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Located on the banks of the Rozhai River near Moscow, a village called Menshovo has been known since the 16th century. The first mention of it is found in the watch book of that century. It is unknown who it originally belonged to. It is possible that Menshovo and the nearby village, and then the village of Akulinino, belonged to the same owner, so this article will also touch on the history of the second settlement, known since 1537. This year, the village "Akulininskaya" in the Rostunovsky camp, along with the "repairs", was transferred by the Borovsky patrimonial landowner Vasily Artemyevich Ushakov to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.

The next mention of this village is found in the scribe books of the Borovsky district of 1627-1629. There is the following entry about it: “The village of Rostunovsky camp, which was the wasteland of Akulinin, on the river on Opoka, behind Semyon Semenov’s son Panin, according to the Sovereign’s charter of 133 (1625-M.N.), signed by clerk Tretyak Korsakov, an ancient one of his father Semenov’s purchased patrimony, that his father bought it from Ivan Stupishin.” Apparently in early XVII century, Akulinino became deserted and became a wasteland, passing into the possession of Ivan Stupishin, and then to Semyon Panin. From the scribal books it follows that at the time of their compilation, there were four courtyards in the village: one of the patrimonial owner, one of the clerk and two courtyards of business people (five residents). Semyon Semyonovich Panin is listed in the boyar lists of 1606-1607 as an employee in the city of Kozelsk, where he was given 400 plots of land as an estate or patrimony.

In 1646, Akulinino was mentioned as a village in which there was one peasant courtyard and two bobylsky courtyards. In total, nine people lived in this settlement that year.

In 1678, this village already belonged to Semyon Timofeevich Kondyrev. The Kondyrev family descended from Mark Demidovich, who left Lithuania for Tver. His great-grandson Ivan Yakovlevich received the nickname Kondyr, and all his descendants began to be called Kondyrevs. Members of this family were not distinguished by wealth and kinship until the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. Their rise to high ranks began precisely under this tsar, and their rise to the top of the career ladder occurred under his sons, Tsars Fyodor and Peter Alekseevich. Semyon Kondyrev's two brothers, Peter and Ivan, rose to the rank of boyars by the end of the 17th century. In 1652, Semyon Timofeevich served as governor in Perm. By 1677 he was already in the rank of Duma nobleman, and in 1678 he became a okolnichy. From 1680 to 1682, Semyon Kondyrev served as a voivode in Solikamsk; his last place of service was the voivode in Cherdyn.

In 1678, in Akulinino there were ten households of peasants and peasants and one household of a “farmer”. Kondyrev's son Efim Semenovich in 1687 built a wooden church in this village in the name of the Archangel Michael, as well as the courtyards of the priest, sexton, sexton and mallow, and allocated 20 acres of arable land and meadows for the clergy. This year, on the newly formed parish, in which, in addition to the courtyards of the clergy and clergy, there was one patrimonial courtyard, eighteen peasant households, five businessmen’s households, three grooms’ households, the church authorities imposed a tribute in the amount of “one ruble five money, hryvnia arrival.” After the death of the patrimonial owner, the village passed to his sister Irina, and then to the brothers Prince Obolensky Mikhail and Vasily Matveevich.

The family of princes Obolensky has deep historical roots. The grandson of Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Prince Konstantin Yuryevich received the city of Obolensk as an inheritance and became the founder of the princely family of Obolensky. Until the middle of the 16th century, the Obolensky princes were one of the most influential people at the court of the great princes and kings of Moscow. But then they faded into the shadows and did not occupy important government positions until the reign of Peter the Great. Prince Mikhail Matveevich Obolensky was a room steward in 1706 and by 1721 had risen to the rank of governor of the Arzamas province. His brother, Prince Vasily Matveevich, was one of the “primary people” at the beginning of the 18th century, but died young in 1707.

Both brothers owned several estates in different counties Russian kingdom. Among the possessions of Prince Mikhail located in Dmitrovsky, Galitsky, Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas districts, there was also a patrimony in the Moscow district - a quarter of the village of Alekseevsky, Dolmatovo and “half three yards”, as well as in Borovsky district - half of the village of Akulinino, “half a pole of a yard " In total, Mikhail Obolensky owned 272 yards. His brother owned estates in Galitsky, Arzamas, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, and Dmitrov districts. In the Moscow district, he owned half of the village of Alekseevskoye, Dolmatovo, and two courtyards, and in the Borovsky district, in the village of Arkhangelsk, Akulinino, also, “half a pole of a yard.” Prince Vasily Matveevich Obolensky was the owner of 325 households.

In the census books of Borovsky district in 1705 it is written: “behind the steward princes Mikhail and Vasily Matveev, the Obolensky children, the village of Akulinino, in the village there is the Church of the Archangel Michael, near the church in the courtyard there is priest Ivan Konstantinov, with the children Peter and Ivan, and in the village there are 15 peasant households in There are 69 of them." In 1739, Yakov Ivanov was a priest at the Akulininskaya church.

In the same 1739, Prince Mikhail Obolensky divided his estates between his sons Ivan and Alexander. Prince Ivan Mikhailovich received estates in Dmitrovsky and Oryol districts, and Prince Alexander Mikhailovich in Moscow and Borovsky districts.

In the middle of the 18th century, the village of Akulinino had several owners from among the princely family of Obolensky. The village was divided between the son of Prince Mikhail Matveevich, Alexander, and his uncle, Prince Matvey Matveevich Obolensky. The latter, in 1743, built, next to the village on a hill, a single-altar stone church, one-story with an equilateral cross. Its dimensions were small: 17 meters in length, 8.5 in width and 27.7 m in height. The smooth outer walls were decorated with stone cornices in the form of belts, arranged in a semicircle; the windows were barred with iron bars. The copper-colored iron roof was crowned with a blank lantern with an eight-pointed iron cross with a princely crown on top. Three doors lined with iron led inside the church. The altar with two windows was separated from the middle temple by a stone wall. The solea was made of stone and rose one step above the floor. Adjacent to the walls of the church were choirs arranged with a shield. The bells were placed on wooden poles.

About another owner of the village of Akulinin, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Obolensky (1712-1767), all that is known is that he rose to the modest army rank of prime major, and was married twice: his first marriage was to Anna Alekseevna Naryshkina; second to Anna Mikhailovna Miloslavskaya (1717-1794). From his second marriage he had a son, Peter.

During the 4th revision of 1787, the village “Arkhangelskoye, Akulinino also” belonged to the son of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich - court councilor Prince Pyotr Alexandrovich Obolensky (1742-1822). That year, he himself lived in Moscow, and 94 male souls lived in his village. Perhaps at this time, the village of Menshovo also belonged to him. In 1804, the court councilor, Prince P. A. Obolensky, made a new four-tiered iconostasis with carvings on a red field in the Akulininsky temple, put its old icons in order, supplementing them with new ones. It was all painted “milk color”, varnished and gilded.

Prince Pyotr Alexandrovich Obolensky was married to Princess Ekaterina Andreevna Vyazemskaya (1741-1811). Through her, he was a relative of the famous poet and author of memoirs - Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky. IN early years, Prince Peter Vyazemsky often visited the Obolenskys. In 1795, the eldest son of Pyotr Alexandrovich, Andrei, married the daughter of a wealthy neighbor on an estate near Moscow, the owner of the Troitskoye-Ordyntsy estate Andrei Yakovlevich Maslov, Marfa. Apparently, as a dowry for his wife, he received an estate with the village of Troitskoye. The next year, Marfa Andreevna, having given birth to a daughter, died, and Prince Andrei Petrovich inherited her rich estate near Moscow, a Moscow house, other real estate, as well as up to four thousand serf souls. The young widower was raised to respect his parents, and his entire large family, headed by his parents, began to enjoy the unexpected inheritance from his unfortunate first wife. Pyotr Aleksandrovich and his entire family moved from his estate Akulinino to his son’s estate - Troitskoye-Ordyntsy. The future poet and friend of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, came there in his youth.

Several decades later, the aged Prince Vyazemsky recalled with nostalgia for his youthful years in his essay “The Moscow Family of the Old Life” about Pyotr Alexandrovich and his large and friendly family. Memories of the owner of a large estate, which included the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo, are worth citing them verbatim.

“Prince Pyotr Alexandrovich Obolensky, the ancestor of the multi-generational Obolensky offspring, was at one time a great original. He spent his last 20-30 years in Moscow as an almost hopeless homebody. He did not see or know anyone from outsiders. At home he occupied himself with reading Russian books and turning. He was probably rather indifferent to everything and everyone, but he valued his habits. His day was strictly and strictly demarcated; There were no trans-band properties and plots here: everything had its own specific place, its own boundary, its own time and its own measure. Of course, he went to bed early and at the appointed hours, got up and had dinner; He always dined alone, although his family was crowded at home. He was a clean, fresh, neat, even dapper old man; but his dress, of course, did not change according to fashion, but always stuck to the same cut that he had adapted for himself. All household or room accessories were distinguished by elegance. English comfort had not yet been transferred into our language and into our mores and customs; but he guessed it and introduced it to himself, that is, his comfort, without following either fashion or innovation. In the autumn, even when he was quite old, he went out with his six sons to hunt hares with hounds. No matter how shy he was, or, at least, no matter how he shied away from society, he was not unsociable, stern and senile-grumpy. On the contrary, often a kind and somewhat subtle smile illuminated and enlivened his childish-old face. He sometimes loved to listen and make jokes himself, or funny speeches that French are called gaudrioles, but we don’t know what to call decently, and which usually have a special charm for old people, even those who are immaculately chaste in their morals and in their life: the evil one is always doing something, this way or that, but slightly luring us into a snare their. Prince Obolensky was not burdened by loneliness or his specialness, but he loved that his children - all already adults - came to him one by one, but not for long. If they somehow forgot and sat too long, he, smiling friendly and innocently, would say to them: dear guests, am I keeping you? Here the room was instantly cleared until a new visit. In my childhood, I was always pleased when he allowed me into his elegant and bright cell: I unconsciously guessed that he lived not like others, but in his own way.”

Prince P. was married. And Obolensky was married to Princess Vyazemskaya, the sister of Prince Ivan Andreevich. During their marriage, they had twenty children. Ten of them died in different times, and ten outlived their parents. Despite the accomplishment of her twenty feminine feats, the princess was in her old age, and to the end of her life she was vigorous and strong, tall, she kept herself straight, and I don’t remember that she was sick. Such were the constitutions of our old-world landowners. The soil was not exhausted and did not become depleted of fertile vegetation. Without any preparatory education, she had a clear, positive and firm mind. Her character was the same. In the family and in the household, the princess was the prince and the housekeeper, but without the slightest claim to this dominion. It developed by itself for the common benefit, for the common pleasure, from a natural and unexpressed agreement. She was not only the head of her family, but also its connection, focus, soul, love. There were moral rules in her, native and deeply ingrained. During one of Emperor Alexander’s visits to Moscow, he paid special attention to the beauty of one of her daughters, Princess Natalia. The Emperor, with his usual courtesy and attentiveness to the fair sex, distinguished her: he spoke with her in the Noble Assembly and in private houses, and more than once attended polonaises with her at balls. Of course, Moscow did not let this pass its eyes and ears. One day the family talked about this in front of the princess mother and jokingly made various assumptions. “Before that, I will strangle her with my own hands,” said the Roman matron, who had no understanding of Rome. Needless to say, the royal red tape and all the comic predictions left no trace.

This family constituted a special, so to speak, Obolensky world. Even in the then patriarchal Moscow, rich in large families and especially many girls, it differed from others with some kind of complacent, bright and sharp imprint. There were six sons and four daughters. There was a time when all the brothers, who were still far from old, were retired. This was also a kind of feature in our service morals. Some of them, already during the reign of Alexander, still flaunted, on major holidays, in military uniforms of Catherine’s time: here they showed off a special cut, multi-colored cuffs, red camisoles with gold braids and, I remember, yellow trousers. They all lived with their mother and with their mother for a long time. The everyday dining table was already a decent size, but the holiday table doubled and tripled in size. Especially in the summer and autumn months, in the Moscow region, this family life took on extraordinary dimensions and character. In addition to the complete family, other relatives also came there to stay. A small house, small rooms had some kind of elastic property: the multiplication of bread, rooms, beds, and in their absence the multiplication of sofas, the multiplication of grub and feed for horses for visiting servants, all this, by some miracle, according to the mistress, was accomplished in this Old Testament side. And the owners were not rich people at all. I remember that in my adolescence, on the orders of the princess, they always gave me a bed at night - not a bed, a sofa - not a sofa, but something narrow and rather short, which she called, I don’t know why, a boat. Where is this boat? Is she alive? What happened to her? How I would like to see her, and although crouched even more than at the time, lie down in her. I remember her with heartfelt affection. I am sure that I would find in her now the same and carefree sleep, with bright dreams and joyful awakening. But much water has flowed under the bridge since that time, light and transparent, muddy and troubled; with it, no doubt, my boat flowed away and was smashed to pieces. In any case, we Russians are not antiques and are not thrifty in relation to family furniture, utensils, and portraits of ancestors. We are used to and love to heal from this current day.”

From the same essay it is known that in the autumn months the old prince, together with his sons and numerous guests, hunted hares with dogs. Pyotr Vyazemsky recalled: “The hunt and all its accessories were well and richly arranged. In between the hunts for hares, the hunt for cards was diligent; not in the form of winnings, because everyone had their own, and that the game was small. Everyone played here: fathers and children, husbands and wives, old and young. At dinner they usually ate, in different forms and preparations, all the hares hunted the day before.” It is possible that, while chasing poor hares in the surrounding fields, the hunters, together with the owners of the estate, stopped by the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo, where in half-forgotten manor houses, they rested from the noise of gunfire and frenzied horse racing.

Pyotr Alexandrovich had a large family. These are the sons: Andrei (1769-1852), Ivan (1770-1855), Nikolai (1775-1820), Vasily (1780-1834), Alexander (1780-1855), Sergei; and daughters: Maria (1771-1852), married to D.S. Dokhturov, Varvara (1774-1843), married to Prince A.F. Shcherbatov, Elizaveta (1778-1837), Natalya, married to V.M. Mikhailov.

During his lifetime, Prince Peter Alexandrovich divided his estates between his children. The eldest son Andrei received the village of Akulinino, the second son Ivan received the village of Menshovo.

IN early XIX century, the village of Menshovo was located in the parish of the Church of the Archangel Michael, which is in the village of Arkhangelskoye, Akulinino also, and belonged to the son of Prince Peter Alexandrovich - guard captain-lieutenant Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. The nearby village of Akulinino, Arkhangelskoye, also belonged to his brother - the actual state councilor, Prince Andrei Petrovich Obolensky. At the time of the 1816 revision, 65 male and 54 female peasants lived in the village, a total of 119 souls. One peasant from this village was owned by the third brother - State Councilor Prince Alexander Petrovich Obolensky. In the village of Menshovo for the same year there lived yard people: 2 males, 2 females; peasants: 43 males, 37 females, 84 souls in total. The presence of courtyard people in Menshovo suggests that there was a landowner’s estate in this village.

But the absence of courtyard people recorded outside the village of Akulinin suggests that no one lived in the manor’s estate located there, but the landowner’s house continued to exist. The courtyard people from Akulinino, at the end of the 13th century, were transferred to the Trinity estate.

Unlike the owner of Menshovo, Prince Ivan Obolensky, who did not reach high ranks and retired with the rank of guard captain-lieutenant, his older brother, Prince Andrei Obolensky, made a good career and rose to the rank of trustee of the Moscow educational district.

In the lists of nobles of the Podolsk district who have the right to participate in the noble elections for 1816, two Obolensky princes are recorded: Andrei Petrovich and Ivan Petrovich. Both are listed as living in Moscow.

Over the course of 18 years (until the 8th revision of 1834), the population of Menshovo increased. It housed courtyard servants: 8 males, 9 females; peasants: 47 males, 43 females, total 107 souls. He also owned the village of Stolbishchevo, where 60 serfs lived. The village of Akulinino was assigned to the Life Guards captain and lieutenant Princess Elena Ivanovna Obolenskaya. 177 souls of both sexes lived in this village.

Princess Elena Ivanovna Obolenskaya, née von Stackelberg, was the wife of Prince Ivan Petrovich, and Prince Andrei Petrovich gave her the village of Akulinino. If you believe the date of birth of Elena Ivanovna mentioned in reference books (1758), then she was 12 years older than her husband. Her father, the director of the Livonia College of Economy, Baron Fabian Adam von Stackelberg, came from a noble Baltic family, whose representatives went into Russian service under Emperors Peter I and Anna Ioannovna. Under Empress Catherine II, Stackelberg's two daughters: Elizabeth and Catherine, were her ladies-in-waiting. In 1767, accompanying the young Russian Empress on a trip along the Volga, Elizaveta Ivanovna met the count and gentleman Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov, the president of Russian Academy Sci. Elizaveta Ivanovna was not a beauty and wore maiden clothes until she was 27, but her kind character attracted the attention of the brother of the Tsarina’s favorite, Grigory Orlov, and the next year they got married. The second sister Ekaterina Ivanovna was the wife of Count Tizenhausen. Both sisters had great influence at the imperial court, which cannot be said about their younger sister Helen. The marriage of Ivan Petrovich and Elena Ivanovna took place in 1790.

