion, the collection reached its possible completeness, Shatilov stopped further work and donated it to the Zoological Museum of Moscow University.
Being an excellent host, he always followed all questions relating to agriculture with the most lively interest, and enthusiastically took part in their discussion and solution. His activities in this direction began very early - in 1847, when he was elected a member of the Lebedyan Society of Agriculture and was a member of it from December 20, 1854.
In 1858, I. N. Shatilov was elected a member of the Plant Acclimatization Committee at I. M. O. S. Kh., but his especially intensive activity began from the beginning of 1860. By this time, he had already firmly established a program of those ideas that he had propagated all his life. These main ideas were as follows: 1) Zemstvo should be in close connection with agricultural societies, in the interests of the development of the agricultural industry in Russia; 2) it is necessary to establish an independent department in charge of agricultural industry, agriculture and trade, i.e., the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade, and 3) the main obstacles to the improvement of agriculture are the lack of successive labor for personal landowners, and for peasants - communal land tenure with frequent family sections and the absence of a rural charter. I. N. Shatilov came up with such a program in 1860 and throughout his 30-year activity strained his efforts to put these ideas into practice.
With a new election of officials for a three-year period from 1863, Shatilov was elected at a meeting on February 24 as vice-president of the Society. However, he refused to take on the duties of vice president, motivating his refusal by the fact that it was positively impossible for him to be in Moscow all year round. Then the Society elected him a member of the Council. On June 23, 1864, the new charter of I. M. O. S. Kh. was approved, and on January 7 of the following year, Shatilov was elected to the post of president, and then every three years, for 25 years, he was again elected to the presidents.
Concerned equally about the success of all branches of agriculture and being a connoisseur of forestry, I. N. Shatilov considered it his duty to diligently propagate the idea of ​​the need for a radical reform in modern privately owned forestry. In view of this, he repeatedly raised questions in the I.M.O.S.Kh. on the part of forestry, often being the speaker himself. On December 7, 1870, for his work in agriculture, Shatilov, by the Highest order, was granted from provincial secretaries to state councilors.
In 1872, a polytechnical exhibition was organized in Moscow, and the organization of its agricultural department was entrusted to Shatilov, who received the highest favor for his work on it and an honorary address for promoting the cause of afforestation. In 1881, he was awarded the rank of D.S. Advisor; On November 8 of the same year, he was awarded a gold medal from the Moscow Branch of the Forestry Society. The following year, he received the highest award from the Ministry of State Property for afforestation - a gold medal and 500 semi-imperials.
In April 1888 he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav of the 1st degree, and on November 6 of the following year, a nominal large gold medal was awarded. At the same time, he was elected for the ninth triennium as president of the I.M.O.S.Kh. In addition to the above-mentioned awards, I.N. 6 silver medals, 2 Parisian first class and 5 gold. During the thirty years of his literary activity, he published 5 articles on zoology, of which two were in German, 32 speeches and 50 pamphlets-articles and reports on agriculture. Not long before his death, on October 20, 1889, he made a report to the I. M. O. S. Kh. On January 7, 1890, it was supposed to solemnly celebrate the 35th anniversary of his activity for the benefit of M. O. S. Kh.; but he did not live a few days before this celebration, dying suddenly on December 26, 1889, while sitting at the compilation of his jubilee speech. I. M. O. S. Kh., established a scholarship named after him, for the permanent maintenance of one pupil at the Moscow Agricultural School. Shatilov's body was transported to the village. Mokhovoe, where he was buried.
The village of Mokhovoe (Novoderevenkovsky district) is widely known due to the fact that Shatilov lived and worked in it. In 1694, it was founded by Fedor Mokeevich Shatilov, the great-great-great-grandfather of an outstanding agricultural figure.
Seven years after its founding, a wooden church was built in Mokhovoye. In 1777, it was dismantled and transported to Novosil. And in its place, the grandson of the founder of the village - court adviser Osip (Joseph) Fedorovich Shatilov - erected a stone church in the name of Our Lady of Kazan.
In 1834, two brothers came into possession of the village: collegiate adviser Nikolai Vasilyevich (father of a famous scientist) and Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Shatilovs, who included 100 yard people and 242 peasants. After 30 years, Iosif Nikolaevich Shatilov became the only owner of the local estates.
The fact that Mokhovoe was an exemplary estate was greatly facilitated by its manager, the scientist F.Kh. Mayer. Together with his son I.N. Shatilov Ivan Mayer was engaged in massive afforestation in the forest-steppe regions of the European part of Russia of Siberian larch, Weymouth pine, Norway spruce and other valuable species. The Shatilovsky forest created by them was an example of the most effective placement of woody, and especially coniferous vegetation in a dissected terrain.
In his youth, the famous critic Dmitry Pisarev, who lived 12 versts from Mokhovoy, came here. Leo Tolstoy also maintained friendly ties with the Shatilov family for a long time. “This is probably the most remarkable farm in Russia,” he wrote in 1865.
Not far from the house stands the Kazan Church. Near the temple was a hospital built by Shatilov, who maintained it at his own expense. He also built in 1856 and maintained a zemstvo folk school.

ORLOVSKY BORIS IVANOVICH (1792\1793 - 1837)

Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky (real name Smirnov) - academician and professor of sculpture at the Imperial Academy of Arts - was born in 1792-1793 in the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province, in the village of Bolshoy Stolobetsky, died on December 16, 1837 in St. Petersburg.
His father, a courtyard man N. M. Matsneva, was sold in 1801, together with his family, "without land, for delivery," to the Tula landowner - foreman Shatilov, who gave Boris Ivanovich as a boy as an apprentice in one of the Moscow marble workshops .
After moving to St. Petersburg, Boris Ivanovich, nicknamed Orlovsky by his comrades (after his place of origin), entered the Trescorny workshop as a marble maker. In his free time, he diligently engaged in drawing and clay modeling. The chance brought him to the rector of the Academy of Arts - the sculptor I.P. Matros, who, having taken part in it, introduced him to the President of the Academy A.N. Olenin, and the latter to the sovereign himself. The bust of the Sovereign executed by Orlovsky pleased His Majesty so much that he ordered Orlovsky to be admitted to the Academy, and the landowner Shatilov was persuaded to let Orlovsky go free.
Orlovsky was counted among the artists left at the Academy in order to soon be sent to Italy for "great improvement in his art." Orlovsky studied at the Academy for only 2 months, attending drawing and sculpture classes. After this period, despite the opinion of the academic authorities, who considered it necessary for Orlovsky to stay another year at the Academy to improve in drawing and modeling, by decree of the Sovereign, who found that Orlovsky could learn this in Italy, the latter was sent in 1822 to Rome to Thorvaldsen. In the workshop of Thorvaldsen, Orlovsky diligently studied antiques, not neglecting, however, portrait works.
Of the new sculptors, Orlovsky was most attracted, in addition to Thorvaldsen, by François Flament and Canova. Among the works of Orlovsky during his stay in Rome are: a colossal bust of Alexander I (a copy of the bust of Thorvaldsen), statues of Paris with an apple, Faun and a group: Faun and Bacchante.
In 1829, together with Golberg, he was summoned to St. Petersburg to participate in a competition for drafting monuments to Barclay de Tolly and Kutuzov.
In July of this year, Orlovsky arrived in St. Petersburg with a letter of recommendation from Thorvaldsen. Provided with an annual maintenance of 3000 rubles. Until his appointment as a professor at the Academy of Arts, Orlovsky set about executing projects, which he did pretty soon, despite some embarrassing conditions of the competition.
In the same 1829, he was appointed an academician, and in 1831, following the execution of the program on the theme "Yan-Usmovich, taming the bull," he was appointed professor of the Academy, in which rank he was approved in 1836. In 1831, according to At the end of the statues of Barclay de Tolly and Kutuzov, the execution of which remained with Orlovsky, he set to work on decorating the Alexander Column, where he executed a statue of a genius and one bas-relief. Of the other works of Orlovsky, the most remarkable are: the figures of 7 geniuses for the gate behind the Moscow outpost; a boy playing with a duck - (copy from antique, for Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna); marble group of flowers; marble busts of Prof. Meyer and Martos and a small figure of a grenadier of the palace company. In addition, Orlovsky repeated the bust of Alexander I for Prince Volkonsky.
In the history of Russian art, Orlovsky is usually regarded as one of the representatives of the moderately naturalistic trend, most expressed by the works of Shubin and Krylov, of which he is the successor and successor. Not possessing a major talent, Orlovsky was distinguished by extraordinary conscientiousness and diligence. These qualities, during his short professorship, he tried to instill in his few students.

NARYSHKIN ALEXANDER ALEKSEEVICH (1839 - 1916)

