Artamon Sergeevich Matveev is a well-known Russian statesman. He held the post of head of the Ambassadorial Department, was the head of the Russian government at the end of the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It is considered one of the first "Westerners", who, long before Peter I, called for paying more attention to foreign experience, actively adopting it. In addition, Matveev was a fan of art, stood at the origins of the court theater.
Career
Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev was born in 1625. His father was a deacon who carried out diplomatic missions. In particular, in 1634 he was in Turkey, and in 1643 - in Persia.
At the age of twelve, the hero of our article was determined to live in the royal palace, brought up together with the future Tsar Alexei. In his youth, Artamon Sergeevich Matveev was sent to serve in Little Russia, took part in the wars with the Commonwe alth, and in 1656 besieged Riga.
In the rank of colonel and the head of the Streltsy of the third order, as part of the regiment of Prince Alexei Nikitich Trubetskoy, he besieged Konotop. It was one of the key battles of the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667. Trubetskoy was opposed by Hetman Vyhovsky. The noble cavalry, being in an ambush, was defeated, after which Trubetskoy was forced to retreat. Vyhovsky's local success did not fundamentally affect the situation. After their defeat, he participated in negotiations with the hetmans Gonsevsky and Vyhovsky.
In 1654 Artamon Sergeevich Matveev took part in the Pereyaslav Rada. It was a meeting of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, headed by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, at which the decision was finally made to join the Zaporizhzhya army to the Russian kingdom. After that, the Cossacks swore allegiance to the king.
Approximate king
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who knew Artamon Matveev from childhood, helped advance his career. In 1666-1667, the hero of our article was invited to the Great Moscow Cathedral, convened by the sovereign. On it, Alexei Mikhailovich actually arranged a trial of Patriarch Nikon, accusing him of schismatics.
As part of this council, Artamon Matveev accompanied the Eastern Patriarchs in Moscow, who had specially arrived in Russia.
In 1669, together with Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Romodanovsky, he participated in the organization of the Glukhov Rada. When he returned to Moscow, he was appointed head of the Little Russian order instead of Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin. In this position, he oversawmanagement of the territories that are part of the Left-bank Ukraine.
An important event in the biography of Artamon Sergeevich Matveev happened in 1671, when he was also appointed head of the Ambassadorial Department. In this position, he was in charge of relations with foreign states, the exchange and ransom of prisoners, as well as the administration of a number of territories in the southeast of the country. In the same year he received the rank of duma nobleman. A year later, the okolnichi, then the neighbor okolnichi and, finally, the neighbor boyar in 1674.
The king's wife
It was in the house of the boyar Artamon Matveev that Alexei Mikhailovich met a relative of his wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. The girl at that time was brought up in the chambers of Matveev's wife. Naryshkina became the second wife of Alexei Mikhailovich, the mother of the future Russian Emperor Peter I.
All this brought the sovereign even closer to the hero of our article. Their friendship is evidenced by the letters that the tsar wrote to Matveev. For example, he asked Artamon Sergeevich to come to them, arguing that the children were orphaned without him, and he himself had no one else to consult with.
Westernism
Boyarin Artamon Sergeevich Matveev especially valued relations and communication with foreigners. I always rejoiced when some overseas novelties took root on Russian soil. For example, under the Ambassadorial order, he organized a printing house, thanks to which he managed to collect an extensive library. There is another remarkable episode in the biography of Artamon Matveev - he was among the organizers of the first pharmacy in Moscow.
In the European fashion of the time, his house was furnished and cleaned. With pictures of German work, painted ceilings, clocks of the most intricate design. All this was so relevant that even foreigners paid attention.
Relationships in the family were also built according to the Western model. The wife often appeared in the male society. He gave his son Andrey an education according to the European model.
It is noteworthy that in doing so, he paid attention not only to the Western direction in Russian foreign policy. For example, he concluded an agreement on the trade in Persian silk that was beneficial for the court with Armenian merchants. It was Matveev who initiated the fact that the Moldavian boyar Nikolai Spafari went to explore the path to China.
While conducting international affairs, the hero of our article tried in every possible way to avoid conflicts with the Swedes. He far-sightedly looked into the future, seeing them as assistants in neutralizing the influence of the Commonwe alth in the Dnieper region.
Passion for art
When telling even a brief biography of Artamon Sergeevich Matveev, it is necessary to pay enough attention to his love for art. It was he who suggested that Yuri Mikhailovich Givner, the translator of the Posolsky Prikaz and a teacher from the German settlement, gather a troupe of actors to amuse the tsar with theatrical performances.
With his participation, the Lutheran pastor Johann Gregory from the Holy Roman Empire staged the first play of the Russian theater in 1672. It was called "Artaxerxes Action". Interestingly, until the middle of the 20th century, thisthe work was officially considered lost. But in 1954, information was discovered about two of his lists at once, preserved in different libraries.
