Life story. Franz Lefort: short biography Franz Lefort short biography
Lefort was born in Geneva. From a young age he was obsessed with adventure. At the age of 19, already having experience of military service in France and Holland, Lefort, together with the Danish envoy, arrived in Arkhangelsk in 1675. From Arkhangelsk Lefort moved to Moscow and settled in the German settlement.
Soon after his marriage to the daughter of General Buktoven, Elizaveta Suge, he was promoted to captain and sent to Ukraine, where at that time there was a war with the Turks and Tatars.
During the Ukrainian campaign, Lefort won the sympathy of Prince V.V. Golitsyn, adviser and, as many believed, lover of Princess Sophia. Having distinguished himself in the war, Lefort received the rank of lieutenant colonel and in 1683 was introduced to the young Peter I. Being an intelligent, cheerful and courteous person, Lefort made a strong impression on the future emperor from the very beginning. Lefort began to be seen more and more often in Preobrazhenskoye, and in a short time he became an indispensable participant in all the royal amusements. Peter promoted Lefort to major general and arranged amusing fights with him, which, however, were not a simple game, but also served a training function.
In turn, Peter also became a frequent visitor to the German Settlement. The latter attracted him like a magnet. It was there that Peter found his first teachers in maritime affairs, Franz Timmermann and Karsten Brandt, who taught him how to operate an old boat he had found. Lefort became Peter's leader in a new forbidden and attractive foreign world for the inquisitive king. He cordially received the king at his home and organized magnificent feasts in his honor. Prince B.I. Kurakin, who knew Peter’s entourage well, described Lefort himself and the feasts that took place in the German settlement as follows: “The said Lefort was a funny and luxurious man, or call it a French brawl. And he constantly gave dinners, soup and balls... Immediately a riot began in the house, drunkenness was so great that it is impossible to describe that after being locked in that house for three days they were drunk, and that many happened to die as a result.”
After the accession of Peter I to the Russian throne, Lefort's rapid rise began. He was promoted to full general and admiral, and in 1697 became the Novgorod governor. Enjoying great influence at court, Lefort did not interfere, however, in government affairs. He patronized foreigners, but at the same time attracted public service and elevated capable Russian people. Lefort was one of the initiators and active participants in the famous Great Embassy of 1697-98. to the European courts, the actual head of which was the king himself.
Soon after arriving in Moscow, Lefort became seriously ill and on March 12, 1699, died in his palace, built by order of Peter I and preserved to this day in a modified form.
Source of information http://www.prazdniki.ru/person/1/5046/
Franz Yakovlevich Lefort
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Franz Yakovlevich Lefort was born on January 2, 1656 in Geneva in the family of a major Swiss merchant. In 1672-1673 he volunteered in the war with Holland. In 1674 he joined the troops of Prince William of Orange and distinguished himself in several battles. In August 1675, at the invitation of the royal embassy, he came to Russia. During his first years he worked as a secretary for the envoy of the Danish kingdom, then, under the patronage of Prince V. Golitsyn, he joined the Russian army with the rank of captain. From 1679 he served in the Reiter regiment of General P. Gordon. Participated in repelling raids Crimean Tatars to the southern regions of Ukraine. In 1688, with the rank of colonel, he commanded the Yelets regiment and took part in the campaign against the Crimea.
In 1689, while defending the Trinity-Sergius Monastery from the archers of Princess Sophia, already with the rank of major general, he first met the young Tsar Peter Alekseevich. Highly appreciating Lefort's knowledge and human qualities, the tsar promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general, made him one of his closest advisers and friends, and entrusted him with the formation of a regiment of the “foreign system”, called Lefortovo. Franz Yakovlevich accompanied Peter on his first boat. It was he who, encouraging the tsar’s interest in maritime affairs, proposed in 1691 to build a shipyard on the shores of Lake Pleshcheevo. A year later, Peter entrusted Lefort with command of the largest 30-gun ship of his amusing flotilla and named him admiral.
In 1693, Lefort accompanied Peter I on a trip to Arkhangelsk, where he negotiated the purchase of foreign ships and inviting Dutch and English shipwrights to the Solombala shipyards. In July 1694, together with the tsar, he met the 44-gun frigate "Holy Prophecy", built to order in Rotterdam, and sailed on it to Cape Holy Nose.
Then, on the instructions of the Tsar, Lefort went to Voronezh to organize the intensive work of shipbuilding shipyards there. In 1695, his regiment of 4.5 thousand soldiers and officers was transformed into the “First Naval Battalion”. During the 1st Azov campaign, Lefort heads one of the three “generals” and is a member of the Military Council. The failure of the siege of Azov forced the tsar to begin intensive construction of galleys at the Voronezh shipyards. All work on the construction of the fleet was led by F.Ya. Lefort and F.A. Golovin.
During the 2nd Azov campaign in 1696, Peter I appointed Lefort commander of the entire Russian fleet, awarded him the rank of admiral, and raised the admiral's flag over Lefort's galley "Principium". F.Ya. Lefort became the first admiral of the Russian fleet.
After the capture of Azov, at a solemn assembly in Moscow, Peter I generously rewarded Lefort and appointed him viceroy of the Grand Duchy of Novgorod.
In the spring of 1697 F.Ya. Lefort, F.A. Golovin and P.B. Voznitsin officially headed the “Grand Embassy”, which visited Prussia, Poland, France, Holland, England and Austria. The “Great Ambassadors” held intensive negotiations with the goal of creating an alliance between the Russian state and these countries to fight with Turkey for the northern coast of the Black Sea and with Sweden for access to the shores of the Baltic Sea. At the same time, Western European military art, naval, artillery, and engineering were studied, officers and craftsmen were recruited for Russian service, and weapons and other military equipment were purchased.
After returning to Moscow at the end of the summer of 1698 and suppressing the Streltsy revolt, Peter I decided to go to the Voronezh shipyards to inspect the ships under construction and prepare for their launch with the onset of the spring flood. In February 1699, on the eve of the tsar's departure, Lefort gave a farewell evening and dinner, at the end of which everyone went out to feast in the open air. The next day, Peter I and his delegation set off safely, but Lefot fell ill and went to bed.
The disease progressed, and it soon became clear that Lefort had typhoid fever. On March 2, 1699, he died suddenly. After receiving news of the death of his friend, Peter I urgently returned to Moscow for the ceremonial burial of the first Russian admiral. Peter I ordered the inscription to be made on the tombstone of Franz Lefort: “He stood unshakably at the dangerous heights of court happiness.”
Life different people proceeds differently. Some, having lived to almost 100 years, leave nothing behind, others, whose life is short, remain in history forever.
Franz Yakovlevich Lefort He lived only 43 years, but left a bright mark on the history of the country that became his second home.
Coat of arms of the Lefort family. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Alfredovic
He was born on January 2, 1656 in Geneva in the family of a merchant Jacques Lefort. Until the age of 14, Franz studied at the Geneva Collegium ( high school, in which some subjects were taught as in a higher education institution). His father then sent him to Marseille to learn trade.
Franz, however, was not at all eager to continue the family business, dreaming of a military career. A tall young man endowed with great physical strength believed that military service would allow him to get closer to strong of the world this.
In 1674, Franz Lefort, against the wishes of his family, left for Holland and began his military career in the retinue of the Courland Duke Friedrich-Casimir.
The talented and ambitious guy was noticed by the Dutch Colonel van Frosten. Having assessed Lefort’s ambitions, he advised him to try his hand at Muscovy, where the young military man, according to the colonel, had more opportunities for career growth.
Career in “wild Muscovy”
Lefort heeded the advice and went to Moscow, where he settled in the German settlement. He was accepted into the service, but in the early years, due to the lack of hostilities, he served as secretary to the Danish envoy.
In 1678, Franz Lefort was appointed commander of a company as part of the Kyiv garrison. During his two and a half years of service in Kyiv, he took part in military campaigns more than once, establishing himself as a brave shooter and an excellent horseman.
In 1681, Lefort received leave and went to Geneva. His relatives greeted him with open arms and advised him not to travel again to “wild Muscovy,” from which, in their opinion, he escaped only by a miracle.
Franz was indignant - he is an officer who took an oath to the Russian Tsar, which it would be a shame to break. After his vacation, Lefort returns to Moscow.
During his absence, serious changes took place in Russia. Died Tsar Fedor Alekseevich, and minors became formal rulers princes Ivan And Peter. Had real power Princess Sophia, who became regent under the brothers.
Sophia's favorite Prince Vasily Golitsyn, who was drawn to European culture, took Lefort under his protection.
In 1683, Lefort was promoted twice: first promoted to major and then to lieutenant colonel. In 1687 and 1689, Lefort took part in two unsuccessful campaigns in the Crimea. Despite the army's failures, Lefort himself again rose in rank, rising to the rank of colonel.
Dreams Come True
After returning from the second Crimean campaign, he found himself in the epicenter of the political struggle between Sophia and Peter I. The young tsar, fearing an attack by his sister’s supporters, fled to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, taking refuge behind its strong walls. From there, Peter sent orders to the regiments to go to him, refusing Sophia's support.
September 4, 1689 General Patrick Gordon took the regiments subordinate to him from Moscow to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Franz Lefort also went with Gordon to Peter. This choice turned out to be decisive in the fate of the officer.
Peter I, who had gained a foothold in power, was drawn to foreigners. Even the protests of the patriarch could not interfere with this affection. Among the foreigners, the tsar began to single out Gordon and Lefort. Peter became friends with them after they supported him in his fight against Sophia.
The Tsar often visited new friends in the German settlement, but became especially close to the younger Lefort, although Franz was older young Peter for as much as 16 years.
Gradually, Lefort turned into the tsar’s closest friend and main adviser in all his endeavors. The youthful dream of a native of Geneva came true - he became close to the monarch!
“He would have acquired a great fortune if he had not been so generous.”
Peter I showed Lefort signs of friendship and mercy. In 1690 on the occasion of the birth Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich he was awarded the rank of major general and the position of commander of the 1st Moscow elective regiment. Since noisy royal feasts were often held in Lefort’s house and he could no longer accommodate everyone, Peter gave money for the reconstruction of the house.
Lefort wrote to his family in Geneva that he now had everything he could only dream of. At the same time, Lefort’s wealth and great opportunities did not spoil him. His compatriot Captain Senebier wrote about Lefort: “As long as Moscow remains Moscow, there was no foreigner in it who would enjoy such power. He would have acquired a great fortune if he had not been so generous. It is true, of course, that thanks to this quality he reached such a high level. His Majesty gives him significant gifts."
Lefort took part in all the trips of Peter I, land and sea exercises. During the Kozhukhov maneuvers, General Lefort almost died, suffering burns to his face and neck.
He took part in the Azov campaigns of 1695 and 1696. In the first of them, Lefort personally participated in the assault on Azov and captured a captured banner.
Admiral with a sable coat
In between campaigns, Peter I granted his favorite the rank of admiral. Many considered the tsar's decision an eccentricity - there really is no fleet, and the admiral himself is not a native of a naval power. However, the newly-minted Admiral Lefort fulfilled his task in the second campaign, with the newly created galley fleet blocking the opportunity for enemy ships to freely approach Azov by sea, delivering reinforcements and food.
For the capture of Azov, Lefort received the title of Novgorod governor, patrimony in the Epifansky and Ryazan districts, a gold medal and a sable fur coat.
Lefort was never careful in battles, so he was wounded several times. Old wounds made themselves felt more and more often, and the health of his associate Peter deteriorated greatly.
Nevertheless, Lefort in 1697-1698 took part in the “Great Embassy” to Europe. Actually, the very idea of a trip with the aim of strengthening ties with European monarchs initially belonged to Lefort. He himself was one of the three "great ambassadors plenipotentiary" along with Fedor Golovin And Prokofiy Voznitsyn. At the same time, Lefort performed mostly representative functions, including due to health problems.
Housewarming before death
In July 1698, the “Great Embassy” left for Russia ahead of schedule. The reason was a new Streltsy riot. By the time Peter I returned, he was already suppressed, and the tsar began investigations and executions.
Lefort did not participate in the massacres. He devoted the strength that illness had not yet taken away to equipping his new palace, the construction of which had just been completed.
The palace's reception hall alone, with an area of over 300 square meters and a ceiling height of 10 meters, could simultaneously accommodate 1,500 guests. A contemporary reports that one of the rooms of the palace was “upholstered in green leather and lined with valuable cabinets, the second contains objects of Chinese work, the third is decorated with silver damask brocade and there is a three-cubit-high bed with reddish curtains; His Majesty decorated the fourth room from top to bottom with marinas, and galleys and ships hung from the ceiling.”
On February 12, 1699, in the palace, which was later called Lefortovo, the owner, along with the tsar and many guests, celebrated a housewarming. Just eleven days after this, Lefort fell ill with a fever and could no longer overcome this illness.
“At the dangerous heights of court happiness stood unshakable”
On March 12, 1699, Franz Lefort passed away. His death was a blow to Peter I. “I lost my best friend at a time when I needed him most...” the Tsar said bitterly.
Peter I gave his associate a magnificent funeral. On the tombstone of Franz Lefort, by order of Peter I, it was written: “He stood unshakably at the dangerous heights of court happiness.”
A few years later, the tsar moved to the new capital - St. Petersburg. Among Muscovites who did not like Peter’s reforms, the darkest rumors circulated about Lefort, which is why even his grave was avoided. Over time, it got lost, and debates about where the associate of the main Russian reformer actually rests continue to this day.
But the name Lefort itself has been preserved in Moscow - today it is borne by one of the central districts.
A merry fellow and a reveler in peaceful life, but a dashing grunt and a brave man in war, Franz Lefort became the closest ally and, despite the significant difference in age, friend of Peter I in 1690. His rise occurred rapidly, which was a complete surprise for many, since the young monarch openly disliked the former associates of his sister Sophia and her favorite Prince Golitsyn.
For only nine years, Franz Lefort was next to Peter I, but these years included an enormous number of fateful events for the country, in which the Russified Genevan was an active participant. The young monarch always trusted Lefort, listened to his advice, and he preferred to spend his free time, which he had little, in the company of his favorite.
When Franz Lefort suddenly fell ill and died, Peter grieved greatly, declaring to those close to him: “Who can I rely on now? He alone was faithful to me! How did it happen that the son of a Geneva merchant became the closest ally of the Russian Tsar, admiral general Russian fleet and a major politician to whom they were forced to listen in Europe?
Franz Lefort was born on January 2, 1656 in Geneva in the family of a large merchant. The young man received a good education, but did not want to continue the family trading business. Believing that a real career could only be made in the army, he went to Holland, where for some time he participated in the war against France. At the end of the summer of 1675, in the detachment of Colonel van Frosten, he went to be hired for military service in Russia. But for some reason the Dutch detachment was not accepted for service, and it disintegrated. Lefort did not want to return from Russia and remained in Moscow. In 1678, he was enlisted in the service with the rank of captain.
Already at the beginning of 1679, he was sent to Kyiv, where he was given command of a company. In Ukraine, participating in battles with the Crimean Tatars, he became close friends with Major General Patrick Gordon and Prince Vasily Golitsyn. A brave man, a merry fellow and a reveler, he easily settled down in Russia, learned the language, but did not make a quick career. He always believed that the money that an officer makes should not be put into a jar, but drunk with friends, which undoubtedly impressed his Russian colleagues. By the way, his salary was not small - 120 rubles a year, and during the period of hostilities it increased to 300 rubles.
True, in 1681 he “squeezed” part of the money paid for his service in order to go to Geneva for a short time. He responded to the entreaties of his relatives to stay and settle down with a decisive refusal, believing that his destiny was now in Russia. After returning from a voyage abroad, he served for some time in Moscow, then again in Kyiv.
During the Moscow period of service, Lefort again became close to Golitsyn, who by this time had become the favorite of Princess Sophia. Golitsyn loved to visit Lefort’s hospitable house in the German settlement. Not without the participation of the princess's favorite, Lefort was promoted twice in a year, becoming lieutenant colonel. Under the command of Golitsyn, he took part in two Crimean campaigns. They did not bring him glory, nor did they bring glory to the entire Russian army. But he advanced noticeably in his service, became a colonel and in 1689 received command of one of the oldest soldier regiments, created under Tsar Mikhail Romanov.
When the acute confrontation between the young Peter I and Princess Sophia began, Lefort and his regiment, like Patrick Gordon, arrived at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Soon the dual power in the country was over, Peter firmly took the reins of power into his own hands. During this period, Lefort and Gordon began to appear more and more often next to the young monarch. The Tsar needed foreign military specialists to create a new army, so the general and colonel, who had long since become members of Rus', clearly came to court.
The younger Lefort actively participated in the tsarist military “fun”, which turned into full-scale exercises. During one of them, he even almost died, but, as they say, God was merciful. Soon Peter began to visit Gordon’s house in the German settlement, but then “reoriented” to Lefort, who always had parties with great scope and fun. Apparently, they walked from the heart, since one of his contemporaries left a characteristic note about this: “The said Lefort was a funny and luxurious man, or call it a French brawl. And he constantly gave dinners, soups and balls in his house... Immediately, debauchery began in the house, drunkenness was so great that it is impossible to describe that they were locked in that house for three days and were drunk, and that many happened to die as a result.”
With the assistance of Lefort, and, possibly, in his house, Peter met Anna Mons, who soon became his favorite. “It was here, in Lefort’s house, that Peter learned how to treat foreign ladies, and Cupid first began to exist,” Prince Kurakin later wrote. But the monarch visited Lefort’s house not only for the sake of having fun. The young tsar, who had long conversations with Lefort, was interested in everything connected with foreign countries, from the structure of European armies to commerce and etiquette. It is believed that it was Lefort who gave Peter the idea to travel incognito through several European countries.
Anna Mons
Lefort's career developed rapidly, in 1693 he was already a full general, the tsar's closest adviser on issues not only of the army, but also of the navy. The fact that Lefort could not only give sensible advice, but also successfully command troops, he demonstrated in the Azov campaigns. If in the first campaign Lefort commanded the infantry corps, then in the second Peter entrusted him with the entire fleet. Azov was taken, after which the tsar became convinced that Lefort was as knowledgeable in naval affairs as in military affairs. Of course, Franz Lefort could not be a real naval specialist, but he was a good organizer, knew how to make the right decisions depending on the situation and strictly enforce them.