From the results of the 1850 audit, it is clear that the village of Akulinino and the village of Menshovo still belonged to the guard captain-lieutenant Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. The population of Menshovo consisted of 105 people, including courtyard people: 9 males, 8 females; peasants: 41 males, 47 females. According to Nystrem's directory for 1852, Prince I.P. Obolensky lived in his estate in the village of Akulinino, the population of which was: 83 males, 87 females, in Menshovo 50 males, 45 females, in Stolbishchevo 34 males, 23 females.

In 1855, Ivan Petrovich Obolensky died. Princess Elena Ivanovna died even earlier - in 1846. They had no children and Ivan Obolensky bequeathed his estate near Moscow with the village of Akulinino, the village of Menshovo and the village of Stolbishchevo to his niece - the daughter of his brother Alexander Petrovich, Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya (1823-1891). It was under her, during the last 10th revision of 1858, that this estate was recorded. At that time, only 179 souls lived in 20 courtyards; in the village of Menshovo there are 97 souls in 9 courtyards, in the village of Stolbishchevo there are 79 souls in 9 courtyards.

Prince Alexander Petrovich Obolensky, like his brother, died in 1855. From his marriage to Agrafena Yuryevna née Neledinskaya-Meletskaya (1789-1829), he had children: Ekaterina (1811-1843), Andrei (1813-1855), Sofia (1815-1852), Vasily (1817-1888), Sergei (1818 -1882), Varvara (1819-1873), Mikhail (1821-1886), Dmitry (1822-1881), Agrafen (1823-1891), and Yuri (1825-1890).

The village of Stolbishchevo, most likely, was sold, and began to be associated with the Penza Kiselevskaya almshouse. In 1859, in Penza, according to the will of state councilor Alexander Grigorievich Kiselev, an almshouse was built by his wife Maria Mikhailovna. At the request of the testator, the elderly, the poor, the crippled, all infirm people of both sexes, without distinction of religion or rank, were to live in it until the end of their days. Based on the name of the city where the almshouse was founded and the surname of the founder, it was named Penza-Kiselevskaya. And in the village of Stolbishchevo, the landowner sold a plot of land that had been allocated to her in a division with local peasants, on which a house was built to house those in need of the Penza Kiselevskaya almshouse.

Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna never married, and by the beginning of 1860 she shared part of her estate with relatives. The village of Menshovo passed to his sister Varvara Alexandrovna (1819-1873), who married Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin (1813-1872).

Menshovo under the Lopukhins

The life story of Varvara Alexandrovna’s husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin, is remarkable, first of all, because in his youth, he was a close friend of the famous poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.

They met at the end of 1827 - beginning of 1828. At this time, Mikhail Lermontov settled in Moscow, in a house on Molchanovka, rented by his grandmother E.A. Arsenyeva. Nearby there was a house belonging to Alexander Nikolaevich Lopukhin, Alexei’s father. A.P. Shan-Girey recalled: “The Lopukhins family lived next door to us, an old father, three maiden daughters and a son; they were with us like family and very friendly with Michel, who was rarely there.” Mikhail Lermontov became friends with Alexei and his sisters: Maria and Varvara, for the latter he had a heartfelt affection. The image of Varenka Lopukhina was embodied in the novels: “Vadim” and “Hero of Our Time”. Many poems were dedicated to her, including: “Ishmael Bey” and “Demon”. Several portraits of her, made by the hand of Mikhail Lermontov, have survived.

For several years, Lermontov and the Lopukhins lived next door. The rapprochement between Mikhail and Alexei was also facilitated by the fact that they studied together at the Noble boarding school at Moscow University. After finishing their studies at the boarding school, the young friends entered Moscow University in 1830. After Mikhail Yuryevich left Moscow for St. Petersburg in 1832, he corresponded with Alexei Lopukhin until his death in 1841. One of his contemporaries noted: “Only a very few, and among them A.A. Lopukhin, deeply valued his friendship and believed in his high soul, and retained this attitude after death.”

However, in the friendship of Lopukhin and Lermontov, there were also difficult moments. In the summer of 1833, Alexey Lopukhin became interested in the famous “coquette” Ekaterina Sushkova, who was looking for a rich groom. Things were heading towards an engagement, which Alexei Alexandrovich’s relatives and acquaintances did not want. One of his cousins, Alexandra Vereshchagina, asked Lermontov to try to break up the engagement. Being familiar with Sushkova and knowing her character, Mikhail Yuryevich decided to “help” his friend. By going to balls with him and Sushkova, he was able to divert the attention of the social coquette from Lopukhin and attract him to himself. Ekaterina Sushkova, having fallen in love with Lermontov, stopped paying attention to her prospective groom. Alexey Alexandrovich, without reproaching his friend for anything, although in his soul he was jealous of him, gave up the idea of ​​​​marrying Sushkova. Having thus upset his friend’s engagement, Mikhail Yuryevich himself stopped meeting with Sushkova.

This is how the great Russian poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, knowing nothing about the village of Menshovo, indirectly influenced its history. After all, if Alexey Lopukhin had married Ekaterina Sushkova, then the owner of Menshovo would have been a representative of another noble family. And so, five years after the failed wedding with Sushkova, Alexey Lopukhin married Princess Varvara Obolenskaya.

In 1838, the wedding ceremony of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna took place. And on February 13 of the following year, the young Lopukhin couple gave birth to their first child, Alexander. In a letter from the Caucasus, Mikhail Yuryevich congratulated his friend of his youth and sent a poetic message dedicated to the newborn:

Sweet baby's birth
Welcome my belated verse.
Blessings be with him
All angels of heaven and earth!
May he be worthy of his father;
Like his mother, beautiful and loved;
May his spirit be at peace,
And in truth he is as firm as God’s cherub.
Let him not know before the deadline
Neither the torment of love, nor the glory of greedy thoughts;
Let him look without reproach
To the false splendor and false noise of the world;
Let him not look for reasons
Other people's passions and joys,
And he will emerge from the secular mire
White in soul and safe in heart!

After graduating from the university, Alexey Alexandrovich, being in the court rank of chamber cadet, served in the civil department. One of his places of service was the Moscow Synodal Office. From the end of the 1850s, he and his family began to constantly come to the Menshovo estate for the summer. Alexey Lopukhin retired with the rank of full state councilor. Having lived most of his life in Moscow, in his own house on Molchanovka, Alexey Alexandrovich Lopukhin died in 1872 and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery.

In Russian state archive literature and art (RGALI), the collection of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy contains correspondence from his wife Sofia Alekseevna, daughter of Alexei Lopukhin. From these papers it follows that already in 1857, the children of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna Lopukhin spent the summer season, under the supervision of their mother, teachers, tutors and servants, in the Menshovo estate. Alexey Alexandrovich himself, while on duty, could only come there on his days off.

Also in this fund are the memories of the grandson of Alexei and Varvara Lopukhin - Evgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy. The following is an excerpt from his mother Sofia Alekseevna. In the mid-late 1850s, she, along with her family, spent the summer months in Menshovo and this is the memory she left behind.

“She grew up freely and cheerfully with others among the Lopukhin freemen. One hill in Menshov is still called “Sonina Mountain” in her honor, because there she once, as a girl, eluded the supervision of her elders, jumped astride a bareback peasant horse and rushed along the mountain on it.” Local residents still call the mountain located on the right side of the road from the bridge over Rozhaya to the village of Menshovo “Sonina Mountain”. Thanks to the memoirs of Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy, it now becomes clear in honor of which Sonya and for what reason this mountain got its name.

In total, the Lopukhin family had eight children: Alexander (1839-1895), Maria (1840-1886), Sofia (1841-1901), Lydia (1842-1895), Boris (1844-1897), Olga (1845-1883), Emilia (1848-1904) and Sergei (1853-1911). By 1861, only daughter Sofia flew out of her parents' nest, having married Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy that year. After the wedding, the young couple went on a trip to the southern estates of Prince Trubetskoy, and all the young wife’s relatives, missing and worried about her, bombarded her with letters. From these letters, some details from the life of the Menshovo estate became known.

On May 31, 1861, the Lopukhins family left their Moscow house, in two carriages and a tarantass, for their Menshovo estate near Moscow. The convoy with various supplies left even earlier. Mother Varvara Alexandrovna took her children and daughters to live in the village: Maria, Lydia, Olga and Emilia, younger sons: Sergei and Vladimir. (The last child, Vladimir, died in his young years). They were accompanied by governesses and nannies: Sofya Ivanovna, Klara Ivanovna and the Englishwoman Miss Boni. A little later, the eldest sons Alexander and Boris arrived in the “village”; the latter studied at the gymnasium and took exams at the beginning of the summer. Alexander, having visited Menshovo twice and stayed there for two and a half days, went to stay with his sister Sonya Trubetskoy for the whole summer. After staying with his sister, towards the end of the summer, he returned to Menshovo again.

Usually on Friday evenings, during the weekend, the head of the family, Alexey Alexandrovich, came to the estate. Sometimes guests came with him. Almost always on weekends, a family friend and, most likely, Lopukhin’s subordinate, a certain Novikov, visited. Of the other names who visited Menshovo that year, the letters mention first and second cousins, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters. Among them: Sofya Yuryevna Samarina, Dmitry Pavlovich Evreinov, Countess Maria Fedorovna Sollogub, with her son Fedya and his teacher Nikolai Ivanovich Orfeev, Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, with her daughter Masha, fans of Lida Lopukhina - Volodya Davydov and Valuev, Sophia's former admirer - Prince Shakhovskaya and other persons identified by their first names only. The adults were also accompanied by: Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya (“Aunt Grusha”), who lived in her estate in the village of Akulinino, her relatives who came to her: Lina, Lika and Katya Samarin, as well as Aunt Masha, who came to Menshovo with the Lopukhins. Perhaps this was the same Maria Lopukhina with whom Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was in friendly correspondence. Also, neighbors came to visit Menshovo and Akulinino, including the Ershov landowners who lived on their Vorobyovo estate: Varvara Sergeevna, her son Ivan Ivanovich and granddaughter Masha.

The RGALI collections also contain letters describing the life of Princess Sofia Trubetskoy.

“Papa,” as Alexei Alexandrovich Lopukhin was called in his letters, most often reported family details in his letters. One of them concerned “Aunt Grusha” (Agrafena Obolenskaya). Not having her own home in Moscow, she lived in a rented apartment. The following winter, the owners of the house refused her an apartment, and she planned to live until the next summer in Akulinino. The house left in this estate near Moscow from Prince Ivan Obolensky was still strong, and “Aunt Grusha” lacked money. The Lopukhins came repeatedly and even came on foot to visit Agrafena Alexandrovna at her estate. She didn’t come to Menshov very often.

On one of these visits to Akulinino, Alexey Lopukhin found himself in an unexpected situation. In a letter dated June 26, he reported: “...On Friday I was supposed to arrive in Akulinino at 8 o’clock (in the evening), but I drove up to dear Rozhai and for the first time he did not let me through; There was such heavy rain in the vicinity of Menshov, even in Vorobyovo, according to the locals, there was knee-deep water on level ground that I finally saw Rozhay giving birth and, having reached the Vorobyovskaya mill, I crossed the dam and begged for horses there, but the coachman certainly wanted to take me to tarantass, which is why it took him a long time to get ready for the journey. At 10 o’clock I arrived in Akulinino...” There were already guests in Akulinino, members of his family and close relatives who had arrived in advance: Lelya and her husband and Lina Samarina. Having celebrated the birth of Aunt Grusha, the Lopukhin family went to Menshovo. “... From Akulinino we set off in the following order: Mom, Aunt Masha, Klara Ivanovna and Emilia got into the carriage; into the tarantass: Olga, Mitya Evreinov, Novikov, Garder and I... Masha and Lida stayed overnight in Akulinino for Lina, who the next day I came to Menshovo with Aunt Grusha and my sisters... The next day the birth was again without water, because in Turgenev the dam broke and the water went away.”

In a letter dated July 4, “Papa” informed his daughter Sonya about the village news: “...In general, everyone is busy in Menshov and Akulinino foreign policy, and Aunt Grusha and Katya are studying German and English... Without me there was an incident in Menshov. One woman hired a peasant as a worker, but he, having drunk, did not want to work and was rude to her, for which she scolded him, and he pulled her away, so that not only his hands were in action, but also his legs. Last Sunday they were tried and the young man was severely flogged, something that the Menshov peasants had not yet known or tried...”

That year, all landowners were anxiously awaiting how their former peasants would behave after the abolition of serfdom. Alexey Alexandrovich also wrote about this. In a letter dated July 13, he reported: “...On Sunday I saw Ershov (Ivan Ivanovich - M.N.) and Masha (his daughter - M.N.). The first one returned from his trip, was in Tula, Ryazan and Penza, that is, in these provinces, and it is strange to hear his stories. He, who preached that the peasants would not work, says that they are doing three times what they did before and are so meek and calm that they are like lambs.” In the same letter, “Papa” said that due to the heat, mowing was bad, and the bread would not be very good.

In one of his last letters from Menshovo, he described the celebration of Masha Ershova’s name day at the Vorobyovo estate. “...The next day Aunt Masha went to mass in Vorobyovo and received an invitation to everyone. In the evening, the whole family, except for Novikov and Alyosha Trubetskoy, we went to Vorobyovo, where we found Vasily Andreevich Obolensky, Demidov, the mayor and his son, the doctor and Ogarev. Vasily Andreevich simply hit on Masha and Lidinka, who amazed him with their ribbons, as if their color was good and Masha was very avant-garde. The table was prepared between the house and the church, on the high road, chocolate pie, cottage cheese, preserves, peaches, cherries, raspberries and melon, which was banished in honor of me and served afterwards. Masha Ershova cut the pie and treated her, but this time not in a blue dress, but in a muslin dress trimmed with solferino ribbons.” Returning home in the evening, the Lopukhins and their guests saw a large fire taking place in Ilyinsky. The flame was so large that it was visible in Menshovo.

At the very beginning of August, Alexey Alexandrovich fell ill and did not come to Menshovo again that summer. As it turned out, he contracted a dangerous disease - smallpox. His wife Varvara Alexandrovna came from the village to look after him in mid-August and also became infected. In a letter dated July 6, Varvara Lopukhina presented the daily routine of all family members. “...I’ll describe our day to you: We all get up at different hours, I naturally later than others, but much earlier, however, than before. At 12 o'clock I am always ready, and sometimes at 11 I come to the living room. So, until 11 o’clock Sofya Ivanovna walks with the boys in the garden, and at 11 they come to say hello to me, bringing either mushrooms or berries that they picked. Then they go swimming, and I either do the math or read. At 1 o'clock they have breakfast, and I drink rye coffee. Then I embroider the Papa pillow in a hoop. At 2 o'clock Sofia Ivanovna and I teach the children until 4 o'clock, and at 4 they go swimming again, and I sit down at the hoop, and Borya reads to me. At 5 o’clock we have lunch, after that, sometimes I’ll play two or three games of billiards, without energy, because I’m surrounded by bad players, whom I always win without difficulty, then we all sit together and chat until 8 o’clock. At 8 o'clock we always go for a walk, after which we drink tea and never go to bed later than 11 o'clock. Masha either reads or embroiders, Lidya reads, embroiders, and plays the piano, Olga and Emilia study all morning and also practice music. Aunt Masha, now with Masha, now with Borey, reads, and more than ever seems to be bored, poor thing.

This is our day on weekdays. When Papa and Novikov show up, well, then there is a lot of hesitation, as always happened with them, and we go to bed much later, and have tea long after dinner, and the evening walks are long, and then the day must be ended by the millers, whose goal is certainly to leave Novikov as the miller, so that later you can ask him how much loss he suffered when the mill in Turgenevo burst.”

Despite the fact that among the nobility, summer holidays in the countryside were considered the best pastime of the year, and the entire urban population wanted to breathe fresh, clean air in nature, among the Lopukhin family there was a person who was not very happy about the trip to the estate near Moscow. This person was the eldest daughter Maria. The fact is that she was sick and had difficulty moving. She understood that her personal life was unlikely to work out, and mental suffering was added to the physical suffering. In addition, she admitted in a letter to her sister Sonya that she loved Novikov, but hardly hoped for a mutual feeling, although he showed her more attention than other sisters. Probably, the illness at an earlier age did not have such an effect on Masha’s physical condition and psyche, and she recalled with pleasure the past years spent in the village. “It may have happened (Menshovo Society - M.N.) during, for example, poetry and our walking journey from Menshovo. How crowded, cheerful and pleasant our society was then.”

