During the teachings in the page corps. From the history of the Corps of Pages

P The Age Corps was founded in St. Petersburg in 1759.
This institution was intended for the education of pages and chambers, it was one of the most privileged educational institutions in Russia at that time. Pupils were taught military affairs and brought up cultured educated people. For some reason it worked at the time.

Remember Mitrich from The Golden Calf, squinting like a proletarian who doubted the existence of parallels on the globe? “What kind of parallel is this,” Mitrich answered vaguely. “Maybe there is no such parallel at all. We don’t know that.

Mitrich spoke the absolute truth. He did not study at the gymnasium. He graduated from the Corps of Pages. "))) and was clearly disingenuous about his incompetence in parallels and meridians. But then it was fashionable to be from the plow ...

Now this is a cadet (in the common people). Or if officially - "Suvorov Military School". I graduated from Suvorov in 1983. True, it was far from Leningrad - he studied at the Ussuri Suvorov School.

This is me in 1982))) We were called tiger cubs. But I digress.

The Corps of Pages is located in the palace on Sadovaya Street. Once it was owned by Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (1714-1767).

The palace was erected on a large scale, in exquisite baroque forms. Vorontsov was an active participant in the palace coup of 1741, inclining the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guards to the side of Elizabeth Petrovna. From 1758 he became state chancellor. He was a friend and patron of M. V. Lomonosov.

The Vorontsov Palace (Sadovaya st., 26) was created in 1749-1757 according to the project of the largest architect of the Russian Baroque F. B. Rastrelli.

Although the site chosen for development overlooked the bank of the Fontanka, the composition of the estate differed significantly from previous similar buildings: by the middle of the 18th century, land traffic in St. Petersburg became predominant, and Rastrelli oriented the main facade of the palace not to the river, but to the recently laid Sadovaya street. By that time, this highway had already become one of the busiest, as it connected the new districts of the city with the shopping center on the Neva prospect.

Under Catherine II, Mikhail Illarionovich was out of work, and in 1763 the palace was bought out to the treasury. At the end of the 1790s. the building was granted by Emperor Paul I to the Order of Malta, and the Chapter of Russian Orders was also located here.

In 1798-1800, the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (architect G. Quarenghi) was built in the palace, and the Maltese Chapel was attached to the main building from the side of the garden (according to his own project).
Below is the interior of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, 1858.

Graduates of the Corps of Pages began to be called the Knights of Malta. After all, Paul was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta ...

Getting into the Corps of Pages was not an easy thing even for the offspring of noble families, since the reception took place under the control of the imperial family. Education here was put on a grand scale. The young men received not only solid military training, but left the corps as highly educated and well-mannered people.

The offspring of royal blood from other countries also studied here. For example, the Siamese prince Chakrabon (now it is Thailand) ...)))

By the way, he accidentally met a girl Ekaterina Desnitskaya in St. Petersburg. Married her. And she became the Thai princess of Siam. So, Russian blood flows in the veins of the monarchs of distant Thailand, and it is her descendants that Thailand loves and idolizes so much today. Why not a fairy tale about Russian Cinderella? And you can't really call her a beauty. Fate, however...

They say that once Nicholas I received a petition from a retired major general to enroll his son in the Corps of Pages. It was in September, and the petition began like this: "September Sovereign ..."

The most august was angry, but then he thought and put the following resolution on the letter: "Accept, so that he does not grow up to be the same fool as his father" ...

At the end of 1917 - the first half of 1918, the party club and other organs of the Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries were located in the palace, then - the courses of the command staff of the Red Army, and in the 1920-1930s - the Leningrad Infantry School. S. M. Kirov.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pupils on a walk in the garden of the building

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

A group of pupils during a singing lesson in the hall

A group of pupils during a rest in the prefabricated hall

Group of pupils during evening tea

Teachers and pupils during the exercises

Pupil in the garden of the building while drawing from life

Meeting of the Grand Committee of the Corps of Pages

Corner of the Page Garden

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

Pupils with teachers at a fencing lesson

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

Orchestra of the Corps of Pages during a rehearsal

Teachers and pupils in the drawing class during the lesson

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

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

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

A group of pupils in the ranks in the White Hall

Pupils during classes in the painting class

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

Pupils during a gymnastics lesson with a teacher in the gym

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

A group of older pupils in front of the shooting gallery

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

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

Pupils of the Corps of Pages during a shooting exercise

Pupils in the classroom studying the charters

Pupils with a teacher during a lesson in tactics

A group of pupils during lunch

Pupil at the post during the summer exercises.

A group of pupils who returned from vacation in the wardrobe

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

Pupils during shooting exercises

A group of pupils returns after the exercises

View of the facade of the Page Corps

From the magazine "Cadet Roll Call" No. 16, 1976.

The title of "pages" was established in Russia by Peter the 1st, who in 1711, when Catherine the 1st was announced by his wife, formed court ranks following the model of the German courts.

Under Catherine the 1st and Peter the 2nd, pages were only occasionally involved in court service. At that time they lived in the homes of their parents, often without any supervision, spending time outside the service, and sometimes in the service far from being in line with their rank and position close to the Court.
There is evidence that they often rioted and it happened, as the records say, that: “For dishonorable acts and repeatedly perpetrated insolence, they were arrested and, having removed their chamber-lage livery, they inflicted a contented punishment with rods, then holding them unacceptably.”

Some streamlining in the organization of the pages was made in the reign of Elioaveta Petrovna, namely, by decree on April 5, 1742, a set of 8 chamber pages and 24 pages was approved. Given the closeness of the pages to the Highest Persons, as well as their, until now, significant ignorance and bad manners, the Empress establishes for them something like a court school, where the pages are taught history, geography, arithmetic, French and German, as well as dancing and fencing.
But, unfortunately, the court service, which absorbs a lot of time, interfered with proper training, and the external gloss was little instilled, because the pages had to live outside the palace, in a society that was far from distinguished by mild morals.
Lazhi remained in this position until 1759, when, by order of the Empress, chamber pages and pages, for the purpose of greater convenience and supervision over them, were gathered to live in the house of Admiral Bruce.
The instructions determined the time for duty in the palace and for studying scientific subjects.
At the same time, it was ordered to teach pages foreign languages, geometry, geography, fortification, history, drawing, rapier and espadrone battles, dances, Russian grammar and literature, and other things that are necessary for an honest nobleman.
The chamberlain was entrusted with the supervision of the teachers at the same time, and he himself had to show and teach what he knows: “So that those who, through this, to a constant and decent mind and noble deeds, most succeed and from that they could show themselves courteous, pleasant and howling perfect, as the Christian law and their honest nature commands.
This was the first attempt to form a court boarding school, which since 1759 received the official name "Her Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages".
Soon, however, Empress Elisaveta Petrovna died, and after the short reign of Peter the 3rd, during which no special attention was paid to the Corps, Catherine the 2nd came to the throne.

Catherine the Great, wishing to raise the level of upbringing and education of the pages, decreed in 1762 that only children of nobles known for their services to the Motherland should be assigned to the Page Corps, and the staff of pages should be determined among 6 chamber pages and 40 pages.

In the development of the above, the Queen instructs Academician Miller to draw up a plan for the training of pages, and since 1766, the Page Corps is located in a house specially purchased for him at the corner of the Moika and the Winter Canal.
In the same 1766, 6 pages were sent abroad for training and improvement, including A. Radishchev (author of Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow), P. M. Kutuzov and P. I. Epishchev.
In 1795, it was ordered to revise the way of teaching in the Corps of Pages and to introduce in it a common order for all Russian schools. Since then, the Corps, remaining under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court, was recognized as equal, in terms of education, with all the educational institutions of the Empire.
In this form, the Corps of Pages existed for 12 years.

Upon accession to the throne. Emperor Paul 1st instructs gr. I. I. Shuvalov oversight of the Corps of Pages, appointing at the same time to the composition of the Corps the life pages at His Court.

In 1800, the pages assigned to duty at the Court were called life pages and they were released to serve in the Guard as lieutenants, and sometimes with the appointment of their adjutant wing. In this way, the reform of the Corps of Pages was prepared, which in the next reign was turned into a Military Educational Institution.
The new regulation on the Corps, drawn up according to the plan of Major General Klinger, was approved by the Highest on October 10, 1802.
On that day it was read in the presence of all the ranks of the Corps. The first director of the transformed Pages was His Name. Vel. Corps was appointed Major General A. G. Gogel. His closest assistant was the Head Officer as a company commander or chamberlain, whose duty was to monitor the morality and behavior of the pages. He also led the pages to the Highest Court, was present at solitary exercises and monthly presented to the chief administrator gr. Shuvalov a report on each of the educated pages. The pages were divided into 4 sections. The first was in charge of the chamberlain, the rest were officers.
The educational part was to be in charge of the class inspector, who was then appointed Colonel Ode de Sion, a Swiss by birth, taken to Russia by Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov to raise his son.
After the death of Andrei Grigorievich Gogel, his brother Ivan Grigorievich, known for his work on artillery, was appointed director of the corps.
Under him, in 1810, the Corps of Pages was given a room in which it was placed before the revolution of 1917, namely, the former palace of c. M. I. Vorontsov on Sadovaya Street, opposite Gostinny Dvor.
In the old days, a shady garden stretched along the Fontanka at this place, in the depths of which c. Rastrelli Palace, facing the Sadovaya.
In 1768, it was bought by Catherine the 2nd for the treasury and served as a place for high-ranking officials.

When Paul the 1st assumed the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he granted this palace, with all the outbuildings adjacent to it, to the Chapter of the Order of Malta and ordered the architect Guarenga to build a Maltese Catholic Church, which was consecrated in 1800. In it, to the right of altar, under the canopy was the chair of His Majesty the Grandmaster.
Under the church there was an underground passage connecting the church directly with the bedroom of Emperor Paul 1st in the Mikhailovsky Palace.

Among the figures of the Patriotic War, who died with glory on the battlefields or distinguished themselves by their outstanding courage, there were many pupils of the Corps of Pages, as evidenced by black marble plaques in the Corps Church, covered with the names of those killed during the wars, as well as a number of portraits of St. George Cavaliers in the St. George Hall Corps.

The alteration of the building of the Corps, with devices convenient for the educational institution, was carried out in the reign of Imp. Nicholas 1st, under the supervision of engineer Lieutenant General Opperman.
At the time of this alteration, the pages with their employees were transferred to Peterhof, where they were placed in the building of the English Palace.
In the same year, the following were approved: a new regulation, staff and report card of the Corps, according to which 16 cameras-pages, 134 pages-ingers and 15 externals were supposed to be.
In 1830, Major General A. A. Kavelin (1830-1834), who graduated from the Corps when he was II, was appointed director of the Corps. G. Gogel as its director. After 4 years, he was replaced by P.N. Ignatiev. At that time, Vel. Book. Mikhail Pavlovich, having as his closest assistant, as Chief of Staff - Ya. I. Rostovtsev, a former graduate of the Corps.