By the way, the fleet at that time was almost entirely galley, so its commander did not need to be a real sailor. And Peter introduced him closely to the fleet even before Azov. Lefort supervised the construction of the first ships in Pereslavl-Zalessky, accompanied the tsar on trips to Arkhangelsk, went to sea with him several times, and even received command of a ship purchased in Holland.
After the capture of Azov, the time came for the long-planned voyage abroad - the Grand Embassy. Its main organizer was Franz Lefort, who by this time had received the rank of admiral general (corresponding to field marshal general in the army). Lefort not only accompanied the king and was a translator at most meetings and negotiations. It was he who helped Peter master the science of European politesse in practice. In matters of actual diplomatic matters, the admiral was not particularly strong; here the tsar listened more to the boyar Fyodor Golovin or the Duma clerk Prokofy Voznitsyn, who were responsible for the diplomatic part of the embassy.
Peter’s ambassadorial trip had to be urgently interrupted, as a Streltsy rebellion began in Moscow. Lefort also returned to Russia with him. He did not take part in the investigation and executions of the archers, being engaged in the arrangement of his palace, built on the banks of the Yauza with money allocated by the tsar. It was the largest and most modern palace in Moscow for that time, and Peter had serious plans for it. In it, the king received the envoy of Prussia on January 20, 1699.
The housewarming in the palace was celebrated magnificently in the presence of Peter on February 12, 1699. But Lefort did not have time to settle into the new palace; he caught a cold and became seriously ill. According to a contemporary, Lefort “in continuous delirium drove the pastor away, demanding wine and musicians. The doctors allowed the latter: the favorite sounds of arias calmed the patient, but not for long. He fell into unconsciousness again and woke up only just before his death.” On March 2, Franz Lefort passed away; he was only 44 years old.
The Tsar, who urgently arrived from Voronezh, gave his favorite a solemn funeral. Unfortunately, over time, Lefort’s grave, located in the church on the territory of the German Settlement, was lost. But the memory of Peter’s companion is alive. There is a Lefortovo district in Moscow, and recently a monument was erected in it, depicting the young Peter I and his faithful comrade-in-arms Franz Lefort. Lefort is also remembered in his homeland, Geneva, where a street is named in his honor.
The Petrine period of Russian history remains one of the largest in terms of cardinal changes that affected the entire way of life of a huge country. The young king, despite his abilities and a strong character, from the very beginning of his reign, needed help and advice in choosing the direction, methods and means for his reforms.
He found support among his compatriots, who understood the need for change, and among foreigners, in whose way of life and way of thinking he saw certain features new country which he was building. Franz Lefort was one of Peter the Great's faithful companions, who devotedly served the sovereign and his new homeland to the best of his ability.
From a family of merchants
The ancestors of Peter the Great's admiral came from Piedmont, a province in northern Italy. Their surname at first sounded like Lefortti, then, after they moved to Switzerland, it was changed into the French way - Le Fort.
The main occupation that brought good income to the Leforts was the mosquito (household chemicals: varnishes, paints, soap) trade. A merchant career also awaited François, who was born in 1656 in Geneva and was the youngest of the seven sons of Jacob Le Fort. At the insistence of his father, Franz Lefort, after graduating from the Geneva College (secondary educational institution) in 1670 went to Marseille to study commerce.
Born for exploits
Tall, handsome, physically strong, dexterous and quick-witted, cheerful and energetic, the young man could hardly imagine his future life as standing behind a counter or sitting at a desk. Franz Lefort, whose biography was supposed to be a repetition of the prosperous life path of his father and immediate relatives, ran away from the merchant, who was called upon to teach him the basics of business, to the garrison fortress of Marseille, where he entered military service as a cadet.
Enraged by his son's willfulness, Jacob Lefort demands his son's return home. Franz’s strict Calvinist upbringing does not allow Franz to disobey the head of the family, and upon his arrival in Geneva, he nevertheless begins to work in the shop.
About three years passed before Franz received permission from his father and relatives to go to military service with the Duke of Courland. At the end of the summer of 1675, he left Geneva to take part in the fighting in the theater of the Franco-Dutch War.
At the invitation of the Russian Tsar
European wars of that time were usually fought by the forces of "landsknechts", invited by numerous rulers of small state entities. Franz Lefort also became a “soldier of fortune” in the 17th century. The short biography of such military experts was often a series of moves in search of a better life.
Peace negotiations began in Holland. Disinherited after the death of his father, Lefort accepted the invitation of the Dutch Lieutenant Colonel Van Frosten, who was assembling a team at the invitation of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and at the end of 1675 he ended up in Arkhangelsk, and the next year in Moscow.
German settlement
By that time he had died, and his son Fedor was on the throne. Three years passed before Lefort was accepted into military service with the rank of captain. During this time, he settled down in the capital of Muscovy, settled in the German Settlement, and made friends with Europeans who had lived in Moscow for a long time. One of those who willingly mastered the language and tried to understand local customs was Franz Lefort. The nationality of the inhabitants of the foreign settlement was diverse. Franz enjoyed a special favor with the Scot Patrick Gordon, the future general of Peter the Great. He even managed to marry the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Suga, a native of England, Elizabeth.
At the end of 1678, Lefort (Franz Yakovlevich - that’s what they began to call him in Muscovy) was appointed commander of a company included in the Kyiv garrison, commanded by Gordon. During his two years of service, in addition to garrison service in Kyiv, he took part in campaigns against the Crimeans. Lefort enjoyed the favor of Prince Vasily Golitsin, known for his pro-Western sentiments.
In 1681, Lefort was released on leave to his homeland. In Geneva, his relatives tried to persuade him not to return to the barbarian country, but to continue serving in Europe. But Francois, speaking well of Moscow, returned to the German Settlement.
Crimean campaigns
Upon returning to Moscow, he found changes in the Kremlin. After the death of Tsar Fyodor, his brothers Ivan and Peter were crowned kings, under the regency of their sister, the powerful and ambitious Sophia. Prince Golitsin was her favorite and, to strengthen the queen’s authority, he undertook two campaigns against the Crimean Turks. Both campaigns were unsuccessful due to poor preparation, but Lefort, who was constantly attached to the commander-in-chief, proved himself to be a skilled officer and was soon promoted to colonel.
Some historians are of the opinion that the failures of the second Crimean campaign (1689) were exaggerated, be that as it may, but soon after it, Sophia’s power finally weakened: a new sovereign, Peter, was rising to his feet in Moscow.
Getting closer to Peter
A brilliant European, intelligent and charming, educated and skillful officer Franz Lefort soon became an indispensable friend for the young Tsar. From him Peter could find answers to numerous questions and state structure, and on preparing a combat-ready army, and on improving everyday life in a European manner.
Thanks to his established connections with Geneva, Franz, at the request of his royal friend, began to actively invite engineers, shipbuilders, gunsmiths and other specialists from all over Europe to Muscovy, in which Peter felt a significant lack.
Lefort's house in the German settlement was considered one of the best in decoration and society and was the most suitable meeting place for the large company of like-minded people that Peter gathered around him. He allocated funds to build a huge hall in Lefort’s house, where the young tsar could spend time in a European way, far from the conservative Kremlin entourage.
On the occasion of the birth of the heir in 1690, numerous favors to Peter’s inner circle were announced throughout Moscow. Lefort was not ignored either. Franz Yakovlevich became major general.
Lefortovo Sloboda
At the request of Lefort, who sought to create a regular army in Moscow, a place was allocated for a military camp on the left bank of the Yauza. A large parade ground was built there, where intensive combat took place and barracks and houses for the command staff were erected. Gradually, an entire urban area was formed here, today bearing the name Lefortovo.
Major General Lefort took up the preparation of a new type of Russian army with great energy. Having organized the service according to the European model, he achieved strict adherence to discipline and high training of soldiers and officers. During maneuvers - “funny campaigns” - he showed personal courage, once receiving a slight wound.
Hiking to Azov
In 1695 and 1696, military campaigns were undertaken to the south, with the goal of conquering access to the Black Sea and blocking the Turkish threat to the southern borders of Russia. Franz Lefort and Peter 1 were in constant and close interaction during these enterprises. During the assault, Lefort was in the forefront of the attackers and even personally captured the enemy banner.
During preparations for the second stage of the southern war, Lefort became admiral of the fleet. Peter did not base this appointment on the outstanding naval leadership skills of Franz, which he did not possess. What was important to him was Lefort’s tirelessness in work, energy, intelligence, honesty, and his personal devotion to the sovereign. They were needed to build ships for the young Russian fleet and to train crews. In the second campaign, Lefort was appointed commander of the naval forces.
Grand Embassy
In the spring of 1697, 250 people left Moscow for Europe. The head of the delegation was Lefort, Peter was present as a private citizen. The goal of the “great embassy” was to achieve an alliance with European states against the Turkish empire, and the young sovereign sought to satisfy his own curiosity about the European way of life, new military and civilian technologies.
During the European tour, Lefort was the chief official of the embassy. He conducted active diplomatic negotiations, organized receptions, corresponded with European politicians, and talked with those who wanted to enter the Russian service. He parted with the king only during his stay in England.
In the summer of 1698, a message came from Moscow about the uprising of the Streltsy, forcing Peter and his comrades to urgently return to Russia.
Great loss
Upon returning to the capital, Lefort, on the instructions of the tsar, participated in the trials of the rebel archers, and there is evidence of his protest against mass executions, in which he resolutely refused to participate.
During his trip to Europe, a magnificent palace was built for Lefort on the Yauza, given to him by Peter. But the admiral only had time to celebrate a magnificent housewarming party. At the end of February his health deteriorated sharply. He had long been tormented by the consequences of a fall from a horse, which happened to him during the end of February 1699, he caught a cold, fell ill with a fever, and died on March 2 of the same year.
This was a huge loss for Tsar Peter. He said that he had lost a faithful friend, one of his most devoted comrades, whom he now especially needed.
Lefort also had loyal friends, as well as fierce opponents. Franz Yakovlevich, short biography which is similar to the plot of an adventure novel, evoked deep respect among some, and burning hatred among others. Most likely, he was not the main initiator of Peter’s reforms, as some historians believe. But to make him only a cheerful royal drinking companion, as some argue, is also deeply unfair. Before us is the bright life of a man who everyone wanted well-being for the country that became his second homeland.
“...People like Lefort adorn the history of mankind” (Domestic Portrait Gallery of Famous Persons... St. Petersburg, 1837.P.83).
Preface
The pride of any state consists of individuals whose names are associated with grandiose changes in the life of society: Alexander the Great and Richard the Lionheart, Henry IV and Elizabeth of England, Ivan the Terrible and Peter I. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the extraordinary, in many ways tragic figure of the first Russian emperor is invariably attracts the attention of historians around the world. Some see him as a genius and the savior of Russia, while others see him as a destroyer of the traditional way of life of the people. Naturally, the tsar’s associates, who played a huge role not only in his life, but also in Russian history as a whole, do not go unnoticed.
Franz Yakovlevich Lefort... There is probably not a person in Moscow who has not heard this name. It is known by the name of the ancient city district, palace, archive and, finally, prison. “As long as Russia exists, the name of Lefort will be inseparable from the name of Peter,” wrote one of his biographers. Indeed, any story about a Russian sovereign necessarily features an ambitious, dexterous and sociable foreigner. The attitude of contemporaries and descendants towards F. Lefort is similar to the attitude towards his great friend and patron - from complete rejection to excessive praise and attribution to him of what did not really exist. So, according to Prince B.I. Kurakina, a drunkard, a "debaucher", an associate of the tsar in amorous affairs - Lefort "had a weak mind" and did not take part in affairs government controlled Absolutely no participation. The secretary of the Austrian embassy, Baron Korb, on the contrary, attributed to Lefort the initiative of almost all the major political decisions of young Peter: organizing a campaign against Azov, the Grand Embassy to Western Europe, reforming the army and creating a fleet. Who was Francois Lefort, a native of Geneva? A happy adventurer who managed to gain the trust of the all-powerful emperor or a talented person appreciated by the great king-transformer?
Historical figures judged by the results of their deeds. Peter's deeds speak for themselves - the first Russian newspaper and the Academy of Sciences, access to the shores of the Baltic Sea and the beginning of the development of the southern steppe expanses, a strong army and a powerful navy, the development of factories and factories, Russia's entry into the system of European states. Speaking about all this, we must not forget about the man, thanks to whom the birth of a new country took place - Franz Yakovlevich Lefort.
Unfortunately, Lefort’s personality did not attract the attention of researchers for a long period of time. The most striking monographs devoted to his activities were published in the middle of the last century. In many ways, their assessments are outdated, and a number of facts require serious verification. There is still no research on the history of Moscow architectural monuments associated with his name. All of the listed gaps in the literature are what this book is intended to fill to some extent.
The creators of the book express their sincere gratitude for assistance in preparing the publication: member of the Moscow Government, Prefect of the South-Eastern Administrative District V.B. Zotov, adviser to the District Assembly of the Lefortovo District Administration, actor of the State Academic Maly Theater A.Yu. Ermakov (book idea), director of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts M.P. Lukichev; Director of the Russian State Military Historical Archive I.O. Garkushe, deputy Director M.R. Ryzhenkov, employees L.I. Zvishbe, V.M. Shabanov; Director of the Russian State Historical Archive A.R. Sokolov; Head of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Monuments of Moscow V.A. Bulochnikov, employee O.A. Zakharova; Director of the State Public Historical Library M.D. Afanasyev, employees G.P. Demidenko, A.G. Dyachkova, N.A. Zelenyak-Kudreyko, A.V. Levashenko, L.B. Shitskova; employee of the State Historical Museum N.N. Skornyakova, employee of the State Research Museum of Architecture named after. A.V. Shchuseva T.I. Gaydor.
From Geneva to Russia
An associate of Peter I, Franz Yakovlevich Lefort, arrived in Russia on the eve of profound transformations in its economic and social life. To better understand the motives for inviting foreigners to Russian service in the 17th century, it is worth turning to the foreign policy situation around the Muscovite kingdom and the state of its armed forces.
Russia's main opponents in the international arena at that time were Sweden, Turkey and Poland. Behind these states loomed the shadow of France: the Poles, Swedes and Turks were the main allies of the Bourbons in the fight against the Habsburg Empire. TO end of XVII V. this “eastern wall” created by the French begins to acquire an anti-Russian orientation, because the struggle of the Moscow state for access to the seas and the return of occupied lands inevitably pushed it towards wars with its neighbors. Russian diplomacy, in the conditions of the country's isolation, was unable to find allies in European affairs and could only rely on its own army in solving foreign policy problems.
In the 17th century Russia's armed forces have undergone significant changes. The noble local cavalry finally lost its combat capabilities. The Streltsy army, in turn, was unable to wage a modern war. The Streltsy, from being the support of the regime, increasingly turned into a factor of instability, causing headaches for the throne. The Troubles, unsuccessful wars with Poland and Sweden, and the continuous raids of the Crimean Tatars in their entirety raised the question of introducing a European element into military affairs, and, first of all, the formation of regiments of a new (foreign) system.
Even under Tsar Boris Godunov, there was a whole squad of foreign mercenaries in Russia. During the Time of Troubles, almost all foreigners were fired. They resorted to their help again in the 1630s. The Russian government, during the wars with Poland, had lost faith in the combat capabilities of a motley foreign army, and now moved on to selectively hiring officers to train Russian soldiers. At the same time, the government demanded from mercenaries service patents, recommendations from kings and other high-ranking officials, and arranged tests of their knowledge and combat skills.
The invitation of foreign specialists expanded during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. Among the recruited officers were Dutch, Germans, Courlanders and even Swiss, about whose homeland little else was known in Russia at that time. The foreign regiments constituted by the end of the 17th century. up to half of the entire Russian army. Foreigners were attracted to a distant country primarily by the possibility of high earnings. Generals in the soldier regiments of the new system received 90 - 100, colonels 25 - 50, lieutenant colonels 15 - 18, majors 14 - 16, captains 13, captains 9 - 11, lieutenants 5 - 8, warrant officers 4 - 7 rubles per month. In the Reiter regiments, salaries were even higher. Among those who arrived in Russia to train and lead the new regiments was Franz Lefort.
The Lefort family (Liforti) came from Scotland. Noble (nobleman) Etienne Liforti in 1496 was listed as a captain of cuirassiers in the service of the Dukes of Savoy. Over time, he settled in the city of Coni in the Principality of Piedmont (now Northern Italy), where he married Maria Picard (Le Picard). Etienne had at least two children: one bore his father's name, the second's name has not been preserved. Lefort (this version of the surname gradually became established) had a house with a portico and a shop in Cogny on Place Saint-Ambroise.
By the middle of the 16th century. Etienne Lefort's two grandsons, Jean Damien and Jean Antoine, moved to Geneva - then a refuge for Protestants persecuted by the Catholic Church. The city was located on the shore of an amazingly beautiful lake in a semicircle of alpine ridges. These natural obstacles reliably protected him from restless neighbors. The location of Geneva was also very convenient for transit international trade. Wheat from Italian Lombardy, French and Flemish fabrics, English cloth, Spanish weapons and jewelry, dishes from Germany, honey and furs from distant Russia were brought here. Along with trade, crafts, insurance and banking have developed rapidly. French Huguenots, tens of thousands of whom found refuge on the shores of Lake Geneva, laid the foundation for hatting, printing, pottery production, calico, paper, hosiery factories, and tanneries.