However, fresh air, pleasant weather, relief from illness and good company did their job, and by mid-summer Maria became cheerful. In a letter dated July 15, she humorously described the story that happened during the birthday celebration of Begichev and his younger brother Volodya who came to visit. “...Everyone, including Aunt Grusha and Katya, went for a walk singing in the wonderful moonlight and beautiful weather. ... We returned from our walk at almost one o'clock; they reached Vorobiev, where they caused a terrible alarm. Part of the Ershovsky house was already asleep, and the other was waiting for the departure of the police officer and Demidov (the mediator - M.N.), who had already been given horses so that they could also lie down; when suddenly they heard terrible singing and screams near the church and saw a crowd of people. Alarmed during the day by the stories of Verderevsky (the owner of the Skobeevo estate - M.N.) and also a mediator about one disturbance, the Ershovs imagined that it was indignant peasants who had come to them, and were afraid to go out. But the police chief and Demidov, as the authorities came to look at them, having first sent for the Cossack. When they saw that they were ours, the Ershovs also came out, and Ivan Ivanovich, out of fear, led them with torches into a dirt barn, where he treated them to cherries and peaches. This is what fear means; Ershov rarely leads a small crowd into a dirt shed during the day, but here he led a whole crowd of 12 people, and even at night. Having eaten our fill of cherries, ours returned home singing and Dad, Mom and I went out to meet them. Arriving home, we sat down to dinner and laughed terribly the whole time when Begichev told about their adventure.”

Even before the news of the seriousness of “Papa’s” illness, the Menshovsky summer residents had a new fun. On August 4, Maria wrote: “Our whole company is very busy looking for porcini mushrooms, of which there are now a lot, and Seryozha told you to tell you that this morning they found 45 porcini mushrooms, which is very fun.” Masha’s condition improved so much that she went into the forest and also found several mushrooms. After “Mama” left for Moscow, as the eldest in the family, Maria became the mistress of the estate. She looked after her younger brothers and sisters and gave instructions to the servants about the housework. In mid-September, having recovered a little from his illness, “Papa” gave her written instructions on repairing the barn on the estate and sending back the things brought from Moscow. After “Papa” and “Mom” recovered, “Aunt Grusha” considered that, in gratitude for God’s mercy, “Papa” should pay “ruga” (payment in money and supplies) to the Akulininsky priest. In a letter to his daughter Maria, “Mama” conveys his answer: “...Dad thanks Aunt Grusha for deciding that he should give a friend to the priest Akulininsky. However, he does not recognize the obligation to give it to him. In the Assumption (the church on the Korytensky churchyard - M.N.) not a single parishioner pays or gives anything to the priest or the entire congregation, and the Pope alone is responsible for everything, then why should he, in fact, give the Akulinsky priest maintenance? "

Due to the illness of their parents, the Lopukhina children returned to the Moscow house only at the end of September, and for the last month and a half Maria had no time to rest. In addition, Novikov also fell ill with smallpox, and fear for the life of a loved one was added to worries about the health of his parents.

The letters of the third sister, 18-year-old Lida, a girl of marriageable age, are full of delight and affection for village life. Judging by the letters, she was a cheerful and pretty girl, around whom many young gentlemen constantly hovered. Sister Sophia strongly advised her to fall in love with one of them, but Lidya, as her family called her, only carelessly brushed aside her sister’s words, postponing marriage to the future. And her letters mention interesting details from the life of a noble family in the village.

On June 23, a family holiday was celebrated in Akulinino. The owner of the estate, Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, was congratulated on her birthday. Varvara Alexandrovna and her daughters Masha and Lidya came to Akulinino from the Lopukhins family. According to the old tradition, former serfs came to congratulate the mistress. After congratulations, Aunt Grusha gave them wine. Kurgan men and women led round dances, dancing to the sounds of an accordion. As always, there were drunks and a respectable company: “I was very amused by one guy who was very drunk and therefore lied about terrible trifles.”

Like “Mom,” Lydia described her daily routine in a letter. “I get up at 9-10 o’clock, after tea until breakfast, that is, until 12 o’clock I read Macaulay’s story with Miss Boni, then breakfast. Until 3 o’clock I play the piano, analyze Obolensky’s sonatas (which I think I will never give to him) and various plays in your memory, then we go swimming, and after lunch we walk until tea, then there are millers or just a conversation.” Often in the evening hours, the Menshov company went to visit Akulinino. “Yesterday we were all at Aunt Grusha’s in the evening, and she prepared tea with all kinds of berries in her park, the evening was delightful, and we had a very pleasant time.”

Brother Boris, unlike his sisters, did not spoil his sister with letters. Perhaps the reason for this was his state of love. A 16-year-old high school student, as often happened in noble families, became infatuated with the young governess of his younger brothers, Sofia Ivanovna. The young man’s condition was noticed, but no importance was attached to it. His friend from the gymnasium, Garder, came to see Boris for several days. Judging by the fact that, apart from a brief mention in the letter, nothing else was reported about his presence, he did not attract attention to himself.

Sister Olga's letters contain little information about the family's life in the village. The younger sister wrote more about herself. Swimming in the Rozhaya River, picking strawberries and mushrooms, playing four-handed piano with Lida, these were her main entertainments. The parents began to accustom the girl to farming and assigned her to tend the barnyard. Of course, she didn't milk the cows or clean the manure. But accepting milk and cottage cheese from the workers, purchasing eggs and other supplies was part of her duties. Olga eagerly set to work, but the cows given by Aunt Grusha constantly ran to their usual Akulinino for grazing, and they had to be constantly returned to Menshovo.

The younger sister Emilia, following the example of the adults, also described her daily activities in the village. “We spend our time almost exactly the same as last year: we get up at half past five, at seven we go swimming, from eight to nine Olga plays the piano, at nine o’clock there is tea, after tea I play, then we have lessons before breakfast, from breakfast until four o'clock there are classes again, at four we swim again, and after lunch we either walk or swim again. On Mondays we go to Akulinino to take a music lesson, and on Thursdays Katya comes to us.” Other entertainment in which Emilia took part was fishing in the Rozhaika River. We fished today and caught only four crucian carp, which went to Papa’s ear.”

Even the little brothers Seryozha and Volodya wrote letters to their sister Sonya. In large letters, first written in pencil and then outlined in ink, most likely with the help of the teacher Sofia Ivanovna, Seryozha wrote to his sister: “Fishing and billiards keep me very busy and I would be glad to fish with Novikov all day long, because we are both addicted and enjoy into excitement. Sergei made us a garden, and we pickle our cucumbers and eat peas, beans and other vegetables.” Another entertainment for the boys was swimming in the Rozhaya River; Seryozha learned to swim that summer.

Due to the illness of his parents, the end of the summer season of 1861 was disrupted. The first autumn frosts had already begun, but the children continued to be in the village. Their parents did not want to expose them to the risk of contracting smallpox and returned them to Moscow only on September 27, when the danger had passed.

In the same year, 1861, after the abolition of serfdom, part of the landowners' lands were transferred to peasants freed from serfdom. In subsequent years, the landowners had to receive a ransom for it from the peasant rural society. However, the process of buying land lasted for many years, and the peasants, until the purchase of land, were considered “temporarily obligated” to their former landowners. They continued to work corvée and pay rent.

In 1865, the lands of the village of Akulinino belonged to Princess Obolenskaya and the Akulininsky rural society, which included 85 temporarily obliged peasants. The land was divided as follows: the peasant plot was 270 dessiatines 2085 fathoms, the landowner plot was 571 dessiatines 273 fathoms. The lands of the village of Menshovo were recorded as belonging to Lopukhina and the Menshovsky rural society. These lands also included the Bankova wasteland. In the community of peasants in the village of Menshovo there were 48 temporarily obliged peasants, whose allocated allotment was 156 dessiatinas, while the landowner owned 102 dessiatinas, 1200 fathoms. The Stolbishchevo rural society, which included 37 temporary peasants, was allocated 159 dessiatinas 848 fathoms of land. There was no land recorded for the Penza-Kiselevskaya almshouse.

Since the mid-1860s, the village of Akulinino, the village of Menshovo and the village of Stolbishchevo were part of the Rastunov volost of the Podolsk district. By the mid-1870s, the boundaries of the volosts of the Podolsk district were redrawn. In the southeast of the district, the Shebantsevskaya volost was formed, whose borders included the settlements: Akulinino, Menshovo and Stolbishchevo.

And life in the Lopukhins’ Menshovo estate near Moscow continued to liven up only in the summer months. The children of Alexei Alexandrovich and Varvara Alexandrovna were growing up, their sons, having graduated from various educational institutions, entered the service, and on rare days they could be seen in such a favorite place of their summer vacation. Each of them reached a high position.

All the sons of Alexei Lopukhin chose a legal career for themselves. Their nephew Evgeny Trubetskoy remembered them this way. “There were no nihilists or freethinkers among my uncles Lopukhins; but it is characteristic that, unlike uncles Trubetskoys, who all began their service in the guard, my uncles Lopukhins were all judicial figures, and liberal ones at that: the gentle soul and flexible mind of the Lopukhins immediately took on the appearance of the “era of great reforms.” Thanks to this, the entire atmosphere in which we grew up was saturated with the then special, judicial type of liberalism.”

The eldest son, Alexander, in honor of whose birth Mikhail Lermontov wrote a poem, after studying in His Majesty's Corps of Pages, chose civil service, and already in 1866 he served as a justice of the peace in Moscow, and in 1867 as a comrade (deputy) prosecutor at the Moscow District Court . In the 1870s, he was already a prosecutor of the St. Petersburg Judicial Chamber. It was he who, in 1878, participated as a prosecutor in the famous open trial of the terrorist Vera Zasulich, who shot at the St. Petersburg mayor F.F. Trepov. The well-known lawyer A.F. Koni presided over the trial. Experienced specialists conducted the hearings on the high-profile court case in such a way that V. Zasulich was acquitted by the jury. For the “unsuccessful” handling of this case, both Koni and Lopukhin were removed from their posts. In 1879, Alexander Lopukhin was sent to Turkey, where he served as chairman of a special commission at the imperial embassy in Constantinople. In 1882, Alexander Alekseevich served as chairman of the Warsaw District Court. He rose to the rank of actual state councilor and was awarded the court rank of chamberlain. He was married to Elizaveta Dmitrievna Golokhvastova (1841-1909) and had sons Alexei (1864-1928), Dmitry (1865-1914), Boris, Yuri and Victor (1868-1933).

Alexey Alexandrovich's middle son, Boris, also chose the profession of lawyer. A graduate of the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, he rose to the position of prosecutor of the Warsaw District Court, and then chairman of the Yaroslavl District Court. Boris Alekseevich, like his older brother, had the rank of full state councilor. From his marriage to Vera Ivanovna Protasova, he had sons Vladimir (1871-after 1940), Evgeniy (1878-after 1940) and daughter Vera.

The youngest, Sergei, climbed the career ladder the highest. Participating as a volunteer in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Sergei Alekseevich was awarded for personal heroism awarded the order St. George 4th degree and the Romanian Iron Cross. While serving as a comrade of the Tula prosecutor, Sergei Lopukhin was appointed senator of the criminal cassation department. In 1902 he was already the prosecutor of the Kyiv Judicial Chamber. In 1906, another promotion awaited him. Sergei Alekseevich was invited to the Russian capital, to the post of Chief Prosecutor of the Senate. At the end of his career, Sergei Lopukhin held the rank of Privy Councilor and Senator. He was on friendly terms with the great writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, visited him at the Yasnaya Polyana estate, where he played in amateur performances. Married to Countess Alexandra Pavlovna Baranova (1854-1934), he had children: Nicholas (1879-1952), Anna (1880-1972), Alexei (1882-1966), Raphael (1883-1915), Peter (1885-1962 ), Maria (1886-1976), Ekaterina (1888-1965), Mikhail (1889-1919), Tatiana (1891-1960), Eugene (1893-1967).

Of the five daughters of the Lopukhins, two: Maria and Lydia never got married, and lived out their lives as old maids. Olga married A.S. Ozerov, and Emilia for Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist. Sofya Alekseevna was married to Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy in 1861. Some traits of his mother’s character were mentioned in his memoirs by Sophia’s son Evgeny Trubetskoy. “...The general gaiety and cheerfulness of Lopukhin’s appearance in her soul was combined with that spiritual burning, which for her brothers and sisters gave only sparks, but for her flared up into flames.

The first time she learned that the servant had been flogged was a day of deep emotional shock for her. It was a whole storm of indignation, a rebellion against his father, accompanied by sleepless nights spent sobbing. For a long time she felt alienated from him; in the Lopukhin family this was, as far as I know, the only case of alienation so deep.

To overcome this alienation, it took that higher spiritual development and that spiritual breadth, which later gave her the opportunity to understand that this section was not so much the personal fault of her grandfather, but rather the general fault of his environment and, moreover, inherited guilt.

This was not cerebral, cold “liberalism,” because cerebral rationality and coldness did not reside in Mama at all. It was a soul - the same soul that later spiritualized Akhtyrka, filled with previously unknown grace the beautiful architectural forms of her estate and area, created by another loving mother’s hand. Through her, Menshov’s invasion of Akhtyrka took place, which created the entire spiritual atmosphere of our childhood and adolescence. But at the same time, it was also a transformation of Menshov himself, because Mom was much more serious, stronger and deeper than the average Menshov level.”

The family of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy spent most of the summer months in his father’s family estate “Akhtyrka”, located near the modern town of Sergiev Posad near Moscow. But sometimes the Trubetskoy children were also taken to their maternal grandmother in Menshovo. Talking about his childhood in his memoirs, Evgeny Trubetskoy constantly compared the orders that existed in two estates near Moscow. Later, fate would link the family of Nikolai Petrovich and Sofia Alekseevna with the Menshovo estate for a long time. In the meantime, let's continue the story about the Lopukhin family.

Over time, the Lopukhins’ children left their home and only their unmarried daughters Maria and Lydia remained to live with their parents. Father, mother and daughters formed the permanent basis of that society, which continued to come to Menshovo for the summer. The rest of their children, now with their own children, began to come to their parents’ estate near Moscow only to visit, for a few days or weeks. A warm welcome always awaited them here. Evgeny Trubetskoy recalled with pleasure: “Here grandfather and grandmother were completely different. There was no “distance” between us and them. They doted on their grandchildren and spoiled them as best they could. We said “you” to grandfather Trubetskoy, but with grandfather and grandmother Lopukhin we spoke on “you”. And there were no “forms” in our relations with them. We also adored “grandfather and grandmother Lopukhin,” but did not allow them to refuse anything. When one day I got so naughty that my grandfather was forced to stand up for discipline, I called him a fool, for which I was immediately spanked. This was one of my first big disappointments in life. How, this grandfather, who looks into my eyes with such love, pokes his finger in my stomach and says to me so affectionately - “dear little belly” - this same grandfather suddenly fights! And I cried - not from pain, of course, because the spanking was “fatherly”, but from the insult. And grandfather kissed me and consoled me with a burning glass, which he immediately used to burn the paper, to my great joy.

This grandfather Alexey Alexandrovich was also a bright type in his way. I remember that we children almost always found him lying in bed. For weeks he did not get up, and we considered him sick. But nothing happened, grandfather was completely healthy. Suddenly, without any reason, he would get up for several weeks and then go back to bed. Subsequently, I learned that this periodic lying was caused by a deep tragedy incomprehensible to us children. The “illness” that periodically forced grandfather to lie down was a kind of paralysis of the will, and it was caused, oddly enough, by the act of February 19th. Until this time, his affairs were going well; judging by the stories of my aunts - his daughters, who vaguely understood the business side of life, under serfdom “everything was done by itself, income was generated by itself,” and after that my grandfather had the task of setting up his own household. He fell into complete prostration and, depressed by the consciousness of his helplessness, “turned into some kind of Oblomov.” The managers stole, there was no income, things “went into disarray on their own,” and the grandfather retired to his bed with heavy thoughts. In such a state of mind, we children were his salvation. And in his special tenderness towards us, in addition to his loving heart, all the pain of his suffering soul was reflected.

However, everyone in the Lopukhins’ house treated us with the same love—my grandmother, my aunts, and the old woman—my mother’s nanny—Sekletya Vasilyevna, one of the former courtyard servants—a representative of the now disappeared type of “Pushkin’s nanny.” For my unmarried aunts, their nephews and nieces were almost the only interest in their lives, which is not surprising, since only in us could they find satisfaction of the maternal feeling inherent in every woman.”

Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy was born in 1863 and his memories of his grandparents Lopukhins are associated with the late 1860s and early 1870s. A particularly crowded society gathered in Menshovo in 1869. In addition to the Lopukhin parents, and their unmarried and unmarried children, they rested here from several months to several days: the family of the eldest son Alexander - wife Lisa and children: Alyosha, Mitya and Borya; family of daughter Princess Sophia Trubetskoy, husband and children; daughters - Countess Emilia Kapnist, the families of Lina and Lelya Samarin, Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, the Evreinovs, Lvov and Smirnov, uncle Yusha (relative). It was a wonderful time for the older Lopukhins. The whole family and people close to her were together and enjoying the beautiful nature of the Moscow region and good weather. But unfortunately for them, it was one of the last happy years of their lives.

Alexey Alexandrovich Lopukhin died in 1872, and the next year his wife Varvara Alexandrovna died. The Lopukhin family spent the summer months of 1872-1873 at a rented dacha in the Moscow suburb of Butyrki. Most likely, this was due to the fact that the roof of the Menshovsky house was damaged due to strong winds the previous year. In addition, Varvara Alexandrovna became seriously ill and needed constant medical supervision. Renting a dacha turned out to be cheaper than renovating an old house. The Lopukhins did this before. It is possible that in the mid-1860s, for a year or several years, the estate in Menshovo was empty. This can be assumed from a letter from Princess Sophia Trubetskoy to her husband dated May 22, 1867: “Mom went to Meshcherskoye, which turned out to be worthless, and so they hired carpenters to fix the Menshovsky house and will probably move there, they took 300 rubles to make the kitchen and that’s it.” necessary amendments."

After the death of the Lopukhins' parents, the estate in Menshov was not used for several years. Only in the spring of 1879, under the supervision of Emilia’s husband, Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist, the buildings of the Menshov estate were repaired. From this year, the families of the Lopukhins, Trubetskoys, Kapnists and their relatives and friends spent part of the summer in Menshov. Kapnist and Trubetskoy also had their own estates, so representatives of their families visited here infrequently and not for long. But the Lopukhina sisters Maria and Lydia became mistresses of their parents’ estate.

Evgeny Trubetskoy in his memoirs gave a wonderful description of Menshov at that time. “In Lopukhin-Menshov, near Moscow, there were two light-colored wooden landowner houses with mezzanines on a hill above the river. The contrast with the Akhtyrka house was, of course, complete: that one was magnificent, while these were pretty and cozy. And the area is Menshovskaya, with a small the side river, with laughing, as if washed birch forests, was in complete harmony with the house and presented a bright contrast with the mothick spruces and pines of Akhtyrsky Park. Everything in the houses was simple, and of course, there could be no talk of any “highest exits” in such an environment. Also in the park with small picturesque ravines, with bridges knocked together on a living thread, there were no gazebos or any kind of undertakings, but everything together was infinitely sweet, cozy and cheerful, especially since there were no stern faces of ancestors hung on the walls. There was nothing here that could arouse a hooligan-anarchist feeling of protest in a child.

And, strangely enough, I already remember four generations in Menshov; During this time, everything there was rebuilt twice, so that from the remains of two houses, one was made, the names of the owners also changed, because Menshovo passed through the female line. And yet, the Menshov tradition and the Menshov way of life are still the same. Menshovo is still full of sweet, cheerful, cheerful, mostly female youth. There is still the same atmosphere of an open house, where people come easily, without observing strict and ponderous forms. Still, all the rooms are always invariably full of guests, crowding the house to the last limits of capacity. Still, the guests are dominated by young people, attracted by young women. How many fell in love and got married there! In the words of one deceased Moscow old woman, the god Amor visited there often, if not continuously. Needless to say, in Menshov, amid the unimaginable din and constant turmoil of continuous arrivals and departures, it was difficult to do anything seriously. The atmosphere of some kind of continuous spring celebration of the blossoming of youth prevailed there; a generation of charming children who then grew up to resume the same tradition of cheerfully loving noise. I was in Menshov for the first time when I was five years old and retained for the rest of my life the impression of a spring dream, which was then renewed when I arrived there as a young man, and is renewed now when I am there. And I’m already in my sixties.

When I met Menshov, the flowering of my aunts Lopukhins was already coming to an end. This was already in the second half of the sixties. Then, as in subsequent generations, this flowering was not an empty flower. Comparing the Menshov freemen with the Akhtyrka style of grandfather Pyotr Ivanovich, I cannot help but see that it was this Menshov free spirit and gaiety, which later invaded Akhtyrka, that prepared an extremely important turning point in the understanding of life. The free relationship between fathers and children, grandchildren and grandfathers facilitated the transition from old Russia to new. The Lopukhin family in the sixties was much more modern than the Trubetskoy family. Thanks to this, the dispute between fathers and sons here manifested itself in other forms, incomparably softer: despite this dispute, the distance between generations still did not turn into an abyss.”

The Lopukhin family and their relatives spent the summer months in Menshovo until 1884. And the following year, 1885, this estate was rented out as a dacha, not to anyone, but to the already famous artist Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov at that time. It is unknown whether the Lopukhins knew Polenov before, but be that as it may, for two years - 1885 and 1886, members of the Polenov family and his friends used the estate in Menshovo in the summer. This period from the history of Menshov will be discussed in a separate article.

Concluding the story about the members of the Lopukhin family who lived in the Menshovo estate from 1850 to 1880, let us finally mention their relatives and acquaintances who visited them and left memories of themselves in Russian history. Emilia Nikolaevna Lopukhina's husband is Count Pavel Alekseevich Kapnist (1842-1904), Privy Councilor, in 1880 - 1895 he was a trustee of the Moscow educational district, and since 1895 he was appointed senator. He rarely visited Menshovo, because he himself had a rich estate in Ukraine - Obukhovka.

The son of Alexander Alekseevich Lopukhin, Alexey (1864-1928), who as a child visited his grandfather and grandmother Lopukhin on their estate near Moscow, rose to the rank of director of the police department of the Russian Empire (1903-1905). He became famous for the fact that after his retirement he betrayed an secret police agent, Azef, to the Socialist Revolutionaries. For disclosing official secrets, he was arrested and sentenced to deprivation of all rights to his fortune and five years of hard labor, replaced by exile to Siberia. In December 1912, Alexey Alexandrovich Lopukhin was pardoned and restored to his rights.

Dmitry Pavlovich Evreinov (1842-1892) stood out from his relatives in that he was known among them as a “nihilist.” And indeed, having spent part of the summer in Menshov and gained strength, in the fall of 1861, a student at Moscow University, Dmitry Evreinov, took part in the riots in his educational institution. In May 1862, he was arrested on charges of “distributing outrageous appeals” and was kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress until mid-August. Thanks to the intercession of high-ranking relatives, Dmitry Evreinov was not severely punished, he was simply sent to Tula to his sister, who took him “on bail.” More in revolutionary movement he did not participate and in 1865 police supervision was removed from him.

Count Fyodor Lvovich Sollogub (1840-1890) was engaged in theatrical painting, drew sketches for theatrical costumes, and was the head of the furnishings on the stages of the Moscow Imperial Theaters. He taught at Moscow drama schools. During the time of the Lopukhins, other representatives of the Moscow noble aristocracy, mainly women and children, visited Menshovo in the summer months.

Menshovo under the Trubetskoy princes.

In 1886, Maria Alekseevna Lopukhina died. The Menshovo estate remained in the possession of the sisters: Lydia Lopukhina and Sofia Trubetskoy. Since 1887, this estate near Moscow came under the control of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. The daughter of Nikolai and Sophia Trubetskoy, Princess Olga, who compiled a written chronicle of the Trubetskoy family, explained this event this way. “Aunt Lidya (Lopukhina) spent this summer in Skobeevka (with her aunt Agrafena Aleksandrovna Obolenskaya), because her old house in Menshov was being rebuilt so as to accommodate our whole family. After a long and fruitless search for an estate that could satisfy the family’s requirements, and at the same time would not be too much of a burden on the budget, Dad and Mom settled on the idea of ​​building an extension to the old Menshovsky house and living there with Aunt Lydia, who was too sad to return there alone after the death of Aunt Masha.”

An old friend and good neighbor on the estate, Vladimir Ivanovich Ershov, took charge of the reconstruction of the house. An unknown architect was hired to rebuild the house. In accordance with the wishes of Nikolai Petrovich: “that the hall should be built in such a way that there would be space for setting up a stage,” he separated the living room from the hall with an arch, “which turned out to be really very convenient for charades and performances.” The only drawback of the house renovation was that after reconstruction there were many defects inside it. According to Olga Trubetskoy, V.I. Ershov was “so busy with his household that he could hardly have successfully monitored it (the construction), but Vladimir Ivanovich enjoyed such authority as an owner and a practical person that no one thought to delve into the details of this restructuring.”

Agrafena Obolenskaya and Lydia Lopukhina, who lived in neighboring Skobeevka, could not calmly look at the renovation of the house. Both cried and felt sorry for the old Menshovsky house being rebuilt, which was thoroughly dismantled. Without windows, without doors and in some places without a foundation, it reminded them of a ruined, plucked nest. In addition, construction was carried out slowly, but Ershov assured: “that this inaction is necessary and begged not to rush it.” Nikolai Petrovich occasionally looked at the construction site, but did not live there permanently. The house in the Menshovo estate was completely renovated by the summer of 1888.

The new informal owner of Menshovo, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy (1828-1900), left a significant mark on the history of the development of musical art in Russia and Moscow. References to his activities are available in all reference books and encyclopedias. Having devoted his youth to music, spending most of his personal funds on organizing various musical events, the later half of his life, he had to look for money to support his family.

Born into a noble and wealthy family of the general, Prince Pyotr Trubetskoy, Nikolai Petrovich received an excellent education in the Corps of Pages. In his youth he fought, participated in the Hungarian and Crimean companies. Then he moved to the civil service. His passion was music. Having no special musical education, he played the piano beautifully, sang and composed music. For a long time, Nikolai Petrovich became the chairman of the Moscow branch of the Russian musical society. Having a close friendship with the musicians brothers Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy, together with Nikolai Rubinstein, became a co-founder of the Moscow Conservatory. Thanks to his efforts, symphony and quartet concerts began to be held regularly in Moscow, and a conservatory was opened in which gifted children received a musical education.

While engaged in public affairs, Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy squandered most of his funds. Trying to make up for what he had lost, he decided to take up agriculture. Nikolai Petrovich acquired an estate in the south of the Russian Empire, and began growing and selling bread, as well as sheep breeding. He spent several years, separated from his family, on his southern estate - Sidor. However, his undertakings were unsuccessful; neither he himself nor the managers he hired were able to earn money to support the family. Being on the verge of ruin, Nikolai Petrovich entered the service, and from 1876 to 1885 he served as vice-governor of the Kaluga province. But the salary of a high-ranking official was not always enough for family needs, and he did not take bribes. The family estate of Akhtyrka, as well as Sidor, had to be sold. Having released his eldest sons into life, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy retired and in 1887 moved with his family to live in Moscow. Beginning in 1888, he spent the summer months in a family environment, in a quiet and peaceful corner of the Moscow region - the Menshovo estate.

And the prince’s family, according to the tradition of those years, was large. From two marriages, he had eleven children. The first time he was married to Countess Lyubov Vasilievna Orlova-Denisova, who died in her youth. From this marriage he had three children: Peter (1859-1911), Sophia (married to Vladimir Glebov) and Maria (married to Grigory Ivanovich Christie). From his second marriage with Sofia Alekseevna Lopukhina, the following were born: sons Sergei (1862-1905), Evgeniy (1863-1920) and Grigory (1874-1930), as well as daughters: Elizaveta (for M.M. Osorgin), Antonina (for F. D. Samarin), Marina (for Prince Nikolai Gagarin), Varvara (1870-1933, for G.G. Lermontov) and Olga (04/26/1867-1947).

By 1888, his older children were already living independently, had families and young children of their own. The eldest son from his first marriage, Peter, owned the Uzkoye estate near Moscow, so if he visited Menshovo, it was very rarely, just like his sisters: Sophia and Maria. But the children from the second marriage preferred Menshovo to Uzkoy. The eldest sons Sergei and Evgeniy, after graduating from Moscow University in 1885, devoted themselves to science. By 1888, both were living near their parents' summer residence. Sergei was retained at the department to prepare for the title of professor and in 1888 he was accepted as a private assistant professor at Moscow University. Evgeniy, having undergone military training and received officer rank, went into reserve. In 1886, he became a private lecturer at the Demidov Law Lyceum in Yaroslavl. On ordinary days, he lectured once a week, so for the remaining six days he went to Moscow. So, starting in 1888, all members of the family of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy, some the whole summer, and some a few days, spent in the Menshov estate.

The Chronicle of the Trubetskoy Family, compiled by Olga Nikolaevna Trubetskoy, will help tell you about this. So, on June 6, 1888, most members of the Trubetskoy family arrived at the renovated manor house. “Dad moved in earlier than the others and, together with Alexandra Ivanovna and Alexander, arranged the furniture in the house as best he could and prepared all the rooms. He worked very hard and was looking forward to our arrival and our first impression.” But Olga’s first impression was unimportant. “The house had just been painted red and, as happens when painting with mummy, the color was too bright and light, and the hops had not yet been planted around, which later brightened up the house so much. There was also no balcony at the entrance yet and the porch was very uncomfortable, to say the least. But inside everything was so fresh, light and tidy, and the large hall was so pretty that we soon came to terms with the appearance of the house, which gradually became, if not more beautiful, then more comfortable. Moreover, the surrounding nature immediately captivated me. The Pope was very pleased with the upper terrace and the terracotta vases that he placed on the balustrade tables; there were no flowers in them yet, and their appearance did little to contribute to the decoration, but the Pope demanded that they be admired.”

Gradually, the entire Trubetskoy family, with the exception of their daughter Elizaveta, who married Mikhail Mikhailovich Osorgin and lived on the Osorgins' Kaluga estate - Sergievskoye, gathered in Menshovo and its environs. Sergei Nikolaevich in October 1887 married Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna Obolenskaya and decided to live with his still small family, separately, but not far from everyone. A house in the Prokhorovo estate, located several miles from Menshov, was rented for him. Sister Olga herself went to arrange a temporary, but still family nest for the newlyweds. Another place where all the Trubetskoys came this summer was the Skobeevo estate. Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya, Aunt Grusha, continued to live there during the summer months. Driving there and there, they could not pass the Vorobyovo estate, where they were always eagerly received by the Ershov family. Olga Trubetskaya was very close to Vera Ershova and Maria Khitrovo, who lived with her. Another relative of the Trubetskoy family, Sonya Evreinova, lived with Aunt Grusha.

This summer, the only company for the young girls gathered in Menshov was brother Grisha, who came to visit Vorobyovo Bobby (Boris?) Nechaev and Nikolai Andreevich Kislinsky, a homely man in the Trubetskoy family. Already adult brothers Sergei and Evgeniy and sister Olga were more involved in entertainment for adults, although they also enjoyed boating around Rozaja. Sergei constantly came from Prokhorovo to Menshovo, where he enjoyed playing tennis with his brothers, Kislinsky and Olga. Evgeny simply adored this game and if he didn’t play in the morning, he wasn’t himself. His other pastime was hunting. Olga preferred horse riding (she went to Meshcherskoye, Turgenevo and Odintsovo), swimming in the river and reading. She did not like to walk, as she had been lame since childhood.

The adults enjoyed the wonderful nature, fresh air, and smothered conversations. From time to time, relatives and friends came to Menshovo to stay for a few days. This summer there was Uncle Kapnist, a friend of Varvara’s daughter, Anna Sytina. Olga decided to celebrate the end of the summer season with a home performance. “...now there’s a letter for Bor (Lopukhin) to bring the plays, on August 20 (August) - he was here, on 22 - the roles were rewritten, on 26 we already played “Trouble from a Tender Heart” and “Bird Like a Nest.” The Trubetskoy children made all preparations for the performance in secret from the adults. The appearance of the stage and curtain was explained not as a performance, but as a charade. Olga’s idea was a success, and perhaps for the first time in the entire existence of the settlement, a theatrical performance took place in the vicinity of Menshovo.

The last day when most members of the Trubetskoy family and their guests were in Menshovo was August 30. “...Yesterday before the end the house was overcrowded. Brother Petya (Petr Nikolaevich Trubetskoy), Vasya and Yusha Davydov, and Aunt Grusha arrived.” However, even in September, life in this corner of the Moscow region did not stop. After his relatives left, Sergei Trubetskoy and his wife moved to the Menshovsky House, where he prepared his dissertation. Dad and Vladimir Ivanovich Ershov went to Malvinsky (Malvinskoe-Otradnoe) on some business. Guests continued to visit the Trubetskoys during the cool October days. Alexey Lopukhin and Sergey Ozerov came to Menshovo in the autumn. Finally, with the onset of cold weather, that is, by mid-October, life on the Menshovo estate came to a standstill.