For 10 years, the education and upbringing of crap was set so high that the director of the Corps P.N. Ignatiev had the right to admonish the pages promoted in 1846 to officers with the words: blush for you and be proud of you. Let the pupils of the Corps, to whom you owe your education, after many years with a sense of grateful pride, could repeat, remembering you - and he was a Page. As before, during this period the Corps educated not a small number of prominent persons.

With the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander II, when he was the Minister of War D. A. Milyutin, and the chief head of the Military Educational Institutions N. V. Isakov, transformations began in the cadet corps, which also affected the Page Corps.

In 1865, the general classes were separated from the special ones, which made up a combatant company on a military school course. Major General D. X. Bushey, one of the most educated teachers of his time, was appointed in 1867 director of the Corps of Pages, remaining in this position until his death in 1871. His memory was preserved with love among his colleagues and pages, t during his time as director, each of his subordinates knew that he could boldly turn to him with confidence to find greetings and good advice.
When Fyodor Karlovich Ditrikhs, who replaced P. I. Mezentsev (1871-1878) in 1878, was the director, “preparatory classes” were opened as an independent educational institution to prepare for admission to the Page Corps, consisting of 3 classes. They were given premises in a wooden house on the corner of Liteinaya and Kirpichnaya (where the Guards Economic Society was later located). Arakcheev once lived in this house.

In 1884, this institution was subordinated to the director of the Page [Corpus], but already in 1885 the preparatory classes “were closed. The corps began the course in full force of 7 classes, general 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, in the main building and two special ones in the new wing, which communicated directly with the apartment of the director of the corps, which, until that time, was on departure. city, according to the company commander of the 2nd company, Colonel N. N. Skalon, was founded at the Corps of his "Historical Museum" with the aim of collecting and storing everything related to the past of the Corps and its pupils.
Unfortunately, the death of Col. Skalon in 1895, temporarily interrupted his useful activity in this field, and only thanks to the energy of the director of the Corps gr. Fyodor Eduardovich Keller (page of the 1870 issue), the muey since 1898 received a solid organization. Under the museum, 5 rooms were allotted in the stalls. In them, thanks to the sacrificial work of Captain Alexander Fedorovich Shidlovsky, who at that time was a course officer of the 3rd company, captain Alexander Fedorovich Shidlovsky, not only everything related to the history of the Corps during its existence was collected and brought into exemplary order, but also a huge amount of material was concentrated for evaluation the life and work of his pupils-pages, upon their release from the Corps.
A.F. Shidloteky wrote, on the basis of the material he collected, a very interesting and valuable in its content brochure dedicated to the Corps on the day of its 100th anniversary in 1902 as a Military Educational Institution.

On December 12, 1902, the Corps of Pages, consisting of three of its companies and a historical platoon, lined up in a deployed front against the royal box in the Mikhailovsky Manege. To the left of the pages were officers and civilian ranks of the Corps, generals, staff and chief officers who wore uniforms and were listed in the Corps, and behind them were former pages in seniority of graduation from 1837 to 1902 inclusive.
Exactly at 12 o'clock the Sovereign Emperor arrived at the arena with both Queens and the Heir Vel. Book. Mikhail Alexandrovich. Entering the Manege, the Sovereign accepted the report of the Director of the Corps and, accompanied by a brilliant retinue, passed in front of a group of pages, greeting and congratulating them on the Holiday and the Jubilee.
Then the director of the Corps read a letter of award to the Banner Corps, after which the command “to pray helmets, hats, caps off” followed, and the flag officer, senior chamber-page Petrovsky, with 2 assistant officers, carried the banner to the lectern.
After the service, the banner was carried along the front and stood in front of the 1st company of His Majesty.
A ceremonial march began, and then a historical platoon in uniforms and with weapons corresponding to the years of the reigns, demonstrated marching and receptions according to their time, that is, the times of the reigns from Elizabeth Petrovna to our time. After the parade, the Sovereign, approaching the front of the former pages, said:
“Thank you, gentlemen, for serving Me and My Predecessors, for your selfless devotion, which many of you sealed with your blood, for your honest service to the Throne and Motherland! I firmly believe that these covenants, handed down from generation to generation, will always be alive among the pages! I wish you health for many years!
Then he turned to the pages with the words: “Today, I proved to the Page Name of My Corps how great My goodwill is in him by granting him a banner, awarding the combatant company and all the pages now in the lists of the Corps with my monogram on shoulder straps and enrolling Brother and My Uncle in the lists of the Corps. I am sure that, following the example of previous generations of pages, many of whose representatives are present here, you will all serve your Sovereign and our dear Motherland - Russia with the same valor, just as honestly and faithfully! Goodbye, gentlemen!
"Happily remain Your Imperial Majesty" and a thunderous cheer was the answer to the words of the Monarch.
Probably no one then thought that in 15 years the Corps of Pages, as such, would cease to exist.

And yet, despite this, the inner cohesion and the dear traditions of the Corps, which bind all, almost without exception, the pages, that sincere love for the native Corps and the precepts of the Maltese cross that adorns our chest, made sure that, being scattered around the wide world, the pages firmly stand for each other, both individually and in the countries where they are grouped into one of the departments of the Union of Pages!

I would also like to add how erroneously and often unfoundedly it was believed that the Corps of Pages was a narrowly privileged institution, where “Mama’s Sons”, fatish women, boasting of their aristocratic origins, connections, etc., were brought up and graduated from the Corps with more than light luggage. This can still be assumed, if we count the first years of its existence. The gradual improvement in the organization of the training process and the demands placed on the pupils of the Corps of Pages have radically changed this.

Over the last decades of its existence, the level of the teaching staff and the corresponding requirements from the pupils of the Corps arising from this stood at a first-class height.
As for the privileges of the Corps, it should be noted that, according to the Highest Statute of the Page Corps, admission to it was not made by origin. Pages could only be the sons and grandsons of generals who testified to their devotion to the Motherland by their service.
It should also be noted that over the last decades of its existence. The Corps of Pages gave in various, not only military, fields a significant number of people who stood out for their zeal, conscientiousness and scientific usefulness in the service of Russia.
And how many pages gave their lives for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland, not only on the battlefields of the Japanese-Russian, the First Great War and in the ranks of the White Volunteer Armies, but also the fallen and tortured, in the struggle for the freedom and greatness of Russia, against the Bolsheviks ...

TO THE CELEBRATION OF THE 190TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PAGE CORPS

Nakhichevan Khan, who knew well the ardent nature of his subordinate, a young graduate of the Page Corps, cornet of the Life Guards Horse Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Chavchavadee, sent him to Tiflis in the days of terrible upheavals in 1717 to buy horses. Only thanks to this cornet Chavchavadze, the offspring of a glorious family, was able to survive then.
The revolutionary Moloch overtook him in peaceful days, leading him through all the hellish circles of the Gulag ... Years later, an elderly man, exhausted by the camps, came with his son Zurab to the building of the Page Corps, where the Suvorov military school was already located and, having begged the officer on duty to let him through, with tears before his eyes he hugged the walls of his alma mater.

Chamber-Page issue of 1907. B.M. Jordan

No one, of course, explained to the Suvorovites who this weeping old man was, who, by his age, could in no way be a graduate of the Suvorov School.
They were not told at all about the Corps of Pages, which was here until 1918 ... Meanwhile, there were fewer and fewer living pages. On December 25, 1992, the celebration of the 190th anniversary of the corps was attended mainly by their descendants ...

After the revolution, corps holidays were celebrated abroad - at traditional dinners "scattered, but not terminated" in the white emigration pages. The current anniversary, first celebrated within the walls of the Corps on Sadovaya, 26, was also marked by the opening of the exposition of the recreated Corps of Pages.
The museum is now in the library of the St. Petersburg SVU (former Orthodox Church of the Corps of Pages). A page's uniform is displayed in a glass stained-glass window, next to it are stained-glass windows with unique photographs, engravings and family relics, which were handed down by the descendants of the pages Sabanin, Verkhovsky, Annenkov, Mandryka, Shepelev, Bezkorovainy, the granddaughter of a corps officer Natalya Leonidovna Yanush and others. All this was collected bit by bit by the head of the library, a charming young woman, Olga Vladimirovna Popova, who, with the support of the head of the SVU, Major General V. Skoblov, organized this wonderful holiday.

In addition to those mentioned above, the descendants of the pages Lermontov, Semchevsky, Zherbina, Sievers came to the anniversary, the descendants of the pages Chavchavadze and Baumgarten came from Moscow, the page Stenbock-Fermor came from France, and the page Vannovsky came from Sweden. The last page living in Russia, Mikhail Ivanovich Valberg, also came.

At noon, a prayer service was held at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra with the participation of all the guests, Suvorovites and IED officers. Then, after the solemn construction of the school, at which Mikhail Valberg spoke to the Suvorovites, the guests moved under the arches of the former Orthodox Church building. At the opening of the museum, congratulations were read from various organizations and institutions (including the Public Library, the museums of the St. Petersburg Noble Union, the Congress of Compatriots, the St. Petersburg Suvorov Union), a telegram from Baron von Falz-Fein (one of his ancestors, General Epanchin, was the director of the Corps of Pages).

In the stories of descendants, the fates of the pupils of these walls came to life before us: K. Semchevsky, the beloved chamber page of Nicholas II, who, together with Admiral A. Kolchak, tried to save the last Russian tsar before his death in Yekaterinburg, V. Semchevsky, sunk along with other officers on barge in the White Sea by order of the revolutionary authorities; cornet M. Chavchavadze, a prisoner of the Stalinist camps.

And one more thing. At one time, a significant part of the richest library of the Corps of Pages was taken by order of the party authorities to the Tauride Palace, where it remains to this day without any use. All the efforts of Olga Vladimirovna Popova to return the books to the walls of the building have not yet been crowned with success. I take this opportunity to add my journalistic voice in support of her just demands.

Journal. "Midshipman" January 13, 1993, St. Petersburg
To the anniversary of the Corps of Pages
15.01.93

Dear Nikolai Alexandrovich!*

Thank you for the warm congratulations and the materials sent to the museum. All this is very interesting and, of course, necessary for further work. I also received a newsletter. With great attention I read the reviews of the cadets about the trip to Russia. I really liked the photo - the descendants of the pages against the background of the Page Corps.
It is a pity that you were not able to attend the anniversary. It was a real holiday. At 12.00 a moleben was served in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. There were descendants of pages (about 40), page M. I. Vamberg (he studied for 2 years in the Page Corps before it closed), Suvorovites, officers, many guests.

The prayer went great. Then everyone came to the building, where a solemn march took place in honor of the 190th anniversary. And finally, the opening of the museum. Congratulations were read to the Museum of the Corps of Pages. But it was a shame that the Cadets did not congratulate us.
Nikolai Alexandrovich, if you only knew how glad I was to see the happy faces of the descendants of pages. After all, for the first time in many years they were able to get to know each other and, of course, see the walls of the Corps of Pages, closely associated with their names. In addition, thanks to the help of the Congress of Compatriots, a prospectus came out for the anniversary.
Sacred music sounded from the choirs (the former Orthodox Church). And God forbid that it sounded within these walls as often as possible. The holiday ended with a small feast.

