The name and patronymic of the royal bride was changed before the wedding, which was supposed to ward off damage from her.

The Lopukhins were close to the Naryshkins, and Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, on the advice of her brother Lev Kirillovich, chose Evdokia Lopukhina as the bride for her son, trying to rely on an influential family, popular in the archery troops.

Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina

Evdokia Lopukhina was brought up in the strict traditions of Orthodoxy and Domostroy. She was pretty and was chosen as the bride by Peter's mother without any coordination of this issue with the groom - and at that time the consent of the young was not required - everything was decided by the parents of the newlyweds.

"Books of love are a sign in honest marriage",presented in 1689 as a wedding gift to Peter the Great.

Evdokia Lopukhina with a veil

In February 1690, Lopukhina's first son was born - Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, in October 1691 - the second son, Tsarevich Alexander Petrovich, who soon died.

Alexey Petrovich

Wanting a measured old testamentary Moscow life, she did not want to change her usual way of life, and this led to growing hostility between the spouses. Brought up in the old days, Evdokia could not attract a young and energetic husband to her and understand the reason for his hobbies for "Mars affairs" and "Neptune's fun." She did not share the views of Peter and therefore could not forgive her husband for his constant absences from home.

Peter I in a foreign outfit in front of his mother Tsarina Natalia, Patriarch Andrian and teacher Zotov.Nikolai Vasilyevich Nevrev (1830-1904),

Even the birth of sons could no longer bring them closer. Cooling between the spouses began in 1692, when Peter I met in the Moscow German settlement with the daughter of a merchant, Anna Mons.

Peter I finally left his wife in 1694 after the death of his mother. Lopukhina was still called the queen, she lived with her son in the Kremlin, but her relatives Lopukhins, who held prominent government posts, had already fallen into disgrace. After the return of Peter I from abroad in 1698, Empress Evdokia was exiled by Peter I to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery and forcibly tonsured a nun under the name Elena.

Suzdal Intercession Monastery

Evdokia Lopukhina in monastic vestments

In the Manifesto of 1718, published in connection with the "case of Tsarevich Alexei," Peter I formulated accusations against the former tsarina: "... for some of her opposition and suspicions." Lopukhina was not assigned maintenance from the treasury; She received everything she needed from relatives.

In 1709, Stepan Glebov, with the rank of major, ended up in Suzdal on business and at the same time visited his peer and old acquaintance Evdokia Lopukhina. Glebov asked about her life and spoke about his unsuccessful marriage, which lasted sixteen years and did not bring him any joy.

Nun Elena - the exiled wife of Peter I - Tsarina Evdokia (nee Lopukhina).

After the first meeting, he gave Evdokia two skins of arctic foxes, sables and dense brocade. Then Glebov began to regularly send food to the unfortunate beauty. Year after year passed, but their love grew stronger and stronger. They dreamed that she would be released and they could become a happy couple.

« Peter I interrogates the princeAlexey Petrovich in Peterhof”, painting by Nikolai Ge, 1871

During the investigation into the case of Kikin and Tsarevich Alexei, the participation of Evdokia Lopukhina in the conspiracy of 1718 was also discovered. Lopukhina was accused of involvement in this and was interrogated "with prejudice", forcing her to testify and confess in a secret relationship with General S. Glebov.

In a letter to Peter, she confessed everything and asked for forgiveness, so that she "did not die a rootless death." Cruelly executing all those involved in the case, including S. Glebov, Peter limited himself to the transfer of his ex-wife to the Ladoga - Assumption Monastery.

Under Empress Catherine I, Evdokia Lopukhina was imprisoned in Shlisselburg and kept in a strictly secret prison as a state criminal under the name of a "famous person". With the accession of Peter II, the grandson of Evdokia, she was transferred to Moscow to the Novodevichy Convent - she was given a large annual allowance of 60 thousand rubles and special care was assigned.

Novodevichy Convent

Lopukhina did not play any role at the court of Peter II.

Emperor Peter II with his beloved sister Natalya Alekseevna and aunt - the young beauty Elizaveta Petrovna, with whom young Peter was in love, settled in the Kremlin Palace. There he was visited by his grandmother Evdokia, but the royal grandchildren soon got bored with her instructions, Emperor Peter II, having surrounded the former recluse with honors and providing her with money, which she had been deprived of for so long, considered his duty thus fulfilled.

portrait of Emperor Peter II

Peter II and Elizabeth Petrovna

After the death of the young Emperor Peter II and in connection with the suppression of the direct line of Peter I, the candidacy of Evdokia Lopukhina was even considered by the Supreme Privy Council as a possible contender for the throne, but Lopukhina refused the crown. Last years in the Novodevichy Convent she lived in the chambers, which later became known as "Lopukhin".

Cup of nun Helena Feodorovna, former Empress Evdokia

Anna Ioannovna

Favored by the new Empress Anna Ioannovna, Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna peacefully reposed on August 27 (September 9), 1731 in the Moscow Novodevichy Convent, having outlived the close descendants of the spouse-emperor Peter I: his second sovereign wife Catherine I, children from his second marriage, except for Tsarina Elizabeth. As well as all his children, including the innocently murdered Tsarevich Alexei and, finally, the unexpected death of his only grandson, Emperor Peter II (1730).

Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna was buried in the Moscow Novodevichy Convent near the southern wall of the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God.

Plan
Introduction
1 Biography
1.1 Tongue
1.2 The case of Tsarevich Alexei
1.3 After the accession of Peter II

2 Petersburg to be empty
3 Children
4 In church activities

6 Bibliography
Bibliography

Introduction

Evdokia Fyodorovna Lopukhina
Praskovya Illarionovna Parsuna with the image of Evdokia Feodorovna Tsarina of Russia January 27, 1689 - 1698 Predecessor: Praskovya Saltykova Successor: Catherine I Birth: July 30, 1669 (1669-07-30)
Serebreno village, Meshchovsky district Death: August 27, 1731 (1731-08-27) (aged 62)
Moscow Dynasty: Romanovs Father: Illarion (Fedor) Avraamovich (Abramovich) Lopukhin Mother: Ustinya Bogdanovna Rtishcheva (Lopukhina) Spouse: Peter I Children: Alexei Petrovich (1690-1718)

Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina at Wikimedia Commons

Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina on Rodovod

Tsaritsa Evdokia Fedorovna nee Lopukhina (at birth Praskovya Illarionovna, monastic Elena; June 30 (July 9), 1669 - August 28 (September 7), 1731) - queen, first wife of Peter I (from January 27, 1689 to 1698), mother Tsarevich Alexei, the last Russian tsarina and the last reigning equal non-foreign wife of the Russian monarch.

1. Biography

Daughter of the boyar Fyodor Avraamovich Lopukhin, head of the archery, later okolnichiy and steward of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. She was born in the patrimonial estate of the village of Serebreno, Meshchovsky district. The city of Meshchovsk was the birthplace of Tsarina Evdokia Streshneva, the wife of Mikhail Fedorovich - the grandfather of Peter I. During the marriage, the name "Praskovya" was changed to a more harmonious and befitting for Tsaritsa Evdokia, perhaps in honor of her compatriot, and also, perhaps, so as not to coincide with the name of the wife of the co-ruler of Peter I - Praskovya Saltykova, wife of Ivan V. The patronymic was changed to "Feodorovna" (traditionally, in honor of the Romanovs' shrine - the Feodorovskaya icon).

