From the history of the Corps of Pages. From the history of the Corps of Pages Why are pages needed in tsarist times

His Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages is the most prestigious educational institution Russian Empire. As a military educational institution, it existed since 1802, although it was created back in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in 1750 with the aim, according to a nominal decree, “ So that those who, through this, to a constant and decent mind and noble deeds, most succeed and from that they could show themselves courteous, pleasant and perfect in everything, as the Christian law and their honest nature commands»…

The immediate predecessor of the corps was the Court School of Pages, established by decree of April 5, 1742. Catherine II, by decree of 1762, forbade the admission of youths of non-noble origin into the corps.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the corps consisted of three page classes (for 50 pages) and one chamber page (for 16 chamber pages) and was not merged with other military educational institutions in order to manage.

At the very beginning of his reign, Alexander I decided to reform the Corps of Pages in order to turn it into an elite educational institution, giving its pupils a first-class military education worthy of court and (in the future) guard service.

An experienced teacher-practitioner, Major General F. I. Klinger, was instructed to develop a new charter for the corps together with his boss, Count N. P. Sheremetev. At the beginning of September 1802, the charter was presented to the sovereign, and on October 10 (October 22) it was put into effect by an imperial rescript and read to the pages on October 13 (October 25) in the building of the Corps on the Fontanka embankment:

The Corps of Pages is a school for the education of morals and character, and in which the knowledge necessary for an officer can be taught; ... This corps is collectively such a military establishment, where the noble youth, through education, is prepared for military service strict obedience, perfect subordination and unconstrained, but voluntary performance of their posts. The future happiness and glory of these young nobles depends on the circumstances mentioned.- Charter of the Corps of Pages.

Photos of pupils of the Corps of Pages (1904-1907)

Pupils on a walk in the garden of the building

The teacher and pupils draw from nature in the garden of the building

A group of pupils during a singing lesson in the hall

A group of pupils during a rest in the prefabricated hall

Group of pupils during evening tea

Teachers and pupils during the exercises

Pupil in the garden of the building while drawing from life

Meeting of the Grand Committee of the Corps of Pages

Corner of the Page Garden

A group of pupils with a teacher in St. George's Hall

Pupils with teachers at a fencing lesson

Pupils of the senior age of the Corps of Pages during a mathematics lesson

Orchestra of the Corps of Pages during a rehearsal

Teachers and pupils in the drawing class during the lesson

Teacher and pupils in the garden of the Corps of Pages while drawing from life

Pupils of the Page Corps in the classroom during a modeling lesson

Pupils of the Corps of Pages with a teacher during evening classes preparing for lessons

A group of pupils in the ranks in the White Hall

Pupils during classes in the painting class

A group of older pupils before being sent to the training camp

Pupils during a gymnastics lesson with a teacher in the gym

"Enemy" in the ranks before the start of the exercise

A group of older pupils in front of the shooting gallery

Pupils of the Corps of Pages in the infirmary of the corps

A group of officers in the duty room receives the page's report.

Pupils of the Corps of Pages during a shooting exercise

Pupils in the classroom studying the charters

Pupils with a teacher during a lesson in tactics

A group of pupils during lunch

Pupil at the post during the summer exercises.

A group of pupils who returned from vacation in the wardrobe

General view of the barracks where the pupils who arrived for the exercises were accommodated

Pupils during shooting exercises

A group of pupils returns after the exercises

View of the facade of the Page Corps

many outstanding personalities of Russia XYIII - early XX centuries. It is enough to recall such names as the first Russian revolutionary A. N. Radishchev, the scientist and anarcho-communist prince P. A. Kropotkin, the talented commander of the First World War A. A. Brusilov and many, many others. The history of the Corps of Pages is a particle of the history of our Motherland.
In Russia, pages at the court appeared in 1711 and were personally chosen by Peter I, and among them were persons of German and Swedish origin. In the future, the children of the courtiers and officers of the guard were appointed to pages. In 1727, 14 pages and 6 chamber-pages from the most noble noble families were in the service at the court, who received salaries, food and clothes from the court. On October 5, 1742, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna established a staff of 24 pages and 8 cameras-pages with a salary of 44 rubles a year and the introduction of a uniform consisting of a yellow caftan with black cuffs and trousers of the same color, a black camisole with silver buttons and braids, white stockings with shoes, a downy hat with a plume and a red epanchi (cloak). The service life has not been set.

Boys aged 8-14 were accepted as pages, boys aged 15-18 were accepted as chamber pages. The service consisted in their participation in all kinds of holidays, solemn exits of the highest persons, in royal hunts and trips. Upon reaching a certain age, chamber pages were issued by officers to the Guard, less often - to chamber junkers, and pages - officers to army units. Subsequently, the number of pages and chamber pages at court increased.

At the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, it became necessary for the pages to receive regular education. At the beginning of 1759, the empress ordered the enlightened nobleman I. I. Shuvalov to prepare a draft of the Status of the Corps of Pages, and on October 25 (November 5, according to the new style) of the same year, the corps was established, and the training of pages began. The program included the study of German, Latin and French, physics, geography, geometry, algebra, fortification, history, heraldry. The staff of the Corps included 9 cameras-pages and 40 pages. The corps was headed by the enlightened Swiss Chudi (Shudi), a philosopher and historian who translated materials into French for Voltaire, who was working on The History of Peter the Great. Then he was replaced in this post by Professor Johann Lichten, the compiler of the Russian and French Lexicon. In 1762, the corps was headed by Franz Rothstein, who held this post for 17 years. In 1765, Academician G.F. Miller drew up a new page training program. In the Corps, they began to study mathematical and military sciences, philosophy, morality, law, history, geography, genealogy, heraldry, jurisprudence, state ceremonial, Russian and foreign languages, calligraphy, as well as horse riding, dancing and fencing.

In 1786, the staff of the corps was increased to 18 cameras-pages and 60 pages, which included 18 reyt-pages (horse escorts and 6 yagd-pages (participants in royal hunts). Paul I abolished the titles of reyt-and yagd-pages, but introduced ranks of life pages, which were abolished by Alexander I. During the reign of this emperor, a serious reorganization of the Corps of Pages was carried out.In 1802, it was transformed into a military educational institution similar to the cadet corps, and in 1819 it was subordinated to the chief director of the cadet corps.

Under Nicholas I, the set of students in the corps was increased to 150 people, and rules were issued on the procedure for enrolling in pages. In accordance with these rules, only children of the first three classes of Russian service people (no lower than a lieutenant general or privy councilor) were enrolled in pages. Enrollment in the Corps of Pages was carried out only at the highest command. Education in the corps lasted seven years, including two years in special classes. Pages who did not meet the requirements for transfer to special classes were dismissed with the rights of graduates of military gymnasiums.

Those who graduated from special classes were divided into four categories based on the results of training and were released into officers:
1st category - second lieutenants and cornets in the guard with the receipt of 500 rubles for uniforms;

2nd category - second lieutenants or cornets in army units with one year of seniority and receiving 225 rubles for uniforms;

3rd category - the same ranks in the army without seniority with the receipt of 225 rubles for uniforms;

4th category - non-commissioned officers in the army for six months with further promotion to officers if there is a vacancy in the unit.

Admission to the corps was carried out on the basis of competitive entrance exams. Since 1889, 170 interns were trained in the corps, kept on full state support, and 160 externals, for which 200 rubles were paid per year. The students of the corps were called pages, and the title of chamber-pages was given to those who studied in the upper grades, who met the requirements for success in science and behavior. The chamber pages, in addition to their studies, carried out court service with persons of the imperial family.

The shape of the pages has changed over time. So, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, it had the following appearance: a single-breasted black uniform with a high beautiful cloth collar, red shoulder straps and gilded buttons with an eagle, loose-fitting trousers with red edging, a black drape double-breasted coat of an officer's cut, a guards cleaver on lacquered white leather belt with a gilded plaque decorated with an eagle on the front. For camp gatherings, which were held in Peterhof and Krasnoye Selo, the pages had a field uniform of an all-army model.

Teaching in the corps was carried out at a high level. Not only corps teachers taught the course there, but professors from the university and higher military educational institutions Petersburg. So, artillery and fortification were taught by the professor of three military academies, the composer Caesar Antonovich Cui. A number of teachers of the corps were teachers of persons of the royal family.

The requirements for the pupils of the corps were high. Here knowledge was evaluated objectively, regardless of origin. The first students upon graduation were entered in gold on the white marble honor boards that hung in the assembly hall of the building. IN different time they were inscribed with the names of the future Decembrist P.I. Pestel, the future anarchist Prince II.A. Kropotkin, the future Soviet Lieutenant General Count A.L. others

The corps gave Russia excellent military leaders who showed their military leadership talent in different wars: P.V. Gurko, A.L. Brusilov, A.M. Dragomirov, G.M. Gurko, F.E. Keller, A.L. Bilderling, and many others.

Famous state and politicians: leader of the Octobrists M.V.

Cover of the photo album of the cadet of the First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of the Cadet Corps, whose chief was the King of Yugoslavia Alexander.

The corps was graduated in due time by scientists: geographer and geologist P.A. Kropotkin, historian (director of the Public Library) I.K. Schilder, professor of the military academy P.I. Golovin.

Poets E.A. Baratynsky, R.N. Dorokhov (the prototype of P.P. Dolokhov in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”), A.N. The graduate of the corps was the composer F.M. Tolstoy (author of music to the words of Pushkin “I loved you”, etc.). The sons of A.S. Pushkin - Alexander and Grigory - were also graduates of the Corps of Pages.

Pupils of the corps fought bravely in Patriotic War 1812, only on the day of the Battle of Borodino in the corps, the early release of 38 former pages as ensigns into the army took place.

Many former pages were among the Decembrists P.I. Pestel, V.P. Svistunov, V.P. Ivashev, I.P. Konovnitsyn, V.L. Lukashevich, L.P. A. Musin-Pushkin, N. V. Sheremetev. Many graduates of the corps knew about secret societies and sympathized with the ideas of the future Decembrists. Only one of the former pages - the poet and translator Yakov Ivanovich Rostovtsev - reported on the impending uprising to Nicholas I. This provided him with a brilliant career, and his children the dignity of a count. Another graduate of the corps, Colonel of the Cavalier Guard Regiment V.I. Pestel (brother of the Decembrist), was among the government troops during the uprising on Senate Square, for which he received “royal gratitude” and also made a brilliant career. It should be noted that among the former pages there were people who left another “glory”: A.A. Olenin (son of the president of the Academy of Arts and friend of A.S. Pushkin), who was killed by his serfs for their ill-treatment; Grishka Rasputin's friend, Prince M.M. Andronnikov, who had the nickname "Beggar" (by the way, Prince F.F. Yusupov, who killed Rasputin, also studied in the Page Corps); Governor-General of St. Petersburg in 1905 D.F. Trepov, infamous for the ban on the performance of music by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. This also includes the former teacher of the Corps of Pages, and then the Minister of War of Russia, V.A. Sukhomlinov, who was tried in 1916 for treason and abuse and sentenced to life imprisonment. There were no Bolsheviks among the graduates of the Corps of Pages.

In the XVIII - early XIX centuries. The page corps was alternately in different places in St. Petersburg. First, the pages were placed in the old house of Admiral Kruys (now the building of the Old Hermitage is located on this site), then they were transferred to the building of the old Winter Palace on Nevsky Prospekt (the site between the current Gogol St. and Moika Embankment), after the wooden Winter Palace was dismantled after the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, the Corps of Pages was placed in the "Life Campanian House" (now a section of house No. 33 on Khalturin Street). In 1802, the Corps of Pages was transformed according to the plan of General F.I. Klinger and transferred to the “house of the Chevalier d'0rbigny, recorded in the Foundry under No. 75” (house No. 6 on the Fontanka River Embankment).

Finally, in 1810, the building acquired a permanent address: st. Sadovaya, house number 26, where it was located until 1917. This site in the middle of the 18th century belonged to Vice-Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov. In 1749-1757. Here was built a palace designed by the architect Rastrelli. In 1763, the palace and the land adjacent to it were sold to the treasury for 217.6 thousand rubles. Until 1770, the palace was empty, then Prince Henry of Prussia settled here, and from him the palace passed to another prince - Nassau-Siegen. In 1797, the palace was acquired by Paul I and granted it to the Order of Maltese Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, whose master he became.

On behalf of Paul I, the architect D. Quarenghi in 1798-1800. added the Maltese chapel to the palace, and in the left wing of the palace he created an Orthodox house church. The tympanum of the pediment of the Quarenghi Chapel was decorated with a relief Maltese eight-pointed cross in a circle.

Badges depicting a white Maltese cross were worn by graduates of the Corps of Pages.

But this was an official sign, and unofficially, graduates wore special rings made of steel and gold, on which was the inscription "No. of 30" (the graduate's serial number in accordance with academic success) and the year of graduation. The combination of metals of the ring was not accidental, for the pages chose as their motto the motto of the knightly Order of the Templars: "Pure as gold, hard as steel."

Tailcoat and token of the Corus of Pages.

During the WWI period (the first Great War), the corps released officers to the front on an accelerated program, due to a shortage of junior officers.

In 1917, the Corps of Pages was disbanded, and its premises were occupied by the headquarters of the Left Social Revolutionaries. During the suppression of the Left SR rebellion on July 7, 1918, the Vorontsov Palace was fired upon by light artillery, as a result of which the capitals of the columns were damaged. Then the building housed the School of Red Cadets, later transformed into the Infantry School. S.M. Kirov. Since 1955, the Suvorov School has been located within the walls of the Vorontsov Palace.

Such is the history of the educational institution that gave Russia commanders and statesmen, poets and scientists, heroes and revolutionaries.

Corps of Pages

Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty- the most elite educational institution Imperial Russia, as a military educational institution, existed for a year, although it was created back in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in 1759 with the aim, according to a nominal decree, “So that those who, through this, to a constant and decent mind and noble deeds, naively succeed and from that they can show themselves courteous, pleasant and perfect in everything, as the Christian law and their honest nature commands”.

Corps history

The page corps is under the Ministry of War and is subordinate to the chief head of military educational institutions; direct management is entrusted to the director, and the immediate management of the educational department is entrusted to the class inspector. Company commanders are in charge of companies, and educator officers are in charge of classroom departments. The corps consists of committees: pedagogical, disciplinary and economic.

The total set of students: 170 interns, who are brought up on full state dependents, and 160 external students, for which 200 rubles are paid. in year.

In the 3rd (lowest) class, only externals are allowed. In addition to the total number of interns, there are 6 full-time vacancies for natives of Finland. To be admitted to the corps, only those who have previously been enlisted, by the Highest command, as pages to the Highest court are allowed; it is allowed to apply for such enrollment only for the sons and grandchildren of persons who are or were in the service in the ranks of the first three classes, or for the offspring of clans listed in the fifth and sixth parts of the genealogical books (titled and ancient nobility).

