“If someone from the Romanov family approaches the Dolgoruky, death and many misfortunes await him” - an old legend about a curse that threatens the royal dynasty with troubles has lived among the people since time immemorial. I conducted a historical study, comparing many facts and events of the past, and I think that there is reason to believe that the Dolgoruky played an important role in the death of the Russian Empire. Moreover, the matrix of the curse associated with this kind acts through the ages, leading to tragic events in our time.

According to one of the historical versions, the fifth wife of Ivan the Terrible, Marya Ivanovna Dolgorukaya, brought misfortune to the Romanov family. However, in fairness, it should be noted that some scientists claim that there was no such character in our history. Indeed, the sources rarely mention the wedding and the wedding of the king, since the metropolitan did not bless this union. Unlike the previous four Perhaps the church hierarch was embarrassed by the serial number of the bride: it was not so often in Russia that a fifth wife was acquired, the church allowed only three legal marriages. Although it is known that later the king secured the right to another official union. After Marya Dolgoruky, Ivan the Terrible had three more wives, but not married.

It is known for certain that Ivan Dolgoruky, the father of the alleged bride, really lived at that time. Regarding his daughter Mary, opinions differ. Serious historian N.I. Kostomarov claims that the girl existed and in November 1573, according to the old style, her wedding with the king took place. “Having married her,” Kostomarov writes, “Grozny found out that she had already lost her virginity, and the next day after the wedding he ordered her to be squeezed into a carriage, driven on greyhound horses and knocked over into the water.” Simply put, Ivan the Terrible, never distinguished by scrupulousness, ordered the newly-made wife to be escorted to the river bank and drowned under the ice. Whether this is true or not is not known for certain.

Perhaps, before her death, Marya cursed Ivan the Terrible, wishing that he would never have grandchildren and his family would be interrupted. And indeed, the dynasty on him and his sons was interrupted.

It would be nice if that was all. But there is a much more interesting and even completely fatal version. According to one of the legends, Marya cursed not only Ivan the Terrible, but everyone who was guilty of her painful death. And here the Romanov family appears at the forefront of history...

Let's assume that the girl was honest, not guilty and became the victim of an evil slander. Who, then, benefited from the death of Marya Dolgoruky?

The marriage of the king threatened to leave many of his entourage out of work. Why? Yes, because for the first time the king married almost on a par. His first wife - Anastasia Zakharyina - was from the nobility, but not so well-born. The second - Maria Temryukovna - Kabardian princess. The boyars hoped that marrying her would help secure an alliance with the Caucasus, and the tsar drew attention to the princess rather out of love for the exotic. The third, Marfa Sobakina, as well as the fourth, Anna Koltovskaya, are from noble noble families at all. And Marya Ivanovna is a representative of an ancient and noble family, descended from the Ruriks themselves.

By law, many of her relatives were almost automatically nominated to the Boyar Duma. So, one of the former favorites certainly had to move, freeing them a place at the throne. Therefore, the rejected appeared more than a weighty reason for dissatisfaction. And now it remains to determine which of Ivan the Terrible's inner circle had the most motives for eliminating the tsar's wife, who was objectionable to them. First of all, the relatives of the first royal chosen one, who sat in the Boyar Duma - namely, the boyars of the Romanovs. What were they to do in such a situation, how not to prepare a conspiracy and eliminate the girl in order to get rid of competitors in the person of Rurikovich?

The Romanovs themselves had no rights to the kingdom. This surname was brought closer to the throne only due to the fact that its representatives were related to the first wife of Ivan the Terrible - Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina. But, unfortunately for them, she did not become the only betrothed of the loving autocrat.

It is known that Ivan the Terrible was quick to reprisal and was known as a man of a quick temper. It was easy for those close to him, such as Boris Godunov, at the request of the Romanovs, to wind up and set up the tsar accordingly, slandering a young girl who was barely fifteen. Over the years, the king was no longer the same as before. After all, let me remind you, they regularly poisoned him with both mercury and arsenic. The great man and clever man, as many contemporaries considered him, as a result of a conspiracy of close "worst friends", turned into a psychopath and neurasthenic in his declining years.

The pros of his reign, in my opinion, still outweigh the cons. The growth of Russia with new lands: Kazan, Astrakhan is worth a lot. Mass executions and the mediocre Livonian War were later, when the mind began to refuse the king.

After the death of Marya Ivanovna, Ivan the Terrible, as I have already said, married three more times, but never after that did he choose a life partner from the highest boyar class. Why has history not preserved reliable evidence of the existence of Marya Dolgoruky? It is quite possible that by removing her, the Romanovs also cleaned up the archives, erasing all mention of the fifth royal wife.

My version as a historian is consonant with the opinion of Kostomarov, and I believe that Dolgoruky not only existed, but also married Ivan the Terrible. And most of all the reasons to remove Marya from the road were just at the boyar house of the Romanovs. Knowing who was to blame for her fate, the girl could easily predict many misfortunes from the Dolgoruky family to the offspring of the Romanovs.