October 28, 2009 marked the 170th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding statesman of the Russian Empire, a real privy councilor, the only senator of the Russian state who was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross - Alexander Alekseevich Naryshkin.
Alexander Alexandrovich Naryshkin was born on October 15/28, 1839 in the family village of Georgievsky (Egorievsk) of the Orel district of the Oryol province in the family of a retired ensign of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment Alexei Ivanovich Naryshkin, a participant in the war in the Caucasus. The Naryshkin family in the Oryol district has owned the village of Georgievskoye since the reign of Emperor Peter I, whose mother was Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, nee Naryshkina.
In 1776, on the site of the dilapidated church of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, known since the 16th century and giving the name to the village, the great-grandfather of the senator Vasily Sergeevich Naryshkin built a wooden church of St. George the Victorious on a stone foundation. In this temple, for many centuries, residents of Georgievsky, the surrounding villages and representatives of the Naryshkin family were baptized and buried.
Alexander Alekseevich Naryshkin receives an excellent education at the Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Heidelberg universities. Since 1862, he has served as an official in the Oryol province in various positions.
In 1876, Naryshkin, being an authorized representative of the Slavic Committees of Moscow and St. Petersburg, went to the Don, gathered 100 volunteer Cossacks, went with them to the Balkans at the disposal of the detachment of General Chernyaev, who provided assistance with weapons in the hands of the rebel Serbs and Montenegrins against the centuries-old Ottoman yoke.
In 1877, with the beginning of the Russo-Turkish war, he enrolled as a volunteer in the 62nd Suzdal Infantry Regiment, and participated in many battles. For courage in the battle of Sheinovo on December 28-29, he was presented to the soldier's St. George's Cross of the IV degree, received the rank of junior non-commissioned officer and an offer to become an orderly of the legendary general M. D. Skobelev, who had heard about the cold fearlessness of the Oryol official.
On May 22, 1877, Naryshkin marries Elizaveta Alexandrovna Tsurikova, the daughter of an Oryol landowner and poet, who participates in the war with her husband and serves as a nurse. The Serbian king awards her the Order of Takov and several medals, and Alexander Alekseevich receives the Order of St. Daniel III and I degrees from the Prince of Montenegro.
At the end of 1878, the couple returned to the Oryol province, where their first child Yuri was born. Subsequently, the couple had 6 more children, two of whom died in infancy. Alexander Alekseevich is elected an honorary district judge of the Oryol district.
After 20 years of service in the Oryol province, he made a rapid career: in 1883 he was appointed district inspector of the Moscow educational district, in 1884 - manager of state property in the Baltic provinces. In 1892, with the rank of real state councilor, he took office as Podolsk governor. In this post, he draws the attention of Emperor Alexander III. Naryshkin fights against the abuses of local officials and offers them instructions based on the commandments of Moses: "do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not commit adultery, do not covet your neighbor's property," etc.
In 1894, by personal order of the emperor, A. A. Naryshkin was transferred to St. Petersburg to the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Property, in 1898 he was promoted to privy councilor and appointed senator. At the same time, Naryshkin, as they would say now, is doing a lot of social work.
Since 1906, A. A. Naryshkin has been a member of the State Council, and since 1913 he has been the chairman of the congresses of noble assemblies. In 1915, Emperor Nicholas II, he was promoted to active privy councilor (a rank equal to that of a general) for 50 years of impeccable service. According to Orlovets V.N. Shenshin, for 50 years, Alexander Alekseevich missed only 2 meetings in the Oryol Zemstvo. Another of his contemporary, V. I. Gurko, wrote about Naryshkin: “He was distinguished exclusively by knightly qualities and knightly honor, did not tolerate any measures aimed at restricting human activity. He possessed personal courage and cold-blooded courage that surprised even General Skobelev. S. Yu. Witte called Naryshkin "a pillar of conservatism."
A. A. Naryshkin did not live exactly a year before the collapse of the Russian Empire and the monarchy, which he zealously served. As the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper noted in an obituary dated February 27, 1916: “He was the only senator who had a soldier George, who spent half his life in the ranks of bureaucrats, evaded receiving titles. He was in correspondence with I. S. Turgenev, with the loss of which the liberals lost a worthy idealist opponent - who professed his views not out of fear, but out of conscience.
Senator Alexander Alekseevich Naryshkin was buried in the village of Georgievsky, near the Naryshkino station. According to local historian A. Belsky, the station was named after A. A. Naryshkin, who helped in laying a section of the Riga-Oryol railway across the territory of his estates.
Elizaveta Alexandrovna Naryshkina (nee Tsurikova) was arrested by the Oryol Cheka in 1919 and transferred to Moscow. She was kept in a concentration camp located within the walls of the Novo-Spassky Monastery. She was released on bail and on the guarantee of Professor Arsenyev, the husband of one of her daughters, Olga.
The second daughter of the Naryshkins, Ekaterina, emigrated with her husband and children to Switzerland, died in 1971.
The fate of the sons was tragic. Peter, the staff captain of the Preobrazhensky regiment, was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918 in Petrograd. Yuriy, cornet of the 17th Chernihiv Hussar Regiment, died in the battles of the Volunteer Army. Boris, a military doctor, was shot in 1927 in Moscow.
The Oryol public repeatedly raised the question of renaming the Uritsky district to Naryshkinsky. Letters with the same request to the administration of the President of Russia, the governor of the Oryol region, the chairman of the Council of People's Deputies, the head of the administration of the Uritsky district were recently sent by the youth brotherhood of St. George the Victorious. Moses Solomonovich Uritsky was in no way associated with the land that now bears his name. Historical justice requires returning the name of our outstanding countryman to the district.
On October 28, 2009, on the day of the 170th anniversary of the birth of A. A. Naryshkin, a memorial cross was erected on the site of the destroyed church of St. George the Victorious, where the Naryshkin family crypt was located, and a memorial service was served in the village of Georgievsky.

YAKUSHKIN PAVEL IVANOVICH (1822 - 1872)

Pavel Ivanovich Yakushkin - writer-ethnographer, collector of folk songs, sayings, riddles and fables, cousin of the Decembrist I. D. Yakushkin, was born in 1822 in the estate of Saburovo, Maloarkhangelsk district, Oryol province, now the Pokrovsky district of the Oryol region, in a wealthy noble family. His father, Ivan Andreevich, served in the guards, retired as a lieutenant and lived permanently in the village, where he married a serf woman Praskovya Faleevna.
After his death, the family remained in the hands of his mother, who enjoyed general respect inspired by her infinite kindness, bright mind and cordiality. At the same time, she possessed the tact of an experienced housewife, and the estate left by her husband was not only not upset, but was brought to the best condition. Thanks to this, Praskovya Faleevna had the opportunity to raise six sons in the Oryol gymnasium and then open the way to higher education for three of them (Alexander, Pavel and Viktor).
Having learned to read and write in his parents' house and having mastered the "rudiments of science", Yakushkin entered the Oryol gymnasium, where he attracted attention with his masculinity, carelessness in a suit and complete inability to observe an intelligent, decent and consistent appearance with a noble rank. Especially with his disobedient whirlwinds, “he killed the director,” and no matter how they cut these whirlwinds, they constantly stuck out in all directions, to the horror of the authorities, who were unpleasant to mess with Yakushkin’s hair and because every time he was tonsured, he “rudely justified himself with such peasant words that in all classes were dying of laughter. Thus, Yakushkin's passion for the common people was formed at school, and the German language teacher Funkendorf called him in no other way than "peasant scarecrow".
In 1840, Yakushkin entered the Faculty of Mathematics at Moscow University, attended it quite successfully until the 4th year, but did not graduate from the university both due to an accidental mistake in choosing a faculty that was inconsistent with his desires and vocation, and due to his passion for a completely different occupation, which made his name is famous in literature and society. He was then a teacher in district schools in Bogodukhov, then in Oboyan of the Kharkov educational district, but both were short-lived and unsuccessful.
Acquaintance with M. P. Pogodin and even more so with P. V. Kireevsky led him to a completely different path. Upon learning that Kireevsky was collecting folk songs, Yakushkin recorded one and sent it to him with a friend dressed up as a lackey. Kireevsky gave out 15 rubles in banknotes for this song. Yakushkin soon repeated this experience two more times and received an invitation from Kireevsky to get acquainted. The songs were genuine folk art. Sensitive to the abilities of Yakushkin, Kireevsky at his own expense asked him a job that pleased him so much that he forced him to leave the university: namely, he sent him to study in the northern Volga provinces. Yakushkin shouldered a lubok box stuffed with Offen goods worth no more than ten rubles, took a yard in his hands and went under the guise of a bag man to study the people and to study and record songs. The merchandise taken, selected more for a weak girl's heart, was intended not for sale, but for exchange for songs and suitable ethnographic material.
And since then, Yakushkin has been spaced all his life. The image of the wanderer was amiable and dear to Yakushkin as much by habit as by the exclusivity of the position among the people, where honor and respect are great for a passer-by. In the spirit of that time, Yakushkin's undertaking can be considered positive madness, which, at least, found its justification only in the hobbies of youth. Yakushkin's first journey ended successfully, and the walk without obstacles left only the most favorable impression, lured, lured and promised the greatest success in view of the acquired techniques and practice.
Upon returning from a campaign in Moscow, Yakushkin, through M.P. Pogodin, became known to the Slavophiles. Acquaintance with this circle was the reason that Yakushkin himself became a Slavophil, but not in the narrow sense, as our criticism understood it: he endured sincere love and firm faith in the honest, gifted nature of the Great Russian tribe and in the breadth of his world calling; he loved him so much that all his life later he remained for him a worker, intercessor and intercessor.
After the first journey, Yakushkin went on a second, third and, it seems, fourth campaign, and again under the protection of a box and under the guise of a dairy merchant. On one of these journeys, Yakushkin contracted smallpox, fell ill, and collapsed in the first village corner that came across; his healthy nature, however, withstood the disease, but his face was severely disfigured, and Yakushkin later had to pay more than once for this accidental misfortune from those people who are accustomed to make an impression by their faces. Plumed with a long beard, with long hair, it sometimes frightened women and children at solitary meetings and aroused suspicion in the police.
One of the biggest adventures was the arrest of him by the Pskov police, represented by its police chief Gempel, which made a lot of noise. Yakushkin was put in a jail cell, where he spent up to 2 weeks. It is remarkable that when this story ended, Yakushkin was on friendly terms with Hempel and subsequently spoke of him with meekness, not remembering evil and not putting him in guilt and condemnation.
Politics was of little interest to Yakushkin. He treated literary trends with complete indifference and entered all editions with the same good nature, not paying attention to their mutual enmity. All the sympathies of Yakushkin were on the side of the working people, especially farm laborers, factory workers, in general, the bareness, which, in his words, "the owners are ready to kill, and can kill if they themselves do not come to their mind and find out how they are needed." The ideal social structure in his imagination was a gigantic artel, accommodating the whole of Russia.
The songs overheard and recorded by Yakushkin entered the rich collection of P. V. Kireevsky, who did not have time to publish them during his lifetime, but before his death expressed a desire that the selection of songs and their final editing be done both by right and by the power of Yakushkin's deep knowledge. It didn't happen that way. The heir of Kireevsky handed over this case to Bessonov. Grieved by the refusal and having received a blow to the most sensitive side of the heart, Yakushkin came to St. Petersburg and lamented his failure, which seemed to him the biggest failure of his whole life, and, if possible, get out of his insulting, hard-tolerated position. Meek by nature to the point of self-sacrifice, gentle to the point of originality, this time too he resorted to measures that seemed to him the most worthy and harmless. He managed to compile his independent separate song collection with the help of personal memories and his wonderful memory and with the assistance of friends and acquaintances. The editors of Otechestvennye Zapiski hospitably assigned a place to this collection, and Yakushkin calmed down, considering this task completed for himself. And only to clear his conscience, he considered it necessary to explain this matter to the reading public in a polemical article published in the journal Library for Reading.
Yakushkin arrived in St. Petersburg in 1858, at the height of the then excitement, in which the expected liberation of the peasants played a large role. Yakushkin, already a well-known philanthropist and ethnographer, was warmly welcomed in literary circles and began to write something for Iskra, Library for Reading, Otechestvennye Zapiski, and other journals. At the same time, he became known to the metropolitan public, having the opportunity to appear at literary readings and appear on the streets in his original costume, where he was pointed out as a person who “walked all over Russia on foot”. His photographic cards, made very well by the artist Berestov, were bought by dozens like hot cakes and popularly passed off as portraits of Pugachev, and in Paris, in the Palais Royal, they were even sold with the signature "Pougatsceuff".
The year 1865 was significant for Yakushkin in that it was the last in his free and independent life. That year, he made his usual trip, which brought him to Nizhny Novgorod during the Makariev fair, at which there was a random congress of several writers (P. M. Melnikova, V. P. Bezobrazov, I. A. Arsenyev, P. D. Boborykin and etc.). On this occasion, the then head of the fair, A.P. Shipov, an educated man, known for his versatile social activities and deep sympathies for literature and economic sciences, and being himself the author of many scientific treatises, arranged a big dinner by subscription, in which eminent merchants and writers visiting for lunch. Among the diners was Yakushkin. Drunk, he made a sharp remark during the speech of V.P. Bezobrazov, who interfered with speech with the sound of a spoon, I.A. Arsenyev. Then he interrupted the adjutant in the cafeteria, the local gendarmerie staff officer Perfilyev, who complained to the then fair Governor-General Ogarev, presenting Yakushkin as a dangerous agitator embarrassing the people.
He was arrested and sent to Petersburg, and from there he was sent to Orel to his mother. The silent and innocent sufferer realized that with his weaknesses he could only cause annoyance to his dearly beloved mother. Therefore, after a short stay in Orel, he prayed to his friends: “Spare my mother from me! As far as I can understand, they wanted to punish me by deportation here, but they punished my mother. Enter the position of an innocent, honest and kind old woman, obliged to see her lost son before her every day. His request was respected: he was transferred from the Oryol province to Astrakhan. Here he lived under administrative supervision in Krasny Yar and Enotaevsk. His health was extremely upset and full of all sorts of hardships and upheavals, a wandering, homeless life, and an excessive addiction to a glass. Regarding the latter circumstance, he could boldly declare that none other than the people themselves in the countless taverns of the Russian Empire had drunk him. This soon turned Yakushkin into an incurable alcoholic and made him the hero of various anecdotal eccentricities.
In 1871, Yakushkin was allowed to move to one of the county towns of the Samara province. Arriving in Samara, he fell ill with relapsing fever and went to the city hospital, where he died on January 8 of the following year at the hands of the famous publicist writer and doctor V. O. Portugalov. Yakushkin died with that good-natured nonchalance with which he lived his whole tambourine life, with his favorite song on his lips: “We will sing and we will play, And death will come, we will die!”

