At school we went through this material. At first, of course, everyone knew that Ivan the Terrible had killed his son, and only then that they remembered that Peter the Great had also killed. Or rather tortured to death.
And who remembers what for?
The generally accepted explanation for the tragic fate of the tsarevich is well known. It says that Alexei, who grew up in an atmosphere hostile to Peter and all his undertakings, fell under the pernicious influence of the reactionary clergy and backward Moscow nobility. And when the father missed it, it was already too late, and all the efforts to re-educate his son led only to the fact that he fled abroad. During the investigation, which began upon his return, it turned out that, together with a few henchmen, Alexei was impatiently awaiting the death of the tsar and was ready to destroy everything he had done. The court of senators and high dignitaries passed the death sentence to the guilty of treason, which became a kind of monument to the principles of Peter I.
Initially, not experiencing a great desire to live the life that his father lived, the prince by this time was simply unable to overcome the gap deepening between them. He was burdened by the current situation and, like any person who was not very strong in character, was carried away by his thoughts to another reality, where Peter did not exist. To wait for the death of your father, even to wish for it, is a terrible sin! But when the deeply religious Alexei confessed him in confession, he suddenly heard from his confessor Yakov Ignatiev: "God will forgive you, and we all wish him death." It turned out that his personal, deeply intimate problem had another dimension: the formidable and unloved father was also an unpopular sovereign. Alexei himself automatically turned into an object of the hopes and hopes of the dissatisfied. The seemingly worthless life suddenly acquired some meaning!
The meeting between father and son took place on February 3, 1718 in the Kremlin Palace in the presence of the clergy and secular nobles. Alexei cried and repented, but Peter again promised him forgiveness on condition of unconditional rejection of the inheritance, full recognition and extradition of accomplices. The investigation began in fact the very next day after the ceremonial reconciliation of the tsarevich with his father and his solemn abdication from the throne. Later, specifically to investigate the alleged conspiracy, the Secret Chancellery was created, headed by the same P. A. Tolstoy, whose career, after the successful return of Alexei to Russia, clearly went uphill.
The tsarevich was tortured several times. Broken long before physical torture, he tried to shield himself as best he could. Initially, Peter was inclined to lay the blame on Alexei's mother, his closest advisers and "bearded men" (clergy), but after six months of investigation, a picture of such a large-scale and deep discontent with his policy among the elite was revealed that there could not be any punishment for all the "defendants" in the case. speech. Then the tsar resorted to the standard move, making the suspects judges and thus making them symbolically responsible for the fate of the main accused. On June 24, the Supreme Court, which consisted of the highest dignitaries of the state, unanimously sentenced Alexei to death.
We will probably never know exactly how the prince died. His father was least of all interested in divulging the details of the unheard-of execution of his own son (and there is almost no doubt that it was an execution).
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It is interesting to read the version of people who simply hate Peter and consider him a cruel tyrant. This is how they represent ero.
Peter was by nature wild and unbridled like John the Terrible. Peter's favorite pastime is torturing people. He spent hours in the dungeons with his own hands torturing people. He destroyed and destroyed the old life in Russia, carried out a reform of church government, issued a decree on compulsory military service for the nobility. He married the soldier Martha Skavronskaya, from whom he had three daughters - Elizabeth, Anna and Katerina, son Peter
Having married, he issues a decree that his children should be considered legitimate. Tsarevich Alexei was outraged by the marriage and the actions of his father with a living wife, imprisoned in a monastery
Alexei himself was already married to the German princess Charlotte Wolfenbüttel, who hated Russia. And everyone at court hated her. The princess suffered much from the drunken Catherine. Finally, she died of childbirth. They say that Catherine poisoned her.
This former soldier wanted to clear the road to the throne for her son. Tsarevich Alexei and his son Pyotr Alekseevich interfered with her.
After the violent death of his wife, Tsarevich Alexei sent his daughter to Germany so that Catherine would not do evil. The son remained in Russia.
