Eternal memory: memories of the deceased

Contents Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Nadezhda Pavlovna Shultz Baroness Edita Feodorovna Raden Nikolai Vasilyevich Kalachov Aksakovs Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Speech at a meeting of the historical society Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna A bright star rolled down from our sky. Many of us are orphaned, like children who have lost their mother - they search and do not find and cry. Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna passed away into eternity. Blessed will be Her memory throughout Russia; but those blessed by Her will carry Her bright image in their hearts as long as they are alive, with sorrow that they lost Her, with love and grateful consciousness that they knew Her and saw Her in life. This year, in September, it will be 50 years since She entered Russia as a young Princess and Her varied and fruitful activities for Russia began. From that day on, the fire that burned in the soul of the 15-year-old girl, alive, receptive, impressionable, began to flare up and light other fires around her, above and below; the thought that arose in Her began to come into force and excite thought wherever there was a place for living and active thought. Her beauty, physical, mental and moral, with the ability to caress, bring closer to oneself, animate, began to unconsciously enchant everyone whom She brought into the circle of Her thoughts. Who knew and did not love Her? Who, who sought Her help for a cause of good, was rejected by Her? Who, entering Her circle, did not submit to Her charm and did not feel excited and moved in the depths of his spiritual nature? She was all filled with life and thought: stirring up everything around Her, She herself sought and received living impressions from everywhere, striving to turn every true and fruitful thought into action and to assign people to every task who understood it and followed it up. Surrounded by the splendor and luxury of the court and the enthusiastic devotion of many, but having experienced a lot of struggle and grief, She did not surrender for a minute to the bliss of Her position, did not extinguish the spirit within Her for a minute - until the last day of Her life. And truly, at Her deathbed, the apostolic word is asked on Her lips, as a teaching to the living: not lazy in diligence, fervent in spirit. Those who have experienced life know how much it means, how much good a similar nature can spread around itself and in an ordinary social position. Force creates force, force causes force, force from force begins in the world of spiritual relationships. But the Deceased stood in life at an external height, in a wide place, from where everyone could see Her and from where Her influence could spread over a wide field. And truly, in Her person the high and beneficent social significance of the dignity was declared and justified before everyone. She wore her dignity with dignity and righteousness, and she squandered all the wealth of soul and external blessings bestowed upon Her by Providence not on herself, but on the people and the cause she served. If it were possible to remember and call all those who were blessed by Her, what a numerous crowd would be at Her tomb! How many talents She found, encouraged, educated, brought to light and into activity! There are many names, famous or famous in science and art, associated with Her name, who grew up under Her patronage. As soon as She heard that in one or another unknown corner a talent had awakened and needed support, the means for education, Her hand was ready to give, and most importantly, the impatient desire was ready in Her heart - to call, see, question a person, to encourage him with Her living word, to lift him to a height and to send him away excited, cheerful, with faith in his calling, with a gratifying consciousness of sympathetic power! How many public and statesmen are there of the last 25 years whom She was the first to recognize, bringing them closer to Her, and brought them to work with Her patronage and Her enlightened sympathy. How many times has She helped the offended, slandered, and unfortunate through Her high influence and intercession to restore their truth and find access to mercy! Finally, how many poor people have blessed and continue to bless Her name for Her personal benefits known to the One God! But She was not content with personal benefits. Her charity was imbued with the idea of ​​establishing a good deed, introducing it into society, laying in it the seed of a strong, continuously operating social institution, setting it up wisely. And when, according to Her thoughts, an institution arose through the action of Her own chosen and excited people, with what tireless attention She followed its progress, delving into all the details, examining, questioning, supporting spiritual strength in all the figures! Non-Russian by birth, She laid her heart in Her new fatherland and devoted all Her activities to Russia. All the great events of the external and internal life of the Russian state resonated deeply in Her heart, aroused a living, active participation in Her, and Her name is associated with many of them, in the most significant epochs of modern history. It is worth remembering, during the era of the Eastern War and the siege of Sevastopol, with what tireless zeal She moved to help the wounded and sick, through the Holy Cross community created and animated by Her; and someday impartial history will fully reveal what share of participation belongs to Her in successfully bringing to an end the great cause of liberation of the peasants in Russia. For society, She was a bright center of mental animation, and the meetings that took place in Her living rooms will long remain in the memory of everyone who seeks in conversation a bright, festive excitement of thought, sobering up from everyday life. At Her place one could meet all the people who came from internal Russia or from abroad who were remarkable in some way in their official and social activities, in science, in art. She knew how to bring everyone closer to Her, She raised everyone to Her height, She knew how to talk with everyone exactly about what they believed their business was; everyone left Her with the consciousness of Her high dignity and not with a humiliated, but with an exalted self-awareness. In Her circle, around Her, it was light, spiritual and pure. Many looked around at Her. Many thought to themselves: what will She think? how will it seem to her? For many, it will be a great grief if after Her there will be no one to look up to! And She is no longer there! Just recently, at the end of December, on Her birthday, having gathered to Her, old friends and servants saw a friendly look, heard Her friendly word. One could still be deceived and hope; Her former liveliness, which seemed young in front of Her old peers, was still visible in Her, through painful fatigue. And so, on January 9th, God judged those same people to gather in tears and in mysterious silence around Her lifeless body. Bitter loss! Every day, every year, the virtues of the Deceased will become clearer to us - and everything that we have lost in Her. It has already been taken from the earth; but just as, after her death, Her facial features, alive and moving, were formed into an even, calm beauty, so will Her beloved image, majestic, shining with the thought of all that is lofty and good, be formed in Her eternal memory. † 12th September 1877 On September 12, in Tsarskoe Selo, at the age of 84, a worthy woman died, whose name should remain forever memorable in the meager list of people who intelligently, lovingly and fruitfully worked for the benefit of Russian education in its true sense. Nadezhda Pavlovna Shultz came from the Shipov family, which produced many good Russian figures for Russia. Having a naturally kind and gentle heart, with a practical economic mind, and having received a true Christian upbringing in her pious family, Nadezhda Pavlovna from her first youth, wherever she lived, became accustomed to putting all her heart, forgetting about herself, into caring for others who around her required care. Her own family was for her the first school of pedagogy: here, in charge of raising her younger brothers, she learned sound principles and methods of educational activity. After getting married, she started her own family; but her warm heart extended its concern far beyond the close circle of family life. She spent her entire early life in the village and became closely acquainted with all the conditions of rural life, therefore, she knew well the needs of the people, among which spiritual needs came first. Who, who lived in the village, does not know that the first need of the sheep is a shepherd, and there were few good shepherds around. Nadezhda Pavlovna knew well what our conditions were for the upbringing and entire life of rural priests, she knew from experience that given the urgency of daily needs and the unfavorable conditions of home life from the very cradle, it is not difficult for our rural priest to become coarsened in soul and lose the consciousness of his high calling. How to help him in his loneliness, where he usually lives lost, in alienation both from the rough environment below, in which he himself, with inhuman efforts, must still raise the primitive land and plow the arable land untouched by anyone, and from the landowner environment, from which he is separated by the prejudices of class life and upbringing. Only a faithful assistant - his wife - can help him in these circumstances, illuminate his life, and share the burden with him. But the wives of rural priests were, as we know, lower than their husbands in terms of upbringing and education, and marriage itself for the most part became, unfortunately, not a matter of heartfelt and rational choice, but a necessary means to obtaining a position. So, it was necessary to create an assistant for him. This is the thought that took possession of Nadezhda Pavlovna’s ardent soul: to establish strong foundations of family life in the clergy; to prepare future public educators among this family; to establish institutions in which girls of clergy would receive a strong education in the principles of faith, goodness and morality, in a high thought about their calling. The priest has no time to worry about the organization of the house and daily needs: it is necessary for his wife to be the mistress. It is necessary that his wife could be a teacher of her children herself, and, if necessary, an assistant to her husband in public education. The sudden grief that befell the still young woman - the death of her husband - turned her completely to raising children and to this beneficial thought, in which all her concerns and desires were shared with her - her friend and sister, the girl Elizaveta Pavlovna Shilova. Soon the opportunity presented itself to put this idea into practice, with the ardent patronage and assistance of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, later Queen of Württemberg. This is how the first two schools for girls of the clergy were founded - one in Tsarskoe Selo, under the direction of Nadezhda Pavlovna, the other in Yaroslavl, under the direction of her sister, Elizaveta Pavlovna Shipova. Since then, both institutions have operated in the same spirit, and it is difficult to calculate how much good they brought to the Church and the Fatherland by educating entire generations, how much they sowed good seeds of moral strength, how much light they brought into an environment that until then had known almost no enlightenment. And now - the founder of this good and patriotic deed, having completed the entire circle of her activity, like an ear of grain that has ripened and bent from grain, has been taken from the field - to the Lord's granary. May her memory be eternal: she rendered faithful service, like few others, to God, the Church and her beloved fatherland. She did not belong to those representatives of modern pedagogy who sometimes burn so brightly with the alien, borrowed fire of multi-colored theories, methods and so-called new principles of teaching and enlightenment, who, because of rumors and provisions on how to teach, often forget about what to teach, about that one and essential thing that creates a person, prepared for every good deed. The fire with which she burned was her own and was supported until her last breath by her simple and ardent faith, simple and inexhaustible love, the truth of common sense and direct patriotic feeling. It burned like a lamp, and went out quietly and peacefully, like a lamp. According to the reasonable plan laid down as the basis of training, his course was simple and uncomplicated, without foreign languages: the law of God, penmanship with drawing, Russian with Slavic, arithmetic and history with geography, singing and practical housekeeping with needlework. Recently, physics with natural history and the beginnings of pedagogy have been added to these subjects. This course was carried out under the constant guidance and supervision of the headmistress, with remarkable thoroughness, and the pupils, leaving the institution, acquired real and solid knowledge. The Law of God and the Russian language especially served as two pillars of all knowledge: the headmistress herself went through the good old school of the Russian language and literature, and it would be desirable that all the girls who took much more complex and sophisticated courses in institutes and gymnasiums, with various ideas of the latest pedagogy, could write in Russian as purely and correctly as Nadezhda Pavlovna’s pupils. That is why many of them have proven themselves to be excellent teachers in rural schools. The teaching of singing was always carried out at the school with such success and so thoroughly that many students, upon graduation, could easily teach this themselves in rural schools. Morally, the influence of such a woman was invaluable. Devoting all her time and all her care to the school she created, she was in it like a mother among her children. This woman had indescribable kindness and incomparable purity and clarity of soul. Russian in the beating of every vein, in every idea and consciousness, she could pour into every soul that love for the fatherland that animated her. And most importantly, it is difficult for those who knew her to imagine another soul similar to her, in