I hope to present you with a prospectus when we meet (or maybe there will be an opportunity?). If possible, please say hello to A. Jordan.
I wish you all the very best.

Sincerely yours, O. Popova**
191011 St. Petersburg. Sadovaya, 26, SVU, Library
* N. A. Khitrovo - the son of a page.
** O. Popova - head of the library.

Y. MEYER
FATAL ERRORS

As an eyewitness to the tragic events in February and October 1917 in Petrograd, I am often asked the question: how did the tsarist government fail to cope with the first rebellion, and it turned into a hurricane that forced all the forces of order to capitulate?
Being very young then, I did not understand the political situation, and only now can I quite plausibly explain the mood of the masses that led to the revolution.

The history of the Russian state, especially the 18th century, is rich in conspiracies and upheavals. All these coups had one thing in common: the people did not participate in them. There were no political parties. The instigators and executors were representatives of the aristocracy and the military.

Thus approached the fateful December 1916. In the highest circles of society, and especially among the young guards, there were persistent and indignant conversations about the need to imprison the empress in a monastery. She was accused of being a German, that she was for a separate peace. All this was slander. She was especially blamed for the fact that she obediently followed the advice of a peasant - the Siberian peasant Rasputin. These people had no human pity for a deeply unhappy woman who saved the life of her beloved son, who suffered from hemophilia.

The conspirators, as before, were members of the dynasty and the aristocracy: Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, the sovereign's nephew and Prince Felix Yusupov, married to the sovereign's niece, his sister's daughter - led. book. Xenia Alexandrovna. There was, however, a significant change in the composition of the conspirators. Among them was the leader of a major right-wing political party in the State Duma, Purishkevich, as well as a private doctor, Sukhotin.

The next day the whole city knew about the murder of Rasputin. Instead of severely punishing the guilty, the sovereign showed weakness. Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich was exiled to Persia to the Russian division operating there under the command of General Baratov. This saved the life of the prince, since if he had stayed in Petrograd, he would have been killed, like many other members of the dynasty.
Prince Felix Yusupov was exiled to his estate in the Kursk province. The assassination of Rasputin and the reaction of the sovereign to him opened wide the gates of the coming revolution.

Meanwhile, the Russian state valiantly withstood the crisis of shell and cartridge hunger in 1915, although it had to cede vast territories to the enemy. Thanks to public organizations - the Zemstvo and city administrations - literally every grinder in any outback began to turn shell glasses. State-owned factories kept up with the production of warheads, shell hunger was eliminated, and already in the summer of 1916, General Brusilov defeated the Austrians, developing a broad offensive. General Yudenich did the same when he drove the Turks into Asia Minor.

The main command and headquarters expected in the spring of 1917 to go on a decisive offensive along the entire front and defeat the Germans. However, already in the autumn of 1916, a new crisis emerged - an acute shortage of people at all levels of the command ladder. In combat units at the front, there were serious losses among junior officers. Suffice it to cite as an example the famous battle near Causeni, where squadrons of a cavalry regiment and cavalry guards attacked a German landwehr brigade; took, under the command of Captain Baron P. N. Wrangel, a battery, but lost 16 officers from two regiments.

In the autumn of 1916, there was a great shortage of junior officers in the infantry units, and the Stavka ordered all cavalry regiments that were not in the trenches to send junior officers there to the infantry units.
In the early spring of 1916, millions of middle-aged privates were called up. Petrograd was a military city. In peacetime, three infantry guard divisions, three cavalry divisions and many other units stood in it and in the vicinity. The barracks for the infantry regiment were designed for 4,200 soldiers.
Now all these barracks were filled with recruits of 6000-7000 people each. Living conditions have become terrible. But the most terrible was the absence of non-commissioned officers.

Those who arrived were not taught anything. For example, the junior non-commissioned officer Levkovich, who was given three volunteer lyceum students for training - Gilscher, me and the lawyer Nikolsky, gave us 2 hours once a week. And so about 300,000 called up did nothing and went into the city without permission and hung on trams. Most of them were peasants who were worried - who will work in the village when plowing and sowing begin? After all, only women and old men remained at home.

The revolutionary elements were well aware that if Russia won a decisive victory in the spring and summer, the revolution would have to be forgotten for many years to come. A Russian victory could not be allowed.

And so they threw their propagandists and agitators into the barracks. The entry there was free. The commanders of the reserve battalions looked on helplessly as the rallies thundered there. For the slogan "War to a victorious end" one could pay with one's life.

The commander of the troops of the Petrograd district was General Khabalov, a valiant Caucasian, a hero on the battlefields, but completely unaware of the conditions of garrison life in the capital, moreover, in the presence of 300,000 disgruntled peasants and workers. Kerensky was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers -
furious wasteland. When Kornilov offered him military assistance, Kerensky declared that "the danger is on the right".
The mayor, Prince Obolensky, his assistant for civil affairs, Lysogorsky, the director of the secret police department, Beletsky, were all ordinary bureaucrats, incapable of taking decisive steps. And in the Taurida Palace - in the State Duma, the left wing of the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, left and right social revolutionaries raged, under the intimidated constitutional democrats, Octobrists and nationalists and the cowardly chairman Mikhail Rodzianko.

As for the youth, they simply did not understand what was threatening Russia. The fact is that in the spring of 1916, all students, except those who graduated from higher educational institutions that year, were called up for military service. They were given 4 months to enter a military school or voluntarily join the army. Not a trace remained of the military impulse of 1914. Here is an illustrative example:
the next course in the Corps of Pages began on June 1, 1916, all vacancies were filled, and the next accelerated course in the same Corps of Pages began on February 1, 1917, so that we, lyceum students, jurists and others who had the right to enter this institution, tried different ways and preferential four months stretched into eight.
But the worst of all was the following: junior officers were trained by ensign schools at four-month courses. Even the well-known military schools have significantly reduced their courses, mostly from two years to nine months. This kind of ensigns were no good. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the mass of students of universities and higher institutions, cut off from their studies in this way and, moreover, revolutionary-minded, hated the war and the government and accordingly agitated the soldiers.

Kornilov's attempt to come to the aid of Kerensky in Petrograd completely failed, and General Krymov shot himself, making sure that there were no loyal units at all.

I illustrate the complete passivity and confusion of those people in the capital who should have defended the monarchy by all means. The vice-director of the Corps of Pages, Lieutenant General Rittikh, who replaced the director, Lieutenant General Usov, who had left for the front, tried not to show himself at all. Colonels Karpinsky, Fenu and Chernoyarov and the detached officers, the brothers Limont Ivanov, Pozdeev, Shcherbatsky, tried to hide the existence of the corps altogether. It was renamed the Petrograd Military School.
On the day of the general funeral of the victims of the revolution on the Champ de Mars, we were not only not sent to disperse the revolutionary crowd, but they secured us by securing an unexpected function for us. The French ambassador Maurice Palaiologos and the English George Buchanan agreed to accept us, the pages, to guard the embassies. So I stood on the clock at the gates of the red house of the English embassy, ​​which overlooked the Field of Mars, and watched how the workers, men and women, holding hands, 8 people in a row, languidly walked, mournfully shouting: "You fell a victim in the fatal struggle..."

Everything then looked chaotic and absurd: the Corps of Pages, like other institutions, received the right to send permanent delegates to the Soviet of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. This "honor" was awarded to the page Zheltukhin - a noble Muscovite, who later went to the cavalry guards, paired with another delegate - a groom.

At the end of March, all the military units of the city were gathered at the Tauride Palace to take the oath to the Provisional Government. It was here that he distinguished himself with his red bow led. book. Kirill Vladimirovich, commander of the Guards crew.
But an incident occurred with our column, indicating how vile and humiliating everything was. We were met by a respectable large man in a civilian coat and loudly introduced himself: "Your senior sergeant salutes you!"
It was the chairman of the State Duma, Mikhail Rodzianko, the chamber page of the sovereign, who deserved the most honorary title for pages of his majesty.

Our camp near Krasnoe Selo was captured by a band of rebellious soldiers, and we did not receive the main summer combat training. We were sent for several days either to Sestroretsk, or to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, or to Pavlovsk. Thus, we were not taught anything. In the intervals, the authorities gave us holidays and rejoiced when the building was empty. During this summer I went to our estate in the Oryol province four times, where it was calm.

With such a general collapse, the idea of ​​going out to a certain part has become absurd. Therefore, in our issue there were several dozen people who went out in general cavalry, without naming units in order to maintain freedom of choice. The cadets of the Nikolaev Cavalry School continued to play in the old traditions, introduced themselves to the regiments, almost sewed peacetime uniforms for themselves and dragged especially curved sabers.

Here, in a few examples, is a picture of complete collapse and confusion.
There was, however, an auspicious moment after the unsuccessful attempt by the Bolsheviks in July to stage a coup. They were frightened, and even Lenin considered it necessary to hide. He went to Finland and settled there in a private house. This moment was missed by the officers and junkers in Petrograd.
A few determined people could arrest Lenin in his hideout. In this respect, we shamefully gave in to the Jews. Among them were ideological people - members of the Fighting Organization of Social Revolutionaries.
Kannegisser killed the chief security officer of Petrograd Uritsky, and the Jewess Dora Kaplan attempted on Lenin, another Jew killed the important Bolshevik Volodarsky. Here is a sad account of how our high command and the youth of the ruling stratum were rendered helpless and incapable of resistance.

ALEXANDER HERSHELMAN,

Chamber page, issue of 1913

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY'S CORPORATION OF PAGES

KP No. 64-66, 1998

My service as chamber pages at the court of Emperor Nicholas II

I was born on November 12, 1893 in the city of Revel on Narva Street, house number 21 (it seems), later there was a post office. I don’t know the hour of my birth, but it doesn’t matter, at the end of my life I’m not going to draw up a horoscope.
My father, Sergei Konstantinovich, graduated from the Corps of Pages as a sergeant major in 1872, was recorded on the Marble Board as the first to graduate. On Easter, Sovereign Alexander II presented him with an egg from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, on which an icon of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious was painted, wishing his father to earn this order by valiant service to the Russian Tsar. Father received the Order of George IV degree for the battles near Mukden on February 22-27, 1905.

Grandfather, Konstantin Ivanovich, was an adjutant general, which gave my brothers and me the right to be included in the lists of pages of the Imperial Court. According to custom, entry into the lists of candidate pages was made in the first year of the boy's birth.
The order to enroll me in the lists of pages was signed by Emperor Alexander III shortly before His death. That is why in the edition of "Pages", issued even before the centenary of the corps, I am listed among the sons of my father with a note: "The Last Page of the Reign in Bose of the late Sovereign Emperor Alexander III".