Shortly before the appearance of Jean Damiens and Jean Antoine in Geneva, Switzerland achieved autonomy from the Habsburgs, and the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 guaranteed the rights of an independent state to the union of Swiss cantons. Since the 14th century in Geneva there was a General Council of full citizens, which met twice a year to resolve the most important issues in the life of the city. For the operational management of the city, there was a Great Council (Council of Two Hundred), which elected a Small Council from among its members for a period of one year. From among the latter, the Magistrate was elected - four syndics, a police lieutenant, a treasurer, etc. In fact, all power was concentrated in the syndics: their department included the police, the court, they organized improvement work, defense, and set taxes. The Syndic was elected for one year and could be re-elected only after four terms. By the 17th century power in the councils began to lose its democratic potential, concentrating in the hands of the local oligarchy. Nevertheless, the Geneva Republic tried to develop a mechanism to block the spread of nepotism. This factor played a role in the fate of our hero: Franz Lefort was the fourth son in the family, which created obstacles for his future political career in Geneva.
The line of Jean Damien, who had no male heirs, was interrupted. The ancestor of all subsequent Leforts was Jean Antoine (1517 - 1590). In 1565, he received a charter from the city to acquire civil rights. His entry into the elite Genevan society was facilitated by numerous trade connections and marriage to a representative of the local patriciate, Margarita, daughter of Sir Barthelemy Miol and Catherine Bonnet. Jean-Antoine's first four children died at an early age, and only in August 1574 did the 57-year-old Genevan have a son, Isaac. Subsequently, the Lefort couple also gave birth to Ekaterina and Jacob. Catherine (1577 - 1614) married Abel Senebier, a member of the Grand Council of Geneva. Apparently, his descendant - Captain Senebier - accompanied Franz Lefort during the Great Embassy of Peter I. The youngest, Jacob, had five daughters and the Lefort surname was discontinued in this branch.
Isaac Lefort occupied a strong place among the patriciates who controlled power in the city. In 1603 he was elected to the Great Council, then, having gained political experience, he took the post of councilor, and in 1649 he reached the pinnacle of his political career, becoming the syndic of Geneva. On August 15, 1599, he married Sarah Wimar, a native of Lyon. She bore Isaac Lefort fourteen children, of whom only four survived: Jean, Daniel, Marie and Jacques. In 1652, Isaac died four years before the birth of his grandson Franz.
During Isaac's life, many significant events took place in Geneva. On the night of December 12, 1602, the Genevans once again faced the claims of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel. A detachment of Savoyards secretly entered the city and tried to open the gates. However, the sentries managed to lower the bars and raise the alarm. Half-naked and armed with anything, the Genevans rushed to defend the city. The Duke was forced to retreat. Since then, December 12 has become the most popular and noisy holiday of Genevans - the holiday of Escalades ("escalade" - to climb stairs). On December 12 of each year, Franz Lefort celebrated the Escalades in Russia among the closest associates of Peter I.
Isaac's older children died during his lifetime, so the younger Jacques (Jacob) inherited his parents' fortune and business. He was born April 15, 1618; like all the Leforts, he made a successful match for himself, marrying at the age of twenty-one the daughter of the noble Pierre Lect, Françoise. Franz's maternal grandfather came from an old aristocratic family and subsequently served as prosecutor general. Lect's wife, Franz's maternal grandmother, Maria Enjorran, was the daughter of Jacob Anjorran, a well-known legal adviser in the city and the first syndic. Franz Lefort's cousins along the Lekt line served at European courts, and one of them came with F. Lefort to Russia.
By the way, the Leforts themselves now represented a good match for many Geneva girls. Having acquired family ties with representatives of the local patriciate and merchant class, they occupied strong positions in power structures. The Leforts acquired a family coat of arms: a knight's helmet and shield, on the azure field of which a silver elephant was depicted standing in front of silver palm trees on a green terrace.
In 1642, Jacques was elected to the Great Council. Following the example of his ancestors, he conducted a Moscow trade with Marseille, Lyon, Frankfurt am Main, and Amsterdam. In the first year after the wedding, a daughter, Andriena, was born into the Lefort family. Subsequently, she married theology professor Louis Tronchin and maintained friendly relations with Franz, who had left for Russia. In 1642, an heir appeared in the Andrien family - Ami (1642 - 1719). Then Isaac, Maria, Eva, Miche, Jacques were born, and finally, on January 2, 1656, Franz was born. Brother Louis, born in 1658, did not live even a year, so Franz remained the most youngest child in family.
The fate of Franz's older brothers was quite successful. Ami (in Russian sources - Amadeus) in 1684 became a syndic of Geneva, in 1687 and 1696. carried out diplomatic missions at the court of Louis XIV. He conducted extensive correspondence with Franz, thanks to which it was possible to restore many pages of the admiral’s life. Of his twelve children, only five sons survived (Louis, Pierre, Jean, Amy, Isaac). Isaac (1644 - 1721) was a member of the Great Council (1671), auditor (1690). From two marriages he had eight children. Leforts along this line also served in Russia. F. Lefort's third brother, Jacques (1653 - 1732), was also elected to the Great Council in 1680. He had four children; The eldest of the sons, Jean Jacques, served as a captain of grenadiers in the Russian army.
Family life was dictated by the strict norms of Calvinism. Protestants canceled many holidays, increased the number of working days, and zealously fought against excesses in Everyday life. Geneva turned into a truly puritanical city: the number of dishes at dinner parties was limited, the wearing of expensive buttons, buckles on clothes, etc. was prohibited. The surprise of Franz Lefort’s relatives who visited him in Holland during the Great Embassy was understandable: they were not faced with an ascetic lifestyle. admiral. For Genevans, European luxury was inaccessible and forbidden. Stinginess, acquisitiveness, saving money for a rainy day - this is the lifestyle of the Calvinists, against the background of which the France of the era of Louis XIV, drowned in luxury and sin, looked so sweet and attractive to local youth.
Franz was educated at home, and then until the age of fourteen he studied with his peers from wealthy families at the Geneva College, founded by J. Calvin himself and considered one of the best in Europe. The young man spoke several European languages and spoke and wrote in excellent French. His good linguistic abilities subsequently helped him quickly master the Russian language. Meanwhile, the college could not provide fundamental knowledge, since serious science until the second quarter of the 18th century. was not held in high esteem by Calvinists. As Lefort’s biographer M. Posselt noted, “Franz’s knowledge, although based on careful, even classical training, was not extensive and did not have a deep scientific foundation.” True, he immediately made a reservation that Lefort “went through a school of mental and moral development, and, in addition, social and family connections had a powerful influence on him.”
In 1670, his father sent Franz to a merchant he knew in Marseilles to learn the trade. Meanwhile, commerce did not attract the young man at all: “Franz, from an early age, attracted attention with his healthy physique, handsome appearance, height and strength; he had a cheerful, playful temperament, a lively mind, fast, courageous and enterprising; very dexterous and was skilled in all gymnastic games; he especially loved to engage in military exercises." Lefort's military preferences were influenced by the stories of numerous foreign relatives and the social situation in Geneva. Princely, count and baronial children from Protestant lands came to study at the academy. However, they preferred entertainment, horse riding and fencing to concerns about classical education. Local youth did not stand aside.
By this time, the ethnonym “Swiss” in Europe began to be associated with the military profession. The Swiss mercenary units have traditionally been distinguished by discipline and professionalism. Especially many Swiss served in France. Both the Valois and the Bourbons used them to strengthen their power. They also said their weighty word during the Thirty Years' War of 1618 - 1648. In view of the small number of armies of that time, thirty-three thousand Swiss under the banner of Louis XIV represented a significant force. Many Genevans looked with envy at the Swiss from the Catholic cantons, who earned handsome money from military service, but the city council in 1642, under pain of severe punishment, prohibited Protestants from being hired to serve in other states. However, young men from wealthy families found ways to circumvent this ban.
Around this time, Franz ended up in Marseille. Romanticism, energy and, apparently, boredom from his new duties pushed the young man to take an adventure - he left his mentor in the trade and took a job as a volunteer in the Marseilles fortress. The angry father called his son home. Since Lefort was a minor, the commander of the fortress, at the request of his parents, was obliged to send Lefort to Geneva. For several months of cadet service, the young man did not show himself in a serious way, but he managed to develop an interest in military service.
Franz spent the next three years in his hometown, most likely helping his father in business matters. Meanwhile, in 1672, Louis XIV began another war with a coalition of the Netherlands, Spain and the Habsburg Empire. At the height of hostilities, at the end of 1673 or the beginning of 1674, twenty-year-old Karl Jacob, the younger brother of the Courland prince Friedrich-Casimir, who commanded a regiment in the Dutch army, arrived in Geneva. Passionately wanting to go to war, Karl Jacob found an ardent supporter in his peer Franz Lefort. Despite the strictest ban from the city authorities, Franz left Geneva again. The angry father did not even give him letters of recommendation to his trading counterparties in the Netherlands and allocated only sixty guilders for the journey. Karl Jacob promised his patronage. However, not least for Franz was the issue of supporting a just war for Protestants defending their land from the expansion of the Catholic king.
Franz arrived in the Netherlands on August 16, 1674 and on the same day notified his father: “I am writing you these lines only to notify you that I am immediately leaving for The Hague to join there with His Grace the Prince of Courland, under whose command I "I did. Yesterday he left here and told me to come to him in The Hague. He received me very kindly and, without a doubt, will give me some position." Jacques Lefort no longer had time to read these lines: on August 18 he died. In September, Franz took part in the siege and assault of the Udenard fortress. Then for four months he fought with the French under the walls of Grave on the Meuse. Here is what Franz Lefort wrote home about these days: “Our prince was near Grave, where the battle was unusually hot; however, the prince survived and was saved miraculously. For twenty-four nights in a row we stood under the fortress to take it by storm. From our infantry regiment dropped out seven hundred men and more than twenty-eight officers, not counting the wounded, so that the regiment now consists of only three hundred soldiers. One evening we, our prince's company, were sent forward alone. There were eighty men in all, but only seven returned: the prince, one lieutenant, one nobleman, me and three soldiers. Another time the prince rode to the apros; a cannonball flew close to the head of his horse, which fell... In one night's action, a cannonball struck a lieutenant colonel, a major and the captain of our regiment. The prince was with them and we talked between myself." During the assault on Grave, Lefort was slightly wounded in the leg by a grenade, and one of the bullets pierced his hat.
Near Grave, Lefort heard a rumor about his father’s illness. Having asked permission from Prince Friedrich Casimir, he went to Amsterdam, where tragic news awaited him. Franz felt guilty about this for the rest of his life, considering his disobedience one of the reasons for his father’s death.
Participation in the siege of European fortresses gave Lefort experience in conducting fortification work (siege artillery operations, mine warfare, construction of fortifications, etc.), which was useful to him later near Azov. Meanwhile, not supported special education and long military service, this knowledge was still quite superficial. Lefort was never enlisted for active service in the army. His hopes for the promised secretarial position under Friedrich-Cazimir gradually faded. At the end of the vacation, Lefort did not want to return to the retinue of Friedrich-Casimir and remained in Amsterdam, where he found himself in an extremely difficult financial situation. Franz did not know (and his relatives kept silent) that according to his father’s will, each of his sons received forty thousand florins, and he wrote letters home asking for assistance.
After some reflection, Lefort went to the city of Nimwegen, where the ambassadors of the warring countries gathered to develop a peace treaty. Here on June 30 he met the Dutch colonel Jacob van Frosten, who was recruiting hunters for military service in Muscovy on behalf of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The promise of the rank of captain, dreams of a career, a high salary and unclear prospects for further stay in the Netherlands pushed Lefort to take a step that later elevated him to the Olympus of Russian history. “In a word, mother,” we read in his last letter from the Netherlands, “I can assure you that you will hear either about my death or about my promotion... That’s all. I ask you one thing: preserve your love for me, for it I value it above all ranks that I could receive."
One of his father’s friends, the merchant Turton, guaranteed to the landlady to pay off the debt for twenty-one weeks of accommodation and lent Lefort money for travel. On July 21, Lefort was on board the ship and, after five days of waiting for wind, he departed for Arkhangelsk. Lieutenant Colonel van Thornin, Major Schwanberg, four captains, four lieutenants and two ensigns also sailed with Colonel van Frosten. They were all experienced people. Historian S.M. Solovyov wrote about this category of people: “It was difficult to find among them anyone with a scientific education: such people would not join mercenary squads; but these were usually living, developed people, who had seen a lot, experienced a lot, and had a lot to talk about.” , pleasant and cheerful interlocutors who loved to drink well, have fun, feast after midnight, carefree, living day after day, accustomed to the sharp turns of fate: today it’s good, tomorrow it’s bad; today there’s a victory, rich booty, tomorrow a lost battle, the booty is taken away, he himself captivity."
Six weeks of sailing became F. Lefort's largest maritime practice. August 25/September 4, 1675 F. Lefort and his companions arrived in Arkhangelsk.
Lefort's arrival in Russia
Immediately upon arrival in Arkhangelsk, it turned out that van Frosten did not have any instructions from the Russian government to recruit foreigners and the path to Moscow was closed to him until special permission from the Ambassadorial Order. Fourteen arriving officers submitted petitions for admission to the Russian service, and all of them identified themselves as natives of the Prussian city of Danzig (Gdansk). While waiting for a response from Moscow, the officers, many with their families, lived in Arkhangelsk from hand to mouth, receiving only half a ruble a day for their joint maintenance. The cold has begun. Lefort ran out of money long ago and if it weren’t for the help of the solicitor of the Dutch and Hamburg trading companies, Franz (Francesco) Guasconi, who sympathized with him, things would have gone very badly.
On October 25, a decree came from the Ambassadorial Prikaz with an order to go “to our land” with the first ship. This news horrified the officers: navigation was over, and there was no way to live on the remaining money until spring. A repeated petition was sent to Moscow asking for permission to come to the capital at one’s own expense, and from there, if one is not lucky enough to remain in Russia, to return to one’s homeland across the German border. Such permission was received.
On January 19, 1676, the officers left Arkhangelsk, speaking ill of the hostile governor F.P. Naryshkina. In a letter to his older brother, Lefort wrote about the hardships they were subjected to due to the oppression of the local “governor”: he was “worse than the devil and wanted to send us to Siberia.” Unaccustomed to the Russian cold and not properly equipped, the foreigners suffered a lack of food and amenities along the way and spent the night in squalid peasant huts. On the road, Lefort celebrated his twentieth birthday, perhaps cursing in his soul his adventurous trip to Russia. There, the officers were also greeted by the news of the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the accession of his son Fyodor to the throne.
On February 26, foreigners arrived in Moscow and appeared at the Ambassadorial Prikaz. On March 30, they were allowed to kiss the hand of the new Tsar, and a few days later it was announced that the Russian government did not need their services. The officers were left to their own devices. Colonel van Frosten and some of his fellow travelers in May 1676 managed to decide to serve as engineers in the Pushkar order. Lefort, who did not receive a place, settled in the German settlement.
This settlement, located on the right bank of the Yauza, half an hour from Moscow, has existed since the time of Ivan IV. The Terrible Tsar settled there the Germans captured during the Livonian War. During the Time of Troubles, foreigners received the right to settle throughout the city. However, numerous complaints about oppression by native authorities and residents in matters of faith in 1652 again raised the question of the government relocating all non-Orthodox “Germans” to one settlement. By the time Lefort arrived, it numbered about two hundred and fifty households. All the houses were wooden, but comfortable in a European way. Officers of the regiments of the new system, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, artists, and engineers settled here with their families. Most of the settlement's inhabitants were Lutherans. There was also a Reformed church with a school attached to it. Representatives of different nationalities lived in the settlement - Germans, English, Scots, but there were almost no French, and among the Swiss fellow tribesmen there was only one court jeweler. The inquisitive Genevan informed his relatives about the coronation celebrations of Tsar Feodor, his pilgrimage trip to Trinity on the occasion of the capture of the Turkish fortress Chigirin by Russian troops, the disgrace and exile of the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, boyar A.S. Matveev, the uprising of S.T. Razin and other news.
Through Guasconi, the sociable Lefort met influential Scots at the Russian court - Colonels Pavel Menesius and Patrick Gordon. Perhaps, under the patronage of Menesius, in the spring of 1676 Lefort entered the service as secretary of the Danish resident Magnus Gioe, with whom he thought of leaving Russia. Gioe's vacation audience, at which Lefort was also present, took place on May 23, 1676. However, he did not leave with the embassy. The reasons for this were the outbreak of war with Turkey and the engagement to the daughter of Colonel Crawford (Crafert). Lefort asks his mother's blessing for the marriage.
Dreams of enlisting in military service and participating in the campaign against the Turks were thwarted by the war that began in the winter of 1676-1677. fever and subsequent fever. For six weeks Lefort was between life and death. Due to the high cost of treatment from foreign doctors, Lefort turned to the services of local healers. On this occasion, he wrote to Geneva: “In case of fever, they take a large glass of vodka, put pepper, garlic and gunpowder in it, mix it all, strain through a rag and drink. The remedy is good, but not everyone can tolerate it.” Lefort tried this remedy on himself, and it helped him.
During his illness, Franz received a letter from Geneva. His relatives asked him to immediately leave Russia and categorically forbade him to marry. Lefort began to look for means to leave. Through Menesius, he became acquainted with the English envoy John Hebdon, with whom he intended to leave for England to enter military service there. However, this intention was not destined to come true.
On July 23, 1678, Lefort informed his family about his marriage to Elisabeth Sue (Suge), the daughter of Colonel Franz Sue, who died of wounds around 1685. Elizabeth's mother was the daughter of Colonel Isaac van Bukoven (Buckoven). After the death of her father, Elizabeth was taken care of by her uncle, Colonel, then Major General Philip Albert fan Bukoven. Through the Bukovens, Lefort became related to Major General Patrick Gordon, whose first marriage was to the daughter of Philip Albert. In a letter to his mother, Lefort assured that, despite his wife’s considerable fortune, this was a marriage of love. Elizabeth was raised Catholic. This could not but cause some inconvenience to Lefort, but the wedding ceremony was apparently performed in the Reformed church. It was decided to give the future children a Calvinist education.