which the beauty of all good and the ugliness of evil and lies of all kinds would be reflected with such simplicity and clarity. One can imagine how beneficially this clean mirror must have acted on everyone who could look into it. In the gentle smile of the late Nadezhda Pavlovna, in the clear and deep gaze of her blue eyes, there was an irresistible power that awakened the conscience and calmed any rebellious excitement in the soul... In raising her girls, Nadezhda Pavlovna pursued an unswervingly high goal. She hotly disputed the idea that others told her, that there was no need to work so hard on their mental education, so that their development would be no higher than the life from which they came and for which they were destined. “No,” she answered, “I would not devote my whole life and all my strength to this business, when it should have been limited only to preparing housewives. They are preparing to be housewives, but this, in my eyes, is not the main goal of their education. I make it, first of all, my duty to enlighten the minds of my pupils, to establish in their hearts a burning desire to be useful and do good in every place where they happen to be. Their education should be thorough and not meager: if the mind in them does not receive proper development, this will be reflected in the qualities of the heart. The more enlightened they are, the better they will understand that no occupation is beneath their dignity, if only it can be useful.” In the system of education that Nadezhda Pavlovna adhered to, everything was directed towards this spiritual goal. For example, she did not allow her pupils to engage in work for sale. “As long as they are in school,” she said, “they should not have any thoughts about any personal profit from work. The purpose of their work should be selfless: the desire to help, to do good, to be useful. It is all the more necessary to accustom them to this feeling because the environment from which they came is accused of greed for acquisition, and when they return there, they must set an example of love and selfless service to good.” That is why Nadezhda Pavlovna tried not to miss an opportunity regarding some social disaster, to arrange work among her girls for the benefit of the victims and to arouse in them zeal for such work. These were the ideal features in which this pure soul imagined the image that animated her pedagogical activity. “This is how I like,” she wrote, “to imagine our pupil upon graduation from the institution, in her life. Her house serves as an example of good morals, harmony, cleanliness, order, and prosperity. Her husband, returning home from serving the spiritual needs of his parishioners, finds the desired rest in the company of his wife; they talk and read together. She does not like to visit guests, and leaves the house almost always with a matter of love and charity in mind. He hears about a sick person in the village - he hurries to provide possible help. He hears about poverty, about need, about grief - he goes to console, help with a kind word or advice. She herself does not have the means to help in need - she goes to ask a rich landowner, a neighbor: they will accept a kind and educated woman, they will listen willingly, they will listen.” To others, this ideal may seem like an idyll: but what ideal is on a par with reality? The high significance of an ideal lies in the fact that it illuminates a dark reality, spiritualizes life with the desire for a high goal, and this ideal of the kindest Nadezhda Pavlovna shone for her throughout her entire life and kept her constantly at the height of the holy calling to which she doomed herself. And there is no doubt that his features were reflected in many of the pets released by her from the institution, and remained in their lives and activities as a sacred testament of a good mother. Her concerns about her students did not end with their release from the institution. She followed the fate and activities of each; many of them constantly corresponded with her, informing her of news about the changes in their fate and about their activities, seeking from her advice, support, help in needs of all kinds, and her ardent soul responded to every request with a sympathetic word, assistance, and help. Throughout Russia, especially in the north, in cities and villages, there are scattered many former students of the Tsarskoye Selo school, which Nadezhda Pavlovna ruled for 34 years, and the school, in her person, had no information about a rare one of them, and with many she had constant and active relations. No personal energy of a new figure can replace the action of the calm force established in the old man during a long life devoted to one thing in unity of spirit and direction. Such people are precious in their old age, even with the inevitable weakening of their original energy. There are people whose personal life is so inseparably merged with the business to which they devote themselves that their very life acquires the significance of the matter and constitutes a force that imperceptibly and life-givingly acts on the entire environment in which they live and act. That is why we often have to mourn so inconsolably among the many new leaders when they leave the field: that is why such sobs are sometimes heard near the tomb of an old man that you cannot hear over the grave of a young man. There is a caustic and sharp grief when the flower in which was the joy and hope of our life is plucked; there is a quiet but deep grief when the lamp that shone with even light on our life’s path is extinguished. After the funeral service, at the coffin of the deceased, in the school church, we could hear, drowning out the sound of church prayer, the sobs of many children burying their mother: former and current students of the school to which she gave life and in which she herself was a living soul. The feelings with which the entire home church, gathered at the tomb, was filled at that moment were perfectly expressed in his speech by the worthy teacher of the law, Fr. Archpriest F.A. Pavlovich. “It would be a rare mother,” he said, “with such love, with such intelligence, sacrifice and constancy, who would be able to care for the happiness of her children, as the best, most worthy mother, mentor and benefactor of entire generations of priestly wives, girls and mothers, always mourned by us, did. The truly Christian upbringing of children, their instruction and affirmation in goodness, was the highest task, the calling of her life; she completely gave him the rich treasures of her soul: the subtlety, insight of a highly developed and enlightened mind, the firmness and constancy of her will, and, more importantly, the tenderness, warmth and compassion of her mother’s heart. Her example, supervision, influence and guidance were vividly felt by everyone and in everything in our house, and it was an example of goodness, supervision of love, the influence of meekness and peace, and guidance to the strict, accurate fulfillment of all their holy duties. And who can measure all the warmth of her love, care and concern for the good fate of the children when they leave the school roof? Thousands of benefits, services and consolations of all kinds were provided by her not only to the students of this school or close members of their families, but also to many, many people in need, for whom her heart and hand were always open. Doing good, helping the poor, comforting widows and orphans in their sorrows was always the need and pleasure of her soul, and God alone knows how much gratitude, how many heartfelt tears and the warmest touching feelings she aroused in children's souls and in the hearts of all who had the good fortune to benefit from her help, affection, greetings, tenderness and care! Oh, if everyone, secretly or openly benefited by her, could now appear and gather with us at the real tomb, what a touching, beautiful, touching picture it would be, and what a multitude of blessings, prayers and thanks would ascend to the Almighty at this tomb!.. Yes, she was a faithful, kind and wise servant of Christ! Her heart was filled with love and compassion for everyone, and therefore, as the ancient sage puts it, “she opened her hand to the poor, and stretched out her hand to the needy, she opened her lips with wisdom, and gentle instruction was on her tongue.” There was no false gratification or vain female kindness in her; and for this, her memory is now blessed, and the reflection of her life, the fruit of her labors and instructions, will remain in the world for a long time, delighting and delighting the gaze, thought and will of those brought up, caressed, and benefited by her. Children! - the preacher concluded with tears, - come especially close, touch the remains of your mother for the last time and, kissing her hands, remember and imprint in your hearts her sacred covenant - to live and act always in her loving spirit, according to her instructions and example. May her memory be bright and unforgettable to everyone living in this house, and may the holy seeds sown by her grow, nourish and ripen, bearing abundant and healthy fruit for the benefit of the Church and the Fatherland.” Baroness Edita Fedorovna Raden The human world is also a universe, and is also supported by the force of gravity. There is no human soul that does not possess this power to one degree or another and does not itself submit to this power. If each of us were rationally aware of this, how much moral power, wasted in vain, he could accumulate and distribute around himself in his own sphere; how many human souls with whom he comes into daily contact could he support, restrain and correct. And vice versa, there are so many orphaned, weak and exhausted souls around each of us, longing for someone to fall in love with, someone to look at, someone to find support in: we pass by, and how many of them become exhausted and die. But there are chosen souls, filled with strength, seeking an outcome: when a deep feeling of benevolence and pity is combined in them with an ardent desire for truth in life, they are truly likened to luminaries, by whose power the whole world of small luminaries is held, moves and turns. How much goodness and light such souls spill around themselves is impossible to calculate and weigh: the effect of one soul on another soul is limitless and infinite. The late Edita Raden belonged to the number of such chosen souls: her eternal memory lives on in the many people who knew her and felt her attraction. Alas! She has been gone for a long time - and her place stands alone and empty! She was born into the environment of the Courland nobility, imbued with the traditions of noble honor and Baltic nobility. But from this environment, throwing away the growths of historical prejudices, she brought out all the good principles - from the very root of good traditions: the habit of work, love of order, the desire for truth in life, the spirit of caring for subordinate people and, finally, faith - strong and strict. With these inclinations she entered life, developing under the influence of her older brother, a man of high education. Far superior in intelligence and abilities to the sphere in which she had to spend her first years, with a remarkable thirst for knowledge and the ability to quickly and deeply assimilate the truth, she managed to preserve within herself for the further development of her own - the most precious treasure of the human soul - a heart sensitive to all human needs and thirsting for beneficial and enlightened activities. Her family was for her the first school for the education of the heart: barely leaving childhood, she already became the providence of her family, learning to help all needs, cover all weaknesses and take all burdens on her shoulders, rejoice with those who rejoice and cry with those who cry. But at the same time, the nobility of natural instincts and the sublimity of tastes prompted her and taught her the art of comprehending every action and spiritualizing every activity - in the midst of the simplicity of family life. The high qualities of her mind and heart, coupled with her remarkable education and breadth of vision, made her famous in the close circle of the highest St. Petersburg society of the era of Emperor Nicholas. Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, a sensitive connoisseur of people and talents, having become acquainted with her, brought her closer to Herself - and from that time a wide field opened up for Edita Raden and at the same time a new school of activity, which little by little received a high importance for social activities. The name of the Grand Duchess will remain forever glorious in the history of Russian society. Having fully understood the meaning and duty of Her high calling, She devoted Herself to the fulfillment of this duty. Alive, impressionable, filled with a thirst for goodness, light and knowledge, She cultivated in Herself both the power of sympathy, which allows, even at a height inaccessible to needs, to vividly understand and take to heart every human need, and that power of creativity, which, falling in love with people, with a living movement of the spirit awakens in them - sometimes unknown to themselves, effective forces. Everywhere she appeared, She looked for talents, brought them closer to Herself, entered into communication with them and, feeding on their spirit, art and knowledge, at the same time she herself excited and animated them: whoever needed to be raised, who needed to be helped - she was ready to help everyone generously and wisely. In communication with Her, everyone, entering the sphere of Her tastes and thoughts, felt closer to the noble and sublime, further from the base and vulgar - both in life, and in word, and in art. Fate united Edita Raden with such and such a Princess, and soon, having become close to Her with that spiritual communication that gives rise to similarity of tastes and aspirations, having acquired Her complete trust, Edita Raden became Her closest assistant. Standing on secluded peaks, persons of high rank need intermediaries to get closer to people living in the valley and for social activities - and it is good for those who serve as these intermediaries - not slaves and flattering courtiers, but people who preserve dignity, honor and truth. This is what Edita Raden was like in the fullest sense. Belonging by birth to the old Baltic nobility, she brought from family