Admission is by competitive examination; in the 7th general and in both special classes, neither the admission nor the transfer of pages - candidates from other corps, is not allowed (temporary rights. 1891).

The pupils are divided into three companies. For camp time, the 1st company is withdrawn to the camp, to Krasnoye Selo, where it is seconded to the Officers' Rifle School; The 2nd company spends 5 to 6 weeks in the summer at a cadet camp in Peterhof. Pages of the 1st company are considered to be in active military service. According to the results of the final exam, all pupils of the senior special class are divided into four categories:

During the First World War, the infirmary of the Corps of Pages was used to treat wounded officers. 1915, March.

those classified as category 1 are issued as second lieutenants or cornets to the guard, or the same ranks to the army or special forces, with one year of seniority, and receive 500 rubles for uniforms. , three of the most excellent of them can be seconded to the guards artillery;
assigned to the 2nd category - second lieutenants and cornets in the army or in special troops, with one year of seniority, and receive 225 rubles for uniforms;
assigned to the 3rd category - the same ranks in the army, without seniority; they get the same amount for uniforms;
those assigned to the 4th category are transferred to the army infantry or cavalry units as non-commissioned officers for 6 months, after which they can be promoted to officers, but only for vacancies.

All those assigned to the first three categories are released into the units of the troops of their own choice, even if there were no vacancies in them, but in the guards units only in those where the supernumerary of officers does not exceed 10%.

Those incapable of military service are awarded civil ranks: the first 2 ranks - class X, 3 ranks - class XII and 4 ranks - class XIV.

For the education received, those who completed the course of the corps are required to stay in active service for 1.5 years per year in special classes.

Capitals have been established at the corps for the issuance of benefits to those who complete the course: named after the former director of the adjutant general gr. Ignatiev, the name of "page Nikolai Veymarn" (victims by his father) and the name of the former director of the infantry general Dieterikhs.

Directors

1759 - 1760 - Tschudi Louis Theodore Henri (Baron Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Théodore de Tschudi)
? - 1762 - Lichten Johann
1762-1779 - Franz Rothstein
1779-1797 - Second Major Chevalier de Vilna, Franz Nikolaevich
1797-1802 - Major General Shaposhnikov, Fedor Sergeevich
1802-1805 - Gogel, Andrey Grigorievich
10/20/1806 - 03/20/1830 - Gogel, Ivan Grigorievich 1st
03/20/1830 - 05/05/1834 - Major General of the Retinue (since 04/19/1831 - adjutant general, from 12/6/1833 - lieutenant general) Kavelin, Alexander Alexandrovich
1834-1846 - Ignatiev, Pavel Nikolaevich (general)
1846-1849 - Zinoviev, Nikolai Vasilievich
1849-1854 - Major General of the Retinue (since 1852 - Lieutenant General) Filosofov, Nikolai Illarionovich
1854-1861 - Zheltukhin, Vladimir Petrovich
08/30/1861 - 02/1865 - Lieutenant General Ozerov, Sergey Petrovich
1865-1867 - Korsakov, Nikita Vasilievich
1867-1871 - Bushen, Dmitry Khristianovich
1871-1878 - Mezentsov, Petr Ivanovich
1878-1894 - Diterichs, Fedor Karlovich
1894-1900 - Count Keller, Fedor Eduardovich
09/11/1900 - 07/06/1907 - Colonel (from December 6, 1900 - Major General, from April 22, 1907 - Lieutenant General) Epanchin, Nikolai Alekseevich
07/13/1907-09/14/1910 - Major General Schilder, Vladimir Alexandrovich
09/14/1910 - 11/09/1916 - Major General Usov, Nikolai Nikolaevich

court service

Pupils of the Corps of Pages during the period of study were considered assigned to the imperial court and systematically carried out the duties of guard duty. It was considered a great honor and privilege to raise a page to the court rank of chamber-page. However, only the best of the best, those who distinguished themselves in their studies, behavior and upbringing, as well as those who were fluent in foreign languages, could count on this.

The second company of the Corps of Pages 1902-1903

Chamber pages were attached and served under the Empress and the Grand Duchesses during balls, gala dinners, official ceremonies and other events where their presence was required by protocol. The number of chamber-pages varied depending on the number of august persons and members of the imperial family.

The general order was as follows: under the emperor - one chamber page appointed by a sergeant major, with each empress (dowager and current) - two chamber pages, and with each of the grand duchesses - one chamber page. Another page was appointed as a spare chamber page in case of illness of one of the chamber pages. Thus, in 1896, when there were nine Grand Duchesses and two Empresses, 14 pages served as an honorary court page, and one was a spare. Until 1802, in addition to pages and chamber pages, in the corps and, accordingly, the court service, there was the rank of life page, which was restored in 1907 in the form of a senior chamber page.

In terms of legal status, pages were equated with non-commissioned officers of the guard, chamber pages - with sergeant majors of the guard, senior chamber pages - with ensigns of the guard. The release of the first category from the corps "to the army with the same rank" was not actually practiced. According to the fourth category, pages were issued from the corps - non-commissioned officers in the guard or ensigns in the army, camera pages (which was extremely rare) - ensigns in the guard or ensigns in the army.

The private life of the pages

Like many boarding schools for boys, same-sex liaisons were common in the Corps of Pages. In addition to memoirs, this is indicated by the obscene poem "The Adventures of the Page", published abroad in 1879, but written several decades earlier. Its author is considered officer Shenin, who graduated from the corps in 1822:

Some well-known persons were subsequently expelled from the Corps of Pages for unworthy behavior: the poet Baratynsky - for theft, and the publicist P.V. Dolgorukov - for homosexual promiscuity. P. A. Kropotkin painted a vivid picture of moral decay and hazing in the building in his memoirs:

The cameramen did whatever they wanted. Only a year before I joined the corps, their favorite game was to gather newcomers into one room at night and run them around in nightgowns like horses in a circus. The "circus" usually ended in a disgusting orgy in an oriental way. The moral concepts that prevailed at that time, and the conversations that were conducted in the building about the "circus", are such that the less said about them, the better.

Notes

Literature

Corps of Pages for a hundred years / Comp. D. M. Levshin. St. Petersburg: Jubilee Committee of Pages. 1902
Freiman O. R. Pages in 185 Years: Biographies and Portraits of Former Pages (1711-1896). G. Friedrichshamn, Printing House of the Joint Stock Company. 1894-1897
St. military. post., book. XV (ed. 2).
Lalaev, "Historical sketch of military schools from 1700 to 1880";
Lurie F.M. Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty // PRO Books. Bibliophile's Journal. 2012. No. 1. P.125 - 129.
Miloradovich, “Materials for the history of His Imperial Pazhesky. Majesties Corps. See Page.
Journal "Cadet Roll Call" No. 16 1976, No. 53 1993
Magazine "Midshipman", January 13, 1993

Links

(English)
Pages for 185 years: Biogr. and portrait. former pages from 1711 to 1896 / Collected. and ed. O. von Freiman. - Friedrichshamn: type. Acc. islands, 1894-1897.

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See what the "Page Corps" is in other dictionaries:

Corps of Pages- Corps of Pages, a privileged military educational institution for the training of mainly guard officers. In the Corps of Pages, children and grandchildren were brought up, mainly of persons of the first three classes (according to the "Table of Ranks"). Founded in 1759 as ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

Founded in St. Petersburg in 1759 to train court pages. Since 1802, it has been a privileged secondary military educational institution of the cadet corps type for children of the highest noble nobility. He prepared mainly for service in the guard. Closed after... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

A privileged military educational institution for the training of mainly officers of the guard. Children and grandchildren were brought up in P. k. mainly persons of the first three classes (according to the "Table of Ranks"). Founded in 1759 as an educational institution ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

The Corps of Pages, His Imperial Majesty, is the most elite educational institution of Imperial Russia, as a military educational institution has existed since 1802, although it was created during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in 1750 with the aim, according to a nominal decree, " So that those who, through this, to a constant and decent mind and noble deeds, most succeed and from that they could show themselves courteous, pleasant and perfect in everything, as the Christian law and their honest nature commands».

General view of the building of the Corps of Pages (Sadovaya st., 26 - the former palace of Count M.I. Vorontsov, St. Petersburg)

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - with weapons in the ranks before the start of classes.

Since 1810, the Corps of Pages was located in St. Petersburg in a complex of buildings along Sadovaya Street, 26 - this is the former palace of Count M.I. Vorontsov (architect Rastrelli, rebuilt by Quarenghi), which until then occupied the chapter of the Order of Malta (see. Maltese Chapel). Until that time, the Corps of Pages was located first in the palace of Admiral Bruce, and then in its own building at the confluence of the Winter Canal and the Moika.

A group of company commanders and officers - educators of the corps.

In 1819, the corps was subordinated to the chief director of the cadet corps. Since 1827, the set of students has been increased to 150.

In 1829, rules were issued on the procedure for enrolling in pages and definitions in the Corps of Pages, and the right to ask for enrollment of young sons in pages was granted first to persons of the first four classes, and then to the first three or representatives of the surnames listed in the fifth and sixth parts genealogical books (titled and ancient nobility). In 1863, the Corps of Pages came under the jurisdiction of the Main Directorate of Military Educational Institutions.

In 1865, the Corps of Pages was completely transformed. The two senior classes (special) are equalized, both in terms of teaching and organization, with the infantry cadet schools, and the four junior (general) classes with the four senior classes of military gymnasiums. As part of the corps, special classes formed a drill company, and general classes formed two ages. The kit was kept in 150 people.

In 1870 a second class was formed. In 1873, simultaneously with the renaming of the preparatory class in the military gymnasiums into the first, the first into the second, etc., the general classes in the Corps of Pages were renamed accordingly - the second into the third, etc.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - with an officer-educator on the porch of the house.

In 1878, two junior general classes of the corps - the 3rd and 4th - were separated and, together with the newly established ones - the 1st and 2nd - formed a special educational institution for 150 external students. Preparatory classes of the Corps of Pages, from where the pages were transferred to the lower class of the Corps only by competitive examination. In 1885, the preparatory classes were attached to the building.

According to the regulation of 1889, the Corps of Pages consists of 7 general classes, with training course cadet corps, and two special, with a training course of military schools; but, on the basis of the provisional rules of 1891, admission to the two lower classes is not allowed at all.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - during horseback riding.

All pupils of the corps bear the rank of pages, and upon transition to the senior special class, those best of them who meet certain requirements (for success in the sciences and in behavior) are made into chamber pages.

The total set of students: 170 interns who are brought up on full state dependents, and 160 external students, for which 200 rubles are paid. in year.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - during horseback riding.

Admission is by competitive examination; in the 7th general and in both special classes, neither the admission nor the transfer of pages - candidates from other corps, is allowed.

A group of pages during the practice of dzhigitovka -performing various tricks on a horse.

Those incapable of military service are awarded civil ranks: the first 2 ranks - X class, 3 ranks - XII class and 4 ranks - XIV class.

For the education received, those who completed the course of the corps are required to stay in active service for 1.5 years per year in special classes.

Pages - pupils of the corps - on horseback before the start of riding.

Camera-pages - pupils of a special senior class of the corps - in the crew.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - at the artillery gun.

A group of infantry pages - pupils of the corps - in the ranks.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - at the building of the corps.

A group of pupils of the Corps of Pages with an officer and servants at the main entrance.

View of the dining room building before dinner.

View of the bedroom (dormitory) of the pages - pupils of the corps.

View of the class room of the pages - pupils of the corps.

View of a part of the museum exposition, located in one of the corridors of the building.

View of a part of the St. George Hall of the building.

View of the White Assembly Hall.

Interior view of the home Orthodox church building, consecrated in the name of John the Baptist.

Interior view of the Maltese Catholic Church.

General view of the chair of Emperor Paul I, who assumed the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta.

A group of pupils of the Corps of Pages near the building of the Corps.

A group of pages - pupils of the corps - in the garden.

The Corps of Pages is a privileged military educational institution designed to prepare the sons of "honored parents" for service in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty and in the troops of the guard. It provided general and military education and appropriate upbringing. The Corps of Pages, as a military educational institution that trained thousands of officers for the Imperial Guard, was established on October 10, 1802 by Emperor Alexander I in accordance with the project of Count N.P. Sheremetev and Major General F.I. Klinger.

According to one of the directors of the Corps of Pages, General of Infantry N.A. Yepanchin, as a court institution, pages were still in Moscow Russia, and they were called “bells”, and under Peter I the title of page of the Highest Court appeared. Peter I got acquainted with the service and life of pages in 1697 at the Elector of Brandenburg. In 1711, after Peter I declared Catherine I the empress, pages appeared under her. According to a number of historians, Pyotr Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky, who entered the service of Peter I, who became a count and rose to the position of chief prosecutor, and A.M. Diver, a count, adjutant general, the first general police chief of Russia, can be considered pages under Peter I. As for Pyotr Yaguzhinsky, some researchers raise serious doubts about his service as a page.

At the beginning of the reign Elizabeth Petrovna for the first time, the number of chamber pages was officially established - 8 people, and pages - 24. She informed about this by a special decree on October 5, 1742. The personal decree of the Empress determined in detail the duties and rights of pages. This is one of the very first decrees concerning the inner life of pages. Pages were considered court servants, and their duties were to carry out various assignments of the persons of the Royal House.

The decree provided for the residence of the chamberlain, chamberlain, teachers and pages in the house that had previously belonged to Admiral Kruys, determined the procedure for attending classes, serving on ordinary, Sunday, holidays, during the departure of the empress to Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo and other places. Attention was drawn to the proper maintenance by the pages of their appearance, hairstyles, clothes, keeping them “clean and in good order”, to proper behavior during receptions, “so that no obscene acts and playfulness and ridicule anyone, and in the case of banquets with do not take food tables, sweets and other things. The decree provided for the restriction of contacts of pages with strangers at the place of residence.

Teachers were required to provide high-quality training for pages, control over their progress, and constantly inform the Court Office about the quality of education. Pages were forbidden to leave the apartments in which they lived, and in case of their illness, it was necessary to immediately report to the court physician. In case of violation of the established order by the pages, it was necessary first of all to report to the Court Office. The chamberlain was entrusted with the duty to apply, if necessary, a reasonable initiative. This instruction for the first time clearly defined the duties of the pages, fixed the procedure for the performance of the court service by the pages, which had previously been performed according to the tradition established by the chief marshals and their assistants. The decree signed by the Empress legalized what the practice had developed.