The play was played in German, its plot was a transcription of the biblical Book of Esther. The duration of the play was ten hours, and the artists played without intermission. It was staged for the first time in the Transfiguration Palace.
Being an educated person, Matveev wrote literary works himself. Most of them were of historical content. It is believed that none of them has survived to this day. It is known that among them was the "History of the election and wedding of Mikhail Fedorovich to the kingdom" and "The history of Russian sovereigns in military victories and faces."
Besides, he was involved in the creation of the "Royal titular". This is a guide dedicated to the monarchs and other first persons of Russia and foreign countries.
Opala
Shortly after Alexei Mikhailovich died in 1676, Matveev found himself in disgrace. There is a version that he tried to put the young Peter on the throne, speaking out against the supporters of his brother Fyodor.
There is another assumption. According to him, the decisive role in the fall of Matveev was played by the Miloslavskys, who began to have too much influence at court. They decided to destroy the boyar out of revenge, recalling old grievances to him.
In a brief biography of Artamon Matveev, you can find information that he was formally accused of insulting a foreign ambassador, for which he was exiled with his whole family to Pustozersk. This is a small town interritory of the modern Nenets Autonomous Okrug. A few years later he was transferred to Mezen, located within the Arkhangelsk region.
At the same time, Matveev had many supporters at court who supported him in every possible way. One of them was the second wife of Fyodor Alekseevich Marfa Matveevna Apraksina, the goddaughter of the hero of our article. Thanks to her intercession, the disgraced boyar was transferred to the village of Lukh in the Ivanovo region.
The death of the boyar
After Peter was elected to the throne in 1682, power was in the hands of the Naryshkins. They were on good terms with Matveev, so they started by bringing him back from exile, giving him the same honors that befitted his status.
May 11, 1682 Matveev arrived in Moscow, and four days later the Streltsy rebellion broke out in the capital. Artamon Sergeevich became one of the first victims of this uprising. He made an attempt to convince the archers not to oppose the ruler, but was killed in front of the royal family.
It happened on the Red Porch. The boyar was thrown down into the square and chopped to pieces. Matveev was 57 years old.
He was buried in the Armenian lane at the Church of St. Nicholas in the Stolpakh. At the beginning of the 19th century, a monument to his grave was erected by his direct descendant, Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, who at that time held the post of State Chancellor. The church where Matveyev's grave was located was demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1938.
Private life
Artamon Matveev's wife Evdokia Hamilton came from an old Scottish noblekind. She died in 1672, a few years before her husband fell into disgrace.
The granddaughter of the hero of our article, Maria Andreevna Matveeva, married the military leader and diplomat Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev, became the mother of the famous commander, hero of the Seven Years and Russian-Turkish War Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. Moreover, there were persistent rumors that she gave birth to him not from her legal husband, but from Peter the Great.
Diplomat Son
A successful career was built by his son Andrei, who was awarded the title of count in the Holy Roman Empire. There he was for a long time in the status of a permanent envoy of Russia.
Andrey Artamonovich was an associate of Peter I, who remembered how his father opposed the archers. In addition, Andrei was the only son of Matveev. At the same time, he was never particularly close to the king, did not take part in his military amusements. But he had first-class teachers who taught the young man foreign languages and even Latin.
Becoming an ambassador, he constantly heard rave reviews about his education. Considered one of the first domestic memoirists. Curious notes about the court of the French king Louis XIV belong to his pen. Like his father, he was a representative of the Westerners, had one of the best private libraries in the country.
Portraits and images
Apparently, the image of Matveev and his wife Evdokia can be seen on the icon with Christ Emmanuel by an unknown court painter. Presumably, it was written in 1675-1676. At presenttime is in the museum-estate "Kolomenskoye".
The icon depicts the bowed figures of a woman and a man. A man with a beard and in a magnificent robe, and a woman in a long veil. To assume that a boyar couple, and not saints, is depicted here, allows a deviation from the accepted and approved iconographic scheme, which at that time happened extremely rarely and only in exceptional cases. In addition, the names of Evdokia and Artamon are inscribed above the heads of the couple.
The first assumption that the icon depicts Matveev was put forward by the Soviet restorer and architect Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky.
The figure of the boyar can be seen on the monument "1000th Anniversary of Russia", which was installed in Veliky Novgorod in 1862.
Incarnations on screen
More than once the character of Matveev interested directors of historical films. In 1980, in the biographical drama of Sergei Gerasimov "The Youth of Peter", he was played by the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky.
The picture just tells about the early years of the future Russian emperor, including the Streltsy rebellion, the victim of which was the hero of our article.
In 2011, Ilya Kozin plays Matveev in the historical series of Nikolai Dostal's "Split"
