“…. Happiness is a childless darling,
half-power overlord …"
A. S. Pushkin
There are plenty of examples in world history of how a shepherdess or a swineherd become, if not kings, then in fact the first people of the state.
There are also such in the history of Russia, perhaps the brighter of them - the fate of the son of the court groom Alexander Danilovich Menshikov - "the happiness of the darling of the rootless, half-power ruler", the favorite of Peter 1 and Catherine 1, regent under the young emperor Peter II, five minutes imperial family. And the richest man in the early 18th century.
In connection with the saying "From rags to riches" in Russian history, first of all, the names of the daughter of a Lithuanian peasant Marta Skavronskaya and the son of the court groom Alexander Menshikov are recalled. The first became the Russian Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the second became the Most Serene Prince and one of the most influential officials under Peter 1. So influential that he got away with such petty pranks as minting national coins with its own monogram, and such major state crimes. as bribery and embezzlement.
The size of the theft of Alexander Menshikov was so great that the most unimaginable rumors and legends circulated about his personal condition. Everyone knew about his abuse. And Tsar Peter is no exception. Having received another message about Menshikov's "exploits", aside from prying eyes, as a rule in a turning shop, the tsar walked with a cane on the back of his favorite, uttering all sorts of instructive maxims.
For example: "Do not forget who you were and from what I made you what you are now." Withdrawing his soul, the sovereign forgave his "libster kamarat" and "best frint" (which translated from broken German means "beloved comrade" and "best friend"). On the same evening, they could feast side by side until the time when Danilych, who was inferior to the king in the ability to drink, fell unconscious under the table. The reason for this condescending attitude of Peter to Menshikov is friendship, which is not even known when and how it began. There are many versions. Here is just one of them.
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At the end of the 18th century, everyone traded in Russia. Be it a peasant, soldier, artisan, service people, nobles. Aleksashka Menshikov, the son of the court groom Danila, also traded. He ran through the Moscow streets with a tray filled with pies, and when he returned home, he listened to the stories of experienced archers about attacks and sieges, military campaigns and military successes, and, like many of the teenagers, dreamed of becoming a military man.
And such an opportunity soon presented itself to him. Most often Aleksashka turned around in the Kremlin, joked a lot, called out quite convincingly, played pranks. The pranks of the broken salesman amused Peter, who was watching him from the Kremlin palace.
Once Aleksashka either aptly joked or cheated one of the archers, for which he almost lost his ears. Peter, who watched this scene, sent to tell the archer to stop offending the poor boy, and also ordered to bring the mischievous man to him.
Peter liked Aleksashka's wit and resourcefulness, who ordered him to be recorded in the bombardier of the Preobrazhensky amusing regiment, and at the same time appointed him his batman. This happened in 1686, when Peter was 14 years old, and Aleksashka was 13.
This is, of course, a historical anecdote, because there are no documents about the beginning of Alexander Menshikov's career (the first written mention of him refers only to 1694). But he talks quite truthfully about many character traits, and most importantly, about the business acumen of the future tsar's favorite.
Interesant
The war games in Preobrazhenskoye were replaced by real, not toy wars - the Azov campaigns, then the Northern Campaign, where the talents of Alexander Menshikov were manifested. Moreover, both in direct combat operations (for example, near Poltava, he commanded the left flank, which decided the outcome of the battle), and in the improvement of the rear.
1703 - becoming the governor of the Izhora land (the territory of the present Leningrad region), Menshikov began building St. Petersburg, Shlisselburg, Kronstadt and Peterhof. And because the laws in those days did not prohibit government officials from doing business, or, as they said at the beginning of the 18th century, to be interested, Menshikov quite actively began to create various kinds of enterprises that could provide building materials and foodstuffs growing before the eyes of the city.