When reading in the State Archives of the Oryol Region the files of the provincial newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik" I came across a large material called "Philanthropists". It was published several issues in a row, from January 27 to February 17, 1882, and was signed with the pseudonym "Old-timer". Who was hiding under this mask - I have not yet been able to find out. But the writer was clearly not indifferent to the history of Orel and its wonderful people. He devoted several pages of his pictorial narrative to the Oryol Freemasons.

Freemasons Orel and their secret meetings
Before talking about them, I will give a short background data:
“Masonry is a movement that arose in the 18th century in the form of a closed organization, originating from little-known sources in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, presumably - corporate workshops of masons. The name "mason" or "freemason" comes from fr. franc-ma;on (in Old French masson, English freemason), a literal translation of this name is also used - a freemason. Freemasonry is administratively organized into independent grand lodges.
The main version of the origin of Freemasonry is considered to be the version of the origin from the medieval corporations of builders-masons, however, there are theories about the more ancient origin of Freemasonry, the beginning of which is derived from the Knights Templar, or - in other versions - from the Order of the Rosicrucians ... ".
The beginning of the active spread of Freemasonry in Russia dates back to the 80s of the 18th century. And here is what an old-timer wrote about this in the Oryol Bulletin:
“At that time, a Masonic lodge in the spirit of the Moscow Martinists already existed in Orel, under the chairmanship of Vice-Governor Zakhar Yakovlevich Karneev (he held this position from 1785 to 1796 - A.P.). It included members: governor Neplyuev, state councilor Sverbeev, members of the provincial chambers Neledinsky and Rzhevsky, assessors - Milonov and Karneeev Jr. In addition, many other notable people. Where the lodge met, no reliable information has been preserved; however, there is a legend that the meetings took place near the Nikitskaya church, in the so-called Matsnev estate, where now there is a religious school.
There, as if, during the reconstruction of the house for an educational institution, they found underground pavilions and passages to another house, which was two blocks to the left, also with a huge garden.
There is hardly any reason to allow a lodge to meet there. Firstly, underground passages and pavilions are not a necessary accessory of Masonic lodges: rather, they are reminiscent of Khlystism. ...Masons had no need to hide.
No more trustworthy is another legend - about a meeting of lodges near the present military gymnasium, where supposedly there was a house of a member of the Sverbeev lodge. True, the street leading from the theater to the Trinity Cemetery is called Sverbeevsky lane (it is not known which street this lane is related to!), but, in all likelihood, this name was acquired much later, when there were no longer lodges in Orel, or maybe , was the estate of Sverbeev, more prominent and famous than others ... "

"To make people happy..."
The old-timer, listing the names of the Orel Freemasons, did not name another name, much more famous on an all-Russian scale - Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin, a philosopher, publicist, memoirist, publisher, real privy councilor and senator.
In "Notes from some circumstances of life and service ..." Ivan Lopukhin, published in 1860 in London, he wrote that he was born on February 24, 1756. This significant event happened in the village of Retyazhi (Voskresenskoye) of the Kromsky district, on the estate of his father, lieutenant general, Vladimir Ivanovich Lopukhin.
Vladimir Ivanovich, who lived a long life (94 years), acquired the village of Retyazhi in the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna with the proceeds from the sale of emeralds, inherited as a dowry to his wife, Evdokia Ilyinichna Isaeva. Ivan Lopukhin spent his childhood partly in Retyazhi, partly in Kyiv, where Vladimir Ivanovich was governor.
And although the general’s son was not taught by the best teachers, and he was not strong in health all his life, but thanks to self-education and the moral instructions of his parents, Ivan Lopukhin turned out to be a rare person among the nobility. "Making people happy has always been his passion"; “While still a child,” he wrote in his memoirs, “I deliberately lost the money that I had to the boy who served with me, and admired him with joy.” "The disposition to alms" he considered not his virtue, but "a natural inclination, as in others it happens to various hunts." "Natural inclination" was in him and the love of justice.
Starting his career with military service, he retired in 1782 with the rank of colonel. The transition to the civil service was associated, to a large extent, with the beginning of his departure from the "Voltairianism" and passion for Masonic ideas.

Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin

"Shining Star" by Ivan Lopukhin
From the end of 1782, Lopukhin became a senior adviser, and then chairman of the Moscow Criminal Chamber, where he tried in every possible way to alleviate the fate of the accused. In connection with this, having entered into conflict with the Moscow commander-in-chief, Ya. A. Bruce, in May 1785 he retired with the rank of state councilor. From the beginning of the 1780s. Lopukhin became close friends with N. I. Novikov, and in 1782 he joined the Masonic Order of the Rosicrucians. He became the "master of the chair" of the lodge "Laton", received the Masonic name Philus. In 1783, Ivan Vladimirovich founded his own printing house, in which the Masonic magazine "Freemason's Store" was printed. On May 31, 1784, under the leadership of Lopukhin, the Masonic Lodge of the Shining Star was opened. Ivan Vladimirovich often gave speeches at Masonic meetings, was in charge of several lodges in St. Petersburg, Orel, Vologda, Kremenchug. Contributed to the distribution of books in Kursk, Orel. Together with the Masons N.I. Novikov, I.P. Turgenev and others were engaged in philanthropic activities.
The vigorous activity of the Masons caused the displeasure of Empress Catherine II. Restrictions followed in the release of Masonic literature, then it came to the destruction of their printing houses and, finally, ended with the arrest of N.I. Novikov and his imprisonment in a fortress. Other Freemasons, including Ivan Lopukhin, almost did not suffer, but were forced to explain themselves and ask for forgiveness from the Empress.
Under Paul I, Lopukhin became a privy councilor and senator of the Moscow Department, strongly opposing excessively harsh sentences in criminal cases, for example, against schismatics and Doukhobors.
The last years of his life, from December 1812 to the summer of 1816, Ivan Vladimirovich spent in the family estate of Retyazhi, Kromsky district, in which there was a two-story wooden landowner's house with a manor around it. Almost a hundred yard people and about 900 serfs belonged to Lopukhin here.
“Privy Councilor and many orders holder”, having spent three and a half years in Retyazhi, was constantly ill, actively treated (including the original Russian remedy - a hot bath with diving into the snow), took care of his nephew, wrote letters, received guests, often visited The Church of the Resurrection closely followed how the Russian army in Europe finished off Napoleon, responding to these events in a very exotic way.
Here is what Lopukhin wrote in one of his letters: “Here, on the banks of the pond, two large wild stones are placed on the sides of the tree. One is in a resting place, in the form of armchairs, with the inscription: “Paris was taken on March 19, 1814”; and the other is completely unfinished and, as it were, laid on a grave, with the inscription: “and the memory of the enemy perish with a noise.” The path from them leads to a monument, quite huge for a village, made of several large granite stones, with the inscription: “To the piety of Alexander I and the Glory of the valor of Russians in 1812””. It was actually the first monument to Russia's victory over Napoleon.
Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin died on June 22, 1816, having barely crossed the 60-year mark. The senator was buried next to the Resurrection Church in the village of Retyazhi, built by his father-general.

Criminal community. - The liberal-masonic underground operates. - Growth of Masonic lodges. - Secret coordination of all anti-Russian forces. - Creation of the Supreme Council of Russian Freemasons. - Subversive, inflammatory role of international Freemasonry. - Freemasons seek power.

The bloc of anti-Russian forces, created at the Paris meeting of the opposition and revolutionary parties, by the end of 1905 turned into a huge criminal community. The core and coordinating center of this community was the liberal Masonic underground, which by that time had concentrated mainly in the Cadet Party, whose leadership was purely Masonic. This, of course, did not mean that there were no members of Masonic lodges in other parties. The leadership of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was predominantly Masonic. Some of Lenin's associates (Skvortsov-Stepanov, Lunacharsky and others) also belonged to Freemasonry. The coordination of anti-Russian forces was carried out at the non-party level of a purely Masonic conspiracy. As later admitted the wife of one of the founders of the "Union of Liberation" freemason Prokopovich E.D. Kuskov:

“The goal of Freemasonry is political, to work underground for the liberation of Russia (more precisely, for its destruction - O.P.) ... Why was this chosen? To capture the highest and even court circles ... There were many princes and counts ... This movement was huge. Everywhere there were "their people". Such societies as free-economic, technical were captured entirely. It's the same in the zemstvos…”

The work of Masonic organizations was conducted in strict secrecy. The lower ones in the Masonic hierarchy did not know the secrets of the higher ones. Ordinary Freemasons, carrying out orders, did not know from whom they came. There were no written records or minutes of the meetings. For violation of discipline, many members of the Masonic lodges were subjected to the procedure of radiation (exclusion) with the obligation to maintain secrecy under pain of death.

The conduct of the Masonic intrigue was worked out at meetings in every detail, with the adoption of all possible precautions so that the political forces among which the Masons conducted their work did not suspect that they were a means of secret political manipulation.

The admission of new members was carried out very selectively, they were looking for them exclusively among their own kind haters of historical Russia, deprived of Russian national identity. A certain member of the lodge was instructed to collect all the necessary information about the candidate, they were comprehensively discussed at a meeting of the Masonic lodge, and after a detailed check, the candidate was offered to join a certain society pursuing "noble" political goals. If the candidate agreed, then he was invited to preliminary negotiations, interrogated according to a certain scheme, and only after all this was a ritual ceremony of initiation into Masons. The newcomer swore to observe secrecy and obey Masonic discipline. In 1905-1906, special emissaries of the French lodge Grand Orient de France are engaged in initiation into Masons. The emissaries, who acted under the pseudonym of Senchol and Boulay, in fact, in those days led Russian Freemasonry, attracting the elements of dubious decency and promiscuity they needed for themselves. One of the future leaders of Russian Freemasonry M.S. French emissaries consecrated Margulies immediately to a high Masonic degree of 18 degrees in the St. Petersburg prison "Crosses", where he was imprisoned for political crimes and links with terrorist groups. However, decent people sometimes came across in Masonic networks, most often for a short time. According to the stories of the writer V.V. Veresaev (Smidovich), the author of good books, in 1905 (or in 1906?) he was accepted as a Freemason in Moscow (Nikitskaya, Merzlyakovsky corner, 15). He was received by a prominent Masonic conspirator Prince S.D. Urusov ("Notes of the Governor"). He also brought in the future editor of Izvestia, the well-known Bolshevik functionary Skvortsov-Stepanov. Another writer, I.I. Popov. The Grand Orient of France granted special rights to the lodges established in Russia - they could open new lodges without asking the sanction of Paris. By virtue of this right, in 1908-1909 lodges were opened in Nizhny Novgorod (the "Iron Ring", venerable master Kilvein), Kyiv (venerable master Baron Steingel) and in four other places. All these lodges were financed by Count Orlov-Davydov, who was "famous" for his immoral lifestyle. As “brother” Kandaurov writes, the “scandal” that occurred with Orlov-Davydov (the lawsuit against him by the actress Poiret for the recognition of an illegitimate child), to which many members of the Northern Star lodge were somehow touched and called as witnesses, severely damaged peace of mind of the organization.