traditions a feeling of devotion to the Royal House, but at the same time a deep consciousness of that dignity that is inseparable from true loyalty. Not tolerating flattery regarding anyone, she was incapable of flattery, just as she was incapable of hiding the truth or remaining silent about the truth when duty required her to express it; she was unable to restrain or hide her indignation at all lies and contempt for vulgarity. Wherever she sensed need, she was ready to rush to the rescue; Wherever a noble feeling, a sublime aspiration, a movement towards goodness, a creative ability were manifested, her sympathy flared up, and she sought to respond. Coming from the environment of the provincial outskirts, not alien to some of its prejudices, she nevertheless deeply recognized and felt her great fatherland - Russia; She understood and fell in love with all the best qualities of the Russian soul, and her heart beat warmly - with a feeling of Russian patriotism. Thanks to the combined activities of these two women, the Mikhailovsky Palace became the center of cultural society in St. Petersburg, the center of its intellectual development, a school of elegant taste and a nursery of talent. Everything wonderful and outstanding in the field of government, in science and in art flocked to this center - and everyone found here mental stimulation, revitalization of thoughts and feelings. The Grand Duchess had the precious property, when entering into a conversation with a person, to place him in a free and truthful relationship: it was easy for everyone to respond to Her living and animated speech, but at the same time, everyone near Her felt in a pure and sublime atmosphere, on that line beyond which vulgarity does not penetrate. At the evenings of the Grand Duchess, statesmen met with scientists, writers, and artists; the woman's mind, subtle and educated, gave tone and animation to their mutual conversations. The celebrations of the Mikhailovsky Palace, concerts, performances, and live paintings were distinguished by their inimitable grace of form and perfection of execution. Here, under the patronage of the mistress of the house, they tested themselves and developed artistic talents, which later became famous in art. She did not spare Her means to support talents when she noticed them, and for their artistic education. Such was the circle of the Mikhailovsky Palace, and in it the main engine of revival was Edita Raden. In her modest rooms the beginning of everything that was later completed in the salons of the Grand Duchess took place. Here she met budding talents, scientists and public figures, whom need forced to seek encouragement and support; the bitter poor, driven by need and grief, also came here - and through her the Grand Duchess recognized everyone. Frequent trips with the Grand Duchess abroad brought Edita Raden in Europe closer to foreign Courts, with political figures, with celebrities of science, literature, art, in all capitals; Her intelligence was appreciated everywhere, and her moral communication with her left such deep traces that many of her foreign friends entered into correspondence with her, which was not interrupted until her death. Everything that she saw in Europe, everything that she experienced in a living exchange of thoughts, everything that her thought worked on among new people and ancient institutions, became her spiritual heritage, expanding her cultural horizons, multiplying her spiritual strength for activity - at home, in St. Petersburg. During the reign of Nikolai Pavlovich, there was not a wide field for social activity in Russia, but by His nature, everything noble, everything sublime, pure and graceful was sympathetic to Him and found a response in His soul. The late Emperor loved and respected Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, willingly consulted with Her and valued Her opinion; He knew and respected Edita Raden and loved her intelligent speech. All this, with the trust of the Sovereign, made it possible to revive and support from the Mikhailovsky Palace many institutions that had acquired important social significance, to draw the Monarch’s attention to talents that remained unknown to Him. Many educational and sanitary institutions that arose in this era are associated with the name of the Grand Duchess. The music conservatory owes its beginning and development to her. But the thunderstorm that darkened the last years of the great reign aroused the spirit of social activity throughout Russia. The bloody battle near Sevastopol revealed needs that the government could not satisfy - and above all, the need to help the great many wounded on the battlefield. This help had to be organized: to form institutions, to find leading people, to find funds, to gather together the scattered mass of people who sought to devote themselves to the holy cause of caring for the wounded - a completely new matter, not tested in our country and barely tested in the rest of Europe. Obviously, such an organization was beyond the power of any ministry or office. The Grand Duchess took up this matter with all the fervor of her noble soul. From the very beginning of hostilities, She was haunted by the thought of the disasters of war and the suffering of the wounded. She decided to gather sisters of mercy and send them to the battlefield and to military hospitals. With the help of Pirogov, a plan for the enterprise was developed. Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich doubted the success of this new business, but the Grand Duchess managed to persuade Him - to allow the first experiment - and the matter began to boil. Here the first instrument was Edita Raden, who had the ability to organize practical work, gathering people to it and inspiring them. This was the beginning of the Holy Cross community of sisters of mercy and, under the leadership of Pirogov, the first detachments of sisters sent to Sevastopol were organized. Who doesn’t know the works of these ascetics of Christian charity and self-sacrifice? The memory of them is inseparable from the memory of the exploits of our heroes, who laid their bones on the Sevastopol bastions. A new reign has arrived. A new era of transformation has begun. Among them, the first place belonged to the implementation of the cherished thought of the supreme government, the cherished thought of all Russian patriots - the liberation of the peasants. And in this great undertaking, the Mikhailovsky Palace became the center in which a plan for the desired reform was privately developed, to which people of intelligence and will gathered, who had long been plotting it, and were now preparing it with the knowledge and sympathy of the government. The legends of this memorable time are inextricably linked with the names of the Grand Duchess and Edita Raden. Here people such as Cherkassky, Samarin, Milyutin built their thoughts and prepared for their social activities. The illness of the Grand Duchess, and then Her death, was a heavy blow for Edita Raden: it was as if her life had been cut short, but her energy did not weaken. Her soul was inextricably linked with the institutions that arose under the protection of the Deceased, and all her activities since then were devoted, in the thoughts of the Deceased, to matters of public charity. The Clinical Institute, which arose in memory of the Grand Duchess, the Elenin Institute, Her sanitary institutions, the Elizabeth Children's Hospital, schools and shelters, cheap canteens for the poor absorbed her activities, tirelessly, from morning to evening. But her soul was not content with this, sensitive to human grief, misfortune and need, to a talent devoid of guidance and support; to a faculty thirsty for science and work. Every morning small and unknown people came to her for advice, for support and help, and, of course, many gratefully remember her for the good that led them on the road, the word that encouraged and strengthened them, the work for which she put them, the timely help in extreme need. As soon as she saw, felt the need, an ardent desire arose to come to the rescue, to support, to guide, to show the way out of the difficulty, to find something to do for a soul languishing with nothing to do, to open the way to talent, to revive interest, to bring to consciousness a wavering thought. Her whole life, especially in recent years, was filled with this activity - and it is impossible to count how much spiritual good was sown by her, how many people oppressed by life she supported and consoled. But once again a difficult time came for Russia, when it had the opportunity to apply all its energy to a great public cause. The war began with all its horrors - enormous amounts of medical care were required for the wounded. The organization of the business was concentrated in the Red Cross Society, and here Edita Raden again came to work with her tireless energy, with organizational talent, with ardor of concern, able to embrace the entire economy of the matter in all its details. She helped form detachments of sisters, found and inspired people for the sanitary service, attracted people from among the capital's society and put them to work: in the handicrafts and warehouses of the Red Cross in the capital - she was truly the soul and main spring of the entire enormous task of manufacturing and sending all materials and supplies for the wounded. No one knew better than she how to attract ladies, girls and young men from society to this work: in whomever the spark of goodness and attraction to good activity was hidden, they could not help but respond to Edita’s voice, to her stern and at the same time quiet call to rise from sleep and inaction, to work, to the fulfillment of duty. Her sense of duty was inseparably linked with a deep religious feeling, and her faith was certainly active. Her strength was already weakening; the seed of a fatal illness, still unnoticed by her friends, began to show itself in her; but she did not measure her strength when it was necessary to do the job. This time she was called upon by the Highest Trust to oversee the cause of higher female education. With the death of the virtuous prince P.G. Oldenburgsky discovered new needs that had to be satisfied, old shortcomings that had to be corrected. Unfortunately, she did not have to act for long in this field; but even here she managed to demonstrate her spiritual powers and knew how to recognize people and excite them. In education, as in any activity, she was opposed to routine and formalism: “Dans feducation surtout,” she wrote, “il ne s’agit pas seulement de plier les enfantsa a un certain ordre, dans de certains limites: il faut que la vie grandisse et se developpe sans etre deformee par un cadre inflexible, ni sterilisee par une routine immuable, – ce moyen facile de gouverner, si commode aux natures inertes et aux administrations formalistes...” 1 She sought the truth in everything, and this feeling distinguished her image in the midst of the vacillation of minds in our society, and the nobility of her soul and moral sense helped her discern the truth among prejudices and vulgarities. This stamped Edita Raden with the dignity with which she appeared in dealing with both the simplest people and the most senior officials. In the conversational exchange of thoughts, in disputes and bickering, she did not succumb to the usual tendency to mix the colors and shades of thoughts and opinions for an imaginary agreement and to dissolve truth with untruth and black with white. In dealing with people of both her own and higher circles, she perfectly mastered the external forms of techniques and speech that bring people together, endearing them to each other, but she was alien to that widespread servility among us, which, based on the desire to be pleasant to people, encourages us to treat their desires, words and thoughts kindly, to seek agreement with them and, finally, to condescendingly flatter their inclinations and abilities. All flattery was disgusting to her to the point of irritation, and whoever approached her with flattering words aroused in her an unpleasant, painful feeling; even when her closest friends, carried away by the consciousness of her talent and skill in this or that matter, sought to express this consciousness, she was ready to accuse them of flattery. “Ce qúil y a en moi de plus vivant,” she wrote to Samarin, “c’est la conscience nette de ma silhouette morale, decoupee en noir.” J'y tiens avec rigorisme, je l'ai toujours defendue victorieusement en moi-meme contre les nuages ​​roses, ou verts, ou bleus, dont on tant essaye de la colorer! J'ai etabli a l'entour une bonne large plaine, aride et pauvre; on n'en saurait approcher par des chemins couverts ou fleuris, car le plus petit ennemi s'y dessine a l'horizon" 2 . She could not stand vulgarity - alas!, so widespread in all strata of our society - and people who approached her felt this now from the tone of her speech, from one of those polite but meaningful phrases in which she knew how to clothe her receptive thoughts. Among the prominent people in society, there were few who did not know her, and her long-term active circulation in metropolitan circles gained her many friends. To know Edita closely meant to love her, and not only to love her, but also to think of her with respect, and to look at her in the sense in which we look at a person, reflecting him in ourselves and being reflected in him. Until the last days of her life, Baroness Raden occupied the same rooms in the Mikhailovsky Palace in which she settled from the very beginning. Few of the St. Petersburg society were unfamiliar with this modest dwelling, and for many, the small office where her friends gathered in the evenings was near and dear. Here, at a small table covered with books, she sat, always ready to respond to both the old and the young for every heartfelt need, for advice in a difficult matter, for resolving questions of conscience with which many turned to her. A faithful friend to all old friends connected with her by the memories of a whole life, she also attracted young people who strove for her willingly, because her soul responded vividly to every pure joy, to every good movement, to every impatient need of youth. She knew how to say a kind and intelligent word to everyone at the right time, and her gaze was so expressive that it spoke to many without words - with sympathy, approval or indignation and accusation. Meeting her did not leave a pale, listless impression on anyone. It is true that others were afraid of her - but what they feared most was human vulgarity, which read accusation and contempt in her gaze. But many of her close friends, approaching her, collected themselves and were ashamed to bring empty and nonsense speeches to her at social gatherings, because in front of her they wanted to be smart, they wanted to be reflected in her mirror with their best features. In this regard, metropolitan society suffered an irreparable loss with her death: she was, and she alone could be for many, a living conscience, a reasonable adviser and leader, a living indicator of truth and dignity in words and deeds. She could be all this because she had grown to this point not only with her intelligence and moral energy, but also with a culture of thought and taste that is rare in our society, and with that sense of proportion that gives a person the ability to understand everyone and put everyone into free communication of thoughts and feelings. A deep religious feeling animated her from early youth. It was associated in her soul with the noblest qualities - with an ardent search for the ideal in life, with a strong sense of duty, with the desire for self-sacrifice, with a subtle sense of beauty in nature, in art, in the human soul. Brought up in the strict spirit of evangelical Protestantism, she drew from it that energy of faith that Lutheranism seeks to instill in its teaching, which brings man face to face directly with both God and the word of God, with a strong, although proud, consciousness of duty and responsibility. But the same energy almost carried her into the extreme of strict Puritanism, as indicated in her correspondence with Superintendent Walter. She met Walter from her parents' house, in 1846, as a young girl, during the time of his brilliant preaching activities in Livonia, and his sermons had a strong influence on her spiritual development: she later said that after her older brother, Walter was her main moral support and leader. 