According to historians, the instruction approved by the empress finally turned the court half board into a court noble educational institution, officially called the Corps of Pages for the first time. In paragraph 14 of the instruction, it was indicated that “for the delivery of the mentioned chamber-pages and pages to the palace and back to their apartment from the court stables, two quadruple carriages should be delivered to the Page Corps.” In 1757 there was a sharp turning point in the life of the corps. Karl Efimovich Sievers, who did a lot to organize the life of the pages, was appointed chamberlain. In September 1759, he was replaced by Colonel Fyodor-Heinrich Shudi, who was specially ordered from France.

Pages began to be taught German, French and Latin, physics, geometry, algebra, history, geography, fortification and heraldry without fail. Particular attention was paid to instilling appropriate etiquette in the pages. As the authors of the publication dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Corps of Pages note, the teaching of these subjects was poor, there were no full-time teachers in the staff of the corps. Pages were constantly distracted from training sessions to accompany the empress, who led a rather mobile life. But they looked at it through their fingers, considering the pages as servants at court. Pages often stayed in the palace until 2-3 o'clock in the morning, and they were required to come to classes by 7 o'clock in the morning. To eliminate this inconvenience, a proposal was made to divide the pages into two shifts, one part of the pages should study, and the other should be in the service in the palace.

Under Elizabeth Petrovna, pages with torches in their hands participated in the funeral processions that accompanied the body of the deceased highest person, on the days of coronation celebrations on horseback they accompanied the carriage of the empress and grand duchesses, during the coronation procession they invariably followed the cavalry guards with their chamberlain at the head. When foreign embassies arrived, the pages again rode behind the imperial carriage, they also stood at the door when the ambassadors were received. Pages were present at banquets, serving the highest persons, handing out invitation cards that determined the seating arrangements during the banquet, lunch or dinner, passing playing cards to those of the guests who preferred to spend the evening at the card table. Pages accompanied the empress on travels and on pilgrimages. They also had to serve their daily service at the royal table, where they served. There were also reyt-pages and yagt-pages, whose duty was to accompany the empress when riding and hunting. The pages also had to fulfill various assignments within the city and its immediate environs.

The punishments that were applied to pages were not always humane. So, in the Chamber Fourier journal for 1752, an entry was made that the page Peter Argamakov, leaving the hall where the dinner was held for high-ranking persons, informed his friends about the promotion of one of those present at the dinner. Argamakov had no right to talk about this, and he was punished with rods. Taking into account the fact that Argamakov did this out of the simplicity of his soul, it was decided to flog him with rods not in the kitchen in the palace, but at a meeting of pages in their apartment.

Under Elizabeth Petrovna, the brothers Alexander Ivanovich and Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov, who were under her pages, were elevated. Alexander was first a page, then a chamber junker of Elizabeth Petrovna, later he became a real chamberlain, non-commissioned lieutenant, and finally a major general, count, adjutant general, general in chief and manager of the "secret office". Peter Ivanovich began serving as a page under Peter I, was a chamber junker under Elizabeth Petrovna, then was granted the rank of chamberlain, major general, field marshal general. Pyotr Ivanovich did a lot for Russian army, managing the artillery and weapons office. It was he who drafted the project for the transformation of the United Engineering and Artillery School into the Artillery and Engineering Noble Cadet Corps.

The Shuvalov brothers also helped their nephew, Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, who played an important role in the history of education, to become popular - I.I. Shuvalov stood at the origins of the formation of Moscow University and the Academy of Arts. First a page, then a chamber-page and a chamber junker, he later became a lieutenant general, received the rank of adjutant general. He was the director of the land gentry cadet corps. In 1778, I.I. Shuvalov was appointed chief chamberlain, and his duties included reporting to the empress on the state of affairs in the Corps of Pages. For almost twenty years he was closely associated with the corps, which he himself completed.

Another former page under Elizabeth Petrovna, Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, was chamber page, chamber junker, chamber junker, secretary of the empress, vice chancellor, and, finally, became chancellor. For ten years he directed the foreign policy of Russia. Young people who fell into pages at the end of the 8th century, according to historians, could learn practically little in the educational institution created for them, except perhaps languages and dances. But they gained experience in communicating with high-ranking officials, and if fate smiled at them, they could reach great heights in the civil or military field.

Under CatherineII the staff of the corps was increased and by 1786 amounted to 18 cameras-pages and 60 pages. In July 1762, the corps moved to the Naumov House, and after that to the old Winter Palace. Since 1766, the building was located in the stone two-story house of Amosov on the Moika. This house was purchased by direct order of Catherine II and was wholly owned by the Corps of Pages. In 1788, the building moved again, now to Millionnaya Street, to a house bought from Senator Zavadovsky.

At the end of the 70s. in the Corps of Pages, a reform was undertaken in the field of education and training of pages. The reform project was entrusted to develop academician Miller, who by this time had gained great fame in Russia. In 1733, Miller took part in the Siberian expedition of V. Bering, he knew well the life of Russia in the outback, and following the results of the expedition he prepared a detailed report with maps, drawings and diagrams. His work was recognized as outstanding by the Academy of Sciences and by the Empress herself. In November 1747, Miller was entrusted with compiling a "general Russian history."

Miller approached the assigned task with exceptional responsibility. His plan, first of all, provided for the location of the Corps of Pages in a building specially allocated for this purpose under the supervision of the page chamberlain and teacher. They had to be scientists, smart and moral people. It was the chamberlain who was supposed to be responsible for the moral character of the pages, for their health, the organization of training sessions, and the preparation of curricula. The chamberlain, according to Miller, had to combine in one person the positions of director, class inspector and be close to the pupils.

The staff of pages was to be distributed among the teachers, 10-12 people for each teacher. Teachers were supposed to sleep in the same room with the students, eat with them and constantly have useful conversations. The absence of a teacher in the building was allowed only in case of illness. Miller's main idea in relation to teachers was to combine the educational and teaching functions in one person.

Miller saw in the Corps of Pages a kind of professional court military-civilian school, aimed primarily at training court officials, and then officers for the army and persons for the civil service. According to Miller, studying in the building was supposed to keep students cheerful, striving for constant improvement. And in order for the pupils to be able to successfully combine court service and study in the corps, teachers were asked to return to the material they had studied as often as possible and to arrange weekly control checks for the students on the material they had passed.

As a curriculum, Miller proposed the following subjects for study: the Law of God, the Russian language, calligraphy, drawing, arithmetic, geometry, ethics, French, German, Italian and Latin, history, geography, military sciences, jurisprudence. Miller described in detail the requirements for teaching each subject. It should be noted that, noting the importance of each of the subjects, Miller made special demands on the teaching of calligraphy, since handwriting and the ability to write beautifully had great importance for a civilian career. A person who knew how to write beautifully could always count on a job in some institution. Ethics was considered so important that it was proposed to study it from childhood, instructing young pupils to act in the spirit of good and warning them from evil. When teaching ethics, it was proposed to widely use the lessons of history, memorize the sayings and statements of prominent figures and philosophers. Knowledge of foreign languages had to be brought to perfection so that the pages could speak freely and correctly in a foreign language.

As D.M. Levshin, one of the authors of the history of the Corps of Pages, testifies, Miller’s arguments, written in 1765, did not lose their significance at the beginning of the 20th century. Among the subjects offered for study in the Corps of Pages, military disciplines do not appear. They were offered to study, as we now say, optionally for those who were interested in military affairs. Dancing and horseback riding were offered as extracurricular activities.

Miller's approach to the selection of teachers for the corps is interesting. The teacher of mathematics was supposed to teach pupils arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, geodesy, artillery and fortification; teacher of philosophy - ethics, natural and international law, Latin; history teacher - history, geography, genealogy, heraldry; teacher of jurisprudence - civil and state law and the basics of ceremonies. These four teachers were also intended for educational work. In addition to the four teachers named, who were supposed to play the role of senior teachers, eight more teachers were invited to teach individual subjects. When drawing up the schedule of classes, it was necessary to strictly take into account the age of the pages, their successes in various subjects. According to many researchers, the treatise prepared by Miller was one of the outstanding documents of pedagogy and could be widely used in a variety of educational institutions. Studying Russia and Russian history, Miller realized that Russia needs, first of all, a professional school. Unfortunately, Miller's proposals could only be partially implemented in the Corps of Pages and other educational institutions. The reason for this was the lack of teaching staff.

To correct this situation, Catherine II decided to send six pages to the University of Leipzig in 1766: Alexei Kutuzov, Peter Chelishchev, Alexei Rubanovsky, Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Radishchev and Sergei Yanov. Russian students showed themselves at the university from the best side. Within a short time, they successfully mastered the subjects they studied, despite great temptations. foreign life compared with the orders in Russia. Each of the pages listed above has reached certain heights in the state and civil service. Alexander Radishchev became a writer. For his book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", in which he called on the authorities to abolish serfdom in Russia, Radishchev was exiled by Catherine II to Siberia and released from exile only by Paul I. Former pages, contemporaries of A.N. Radishchev, respected and loved their friend for his intelligence and ability to write, they considered him the first page-writer.

In April 1788, a new procedure for the training and education of pages, developed by Senator Zavadovsky, was established in the Corps of Pages. The curriculum was expanded to include military disciplines. Artillery and fortification, fencing, horseback riding were officially included in it. The term of study in the corps was determined at eight years. The hours of classes were strictly scheduled according to age, the daily routine was determined, which would be best coordinated with the court service. A feature of the new training program was the fact that the Corps of Pages was recognized as an educational institution that prepares graduates for military service, and preparation for civil service was relegated to the background.

The former page Brusilov, talking about court life in the last years of the reign of Catherine II, noted: “I entered the Page Corps for eight years. In total, 60 people were trained in the corps. Pages lived two or three people in a room. Everyone had their own uncle. The pages did not have official dresses, everyone dressed as they wanted. The chamber pages did not go to the dining room, food was brought to their rooms. Pages in the dining room went arbitrarily, at the signal of the bell. There were four classes in the building. In the first they taught elementary literacy and arithmetic; in the second - Greek, Latin, German and French, grammar, ancient and new history, geography, arithmetic and alegbre; in the third grade, geometry, mineralogy and fencing were added to these subjects; in the fourth - higher sciences and fortification. We were taught carelessly. We did not know the Latin and Greek alphabets, and French and German were not much better. In most cases, we were left to ourselves, we were naughty a lot, we often did not go to classes. Some hired private teachers.

The composition of the pages was rather strange. Those who were more knowledgeable were made into chamber pages, from chamber pages they were released into the guard as lieutenants. Production in chamber-pages took place in the spirit of knightly traditions: the page kneeled, the empress touched his cheek with her hand, handed him a sword. Pages who had been in the corps for more than 9 years were released into the army as captains. For service, the pages wore a uniform of light green cloth. The ceremonial uniform was very rich and cost up to 700 rubles. On solemn days, the dress uniform was issued to the pages, and then returned to the pantry. To some guests, in our attire, we seemed to be high-ranking officials, and it gave us pleasure to laugh at this on occasion.

On ordinary days, eight pages dressed up for duty: four for half of the empress and four for half of the heir. But since the heir lived in Gatchina, all eight pages were on the side of the empress. Our position was as follows: there were two pages at the cavalier's room, two at the entrance to the throne room and two at the entrance to the diamond room. When the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses entered, we opened the doors. At the dining table of the empress, two cameras-pages served, and the pages served behind those persons who were sitting at the table of the empress. During the service, we did not have the right to talk, let alone laugh, if there was a reason for this. I had to hide behind the curtains.

Further, Brusilov recalled: “After the capture of Warsaw, the glorious Suvorov arrived in St. Petersburg. The Tauride Palace was assigned to him, here, according to his custom, having hung all the mirrors and lying on the straw, he received the guards officers. He was invited to the table of the Empress. On the same day, his daughter Countess Zubova and her husband were invited. Everyone gathered in the diamond room, where the table was set, and were waiting for the empress. Suvorov ran into the room, jumped up to his daughter, crossed her, then crossed her belly (she was in a burden).

The empress entered and seated the hero next to her on her left hand. Suvorov was in a full dress field marshal's uniform, sewn at all seams with gold, he had diamond signs of St. Andrew, a diamond epaulette and a large diamond bow on his hat. Throughout the dinner he talked about the assault.

The Empress ate quietly. In order not to delay the table, the dishes were served in their own way, and the head waiters served the empress on two, and sometimes on four plates, those dishes that were already surrounded. She chose one.

Suvorov, talking about the assault, also lagged behind the others by three or four courses. The empress glanced at Baryatinsky, and immediately two head waiters brought Suvorov two plates on each side. He, as if not knowing what to do with them, put everything on his plate, mixed it up and began to eat. Nobody even smiled. At the end of the table, the empress deigned to retire to the inner apartments. Suvorov, without saying a word to anyone, began to pinch the Kalmyk, jump around him, and shake him. He rushed to run, Suvorov followed him. Not catching up with the Kalmyk, he threw his hat with a diamond bow at him, ran down the stairs, got into the carriage and left.

According to the testimony of the same Brusilov, the pages liked petty mischief and hooliganism. Often, in the presence of the empress, they made fun of the elderly nobles, contriving to tie the wigs of the nobles to a chair or armchair from behind, and when they got up to bow when the Empress appeared, the wigs flew off their heads. For such jokes, the pages got off with a slight reprimand from Catherine II herself, who sometimes liked to see her nobles in a ridiculous position. One of the pages' favorite pastimes was to steal cartridges from the cavalry guards dozing at their posts and throw these cartridges into the fireplace. The explosion of cartridges greatly amused the pages. In one of the halls of the Winter Palace, the pages arranged a ride on their hats. Scarves were tied to the hat, one of the pages sat on the hat, and the other three dragged this page along the slippery floor of the hall. After one such skating, a hat embroidered with gold became unusable.

Of the pages who served Catherine II, Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, the Knight of St. George, who distinguished himself during the war with the Turks in the battles of Larga and Cahul, the Russian ambassador to England, reached a high state position; Prince Sergei Alexandrovia Morkov, who received three degrees of the Order of St. George; Count Tormasov, hero of the war of 1812, Count Cozens, founder of horse factories under Alexander I; hero of the war of 1812, favorite of M.I. Kutuzov, Knight of St. George Dmitry Sergeevich Dokhturov; Alexey Petrovich Melgunov, director of the land gentry cadet corps, governor of the Novorossiysk Territory, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Arkhangelsk provinces. Under Catherine II, most of the pages from court servants became military men and most of them reached a high position

With accession to the throne PaulI there were changes in the life of the Corps of Pages. The new emperor tried to give the corps a more military look, the posts of reyt and jagt-pages were eliminated, and 5 cameras-pages elected for duty under the person of His Majesty were ordered to be called life pages. In December 1796, the next issue of pages was made, and 25 new pupils were recruited. On October 7, 1800, Paul I ordered the release of life pages to lieutenants of the guard, with their appointment as aide-de-camp, chamber pages as ensigns and cornets of the guard, and pages with the same ranks into the army . In 1800, the Corps of Pages graduated from the future full cavalier of the Order of St.. George, Field Marshal Life Page I.F. Paskevich.