“In organizational terms, each lodge had a chairman of Venerable, an orator and two overseers, a senior and a junior, of whom the younger acted as secretary. (…)

All meetings were opened by Venerable, who presided over them. After the opening of the meeting, everyone sat in a semicircle; Venerable asked the traditional questions: "Is the door closed?" and etc.

The speaker's functions were reduced to monitoring the observance of the charter; he also kept the charter, delivered welcoming speeches to new members ...

All members of the lodge paid membership dues, they were accepted by Venerable and transferred to the secretary of the Supreme Council.

The conspiracy and organization was sustained consistently and strictly. The members of one lodge did not know any of the other lodges. The Masonic sign, by which Masons in other countries identify each other, did not exist in Russia. All relations between the lodges and other cells of the organization took place through one chairman of the lodge - Venerable. The members of the lodge, who had previously been members of various revolutionary organizations, were struck by the consistency and consistency of the conspiracy. Later, when I was secretary of the Supreme Council and knew from my position almost all the members of the lodges, it used to be almost ridiculous for me to see how sometimes members of different lodges agitated me in the spirit of the latest decision of the Supreme Council, not guessing with whom they were dealing.

The newcomer to the lodge received the title of apprentice upon admission. After some time, usually after a year, he was elevated to the degree of master. The right to decide when exactly such an increase should be made belonged to the lodge. But sometimes an increase in degree was made at the initiative of the Supreme Council. In these latter cases, they usually acted on the basis of political and organizational considerations, i.e. The Supreme Council considered it useful this or that person, whom he cherished, to move forward on the ladder of the Masonic hierarchy.

The governing body of Russian Freemasonry, the Supreme Council, controlled all the work of Masonic lodges. Elections to the Supreme Soviet were secret. The names of the persons included in the Supreme Council were not known to anyone. Instructions and orders from the Supreme Council to the Masonic lodges came through a certain person, and only through the same person did the Masonic lodges contact the Supreme Council.

Initially, this Supreme Council did not exist as an independent organization, but as a meeting of representatives of Russian lodges affiliated with the Grand Orient of France. In 1907-1909 the Supreme Council consisted of five people. Chairman Prince S.D. Urusov, two deputies - F.A. Golovin (Chairman of the Second State Duma) and M.S. Margulies (cadet). Treasurer - Count Orlov-Davydov. Secretary - Prince D.O. Bebutov, a swindler who at one time was an informer for the Ministry of the Interior, and a future German spy.

Russian Freemasons were in constant contact with the political formations of the revolutionary parties and even invited their representatives to provide "moral" support for their terrorist activities. So, at the beginning of 1905, a representative of the left wing of the liberals from the Union of Liberation, connected, in particular, with the Freemason Margulies, came to Nice to the head of the militant bandit organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries Gotsu in Nice. According to the police agent Azef, “this representative, hiding under the surname Afanasiev, arrived with a proposal that the Socialist-Revolutionary Party provide moral assistance to the circle of large intellectuals formed in St. Petersburg (15 ... 18 people) in terrorist enterprises directed against His Majesty and certain persons ... consists of writers, lawyers and other persons of intelligent professions (this is also the so-called left wing of the liberals from the Liberation). The circle has money, Afanasiev said - 20,000 rubles, and people to perform. Afanasiev only asked that S.R. rendered moral assistance, i.e. preached these acts.

Masonic organizations provided all kinds of support to representatives of revolutionary gangs who fell into the hands of justice. Masons provide free legal assistance to Socialist-Revolutionary and Bolshevik terrorists. Mason P.N. Malyantovich, for example, defended the Bolsheviks V. Vorovsky and P. Zalomov, the freemason M.L. Mandelstam - the political bandit of the Socialist-Revolutionary I. Kalyaev and the Bolshevik N. Bauman, the Freemason N.K. Muraviev - (already later) a number of Bolsheviks guilty of state crimes and conspiracy against the Tsar.

Around the secret Masonic lodges there were a number of illegal organizations operating under the control of the Masons. Often these were spiritualist and theosophical organizations.

In 1906 there was a circle of "Spiritualists-Dogmatists". The magazines "Spiritualist" and "Voice of Universal Love", as well as the daily newspaper "From there" were published. The publisher of these magazines was an honorary citizen Vladimir Bykov, who, according to the police, held the degree of master chair of one of the Masonic lodges, maintaining relations with the "correct" Masonic organizations in St. Petersburg and Chernigov. He also headed the circle of "Spiritualists-Dogmatists" in Moscow, choosing from among its members "the most worthy" for initiation into Freemasonry. As the police established, this Bykov was a big swindler, selling among some mystical Moscow merchants various magical devices for all kinds of ailments, and also for a fee of 300 rubles, dedicating everyone to the ritual of the "Order of the Rosicrucians."

Pyotr Aleksandrovich Chistyakov, publisher of the Russian Frank-Mason magazine, was also a match for him. According to the police (November 1908), he was in the rank of Grand Master of the Astrea Grand Lodge (existing in Moscow almost since 1827), Tira Sokolovskaya was the secretary of the lodge. The lodge was in Moscow.

In January 1906, Freemasons study public opinion in relation to their organization. Otherwise, it is difficult to evaluate an open announcement published in some Moscow newspapers, which offered to join the resurgent society of Freemasons. The invitation stated that the society arises by virtue of the rights granted to the Russian population by the Manifesto of October 17 to the extent that it existed in the 18th century. “All honest and moral” people without distinction of religion were invited to join the society. Answers about consent to become members of the society were to be sent to the 17th post office to the bearer of the stamp "VM". When such announcements are received from 500 wishing to join the society, a general meeting will be announced. The announcement was immediately taken over by the police. Despite the wide publication, there were very few people who wanted to join Freemasons among the Russian people.

However, speaking of Masons, one cannot but mention a group of people from among the intelligentsia, who were not formally members of the lodges, but who supported the Masonic ideology in everything and took part in the political activities of the “freemasons”.

As N. Berberova, who is initiated into many Masonic secrets, admits, apart from the Freemasons themselves, in the political world of Russia there was a significant layer of people “not initiated into secrets, but who knew about the secrets, were silent about them, creating some invisible, but tangible protection of trust and friendship. Some kind of sympathetic "rearguard".

Berberova gives a list of sympathizers:

Heiden P.A., 1840 - 1907, count, leader of the nobility, chairman of the Free Economic Society. Together with Shipov and Guchkov, the founder of the Octobrist Party;

Dmitryukov II, 1872-?, member of the State Duma, Octobrist, Deputy Minister of Agriculture;

Ignatiev P.N., 1870 - 1926, count, minister of public education;

Krivoshein A.V., 1857 - 1920, Minister of Agriculture, initiator of the "progressive bloc";

Krupensky P.N., 1863 - 192?, Octobrist, member of the State Duma, chairman of the center of the IV Duma;

Pokrovsky N.N., Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Military Industrial Committee;

Sablin E.V., counselor of the Russian embassy in England, personal friend of one of the most senior Masons Margulies;

Savich N.N., Octobrist, member of the State Duma, active figure in military-industrial committees;

Shipov D.N., member of the State Council, at one time chairman of the Octobrist Party. On October 29-30, 1905, at his apartment in St. Petersburg, the regulation on elections to the State Duma was discussed (at least half of the 14 invited were Freemasons). A close friend of the famous Masons Muromtsev, G.E. Lvov, Golovin, Guchkov;

Shcherbatov N., Prince, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at private meetings with Polivanov and Krivoshein discussed measures to combat the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Goremykin, i.e. intrigued against the Tsar.

Studying the international relations of the Russian liberal Masonic underground, one can speak with full confidence about the initiation and support of many Russian anti-government forces on the part of international, and above all, French Freemasonry.

International Freemasonry unconditionally recognized the bloody revolutionary demonism and the personal participation of Freemasons in the war against the Russian government. In the appeals of foreign Masonic lodges to their brethren in Russia, protests were expressed against the right of the Russian state to defend itself against the actions of subversive anti-Russian forces. So, for example, at a meeting of the Milan lodge "Reason" regarding the events in Russia in 1905, the following decision was made:

“The Lodge “Reason”, sending fraternal greetings to the new Russian Masonic family, which courageously begins its existence at a sad moment for the country and in the midst of an increasingly violent reaction, expresses the wish that the new Masonic force, which has come out of the people and stands for the people, will soon got the opportunity to hoist her green banner over the liberated fatherland and nobly repay the countless victims of the theocratic reaction.

Similar appeals are sent by other Masonic lodges, expressing their readiness to help the Russian Masons in the struggle against the legitimate government, for the overthrow of the existing state system.

The French Freemasons called the Russian government "the shame of the civilized world" and incited the citizens of Russia to rebel against it. The revolutionary demonism of 1905 was for the Freemasons a struggle for "progress and enlightenment." When in 1906 the Tsar dissolved the State Duma, whose members grossly violated the laws of Russia, the French freemason Baro-Formier (the “Work and Improvement” lodge) supported the enemies of the Tsar, calling them martyrs and heroes of Russian independent thought.

At the reception of the deputy of the First State Duma Kedrin by the Grand Orient of France on September 7, 1906, the Grand Orator of this lodge stated: “We are charged with the duty not only to encourage the Russians who suffer from oppressive tyranny, but also to provide them with the means to defeat despotism…”. And they delivered! On May 7, 1907, Freemason Leitner gave an account in the Justice Lodge of his visit to the Committee for Assistance to Russian Revolutionaries. The report of Russian intelligence rightly notes that "the Great East in one way or another helps the Russian revolutionary movement."

“The radical majority of the Great East,” the report says, “is being replaced by a socialist majority at the present time, and that at some socialist congresses (for example, 1906) a demand was put forward that all socialist masons in all matters discussed in the lodges should have first of all in the highest interests of international socialism, then in the near future we can expect from the Grand Orient of France the most extensive assistance to the anti-government plans of Russian revolutionary elements. As for the present time, according to many signs, the Great East has already taken this path, keeping all its decisions and actions in the strictest secrecy.

How much importance the French Freemasons attached to the secrecy of their anti-Russian activities is evidenced by the fact that all correspondence concerning Russia and Russian Freemasons was personally kept by the Chief Secretary of the Great Orient, Narcissus Amedeus Vadekar.