Only one thing upset Lefort - the long absence of news from his homeland. He believed that in this way his relatives expressed dissatisfaction with his hasty marriage. “Believe me, most venerable mother,” he justified himself, “I live here, thanks to God, in all honor and am loved by everyone. I pray you, forgive me, mother, for all my misdeeds before you, so that God will forgive me when he recalls me.” from this world. Most worthy mother, God's will was for me to get married. My wife is a respectful daughter and has exalted qualities... Do not renounce me, keep at least some maternal feelings for me, rest assured that I am ready to prove you have all the obedience due to a son; forget the errors of my youth and believe that if God spares my life, then through my good behavior you will know that you have a son who did not value life for his own exaltation. My only desire in this life is more once, by the grace of the Lord, to embrace you, equally all my brothers and sisters, and on my knees to ask forgiveness for the grief caused to you all, then all the hardships that could befall me would be easy for me. If I am so happy that I receive from you letter, then it will be as dear to me as the one I received the year before last and gives me consolation every time I read it.”
With marriage, the question of leaving Russia disappeared by itself. “You have to be prudent,” Lefort noted. On August 10, 1678, he was accepted into military service in the Inozemsky Prikaz with the rank of captain. On November 5, he was given his first salary - “ten arshins of single-color patterned damask.”
On August 11, 1678, the Russian military command, after a long and stubborn defense, decided to leave Chigirin. The foreign policy situation was unstable, peace with Turkey was not concluded. An enemy attack on Kyiv could be expected at any moment. Prince V.V. was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian corps. Golitsyn, and the head of the Kyiv garrison was Major General P. Gordon. Lefort was assigned to his relative. In January 1679, he left for his destination, where he met V.V. Golitsyn. The favorite of Princess Sophia appreciated Lefort's military talents and subsequently did not refuse him patronage.
Lefort spent two and a half years in Ukraine. With his company of 1,200 men, he took an active part in skirmishes with the Tatars. The severe winter cold and everyday inconveniences caused constant fever. Family life was also unhappy: the first daughter, born in the German settlement, died. Lefort moved his wife and mother-in-law to Kyiv, where a second daughter was born, who died on the same day. The children born upon returning to Moscow died one after another. Only one son survived, born at the end of 1684. In honor of his godfather, the Danish Resident Commissioner Butenant, he received the name Henri (Henry). In Russia his name was Andrei.
After the conclusion of the Bakhchisarai Peace with Turkey in 1681, Lefort returned to Moscow and applied for leave to Geneva. Subject to mandatory return to service in Russia. V.V. Golitsyn gave him a travel certificate for six months. Lefort left Moscow along the first sleigh route on November 9, 1681. On January 25, 1682, he was already in Königsberg, and on February 22 he arrived in Hamburg. Having recovered from fever in Danzig, Lefort reached Geneva via Hamburg on April 16. His journey lasted about five months, and therefore his meeting with his family was very brief. The impression that Franz made on his family and friends is evidenced by the “Notes” of Amadeus Lefort’s eldest son, Louis:
“In his conversations, he presented a picture of Russia that did not at all agree with the descriptions of travelers. He tried to spread a favorable concept about this country, arguing that there you could make a very good career for yourself and rise through military service. For this reason, he tried to persuade his relatives and friends to go with him to Russia. Lefort was then twenty-six years old. All his compatriots noticed a great and advantageous change in him. He was tall and very slender. In conversation he showed himself to be strict and serious, but with friends he was joking and cheerful. One can say in the affirmative, that he was endowed from birth with the happiest gifts and talents, both of body, mind and soul. He was an excellent rider and mastered weapons perfectly. He shot from a bow with such extraordinary strength and with such incomprehensible dexterity that he surpassed the most skillful and experienced Tatars. About the military he spoke very intelligently about his craft, and one can rightly say that he judged him as a proven man, although he was the youngest son in a family that, of course, enjoyed honor, but did not have the financial resources to provide an education appropriate to his talents. As for his feelings and way of thinking, no one will ever refuse to admit - as will be revealed later - that he had an exalted and noble soul. He was the enemy of flattery and vanity. He was unshakably devoted to his sovereign in everything that concerned the glory of his reign and the happiness of his subjects, and made every effort to promote such just and noble plans.
During his stay in his homeland, Lefort was made various offers by many eminent foreigners living in Geneva. He was assured that he would find a worthy circle of activity either in France with the Swiss troops, or in Germany, or with the emperor, or in Holland and England. Influential foreigners tried to dissuade him from serving in Russia, proving that it was not only difficult, but also ungrateful... To all these signs of goodwill, Lefort replied that his heart lay towards Russia and gratitude obliges him to devote his life to the monarch, from whom he received many good deeds. He had a firm hope - and these were his own words - that if God preserved his health and gave him life, then the world would speak of him and he would achieve an honorable and advantageous position."
On May 16, 1682, Lefort received a discharge certificate from the Geneva Senate to serve in Russia with extremely flattering reviews of his business qualities, and on May 23 he left his hometown. In Hamburg at the end of June, he learned about the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, the proclamation of the young Peter as tsar and the return of boyar A.S. from exile. Matveeva. The latest news made him happy, since the former head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz patronized foreigners. In Hamburg, Lefort joined the retinue of the Danish ambassador Hillebrandt von Horn, who was returning to Russia to participate in the coronation celebrations of the new monarch. In Danzig, the retinue learned about the Streltsy uprising on May 15, 1682, the murder of A.S. Matveev and the proclamation of Ivan Alekseevich Tsar. However, Lefort did not change his decision to go to Russia. On September 19 he arrived in Moscow.
The court at this time was in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where Lefort immediately went with a message about the arrival of the Danish embassy. V.V. Golitsyn ordered Lefort to serve as a bailiff under G. Gorn. On October 19, a ceremonial reception of the embassy by the kings took place not far from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Lefort was present at the audience and was allowed to kiss the royal hands. Here he saw Tsar Peter Alekseevich for the first time. (There is no reason to believe that Lefort already in the 1680s taught Tsarevich Peter the Dutch language and helped him with the formation of the first amusing company).
In connection with the end of the war, on March 27, 1682, a decree was issued on the dismissal of foreign officers. The number of foreigners subordinate to the Inozemsky Order was reduced by more than five times. Lefort was left in military service. On June 29, 1683, on the name day of Tsar Peter, he received the rank of major, and on August 29 of the same year, on the name day of Tsar Ivan, he received the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was patronized by the cousin of the all-powerful temporary worker Princess Sophia - the head of the Order of the Kazan Palace, Prince B.A. Golitsyn. He, like his brother, was distinguished by his affection for foreigners and was the first to “begin to deal with foreign officers and merchants.” Perhaps B.A. Golitsyn, who was very close to Peter at that time, subsequently contributed to his rapprochement with Lefort.
It is not known exactly in which regiment Lefort served from the end of 1682. There is information that he was assigned to the corps of Major General Count David Wilhelm Graham (Graam) stationed in Smolensk. However, Lefort lived all this time in his house on the banks of the Yauza in the German settlement. “There is no other better structure here,” he boasted to his mother. The courtesy and courtesy of the Genevan attracted numerous eminent guests to his house. Thus, at the reception in honor of the national holiday of the Geneva Republic on December 12, 1684, Prince B.A. was present. Golitsyn, representatives of the Russian nobility and diplomats. In general, Moscow “boyars” often stopped by Lefort’s to smoke a pipe, which the owner was a big fan of.
In 1685, F. Lefort's regiment as part of P. Gordon's corps was sent to Ukraine and took part in a number of skirmishes with the Tatars. Soon the Genevan was transferred to the corps of General V.A. Zmeev, where he commanded a “battalion” (regiment) of 1,900 people. In April 1686, Russia concluded the Eternal Peace with Poland on the condition of resuming hostilities against Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. Prince V.V., who favored Lefort, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Golitsyn.
Upon his return to Moscow, Lefort outlined the circumstances of the first Crimean campaign in a letter to his brother Amadeus. In April 1687, the army set out from Moscow in three columns. Lefort's "battalion" as part of the voivodeship regiment V.A. Zmeev was under the command of V.V. Golitsyn. The troops advanced extremely slowly and only in May reached the Merli River, where three columns converged. Then their path went to the Samara River. The water in the wells was poisoned, the steppes were scorched, and sandstorms raged. Mass deaths of soldiers and officers began from disease. Golitsyn's troops did not reach the goal of the campaign - the Perekop fortress - and by August 13 they returned to the Merle River, where the commander-in-chief promulgated a decree disbanding the army.
Upon returning from the campaign, Lefort, along with other senior officers, had an audience with Tsar Ivan Alekseevich and Princess Sophia, and then with Pyotr Alekseevich in Preobrazhenskoye. In 1689 he was promoted to colonel.
Lefort as commander of the Yelets regiment as part of the voivodeship regiment V.A. Zmeev also took part in V.V.’s second campaign. Golitsyn to the Crimea in 1689. The troops, despite more thorough preparation, were plagued by the same failures as in 1687 - the Tatars burned the steppe, people and horses died from disease. In a letter to his family, he mentioned thirty-five thousand dead soldiers and officers. This time the Russian army reached Perekop, but on the same day V.V. Golitsyn gave the order to retreat - there were no supplies for the siege of the fortress.
Repeated failure in Crimea dealt a blow to the power of ruler Sophia and her favorite V.V. Golitsyn. Peter refused to approve the manifesto on awards and awards. A new era was dawning in the life of Russia and Lefort himself - the era of Peter.
Peter's acquaintance with Lefort and their relationship
Favored by foreigners, the young Tsar Peter from the early 1690s. frequented the German Settlement. "It opened up before him New World, - wrote historian M.P. Pogodin, - phenomena hitherto unknown appeared before his eyes, the circle of vision expanded, and he, who had heard and known until now only about his neighbors Poles, Tatars and Turks, with his innate insight and curiosity, directed his inquisitive gaze further." Peter was attracted there by first of all, a way of social and family life unprecedented in Russia, where women enjoyed equal rights with men, were educated and were not locked up, and children were taught in schools by teachers specially invited from German lands. Musical and theatrical performances, dances, masquerades, in which representatives of all generations took part. The young king was no less interested in issues of modern political life Western Europe. Peter had never seen such a life, and he plunged headlong into this life. His leader on the path of acquaintance with the West was F. Lefort.
For a long time it was believed that Lefort and his regiment were one of the first to arrive at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where Peter and his supporters were at that time. However, it is more likely that Lefort initially remained faithful to his patron V.V. Golitsyn. Only on September 4, after Peter’s decree commanding all foreign officers to come to him, it was decided to go to Trinity. The next day, all the foreigners were presented to the king, who greeted them with his hand and brought them a glass of wine. The rapprochement between the tsar and Lefort was probably greatly facilitated by B.A., who was close to the monarch at that time. Golitsyn.
The Tsar's first visit to Lefort's house dates back to September 3, 1690. Since then, Peter often stayed with him from lunch until the evening, and sometimes spent the night. In 1691, Lefort firmly took the place of the Tsar's favorite. Lefort now called him nothing more than “notre grand empreur.” On the occasion of the birth of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the Genevan was promoted to major general, and in September 1691 to lieutenant general. On June 29, 1693, on Peter’s name day, Lefort was awarded the rank of full general.
Why did Peter become close to Lefort? The review of Prince B.I. is known. Kurakina: “...Lefort was a funny and luxurious man, or, to call it, a French brawler,...day and night he was in fun, soup, balls, banquets, card games, brawling with ladies and drinking incessantly, that’s why he died.. ". Lefort, Kurakin further asserted, implying Peter’s love for Anna Mons, “came into extreme favor and confidentiality of amorous intrigues.” In his house, Peter learned how to deal with foreign ladies, and here “Cupid first began to exist.” This review, however, is refuted by many testimonies from contemporaries: Lefort never got drunk to the point of losing his mind, especially since in the German Settlement they mostly consumed grape wines.
Peter chose his advisers carefully. He collected information about the Lefort family and about himself, saw in him a worthy person, capable of satisfying many of his requests. 35-year-old Lefort already had considerable life experience, knew Europe well, and had seen a lot. The Genevan knew to varying degrees French, Italian, English, Dutch, German languages, spoke Russian, which many residents of the German settlement could not boast of. Lefort was a secular, educated man, possessed of a flexible mind, a cheerful character and hard work. At this time, there was a struggle in Europe between Catholics and Protestant Orange supporters of the King of the Netherlands. Peter's sympathies belonged to William of Orange, and perhaps in this we should also look for the reason for his rapprochement with Lefort, and not with the Catholic Gordon.
In 1691, F. Lefort’s nephew, F. Senebier, wrote to his mother: “His royal majesty loves him [F. Lefort. - Author] very much and values him higher than any other foreigner. All the nobility also love him extremely and all foreigners. At court they talk only about His Majesty and Lefort. They are inseparable. His Majesty often visits him and dines with him two or three times a week. Both of them are equally tall with the difference that His Majesty is a little taller and is not as strong as the general. He is a monarch of twenty years of age, who already has two princes. He often appears in French dress, like M. Lefort. The latter is in such high favor with his Majesty that he has at court great power. He has done great service and has outstanding qualities. As long as Moscow remained Moscow, there was no foreigner in it who would enjoy such power. He would have acquired a great fortune if he had not been so generous. It is true, of course, that thanks to this quality he reached such a high level. His Majesty gives him significant gifts." And here is what Lefort himself told his mother about Peter: "This is the noblest and most generous monarch you can find. His appearance is handsome, he has an incomparable mind, and, moreover, an excellent soldier. He is twenty-one years old and loves foreigners very much. He repeatedly told me that he would like me to go and see you, but it would be difficult for him to let me go.”
Lefort was the permanent “marshal” of all festivities, which took place, of course, with the participation of Peter and his retinue. In his letters, he mentioned that “sometimes for three days I don’t sleep even two hours.” Not only lunches and dinners of Peter’s “company” took place in the Genevan’s house. The feasts were accompanied by bowling games, fireworks, balls, and sometimes developed into important political meetings.
The friendly relationship between F. Lefort and Peter created the conditions for establishing relations between Russia and the Geneva Republic. On March 17, 1693, in Moscow, a “sheet” of the Council of the Geneva Republic was received by Tsars John and Peter Alekseevich with expressions of gratitude for the favors of F. Lefort. In a response letter from Moscow dated May 12, 1693, it was reported that Lefort had been awarded the rank of full general and given command of the First Elected Soldiers' Regiment. This promotion, the letter said, he deserved “with his faithful services and natural virtues.” On November 10, 1693, a new letter from the Council of the Geneva Republic was sent to Russia with a request for help with grain due to a crop failure. Peter allowed Lefort to send several ships with grain from Arkhangelsk.
F. Lefort, even during his stay in Geneva, persuaded young Swiss to go to serve in Russia. In the early 1690s. he was given the tsar's instructions to arrange for Swiss specialists to come to serve in Russia. At the invitation of Lefort, engineer Kulom and Berne-born engineer Albert Morlot, who died during the first Azov campaign, arrived in Moscow.
In 1693, Lefort corresponded with the Amsterdam burgomaster N. Witsen regarding the construction of a warship for the king. To meet him on May 1, 1694, Peter went to Arkhangelsk. On April 29, a farewell dinner was given at Lefort's house. “His Majesty did me the honor of having lunch and then dinner with me,” F. Lefort wrote to his family. “The entire court, that is, the princes and boyars, was invited. The large hall, which I built thanks to the generosity of His Royal Majesty, accommodated there were more than two hundred people along the windows. The soldiers who were to travel with us were treated to an afternoon meal, and drinks were drunk to the happy journey of His Tsar's Majesty. A ladies' company, foreign or German, was also present, but did not dance due to the mourning for the Tsarina Mother. Getting ready to leave around midnight, His Royal Majesty ordered me to stay until Tuesday in order to send the whole company." The day after Pyotr Alekseevich’s departure, F. Lefort had an audience in the Kremlin with Tsar Ivan. On July 4, 1694, Lefort wrote to his brother: “The extraordinary favors poured out and poured out on me by him and his brother, Pyotr Alekseevich, are unprecedented, and without bragging, I can say that not a single foreigner who has ever lived in Russia has ever used them . I attribute everything to Providence... Wherever I am, everything depends on my orders... I have suffered a lot: I have learned to live and wish to improve more and more. Although the whole country and all the different nationalities respect me, yet I I do not allow myself to be lulled by such glory; on the contrary, I constantly strive to prove my zeal, to attract loyal subjects... I confess, all these favors are extraordinary; I did not deserve them; I did not imagine creating my happiness in such a short time; but so it was pleasing to God, and their royal majesties announced this to me verbally, with very great solemnity, and all the people approved..."
The statements of Kurakin and A. Gordon that Lefort participated in Peter’s amorous affairs and quarreled him with his wife are most likely untrue. Otherwise, how can one explain the favor of Tsarina Marfa Matveevna and Evdokia Lopukhina towards Lefort and his family? When Lefort was in Arkhangelsk, he received a letter from his wife in which she spoke about the audience given to her and her son Andrei by both queens in the Kremlin. A ceremonial carriage was sent for her, she was honored two or three times and received rich gifts.
In October 1691, as commander of the left flank of the army F.Yu. Romodanovsky Lefort took part in military maneuvers in the vicinity of Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky. On October 6, Lefort and his Reiters attacked the right flank of the “enemy” army of I.I. Buturlin and broke it. The results of the maneuvers apparently influenced the appointment of F. Lefort in 1692 instead of the deceased General Shepelev as commander of the First Elected Moscow Soldiers' Regiment. This greatly complicated his relationship with P. Gordon, who also applied for this position.
F. Lefort paid utmost attention to the combat training of the seventeen to eighteen thousand soldiers and officers entrusted to him. On the left bank of the Yauza, opposite his own house, he set up a large parade ground for exercises and maneuvers. The king himself often watched their progress from a specially equipped gazebo. In September 1692, by his order, the construction of five hundred houses for the regiment's barracks began near the parade ground.