It should be said that the Dolgorukies in question have nothing to do with the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, who was descended from Vladimir Monomakh. The heroes of our story came from Mikhail of Chernigov, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 16th century. His descendant in the eighth generation and in the seventeenth from Rurik - Prince Ivan Andreevich Obolensky was nicknamed Dolgoruky for revenge and vindictiveness. From him came the surname Dolgoruky or Dolgorukov (there is a double spelling of the surname, and Dolgorukov is a later version). And traits of character, apparently, were inherited by subsequent generations. Revenge overtook the enemies of the family even after the death of the representatives of the Dolgoruky family.

If we take this version on faith, discarding doubts because of its fragility and, one might say, semi-legendary, a number of subsequent events will become clear. Firstly, the Rurik dynasty really soon broke off, after which the Romanovs began to claim the throne. Here's how the story developed. Tsarevich Ivan, the eldest son and heir of Grozny, according to many well-known historians, was killed by his father in a quarrel: he stood up for his pregnant wife, who was beaten by the tsar, for which he paid the price. Perhaps everything was completely different and the heir to the throne was simply eliminated in the struggle for power, but at present it is not possible to prove or disprove this.

The young Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Grozny from his last wife Maria Nagoy, one of the possible candidates for the throne, as they say, while playing, ran into his own knife. As if in a fit of epilepsy. This happened already in the reign of his older brother Fyodor Ivanovich, who was not only weak in mind and health, but also childless, for whom the boyar Boris Godunov actually ruled. The latter, according to many, ordered the elimination of the prince, preparing the throne for himself. Fedor "reigned" for fourteen years, but never left heirs, in fact making Godunov his successor. After Boris, who seized power, the Time of Troubles of several False Dmitrys, Vasily Shuisky and the Seven Boyars came, and then Mikhail Romanov ascended the throne. The legend about the curse of the murdered royal wife lived among the people, passed from mouth to mouth by schismatics, but as if on purpose, the Romanovs were drawn to the Dolgoruky.

The first wife of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich was Princess Maria Dolgorukaya, who fell ill immediately after the wedding and died a few months later at the Epiphany of the Lord - allegedly by her own death. Strange circumstance. It should be noted that it was not at all easy to be the bride of the Russian Tsar, it was necessary to go through a real casting! Girls from noble families were brought from all over the country. And God forbid to sneeze or cough during the review - they immediately disqualified. Most likely, Maria Vladimirovna was in perfect order before the wedding, and no one thought that her life would be so short, not counting, perhaps, those who planned evil against Maria. Poison objectionable then mercilessly. And not all victims were distinguished by such good health as Tsar Ivan the Terrible. By the way, after all, his wives also replaced one another, with enviable regularity going to the next world.

One way or another, but after the death of his wife, Mikhail Fedorovich began to fall more and more often, in his own words, into a downturn, and speaking in a modern way, into melancholy or depression, from which even a happy marriage with Evdokia Streshneva did not save him. He died very early, before reaching fifty, which can be considered as confirmation that the Dolgoruky curse continued to operate.

During the time of Peter I, Dolgoruky were again brought closer to the throne. But just how did it end? And the fact that the male branch of the Romanovs was actually interrupted by the grandson of Peter - the son of Tsarevich Alexei, who went down in history as Peter II. After all, after the death of Peter the Great, the Dolgorukies, having eliminated Menshikov, practically took the young emperor hostage and slipped him a girl from her own family, Ekaterina Alekseevna Dolgoruky, as a bride. She almost became Empress Catherine II. Only a few days were not enough: her royal fiancé Peter II fell ill with smallpox and died. This was her fault too. The court healers advised the tsar to refuse to participate in the Christmas parade, so as not to catch a cold in Epiphany frosts and not catch smallpox, which in those days walked around Moscow. But the frivolous girl insisted that fourteen-year-old Peter be present at the parade. He obeyed and as a result caught a cold, and then contracted a fatal disease.

He would live and live if not for Catherine and her brother Ivan Dolgoruky. A friend, mentor and favorite of the young king taught Peter to rampant drunkenness and constantly slipped various girls to him. It is quite possible that the lifestyle imposed by Catherine's brother undermined the health of the young emperor. Of course, such a final was a disaster for the Dolgoruky and the collapse of their far-reaching plans. After all, they have already come close to the throne - and suddenly such a bummer.

For the indefatigable desire for power and completely stupid behavior, this branch of the Dolgoruky paid very cruelly. Anna Ioannovna, having ascended the throne, executed Ivan, dealt with his brothers and uncles, and exiled Catherine to a monastery. They gave the reason themselves, forging the will of Peter II. The young tsar, by no means, could bestow the Russian throne on his bride. I don't think he even had those thoughts. But Ivan Dolgoruky drew up the appropriate paper and forged the royal signature, thereby committing a state crime that caused a storm of indignation: “Where have you seen this?!”