Figure located at the beginning "Books of love are a sign in an honest marriage", presented in 1689 as a wedding gift to Peter the Great.

She was chosen as the bride by Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna without agreeing this issue with the 16-year-old groom. To the idea that it was time for her son to get married, the mother was prompted by the news that Praskovya Saltykova was expecting a child (2 months after the wedding of Peter and Lopukhina, Princess Maria Ivanovna was born). Natalya Kirillovna in this marriage was seduced by the fact that although the Lopukhins, who were among the Naryshkins' allies, were seedy, they were numerous, and she hoped that they would guard the interests of her son, being popular in the archery troops. Although there was talk of Peter's marriage to a relative of Golitsyn, the Naryshkins and Tikhon Streshnev prevented this.

The wedding of Peter I and Lopukhina took place on January 27, 1689 in the church of the Transfiguration Palace near Moscow. The event was significant for those who were waiting for Peter to replace the ruler Sophia, "because according to Russian concepts, a married person was considered an adult, and Peter in the eyes of his people received the full moral right to rid himself of his sister's guardianship."

Evdokia was brought up according to the old customs of Domostroy, and did not share the interests of her pro-Western husband. Boris Ivanovich Kurakin was married to her sister Xenia since 1691. He left a description of Evdokia in “History of Tsar Peter Alekseevich”: “And there was a princess with a fair face, only an average mind and disposition not similar to her husband, which is why she lost all her happiness and ruined her whole family ... True, at first love between them, the king Peter and his wife, was a fair amount, but only lasted a year. But then stopped; besides, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna hated her daughter-in-law and wanted to see her with her husband more in disagreement than in love. And so it came to an end that from this marriage great deeds followed in the Russian state, which were already obvious to the whole world ... "The Lopukhins, who soon after the wedding turned out to be" in sight "of court life, he characterizes as follows:"... people are evil , stingy tellers, of the lowest minds and who do not know the least in the courtiers ... And by that time everyone hated them and began to argue that if they came to mercy, they would destroy everyone and take over the state. And, in short, they were hated by everyone and everyone was looking for evil or danger from them.

Three sons were born from this marriage during the first three years: the younger ones, Alexander and Pavel, died in infancy, and the eldest, Tsarevich Alexei, born in 1690, was destined for a more fatal fate - he would die on the orders of his father in 1718.

Peter quickly lost interest in his wife and from 1692 became close in the German Quarter with Anna Mons. But while his mother was alive, the king did not openly show antipathy towards his wife. After the death of Natalya Kirillovna in 1694, when Peter left for Arkhangelsk, he ceased to maintain correspondence with her. Although Evdokia was also called the queen, and she lived with her son in the palace in the Kremlin, her relatives Lopukhins, who held prominent government posts, fell into disgrace. The young queen began to keep in touch with people who were dissatisfied with Peter's policies.

1.1. tonsured

In 1697, just before the tsar's departure abroad, in connection with the discovery of the conspiracy of Sokovnin, Tsykler and Pushkin, the tsarina's father and his 2 brothers, boyars Sergei and Vasily, were exiled as governors away from Moscow. In 1697, Peter, while in the Great Embassy, ​​from London instructed his uncle Lev Naryshkin and the boyar Tikhon Streshnev, as well as the tsarina's confessor, to persuade Evdokia to take a veil as a nun (according to the custom adopted in Russia instead of divorce). Evdokia did not agree, referring to her son's infancy and his need for her. But on his return from abroad on August 25, 1698, the tsar went straight to Anna Mons.

Having visited his mistress on the first day and visited several more houses, the tsar saw his lawful wife only a week later, and not at home, but in the chambers of Andrei Vinius, head of the Post Office. Repeated persuasion was unsuccessful - Evdokia refused to get a haircut, and on the same day asked for the intercession of Patriarch Adrian, who interceded for her, but to no avail, only provoking Peter's fury. After 3 weeks, she was taken under escort to the monastery. (There are indications that he generally wanted to execute her first, but was persuaded by Lefort).

Evdokia Lopukhina in monastic vestments

On September 23, 1698, she was sent to the Suzdal-Pokrovsky Monastery (the traditional place of exile for queens), where she was tonsured under the name of Elena. The archimandrite of the monastery did not agree to mow her, for which he was taken into custody. In the Manifesto, later published in connection with the "case of Tsarevich Alexei", ​​Peter I formulated accusations against the former tsarina "... for some of her contradictions and suspicions." It is worth noting that in the same 1698, Peter tonsured his two half-sisters Martha and Theodosia for sympathy for the deposed Princess Sophia.

Six months later, she actually left monastic life, starting to live in a monastery as a laywoman, and in 1709-10 entered into a relationship with Major Stepan Glebov, who came to Suzdal to conduct recruiting, which was introduced to her by her confessor Fyodor Pustynny.

From a letter of gratitude from Evdokia to Peter: “Most merciful sovereign! In past years, and in which I do not remember, according to my promise, I was tonsured in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery in the old woman and was named Elena. And she went to the tonsure in a monastic dress for half a year; and not wanting to be a monk, leaving monasticism and throwing off her dress, she lived in that monastery secretly, under the guise of monasticism, as a laywoman ... "

According to some indications, the Glebovs were neighbors of the Lopukhins, and Evdokia could have known him since childhood.

From a letter from Evdokia to Glebov: “My light, my father, my soul, my joy! To know that the damned hour is coming, that I should part with you! It would be better if my soul parted with my body! Oh my light! How can I be in the world without you, how can I be alive? Already my accursed heart has heard a lot of something sickening, for a long time everything has been crying for me. Oh, I'm with you, to know, it will grow. I don't have you dearer, by God! Oh, my dear friend! Why are you so nice to me? I don't have my life in the world anymore! Why were you angry with me, my soul? Why didn't you write to me? Wear, my heart, my ring, loving me; and I made the same for myself; then I took it from you "..."

1.2. The case of Tsarevich Alexei

Suzdal Intercession Monastery

Sympathy for the exiled queen remained. Bishop Dosifey of Rostov prophesied that Evdokia would soon be queen again and commemorated her in the churches as a "great empress". They also predicted that Peter would reconcile with his wife and leave the newly founded St. Petersburg and his reforms. All this was revealed from the so-called. Kikinsky search in the case of Tsarevich Alexei in 1718, during the trial of which Peter learned about her life and relations with opponents of reforms. Her participation in the conspiracy was revealed. Captain Lieutenant Skornyakov-Pisarev was sent to Suzdal to search for her, who arrested her along with her supporters.

On February 3, 1718, Peter gives him a command: “Decree of the bombardment company to captain-lieutenant Pisarev. You should go to Suzdal and there, in the cells of my ex-wife and her favorites, inspect the letters, and if there are suspicious ones, take them for arrest according to the letters from whom they were taken out and bring them along with the letters, leaving the guard at the gate.