6 years after that, she corresponded with him from St. Petersburg, and some of her letters from 1853, published in his biography (Bischof Walter nach Briefen und Aufzeichnungen. Leipzig, 1891) depict her vivid state of mind at that time and her internal struggle with herself, in the new capital and court environment into which she entered. The lofty ideals that she brought with her into this environment, admiring people, began to be painfully reflected in her soul, and the new sensations aroused in her by the very honor and praise that met her everywhere, outraged her strict conscience. “In my new life,” she wrote, “much has changed in me: new temptations, of which I had no idea, surround me from everywhere, and what is especially bitter, temptations of such an insignificant nature that it would seem to cost nothing to overcome them - just walk calmly forward, but no - they cover the road like serpentine vines, and sometimes my feet get tangled in the most despicable grass... Sometimes people’s praise crushes me like a stone mountain - they don’t know themselves, what they praise in me, and what they like - how pitiful and insignificant in reality ... "The light, with all its splendor, with all the lures of honor and success, has no attraction for her - she was looking for inner peace in it - and does not find it. But at the same time, turning to himself, he says: “There is a strange contradiction in me: what am I that I am so disgusted by everything unkind and base in this world?” The courtly heights on which she lived did not seduce her; but she did not want to descend from the heights of her moral ideal for anyone in the world. And when, in response to her call about the inner world, Walter started talking about the world of the family union, she answered him: “Perhaps you are right in a certain sense: to be loved the way I imagine love is great happiness, and every soul strives for this happiness - my soul can strive for it, consciously. But I never expected satisfaction from this desire from any person - it had never happened to me even mentally to admit for myself the possibility of a marriage union. It’s already so hard for me to bear my own shortcomings and weaknesses; and in a beloved being, in a man, to whom I would submit in a joyful feeling of love, I would not be able to bear even the small, base weaknesses of earthly nature...” Fortunately, circumstances soon brought Edita Raden out of her close circle, sent her to work in which she could find satisfaction, and placed her in a latitude where all the precious qualities of her soul could receive harmonious and harmonious development. With Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Edita entered the circle of high culture and could enter into mental relations with its best representatives in the whole of Europe. Frequent and long trips around Europe with the Grand Duchess brought Edita closer to the first celebrities of science, art, politics, revealed to her the treasures of historical monuments, and opened up new horizons for her - in the historical church of the Western world. Rome particularly affected her imagination, and here her religious feeling, in view of the majestic building of the Roman Catholic Church, opened up new captivating horizons; With these impressions she returned to Russia. In connection with this feeling, in the late 50s and early 60s, she had to experience a strong moral crisis, characteristic of sublime and fiery souls. Many considered it proud, meaning pride in the usual, vulgar sense of the word: without giving themselves the trouble to think, people often define a person’s character in one word, expressing with this characteristic not so much him as their mental attitude towards him: these are the words often heard: he is too proud, he is too smart, he considers himself smarter than everyone else, etc. But what people call pride does not always correspond to the meaning of the word. There is the pride of self-confidence, the pride of self-adoration, the pride of naked lust for power. In its external manifestation, this pride borders on vulgarity and often merges with it. This was not Edita’s feeling, if you can call it pride - the pride of self-awareness, which a person does not want to give up to anyone, laying its foundations not in himself, but in eternal truth and in the truth of the ideal of life. Such a mood of an elevated, deeply honest and truthful soul always presupposes a struggle, and a double one at that: a struggle within oneself, with one’s self, which by human nature can never achieve the ideal, and outside oneself, with the phenomena of the external world, in which this ideal is distorted by lies and vulgarity. The soul, exhausted by this struggle, seeks reconciliation and does not find it in real life. From here, from this passionate desire for inner peace and truth, the search for spiritual authority often arises, in order to find peace of spirit and the purpose of life in unconditional submission to it. In this way, how many high souls were brought and are still being brought to the Roman Church, where centuries of experience and the labor of entire generations have artistically developed the discipline of pacifying souls tired and burdened with life. Her desire for everything sublime sought satisfaction in religion, in nature and in people. “L'admiration,” she wrote, “c'est mon soleil, ta joie, le plus doux sentiment que je connaisse.” Elsewhere she says: “There is no greater joy for me than joy in a person. You see a common physiognomy - and suddenly features and shades of beauty appear in this image, and suddenly sometimes a word of fiery light will fall between one and another soul, and then for a minute everything conventional in human life will disappear between them, and any differences in breed, upbringing, disposition, everything will fade before the feeling of the divine in human nature. And you know what else about this captivates me? A feeling of absolute equality with a person who makes such a pleasant impression on me. Neither in politics nor in the social sense do I favor democracy, and this spirit is not in me, and that’s why I feel such joy when suddenly this vulgar word “equality” echoes the truth in me - and it’s even more joyful for me when I can bow my soul before another soul - my gaze only asks to strive upward.” But receptive to everything high and noble in human nature, to every manifestation of love, truth and spiritual energy, inexorably strict with herself, she was painfully sensitive to every manifestation of lies - self-interest, vulgarity, petty and base motives. How many times did she have to be deceived, to be dissuaded from those whom she happened to trust, to shatter the previous images of her admiration and worship, or to cover up once imaginary virtues with her compassion. True, from the distant past, from the monuments of history and art, with which her trips to Europe became closely acquainted, heroes of thought and art, devotees of great deeds appeared before her on their pedestals; but in the present, in the midst of real life and in the sphere in which she lived and turned, a series of soul-wrenching disappointments awaited her: let us remember how many of them were encountered in our society during the era of general fermentation of thought in the 50s and 60s. She was looking for a way out of this struggle, just as she was looking for it in another era, before she entered the court spheres. Then she thought to find her peace in subordinating her will to the person to whom she was ready to entrust herself. “Was Ich Ihnen versprechen kann,” she wrote to Walter in 1854, “ist unbedingter Gehorsam, wenn Sie mir etwas verschreiben wollten, und den warmsten Dank fur jedes Wort des Trostes.” Now the time for unconditional faith in man had passed for her, but her troubled soul with new strength sought a way out of the endless contradictions of life. Here's what she wrote in 1861: “J'aime le passe – je sens que les fibers les plus sensibles et les plus tenaces de mon ame y ont pris racine et vont y puiser sans cesse des elements de force et de patience.” Et le passe au fond, avec ses teintes un peu vagues, ses contours adoucis, la lucidite de sa signification pour nous, n'est-il pas le seul moment de l'existence sur lequel notre esprit peut s'arreter sans trouble? Le present et l'avenir – quelle derision! Le degout pour les choses qui m'entourent, – une absence complete d'enthousiasme pour un avenir qui ne correspond a aucune de mes sympathies – voila ce qui m'accable et m'attend dans le monde social. L'ame ne saurait repondre de sa puissance de resistance en de pareilles conjunctures: – j'ai quelquefois l'impression d'un abaissement moral inevitable – deja commence peut etre, et qui croit a mesure que le stoicisme exterieur prend le dessus. Dans le monde on arrive si facilement a cette maniere sauvage de faire face a la douleur et a la tentation, monter un visage serein a ceux qúon meprise, enfermer ses degouts dans une triple cuirasse, et traverser le defi au front et la mort dans le coeur les fanges qúon amasse sous vos pas – voila une tentation a laquelle un esprit fier resiste difficilement, mais qui renferme – je l'eprouve – des elements destructeurs. Vous avez dans l'ame des tendresses et par consequent des soumissions infinies – le contrepoids est donc tout trouve pour vous. Quant a moi qui ai beaucoup de reflexion et par consequent beaucoup de revokes dans l'esprit, je sens que la balance s'enleve dans les airs... Alors, instinctivement mes regards vont chercher l'asile divin d'une autorite sainte et le majestueux edifice de l'eglise catholique m'ouvre ses portes! 3 But this mood, thank God, was only temporary. The lively practical activity into which Edita was led by her special position soon helped her to lose her temper and, without reconciling herself with evil and lies, to attract people to the cause for the sake of goodness and truth. The Orthodox Russian Church was still closed to her: at that time, to tell the truth, and in the high society of St. Petersburg in which she moved, there were few people who, belonging to their church, would live its life, could introduce Edita Raden into its spirit and answer the inquisitive queries of her mind and heart, and her concept of the Russian Church was largely reflected in the prejudices of German-Baltic views. But over time, her soul began to see in this direction. A sensitive soul, brought up on the sacred poetry of biblical words and expressions, soon recognized the deep meaning and high poetry of Orthodox worship and learned, without stopping at forms and symbols, to penetrate into their deep content. In Moscow, where she came with the Grand Duchess, all the historical greatness of the Orthodox Church was revealed to her and its living reflection in the people's soul, as well as the reflection in it of the people's soul and the people's faith, became clear. In Moscow, she had to get close to people who, for the first time, could tell her about the church and about the people’s faith, everything for which she heard requests in her soul. The Samarins, K. Cherkassky, Tyutchevs - could tell her truly new words that she had not heard before. Here she found new people who sensed a noble soul in her and made friends for life in them. According to her inner conviction, according to her way of thinking, according to the traditions of her homeland, her family and the entire circle from which she received the first impressions of her youth, she remained a Protestant; but her heart was able to sense truth and beauty wherever it met it, and to understand the many different needs of the spirit in its manifestations. Having an excellent command of both the Russian and German words, she translated into German, and translated perfectly, Samarin’s famous preface to Khomyakov’s works, and Khomyakov’s article on the unified Church. Regarding these translations, she wrote in 1871: “Je venere l'Eglise du pays auquel j'appartiens, parceque j'ai appris a la connaitre et j'en apprecie la force a raison de sa douceur! On la meconnait, on la juge a faux par ignorance – comment ne saisirais-je pas avec empressement chaque occasion de la montrer sous son vrai jour! Comment ne me serait-il pas doux d'apporter mon grain de sable a une oeuvre de verite, qui, en eclairant les esprits, doit necessairement allumer la charite fratrnelle dans les coeurs! Que m'importe la divergence de dogmes qui ne font pas de salut! “Ho,” she added, “tout ceci n'implique aucune solidarite de doctrine, aucune acceptance tacite de quelque enseignement que ce soit, contraire au protestantisme: ce que je pense, ce que je dis, ce que je fais, est strictement protestant” 4 . And it was not just the power of tradition that tied her to the religion of her fathers and grandfathers, although she watched with sad feeling the decay of religious feeling and the old traditions of Protestantism in the new Germany. She was attracted to Protestantism by the ideal that she had carried in her soul since childhood and which she connected with the idea of ​​Luther’s teachings - the ideal of realizing the truth of God in Christian life. In 1875, regarding the famous book about Vinet's family life, she wrote: “Mop coeur retrouve dans ce tableau le type parfait que peut realiser l'Eglise protestante. EIe y arrive, malgre ses erreurs, l'abime ouvert sous ses pas par l'incredulite, l'aride austerite de son culte, seulement en vertu de son ardent amour de la verite, cette appellation de Dieu qui est la plus chere a l'esprit germanique. Etablir une vraie filiation entre ce que Ton fait, ce que l'on pense et ce que Ton sent, et alimenter ses sentiments a la source vive de la verite eternelle, qui est l'Amour eternel – quelle existence ideale!” 