So the Dolgorukis got what they deserved... Relatives renounced the swindlers who dared to proclaim Catherine the Empress. In particular, Vasily Dolgoruky, who at that time was a field marshal, retained his rank, stating in a timely manner that he did not want to be involved in such cases.

However, on the death of Peter II, the curse of Dolgoruky, alas, was not exhausted. It reached its apogee after more than a hundred years and rebounded already on another branch of the Romanov dynasty, which continued along the female line.

It was under Alexander II, who chose his favorite, in other words, mistresses, and then secret spouses, another Ekaterina Dolgorukova. An amazing coincidence! Everything shows that the Romanovs did not take seriously the old legend that was circulating among the people that their family should not approach the Dolgoruky. Alexander II was generally known as a fatalist and an extremely stubborn person, it was not for nothing that he was born under the sign of Taurus. In addition, passion overshadowed the mind - Ekaterina Dolgorukova was thirty years younger! She became his muse, a source of inspiration. The king even painted her naked in the form of the ancient Greek Danae.

Thanks to another Dolgorukova, another Russian tsar from the Romanov family fell victim to an old curse: Alexander attracted the close attention of the Narodnaya Volya terrorists. Either because of the effect of the curse, or because of a misunderstanding and absent-mindedness of Ekaterina Mikhailovna, something irreparable happened - she gave out the route of the sovereign to a secret informer of terrorists. When the princess was a naval officer, attached by her to the court at the request of her brother. So this young military man was connected with the Narodnaya Volya and supplied them with the necessary information, which Ekaterina Dolgorukova foolishly blurted out to him.

“The Tsar should be welcome to me,” she told the officer and described the route: through the Catherine Canal ... As a result, Alexander II did not reach Ekaterina Mikhailovna. On March 13, 1881, he was killed by a bomb thrown by Ignaty Grinevitsky, a Narodnaya Volya member.

Here we should dwell in more detail on the frivolous person who played such a fatal role in the life of the Russian autocrat. Figuratively speaking, a time bomb was planted in it, which not only killed Alexander II, but also undermined the foundations of the entire Romanov empire in the future.

The fact is that through her efforts corruption seeped into the highest echelons of power: through Dolgorukova, interests were lobbied for money. The corruption networks that were woven by those who stood behind the mistress Ekaterina Mikhailovna expanded, became more complicated, even the grand dukes were involved in them. Cooperation with them turned out to be very beneficial due to the principle of non-jurisdiction of high-ranking royal relatives introduced at the court. As soon as the investigation led to one of the Grand Dukes, the case was immediately closed. Such a vicious tradition began precisely in the reign of Alexander II, there was nothing like it before him. But having taken root in the state, corruption did not go away even with the change of system, taking root in the Soviet era. It blooms in lush color to this day.

The Grand Dukes easily put up with the presence of Dolgorukova, as long as it was to their advantage. The tsar, in love, waved the papers without looking, turned a blind eye to any machinations. The corruption of bribery and bribery seeped into all ministries and departments, eventually decomposing and ruining the Romanov dynasty. Fish are known to rot from the head. Lawlessness at court served as a bad example for the rest: if they can do it up there, then why can't we?

Ekaterina Mikhailovna, who gave birth to four children to the tsar, was in many ways an outstanding personality. Alexander was going to crown her king, make her an empress, but did not have time. By the way, it is likely that his elimination was the result of a conspiracy of the Grand Dukes, who felt a real threat to the Romanov succession to the throne, emanating from Ekaterina Dolgorukova.

Not to say that she was an incredible beauty, but, apparently, she had some kind of mysterious inner strength, because contemporaries noted her special magnetic look and imperious character. Probably, like many Dolgoruky, she longed to be on the Russian throne, but like her predecessor, she failed, being a stone's throw from her cherished dream. It is interesting that both Dolgoruky were born under the sign of Scorpio, and under it many fatal women were born. For example, Lilya Brik, who was loved by Vladimir Mayakovsky, as well as Elena Nurenberg, Bulgakov's third wife, who became the prototype of Margarita in his novel The Master and Margarita...

There are many memoirs of contemporaries that testify that people sought royal mercy and encouragement in business precisely through the mediation of Dolgorukova. It is not surprising that the prudent and successful Ekaterina Mikhailovna was a wealthy woman. Her financial situation is unlikely to have deteriorated after the death of Alexander, whom she survived for a long time. Dolgorukova invested corruption money in Western banks and spent the rest of the years, needing nothing, on the Cote d'Azur in Nice, where she died on February 15, 1922 at the age of seventy-four.