Therefore, it is not surprising that during the maneuvers in September - October 1694, the soldiers of the Lefortovo regiment showed excellent training. Then, in a bend of the Moscow River opposite the village of Kozhukhovo, a “town” was built according to the plan of P. Gordon, surrounded by a rampart and a ditch. The battles took place between the same “armies” of F.Yu. Romodanovsky and I.I. Buturlina. Romodanovsky's troops were tasked with besieging and storming this amusing fortress. On September 26, Lefort’s regiment, as part of “Generalissimo” Romodanovsky, set out from Semenovsky. Ahead of the detachment, surrounded by a magnificent retinue, Lefort himself rode in a carriage. Eight of his companies followed him to the sound of trumpets, flutes and drums. On October 1 - 2, Lefort's regiment built redoubts and took part in skirmishes and forays. On October 4, at a dinner on the occasion of Lefort’s name day, it was decided to take the “town” by storm. The regiments of Semenovsky, Lefort and Gordon rushed to attack on the right flank, and the “town” was soon captured. In this case, several people were seriously injured. “They threw a pot filled with more than four pounds of gunpowder at me; hitting me right in the shoulder and ear, it caused me a burn, the skin on my neck, right ear and hair were burned, and I walked blind for more than six days. However, although the skin on my whole face was torn off, yet I reached the point that my banner was hoisted on the ravelin, and all the ravelins were taken... I was certainly forced to retire to the rear to bandage my wounds. That same evening I was a thousand honors were rendered. His Majesty took a great part in my misadventure, and he was pleased to dine with me with all the chief officers and princes. I treated them, despite the fact that my whole head and face were covered with plaster. When His Majesty saw me , he said: “I am very saddened by your misfortune. You kept your word that you would rather die than leave your post. Now I don’t know what to reward you with, but I will certainly reward you,” the general informed his brother.
During the repeated assault on the “town” on October 15 and the attack on Buturlin’s convoy on October 17, Lefort’s regiment took part, probably without its commander. On October 18, a solemn “reconciliation” of the generalissimos and a celebration in their honor took place.
Many memoirists and historians expressed bewilderment at the appointment of Lefort as admiral of the Russian fleet. Nevertheless, given the active participation of the Genevan in the tsar’s naval “fun,” many of the oddities of his career will seem not so accidental. On July 22, 1692, Peter departed for Lake Pleshcheyevo to build a fun flotilla. Lefort stayed in Moscow for a month due to illness. By his arrival, five ships had already been launched. “I would not be able, dear brother,” he wrote to Geneva, “to describe to you the joy that His Majesty and all the courtiers showed upon my arrival. Since I have the honor of commanding the ship that bears the name “Mars” and on which his Majesty. Immediately upon my arrival, His Majesty went to the said ship and sent a brigantine for me to bring me to him. When I stepped onto the ship, His Majesty showered me with such signs of mercy that I cannot describe to you. They fired from all guns ship, and after His Majesty showed me all the wealth and all the beauty of the decoration of my ship, we returned again to land. The king ordered that guns on all ships should fire on my arrival. Then I was taken to my house, which His Majesty deigned build for me. This is a very beautiful building. The next day His Majesty gave me the honor of having dinner with me; and on the third he was pleased to treat me on our ship, and they fired cannons all day long on all the ships." Lefort stayed in Pereyaslavl until August 28.
On Forgiveness Sunday, February 26, 1693, Lefort gave dinner at his house on the occasion of his repeated departure with the Tsar to Pereyaslavl. Having drunk heavily, the queen's brother Abraham Lopukhin quarreled with Lefort and attacked him with his fists. Peter took the side of his friend and whipped the offender on the cheeks.
The first trip of Peter and Lefort to Arkhangelsk in the summer of 1693 was celebrated no less magnificently. The celebrations began on June 30 on the occasion of the wedding of Lefort’s niece and lasted four days in a row. There was music, dancing, fireworks. Every day, twelve guns specially delivered to the German settlement fired a salute of twenty salvos. On July 4, Lefort, together with Peter’s retinue, left for Arkhangelsk, where, upon arrival, he gave a magnificent celebration in honor of foreign sailors. Lefort returned from the trip later than Peter, and on the same day (October 6) the Tsar visited him.
On January 25, 1694, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna died. However, three days later, Peter, at a meeting with Lefort, announced a second trip to Arkhangelsk. Lefort was entrusted with all responsibilities for its preparation. In February 1694, he notified his brother: “I wrote by order of His Royal Majesty to Amsterdam to Burgomaster Witzen about a ship that is equipped with forty cannons and everything belonging to it. An order has already been given to transfer 40,000 thalers to pay for it. I will have the honor to be the captain of this ship, Prince Golitsyn will be the lieutenant, and our great monarch will be the skipper, and his former helmsman will serve as helmsman. In addition, we will have two more ships. They will be captained by two generals, one of whom is my son-in-law Gordon , and another named Buturlin... Great preparations are being made, and I am in charge of everything.”
On April 29, as was customary, a farewell dinner was given at Lefort’s, and on May 18, Peter’s retinue arrived in Arkhangelsk. While waiting for a ship from Holland, Peter took a trip to the Solovetsky Monastery. Lefort was at that time busy with the burying of the Tsar’s physician, physician Zachary van der Gulsta. On July 21, the frigate dropped anchor off the island of Solombale Holy prophecy"under the command of Jan Flam. The red, blue and white Russian flag was raised on the ship in Amsterdam. It was decided to undertake a long sea voyage. On August 12, the ships set out from Arkhangelsk. Vice Admiral I.I. Buturlin walked ahead on the Apostle Paul , followed by four Dutch ships returning from Arkhangelsk; in the center - Admiral F.Yu. Romodanovsky on the "Holy Prophecy", where Peter and Lefort were, behind him were four English ships and Rear Admiral Gordon on the yacht "St. Peter" brought up the rear. The journey lasted until August 21, the ships reached Cape Svyatoy Nos, but due to the opposite wind they were forced to return to Arkhangelsk on August 21.
On September 5, Peter’s retinue returned to Moscow. A few days later, Lefort wrote to his brother: “...They certainly want me to bear the rank of admiral; I refused, but this is the will of their majesties. This, of course, will give me more content, and I must admit, it is an extraordinary honor to occupy the place of first general and admiral "The main command over all ships has already been transferred to me. On the first solemn occasion, I will be announced with great ceremony. Our fleet consists of almost twenty-four ships and galleys. Next summer it is planned to build two large ships and two galleys." Lefort also mentioned that his ship would bear the name “Elephant” “in the spirit of our coat of arms.” The fact is that Lefort’s coat of arms depicted an elephant standing in front of a palm tree with its trunk down; at the top was a helmet with an open visor. After 1694, changes occurred in the coat of arms: the palm tree was removed, the elephant was depicted with a raised trunk, and a high tower with battlements was placed on its back, decorated with a veil. The helmet received a crown at the top. Later, signs of admiral dignity were added to the coat of arms. Lefort also had a seal decorated with military and later naval emblems.
In connection with the start of the first Azov campaign, thoughts about the fleet were temporarily postponed. The appointment of Lefort as admiral, despite his lack of experience in naval affairs, should be recognized as the correct and far-sighted step of Peter. In Russia at that time there were no people who could boast of knowledge of maritime affairs. Therefore, Lefort, taking into account his six-week sea voyage from Amsterdam to Arkhangelsk, can be considered the most experienced person from Peter’s entire entourage. Of course, the king took into account the energy and business qualities of his favorite. It was these qualities that F. Lefort brilliantly demonstrated during the Azov campaigns.
Azov campaigns
Since the collapse of the Golden Horde, the basis of the foreign policy program of the young Moscow state has been the struggle for the security of the southern borders and trade routes to the East, and the cessation of paying annual “funerals” to the khan, which were humiliating for the heiress of the Byzantine Empire. Since 1681, Muscovy was at war with Crimea and Turkey, but after the unsuccessful campaigns of Prince V.V. Golitsyna did not resort to active actions. However, the continuous Tatar raids on Russian possessions made a military clash inevitable. The “Mars fun” near the village of Kozhukhovo strengthened Peter’s faith in the fighting power of the army and pushed him to organize a campaign against the “steppe barbarians.” “We joked around Kozhukhov, but now we’re going to play around Azov,” we read in one of the tsar’s letters. Remembering past failures, the goal of the 1695 campaign was to capture the Turkish fortress of Azov, which was to become a springboard for the subsequent conquest of the Crimean Peninsula.
Tsar Peter and his entourage spent the last months of 1694 and the beginning of 1695 in continuous amusements. Feasts, balls, carnivals followed one after another. They danced until the morning, fired cannons and burned fireworks. P. Gordon mentioned in his diary about festivities in Lefort’s house with the participation of the tsar on November 29, December 19, 1694, February 15, March 7, 1695. Meanwhile, from January 1695, practical preparations for the campaign against Azov began in a state of strict secrecy : routes for the movement of troops were outlined, bread stores were created along their route, reviews of rifle and soldier regiments were held. Lefort was with the king all the time, carrying out his various assignments.
On February 11, in Preobrazhenskoye, Peter announced personal appointments in the army. Contrary to tradition, no commander-in-chief of the Russian forces near Azov was appointed. The siege corps was supposed to consist of virtually independent detachments of A.M. Golovin, P. Gordon and F. Lefort. All tactical issues had to be resolved at “consultations” of generals. In addition to the tsar’s personal disposition towards Lefort, the decision on the appointment was undoubtedly influenced by what his favorite received under V.V. Golitsyn has significant experience in military operations with the Turks and Crimeans. However, in fairness, it must be said that Lefort had never yet commanded such a large military contingent. His “army” was formed on the basis of several rifle and soldier regiments (a regiment named after him was included in it) and reached 10 - 12 thousand people with 12 thirty-six pound guns and 24 mortars. During the siege of Azov, together with the troops attached to it, the Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry, the total number of troops under the general’s command exceeded thirty thousand. It was perhaps the largest military formation in the active army.
There was some delay in sending the main forces to the theater of military operations. Only on April 27, Peter held a review of the military men, and the next day the army marched from Preobrazhensky near Moscow along Myasnitskaya. The procession was opened by a detachment of A.M. Golovin. He was followed by the bombardiers led by Peter and Lefort's detachment, led by their commander. The Semyonovites brought up the rear of the procession. The columns entered the Kremlin through the Nikolsky Gate, and then through Borovitsky they descended to the Moscow River, where they settled on prepared plows at the All Saints Bridge. With cannon and musket fire and bells ringing, the “sea caravan” moved through high water down the river past Kolomna, Staraya Ryazan, and Murom.
On May 16, the troops made a long stop in Nizhny Novgorod, waiting for the stragglers and doing minor repairs to the ships. The officers spent their forced leisure time in endless feasts with local authorities, which significantly burdened the city budget. So, only “German Lefort” was presented from Nizhny Novgorod inhabitants with “a kalach worth a hryvnia, two pounds of caviar, a barrel of honey worth four pounds, two heads of sugar.” On May 21, the caravan continued moving down the Volga. Having passed Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, Syzran, on June 6 the fleet arrived in Tsaritsyn. Next came a difficult trek on foot.
On the morning of June 11, the army set out across the steppe. The progress was very slow, the convoys fell behind. For unknown reasons, the detachments of Lefort and Golovin were left practically without cavalry and artillery cover. At noon on June 14, the detachments reached the town of Panshina on the right bank of the Don, where they received a short rest. On June 18, Lefort and his detachment began moving along the Don on prepared ships. On June 26, troops approached the Cossack capital - Cherkassk. Two days later we weighed anchor again. “Mr. General Lefort sailed ahead, and behind him the gentlemen colonels of his regiment...” we read the laconic entry from the “Marching Journal.” On June 29, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Lefort's detachment landed on the banks of the Koysu River, eight miles from Azov, and the next day the general saw an enemy fortress.
Located on the left bank of the southern branch of the Don, fifteen miles from the sea, Azov was a stone quadrangular fortress with bastions, surrounded by a rampart with palisades and a dry moat. Three miles above Azov, on both banks of the Don, the Turks erected two stone towers - “towers”, armed with cannons. These towers were connected across the river with thick iron chains, preventing access to the sea. On the northern branch of the Don, the Dead Donets, there was an enemy fort called Buttercup, surrounded by high stone walls with four octagonal towers.
On June 30, at the military council, Peter approved the siege plan. Lefort was allocated perhaps the most critical and dangerous sector on the left flank below the city towards the Don, somewhat away from the main forces. On July 5, when the heat of the day subsided, the A.M. Golovin and F. Leforta began to advance to Azov, setting up camps 250 fathoms from the enemy fortress, respectively, to the left and right of P. Gordon’s headquarters. The latter wrote in his diary: “About four o’clock in the afternoon two other corps arrived, having encountered only minor enemy resistance along the way. I went to meet them and found them a mile from my camp. I consulted with His Majesty about where he should stay ". Then we drove on and examined the places where the army was supposed to camp, and also where it would be easiest and with the greatest benefit to take out trenches and make batteries. His Majesty decided to stand outside both ramparts with the corps of Automon [Golovin. - Author. ] to be safe."
In the rear of Lefort’s camp, the Tatar cavalry reigned supreme, and from the left flank the Turks transported reinforcements and food to Azov. The experienced military man could not help but foresee that the combination of these factors predetermined a turbulent future for his detachment. That same evening, Lefort's units were subjected to a daring attack by a 10,000-strong detachment of Tatar cavalry from the rear and a simultaneous attack by Turkish infantry from the front. This is how he himself described the events in a letter to his family: “The first battle continued stubbornly, for the Tatars tried to take possession of my camp; but after two hours they retreated with great damage. I also lost brave officers. My camp was bombarded with arrows. Several hundred soldiers were partly killed, some wounded... Many doubted [a hint to P. Gordon. - Author] that my troops were able to withstand such brutal attacks without outside help; however, I blocked the path [along the banks of the Don] so that Azov was no longer had communications with the Tatar cavalry."
On July 6, work began to strengthen the camp and erect two batteries, four of whose guns began shelling the city on the same day. A deep ditch was dug towards the Don, preventing the Tatar cavalry from entering the camp. All fortification work was carried out under the destructive fire of fortress artillery, with continuous attacks by the besieged and raids by enemy cavalry. On July 7, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Turks and Tatar cavalry suddenly burst into the camp again and killed many people. On the night of July 9-10, the besieged from the city secretly crept up to Lefort’s camp, and if not for the timely assistance of P. Gordon’s troops, the results of the foray would have been very sad.
Throughout the fourteen weeks of the siege, there was rarely a day without shooting or skirmishes with the enemy. The tension of the ensuing battle can be read even behind the dispassionate lines of the marching journal: “On the 18th day [of July. - Author] there was a battle with cavalry... On the 24th day there was a small sortie against General Lefort... On the 1st day [of August. - Author.] ] there was a shout (?) at General Lefort, and then only a small one... On the 5th day in the morning, early in the morning, there was a great attack on the city and there was a battle, and again they retreated; and the cavalry attacked General Lefort on the baggage train... On the 14th day there was a sortie on General Lefort... On the 15th day... there was a sortie in the night against General Lefort... On the 18th day there was a sortie against General Gordon and General Lefort... On the 19th day there was shooting in our army from the entire squad... In On the 27th day there was an attack on General Lefort." 5. Enemy attacks caused great damage to the besiegers. Russian troops responded to these attacks with no less daring attacks.
The supply base for Russian troops on the Koysu River was located 10 - 15 versts from Azov. On the way, the convoys were subject to the constant threat of attack by the Tatar cavalry, and the supply of the Don was blocked by towers. At the military councils on July 11 and 13, it was decided to capture these Turkish fortifications. On the morning of July 15, Colonel A. Scharf's detachment captured one of the towers with a surprise attack. Unable to bear the destructive artillery shelling, on the night of July 15-16, the Turkish garrison left the tower on the opposite bank of the Don. However, the celebrations on the occasion of the victory were overshadowed by the news of the flight to the Turks of the Dutch sailor J. Jansen, who was well informed about the plans of the Russian command and the state of affairs in the camp of the besiegers.
All attempts to persuade the Turkish garrison to capitulate were unsuccessful. On August 2, at the military council, a decision was made to storm. Early in the morning of August 5, when Russian troops launched an attack, F. Lefort’s camp was suddenly attacked from the flanks by Tatar cavalry. Taking advantage of the delay in the entry of one and a half thousand Lefort volunteers into the battle, the Turks counterattacked Gordon’s Butyrtsy, who had already straddled the crest of the rampart, and forced them to return to their positions. At this time, Lefort's detachment was still under enemy fire on the Turkish rampart. He managed to carry out the wounded, recapture from the enemy three banners that had fallen into the ditch along with the killed officers, and capture one red Turkish standard. About 900 people were killed and wounded in Lefort’s detachment that day, which amounted to more than half of the total Russian losses. “If there were still 10,000 soldiers, the city would have been taken by storm,” the general wrote to brother Ami about the reasons for the defeat.
On August 6, a military council was held in Lefort’s tent to review the results of the operation, at which it was decided to continue the siege work and prepare for a second assault on the fortress. The trenches of the besiegers were approaching the enemy rampart day by day, and at night the soldiers filled up the ditch and built mine galleries. In P. Gordon's diary, complaints were often made about the unsatisfactory progress of the siege work in the Lefort camp. These claims apparently had real grounds: the lack of fortification experience affected them. Thus, the enemy managed to detect mines brought to the rampart from the side of Lefort’s camp and destroy the galleries twice (August 25 and 26).
The second assault was scheduled for September 25. The night before the attack, Lefort carried out the last reconnaissance, and in the morning his batteries began shelling the fortress. At the signal - three cannon shots - the wicks to three mines placed under the ramparts were simultaneously lit. However, the earth and stones torn out by the explosions flew towards Russian aproshes and redoubts, causing significant damage. Only a mine from Gordon's camp destroyed part of the curtain at the corner bastion and made gaps in the palisades. Taking advantage of the Turks' escape from the rampart, Gordon's soldiers and archers climbed onto it using siege ladders. This bold attack was not supported in a timely manner by F. Lefort’s volunteers, and after an hour and a half battle, the Russian units were forced to return to their original positions. The assault failed.
The capture of the towers with forty enemy guns and the capture by the Cossacks of two Turkish forts in the lower reaches of the Dnieper were, perhaps, the only real successes of the campaign of 1695. At the military council, which met in Lefort’s tent on August 16, it was decided to strengthen the towers, where, in anticipation of the next campaign, A 3,000-strong garrison was left.