Dacha life in Menshov continued in the summer of the following 1889. The Lopukhins, old Osorgins, Samarins, Lydia Beklemisheva, Andrei Ozerov and other relatives, some for a day, some for several weeks, came to visit the family of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. There weren’t enough places for everyone, and then guests who showed up without an invitation, and therefore without a place, were received by Aunt Grusha in Skobeevo. It was with her that Peter and Lina Samarin settled. Olga Trubetskaya wrote to her brother Evgeniy: “... it was terrible that we had people.”

This year Olga became seriously interested in photography. She purchased a camera and took, developed and printed photographs herself. She had a particularly wide field of activity in Menshovo. After all, in addition to the Menshovsky summer residents and their neighbors, it was also possible to photograph beautiful picturesque views near the estate. But even this seemed not enough. Olga Nikolaevna, together with her sisters and friends, took up art photography. Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya, who moved from Menshovo to Moscow in September, wrote to her son Zhenya, who lived in Yaroslavl: “...Yesterday they sent me a fantastic picture from “The Demon”: on a steep cliff, Manya Khitrova portrays the Demon, only it was more like a witch than a Demon, and below was Maria dressed as Tamara, he goes to fetch water, and it turned out very cute and the place chosen was wild.” The location for this shooting was the steep banks of the Rozhai River in the vicinity of Menshovo. The photographs of Menshov's dacha life taken by Olga Trubetskoy were popular among her relatives, and she had to make several sets of them to order. Her sister Marina helped her with this. Where are these photographs now? How interesting it would be to look at the life that was seething in Menshovo 120 years ago.

According to the newly emerged tradition, the name day of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy was celebrated in early October, in Menshovo. For this celebration, the adult Trubetskoys came there for several days. The Trubetskoy children have not left there since the summer, and throughout September they were left to their own devices. Arriving to visit them in Menshovo, Sofya Alekseevna wrote in surprise to her son Evgeniy: “... There is such fun here all the time, such excitement and even some kind of rapture that I seemed to come out of the darkness into a dazzling light that I can’t stand at all.”

At the end of the summer season, friends of the Trubetskoy sisters came to Menshovo. There were Maria Rachinskaya and her brother Alexander, Boris Lopukhin, Alexey Kapnist, Maria Khitrova and other neighbors from Vorobyovo. A surprise was arranged for the birthday boy and a charade was played. Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya wrote: “...Who was cute in the charade was Marina, who danced a whole ballet. Manya Khitrova taught her various ballet dances, and she is so graceful and sweet, and dances like a ballet. ... Yesterday she portrayed hellfire in the kingdom of Pluto, and danced a fast dance in a lovely red and black costume, illuminated by a sparkler, and she was so lovely.” Finally, after celebrating the name day, all the Trubetskoys, their relatives and friends left Menshovo to return to it the following summer.

Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina spent the entire summer of 1889 on her estate near Moscow. In winter, trouble happened to Aunt Lida; she had a stroke, after which partial paralysis ensued. One type of medicine was fresh country air. Lidiya Alekseevna was brought to Menshovo for the summer. A paramedic came with her and constantly monitored her condition. From Moscow, Dr. Roth came to see her from time to time. And I must say, being in nature helped the patient a little. Lydia Alekseevna's numb arm and leg gradually returned to their previous sensations.

The next year, 1890, was significant for the Menshov estate in that it was visited by the famous Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov. The acquaintance between him and Sergei Trubetskoy occurred in 1888. From that moment on, Trubetskoy became a student of Solovyov and one of his best followers. In 1889, Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy defended his master’s thesis at Moscow University entitled “Metaphysics in ancient Greece" This work significantly increased his reputation among Russian philosophers. The dissertation was also published in book form. Recognized experts in this field began to pay attention to his philosophical works. And Sergei Nikolaevich moved from the category of students to the category of friends of the famous philosopher. The arrival of Vladimir Solovyov in Menshovo was already a visit from an older friend to a younger one.

It was previously known that Solovyov came to the Trubetskoys at the Uzkoye estate. Twice in 1890, he visited Sergei Trubetskoy and the Menshovo estate. This fact became known from the diary of Olga Trubetskoy. Unfortunately, she did not indicate on what days Soloviev came to their estate near Moscow. Probably due to the very large influx of friends and relatives, this summer Olga Nikolaevna kept a diary in fits and starts, and she simply did not write down the dates of Solovyov’s arrival. But already in the fall, recalling the impressions of the past summer, Olga Nikolaevna wrote down in her diary her interesting impressions from the visit of this extraordinary person.

“The summer passed in great commotion: the house (in Menshovo) was constantly full of people. During this month (mid-August-September), we had an awful lot of people. Manya Rachinskaya came twice and all the Kapnists, Alyosha (Lopukhin?) almost every week. Soloviev, who came the first time for one day, and the second for two days, left a lot to talk about himself. His appearance the second time was more spectacular. We all had breakfast in a crowded and noisy crowd, the table stretched across the entire room. Suddenly, the front door opens and the huge figure of Solovyov with incredibly disheveled hair appears in it. There was a strong wind, he leaned out of the window of the carriage, and the wind tore off his hat, and he arrived from Podolsk with his head uncovered, arousing amazement in the villages along the way and the curiosity of the boys who rushed after the carriage as long as they had the courage. His appearance already fascinates him. Aunt Grusha treated him with hostility and not without fear. For some reason she considered him the Antichrist, and she felt creepy with him. Mom was also not entirely trusting of him. There was a lot of debate about whether he would pose or not. I especially didn’t like his long hair and served as an argument for his posing. All day he walked through the forest or through the garden with Seryozha, and we saw him only at lunch, breakfast and tea, and in short periods of common sitting on the terrace after lunch and breakfast. Of course, he noticed how busy we all were with him, and turned up the heat in our sense. It was an unusually warm, dry evening after a hot day. Everyone poured out into the meadow and went to the edge of the cliff to three birch trees, on Linino’s place, and Solovyov and Seryozha joined us. Soloviev warned us not to be afraid if we heard noise and even screams at night. He is sometimes visited by ghosts, and lately all of them have been some kind of terrible animals, sometimes roosters of unusual size, sometimes monkeys, and sometimes they rush to peck or bite him, and then he screams. This message caused great excitement and laughter in the younger company. Soon everyone noticed some kind of white, nimble cat that was hovering around us, and when we moved further, it hovered around Solovyov, drawing circles around him. In a long mackintosh, with a disheveled head, in the twilight of the approaching night, his figure was truly extraordinary, and although he walked in front with Grusha and Seryozha, snatches of conversations of the young people who walked behind reached him. “Don’t be scared of this cat,” he said suddenly turning to them, “this is my poodle.” When we went to bed, the house was still full of excitement and laughter. Everyone was waiting for Solovyov’s screams and figuring out how to react to it. I slept with Grusha Panyutina, and opposite, across the corridor, Solovyov. We also didn’t sleep for a long time and listened to the commotion in the sisters’ room. Suddenly, someone knocked softly on our door, and loud scratching was heard. We felt uncomfortable. Pear opened the door, and it turned out that Solovyov’s cat was behind the door... She had never appeared before or since, and her appearance at the door was completely unpleasant.”

Of course, Soloviev came to Menshovo not to shock or frighten the local and dacha audiences, but to visit his friend and discuss issues of philosophy with him. In one of the letters from Berlin, where Sergei Trubetskoy went with his family in the late autumn of 1890, he wrote to his mother: “...Olga and you are asking me about Solovyov’s article: it was not news to me, because Solovyov read it to me in Menshovo.” . Subsequently, friendly relations between the Trubetskoy brothers and Vladimir Solovyov continued until his death. By the way, Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov died in the summer of 1900, while visiting Pyotr Nikolaevich Trubetskoy at his Uzkoye estate.

As usual, in the summer of 1891, members of the Trubetskoy family arrived at their estate near Moscow. But the mood of the vacationers was not particularly joyful. Princess Agrafena Alexandrovna Obolenskaya began to fail quickly and strongly. Olga Trubetskaya wrote in her diary: “Aunt Grusha is declining and aging with terrifying speed.” This was her last summer in her native place. On October 22, 1891, she died.

The beginning of the dacha season in 1892 occurred in disputes between Sofia Alekseevna Trubetskoy and members of her family. After reading Leo Tolstoy’s just-published article “The First Stage,” Mom, who previously couldn’t stand Leo Tolstoy, suddenly became his fan. She stopped eating meat dishes, and instead of linen tablecloths, she ordered the table to be covered with purchased oilcloth. Dad, Eugene and even her daughters took up arms against her. And they mocked her new quirks almost to her face.

Among other details of this summer, Olga Trubetskoy remembered the appearance of a gypsy camp in the vicinity of Menshovo. In her diary for July 12, she wrote: “Today we have a camp of gypsies outside Posiberekha. We go there in a crowd and all the Valishchevskys and Menshovskys also came to take a look. They are beautifully spread out through the small forests, but they themselves - despite the poetry of wildness - are unpleasant and alien and uncomfortable.” Among the new faces this year, Mitya Istomin came to Menshovo.

On August 10, the birthday of Princess Marina Nikolaevna Trubetskoy was celebrated in Menshovo. Local peasants and children were also invited to the holiday at the landowner’s estate. Her older sister Olga wrote in her diary: “Yesterday Marina turned 15 years old. It was celebrated in the evening with illumination. The Ershov girls lived here for 2 days. The holiday was complete for the peasant children - they played at the cash registers in the garden all day and squealed. In the evening, the illuminations were lit, and the whole garden was filled with people, there were round dances, singing, and dancing. People were buzzing everywhere. ... In front of the porch, noisy cries of approval were heard from the dancers, the tramp of feet, the monotonous rhythm of harmony could be heard.”

Throughout the summer of 1893, silence and boredom reigned in Menshov. Only for a few days, Uncle Petya and Aunt Lina Samarina came to stay at the Trubetskoy estate near Moscow. Representatives of the Trubetskoy youth and their relatives gathered here only in September. Arriving from the Samarins’ Molodenki estate, Olga Trubetskaya found a cheerful and noisy company here. Among the guests here were Sergei Evreinov, Mikhail Osorgin, Prince Nikolai Gagarin and Dmitry Istomin. “The noise, the hubbub was terrible,” Olga recalled, “besides, the rain poured down without remembering itself, and all this noise was made in the house.” To this it should be added that several young, lovely girls gathered in the Menshovsky house for several days, and young representatives of aristocratic families tried to show themselves in all their glory. “Mitichka Istomin had a lively conversation with Linochka and sometimes, “in the words of a poet,” began to declare poems. Nikolai Gagarin did not leave Marina and was in some kind of excited state. Poor Olga only watched the general fun, without participating in it. She only wrote down her impressions in her diary: “Aunt Lida and Mom are very pleased and enlivened by the resurrection of the former Menshov.”

The following year, much more events worthy of mention in the family papers of the Trubetskoy princes took place in Menshovo. Olga Nikolaevna, having arrived in Menshovo from Crimea in mid-May, felt at home here. Having gone for several days to the estate of her brother Pyotr Nikolaevich “Uzkoye”, she wrote in her diary: “In Uzkoye there is no Menshovskaya village and its beauty, there is no smell from the flowering meadows, but in the mornings in Menshovo there are no such bright and cool corners on the terraces, not this beauty of flowers, richness, brightness of colors and extraordinary aroma of roses, carnations, mignonette.”

The main Menshov event in 1894 was the celebration of sister Marina’s 17th birthday. Preparations for it began several weeks in advance. Uncle Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin, who lived more than usual this summer in Menshovo, took preparations for the celebration into his own hands. Despite his age, he personally drew and cut out banners, glued paper balloons and lanterns for illumination. He drew up a script according to which the gala event, including the performance, was to take place. But there was little time left and we took the first comedy we came across, “Confusion.” The following were supposed to take part in the performance: Olga, Varvara and Grigory Trubetskoy, Sergei Evreinov. Uncle Petya Samarin took on the role of footman. Three days before the celebration, rehearsals began. All the inhabitants of Menshovsky lived for several days in anticipation of this holiday, looking at the sky with caution. And this summer was unusually rainy and everyone was afraid that on this special day it would rain again.

Finally, on August 16, 1894, guests began to arrive in Menshovo. Brothers Peter and Ivan Raevsky, Vladimir Evreinov, Dmitry Istomin, brothers, princes Evgeniy and Sergei Shcherbatov, prince Nikolai Gagarin arrived. The weather was magnificent and flags and lanterns were hung in the garden for illumination. But towards the end of the day the unbearable rain began to fall again and everyone hurried to take refuge in the house. But this evening was planned dress rehearsal performance. All guests, so as not to spoil the impressions of the upcoming performance, were sent to a room on the second floor. And the rehearsal took place in the hall where the stage was installed. Tired of their chores, the hosts and guests went to bed early, looking forward to tomorrow's holiday. Marina was delighted, and no rain could ruin her mood.

On the morning of August 17, everyone prepared to go to mass in Vorobyovo, but it was cancelled. Then a lottery was announced. Dad won a knitted woolen hat, immediately put it on and walked around the house telling everyone how warm his head would be in winter. The weather was cruel to the residents and guests of Menshovo. The sun was shining and warming, then it was hidden behind rain clouds, from which cold rain poured. Young people took advantage of the moments when it was sunny and ran out of the house to play tennis. Pyotr Fedorovich enticed the players with the establishment of a sweepstakes. They immediately forgot about the rain, and a game of chance began, in which they did not spare themselves. As a result, Petya Raevsky and Zhenya Trubetskoy twisted their legs. For those remaining in the house, a barrel organ was poured on the balcony.

Maria Golitsyna and her husband arrived for breakfast. They were reputed to be one of the best organizers of dances at Moscow house balls, and they were greeted with great pleasure. The last guests arrived for dinner: from the neighboring Vorobyovo estate, its owner Varvara Sergeevna Ershova, and from Moscow, the husband of Antonina’s sister, Fyodor Samarin. From a letter from Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina it follows that the festive dinner ended with two shots from a cannon. But what kind of gun it was and where the Trubetskoys got it from could not be established.

Dinner was followed by a performance and the adults not participating in it retired to the room at the card table to play vint. The performance was a success, the actors enjoyed the performance, and the audience laughed at them. Grisha, who played the main role, was especially good. Pyotr Fedorovich, who played the small role of a footman, came out to bow like a real artist and was applauded more than anyone else. After the performance, the actors also sang verses dedicated to Marina.

After the performance, everyone went to the garden, colored with lanterns. Priests from neighboring churches: Prokhorovskaya and Akulininskaya came to see the illumination. The latter brought his entire family with him. Lydia Lopukhina was surprised in her letter: “What kind of thirst for pleasure does it take to come back at night in such weather and just swim, because they say there’s a continuous river to Akulinino.” In Aunt Lydia’s opinion, the illumination went very poorly: “it was drizzling with rain, and in addition, during the performance they brought candles from lanterns.” But the young people liked everything, they admired the beauty of the decorated alleys and walked until 11 o’clock in the evening.

The celebration ended with a ball. The barrel organ was brought into the hall and dancing began, which, in the opinion of the outdated Aunt Lydia, looked like a demonic possession. At the mazurka, Marina, who received a large number of gifts, was presented by Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin with the main gift - a precious brooch with the number 17. This is how the most memorable day of the summer of 1894 passed in Menshovo. After him, the guests began to leave Menshovo. On August 27, Mom and her younger sisters left for Crimea, and Dad, Aunt Lida, Olga and Grisha remained at the dacha. And since September, Olga Trubetskaya has been left completely alone in Menshov. Since spring, she has taken up gardening and flowers. Taking the peasant Gavryushka as her assistant, she dug in the garden and, not sparing the old trees, put it in order. In the fall, Olga Nikolaevna started a small renovation, or rather a new extension to the house. Since this year, dad has somehow moved away from economic affairs and his sons Sergei and Evgeniy, in correspondence with each other, worried about his financial condition, consulted on how to help him.

Unfortunately, Princess Olga Nikolaevna Trubetskaya brought the chronicle of her family only up to 1894, and the details of the Trubetskoys’ stay in Menshovo from 1895 are little known. However, in subsequent years, members of the Trubetskoy family continued to come to Menshovo. Moreover, the Trubetskoy family began to grow due to the children born, who simply needed fresh country air in the summer. Sergei Nikolaevich, from his marriage to Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna Obolenskaya (1860-1914), had children: Maria (1888-1934), Nikolai (1890-1938) and Vladimir (1891-1937). . By the way, Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna was the granddaughter of Prince Andrei Petrovich Obolensky, the brother of the former owner of the village of Menshov, Prince Ivan Petrovich Obolensky. This is how, through marriage, a representative of the princely family of Obolensky returned to her ancestral estate.