By mother, Ekaterina Mikhailovna was Vishnevskaya and half Ukrainian. Her ancestor in the female line, Cossack Colonel Vishnevsky, is known for bringing to St. Petersburg from Little Russia the future all-powerful favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna - Alexei Rozum (Ukrainian surname, which literally translates into Russian sounds like Mind). He was at first a singer in the church choir, and then became ... Count Razumovsky. And his younger brother Kirill Razumovsky is listed in history as the last hetman of Ukraine. It is interesting that it was on him that the then barely nascent Ukrainian statehood ended. And his great-granddaughter was the same Sofya Perovskaya, thanks to whom the assassination of Alexander II took place. And to Ekaterina Mikhailovna, the Tsar's favorite, relatives from Little Russia reached out to find jobs in warm places ...

So the Ukrainian component was also woven into the curse of the Dolgoruky. And what is interesting, after all, the elite of future revolutionaries were people from Ukraine and Belarus - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Dzerzhinsky, Zhdanov, Voroshilov. And later, it was the Ukrainian roots that were in the family of the leaders of the Soviet state - Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Chernenko. By the way, one of the estates of the Vishnevskys in the Kherson province was later bought by Trotsky's father David Bronstein. In the same Yanovka, the “demon of October” himself, Lev Davidovich, was born. This is how bizarrely the deck is shuffled, as Bulgakov said.

The last round of the Dolgoruky curse turned out to be the most destructive for the Russian Empire. Thirty-six years after the death of Alexander II, it simply fell apart. In March 1917, the dynasty ceased to exist, and also in the year of the Snake, as did the regicide that happened. By the way, it is worth noting the amazing March coincidences of the Romanov rule. In March, the first of them, Mikhail Fedorovich, ascended the throne, and in March Alexander II and Paul I were killed, Nicholas I died this month, and Nicholas II abdicated ...

So, the corruption schemes practiced at the court gave rise to a feeling of irresponsibility and lack of jurisdiction of the authorities among the people, with the help of this spark it was easy to ignite the revolutionary flame. That's how sophisticated the curse worked!

I tried to reconstruct the date when it could have been spoken. A friend of mine found a later source in the archive, reporting that the prodigal maiden Dolgoruky was put to death on the day of the new moon. Clinging to this circumstance, I found out that the new moon in that month was the twenty-fourth of November and at the same time a solar eclipse occurred. True, only partial and invisible in our latitudes, but calculated and predicted by astronomers in many countries.

An old belief says: a spell cast during an eclipse is valid for a long time, for centuries. With the onset of the following eclipses, it either dries up or gains new strength. And here's what's interesting: the curse of Dolgoruky each time manifested itself just in such periods. Near the date of the eclipse, Peter II was born and died, and Alexander II was also born. The maximum number of eclipses (and there are no more than seven per year) was noted in 1917, when the Romanov dynasty just died.

Having decided on the date, I finally found the answer to the question: why did women from the Dolgoruky family with the name Catherine have such a devastating influence on the Russian throne? Here is my version.

On November 24, according to the old style (December 7, according to the new), on the day of the drowning of Marya Dolgoruky, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Catherine. Apparently, she stood up for the innocently dead girl. The first Katya led to the death of the male branch of the Romanovs, and the second - the female one, and also ensured the "Ukrainian introduction." But most importantly, she included a certain matrix that had a truly fatal effect on our history.

Tsarist Russia was destroyed for the most part by immigrants from Ukraine. And even Prime Minister Stolypin, the last hope of the empire, was killed in Kyiv. Lenin's ancestors on his mother's side also come from the Ukrainian city of Starokonstantinov. And one more curious coincidence: the last Ekaterina Dolgorukaya, aka Dolgorukova, was born on the fourteenth of November 1847, that is, almost exactly on her seventieth birthday, the October Revolution took place. The matrix acts with enviable constancy!

So, Dolgoruky mystically dealt with the Romanovs. A completely new Russian history began, connected with the Soviet regime. Naturally, I asked myself the question: has the curse of the Dolgorukis dried up or has it been continued in our days? And here's what turned out.

The curse did not make itself felt until in the last twenty years in our country they began to revive the former, Romanov's, symbols and ideology. They were reanimated, without doing anything to defeat corruption, and maintaining the complete lack of jurisdiction of those in power. And in our society, absolutely the same processes that led to the death of the Romanov dynasty were immediately outlined.

I am convinced that we should not at all imitate the Romanov clerical empire, for in this case we are doomed to face the consequences of the curse again. Why not take a different form of government as a model? After all, an empire can be based on completely different principles. There are many examples: the Roman Empire, the Byzantine. A great power is capable of relying on the principles of confederation or colonialism. The United States, Britain, Switzerland are examples of this. And we have a completely different, by no means Romanovian, principle of building an empire, as it was in the era of the Rurikids, when the country was growing in lands.