Under Paul I, a regulation was drawn up on the Corps of Pages and the procedure for serving as pages at the Highest Court, but Paul I did not have time to approve it. It was approved by Alexander I. During the coronation of the new Emperor Alexander I, the Corps of Pages consisted of 4 sections: the first - one chamber-page and 11 pages, the second - 6 chamber-pages and 5 pages, the third - 4 chamber-pages and 7 pages, the fourth - 12 pages. The director of the corps at that time was Major General Fyodor Sergeevich Shaposhnikov.

CREATION OF THE CORPORATION OF PAGES

Emperor AlexanderIDecree of October 10, 1802 transformed the Corps of Pages that existed before him into a military educational institution and ordered that this institution be called the Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty. The seniority of the Corps of Pages was determined by the day Alexander I signed a decree on the transformation of an existing educational institution into a military educational institution of a completely new type. Corpus holiday was determined on December 25. It should be noted that in determining the seniority of the Corps of Pages, the tradition was violated to a certain extent, according to which the seniority of a newly created educational institution in most cases was determined by the time of foundation of the educational institution that preceded it.

Even before the decree of October 10, 1802, Alexander I instructed the director of the 1st Cadet Corps, Major General Fyodor Ivanovich Klinger, to draw up a new Regulation for the Page Corps. Giving instructions to F.I. Klinger, Alexander I expressed the desire to see pupils studying science and receiving a military education in the pages, and not young men serving at court. Thus, the main goal of the reform was to turn the corps into a real military educational institution. Remaining director of the 1st Cadet Corps, F.I. Klinger simultaneously began to act as chief of the Corps of Pages and remained in this position until 1820. In fact, F.I. Klinger became the chief manager of the two corps. Before proceeding with the drafting of the Regulations, Klinger decided to personally familiarize himself with the condition of the corps. After a meeting with General Shaposhnikov in the first days of September 1802, Klinger presented to the chief chamberlain and chief of the corps, Count N.P. Sheremetev, a transformation plan, which was reported to the emperor. It was decided to make an early release from the body of 7 cameras-pages.

On October 10, 1802, at the location of the Corps of Pages, F.I. Klinger presented the Decree of Alexander I on the transformation of the Corps of Pages and a new Regulation for it. The Regulations said: “The Corps of Pages is a school for the education of morals and character, in which the knowledge necessary for an officer is given; this corps is collectively such a military establishment, where noble youth through education is prepared for military service by strict obedience, perfect subordination and not forced, but voluntary performance of their posts. The 29-year-old Major General Heinrich Grigoryevich Gogel, who participated in the assault on Izmail and in other battles against the Turks under the leadership of A.V. Suvorov, was appointed director of the corps.

One of the important provisions in the establishment of the Corps of Pages was to instill discipline among the pages "according to the precepts of Suvorov - by showing." And the officers-educators, in this case tutors were supposed to serve as a personal example for their pupils. Organizationally, the pages constituted a company commanded by a staff officer who held the rank of chamberlain. The company was divided into 4 departments, the role of department commanders was performed by junior officers - tutors. Drilling exercises were supposed to develop the ability of the pages to keep themselves in line and acquaint them with various rebuildings and drill techniques. Camera-pages without fail were accustomed to commanding the formation and teaching the squad how to use weapons. The pages carried guard duty, for which the so-called picket (otherwise the guard) was formed from 12 pages with a corporal and a drummer under the command of a camera-page. The pages were exhibited at the posts established by the commandant of the palace.

At the beginning of the XIX century. There were four classes in the Corps of Pages. The training program approved for pages became more complicated from class to class. At the same time, in the third and fourth grades, significant emphasis was placed on military disciplines. The curriculum included Russian, French and German, calligraphy, geography, Russian, European and general history, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, physics, drawing, the Law of God, fortification, artillery, the history of diplomatic and political relations between states. In the first class there were no military disciplines, in the second class the pages began to study field fortification, in the third class artillery already appeared, and in the fourth class long-term fortification.

The right to enroll in pages was granted to sons and grandsons: military and civil officials of the first three classes (according to the Table of Ranks); persons who held the position of governor-general, envoys, provincial marshals of the nobility (if they held these positions with a rank not lower than major general or real state councilor), major generals killed in battle or served in this rank for at least five years; finally, the great-grandchildren of the first two classes, bearing the surname of their great-grandfathers.

In this regard, N.A. Yepanchin wrote in his memoirs: “The sons and grandsons of full generals and admirals, lieutenant generals and vice admirals and, under certain conditions, major generals and rear admirals, for example, St. George Knights, were enrolled in pages. In principle, all pages were by origin noble family. But there were fathers and grandfathers who achieved well-known general ranks through their service, and of non-noble origin. The sons and grandsons of the natives of the Grand Duchy of Finland were also enrolled as pages; for such persons in the Corps of Pages there were five vacancies, and for them it was not required that their fathers and grandfathers have a certain official position, as was established for the Russians.

Initially, the Corps of Pages, established in 1802, was located on the Fontanka, and in 1810 it was provided with the palace of Prince Vorontsov on Sadovaya Street, where the Chapter of the Order of Malta had previously been located. The staff of the corps at that time was 50 pages and 16 cameras-pages. Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, a statesman and diplomat, took a direct part in the palace coup of 1741, as a result of which Elizaveta Petrovna was elevated to the Russian throne. It was in his sleigh that the future empress rode on an autumn night to raise the Preobrazhensky regiment. She never forgot about this support. Three years after the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna, M.I. Vorontsov was awarded the title of count and became vice-chancellor. When Vorontsov decided to build a city estate, the empress did not object to him rebuilding a house in the center of St. Petersburg, and the architect was F.B. Rastrelli.

The main facade of the Vorontsov Palace overlooks Sadovaya Street, and behind it, facing the Fontanka, there is a large park. The palace was fenced off from the street with a lattice, cast according to the project of the architect himself. The interior of the palace was striking in its sophistication, every detail of the decoration was a work of art. On November 23, 1758, a church was consecrated in Vorontsov's palace. On this day, "Her Imperial Majesty deigned to eat at his Excellency and granted him her chancellor, and for a housewarming party she handed him a decree for 40,000 rubles." The chancellor lived in his palace for five years. A.V. Suvorov liked to visit him, he had good relations with the owner. After the resignation of M.I. Vorontsov, he sold his house to the treasury.

From 1798 to 1803 the palace belonged to the knights of the Order of Malta, who found shelter in Russia after they were expelled from Malta by the French. Paul I became their Grand Master. By his order, the architect Kvarnegi built a Roman Catholic church (Maltese Chapel) in the Vorontsov Palace, which on June 17, 1800 was solemnly consecrated in honor of the patron saint of the order, St. John the Baptist. In the autumn of the same year, the Orthodox Church of the Corps of Pages was built, consecrated on June 21, 1801 in honor of the birth of St. John the Baptist. As if in memory of the testaments of the Knights of Malta, the Orthodox Church was decorated with Maltese crosses - the emblem of chivalry. The short stay of the knights in the Vorontsov Palace left its mark on the fate of its subsequent inhabitants. The three-storied palace was spacious, imposing and beautiful. The halls were larger than required for the purposes of the educational institution: one of them was used exclusively for dance classes.

The main person responsible for the educational process in the Corps of Pages, as well as in the cadet corps, was the class inspector. He was responsible for the recruitment of teachers, controlled the educational process, the progress of pupils, through the officers-educators influenced negligent and poorly performing pupils. At the beginning of September, the class inspector, in the presence of the director and officers, examined the pages and determined the place of each page in the list of the corps.

Officers, squad leaders, had an apartment to live next to the bedroom of their squad and had to be with the pages around the clock, including eating with their squad. They were responsible for constant monitoring of the behavior and academic performance of the pages, for their proper guard duty in the palace. The officers had to be polite and courteous with the pages, not to show anger in dealing with him and not to lose patience, to cultivate honor and nobility in the pages. The officers had to get acquainted with the families of the pages, visit them and inform the parents about the successes and shortcomings of the children. On the first day of each month, the educator officer submitted a report to the director of the corps on the state of affairs in the department, and the director reported this to the chief of the corps. The chamberlain, the company commander, and the director of the corps did not interfere in this area of activity for the performance of court service by the pages.

The order on the territory of the corps was monitored by the so-called corps police, which included two non-commissioned officers and a doorman. The porter was obliged to keep a strict record of everyone entering and leaving the corps. He did not have the right to release pages from the corps without a "ticket" signed by an officer for the right to leave the corps. However, the pages circumvented this rule by bribing the porter. The doors of the building opened at 7.30 and closed at 22.00.

In the corps, a strict procedure for the production of pages in chamber pages was observed. Since the production in chamber pages was considered as one of the most important incentives, the officer-educator applying for the production of someone in chamber pages was obliged to draw up an attestation, which was reported to the director. At the same time, the certification was being prepared by the class inspector. The most severe punishment for pages was expulsion from the corps and sent to their parents or to serve in combat units. Pages could be put under arrest, report on their behavior to the chief of the corps, and he directly to the emperor, who decided their fate. The emperor showed daily great interest in the life of the corps and was interested in everything that happened in it. For repeated violations of discipline, the pages were subjected to the "severe punishment", which meant the rod. The flogging of pages was to be carried out in the presence of officers, pupils and the director of the corps. It should be noted that in the Regulations for the Corps they considered it inconvenient to mention the rod and wrote about the "severe punishment."

In the winter of 1812, the 14-year-old page Mankovsky was detained in a confectionery shop for presenting a fake banknote for payment. As it turned out, the page himself tried to forge this banknote with a pen. The military governor of St. Petersburg, Adjutant General A.D. Balashov, a graduate of the Corps of Pages, Mankovsky was arrested, and his offense was immediately reported to the director of the corps and the emperor. Alexander I ordered “the page Mankovsky for his daring actions to be punished approximately (by rods - author's note) at the meeting of the entire Page Corps, and then dressed in a gray dress, kept out of the company of pages for a whole year under special supervision of his behavior.” Only five months later this punishment was removed from Mankovsky. He was released from the corps by an officer.

The establishment of a new educational institution did not affect the court service at all. Major General Fyodor Yakovlevich Mirkovich, director of the 2nd Cadet Corps, who was brought up in the Corps of Pages from 1805 to 1809, recalled: “For service at the Court, the chamber pages were distributed as follows: on the half of the Sovereign and the reigning Empress there were four chambers -page. Under the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, there were eight chamber-pages, divided into four shifts. The cameramen who served Maria Feodorovna, after morning classes, combed their hair, powdered, dressed in vice-uniforms and by 12 o'clock went to the palace on duty, where they waited for the Empress to leave on horseback and accompanied her during the walk. After returning to the palace, the pages changed clothes for the service at the table. These dinners were of the highest interest to us, since the conversations of the guests present were remarkable. The chamber-page service at the Empress in Pavlovsk and Gatchina from spring to autumn was very pleasant. At the age of 18 and 19, the entertainment that took place had its own charm: holidays, walks, dances, theaters, red tape turned our heads. After a week of duty, returning to the corps, we indulged in the study with complete selflessness and sometimes spent nights reading books and exercise books. The feeling of ambition was so strong, none of us wanted to go out with the rank of ensign.”

After the transformation of the corps into a military educational institution, the old order operated in the corps for a long time, with which the new authorities had to fight. By the time the corps moved to the Vorontsov Palace in 1810, the new order was almost completely established. Since that time, examinations for the title of chamber page began to be held in the corps. At the same time, it was determined that promotion to officers at the end of the corps would be carried out only after the exam. This decision came as a great surprise to the pages, who believed that the release from the corps was made without any tests. Pages who reached the age of 19 who did not show diligence in their studies had to graciously ask the director of the corps not to subject them to an exam, since "they were forced to start teaching in such years when young people begin to lose their abilities." All such applicants were denied the request, and they were required to take the exam on an equal footing with all graduates. Thanks to the efforts of the first directors of the Corps of Pages, by 1810 the Corps had become one of the best educational institutions in Russia.

The war of 1812 caused an upsurge of patriotism in the Corps of Pages. Many high school cadets dreamed of completing their studies faster and going to fight against Napoleon. One of the first to leave the corps was the page Gersevanov, who entered the military service without waiting for the permission of his parents. The example of Gersevanov also attracted many other pages who studied in the corps. The fate of the graduates of the Corps of Pages who fell in the very first battles did not bother them. They were more concerned about the fame associated with the names of former pages who distinguished themselves in battles, including generals Tormasov, Dokhturov, Khrapovitsky, Count Sievers, Count Rostopchin, Velyaminov, Potemkin, and others. Many pages, under the guise of illness, were dismissed from the corps, and then entered the regiments as non-commissioned officers, where they were promoted to officers for distinction in battles and, of course, overtook classmates who continued to study in the corps.

The director of the corps was categorically opposed to the pages leaving the corps ahead of schedule, and tried in every possible way to convince the pupils of the perniciousness of such an act, especially considering that large sums of money had already been spent on their education and upbringing. However, in the second half of 1812, the corps began to receive letters from parents with a request to release their children from the corps ahead of schedule and allow them to defend their homeland in the fight against Napoleon. The emperor went to meet the wishes of the pages and their parents. In August 1812, 49 cameras-pages and pages were released ahead of schedule. In November, 6 more pages were added to this group, promoted to officers. At the end of 1812, the question arose about the possible evacuation of the corps from St. Petersburg. However, this action was not carried out.

The fermentation of minds that began in Russian society after the war of 1812 reached the Corps of Pages. For the first time in many years of the existence of the corps in the early 20s. clear cases of disobedience to superiors were noted. The page Pavel Arseniev spoke rudely to the teacher during the lesson, for which he was put under arrest, and then he was to be punished with rods. During the execution of this punishment, several pages rushed to the aid of Arseniev. The punishment was carried out with great difficulty. Arsenyev and one of his friends were expelled from the corps. By the same time, the future poet Baratynsky was expelled from the Corps of Pages, accused, along with two other pages, of stealing a gold-rimmed tortoiseshell snuffbox and 500 rubles from chamberlain Priklonsky. Baratynsky at that time was 16 years old and, despite the petition of the chamberlain himself, all three pages were expelled from the corps and sent to the soldiers.

According to many graduates of the corps, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. teachers and tutors, despite their overall high level of training, treated their duties formally, did not delve into the lives of young people, did not know what worries them, were not interested in them inner world. All educational measures were reduced to reading lengthy lectures or applying disciplinary measures. For the better, at that time, the teacher Colonel Klingenberg, a graduate of the 2nd Cadet Corps, who served in the Page Corps for 17 years, stood out in the corps. According to some pages, “Klingenberg was close to the pages, lived their life with them, was simple, affectionate and sympathetic; the pages respected him, loved him and feared him at the same time.”

