How to raise a great ruler: Peter I and his two mentors

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

Pyotr Alekseevich Romanov could have remained so in the history of Russia as a "passing" ruler, moreover, sharing the throne with another tsar. But fate willed that this boy, from childhood removed from everything that could contribute to the development of the autocrat's talents, would later receive the nickname the Great. Is it because there were those with whom it was interesting to “play the king”? Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon - how did these two foreigners manage to raise the first Russian emperor?

Russia at the end of the 17th century and attitudes towards foreigners

If you plunge into the atmosphere of the time, the time when the descendants of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ruled, then it becomes more or less clear the reason why Peter would later orient the development of Russia to the west. In any case, then certainty was needed. With the coming to power of the Romanovs and throughout the entire 17th century, foreigners exerted a rather significant influence on Russian reality. In the Kremlin, however, they either opposed such influence, or supported the idea of exchanging experience and culture with immigrants from Europe. When Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich died, and his brothers, John V and Peter I, ascended the throne, with the regency of Sophia's sister, the foreigners were rather on the bad side.

As usual, outsiders were blamed for domestic problems, and xenophobia flourished at the highest level: Patriarch Joachim was a fierce opponent of everything foreign, who, among other things, called for the destruction of all non-Orthodox churches in the country and in every possible way opposed the approach of any of the Europeans to the court and to the heirs to the throne, and then to the tsars. Beginning in 1682, power formally came from the young Peter (at that time he was ten) and his older brother, who was distinguished by poor health, in fact, Sophia and her entourage ruled, first of all the favorite princess Vasily Golitsyn, who, unlike the patriarch, was keenly interested in European experience and European culture.

Peter did not participate in solving any state issues, but he learned the culture and life of immigrants from European countries from an early age. The German settlement, the territory allocated for foreigners, was located near the village of Preobrazhensky, so familiar to Peter. Each time, passing by, the tsar gazed into this outlandish reality for him: other houses, people distinguished by their dress, and manners, and behavior, and by something else elusive, but attractive. at court, he had to invent entertainment for himself, and Peter, as best he could, organized games according to age - not without the help of the inhabitants of the German settlement. "Funny troops" became the prototype of the Russian guard, and the young tsar showed himself not only as an extra behind the back of a strong ruler, but as a man who can adequately dispose of power.

Meanwhile, by 1689, the conflict between the king and the regent was escalating to the limit and demanded drastic measures; in September 1689, Peter took refuge in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and sent a letter to the German settlement demanding all foreign generals and officers to appear in the Lavra to protect the tsarist life and the tsarist power. Among others, Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon obeyed the order of the king. With them he entered Moscow, and his sole rule began.

Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon

By that time, both had been in the service of the Russian state for quite a long time. Franz Lefort, Franz Yakovlevich, as he will be called in Russia, was born in 1655 in Geneva - at that time it was a free city, not yet part of Switzerland. Nevertheless, Lefort will be called Swiss all his life. His father's business - trade - he did not want to continue and at the age of nineteen he went to Holland, tried to make a military career under the Duke of Courland, and then decided to try his luck in Russia, attracted by the seductive opportunities that she opened up to enterprising foreigners.

Lefort settled, of course, in the German settlement, but, being in the army, he participated in various campaigns, including the Crimean ones. In Russia, Lefort felt great, however, he could get settled everywhere with the maximum comfort for himself. Smart and enterprising, but at the same time cheerful and sociable, the Swiss quickly made friends, and one of them was Tsar Peter I. During 1689 and after the relationship between the Tsar and Lefort became stronger, the Swiss became a friend and adviser to the young Peter, and the further life of the ruler, and with it Russian politics, will be under the influence of Lefort.

The second, who was next to the sovereign after the overthrow of Sophia, was the Scotsman Patrick Gordon, or, in the Russian way, Peter Ivanovich Gordon. He was born in 1635, was, unlike Lefort, much older than Peter and generally differed from the cheerful Swiss, both in origin and in nature. True, the similarities in their biographies are constantly traced, including the most amazing ones. Gordon, a descendant of an old and noble Scottish family, also left his native land to devote himself to military service. At first he fought for the Swedes, then several times "changed flags" - for a hired soldier this was a common thing. Finally, in 1661, the Russian ambassador in Warsaw persuaded him to join the tsarist army.

Gordon participated in many campaigns, proved himself as a talented and intelligent strategist and military leader, rose to the rank of full general. Peter noticed Gordon during the review, which arranged the Butyrsky regiment in 1687. And when a letter came from the tsar that he demanded to decide which side to support from now on, General Gordon obeyed the order of the young Peter. From that time on, it was he who began to lead all the military activities of the tsar.

Play, conversation, fun, personal example are the main components of the upbringing of a great king

It would be an exaggeration to think that Tsar Peter chose his advisers only on the basis of their professional abilities. Rather, he was drawn to people who were carried away, those who were passionate about their work, like Gordon, or were simply true to themselves in everything, like Lefort. And the tsar himself was so indifferent to boring state duties, he was burning with what occupied his thoughts - amusing battles, building a fleet, new skills, new acquaintances. All this he found in the company of his main mentors - Lefort and Gordon. The first, constant drinking companion of Peter, who taught him to drink without getting drunk, a merry fellow, a master of organizing banquets and dinners, who knows how to talk and bring guests together, at the same time sincere and charming. Evenings at Lefort attracted Peter like a magnet: in Russia they did not know how to have such fun, not to mention how much smoother and more interesting communication with the ladies was - in contrast to the Russian young ladies raised in loft rooms and who did not know the art of light conversation at all, or the art of flirting.

It was in the house of Lefort that Peter met Anna Mons, the "Kukui queen", who received such a nickname from the name of the stream that flowed through the German settlement. And it was thanks to Lefort that the tsar learned to arrange his famous revelry, which received the name of the All-Sentient and All-Drunken Cathedral, which included up to two hundred of the most diverse confidants of the tsar. It is believed that after these many hours of festivities, at times, by the way, which took the lives of the members of the Council, Peter went up to his office and made plans for state administration, feeling completely rested. Together with Lefort, the construction of the Russian fleet, the Great Embassy, and the Azov campaigns were invented, and those who did it well, including Patrick Gordon, were involved in the strategy and organization of campaigns., while remaining modest; was careful and prudent, did a lot of self-education, studied various branches of military science. During the capture of Azov, Gordon was appointed engineer-general and was responsible for siege work.

Gordon was respected - and he was greatly respected by the king. A significant role in this friendship between the student and the mentor was played by the fact that the general did not pursue selfish goals - he was only interested in the business he was doing, and the power he served. The same, however, can be said about Lefort - he did not know how to save and put money into circulation, but he was excellent at carousing and spending money earned on merry feasts. Little by little, Tsar Peter, once indifferent to state affairs, became a real ruler, and after a while he even deserved the title "Great". The influence of his two foreign friends cannot be overestimated: they, willingly or not, supported the tsar's hobbies and directed them towards large-scale and significant achievements, reminiscent of boyish games, simply on a large scale and much more complex rules.

Both Franz Lefort and Patrick Gordon died in 1699. Thanks to Gordon's petition, the first Catholic church was built in Moscow, and for Franz Lefort, a palace was erected with money from the royal treasury, which was named Lefortovo, like the district of the capital in which it is located.

About Anna Mons, Peter's beloved: here.