But we stubbornly follow the Romanov "course", stepping on the same rake. While they lived in the Soviet Union and were far from the symbols and fetishes of the Romanov heritage, the ancient curse seemed to "rest in the Bose." But now the ideological clichés on which Russian statehood rested have begun to be revived again, namely: "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality." This triad was once proposed as a state ideology by the Minister of Public Education, Count Uvarov, in a report to Emperor Nicholas I.

Having analyzed the effect of Dolgoruky's fate, I was able to foresee the current situation in Ukraine back in 2008. And this is just the beginning, further events can grow like a snowball. I would not like that very much.

Based on the conducted historical research, I wrote a detective novel "The Dolgoruky Eclipse". The action in it takes place today around one of the governors, on whom hopes are placed for the revival of Russia. The main character - an astrologer - investigates a mysterious chain of crimes that have their origins in the ancient curse of Dolgoruky. In addition, there is love in the novel, and young extremists, and a whole series of mysterious coincidences.

In this book, I give several quatrains - quatrains, in which world forecasts are encrypted, as well as my vision of future events in our country. In the book itself there is also a cipher that will help to solve them. Those who correctly interpret these predictions will receive a personal prize.

Even in the time of Aristotle, there was an expression: "Your heart is where your money is." Until recently, the finances of some representatives of power structures were kept outside their native country, and their families lived there, out of harm's way.

Americans have another aphorism: "No matter what we talk about, it's always about money." At the heart of the Ukrainian conflict lie for the most part financial interests - and no one particularly hides this. The events taking place there for me personally are, among other things, the embodiment of the same Dolgoruky curse.

It is interesting to note that the time span that constitutes the next round of the Dolgoruky curse includes thirty-six years. That is how much has passed since the assassination of Alexander II until the final fall of the dynasty in 1917. The beginning of the segment in our time coincides with 1989, the disastrous beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the death of Sakharov and, like the death of Alexander II, falls on the year of the Snake.

Twenty-four of the planned thirty-six years had passed by the beginning of the Maidan cycle. Now we are going through a period similar to 1905 - that is, the time of the first Russian revolution, when the empire almost ceased to exist. And it all began, as now, by no means from Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, but all from the same Ukraine - in particular, from an armed rebellion on the battleship of the Black Sea Fleet "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky", which then went to Odessa. We have to wait another eleven years to find out how the distant echo of the Dolgoruky curse will come back to haunt us in 2025. If during this period we cannot prevent the short-sighted cultivation of imperial ideology, if we do not rethink our political program and the Romanov model wins completely, then such an outcome of events that no one now expects is quite likely. The main thing for us is to defeat corruption, devouring the most beautiful ideas of Russian patriotism and the unity of the nation.

A person always determines his own destiny, and historians or astrologers can only warn about the most likely consequences. You go to the left - you will lose your horse, to the right - you will lay down your head, and straight ahead - you will find a bride. But everyone who receives a warning must make his own choice.

Back in 1905, the tsar did nothing to change the fate of Russia. Could, but didn't want to. Let's see what choice will be made today.

Let's take 1914. What, according to contemporaries, there was an inspired upsurge of patriotism in the country! Entire crowds signed up as volunteers for the active army, but the corruption schemes operating in the government quickly extinguished good impulses. In 1915, many already regretted their patriotic feelings.

To prevent this from happening, we need to wish success and good luck to our first person, and let him rally loyal, intelligent and far-sighted people around him, true patriots of Russia, who can think strategically and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

It is worth being guided not only by the search for an ideology that can captivate the masses, but also by common sense. And he suggests: first of all, I repeat once again, it is necessary to overcome corruption - the law must be the same for everyone. Only by accepting this as an axiom will we survive, and the Dolgoruky curse will exhaust itself.

But for now, it still works. The solar eclipse last November just "turned on" the events of the new Maidan in Kyiv. Ukraine once again acted as a puppet state, whose task, in particular, is to test Russia for strength. In the old days, our country withstood both Mazepa and Razumovsky. But in 1917-1918, in the same years as now, the years of the Snake and the Horse, she gave up. Let's see what awaits us this time. I hope for the Lord God, and also for the wisdom of those who make decisions at the very top. And then we will definitely break through. Together...

In order to establish herself on the throne, Anna Ioannovna, on the advice of her favorite Biron, donated the first houses of Russia, among which were the princes Dolgoruky. After the exile of the Menshikovs, Prince Alexei Grigoryevich Dolgoruky, chief chamberlain and member of the Supreme Privy Council, set out to follow his path and broadcast one of his daughters in marriage to Emperor Peter II. After a long choice, the prince settled on Catherine - an ambitious beauty with a strong and determined character. Together with her brother Ivan, she was brought up in Warsaw and, of course, was no longer a recluse, like the princesses of former times.