He did not yearn for his wife. For a long time he had a mistress, a serf girl, whom he bought from Prince Vyazemsky, his beloved courtier. Evfrosinya Fedorova, or, as she was called at court, the girl Afrosinya, was very good. Seeing that the German soldier had become a Russian tsarina, she decided that she could get a job in the same way.
Alexei himself wanted to marry her. But Peter fell into a terrible anger. Marrying a German "girl" is nothing. But in Russian! What a disgrace! He wanted a new "alliance" abroad. One of the Austrian archduchess agreed to become the wife of Alexei.
Then Alexei fled abroad with Euphrosyne and was hid in Vienna, while the Viennese government was negotiating with Peter for the extradition of the prince. Catherine and Menshikov worked with might and main to destroy the Tsarevich and all his entourage. Catherine wanted her little son Petya to become the heir to the throne.
Menshikov assured Peter that Tsarevich Alexei was preparing a conspiracy and wanted to take the throne from his father.
Tolstoy and Rumyantsev, the tsar's favorites, forced the Viennese government to extradite Alexei. The unfortunate prince was deceived that the king forgave him and allowed him to marry Euphrosyne. But Alexey was already married to her. He was married by an Old Believer priest back in Russia. The Tsarevich went to Russia, to meet a terrible death. Peter was expecting the tsarevich in Moscow.
When Alexei was brought in, the trial of his friends began.
Alexei was forced to publicly renounce the throne, accusing him of conspiracy, an attempt on his father's life. Prince Vasily Dolgoruky, the prince's tutor, Prince Vyazemsky, Colonel Kikin and the Old Believer bishop Dosifey Glebov were arrested. After being tortured, they were killed.
Besides them, friends of the Tsarevich Pustynsky, Zhuravsky and Dorukin also died. Peter spent whole days in dungeons torturing the unfortunate. He took Alexei to Petersburg. Soon they brought Euphrosinya, who gave birth to a son on the way. Alexei on his knees begged Catherine not to destroy him, saying that he did not need the kingdom. But the ruthless German brought her business to the end.
Princes Vyazemsky and Dolgoruky did not confess to anything. And there was nothing. They were executed in vain, and Peter violated, like Sophia, the restrictive certificate signed by Mikhail that the tsar did not dare execute the nobles, but only exile them with the consent of the nobility.
On the intrigues of "Katenka" and Menshikov, Evfrosinya Fedorova was taken to a dungeon.
The unhappy woman, cut off from her husband and little son, was frightened by the tsarist torture and spoke to herself and to Alexei. She showed Peter, who himself interrogated her, that the tsarevich really wanted to kill him, wanting to turn Russia in the direction of the Russian again, and expel the foreigners.
Alexei was taken to a dungeon. Peter, as for a holiday, brought his own son and all his favorites to torture: Menshikov, Prince Dolgoruky (a relative of the executed), Prince Golovkin, with whose wife he was in touch, Theodor Apraksin, Musin-Pushkin, Streshnev, Tolstoy, Shafirov and General Buturlin …
The Tsarevich was tortured for three hours, from eight to eleven in the morning!
They tortured him for three days in a row, on June 19, 24 and 26, 1717, giving him respite to recover a little from his torment.
What a beast Peter was! He even tortured his own son mercilessly. And what can we say about the people?
The fiend-king tortured his son with his own hand.
On June 26, at 6 pm, the unfortunate prince died of torture. He was all so crippled that, looking at him, even the usual sentries of the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress could not help crying. Everyone pitied the Russian tsarevich, shamefully beaten with whips, tortured to death thanks to the intrigues of the tsar's concubine. Catherine-Marta killed Alexei.
But soon her son Peter died. Still, God sees all the dirty tricks that inhumans do and rewards them for it. She committed her crime in vain. The son of Tsarevich Alexei, Peter Alexeevich, was declared the heir.
These are the different and emotional opinions.
Do you think the son of Peter the Great deserved such death and which version is closer to the truth?