According to the memoirs of a graduate of the corps A.P. Daragan, at the beginning of the 19th century. the sciences in the building were taught without a system, superficially, fragmentarily; from class to class, pages were transferred according to the total score of all points, including points for behavior. Sometimes it turned out that a student who had not studied arithmetic properly began to study geometry and algebra. In the first class, the chamber pages even had a political economy class. The official of the mining department read physics, but also without any system. Almost every class began with the fact that the pages surrounded him and asked him to show tricks in the next lesson. The teacher said that these were not tricks, but physical experiments. The expenses for the experiments were paid by the pages, collecting copper nickels for the next lesson, and before the lesson this money was poured out on the table. The teacher, embarrassed, hurriedly collected the change in a handkerchief and hid it somewhere.

Another former page Gangeblov recalled in the same connection: “Most of the teachers in their appearance and their methods were distinguished by some kind of eccentricity. None of the teachers was able to present his science in a worthy form and inspire love and respect for it. The method of teaching consisted in blunt chiselling by heart; there was no mention of any application to practice; everyone studied not in order to know anything, but in order to become officers. History was the worst taught. It was a dry enumeration of bare facts, without mentioning mores, civilization, trade and other manifestations of folk life. In addition, we were taught only Russian and ancient history, we did not hear about the history of the Middle Ages and the latest. In the classes, the students took their places according to the seniority of the points received by each in a particular subject, therefore, every two hours, with each change of the teacher, the students were seated differently. As Daragan noted: “At the lessons of history, they told about Oleg’s horse and about how Svyatoslav ate mare.”

Of the pages, who were not too lazy to learn, small groups of two, four people were formed to prepare lessons. The pages were obliged to the classes in these circles for the knowledge with which they, in the end, left the Page Corps.

From September 1, in the presence of the director, class inspector and all officers in the corps, final examinations were held. In linguistic subjects, each pupil read and translated the text aloud, on large boards under dictation, so that everyone could see, wrote the given text, and after correcting errors, made a grammatical analysis of what was written; in mathematics, those called to the board solved problems on large boards in front of the whole class; in history and geography, each of the examinees had to be ready to answer any question from those present at the exam; in artillery, fortification, physics, mechanics, they solved various problems, presented drawings of fortifications, drawings with a pencil, pen or paints. Those present at the exam put marks in the examination sheet, after which the results were separately summed up for each subject, the points were summed up and an overall mark was given.

Based on the results of the exams, in accordance with the points obtained in the exams, a general list of graduation was compiled, where each page was awarded its place. Camera pages aged 18 and older were issued by officers to the guard, their place was taken by the first of the pages according to the results of the exams. The rest of the pages at least 18 years old were issued by officers in the army.

In 1814-20. the grandchildren of A.V. Suvorov studied in the Corps of Pages. Suvorov's daughter, Natalya Zubova, specifically requested permission from the director of the corps so that her sons could live with the class inspector Ode-de-Sion, whom A.V. Suvorov brought from Switzerland to raise his son Arkady. As a special exception, this request was granted by the Emperor.

For almost fifteen years, the pages lived in the premises of the corps, more adapted for palace life than for accommodating an educational institution. “In the room of the fourth department, where my bed stood,” recalled the page A.P. Daragan, “the liberation of Andromeda by Perseus was depicted on the ceiling. Without any covers, the charming Andromeda stood chained to a rock, and in front of her was Perseus, slaying a dragon. It is not clear how none of the authorities came up with the idea that these mythological pictures are not at all in place here, that the incessant involuntary contemplation of the naked charms of the goddesses can have a detrimental effect on the imagination of the pupils. Only under Nicholas I was the reconstruction of the palace premises for the needs of a military educational institution.

The same page described the guard divorce procedure: “At the end of the morning lessons, at 12 o’clock, the pages gathered in a small recreational room, lined up in sections, the next daily guard of 10 pages, a drummer and a camera page came, Klingenberg appeared and made a divorce according to all the rules the then guard service. The guard was commanded by the camera page on duty in the corps. It was the only front-line formation of pages. There was no single bearing, no rifle techniques, no marching, except for the marching to the dining room, and the pages stamped their feet mercilessly. True, in the summer they devoted one month to training the front - but this was more for the chamber pages, who, as future officers, with great diligence sought to study the drill charter. Since 1811, the Emperor established an exam in drill training for graduates.

In December 1811, Emperor Alexander I personally examined the pages and was pleased with the knowledge of the graduates. The first in this issue was the future Decembrist P.I. Pestel, and the second was Count Adlerberg, who later became a general and minister of the court under Emperor Alexander II, a close friend and adviser to the monarch. He was one of the active participants in the preparation and implementation of the reforms of the 1860-1870s. And yet the Corps of Pages became primarily a military institution. This is directly reflected in the curriculum. In two special classes preceding graduation, military history, tactics, fortification, artillery, topography and a number of other subjects were systematically studied.

In 1819, the Corps of Pages became subordinate to the Chief Director of the Cadet Corps. In November 1819, a graduate of the 1st Cadet Corps, the hero of the war of 1812, Count Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, was appointed Chief Director of the Page and Cadet Corps. Konovnitsyn was one of the pages' favorites. When he appeared in the corps, the pages surrounded the count and wanted to receive his "affectionate attention and participation." Konovitsyn stayed in this position for only three years. In 1822, P. Konovitsyn died.

During the reign of Emperor Alexander I, many high government posts were held by pages who graduated from the corps as early as the 8th century. O.P. Kozodavlev was the Minister of the Interior, Adjutant General A.D. Balashov was the Minister of Police, Prince A.N. Golitsyn was the Minister of Education, A.N. Olenin was the director of the Public Library for thirty-five years, he belonged to number of the most educated people of his era. At the head of the Academy of Sciences was Count N.N.Novosiltsev, who did a lot for education in Russia, both military and general. A.N. Olenin, A.D. Balashov, N.N. Novosiltsev managed to prove themselves in the military field, taking part in the war in the Caucasus and with the Turks.

In all the wars waged by Alexander I, graduates of the Corps of Pages distinguished themselves. In 1803, in the Caucasus, A. Leontiev earned the St. George Cross of the 4th degree; in 1807, P.V. distinguished himself in the war with the Turks. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, near Austerlitz - Ya.A. Potemkin, Count de Balmain, A.S. Kologrivov, V.A. Rusanov, I.F. Buksgevden, an outstanding Russian diplomat and intelligence officer, future minister, Prince A.I. Chernyshev. In 1810, during the war with the Turks, the future Field Marshal Prince I.F. Paskevich received George of the 4th degree, in 1811 he received George of the 3rd degree. In 1812, graduates of the Corps of Pages laid down their lives in the war with Napoleon: I.F. Buksgevden, A.B. Miller, A.P. Levshin, K.K. Sievers, A.F. Klinger and others. The first nobleman who decided to enter the pedagogical field was the page Glinka, who became a professor of literature at the Yuryev University. Almost all the pages who acted as civilians under Alexander I did military service, and most of them remained in the military until the end of their lives.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE CORPORATION OF PAGES INTO A MILITARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Under Alexander I, the Corps of Pages finally turned into a military educational institution. And the stay of the corps in buildings where the spirit of chivalry soared contributed to the cultivation of knightly traditions among the pages. Everyone who entered the corps was given a gospel with a white Maltese knight's cross and the Testaments of the Knights of Malta. The eight precepts, which corresponded to the eight ends of the knight's cross, included: devotion to the teachings of the church, respect for the weak, love for the motherland, ruthlessness towards enemies, religious implacability, fidelity to a given word, generosity and charity, serving good and justice. In all three companies of the corps, marble boards with the commandments of the Knights of Malta carved in gold were reinforced on the walls. The Maltese cross became the official badge of the Corps of Pages. In essence, it was an elite military educational institution with special privileges, one of which was serving at the Highest Court on Christian holidays, the birthdays of the emperor and members of the imperial family.

During the reign of NicholasI the system of military education in Russia acquired considerable harmony, military educational institutions, established at different times and having nothing in common with each other, in the era of the new emperor began to acquire a uniform external and internal order, conditions of discipline and combat training. The programs of the cadet corps and the Corps of Pages include fencing and gymnastics. For all military educational institutions, general laws and instructions, training programs appear. For the first time, general textbooks and textbooks are being published. Uniforms and underwear begin to be sewn and customized separately for each pupil.

Under Nicholas I, the number of students in the Corps of Pages was increased to 150 pupils (16 chamber pages and 134 pages). Boys were accepted into the corps from the third grade, they studied for seven years. The corps had seven general classes (with the curriculum of seven classes of cadet corps) and two special classes (with the course of military schools). All pupils of the corps bore the rank of pages, and upon transition to the senior special class, the best of them, on the proposal of the authorities, were personally made by the emperor into chamber pages. In combat terms, the pages were divided into three companies, special classes made up one company and were considered in active service; in relation to the performance of military service, they were equated with volunteers. The corps issued pages to the infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineering troops. According to the results of the final exams, chamber pages and pages of the senior special class were divided into four categories. Those assigned to the first three categories were issued second lieutenants in the guard, army or special forces; assigned to the fourth category - non-commissioned officers in the army.

In the summer, the first company was withdrawn to the camp in Krasnoye Selo. For the first time, the Corps of Pages was brought to the camp at the end of July 1826. The pages advanced to the camp on foot, in marching order, made a halt in the Red Tavern, and spent the night in the village of Kikiniki. The speech was preceded by a ceremony in the presence of high-ranking officials. In the camp, the pages, together with the cadets of other cadet corps, took part in maneuvers, were engaged in drill and physical training. The first camp collection lasted one month, subsequent collections - up to a month and a half. In 1831, the heir Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich took part in the camp camps of the corps, and in 1843 - Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich.

Much later, under Alexander II, during camp gatherings, pages began to be involved in large maneuvers, raised at night on alarm, forced to make transitions of several tens of miles. The pages were engaged in practical shooting of the area and the construction of defensive fortifications. Sometimes officers of the general staff came to the camp to check the work and give any advice.

In December 1826, Nicholas I visited the Corps of Pages. The result of his visit was a tightening of control over the life of the pages. They were ordered that the officers-educators have the keys to the boxes where the pages kept things, textbooks and notebooks and controlled their contents. The same was true of the "chests under the beds where the dress was stored." Inspection was to be carried out suddenly and as often as possible. Pages were allowed to unfasten the top hooks of their uniforms during classes.

In 1835, for the first time, the rules were put into effect in the corps, defining the essence of court service, the first paragraph of which was: public holidays, as well as at the balls. The rules described in detail the place of pages during service in the palace, in the theater, during solemn departures, exits of the emperor and his retinue. Only a hundred years after the appearance of pages in Russia, the provisions of the service, performed by pages for a century, were formalized.

The charter of the corps, defining the goals in the field of education of pages, at the same time emphasized the need to “treat the chamber-pages and pages politely, naturally, decently and without rudeness, not only in deeds but also in words”, “because not fear, but conviction in their duties must lead them." The system of education corresponded to the basic requirements of physical and moral education and was aimed at maintaining a healthy spirit, discipline, curiosity and a penchant for mental work. Horse riding and fencing appeared among the subjects studied. Chamber pages began to be introduced to the "history of treatises and state negotiations", with the political structure of European states, the system of their management. From chamber-pages they demanded free and perfect knowledge of the studied foreign languages.

In the early 30s. Х1Х century The Vorontsov Palace was subjected to a radical restructuring. After the reconstruction, the building was fully adapted to accommodate an educational institution. For the first time, the inscription appeared above the pediment: "The Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty". In 1830, Major General A.A. was appointed director of the corps. Kavelin, who has proven himself to be a caring and fair boss, which was especially evident in the production of pages to chamber pages and the production of chamber pages to officers. The main attention of A.A. Kavelin turned to the educational part, which he found in an unsatisfactory state. The teaching staff has been completely replaced. In May 1834, a graduate of the Corps of Pages, P.N. You know that the children of my oldest and best servicemen are brought up there. Set them on their feet so that they serve like their fathers."

For twelve years, P.N. Ignatiev was the director of the corps, where he showed himself to be a strict and demanding educator. The pupils were afraid of his appearance at the exams, especially at the exam in Russian history, which he knew thoroughly. According to Prince Imeretinsky (issued in 1848), “General Ignatiev was the complete master in the corps and did not lose sight of anyone or anything. He took into his own hands the preventive, punitive, and rewarding aspects of activity. If no one could cope with a stubborn and undisciplined pupil, then as soon as the director demanded him to himself and said that he would write a letter to the father and mother, the pupil began to behave better. Ignatiev could not stand if someone did not want or was afraid to confess his guilt himself. “Whoever is cowardly to plead guilty will be cowardly on the battlefield,” General Ignatiev liked to repeat to the pages. Under Alexander II, A.P. Ignatiev became chairman of the committee of ministers. Three ministers sat with him on the committee, from his former page pupils: Greig (Minister of Finance), Makov (Minister of the Interior), Heyden (“for the Minister of War”).

A bright mark in the life of the Corps of Pages was left by the company commander, Colonel Karl Karlovich Girardot, who served in the corps for thirty years. He appeared in the corps in 1831 and from the first steps with great diligence and love set to work. Having started his career teaching French in the 4th and 5th grades, he immediately won the love of the pupils. The former page, Lieutenant General V.S. But he was known to many generations of pages and, therefore, to many in St. Petersburg and throughout Russia. Girardot was the soul and engine of everything that was done in the corps, with the exception of the training part, in which he prudently avoided interfering. He kept pace everywhere, looked at those who were beginning to learn the front, who were studying in the dormitories, at those who were learning techniques with guns in the halls. The guards preparing for the divorce, Girardot taught himself. We are just getting ready to try on uniforms, and Girardot is already sitting in a reserve room by the window on a chair, and next to him is the captain with a piece of chalk in his hands. Not a single jacket, not a single uniform, overcoat, ammunition was sewn without Girardot. Girardot closely followed the food supplied to the corps. Every day in the morning he went to the kitchen to look at the delivered beef or other products. In the dance class, he was especially interested in learning how to bow, the art of bowing. At the beginning of the year, impeccably neat Girardot compiled a list of who and where from the chamber-pages and pages would serve. Incessantly chatting with the pages in French about all sorts of subjects, and doing this not three or four times a week, as teachers, but every day, he taught not for school, but for life. Setting himself an example of exemplary accuracy, he insistently demanded the same from his pupils.

