He seemed to have lived two independent lives. One - as a colleague of Peter the Great, a military commander and scientist. Another - as a warlock and a sorcerer, a mysterious figure and still little known. And Jacob Bruce managed to live both lives in full force.
Chick of Petrov's nest
Pre-Petrine Russia seemed to Europeans as a transcendent mysterious kingdom, and few risked moving there without extreme need. Jacob the Bruce, from the family of Scottish kings, had such a need: in the middle of the 17th century, he took his family away from the fire of the English revolution to unknown Muscovy. Both Jacob himself and his son Vilim honestly served the Russian sovereigns, and when the grandchildren Roman and Yakov grew up, they were assigned to the amusing regiment of the young Tsar Peter.
Jacob Bruce - sorcerer and warlock
Remaining loyal to the oath, Jacob Bruce, along with other amusing warriors, supported Peter in the confrontation with Princess Sophia, and then continued to serve the young sovereign not for fear, but for conscience. He walked with him many military roads from Azov to the Prut campaign, and managed to distinguish himself not only in battles, but also in academic pursuits, where few were strong. While we were sailing to Azov, I made a map of the territories from Moscow to Asia Minor, which was later printed in Amsterdam. Peter valued learning no less than military prowess, and for his cartography bestowed the rank of colonel on Yakov.
Traveling with the tsar across Europe, his Scottish comrade-in-arms managed to scout out everything that could be useful for the formation of a new Russian state. He studied coinage at the Tower, got acquainted with the artillery foundry and arsenal at Woolwich, visited the Greenwich Observatory. At the same time, Bruce studied English laws, bought mathematical instruments and books on shipbuilding and navigation, and also hired foreigners to serve the new homeland. When in 1698 Peter returned to Russia to suppress the rifle revolt, the corrosive Scot was left to complete the affairs of the "Russian delegation".
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Mathematician, Astronomer and Book Reader
Bruce met the beginning of the Northern War with the rank of Major General of Artillery - he was entrusted with the mission to develop the "cannon business", which was in decline before. By order of Peter, a cannon yard was built in Novgorod, balls were cast there and gunners were trained, all under the leadership of Bruce. He performed the assigned task with brilliance, and the Russian artillery played an important role in the capture of Shlisselburg, Nyenskans and other fortresses occupied by the Swedes.
The capture of the Swedish fortress Noteburg (Oreshek)
However, Peter used the Scotsman's intelligence not only for military purposes. It was impossible for a person of such education to avoid various government orders.
It is known that according to the tsar's decree, he was engaged in the translation of various "foreign" books, participated in the compilation of the military article, and with the development of industry he received a number of ministerial posts, where he could show his administrative talents. Bruce headed the Manufacturing Collegium, which was responsible for all industrial enterprises, and then the Berg Collegium, where the entire mining industry was subordinate to him.
The tsar did not ignore Bruce's ability to languages and diplomatic talents. At the Nishtadt Congress, he, already a senator and count, represented the interests of the Russian Empire and for the peace treaty was successfully signed he received from Peter 500 peasant households and Glinka's estate near Moscow.
Bruce calendar
As the owner of a huge library, Bruce also understood a lot about printing, so it is not surprising that already in 1706, the Moscow Civil Printing House was also transferred to his jurisdiction. From that time on, all the books printed in Moscow were marked with a note that they were published under the supervision of Jacob Bruce. In the same place, in 1709, the "Omen of the time for every year by the planets, or the omen of actions for every day along the course of the moon in Zodia", popularly called the "Bruce calendar", was published.
The calendar contained calculations by which it was possible to make a variety of predictions for the period up to 2000. For each day of the year, the location of the planets and the moon, weather forecasts and advice on agricultural work, predictions by the signs of the zodiac, practical daily recommendations were indicated. Over time, the calendar became so popular that it was reprinted regularly until the beginning of the 20th century, and was called simply "Bruce".
However, it also contained predictions that were completely unclear to the people of the 18th century. For example, on October 30, 1821, the birth of a man was promised "the best among his brethren", to whom "unrelenting works will find glory" and who subsequently "will die from the roofing". Bruce's contemporaries could hardly take such a prediction seriously. But the descendants learned that it was on this day that Fyodor Dostoevsky was born, who gained fame by describing the "inappropriate" contradictions of the Russian character and, in fact, died of throat bleeding.
