So popular rumor christened him. Well, who was he in reality, a Russified Scotsman who faithfully served the Russian throne? It's a paradox, but not so much is known about him …
When the young Tsar Peter began to gather a funny army, two ignoramuses stood up under his banner, the brothers Roman and Yakov Bryusy. Their grandfather Jacob, a descendant of Scottish kings, in the middle of the 17th century. left his homeland, engulfed in the fire of the Great English Revolution, and went to seek his fortune in distant Muscovy. He devotedly served the Tsar and the Russian land, headed the Pskov regiment and died in 1680 with the rank of Major General. His son Vilim rose to the rank of colonel and died near Azov.
Yakov Vilimovich Bruce was more than two years older than Tsar Peter. And by the time when Peter, with youthful excitement, indulged in the "fun of Mars" near Moscow, Yakov had already sniffed the gunpowder - he took part in two Crimean campaigns organized by the favorite of Sophia V. V. Golitsyn. Moscow, to which Bruce returned, was hiding in anticipation of the storm: the struggle for the royal crown between Sophia and the grown-up Peter reached its climax. Suddenly, Peter left Preobrazhensky for the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and began to gather all supporters around him. Executive Bruce, along with the amusing ones, arrived at the Lavra, and from that moment his fate was closely connected with the fate of the Russian Tsar.
Together with Peter, Bruce fought near Azov. When Peter went abroad as part of the Great Embassy, Yakov came to him in Amsterdam in 1697. Bruce brought with him a map of the lands from Moscow to Asia Minor, which he intended to print abroad. But he himself was unwell: before leaving Moscow, in the house of Prince Caesar F. Yu. Romodanovsky, he received a severe burn of his hand. Peter during long absences from Moscow handed over the reins of government to the prince-Caesar, treated him with underlined respect and humbly signed in letters: "Always the slave of Your Most High Majesty the bombardier Peter". But Peter's resentment against Romodanovsky, who did not save his friend, was so great that in anger, forgetting the ceremoniously courteous etiquette of the previous messages, he wrote: “Beast! How long will you burn people? And here the wounded came from you. "And about Romodanovsky's addiction to strong drinks, in allegorical language called Ivashka Khmelnitsky, there was an unambiguous threat: "Stop the nobleman with Ivashka, be torn from him." The prince-Caesar, the formidable head of the Secret Order, replied with imperturbable dignity: “In your letter it is written to me that I know Ivashka Khmelnitsky: even then, sir, it’s not true … Something I and Ivashka of a nobleman, we are always washed in blood; Your business at your leisure has become an acquaintance with Ivashka, but we have no time. And what Jacob Bruce reported, as if he burned his hand from me, and that became his drunkenness, and not from me. " Peter lowered his tone and preferred to conclude the world with a joke: “It is written that Jacob Bruce did it out of his drunkenness; and that is true, only in whose yard and with whom? And what is in the blood, and from that, tea, and you drink more for fear. But we really can't,because incessantly in learning."
Bruce, too, diligently set to work. Together with Peter, as part of the Grand Embassy, he visited England. In London, the Russian tsar and Bruce met and talked with the great Isaac Newton. Abroad, Bruce studied mathematics and gunnery organization. War with Sweden was inevitable, and Russia needed an updated powerful artillery. This responsible assignment was entrusted to Bruce.
In 1700, trying to prevent the invasion of the Swedes into Izhora land, Peter sent an army to meet them under the command of Bruce, who was already a major general of artillery. But the inconsistency of the actions of various departments led to the fact that Yakov Vilimovich was not able to quickly assemble the regiments that were standing in different places. In the cabinet files of Peter the following record was preserved: “On July 28, 1700, Jacob Bruce, Ivan Chambers, Vasily Korchmin were sent from Moscow to Novgorod hastily. They made it to Novgorod in 15 days, for which his Majesty Yakov Bruce perceived anger and his command was refused."
However, the royal opal was not long lasting. Subsequent events and especially the defeat at Narva showed that not only Bruce, but the entire Russian army was not yet ready to resist the Swedish army. In 1701, Bruce was sent to Novgorod instead of the Novgorod governor, Prince I. Yu. Trubetskoy, taken prisoner at Narva.