Before being fired to the city, each page was given a ticket (dismissal note - author's note), to whom exactly and until what time the pupil was fired. On the back of the ticket there was an inscription: “Always observe the rules of courtesy and decency in everything, as well as uniform and cleanliness in clothes. To all Messrs. generals, headquarters and chief officers to make a front. Be on the street and in public meetings with an escort and have your ticket with you. On the corporal and chamber-page tickets, the following was added at the bottom: “As a sign of a special power of attorney, it is allowed to walk without an escort.” Girardot went out into the city on Saturdays and "caught" the pages who did not make the front to foreign officers. By this, he struck fear into the pages, and they themselves watched so as not to miss any officer. Corps Girardot left in 1856, was promoted to major general, and he retained a state-owned apartment on the territory of the corps.

Early to mid 40s. Х1Х century the quality of teaching in most disciplines has significantly increased in the corpus. The reviews of the pages themselves about their teachers are very diverse. According to some pages, in the corps they taught "something" and "somehow." According to others, there were teachers in the corps, especially professors from St. Petersburg University, who carried away the pupils with their lectures and practical exercises and taught the pages to think independently. In principle, most graduates of the Corps of Pages agree that throughout the entire period of the existence of the corps, one of the pages who sought to gain solid knowledge, and his parents or the example of senior pages could convince him of this, he really had the opportunity to get very good results in the corps. knowledge.

Prince Imeretinsky recalled in this regard: “In general, the composition of the teachers was far from ideal. There were routine people who did not go further "from here to there." It is clear that our knowledge was incomplete, fragmentary and soon vanished. True, history, statistics, Russian literature, mathematics and chemistry in the last two classes were taught by professors, the luminaries of science of that time. Only good students studied in the corps. Very little attention was paid to the lazy and unwilling to learn, teachers waved their hand at them and presented their scientific knowledge to the will of fate. In the class, the "lazy" occupied the back benches, the so-called "mountain", and often from the "mountain" they tried to dictate their conditions to teachers, who gave slack during the lessons and could not demand strict discipline from the pupils. In one of the classes, on the back bench sat the chief ringleader Kratz, a short, broad-shouldered, stocky young man who had great strength.

A graduate of the corps D. Korsakov noted that there were many excellent and even outstanding teachers in the corps. In the two senior classes, the teachers of Russian literature Klassovsky and Petrov were popular. In the mouth of Klassovsky literary works received a special expressiveness and attractiveness. These teachers left a wonderful memory of themselves. Military history and tactics were taught by class inspector I.F. Ortenberg and colonel of the general staff P.S. Lebedev, who had an extraordinary memory and oratory. Artillery - famous gunners generals N.A. Baumgart and N.F. Egerstrom. The works of the teacher of fortification A.Z.Telyakovsky were very famous abroad. Chemistry was taught by the outstanding professor and artilleryman Shishkov. History - outstanding historians Shulgin and Shakeyev. A teacher of French literature chose, for example, one of the scenes of a famous work by Corneille or Racine to study in the language and distributed the roles among the pupils. One of the main characters of the work and the characters participating in the scene with him were called to answer. They lined up in front of the teacher and played out a scene loudly with the necessary intonations, which the whole class listened to attentively. In general, there was a strong opinion among historians that the teaching staff of the Corps of Pages from the time of Emperor Nicholas I was much stronger than what was before him.

Pages often tried to exploit the weaknesses of some teachers. They behaved unceremoniously with the French teacher Nouvel. Often his lessons were nothing more than a farce. The pages even managed to cut off the tails of Nouvel's uniform. Great liberties were allowed in the German lessons with the teacher Shelendorf. At the lessons of the Russian language with the teacher Troitsky Vasily Stepanovich, low discipline was largely due to the fact that Troitsky often came to the lessons drunk. He even got the nickname Vasily Stakanovich. When the teacher was sober and began to make quite reasonable demands on the pages, this was always a big surprise for them, and they began to mock the teacher.

One day, when Troitsky was absolutely sober, he demanded that the pages prepare a home essay in the form of a letter or a story, to which the “presidents of the mountain”, the pages Kratz and Makov, from the back benches demanded that the topics be light. Troitsky again came to the next lesson completely sober and asked to turn in his written essays. What happened next was described by Prince Imeretinsky: “The teacher directly turned to the back bench, but from there they answered with a booth. Paper arrows and cockerels flashed in the air towards the pulpit, and only protruding tongues, ten-finger noses, figs, and the like could meet the menacing glances of the teacher. Vasily Stakanych became seriously angry, put a lot of zeros in the journal, wrote down the entire presidium of the mountain in his notebook and got ready to go complain to the class inspector. In such a critical situation, Kratz made concessions and shouted to the whole class: “Lord, is there anyone out there who has written lies! Give him that he really boiled up! Then I gave Troitsky my essay. He read it and was touched, put 12 points for the essay. Before I could sit down, someone pulled me by the collar and I hit my head on someone's buttons. Kratz was already standing nearby. With the words: “I am ready to reward you for this, my child,” he gave me a cuff on the back of the head, from which my ears rang. Then he and two other pages went to the table and demanded that Troitsky transfer all the zeros to sixes. Troitsky was struck by such impudence of the pages and decided to forgive everyone. While he was making a speech, the pages managed to attach tails to all the zeros and turn the zeros into sixes.

At the lessons of the geometry teacher A.M. Dokushevsky, the pages took advantage of the latter’s weakness for the water communications system in Russia, and when they were poorly prepared for the lesson, they asked Dokushevsky a question about the Mariinsky system, explaining this by the fact that the geography teacher explained this material to them very poorly. When Dokushevsky realized that he was being fooled, the pages found another trick to avoid being called to the board. As the teacher demanded, they drew various polygons in notebooks, but the fact was that Dokushevsky was very fond of beautiful geometric figures, and then the students began to carefully draw all the figures and ran up to the teacher to get approval for what was done. Dokushevsky admired, made corrections, and then another notebook was slipped to him. If it was noisy in the classroom, and the class inspector Ortenberg appeared, the duty officer briskly reported that the page so-and-so made everyone laugh with his answer. During those lessons, when the teacher was absent, the pages sometimes made such a noise and uproar that Ortenberg was forced to send some of the pupils to the punishment cell, while others were deprived of dismissal on Saturday or Sunday, and sometimes on both days.

The graduate of the corps, Lieutenant-General Richter, divided the entire teaching staff of the corps into three categories. The first included professors who were feared and respected; to the second - teachers who were loved, and, finally, to the third - those who were treated with indifference, allowing inappropriate jokes with some of them. The first group had the main influence. The lectures of the teachers belonging to this group were listened to in silence and with great attention, the lessons on the subjects taught by them were prepared with special care. According to Richter, cramming was pursued, special attention was paid to the smooth and sensible presentation of the material.

The author of the anniversary monograph Levshin, characterizing the life of pages in the middle of the XIX century. wrote: “Judging by the recollections of graduates, cheerfulness reigned in the corps during the lessons. This was facilitated by the consciousness of the pages that one can sit in the same class for a long time and that only in the second class does an ambitious page need to try to get into the number of 16 chamber pages, which ensured graduation into the guard and the advantages associated with going there. Thus, during the course, I had to strain my strength only once. The lucky ones who managed to be among the chosen ones then laid down their arms, as they perfectly understood that they had achieved their intended goal, won the much-desired right to become guardsmen and indulged in idleness in the lessons. The pages were not frightened by public examinations, at which only the best pupils were asked. Then, by order of the emperor, stricter rules were established for the stay of pages in the corps and special classes were accordingly transformed, from where they were released into the guards and the army.

In combat terms, the pages were not well prepared, the lack of regular additional drill training, which was invariably practiced in the cadet corps, affected. In 1847, during a drill review of the cadet corps and troops of the St. Petersburg garrison, Nicholas I expressed particular dissatisfaction with the drill of the pages and the execution of their rifle techniques. Seeing how the pages perform rifle techniques, the Emperor shouted menacingly: “What are the pages doing? What is that? Mamzeli! Beloruchki! I’ll drive you off the parade ground!” After this tirade, the emperor ordered the pages to take their guns on their shoulders and forced them to stand like that until the pages' hands were swollen. The linear doctrine ended with the fact that the pages were ordered to be removed from the parade ground, since the sovereign did not want to see them anymore.

In the middle of the 19th century, even twenty-year-old boys and older were among the senior pages. It was strictly forbidden to smoke in the building, but the "old men" used any method to smoke secretly: they smoked in air vents (for furnaces), in windows, smoked in classrooms. The "old men" categorically forbade the younger pages to touch tobacco, and they obediently did everything that the elders told them. There was not a single case of denunciation to the authorities by the younger pupils.

With all the shortcomings that existed during training and education in the Corps of Pages, many of its graduates reached high state, public and military posts. During almost the entire reign of Nicholas I, the former page, Prince A. I. Chernyshev, was Minister of War. The Governor-General of Vitebsk, Mogilev and Smolensk was Adjutant General P. N. Dyakov, and later Prince Urusov. The chief ataman of the Donskoy army was Adjutant General M. G. Khomutov. Commander of the troops of the Kingdom of Poland - Adjutant General E. L. Ramsay. Ambassador in Munich - Prince Yves. Iv..Baryatinsky, envoy to the Swedish and Norwegian courts - Ya.A. Dashkov. A.N. Olenin continued his activities as chairman of the State Council. The star of the former page I.I. Rostovtsev, who in 1856 became the head of the General Staff of military educational institutions, rose. During the reign of Nicholas I, Count N.N. Muravyov-Amursky, writers Fyodor Tolstoy and K.A. Druzhinin and many other military and statesmen graduated from the corps. At the height of the Sevastopol campaign, the chief of staff of the Sevastopol garrison, the former page prince, Lieutenant-General V.I. At the end of December 1855, the Corps of Pages enthusiastically honored the hero of Sevastopol.

Among the cadet corps, the Corps of Pages invariably occupied a privileged position. Even after the military reform of 1862-1864, when the cadet corps were transformed into military gymnasiums and lost the right to issue officers into the troops, the Corps of Pages retained the right to issue cameras-pages and pages who graduated from special classes as officers into the troops. However, Milyutin's reforms also affected the Corps of Pages: 5 junior classes of the corps in terms of education were equated to 5 senior classes of military gymnasiums, and 2 senior and special classes in terms of mastering curricula and organizations were equated with infantry military schools. Special classes were consolidated into one company. The staff of pages remained unchanged - 150 pupils.

From 1857 to 1862 one of its famous graduates, anarchist theorist Pyotr Alekseevich Kropotkin, studied at the Page Corps. P.A. Kropotkin was the first student in all classes. In the senior class, as the first student, to the dismay of many officers, he was appointed sergeant major and personal chamber page of Emperor Alexander II. Prince P.A. Kropotkin in his "Notes of a Revolutionary" described in some detail the life of the Corps of Pages.

The military reforms carried out in 1862-1864, the creation of military gymnasiums and progymnasiums, to a certain extent, led to the democratization of life in military educational institutions, but did not contribute to strengthening order and discipline in them. General situation reflected in the Corps of Pages. The pages began to be rude even to such a strict boss as the company commander K.K. Girardot was. At the same time, Girardot noticed that even in the palace, the pages began to behave differently from the way it was supposed to be according to etiquette. Girardot's etiquette rehearsals took place to the laughter of the pages, since most of them had no grace in bowing. Girardot was furious. Previously, the pages who were curled before going to the palace tried to keep their curls as long as possible after the ceremony. Now, having returned from the palace, they ran under the tap to straighten their hair. They laughed at the feminine appearance. In the corps, it came to a benefit performance, which was arranged for the art teacher Ganz. The pages did not forgive him that he had favorites and put the highest marks on those pages who studied with him separately for a special fee.

P.A. Kropotkin wrote in this regard: “When I entered the Corps of Pages, a complete change took place in his inner life. All of Russia then woke up from a deep sleep and was freed from the heavy nightmare of Nikolaev. This awakening was reflected in our body. The director of the corps was an excellent old man, General Zheltukhin, but he was only nominally the head of the corps. The real chief was a Frenchman in the Russian service, Colonel Girardot. The method of his education was borrowed from the French Jesuit colleges. Kropotkin presents Girardot as a despot by nature, capable of hating a boy who is not entirely under his influence. All officers of the Page Corps had nicknames. But no one dared to name Girardot. The word "colonel" was constantly on everyone's lips.

The page corps did not escape the illness of all the cadet corps, the so-called "tsukanya" (the most common hazing in relations between senior and junior pages - author's note), the abnormal and often mocking attitude of senior pages towards younger ones. Kropotkin notes in his memoirs that Girardot placed chamber pages in a completely exclusive, privileged position. He gave the older pupils complete freedom and pretended not to know about the arbitrariness that they did. So with the help of chamber pages, he tried to maintain strict discipline. If the younger pupil in any way did not obey the whim of the chamber-page, then this led to the fact that 20 pupils of the senior class, with the tacit permission of Girardot, severely beat the disobedient.

Because of this, the chamber pages did whatever they wanted. One of the favorite pastimes of the senior pages was that at night they gathered newcomers in nightgowns into one of the rooms and made them run in a circle like horses in a circus, while some chamber pages stood in a circle, others outside it and with gutta-percha whips mercilessly beat the boys. The colonel knew all about it, but turned a blind eye to the antics of high school students.

Not a single page of the junior class had the right to pass by the sergeant-major's bed - it was a sacred custom used by especially zealous senior pages. There were cases when older pages specifically forced the younger one to violate the established ritual, which he did not dare to do. Then, at the direction of the senior page, the younger one had to make a big detour in the bedroom in order to bypass the sergeant major's bed and "not desecrate the sacred place with his feet." This trick was sometimes repeated several times in a row for the amusement of the senior class.

In the morning, orderlies were required to wake up both classes: the younger one earlier, and the older one later. Having woken up the seniors, the orderly was obliged to stand in a certain place and at certain intervals report loudly - how many minutes the senior class had before building up for the morning prayer. It happened that the younger class lined up for morning prayer earlier than the older one, when some of the pages of this class were still in bed. Some of those lying in their beds shouted at their younger comrades, who, in their opinion, did not stand well enough in the ranks.

When at the end of the XIX century. the pages were allowed to smoke, in the smoking room the younger class was given a special corner, separated from the section of the older class by an imaginary line beyond which none of the younger ones dared to step over. The younger ones, in the presence of the elders, even in the smoking room, did not dare to stand in a free position - the one guilty of violating respect was immediately brought to order. The younger pages, when meeting with the elders, wherever this meeting took place, were obliged to be the first to salute. Senior pages sometimes deliberately created situations where younger comrades could not immediately notice them and, accordingly, did not salute them. Immediately followed by an entry in a special journal about the indiscipline of the junior page. Finally, the third class, in which there were rather strong cadets, decided to put an end to all the tortures and challenged the chamber-pages "to a mortal battle." The senior pages were defeated, quieted down and became the guardians of the best traditions in the corps, i.е. what they were supposed to do. Girardot did not report the incident to anyone.