The failure of the second assault, the shortage of food and lead felt in the Russian army, and extremely rainy and cold weather forced the Russian command to end the siege. By the evening of October 2, units of F. Lefort and A.M. Golovin left their positions. The next day, boarding ships, they moved towards Cherkassk. In the capital of the Don Cossacks, the troops were given a week's rest. The officers enjoyed a warm welcome in the house of Ataman Flor Minyaev.
The subsequent two-week march to Valuyki under incessant rain and snow across the desert steppe truly tested the strength of the Russian army. P. Gordon wrote in his diary in this regard: “On the way, I saw what great losses the army suffered during its march, although not being pursued by any enemy; it was impossible to see without tears how the corpses of people lay all over the steppe for 800 miles and horses, half eaten by wolves." On November 1, we finally approached Valuiki. Of the 10,400 soldiers withdrawn from Azov, Lefort brought only about 8 thousand to the Russian borders. During one of the transitions, the general himself fell from his horse and hit his right side on a stone. On November 4, Peter, who shared with the troops all the hardships of the retreat, left the army. Following him, deprived of the opportunity to move independently, Lefort left for Moscow. The troops being withdrawn from Azov were gathered in a camp near the village of Kolomenskoye.
On November 22, the army solemnly entered the capital. This is how a contemporary described this event: “General Peter Ivanovich Gordon came first. And behind him was the sovereign and his entire royal singklit. And in front of the singklit, the Turkish was led back with his hands; in his hand along a large chain; two people led. And behind him came all the rifle regiments . And having arrived [to the Kremlin. - Author], they stood in formation in the palace. And the sovereign deigned to go to his royal palace, and all the generals and all the leading people followed him. And the sovereign granted all the leading people to his hand and graciously praised their service And the boyar Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Prozorovsky announced to them, the initial people, that generals Pyotr Ivanovich Gordon, and Avtomon Mikhailovich Golovin, and Franz Yakovlevich Lefort went to Azov and took him with people and with guns and with all small guns." On December 3, 1695, the return from the campaign was solemnly celebrated in Lefort’s house: “Last Tuesday, His Tsar’s Majesty Peter Alekseevich deigned to have dinner with me with all the boyars. They fired a lot from cannons; all kinds of music played, and after dinner they danced for a long time.”
In the literature, there are diametrical points of view on the role of F. Lefort in the first Azov campaign. A number of researchers (N.G. Ustryalov, M.M. Bogoslovsky, etc.), based primarily on the unflattering reviews of P. Gordon, came to the conclusion that Lefort’s actions in the campaign of 1695 were completely untenable. M. Posselt convincingly refuted this opinion. Undoubtedly, the lack of military knowledge prevented Lefort from taking an active part in organizing siege operations and conducting offensive operations. However, it would be wrong to place all the blame for the uncoordinated actions of the army and blunders in the preparation and conduct of the assault on the fortress on Lefort alone. His troops completed the task of neutralizing the attacks of the Tatar cavalry; two batteries fired 6 thousand shells into Azov, which completely destroyed the city. During the siege, Lefort’s detachment did not lose a single cannon and captured the enemy’s banner. The first Azov campaign enriched Lefort’s military experience in organizing crossings, river navigation, carrying out siege operations, etc.
Lefort’s dreams of resting at home after the difficulties he had endured and calmly recovering from a bruise were not destined to come true. Immediately upon returning to Moscow at the “consultation of generals,” Peter announced preparations for a second campaign against Azov, about which the royal decree was read out in churches on November 27. On December 4, in Lefort’s house, Peter convened a military council, where issues of building and equipping a fleet for the blockade of Azov from the sea were discussed. During the winter, it was decided to lay down 1,300 plows, 30 naval linden single-wood boats and 100 pine-wood rafts at the Voronezh, Kozlov, Dobroye, Sokolsk shipyards of the Belgorod category, and to begin the construction of a galley fleet in Preobrazhensky near Moscow. Prince M.A. was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the ground units. Cherkassky, and in case of his illness - boyar A.S. Shein. Probably at the same council, F. Lefort was appointed admiral of the future fleet, and Peter established himself in the rank of first captain. Historian M.M. Bogoslovsky commented on this decision of the tsar in the following way: “Obviously, it was not any knowledge of Lefort in maritime affairs and not his abilities for navigation or shipbuilding that influenced the tsar’s decision, but only friendship and sympathy for him and the devotion that he paid for this friendship. Of course, the admiral rank for Lefort was only an honorary, decorative title. Peter left the actual direction of the entire matter of building the fleet for himself."
December 1695 - February 1696 F. Lefort was engaged in the formation of a naval crew for the galley fleet. As his assistants, the Venetian Colonel Lima was appointed vice admiral and the Frenchman Colonel Balthazar de Lozier as rear admiral (named in the Dutch manner as a chaut-beinacht). Both were also not very knowledgeable in maritime matters. Lefort had his own staff of a lieutenant colonel, three majors and twelve chief officers. The "Naval Regiment" was recruited from soldiers and officers of the Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo regiments. It consisted of 4,157 lower ranks, united into 28 companies headed by captains and lieutenants. One of the companies, numbering 127 people, was commanded by “Captain Pyotr Alekseev.” The friends of the tsar's youth were included as borbardirs - boatswain Gavrilo Menshikov, constable Gavrilo Kobylin, subconstable Ivan Werner. It is likely that other units were also assigned to the “regiment”. “I have approximately fifteen thousand selected troops,” F. Lefort reported to his Geneva relatives. On the eve of his departure from the capital on February 18, 1696, Peter inspected the naval crew. His companies marched solemnly past Lefort's house, where the admiral treated the Tsar and his friends to dinner.
On February 23, Peter left for Voronezh. Due to illness, Lefort was unable to follow the Tsar, and there were enough worries in Moscow. The admiral supervised the construction of ships in Preobrazhenskoye and supervised the work of the sawmill that supplied boards to the shipyard. At the beginning of March, 23 galleys and 4 fire ships with crews on sleighs and carts, previously disassembled into parts, were sent to Voronezh. On March 10, “a faithful servant forever general and admiral” wrote to the tsar about the fulfillment of the orders entrusted to him: “...And the galleys from Moscow all went before your letter. You deigned to write about Maer that he had not been, and I constantly sent to him so that he would go from Moscow. And he was angry with Franz Timerman because he forced him to leave Moscow; he was taken away by him, saying that his clothes were not ready. And at the saw mill they work day and night and the boards are being prepared and will be sent to your grace." Officers, sailors, naval doctors, shipwrights, etc., who arrived from abroad and from all over Russia, caused a lot of trouble for Lefort.
Lefort's state of health caused serious concern for Peter, who was personally present at the dressing changes several times. After falling from a horse in the fall of 1695, a large tumor formed on his right side. In this state, the admiral could not even lie down. Four doctors constantly on duty next to him “give him medicine and apply bandages day and night.” At the end of February, the abscess broke, and Lefort felt some relief. “Out of my sorrow, I hear a little joy for myself, after the departure of your mercy I had a fire for about three days, but another wound fell through next to the previous one, the matter, thanks to God, is progressing well...” he wrote to Peter.
On March 31, Lefort, who had not recovered from his illnesses, left Moscow. Two weeks later, he informed the Tsar about his ordeal: “My lord captain, hello, having waited for this bright Sunday of Christ in good health. And about me, your mercy, if you please to know, I thank God, I reached Yelets this April 12th with great difficulty. From Moscow to Tula I have never had such a difficult road, that from Tula to Yelets, the worst and most restless one, neither in a sleigh nor in a carriage, did not allow me to lie down, I rode all the time, and then from bump to bump. Here, on Yelets, I’ll take the medicine, my back is aching and I’m having great pain from the great seat.” On Easter April 16, F. Lefort reached Voronezh. The next day, on this occasion, the admiral's galley sent from Holland was launched into the water.
From mid-April, the transfer of troops to Azov began on ships that had barely been launched from the stocks. On April 23, the flotillas with the soldier and rifle regiments of P. Gordon left the Voronezh pier, on May 2 - A.M. Golovin. On April 26, after mass in the Assumption Cathedral, the first of two galleasses built in Voronezh, the 36-gun Apostle Peter, was launched. Immediately after the celebrations, Commander-in-Chief A.S. moved on his plow down Voronezh. Shein with headquarters. At the beginning of May, the main forces of the fleet set out, which, in addition to two galleasses, consisted of 23 galleys and 4 fire ships. The galley fleet departed in squadrons during May at weekly intervals. On the morning of May 3, Peter, at the head of a flotilla of eight galleys, left Voronezh in “fair weather.” Again, the ill Lefort “with the initial people and soldiers” left the city the next day on a plow specially built for him “with a lighthouse and a soap bar of lumber and stoves with green valuables and glass at the end and with a canopy of wooden planks.”
On May 19, Peter, at the head of a flotilla of nine galleys with a landing party of soldiers, moved to the Kalanche branch of the Don. There, in full view of the Turkish fleet, the ships anchored. On the evening of May 20, the Cossacks of Ataman Flor Minyaev in their boats attacked the Turkish fleet, which was trying to deliver provisions and reinforcements to Azov. 24 ships were burned, one was captured by the Cossacks, one sank, the rest took refuge in Azov or went to sea. A large amount of booty and 27 prisoners were captured.
On May 23, F. Lefort arrived at the camp of Commander-in-Chief A.S. Shein in Cherkassk, where he took part in the festivities that lasted for the second day on the occasion of the victory of the Cossacks. The ambitious Swiss is eager to fight: “I am unhappy that I did not participate; I hope to recover, and then, by God’s grace, I will participate in the next victory.” May 24 A.S. Shein, A.M. Golovin and F. Lefort sailed from Cherkassk. Two days later, the siege army greeted them with a cannon salute. That same evening, the Russian squadron weighed anchor and headed for the sea. On May 31, Lima's squadron completely blocked Azov. Two Russian forts were hastily erected at the mouth of the Don. All this made it impossible to transport reinforcements to the besieged fortress. On June 28, only the formidable appearance of the Russian fleet at the mouth of the Don prevented the Turks from landing in Azov from thirty Turkish ships stationed in the roadstead. The young Russian fleet fully coped with the assigned tasks.
On June 8, a prayer service was served at the main apartment on the occasion of the beginning of the land and sea blockade of Azov. The siege work, thanks to the efforts of the Austrian engineers and artillerymen who arrived in the active army, went faster and more efficiently than last year. They did not stop day or night, despite enemy attacks and attacks by the Tatar cavalry. Along the front to the fortress, aproshes have been brought and batteries have been erected. On June 16, in the presence of the king, shelling of the city began. After a week of bombing, Turkish artillery was suppressed, Azov was reduced to smoking ruins.
On July 17, the Cossacks, on their own initiative, captured the corner bastion destroyed by Russian artillery. The military council that met the next morning scheduled the assault for July 22. However, at noon the Turks entered into negotiations on surrender on the terms of granting the garrison freedom of exit with their families, property, light weapons and their subsequent delivery to the ships of their fleet. A.S. Shein demanded the extradition of the traitor "Nemchin Yakushka", with whom the failures of the past year were associated. The Turks agreed, and on July 19 at five o'clock in the morning, Turkish officers handed over their banners to the winners and began to leave the fortress. The Turks sat down on the boats and, amid cannon salutes, the galley flotilla standing in the roadstead under the standard with the family coat of arms of Lefort departed for their ships. The Russians received large supplies of food, ammunition, more than a hundred cannons and thousands of arquebuses. On July 20 -21, in honor of the victory, Commander-in-Chief A.S. Shein gave a feast where, as P. Gordon noted, “neither drinks nor gunpowder were spared.”
On July 25, Lefort, who did not take part in hostilities due to illness, left the fleet and “set off from Azov on his way, up the Don River, with a sail, and the commander [Tsar Peter. - Author] and the captains saw him off.” From Panshin he wrote to Peter: “Yesterday we came to the local city of Panshin, we were on the road for two weeks, there was a constant nasty wind from Cherkasy and great rains for eight days; today, God willing, I will go further: the mosquitoes have stopped biting, and if you deign to come here, do not forget to take good guides with you: the waters are not great and the nights are dark, and if my ship was not heavy, I can make it in ten days of the ship and from here to Korotoyak, and even less; the water is not fast to Korotoyak.” It took the admiral five and a half weeks to get to Valuev, the first city of Russia on the southern border, by water, and from there, fearing shaking, by sleigh. On September 10, completely broken by illness, he arrived in Moscow. “I suffered a lot on the campaign,” Lefort told his mother. “Doctors and surgeons are doing everything possible. The volume of the wound is very large and deep.”
Since the end of July, troops began to leave the Azov camp. On August 5, Lefort’s regiment left by water. On August 15, Peter left the transit. On the way to Tula, where he went to inspect weapons factories, the tsar developed a program for the triumphal entry of troops into Moscow and sent the Duma clerk Avtomon Ivanov a decree on organizing festive events. Separate instructions were also given to Lefort, who responded on September 17 from the German settlement: “Mein Herr Commandant. Savodnya received your letters in the morning; thank God that you are healthy. May God give us good news to listen to your mercy and soon be in Moscow. You deigned to write that the lieutenants have come to the city of Voronezh; it’s time to gather them, so that we can move closer to Moscow. Deign to write to me: is there any news about the vice admiral and about Shaut-Beinakht and about the great betrayal of Yakushka; it will be necessary to take care of him, until then his time will come. Yesterday I wrote letters and with captain Prince Nikita Ivanovich Repnin to your mercy. Our company was glad and everyone was at the plant and wanted to get ready..." 23. By the end of September, the units returning from Azov became a camp near the village of Kolomenskoye and the village Kozhukhovo. On September 28, the king arrived there, and the next day A.S. Shein.
On September 30, at nine o'clock in the morning, the victorious troops from the Simonov Monastery through the Serpukhov Gate solemnly entered Moscow. The procession, stretching for many miles, moved to Zamoskvorechye. The procession was opened by Duma clerk N.M. Zotov. Following the carriages of Commissioner General F.A. Golovin and Kravchey K.A. Naryshkina was followed by F. Lefort’s “stable” of fourteen smartly saddled horses and two ceremonial carriages drawn by twelve horses. On the sovereign's sleigh decorated with gold and six ceremoniously decorated horses, Lefort rode from the royal stable, surrounded by a convoy of spearmen. So he rode on a sleigh through the entire city, which amused the Muscovites a lot.
Behind the admiral was a “sea caravan” of three thousand people. It was led by “Captain Pyotr Alekseev” in a black German dress, a hat with a white feather and a rifle in his hands. So, on foot behind Lefort’s sleigh, the tsar made the entire journey from the Simonov Monastery to the Preobrazhensky Monastery. The “sea company” was followed by Commander-in-Chief A.S. Shein with headquarters, General A.S. Golovin with five shelves. The procession was closed by P. Gordon at the head of his six regiments. Behind the Preobrazhenites, the chained traitor Yakushka was being transported on a cart with a gallows.
At the Stone Bridge, a Triumphal Gate unprecedented in the Orthodox capital was built. Their pediment was supported by statues of Hercules and Mars, allegories and inscriptions glorified naval victories and sailors. Peter and Lefort entered side by side under the arches of the Triumphal Gate. Duma clerk A.A. Vinius greeted the admiral with verses:
General, admiral! The head of all naval forces,
He came, matured, defeated the proud enemy,
The Turks were soon amazed by the courage of the commander,
I am deprived of many weapons and supplies,
The Busurmans were defeated in a fierce battle,
Their self-interest is repulsed, their ships are set on fire.
Those who remained were terribly eager to flee
Fear is great in Azov and spreading everywhere,
To this day, their strength is great at sea and has come again.
But there is no one here to help the city of Azov,
This was forbidden by the sea forces
The city of Azov bent their entire neck towards the building,
And therefore we cheerfully congratulate you on the capture,
We glorify the commander’s labors with triumph.
The reading was accompanied by rifle salvoes and a cannon salute from the Velvet Courtyard. Lefort was presented with richly decorated rifles and pistols. The “large regiment” of Generalissimo Shein was greeted no less solemnly at the Triumphal Gate.
From the Triumphal Gate to the White City through the Trinity Gate the procession entered the Kremlin. After which the shelves were sent home. “The procession lasted from morning to evening,” Lefort reported to Geneva, “and Moscow has never seen such a magnificent ceremony.” 24. The evening of September 30 and the entire next day, Peter spent in Lefort’s house in the company of naval officers. As usual, they fired cannons and blew trumpets.
On December 26, the second day of Christmas, awards for the campaign participants took place in the Kremlin Palace. After reading the “fairy tale” about the history of the campaign, the royal favor was declared. Second in size after Commander-in-Chief A.S. Shein's award was received by Admiral Lefort. “To you, Admiral Franz Yakovlevich Lefort, a gold worth seven gold, a cup with a roof, a golden cauldron on sables, and to the patrimony in the Epifansky district the village of Bogoyavlenskoye with villages of 140 households,” we read in Peter’s decree 25. This is not Peter’s favor towards his favorite. limited. Lefort received the honorary title of governor of the Grand Duchy of Novgorod, an estate in the village of Krasnaya, Ryazan district, consisting of 35 households, and a number of small gifts. Upon returning from the campaign, the admiral’s family moved to a stone palace built by order of the tsar in his absence in the German settlement 26. P. Gordon and A.M., who made a much more significant contribution to the victory. The Golovins were awarded slightly smaller awards. The awards were celebrated magnificently in the mansion of A.S. Sheina.
The capture of Azov laid a solid foundation for the conquest of the Crimean peninsula that followed decades later. Lefort took every possible part in the practical implementation of this most important foreign policy task for Russia. Upon returning from the theater of military operations, Lefort was completely absorbed in the preparations for the Grand Embassy. The admiral did not take part in the subsequent government activities for the construction and settlement of the Azov and Taganrog fortresses, the establishment of camps for the construction of ships for the Azov flotilla.