Yakov Vilimovich hastily began to fortify the city, build a cannon yard, make shells, and train gunners. Near Narva the Russians lost almost all their artillery. The tsar ordered some of the church bells to be urgently transferred to cannons. But the Duma clerk A. A. Vinius, who supervised these works, promised more than he did with patriarchal deliberation, justifying himself with the carelessness of the artisans. "In the case of artillery," he wrote to Peter, "there is a lot of difficulty: a heaving stop, Sovereign, from the drunkenness of artisans, who cannot be weaned from that passion either by caress or by beating." The alarmed king almost begged Vinius: “For God's sake, hurry up with artillery as you can; time like death."
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The Russian army launched a new offensive. Bruce, not having time to settle down in Novgorod, wandered with his guns along the military roads. In 1702, with his participation, Shlisselburg was taken, then other fortresses occupied by the Swedes. Preparing for the siege of Narva, Peter lamented in a letter to Romodanovsky that he lacked cannons and artillery servants: “Why would we have a great stop here for our business, without which it would be impossible to repair, which I myself told Vinius many times, immediately. " Why ask him, if you please: why is such a main thing done with such negligence? " Vinius was dismissed, and in 1704 Bruce took command of the Artillery Order with the rank of General Feldzheichmeister. Under his leadership, navigation, artillery and engineering schools were opened.
The letters of Yakov Vilimovich almost do not reveal his personal life, these are business reports about the number of guns and artillery supplies, about the tasks performed by the tsarist, etc. It seemed that he had no personal life at all, all his thoughts and efforts were devoted to serving Russia. And yet this stern, reserved person knew hobbies and excitements that few could understand: he was a passionate collector. Bruce collected paintings, ancient coins and rare minerals, herbariums. He spoke several languages and had the richest library at that time. Bruce's books on mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, botany, history, art, etc. speak about the breadth of Bruce's scientific knowledge and interests. But Yakov Vilimovich was especially proud of his home cabinet of curiosities - a collection of various rarities and "curiosities".
In the inventory of the study, compiled after his death, there are, for example, such things: "a small round mirror, in which a large face appears"; "99 different large and small shells"; “Chinese shoes woven from grass”; "Stone mushroom"; "Indian pumpkin"; "The bone of the mammoth head"; "Amber with flies"; a box with a "small natural snake" and the like. The officials could not even define some subjects and wrote simply: "some oblong fruit", "two balls of some kind of fruit" … It was not for nothing that the French envoy Campredon, advising his government in 1721 how to win Bruce's favor, emphasized that Yakov Vilimovich was not one of those who can be bribed with money, and offered to use his passion for collecting: “His royal majesty would give him great pleasure,if I had given him a collection of prints of royal palaces engraved by order of the late king."
In 1697, an enterprising man from Ustyug V. V. Atlasov was sent to survey the Kamchatka lands. Returning to Moscow, he brought with him a small yellow-skinned man. Atlasov took it from the Kamchadals, who told a curious story. About two years ago, a large boat with strangers nailed to their shore. Unaccustomed to the harsh life and meager food of the Kamchadals, the aliens quickly died. There is only one left. In a report drawn up in 1701, Atlasov noted: "And by his disposition that polonenik is much polite and reasonable." When the prisoner saw the Russian explorers, in whom one felt belonging to the civilized world, he "cried deeply" with joy. The stranger successfully mastered the Russian language. In Moscow, they finally managed to find out that it was a Japanese. He was the first Japanese that Russia saw. And even the official ranks did not quite representwhere is his country and what kind of people live there. Atlasov called him "Indian" in the report. In the papers of the Order of Artillery, he was called even more cunningly: "The Tatar state of the Apoon by the name of Denbey."
And energetic Peter was already making far-reaching plans. Having transferred Denbey under the tutelage of the Order of Artillery, the tsar commanded: "And how he, Denbey, will learn the Russian language and literacy, and he, Denbey, learn his Japanese language and literacy, 4 or 5 people are robbed." As for religion, Peter ordered not to oppress Denbey: “And about baptism into the Orthodox Christian faith, give him, a foreigner, free and he, a foreigner, to comfort him and say to him: how he will get used to the Russian language and literacy and the Russians are afraid of their language and literacy - and he will be released to the Japanese land. " But most likely Denbey never managed to return to his native shores. It is known that over time he was baptized under the name Gabriel, and a school of translators from Japanese operated in Moscow until 1739.
