Lead the kids into the archives: how to experience history at your fingertips

Today, when many documents are digitized, even professional historians, not to mention people who are simply interested in history, prefer to work with electronic materials. It’s convenient and saves time. And I, among others, used these services, but, as it turned out, by doing so I robbed myself.

My friend and college classmate, Deputy Director of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents Yu.M.Eskin, helped me to realize this. The fact is that some time ago a free and therefore accessible exhibition dedicated to Catherine the Great was opened in this archive. The desire to reward ninth-grade students who passed history as a subject of choice the day before prompted them to take an excursion to the archive.

I have written more than once in MK about the need to develop emotional intelligence in children and youth. So, it turned out that for this it is useful to inhale the dust of centuries in the literal sense of the word.

It is difficult to convey what a sense of reverence I experienced in front of the original documents of that era. Equally, this feeling applied to people who dedicated their lives to their preservation. Of course, the exhibition presents Catherine’s correspondence with French enlighteners. But everything that she perceived as advanced ideas, the Empress creatively processed. In particular, fluent in French and her native German, having learned to write in Russian, she wrote in calligraphic handwriting, did not make a single spelling mistake, as evidenced by numerous notes in the margins of the documents under discussion. There are also amazing conclusions that can do honor to today’s statesmen.

Having become acquainted with the national and confessional specifics of the vast empire, she, being a real politician, resorts to the “patchwork quilt” metaphor and comes to the conclusion that in a country like Russia there cannot be laws that would equally satisfy all segments of the population.

The turning point in the state thinking of the Empress was the Pugachev rebellion. Pugachev, as you know, was not taught to read and write, assistants wrote for him on behalf of the murdered Peter. He scratched something indistinct as a signature. When this was pointed out to him, he answered: “You don’t understand, it’s in German!”

Contrary to popular belief, Catherine was absolutely indifferent to food. It could not be otherwise, because otherwise it was impossible to tighten the corset. But she was a coffee drinker. Half a pound of coffee per cup is awesome! Moreover, at that time, caffeine was not drawn from the grains for medical purposes. The testimony of an officer who, having taken a sip from the Empress’s cup, fainted, has been preserved. But she did not perceive music at all, but believed that this was an obligatory attribute of guest receptions. Therefore, a musician always sat next to her, who suggested when to applaud.

This favorably distinguished her from Napoleon, who, with all his talents, also did not perceive music, calling it expensive noise. History has preserved his dialogue with the great Goethe. To Napoleon’s statement about useless noise, the philosopher replied: “Your Majesty, in my opinion, firing from cannons is a much more expensive noise.”

Causes respect and modesty of the Empress. The new annexed lands acquired by the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish wars, including the Crimea, court flatterers suggested that they be named after her. The Empress categorically rejected all these proposals and gave them the name “Novorossia” – still relevant today.

In fact, in the Black Sea desert, she founded the city-garden – Sevastopol. By her order, outlandish Mediterranean plants were planted and paid for: oleanders, camellias, etc. The famous Duke Richelieu equipped the seaport of the city.

And for all her love of love, the empress did not confuse personal and state interests. Under her rule, the post of hetman of the Zaporozhian Host was abolished. The empress perfectly understood the danger of autonomous state formations on the border and rightly feared the loss of the monopoly of power on violence, as a result of which anarchy and lawlessness ensued, which were perpetrated by the gentry in the Commonwealth. No, I do not at all insist on the sinlessness of the Empress and, moreover, I do not claim that her recipes for government are suitable for today. But in those days, she carried out what since the time of Bismarck has been called “real politics”.

But let us leave alone the shadow of the Empress preserved in original documents. The archive also contains original documents from the time of Ivan Kalita, son of Alexander Nevsky. And also the famous Conditions, compiled by the leaders.

Let me remind you that when the leaders invited the “widow of Courland”, the daughter of Tsar Alexei Petrovich and Praskovia Fedorovna Saltykova, the niece of Peter I, to the Russian throne, they believed that she would not be ambitious and accommodating. Members of the secret supreme council forced her to sign an agreement (Conditions), according to which she did not have the right to appoint a successor to herself, start a war, manage the treasury, and grant estates. In a word, the leaders were only a step away from establishing a constitutional monarchy in Russia in the manner of the English. Anna Ioannovna was forced to sign this document.

But upon arrival in St. Petersburg, she quickly got her bearings and, realizing that the guard, which participated in all the coups, would not support the noble liberals, defiantly broke the Conditions. This torn document survived and could be touched by hand.

But how did all this survive? The fact is that all these ancient acts and books were made on paper made from flax and hemp. And flax and hemp have fibers that do nothing over time. They used to make paper from industrial waste. A fleet was being built in the country, for which sails and ropes were needed. But this need was quickly satisfied. And then eight linen factories began to produce paper. An interesting detail – one of the linen factories belonged to the family of the wife of our greatest poet N. Goncharova. And A.S. Pushkin lobbied for the publication of his works on the paper of his relatives. During the fire of 1812, the French in the Kremlin threw many books into the snow; that’s why they didn’t burn out. After the liberation of Moscow, the archivists dried them up and preserved them to this day.

Among them, for example, is the code of laws of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, known as the Cathedral Code of 1649. It is a giant scroll 350 meters long! The document was adopted democratically at the Zemsky Sobor. On the reverse side of the scroll are the names of all the signatories. This manuscript rests in a silver tabernacle. Unwinding it would be blasphemy. Thank God, the document has been digitized, and anyone can get acquainted with it.

The conclusion suggests itself: take the children to the archives. It is one thing to know dates and facts, and quite another to touch history. Archival dust has a beneficial effect on the hearts of citizens entering into life.