We heard a lot about Alexander Menshikov, but he was not alone in the emperor's command. Who else surrounded Peter and was devoted to him selflessly? Perhaps someone did not know this and would be curious to expand their horizons after reading this story.))
In 1650, Peter's father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, was presented with a huge star globe, which could only be placed at the base of the Ivan the Great bell tower. And in 1662, in the chambers of Alexei Mikhailovich, another "cosmic" event took place, the vaults of the royal dining room were decorated with a huge painting depicting the geocentric system of the world of Ptolemy. Each planet was depicted with its own epicycles. The orbits of the Sun, Moon and planets, among the signs of the Zodiac, were traced in gold. One of the copies of the painting was intended for teaching seven-year-old Peter.
His first book on astronomy was "Cosmography" by the Dutchman Willem Janszon Blau, which set out on equal terms the systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus. About the discoveries of astronomers of the XVII century. 11-year-old Peter could recognize Jan Hevelius in Russian translation from Selenography. This is evidenced by the note preserved in the inventory of the books of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich.
Cathedral of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. Photo: V. Kononov.
In 1688, young Peter learned about an instrument with which it was possible to measure distances to objects without approaching them. He ordered to get such a tool. Yakov Fedorovich Dolgoruky bought it in France, but no one in the Kremlin knew how to use it.
In the German Quarter, they found an expert Dutchman Franz Timmerman, who had just determined the longitude of Moscow relative to the Greenwich meridian (this is 7 years before the foundation of the observatory and 196 years before it was given zero status!). Timmerman was taken to the court and showed 16-year-old Peter how to use the theodolite, and also taught him the angular measurement of the heights of the luminaries using the astrolabe (at that time the main instrument of sailors). Peter was delighted and ordered to appoint Timmerman as the king's teacher.
So the Dutch sailor began to teach the future emperor mathematics and fortification. He also explained to Peter how important astronomy is for cartography and navigation. Apparently, thanks to this man and, of course, his own inquisitiveness, Peter learned to taste the sweet fruit of knowledge in the sciences.
Fontanka. View of the Starokalinkin Bridge. April 2020. Photo: V. Kononov.
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In the years 1697-1698. to study shipbuilding and other sciences, Peter sent a "Great Embassy" to Europe, in which he himself, avoiding pompous meetings and receptions, went incognito, under the name of "volunteer Peter Mikhailov". He was accompanied by a retinue of associates who began their service with him in the "amusing" troops. Yakov Vilimovich Bruce is especially notable among them.
The representative of the noble Scottish family Bryusov, the younger brother of Roman Vilimovich Bruce, the first chief commandant of St. Petersburg. Having received an excellent education for that time at home in the German Quarter, Bruce early became addicted to mathematical and natural sciences, which he did not stop studying all his life. While the young tsar was hiding within the walls of the Trinity Monastery from the people of Shaklovity, Bruce, as the former amusing one, was with the tsar. It is known that at the age of 14 he spoke three languages fluently, knew mathematics and astronomy. The young sovereign, eagerly eager for knowledge, immediately singled out an enlightened young man who, moreover, was not inferior to "Herr Peter" in drunkenness and revelry. Since then, his whole life has been devoted to serving Russia - with pen and sword, compasses and telescope, mind and heart …
Yakov Vilimovich Bruce. Reading about this man, several times I caught myself thinking that he would not be surprised to learn that he was a time traveler and came to Peter to save his life and save him from a fatal mistake. Did you save it?)
Having entered the service of Peter, Jacob Bruce began to quickly and rapidly climb the state ladder. He led all the Russian artillery, at the age of thirty he received the rank of General Feldzheikhmeister, participated in all military campaigns of the tsar. Peter took Bruce to the most important diplomatic negotiations, and later granted him the title of count and made him a senator. Jacob Bruce became the first holder of the main award of the empire - the Order of St. Andrew.
And then, within the framework of the “Great Embassy,” Peter instructed him to select scientists and teachers for Russia, to purchase various instruments and books.