Bruce, who, as head of the Artillery Order, patronized and "consoled" Denbay, began to dream of Japan. Braunschweig resident in Russia F.-H. Beber in his "Notes" says that Bruce dreamed of finding a way from Russia to Japan and sent an expedition that sailed from the Far East coast in search of this unknown land, but died in a storm. Weber also reported:
"This Bruce had a cabinet of Chinese curiosities, and he very much regretted that it was impossible to acquire accurate information about the situation and peculiarities of the Chinese state, because the embassies dressed up there and all Russian merchants have no right to stay there for more than 3 or at most 4 months."
Peter, who appreciated Bruce's versatile scientific knowledge, in 1706 transferred the Moscow Civil Printing House under his jurisdiction. From here came the first calendar, popularly called the "Bryusov calendar". In fact, the compiler of the calendar was V. A. Kiprianov, and Bruce only supervised his work. Kiprianov is also an outstanding personality. A resident of the Moscow craft settlement Kadashi, a merchant who supplied candle goods to the Armory, Kiprianov at the same time was fond of mathematics, studied navigation, spoke foreign languages, mastered the art of engraving, was interested in astrology. He made maps and teaching aids, wrote the essay "Planetics", dedicating it to Tsar Peter and Tsarevich Alexei. According to the researchers, "Planetic" gave Peter the idea to release a public calendar. The sources for the calendar were ancient Russian renounced books - thunders, carols and others - and Western European astrology. From the fortune-telling tables of the calendar, it was possible to obtain a prediction for any day of any year, which provided the calendar with great popularity not only in the 18th century, but also in the 19th.
Russia in the time of Peter the Great fought incessantly, and Bruce, who led the artillery, went through all the military campaigns. During the Battle of Poltava, his guns with powerful fire greatly contributed to the victory of the Russian army, for which Yakov Vilimovich received the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. The English ambassador C. Whitworth reported in 1709 that Bruce was highly valued at the Russian court: “He is very good both with the tsar and with Prince Menshikov.” Bruce's friendship was sought by Field Marshal B. P. Sheremetev, who wrote: "Paki please: do not leave me in your love and do not fix me in oblivion …"
Peter also gave Bruce very delicate assignments: the search in Europe for minds and talents that could serve the prosperity of Russia. In 1711, the tsar sent him to Berlin "to hire artisans for her notable arts that we need." Fully trusting Bruce's broad knowledge and business frugality, the tsar wrote in an accompanying letter: "And what he, our general, promises and concludes in contracts, then everything will be kept from us without belittling." In 1712, in letters to Bruce, Peter sometimes asks to inquire about one of the German architects and, with a favorable result, conclude a contract with him, then instructs him to find a master of rare promising painting, then lure into the Russian service a skilled gardener who arranged royal parks. Yakov Vilimovich was also engaged in the purchase of instruments for scientific and nautical purposes. Acquired works of art and rarities for the royal collection. During such trips, he met the German scientist G. Leibniz and then corresponded with him.
Having established the Senate, Peter appointed Bruce to him, making him in 1717 the president of the Berg and Manufacturing Collegiums. Now Bruce was in charge of the development of the mining industry and factory business in Russia. However, at the same time, he continued to improve the Russian artillery, promising the tsar that he would be able to achieve a higher rate of fire. The delighted Peter answered: "If you find this, then there will be a great work, for which I greatly thank your diligence." In the same 1717, Bruce had to become a diplomat, whom Peter entrusted with a responsible mission. Together with A. I. Osterman, he went to the Aland Congress to work out the conditions for concluding peace with Sweden.
The death of King Charles XII of Sweden interrupted the negotiations. But in 1721 they resumed. The subtle resourcefulness of Osterman and the unshakable firmness of Bruce successfully complemented each other, and the energetic assertiveness with which the Russian envoys defended the interests of Russia confused foreign residents. Bruce and Osterman honorably fulfilled their assignment. Under the terms of the Nishtadt Peace, Livonia, Estland, Ingermanland, part of Karelia and the Moonsund Islands were ceded to Russia. Peter, having received the news of such an end to the negotiations, was so pleased that even the confused tone of the reply letter conveyed his excitement: “The indescribable speedy newsletter has made us and everyone very happy <…> the treatise has already been done by your efforts - even if he wrote to us and if only send to the Swedes for signature - there is nothing more to do,for which we thank you very much; and that your glorious work in the light of this can never be sold to oblivion, and especially our Russia has never received such a useful peace."