Skornyakov-Pisarev found the former tsarina in a worldly dress, and in the church of the monastery he found a note where she was commemorated not as a nun, but “To our pious great sovereign, tsarina and Grand Duchess Evdokia Fedorovna”, and wished her and Tsarevich Alexei “a prosperous stay and a peaceful life , health and salvation, and in all good haste, now and henceforth, many and countless years to come, in a prosperous stay, many years to be well. .

Tsarevich Alexei, the only surviving son of Evdokia

During interrogation, Glebov testified, “And I fell in love with her through the old woman Kaptelina and lived with her fornication.” Elders Martemyan and Kaptelina testified that “nun Elena let her lover in to her day and night, and Stepan Glebov hugged and kissed her, and we were either sent to cut quilted jackets to our cells, or nursed out.” Captain Lev Izmailov, who conducted a search of the guard, found 9 letters from the queen at Glebov's. In them she asked to leave with military service, and to achieve the position of governor in Suzdal, recommended how to succeed in various matters, but mainly they were devoted to their love passion. Evdokia herself testified: “I lived fornication with him while he was at the recruiting set, and that’s my fault.” In a letter to Peter, she confessed everything and asked for forgiveness so that she "do not die a worthless death."

On February 14, Pisarev arrested everyone and took them to Moscow. On February 20, 1718, a confrontation between Glebov and Lopukhina took place in the Preobrazhensky dungeon, who did not lock themselves in their relationship. Glebov was blamed for the letters "digital", in which he poured out "dishonest reproaches concerning the banner of the high person of His Royal Majesty, and to indignation against His Majesty the people." The Austrian Player wrote to his homeland: “Major Stepan Glebov, tortured in Moscow with a terribly whip, red-hot iron, burning coals, for three days tied to a post on a board with wooden nails confessed to nothing." Then Glebov was impaled and suffered for 14 hours before dying. According to some instructions, Evdokia was forced to be present at the execution and was not allowed to close her eyes and turn away.

After a brutal search, other supporters of Evdokia were also executed, others were beaten with a whip and exiled. In sympathy for Evdokia, the monks and nuns of the Suzdal monasteries, the Krutitsa Metropolitan Ignatius and many others were convicted. Abbess of the Intercession Monastery Marfa, treasurer Mariamne, nun Kapitolina and several other nuns were tried and executed on Red Square in Moscow in March 1718. The council of clergy sentenced her to beating herself with a whip, and in their presence she was flogged. On June 26 of the same year, her only son, Tsarevich Alexei, died by the sentence of his father. In December 1718, her brother Lopukhin, Abram Fedorovich, was executed.

As a result, in 1718 she was transferred from Suzdal to the Ladoga Assumption Monastery, where she lived for 7 years under strict supervision until the death of her ex-husband. In 1725, she was sent to Shlisselburg, where Catherine I kept her in strict secret custody as a state criminal under the name of a "famous person" (Eudokia posed a greater threat to the new empress, whose rights were dubious, than to her husband, the real Romanov).

1.3. After the accession of Peter II

Peter II and Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna - grandchildren of Evdokia

With the accession of her grandson Peter II (a few months later), she was honorably transported to Moscow and lived first in the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, then in the Novodevichy Convent - in the Lopukhin Chambers. The Supreme Privy Council issued a Decree on the restoration of the honor and dignity of the queen with the withdrawal of all documents discrediting her and canceled its decision of 1722 on the appointment of an heir by the Emperor of his own intent without taking into account the rights to the throne (although Alexander Menshikov strongly resisted this). She was given a large allowance and a special courtyard. 4,500 rubles were allocated for its maintenance. per year, upon the arrival of Peter II in Moscow, the amount was increased to 60 thousand rubles. annually. Lopukhina did not play any role at the court of Peter II.

After the death of Peter II in 1730, the question arose of who would become his heir, and Evdokia was mentioned among the candidates. There is evidence that Evdokia Feodorovna refused the throne offered to her by members of the Supreme Privy Council.

She died in 1731 during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who treated her with respect and came to her funeral. Before her death, her last words were: "God gave me to know the true price of greatness and earthly happiness." She was buried in the cathedral church of the Novodevichy Convent near the southern wall of the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God next to the tombs of Princesses Sophia and her sister Ekaterina Alekseevna.

2. Petersburg to be empty

1. Alexey Petrovich (1690-1718)

2. Alexander Petrovich (prince) (1691-1692).

3. Pavel Petrovich (prince) (1693)

4. In church activities

· The village of Dunilovo, Vladimir Region, is named after Evdokia and belonged to the Lopukhins. In the Pokrovsky Cathedral of the village there is a miraculous icon - the contribution of Evdokia and Peter.

· In 1691-94, at her command, the 3rd tier was added to the refectory of the Andronikov Monastery, in which the Church of Michael the Archangel with a chapel of St. Peter and Paul. She took the lower tier under the family tomb, setting up icons of the Sign of the Mother of God there.

· In 1748, in the village of Tinkovo ​​near Kaluga, a miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos was revealed, later called Kaluga. “On this icon, the Mother of God deigned to appear in a guise strikingly similar to the lifetime portrait of Tsaritsa Evdokia in monastic robes with an open book, written during her stay in the Intercession Monastery almost 40 years before finding this shrine.”

6. Bibliography

M. Semevsky "Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina" ("Russian Bulletin", 1859, No. 9)

Esipov "The Liberation of Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna" ("Russian Bulletin", vol. XXVIII)

Bibliography:

1. Meshchovsk became related to St. Petersburg

2. I.e. not in a morganatic marriage.

3. N.I. Kostomarov. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures

4. Balyazin V. N. Unofficial history. Russia. The beginning of the Petrine era

5. V. N. Balyazin. Peter the Great and his heirs

6. Kolpakidi A. I. Seryakov M. L. Shield and sword. Heads of state security bodies of Muscovite Russia, Russian Empire, Soviet Union And Russian Federation

7. From the book of B. P. Kraevsky “Lopukhins in the history of the Fatherland”, Moscow, ed. Centerpolygraph, 2001

Evdokia Lopukhina became the last queen of Russian origin, all other spouses Russian emperors will be foreigners. But the fact that this marriage was concluded with a Russian girl of the Orthodox confession is the merit of the tsar's mother.

Praskovya Lopukhina, as the girl was named at birth, was born on July 30 (August 9), 1669 in the village of Serebreno, Meshchovsky district. She came from an ancient family, the ancestor of which was considered the legendary Prince Rededya.