He was the owner of brick, sawmills, glass, salt, fish, distillery industries. A small share in a walrus fishing partnership in the White Sea brought the favorite a small income. Danilych stood at the origins of the creation of a well-known silk manufacture, which appeared after the tsar visited France in 1717 and was very fond of the local silk products. Having learned about the sovereign's hobby, the Vice-Chancellor Baron Shafirov, the Privy Councilor Count Tolstoy and Menshikov, who kept up everywhere, decided to satisfy Peter's whim and founded a silk manufactory in Russia.
As a lift, they received a large allowance from the treasury, and also received some privileges, in particular, they received the right to import duty-free silk goods from abroad. But the matter did not work out, and soon the founders of the manufactory sold it for 20,000 rubles, more than compensating for all their previous costs of setting up the enterprise.
Danilych's estates became a good help in providing food for the cities, the construction of which was led by Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. First, the village of Lukino in the Moscow district, inhabited by 115 male souls, was awarded to his "best frint" by Peter in 1700 for his services to the fatherland. The next year, Menshikov was awarded two more estates. In addition, he himself bought three villages and paid 3,000 rubles for one of them, the smallest. Subsequently, the list of Menshikov's estates steadily expanded: only in 1710-1717, according to incomplete data, he spent 200,000 rubles on the purchase of estates.
A thief in law
Once, while listening to a report in the Senate on the embezzlement of the highest officials of the state, the tsar got angry and in a rage immediately ordered the publication of a personal decree stating that if someone steals from the treasury even on a rope, he will be hanged on it. To which the Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky remarked: “Do you, your Majesty, want to be left without subjects? We steal everything, only one is bigger and more noticeable than the other. The king laughed and did not issue a decree.
Otherwise, the first person to be sent to the gallows would have been Menshikov, who stole more often and more than others. He almost never missed an opportunity to "earn extra money" and save money. Even the little things. There is, for example, an interesting document of 1702, which says that out of the money allocated for the maintenance of Peter, by order of Danilych, 2 wigs were bought for the sovereign worth 10 rubles, and for the tsar's treasurer himself - 8 for 62 rubles. Or such a case. Once, after another drunken orgy in the company of Peter, the favorite discovered that he had lost the order, and announced a reward to the finder - 200 rubles. Paid 190.
The Tsar knew about many of Danilych's "exploits". So, in 1711, having learned about Danilych's petty embezzlement on the territory of Poland, Peter wrote to "Liebster Kamarat": "I beg you so that you do not lose your fame and credit with such small profits." Menshikov took the tsar's teachings literally and began to steal on a large scale, after making amends for all the former sins with a gift - the frigate "Samson", bought abroad and presented to the tsar for his name day (a year earlier Danilych presented the sovereign with 100,000 rubles).
Now Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, who was once embarrassed to take big bribes and even once refused 10,000 rubles, began to work on a large scale. One of the most lucrative deals was contracts for the supply of provisions to the treasury at inflated prices.
The first in a row - to supply the treasury with 20,000 quarters of bread for 40,000 rubles - Menshikov took in 1710. At a cost price of 34,600 rubles, the profit was 15.6%. This vein promised huge profits, and Menshikov decided to give its characteristic scope to its development. In 1712, he had already signed two contracts, one of them through dummies. In the first contract, the profit was 60.3%, in the second - 63.7%. At the same time, the most that other officials, who also dealt with contracts, could afford - 30% of the profit.
It got to the point that a commission of inquiry was created in the case of Menshikov's contracts. She estimated the damage caused by his machinations at 144,788 rubles. Then stories surfaced with direct embezzlement and bribery, which, together with contract money, the investigation commission estimated at 1,163,026 rubles. (and all government spending at that time was about 5 million). In other words, Menshikov could easily pay at least a quarter of the expenditure side of the Russian state budget. Thus, the commission of inquiry almost officially recognized the fact that His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov is the richest man in the Russian state.
In reality, his thefts, most likely, were even larger. Because many transactions (and, of course, thefts and bribes) were not documented at all, some amounts became known to the investigative commission only from the words of Menshikov himself. And Menshikov did not like to slander himself. Moreover, His Serene Highness presented a counterclaim to the treasury. In one of his petitions to the tsar, he wrote (more precisely, under his dictation, the secretary wrote, because Menshikov, apparently, never learned to read and write - there is not a single document that would have been written by his hand) that “no abduction of mine appeared to your execution”, Because he spent his personal money to purchase items needed by the state.