In the autumn of 1729, the solemn betrothal of Emperor Peter II and E. A. Dolgoruky took place. On the occasion of the holiday, in the front hall of the palace, the floor of which was covered with a luxurious Persian carpet, there was a table with a cross and two golden dishes. There were wedding rings on the dishes, and the Novgorod bishop was already preparing to betroth the young emperor to Princess E. A. Dolgoruky. Six general-majors held on silver poles a silver brocade canopy with gold patterns, under which the betrothed were supposed to stand. But the brilliance of the celebration did not hide the awkwardness between the bride and groom: they did not love each other, and both knew it. Everyone also knew that the young princess loved the Austrian ambassador and only because of her immense ambition agreed to this marriage.

A month after the emperor's betrothal, the young prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky was betrothed to Natalya Borisovna Sheremeteva, who fell in love with her future husband with all the ardor of first love.

I thought I was the first lucky woman in the world, because the first person in our state is my fiancé. With all the natural virtues, he had noble ranks at the court and in the guard. I confess to you that I considered it a great prosperity, seeing him favorably towards me. [At the age of 19, I. A. Dolgoruky becomes a chamberlain, a major of the guard, and then a holder of two Russian awards at once - the orders of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of St. Andrew]

The Dolgoruky family began to prepare for two weddings at once. But suddenly, on the night of January 18-19, 1730, Emperor Peter II died of smallpox. With the death of the emperor, the hopes of the princes Dolgoruky collapsed, and soon all the courtiers retreated from them, as if from the plague. The young prince Ivan, who had so recently turned over state affairs, received foreign ministers and commanded the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, now only cried in front of his bride, N. B. Sheremeteva. About her grief in those days, Natalya Borisovna later wrote:

How soon this statement (the news of the death of Peter II. - Ed.) reached my ears, what happened to me even then - I don’t remember. And when she came to her senses, she only kept repeating: oh, she was gone, she was gone! I knew enough the habit of my state that all the favorites after their sovereigns disappear, which was okay for me to expect.

The old prince A. G. Dolgoruky, in order to retain power, tried to impose a dubious will on behalf of the late emperor, according to which Peter II allegedly bequeathed the Russian throne to his betrothed bride, Princess E. A. Dolgoruky. However, the united and energetic resistance of all the nobles forced him to abandon such a daring plan. N. B. Sheremeteva in her memoirs says that her relatives, having learned about the death of the emperor, immediately came to her and began to dissuade her from marrying I. A. Dolgoruky: she was supposedly still young (then she was barely 16 years old. - Ed.), you can refuse the disgraced groom, there will be others ...

But enter into reasoning, - writes N. B. Sheremeteva, - what a consolation this is for me and whether this conscience is honest, when he was great, I gladly went for him, and when he became unhappy, refuse him. I could not agree to such unscrupulous advice, and so I put my intention: when I give my heart to one, live or die together, and the other no longer participates in my love.

I. A. Dolgoruky lost everything - his fortune, titles, honor, freedom; N. B. Sheremeteva had a choice, and no one would have condemned her that she obeyed reason, especially since the frivolous character of the groom was known to everyone. But on April 5, 1730, she married him in the church of the village of Gorenki near Moscow, the estate of Dolgoruky; none of the Sheremetevs came to see her off to the wedding. And three days after the wedding, Anna Ioannovna's decree followed on the exile of the entire Dolgoruky family to the Penza province, and it was necessary to get ready for a long journey.

Both my husband and I were 37 years old ... He gave everything to my will, I did not know what to do, and there was no one to teach. I thought that I would not need anything and that very soon we would be returned ...

The Dolgoruky family was unfriendly, rude and greedy. As soon as we left Moscow, the young people were separated into their household. They had almost no money, but they had to buy hay for the horses and provisions for themselves. On the way, the exiles were treated like the most vicious villains and criminals. All of them experienced all kinds of oppression, they were even denied food more than once, and they all found themselves in terrible poverty ... As soon as they reached Penza, an officer galloped up from Moscow with a new decree - they were to go "to a distant city, but where - they were not ordered to say , and there (the exiles. - Ed.) Keep under cruel guards, do not allow anyone to them.

So the Dolgorukis ended up in Berezovo, in the same prison where A. D. Menshikov and his family had been exiled shortly before. Due to the lack of premises, the young spouses - Prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky and Princess Natalya Borisovna - were given a woodshed to live in, hastily partitioned off and equipped with two stoves. By personal decree of Anna Ioannovna, the exiles were forbidden to have paper and ink, to leave the prison - with the exception of the church, and even then armed soldiers accompanied them there.

The life of the exiles in Berezovo was dreary: the men had fun hunting for ducks, geese and swans that swam in the pond, the women spent their time in drawing, embroidering sacred images on various materials and sewing church vestments [Two brocade priestly vestments were kept for a long time in the Resurrection Church of Berezov , which, as church records testify, were embroidered by the daughters of Prince A. G. Dolgoruky].

