Boris Golitsyn was always faithful to Tsar Peter the Great and maintained close relations with him until the end of his life, although he was forced to retire from public affairs. The life of the offspring of the most ancient family for that time was to some extent typical: the steward of the sovereign, the brother of the favorite of the queen. For his loy alty, he was appointed "uncle" of Peter, but later contemporaries blamed Boris Alekseevich for the fact that the emperor was addicted to drunkenness.
Boyar Golitsyn family
Golitsyns are the most numerous kind of princes of the Russian state, which since the eighteenth century has been divided into four large branches (of which three exist to this day). Among the Golitsyns were the richest people (for example, Boris Vasilievich Golitsyn - the owner and founder of several villages, settlements, the owner of vast allotments) and seedy landowners from the provinces. The family comes from the great Lithuanian prince Gediminas.
Activethe life of the princes and landowners Golitsyn was often associated with Kazan and the Volga region: Boris Alekseevich, for example, who will be discussed later, for some time was the actual ruler of the Volga region, fulfilling the Kazan order of the sovereign. And Vasily Vasilyevich was one of the contenders for the Russian throne.
Change of rulers
The son of Prince Alexei Golitsyn and Irina Feodorovna, Princess Khilkova by birth, was born in 1654 or 1651. The offspring of one of the oldest and most noble families, Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn, at the age of twenty, became a steward, that is, close to Tsar Fedor Alekseevich. After the death of the latter, Princess Sophia ascended the throne, his sister, who for the next seven years held the country in a fist. Golitsyn was not forgotten: his cousin Vasily was the favorite of the empress.
After Sofia Alekseevna, the country was shaken up by Peter the Great, a reformer and founder of the city on the Neva. The political predilections of Boris Golitsyn also belonged to him. The prince was faithful to young Peter, so that the mother of the future emperor even entrusted him with raising her own offspring, appointing Golitsyn as "uncle".
Raising Peter
Boris Alekseevich was a rather educated person for his time, an adherent of Western culture and Western European fashion. In this light, his broad acquaintances with the inhabitants of the German Quarter, where almost all foreigners who were then in Moscow, lived, are completely unsurprising.
To visit this place addicted Boris Golitsyn and his young pupil. Unlike hiscousin, who was a very serious person, Boris Alekseevich looked at everything in a simpler way and loved entertainment. Therefore, the process of acquaintance of the young sovereign with the achievements of Western civilization was sometimes replaced by his introduction to distillation.
The essence and character of Golitsyn
People of that time reasonably accused Golitsyn of teaching the tsar to drink. They said about Boris Alekseevich that he "was all poured with wine." By the way, his character can be understood in one letter to the sovereign. It began with quite decent expressions, and then there were German curse words written in Russian. And at the end there was a signature: “Borisko, even though he was drunk.”
But nevertheless, such a breadth of nature, love for distillation and a complex personal organization did not prevent Boris Golitsyn from remaining one of the most faithful people to Peter the Great. Especially trust was strengthened after Boris Alekseevich headed the Trinity Sitting.
On an August night, Peter, frightened by the possibility of an attack by the ruling queen, rode off in his trousers to the Trinity Monastery, which became the opposition headquarters. This was the end of the reign of the regent and the transfer of all power over the Russian Empire to Peter the Great.
Disgrace of Tsar Peter I
Boris Golitsyn was once one of the most influential people in the state, but he spoiled everything. He turned to the tsar with a request to mitigate the fate of his cousin Vasily, the favorite of Sofya Alekseevna. As a result, the prince fell into disfavor with the king. Later he was not very successfulcoped with the uprising in Astrakhan, so that he was finally removed from public office in 1707.
True, he retained the personal disposition of the emperor until his death, regularly corresponded with him in expressions that are usually used only by friends or very good acquaintances.
Boris Golitsyn died on October 18 (old style) 1714 in the monastery of Florishchev Hermitage, in the Vladimir province. A few months before his death, the prince became a monk (his church name is Bogolep).
Boris Golitsyn's family
In 1671, Boris Alekseevich married Maria Feodorovna Khvorostinina, daughter of Prince Fyodor Khvorostinin and Elena Lykova, second cousin of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Ten children were born in the family: Alexander, Maria, Evdokia, Alexei, Anastasia, Vasily, Anna, Sergei, Marfa, Agrafena.
Image in art and culture
Boris Golitsyn is the hero of A. Tolstoy's novel "Peter the Great". Based on this novel, the films directed by Sergei Gerasimov "At the Beginning of Glorious Deeds" and "Peter's Youth" were filmed. The role of Boris Golitsyn was played by Mikhail Nozhkin.