I try to use the initiatives of general disarmament and peaceful coexistence of states, put forward by Nicholas II, for my own purposes.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Lamzdorf in a letter to the Minister of the Interior P.N. Durnovo dated December 14, 1905 notes:

“I could not but pay attention to the growing influence of Freemasonry in the West, which, by the way, is clearly trying to distort the basic idea underlying the first Peace Conference and give the peace movement the character of propaganda of internationalism.

The research undertaken in these types, although not yet completed and very difficult by the deep secret that covers the actions of the central Masonic organization, however, allows us to come to the conclusion that Freemasonry is actively striving to overthrow the existing political and social system of European states, to eradicate the principles in them. nationality and the Christian religion, as well as to the destruction of national armies.

Lamzdorf asks Durnovo to collect detailed information about the Masonic movement in Russia with the help of the Ministry of the Interior. However, in response, he receives an evasive reply, indirectly confirming persistent rumors about Durnovo's patronage of the Masonic organization. Instead of investigating the question, Durnovo replies that "the study of the activities of the Masonic organization and the alleged spread of Masonic teaching in the Empire is connected under the present circumstances with significant difficulties, which do not allow one to expect successful results from measures that can be taken in this direction." Durnovo, of course, was cunning, because by that time the Russian police already had certain material on the subversive activities of Masonic lodges.

If Durnovo himself was not connected with the Freemasons, then, giving such an evasive answer, he may have followed the instructions of Witte, who did not want to oppose Freemasonry. An experienced politician, besides being friends with many individuals whose affiliation to Freemasonry is beyond doubt, Witte understood perfectly well where the forces of the anti-government opposition were coordinated and regulated.

Until now, the myth continues to be maintained that the liberal Masonic circles, and above all the Cadets that grew out of the underground Masonic "Union of Liberation", after the Manifesto of October 17, ceased to oppose the Tsar and began to cooperate with him. This myth was created by the Bolsheviks, who sought to downplay the role of the Cadets in the destruction of Tsarist power and exaggerate their own. Historical facts irrefutably testify to something completely different.

The Tsar at that time did not have a more consistent and organized enemy than the Cadet, or rather the liberal-Masonic opposition. It was in liberal circles that the idea of ​​the physical destruction of the Tsar was hatched at that time. A personal friend of one of the founders of Russian Freemasonry and the Union of Liberation, M.M. Kovalevsky Prince D.O. Bebutov, in whose mansion the Cadet Club met, tells in his memoirs how he gave the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party 12,000 rubles for the assassination of Nicholas II.

Another attempt on the Tsar with the participation of Masons was being prepared by the Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1906. Plans were made, which included the acquisition of a submarine to attack Nicholas II during the summer holidays. At the same time, Freemason N.V. To organize this assassination, Tchaikovsky handed over a drawing of a special aircraft, from which they were going to carry out the murder. In 1907, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party conducted experiments in the field of aircraft construction in Munich. However, the subsequent exposure of E. Azef, who was in charge of this case, destroyed the plans of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Masonic conspirators.

The liberal-Masonic underground approved and secretly supported the revolutionary terror. When preparing an armed uprising in Moscow, the authorities seized documents from which the conclusion was irrefutably that the revolutionaries and liberals had a criminal connection and that the latter supported the unrest in Russia financially.

After the appearance of the Manifesto on October 17, the liberal-Masonic underground, whose legal representatives were the Cadet Party, the Bureau of Zemstvo Congresses and some other public organizations, felt themselves master of the situation and raised the question of seizing power. Moreover, they were no longer satisfied with Witte's proposal to take a number of important ministerial posts in the new government (except for finance, foreign affairs, military and naval). Such representatives of the “progressive public” as A.I. Guchkov, M.A. Stakhovich, E.N. Trubetskoy, S.D. Urusov and D.N. Shipov.

The Bureau of Zemstvo Congresses, where Witte addressed with his proposal, answered him through his delegation, which required the convocation of the Constituent Assembly to develop a new constitution.

At the congress of "Russian Zemstvo people", held on November 6 ... 13, 1905 in the house of the Mason Count Orlov-Davydov, the "Zemstvo people" declared themselves a representative body and demanded that they be granted almost the rights of the Constituent Assembly.

The core and leadership of the congress consisted mainly of Masons. The chairman of the congress was a freemason I.I. Petrunkevich, his deputies - A.A. Saveliev, Freemason F.A. Golovin, N.N. Shchepkin, secretaries Mason N.I. Astrov, T.I. Polner and Freemason V.A. Rosenberg.

All the leaders of the liberal-Masonic opposition were represented here - Prince Dolgorukov, Prince Golitsyn, Princes Trubetskoy, D.N. Shipov, F.A. Golovin, Count Heiden, S.A. Muromtsev, Stakhovichi, R.I. Rodichev, V.D. Kuzmin-Karavaev, Prince G.E. Lvov, P. Milyukov. As one of the participants in the liberal Masonic underground later admitted, these people did not want to stoop to work together with the tsarist government, but agreed to be only the masters of Russia.

“If the constitutionalist-democrats, the liberals, had come to my aid then,” Witte told Bernstein, a correspondent for the New York Jewish newspaper The Day, “we would now have a real constitutional system in Russia. If only the leaders of the Kadet Party—Professor Pavel Milyukov, Gessen, and others—had supported me, we would now have a completely different Russia. Unfortunately, they were so carried away by their enthusiasm that they reasoned like a child. At that time they did not want the form of government that exists in France now, but they wanted to establish in Russia in one leap the French Republic of the distant future.

Of course, it was not about the "childish" reasoning of the Cadets, they simply did not believe in the Russian people, they considered him a faceless extra who obediently goes in the direction where the behind-the-scenes director tells him to go.

The liberal-Masonic underground believed in the effectiveness of the armed uprising and anti-Russian terror, which were started throughout Russia. And finally, the underground believed in the support of international freemasonry, which, as we have seen, was quite real.

From the standpoint of today's historical knowledge, one can draw an irrefutable conclusion that if the liberal-Masonic underground wanted to stop the bloodshed at the end of 1905, they could do it. But it did not want this and, moreover, deliberately provoked a protracted state crisis, hoping to overthrow the Tsar and seize power.

The Secret History of Freemasonry...

1. 
   State special (correctional) educational
2. 
   institution of the Oryol region for students, pupils
3. 
   with disabilities "Oryol special (correctional) general education school of the VIII type"

History of the Oryol Territory

since ancient times

to endXVIIIcentury

Adapted texts

for 10th grade students

Compiled by:

Grunberg I.V.

Content

1.	Our region on the map of the Motherland………………………………………...	1
2.	How do we learn about the past of our region………………………	3
3.	Historical information about the Oryol region……………………...	5
4.	The most ancient past of the Oryol land………………………….	6
5.	Our distant ancestors. Land of the Vyatichi…………………………….	8
6.	The main occupations, life and life of the Vyatichi…………………………	9
7.	Oryol region as part of Kievan Rus………………………..	11
8.	Oryol region in the period of struggle against the Mongols-Tatars………….	12
9.	The foundation of the city of Orel………………………………………………	13
10.	The eagle in the 16th century…………………………………………………………	14
11.	The Eagle at the Beginning of the Time of Troubles………………………………….	15
12.	Orlov Tsarik……………………………………………………...	16
13.	Lisovsky's raid. 1615……………………………………….	17
14.	Restoration of the Oryol fortress in 1635 - 1636……..	19
15.	The appearance of the Oryol fortress in 40-60 years of the 17th century………………	20
16.	Orlovsky county………………………………………………………..	21
17.	City Orel in the reign of Peter 1…………………………………	22
18.	Life and way of life of the Eagles at the beginning of the 18th century………………………….	23
19.	Orel City Bargaining……………………………………………….	25
20.	Plow pier on Orel…………………………………………	27
21.	Oryol churches and monasteries in the 17th - 18th century…………………...	28
22.	Oryol local cavalry…………………………………….	29
23.	Establishment of the Oryol province……………………………………	30
21	Literature ……………………………………………………………	32

Our region on the map of the Motherland

Oryol Territory is a part of great Russia. Its history is inextricably linked with the life of the whole country, its culture, science, the struggle of the Russian people against foreign invasions and the most important socio-economic processes.

The Oryol region is located south of Moscow, in the central part of the Central Russian Upland. It borders on regions: in the north with Tula, in the east with Lipetsk, in the south with Kursk, in the west with Bryansk, in the north-west with Kaluga. The distance from Orel to Moscow is 382 km. The Orel Region is part of the Central Federal District. Date of formation - September 27, 1937. The population is 765,231 (2015), the share of the urban population is 66.31%. The area of ​​the territory is 24,652 km².

Administrative-territorial division of the Oryol region

The number of municipalities is 267, including:

• 
  urban districts - 3,
• 
  municipal districts - 24,
• 
  urban settlements - 17,
• 
  rural settlements - 223.

Urban districts:

• 
  Municipal formation Oryol city
• 
  Municipal formation city of Livny
• 
  Municipal formation city of Mtsensk

Municipal districts of the Oryol region:

1. 
   Bolkhovsky district
2. 
   Verkhovsky district
3. 
   Glazunovskiy district
4. 
   Dmitrovsky district
5. 
   Dolzhansky district
6. 
   Zalegoshchensky district
7. 
   Znamensky district
8. 
   Kolpnyansky district
9. 
   Korsakovskiy district
10. 
    Krasnozorensky district
11. 
    Kromsky district
12. 
    Livensky district
13. 
    Maloarkhangelsky district
14. 
    Mtsensk district
15. 
    Novoderevenkovsky district
16. 
    Novosilsky district
17. 
    Orlovsky district
18. 
    Pokrovsky district
19. 
    Sverdlovsk region
20. 
    Soskovsky district
21. 
    Trosnyansky district
22. 
    Uritsky district
23. 
    Hotynetsky district
24. 
    Shablykinsky district

The relief of the surface is a hilly plain dissected by narrow steep banks of rivers and ravines.There are different types of soils in the region, most of which are black earth. This determines the main use of land - for growing various crops (wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, etc.).

The main river of the region - the Oka - is one of the largest rivers in Europe, originating in the south of the region. Its tributaries: Zusha (with a tributary of the Neruch), Vytebet, Nugr, Tson, Orlik, Optukha, Rybnitsa, Kroma.

In the eastern part of the region, the Sosna flows with its tributaries: Trudy, Tim, Lyubovsha, Kshen and Olym.

In the west of the region, the Nerussa, Navlya and Svapa rivers, which belong to the Dnieper basin, originate.

There are minerals in the Oryol region, however, b Most of them are not developed. There are iron ore reserves dated forKursk anomaly(large Novoyalta field in Dmitrovsky district). There are reserves of brown coal, phosphorites, significant reserves of limestone, clay, sand, peat, and chalk. UnderKhotynets zeolite is mined (a mineral that is used in industry as part of water purification filters, etc.). Deposit of uranium ores in the south-west of the region.

Questions and tasks.

1. 
   Find the Oryol region on the map. What is its geographical location? What areas does it border on?
2. 
   Tell us about the geography of the Oryol region according to the plan:

• 
  surface relief, soil;
• 
  the climate of the region;
• 
  rivers flowing on the territory of the Oryol Territory;
• 
  minerals.

1. 
   Fill in the contour map, writing down the names of the municipal districts of the Oryol region.

Where do we learn about the past of our region.

