How Suvorov married the whole village, or What were the figures of education and heroes of the times of serfdom

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many manor-museums amaze with descriptions of their former owners, often of Catherine's nobles. They were both enlightened and progressive, and people of great taste and intelligence. But it is worth considering many of the movers of progress of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries not from the side of the estate, and you understand … That now, on average, people will be better. Although, maybe the taste and their manners are not the same.

Alexander Suvorov: people are like cattle

The hero of Catherine's Wars, Alexander Suvorov, is usually remembered as an exceptionally democratic person. And he ate the soldier's porridge, and slept on the ground, and, together with Count Potemkin (whom he could not stand), jointly advocated a change in the soldier's uniform: in wigs, they say, mice strive to start.

But in the home circle, all his democracy evaporated. He looked at his serfs like cattle. Once he got tired of the fact that not all the peasants were in a hurry to give birth, and he lined up single boys and unmarried girls in two ranks, according to their height. And then, just as they lined up, he took them to get married. Whether they want it or not, whether they like the pair they have got - what's the difference! Rather, let's get a litter, work for the master. Both before and after he also interfered in the private life of the peasants, striving to marry more people. He did not recognize love for the peasants at all.

Alexander Suvorov himself, despite his considerable age (forty-four years), was also married without interest in his predilections. The bride was brought into the house by her father, Suvorov Sr. Princess Varvara Prozorovskaya was considered a little too late in girls, but she was healthy and noble. The wedding took place about a month after the presentation of his bride to Suvorov, which for that time was incredible speed. Suvorov Sr. simply used his son to continue his line, regardless of his heartfelt inclinations (or lack thereof).

Ivan Betskoy: dubious patronage

One of the founders of the Smolny Institute, President of the Imperial Academy of Arts Ivan Betskoy was considered one of the main figures of the Russian Enlightenment. Empress Catherine herself noted his education and graceful taste. He had the most advanced views on the upbringing of children: he was going to educate a new breed of nobility, free from old vices like laziness, slovenliness, irrationality of behavior and disorder of thought. In the system he developed, education was paid attention to literally every aspect, from physical development to intellectual development.

The patron saint of girls who were supposed to become the color of the nobility in future Russia, Betskoy, however, as soon as he once looked for one of the girls of the institute he supervises, calmly rejected his own principles of morality. He began to look after Glafira Alymova, an orphan, even when she could not be mistaken for a mature girl. And after graduation, the seventy-year old man simply stole Glafira, taking her home in his carriage.

Although Betskoy was not ready to commit violence against the girl and hoped to tame her first, he could not help but realize what a blow to the reputation of a defenseless orphan inflicted by keeping her under the roof of his house. The girl was very tormented by the ambiguity of her position and in the end literally ran away to marry a man only twenty years older - against the background of Betsky, he seemed young. Betskoy received an apoplectic stroke from indignation, that is, a stroke.

Alymova was not the first girl Betskoy settled at home. And before Glafira, he brought young "pupils" to his house, to whom he allocated support. No one had any illusions about the purity of morals in the one who constantly wrote about the upbringing of this purity. Most likely, Alymova was the only one who managed to avoid direct corruption due to the way she held herself and, probably, Betsky's age.

Nikolai Sheremetev: a dirty story that has become a legend of love

But Betskoy and Suvorov are lost against the background of many other noble Russians. Count Sheremetev owned the famous theater and therefore was inscribed in the history of the development of Russian culture and art. Many people know the story of his tender love for the serf Praskovya Zhemchugova, whom he eventually married, giving her a free gift. But before the wedding, Praskovya, whose real name was, by the way, Gorbunova - Sheremetev simply arbitrarily renamed his actresses - was only one of the slaves of his extensive harem.

In the Sheremetev theater there were two types of actresses: corps de ballet and soloists (which is to be expected). The attitude towards them was different. The dancers of the corps de ballet, shining on stage in luxurious outfits, huddled in cramped, poorly heated closets, received meager portions of porridge and, apart from applause, for their service to art were not rewarded by her connoisseur Sheremetev in any way.

The soloists were at the same time the Count's involuntary mistresses. Peasant girls fell into concubines from about fourteen years old, and no one asked their opinion about the count's love. It was just that during the day one of them would find a handkerchief in her room - and at night the count came “for the handkerchief”, at the same time quenching his lust. Zhemchugova was at first one of the crowd for him. He did not ask her consent to the wedding any more than he usually asked the consent of any of his actress for intimacy - with this marriage he made her happy. Simply because otherwise her fate would have been even worse.

By the way, the marriage was short-lived, Praskovya died shortly after the wedding. Well, at least she was not thrown into the backyard or completely out of the estate, as was the case with the annoying soloists in the Sheremetevs' house.

The collector of the future collection of the Hermitage, a great connoisseur of beauty, Nikolai Yusupov was famous for his games worse. Not only that, his serf actresses were obliged to dance in front of his guests a dance with throwing off their clothes (they did not know the words striptease yet) and, obviously, after that to receive the "caress" of guests - he himself most of all in the world loved to catch actresses behind the scenes right after the performance and rip off their clothes myself. Then a whip or a cane was often used - the most educated man of his era took pleasure in giving women pain. Serfdom gave him unlimited opportunities to satisfy this passion.

Moreover, Yusupov and Sheremetev did not stand out in any way against the background of other Catherine's nobles - lovers of the Enlightenment. For the norm, it was ordered to beat his peasant. Forcing peasant girls to cohabitate was not considered a crime if the girl was not completely young, or a half-sister (landowners bore many illegitimate children from peasants, but looked at them like cattle), or died as a result of the violence committed. And then - the clergy were mostly indignant. The neighbors continued to treat the landowner with respect, as to General Izmailov.

Lev Izmailov: immature harem

Lieutenant General Izmailov was a hero of several wars. He fought with the Swedes - and received an order, with the Polish rebels, with Napoleon (two orders). In retirement, he was elected leader of the nobility in the Ryazan province and spent thirteen years in this position.

Moreover, all the neighbors knew that Izmailov was passionate - he preferred to keep in the harem not "red girls" who blossomed like other landowners, but barely entered puberty. Even with his neighbors, the smaller nobles, he treated, shall we say, without delicacy, in the spirit of Troyekurov - he was completely fierce over the peasants. This also applied to his “chosen ones”. The addiction of the landowner not only did not give privileges to the girls whom he kept locked up, they were punished even more often, because the landowner wanted them to behave as depraved as possible, did not dare to betray embarrassment, to be constrained. Some of these girls were, no doubt, his own daughters by the harem's previous concubines; this has been reliably proven only about one.

Here is how witnesses describe the Lieutenant General's entertainment: “From the testimony it turns out that General Izmailov was also hospitable in his own way: girls were always taken to his guests for the night, and for guests significant or for the first time, innocent people were chosen, even if they were only twelve years old … So, soldier Mavra Feofanova says that in the thirteenth year of her life she was taken by force from the house of her father, a peasant, and she was corrupted by Izmailov's guest, Stepan Fedorovich Kozlov. She escaped from this landowner, but she was caught and, on the order of the master, was severely beaten with a stick.

In the end, information about Izmailov's "quirks" even reached the Emperor Alexander I, so that he considered it necessary to personally demand that the landowner be cut short. By and large, the lieutenant general, however, there was nothing. He was deprived of his harem and made sure that he did not make himself a new one; he was also forbidden to leave the boundaries of his chosen place of residence. He did not suffer any real punishment and until the end of his days enjoyed the respect of other landowners.

And the most subtle connoisseurs of beauty were smeared with the same oil: How Russian noblemen mocked serfs to amaze guests with ballet.