In November 1836, the premiere of Mikhail Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" took place at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater. On this day, the canonical state version of Ivan Susanin, which is somewhat different from the strict scientific version of his feat, was finally fixed in the libretto of the opera …
History of the feat
Almost nothing is known about the life of Ivan Susanin. Susanin was a serf of the Shestov nobles, who lived in the village of Domnino, the center of a fairly large patrimony (about 70 versts north of Kostroma). According to legend, Susanin was from the village of Derevenki located not far from Domnin.
According to the royal charter of November 30, 1619, in the late winter of 1613, Tsar Mikhail Romanov, already named by the Zemsky Sobor, and his mother, nun Martha, lived in their Kostroma patrimony, in the village of Domnino. Knowing this, the Polish-Lithuanian detachment tried to find a way to the village in order to capture young Romanov.
Not far from Domnin, they met the patrimonial headman Ivan Susanin and ordered to show the way. Susanin agreed, but led them in the opposite direction, to the village of Isupov, and sent his son-in-law Bogdan Sobinin to Domnino with the news of the impending danger.
For refusing to show the right path, Susanin was subjected to cruel torture, but did not give away the tsar's place of refuge and was hacked by the Poles "into small pieces" in the Isupovskiy (Chisty) bog or in Isupov itself. Mikhail Fyodorovich and nun Martha found salvation in the Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery.
Promotional video:
Bonus from the king
The Russian tsars loved Susanin very much: according to the official version, he was an ideal vassal, who without hesitation sacrificed his life for his suzerain. It is not without reason that Nicholas I deigned to assign such a title - "Life for the Tsar" to Glinka's opera. But the reason why Susanin became a true folk hero is less obvious. But more on that later. And the fact that he became one is the holy truth!
Peasant tales about Susanin were collected by folklorists from villages as early as the 19th century, that is, 200 years after the events of the Time of Troubles. And what is known for certain about Ivan Susanin?
Not much, but not so little either. On this score, there is an excellent document of the 17th century, drawn up at the highest state level. Soon after the power of Mikhail Romanov, who was saved by Susanin, strengthened, the husband of Susanin's daughter, a certain Bogdan Sobinin, presented the monarch with an invoice for payment.
The answer was a letter of commendation from the tsar, according to which the village of Domnino, Kostroma district, was given to that very Bogdan:
“For service to us and for the blood, and for the patience of his father-in-law Ivan Susanin: how We, the Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhailo Feodorovich of All Russia in the past 7121 (1613. - Ed.) Were in Kostroma, and at that time Polish and Lithuanian people came to the Kostroma district, and his father-in-law, Bogdashkov, Ivan Susanin at that time, the Lithuanian people seized and tortured him with great, immeasurable tortures and tortured him, where at that time We, the Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhailo Feodorovich all Russia was."
A bonus was attached to the village in the form of a complete exemption from taxes: “Our taxes and feed, and carts, and all sorts of food and grain supplies, and in city crafts, and in Mostovschina, and in other taxes, were not ordered to imitate them from them. … and to their children, and to their grandchildren, and to the whole race, motionless."
Robber Cossacks
And not a word about why there are still jokes about Susanin - about the gentry heroically drowned in the swamp. How is this silence explained? By the way, modern Polish historians completely reject the likelihood that any royal troops were operating in the Kostroma region in March-April 1613. Why?
The Polish king could not give such a task, and the detachment was not Polish. The Isupovskoe (or Clean) swamp, where Susanin died, is relatively small, only 5 km at its widest point, and is quite passable, especially in winter.
The killers could easily get out of there: from almost anywhere in the "impassable" swamp, the dome of the church in the neighboring village of Domnino is visible.
Mikhail Romanov at the time of Susanin's death was not a candidate for the tsar, but an already elected tsar. His assassination would not have helped preserve the Russian throne for the Polish king or his son.
The armed detachment that appeared in Domnino in the spring of 1613, quite possibly, were not Poles at all, but Cossacks from the banks of the Don, Dnieper, Yaik or Terek. Since the time of False Dmitry I, they have supported one or another in the Russian Troubles (including the Poles), and at the same time robbed the local population.
What happens when such robber Cossacks come to the village can be seen in the Soviet comedy Wedding in Malinovka. Dashing guys catch geese and pigs, peasants hide girls and all the most valuable.
It is such a gang, in all likelihood, that Ivan Susanin, the heroic headman of the village of Domnino, the patrimony of the young king's mother, took to the swamp. At least, men and women in Russian villages remembered him for this.
And the fact that he was no one, but a representative of power (in the tales of the century before last he was generally called the bailiff - a term that was not in Russia in the Troubles), symbolized the age-old pipe dream of a just leadership.
It is no coincidence that the quite real Minin and Pozharsky, who fought under the walls of Moscow for abstract sovereign ideals, did not get into folklore. And the semi-mythical Susanin got there.
Ivan's identification
However, why semi-mythical? In the Kostroma region in the early 2000s, they began to purposefully search for the grave of Susanin. Although, it would seem, if he drowned in a swamp, what kind of grave? But they found it - in the neighboring village of Isupovo with Domnino. There is even a positive conclusion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:
"The conducted medical and forensic research did not reveal any signs that exclude the belonging of the bone remains from the reliquary 13A of the Isupovo necropolis to Ivan Osipovich Susanin."
But no, and no trial! Even the reconstruction of the face was done - it turned out to be quite a pretty uncle of about 50 years old, slightly similar to Lenin.
“The injuries,” wrote the expert, “have no signs of healing, indicate a violent death and are fully consistent with the circumstances of the martyrdom of Ivan Susanin. Signs of the appearance of a man from reliquary 13A of the Isupovo necropolis are present in the appearance of the reliably known descendants of Ivan Susanin in the 8-15th generations."
So here he is, a national hero! Even now, under the glass in the museum, drive the excursionists. "Tourist groups from Poland, - as the funniest joke of the Susan cycle says, - a discount."