On a cloudy autumn morning on November 19, 1739, a huge crowd gathered in the central square of Novgorod. She was attracted by the upcoming spectacle - none other than the former favorite of Emperor Peter II, the once all-powerful Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, was to rise to the scaffold. During the years of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, Russian people got used to bloody executions, but this was a special case ─ the disgraced courtier was expected to be quartered.
Descendants of the Vengeful Prince
Prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky came from an old noble family, which was one of the many branches of the Obolensky princes. He and his relatives owe their last name to their common ancestor ─ Prince Ivan Andreevich Obolensky, who received the very expressive nickname Dolgoruky in the 15th century for his vindictiveness.
Representatives of this family are often mentioned both in historical documents and in the legends of past centuries. In particular, popular rumor has preserved an undocumented story about one of the many wives of Ivan the Terrible ─ Maria Dolgoruky.
The reality of this marriage is in great doubt, because by that timethe loving tsar was already married four times, which completely exhausted and even exceeded the limit set by the Church Charter.
Perhaps, in this case we are talking only about another extramarital cohabitation, which fully corresponded to the mores of Ivan the Terrible. Maria Dolgorukaya, according to researchers, is generally more of a fictional character than a real one.
Youth spent in Warsaw
Ivan Dolgoruky - the eldest son of Prince Alexei Grigoryevich Dolgoruky - was born in 1708 in Warsaw and spent his childhood with his paternal grandfather Grigory Fedorovich. Heinrich Fick, a well-known writer and teacher of German origin, was entrusted with his upbringing.
However, despite all the efforts to instill in the youth stiffness and gravity, worthy of his origin, he did not particularly succeed. Ivan was more to his liking the carefree and very loose morals that then reigned at the court of the Polish king Augustus II, where he constantly rotated. In 1723 Ivan found himself in Russia for the first time. Below is his portrait.
Meet the future king
If you believe the information of contemporaries about the character of Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, then from the crowd of courtiers in those years he was distinguished by unusually cordial kindness and the ability to win over people. This last quality was most clearly manifested in his relations with the grandson of Peter I, Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, who later ascended the Russian throne under the name of Peter II. His portrait is shown below.
Despite the age difference ─ IvanDolgoruky was seven years older than the Grand Duke - a close friendship began between them from the first days of their acquaintance. Very soon they became an inseparable couple in all drinking, revelry and love affairs.
The start of a brilliant career
In 1725, after the death of Peter I and the accession of his wife Catherine I, Prince Dolgoruky received the rank of Hoff Junker with his titled friend. But the true rise of his career followed two years later, when Grand Duke Pyotr Alekseevich took the Russian throne, vacated after the death of Catherine I, and was crowned as Tsar Peter II.
Even in the reign of Catherine I, the former favorite of Peter I A. D. Menshikov, who by that time had managed to betroth his daughter Maria to the young emperor, was extremely worried about the increased influence at court of Prince Ivan Dolgoruky. However, his attempts to remove the opponent from the capital were unsuccessful.
Moreover, having swirled Peter in an incessant round dance of amusements, often arranged in the company of his beautiful aunt Elizabeth Petrovna (the future empress) and pretty ladies-in-waiting, Prince Ivan made his friend forget about the bride imposed on him by Menshikov. At the same time, he very deftly betrothed his own sister Ekaterina to him.
Young minion of fortune
In 1728, A. D. Menshikov, becoming a victim of court intrigues, fell into disgrace and was exiled with his whole family, first to Rannenburg, and then even further ─ to the small Siberian town of Berezovo, where he soon died. Since that time, family members have firmly taken his place at the throne. Dolgoruky, who enjoyed unlimited influence on the emperor due to his disposition towards Ivan, as well as the wedding expected in the future.
In the same year, the entire court, having left the new capital, moved to Moscow, and the Dolgoruky moved there with him. The young prince Ivan, having become the favorite of the emperor, is honored with all conceivable and inconceivable favors. In his incomplete twenty years, he becomes a general of infantry, chief chamberlain of the imperial court, major of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and also a holder of two highest state orders.
New Prince traits
How the character of Ivan Dolgoruky had changed by this time can be judged on the basis of the memoirs of the Spanish resident at the court of Peter II, Duke de Liria. In particular, he writes that the main features of the prince at that time were arrogance and arrogance, which, in the absence of education, intelligence and insight, made communication with him in most cases extremely unpleasant.
However, the Duke notes that despite this, he often showed signs of kindness of heart. As the main inclinations of the prince, he calls the love of wine and women. It should be noted that the diplomat expresses not only his personal opinion, but also reports the information of his contemporaries known to him about the character of Prince Ivan Dolgoruky.
While his father Alexei Grigorievich was busy with the troubles and intrigues connected with the upcoming betrothal of his daughter Catherine to the young emperor, Ivan indulged in unrestrained revelry. He unfolded so widely that the description of the outrages he did was consideredit is necessary to state in his notes "On the damage to morals in Russia" the well-known historian and publicist of the Elizabethan times, Prince Shcherbatov.
Marriage Trouble
Nevertheless, the thought of settling down finally entered his hungover head. The rake decided to start his new life with marriage and made an offer not to anyone, but to the princess Elizaveta Petrovna herself ─ the daughter of Emperor Peter the Great, who died three years ago (her portrait is presented below). By that time, the young beauty had managed to give her love to many lucky people who managed to reach her heart, but she did not intend to enter into an unequal marriage (this is how her union with a person who did not belong to any royal house could be regarded.