The most vivid memory of my six-year stay in the walls of the Corps of Pages H.I.V. was, undoubtedly, court service. My 1913 graduation ended my education in the corps in the jubilee years in which Russia celebrated the centenary of the Patriotic War and the tercentenary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty.
An insignificant number of pages from among those who spent their summer vacations near the capitals - St. Petersburg and Moscow - participated in the celebrations on the Borodino field and in Moscow. The nature of the celebrations did not require the involvement of the entire issue.
During the Borodino festivities, the Sovereign Emperor deigned to make all the pages who fulfilled the conditions for production (transferred to the senior special class with 9 points in “average in teaching and 1st category in behavior) into chamber pages. Thus, having arrived at the corps on September 1, we immediately put on two transverse stripes on shoulder straps, and on September 15, when we changed the camp uniform to the city uniform, we decorated our uniforms with additional galloons on the back pockets, screwed on the spurs and received the right to wear a sword instead of a cleaver. At the same time, the descendants of the participants in the Patriotic War put on commemorative Borodino medals.

I served as chamber-page for the first time under the Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna during a charity bazaar held annually on Christmas Eve in the halls of the Assembly of the Nobility by Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder. It was not so much a court celebration as an event that brought together the entire St. Petersburg society in the Assembly of the Nobility.
In the hall, occupying its entire middle, there was a table in the shape of the letter "O", at which the Grand Duchess sat facing the entrance. Further on it were located separate "trays" with the "goods" offered to the attention of visitors. There were also tables along the walls of the hall. The table of the Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna was installed to the left of the main entrance to the hall. The "saleswomen" at the stalls were ladies and young ladies of St. Petersburg society. The market went on for a week.

Prince Barclay de Tolly Weymarn was the chamber page under Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. We were dressed in our city uniforms, and only we were allowed to wear sultans on helmets, in order to at least indicate the courtly nature of our service. Our service was simple, but quite tiring. We arrived at the meeting at about one o'clock in the afternoon and remained, never sitting down, until 7 pm. By one o'clock, the head of the palace of the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, Etter, also came to the side entrance of the meeting.
"Let's sit down,- he said to me, seating me on the steps of the stairs. - The Grand Duchess will be here at a quarter to two while we wait, because half of the court service is in anticipation. You have to get used to it."
"Their Highness deigns to drive up,"- the porter informed us, and we went out to meet him.
I took off my coat. The Grand Duchess entered the hall and took a seat at her table. Then the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna would arrive, go around the hall, greeting the ladies sitting at the tables.
Music played in the choirs, Leonardi sang Italian songs. The hall quickly filled with guests. The Grand Dukes, ladies, officers of the Guard and Petersburg society in general came together. Animation reigned in the hall, those who entered approached the table of the Grand Duchess, then dispersed to the tables of the familiar "saleswomen", and since most of them knew each other, they went from table to table, from "tray" to "tray", talking cheerfully with the sellers and buying all sorts of trinkets.

As I said, the duties of chamber-pages were not difficult. We stood near the tables of our Grand Duchesses, carrying out their instructions and accompanying them around the hall. Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna went around all the tables several times during the week, stopping and talking with familiar ladies and young ladies, buying things on stalls. Following her with a tray, I took these things and carried them after Her Highness.
These walks around the hall were entertainment, because while the Grand Duke stopped and bought, I could also talk with my acquaintances. So, during one of these rounds, when my tray was already almost full, the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich arrived, and Their Highnesses went into the next room, where they stopped smoking. I modestly lingered near the door, not wanting to interfere with their conversation with my presence.

With the closing of the bazaar, my stay as chamber-pager under the Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna ended, since she left and was not present at subsequent celebrations.
As the first in seniority after the senior chamber-pages during the festivities of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, I was appointed to be under the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, daughter of the Tsar Liberator Emperor Alexander P. She was at that time about 60 years old, short, full. The Grand Duchess, with a striking simplicity of address and kindness shining in her eyes, nevertheless retained in her movements and conversation something inexplicably regal. To me, then a 19-year-old youth, she treated me with attentiveness that always surprised me, giving me an affectionate word and giving me all sorts of little things as a keepsake at balls and dinners. I am infinitely grateful to fate that at the decline of the Russian Empire I was destined to be with a representative of our Royal House and exactly with such a person as I imagined the Russian Highest Person.

I served at court all the time together and next to Prince Nikolai Longinovich Barclay de Tolly Veymarn, senior chamber-page and denominator of our issue (I was an assistant at the banner). He was under Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder, while I first under Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, wife of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, and then under Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, sister of the late husband of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Both Grand Duchesses lived together, and during the celebrations they kept together all the time, being of the same age and standing side by side in the seniority of the Royal House.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, as they said about her, loved court etiquette, and also surrounded herself with a “small court”. That is why on Easter Barclay and I were sent to the palace of the Grand Duchess to congratulate Their Highnesses and to participate in a small exit on the occasion of the Bright Holiday.
At about 11 o'clock in the morning we were led into a small living room, upholstered in light silk, next to the hall in which those who had come to congratulate the Grand Duchess had gathered. Along the walls of the hall were officers of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment, whose chief was the Grand Duchess, members of the Academy of Sciences, whose chairmanship she assumed after the death of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, and many official and unofficial persons who, for one reason or another, came to congratulate her. While waiting for the August Hostess, Barclay and I quietly exchanged our impressions. Soon the head of the Court of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and a German who apparently performed the same duties under Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna entered. The latter gave me an award for service under the Grand Duchess - Ferdinstkreutz of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha IV degree, saying that the diploma mm would be sent additionally from the chancellery of the duchy. With a spare pin, he immediately attached to my uniform a silver cross on a purple ribbon with two narrow yellow stripes on the sides. That's how I got my first award.

The Grand Duchesses are out. Barclay and I respectfully brought them our congratulations on the Bright Holiday, I also thanked the Grand Duchess for awarding the cross. With characteristic affability, she told me that she thanked me for my service and wanted me to have a good memory of her, "and for this she smiled, here's a red egg". Wrapped in thin red leather, the egg contained sapphire Faberge cufflinks.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna lingered for several minutes at the desk in the middle of the room, sorting through the letters and telegrams lying on it. After that, looking around the assembled people, she said that it was time to start the exit, adding, addressing us in French: "I'm very nervous before going out."
Remembering these words later, Barclay and I did not believe this excitement - the Grand Duchess, as it seemed to us, spoke confidently at all such events in court life. I think we were wrong. Of course, she was not as excited as we, participating for the first time at court celebrations, in an environment unfamiliar to us, in which we often had to decide on our own and quickly what she had known to the smallest detail for years and knew in advance. Here it was different.

As A. A. Mosolov told me many years later, the Grand Duchess treated her role of the Russian Grand Duchess seriously and with a full sense of responsibility, as she said, mrtier du Grand Duchesse. Apparently, she was preparing for the exit in her palace: For the composition of those waiting for her to enter the hall, she, I think, prepared in advance the words that she said to each of them and, in general, all her behavior at the exit. Her metier was to do and say in time, by the way, what was required by etiquette and what needed to be said in order to preserve and raise the prestige of the Royal House to which she belonged.
The Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna was in this respect, it seemed to me, completely different. She didn't make shadows. With some kind of innate sense of tact, some kind of royalty inherent in her generation of the Royal Family, associated with simplicity and sincerity, she achieved from the subjects of the Emperor the same sincere devotion to the dynasty, which completely captured me in those short months that I was with this person. .

Even then I realized that belonging to the Royal Family obliges a lot and that this tenier is one of the most shy and difficult. You need to know, and most importantly, understand with all your heart how to do it and why what I saw on the examples of the Grand Duchesses Maria Alexandrovna and Maria Pavlovna, deeply sunk into my heart, and I am deeply grateful to God that He lent me through my Great Princess to look into the world of the older generation of the Royal House, still completely saturated with the spirit of Emperor Nicholas I.

At a sign from the Grand Duchess, the doors of the living room opened and our entire small group went out into the instantly silent hall. The Grand Duchess slowly began to walk around the audience, greeting, accepting congratulations and lavishing smiles and gracious words.
After leaving, we again entered the living room. The Grand Duchesses said goodbye to us and let us go home.

When I was in a junior special class, I had to serve during a ceremonial dinner given in the Winter Palace to King Nicholas of Montenegro. The very one about whom Tsar Alexander III said that this was his only devoted ally.
The graduation of 1912 (sergeant major Vladimir Bezobrazov) was small, and therefore there were not enough people in it to fill the number of pages required by etiquette. On this day, in addition to the chamber pages behind the Grand Duchesses, behind the chairs of all the Grand Dukes, holding their headdresses during dinner, there were pages. We, the pages, were placed at the table in advance, while the chamber pages, as always, accompanying their Grand Duchesses, arrived in the hall along with the exit. The table was arranged in the shape of the letter "P".

I stood behind the chair of Prince Sergei Georgievich Leuchtenberg-Romanovsky and held his cocked hat. The Sovereign sat with his back to the entrance door, while my place was obliquely to the right from him. Before that, I had seen him only briefly: at the funeral of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich and during his arrival in the corps. Of course, standing at dinner, I took the opportunity to stare at him, studying his face, movements, smile.

I don't know why the King turned his attention to me. Did he read in my eyes the feelings that worried me, or what else drew his attention to me. At first he glanced at me casually, then fixed his bright, radiant eyes on me, took in his hand the pie served with the soup (if I'm not mistaken, it was cheese loaves), showed it to me and bit off with a smile. Apparently, with this joke he meant: "Here you are, poor, standing hungry, and I'm having a snack". For a second, some kind of intimate thread stretched between the Tsar and me ...
I blushed deeply in embarrassment. The sovereign smiled again and spoke to King Nicholas. Forty-three years have passed since that time, but the eyes and smile of Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich will never be erased from my memory.

My first responsible service at the Court was going through the halls of the Eimniy Palace to the palace church. This exit opened in February 1913 the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
On this day, we were awakened early, and the servants brought court uniforms, leggings, over the knee boots and sultans to the helmets into the company. The day before, we rehearsed the wearing of the trains and listened to the last instructions on how and when to wear them (it was supposed to take the trains in hand at the turns of the procession when it moved through the rooms, the floor of which was covered with a carpet. When the procession stretched in a straight line, the train spread across the floor.

Every year the corps sewed, updating the arsenal, several new court uniforms. I was lucky to get a tailor-made uniform for me, because it sat perfectly on me and, despite the galloons (14 front 4 on the back of the pockets), leggings and over the knee boots, I did not feel constrained in my movements in it. Having wet the partings, we did not put on our helmets, so as not to be disheveled, and in the court carriages given to us, we kept them on our knees. During court service, we hung helmets by the scales, the sultan down, onto the sword.
Arriving at the palace, we lined up in two lines at the entrance to the Malachite Drawing Room, in which the Royal Family gathered. Having put on the court uniform, the page for the duration of service in the palace from the combat rank of the Tsarist army turned into the rank of the court, subordinate to the marshal's part. To everyone who was supposed to, that is, the Grand Duke Duchesses, the Minister of the Court, Count Fredericks, the Chief Marshal of the City of Benckendorff, etc., during the service in the Palace, we only bowed courtly bows and only to the Sovereign Emperor in his greetings “Great, pages! » - they answered: “We wish good health to Your Imperial Majesty!”