According to N.A. Yepanchin, the wild custom of "zukan" passed into the Russian army from the Prussian, when it consisted of mercenaries, about whom Frederick the Great said that in his army "a soldier is more afraid of the corporal's stick than the enemy's bullets." This custom, Yepanchin noted, was an imitation of that which especially flourished in the Nikolaev Cavalry School, where the custom of "zukany" had been started for a long time.

Teaching at the Nikolaev Cavalry School for eighteen years, Yepanchin could observe numerous manifestations of this unfortunate phenomenon. In conversations about “tsuk” with his students, he heard from them, in justification of this custom, that Lermontov, a pupil of the school, did the same. “This custom,” Yepanchin believed, “was fundamentally violating comradely relations and, undoubtedly, contributed to the coarsening of morals, which is not in the spirit of our disciplinary charter and the good customs of our army. Having accepted the Corps of Pages, I decided to take measures to eradicate this custom from among the pages. One of the orders for the corps said: “I order all gentlemen officers, and especially company commanders and educator officers, to strictly monitor the implementation of the established rules by chamber pages and pages, in particular, the exact execution of the established rules by senior pages, which must serve as a junior example of diligence, and not self-will and arbitrariness. Gradually, Yepanchin managed to achieve a significant reduction in cases of hazing between pages.

Among the old traditions of the Corps of Pages, there was one such as wearing an officer's cap of the regiment where the page intended to graduate in the territory of the garden of the Corps of Pages in his free time and study. In this case, during a walk in the corps garden, one could observe pages of the senior special class, walking not in uniform caps, but in officers of different regiments.

By order of the Military Department No. 15 of January 30, 1878 on the establishment of the “Preparatory Classes of His Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages”, the junior classes were formally separated from the corps and on their basis preparatory classes were created that prepared pupils for the Page Corps. In 1885, the preparatory classes were again reunited with the Corps of Pages.

THE LAST YEARS OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE PAGE CORPS

In January 1889, a new regulation was approved for the Corps of Pages. In accordance with this provision, the Corps of Pages consisted of seven general classes, corresponding to the course of the cadet corps, and two special classes, with the course of military schools. In the three junior classes, only external pages were taught, the total number of interns classes was determined at 150 pupils. In combat terms, the corps was divided into 3 companies: the 1st company - pages and cameras-pages of special classes; 2nd - pages U11 and U1 of general classes and 3rd - pages of all other classes. In 1891, the staffing of the Corps of Pages was set at 170 interns and 160 externs. The pages continued to carry out their court service, which was combined with their studies.

Since 1890, jurisprudence began to be taught in the corps, the purpose of which was to familiarize the graduate of the corps with the relationships that every person encounters in life, being in a family, society, state. The new guide to jurisprudence was entitled "Basic concepts of morality, law and community."

In May 1890, the Museum of the Corps began to take shape in the Corps of Pages. The initiator of the creation of the museum and its first director was the class inspector, Colonel N.N. Skalon, who served in the corps for many years. For the museum, printed and handwritten works related to the Corps of Pages, drawings of former pages and employees of the corps, lists of the dead, knights of St. George, biographies of former pages, their personal belongings, photo albums, individual portraits, etc. were collected. Released for the centenary of the Corps of Pages, the history of the Corps, edited by D.M. Levshin, “The Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty for a hundred years”, is richly illustrated with drawings and photographs received by the museum. For the anniversary of the corps, the brochure "Extract from the message to the pages about the tasks of the historical museum of His Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages" was published under the editorship of the class inspector and director of the museum, Colonel G.S. Osipov. This pamphlet was produced to arouse the interest of the pages in the history of the educational institution in which they studied.

Nikolai Alekseevich Yepanchin recalled: “The educational unit in the building was well known to me from ten years of teaching experience in it; when I took over the corps, the class inspector was Major General Anatoly Alekseevich Danilovsky, and earlier he was Major General Nil Lvovich Kirpichev, a military engineer, a serious, educated, cultured and knowledgeable inspector who maintains the training unit at the proper height. Danilovsky was a narrow-minded, almost ignorant person who did not enjoy any authority either among teachers or among pages. Suffice it to say that the pages called him "Toto". He considered himself a great connoisseur of pedagogical work, although he had no idea about pedagogical literature, which did not interfere with his conceit.

Not all teachers met the necessary requirements, but it was extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, to replace them with others. Small, meager content forced teachers to take lessons in several educational institutions, moving from lesson to lesson from one end of St. Petersburg to another.

One day it became known to me that, due to the insufficiency of allotment of money for feeding, it is impossible to do without "dead souls", i.e. to show on the reporting lists more pages, consisting of allowances, than it actually was. Part of the pages were visiting, externs, on which the treasury released money only for breakfast, but sometimes externs had the right to a full daily allowance, such as, for example, on duty, arrested, detained after lectures to prepare lessons, etc. They used this to show more pages in the reporting sheets than they were really on allowance, and this was called " dead Souls". Later I learned that some members of the economic committee did not hesitate to take food from the page boiler to their homes, and as a result I was forced to dismiss the housekeeper."

Pavel Grabbe, the son of the head of His Imperial Majesty's personal escort, who entered the Corps of Pages in 1915, recalled the last years of the Corps' existence: “When I entered the Corps of Pages, I had no idea how special this institution was. Here for last century studied twelve members of the paternal family. I was thirteenth. In my class, two-thirds of the pupils attended only during the day; the rest were on full board. Most were about the same age as me - about thirteen years old - and belonged to the environment about the same level as me. To be eligible for enrollment, the boy had to be the son or grandson of a general or an official of a very high rank. After seven years in the corps, he received the rank of officer and usually joined the imperial guard, which was considered the elite of the Russian army. But first, a graduate of the corps had to get the approval of the officers of the regiment, in which he wanted to join of his choice. The decision was made taking into account the personality and character of the candidate, the background and partly determined by the reputation that he had in the corps. If, for example, it was known that he liked to spread all kinds of gossip, few of the Guards regiments would accept such an officer.

The corps was closely connected with the Imperial House and the life of the royal family. Each year, several of the best students of the graduating class were appointed chamber pages to members of the imperial family. This is exactly how my father was selected when he studied in the Corps of Pages, which gave him the opportunity to personally communicate with the imperial family. A large garden with tall trees adjoined the corps building, where the younger boys ran about during the half-hour break after breakfast. Three junior classes - the third, fourth and fifth - occupied the top floor of one of the outbuildings.

Our classrooms opened onto a large hall where we were let out for a ten-minute break every fifty minutes. During these breaks, real bedlam reigned: we ran around the hall, fought and yelled. All this was observed from a room occupying a strategic position at the exit from the hall, the officer on duty was watching. On the floor below, there were classrooms for older boys, with the same layout. Going to breakfast, we sometimes passed by and looked at them with an appreciative look. They always walked in orderly rows, which could not be said about us.

The school chapel was large enough to accommodate all five junior classes. We silently and obediently stood the service, languishing from boredom. One day the priest was served by some unfamiliar deacon, whose appearance caused a smile. Some of the boys started to giggle softly. The sound began to spread, grow, and soon every single boy was laughing out loud. The service has been terminated. We were led out of the chapel and lined up in one of the adjoining rooms. In front of us, Deputy Director General Rittich walked back and forth with a nervous step, trying to shame and threatening all sorts of punishments if such an incident happened again. We heeded this warning, and no one else laughed during the service. But the chapel lost its halo, which aroused reverence in us, and when discipline was shaken after the revolution, we hid in it from the school authorities. No one would ever find us in the altar under the table, covered with a heavy velvet cover.

In the Corps of Pages, I studied Russian, French and German, geography, geology, physics, geometry and arithmetic. Of the subjects, I most of all loved Russian and geography, which was taught by B.I. Chizhov. He would often roll out a map on the board, point to an area, and challenge us to talk about its physical characteristics, climate, and natural resources. He asked us to describe the people who live there. What are they? How do they live? What are they doing? What is their faith? And often, without waiting for an answer, he himself began a fascinating story, answering all his questions. And almost invariably he managed to overcome our indifference and kindle interest in his subject.

I studied badly. Classmates despised the "bison" and treated with respect those who were distinguished by physical strength, as well as those who showed initiative in class affairs. An unexpected incident increased my credibility. Once I found myself on the roof of a building, from where I saw our class mentor, Colonel Zarzhevsky, dating a pretty blonde. I rushed back to the classroom, gathered a few of my buddies, and led them up to the roof. From there, we watched as our classmate, smiling, gesticulating, accompanied his friend through the gate to the street. We often suffered from the strict discipline maintained by Colonel Zarzhevsky. Now, after one of us gave him a few hints, he has changed for the better.

I did not share the love of my comrades for military affairs. They were fascinated by parades, uniforms and awards, and they all aspired to serve in the imperial guard. Their talk about the merits of this or that regiment did not interest me at all, and I especially did not like military drill. For the first two months, I was not even allowed to wear a corps uniform because of my completely non-military appearance.

The so-called "tsukanie" also did not dispose me to military affairs. It was a kind of harassment of junior high school students. My posture made it abundantly clear that I was not the ideal candidate for the military career that so many were looking forward to. Several high school students decided that I needed to teach a lesson. I was ordered to learn their names in alphabetical order or in some special sequence that they specially invented every week. I was also obliged to learn the names of all the regiments of the imperial guard and be able to describe their uniforms; or I was examined on questions of military traditions. If I made the slightest mistake, I was forced to stand at attention in the restroom, do squats or remain still during recess, or not dare to talk to my classmates.

I convinced my classmates to hold demonstrations whenever any of us experienced such harassment from high school students. After two or three such demonstrations, when we marched in a circle, shouting protest slogans and stamping our feet until the officer on duty ran out to the noise to find out what was wrong, the seniors stopped their “chirping”. When the time came later for our class to take "guardianship" of the young recruits, most of my classmates could not resist the temptation to pose as a commander in front of the younger ones!

In 1915, sixteen boys were admitted to the junior class. We only had to stay together for two years. The revolution has scattered us all over the world. Many must have died during the civil war."

At the end of the case, the pages received a white enamel Maltese cross on a gold plate and a ring that was steel on the outside and gold on the inside. This alloy symbolized "steel hardness and golden purity." The owners of these distinguishing marks all their lives addressed each other as “you”, regardless of age, rank and position. The corporate spirit among the pages was unusually high. Strong comradely relations between pages, the desire to help a friend in difficult times, were valued in the corps above many other virtues.

The directors of the Corps of Pages were successively:

1. Major General Gogel A.G. (1802-1805);

2. Lieutenant General Gogel I.G. (1805-1830), Land Cadet Corps;

3. Adjutant General Kavelin A.A. (1830-1834), Corps of Pages;

4. Major General Ignatiev P.N. (1834-1846), Corps of Pages;

5. Major General Zinoviev N.V. (1846-1849), Corps of Pages;

6. Lieutenant General Filosofov N.I. (1849-1854), Corps of Pages;

7. Lieutenant General Zheltukhin V.P. (1854-1861), Mountain Cadet Corps;

8. Lieutenant General Ozerov S.P. (1861-1865);

9. Major General Korsakov N.V. (1865-1867), Corps of Pages;

10. Major General Bushen D.Kh. (1867-1871), Corps of Pages;

11. Major General Mezentsev P.I. (1871-1878), Regiment of Nobility;

12. General of artillery Diterichs E.K. (1879-1894);

13. Lieutenant General Keller E.E. (1894-1900), Corps of Pages;

14. General of infantry Yepanchin N.A. (1900-1907);

15. Major General Usov N.N. (1907- 1914)

15. Major General Rittich (1914-1917)

During all the years of the existence of the Corps of Pages, each of the emperors considered it his sacred duty to select and appoint the director of the corps. In practice, a tradition has developed when a general was appointed to the post of director of the corps, who had extensive pedagogical experience or received the practice of commanding some military educational institution, mainly the cadet corps, and who had proven himself in this position from the best side. Each of the directors of the Corps of Pages was an outstanding teacher and boss in his own way.

Lieutenant General Zheltukhin V.P. before his appointment to the Corps of Pages, he was first director of the Alexandrinsky Orphan Cadet Corps, and then the 1st Moscow Catherine II Corps. During all three years of being the director of the Corps of Pages, General Zheltukhin V.P. supported the educational institution in an exemplary condition and enjoyed the love of pupils.

Lieutenant General S.P. Ozerov came to the Page Corps after twelve years as director of the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps. The warmest and most heartfelt words about Sergei Petrovich Ozerov were expressed by the historian of the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps A.I. Polivanov (see essay on the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps). Despite the difficult years that fell to the lot of S.P. Ozerov while commanding the Corps of Pages, he honorably got out of the difficult situation in which he found himself during his stay in the corps. The fact is that by the time S.P. Ozerov came to the Corps of Pages, his pupils, in the conditions of the military reform that had begun, began to neglect discipline, treat the officers-educators and teachers without due respect and reverence, violate the internal routine, carelessly treat their studies, they had an internal licentiousness. The education of pages required a special tact, a strong character and good pedagogical skills of the director, company commanders and educator officers.

The company commander of the 2nd Cadet Corps, Colonel L.I. Yanush, noted in this regard: “In 1872, I had the full opportunity to go to serve in the Page Corps. The reason for my reluctance to go there as an educator was his reputation, which was stubbornly maintained both in society and among the educators of military gymnasiums. What frightened me most of all was stories about the promiscuity of the pages, who were accustomed to treating their leaders with the utmost disrespect. It was said about the impossibility of a correct educational influence on pages due to interference in the affairs and orders of educators by high-ranking and influential parents.

The former page, General Nikita Vasilievich Korsakov, was appointed director of the Corps of Pages from the post of assistant to the Chief Head of military educational institutions. A rumor quickly spread among the pages that General Korsakov had been appointed to improve discipline in the corps. Korsakov kept the pages in line for two hours on the day of the performance. To the pages standing in the ranks, he said in a thunderous voice: “You don’t know me yet, gentlemen, I’ll show you ...”. The two years spent by Korsakov in the corps became a significant milestone in its history, since it was precisely this director who had to carry out the reform, which was supposed to change the structure and procedure for teaching pupils. Korsakov managed to tighten discipline in the corps, defend the idea that the Corps of Pages should be primarily a military educational institution and have the right to be promoted to officers. Despite his feigned severity, Korsakov turned out to be a man of a beautiful soul, lovingly treating the institution that raised him and his pets. He was a demanding and at the same time quite democratic boss, relying in his work on the pedagogical committee of the Corps of Pages.

