It is difficult to say for sure how long ago people began to gather at the card table with cards in their hands. Some just filled their leisure time in this way, others hoped to earn money by playing. But both those and others risked over time to fall into excitement that could lead a player who was losing control of himself far.
Fingers and ears were cut off during the game
Playing cards have been familiar to people for many centuries. They were in use even in medieval Italy. However, the cards were not born in Europe - they were brought here from Palestine by the crusaders. In the land of the Saracens, playing cards called "naib" there have been in use since the 11th century. True, they barely resembled the colorful decks that are well known to us today, which, according to legend, in 1392, was proposed by the French royal jester Jacquin Gringonner. He himself also invented various fun and games using cards.
In Russia, a wandering Italian adventurer, called Certello by the Russians, allegedly appeared in the kingdom of Ivan the Terrible. It was in his hands that Muscovites first saw the cards that he deftly manipulated. It took very little time for a real gambling rush to start in Moscow, and playing cards became scarce. The resourceful Italian tried to establish their manufacture in Russia, but was expelled from Moscow.
After that, the cards were banned for a long time. For a while, card games were considered a serious crime, punishable by a very severe punishment: gamblers were chopped off fingers, ears, and even hands. Only when Peter I turned to the West, the gamblers were able to get out of the underground. However, their freedom was not unlimited: for example, it was forbidden to play cards during sea voyages. But the reign of Peter II can be considered the beginning of the Russian card era, it was during this period that the famous Russian gamblers appeared.
Genius gamblers
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Cards have become part of the everyday life of Russians, into Russian literature, music, and drama. Suffice it to recall Pushkin's The Queen of Spades. By the way, Alexander Sergeevich himself was always not averse to throwing himself into cards. True, he had only losses from this hobby - he lost more often than vice versa. Once he even put a handwritten collection of his yet unpublished poems on the line. And he lost. Later I bought it for 1000 rubles - a lot of money at that time. Another master of Russian literature, Lev Tolstoy, was also seriously carried away by cards, just like his heroes - let us at least refer to the card loss of Nikolai Rostov from War and Peace. The heroes of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky played cards as enthusiastically as the author of The Gambler, who gave birth to them, for whom gambling became a painful addiction.
Such celebrities as fabulist Ivan Krylov, poet Grigory Derzhavin, composer Alexander Alyabyev enthusiastically cut into cards. Nikolay Gogol has repeatedly addressed the topic of cards.
Different games, different rates
There were a great many games invented. There were, relatively speaking, serious ones: for example, bridge or preference, there were also simpler ones - fool, nine, borax. The heroes of The Queen of Spades played aristocratic shtoss (also known as "Pharaoh"). The stakes were high here. Sometimes, in the heat of excitement, everything was put on the line and sometimes everything was lost - money, houses, estates together with serfs, Arab horses and packs of hounds. But there were other, extraordinary bets. One of Lermontov's poems features a card game that took place in Tambov. A certain captain-captain who happened to be passing through played the local treasurer at cards. The story, generally speaking, is quite commonplace, if you do not take into account what the bet was made by the loser. The fact is that the treasurer, who was losing one game after another, eventually put his beautiful wife on the line. But most importantly,that the story told by Mikhail Yuryevich was based on a real case, the heroes of which, moreover, were not some unknown captains and treasurers from the Russian hinterland, but the most eminent representatives of the Russian elite of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, namely, Prince Alexander Golitsyn and Count Lev Razumovsky.
Star Rivals
Prince Golitsyn, an extremely wealthy man (he had at least 24 thousand serfs), was known in society for his gambling, on the verge of tyranny, character. At times, it seemed to those around him that he literally seeks to throw away his huge fortune as soon as possible.
They gossiped that almost every day the prince gave his coachmen champagne, he loved to light his pipe, setting fire to large banknotes. When signing a bill, the amount of debt in it was indicated only with a digit, which the recipient of the bill could supplement with as many of the assigned zeros as his conscience allowed. Golitsyn was married to the young princess Maria Vyazemskaya. In public, he demonstratively, not stingy, fulfilled any whims of his wife. At the same time, when alone with her, he was rude. It was rumored that it even came to assault. Golitsyn's irrepressible passion was card games. However, in this field, most often he suffered a fiasco, while losing decent sums.