Supervision of the exiles was entrusted to Major Petrov, specially sent from Tobolsk, and the Berezovsky governor Bobrovsky, who turned out to be extremely kind people. Touched by the position and requests of the Dolgoruky, they, despite the decree of the Empress, allowed them to receive guests, walk around the city and even visit some city officials. Bobrovsky and his wife sent Dolgoruky "different food" and gave them fox and other furs.

Princess P. Yu. Dolgorukaya, who arrived in Berezov already completely ill, died a few weeks later. Following her, Prince Alexei Grigorievich died, dejected by years, misfortunes and the severity of the Siberian climate. The children buried them near the Nativity Church and built a wooden monument over the grave, which burned down in 1764. But its charred logs, overgrown with thick turf, could still be seen 100 years later.

Prince Ivan Alekseevich, after the death of his parents, remained the head of the family. But he was a weak man, and, unfortunately, his behavior could not inspire respect for him from his younger brothers and sisters: on the contrary, it had the most detrimental effect on them. Lamenting most of all about the loss of material wealth, Ivan Alekseevich tried to fill his grief with wine, ignoring the tears and entreaties of his wife, who passionately loved him. He spent days and nights in the company of Berezovsky clerks and philistines, drinking with them to the point of insensibility. Abandoned by her husband, subjected to all sorts of insults and troubles from his brothers and sisters, Natalya Borisovna, herself in poor health, found solace only in the cradle of her sons.

And the "tsar's bride" - Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna, despite her excessive pride, briefly became close in Berezov with the officer of the local garrison - Lieutenant Dmitry Ovtsyn. Their connection became known, and others began to seek the favors of the princess, in particular, the Tobolsk clerk Osip Tishin, often came to Berezov on business. Once, in a drunken state, he too immodestly expressed his views and desires to the princess, and the offended Ekaterina Alekseevna complained to her lover. D. Ovtsyn persuaded two of his comrades, and the three of them severely beat O. Silence. The latter vowed to take revenge on the offenders, but for now he continued to visit the Dolgoruky and deliberately started talking with them about the empress and court events in the hope that one of them would let it out. ceased to be shy in expressions, called Anna Ioannovna a Swede and added a few more unflattering words about her and her favorite Biron. Captain P. Sharygin, who was assigned to watch the exiles, immediately reported this to Major Petrov, but the major turned out to be a noble and decent man and tried to hush up the matter. Then a report was submitted to the governor of Tobolsk, which spoke of the indulgences that Major Petrov and the voivode Bobrinsky were giving to the exiles. The governor wrote about everything to St. Petersburg, and soon a nominal decree came from there: “Tell the Dolgoruky to refrain from such quarrels and obscene words in the future and live peacefully under the threat of the most cruel content.”

For a secret investigation of the case, Captain Ushakov, a relative of A.I. Ushakov, the head of the Secret Chancellery, was urgently sent from the Secret Chancellery to Berezov. He very cleverly hid the real reason for his arrival and assured everyone that he had been sent to find out the situation of the prisoners and, if possible, alleviate their plight. The captain visited the Dolgoruky every day, dined with them, walked around the city, and when he found out everything that was needed, he left for Tobolsk. And the very next day after his departure, Prince Ivan Alekseevich was separated from his family and imprisoned in a dugout. They fed him coarse food and very poorly, so long as he did not die of hunger. Princess Natalya Borisovna cried out to the guard soldiers for permission to secretly see her husband through the window at night and bring him food.

In September 1738, on a dark rainy night, a ship sailed up to Berezov. Prince Ivan Alekseevich, governor Bobrovsky, major Petrov, lieutenant D. Ovtsyn, Cossack ataman Likhachev, boyar Kashperov, Berezovsky priests and some other residents were imprisoned on it. The unfortunate were brought to Tobolsk and surrendered to the same captain Ushakov, who now appeared before them as a formidable and implacable judge. Interrogations began "with passion"; all those arrested were accused of friendship and relations with the exiled princes Dolgoruky and punished. The priest of the Nativity Church F. Kuznetsov, despite the intercession of the Siberian Metropolitan Anthony Stakhovsky, was mercilessly beaten with a whip, cut out his nostrils and exiled to Okhotsk for hard labor. Bobrovsky, Petrov, Likhachev, D. Ovtsyn, Kashperov were demoted to soldiers, whipped and sent to Orenburg - to serve, and the last two - to hard labor.

During the entire investigation, Prince Ivan Alekseevich was kept in the Tobolsk prison, chained to the wall - with shackles on his hands and feet. Exhausted morally and physically, he fell into a nervous state, raved in reality and even told about what they didn’t ask him - about drawing up a false will of Emperor Peter II. His unexpected confession led to a new case, in which the uncles of the prince, Vasily Lukich, Sergei and Ivan Grigorievich, and others, were involved. "an image about the state thieves' plans of the Dolgoruky, who, as a result of the investigation, were not only convicted, but they themselves were guilty." By order of Biron, they were brought to Novgorod, subjected to severe torture, and then sentenced to death: Prince Ivan Alekseevich - to be wheeled, and then cut off his head, the rest - to cut off their heads ...