5 Family affairs and relationships prompted her trip to Kostroma, where she had to spend quite a long time in the midst of the original Russian spirit, see the people up close and, in the midst of the majestic church antiquity, delve deeper into the spirit of the people and their history. Here she became close to another remarkable woman, full of intelligence and energy, who devoted her life to beneficial activities in the church environment: this was Mother Maria, abbess of the Epiphany Monastery of Kostroma. Here Edita saw the Russian monastery in the ideal structure to which mother Maria had brought it. This is what she wrote from Kostroma in the summer of 1879. “Mon sejour ici est vrai voyage de decouvertes: je vis comme dans un autre monde; a chaque pas je comprends mieux et autrement ce dont a Petersbourg je me faisais des idees tres fausses. Quand un principe divin ou ideal revet des formes qui ne nous sont pas familiares, nous sommes aptes a meconnaitre, voire meme a nier, l'existence du principe lui-meme. Mais sitot qúon distingue a travers l'enveloppe inusitee, les battements du coeur, qúon sent pour ainsi dire la chaleur de la vie divine, – il se fait dans l'ame et dans l'intelligence, un jour nouveau, et on voudrait s'ecrier: je vois, je sens, je crois! Depuis que je respire ici une atmosphere tout a fait nationale, dont les esprits serieux m'expliquent encore les particularites, bien touchantes parfois, j'eprouve une impression singuliere: il me semble que de Petersbourg on parle sans cesse francais a ce jeune Siegfried inculte, mais si bon et Si fort, qúon appelle le people russe, et qui, lui, ne comprend que le russe! Hier j'ai passe la matinee au couvent dont vous connaissez le service divin splendide et majestueux, dans cette belle Cathedrale, artistiquement restauree. Apres la messe il eut prayer a l'hopital et puis repas pour les pauvres. A peu pres cent mendiants infirmes s'assirent autour de longues tables ou ils furent servis par les religieuses et les jeunes filles de l'ecole de la mere Marie, avec un empressement et une joie rayonnante qui faisaient du bien a voir. Les portes etaient grandes ouvertes, les boiteux arrivaient conduisant les aveugles, des paysannes courbees par l'age et la maladie faisaient place a des vieillards encore plus ages qúelles. Les religieuses et les jeunes filles appelaient les uns et les autres de ces noms caressants qui etablissent la vraie egalite entre tous; un large esprit de fraternite chretienne regnait dans cette sale modeste, ou en verite Jesus Christ lui meme semblait present! Quand les grandes marmites fumantes furent placees, le pain distribue, et que les pauvres, apres la priere, se mirent a manger avec la lenteur satisfaite de l'homme du people, la mere Marie fit chanter les jeunes filles de l'Ecole, et les engagea a commencer par le God Save the King... Plus je vois de pres la vie monastique en Russie, mieux je comprends sa profonde signification pour le pays et le bien immense qúelle est appellee a faire dans l'avenir, et plus je m'etonne de l'indifference absolue avec laquelle on la traite a Petersbourg" 6 . This is what she wrote later, in 1883, from Moscow. “Combien je jouis de mon sejour a Moscou. Malgre le temps, les chemins, les fatigues, meme malgre les visites, mes ennemies mortelles, je me repose ici... Je me sens dans une atmosphere naturelle, entouree de traditions qui donnent par leur passe un caractere au present. Malgre la decadence intellectuelle et morale de Moscou, on rencontre des individus accessibles a des idees abstraites, amoureux de choses qui ne sont pas eux. Et puis, ce silence, ce calme, lorsqúon peut se recueillir dans un travail serieux! Je n'en finirais pas si je voulais enumerer ce qui me plait a Moscou – les bonnes impressions engloutissent les mauvaises et me donnent du nerf pour l'avenir" 7 . Her friendship with Yuri Samarin was of particular importance in her development. These two souls, equally noble and sublime, could understand and appreciate each other. Both had a mind nurtured by depth of thought, multilateral education, close contact with celebrities of Russian and European society, both had a burning feeling of truth in their souls and a desire for truth in spirit and in life. Both, although not from the same point of view, were imbued with an ardent feeling of love for the Russian fatherland and indignation against all lies and untruths. But for Edita Raden, this feeling was divided, complicated by her love for her special Baltic homeland, from where she received her first sensations and first thoughts of mental culture, from where she received the traditions of a number of generations. On this basis, it was impossible for her to avoid a collision with the thought of Samarin, the author of “Riga Letters”, publisher of “Outskirts of Russia”; but friendship, based on mutual respect, filled with unchanging sincerity in thought and word, withstood this test. Edita had to mourn the bitter loss of this friend, but until his death their relationship remained unchanged, and the correspondence that survived both of them (published in Moscow in 1893) will remain forever a monument to the friendly struggle of a strong, deep male mind, imbued with the consciousness of its own rightness, with a deep female soul, armed with all the fervor of feeling, seeking truth in human relationships. In the last years of her life, Edita became accustomed to our church and found consolation in it, without breaking her ties with the confession in which she was born and with which she was inextricably united by the memories of her youth, the traditions of her home, and kindred heartfelt relationships. There was not the slightest trace of that Lutheran fanaticism, which treats people of other faiths with contempt and contempt, believing itself to be the center and light of the only cultural and reasonable belief. Deeply understanding - incomprehensible to the mass of Lutherans - the meaning of not only the dogmas, but also the rituals of Orthodoxy, appreciating artistically and even loving the beauty of our worship, she was able to pray with us in our church, and was not a stranger to us in spirit, although formally she did not belong to our church. She endured her serious illness with amazing patience, hiding her suffering from her close friends. But her closest friends, who loved her tenderly and deeply, were Orthodox people - and their religious mood was reflected in the patient, who lay motionless in the last days of her dying illness. Her dimmed gaze seemed to ask them for prayer and lovingly stopped at the icon of the Savior and the Mother of God, which was brought to the dying woman by her mother Maria, the Kostroma abbess, who tenderly loved her. How suspiciously the pastor who was visiting the sick woman looked at this icon! Of course, he was afraid that the Orthodox would secretly steal this sheep from his flock. Fears in vain: among Edita’s Orthodox friends, no one would have dared to rape her conscience, but everyone felt that the flame heated by our fire was dying out in her, and when the sacrament of death took place over her, everyone, however, was pained that the church beauty of our funeral service would not take place over her. So she was gone. Many orphaned souls, whom she held with her moral strength, cried over her remains, souls requiring powerful will, reasonable advice, tender caress, active participation. Friends, for whom she was a faithful friend and a force for living communication of enlightened thought, cried. Not only the weak, but also the strong, who lost in her the voice of a true conscience and a strong mind and a hand ready for the active implementation of a living and right thought. On October 12, 1885, we lowered her into a grave at the Peterhof cemetery. There she lies, in the midst of many overgrown graves... But her memory is alive and fragrant, in the midst - alas! - there are not many of her remaining friends. These pages were written for them - in memory of our dear and dear deceased Edita. Nikolai Vasilievich Kalachov There is no kind, honest, sweet person on whom our heart rested. His place is empty, and our gaze returns to him with a tear. Eternal memory to him - with many, many whom we loved and mourned! But among the many we mourned, Nikolai Vasilyevich is especially dear to us. Which of us did he touch painfully, whom did he embarrass, on whom did he make an irritable impression? “On the contrary, everyone who approached him saw a friendly smile on his face, heard from him an animated word that burned with love for science and lit the same fire in many. He was a man of science par excellence, not because he was superior in learning to many scientists, and not even because his diligence was boundless, but because he truly loved science, loved with pure, unselfish, sacred love. Moreover, this was not the kind of platonic love that other scientists are obsessed with, hovering in the abstract spheres of thinking, detached from real life. For Kalachov, his science breathed life and was inseparable from the land on which he walked, from the people to which he belonged, from that feeling of a citizen of his land, which understands the phenomena of the past life in a living, continuous connection with the life of the present time. That’s why he fell in love with this science, because from an early age he became accustomed to pondering the monuments and traces of the past and looking in them for historical connections with present life. He did not follow the path that other young scientists take, receiving from one or another English or German book their first impressions and concepts about the origin, development and dignity of morals and institutions. Kalachov, the son of his land, first of all turned his inquisitiveness to what attracted his gaze near him, on his native soil, in his native history. As a child, then as a young student at Moscow University, he greedily immersed himself in reading chronicles and ancient acts - he walked through old monasteries and looked for tombstones in old dilapidated cemeteries; studied old scrolls in the archives. It was here, from a young age, that he cultivated in himself both the acuity of meaning, precious for a historical researcher, and that conscientiousness in work, which does not omit a single feature in the study of the subject and does not allow himself leaps in conclusion and dreamy generalizations. His works are known to everyone. It is difficult to list what the science of Russian history and archeology owes to him. But even more valuable is the precious property that, while working himself, he constantly thought and cared about attracting others to the same work, about arousing new forces in his science, about reviving interest in it in everyone who approached his work, especially in young people. The name of his students is legion, and many owe him the awakening of thought, which directed all their scientific activity onto the true path. The fire that burned in him did not cease to burn with a living and clear flame. Many saw him tired in ordinary conversation, but when the conversation touched on the subject of his science, he instantly perked up, and hardly anyone noticed in him the lethargy of thought and sensations at such moments. His first works - Research on Russian Truth, On the cosmic letter, On scribal books - were carried out and gained fame first in a close circle of scientists. This was in the 40s. But in his soul there lived a need to arouse the movement of thought in others, around himself; he took up academic activities in the classrooms of Moscow University; and then, when new questions of life and activity began to arise in Russian society, he seized on these questions with greed, introducing them into the sphere of his historical research. In the 50s, for this purpose, he undertook the unique publication of the Archive of Historical and Practical Information about Russia, and soon, fascinated by the issues of legal practice that were brewing in our country before the introduction of judicial reform, he began publishing the Legal Bulletin. Then, with the rank of director of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice, having become the owner of a mass of precious historical materials, he began to bring light and order into it with the works of new, young figures. It is difficult to weigh the good that he did in finding people who were eager for a field to work: he put them to work, he aroused in them a keen interest in the work, guided their first inexperienced steps and managed to educate them as efficient workers and scientists for historical science. His head worked incessantly, and always worked at the same time as his heart; new plans, one after another, arose in his mind and were all directed towards one goal - to excite new life where there was none, to encourage talent and conscientious work, in whom both were found, to call on new forces, new workers in the field of science. Its creation, the Archaeological Institute, serves as a living monument to this activity. There was not a trace of petty envy or petty vanity in him - vices that, unfortunately, are so