Another brother, Evgeniy Nikolaevich, married Princess Vera Alexandrovna Shcherbatova in 1889. They also had children: Sergei, Sophia and Alexander. The younger children of Nikolai and Sofia Trubetskoy were replaced by their grandchildren in the children's rooms of the Menshov House. Nikolai Petrovich's daughters, having gotten married, went to their husbands' houses. But at the invitation of their grandparents, their grandchildren: princes Trubetskoy and Gagarin, Lopukhin, Samarina and Osorgin, accompanied by their parents, visited them in the estate near Moscow.

In 1895, Lidia Alekseevna Lopukhina died and the Menshov estate completely passed into the possession of Nikolai and Sofia Trubetskoy. However, they did not control their beloved estate near Moscow for long. On July 19, 1900, in Menshovo, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy died of a broken heart. And the next year his wife, Princess Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskaya, also died.

Together with them, their peers who came to stay in Menshovo also passed away.

A remarkable person who visited the Trubetskoys more than once in their estate near Moscow was their distant relative Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin (1831-1901). After graduating from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, he entered the civil service. During the Crimean War, Pyotr Fedorovich entered the army and participated in hostilities. After the announcement of the manifesto on the liberation of the peasants in 1861, Pyotr Samarin quit his service and devoted himself to the improvement of the peasants. He was the first peace mediator in the Bogorodsky district of the Moscow province. He allocated much more land to his peasants than was required by the Manifesto. He was the Tula provincial leader of the nobility. In the 1880s, Pyotr Fedorovich retired from government affairs, lived in Moscow and with his estate Molodenki, Epifansky district, Tula province. He was an intelligent, educated, well-read man, possessed of great erudition, and was known as a connoisseur and lover of art. He owned a rich collection of rare etchings and engravings. His collection of works by Rembrandt was especially famous.

Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin was closely acquainted with Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Their acquaintance, which grew into friendship, occurred in 1857. In the 1860s, Samarin often came to Tolstoy at his Tula estate “Yasnaya Polyana”. Lev Nikolaevich, 1860-70, made return visits to Molodenki. And they came together because of a common passion for hunting. But their views on life were radically different. Often their conversations ended in a quarrel. While they were young, they found the strength to forgive each other. But with age, impatience with other people's principles worsened. In 1881, another dispute over the death penalty broke out in Yasnaya Polyana. Peter Samarin advocated that those involved in the murder of Emperor Alexander 2 should be executed. Leo Tolstoy was categorically against it. An unpleasant scene occurred, after which the relationship between the friends cooled. They continued to meet, but the entries in the diary show that Lev Nikolaevich no longer considered Samarin his friend. Pyotr Fedorovich Samarin became the prototype of Sakhatov, the hero of Leo Tolstoy’s comedy “The Fruits of Enlightenment”

The Menshovo estate came into the possession of their eldest son, Prince Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy. By this time he had achieved great success in his career. In the year of his father's death, he defended his doctoral dissertation at Moscow University and was appointed extraordinary professor in the department of philosophy. At the same time he became one of the editors of the journal “Questions of Philosophy and Psychology”. Brothers Sergei and Evgeniy Trubetskoy, in the early 1900s, became one of the outstanding philosophers of that time. The elder brother went down in the history of Russian philosophical thought as the author of his own original concept, which he himself called “the theory of concrete idealism.” Sergei Trubetskoy created fundamental works on the history of ancient philosophy, ontology, epistemology and cultural studies.

Sergei Nikolaevich combined scientific and teaching work with extensive social activities. From the very beginning of the formation of the liberal movement in Russia, he actively participated in its formation. In 1902, he became an ordinary professor at his native university and received the rank of state councilor.

In September 1905, Doctor of Philosophy Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy became the first elected rector of Moscow University. It was at this time that reform of public education and revolutionary unrest took place in Russia. Students were always actively involved in demonstrations, and the university was closed several times. All these experiences took their toll on the young rector. On September 29, 1905, after a heated discussion in the office of the Minister of Public Education on the issues of reforming university education, Sergei Nikolaevich died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy served briefly at the Demidov Lyceum. In 1893 he was invited to teach at Kyiv University. About ten years of his life are connected with Kiev. Here he was actively involved in scientific work and became a professor of philosophy. During these years, Evgeniy Nikolaevich rarely visited Menshovo. He and his family spent the summer months in “Nara” - the Moscow estate of his wife’s father, Prince Shcherbatov, located in the Vereisky district of the Moscow province. In 1906, Evgeniy Nikolaevich moved to Moscow. But even after the move, he and his family rarely visited Menshovo. They had their own estate in the Kaluga province and district - Begichevka. There Evgeniy Nikolaevich’s family spent most of the summer.

The younger brother Grigory, having graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, chose a career as a diplomat and entered the service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Having been appointed to the position of attaché at the Russian embassy in Constantinople, by 1901 Grigory Nikolaevich had already become the first secretary of this embassy. According to some reports, he also held diplomatic posts in Vienna and Berlin. If during his years of service abroad, he came to Russia on vacation in the summer, then without a doubt he visited his parents and brother Sergei, who lived in Menshovo.

After the death of Prince Sergei Nikolaevich, the estate on the banks of Rozhaya remained with his family and passed to his wife Praskovya Vladimirovna Trubetskoy. By some miracle, a book with annual reports on the Menshovo estate for 1903 - 1910 was preserved in the archives of Prince N.P. Trubetskoy. From this book you can learn about the income and expenses of the landowners of this estate. For all specified years expenses always exceeded income, that is, this Trubetskoy estate near Moscow was unprofitable. The money was spent on salaries: for the manager, gardener, cook, shepherd, water carrier and worker. In addition, “grub” was purchased with the landowner’s money, insurance was paid, duties (taxes) were paid, payments were made for performing rural work, repairing houses and other buildings, as well as stove heating. The income portion included money received from: the sale of livestock (calves, foals) and the rental of horses. The following were grown on the master's fields: rye, oats, buckwheat, potatoes and cabbage. Perhaps part of the harvest was sold and the proceeds from this were also included in income. At that time, economic issues were dealt with not by the gentlemen, but by the manager they hired, who was responsible for annual reports. Most likely, the owners of the estate were dissatisfied with their managers, since the reports for these eight years mention three names: until August 1907 there was Boltukhov, then Shutov, and from August 1909 Mosalsky.

From the memoirs of Sergei Nikolaevich’s son, Vladimir, published under the title “Notes of a Cuirassier,” it is known that the Trubetskoys, even after the family tragedy of 1905, continued to spend the summer months in the Menshov estate. Vladimir Sergeevich recalled the summer of 1911 spent on this estate near Moscow. “As usual, we spent the summer with the whole family on the Menshov estate near Moscow, where I practiced semi-instrumental surveying of the area using a purchased scale, guided by Baron Brinken’s topography textbook.

Considering the upcoming service, in the summer I rode a little every day on a horse bought from a Cossack from “His Majesty’s own convoy.” It was a medium-sized, but very fine bay horse, which, out of boyishness and for the sake of style, I personally cut off the tail and cut off the mane, giving the horse a stupid anglicized look and, moreover, calling it “Bang-bang.” On this mustang I was terribly reckless and performed rather stupid tricks and all sorts of tricks, seriously imagining that I was comprehending the highest cavalry wisdom. I jumped over all local and even remote ditches and fences on poor Bang Bang. He jumped in vain, but with such enthusiasm and heart that he brought the unfortunate beast to exhaustion and almost to the point of complete destruction of his forelimbs. This is how I prepared for service in the cavalry. The family, of course, began to consider me a wonderful cavalryman. ...

In general, the summer of 1911 passed quietly for me, without events. This was the last summer that I lived with my mother, and I did not leave Menshov anywhere, with the exception of two trips to the Kaluga province to visit my bride, whom I still loved just as passionately.”

And after 1911, the Trubetskoys’ estate house was filled with their numerous relatives throughout the summer months. Only since 1914 could the situation on the Menshovo estate change. This year, the owner of the estate, Princess Praskovya Vladimirovna Trubetskaya, died. Then in 1914, the first World War. Unfortunately, nothing is known about this period in the life of the Trubetskoy family. But it may well be that the estate in Menshovo continued to be a kind of center where young members of noble aristocratic families came with pleasure to have fun: the Trubetskoys, Lopukhins, Obolenskys, Samarins, Gagarins, Osorgins, Kapnists, Mansurovs, and other families related to the owners. The great turning point, which turned everything upside down in the fate of Russia, changed the course of life in this cozy corner of the Moscow region. After the October Revolution of 1917, the Trubetskoy estate near the village of Menshovo fell into disrepair.

The fate of the members of this princely family developed differently. Having moved from Kyiv to Moscow in 1906, Evgeniy Nikolaevich Trubetskoy served as a professor at Moscow University. He had a recognized authority in the field of legal philosophy. Evgeny Trubetskoy was an active publicist and defended the idea of ​​independence of the church from the state. His philosophical works are also known in modern times. Except scientific work He was also involved in politics. In 1907-1908, Evgeniy Nikolaevich was a member of the State Council. Trubetskoy participated in the organization and activities of a number of scientific societies: Psychological at Moscow University, Religious and Philosophical Society named after. Vl. Solovyov and others; less known. He was the initiator and participant in the publishing house “Put” (1910–17). In 1918, for obvious reasons, he had to flee from Moscow to Ukraine, first to Kyiv, then Odessa. Together with the officers of the Volunteer Army, he moved to Novorossiysk, where he died in 1920 from typhus.

His younger brother Grigory Nikolaevich returned from abroad in 1906, where he held diplomatic posts. Together with his brother, from 1906 to 1910, he edited the socio-political magazine Moscow Weekly. In 1912, Grigory Trubetskoy returned to the diplomatic service and was an adviser on Middle Eastern affairs. In 1915 - 1915, he was the Russian envoy to Serbia. In 1917 - 1918, Grigory Trubetskoy was a participant in the “Local Council”. In 1918, he left Bolshevik Moscow for the south of Russia, where he served as head of the department for religious affairs in the Denikin government. As part of the government P.N. Wrangel, replaced P.B. Struve, who was responsible for foreign relations. In 1920, Grigory Nikolaevich emigrated from Crimea abroad, first to Austria, then to France. He participated in the political life of the Russian emigration, collaborated with publications of the foreign Russian press. Prince Grigory Nikolaevich Trubetskoy died in 1930, in the suburbs of Paris.

In conclusion of the story about the owners of the Menshovo estate, we will mention the children of Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, who also spent their childhood and youth here. The eldest son Nikolai, following the example of his father and uncles, entered Moscow University in 1908, the Faculty of History and Philology. Before that, he was interested in ethnography, folklore, linguistics, history and philosophy. Having completed his studies in the department of comparative linguistics in 1912, Nikolai Sergeevich was left at the department. Gradually he became one of the leading Russian linguists, folklorists and Slavic scholars. The October Revolution did not contribute to his pursuit of science, and he moved from Moscow to the south, and then, in 1920, emigrated from Russia to Bulgaria. Here he conducted scientific and teaching activities at Sofia University as a professor. Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy spent the last years of his life in Austria, where he served as a professor of Slavic studies at the University of Vienna. He was not involved in politics, but nevertheless, the Soviet government considered him its enemy, as did the fascist Gestapo. Numerous searches in his apartment, the seizure of his works, and the threat of arrest brought him to his grave.

The author of the memoirs “Notes of a Cuirassier”, Vladimir Trubetskoy, who had a large family, was unable to go abroad and remained to live in Soviet Russia. All his property was taken away and he had to survive rather than live. During the NEP, there was a temporary improvement, and Vladimir Sergeevich, under the pseudonym V. Vetov, began publishing his stories in the magazine “World Pathfinder”. But the terrible 30s came. The magazine was closed, and one of its authors, Vladimir Trubetskoy, was exiled to distant Andijan in 1934 with his family. He was accused of having connections with an overseas monarchist center, the leader of which was allegedly his older brother, Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy, who emigrated from Russia. Later the charge was changed, and the former prince turned out to be “a member of a national fascist organization.” It was there, in Central Asia, that Vladimir Sergeevich wrote, of course not for publication, but for his family, the memoirs “Notes of a Cuirassier.” In the summer of 1937, Vladimir Trubetskoy was arrested. His further fate is not difficult to predict. In this terrible year, the lives of several million former nobles, priests and ordinary people, upon whom the suspicion of the Soviet regime fell, were cut short.

The elder sister, Maria Sergeevna, married Apollinary Konstantinovich Khreptovich-Butenev in 1910. Most likely, after 1917 they left Russia.

Menshov's peasants.

We will begin the story about the life of the peasants of the village of Menshovo, as well as the village of Akulinino and the village of Stolbishchevo, from the time when they began to have surnames, that is, from the 1870s. During these years, family lists of each village began to be compiled in all volosts of the Podolsk district. By the way, it was in the 1870s that these settlements became part of the newly formed Shebantsevskaya volost. The lists indicated the head of the family, the size of the hut and other buildings (hills, sheds, barns), the number of workers and the occupation of local peasants. In the village of Menshov, 15 families were registered, of which only four heads had surnames. These are Vasily and Ivan Fedorovich Yachmenev, who each lived in their own yard, Alexey Stepanovich Frolov and Andrei Vasilyevich Busharin. The village of Akulinino consisted of 27 households, but only one peasant, Sergei Ivanovich Lisenkov, had a surname. There was a tavern in the village. He was kept in the house of the landless, former servant Gavrila Abramovich. He himself lived as a worker for the owners, and rented out the house as a tavern to Podolsk tradesman Ivan Petrov. for 25 rubles. No such lists have yet been found for the village of Stolbishchevo. All the houses in these villages were one-story, wooden, thatched.

The Menshovsky rural society bought its lands from the landowner only in 1877. Until this time, the villagers were considered temporarily obligated, and using the land allocated to them, they continued to work off the former landowner's corvee and pay him quitrent. At the time of the land purchase, there were 48 revision souls in Menshovo. The land he bought was not yet divided among the landowner's children and belonged to Princess Sofya Alekseevna Trubetskoy, Lydia, Alexander, Boris, Sergei, Maria and Olga Alekseevna Lopukhin and Emily Alekseevna Kapnist. According to the charter, the share of the rural society was allocated: estate land - 2 dessiatinas 2294 sazhens; arable land - 118 des. 1794 fathoms; haymaking - 16 des. 360 soot; bush - 1 dec. 1320 soot; under rivers and ponds - 2245 fathoms; under roads and streets - 1 dec. 1032 fathoms; total 141 des. 1845 soots.. In addition, for him in the Baikova wasteland: arable land - 12 des. 1536 soot; hayfields - 3 des. 524 fathoms; bushes - 4 dec. 1200 soot; under the river - 720 fathoms; total 20 des. 1580 fathoms.. In total, the Menshovsky rural society was allocated 162 tithes of 1025 fathoms, with all the buildings on them.

In 1889, statements were again compiled for the volosts of the Podolsk district describing the households of peasants. This time it was related to the insurance of peasant property. In addition to the description of the hut and outbuildings, these lists also indicated the livestock the peasant owned. By this time, most of the peasants had already registered their surnames. In the village of Menshov at that year there were 17 courtyards, on which there were 47 wooden buildings. And they were owned by peasant families: the Boleznovs (2 families), the Morozovs, the Busharovs (2 families), the Yachmenevs (3 families), the Grigorievs, the Frolovs (2 families), the Mironovs (2 families), the Lavrentievs (2 families), the Rodionovs. In the village there lived three Yachmenev families, who were relatives but lived separately, each with their own yard.

In the village of Akulinino that year there were 110 wooden buildings in 25 courtyards. Local residents had the following names: Korolevs, Romanovs, Lisenkovs (2 families), Borisovs (2 families), Kuznetsovs (2 families), Lovyrevs, Yarkins, Pogodins, Tikhonovs, Monakhovs (3 families), Ermakovs, Shmarins (2 families), Sinitsyns , Novikovs, Borunovs, Privezentsevs, Semyonovs Mashkovs. In the village of Stolbishchevo, in 15 courtyards, there were 78 wooden buildings belonging to peasant families: the Myasnovs, the Chekmarevs, the Chukanovs, the Leonovs (2 families), the Chikhachevs, the Smyslovs, the Kolobashkins, and the Gorlovs.

In 1888, the owner of the Menshovo estate, Lidiya Alekseevna Lopukhina, decided to resume boundary lines and delineate the peasant plot in the dacha of the village of Menshov. But she did not do this herself, but issued a power of attorney to the Privy Councilor, Prince Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy. Apparently disputes arose between landowners and peasants over the use of land. In 1889, the disputed land was measured. The matter went to court, according to which in 1892 the land was awarded to the Menshovsky peasants. The landowners did not agree with this decision and filed an appeal to a higher authority. How the case ended has not yet been established.