The waiting time passed quickly, it was filled with observations of the preparations for the exit. Our court authorities arrived, whom Captain Malashenko, who accompanied us, called us and whom we had to know by sight. Members of the Royal House began to arrive, to whom we bowed. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich rather sharply made a remark to the commander of our company, Karpinsksm, dissatisfied with the fact that the chamber page of his wife Anastasia Nikolaevna did not meet her when leaving the carriage. This demand was unfounded, but there was no objection.

Finally, we were let into the Malachite Drawing Room, where the Royal Family was gathered in anticipation of the Sovereign and Empress. With a beating heart, we entered there. At that time I did not know Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna by sight, and there was no time to look for members of the Imperial House in the group. Barclay went straight up to the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, with whom he had already been a member during the bazaar. I followed him and in the elderly lady standing nearby, I guessed my Grand Duchess. She asked for my last name and handed me her mantilla.
In the Malachite Drawing Room, we faced one more test: the Emperor's exit and his answer. We did not stand in line, but were scattered in the living room, the answer still had to be friendly, without shouting, but not timid. On this day, we passed this test brilliantly. The Tsars came in, greeted the Royal Family, looked around us with his eyes and said in a low voice:
"Hey, pages!"
A second pause - and our friendly answer announced the living room.
The just irritated Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich conveyed his gratitude to us through Colonel Karpinsky for our distinctness.
The Empress stood next to the Sovereign. The heir Tsesarevich was in the arms of a tall, bearded guard.
If I am not mistaken, on the same day the Mongolian delegation presented itself to the Sovereign, and the Tsar received them in the Malachite Drawing Room before leaving. The Mongols arrived to ask for the protection of the White Tsar for their country. The deputation was dressed in robes, on their heads were low hats trimmed with fur, to the top of which fox tails were attached. With small steps they approached the Sovereign and, kneeling down, fell on their faces before Him. With this movement, fox tails hit the floor at the feet of the Emperor. The sight of these people, their unusual attire, the bright colors of their robes, and most importantly, the fox tails that hit the floor at the very feet of the Tsar, frightened the Heir, and he, turning away from these terrible people, clung to the Cossack's shoulder. The Mongols expressed their devotion to the Russian Tsar, the Sovereign answered them. So for the first time, as a 19-year-old boy, I joined the great-power politics of our Motherland. These days, Russia, carrying out its mission in the East, pacified and drew new regions and peoples into the circle of its culture.

The highest exit took place over the years in the established order. The Royal Family came out of the Malachite Drawing Room in pairs. The Emperor, arm in arm with the Empress, was in front, the Tsesarevich was carried behind them, the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses walked in order of seniority in the ranks of the August House. Ahead, the masters of ceremonies, with canes decorated with blue St. Andrew's ribbons, knocked on the floor to let know about the Tsar's entry into the halls and preceded the procession, as if paving the way for him.
Next came the ranks of the Court, chamberlains, chamber junkers, ladies of state, chambermaids, maids of honor of Their Majesties. The chamber-pages walked in a procession a little behind and to the right of the empresses and grand duchesses, raising trains on corners and carpets and spreading them out again as soon as the exit stretched out in the halls in a straight direction.
Along the route, the highest state ranks, deputations, groups of officers of the regiments of the guard and the army, in white dresses, invited ladies stood in tapestries. Passing through the stately, luxurious halls of the palace, the gold uniforms, the bright outfits of the ladies and the colorful dresses of the maid of honor made an indelible impression of splendor and made up a majestic picture, involuntarily associated with the idea of ​​the power of the RUSSIAN Empire.
In the antechamber in front of the church, the chamber pages left the procession and, lining up in rows, let the column of participants in the exit pass by.
After leaving, we went to the upper chambers of the palace, to the maid of honor, where we were served dinner from the royal table. By the cutlery stood half-bottles of red and white specific wine. Receiving tea from us, the servants offered us “white head” vodka as well. This ended our service, and in carriages (landau for four people) with a livery coachman on the goats we were taken to the corps.

The second time we had to participate in the celebrations during a prayer service in the Kazan Cathedral. We met the Royal Family on the porch and, having escorted them to the middle of the cathedral, we stood in a semicircle, separating this place from the crowd of those present. The Patriarch of Syria served in co-service with Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) of St. Petersburg and Ladoga and a host of Russian clergy. The Gospel was read in Arabic by the Patriarch. As they said, he came to Russia for the next fundraising for the needs of his church. At that time, Russia, as the backbone of Orthodoxy, collected untold sums of money not only for the maintenance of the Holy Places of Palestine and for the Russian monasteries on Mount Athos, which had their farmsteads and their representatives in all major cities of Russia, but also for the maintenance of Orthodox churches in the Middle East. The Patriarch, of course, not without calculation adapted his visit to the celebrations of the accession to the throne of the Royal House of Romanov. The service lasted about an hour, but the wonderful choir and the variety of impressions were so entertaining that the time passed unnoticed by us.
Behind me, and behind me, always standing next to me, Barclay, pressing against us with the front of his court uniform embroidered with gold, was the chairman of the Duma, Rodzianko. Barclay and I were then struck by the swagger of manners of this man who played such a sad role in the history of the Russian revolution. Despite the immediate proximity of the Royal Family, separated from the crowd only by a chain of camera-pages, he allowed himself to talk with a neighbor and sing along in a thick bass to the wonderful metropolitan choir.

Perhaps the most tiresome of the celebrations in St. Petersburg was the reception of congratulations by the Tsar and Tsarina on the occasion of the 300th anniversary, the so-called baise-maine.

This time the exit stopped in the hall called Nikolaevsky. The Royal Family occupied a whole corner of the hall. In front - the Imperial Couple, behind her on an easy chair - the Tsarevich and the senior grand duchesses and princes. The younger members of the Family preferred to retreat inland to avoid etiquette. All congratulators approached the Sovereign, bowed, the ladies made a court curtsy. The Tsar gave his hand to everyone, the Empress gave her hand for a kiss. I'm afraid to say how many of these congratulators there were: all the court ranks, maids of honor and chamber maids of honor. The Senate, the State Council, ministers and ranks of ministries, the generals, the State Duma, the ranks of the first classes of the Empire, etc. A long snake of suitable people stretched across the entire huge hall, lining up in the next hall. The solemnity of the court situation ruled out any haste. Masters of ceremonies kept order. They gave a sign to the next congratulator to approach the Sovereign. The maids of honor, approaching, lowered their tren picked up on their hands to the floor, the masters of ceremonies straightened it with canes on the parquet, followed by a court curtsy, congratulations, and the maid of honor sailed away.

All these hours of congratulations to us: the sergeant-major, the senior chamber-pages and the chamber-pages of the senior grand duchesses had to stand at attention directly behind the Sovereign and in full view of the younger part of the Royal Family, which moved back into the depths of the hall, where there was more freedom. Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich suffered especially from this ceremony. His lively disposition could not bear to sit on a chair and watch how some strangers approach Father and Mother in a long and boring line, often with a complete lack of grace, make the same movements and leave, and so on for long hours. I sincerely sympathized with him, this beautiful living boy. At first He sat quietly, looking at the beautiful uniforms and dresses of the ladies-in-waiting. When the State Duma started, there was nothing even to look at. He turned several times to sisters Olga Nikolaevna and Tatyana, who were standing behind, next to Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. The Tsarevich was in the uniform of the 4th Rifle Regiment of the Imperial Family, in a crimson shirt and a dark green caftan, a saber commensurate with his height hung on a shoulder harness. And suddenly I see that He begins to play with his mother's train with a checker, while looking back at the sisters. The Empress made a sign to him not to play. But after a few minutes, He started again. Finally, the Sovereign noticed His maneuvers and, turning his head to him, strictly ordered: "Alexey, stop it!" The heir became even sadder.

That year, for the first time, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna and Tatiana Nikolaevna, as well as Princess Irina Alexandrovna, began to participate in palace celebrations. They also included camera-pages. The empress was accused of excessive coldness in her address, but those who knew her closer explained her low friendliness by shyness. It seems that Her daughters inherited this character trait from the Queen. In any case, their chamber-pages told that the Grand Duchesses did not dare to ask them for their last name and did this through the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, under whose obvious guardianship they were during exits and celebrations.

The solemn dinner in the palace was nothing special. He belonged to the category of those when, according to etiquette, behind the chair of each Grand Duchess, in addition to the chamber-page, there was another chamber junker and a chamberlain. It was said that during the Holy Coronation the order of dinner was even more complicated: plates with food were transferred to the table through all three ranks of the court. Fortunately, we did not have to do such an incredibly responsible procedure. After all, God forbid, spill the soup or dump the roast without bringing it to the table!
I do not remember anything that would be worthy of being noted during this dinner. Unless, while walking to the table after turning from one hall to another, I, in thought, held Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna's train for too long in my hands. This, of course, did not escape the all-seeing eye of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Sr., who was following us. She, through the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, with whom she walked arm in arm, pointed out to me my oversight. Another important rule of court service (besides the one already taught to me at the Etter Bazaar) was pointed out to me: in the Palace, be on the alert all the time and do not hesitate.

The ball of the St. Petersburg nobility, at which the nobles received the Tsar and His Family on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, in which we had to take part, served as chamber pages, had a completely different character, different from the palace routine. At the reception of the nobility there was not that solemn brilliance that distinguished exits, dinners and receptions in the Winter Palace. The whole atmosphere of the ball in the Assembly of the Nobility was more private. The Royal Family was a guest among its nobility, and this position, with all the solemnity of the reception, inevitably destroyed many of the barriers that are obligatory for observing court etiquette. The entire reception of the Royal Family, the order in the halls was maintained not by court officials, but by the nobles themselves, the hall was filled not with representatives of the service nobility, but with persons for the most part not participating in court receptions. And the purpose of the meeting was different. If the exits served to affirm and externally demonstrate the power and greatness of Tsarist Russia, then the ball of the nobles was a manifestation of the feelings of attachment of this estate to the Crown and readiness to serve to the grave of the Russian Empire.

During such balls, the Royal Family behaved with great tact, participating in general dances and mixing with the crowd of nobles. Chamber pages, of course, did not participate in the dancing and fun of the hall. Having escorted our Grand Duchesses into the halls, we lined up under the colonnade of the Great Hall (where the bazaar I have already described took place) on an elevation intended for the Highest Persons. Prince Bagration-Mukhransky, who had recently been married to Princess Tatyana Konstantinovna (daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich), also stood there.
The sergeant major of the 1909 corps, thoroughbred and handsome in his cavalry guard uniform, he enjoyed common love in our page family. In our first battle on July 30, 1914, near Gutkow, lying with him in a platoon chain on the Russian-German border, I received my baptism of fire as a forward battery observer. During the first months of the war, he showed himself to be an outstanding officer. Dissatisfied with the service in the cavalry, he transferred to the Erivan regiment, in whose ranks he was soon killed. Together with him, the cavalry guards Gerngros and Orzhevsky were then transferred to the infantry - both were killed.