History is the science of the past. Each person remembers the events that took place during his life in the country, in his family, in the world. Parents in their lives have also witnessed many events, they can tell about them. In the old days, the eyes were called eyes, therefore, a person who observes events with his own eyes is called eyewitness. How can you find out what happened in our native land in the distant past, if there are no living eyewitnesses of the events for a long time? Each person in the course of his life leaves a trace on the earth, according to which it is possible to restore the events of bygone days. To do this, scientists - historians are engaged in the search for historical monuments.

Historical monuments are the sources by which scientists study the life of people in the past.

There are three large groups of historical monuments - material, oral, written.

material monuments These are objects associated with historical events. These include buildings and structures, tools, handicrafts, personal items, military awards, weapons, human remains and so on.

How to find material monuments of antiquity that are hidden from the eyes of people under the ground? Search and study of such sources is engaged inarcheology.

Archeology is a science that studies history based on the material remains of people's life and activities - material (archaeological) monuments.

Archaeologists excavate ancient burial mounds, settlements and find household items, jewelry, fragments of dishes, tools, clothing.

Another historical science is engaged in the collection of objects of ancient life, as well as the recording and study of oral folk art - ethnography.

Rice. 1. Archaeological excavations of a burial in the city of Orel

Oral memorials. Old name for the mouth mouth. Transfer word of mouth - to tell each other fairy tales, legends, epics. So oral folk art has come down to our days. oral monuments are epics, legends, traditions, riddles, proverbs, songs that talk about people's lives in the past.

written monuments. Writing arose in ancient times, in Russia they knew how to write even before the advent of Christianity. They wrote on pieces of birch bark with the help of special sticks. After the baptism of Russia, the monks and elders of the monasteries recorded all the events that took place in special documents - annals . From the ancient chronicles we learned many facts of history. The oldest chronicle is considered Tale of Bygone Years , which was led in Kyiv by the monk Nestor. Later written monuments are letters, decrees, letters, newspapers, books, and so on.

Rice. 2. The Tale of Bygone Years

Rice. 3. Chronicler Nestor, sculpture

Questions and tasks

1. 
   Why is history called "the science of the past?"
2. 
   What are historical monuments? What types of historical monuments do you know?
3. 
   Make up a story about one of the most important events in your life and tell it to the class.

Historical information about the Orel region

The settlement of the Oryol region began in ancient times. The fertile lands of the Oryol opolye have long attracted farmers here. It was here that the Slavic tribes of the Vyatichi settled, who defended the borders of Kievan Rus from the invasion of nomads. To an even greater extent, the Oryol Territory served as an advanced outpost of the Russian state at a later time in the struggle against the Mongols - Tatars.

There is not a single significant event in the history of Russia in which the natives of the Oryol Territory would not take part.

Everyone needs to know the history of their small Motherland, since love for one's country begins with love for the land in which one was born and grew up. Love your region!

The most ancient past of the Oryol land.

The oldest traces of human presence on the territory of the Oryol region are attributed to the Stone and Bronze Ages (14-2 thousand years BC).

The Stone Age, the time when primitive people used stone tools, began 2 million years ago. This period is divided into:

• 
  Paleolithic ("palaios" (Greek) - ancient, "lithos" - stone) from 2 million to 10 thousand years ago;
• 
  Mesolithic ("mesos" (Greek) - middle), 9 - 8 thousand years ago;
• 
  Neolithic ("neos" (Greek) - new), 7 - 6 thousand years ago.

The Paleolithic on the territory of the Oryol region was distinguished by a harsh climate associated with the Ice Age. At that time, the region was a vast expanse of tundra and cold steppe with mosses and dwarf birches. Mammoths, woolly rhinos, and reindeer lived here. At this time they lived Neanderthals- short, strong and dexterous people. People lived in small isolated groups and hunted large animals.

Rice. 1. Paleolithic flint tools: a scraper, a flake, a knife-like blade, in the center is a core (the core remaining after the removal of flakes and blades).

The monuments of that time include parking lots near the village of Kurasovo, Bolkhovsky district, on the river. Nugr.

During the Mesolithic era, the climate changes, glaciers melt, new rivers appear. The air is getting warmer, the tundra is overgrown with forests. Mammoths and large rhinos die out during this period, and elks, deer, wild boars, wolves, and foxes become the main inhabitants of the forest. As a result, big game hunting is giving way to the more difficult hunting of small, fast game. People invent a bow, arrows with stone tips.

Rice. 2. Bow and arrows of the Mesolithic era

In the middle of the 5th or in the 4th millennium BC. e. culture develops in the Oka River basin neolithic, on the territory of the Oryol region, represented by a dozen and a half monuments, mainly the remains of the settlements of the most ancient inhabitants of the region, primitive hunters and fishermen.

A person's life changes after mastering the technologies of working with bronze and iron. The possibilities of hunting, cultivating the land, making jewelry and household items are expanding. At the end of III beginning of II millennium BC. e. in a significant part of the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe, there is a resettlement of tribes using bronze tools. With their appearance in the upper reaches of the Oka, bronze age develop agriculture and animal husbandry. In the Oryol region, there are about two dozen settlements of this era.

Rice. 3. Bronze tools: a battle ax, a fishing hook, a knife (from finds near the village of Yakovlevo, Sverdlovsk region).

The Christianization of the Vyatichi was late. The reasons for this, historians call the difficult conditions for cultivating the land, when arable land was reclaimed from the forest with difficulty - in this regard, the "forest" tribes, in this regard, longer than the others, kept the equalizing principle of product distribution, which corresponded to the pagan principle: "all gods are equal, the main god kind more; all members of the clan equally, the elder more. Inequality struggled to make its way in these parts. But it was precisely this that destroyed the principle of egalitarian distribution and dealt a blow to paganism.

The initiators of the change of religion were the tribal nobility and combatants, led by the prince. With the accumulation of material wealth, they were the first to abandon polygamy (this scattered the inheritance), from human sacrifices by lot and from blood feuds, from which they were not insured. Strong dissatisfaction with paganism arose, first of all, in the retinue environment. The warriors, as you know, were the first to be baptized.

Those of the Slavic tribes who lived "near the great waterway", which brought them closer to each other and introduced them to enlightened Byzantium, became part of the Russian state and were the first to adopt Christianity. The inhabitants of the Oryol region were away from it, in the middle of dense forests, impenetrable marshes and swamps, in the vicinity of the Finns, Khazars and Pechenegs, who stood in hostile relations with them and, in any case, could not serve even as indirect conductors of Christianity.

Russia was waiting for enlightenment from the south, from the side of the Orthodox Tsargrad, and the geographical conditions placed our ancestors facing either the gloomy north, where they had to win a place for their settlements from the Finns, or the barbarian east, which was preparing to make them their tributaries. The Vyatichi were the first of the South Russian Slavs to recognize the power of the Khazars over themselves and were the last to get out of their dependence. Khazar dominion weighed heavily on them for more than a century. And life in the circle of hostile neighbors, alien to them in language, customs and customs, with complete separation from fellow tribesmen who were grouped near the Dnieper basin, developed in Vyatichi exceptional self-isolation, strict tribal separatism and blind devotion to their principles. That is why, when under the formidable blows of Svyatoslav Igorevich the power of the Khazars was crushed and their kingdom fell, our ancestors with such energy began to defend their freedom from the Russian princes and after, when they were forced to yield to the power of the Russian sword, they still defended their paganism for so long and stubbornly. life and their traditions.

In the 9th-10th centuries, the Vyatichi were forced to pay tribute to the Khazars. The Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich (ruled from 957 to 972), who defeated the Khazars, managed to impose tribute on them, but he could not completely subdue them. The Nikon Chronicle brought to us the vague news that Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich of Kyiv baptized the "best husbands" of the Vyatichi, settled in the border towns along the rivers Desna, Osetra, Trubezh and Sula. The bulk of the Vyatichi still remained pagan. In the former tribal centers, perhaps in Mtsensk, Kromy, Dedoslavl and others, the prince has his administration and garrisons, and after the baptism of Russia - the clergy. New cities and the first churches are being built, and the Vyatka settlements-asylums are transferred to the boyars under the ownership of the castles. But Vladimir did not deprive the Vyatichi of self-government and, before his death, did not appoint any of his sons to reign here.

Vyatichi regularly refused to pay tribute to the princes of Kyiv, and they brought them into submission. Echoes of that time are reflected in the epic about Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber, which, perhaps, depicts the campaign of the prince's combatant against the Vyatik prince. Probably, the name "Nightingale" was not only a proper name, but also a tribal totem. In the upper reaches of the Vytebet River were the possessions of Nightingale Rakhmatovich. There, according to legend, in the tract Nine Oaks (modern Khotynets district), he had a fight with Ilya Muromets. The village is located near the watershed of the Snezhet and Tson rivers, and the Nightingale the Robber could attack military and merchant ships when they used the drag to get from the Desna basin to the Oka. The river Smorodinka, mentioned in the epic, also flows here.

The Vyatichi country was a dead corner of the Kievan state. There was no direct road from the south. When, in 1015, Prince Gleb from Murom, on the Oka, was traveling to Kyiv, he turned northwest, crossed the Volga above Tver, turned south to Smolensk, and went down the Dnieper to Kyiv.

In 1078 - 1097. Chernigov Prince Vladimir Monomakh undertakes two winter campaigns and forces this tribe to recognize its authority. There is a legend that the prince decided to punish the Vyatichi for refusing to pay tribute and military resistance, and therefore moved his army deep into their country. Vyatichi put up several detachments against him, headed by the princes - Khodota and his son Kordn. They were separated from each other, and Monomakh killed the recalcitrant Khodota and Kordna, and took Kuksha alive as a prisoner. (However, there is another interpretation of the word Cordn, or Cordno, which considers it the name of the city).

After the Lyubech congress and the treaty of 1097, the lands of the Vyatichi finally became part of the Seversky and Ryazan appanages of the Chernigov principality. The lands along the Desna and Oka went to the first, and the entire course of the Sosna River to the second. Later, three independent principalities were formed from it: Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversk and Murom. According to this section, the land of the Vyatichi goes to Novgorod-Seversky principality. However, their lands in the ecclesiastical relation so far constituted something unified and were under the control of the Chernigov see, which could take over the spread of Christianity among the Vyatichi. The first missionaries appear in these parts at the beginning of the XII century.

In 1113, a Christian mission headed by Kuksha and his disciple Nikon was sent to the Vyatichi region. Jacob Tikhomirov believed that, fearing uprisings and wanting to rid the captured Prince Kuksha of hereditary power, Vladimir Monomakh took him to Kyiv, converted him to Christianity and tonsured him a monk, depriving the Vyatichi of the hereditary leader. “After a lot of time, the once warlike prince of the Vyatichi becomes known in history already under the name of the humble monk Kuksha, the enlightener of his people,” notes Tikhomirov. According to another version, Kuksha was one of the “best men” baptized by St. Vladimir, among whom Christianity continued to develop, and this may explain the vague legends about his nobility. When he was tonsured, according to legend, he received the name John. However, there is no reliable information about this, since the Church canonized him as a saint under the name that he received in paganism. Many historians also saw this as additional evidence of his noble origin. The custom, in addition to the Christian name, to also have a folk one, was preserved for a long time in our region after the adoption of Christianity. Even under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, in the census books of the Bolkhov tithe published by Apukhtin, the following names are mentioned: “Medved Nechaev, son of Kishaev”, “Neustroy Ivanov, son of Belenikhin”, “Selya Ivanov, son of Kokorev”, “Druzhina Vasilev”, “Milenka Karpov , son of Kalinin", "Shestak Mikh, son of Ivashentsev", "Zhdanko Ivanov, son of Kudinov". Among such names, the name Kukshi was also common.