By the beginning of the 20th century, in the village of Akulinino there were: 202 inhabitants, in Menshovo - 108, in Stolbishchevo - 97. In 1911, part of the land near the village of Akulinino belonged to the owner of the Vorobyov estate, V.I. Ershov. In the same year, a zemstvo school was located in the village of Akulinino. The trustee is the wife of Major General Elena Mikhailovna Ershova. Teacher Agrippina Aleksandrovna Morozova. Teacher of the law priest Nikolai Kalugin

Menshovo during the years of Soviet power.

A telegram was sent to the Shebantsevsky Executive Committee about taking measures to protect the Menshovo estate. Of the artistic treasures, except for the mythological atlas, which had previously been donated to the University, nothing was found.

Greetings, my curious readers, or as they say in China, “Nihao”. You're probably wondering why I suddenly started speaking Chinese? It's simple! Today I would like to tell you about the most beautiful and at the same time dangerous Mount Everest.

Everest, or as the locals call it Chomolungma, is considered the highest point on earth above sea level. There are so many legends and stories around this amazing peak that you begin to think, “maybe I should risk conquering Everest?”

I’ll tell you right away to dreamers and just adventure lovers that even among trained professional climbers, not everyone will risk climbing Chomolungma. It is only in photographs and videos that climbers smile with happiness, standing among the non-melting ice. In reality, this is an extremely life-threatening activity. Only one attempt to climb Everest in ten is successful. In other cases, many simply turn back when there are several tens of meters left to the top.

Everest height above sea level

This is because the last meters are the most difficult and dangerous, and few people dare to risk their lives once again. The height of Everest above sea level, according to officially accepted data, is 8848 meters, but disputes are still ongoing. China, for example, believes that the height of the world's tallest mountain is four meters less. They carried out the measurement without taking into account the ice cap.

But the Americans established with the help of navigation instruments that Everest is two meters higher, the Italians, in general, consider the mountain to be eleven meters higher than the official figure. In general, while the debate continues, the official height remains the same. But every year, the mountain grows by several centimeters, due to the constant movement of lithospheric plates.

Chomolungma: some historical facts

It is known from history that Everest used to be the bottom of an ancient ocean. But due to the beginning of the movement of the titanic plates, when the Indian lithospheric plate collided with the Eurasian plate, the large Himalayan mountain range rose. And at its head was Everest. The plates continue to shift, so the mountain will only grow in the near future. Of course, if it weren't trampled by hundreds of tourists trying to climb to the top, it would grow faster. Kidding.

There are many fans in the world who dream of conquering this mysterious mountain at least once in their lives. But often their dreams are not destined to come true, and the main reason for this is... After all, a full-fledged expedition requires something like $100,000. And this does not include the fact that health must be simply ideal. At a minimum, you should calmly run 10 kilometers of cross-country. Least.

The most optimal period for climbing Everest

Everest is part of the large chain of the Himalayas. Everest itself is surrounded by younger brothers, so you can see the mountain in its full glory only by climbing the neighboring peaks.

In winter, the temperature at the peak of Everest can drop to -60 0 C. And in the summer, the warmest month of July does not rise above -19 0 C. But spring is considered the most suitable season for climbing. In summer there is frequent monsoon rainfall at the summit. And in the fall it is already dangerous, due to possible avalanches.

In which country is the highest Mount Everest located?

There was a lot of controversy here, because Nepal and China were at odds for a very long time, and when relative peace was established (although it looks more like occupation than peace), it was decided to draw the border right in the middle of the peak of Everest. Now officially the mountain is located on the territory of two states, and is equally considered the property of both countries. The southern part of Everest is located in Nepal and the northern part is in Tibet, an autonomous region of China.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, Knchenjunga was considered the highest mountain, but thanks to the Welsh mathematician George Everest, who proved that Everest is higher, the scientific world recognized this fact. The mountain was named after him.

Temperature at the top of Everest

In general, it’s not hot on Everest, let’s say. The temperature there never rises above 0 degrees. The coldest month is January. During this month, the average thermometer level is -36 degrees Celsius, and can drop to -60C. The warmest month is July. You can comfortably “warm up” at minus 19 degrees Celsius (average value).

Where is the most beautiful view of Everest?

To see how beautiful Everest is, there are several obstacles to overcome.

First- is to climb to the top of Kalapatthar.

It is from here that the view of the glacier opens up, as if Everest towers over the whole world.

Second– choose a good time for shooting, because due to poor visibility you can spend the whole day and not take a single photo. The weather in the mountains is constantly changing, and every minute here is worth its weight in gold.

Conquerors of Everest: the most famous Earth records

The first person to climb the peak of Everest was the scientist Edmund Hillary, accompanied by his assistant Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, a local resident and guide.

The youngest conqueror of the peak is considered to be 13-year-old American Jordan Romnro. Of course, the Japanese also did not stand aside, and the oldest conqueror was the Japanese - 80-year-old Yuchiro Miura

The list goes on, a variety of records were set on the roof of our world. They used it to snowboard, send messages and photos to social networks, and much more.

The one who put on a great show of freestyle snowboarding was Marco Siffredi. Not to be confused with Roko.

Look at the photos of both Mount Everest itself and its surroundings, which the Internet is full of, and you will understand why the mountain so attracts travelers all over the world. By the way, Yandex did something like a virtual tour to Everest.

In terms of its significance, Everest can only be compared with, which is considered the deepest in the world.

Although Everest is considered the roof of the world, another mountain of significant height is Lhotse, which is its neighbor. And the famous volcano of Russia and Europe, which is also one of the seven largest peaks in the world.

What does above sea level mean?

Interesting question, isn't it? Several centuries ago, scientists decided that it would be more correct to measure the height of land starting from the sea line. It's convenient and there are no unnecessary questions. After all, everything above the sea line is land and animals and people can live on it, and what is below is the seabed. Of course, it is also from the earth, but people cannot live there.

So, any measurement of the height of mountains and various ridges is measured exactly this way, from sea level. If the reporting point had been different, then Everest would no longer be the largest peak in the world. And its place would be taken by the famous Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea, 4200 m high, going down another 6000 meters. Calculate the total yourself.

The unusual story of conquering the summit of Everest

During the civil war in , many centuries ago, when brother went against brother, one young guy fell in love with a beautiful girl, but they were not destined to be together due to the fact that their families were enemies. The girl also liked the guy. After all, he was brave and strong, and most importantly, he did not retreat from his love. Despite the prohibitions and enmity, he fought for his beloved.

But, unfortunately, the couple in love found out about their relationship and decided to forcibly marry the girl off and take her to her husband in another village. The girl managed to convey a message to her lover about this event. And the guy in love decided to steal his beloved and run away from the hostility and war that was imposed on them.

On the day when the wedding ceremony was to take place, the bride was transported in a special carriage to the place where the groom was waiting. But on the way, the cart was overtaken by a guy in love, who overcame the escort, took his girlfriend, and they rode as far as possible. But failure awaited them here, since the horse could not carry two people for a long time, so it quickly ran out of steam. And at this time a chase was sent for the fugitives.

And when the lovers were already catching up, the girl began to pray for their salvation. God, having heard such a sincere request to save his loved one, decided to help. Suddenly a strong whirlwind arose under the couple and carried them to the foot of Mount Chomolungma.

And since then, the mountaineers who live in the most sacred place believe that they were chosen by the gods. Therefore, traditions are still sacredly respected.

How much does it cost to conquer Everest?

Anyone who has read about Everest knows that the journey is not cheap. And with average calculations it will cost $100,000, or even more. Most of this amount will go towards the fee paid by every tourist who wants to conquer the highest mountain. It is $35,000 and is revised every year.

Of course, many of you will be outraged, “robbery” and so on. But even with such numbers, there are enough people willing, and their number is growing every year. But every climber who conquers Everest leaves behind mountains of garbage, and who will clean up? After all, you can’t deliver transport up the mountain, because the air is very thin. And not every person will dare to get up and clean up dirty tourists.

Of course, most of the equipment becomes unusable or simply unnecessary, for example, used oxygen cylinders, and lugging the extra load to the top is very difficult. After all, with each kilometer it becomes more difficult to walk, and weight matters when you climb the peak.

For each person, the rise can last differently, from a month to 4. It all depends on your health and experience in climbing other mountain peaks.

Well, if you still risk going on an expedition, then learn everything about the mountain itself and the payment in advance additional services guides and guides, not counting porters and the climbing equipment itself. Make an estimate for the ascent and go ahead!

Good luck in conquering Everest and remember the wisdom of the mountaineers who have lived there for many generations: “Everest has a soul, it honors the spirit and character of the person who decided to conquer it. And if you do it just because of vanity, the mountain will never submit to you!”.

I hope my article was useful to you and you will share it with your friends. Write your questions and subscribe to. See you again!

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For a long time now, the question - what is the highest mountain in the world - has not puzzled anyone. Everyone knows: the highest mountain is Everest, or Chomolungma.

The first to proclaim Everest the highest mountain in the world were the Indian scientist R. Sikdar and the English surveyor M. Hennessy. This happened in the second half of the 19th century. Since then, several measurements have been made, and six years ago the official height of the mountain was recognized as 8848 m.

Surprisingly, such a seemingly obvious outsider as the extinct Muana Kea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands is claiming the palm and the status of the highest mountain in the world. Its visible height is slightly above 4200 m, but this is only an appearance: the main part of the impressive mountain is hidden under water - about 6000 m.

Everest – Mecca for climbers

Everest is located in the Himalaya mountain range, a mysterious and harsh region. The highest mountain in the world is named after George Everest, an English geographer and surveyor who put a lot of effort into exploring this mountain range.

The first ascent of Everest was made in 1953. Since then, hundreds of expeditions have been equipped, the goal of which is to conquer Chomolungma. Climbers are attracted by the difficulty of climbing the highest mountain in the world: low temperatures, high rarefaction of the atmosphere, hurricane winds, avalanches turn climbing Everest into a dangerous and extreme adventure, which, however, has recently acquired a commercial character.

If the first ascents were made alone, and the risk of death was prohibitive, now the situation has changed. Most climbers who conquer Everest are part of commercial expeditions. The cost of such an ascent is from $40,000. Of course, the risk of dying during the assault on the mountain remains, but with proper organization and favorable climatic conditions, hundreds of climbers return safely from the top of Everest, having experienced the most wonderful and amazing moments in their lives.

In total, more than 200 people have died on Chomolungma since 1953. Despite the enormous danger, climbing Everest is the dream of all climbers in the world; the bar by which they measure their achievements.

Mauna Kea - Hawaiian Shrine

The fame of Chomolungma, its rich and dramatic history, overshadowed the obvious fact that the highest mountain in the world is still a Hawaiian volcano.

The aborigines considered the mountain a sacred place and worshiped it. In the Hawaiian language, “mauna kea” means “white mountain” - all year round, despite the tropical climate, sparkling snow lies on its top, compressed into snow-white caps. Impenetrable forest covers the slopes of the mountain, and dozens of rare species of animals and plants are protected by the nature reserve located on Mauna Kea.

The volcano is known to all astronomers in the world - it is one of the best places for observing celestial bodies. More than a dozen observatories are located on its top, and in 2014, construction began on the most powerful telescope in the world.

The foot of the mountain is located on the ocean floor at a depth of almost 6000 m, and the total height of the volcano is over 10200 m. The dispute about which mountain is the best - Everest or Mauna Kea - can be resolved if we admit that Everest is the highest mountain in the world above sea level , and the Hawaiian volcano is simply the highest mountain.

Delightful Elbrus

The highest mountain in Russia is the beautiful Elbrus, a volcano in the Greater Caucasus mountain system. Its height is 5642 m above sea level, which makes Elbrus the highest mountain not only in Russia, but throughout Europe.

Rumors about the majestic peak reached many nations, so it is quite difficult to name the exact origin of the volcano’s name.

The two shining heads of Elbrus are a kind of symbol of the Caucasus, and the glaciers of the mountain feed the rivers: Kuban, Malku, Baksan, tributaries of the Terek.

Disputes still rage as to whether Elbrus is an extinct volcano or whether it is “dormant.” In any case, hot masses are still preserved in its depths, and the mineral springs of the resorts of the North Caucasus originate in the thickness of the volcano.

Elbrus is the birthplace of Russian mountaineering. The first ascent of the majestic mountain was made in 1829. Since then, the highest mountain in Russia has become a place for mass mountaineering and tourism, and in Soviet times, holidays on this mountain were the most prestigious and fashionable event.

Recently, Elbrus has become one of the most skiable mountains in the world. There is snow on its slopes from November to May, and some ski slopes are accessible all year round. In total, there are over 30 kilometers of ski slopes on the mountain, and dozens of cable cars operate. Every year thousands of tourists storm the peaks of Elbrus, ski and snowboard, and admire the stunning views.

The highest mountains are amazing creations of nature; majestic, menacing, attractive. The thirst for conquering peaks will never leave humanity, which means that the mountains are waiting for their conquerors.

This article is a logical continuation of my pseudo-research artisanal activity. It was reflections on the topic of the heroic exploration of the far north in the 17th century that led me to think about the demography of that time.
To begin with, I will state the idea on which I ended the previous article, namely: How quickly humanity is multiplying and isn’t history very stretched out compared to the rabbit-like agility of people.

I looked through many articles on the topic of demography of the Russian family. I learned the following very important point for me. Peasant families usually grew from 7 to 12 children. Was it related to way of life, the enslavement of Russian women and, in general, the realities of that time. Well, at least common sense tells us that life at that time was less suitable for entertainment than it is now. Nowadays, a person can occupy himself with a wide range of activities. But in the 16th-19th centuries there were no televisions, as well as the Internet and even radio. But what can we say about radio, even if books were a novelty, and then only church ones, and only a few knew how to read. But everyone wanted to eat, and in order to run the household and not die of hunger in old age, they needed a lot of children. And besides, the very creation of children is an international pastime and does not lose relevance in any era. Moreover, this is a godly thing. There was no contraception, and there was no need for it. All this causes a large number of children in the family.
They got married early, before Peter, 15 was the right age. After Peter it’s closer to 18-20. In general, 20 years can be taken as childbearing age.
Also, of course, some sources talk about high mortality, including among newborns. This is something I don't understand a bit. In my opinion, this statement is unfounded. It seems like the old days, no scientific and technical progress in terms of medicine, no institutes of obstetrics and gynecology and all that. But I take my father as an example, in whose family he had 5 brothers and sisters. But they were all born in a rather distant village without these obstetric tricks. The only progress that was made was electricity, but it is unlikely that it could directly help health. Throughout their lives, very few people from this village turned to a doctor for help and, as far as I could see, the absolute majority lived to be 60-70 years old. Of course, there were all sorts of things everywhere: someone would be bitten by a bear, someone would drown, someone would burn in their hut, but these losses were within the limits of statistical error.

From these introductory notes I make a table of the growth of one family. I take it as a basis that the first mother and father begin childbearing at the age of 20 and by the age of 27 they already have 4 children. We don’t take three more into account; let’s say they died suddenly during childbirth or then did not comply with life safety rules, for which they paid, and some men were even taken into the armed forces. In short, they are not the successors of the family. Each of these four lucky ones, let’s say, has the same fate as their parents. They gave birth to seven, four survived. And those four who were given birth to by those whom the first two gave birth to did not become original and followed in the footsteps of their mothers and grandmothers and each gave birth to 7 more children, of whom four grew up. I apologize for the pun. Everything is clearer in the table. We get the number of people from each generation. We take just the last 2 generations and count them. But, since successful childbearing requires a man and a woman, we assume that in this table there are only girls, and another identical family gives birth to boys for them. And then we calculate the birth rate index for 100 years. We divide the sum of 2 generations of people by 2, since for each girl we are forced to add a man from a neighboring family and divide the resulting number by 4, this is how many people we had in our conditions, in the first level of this pyramid. That is, dad and mom are from families where only boys and only girls are born. All this is conditional and only to present the level of possible birth rates over 100 years.

That is, under these conditions, the population would increase 34 times in a year. Yes, this is just potential, under ideal conditions, but then we keep this potential in mind.

If we tighten the conditions and assume that only 3 children reach the childbearing stage, we get a coefficient of 13.5. An increase of 13 times in 100 years!

And now we take a completely catastrophic situation for the village. Nobody pays a pension, the cow needs to be milked, the land needs to be plowed, and there are only 2 children. And at the same time we get a birth rate of 3.5.