Winter 1696 - 1697 was celebrated in Moscow with a series of dinners, balls, carnivals and other entertainments. The city shook from cannon and gun salutes and fireworks. On November 1, celebrations to mark the capture of Azov were held in the admiral’s new house. After dinner, to which more than two hundred people were invited, there followed dancing, fireworks, and cannon fire. The guests had fun until the morning of February 27. On February 13, on the pond near Krasnoye Selo, in memory of the campaign, “the city of Azov was made [of snow. - Author]; the towers and gates and towers were elegant and there was a fair amount of fun, and the sovereign deigned to amuse himself.” The fun was overshadowed by the news of a fire in Lefort's house. Peter personally took part in extinguishing it, which he was a big fan of. November 14, 20, December 13, 1696, on Christmastide January 3, 1697 Peter had lunch or dinner at the house of his favorite. In P. Gordon's diary, news of another such feast is usually followed by a remark: “All or most of those present got drunk.”
The tsar's demonstrative refusal to observe the centuries-old palace and church rituals and the Azov celebrations organized in the "German" manner evoked condemnation from adherents of the "old times." At the end of 1696, members of a circle of clergy and secular persons who had gathered in the cell of the builder of the St. Andrew's Monastery, Abraham, were arrested. On February 23, at an evening with Lefort, Peter received news of the discovery of a conspiracy by the Duma nobleman I.E. Tsykler. Feelings of rejection of Peter's innovations manifested themselves, as a rule, in relation to his favorites. Dissatisfied contemporaries looked at Lefort as the main source of their troubles, the culprit of the “damage” of the king.
Grand Embassy
Russian diplomatic mission in 1697 - 1698. to Western Europe had the goal of expanding the anti-Turkish coalition, inviting specialists to Russian service, purchasing military materials and, as Peter I wrote in the preface to the “Maritime Regulations,” “so that this new business [building a fleet. - Author] would forever be established in Russia.” .
Peter came up with the idea of traveling abroad not without the influence of Lefort. Even under the walls of Azov, the general convinced the tsar of its expediency. The monarch's intention to travel abroad had no precedent in Russian history. This was a decisive break with the centuries-old traditions of the Moscow court.
On December 5, 1696, clerk Emelyan Ukraintsev announced in the Ambassadorial Order “sending to the surrounding states, to the Caesar, to the kings of England and Denmark, to the Pope, to the Dutch states, to the Elector of Brandenburg and to Venice, great and plenipotentiary ambassadors ... for deeds common to all Christianity, to the weakening of the enemies of the Cross of the Lord, the Saltan of Tours, the Khan of the Crimea and a greater increase in Christian sovereigns."
Admiral Franz Lefort rode with the rank of first ambassador with a retinue of fourteen people; he was given a salary of 3,920 rubles. The second ambassador was the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Fyodor Golovin; Peter appointed clerk P.B. as the third ambassador. Voznitsyn. The embassy included seven clerks, two translators of “Latin, German and Galan languages”, three interpreters of different languages from the Ambassadorial Prikaz, two gold and silversmiths, a doctor, a sable maker, a priest and a deacon of the palace church, and four Karls. A detachment of volunteers from nobles and commoners “for marine science” was attached to the embassy.
Peter went abroad as a private person under the name of the foreman of the second ten, Peter Mikhailov. He was accompanied by Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, Tsarevich Alexander Archilovich, Vasily Korchmin, Ivan Senyavin, Fyodor Pleshcheev and others. “The Russian nobleman Alexander Menshikov with seven comrades” was issued “with the signature of Caesar Leopold I” a “special letter” for free passage to Venice and Italy ". This document changes the established opinion about the origin of A.D. Menshikov, who in his first years in the service was already called a nobleman.
On February 25, 1697, an order was given to the ambassadors, which Duma clerk E.I. He personally took the Ukrainians to Lefort’s house. The order scrupulously described the external norms of diplomatic practice: the presence of ambassadors with this or that sovereign, when and what to say, how to act in this or that case. Regarding the negotiations themselves, it is said that the ambassadors should conduct themselves, “applying to previous cases from which the lists were given to them from the Ambassadorial Order” (copies of the article lists that the ambassadors were to follow amounted to thirty-three volumes). “Ironically,” notes researcher G.M. Karpov, “all these ancient customs should have been observed by Lefort, a foreigner who unwittingly contributed to the rejection of many traditions by the Moscow court.”
On December 11, 1696, Lefort, in a letter to his family, indicated that the trip would take place on March 15, 1697. The advance detachment of the embassy “with sable treasury and gold, and with soldiers, and with all the embassy attire and dress and all other supplies” moved to way March 2. On March 9, Lefort gave a farewell feast, and a week later the embassy left Moscow. “From Moscow, General Lefort gathered with his entire baggage train, hit the road and spent the night in the village of Nikolskoye,” recorded in the Ambassadorial Journal. On March 25, the embassy reached the borders of Livonia, and on March 31 it entered Riga. The owner of the house where Lefort was allocated premises, Yakov Hasek, informed the City Council on April 7 that the ambassadors were driving around and inspecting the city. Baron Blomberg's story about the embassy's stay in Mitau has been preserved. In his “Description of Livonia” (1701) he left the following description of the first ambassador: “The head of the embassy, Mr. Lefort, is a Genevan who had the good fortune to create a position for himself in Muscovy. He was so firmly established at the height that he reached that his sovereign completely granted to him the direction of all affairs, even the direction of his own conduct, and now this favorite leads him, as it were, in triumph through most of the courts of Europe. It must be assumed that this man has given many proofs of his loyalty, firmness, courage and experience in order to rise to such a pinnacle of greatness which I achieved among a people so barbaric, so distrustful and so treacherous as the Muscovites. I found that the favorite is a very intelligent man, affable and attractive; conversation with him is very pleasant: he is a real Swiss in honesty and courage and especially in his ability to drink .However, he never allows himself to be overcome by guilt and always maintains possession of his mind. He cares so little about his own benefits that, as he himself told me, he does not own anything as a property, and everything that he has belongs to the king, to whom he often declares that his purse and life are always at the king's disposal. He tries to communicate noble feelings to his sovereign and instill in him bold, extensive and great plans."
In Courland, Peter I negotiated with Duke Friedrich Casimir. There is a legend that Lefort, at a private audience with the Duke, said that he would show the Moscow Tsar, and in the evening he secretly brought Peter to the Duke. In Königsberg, the king entered into an alliance with the Brandenburg Elector Frederick III. An official who met the Russian embassy in Pilau wrote about his impressions: “Lefort dresses superbly and probably ordered his dress from France. However, the many rings he wears on his fingers, as well as the emerald bandage he wears on his hair, seem strange "He is very polite and with a proud bearing, he maintains the meaning of his rank with his two comrades. I really like his bed, decorated with Persian brocade. With his comrades he speaks Moscow, with others - in French."
The “Article List” describes in detail the audience of the great and plenipotentiary ambassadors of Russia with the Elector on May 21, 1697. Note that Lefort, who was still wearing a “German” dress, was dressed “in Moscow style” on the day of the audience, like the other two ambassadors. All three were wearing elegant, richly embroidered dresses with diamond clasps and Russian state eagles made of diamonds on their caps. Peter was probably among the volunteers participating in the ceremony. The Brandenburg court tried to do everything possible to please the king and make his stay in Königsberg pleasant: fireworks were displayed and hunting was planned. About the Tsar’s favorite Lefort, a secret Venetian agent conveyed some details to his government: “He became the Tsar’s favorite since he saved him from a fall from a carriage; he introduced some innovations in the ladies’ toilet in Muscovy, namely, he introduced the use of fontanges - a special kind of headdress ". On June 8, gifts from the Elector were delivered to the ambassadors. The first ambassador was presented with: “In a small reliquary, the elector’s person is written in gold, surrounded by diamonds with stones, and a lakhan with a washstand, a silver vessel in which water is kept at the table for rocking vessels, and two large silver bowls.”
With the conclusion of the treaty on June 22, the work of the great embassy at the Brandenburg court ended. However, on June 29, the royal name day was celebrated here, about which the clerks wrote down in the “Article List”: “And at the end of the liturgy, they sang a prayer service and dined with the general and admiral Franz Yakovlevich Lefort.”
The most remarkable event on the next stage of the journey is associated with Peter's meeting with the Elector Sophia of Hanover and her daughter Sophia-Charlotte of Brandenburg at Coppenbrugge Castle near Hanover. Lefort was also present at the meeting as a translator, who, at the request of the Elector, brought Russian musicians.
From Königsberg the embassy proceeded through Pilau, Kolberg, Treptow, Treifenberg, Naugarten, Berlin, Brandenburg, Magdeburg, Oldendorf and further to Schermbeck. At Schermbek, a group of eighteen people separated from the embassy and headed along the Rhine to Saardam; the rest went through Wesel, West, Kleve to the city of Namwagen on the Dutch border.
Holland, more than other Western European countries, attracted Peter's attention. Lefort, who served in Holland in the 1670s, in turn supported Peter I's interest in this country. Moreover, the Lefort family maintained close relations with the Amsterdam burgomaster N. Witzen.
Holland in the second half of the 17th century. was at the zenith of its power and glory. At that time it was a great maritime power. Its power was further strengthened after its stadtholder, Prince William III of Orange, took the English throne in 1688 and united these two maritime states. William III was the most popular man in Europe and from a young age became the hero of Peter I.
The first foreign journey of Peter I lasted almost a year and a half, with the lion's share (nine months) falling on his stay in Holland. The Tsar developed a friendly attitude towards the Dutch back in his homeland. He met with the Dutch in Moscow and treated the Dutch envoy von Keeler with respect. In Voronezh, Arkhangelsk, and Moscow, Peter I established friendly relations with Dutch craftsmen, artisans, sailors, sailors, and merchants.
Peter did not stop in the capital of Holland and on August 8 arrived in Saardam. In this small town, located northwest of Amsterdam on the shores of the IJ Bay, there were fifty shipyards. Peter settled in a sparsely populated part of the town on Krimpe Street in a small wooden house with two windows and a tiled roof. The house belonged to the blacksmith Gerrit Kist, who previously worked in Russia. In the shop of the widow of Jacob Oomes, Peter bought a large number of carpentry tools necessary for ship work and on the same day, under the name of Peter Mikhailov, he was hired as a worker at the Lipsta Rogge shipyard on Beitenzaan.
The embassy led by Lefort, which parted ways with the tsar in Shermbek, moved much more slowly. The entry into Amsterdam took place on August 16 at noon with the usual ceremony. Half a mile before the city, the ambassadors were met by the president and burgomasters of the Amsterdam magistrate. The streets were lined with townspeople in white caftans, armed with muskets; Cannon fire and drumming were heard. Peter participated in this meeting, mingling with the crowd of minor officials of the embassy.
In Amsterdam, the embassy, led by Lefort, visited the theater for the ceremonial performance given in their honor. The actors performed the play "The Charm of Armida" and danced several ballets to the sounds of beautiful music. The guests were offered refreshments. An entry about the visit to the performance was preserved in the “Article List”: “The same great and plenipotentiary ambassadors, at the request of the Amsterdam burgomasters, were also in the comedy house, in which there was a great chamber;... and where the great and plenipotentiary ambassadors sat, and that place was filled with carpets and it was upholstered with cloth, and many fruits and sweets were placed on the table, and the burghers of the great ambassadors diligently edited.” On August 29, 1697, a large fireworks display was arranged in Amstel in honor of the Great Embassy, and on September 1, Peter I was present at a demonstration battle on the Ee River. They fired cannons, fired muskets, and ships were boarded. Peter I himself took part in it.
Peter spent almost his entire stay in Holland at the Amsterdam Oostend shipyard under the leadership of Gerrit-Klaas Pohl, building the frigate "Holy Apostles Peter and Paul".
Becoming government agency, which focused on questions foreign policy Russia, the embassy conducts diplomatic correspondence. So, on August 1, Lefort sent a letter to the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern. In response, the Swedish embassy assured the Russian side of friendship and promised to act “in agreement” in Poland, expressing pleasure at Lefort’s intention to come to Stockholm.
Peter in Europe faced important diplomatic tasks of expanding the “Holy League” - a union of states included in the anti-Turkish coalition. Negotiations with the States General of Holland and meetings with diplomats of other powers were subordinated to this. At the meetings, Russian ambassadors did everything to raise the country's political prestige. They talked about the capture of Azov and small fortresses from the Crimean Khanate. Related to the Turkish problem was the question of royal power in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By September 1697, Augustus II, supported by Russia, was elected king of Poland and Lithuania. With its help it was supposed to strengthen political influence in the neighboring state.
The main diplomatic negotiations were to take place in The Hague. The palace of the Prince of Mauritius and the “state courtyard” for the first ambassador F. Lefort were allocated to house the embassy in the city.
Entry into The Hague took place on September 17. “The great and plenipotentiary ambassadors,” as the “Article List” testifies, “traveled in a smart carriage, on both sides of the carriage there were their haiduks in a Hungarian dress with a butt, on their hats there were coward feathers...” September 18, Caesar's, Spanish, English, The Danish, Swedish and Brandenburg embassies were notified of the arrival of Moscow ambassadors: they were presented with Lefort's business cards with all his pompous titles.
In The Hague, the ambassadors were received on September 25, 1697 in the Binnenhof State Hall. Lefort began the exchange of greetings with the following address: “You, the highly plenipotentiary gentlemen, the general general of the glorious single-sovereign free united Netherlands, ordered to announce his royal majesty’s health and congratulate you.” After that, he handed over an “amateur” letter and six forty sables as a gift. In his response speech, the President of the States, Johann Becker, wished “that the sun over the well-being Russian states never departed from his lordship, but with every increase and multiplication in his royal majesty, the highly venerable person of the glorious house and royal heirs throughout the century was incessantly reinforced ... "
After this reception, the embassy conducted business negotiations in four conferences with a specially appointed state commission about “the benefit of the entire Christian world... matters relating to our countries.” The talk was about concluding an alliance with the Netherlands and other Christian countries against the Turkish Sultan; in turn, Russia was ready, for its part, to create favorable conditions for trade for Dutch merchants. The ambassadors also asked for help in the construction and armament of at least forty warships and more than a hundred galleys, which the Tsar intended to use against the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. The Netherlands chose to remain neutral. They refused to give money and weapons and kept silent about the fact that an official alliance against the Turks was unprofitable for them.
On October 21, the embassy returned to Amsterdam. Lefort and his retinue settled in the Geeren-Logemente hotel, and at the end of December he moved to the luxurious Kaiserkron hotel, where he was visited by relatives who had come from Switzerland. Lefort’s meetings with European ambassadors also took place here, and on November 28, in connection with the news of the “courageous rebuff of the Tavan prisoners” to the Turks, the entire Amsterdam society was present at Lefort’s celebration. On October 26 - 27, 1697, the conclusion of peace between the Allied powers and France was celebrated in The Hague. The day after the holiday, King William III arrived in The Hague. Lefort was also present at his negotiations with Peter.
On January 7, 1698, Peter and fifteen volunteers “from Amsterdam from the East India Court went to English soil in a yacht at noon.” Lefort, who remained in Holland, regularly informed him about the diplomatic negotiations of the embassy.
Peter left England on April 25, 1698 and upon arrival in Amsterdam, together with F. Lefort, went on a trip to the Dutch states.
On May 15, the Tsar hastily left Amsterdam for Austria. The ambassadors were forced to rush to Vienna by the news they received about the successful progress of peace negotiations between the Tsar's government and the Turks. Peter still hoped to prevent these negotiations. On June 11 we stopped thirty miles from Vienna in the town of Stonerau. The Tsar's government demanded that the ambassadors present a travel document. On June 13, the Tsar's representatives arrived in Stockerau to negotiate the ceremonial entry into Vienna. F. Lefort expressed his displeasure with the proposals of the Austrians: the Russians wanted greater pomp of entry into Vienna “with many gentry” and their placement outside the city near the Caesar's palace. Finally, the matter with the ambassadors' house was settled, and a ceremonial entry was scheduled for June 16 at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Having sent the convoy ahead, the ambassadors, led by Lefort, moved to Vienna only after lunch. This is how this action is described in the “Article List”: “And during the arrival of their great and plenipotentiary ambassadors to the approaching camp and at the entrance to Vienna, a lot of people stood on the field and in the streets of Vienna; and in the carriages of the nobility, and many honest people "The wives of that man were watching the entrance. At the embassy courtyard there was a company of soldiers with the leading men, and at the Vienna gate there were about twenty soldiers standing in two gates." Peter settled in Vienna together with the ambassadors “in the same courtyard in a tract, behind the Gundendorf house, in the country courtyard of the former Roman state of sub-chancellor Keniksen.”
Upon arrival in Vienna, F. Lefort conveyed to the Tsar's court the desire of the Russian Tsar to meet with Emperor Leopold. At the meeting, which took place on the evening of June 19, Peter addressed Leopold with a greeting in Russian, which was immediately translated by F. Lefort. On June 24, only accompanied by F. Lefort, Peter visited Empress Eleanor Magdalene and the princesses.
In Vienna, Peter took over negotiations with representatives of the Caesar's court and came into direct contact with the chancellor, Count Kinsky. Lefort actively promoted his diplomatic contacts and conducted all correspondence of the embassy.
On June 29, the Viennese court organized a grand celebration in honor of the distinguished guest, who celebrated his name day on that day. After dinner at F. Lefort's, Peter went to the court ball. The holiday began with a serenade performed by Caesar's chamber musicians and Italian singers in the embassy garden. Then, when dusk came, the king and all the guests went to the banks of the Vienna River and lit a magnificent fireworks display with a “flying rocket”.
Meanwhile, Emperor Leopold decided to give July 11 a court holiday in honor of the Russian Tsar, which was specially moved from winter to summer. The Russians were also preparing for it: the first ambassador spent eighty gold pieces on just one “funny dress.”