I remember Bagration not only to leave in my memoirs the memory of this brave officer and good comrade, in order to indicate how much tact was required from an officer of the guard in his life and service in St. Petersburg. Accepted into the house of the Grand Duke, the husband of the latter's daughter, Bagration, it would seem, had to break away from our environment. But customs demanded something else: as the husband of Princess Tatyana Konstantinovna in private life, Bagration was a member of the family of the Grand Duke, outside of this he remained a lieutenant, adjutant wing of the cavalry guard regiment, our senior comrade. And Bagration kept himself excellent in this regard.

Already as chamber-pages, we entered the milieu of St. Petersburg society and the family of the guard, of which most of us became officers in a few months. And this position obliged a lot, and we were all well aware of the cases when youthful mistakes or non-observance of the customs of this environment, committed by chamber pages, were reflected in the exits to the regiments and thus imposed a seal on a person’s whole life. Fortunately, the traditions instilled in us from childhood, education in the corps, service at the Court, and, perhaps most importantly, constant close contact with the pages, who had already become gentlemen officers, gave those of us who wanted it an exhaustive school.

The Highest Persons were in "urban" dresses, and therefore we did not have to carry trains. Most of the Grand Duchesses and, of course, the Grand Duchesses were dancing, and therefore were in the hall, and only the Empress and the elderly Grand Duchesses took their places on the dais under the columns. The chamber-pages were withdrawn into the depths of the dais, and only the sergeant-major, the senior chamber-pages under the Empress, and Barclay and I remained ahead on the dais.
I cannot say that order reigned in the hall. Stewards from the nobility pushed back the invitees, wanting to create a more spacious place for dancing. The guests, on the other hand, tried to get closer to the dais in order to see the Sovereign, and therefore sought to break into the front rows. This interfered with order and spoiled the overall picture of the ball.
The stewards brought the best dancers from the officers of the Guards regiments to the Grand Duchesses, many of them were known in St. Petersburg as excellent conductors at dance evenings. Although I never liked dancing, I often had to attend such evenings as chamber pages. In the last years before the war, these evenings became more and more brilliant. It became fashionable to make cotillions from fresh flowers ordered from Nice in the midst of our harsh winter. And I must admit that it was very beautiful when these flowers appeared in the hands of the dancers, sometimes white, sometimes red, sometimes pink, fragrant and fresh. The same luxury was at the described ball.
Of the conductors at that time, Her Majesty's Lancers Captain Maslov, Baron Prittwitz of the 4th Rifle Regiment of the Imperial Family, Struve, a horse guard, aide-de-camp, a good rider in show jumping, with whom we said goodbye exactly two years later, praying for the repose of his soul, especially stood out. He was killed in February 1915 on the outskirts of Marijampol. He lay dead just as handsome, with a face slightly reminiscent of Emperor Nicholas I (that's why he wore small tanks), next to him lay a soldier of the Horse Regiment killed in the same battle. The red-haired priest of the regiment served a memorial service. God! How many of us have already seen off to a better world!

Barclay and I got lucky again. Staying with our Grand Duchesses, we could watch the beautiful picture of the ball. Our Grand Duchesses sat in armchairs on a raised platform to the left, exchanging impressions. But then an incident occurred that greatly agitated poor Barclay. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna began to say something to her neighbor, pointing with her eyes into the hall, and then, apparently wanting to make sure of something, got up. Thinking that the Grand Duchess was about to descend into the hall, Barclay pushed back his chair, and at the same moment the Grand Duchess, without turning around, began to sit down. With a quick movement, Barclay pushed the chair forward, so that the Grand Duchess nevertheless sat down in the chair, although only on the very edge of it. Don't make Barclay that quick move. The Grand Duchess would have been on the floor. With knitted eyebrows, she turned to him and said: "Vous et fou!" Blushing like cancer, Barclay will only whisper to me, “Fu, how hot!”

I will end these memoirs of the celebrations in St. Petersburg with a brief description of the performance of the opera A Life for the Tsar at the Mariinsky Theatre. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life.
The Emperor and senior members of the Royal Family were present at the performance, sitting in the central, so-called Royal box of the theater. The younger Highest Persons were placed in the side boxes of the grand dukes. The parterre was occupied by the Senate, the Council of State, court officials and officials of the first first classes. The first ranks of the red Senate uniforms were replaced by the green uniforms of the Council, after which the gold of the court ranks shone. All this, combined with the gray hairs of these dignitaries of the Empire, created an unusually colorful picture. Officers of the Guards regiments sat in groups in the boxes: in classical uniforms, cavalry guards, horse guards and cuirassiers, luxurious hussars, elegant uhlans, our horse artillery in strict uniforms, guards infantry in colored lapels, arrows of the Imperial Family, etc. etc.; in the boxes, ladies of state and ladies-in-waiting were placed in their dresses decorated with gold, with kokoshniks on their heads; these dresses were introduced into court use by Emperor Nicholas I and have existed until our time without change - the dresses were only lengthened with a train.

When the Tsar entered the box, the whole theater stood up and turned to face him. Entering the box behind the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, I was dumbfounded by the beauty of the picture that appeared before me, from this play of colors, the luxury of uniforms, the abundance of gold, the variety of attire.
Perhaps someone will ask me why this abundance of gold, variety of colors, this underlined luxury were needed? As a participant in this indescribable beauty, I will answer: in my deep conviction, all this was necessary. I have always perceived the Russian monarchy as some kind of earthly embodiment of spiritual, almost divine beauty. All this brilliance seemed to me only an external manifestation of this one of a kind, the only one in the world, unique in its inner beauty, the Idea of ​​the Russian Monarchy.

During intermissions, the whole theater rose and the corridors were enlivened by the uniforms of the guests who had left the boxes and the stalls. The Royal Family also left the box, and we, the chamber-pages, followed it.
Then I noticed the twin sentries standing at the entrance to the box. These were two giants - sailors from the Guards Crew. They weren't quite the same height. Apparently, it was not possible to pick up two of the same height. I was 19 years old at that time, and although I grew up to 25 years old, even then I was about 1 m 70 cm tall. I went closer to the tallest one and found myself up to his chest, therefore, he was well over 2 meters tall and at the same time quite correctly built.

In terms of voice composition, to tell the truth, the performance was less successful. The oldest and most distinguished soloists sang, and the years affected both their voices and complexions. The Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna grimaced greatly when the tenor Yakovlev broke on some high note.
This beautiful extravaganza ended with the singing of "God save the Tsar ...", again the whole hall stood, and tears of delight welled up in their eyes, listening to this solemn anthem. The celebrations ended, and we returned to our daily activities in the building - lectures, rehearsals, drills.

For participation in the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty, we all received nominal commemorative signs to wear on the right side of the uniform. These signs are inherited by the eldest descendant of the participant in the celebrations. At the same time, we were given commemorative medals depicting Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and Tsar Nicholas II. They were worn in a block on a three-color "Romanov" ribbon (white, yellow, black). I formed an “impressive” block of a medal and a cross of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

This year we went to the Krasnoye Selo camp, as always, at the end of April and started filming and field tasks. At the end of May, it became known that we were expected to be called to Moscow to participate in the celebrations of the 300th anniversary, which were to take place in the Mother See.
Our joy was indescribable. Those who let go during the month in the camp had to shave off their mustaches, which is why a white, untanned spot appeared on the upper lip (Voronov, Karangozov in particular). We were delighted not only with the new opportunity to participate in court celebrations and put on a new brilliant uniform, but also everything associated with a trip to Moscow - travel, life in a hotel, new surroundings, as well as the reduction and completion of classes in the corps.

In a separate carriage of the second class, we traveled without fatigue during the night in a fast train those 609 miles that separated St. Petersburg from Moscow. We were placed in the hotel "Prince's Court", not far from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. a load with our uniforms was also brought there, and we ate at the hotel. Of the officers, we were accompanied by Colonel Karpinsky, Captain Malashenko and Staff Captain Salkov.
Already experienced in dressing the court uniform, in the morning before the service, we quickly pulled on leggings, which in our time were called so only according to legend and were sewn from white woolen material. Treads were no more difficult to put on than any high boots, only the hooks for pulling them on were longer due to the tops going above the knees. Walking in boots was not difficult - the upper parts of the tops rubbing together only delayed fast movements when running or dancing.
The uniforms were longer than the city ones and reached the middle of the thigh. On the front they had 14 double galloons (court sample), on the back of the pockets, as on the city uniform, four galloons each. To sit down, it was necessary to unbutton the lower buttons of the uniform. Raising the train of the Grand Duchess, it was recommended to lean to the side, and not straight ahead. Firstly, the lower galloons of the uniform interfered, and secondly, the helmet hung on the sword slipped forward and prevented walking, and I had to pick up the train on the go. And thirdly, the declination to the side was more beautiful than straight forward, from which the picture presented to the Highest Persons walking behind was not very presentable. In addition, leggings stretched less when tilted to the side. In the annals of the corps, there was an oral transmission about how leggings of one chamber-pager, when leaning forward, burst from behind, and since we, in order to avoid wrinkles, put them on our naked body, the picture seemed unacceptable and did not correspond well to court etiquette. I can’t guarantee that such an incident took place, but we were terrified of its repetition and applied ourselves as best we could to the shyness of the court chamber-page uniforms. The sword, which was traditionally passed on to younger comrades during production, was worn on a golden belt on the outside (in the city uniform it was worn on a sling worn under the uniform, so that its hilt protruded from the slot on the left side of the uniform). The helmet was the same as that worn by the combatant company. But at court, she was adorned with a white horsehair plume attached to a shishak. On the boots, the spurs were not nailed, as in the urban form, but were attached with black belts from the same patent leather as the boots.

Thanks to the warm spring weather, we didn’t put on our coats; the windows were even lowered on the four-seater landaus provided to us by the Palace Administration. They did this not without calculation - pour epater the Moscow public, who looked with curiosity at our unfamiliar uniforms. Even the twin sentries at the gates of the Kremlin, the cadets of the Moscow schools, had little understanding of the variety of uniforms of the participants in the celebrations, and just in case they saluted us “in the corporal way”. This amused us.
In our free time from court service, we visited friends and acquaintances in the city, went to the cinema to look at ourselves as participants in the processions. The sovereign from the Mother See left for Yaroslavl and Kostroma, and we returned to St. Petersburg.

Upon returning to the Krasnoselsk camp, a few days later we were seconded to the units in which we were accepted.
On May 26, in the morning, we went to the Grand Kremlin Palace, built in the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. It is not far from the “Prince's Court” to the Kremlin. Past the Rumyantsev Museum and the Great Manege, our carriages entered the Kremlin through the Tainitsky Gates. At the gate stood a pair of sentries from the Alekseevsky School. Having entered the walls of the Kremlin, we turned right past the building that housed the Palace Administration and the apartments of Prince Odoevsky-Maslov and Istomin. We drove up to the palace not from the main entrance, but from the side one, and the internal stairs led to the part of the palace adjacent to the Borovitsky Gates. After the gathering of the Royal Family, the exit began. The procession was supposed to go through the halls of the palace to the Red Porch, go down it and go to the Assumption Cathedral, where the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Vladimir was waiting for the Tsar to serve a solemn prayer service.