The Lopukhins owned the Tver and Novgorod estates and served at the sovereign's court. By the end of the 17th century, they were among the most influential noble families. The Lopukhins were in friendly relations with the Naryshkins, who rose to prominence thanks to the marriage of Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Good relations with the Naryshkins contributed to the rise of the Lopukhins, now through marriage to the son of Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsar Peter. The marriage of young Peter, who quite early began to join the "joys" of adult life, became one of the main thoughts of Natalya Kirillovna's mother. Writer Alexei Tolstoy, author of the novel "Peter I", describes maternal worries and anxieties in this way:

“Petrusha needs to be married,” he became tall, twitching, drinking wine, all with Germans, with girls ... He marries, calms down ... Yes, I would go with him, with the young queen, to the monasteries, beg God for happiness, protection from Sonya sorcery , fortresses from the fury of the people ... "

On the advice of his brother Lev Kirillovich, Tsarina Natalya began to consider Praskovya Lopukhina as a party to the sixteen-year-old Peter:

“Well, sister, his marriage will not be worse ... Here at the Lopukhins, at the roundabout Larion, the wench Evdokia is marriageable, in the very juice ... Lopukhins are loudmouths, a numerous, seedy family ... Like dogs will be around you ..."

Peter fulfilled his mother's will, the bride was really prominent. Boris Kurakin notes that there was "princess with a fair face." Before the wedding, the girl's name and patronymic were changed, from Praskovya Illarionovna to Evdokia Fedorovna, and in January 1689, young Peter and Evdokia were married.

Since, according to medieval Russian concepts, it is not age that makes a person an adult, but marriage, the tsar received every right to rid himself of the guardianship of the sister of the ruler Sophia. Thus, the main task was solved, there was no need for the regency of Sophia, and Peter actually became the sole ruler of the state.

Did the young tsar stop visiting the German settlement after his marriage? Probably stopped in the first year. According to Kurakin, first love between spouses “It was pretty good, but it only lasted a year.” Later, the tsar again became interested in German girls, and even wanted to marry a German woman, Anna Mons, Lefort introduced him to her, in order to gain leverage over Peter.

The cooling of relations between the spouses began rather quickly and soon reached such an extent that the king, the mother of his sons, began to persuade them to become monks. The Lopukhins, on whom a shadow fell after the plot that had been revealed, fell into disgrace, and the tsarina herself was sent to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Monastery and forced to be tonsured with the name Elena.

In Suzdal, the former queen met Major Stepan Glebov, to whom she began to have feelings, this connection led the major to the scaffold and toughened Lopukhina's position. She was transferred to the Staroladoga Assumption Monastery, where she remained until the death of Peter Alekseevich. But his death did not bring deliverance to the involuntary nun, Catherine I, fearing that Lopukhina's candidacy would be used in claims to the throne, imprisoned her in the Shlisselburg fortress, where the nun Elena spent two years.

Only the grandson, Tsar Peter II Alekseevich, freed the grandmother from imprisonment, moved to Moscow and restored the honor and dignity of the queen. After 29 years of imprisonment, the queen spent 4 years at large.

She died in 1731, at the age of 62, and was buried in the Smolensk Church of the Novodevichy Convent.

“God gave me to know the true price of the greatness and happiness of the earth”,- said Evdokia Fedorovna before her death.

