In the middle of the 17th century, when the Great Revolution was raising the banners in England, Bruce, a descendant of the Scottish kings, went to distant Muscovy to seek his fortune in the service of the Russian Tsar. Luck favored the desperate Scotsman - he achieved success, led the Pskov regiment at the behest of the Russian sovereign.
In 1680, with the rank of Major General, Bruce retired and ended his life, leaving his son Wilim in the royal service. The son faithfully served the Russian throne, rose to the rank of colonel, but died during the storming of the Azov fortress. Two of his sons, Roman and Yakov, did not quit serving under the Russian banners, and one of them, Yakov, gloriously succeeded and even became the Tsar's favorite.
Yakov Bruce Jr. entered the Moscow service at the age of 14. Participating in the Crimean campaigns of the favorite of Tsarevna Sophia V. V. Golitsyn, he managed to learn the taste of war even before his rapprochement with Peter.
When, at a turning point in the tsarist civil strife, Peter fled to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Bruce, along with Potemkin, the ancestor of the famous conqueror of Crimea, followed the tsar, and later fate more than once brought the faithful servant closer to the sovereign: he again, already under Peter's command, fought under Azov, then in 1697, as part of the Great Embassy, he visited Amsterdam, confronted the Swedes near Narva and remained a faithful servant of the king until the end of his days. Ya. V. died. Bruce in 1735, 66 years old.
Even before the death of the courtier, many rumors arose among the people about his mysterious fate, deeds and skills. After the construction of the Sukharev Tower in Moscow, rumors spread among Muscovites about the evil spirits that had settled in it. At night, in the windows of the tower, people noticed a strange flickering of lights.
They said that the friend of the tsar F. Ya. Lefort organized a society of eight people in it, who, for the sake of the devil, were engaged in magic, astrology, spiritualism, astronomical calculations, and thus released all kinds of dark forces.
Among the members of the society, which received the name Neptunov, the tsar himself was also ranked along with the favorite Menshikov. Jacob Bruce was also in it. After the death of Lefort, Bruce headed the magic society and firmly settled in the Sukharev Tower. Subsequently, information appeared that he was fond of not so much witchcraft as stargazing, but the gloomy halo around his name remained for a long time.
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After the death of Jacob Bruce, they began to dismantle his library in the tower. Among the books were found "The Philosophy of Mysticism" in German, "New Heaven" in Russian and some others, which strengthened the glory of a warlock for their owner. But Bruce's main book could not be found.
From this book, as the people said, the warlock drew knowledge about past and future events and miraculous medicines. Fearing that after his death the book might fall into the wrong hands, the sorcerer walled it up in the walls of the tower and, with his spell, brought on the tower the elemental forces that finally destroyed it.
Bruce's serfs told that their master, the tsarist "arichmetchik", knows all the stars, knows how to make living water out of swamp water, understands roots and herbs, mountain stones, easily counts with one glance how many seeds there are in the spikes thrown for grinding, and knows, how many revolutions will the wheel of the cart make before it rolls from Petersburg to Kiev. And even the death of the master happened not by the will of God, but by witchcraft.
It turns out that the master prepared a magic drink and ordered to chop himself up into small pieces, and then pour them abundantly with the prepared drink. When his command was fulfilled, he revived anew and did not have a single wound on his body. The king, having learned about such an atrocity, was indignant and ordered the warlock to be buried in such a way that for all time he would rid the earth of evil spirits, and burn all his books and medicines.
Later, the legends about Jacob Bruce were reflected in the literature. In the writings of the writers, the image of the sorcerer acquired a resemblance to the royal sage, as the people imagined him in their folklore.
After the death of Bruce, a belief was born that he did not die at all, but flew away to no one knows where in an airship. The game of human imagination gave impetus
In real life, Yakov Vilimovich Bruce was a skeptical person and did not believe in anything supernatural. A legend has survived that the king, showing him the imperishable relics of the saints, heard from Bruce a completely simple explanation of what he saw: the reason for the preservation of human remains is the dry climate, the special composition of the soil, embalming and the abstinent life of the deceased.
Yet his name has come to be associated with otherworldly and unearthly forces in the world. Although, perhaps this connection was due not only to the intelligence and education of Bruce.
History is silent on how exactly the 14-year-old son of a serving nobleman managed to get an education and master many deep knowledge. What prompted him to lead a hermitic life? How could a statesman have an unusual craving for secret science?
It is also not known why, after the destruction of the church in the former German settlement, where Ya. V. Bruce, his remains, transferred to the laboratory of M. M. Gerasimov to restore the appearance of the warlock, disappeared without a trace, and around the former house of Bruce in Glinki, as neighbors say, the ghost of the legendary sage appears.