The Oryol Church Historical and Archaeological Society in the 19th century made attempts to philologically explain the name of the ascetic. It was pointed out that in the language of the people that the Vyatichi ousted from our region, “Kuksheya” was called a prayer house, and a temple servant in the same language could also receive the name Kukshi. According to the supporter of the Finno-Ugric origin of the Vyatichi P.I. Yakobiy, the name of the holy martyr is based on the root Kuk, which means dry. An extensive list of geographical names of the Oryol province of the beginning of the 20th century with this root convinces that St. Kuksha was a native of the Vyatichi lands.

It is authentically known that the Holy Hieromartyr John Kuksha was a monk of the famous Kiev Caves Monastery, founded in the middle of the 11th century by the Monk Anthony during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. Already at the time of the founder, the number of monastic brethren reached one hundred people. The monastery was a leading spiritual center, and the monks, in the words of N.M. Karamzin, “zealously served God and humanity”, leaving their names in Russian history.

One of the main forms of activity of the monastery at that time was the apostolic mission in the lands of the pagans. In this regard, the territory of the Vyatichi, probably, has long attracted the attention of the Kyiv monks, among whom a certain Theodosius from the Kursk region, neighboring the Vyatichi, is mentioned, and then the Monk Nikola Svyatosha, Prince of Chernigov, enters the monastery. He and the Chernigov princes who visited him with their families could tell a lot about the warlike pagans.

The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, from where the mission was made, was closely connected with the Chernihiv see. Most likely, Archpastor John of Chernigov, who draws his attention to the spiritual state of the Vyatichi, called St. Kuksha to preach the Gospel among the Vyatichi people. Obviously, the mission consisted of several people, otherwise it would have been impossible for river boats to sail such distances and overcome the wilds of forests and swamps.

In 1113, Archbishop John was replaced by Saint Theoktist, abbot of the Kiev Caves Monastery from 1103 to 1113, whose closest associate was Kuksha. The spiritual mission under the rector of the Monk Kuksha united the best forces of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the Chernigov diocese, with the assistance of the secular authorities.

Historians believe that the missionaries set off on their journey in the spring and summer of 1113, and not in autumn and not in winter, since in general water arteries served as the best means of communication, and only one convenient route from Chernigov led to the Vyatichi - along the Desna River. It is known from the chronicle that St. Kuksha went to preach to the Vyatichi along this river.

The path ahead presented considerable difficulties. Having passed Novgorod-Seversky and Trubchevsk, inhabited by northerners, the mission reached the limits of the Vyatichi near the city of Bryansk and launched its activities. In the Bryansk district, according to the observations of Yakov Tikhomirov, there is a legend about a “great man” who once lived in that area and did great things. Then followed the transition to Karachev, after which the monks through the impenetrable jungle and swamps went deep into the pagan lands. Having reached the Oka River, we went to Mtsensk. Here, the Monk Abraham of the Caves separated from the mission, preaching in the land of Novosilskaya.

According to legend, St. Kuksha in the Mtsensk Vvedensky Church - a small wooden church cut down from huge oak trees that grew nearby - placed a miraculous image of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Mirlikiysky, and a large eight-pointed stone cross. The image of Nicholas the Wonderworker was carved from wood in human height. In his right hand he held a sword, and in his left - an ark for the Holy Gifts. Soon the news spread about him that he heals and has miraculous power. In 1238, when Batu was going to Mtsensk, the priests hid him at the foot of the cathedral mountain in the hiding place of an underground passage, near a hidden source. It was found only in the year of the final victory of Christianity in Mtsensk.

Kuksha's sermon was accompanied by miracles. About them, the composer of hymns in honor of the saint said: “Kukshe is sacred with the disciple, the vessels of the priest exist, carry the name of Christ before the unbelievers, surprising them with signs and wonders to prudence.” As it is sung in the 4th and 5th odes of the canon, Kuksha “healed the sick and brought many to Christ by miracles.”

In the Caves Patericon, we read that a contemporary of Kuksha, Bishop of Vladimir, the Monk Simon (Simeon), in his letter to the blessed Polycarp, later archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, wrote: “It is not appropriate to speak much, where deeds clearly testify, as if about these blessed ones. The blessed holy martyr, called Kuksha, is one from the father of the holy Pechersk monastery, we all know be, for Vyatich and people who are darkened by the unbelief of the cross and enlighten many by faith. Do many great miracles." He drove away demons, "rain from weightlessness, dry up the lake." Among the deified elements was water, personified in the image of Kupala, and all lakes and rivers, according to our ancestors, were filled with lower deities, who bore the common name "water". Thus, the lake dried up by Saint Kuksha had a sacred character for the Vyatichi.

“Overshadowed by grace from above,” says Kuksha in the Dictionary of the Historical Saints, glorified in the Russian Church, “he worked many miracles,” and “the pagans, amazed by his miraculous power, began to accept the teachings of St. preacher and be baptized. In the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon it is reported that the saint "worked many miracles, and through many torments he was truncated with his disciple Nikon." No information has come down to us about who he was, but the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra commemorates his memory together with the memory of St. Kuksha and the faster Pimen. Since Saint Simon does not call Nikon a holy martyr, there is no doubt that he did not have holy orders, but was a simple novice or cell-attendant under Kuksha.

According to legend, for prayer, the holy educator of the Oryol region, 12 km from the city of Mtsensk, in the direction of Bolkhov, near the right bank of the Oka, in the forest on a slope 1.5-2 versts from the village of Karandakovo, set up a skete house, and next he dug "Bogomolny" , or "suffering saint", a well. At the beginning of the 20th century, local residents said that Saint Kuksha lived in these places. The local old peasant told Tikhomirov that he had heard from his grandfathers that Kuksha came to Mtsensk, shed blood near Karandakova, and showed a place located half a verst from the wells, in a forest with a high road near a swamp, the banks of which gradually narrowed. There was some water at the bottom of it.

Apparently, on the night of August, it was here that the pagans attacked the missionary camp, subjected the monks to torment, and then Saint Kuksha "through many torments from the infidels", was taken half a verst to the side and beheaded by the swamp - with a sword "he was truncated with his disciple" (Nikon) . The martyr's death of the saint was seen by his spiritual brother, the ascetic of the Pechersk monastery, blessed Pimen Postnik. In the Pechersk Patericon, we read that he, too, from God “saw the truncation of what was far away, in the midst of the church of the Pechersk, shout loudly: our brother Kuksha is killed on this day, against the light. And this river, reposed on the same day with Kuksha, his holy disciple. The words “against the light” should most likely be understood in such a way that he died a martyr's death at the dawn of August 27, 1113. Apparently, the killers tried to take him by surprise.

There is no information about the murderers of Saint Kuksha. The compilers of the Historical Dictionary of the Saints Glorified in the Russian Church believed that the priests from the Vyatichi were the tormentors and murderers of the saint. Although, if we assume that the Vyatichi, like other Slavs, did not have a special priestly class, then perhaps the killers were the elders, the descendants of the princes who fought against Russian rule. G. M. Pyasetsky suggested that, having lost political significance in their country, these elders hoped to retain influence in the religion and life of the tribe.

The Kyiv monks sent people to the country of the Vyatichi in search of the bodies of the missionaries. The monks of the Caves who arrived at the scene of the tragedy took away only the relics of the first baptist, which were placed in the nearby (Antoniev) caves of the Lavra, where they are still located. A student of Kuksha Nikon could be tied up and taken to another place for reprisals. There were legends about his relics, which, perhaps, will open in the village of Grigorovo. The memory of the holy martyr Kuksha is celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on August 22 (September 8).

The anonymous author of the “Church-Historical Research on the Ancient Region of the Vyatichi” (1862) wrote about St. Kuksha as follows: “The greatness of the feat he accomplished eclipsed in the memory of his contemporaries the previous, not so favorable efforts; and the chroniclers close to that time, reverent before the memory of the holy martyr, attributed to his person all the honor of the conversion of the stern Vyatichi people. The Christian sermon of the holy martyr took root in the Vyatican milieu.

Five years after the death of Kuksha, traces of Christianity can be found in the cities of the region. So, near Krom, in 1147, a peace treaty between Svyatoslav Olgovich and his Chernigov relatives was signed and approved by the kiss of the cross of prominent Vyatichi. In the oath of 1147, confirming loyalty to the Chernigov princes, they speak of obedience to earthly authorities - these ideas are drawn by them from Christian doctrine. The historian V. I. Tatishchev noted that not only the posadniks, but also a significant part of the Vyatich “foreman” had already been introduced to Christianity. The first annalistic references to the city of Mtsensk, which was part of the Seversk principality, date back to this time. Bishops Porfiry I and Porfiry II on their way to Vladimir passed through the Mtsensk region more than once. The assistants to the bishops in the matter of Christian enlightenment of the region were its secular rulers - the princes of Chernigov and Seversky, who built churches and decorated them with dignity.

Thus, with only the close unity of the great centers of Christian life in Kyiv and Chernigov, a spiritual mission was finally able to form, which had as its task to plant and establish Christianity within the Oryol region and adjacent areas. Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov had no doubts about this beneficial interaction: “By the time to which the deeds of the educator of Vyatchane, the Monk Kuksha, by the piety of the Monk Bishop Theoktist and by the spiritual love that bound the Pechersk ascetics, we cannot doubt that the Chernigov Hierarch Theoktist took a lively part in the apostolic feat of the Monk Kuksha and assisted him in all ways that depended on him. The author of The History of the Russian Church, Professor E. E. Golubinsky considers Saint Kuksha only one of many preachers in the land of the Vyatichi; he says: “Of the probably considerable number of preachers who labored to convert especially stubborn people in the fatherland, we know only one outsider, the monk of the Pechersk Monastery of St. Kuksha."

According to the church division of the XI century, the land of the Vyatichi was assigned to the Chernigov diocese. It was therefore the duty of the Chernigov bishops to support the work of Christian enlightenment of the Vyatichi people begun by Saint Kuksha. And the Chernihiv bishops fulfilled this duty: they sent new preachers and priests to the Vyatichi people to strengthen and spread Christianity, perform services and sacraments, sometimes they themselves, at least passing by, visited this distant land.

The memory of the Hieromartyr Kuksha was at first maintained. Thus, St. Simon, Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal (d. 1226) wrote that in his time St. Kuksha was known and revered by everyone.