Something mysterious for contemporaries was listed in the Bruce calendar for the 20th century. In 1917, he promised a "bloody war between the enlightened peoples" and a "happy battle." The passage about the massacre looks especially poisonous - after all, both sides during the revolution fought for the people's happiness. In 1992, Bruce predicted to his descendants that "any bread will be dear" and "the common people will suffer a lot from it." It is a well-known fact: just this year, the government "released prices", and the majority of the population fell below the poverty line. By the way, bread in 1992 really went up sharply, like other products.
Sorcerer from the Sukharev Tower
It may seem that since Yakov Bruce was loaded with works for the good of Russia, then he did not have a single free minute. But the situation was completely different: in his spare time the statesman indulged in numerous hobbies, and one can only guess how he found for all this time.
For example, this unique character was a passionate collector: he collected paintings, herbaria, rare minerals, created his own "small cabinet of curiosities" from various "curiosities". In the upper tier of the Sukharev watchtower, Bruce equipped an observatory, and in the basement a laboratory for scientific experiments was set up. Noticing the light regularly burning in the abandoned tower and finding out who spends many hours there, the people instantly rewarded Bruce with the nickname of a sorcerer and warlock. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the experiments, which were well ahead of their time, must have seemed to the uneducated contemporaries of the "warlock" as just witchcraft.
According to eyewitnesses, Bruce, who is interested in the secret life, once created a mechanical doll that can walk and talk. The iron maid served the scientist in the laboratory, and after retiring, he took her to Glinki, where she walked in the park and spoke to the peasants. Those at first shied away from the curiosity, and then they got used to "Yashkina Baba" and stopped paying attention to it.
There were rumors among Muscovites that at night the sorcerer released iron birds from the windows of the Sukharev Tower, and he himself flew out after them in the guise of a black raven. Bruce himself hardly turned into a crow and flew over the capital, but drawings of flying machines have been preserved in his archives, so perhaps someone has witnessed "aviation experiments."
Another story about Bruce's crafts was immortalized by Pushkin in his Tale of the Golden Cockerel. A wonderful mechanical bird stood in Bruce's hallway and crowed to announce the guests before they could knock on the door. The toy was seen by Abram Hannibal and told about it to his household, and through generations this story reached the poet, and he composed a fairy tale about a magic bird.
Posthumous riddles
Bruce's death, as well as his life, is surrounded by secrets. He was buried in the church of the German settlement, and at the beginning of the 20th century, when the church was destroyed, the remains of the "Sukharev sorcerer" were transferred to the laboratory of the historian Gerasimov for study. There his ashes were lost, there was only evidence that one hand of Bruce was incorruptible, about which an old legend immediately surfaced. Allegedly, according to the will of the deceased, it was necessary to pour live water from a bottle left in the pocket of his caftan. The servant, who was supposed to fulfill his bequest, accidentally broke the bottle, and the water spilled only on the hand of the warlock, making it incorruptible forever.
Sukharev tower - the sorcerer's refuge
After Bruce's death, a guard was immediately sent to the Sukharev Tower, and a complete search was carried out inside. It was believed that all his magic books were kept there, and among others - no more no less than Solomon's tablets. Of course, it was not possible to find anything like this, but the guard at the tower was exhibited until 1934. They say that Stalin, not alien to mysticism, finally ordered not to blow up the building, but to dismantle it brick by brick. Perhaps he hoped to discover some secrets in the masonry of the walls, but he, like other prospectors, was in for failure. Nowadays, the Sukharev Tower was going to be restored several times, but the projects remained on paper.
Modern lovers of mystical stories claim that even nowadays an elderly gentleman in a wig and camisole sometimes walks along Sretenka, tapping a cane on the asphalt. It is the sorcerer Jacob Bruce who checks whether his tower has been rebuilt again, where it was so glorious to observe the course of heavenly bodies and reflect on the secrets of the Universe, of which there are still many left to this day.
Ekaterina Kravtsova