Biron did not spare the brothers and sisters of Prince Ivan Alekseevich either: the princes Alexander and Nikolai were beaten with a whip, then their tongues were cut and they were sent to hard labor; Prince Alexei was sent to Kamchatka as a sailor, and the princesses were imprisoned in various monasteries. Only Princess Natalya Borisovna remained in Berezovo with two young sons who were born in this harsh region. For a long time she did not know anything about the fate of her husband who had been taken away to no one knows where. But at the end of November, Elizabeth Petrovna came to the throne; by decree of the Empress, all Dolgoruky, close to her nephew Peter II, were returned from exile.

Natalya Borisovna returned to St. Petersburg as a young woman, then she was only 28 years old. It would have been possible to start life anew, but she remained faithful to the love and memory of her late husband, rejected reinforced invitations to the court and refused all suitors. In St. Petersburg, the princess settled in the house of her brother Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev, one of the richest people in Russia and the owner of the Kuskovo and Ostankino estates built by him. Having inherited 80,000 serfs from his father, he did not give his sister, who returned from exile, the legal part of his father's inheritance. And then the princess decided to petition for the return to her children of 16,000 souls confiscated from her husband. She turned with a request for assistance to the then all-powerful Lestok, the imperial life physician. He got down to business and even vouched for its success, but demanded for his efforts a magnificent watch with chimes, bought by Count P. B. Sheremetev in London for 7,000 rubles. The count resolutely did not want to part with the watch, Lestok refused to bother, and the government returned to Natalya Borisovna only 2000 peasant souls. The princess settled down very modestly in Moscow and devoted herself entirely to raising her sons. And when the children grew up, she moved to Kyiv and there she took monastic vows at the Florovsky Monastery.

But misfortune did not leave N.B. Dolgoruky here either. Her youngest son, Dmitry, went crazy from unhappy youthful love. Natalya Borisovna, in the monasticism of Nektariy, moved her son to Kyiv in the hope that a solitary monastic life would heal him. But in order to tonsure a young prince from a famous family, the consent of the empress was needed: it was received only in the reign of Catherine II, but it turned out to be no longer needed. Dmitry Ivanovich Dolgoruky died in 1769; the mother survived her son by two years and died at the age of 58.

After exile, the "Tsar's bride" E. A. Dolgorukaya was settled in the Tomsk Nativity Monastery, where she was kept in the most severe imprisonment. She stayed here for more than two years, but misfortunes did not at all soften her arrogant disposition. "Respect the light even in the darkness! I am a princess, and you are a servant," said E. A. Dolgorukaya and proudly looked at the girl. She was embarrassed and immediately went out, forgetting even to lock the door. Another time a general came from St. Petersburg, almost a member of the Secret Chancellery. In the monastery everyone was fussing, running around; the abbess treated the distinguished guest in her cells, brought gifts, images, embroideries, etc. The general, wishing to inspect the prison and the monastery "wells", entered E. A. Dolgoruky. The princess showed him "rudeness" - she did not get up and even turned away from the visitor; the general threatened her with batogs and ordered the abbess to look after the prisoner. But in the monastery they did not know where to look more strictly! And they decided to board up the only window in the closet where the former "tsar's bride" was kept. Since then, they were afraid to even let anyone close to the prison; two monastery girls took it into their heads to look through the keyhole, but they were beaten painfully for this.

Elizaveta Petrovna, upon her accession to the throne, ordered the release of the princess and granted her the title of maid of honor. Leaving the monastery, Ekaterina Alekseevna very graciously said goodbye to the mother abbess and the nuns and promised to send all possible gifts to their monastery [She kept her promise and from time to time sent money and contributions to the monastery in various things.]. The empress wanted to marry the princess as soon as possible, because, despite the official prohibition, Ekaterina Alekseevna continued to be called the "sovereign's bride." However, it was not easy to attach the princess: her Berezovsky adventures and obstinate disposition repelled many suitors, and besides, she herself turned out to be very picky. Only in 1745, the princess was married to General-in-Chief A. R. Bruce, the nephew of the famous associate of Peter I and the famous "warlock", who agreed to this marriage out of personal calculations.

Soon after the wedding, Countess E. A. Bruce went to Novgorod to bow to the ashes of her executed relatives. On the way back, she caught a cold, developed a fever, and died a few weeks later. Arrogance did not leave the former "royal bride" even on her deathbed: two days before her death, she ordered all her dresses and outfits to be burned with her, so that "no one could wear them after her."

Princess Elena Alekseevna Dolgorukaya, after the exile, married Prince Yuri Yuryevich Dolgoruky, and Princess Anna remained a virgin. Together they settled in Moscow, built a house church in the name of the All-Merciful Savior and invited the Berezovites who suffered because of them to live, but they wished to end their days in their homeland ...