On July 18, the official ceremony of receiving the ambassadors took place: “And the great plenipotentiary ambassadors, having arranged themselves according to embassy custom, set off from the Embassy Court to arrive at the Tsar’s Majesty. And the first and second and third great and plenipotentiary ambassadors sat in the same Tsar’s carriage, and with them the bailiff Kenik Saker and Still's translator. In the wing of the carriage was an elegant gilded one with the Caesar's coats of arms. The Great Sovereign of His Royal Majesty's letter was carried before the great and plenipotentiary ambassadors by the secretary of the embassy, Pyotr Lefort. Six trumpeters rode ahead on horseback, and those horses were sent under the embassy officials. And they was given by the master of the ceremony, Bogdan Pristav. And the embassy people walked around the carriage, all on foot. And then eighty people carried the Tsar's Majesty's gifts and ambassadorial gifts from the Viennese burghers. And in front of them were noblemen riding in carriages, and in front of the embassy carriage were pages, and footmen, and embassy people ".
The Grand Embassy studied the international situation, found out the possibility of strengthening the anti-Turkish coalition, and brought with it plans to fight for access to the Baltic states. As for our hero - the first ambassador Franz Lefort, his role as the tsar's first adviser not only on diplomatic issues, but also on everyday matters related to life in foreign countries, is unusually great. Without such a comrade-in-arms, Peter in those years would hardly have risked such a responsible and not accepted in Russia trip to Europe.
Last days
The Great Embassy ended in the most unexpected way. On July 15, Peter said goodbye to the Austrian Emperor Leopold and his family. Everything was ready to be sent to Venice, but on July 18 the courier handed over a report from Prince F.Yu. Romodanovsky about the Streltsy revolt in Russia. P. Lefort informed his relatives: “His Tsar's Majesty ordered me this morning to get ready to go to Moscow at noon. The letters we received yesterday do not allow for further stay here. The Emperor, the General and I are leaving at one o’clock, leaving all our business.” Peter with the Leforts, Golovin, Menshikov and a small retinue left for Russia. Sent to Austria, Henri and his cousin Louis never had time to see their father and uncle: having learned in Regenburg about Lefort’s departure, they returned to Geneva. Lefort left letters and gifts for his son in Vienna - a diamond agraph for a hat, three buttons for arm ruffles, a ring with seven precious stones and a Turkish dagger decorated with diamonds.
Peter's long absence provided ample ground for rumors about his death and the impending boyar conspiracy against Alexei. The population of Muscovy was agitated by the “anonymous letters” written on behalf of Sophia and petitions to the princess asking her to again accept the throne. The government was especially concerned about the mood of the Streltsy. For some time they were stationed near Azov, then they were sent to the Lithuanian border. On June 6, the rifle regiments converged on the Western Dvina. The Sagittarius grumbled about the long absence from Moscow, the hardships of camp life, and demanded the release of delayed salaries. More than two thousand archers went to the capital with a petition. A.S. came out to meet them. Shein and P. Gordon with the Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky, Lefortovo regiments and artillery. The two armies met near the New Jerusalem Monastery. The Streltsy resisted, but were disarmed. The investigation began. One hundred and thirty ringleaders were executed.
While still on the road, on July 22, Peter received news that the riot had been suppressed. On July 31, in Rava, the Russian Tsar met with the Saxon Elector and the Polish King Augustus II. As a result of the negotiations, an agreement on an anti-Swedish coalition was concluded. Polish nobles gave lavish receptions to the tsar, at which he was always present together with Lefort.
On the evening of August 25, the Tsar entered Moscow incognito. Austrian Ambassador I.-H. Guarienti left evidence that “upon arrival, he made his first visit - officially to Lefortovo’s mistress - Monsova’s daughter... The rest of the evening... spent in Lefortovo’s house, and the night in Preobrazhenskoye.” The next day, Lefort, citing the hardships of the journey, did not receive anyone, and the boyars who arrived for an audience with the Tsar were met in the most unexpected way: Peter, armed with scissors, began to cut off their beards. Shein and Romodanovsky were his first victims. From now on, wearing a beard was heavily taxed.
On August 27, after a review of the guards in Preobrazhenskoye, Peter caroused with Lefort until midnight. On September 1, after the liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral on the occasion of the New Year, Shein had a feast, at which Lefort was probably also present.
On September 3, at Lefort’s house, the Austrian Ambassador Baron Ignatius-Christopher Guarienti presented his credentials. The embassy was connected with the conference that began in Karlowice on the conclusion of an alliance against the Turks by Austria, Venice, Poland and Russia. Lefort was instructed to conduct diplomatic correspondence on this issue. The next day the ambassadors dined at Lefort's. Not all of the more than five thousand guests had enough space in the rooms, so tents were pitched opposite the house. Each toast was accompanied by an artillery salvo. At the same time, in the china room of Lefort’s house, in an informal atmosphere, the tsar received the Danish and Polish envoys.
The dinner was disrupted by the king’s outburst of anger: accusing A.S. Shein was in a state of bribery, he pulled out a sword and began to strike at the right and the wrong. The monarch swung at Shein, but “General Lefort (who was almost the only one allowed to do this), hugging the king, pulled his hand away from the blow. The king, however, became very indignant that there was a person who dared to interfere with the consequences of his completely just anger, and immediately turned around and struck the inappropriate intervenor with a heavy blow." Only A.D. managed to tame Peter’s rage. Menshikov. The incident was over and the feast continued until the morning. However, soon at a feast at Colonel Chambers’s, Lefort did not please the king with something. Peter threw him to the floor and trampled him under his feet. This, however, did not in any way affect the royal disposition towards the Genevan. In his house he spent his leisure time, received ambassadors and fellow boyars. On October 9, Peter and Lefort baptized the son of the Danish ambassador, and on the 14th, Franz Yakovlevich “celebrated his name day with a magnificent feast.”
Peter's rage towards A.S. Shein was most likely explained by the insufficiently severe investigation into the Streltsy case. On September 17, the monarch resumed the search. Under torture, many of the rebels accused Lefort of “damaging” the tsar and all their misfortunes: retreating into the campaign of 1695 from Azov, by the grace of the heretic “Franzko”, they ate carrion, “it was his intention to undermine their trenches, and by doing so he undermined their killed three hundred or more people,” and during the assault he deliberately placed them “in the most necessary places in the blood.” Lefort was reproached for introducing tobacco smoking and German dress into Russia. Many contemporaries also saw Lefort’s favor as one of the reasons for the rebellion. “...Lefort’s influence,” the Austrian ambassador Gvarienti reported to the emperor, “inspiring the king to think about traveling abroad and other such criminal facts brought the archers out of patience.”
On September 30, the first carts with two hundred convicts pulled from Preobrazhensky to the Kremlin. The Streltsy were hanged. The second party of one hundred and forty-four people was hanged on the walls of the White City on November 28. Peter forced those close to him to personally torture and execute the rebels. Only Lefort avoided this, making the excuse that this was not accepted in his homeland. In total, about eight hundred people were executed. Sophia, whose guilt could not be proven, was tonsured a nun. The princess owed the relatively mild punishment to Lefort, who, according to Guarienti, dissuaded Peter from his intention to deal with his sister with his own hands. In June 1699, Peter’s wife, Evdokia Lopukhina, was also forcibly tonsured. Probably, the queen’s tragedy was explained by many reasons, including her hostility towards Lefort. There is a strong opinion that the culprit for Peter’s break with her was his favorite, who, out of a desire to tie the king more tightly to himself, pushed him to get closer to Anna Mons.
During the Streltsy search, the tsar did not forget about other matters. On October 30, in the midst of the executions, an official meeting of the Grand Embassy took place. Franz Lefort and Golovin simulated entry into Moscow, and Pyotr Lefort presented his credentials to F.Yu. Romodanovsky.
Believing that a new clash with Turkey could not be avoided, Peter made active preparations for war. On October 23, after having lunch with Lefort, he went to the shipyard in Voronezh, and from there to Belgorod to inspect the ground units. In Peter's absence, Lefort organized the shipment of provisions and materials to the Voronezh shipyards and negotiated with the Austrian, Polish, and Danish ambassadors. On December 20, Peter returned to Moscow. He celebrated Christmas 1688 in the company of the “most drunken cathedral.” To maintain the fun, Lefort “ordered three hundred oxes of various wines brought by merchants from Arkhangelsk harbor to be placed in his cellar; the tsar pays for all such expenses that serve for pleasure.”
After the holidays, Peter again gathered in Voronezh, leaving the capital under the supervision of his favorite. He was waiting for Lefort's imminent arrival to participate in the ceremonial launching of the built frigates. On February 22, the Semenovsky, Lefortovo and Preobrazhensky regiments set out from Moscow to Voronezh under the command of Major Bogdan Gast (they never reached their destination, barely managing to return to Moscow for Lefort’s funeral ceremony). The king sent messengers almost every day to inquire about the well-being of his pet.
Immediately after the Tsar’s departure, Lefort “felt a strong chill and went to bed.” On February 24, the admiral did not cancel the dinner organized by his nephew for the colonels, although he himself could not attend it. Lefort suffered greatly from pain in his right side, “the fever kept rising, the patient could not find a place to calm down and sleep anywhere.” The patient's condition worsened day by day. The attending doctors of “Subota da Eremeev” were powerless: the bloodletting they used did not bring relief.
Franz Lefort died on the night of March 2, 1699, at the age of forty-three. His nephew reported to Geneva: “...For seven days we did not hear a single word uttered by him in his right mind: until his last breath he lay in severe delirium. The pastor was constantly with him, and the patient occasionally spoke to him, but always incomprehensible; only an hour before his death he demanded that a prayer be read." According to another version, Lefort “in continuous delirium drove [the pastor] away, demanding wine and musicians. The doctors allowed the latter: the favorite sounds of arias calmed the patient, but not for long. He again fell into unconsciousness and woke up only just before his death,” saying goodbye to his wife. It was officially believed that the cause of death was malignant (rotten) fever, resulting from a bruise after falling from a horse near Azov.
Immediately after Lefort's death, boyar Golovin sent a messenger to Peter with sad news. Lefort's relatives began to prepare the funeral, but were waiting for orders from the sovereign. A split began among relatives, as can be seen from Peter Lefort’s letter to Geneva. He reported on the need for the king’s arrival, which “would be very desirable for my cousin [Henri. - Author] regarding the inheritance, because the Catholics, native aunts of the seas, are trying in different ways to seize it.” The widow wrote to her mother-in-law in Geneva about her husband’s death, insisting on Henri’s return to Russia.
Peter arrived in Moscow on March 8 and allegedly told those close to him: “I no longer have a faithful person, this one was faithful, on whom I could rely” (according to another version: “I lost my best friend and, moreover, at a time when he told me most needed").
Franz Yakovlevich’s family didn’t even have the money for his burial (Peter Lefort didn’t even have the money to sew a funeral dress), so the tsar took on all the expenses himself. Lefort was not a money-grubber - he voluntarily donated the things given to him from foreign courts during the Great Embassy to the treasury. The admiral had only 160 households, i.e. 450 - 480 souls on rent, from which he received up to six hundred rubles a year. In fact, Lefort supported himself almost on his salary alone.
On March 11, before being taken to church, the tsar ordered the coffin to be opened, cried for a long time and kissed the corpse of his favorite. F. Lefort's funeral was unprecedentedly magnificent. Ahead of the procession, troops led by Colonel von Blumberg moved in columns. Before each regiment there were musicians performing sad melodies. The officers wore black scarves and ribbons. The banners with long black tassels and the drums were covered with black cloth. The Tsar led the first company of the Transfiguration in mourning. The state banner was carried in front of him, and soldiers of the Lefortovo regiment walked behind him. Then the major general carried Lefort’s insignia on a black silver-embroidered pillow (according to another version, they were carried by five people) - a banner with a gold coat of arms on a red field and with an orange long belt, gold spurs, gloves with gold fringe, a sword, a regimental baton, a helmet. Changing every quarter of an hour, twenty-eight colonels, accompanied by five Protestant priests, carried the coffin, upholstered in black velvet with braid, gold fringe and silver plaques with Lefort’s coat of arms (according to another version, Lefort’s body was carried on a bed). Behind the coffin were the son of the Syndic of Geneva, Peter Lefort, ambassadors of Austria, Brandenburg, Denmark, Sweden, pages, boyars, and officers. Two generals led the widow by the arms.
In the Reformed Church of the German Settlement, Pastor Stumporius (Stumpfius) delivered a heartfelt funeral eulogy. Having described Lefort as a “faithful servant and servant” of Peter, he ended his speech with the words: “... The sun of his life dimmed at the very noon of glory, but the rays of royal mercy accompany him to the grave... Availability at the top of honors, readiness to intercede, With immeasurable meekness and constant friendliness, he attracted the hearts of all people to himself." Peter liked the speech so much that he ordered it to be printed and later transferred it to the Academy of Sciences for safekeeping.
After the body was taken out of the church, three shots were fired from forty guns installed in the square next to the cathedral. When the body was transferred to the cemetery, the established order of the procession was violated: the boyars considered it beneath their dignity to follow the foreign ambassadors and got ahead of them. Peter noticed this and later angrily told Lefort’s nephew: “These are dogs, not my boyars.” When the coffin was lowered into the grave amid cannon fire and rapid fire from weapons, Peter, sobbing, fell on the corpse of his friend. The funeral took place in the Lefortovo Palace. When the Tsar briefly left, many boyars hurried to leave the ceremony. Returning Peter met them on the stairs and was very angry: “You cannot wait for the moment when, returning to your homes, you rejoice over the death of the admiral...”. All funeral participants were given gold rings with the day of death and the “image of death” carved out. There were rumors that robbers wanted to open Lefort’s grave at night, which was prevented by the residents of the German settlement.
The question of the burial place of F. Lefort still remains open. At the turn of the XVII - XVIII centuries. Gentiles were buried either in the old cemetery in Maryina Roshcha or in the new one - in the German Settlement not far from the Church of St. Michael. Most likely, Lefort was buried in the German Settlement. According to legend, his grave was covered with a marble plaque with an epitaph carved on it: “Beware, passer-by, do not trample this stone with your feet: it is wet with the tears of the greatest monarch in the world...” There are other versions of this epitaph. They have probably all changed greatly over time and are far from the original. On April 20, 1702, Henri Lefort wrote to Uncle Ami in Geneva: “I went to where my father is buried. His coffin stands in a stone crypt. I ordered the coffin to be opened and saw my father: he was preserved so well, as if he had not been lying there for a week , and three years have already passed..."
There is a version in the literature about the reburial of the ashes of Lefort and Gordon in the 19th century. based on the one founded in the early 1770s. German Vvedensky Cemetery. A guide to Moscow in 1831 reports that “Lefort’s ashes may lie here, but there is no monument and it is impossible to accurately determine the place where he is buried.” Since 1847, Lefort’s second burial place has been shrouded in uncertainty. The admiral's Swiss biographers even claim that Lefort's remains, many years after his death, were reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg next to the Romanov Pantheon.
The son of physician Richter saw the tombstone of Lefort’s grave shortly before the construction of the site of the Reformed church that burned down in 1812. In 1862, a story by a certain merchant appeared in the Moscow newspaper “Our Time” that the tombstone of F. Lefort was discovered on the site of Lomakin’s (later Shchapov’s) house. The grave was immediately dug up and a well-preserved uniform was found in the coffin, which immediately crumbled to dust. The coffin was moved to the Lazarevskoye cemetery, and the tombstone went under the foundation of the house. The historian I. Snegirev also mentions Lefort’s coffin, who wrote that in 1899 it was “in the cellar in Yamshchikov’s house near the Hospital wooden bridge in Lefortovo.”
Pyotr Bogdanovich Lefort wanted to erect a monument on the grave of his uncle. Peter had the same idea, who wanted to entrust this to Italian masters and even sent drawings to Rome to be embodied in marble (according to another version, in bronze). Unfortunately, these intentions were not realized. Currently, Lefort’s grave has disappeared irretrievably and there is no possibility of identifying his burial place.
In 1704, a book by the tutor of Tsarevich Alexei Neugebauer was published in Germany, which stated that after Lefort’s death the tsar “took away from his family not only villages, houses, gold, silver, furniture, wine in the cellars, but even the clothes and linen of the deceased, and the debts, however, had to be paid by the remaining heirs and friends, although so little was left to them that they could barely feed and clothe themselves.” In fact, Peter paid Lefort’s debts in the amount of 5,957 rubles, 25 altyns and 4 money. By decree of the sovereign, the admiral's property was described by boyar F.A. Golovin and Duma clerk Domnin. The villages granted to Lefort were transferred to his son so that his mother would own them until he came of age. Elizabeth Lefort was given “two forty sables, a blanket trimmed with sable and covered with gold brocade, a brocade caftan trimmed with sables, seventy pieces of Persian gray sheepskin and silver fox furs, three pieces of velvet, twelve Chinese tea cups with saucers, twelve chairs, nine walnut cabinets, four paintings, an icon of the Mother of God." Peter Lefort received a gold watch. The rest of the admiral's belongings and correspondence were transferred to the treasury and sealed with the royal seal.
Lefort's death caused a wave of responses in the European press. The mayor of Amsterdam, N. Witsen, expressed sympathy with the admiral’s family in a letter to Geneva. On April 21, 1699, a letter of condolences came from Geneva regarding the death of Lefort: “...The Republic of Geneva, having been informed of the death of this great man and expressing in the letter its sorrow for such a loss, asked not to deprive mercy as his son Andrei, with success student, and his nephew Andrei, worthy of the monarch's favor."
A tribute to the memory of the first Russian admiral was the laying down of the 84-gun ship "Lefort" by the Admiralty on November 18, 1833. July 29 next year in the presence of the emperor, it was solemnly launched.
Franz Lefort, who did not live a very long life, managed to go down in Russian history not just as another favorite of the all-powerful emperor. He was a friend, confidant and assistant in the implementation of Peter's grandiose plans for reforming Russian life. The memory of him forever remained in Moscow names.
After the death of his friend, the king immediately plunged into the maelstrom of state affairs. He ordered the preparation of a sign for the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and on March 9 awarded it to Fyodor Golovin, which was the forerunner of the election of Lefort as his successor as admiral. The king sincerely mourned his friend and experienced his loss for a long time. In a letter to Golovin in 1704 after the victory over the Swedes, he wrote that for the first time after Lefort’s death he was so cheerful.
http://www.pobeda.ru/biblioteka/lefort.html
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