Lopukhina Evdokia Fedorovna

The first wife of Peter I - Lopukhina Evdokia Fedorovna

Lopukhina Evdokia Fedorovna was born on June 30, 1670. Avdotya Illarionovna Lopukhina, the daughter of the head of the archery Illarion (Fyodor) Avraamovich Lopukhin (later - the steward and roundabout of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich). The name and patronymic of the royal bride were changed before the wedding, which was supposed to avert damage from her (the name of the father was given according to the Fedorov image of the Mother of God - a shrine of the Romanov dynasty). The Lopukhins were close to the Naryshkins, and Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna herself chose Lopukhina as the bride for her son, trying to rely on an influential family, popular in the archery troops. Lopukhina, brought up in the strict traditions of Orthodoxy and Domostroy, was smart and pretty. Peter married at the age of 17 according to the old custom to the young beautiful Evdokia Lopukhina. The wedding of Peter I and Lopukhina took place on January 27, 1689 in the church of the Transfiguration Palace near Moscow. It was the last marriage of a sovereign with a compatriot in the history of Russia.
In February 1690, Tsarevich Alexei was born to them, and a year later - Alexander, who, however, died at the age of 1 year.
The first years of marriage were relatively quiet. The Terem pupil had no moral influence on the young king - the hero, who aspired to a completely different world. Evdokia could not follow him. Peter constantly left her for his favorite pastimes. There was cooling. Her complaints that he was leaving her annoyed him. Peter tried not to see his wife, so as not to hear her complaints. Dislike for his wife passed to her relatives Lopukhins. And this dislike was mutual. The Lopukhins had a terrible hatred for Lefort, Peter's favorite. One day, at Lefort's, one of the Lopukhins quarreled with the owner and rushed at him. Peter slapped Lopukhin for this.
Soon, Peter became close to the first beauty of the German settlement, Anna Mons. According to N. M. Kostomarov, cooling family relations happened precisely because of this connection of the tsar, arranged by F. Lefort with his former mistress, in order to strengthen his influence on the young sovereign and promote the interests of foreigners in Russia. Tsar Peter became attached to Anna with all his heart, who after a short time easily betrayed him.
Evdokia Fedorovna complained in vain about her loneliness and in letters to her husband called him to her. These letters indicate that the tsarina was very upset by this change, complained to her relatives, and they expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of Peter, to whom these complaints reached, but for about 4 years the Lopukhins were not touched.
In 1697, just before the tsar's departure abroad, in connection with the discovery of the conspiracy of Sokovnin, Tsykler and Pushkin, a reason was found for the exile of the tsarina's father and his 2 brothers, boyars Sergei and Vasily, by governors away from Moscow - without any reason . Peter did not want, returning from abroad to Moscow, to find the hateful Evdokia here near his son. He planned to get rid of his wife, to persuade her to have a haircut, and not to agree - to cut her hair by force. In the absence of Peter, Evdokia was persuaded to get a haircut voluntarily. She didn't agree.
“In 1698, on August 25, at 6 o’clock in the afternoon, Peter I returned from abroad, and on the same evening managed to visit several houses, in the city and in the German Quarter; visited the boyars, saw the Mons family, and retired to Preobrazhenskoye for the night. He did not visit only one person who was more impatient than all, between fear and hope, was waiting for his return - his queen Evdokia Feodorovna.
By decree of the sovereign, they continued to persuade her to voluntarily retire to the monastery. The queen did not agree ... Peter resorted to force. Three weeks after his meeting with his wife, Tsarevna Natalya Alekseevna, fulfilling the will of her brother, took from the tsarina her son, Tsarevich Alexei, who was 8 years 7 months old. From the Kremlin chambers, Alexei was taken to the village of Preobrazhenskoye, and on September 25, 1698, in the simplest carriage, without retinue, Evdokia Feodorovna was sent to the Suzdal Pokrovsky nunnery.
Prince M. Shcherbatov wrote: “... the monarch did not have strong reasons for divorce, at least I don’t see them, except for his inclination towards Monsova and his wife’s resistance to new institutions.”
Vilboa said: “The proud empress did not love Menshikov, as an unknown commoner, taken from the street and from under the cake tray placed on the steps of the throne. The royal favorite responded to her contempt with hatred and had to move the sovereign to the exile and imprisonment of Lopukhina.
The abbess and the old nuns rejoiced at the exile of Empress Evdokia. “That is not mercy and not salary coming to you,” prophesied Hilarion, “a fierce fire is coming to you! It will burn, let it destroy you!”
The Empress arrived at the Intercession Convent in 1698, and special chambers were built for her on the western side of the Church of the Annunciation.
In June 1699, according to the nominal royal decree, announced by the roundabout Semyon Yazykov to Varlaam, Archimandrite of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, Evdokia Feodorovna was tonsured by hieromonk Hilarion in the cell of the old woman Maremyana under the name of nun Elena.
The pious queen went to divine services every day, loved to read the lives of the saints, did good to the poor, and made generous contributions to the monasteries. Opposite the Holy Gates of the monastery in 1712, she built the winter church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a chapel in honor of the Monk Alexy, the man of God, the heavenly patron of her son-heir Tsarevich Alexei.
“The Intercession Monastery is located in an irregular shape, surrounded by a high stone wall with 9 small towers; cells are visible from behind the wall, not five, but a three-domed (which happens rarely) cathedral of ancient architecture rises above them. On the north side, in a recessed corner of the monastery fence, facing the mountain, there is a small but shady grove of trees, spreading their branches high and wide.
In the grove is the Tsaritsyn Pond (formerly called the Swan Pond); to the right of the monastery is the village of Seltso, beyond the river is another - Korovino, to the left is the urban settlement ... Beyond the Kamenka River, the gardens of the Intercession Monastery stretch. In the grove there are thick elms and willows, a sazhen and a half in girth; their branches grew unusually, and all thirteen trees, from the time of the queen, connect their tops into a huge green dome.
In the middle of the grove there is a densely grown burdock and blackthorn; along the monastery fence in the wall of the gate, or a door 2 ½ arshins high and 2 arshins wide, bricked up. Along the other wall, among the thorns, there is a weakly trodden path leading to the middle of the Tsaritsyn Pond. The pond is a regular quadrangular pit 30 sazhens in circumference, there is no water in it, but the muddy bottom, covered with a thick layer of leaves, shows that the pond dries up only in summer. On the sides - blackthorn and trees, on top of a bush of branches - completely protect this place from the gaze of the curious, but they visit the Tsaritsyn pond.
Vegetable gardens stretch from the river to the wall, among them a gatehouse can be seen. Several trees rise by the river - it seems to be the remains of an alley. From the southeast side of the monastery - the gate; at the gate there is a pond of the mother abbess, where crucian carp are found. Near the aforementioned holy gates, there was a cell of Empress Evdokia Feodorovna.
The holy and main gates in the southern wall of the monastery are dissolved only on solemn occasions, above the gate there is a very small Church of the Annunciation; Tsaritsa Evdokia Feodorovna used to pray here.”
In the era of the exile of Empress Evdokia, the monastery was headed by Abbess Martha (1682-1700), a woman, like her predecessors, an economic woman who actively took care of the needs of her monastery, the old woman Ulya (Julia) was the cellarer, the old woman Alexandra Tumskaya was the treasurer; income-expenditure books were kept by the old woman Mavra Protopopova. In the hands of these four persons was the main administration of the vast monastic economy; their assistants were the monastery's solicitors and clerks, their advisers were the cathedral elders: Elena Tregubova, Tarsila Chikhacheva, Evpraksia Bludova, Anisya Pochinina, Fedosya Evstratova - all these were representatives of the monastery and future friends - cohabitants of the queen.
Queen Evdokia lived quietly; at first she did not leave the monastery; but then, when she noticed that Peter, busy with internal and external affairs, had completely forgotten about her, she began to secretly leave her prison with an insignificant retinue. I went on a pilgrimage to monasteries: Bogolyubovsky, Snovinsky, Kozmin-Yakhrovsky, Zolotnikovskaya hermitage and some others.
Evdokia began to live in the monastery as a laywoman and, by her own admission, entered into a relationship with S. Glebov, who came to Suzdal for recruiting. Together with her son, Tsarevich Alexei, she became the core of a party hostile to Peter. Brought up in boyar circles, Evdokia was far from those great transformations that her husband carried out in Russia. Offended by the new position, Evdokia attracted to her side the clergy and some groups of Moscow aristocratic circles, dissatisfied with Peter's reforms.
Bishop Dosifey of Rostov prophesied that Evdokia Fedorovna would soon be queen again and commemorated her in churches as a "great lady". Others predicted that Peter would reconcile with his wife and leave Petersburg and his reforms. So in Suzdal an opposition center is being created around Evdokia, which aims to overthrow the government of Peter I, transfer the throne to Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and restore the Old Boyar power. This group was closely associated with Tsarevich Alexei, who grew up away from his father and his state affairs, surrounded by representatives of circles that hated all Peter's ideas.
On September 26, 1716, Alexei fled to Austrian emperor Charles VI of Habsburg. Petrovsky detectives found the prince and brought him to Moscow. The faint-hearted Tsarevich Alexei slandered Princess Marya Alekseevna, and the old princess, frightened by the possibility of torture and execution, betrayed her relationship with Tsarina Evlokia. The investigation that began in the "Case of Tsarevich Alexei" led to Suzdal.
The overseer Grigory Skornyakov Pisarev informed the tsar that the nun Elena lives completely freely within the walls of a secluded monastery, that she arbitrarily called herself by her former name Evdokia, that during the liturgy her name, as a queen, is mentioned after the name of the Sovereign, that she walks in a light dress and commands everyone like a sovereign. Bishop Dosifey of Rostov, her desert confessor, the treasurer of the monastery, the steward of his surmin and some of the nuns gathered in her cells for long and mysterious conversations. Surrounding herself with devoted people, Evdokia gave her heart to Major General Glebov, an illiterate, but courageous, enterprising man, who combined hatred for transformations and innovations with physical beauty.
All the nuns and persons mentioned in the denunciation were sent under escort to Preobrazhenskoye. Even from the road, the queen sent a confession: she recognized herself guilty of wearing a secular dress, and with a sense of her own dignity asked for forgiveness, "so as not to die a worthless death." Torture and interrogations began. It was found out that the nun Elena behaved constantly proudly, naughty threatened the future sovereign Alexei Petrovich; she was caught in love with Glebov, in the fact that she loved to spend evenings with him in lengthy conversations. It was revealed that back in 1707, the archpriest of the desert introduced Glebov to nun Elena, that the old woman Kaptelina (Kapitolina) was their faithful servant, that Bishop Dositheus knew about the friendship that had arisen; he also persuaded Elena to throw off her slave robes. Dositheus assured that he heard different voices from miracle workers that Eudoxia would reign again. When the time indicated by him approached and the words of the saints were not justified, the Bishop attributed this to the sins of the late boyar, father of the tsarina, Feodor Lopukhin, as if deeply mired in hell, promised to pray for him, took money to decorate the temple of the Lord, and annually reported that by his intercession at the altar of the Almighty, Lopukhin left hell up to his shoulders, a year later up to his waist, a year later up to his knees, etc. Archpriest Pustynny testified that the bishop often visited Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal, that the latter reproached him more than once for his untimely evening visit to Evdokia. “You are still a young man,” Hilarion said to Dositheus, “and you don’t know any cases.” Tsarevna Marya Alekseevna, caught in correspondence with Lopukhina, pointed to the Bishop of Rostov, as if more than once he assured her of night visions of Tsarevich Dimitri to him, and at the same time conveyed the prophecies of St. Demetrius about the proximity of the death of the sovereign, and so on.
Dositheus, betrayed to torture, confessed that in all the predictions he "lied against the saints in vain."
On February 10, 1718, the tsar's investigator Skornyakov-Pisarev arrived in Suzdal and arrested the former queen Evdokia, finding her in worldly attire. Taking advantage of the king's busyness in state affairs, and especially the support of courtiers and relatives who were in opposition to Peter's reforms, she took off her monastic cassock, put on secular clothes and led a secular lifestyle.
Peter I, having learned about the life of his wife, was indignant, the king himself then went to Suzdal, wanting to investigate the case. The old route from Moscow to Suzdal went to Alexandrov Sloboda and Yuryev-Polsky. “At dawn, Peter entered the Intercession Monastery,” writes historian M.I. Semevsky, - everything fussed, ran, everything was timid. The sovereign rushed straight to the cobbled cells of the queen, found various pilgrims and pilgrims on the porch and in the hallway, ordered to hoist stakes and gallows ... "
In a letter to Peter, Evdokia confessed everything and asked only for forgiveness, so that she “did not die a rootless death.” In relation to Evdokia, Peter limited himself to her transfer to the Old Ladoga Assumption Monastery, where, under pain of death, it was forbidden for anyone to talk to her.
In sympathy for Evdokia Fedorovna, the monks and nuns of the Suzdal monasteries, the Krutitsa Metropolitan Ignatius and many others were convicted. Together with Evdokia, 35 people were sent to Moscow for investigation. The case spread to Vladimir. And here 150 people were involved. The investigation dragged on for a month. On March 16, 1718, a verdict was passed on the Suzdal Investigative Case. Abbess of the Intercession Monastery Marfa, treasurer Mariamne, nun Kapitolina and several other nuns were innocently convicted and executed on Red Square in Moscow in March 1718.