But this is just a theory, even a hypothesis. I'm sure there's a lot I didn't take into account. Let's turn to the great Vicky. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_Reproduction

Additions from 05/04/16

One of the commentators on another page pointed out to me the absurdity of the calculations, since with the birth rate of 2 children in a family, no increase can be observed. There will simply be a change of generations. Moreover, naturally, even some minus will appear, since not everyone will be lucky to survive. Here mathematics gives way to ordinary common sense. I will add more correct 2 tables with minimum quantity 2.5 children per family and 3 children. At the same time, the tables are now built with the condition that the principle that it is the woman who gives birth to children is observed. as well as the total number of female and male people over 100 years should be equal. The coefficients turned out to be: 4.25 for a family of 2.5 children and 8.25 for a family of 3 children. 2.5 children are realized due to the fact that 2 conditional families are taken and one of them gives birth to 2 children in a generation and the second 3. In the next generation, on the contrary, the first gives birth to 3 children, the second 2. Some may think that there are not enough men for women, but I repeat that the tables are conditional, for clarity, with an equal distribution of men and women. This means that there are hundreds more families, among which there are the required number for marriages.

As I already said, even some mistakes and some absurd conventions do not change the picture at all. And of course, they do not change the essence of the article in any way.
The end of the supplementary period.

Returning to the topic of the development of medicine, which defeated high mortality. I can’t believe in the great medicine of the designated countries, and in my opinion, the high growth in them is only in comparison with the low growth in European countries, and before it was at the same level.
And Russia in the 19th century, judging by the same Wiki, was in 2nd place in terms of birth rates in the world, after China.
But the main thing we see is population growth of 2.5-3% per year. And a modest 3% per year turns into an 18-fold increase in population in 100 years! An increase of 2% makes a 7-fold increase in 100 years. That is, in my opinion, these statistics confirm the possibility of such an increase (8-20 times per 100 years) in Russia in the 16th-19th centuries. In my opinion, the life of peasants in the 17th-19th centuries was not very different, no one treated them, which means the increase should be the same.

We roughly understood that humanity can multiply many times over in a very short time. Various reviews of Russian families only confirm this; there were many children. My observations also confirm this. But let's see what the statistics tell us.

Sustainable growth. But if we take the lowest coefficient of 3.5 times over 100 years, which is MUCH less than the 2 or 3% per year that some advanced countries have, then even that is too high for this table. Let's take the interval 1646-1762 (116 years) and compare it with our coefficient of 3.5. It turns out that the meager demography should have reached 24.5 million in 100 years, but only reached 18 million in 116 years. And if we calculate the growth over 200 years within the boundaries of 1646, then in 1858 there should be 85 million, but we have only 40.
And I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the end of the 16th and the entire 17th century for Russia was a period of great expansion into territories with very difficult climatic conditions. With such an increase, I think it’s hardly possible.

To hell with the 17th century. Maybe someone was missing somewhere or the quantity was compensated by quality. Let's take the heyday of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Just a good 100 year period is indicated as 1796-1897, we get an increase of 91.4 million in 101 years. They had already learned to count and mastered absolutely the entire territory, at the maximum of which the Republic of Ingushetia died. Let’s calculate how much the population should have been with an increase of 3.5 times in 100 years. 37.4* 3.5 equals 130.9 million. Here! It's already close. And this despite the fact that the Russian Empire was the leader in birth rates after China. And let’s also not forget that over these 100 years, Russia not only gave birth to people, but in the number 128.9, as far as I understand, the population of the annexed territories is also taken into account. But to be honest, we generally need to compare within the territories of 1646. In general, it turns out that according to the meager coefficient of 3.5 there should have been 83 million, but we have only 52. ​​Where are there 8-12 children in a family? At this stage, I am inclined to believe that there were still a lot of children, rather than in the statistics given, or whatever Mironov’s work is called.

But you can play with demographics in the opposite direction. Let's take 7 million people in 1646 and interpolate back a hundred years with a factor of 3, we get 2.3 million in 1550, 779 thousand in 1450, 259 thousand in 1350, 86,000 in 1250, 28,000 in 1150 and 9,600 people in 950 year. And the question arises: did Vladimir baptize this handful of people?
What will happen if we interpolate the population of the entire earth with a minimum coefficient of 3? Let's take the exact year 1927 - 2 billion people. 1827th - 666 million, 1727th -222 million, 1627th -74 million, 1527th - 24 million, 1427th - 8 million, 1327th - 2.7 million... In general, even with a coefficient of 3, in the year 627 there should have been 400 people living on earth ! And with a coefficient of 13 (3 children in a family), we get a population of 400 people in the year 1323!

But let's return from heaven to earth. I was interested in facts, or rather, at least some official sources, information from which I could rely. I took Vicki again. Compiled a table of the population of large and medium-sized cities from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 20th. I entered all the significant cities into Wiki, looked at the date of the city’s founding, and the population tables and moved them to my place. Maybe someone will learn something from them. For those less curious, I recommend skipping it and moving on to the second, in my opinion, the most interesting part.
When I look at this table, I remember what was there in the 17th and 18th centuries. We need to deal with the 17th century, but the 18th century is the development of manufactories, water mills, steam engines, shipbuilding, iron making, and so on. There should be an increase in cities in my opinion. But our urban population begins to increase at least somehow only in 1800. Veliky Novgorod was founded in 1147, and in 1800 only 6 thousand people lived in it. What did you do for so long? In ancient Pskov the situation is the same. In Moscow, founded in 1147, already 100 thousand live in 1600. And in neighboring Tver in 1800, that is, only 200 years later, only 16,000 people live. In the north-west rises the capital city of St. Petersburg, with 220 thousand people, while Veliky Novgorod has passed just over 6 thousand. And so on in many cities.

Part 2. What happened in the mid-19th century.

Regularly, “underground” history researchers stumble upon the mid-19th century. Many incomprehensible wars, great fires, all sorts of incomprehensible things with weapons and destruction not comparable to them. Here is at least this photo, where the date of construction is clearly indicated on the gate, or at least the date when these gates were installed, 1840. But at this time, nothing could threaten or harm the abbey of these gates, much less simply destroy the abbey. There were skirmishes between the British and the Scots in the 17th century, and then quietly.

So I, while researching the population of cities on Wiki, ran into something strange. Almost all Russian cities experienced a sharp decline in population around either 1825 or 1840s or 1860s, and sometimes in all three cases. Thoughts come to mind that these 2-3 failures are actually one event that was somehow duplicated in history, in in this case in censuses. And this is not a percentage drop, as in the 1990s (I counted a maximum of 10% in the 90s), but a decrease in population by 15-20%, and sometimes 30% or more. Moreover, in the 90s big number people simply migrated. And in our case, they either died, or people found themselves in such conditions that they could not give birth to children, which led to this effect. We recall photographs of empty cities in Russia and France from the mid-19th century. We are told that the shutter speed is long, but there are not even shadows from passers-by, perhaps this is just that period.

I would like to note one more detail. When we look at the demographic gap, we compare it with the value of the previous census, the second minus the first - we get a difference that we can express as a percentage. But this will not always be the right approach. Here's the example of Astrakhan. The difference between 56 and 40 is 11,300 people, which means that the city lost 11,300 people in 16 years. But in 11 years? We don’t yet know whether the crisis was extended over all 11 years, or whether it happened, say, in a year, in 1955. Then it turns out that from 1840 to 1855 the trend was positive, and another 10-12 thousand people could have been added and by the 55th there would have been 57,000. Then we get a difference of not 25%, but 40%.

So I look and I can’t understand what happened. Either all the statistics are falsified, or something is seriously mixed up, or the guardsmen wandered from city to city and slaughtered thousands of people. If there was a catastrophe, like a flood, then everyone would be washed away in one year. But if the catastrophe itself happened earlier, and then a sharp change in the world paradigm followed, as a result of the weakening of some states that were more affected and the strengthening of those less affected, then the picture with the guardsmen takes place.

Below, for the sake of an example, I would like to superficially examine a couple of oddities in the clippings.

City of Kirov. There was a very small population decline in 56-63, not great, only 800 people were lost. But the city itself is not great, although it was founded God knows how long ago, in 1781, and before that, it also had a history dating back to the era of Ivan the Terrible. But to start building a huge cathedral in the unremarkable city of Kirov, Kirov region with a population of 11 thousand in 1839, in honor of Alexander I’s visit to the Vyatka province and calling it, of course, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is strange. Of course, it is 2 times lower than St. Isaac's, but it was built over several years, not counting the time of collecting money. http://arch-heritage.livejournal.com/1217486.html

Moscow.


It began to lose a fair amount of population at the beginning of the 18th century. I admit the possibility of an outflow of the population to St. Petersburg in the mid-18th century, after the construction of the road in 1746, along which, by the way, it took a month to get there. But in 1710, where did those 100 thousand people go? The city has been under construction for 7 years and has already been flooded a couple of times. I cannot accept that 30% of the population with their belongings, it is not clear how they leave the pleasant Moscow climate, a populated city, to the northern swamps and barracks. And where did more than 100 thousand people go in 1863? Are the events of 1812 happening here? Or let’s say the turmoil of the early 17th century? Or maybe it's all one and the same?

One could somehow explain this by some kind of recruitment or local epidemic, but the process can be traced throughout Russia. Tomsk has a very clear framework for this cataclysm. Between 1856 and 1858 the population declined by 30%. Where and how were so many thousands of conscripts transported without even the presence of railways? To central Russia on the western front? The truth can also protect Petropavlovsk-Kachatsky.

It feels like the whole story is mixed up. And I’m no longer sure that the Pugachev uprising took place in the 1770s. Maybe these events just happened in the middle of the 19th century? Otherwise I don't understand. Orenburg.

If we put these statistics into official history, it turns out that all the disappeared people were conscripts for the Crimean War, some of whom later returned. Still, Russia had an army of 750 thousand. I hope that in the comments someone will evaluate the adequacy of this assumption. But anyway, it turns out we underestimate the scale Crimean War. If they went so far as to sweep almost all adult men from large cities to the front, then they were also swept out of villages, and this is already the level of losses of the 1914-1920s if expressed as a percentage. And then there was the First World War and Civil War, which took away 6 million people, and don’t forget about the Spanish Flu, which within the borders of the RSFSR alone claimed 3 million lives in a year and a half! It’s strange to me, by the way, why such an event receives so little attention in the same media. After all, in the world it claimed from 50 to 100 million people in a year and a half, and this is either comparable to or more than the losses of all sides over 6 years in the Second World War. Isn’t this the same manipulation of demographic statistics, in order to somehow trim the population size, so that there would be no questions about where these 100 million people went, say, in the same mid-19th century.

Anyone who has ever been to the mountains remembers them for the rest of their lives. This is such an incredible sight that it is simply impossible to forget. Here, being at the top, you understand what kind of bug you really are. Here your soul and body rest, here you can truly relax, feel the cold mountain air, think about something lofty...

Which mountains are the most popular? Probably the same ones you fly down on skis or snowboard. However, over time, you realize that you want to climb higher and ask yourself the question - what is the largest mountain in the world? It turns out that the answer is simple - this is Everest, which we were told about more than once in school.

Chomolungma (8852 m)

Everest (or, as it is also called, Chomolungma), which is part of the huge Himalaya mountain system and is located on the territory of Nepal and China, reaches an altitude of 8852 above sea level! To get to the top, travelers spend weeks and months, and once there, they resort to using an oxygen mask - if this is not done, you can stay at the top forever, since the air there is very rarefied. Over the entire period, only about 4,000 people were able to conquer the peak, and every year about 500 more volunteers try to do this, but not everyone succeeds.

Everest has a very interesting climate. Tropical plants grow at the foot of the mountain, while at the top there is incredible frost (down to -70 at night), and wind speeds reach several hundred meters per second. Even if you managed to get to the peak under such weather conditions, you will not stay there for long. Firstly, the rarefied atmosphere, secondly, severe frost, thirdly, you need to get down in time while it is still light. By the way, going down is not much easier than going up. However, many travelers are not afraid of this at all.

Not long ago, scientists discovered a mountain on Mars whose height is as much as 21.2 kilometers, that is, it is more than two times higher than Everest. Probably, climbers would be happy to climb it, but we can’t fly to the red planet yet, alas.

Chogori (8611 m)

Chogori is the second highest mountain peak after Everest. It was first discovered by researchers in 1856 and at that time they decided to name it K2 in honor of the second peak of the Karakorum. However, years later the mountain received its current name.

Interestingly, the British first tried to climb Chogori at the beginning of the 20th century, but they succeeded. The Italians were the first to conquer the mountain in 1954.

For a long time it was believed that Chogori is the highest mountain on the planet, since many researchers claimed that its height could reach 8900 meters. And only in 1987, full measurements were carried out, thanks to which it turned out that the true height of Chogori is 8611 m.

Climbing Chogori is technically very difficult, so until the mid-2000s, only about 250 people climbed the mountain, and another 60 died during the climb. Moreover, successful attempts to climb occurred exclusively in warm seasons. Those who tried to conquer the mountain in winter invariably died.

Kanchenjunga (8586 m)

Kanchenjunga is a mountain range in the Himalayas and is located on the border of India and Nepal. The massif consists of five peaks and all of them are incredibly high, but Kanchenjunga Main is the highest.

It is not known exactly when the massif was discovered, but it was for a long time considered the highest mountains until the mid-19th century. The first attempts to conquer the peak began in 1905, when an expedition led by Aleister Crowley was only able to climb to a height of 6200 meters. The next attempt took place in 1929, but it also ended unsuccessfully. But the members of the expedition led by Charles Evans were finally able to reach the peak on May 25, 1955. The ascent took place from the Yalung glacier.

Usually, with the development of technology, the mortality rate when climbing mountains falls, but this does not apply to Kanchenjunga. The fact is that the number of cases that end tragically is only increasing. Interestingly, almost all the women who tried to conquer the mountain died. Local residents even have a legend - they say that the mountain kills all women who try to climb it out of jealousy.

Lhotse (8516 m)

Lhotse is part of the Mahalangur Himal mountain range, located on the border of China and Nepal. It has three peaks, the height of the main one reaches 8516 m.

The first successful conquest of the peak took place in 1956, when members of a Swiss expedition were able to do it. In 1990, Russians under the leadership of A. Shevchenko were able to climb the mountain along the South Wall. To date, their record has not been achieved, since climbing Lhotse this way is incredibly difficult. One of the participants in that expedition says that this happened only due to the fact that Soviet Union was able to bring together 17 excellent specialists who knew how to work harmoniously with each other.

The total number of people who reached the summit according to 2003 data is about 240, and about 12 died.

Makalu (8481 m)

Number five on our list of the highest mountains is Makalu or the Black Giant. This is a mountain range located in the Himalayas. It has several peaks, the main one reaching a height of 8481 m.

Like several other participants in our rating, the mountain is located on the border of China and Nepal, located 22 km from Qomolungma. According to historical data, Makalu has been known to Europeans since at least the beginning of the 19th century, but the first attempts to conquer the peak began only in the mid-20th century. Why? The explanation is simple - most specialists at that time wanted to conquer the highest mountains, which were Everest and Lhotse, and they were much less interested in the rest. However, over time this situation has changed radically.

The first successful ascent to the main peak was in 1955 - a French group led by Jean Franco managed to do this. They climbed the mountain along the northern route. Later there were successful climbs along other routes. If we talk about the Slavs, the last to climb Makalu were the Ukrainians from the city of Sumy, whose journey took two whole months.

Cho Oyu (8188 m)

Another mountain peak in the Himalayas, located on the border of Nepal and China, is Cho Oyu, whose height reaches 8188 m. It belongs to the Mahalangur Himal mountain range and is part of the Chomolungma mountain range.

Not far from Cho Oyu there is the Nangpa La Pass, covered with ice. Its height reaches 5716 m. It is through it that the trade route passes, along which the inhabitants of Nepal get to Tibet. From the latter side it is very easy to climb the mountain, but from the Nepal side it is incredibly difficult, since travelers are faced with a steep wall.

The first successful ascent to the peak occurred in 1952.

Dhaulagiri (8167 m)

Continuing our list, we cannot fail to mention Dhaulagiri or White Mountain, as it is sometimes called. Dhaulagiri is a mountain range in the Himalayas that has many peaks, the highest of which is Dhaulagiri I - its height reaches 8167 m.

The first ascent of the mountain took place in the middle of the 20th century, but a successful conquest took place only in 1960, when a team of the best European climbers decided to climb to the top. This took place in May, and the first winter ascent was made by the Japanese Akio Koizumi in 1982 together with Sherpa Nima Wangchu.

Manaslu (8156 m)

Our list ends with Manaslu (Kutang), located in the Himalayas. The mountain is part of the Mansiri Himal mountain range, which is located in northern Nepal. Manaslu has three peaks: main, eastern and northern. The first is the highest of them, its height reaches 8156 m.

The first successful ascent to the summit was made in 1956. The number of deaths during the ascent for the entire time was about 20 percent, which is a lot, although you can’t tell from the photo.

Today the mountain and its surrounding areas are part of the Manaslu National Park, which was founded 15 years ago.