often combined with talent and knowledge; He did not have a secret inclination to bring insignificant people closer to him and place insignificant people around him, so as not to lose his brilliance or greatness around them... These properties and inclinations were alien to the noble soul of Nikolai Vasilyevich: he rejoiced - with childish joy - at every success in his students and cared most of all about showing the merit and significance of every work accomplished under his leadership. In his business, he knew how to recognize and find people and attract them to himself; he knew how, because God gave him the property of spiritual simplicity, which allowed him to enter into direct and sincere communication with people, in addition to bureaucratic greatness, in addition to paper and superior treatment. This simplicity gave him the opportunity, both in the rank of senator and in a noble rank, to preserve the innocence of thought and feeling, and under an embroidered uniform to maintain a benevolent, cheerful and cheerful disposition, characteristic of good youth and good students of former times. Kindness of soul was combined with simplicity, with pity for need and with concern for help in need. Many simple people retain in their souls the touching features of this kindness that smiled at them. Sometimes more valuable than the deed itself - for a simple soul - is the heartfelt movement of another soul that has felt someone else's grief and someone else's need. Once in Moscow, on a morning walk, people met a wretched funeral procession - a wooden coffin in the poorest conditions - and behind the coffin, among the few poor people, was Nikolai Vasilyevich. It was he who accompanied the body of the poor old toiler, the head of the clerk, in his Archives... Combined with the simplicity in his Russian soul was the characteristic of every truly Russian soul—piety, filled with faith. He was born into a kind, native Russian family that firmly preserved the good precepts and customs of antiquity. His native nest in Moscow, in Khlebny Lane, in the parish of Simeon the Stylite, is intact and still stands; There, his venerable mother - one of the valiant mothers and mistresses of the Russian family - put faith, love for the church and pious feeling into his soul - forever. Here, to this day, old parishioners remember the figure of the student Kalachov under the arches of the ancient church. And he has not changed since then, maintaining until his last days a living faith and affection for the church of God. We believe that his kind soul, who worked so hard here on earth, found eternal peace with God... Eternal memory to him! January 27, 1886 † Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov Alas! Taken from us is another last of his kind, irreplaceable figure and fighter. Many will come to follow in his footsteps and continue his work, but will they enter into power, and when will they enter, and will they manage to acquire for themselves, by the feat of a lifetime, a name similar to his name? There were no others like him left, because he stood and acted, so to speak, on the bones of an entire generation, from which he, and he alone, received all the power accumulated over the years. Sergei Aksakov, Konstantin Aksakov, Kireevsky, Khomyakov, Chizhov, Yuri Samarin - for him these were all living people, among whom he grew up and was brought up, from whom he accepted the covenant of a living word and a life true to the word and covenant. They were called Slavophiles and connected their name with the concept of a school and teaching of a special kind, and with a political battle that continues to this day, exhausting the strength of the fighters in the bickering of casuistry inherent in every teaching of the school. But whoever wants to understand what these people were worth and what they meant must abandon the narrow concept of school, become higher, more broad, and take a deeper look. These were honest and pure Russian people, native sons of their land, rich in the Russian mind, sensitive to the instinct of the Russian heart, loving its people and land, and hungry and thirsty for truth and direct action for its land. They were highly educated, but their close acquaintance with the science and culture of the West did not separate them from their native soil, from which every true ascetic of the Russian land draws the spiritual strength of the earth. Having burned out in the crucible of Western culture, they remained flesh of flesh, bone of bone of their Russian fatherland, and the truth that they so ardently wanted to realize in it was sought not in abstract theories and principles, but in accordance with the eternal principles of God's truth with the basic conditions of the nature of Russian man, reflected in his historical life. They began with the same thing with which every sincere seeker of truth begins - with a protest against the false attitude towards Russian life and its needs that dominated the consciousness of the so-called educated society, against contemptuous prejudice, self-righteous ignorance and indifference to everything that concerned the most vital interests of Russia. In the 30s - in the era of the appearance of Griboedov's immortal comedy - quite a lot of semi-conscious indignation had already accumulated in the minds of serious people and in the hearts of ordinary people against the ugly reflections of external Western culture - in life and customs, in the views and opinions of Russian society, in the official system of government, in the direction of legislation. The memory was still fresh of the cynicism with which the young reformers of Russia treated its living organism, its history and the way of life of the people, at the beginning of the reign of Alexander, about the contemptuous attitude of the highest circle of St. Petersburg towards their native church, about the slavish worship of the imaginary greatness of the Roman Catholic cult, the imaginary dignity of forms of life that grew out of a history alien to us; and the recent events of 1825 have shown to what self-delusion the most advanced minds of the Russian people, ardently devoted to the good of Russia, can reach under the influence of a false belief in the false beginning of an artificial and alien civilization. On the other hand, an attentive observer of modern events could see how the government itself, during the reign of Nicholas I, who was undeniably Russian in soul, formidable, and in full consciousness of its strength, unconsciously compromised Russian interests in foreign and domestic policy, because it did not know its past (remember how, during the reign of Paskevich, the population of Kholm Rus was indifferently mixed with the Polish population, unconsciously left to Polishization and Catholicization). And here is the great merit of the Moscow Aksakov circle of truly Russian people: from them, for the first time, our confused society clearly and intelligently heard the preaching of wisdom in the great word: “Know yourself, delve into the past destinies of your country and your people, and you will recognize your spirit in his spirit and you will draw your strength from it.” This word was necessary in view of the cloud of cosmopolitanism and liberalism approaching from the West: its representative in Moscow was another circle of Westerners, a circle from which Herzen emerged and from which he subsequently separated. It was a critical time when ideas inspired from the West were instilled in the progressive minds of Russia, corroding the organic feeling of love for the native land, the feeling of patriotism - in the name of abstract liberal principles. That was the time when Arnold Ruge in Germany preached that the main goal should not be the fatherland, as they said in 1813 and 1815, but freedom, and that the true fatherland for people seeking freedom is the party. In rebuff to this false and pernicious trend, the Aksakov circle erected its fortress of a healthy Russian patriotic feeling and reasonable knowledge of the Russian land - a fortress to which all thinking people began to join, preserving the sound instinct of Russian nature. There is no point in dwelling on the hobbies of this faith and this teaching, hobbies inherent in every faith and every teaching. These were people who were looking for an ideal in the past of their homeland for the present structure and for its future destinies. It is not surprising that, while exploring and explaining individual features of this ideal, they were often deceived, carried away in their generalizations, mistaking the imaginary for the real, confusing the essential with the inessential; but in its essence, their highly moral ideal is and will be the true people's ideal of the Russian land. This same basic idea was joined by another protest - against the formal, clerical, arrogant attitude of the official world - towards the living needs and spiritual dispositions of the people. The official world of bureaucracy was infected and imbued with the clerical habit of doing and deciding everything through dead paper, unsubscribing and cleaning, and this custom, extending to all spheres of administration and court, hid under itself a mass of injustices, abuses and violence against the people's life and way of life. On the other hand, in the upper circles of government, in complete ignorance of the country and its needs, the desire to establish, through easy regulation, which bore traces of the same bureaucracy, orders and rules for all kinds of functions of national and public life; Moreover, ready-made formulas taken from foreign customs and laws were taken into account: such techniques bore the loud name of civilization. The Aksakov circle fought against this kind of civilization with all its might, both in live conversation and in literature: this struggle continues to this day. Superficial minds explained and explain it by national prejudice and a narrow feeling of hatred supposedly towards the Germans; but reasonable patriots, who take the true good of the fatherland to heart, understand and feel that the circle stood up for the truth and its merit in this regard is undoubted. Finally, the great significance and great merit of these people lies in the fact that they were the first to consciously clarify to everyone the inseparable connection between the Russian people and the Orthodox Church. In the society before them, this concept was vague and shaky. They sensed with their hearts and learned through living experience in the history of Rus' and in the life of the people that in the people (to which the intelligentsia is inclined to assign the meaning of only a crude ignorant mass, subject to revival from above), the people store a reserve of spiritual strength and deep faith, from which the teachers and educators of the people themselves must draw their strength and animation; that this dark people has a living and active connection with the Church, and that our entire history stands and will stand on this connection. The teaching about the Church and about faith was long ago and fully established by the fathers and teachers of the Church; but for society it seemed to be a schematism of dogmas and rules, a subject of study more than of living sensation. The leading people of the Aksakov circle, deeply religious people, devoted with all the fervor of love to their native Church and at the same time highly enlightened by science, they were the first to help society comprehend the incomparable dignity of the Orthodox Church, its vital significance for the people, and the very love for it that the people have endured throughout their history. Here, in short, is why the names of these people are so dear to Russia and so dear to her: they have a famous place in the history of true Russian enlightenment. Moreover, their invaluable dignity and great moral strength lies in the fact that they were whole people, not divided - a quality that, despite all the honesty of their intentions, was not distinguished by people who belonged to the circle of Westerners and also sought the truth in their own way, unfortunately, “on the blind paths, and not on the path.” The people of the Aksakov circle were strong because their words did not diverge from deeds, and their lives were consistent with the principles in which they believed. They lived simply - everyone stood outside the official world and official honors and did not seek official support, wanting to maintain spiritual independence in the society to which they belonged; they carefully protected the modest environment of their life and the simplicity of their needs; freely circulating in the circle of educated society, which valued their intelligence, education, purity and sublimity of thought, they just as freely and simply treated people of the simplest rank and life. Always keeping faith in the true principles of Russian life and Russian history, they did not compromise anything with anyone, in which they believed the truth of Russian life and Russian history. These people were, in a certain sense, devotees of a great idea, and this, combined with the undoubted purity of their intentions and way of life, gave them great moral strength. And yet they all passed, they all died, “not receiving the promise,” in sight of the Promised Land, which they saw and preached from afar. One remained, one successor to power, heir to tradition, keeper of the covenant of his ancestors, Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov. And it was him, the last one, that we lost and mourned. Brought up by such a family, having received his first youthful impressions from such a circle, Ivan Sergeevich ended up straight from here in St. Petersburg, within the walls of the law school, within the framework of school rules, on the well-worn path of a career - and all the time while he was here, he felt awkward, as if in a foreign land. But even here, among his comrades, he appeared as an ardent champion of independence - in character, in activity, in science, in literature, which from childhood attracted him with a taste acquired from family legends. Immediately after graduation, he moved to Moscow, and never returned to live or work in the northern capital. Moscow remained for him throughout his life the home and center of his official, then literary, social and political activities. His thought matured and his direction was established in the midst of great events, of which he was a living witness and participant. Little