For example, once I bought tents for 27,338 rubles from my own funds and provisions for the regiments stationed abroad for 20,979 rubles. Menshikov remembered even small sums. Purchase of oboes for an infantry regiment - 40 rubles. Payment for the services of persons who caught the fugitive soldiers, as well as for the repair of guns - in the amount of another 167 rubles. True, in the same petition, the Most Serene Prince admitted that he also spent state funds on personal needs. At the same time, he never lost money - he took immeasurably more from the treasury than he gave.
After reading this, Peter nevertheless decided that the bill should be repaid. Menshikov, all in search of new sources of income, accepts any advice, if its implementation promises even insignificant profits. In Moscow, he bought up shops, taverns, cellars, trading places in order to earn money by renting them out to small traders and tradesmen. He sent his sales agents to the most remote corners of Russia and abroad to establish profitable contacts.
And he paid off part of the debt. 1719 - Menshikov wrote to the tsar: "615,608 rubles were taken from me in money, hemp and other materials." In addition, Danilych knew better than anyone else when to bring a petition to a royal friend. The result is the cancellation of part of Menshikov's debt to the treasury at the behest of the sovereign.
But the most amazing thing is that, even while under investigation and making sincere confessions that he disposed of the state chest with the same ease as his own pocket, the Most Serene Prince did not stop stealing. In 1718, Peter came up with another idea - to build a canal 100 miles long so that ships could pass from the Volkhov to the Neva bypassing Lake Ladoga. Menshikov was put in charge of the construction. However, after several thousand workers died of hunger during construction, the 2 million rubles allocated from the treasury disappeared without a trace, and the canal was not dug to the end, the tsar removed Menshikov from this case.
And again without consequences, except for the traditional suggestion in the lathe shop and the new increase in pay.
Regent
Once the Tsar said to his wife Catherine: “Menshikov was conceived in lawlessness, his mother gave birth to sin, and in trickery he will die his belly. If he does not correct himself, he will be without a head. Peter's prediction was partially fulfilled, but Peter did not live to see it. After his death, Ekaterina Alekseevna, enthroned with the direct participation of the Most Serene Prince, forgave all his previous debts to the treasury and granted the city of Baturin, for which Menshikov asked the Emperor. However, now Alexander Menshikov was interested not so much in wealth as in power. And the most direct way to this goal is twinning with the imperial family. It was him that Danilych chose.
First, he compiled his family tree, where ancestors appeared, who allegedly "arrived in Russia from the Varangians together with Rurik." The next step is the production of a trial batch of nationwide 10-kopeck coins, known as "Menshik's dimes". They are curious, first of all, by the monogram, which is composed of the letters "I" (Empress) and "E" (Catherine). As in many monograms, both letters are repeated in a mirror image - this was done to make the sign symmetrical.
An additional element is also included here - the Greek letter "gamma", which has no visible connection with other letters and violates all the canons of coinage (47 different monograms are found on Russian coins of the 18th-19th centuries, and none of them contains an element that does not would be an integral part of the letter or number included in the monogram of the emperor or empress). Nevertheless, the letter “gamma” carries a huge semantic load. Together with the lower parts of the two letters "I", it forms the letter "M", which in outline exactly corresponds to that placed on the balustrade bars of the Menshikov Palace on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg. By the way, there "M" was combined with the letter "R" (Peter).
But the national coin is not a lattice, because the government of Catherine rejected the project of issuing dimes into circulation. This did not bother Petrovich, and at the end of 1726 he began to directly implement his plan.