The exit has moved. I remember that through the windows of the palace overlooking Zamoskvorechye, a cloudy spring morning looked out, it smelled of rain, and the thought flashed through my mind: “It’s a pity if the exit from the palace to the Red Porch will be in the rain.” But there was no time to think about the weather. In an unfamiliar environment, one had to be especially alert, and besides, as always, the beauty of the exit was completely captivating.

I agree with connoisseurs of styles that the Grand Kremlin Palace, in its architecture, is completely alien to the antiquity surrounding it. But nevertheless, its interior decoration, in its beauty and luxury, fully corresponds to the purpose for which it was built. In it, according to Nicholas I, the receptions of the newly crowned Emperors of All Russia were to take place. The halls were named after Russian orders, and their decoration corresponded in color and emblems to these orders. From the inner chambers, our procession went out into the corner Catherine's Hall, the red decoration of which advantageously emphasized the luxurious dresses of the court ladies and maids of honor gathered in it. Here we turned to the left, and as far as the St. George's Hall, the exit moved in a straight direction, which is why, spreading the train of the Grand Duchess, I was able to enjoy the picture of Zamoskvorechye and the view of the halls through which the procession passed.

The sovereign was in the form of the Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment. Delegations from regiments, mainly from the Moscow Military District, were concentrated in the blue Andreevsky Hall, which followed the Kavalergardsky Hall. I looked with curiosity at these forms, recently introduced. In front of the blue Sumy stood their new commander Groten (an officer of the Life Guards of His Majesty's Hussar Regiment). Andrew's Hall is huge in size. This is the throne room, it stretched along the facade of the palace and was especially beautiful due to the concentration of army delegations in it.
In the last. Georgievsky Hall, located at right angles to Andreevsky, the Sovereign was met by the Moscow nobility, Zemstvo and civil ranks. The hall is very beautiful - the strict colors of the Order of St. George give it some kind of solemnity; the gold of the order stars decorating it emphasizes this with its luxury.
Alexander Dmitrievich Samarin came out into the middle of the hall to meet the Sovereign, greeting the Sovereign on behalf of the Moscow nobles, whose leader he was. In Moscow, even at the court celebrations, there was some kind of imprint of “domesticity”. Probably, because of this, when the Sovereign stopped in front of Samarin, the whole procession did not remain in a circle, but advanced far and formed a semicircle around the Emperor.

Samarin, in his speech addressed to the Tsar, expressed the feelings of devotion to him of the Moscow nobility. Following my Grand Duchess, I found myself on the left and in front of the Sovereign and could observe his face closely and listen to his word in response to the Moscow nobility. I heard the King for the first time. He spoke in an exceptionally calm, even, low voice. But thanks to the impeccable pronunciation, every word sounded distinct. The nature of his pronunciation was, as they say, "Petersburg", in contrast to the softer pronunciation of Moscow and other Russian cities.

As it seemed to me. The king spoke without preparation, which I deduced from the fact that in his answer he touched on many points of appeal to him by the nobles. The speech of the Sovereign, addressed to His nobles, was clear and pure, calm and cordial, revealing all of Him. This moment of festivities made a strong impression on me. Having handed over the letter of nobility to the Sovereign, Samarin departed with a bow.

The exit lined up again to follow through the doors of St. George's Hall to the Red Porch. At the door stood the twin sentries of the junkers of the Alexander School. As I mentioned, the weather was cloudy in the morning, and here, when the King entered the ancient Porch, a miracle occurred, which I described in my story “One of forty-three”. A gust of wind instantly broke the clouds covering the sky, and the joyful spring sun flooded with its light the Tsar, descending from the porch to the crowd of his people, who blocked all the free space between the cathedrals. The ringing of bells, the music of orchestras and the cries of "Hurrah" of the myriad crowd, everything merged into a jubilant, joyful, some kind of spring chord. Under the incessant cries of the people, the procession slowly descended the stairs and passed into the Assumption Cathedral.
After the joyful and jubilant mood of the square, we were instantly seized in the cathedral by that special feeling that happens when, baring your head, you enter the walls of our Orthodox churches covered with antiquity and generations. Luxurious vestments of the clergy, all studded with gemstones, hymns that seem unearthly in the frame of ancient painted vaults, and the strict faces of the saints created a contrast with the violent jubilation of the square. All this is engraved in my memory for the rest of my life. After the prayer service, the celebration ended for us.

Lunch in the St. George's Hall of the Grand Palace was not much different from the same court dinners in St. Petersburg. Only the faces were different. During dinner, the trumpeters of the Sumy Regiment played and the choir of the Imperial Moscow Theater sang. On the other hand, at the ball given by the Moscow nobility to their Royal Guest and His Most August Family, it is necessary to stop a little longer.

In the twilight of this May evening, we were taken to the Assembly of the Nobility. One after another, carriages with the Grand Duchesses began to drive up, and we met them at the entrance. The Sovereign drove up with the Tsaritsa and Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna and Tatyana Nikolaevna. Of the young Grand Duchesses, Princess Irina Alexandrovna was present, distinguished by her austere beauty. The princesses were both completely different types of faces. Olga Nikolaevna could not be called beautiful, but she won over with her freshness and the smile of her radiant eyes, like those of her Father. The face of Tatyana Nikolaevna was distinguished by the originality of its beautiful features. But although completely different, they were both charming in their own way.

The ball in Moscow differed from the one in St. Petersburg in its strict order, cordiality and a kind of cordial reception. The Moscow nobles managed to accept their Tsar. The beautiful hall was decorated with delicate taste with pink spring flowers. Everywhere stewards from the nobility, apparently according to a premeditated plan, supervised a huge number of guests. One could see the concern to create and emphasize that mood of trust and closeness between the Tsar and the People, which had been established in Russia after the storms of the 1905 revolution.

The Royal Family was placed on an elevation along the short wall of the hall, now at the entrance. From this place the whole hall was visible, in the depths of which several steps led under the colonnade supporting the choirs, on which the orchestra was placed.
The ball opened with a polonaise. At the head was the Emperor, leading the wife of the Moscow district marshal of the nobility, A. V. Bazilevskaya. A. D. Samarin was single, and therefore she turned out to be the senior noblewoman of Moscow. In the second pair was the Empress with Alexander Dmitrievich. Next came the grand duchesses and princes with representatives of the Moscow nobility. The sovereign was in the form of the Pavlograd Life Hussar Regiment. The hussar uniform was very suitable for the Tsar, his short, but superbly built figure. He liked to put on the uniforms of the hussars and knew how to wear them.
We chamber-pages stood on a raised platform and watched this bright picture, in which the light dresses of the ladies mixed with gold and a variety of colors of uniforms.
After the polonaise, there was a hitch for a minute. The music played a waltz, But the guests were waiting for the initiative of the Royal Family. At the same time, the dancers were introduced to the Grand Duchesses, and the whole hall began to spin. Time passed quickly. The ball was cheerful and beautiful. The hall was dominated by that hard-to-define mood that distinguishes a successful evening from an unsuccessful one.

At a sign from the steward, the orchestra stopped and Samarin, bowing before the Tsar, asked the distinguished guests to proceed to dinner. Crossing the hall in length, the procession climbed the steps under the colonnade and passed into the adjacent hall, where dinner was served. The table of the Royal Family would be set on a raised platform, facing the hall, the tables for the guests were perpendicular to it. We, chamber pages, were placed along the wall at the table of the Royal Family and facing the hall. Diagonally to the left of me at the table of guests sat the princesses Urusovs, acquaintances from St. Petersburg, the horse guard Shirkov, Katkov, and others.

Always so attentive to me. During dinner, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna handed me her glass of wine through the seat next to her of the Moscow Governor, the retinue of His Majesty Major General Vladimm Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky. "Let him drink to my health" she said with a smile.
It was the hardest "official" glass of champagne I've ever had in my life. "Your health, Your Imperial Highness", bowing, I said, and without breathing, so that the gases of champagne would not hit the sky, I drank a glass in one gulp under the gaze of the Grand Duchess, Dzhunkovsky and my acquaintances from the table opposite.
The latter made fun of the difficulty of my position. I handed the glass to a passing footman and drew myself up again.

After dinner, the departure soon began. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and Maria Pavlovna were leaving together. I saw my Grand Duchess for the last time. She said goodbye to me especially cordially, presented me with the golden coat of arms of Moscow, which the nobles handed over to all the participants of the ball. Ordinary mortals received silver instead of a gold badge. The Grand Duchess asked me which part I was going to.
“So, soon you will be an officer. Congratulations in advance. Thanks again for your service."
And then, turning to Samarin, she continued:
“Alexander Dmitrievich, I beg you to feed my chamber page and see that he dances. The carriage doors slammed shut, and the grand duchesses left.

Fulfilling the order of the Grand Duchess, Samarin led me upstairs to an open buffet, where we drank a glass of vodka with him and I ate, as I was very hungry. Then I went down to the hall, where the ball continued.

I think that many will not understand why the memories of service at the Emperor's court are so dear to us. After rereading this brief sketch of the service in the palace, I came to the conclusion that if for me memories are the most vivid impression of my youth, then for the reader of this essay they are unlikely to be interesting.
These memories are dear to me not only as memories of youth, which over the years are clothed with a sad charm, not only as a memory of the golden, beautiful uniform and splendor that surrounded me in those hours, not only because in those hours I was close to the Sovereign, who shone in the halo of the Royal Crown. No, not only because! Participating in court celebrations, standing in churches or marveling at the fabulous beauty, luxury and brilliance at the Mariinsky Theater, I unconsciously felt attached to that wondrous phenomenon that bore the name of Russia.

ALEXANDER GERSHELMAN
Buenos Aires, 1956

M.A. Gerschelman

200th Anniversary of the Foundation of His Imperial Majesty's Corps of Pages

I emphasize the word - grounds, because it only existed until 1917.
As an introduction, here are a few testaments of the Knights of Malta, which have passed to the pages, as a guide for faithful service to the Motherland.

You will be faithful to the Church. You will be a faithful son of your Motherland. You will never change your word. You will not retreat before the enemy. You will be hard as steel and noble as gold.

By the way, the last testament is symbolized by graduation rings of pages - a steel hoop embedded in gold with a designation of the number of graduates, and inside the ring, as on wedding rings, the name of the owner, the day and year of production. It was also a symbol of the links of one chain, soldering all the pages into a single family. Even in emigration, they invariably gathered in every country on the day of their holiday: December 12/25.

(Let me digress a little. My father, in the last months of his life, was worried about how he, already a complete invalid, without two legs, would be able to greet pages on the day of his favorite holiday. The widow of his friend reassured him:
"And we'll all gather around your bed..." Father died on the morning of December 2, and in the afternoon everyone gathered around him.
bed for the first memorial service. It was 25 years ago, i.e. on the 175th anniversary of the Corps.)