by little he buried all the elders, and one of his own remained in Moscow. Let others list all his varied activities and all his literary works. Most precious of all was the moral force that was associated with his name and acted both near and far in all parts of Russia and even beyond its borders. This innumerable and not always conscious power is precious because it helps many weak people stay on their feet, rousing them to one thought and one aspiration. Such a force is weakly recognized and felt while it is active, but when it has disappeared, then it becomes clear to everyone what it meant. For many people in the official world, Ivan Aksakov seemed only an abstract figure as the publisher of Rus; others spoke with horror of him as a people's tribune, dangerous for the state, or looked at him with curiosity as a Moscow wonder. But for Moscow and for the great many ordinary Russian people who did not know where to go or where to stop, in the midst of the chaos of modern phenomena, trends and trends in social and political life, Ivan Aksakov was a living person on whom an excited feeling rested, a confused thought calmed down, moral support was felt, hope for the best was revived, the radiance of Russian truth was reflected in the darkness of Babylonian heteroglossia. Everyone felt, approaching him, that there was no flattery or self-interest in him, that he was neither warm nor cold, but burned with the fire of love and indignation - for the true interests of the Russian land and the entire Slavic language. Russians, Galicians, Serbs, and Bulgarians brought to him their sorrows about the troubles and needs of their region, and ordinary Russian people came to confess to him their concern for the state of affairs in Rus' and their zeal for the right. Now there is no one to go to, and many feel orphaned. Good, strong sowers left the field; the seed sown by them will give new shoots in time. Without a doubt, new champions of truth will appear for future generations. But in the present generation, a sad feeling envelops the soul of a Muscovite when he enters his native city, his ancient Zion, and between the sacred monuments of history he sees everywhere a vast cemetery - everywhere are traces of people rich in spiritual strength, and so few traces of living force, blossoming again. We have to remember our dear names with prayer. “Our mother Zion,” the person will say, “such and such was born in her. God, remember them in Your kingdom." Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky The year 1891 left us many fresh graves, many empty places in our ranks: how many, by the will of God, were taken from among strong men, great workers in the field of the Lord. Our memorial book grows from year to year, but it seems that none of the past years has added as many names to it as the past 1891. And finally, at the very end of the year, the last man taken from us was a man of great strength and great deed, Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky. Few knew him in the upper strata of society, where famous names of politicians, famous writers, generals and ministers are passed from mouth to mouth, and Ilminsky was listed on the lists only as the director of the Kazan Teachers' Seminary. But the name of this man is dear and familiar everywhere in the eastern half of Russia and in distant Siberia - there thousands of Russian people and foreigners mourn his death, thousands of God-fearing hearts tenderly remember him in prayers as a great educator and lover of humanity. When the true history of missionary work is written, or, more correctly, the history of the Christian education of foreigners in Russia, it will be a truly faithful reflection of the characteristics of the Russian spirit and Russian culture. Since ancient times, the names of holy ascetics, Stefan of Perm, Tryphon of Pechenga, Guria and Barsanuphius of Kazan, have been shining in it, exalted by the people. History will show how simply and with what love for foreigners and with what intelligence these great men carried out the work of enlightenment, starting with the invention of the alphabet, through which they sought to convey the light of faith and the word of God, in the native language of foreigners, into their hearts and minds. After that, during the 17th and 18th centuries, missionary work in Russia was shrouded in darkness and stagnated. Only from the 2nd quarter of the 19th century did this work come to life, the traditions of ancient missionary life were resurrected and new figures of foreign education appeared on the far outskirts of Russia - Innocent of the Aleutian, Macarius of Altai, Dionysius of Yakutsk revived the work with a new spirit and created a new school of workers and devotees of Russian missionary work, considering language and school as its main tool. In the ancient capital of the Kazan kingdom, in the leading point of the Eastern Territory, a scientific center was gradually formed for the spread of Christian and Russian culture among foreigners and for the study of foreign languages. It was here that Providence indicated the place of N.I.’s fruitful activity. Ilminsky. With the conquest of Kazan, the conversion of Tatars and foreigners to the Orthodox faith began - for the most part it was only external and ritual, without presenting any great difficulties at the beginning, because at that time Islam had not yet consciously established itself in that region, and popular beliefs were vague and ambiguous, leaning towards shamanism more than towards Islam. Since then, the population of old-baptized foreigners remained in the grip of ignorance, not knowing any faith, although they were assigned to the Orthodox Church, not understanding its language, not finding its teachers and not knowing school education. The government's concerns about establishing the faith were limited only to external measures of regulations, rewards and punishments. Meanwhile, over time, Mohammedanism strengthened among the Tatar population with a developed creed, with a whole organization of the clergy and schools at mosques; The spirit of fanatical propaganda began to intensify, under the influence of connections and relations with the Central Asian centers of Islam. Mass apostasy of the old-baptized Tatars began, who in spirit and custom had nothing in common with the Orthodox Church, but were connected in both ways with the life of the Muslim population. Following the Tatars, propaganda spread its effect to other foreigners - to the Chuvash, Cheremis, and Mordovians. Mass apostasy was already threatening to swallow up the entire population of the region in Muslim culture and in the Tatar people. Of course, only from the church and from the church school could one expect to counteract this massive spontaneous movement of foreigners. In the 60s, the Right Reverend Gury, an ardent zealot of missionary work, was a vicar in Kazan: according to his thoughts and his concerns, the Kazan Brotherhood of St. Guria, and thus began, one might say, a new era of missionary work in the East. This brotherhood gradually became a breeding ground for new foreign schools. But even earlier, in the missionary anti-Muslim department at the Kazan Theological Academy, preparatory work for this matter began, with the main participation of Ilminsky, who was then a teacher of Arabic and Tatar languages, and Malov, who taught anti-Mohammedan polemics. Ilminsky, an ardent, zealous soul, was completely imbued with the thought of the main tool of missionary work - language. “In order for the taught truths to be deeply rooted in the consciousness of the common people,” he said, “it is necessary to enter into his worldview, accept his concepts as given and develop them. The archaic simple concepts of foreigners can be assimilated by Christianity, filled and sanctified by its divine content. The thinking of the people and their entire worldview is expressed in their native language. He who speaks the language of foreigners understands, even if only instinctively, their worldview. Whoever speaks to them in their native language, they easily understand.” Ilminsky’s inexpressible kindness, affection, sincerity and simplicity made it easier for him to communicate with foreigners, and at first he acquired the young Tatar Vasily Timofeev as his main employee, with whose help he began correcting translations. Previous scientific translations of the liturgy and liturgical books were completely incomprehensible and therefore useless for the people. Ilminsky began to translate teaching and educational books into the vernacular language and write and print them in Russian letters, so as not to commit himself, as he said, to Muslim Arabism even with the alphabet. With the primer, with the book of Genesis, with the wisdom of Strakhova, with the singing of the Easter canon, the students of Ilminsky and Malov began to travel through the villages, and the people began to flock to them with joy. The first successful experiments began to spread further and further, and the brotherhood of St. Guria began to gradually spread a network of public baptized Tatar schools throughout the region. The business moved forward with extraordinary success. Since 1864, the head of all foreign fraternal schools has been the central baptized Tatar school, established by Ilminsky, for men and women, where almost all the teachers are baptized Tatars. Everyone who had the opportunity to visit this school and hear its services and singing in the Tatar language in the church, took away from there the true, enthusiastic joy of the Russian heart in what Russian people, bound by love, can achieve. From the beginning to the end of his life, Ilminsky, together with his student, now an elder, Timofeev, was the soul of this school. This school has already spread its branches widely. From her, by the end of 1891, 128 foreign schools emerged and were established in all districts of the Kazan province; including 61 Christian Tatars, 49 Chuvash, 4 Cheremis, 7 Votyak and 1 Mordovian: teaching takes place everywhere, worship and singing are performed in local dialects - and Ilminsky’s chicks work everywhere. How much light these schools brought into the dark village environment, how much good Christian seeds they sowed! In Simbirsk, from the same Kazan nest, the spirit that penetrated created the central Chuvash school and, in connection with it, more than a hundred Chuvash schools in the districts. Finally, recently, through the efforts of Ilminsky, a central Votyak school was established for Votyak teachers in the Urzhum district of the Vyatka province. Not without a struggle, however, Ilminsky achieved the realization of his main idea. Many rebelled against her, objecting to schooling and worship in foreign languages. But Ilminsky persistently defended his idea, for it was fully consistent with the apostolic covenant - to teach the faith to every tribe in its language, and was the only possible means for enlightenment, and, in the end, for the Russification of foreigners - the only possible weapon for the fight against Mohammedanism, which threatened to attract a mass of foreign population. Fortunately, in this thought he found support in the Minister of Public Education, who, during his trip to the Kazan and Orenburg regions in the 70s, recognized Ilminsky and appreciated him. More than once I happened to tell the late gr. Tolstoy that his most fruitful work and most important service to Russia is that he understood and supported N.I. Ilminsky. In 1872, a teachers' seminary was established in Kazan and Ilminsky was appointed its director. Under the authority of the brotherhood and in connection with the theological academy, a translation commission was established in 1868, according to Ilminsky, to distribute books of religious and moral content among foreigners in their natural languages. Its members included, in addition to Ilminsky himself, prof. Mirotvortsev (for the Mongolian language) and the head of the Simbirsk school Yakovlev (for the Chuvash language). And here the soul of the matter was Nikolai Ivanovich. Previous translations of sacred books in a foreign language, published by the Bible Society, for the most part turned out to be unsuitable: it was necessary to remake them into a language understandable to the people, and publish new ones, carefully checking the meaning of each word, in joint work with people from the people and with foreigners brought into science. So, last summer, while living in the Gethsemane monastery, Ilminsky summoned three Yakuts from the Moscow and Kazan academies to correct the Yakut translation of the New Testament with them. Possessing a deep knowledge of the Arabic and Tatar languages, as well as a deep knowledge of Slavic and Russian, Ilminsky with extraordinary care researched, by roots and by use, the meaning of each church word. Over the course of 20 years, the Kazan Translation Commission produced a whole library of books of the Holy Scriptures, teaching and educational in foreign languages: in Tatar, Yakut, Buryat-Tungus, Gold, Votyak, Mordovian, Cheremis, Ostyak-Samoyed, Kyrgyz. The work is ongoing, and every year this library is supplemented with new issues. Unfortunately, this work, like the entire history of Kazan institutions in general, is little known to many people, and the literature ignores them, although it often mentions missionary work in Western Europe. Several years ago in Alsace, in the city of Mulhouse, the venerable reformed pastor Mathieu set up an institution called the Biblical Museum and began to collect there from all over the universe editions of the Holy Scriptures in all possible languages ​​and dialects. Hearing from someone that in Russia there are some translations into foreign languages, he turned to Russia for information and was extremely amazed when he received a huge box of foreign-language books of the Holy Scriptures published in Kazan: having the most perverse idea about our church life, the Lutherans did not expect anything like this from us. Ilminsky loved his native language, and especially Church Slavonic, deeply, vividly feeling all its artistic beauties: he knew it perfectly from its ancient monuments. He knew the books of Holy Scripture and church liturgies deeply and subtly, pondering the meaning of each word, which was required by the practice of his translation work. His conversation about these subjects was interesting and instructive: he was able to illuminate the inner meaning of every speech