In 1720, the clerk of the Secret Chancellery Timofey Palekhin (who was in Moscow), by personal decree sent from St. Petersburg, from the Secret Chancellery, was ordered to go to Vladimir and Suzdal "and in those cities in monasteries and in other places, which are shown in the copies attached with that decree, and which places will appear after following it, about the departure from Suzdal from the Intercession Monastery of the former queen, nun Elena, and about her arrival and about her actions in those places on which carts she rode, and who she had ministers with her, and from what ranks and who did all sorts of help to her in those passages, to investigate about everything, and which people of both the spiritual and worldly ranks would be worthy of that, and they were firmly: for a long time, have they had such the incident happened and through whom exactly, or through what kind of written transmission, and what kind of conversations they had with the former tsarina about what, or from whom they heard about it, and how long ago they themselves were in that agreement with them. Also, Vladimir coachman Timofey Stepanov, son of Tezikov, and Ivan Zhirkin (and whose city he is and from what rank, is not shown), who, from Demid's banishment, who was Bishop Dosifey of Rostov, were sent to Moscow to razstriya Yakov Ignatiev, having found therefore to ask about all strong." Cm. .

With the accession of Catherine I, Evdokia Lopukhina was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress. When the Russian throne was taken by the grandson of Evdokia Feodorovna, Emperor Peter II in 1727, she was released and settled in Moscow in the Novodevichy Convent.
The accession of Peter II in 1727 did not immediately alleviate the position of Evdokia Feodorovna. Only a few months later she was transported to Moscow and placed in the Novodevichy Convent. 4,500 rubles were allocated for its maintenance. in year. Upon the arrival of Peter II in Moscow, the amount was increased to 60 thousand rubles. annually, and the emperor showed signs of respect for her. Then she settled in the Resurrection Monastery in Moscow; she was assigned a large allowance and given a special courtyard. Peter II and Anna Ivanovna treated her with full respect - like a queen.
Having lived here for four years, on August 27, 1731, the queen-nun reposed and was buried in the Smolensk Cathedral of the monastery.
Before her death, her last words were: "God gave me to know the true price of greatness and earthly happiness."

Russian Empress - Evdokia Lopukhina

Kaluga Icon of the Mother of God

“On this icon, the Mother of God deigned to appear in a guise strikingly similar to the lifetime portrait of Tsaritsa Evdokia in monastic robes with an open book, written during her stay in the Intercession Monastery almost 40 years before finding this shrine.”
Cm. .

Copyright © 2015 Unconditional Love

Evdokia Lopukhina was the daughter of the stolnik Illarion Avraamovich Lopukhin, who came from an old boyar family. She became the first wife of Peter I. Their marriage took place on January 21, 1689. On the same day, the father of Evdokia Illarion adopted a new name - Fedor. His daughter, having become the queen, was already called Evdokia Fedorovna.

On February 18, 1690, Evdokia was born with her first-born prince Alexei Petrovich. Delighted, Peter, a week after the appearance of his son, gave a "magnificent" fireworks on Presnya.

Three or four years after the marriage of Peter and Evdokia passed in peace and prosperity. But soon Anna Montz captured the heart of the king.

Busy with the transformation of the state, Peter went abroad.

In 1696, before leaving, he decided to part with Evdokia. From London, he wrote to the boyars Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin and Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev, so that they "enticed" her to voluntarily take a haircut in the monastery.

Two years later, on August 25, 1698, Peter returned from his journey. On the day of his arrival, he did not serve a thanksgiving service in the Assumption Cathedral for a safe return, but managed to visit some houses on the outskirts of Moscow, and visited the Montz family in the German settlement. He went to spend the night in his village Preobrazhenskoe.

The tsar did not stop by to visit his lawful wife Evdokia Fedorovna and see his son. Not only that, which most of all struck the Moscow aristocracy, Peter ordered his close associates to persuade the tsarina to leave Moscow and take a haircut in a monastery. The queen did not agree.

According to some reports, on August 31, in Moscow, in the house of the postmaster Vinius, Tsar Peter talked alone with Evdokia for four hours, vainly urging her to take tonsure in the nearest monastery. As can be seen from the case, Evdokia again refused to be tonsured into a monastery. And yet, on September 25, she was forcibly exiled to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, “under the command of the abbess”, leaving her only eight-year-old son, Tsarevich Alexei, to be raised by her aunt, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. In a closed carriage, accompanied by a small retinue and a guard, Evdokia arrived in Suzdal on the evening of September 27, 1698.

So Empress Evdokia became a nun of the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, the "old woman" Elena, although she was only 25 years old.

Especially for the exiled queen, a “blocked cell” was built with several spacious burners and a vestibule. The cell was located on the western side of the gate church of the Annunciation, into which a passage was built from the cell, leading to a door made in the northern arch. The door led into the gallery of the church, rebuilt into a corridor. At the end of this corridor, in the corner eastern room, the queen's prayer room was arranged, hidden from the gaze of the worshipers.