Bruce was elevated to the rank of count and received 500 peasant households as a reward. V. N. Tatishchev argued that Peter, wanting to give Bruce more significance in the negotiations, intended to make him a real secret adviser. This is the second rank after the chancellor of the "Table of Ranks". But the honest and scrupulous Bruce refused and "he himself imagined to His Majesty that although he was a subject, but a nonbeliever, this rank was indecent to him and could continue to give his Majesty a reason unfortunately."
Kamer-junker F.-V. Berchholz, who arrived in Russia in the retinue of the Duke of Holstein, noted in his diary that the Russian tsar showed Bruce a special favor. So, at the wedding of I. Musin-Pushkin's daughter in 1721, Peter “sat not far from the front door, but so that he could see the dancers, all the nobles were sitting next to him, but His Majesty mostly talked to General Feldzheikhmeister Bruce, who was sitting next to him on the left side. Bruce was not only a faithful executor of Peter's sovereign plans, but also took part in his family affairs. Peter instructed Yakov Vilimovich to regularly visit Tsarevich Alexei, apparently hoping that the conversations of an intelligent and well-educated person would affect the unlucky heir. Bruce's wife Maria Andreevna (Margarita Manteuffel) was also at the tsarevich's court. Note thatthat under the death sentence to Alexei Bruce did not put his signature.
In the spring of 1723, Peter celebrated another anniversary of his marriage to Catherine. Yakov Vilimovich, in command of the celebrations, arranged a grandiose procession of ships in St. Petersburg, put on runners and drawn by horses. Campredon said: “The Tsar rode on a 30-gun frigate, fully equipped and with sails down. Ahead in a lifeboat in the form of a brigantine with pipes and timpani on the bow rode the organizer of the holiday, the chief chief of artillery, Count Bruce. In 1724, during the coronation of Catherine, Bruce bore the imperial crown in front of her, and Bruce's wife was among the five ladies of state who supported Catherine's train. And the next year, Bruce had to serve his sovereign friend for the last time - he was the main steward at the funeral of Peter I.
Catherine I, having established herself on the Russian throne, did not forget Bruce's merits and awarded him the Order of Alexander Nevsky. But seeing how the "chicks of Petrov's nest", who had previously served the Russian state in unison, began to quarrel, share honors and spheres of influence at the court of Catherine, Bruce in 1726 chose to retire with the rank of Field Marshal. In 1727 he bought from A. G. Dolgoruky, the estate of Glinka near Moscow, laid out a regular park, built a house with an observatory and retired without a break in the estate, studying his favorite sciences. He became interested in medicine and helped the surrounding residents by making medicines from herbs. Bruce died in 1735, just before he was 66. He had no children. The Spanish ambassador de Liria wrote about him:
"Gifted with great abilities, he knew his business and the Russian land well, and by his unashamed behavior he earned general love and respect for himself."
However, over time, a different image of Bruce, a sorcerer and warlock, was consolidated in the people's memory. Bruce gave rise to such suspicions in his youth. At the end of the 17th century. in Moscow, the Sukharev Tower was built, and Muscovites with superstitious fear began to notice that from time to time at night in the upper windows of the tower a mysterious light flickered. This is a friend of the Tsar F. Ya. Lefort collected the "Neptune Society", which was rumored to be fond of astrology and magic. The society included eight more people, and among them was the inquisitive tsar himself, Menshikov and Yakov Bruce, inseparable from him.
Bruce's gravitation towards mystery science was, one might say, hereditary. His ancestor Scottish king Robert the Bruce in the XIV century. founded the Order of St. Andrew, which united the Scottish Templars. According to legend, Jacob Bruce, after the death of Lefort, headed the "Neptune Society". In addition, he was engaged in astronomical observations at the Sukharev Tower. The reputation of “astrologer” and deep scientific knowledge of Bruce gave rise to fantastic legends among the inhabitants. As P. I. Bogatyryov in the essays "Moscow Antiquity", Muscovites were convinced, "as if Bruce had such a book that revealed all the secrets to him, and he could, through this book, find out what is in any place in the earth, he could tell who had what where where … This book cannot be obtained: it is not given to anyone and is in a mysterious room, where no one dares to enter."