According to peasants in the 19th century, the well at which the enlightener was killed was a “holy place” and pilgrimage near it “occurred from time immemorial.” According to legend, near the swamp at the site of the death of the holy martyr Kuksha, over the "Praying" or "suffering saint" well, his admirers built a chapel with a cross, where local residents annually, on the second day of the feast of the Holy Trinity - the Day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, gathered for prayer service for water before the icons from the parish church of St. Telchie. When asked what makes them go so far from the village with icons, they answered: “Our grandfathers and fathers prayed like that, and we pray; but if we don’t pray, then something bad will happen.” It was said that one year the locals did not go to pray at the well, and there was a drought, fields burned, cattle fell. Terrified by disasters, the peasants went in procession with icons to the well. The disaster soon ended. On the road opposite the well, a cross was placed with a mug for collecting donations. However, over time, this veneration gradually began to weaken. By the end of the 19th century, these structures collapsed and were resumed only at the beginning of the 20th century. Apparently, these places were forgotten for a long time because during the time of serfdom, the owner of Karandakovo, the landowner Sheremetyev, bought peasants from the village of Rybina (Mtsensk district) from the landowner Lykov and settled them in Karandakova. He transferred its indigenous inhabitants to Belev and Moscow.

On the Oryol land, the old pagan beliefs were still strong then. The pagans still converged between the villages “for games and dancing and demonic songs, and here they snatched away their wives, with which one of them deliberated in advance”; had two and three wives. They did not bury their dead, but burned them at the stake and, having collected the ashes in clay urns, they lined the crossroads with them. Along with the civilian population, robbers also lived in abundance, interfering with the preachers. Four versts from Naryshkino, near the village of Sergievskoye, there was a mountain with a bog in the middle, bordered by forest. According to legend, the robber Kudeyar lived here until, in his old age, he moved to the Bryansk forests. In Bolkhov, the ravine tracts of Ragozino, Obryn, Yastrebiny, Okhotny, covered with oaks, served as a refuge for robbers; Allyan Meadow was no less terrible, and the Dry Zusha of the Mtsensk district was even more terrible. Those who traveled from Bolkhov to Mtsensk said goodbye to their relatives, preparing for death, and wept for them as for the dead.

Only by the middle of the XII century, the movement of settlers "through the Vyatichi" paved such a free path from south to north that Yuri Dolgoruky led regiments along this road. Initially, the inhabitants of Novgorod moved here, and then, fleeing from the nomads, the people of Kiev.

By this time, there is a legend that in the middle of the XII century in Novosil Olga - the wife of Yuri Dolgoruky, a convent was founded. However, there is no other information about him. By the middle of the XII century, the first cities appeared and grew stronger: Vshchizh (1142), Boldyzh (1146), Bryansk (1146), Karachev (1146), Sevsk (1146), Domagoshch (1147), Yelets (1147), Kromy (1147 ), Mtsensk (1147), Novosil (1155), Trubchevsk (1185). In some of these cities Chernigov princes settled, in others - princely posadniks, who were obliged to collect tribute from the surroundings. It is easy to understand how strong the support of the Chernigov bishops in the matter of Christian enlightenment of the Vyatichi was provided by the secular rulers of the region - the Chernigov, Seversk and Muromo-Ryazan princes. Hoping, through the Christian faith, to unite the heterogeneous composition of the pagan population in their principalities or, out of sincere disposition towards the Christian faith, the princes, often resorting to military force, asserted Christianity in their destinies, especially in those cities that served as their residences. The result of this joint activity of the Chernigov bishops and princes was an increase in Christian common among the Vyatichi, the construction and decoration of churches, the supply of church utensils and land. The first leaders of believers within the Oryol Territory were the Chernigov hierarchs, who later shared power with the Ryazan bishops; our ancestors owed them the preaching of St. Kuksha and the first successes of the faith of Christ; but generally slowly and with great obstacles, the Church of Christ was strengthened in our country under the spiritual guidance of the Chernigov archpastors.

The successful spread of Christianity in the Orel region was hindered by the vastness of the Chernigov diocese, which, according to the description of Chernigov Archbishop Filaret, included the following provinces: Chernigov, Oryol, Kursk, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan and partly Voronezh, Vladimir, Moscow, Mogilev and Smolensk. It is clear that, with such a vast diocesan territory and with the scarcity of educational facilities, the Chernigov archpastors could not personally observe the state of their flock and promptly satisfy their spiritual needs. The chronicler mentions only two travels of the Chernigov bishop during the 12th century to the far north of his diocese; but these journeys, undertaken by Bishop Porfiry in 1177 and 1187, were caused not by the needs of the church, but by the political views of the Chernigov prince, and were so hasty that, in any case, they could not be accompanied by beneficial consequences for the Oryol region, through which should the archpastor was passing by. In addition, the activities of the Chernigov hierarchs in relation to the Oryol region were much embarrassed by the enmity that existed between the Chernigov and Seversk princes. At the same time, the archpastor, of course, had to support the interests of the first, his closest sovereigns and patrons, and be at some distance from the latter. Fortunately, the lack of diocesan attention to the spiritual interests of the Oryol region was largely compensated by the pious desire of the Seversky princes to eradicate paganism among their subjects. At the same time, often occupying the grand princely throne, the Seversky princes were often in the closest relationship to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and could conveniently use its spiritual wealth for the Christian enlightenment of their area.

A close spiritual connection between the Caves monastery and the Seversk rulers, established since the time of St. Kuksha, continued not only in the XII century, when the memory of Saint Kuksha and his Equal-to-the-Apostles deeds was still alive, but also after a long time.

Like the princes of Seversk, the princes of Ryazan also took care of their volost. In 1198, the southeastern part of the region, in the basin of the Sosna River, entered the newly formed Ryazan diocese. The size of the then dioceses made it difficult to preach Christianity (from Orel to Ryazan or Chernigov, at least 350 kilometers).

This division of the Oryol province between two neighboring dioceses was, no doubt, beneficial for her in church terms. But before Christianity had time to win a complete victory over paganism here, both of these sees - Chernigov and Ryazan - were completely destroyed by the Mongols.

In 1240, during the attack of Batu on Chernigov, Chernigov Bishop Porfiry II was captured and taken to Glukhov. From here the Tatars let him go wherever he wanted; but, dejected by disasters, the saint, as can be seen from the life of the holy noble prince Michael of Chernigov, did not return to Chernigov, where everything was given over to fire and sword, but sought for himself a new place for settlement. The most convenient place for the stay of the Chernigov archpastors then seemed to be the city of Bryansk, in which the Chernigov prince Boris Mikhailovich approved his residence, and the boyars and all the “best people” of the Chernigov principality settled with them.

For the Oryol region, this had a positive meaning: after the burning of Chernigov in the middle of the 13th century, the bishop's chair was transferred to Bryansk, which brought the center of spiritual education closer to the territory of the future Oryol diocese. But this happened when the local district became part of Lithuania. The seizure of the lands of the region by Lithuania in 1365 created a particularly unstable situation. For a century and a half, the Chernihiv diocese passed either to the Lithuanian metropolis, or under the jurisdiction of Moscow. The Grand Duke of Lithuania, Olgerd, made every effort to ensure that Orthodox Russia in the south separated from the Moscow Metropolitan and submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The time of Lithuanian rule over the Oryol region was a bloody drama that played out against the backdrop of a dispute between the parties for the possession of these lands, which lasted for about a century and a half. The dispute was fought by the khans of the Golden Horde, and the princes of Ryazan, and the princes of Moscow. The cities of Mtsensk, Karachev, Bryansk, Trubchevsk more than once passed from hand to hand, more than once were burned and plundered along with their villages; residents were taken captive to the Horde, then to Ryazan, then to Moscow. “Complaints were heard from all four sides; and all justified themselves before each other by fire, captivity and murder. The Bryansk diocese becomes the subject of a long struggle between the Metropolitan of Moscow and the Metropolitan of Lithuania. The city of Mtsensk also passed from hand to hand; at the insistence of the Lithuanian prince, he was expelled from the Ryazan diocese to Bryansk and thus shared the fate of the western cities.

The struggle for the Bryansk diocese was accompanied by the destruction of dwellings, churches, cities, bloodshed caused by the Lithuanian prince Olgerd under the influence of Metropolitan Roman to the inhabitants of the Bryansk land. Success in this struggle was either on the side of the Lithuanian, or the Moscow metropolitan. The Bryansk bishops, drawn into strife, sometimes voluntarily went over to the side of the Lithuanian metropolitan (as, for example, Archbishop Isaac).

In 1500, the western cities of the Orel region were finally conquered by the Grand Duke of Moscow John III (1462 - 1505) from the Lithuanian prince Alexander. Bishop Jonah of Bryansk, a supporter of the Lithuanian prince, was sent to Moscow as a prisoner, and the Bryansk diocese again came under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Metropolitan.

The time when the borders of the Chernigov-Bryansk diocese were the arena of political and ecclesiastical struggle between Moscow and Lithuania was unfavorable for church affairs in the western limits of the Oryol region. The turmoil brought confusion and disorganization into church life - the Bryansk flock all the time hesitated between the inevitable choice of the Moscow or Lithuanian metropolitan, Orthodoxy or union with Rome.

In those years, the outskirts of Russia was 300 km from Moscow, and the cities of the region, primarily Mtsensk, were on the border of Lithuanian possessions with Russians. The Grand Duke of Moscow and the Metropolitan could not put up with the fact that pagans lived next to them, especially since Mtsensk was under Lithuania relatively recently.

During the period of temporary possession of the region by Moscow, by order of Princes Vasily and Andrei, on May 29, 1415, the Amchans were baptized. This is how the ancient legend tells about the conversion of the inhabitants of Mtsensk to Christianity in 1415 and about the appearance of the miraculous image of St. Nicholas, the alleged author of which was Presbyter Photius, also known under the name of John: “In the summer of 6923, I ruled the scepters of the Grand Duchy of Vasily and his brother Andrei Dimitrievich, in the limits and degrees and in all the weights of those who do not believe, enlighten in the faith of Christ. In the city of Mtsensk, many (besha) do not believe in Christ our God.

This statement indirectly confirms the fact that there were Christians in the city, albeit small in number. Both pagans and Christians lived as one family, calling themselves "Amchans". Political unrest and attacks by Lithuanians and Tatars, clashes with their neighbors brought them closer. “Then send a besh from the great princes with many troops and from Metropolitan Photius the priest (according to legend, John). The living Mecians were frightened and fought against them, and obsessed with blindness, ”that is, the inhabitants of Mtsensk opposed the adoption of Christianity and were stricken with blindness as a punishment.

This affected them in such a way that they themselves were baptized and began to call others. “They are coming, and I exhort them to holy baptism. Tenth week after Pasca, on Friday, receive Holy Baptism, the Metznians of Khodina, Yushinka, and Zikia, and see clearly; and having acquired the cross of the Lord, another stone was carved, and the image of St. Nicholas, like a warrior, having an ark in his hand, in it were the wands of the body and the blood of the Lord. In the city of faith, all ailments were freed; parishioner living around the country, every disease is freed and having created the church of the tenth week of the heel. Thus, the legend indicates that the Khodins, Yushinki and Zikii were the first to be baptized from the inhabitants of Mtsensk, who immediately regained their sight, and found at the foot of a steep mountain the image of St. Nicholas and a large stone eight-pointed Cross, hidden according to legend during the attack of Batu’s troops in the XIII century.

In honor of this event, the inhabitants of Mtsensk built two churches on the cathedral hill. One - wooden - in honor of St. martyr Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, since this event happened on her day, and the other - stone - in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. Until the revolution, the pilgrimage to the Cross was constant and numerous.