On September 10, 1861, the most mysterious prisoner in the entire history of this prison, Mikhail Beideman, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. SPB. AIF. RU tells the story of a nobleman, whose case was declassified only decades after his death.
157 years ago, a new prisoner appeared in the Alekseevsky Ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, whose identity remained a mystery even to the prison guards.
Legend of the "Secret House"
The Alekseevsky Ravelin is the most inaccessible building of Peter and Paul. It is not for nothing that since 1797 the most important criminals of the Russian Empire were kept here, whom the emperor "raised to the rank" of his personal enemies. Their living conditions were unbearable: tiny rooms without ventilation, dampness, mold, darkness and sheer loneliness. Therefore, many of the prisoners died or went mad.
The prisoners were kept in the ravelin in the strictest secrecy, it was not for nothing that the prison was called the "Secret House", and the people were sadly joking that everyone who entered there was forever deprived of his name and consigned to oblivion.
However, some of the prisoners are still familiar to us - this is the notorious Princess Tarakanova, and the Decembrists Pestel, Ryleev, Volkonsky. And even Dostoevsky and Chernyshevsky.
But the name of our hero remained unknown for a long time, even the prison gendarmes called him “the mysterious prisoner”. The identity of the one thrown into the casemates was so diligently kept secret that they kept him in an iron mask.
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The history of this hereditary nobleman for a long time was just one of the legends of the Peter and Paul Fortress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous historian and researcher Alexander Prugavin was persistently interested in his case, but he could not get to the bottom of it. The mysterious prisoner remained a mystery. And only decades later, when the archives of the Alekseevsky Ravelin and the tsarist police department were declassified, it became clear that the "Iron Mask" really existed. And the name of this man was Mikhail Beideman.
Kill the emperor
Why did this 22-year-old graduate of the Konstantinovsky military school from a poor noble family so angered the emperor? It is known that in June 1861, the year of Beideman's arrest, a letter from Count Shuvalov was put on the table to Alexander II, in which he reported: “In Finland, detained … Mikhail Beideman, who behaved strangely during his arrest, as he was called Stepan, a commoner, Olonets lands' blacksmith Goryunom. In his travel bag he had a pistol, gunpowder, bullets, a dagger and slate-inked papers, which he managed to tear to shreds. We have managed, by gluing, to return the text, which allows, if you deem it necessary, to carry out a thorough investigation followed by a punishment that is extremely harsh. In addition to the aforementioned, circumstances of a very delicate nature were revealed, about which it is appropriate to report at a personal meeting with you and especially in private."
Historians agree that Emperor Alexander II was a relative of Mikhail Beideman.
Beidemann was really obsessed with the idea of changing the country's political system. While still in school, he told his comrades about his dream to overthrow the autocracy, called the structure of Russia "tavern" and suggested that he might join the revolutionaries.
At the first opportunity, Mikhail fled the country - right during his service in the Dragoon regiment, to which he was assigned. A donkey in London, worked in a printing house, but did not stop following the news from his homeland, which more and more poisoned his soul. The execution of the peasants, the solution of the peasant question in favor of the nobles, the bloody dispersal of peaceful demonstrations in Warsaw … As a result, the young man became even more confident in the idea that only regicide would save Russia and its people.
Forget his name
Beidemann, having developed a crazy plan, decides to return to St. Petersburg to carry out an attempt on the monarch's life. The revolutionary was arrested at the border. Then they took away the letter we mentioned at the beginning. And now just about the "delicate circumstances" mentioned by Count Shuvalov.
If you believe the paper that was found at Beideman, the revolutionary was the illegitimate son of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, which means he was the tsar's closest relative. In the manifesto, Mikhail calls himself Constantine the First (not Mikhail!) And declares that Nicholas I, the father of Alexander II, illegally took the throne from his father. It also contained calls for the overthrow of the current king.
The historian Lev Orekhov-Derazhinsky also confirmed the fact of Mikhail's relationship with the august surname, pointing out that the landowner Maria Beideman, the young man's mother, had a relationship with the prince, and the entire royal family knew about this.
Whether or not Beideman was of royal blood, no one knows for certain. But the emperor orders: "Forget his name at all and not release to freedom until death."
A film was made about Beidemann's life in 1986.
Mikhail Beideman spent 20 years in solitary confinement, where he lost his mind. Alexander II had already fallen victim to terrorists by that time, and the objectionable nobleman was sent to the Kazan psychiatric hospital of strict regime. He never regained consciousness. He died six years later from pulmonary tuberculosis. Autopsy also confirmed cerebral edema and liver cirrhosis.
This story was reflected in the cinema - in 1986 the film "The Mysterious Prisoner" was released on Soviet screens, based on the genuine tragic biography of Mikhail Beideman.
Ivan Lugovoi