Real facts could serve as the basis for such legends. The officials who compiled the inventory of Bruce's office found many unusual books there, for example: "The Philosophy of the Mystic in German", "The New Sky in Russian" - this is how it is indicated in the inventory. There was also a completely mysterious book, consisting of seven wooden boards with an incomprehensible text carved on them. Popular rumor asserted that the magic book of Bryusov belonged to the once-wise king Solomon. And Bruce, not wanting her to fall into the wrong hands after his death, walled her up in the wall of the Sukharev Tower. And after the tower was destroyed, they began to say that this happened for a reason and that it was the fault of the powerful and dangerous spell contained in the Bruce book. And the very death of Bruce was sometimes attributed to his magical experiments.
In the second half of the XIX century. M. B. Chistyakov recorded the stories of peasants from the village of Chernyshino, Kaluga province, which once belonged to Bruce. The peasants said that the owner of the village was a tsarist "arichmet", he knew how many stars there were in the sky and how many times the wheel would turn until the cart reached Kiev. Looking at the peas scattered in front of him, he could immediately name the exact number of peas: "Yes, little else, what this Bruce knew: he knew all such secret herbs and wonderful stones, he made various compositions of them, he even produced living water …"
Having decided to try the miracle of revitalization and rejuvenation on himself, Bruce allegedly ordered his faithful servant to cut himself into pieces with a sword and then pour "living water". But this needed a long time, and here the tsar missed his "arichmet" inappropriately. The servant had to confess everything and show the body of the master: “They look - Bryusov's body has completely grown together and the wounds are not visible; he stretched out his arms as if sleepy, already breathing, and a blush plays in his face. " The Orthodox tsar was outraged in spirit, said with anger: "This is an unclean thing!" And he commanded to bury the sorcerer in the earth forever and ever.
As a magician and warlock, Bruce also appears in the works of Russian romantics: in the story of V. F. Odoevsky's "Salamander", in the unfinished novel by I. I. Lazhechnikova "The Sorcerer on the Sukharev Tower".
New reality of the XX century. made adjustments to the legends about Bruce. It was argued that he did not die, but created an airship and flew away on it who knows where. The king, however, ordered his books to be walled up in the Sukharev Tower, and all the medicines - to burn. Thus, a whole body of legends grew and varied, in which Bruce appeared to be something like the Russian Faust.
There is indeed something mysterious about Bruce's fate. It is unclear where and how the son of a serving nobleman, in the fourteenth year enrolled in the "funny", managed to get such a brilliant education, which then allowed him to master deep knowledge in various fields of science? His inner world and home life remained impenetrable to prying eyes, especially in recent years, spent almost in hermit seclusion. Bruce undoubtedly took an interest in arcane science.
“Judging by some data, Yakov Vilimovich possessed a skeptical rather than a mystical mindset,” writes I. Gracheva, Ph. D. in Philology. "According to one of his contemporaries, Bruce did not believe in anything supernatural." And when Peter showed him the incorruptible relics of the holy saints in Novgorod Sophia, Bruce "attributed this to the climate, to the property of the earth in which they were previously buried, to the embalming of bodies and to abstinent life …"
But, ironically, the very name of Bruce later became associated with something mysterious and supernatural. At the beginning of the XX century. the church in the former German settlement, where Bruce was buried, was destroyed, and the remains of the count were transferred to the laboratory of M. M. Gerasimov. But they disappeared without a trace. Only Bruce's restored caftan and camisole have survived; they are in the funds of the State Historical Museum. But there were rumors about Bruce's ghost, allegedly visiting his home in Glinki.
Recently, a museum was opened in the former Bryusov estate with the help of local ethnographers. His activities will undoubtedly help to clarify many "white spots" in the biography of one of the most prominent associates of Peter I.
From the book: "100 Great Mysteries of History". Author: Nepomnyashchy Nikolay Nikolaevich