Six months after her tonsure, the exiled queen stopped thinking about the firm vows of the monastic community, about fasting and prayer. She threw off her monastic blueberry attire and resumed her secular lifestyle.

Evdokia establishes ties with Moscow relatives and, first of all, with her brother Abraham Fedorovich Lopukhin, her sister-in-law Maria Alekseevna and, in general, with circles that sympathize with her and are dissatisfied with Peter's new reforms.

The connection between Moscow and Suzdal was originally established through a peasant from one of the estates of Abraham Lopukhin, Mikhail Bosoy. Acting as a messenger, Mikhail Bosoy managed to come several times a year to the Intercession Monastery to Evdokia, each time delivering to her "Moscow favors" - 50 rubles each from Maria Alekseevna and various gifts of food and clothing, as well as specially entrusted oral news "about moods " in Moscow.

Feeling the support of his high-ranking relatives, as well as the sympathy of a fairly large group of courtiers, Evdokia proceeds to take action. She is no longer satisfied with the borders of Suzdal, she begins to travel to remote monasteries "on a pilgrimage." So, her trips to the Snovitsky, Bogolyubov Kuzmin monasteries and to the Zolotnikovskaya hermitage became frequent. Evdokia usually made her trips in a closed carriage.

The newly appointed Archimandrite of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, Dositheus, disposed her to himself with all sorts of inventions about miracles allegedly coming from icons and clairvoyant dreams. Once he brought two icons to the queen and ordered them to lay several hundred bows in front of them a day, saying that he “heard voices from the icons that Evdokia would reign,” that is, she would be queen again that same year. However, when all the deadlines assigned by the "clairvoyant" icons passed, and the predictions were not fulfilled, Dositheus explained this by the sins of the late father of the tsarina, Fyodor Lopukhin, who seemed to be mired in hell.

Thus, in hopes of returning to Moscow, nine years of monastic life passed.

In 1710, Stepan Bogdanovich Glebov was sent to Suzdal for recruiting.

Glebov was already a man of age. He had a wife Tatyana Vasilievna and children. Some call him Major General. In Moscow, he had his own courtyard outside the Prechistensky Gates, where his family lived for most of the time. In addition to the Moscow court, Glebov also had a court in St. Petersburg in the Schleswig settlement on the Admiralty side and land in 1217 quarters of sowing. Certainly already aware of the stay of the exiled Queen Glebov in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, he decided to visit her and sympathize with her alone. The guardian of the spiritual life of Evdokia, the archpriest of the Suzdal Cathedral, Fyodor Pustynny, was not slow to please a new friend - to arrange a meeting between Glebov and Evdokia. After the first and very difficult meeting in monastic conditions, Glebov began to often visit the queen's cell in different time day and then night.

The possibility of her exaltation at the Moscow court and the accession of her son Alexei turned their heads to many. In this regard, the popularity of the exiled queen also grew. A popular pilgrimage began to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery.

The nun Elena styled herself none other than Empress Evdokia, and she used to say to those who visited her: “All of ours is sovereign.

And the sovereign for his mother, that he repaid the archers, because you know. And my son has already fallen out of diapers.

Rumors also reached Glebov's wife Tatyana Vasilievna, who reproached both her husband and Evdokia for the relationship that had developed between them. Apparently, due to the efforts of Glebov's wife and Abraham Lopukhin, Glebov was recalled along the official line from Suzdal to Moscow. It must be assumed that Glebov deeply hoped for the accession of Alexei and had in mind through Evdokia to make a career for himself in the future. But then he himself realized that his relationship with the exiled queen had gone too far, and abruptly changed his behavior. Evdokia deeply believed in Stepan's love, she wrote to him in her letters: “Soon forgot me, who, poor, separated me from you? What did I do to your wife? What harm did she do? Why did I make you angry? Why didn’t you, my soul, tell me why I annoyed your wife, and you listened to your wife? Why, my friend, did you leave me?

But Glebov already avoided meetings in Evdokia. Convinced of his departure from Suzdal, Evdokia sent him letter after letter:

“My light, my father, my soul, my joy! To know that the damned hour is coming, that I should part with you! Oh my light, how can I be in the world without you, how can I be alive! I don’t have you dearer… You know, you yourself wished that you wouldn’t be here… Why, my father, don’t you come to me? You are my friend, you will not forget me. And I will never forget you! Oxf my friend! Oh my light! My love! I sent you a galzduk, wear my soul, how will I forget your love! .. "

In 1715 Glebov decided to visit the exiled queen.

Glebov's position at this time, apparently, was already significantly shaken, since Evdokia, in her letter to her brother Abraham, asked for help to the Glebov family.

Glebov's connection with the queen's brother was established even earlier, the latter had a close relationship with Alexander Kikin. Kikin, in turn, was connected by a wide network of correspondence directly with foreign countries.

And these are only the main milestones around which a dense network of accomplices and like-minded people of the anti-Petrine bloc was woven, with the goal of Alexei Petrovich's accession to the All-Russian throne.

The son of Peter and Evdokia - Tsarevich Alexei - grew up in the Moscow Palace, away from his father.

In 1709, Peter sent him to study abroad, in Dresden. Abroad, Peter married his son to the sister of the wife of Emperor Charles VI - Charlotte of Wolfenbuten. In 1715, their son Peter (the future Tsar Peter II) was born to them - the grandson of Evdokia.

All attempts by Peter I to introduce his son to state activities, to educate in him his closest assistant, came across a stubborn character and the refusal of an heir.

Peter, convinced that his son's refusal was not only a passive refusal, but also a hidden threat, suggested to the prince: either take the veil as a monk, or go to Macklenburg. Alexey agreed to go to his father, but under the pretext of a trip he decided to secretly flee abroad. On September 26, 1716, the prince, having taken 10,000 gold coins, left Petersburg. Turning off the designated road, he fled to the Austrian Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg, his brother-in-law by his deceased wife. On the way, before reaching Libava, he met his aunt, Princess Marya Alekseevna, who was returning from Karlsbad. The princess took him into her carriage, where she had a rather lengthy conversation with him. It was about the son’s relationship with the tsar, about mother Evdokia, languishing in the Suzdal monastery, about helping her and about other state affairs, and mainly about the possible death of his father and his accession, Alexei, to the Russian throne.

Having learned about the flight of his son, Peter sent the nobles Tolstoy and Rumyantsev to the Austrian emperor to secretly seek the extradition of an heir. Alexei at that time was in St. Elmo in Naples, where he was discovered by Peter's agents. After lengthy negotiations, Russian diplomats succeeded in persuading the tsarevich to return to Russia, under the pretext of being forgiven by his father.

At the very first interrogation, which was conducted by Peter himself, the prince named his accomplices and like-minded people. A terrible process "The Case of Tsarevich Alexei" unfolded. The Preobrazhensky order, where the investigation took place, was replenished daily with more and more victims involved in the prince's case.

The search case spread to Suzdal and Rostov, to Bishop Dositheus. The next day, after the testimony given by the prince, by royal decree, the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment rushed from Moscow from bombardment captain-lieutenant Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev.