His plan was to elevate to the throne the young Peter - the grandson of Peter I, the son of Tsarevich Alexei - and marry his eldest daughter Maria to him. Back in 1718, His Serene Highness was the first to put his signature on the death sentence for Alexei, and in 1725 he prevented his son's accession to the throne, so the project looked like sheer madness. In addition, other candidates could lay claim to the Russian throne, for example, the daughters of Peter I, Anna and Elizabeth, who could well have provided their father's favorite with a quiet life.
However, Menshikov decided to go for broke and persuaded Catherine to sign the will to transfer the throne to Peter. At the same time, Menshikov was assigned the role of regent under the minor emperor, who was then only 11 years old.
1727, May 23 - two and a half weeks after the death of Catherine, the engagement of Peter II and Maria Alexandrovna, who turned 16, took place.
Menshikov was jubilant. 34,000 rubles a year were allocated to the courtyard of the emperor's bride-to-be; her name was commemorated in churches throughout Russia. Menshikov himself appropriated the title of Generalissimo. The omnipotent favorite had the audacity even to take away the money presented to the emperor, claiming that he was not yet able to manage large sums of money due to his youth.
Depositor
It seemed that Alexander Danilovich Menshikov was on the crest of fame, but suddenly he fell ill and took to bed. The Serene One recovered pretty soon. But his enemies acted even faster, who once again accused the Generalissimo of embezzlement from the treasury, told Peter II the story of the death sentence to Tsarevich Alexei and persuaded the young emperor to sign a decree on house arrest of His Serene Highness, and then on exile with deprivation of property, ranks and awards.
Together with him, his family was sent into exile. They were given a day to get ready. And, as the chroniclers testify, by the end of that day the living quarters of the Menshikov Palace in St. Petersburg, lavishly furnished with luxurious furniture, decorated with expensive carpets and paintings, looked like after a pogrom.
The servants, in incredible confusion, carried out orders that contradicted one another - they put some objects in order to immediately replace them with others. Excellent furniture, expensive carpets, paintings, crystal products and camping tents had to be abandoned. Among the crystal dishes packed in 15 boxes and abandoned in the capital, there were 1,800 vodka glasses, 2,000 wine glasses, 4,500 beer glasses, bottles, and mugs. He also had a chance to leave the cake tray, from which Aleksashka's career began and which he kept in one of the closets of his luxurious palace.
However, what it was decided to take with them was barely able to be placed on the carts of a huge convoy: headrests, hastily knocked down boxes, bundles, trunks and small trunks, chests and chests were packed into carriages, carriages and rattle cars. For the transportation of all this good, 100 carts were allocated, part of which was paid by the treasury, part - by Alexander Danilovich Menshikov himself.
1727, September 10 - the wagon train set off. He was accompanied by a motley retinue, testifying to Menshikov's intention to preserve the splendor of his court in exile. Among the 133 people who left Petersburg were pages, haiduk, footmen, cooks, tailors, singers, shoemakers, a hofmeister, and even two Karls. There were also dragoons - a kind of princely guards. On the way, the servant increased by another 15 people.
But then another blow followed. At the imperial command, the wedding ring was removed from Marya Alexandrovna Menshikova's finger, and her name ceased to sound in the churches. In addition, the belongings of the exiled family were greatly reduced. But the greatest trouble was brought by the Menshikovs, the forgotten by history officer Melgunov, who commanded the security. He wrote a letter in which he asked for an increase in rank and the addition of a number of subordinates to strengthen the protection. In the capital, they decided that it was easier to exile Menshikov somewhere farther than to spend money on his protection, and determined the place of exile in the remote Siberian town of Berezov (now Berezovo of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), where Menshikov spent the rest of his life.
And the commission of inquiry, meanwhile, was busy counting the property confiscated from the richest man in the early 18th century. According to her estimates, the value of the seized money and jewelry alone amounted to about 400,000 rubles. And Menshikov's estates in Russia and abroad have not yet been included here. In total, they would be able to form a middle-class German principality. There were also deposits in foreign banks, where rich people preferred to keep money even in those distant times. True, they did not have much choice - there were no banks of their own in Russia then.
A. Soloviev