The second hero of this story, Count Lev Kirillovich Razumovsky, was known as a completely different person. As the son of hetman Kirill Razumovsky, he was in a very distant relationship with the Golitsyn family, and therefore sometimes visited the house of Alexander Nikolaevich, where he met his beautiful wife. The hetman father took care of the decent upbringing and education of his son: Lev Kirillovich took a course in various sciences in St. Petersburg, then continued his education abroad. He was known as a versatile educated person, a connoisseur of literature and art, a patron of muses, an amateur and connoisseur of nature, and, among other things, a great master of gambling games.
Leo was not married, and several fleeting meetings with the young princess Golitsyna were enough for him to passionately, but, alas, hopelessly, fall in love with her. Hearing about Golitsyn's rude treatment of her, Lev Kirillovich decided to challenge him to a duel, but knowing about the prince's addiction to cards, he changed his mind and invited him to measure his strength at the card table. History has not preserved the exact date of this fight, but it is known that it took place around 1800 and lasted all night. Winning over and over again, Razumovsky drove Golitsyn to a frenzy. A lot of money had already been lost, but the card did not go to the prince. And then Lev Kirillovich offered him to put his wife on the line in exchange for everything he lost. Outraged by the impudent offer, the prince refused, but when Razumovsky informed him that he was leaving the princely house, but tomorrow he would send for his winnings,Golitsyn surrendered. He put his Maria on the line and … lost again.
Outcast in society
Lev Kirillovich kept his word: he took only Maria with him, leaving the rest of the win to Golitsyn. He took the young princess to his place and lived with her as with his wife. And Maria was torn apart by conflicting feelings: despite the long-awaited liberation from the tyranny of her long-unloved husband, who, moreover, had squandered most of her fortune, she felt insulted: she, nee Princess Vyazemskaya, was put on the line like some kind of serf girl. This scandalous story was discussed by the entire Petersburg and Moscow elite. But, perhaps, this is what helped Maria to achieve a divorce from Golitsyn and to marry Lev Razumovsky. And yet, even after that, for some time she remained rejected - in high society she was not accepted. Maria Grigorievna could not afford to appear at high society balls in the presence of members of the imperial family. It was believedthat a divorced and remarried (therefore, sinful) woman cannot be near the anointed of God. And this depressed Mary.
Unexpectedly, help came from the very top. Alexander I, as you know, patronized the lovers. Once, at a family celebration in Kochubei's house, which was attended by the Razumovsky couple, the sovereign appeared and, demonstratively, passing through the entire hall, invited Maria to dance. This served as a signal for everyone - from now on, she should be accepted as an equal. The Razumovskys lived happily for 16 years. They did not have children of their own, but adopted them into a family, raised and raised a young man and two girls. It was rumored that all three were the illegitimate children of Lev Kirillovich. One way or another, but this is how the finale of that extraordinary night card tour, which took place at the turn of the two centuries, turned out.
In the 20th century, cards and gambling gamblers from the pages of literary works and from theatrical stage moved to film and television screens. Among the movie heroes-gamblers were Pushkin's Hermann, Mikhail Krechinsky, Count Stroganov. And what a vivid fragment of the excellent film "Running" were the card battles between General Chernoti (Mikhail Ulyanov) and Paramon Korzukhin (Evgeny Evstigneev).
There is such a profession "katala"
Card games, like other types of gambling entertainment, such as sports betting, gave rise to cheating and assorted fraud. There were cheaters at all times and in all state structures. In the Soviet Union, the nickname "katala" was assigned to card cheaters. Successful professional skaters earned tens of thousands of rubles per season. Today they would be millionaires. Among the Soviet "katals" women were often met.
One of the known swindlers of the Union was a certain Anatoly Barbakaru. He started his "career" in his student days. He "worked" in resorts, on long-distance trains (he did not go down to electric trains). Barbacaru wrote memoirs about his experience of "throwing gamblers", on the basis of which a whole series later appeared on television. Among the ladies, the "red-haired beast" Tatiana Vermenich achieved great success in the role of "katala". She worked, as a rule, in tandem with an accomplice, with whom during the game she exchanged conventional signs, of which the cheaters had a whole arsenal.
That's how they are, these card swindlers.