The clever detective and ruthless inquisitor of the Secret Chancellery Skornyakov-Pisarev arrived in Suzdal on February 10, 1718 at 10 o'clock in the afternoon and, without stopping at the voivodship yard, drove straight to the Intercession Monastery. It was Monday, the monastery was quiet. The monasteries, after listening to the early Mass, had a meal. Passing through the lower gate, Skornyakov-Pisarev went straight to the queen's cell and suddenly entered it. The timid Evdokia stood in "a worldly dress, in a quilted jacket and a warrior." A general search began. Skornyakov rushed to the bast chest, in which he did not find a black dress among the secular clothes. When he opened the box and took out two letters, Evdokia rushed to take them from the hands of the detective. The letters turned out to be fresh, and both from Moscow. One of them is from Mikhail Voronin, a lawyer from the Pokrovsky Monastery, the second, without an address or signature, was written by the hand of Evdokia's brother, Abraham Lopukhin.

Mikhailo Voronin informed his brothers that the tsarevich was coming from abroad to Moscow. It can be seen from the letter that, although it was addressed to the brothers Vasily and Ivan Voronin, who were ministers of the Intercession Monastery, it was intended for the information of Evdokia.

monastery of elders, clerics and girls, all the clergy and some secular ones, went with Evdokia to Moscow.

Suzdal "kolodniki" arrived in Preobrazhenskoye on February 14 and were placed in different rooms "under a strong guard." On the same day, the "Suzdal search" began. In the stone dungeon, under the inexorable whip and red-hot iron, people shouted out the new names of their accomplices and like-minded people. And again the messengers rushed to all ends of the Russian Empire, bringing with them more and more new victims entangled in the Suzdal case.

On February 19, 1718, the treasurer Maremyan was summoned for interrogation. The chatty old woman, afraid to hide anything, told everything she knew and heard, and even what was not relevant to the case. This time, Maremya-na showed: “Yes, how Stepan Bogdanov Glebov was in Suzdal for the recruitment of soldiers, the keykeeper Fyodor Pustynny spoke about him so that the queen would let him in, and I dissuaded him for two days. Before his arrival, he sent two fox furs, a pair of sables, from which she made herself a hat, and 40 tails; and then many times she let her in during the day and in the evenings. Further, telling how Glebov came during the Annunciation matins, about seeing him out of the fence and scolding the queen, Maremyana added: “Yes, he^ Stefan used to go to her at night ... Stefan passed by us, but we did not dare to move.”

After Maremyana's testimony, on the same day, Captain Lev Izmailov arrested Stepan Glebov and was taken to the Office of Secret Affairs in shackles, and on February 20 he personally testified: For some time, her confessor Fyodor Pustynny brought me to the cell of the former Empress Elena, and through this confessor I sent a gift to her two fox furs, a couple of sables, a school of German bayberek and food. And he fell in love with her through the old woman Kapitolina and lived with her fornication ... And after that, two years later, he came to her and saw her ... "

Confessing to close relations with Evdokia, Glebov firmly and categorically denied the participation attributed to him in the escape of Tsarevich Alexei abroad.

The turn of the interrogation reached the queen Evdokia. To mitigate her fate, Evdokia, even from the road from Suzdal, sent a confession to the king, in which, recognizing herself as guilty, she asked for forgiveness.

However, during the consideration of the case, no attention was paid to this guilt. On February 21, Evdokia was taken to the interrogation and torture chamber. She fully confirmed the testimony of Maremyana and Stepan Glebov presented to her, and after a confrontation with Glebov at the general court, she gave the following handwritten testimony: that she lived fornication with him, as he was at the recruiting set; and that's my fault. I wrote with my own hand, Elena.

On February 22, the former archimandrite of the Spassky Monastery, Bishop Dosifey of Rostov, was delivered to Moscow, and on February 23, in his own hand

In a letter, he submitted his following testimony: “I have never had an extreme acquaintance and love with Stepan Glebov.” Further, Dosifei wrote how Glebov and Evdokia came to him at the Spassky Monastery at night and ordered prayers to be sung and one day they stayed for dinner. Dosifey tried to shift all the blame on Glebov, shielding himself. “But Stepan came to me after the time when the royal majesty was legally married to the Empress Tsarina Ekaterina Alekseevna, and he says to me: “Why are you, bishop, standing for the fact that the sovereign from a living wife marries another? And I told him, I’m not big and it’s none of my business and there’s nothing for me to stand about.”

On February 27, at a church council, the hierarchal dignity was removed from Dositheus. From that time on, in all acts he is called Demidka.

In total, 35 people were involved in the Suzdal search case. Among them are Tsarevich Alexei's aunt Tsarevna Marya and her singer Fyodor Zhuravsky, Tsarina Evdokia's brother Avraam Lopukhin and their relative Gavrila, Prince Semyon Shcherbatov, who in his letters titled Evdokia "the rightful sovereign, queen", messengers between Moscow and Suzdal: Grigory Sobakin, Kirill Matyushin and Mikhail Bosoy; Princess Golitsyna, who transmitted palace news to the circles of Evdokia's adherents through Princess Maria Alekseevna, Princess Troekurova, Evdokia's sister, and the Suzdal Landrats, who honored Evdokia, instead of looking after her and reporting her behavior to the government.

The investigation went on for a month, and on March 14-16, at the general courtyard, the “ministers” pronounced a verdict on the Suzdal search case.

The verdict was signed by Prince Romodanovsky, Boris Sheremetyev - Field Marshal General, Count Apraksin, Count Gavrilo Golovin, Tikhon Streshnev, Prince Pyotr Prozorovsky, Baron Pyotr Shafirov, Alexei Saltykov, Vasily Saltykov.

Stepan Glebov was ordered to inflict a cruel death penalty, to take away all the property of the sovereign, “for writing letters from him to indignation at his royal majesty of the people and intent on his health and to defame his royal majesty’s name and her majesty Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna ... yes, because he worthy of the death penalty, that he lived fornication with the former queen, the old woman Elena, for which they themselves were guilty.

The death penalty was imposed on both Bishop Dositheus and the key officer Fyodor Pustynny.

During the investigation in the Secret Chancellery, 150 people were arrested and imprisoned in Vladimir and Suzdal. Some are punished with a whip and exiled to Siberia.

After the death of Peter I, during the reign of Catherine I, in 1725, by order of the Empress, she was transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress.

She was liberated from the Shlisselburg fortress on August 1, 1727, and in September she went to Moscow, to the Novodevichy Convent, where she settled in the newly built chambers.

his place, announced that "her majesty, grandmother, was kept according to her high dignity in all contentment." Immediately at the meeting of the Council, the staffs of her court were worked out and the maintenance was assigned to her - 60,000 rubles a year. In addition, the parish was handed over to 2000 peasant households for food.

Having achieved the restoration of her position at the end of her life, Evdokia outlived her husband Peter I, son Alexei and even grandson Peter II. Having lived in contentment for the rest of her life in the Novodevichy Convent for about three years, she died on August 27, 1731 at the age of 62.