Major-General Dmitry Khristianovich Bushen, before being appointed director of the Corps of Pages, headed the Oryol Bakhtin Military Gymnasium. The excellent condition of the military gymnasium attracted the attention of the emperor. In 1867 Bushen was entrusted with the Corps of Pages. He commanded the corps for only four years and died at the age of 46 while serving as director. In the obituary on the death of Bushen, it was noted that his death was a great loss for the Corps of Pages. Due to the fact that after the death of Bushen, his wife left young daughters in her arms, for the education and upbringing of which large funds were required, and they were not in the family, a special fund was created in the corps to assist the daughters of Bushen. Teachers and educators of the corps undertook to educate and educate their daughters free of charge. The employees of the corps decided to deduct part of their earnings to the fund to help the family of D.Kh.Bushen.

Under the director of the corps Fyodor Karlovich Diterichs, a new pedagogical order was firmly established in the Corps of Pages. An experienced teacher, a well-educated man, general of artillery Diterichs introduced weekly, on Saturdays, meetings of the educational committee in the corps, at which the successes and behavior of the pages over the past week were discussed, questions of principle regarding individual pages were resolved, mistakes of educators were identified and measures were jointly worked out to elimination of such errors. The educational measures practiced in the corps under Diterichs proceeded from the director's deep respect for both the personality of the pupil and the personality of the educator. The main educational measure under Dieterichs was the impact on the morality of the delinquent pupil.

As a result of the consistently implemented pedagogical system of influencing pupils in the corps, the number of disciplinary offenses has decreased, and the level of academic performance has significantly increased. The educational requirements under Diterichs were so high and serious that the successes of the pages gradually became higher than the successes of their peers from other military educational institutions. The direct attitude of F.K. Dieterikhs to the pupils was distinguished by calmness and self-control. Despite the complete absence of strict, loud speeches, the pages treated him with respect and even a certain amount of fear. He spent seventeen years as director of F.K.Diterichs. Over the years, 600 pupils were educated in the corps and graduated from it. Passing the corps into the hands of the new director, Count F.E. Keller, Dieterikhs noted that over the long years of his stay in the corps, he had grown together with him and deeply regretted that he had to leave the walls of the corps. For services to the corps, Diterichs was awarded the highest distinction - he was left on the lists of the Corps of Pages, and he was granted the right to wear the uniform of the corps.

According to the prominent Russian military historian Alexander Georgievich Kavtaradze, author of the preface to the memoirs of Nikolai Alekseevich Yepanchin, the study of archival materials provides numerous vivid examples of how proactive and fruitful the activity of General of Infantry N.A. Yepanchin. When moving from the 2nd to the 1st combatant company, the pages were enrolled in active military service and took an oath. However, before the arrival of N.A. Yepanchin in the building, this ceremony was carried out casually, there was no sense of solemnity. The corps did not have a banner, its own military music orchestra. It is quite obvious that the absence of a banner during the taking of the oath "in an extremely undesirable way diminished the significance of such an important event in the life of future officers." Already at the first swearing-in of the 1st company under Yepanchin in November 1901, on his orders, a banner and an orchestra from the Preobrazhensky Regiment were brought to the corps. At the request of N.A. Yepanchin, a banner was granted to the corps in connection with the 100th anniversary, and from that time the oath was taken before it.

In order to increase the interest of the pages in scientific knowledge, at the initiative of Yepanchin, the practice of preparing reports on military issues was established in special classes: on military history, tactics and other disciplines, and in senior general classes - on general subjects. The pages were given topics, sources were indicated, and a date was set for the preparation of the report. Under N.A. Yepanchin, the “Page Collection” began to be published, the last issue No. 13 was published in 1916. For the aesthetic development of pages for those who wish, a painting and sculpture class was established in the building. Extra-curricular music lessons were introduced on the piano, violin and cello.

By the end of the XIX century. in the Corps of Pages there was a good library. On the initiative of N.A. Epanchin, a special library was created for the 1st company from books on military topics. He ordered military magazines (Russian, German, French) to be subscribed to this library. Authors of well-known works on strategy, tactics, military art, military history sent autographed books for the corpus library. The presence of autographs on books, according to Yepanchin, contributed to the establishment of closer contact between the pages of the 1st combatant company and the best representatives of military scientific thought in the Russian army. Count D.A. Miloradovich sent his classic work “Suvorov's Italian Campaign” with a handwritten dedication.

The corps had riding horses and riding was one of the compulsory activities. Under Yepanchin, a dressing room was added to the already existing large arena, where the pages were taught vaulting. The position of an officer-instructor of riding was included in the staff of the corps. In order to give the pages the opportunity to thoroughly prepare for service in the troops before being promoted to officers, they were seconded to those regiments in which they would like to serve for the last camp collection before being promoted to officers.

An important tradition in the Corps of Pages was the tradition of a respectful and respectful attitude towards the oldest graduate of the corps, the opportunity to turn on any issue to the oldest page, not only the director of the corps and his officers, but also any of the pages, no matter at what hierarchical level of society or in the corps itself was. In his memoirs, Yepanchin does not specifically address this issue, but talking about the oldest page, Adjutant General O.B. Richter, the author, as it were, highlights the role and place of the oldest page in the life of the Page Corps. During the years of leadership of the corps, Yepanchin had to face rather difficult circumstances regarding the case of the cadet Verkhovsky.

Impressed by the failures in the Russo-Japanese War, A. Verkhovsky, sergeant major of the 1st company, personal chamber page of Nicholas II, in the circle of chamber pages and pages of special classes, expressed his views on the situation in the country in a sharp and emotional form, condemned the actions of the government . Very capable and extremely proud, Verkhovsky was always the first in academic success, he performed his duties as chamber page with great zeal. However, with his speeches, Verkhovsky set his classmates against him and aggravated relations with them. Two months before being promoted to officer, pupils of the senior special class decided that A. Verkhovsky should leave the corps.

Finally, Nicholas II instructed the oldest page, Adjutant General O.B. Richter, to sort out the “Verkhovsky case” and ordered him to submit a report addressed to him. Richter reported to the emperor that Verkhovsky's actions could not be considered anti-government. Nevertheless, Nicholas II ordered to deprive Verkhovsky of the rank of chamber-page and send him to the artillery brigade as a non-commissioned officer. In 1911 A. Verkhovsky graduated from the General Staff Academy. During the Revolution he stayed in Soviet Russia, rose to the rank of major general, was in teaching. In 1937 A. Verkhovsky was repressed.

When preparing events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the corps, O.B. Richter was appointed chairman of the anniversary commission. When Yepanchin, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the corps, was enrolled by Nicholas II in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty and awarded the order St. Stanislav of the 1st degree, the first to whom Yepanchin paid a visit was O.B. Richter, who was absent due to illness at the review, where the decision of the emperor was announced. During a gala dinner on the occasion of the anniversary of O.B. Richter, and not the director of the corps N.A. Epanchin, was instructed to proclaim a toast for the Sovereign.

N.A. Yepanchin had the main job of preparing and holding the 100th anniversary of the Corps of Pages. They took a personal part in the creation of the insignia of the Corps of Pages. The jubilee badge was intended for all members of the corps on the day of the anniversary, badge No. 1 was handed to N.A. Yepanchin himself. The badge of the Corps of Pages was awarded to all pupils who graduated from the corps and were promoted to officers and to those who were to be promoted to officer and class ranks.

50 silver and 2000 bronze were made anniversary medals with inscriptions on the edge: "In memory of the 100th anniversary of His Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages". 140 lower ranks, who were in active military service, and the lower employees of the corps, in addition to being awarded a bronze medal, received a silver ruble each (the date 1802-1902 was stamped under the eagle). N.A. Yepanchin himself, in connection with the anniversary, was awarded the Order of St. Svyatoslav, 1st class.

Archival materials testify that the seven-year period during which N.A. Yepanchin was the director of the Corps of Pages became one of the brightest pages in the history of this military educational institution. By the highest decree of April 22, 1907, N.A. Yepanchin "was promoted to lieutenant general for distinction in service."

Over the years of its existence, the Corps of Pages has released from its walls hundreds of worthy sons of Russia, who glorified her in state and public posts, activities in various fields of art: writers, professors, artists, musicians, generals and major Russian military leaders, chairmen of the State Council, ministers, ambassadors, envoys, governors-general, senior court officials, heads of higher educational institutions, directors of cadet corps.

Among the pupils of the Corps of Pages are the names of the full Cavalier of St. George Field Marshal His Serene Highness Prince of Warsaw Count of Erivan I.F. Paskevich (1800), Field Marshal I.V. Gurko (1846), discoverer and explorer of the Far East, Governor-General of the Amur Territory Count N. N. Muravyov-Amursky (1822), Minister of War Prince A.I. Chernyshev (1802), ambassadors in Paris, Prince N.A. Orlov (1845), in London, Count S.R. in Spain D.E.Shevich (1858), the author of historical works N.K.Schilder (1860), Count V.F.Adlerberg (1811), Minister of Foreign Affairs V.N.Lamsdorf (1862), Minister of Railways M. I. Khilkov (1852), associate of Alexander 1 Count N.N. Novosiltsev (1783), writer A.V. Druzhinin (1843), musician Bakhmetyev (1826).

In the Patriotic War of 1812, the names of the pupils of the Corps of Pages, cavalry general Count A.P. Tormasov, infantry general D.S.

103 pupils of the Corps of Pages became Knights of St. George. Among them are the holders of the Order of St. George 2nd degree I.V. Gurko, A.P. Tormasov, D.S. Dokhturov; 3rd degree - Prince V.I. Vasilchikov, P.A. Shuvalov, N.I. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, Prince Imeretinsky.

Graduates of the Corps of Pages often served as Moscow governors and governors-general: A.G. Shcherbatov (1844-1848), A.A. Kozlov (1905), S.K. Gerschelman (1906-1909), F.F. Yusupov (1915). He graduated from the Corps of Pages and one of the last governors of Moscow in 1908-1913. Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky. VF Dzhunkovsky for "special labors and energetic activity during the great flood in April 1908 within the Moscow province was awarded the silver medal "3a saving the dead." During his tenure as governor in Moscow, monuments to N.V. Gogol, printing pioneer Ivan Fedorov and F.P. Gaaz, Museum of Fine Arts named after the Emperor Alexander III(currently the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), an exhibition of agricultural machinery was held at Butyrsky Farm (1909), a tram line was built from the Zoological Garden to Presnenskaya Zastava. In 1912, Dzhunkovsky was a member of the committee for the arrangement of the Museum of 1812. In December 1917, he retired. As an experienced counterintelligence officer, he collaborated with F.E. Dzerzhinsky after the October Revolution and served in the Cheka. In 1937 he was arrested and shot on trumped-up charges.

Despite the exceptional caste of the Corps of Pages, his pupils were distinguished by freethinking. The graduates of the corps were Alexander Radishchev (1766), the author of the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” banned by Catherine II, and the Decembrist officers P. Pestel, V. Ivashev, P. Svistunov.

The pages did not accept the February Revolution. The announcement of the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne caused them a state of shock. Being constantly close to the imperial family, they became part of this family to a certain extent, and the emperor's decision shocked them. When, on one of the March days of 1917, the pages were gathered to take their oath to the Provisional Government, the words of the 19-year-old first chamber page Golitsyn were heard, addressed to the director of the corps, Major General Rittich: “Your Excellency, we will not swear to the provisional governments !" After that, the pages left the White Hall of the palace.

On September 19, 1917, the Corps of Pages was renamed the Petrograd Gymnasium. After various transformations of the Corps of Pages and renaming of its name, which occurred after the February Revolution, the building of the former Corps of Pages, which suffered after the suppression of the Left SR rebellion, was transferred to the District Commissariat of Military Educational Institutions. For many years, the Leningrad Twice Red Banner Infantry School named after Kirov was located in the Vorontsov Palace. In 1955, the Leningrad Suvorov Military School was formed on the basis of the infantry school. Over time, the infantry school was transferred to another location. The Suvorov School continues to be located in the Vorontsov Palace. After the February Revolution, the unique library of the building was transported from one room to another, and, as it turned out by chance in 1992, it ended up in the Taurida Palace. All attempts by the command of the St. Petersburg Suvorov Military School and zealots of the glorious history of the oldest military educational institution in Russia to return the library to its rightful owner were unsuccessful.

Scattered all over the world after the October Revolution, the pages nevertheless did not forget their Alma Mater. In February 1921, the Union of Russian Pages was formed in Paris with branches in England, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Yugoslavia, and the USA. Many of the descendants of the pages arrived in St. Petersburg in December 1992 for the celebrations on the occasion of the 190th anniversary of the opening of the corps. Those who arrived for the anniversary considered it an honor to donate precious relics of their ancestors to the Museum of Cadet Corps being created at the Suvorov School.

At the end of December 2002, celebrations were held at the St. Petersburg Suvorov Military School to mark the 200th anniversary of the Corps of Pages. During the celebrations, the direct descendants of pages living in Russia and who arrived from France, Switzerland, the USA and other countries enjoyed special attention. Among the descendants of the pages were Sokolov-Khitrovo, M.V. Averino, A. Glavatsky, O. B. Levshina, N. Yu. Krivoshein, F. Dedyulina and others. Baron Alexander von Falz-Fein, the grandson of one of the last directors of the Corps of Pages, Infantry General N.A. Yepanchin, addressed the audience with a warm and heartfelt speech. An important part of the celebrations was the opening in the building of the Maltese copella of the Museum of the History of the Russian Cadet Corps - a branch of the Military History Museum of Artillery, engineering troops and signal troops. The conference dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Corps of Pages was of considerable interest to all those who arrived at the anniversary celebrations. Valery Nikolaevich Skoblov, head of the Suvorov School, and Olga Vladimirovna Silchenko, head of the library, made a great contribution to the celebrations.

Brief bibliography:

“In the service of three emperors”, General of Infantry N.A. Yepanchin, memoirs. Journal "Our Heritage", Moscow, 1996. P.299

2. "The Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty for a hundred years 1802 - 1902". Compiled by D.M. Levshin. v.II of the Application. SPb., 1902, 197-201

"Military Encyclopedia", M. 1913.
A. Miloradovich, "Materials for the history of the Corps of Pages", 1711-1875;
O.R. von Freimann, "Pages for 185 years" 1711-1896, Friedrichsgam, 1894-1897;

6. Pavel Grabbe, “Windows on the Neva”, “My early years in Russia”, St. Petersburg 1995, 206 p.

7. A.M. Plekhanov, A.A. Popov, “Heirs of Suvorov”, M., “Rusaki”, 2001, 280 p.

S.K.Darkov, “Cadet notes of a Suvorovite”, M., 2001, 168 p.
V.M. Krylov, “Cadet corps and Russian cadets”, St. Petersburg, 1998, 672 p.

10. V.A. Kropotkin, Notes of a Revolutionary, M., Moskovsky Rabochiy, 1988, 544 p.