The first country where the "Great Embassy" arrived was Holland. There, unusual ambassadors learned to build ships, and in their free time they got acquainted with the university, libraries, museums, and met with scientists. The next stop was England. In addition to the "main visit program", the tsar, accompanied by Bruce, visited the Greenwich Observatory three times, talked with John Flamsteed about his lunar theory and made observations of the moon, which was recorded in the journal of the Greenwich Observatory on March 9, 1698. In Greenwich, Peter also met with Edmund Halley, then Flamsteed's assistant. The tsar persistently called him to work in Russia - to organize a school for sailors and teach them astronomy. Halley rejected this proposal and recommended instead of himself the Scotsman A. D. Forvarson. He came to Moscow and worked in Russia until the end of his days.
St. Petersburg. Kolomna. Holy Isidorovskaya Church. Photo: V. Kononov.
In 1699 in Moscow, by decree of the tsar, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, the first educational institution in Russia, where, among other disciplines, astronomy was taught, began to work. For her in 1692-1695. the Sukharev Tower was specially built. Its architecture resembled an admiralty ship of those times. By order of Peter, a huge star globe was brought here, which stood on the bell tower of Ivan the Great. The first map of the starry sky in Russian, printed at the order of the tsar in 1699 in Amsterdam, was also handed over to the school. The map was equipped with overlaid coordinate grids in order to make navigation calculations.
Bruce organized an observatory in the Sukharev Tower, equipped it with instruments and taught observations himself. He published a map of the starry sky and published the famous "Bruce's calendars". Bruce also translated a book by Christian Huygens, Cosmotheoros, which outlined the Copernican system and Newton's theory of gravitation. In Russian translation, it was called "The Book of the World View" and for a long time served as a textbook both in schools and universities.
Summer garden in winter. Photo: V. Kononov.
At the court, Bruce was considered a scientist, astronomer and engineer, and among the common people - a sorcerer and warlock. Both points of view are, in their own way, right. He did not study anywhere, in the sense of European educational institutions, but for his time he was super erudite. Where he got his versatile knowledge is not known, and thanks to the inquisitive mind.
Researchers of Bruce's scientific heritage declared his research superficial, motivated by references to Bruce's excessive fascination with astrology. For example, the fact that all his observations of celestial bodies were used exclusively for making astrological forecasts, and the above-mentioned "Bruce calendars" resembled more magical tales than scientific reports. Even having drawn up a good geological and ethnographic map of Moscow (disappeared in the middle of the last century, but its descriptions are in the Academy of Sciences), he immediately supplemented it with astrological ones.
Troitsky bridge. Photo: V. Kononov.
Contemporaries considered Bruce's mechanical experiments, in general, to be extravagance: a mechanical man, for example (a robot, in our opinion), as if he made for the fun of Tsar Peter a doll that, like a man, could walk and talk … Or an aircraft that existed not only on paper, but also in the form of a working metal model (this was in those days when the wildest dreams of the rest of the pioneers of the fifth ocean was to raise a bubble filled with smoke into the air!). By the way, the blueprints of the plane disappeared mysteriously before the Great Patriotic War. It was rumored that they were kidnapped by German intelligence (hello from Anenerbe) and Bruce's ideas were used to create the Messerschmidt fighter ??? (Is this a joke? Author).
Photo: V. Kononov.
Comrade Stalin was also interested in Bruce's legacy. He ordered the tower mentioned to Sukharev not to blow up, as, for example, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but to dismantle it brick by brick and deliver all the finds personally to him. What and in what quantity was provided to Stalin, historians are silent, but what the objects brought and showed is a fact.
One of the versions of Moscow's development is very curious and similar to the truth. The erection of St. Petersburg somewhat overshadowed the historical fact that it was under Peter the Great that its town-planning concept acquired the final version, according to which the city is still developing: several transport rings and radial highways, scattering rays from the center. There is evidence that Stalin ordered the metro to be built on the astrological chart compiled by Bruce. Therefore, there are only 12 stations on the circular line, as signs of the Zodiac, and the 13th "Suvorovskaya" cannot be built.
Photo: V. Kononov.
And I would like to end my story not with truth, but with a beautiful allegory.)))
During the time of Peter the Great, Moscow underwent reconstruction, and its urban planning plan was made in the form of a zodiacal map of the starry sky! The author of this plan was Jacob Bruce - the last architect who built cities from the stars!
Author: Vladimir Kononov