Now I will briefly share the stages of the formation of the Corps.
The title of pages was established in Russia by Emperor Peter the Great, who in 1711 formed the court ranks, following the model of the German courts.
Some ordering in the organization of the pages was tried to be achieved by the establishment of a court school; in 1759, she ordered that instructions be drawn up according to which they were to be taught various sciences, it was said in it:
"All that is necessary for an honest nobleman so that the pages in a decent mind and noble deeds most succeed and from that they can show themselves courteous, pleasant and perfect in everything, as the Christian law and their honest nature commands."
All this is very important for court service.
In 1795, a general order for all schools was introduced in the Corps.
This court school already in the first period of its existence gave the state a number of outstanding figures in various fields. And among the first Knights of St. George there are also a number of names of former pages.
Little by little, the reform of the Corps of Pages was being prepared, which was soon turned into a Military Educational Institution. The new regulation on the Corps was approved by the Sovereign in 1802.
Interesting detail:
The educational part was always in charge of the class inspector, who at that time was a Swiss who was taken to Russia by Generalissimo Suvorov to raise his son.

Finally, in 1810, the Corps was given the building of the former palace of Count Vorontsov on Sadovaya Street, which exists to this day.
Previously, the palace was bought by Empress Catherine II for the treasury, and when Emperor Paul I became the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he granted it to the Chapter of the Order and ordered the construction of a Maltese Catholic Church, thus, two churches appeared on the territory of the Corps: Orthodox and Catholic.

In the period between 1808 and 1830, young men passed through the Corps of Pages, who subsequently earned a good memory for their service to the Motherland, for example: A.A. Kavelin - tutor of Emperor Alexander II, Count V.F. Adlerberg - friend and associate of Emperor Nicholas I, poet E. A. Baratynsky, Ya.I. Rostovtsev, whose name is closely connected with the 1861 reform of the Tsar Liberator, and many others.

Over the next 10 years, education and upbringing was placed so high that its director had the right to admonish his pupils, promoted to officers, with the words:
“Do not forget that your names belong to the Corps of Pages and that every page will blush for you and be proud of you. Let all the pupils of the Corps, to whom you owe your education, after many years with a sense of grateful pride, could repeat, remembering you - and he was a page". In 1885, his "Historical Museum" was founded in the Corps. It collected not only everything related to the history of the Corps throughout its existence, but also concentrated a huge amount of material for assessing the life and activities of the pages after they left the Corps.
Finally, the 100th anniversary of the Corps as a Military Educational Institution has come. On December 12/25, on the day of memory of St. Spyridon of Trimifuntsky, the Corps of Pages, consisting of three of its companies and a historical platoon, lined up in a deployed front against the royal box in the Mikhailovsky Manege. To the left of the pages were the officers and civilian ranks of the corps, who wore the okorma, and behind them the former pages, according to the fear of issues from 1837 to 1902 inclusive.
Entering the arena at exactly 12 o'clock, the Sovereign accepted the report of the director of the Corps and, accompanied by a brilliant retinue, passed in front of the formation of pages, greeting and congratulating them on the Holiday and the Jubilee.
At the end of the detour Vel. Book. Konstantin Konstantinovich in a loud voice read the highest charter granted to the Corps. Then the director of the Corps read the letter of award to the Banner Corps, after which the command "for prayer - helmets, hats, caps off", and the denominator, the senior chamber-page, with 2 assistant officers, carried the banner to the lectern, where it was consecrated by the priest.
After the service, a ceremonial march began, and then a historical platoon, in uniforms and with weapons corresponding to the years of reign, demonstrated the marching and receptions of those times.
After the parade, the Sovereign, approaching the front of the former pages, said:
“Thank you, gentlemen, for serving Me and my Predecessors, for your selfless devotion, which many of you sealed with your blood, for your honest service to the Throne and Motherland!
I firmly believe that these covenants, handed down from generation to generation, will always be alive with the page! I wish you good health for many years!" Then he turned to the pages with the words:
"Today I proved to the Page, My Name, Corps - how great is My goodwill towards him, granting him a banner, awarding his combatant company and all the pages now on the lists of the Corps with my monogram image on shoulder straps, and enrolling Brother and My Uncles in the lists Corps.
I am sure that, following the example of previous generations of pages, many of whose representatives are present here, you will all serve your Sovereign and our dear Motherland - Russia with the same valor, just as honestly and faithfully! Goodbye gentlemen!"
"Happy stay, Your Imperial Majesty!" and a thunderous "hurrah" was the answer to the words of the Monarch.

Stopping at the exit from the arena, the Sovereign turned around and said once more: "Thanks again for a great parade."
At a ceremonial dinner in the Winter Palace, the Sovereign, raising his glass, said:
"On behalf of the Sovereigns of the Empresses and My own, I drink to the health of my dear guests - all former and current pages, previously and now serving in the Corps - to your health, gentlemen - Hooray!"
In response, enrolled in the list of the Corps, the oldest member of the Royal family, Vel. Book. Mikhail Nikolayevich, proclaimed a toast on behalf of all pages for the precious health of the Tsar.
On December 14 at 3 o'clock in the building of the Corps a solemn act was held in the Highest Presence, and in the evening at the Mariinsky Theater - an anniversary performance, also in the Highest Presence, in which the luminaries of the Russian Imperial Stage of Drama, Opera and Ballet took part.

"Probably no one then thought that in 15 years the Corps of Pages, as such, would cease to exist and that its 150th anniversary, which is being performed in 1952, we, the pages, would have to celebrate far from Russia, outside the walls of our native Corps!"- wrote Yves. Mich. Daragan.
I would also like to add how erroneously and often unfoundedly it was believed that the Corps of Pages was a narrowly privileged institution. However, enrollment was not based on descent; only the sons and grandsons of generals could be pages, no matter what class they were, but who testified devotion to the Motherland by their service.

EVGENY VESELOV

THE SAINT RETURNED TO THE CORPORATION OF PAGES

Yesterday, the St. Petersburg Suvorov Military School, which considers itself the historical successor of His Majesty's Corps of Pages, celebrated the 195th anniversary of this imperial educational institution. The Vorontsov Palace, which served as a home for pages from the beginning of the 19th century until 1918, brought together the descendants of former pupils, graduates of the SVU of different years (it has been located here since 1955), representatives of historical, cultural, military-patriotic, noble and monarchist organizations . There was also a live page - God bless him! - Mikhail Ivanovich Valberg, 94 years old, who clearly remembers his comrades in the corps, and parades in the Horse Guards arena ...

In the library, which was once an Orthodox corps church, where guests, Suvorovites and their educators gathered, a prayer service was served. Father Gennady Belovolov, a priest of the Peter and Paul Church of the Tikhvin deanery, who performed it, handed over the icon of St. Seraphim to the head of the school, Major General Valery Skoblov. This event in the spiritual life of not only the current inhabitants of the palace at 26 Sadovaya, but also of all believing Petersburgers is absolutely amazing. After all, Metropolitan Seraphim of Petrograd (in the world - Leonid Chichagov), innocently convicted and shot by the NKVD in December 1937, once studied within these walls. After graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1875, he ended up in the Balkan War, where he showed courage and was awarded many military awards. John of Kronstadt blessed this brilliant officer for the pastoral service. Only now the Bishops' Council has ranked Seraphim as a holy martyr.
The icon of the saint was given to the Suvorovites by the granddaughter of the Metropolitan, Abbess Seraphim of the Novodevichy Convent living in Moscow. Now, according to Father Gennady, Seraphim has returned to his native walls, and the guys in scarlet shoulder straps have their own heavenly patron and intercessor. (By the way, our SVU - a sponsored educational institution of the editorial office of the newspaper "Evening Petersburg" - took the first place among the Suvorov schools in Russia at the end of the outgoing year.)
The appearance of the icon of St. Seraphim can be considered the beginning of the revival of an Orthodox church within the walls of the school. Patriot of the Fatherland, according to the head. library of Olga Silchenko, they will not stand up for the price. In particular, the well-known philanthropist Baron Eduard Falz-Fein, grandson of the director of the page corps (1900 - 1906), infantry general N. A. Yepanchin, said that he was giving 40 thousand dollars for this good cause.

Officer and page with the banner of the Corps of Pages.
St. Petersburg. Photo of Bulla.

The most elite and prestigious military educational institution at the beginning of the 20th century was the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages of His Imperial Majesty. This educational institution combined the features of a cadet corps and a military school: graduates of the cadet classes moved to officer classes, from where they graduated from the guards and the army.
Petersburg, which adopted the western court ceremonial, could not but have such an element as pages - young assistants of high-ranking persons.

Chamber-page in court uniform. 1900s.

On October 25, 1759, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, Baron Shudi was instructed to create an educational institution for the training of pages. In those days it had nothing to do with the military department. In total, there were a little more than fifty pupils, mostly children, grandchildren and nephews of dignitaries and generals. The elders received the title of chamber-pages and the privilege of serving members of the royal family during court balls, at ceremonies, and at dinners.
In 1802, this court school was transformed into the Corps of Pages, the four-year program of which included general education and military training.
According to the regulations on the Corps of Pages, the children and grandchildren of officials of the first three classes had the right to study in it: lieutenant generals, active privy councillors, as well as ambassadors, governors and marshals of the nobility, but only if they had a rank not lower than general major. In addition, the sons and grandsons of major generals who had served in this rank for at least five years, as well as great-grandchildren of the ranks of the first two classes, could count on admission to the corps.
Education in the corps opened up excellent paths for a rapid career: a person was in the eyes of high-ranking persons and could easily become their favorite, studied court "kitchen" from a young age and, most importantly, went through an excellent school of social life, without success in which one could not count on obtaining ranks, honors and wealth.
Most of the chamber-pages went to the guards regiments, and every year several people entered the elite units - the 1st Guards Cuirassier and 1st Guards Infantry Divisions.

"For admission to the corps, a preliminary imperial order was required to enroll in pages, which was considered a great honor, to which only the sons of generals or grandchildren of full generals were entitled - from infantry, cavalry and artillery; rare exceptions to this rule were made for the children of ancient Russians, Polish or Georgian princely families Due to the relatively small number of candidates, the entrance competitive exam was not very difficult ....
... The best forces of St. Petersburg were involved in teaching, and the training received in the corps turned out to be quite sufficient in military subjects for admission later to the Academy of the General Staff."

(A.A. Ignatiev. "50 years in the ranks").

The pages were tightly rallied among themselves. Before being promoted to officer, the entire issue ordered identical modest gold rings with a wide, steel rim on the outside. The steel of these rings served as an emblem of strong (steel) solidarity and friendship not only of the entire issue, but in general of all persons who had ever graduated from the Corps of Pages and had a similar ring on their finger. It must be admitted that the pages usually remained true to this principle, and the former pupil of Pagesky, who made a career and reached heights, as a rule, dragged along his former comrades in the corps, providing them with all sorts of patronage, and, thus, the former pages more often than others occupied the highest military and even administrative posts in the empire.

(V. Trubetskoy. "Notes of a cuirassier")