Having received a polite but very categorical refusal and remembering the old truth that a titmouse in a cage is much better than a crane in the sky, Prince Ivan Dolgoruky wooed the fifteen-year-old daughter of the recently deceased Field Marshal Count B. P. Sheremetyev ─ Natalya Borisovna.
Since this marriage suited both his relatives and the bride's relatives, the news of the upcoming wedding was greeted with general rejoicing. Most of all, Natasha herself rejoiced, having managed to fall in love with her Vanya for her cheerful disposition, kind heart, and also for the fact that everyone called him “the second person in the state.”
Strike of Fate
Peter 2 and Ivan Dolgoruky, like true friends, even in the arrangement of their personal lives, walked side by side. At the end of October 1729, the young sovereign became engaged to Princess CatherineAlekseevna Dolgoruky, and two months after that, his favorite became the official groom of Natalia Sheremetyeva. However, a tragedy soon followed, shattering all their plans and fatally affecting the history of Russia for the next decade.
In early January 1930, a few days before the wedding, the young sovereign fell seriously ill. According to some reports, he contracted smallpox, which often visited Moscow in those years, according to others, he caught a cold while hunting. One way or another, but his condition rapidly deteriorated. The court doctors were forced to state that there was no hope for recovery, and the remaining life was counted by the clock.
Last Hope
Is it worth talking about what the princes Dolgoruky and Ivan himself experienced in those days, because with the death of Peter II, who did not have time to marry his sister Catherine, that world of we alth, honor and prosperity, to which they got used to it. The sick emperor was still trying to cling to life, and the Dolgorukis were already catching the malevolent glances of envious people.
Wishing to save the situation, Prince Alexei Grigoryevich (Ivan's father) made a will on behalf of the sovereign, according to which he allegedly declared his bride, Ekaterina Dolgoruky, the successor to the throne. The calculation was that the son would slip this linden to be signed by the dying and already losing his mind sovereign, after which his daughter would become the empress with all the benefits for their family.
The collapse of all plans
However, the calculation did not materialize. Get genuinethe signature of Peter II, who died on January 19, 1730, failed, and his former favorite Ivan Dolgoruky, who was unusually able to copy the hand of his master, signed the will. However, this trick was sewn with white thread to such an extent that it could not mislead anyone. Literally the next day, the State Council was assembled, electing the Duchess of Courland Anna Ioannovna, who was the daughter of Peter I's brother and co-ruler Ivan V.
With the accession of Anna Ioannovna (her portrait is presented above), the Dolgoruky family was persecuted. Many of its representatives were sent by governors to distant provincial places, and the head of the family with children was exiled to the village. Previously, they were all interrogated regarding the will, the authenticity of which no one believed, but at that time the trouble was avoided.
Shaded Wedding
Former acquaintances, who until recently servilely before them, now shied away from the disgraced family, as if from the plague. The only person who remained faithful was Ivan's fiancee, Natalya Sheremetyeva, who did not want to leave her loved one in difficult times and was looking forward to the wedding. To her great joy, it took place in early April of the same year in Gorenki, the Dolgoruky estate near Moscow, which the late Tsar Peter II loved to visit.
But this happiness turned out to be short-lived. Three days after the wedding, a courier from St. Petersburg arrived in the village with a notice that the entire Dolgorukov family refers to the eternal settlement in Berezov - the very wilderness in whichshortly before this, their sworn enemy A. D. Menshikov ended his days.
As a result, Ivan Dolgoruky and Natalya Sheremetyeva spent their honeymoon in jolting wagons on the roads of Siberia. The failed royal bride Ekaterina Alekseevna also went there, carrying the fruit of her fiancé's hasty and premature passion under her heart.
Life in prison
Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, the favorite of Peter II, being in the role of an exile, fully experienced the hardships that fall to the lot of those who, by the will of fate, were at odds with the authorities. The princely towers, to which Ivan had become accustomed since childhood, had to be replaced by the dark and stuffy cages of the Berezovsky prison, from which they were strictly forbidden to leave.
However, Ivan Dolgoruky, sociable by nature, soon made friends among the officers of the local garrison and, with their permission, not only left his dungeon, but even began to drink, as he once did in the happy time of his life. He frolicked with just anyone and, when drunk, was extremely unrestrained in his tongue. This got him into trouble.
The denunciation and the beginning of the inquiry
Once, in his temper, in front of witnesses, he dared to call Empress Anna Ioannovna with swear words. And besides, he boasted that he had forged the signature of the late emperor in the will. By morning, Ivan completely forgot everything, but there was a person who remembered his words well and sent a denunciation to St. Petersburg (something, but there were always enough informers in Mother Russia).
History has preserved the name of this scoundrel. It turned out to be a clerk from TobolskTishin customs. No matter how the fellow officers tried to avert trouble from Ivan, the case was given a move. A commissioner arrived from the capital, who conducted an inquiry on the spot. Soon the prince, his two brothers, and with them many more people suspected of involvement in sedition, were sent from Beryozov to Tobolsk and placed in prison, where they were immediately interrogated.
Execution
Ivan Dolgoruky admitted his guilt under torture and, in addition, slandered many relatives involved, according to him, in drawing up a false will. In January 1739, he and all those who were with him on the case were taken to Shlisselburg, where interrogations continued.
The fate of the unfortunate prisoners was decided by the "General Assembly" consisting of high dignitaries and convened to pass sentences on political criminals. The statesmen, having familiarized themselves with the materials of the case, made decisions on each of the accused. All of them were sentenced to death. The main culprit, Prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky, was quartered in 1739 on the central square of Novgorod, where he was taken along with the rest of the convicts.