and every word with his thoughts, which penetrated deeply into the very root of the word with its historical development. In the last years of his life, he published several books, which set out his experimental observations of Church Slavonic forms and phrases and set out the reasons by which he was guided when translating into foreign languages. His book, known to few, “On the comparative merits of different editions of the translation of the Psalms and Gospels” is full of witty and precious remarks. His guide to teaching Church Slavonic literacy, compiled for parish schools, has already gone through several editions and has no parallel in practical use. Finally, very recently he published the ancient Slavic text of the Four Gospels, compiled according to all the ancient copies. He knew the Muslim world perfectly and was closely acquainted with its literature, ancient and modern: Muslims also knew him, and many willingly agreed with him and his collaborators in conversations about their faith. He vigilantly followed all the recently intensified movements of Muslim propaganda in our Near and Far East, and brought a lot of benefit with his timely instructions. Kazan serves as a unique arena for polemical conversations and competitions with Islam. These conversations are a curious and instructive phenomenon and do not remain fruitless because they are conducted seriously. Islam is characterized by a serious attitude towards faith, and when a Muslim sees on the other side an equally serious attitude towards matters of faith and the ability to understand his views, a soil is formed that is convenient for finding the truth. But for this, the missionary again needs to enter the soul of his interlocutor, get used to his worldview, with his idea of ​​\u200b\u200breligious subjects: for this it is not enough to just be a scientist, accustomed to looking at the details of the controversy from his highest point of view. A special mental attitude towards the soul of the interlocutor is necessary. That is why, in conversations and competitions with schismatics of the old rite, what manages to influence our souls is not so much the scientists who study the schism in the pulpits, but rather ordinary people from the people who, from among the schismatics, have acquired knowledge of the paths along which the people’s thought moves in book wisdom, and who have become accustomed to the people’s worldview. A curious and unique example of this kind of polemic in recent times was the conversations that the late Ilminsky followed with keen interest, the conversations of Archpriest Malov with the young scientist Mullah Akhmerov, a man of an inquisitive mind and deep knowledge of Muslim sciences. These conversations, starting in 1881, were conducted for eight years continuously and systematically, about the Koran and the Bible, about the prophets mentioned in the Koran, that is, about Adam, Abraham, Moses and David, about Jesus Christ and Mohammed. Some of these conversations were published in 1885 in Kazan, under the title “About Adam according to the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of the Koran.” This book is very interesting precisely because it shows what difficulties lie ahead for a missionary, especially an anti-Muslim one, and with what serious attention he must dwell on every apparently dead letter that constitutes a living element of belief in the soul of his interlocutor. Akhmerov held firm for eight years and objected resourcefully, but at the end of 1890 a sharp turn from the Koran to the Gospel was revealed in him. Soon he decided to leave the madrasah and part with the honor he enjoyed among his fellow believers. This remarkable incident brought true joy to Ilminsky: in Akhmerov’s conversion he saw a real, lasting and living embryo of missionary work as an organic process, for which the previous 40-year life of the missionary department of the academy as anti-Muslim served as preparation. Being a Russian and a church man, Ilminsky with all his soul rejoiced at the restoration of parish schools, in which he rightly saw the only and powerful means of tying the people to school and educating them in the sound spirit of a Russian person, in love for the church and for the fatherland and in good rights and tastes. He zealously joined the movement that had begun and became one of the members of the Synodal School Council: with his pedagogical experience he greatly contributed to the correct organization of school affairs, and in his “Conversations about the Public School” (Petersburg, 1889) he left the school precious bequests of sound Christian pedagogy. His written communications were numerous and his correspondence is of particular interest: he did not write emptyly, but constantly on subjects of scientific or practical need. But he always illuminated every case he wrote about with historical data and his own thoughts about persons and objects. From the mass of material remaining at his disposal, he sometimes singled out papers related to the history of an institution or figure, and published them separately: these publications, despite their specialty, are very interesting. Thus, in 1884, he published materials for the history of Christian education of baptized Tatars as a separate book. Here is collected all the correspondence that took place since 1863 on this important matter, articles by Ilminsky himself, stories and notes of old-baptized Tatars, etc. Already at the very end of his life, on his deathbed, he accepted from the press his last publication - a biography of the foreign figure Altynsarov, with correspondence relating to him. Ilminsky's private letters always brought a gratifying feeling to his friends. It would happen that he would get up, open a book, attack a psalm, and his philological instinct would awaken and a poetic feeling would speak within him - and now he would write an explanation of this or that word, with all its history, or would draw a poetic picture of nature, revealing the meaning of the inspired speech of the prophet. Or, focusing on the word of church prayer, he will illuminate its origin, its grammatical and historical meaning from Slavic and Greek sources. He will write and send it to one of his sympathetic friends. Here is one of such letters. “Today, at sunrise, the words of the 103rd Psalm suddenly came to my mind: on you the birds of the air will take root. What is the form on tykh? If the prepositional (local) case, it should be on those. I am consulting the ancient psalter according to the edition of the Right Reverend Amphilochius, it turns out that it is in the thou... accusative case. Communication of speech: verse. 10. In the middle of the mountains the waters (ΰδατα) will pass... on you (that is, on the waters) the birds of the sky will nest (χατασχη ϖνσει), that is, from above, from the air or from the mountains, the birds of the sky will descend and nest. From the environment the stones will give a voice. What a picture! In gorges between rocks and cliffs (as, for example, in the Caucasus, in Kislovodsk) streams flow, and bushes can grow on them. And so the birds (songbirds) make nests in these bushes and sing in their free space, and their voices can be heard far across the gorges and rocks. From the environment of stone - εχ τϖν πετρϖν For this reason, I, according to the symphony, looked for all the places where the word “stone” is. There are 18 places in Psalms, 5 of which are λιϑος stone: more than gold and honest stone. The crown from the stone is honest. May you not dash your foot against a stone. Your servants are kind to the stone. A stone built by his own carelessness. – The remaining 13 are a rock: Lift me up on a rock. Bring out the water from the stone, and so on.” The human world is the same universe, and is also held together by the force of gravity. A chosen soul with a deep sense of benevolence, with an ardent desire for truth in life, is also a luminary, by the power of which the whole world of small luminaries holds, moves and turns, for the action of one soul on another is limitless and infinite. The unforgettable Nikolai Ivanovich was such a luminary in his circle. This was truly a teacher in the highest sense of the word, a lamp from which many lights lit up with clear light. His disciples dispersed in large numbers, taught and directed by him, throughout the Far East as teachers, priests, deacons of foreign localities; from the depths of the deserts of Orenburg, Irkutsk, Altai, Yakut, sympathetic voices responded to his call, they turned to him for advice and inspiration - not eminent, not noble, not rich, but those “small and simple” who work in dark corners, shedding light in the midst of darkness, cold and ignorance. There was no need in these corners to which he did not respond, there was no misfortune and grief for which he did not sympathize. Real simpletons, foreigners, brought their everyday needs to him, and more than once in simple needs, which another would have passed by with disdain, he defended them and helped them with his petitions in the province and in the capital. I have never met another such clear and pure soul in my life: it was gratifying to look into his deep, kind and intelligent eyes, shining into the soul with inner spiritual light, and his conversation was incomparable, always with salt, always in simplicity, alien to any affectation, but full of poetic images. When he spoke about the Holy Scriptures, especially about the psalms, which he especially loved, about liturgical chants, how his face became animated, how his speech flowed from his lips in a fresh key, filled with deep philosophical and philological connections, poetic images, pictures from nature. When he told how much of that quiet, kind humor was in his stories, which a good Russian soul rarely does without. The incomparable simplicity of his soul gave him the ability to get close equally to people of any social status, and he was as easy and pleasant to the simplest and poorest as to the bosses and nobles. Moreover, nothing resembling any pretension was ever heard in him: all the dignity of simplicity was combined in him with all its modesty. In the midst of all sorts of bustle, which often turns the noisy city business life into a mental and moral desert, it was as pleasant as ever to rest on this basis of deep thought and ardent feeling, which formed everywhere around Nikolai Ivanovich. Is it any wonder that the effect of this soul on everyone who knew it was irresistible and beneficial. Due to such properties of his nature, Ilminsky was an ideal teacher. He was distrustful, sometimes negative, of the latest theories, which are being elevated to the now common “pedagogical course” everywhere, often read by just anyone, from some books. He himself possessed the most perfect secret of any true pedagogy - the ability to enter the human soul, with its worldview, habits and inclinations. The word of the apostle could be applied to him: I will save everything for everyone, but I will save everyone. More than once, when I saw him, I remembered on this occasion a beautiful, deeply meaningful parable I had read by the Persian poet Jellalledin: “Someone, approaching the door of his beloved, began to knock, and a voice was heard from inside: “Who is there?” “It’s me,” responded the knocker. “There is no room for two in this house,” answered the voice, and the doors did not open. Then the man with his desire went into the desert, began to fast and pray in solitude, and again began to knock. "Who's there?" – a voice was heard. “You yourself,” answered the knocker, and the door opened to him.” Tirelessly active, incomparably caring, he remained so until the last day of his life. In the last two years, noticeably weakening, he began to think intensely about death. In March 1890, he wrote: “Do while there is day: night will come when no one can do anything. This night, contrary to natural night, comes like a thief, suddenly: you cannot guarantee for a year, for a day, or even for a minute. The sudden death of N. gave me the surprise of the end. Now this acute feeling has smoothed over, but still the nearness of the end is undeniable when life approaches the psalm term. The greater the concern to do what you can while there is daylight. If death is inevitable, then one should submit to it with faith and trust in the mercy of God. But this is what the Psalmist warns: his spirit will depart and return to his land; on that day all his thoughts will perish. The mortal body is not of great importance: the roads of thought, the ideas over which people fight. In this case, the idea is to somehow strengthen the Christian education of foreigners using proven, special methods, which, unfortunately, there are many people who object to.” So he was merciful and cared for his kind foreigners. In 1891 he turned 69 years old. On this day, April 23, he wrote: “Another year and I will reach the limit appointed by the prophet David. The limit is the smallest, but for my weakness this is God’s great mercy, and what comes after will be work and illness. But for everything let thanks be to the Lord God, for He did not create food for us because of our iniquities. Should I say: my youth will be renewed like an eagle? It is difficult, although with the Lord all things are possible.” His youth was not renewed. For the summer, Nikolai Ivanovich’s friends, in order to refresh him, called him to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he spent several weeks in the quiet shelter of the Gethsemane monastery near the Trinity Lavra. But then, upon returning to Kazan, a decisive decline in his strength was revealed - and he was destined to see his two closest friends and collaborators (also a strong force of the theological academy), professors Porfiryev and Mirotvortsev, to their graves with tears. He began to fade away, but did not stop thinking and working - putting things in order, bequeathing to his friends his heartfelt concerns about business and people. In the midst of a serious illness (cancer), God preserved his bright mind, clear thought, and peace of mind until his last days. And finally, having waited for the holiday, but without even waiting for the psalm limit, on December 27 he quietly died away, with a covenant of love for his neighbors and friends, Russians and foreigners. Eternal memory to him! He is one of the few men of strength and truth, preachers of the truth, about whom one involuntarily wants to repeat the inspired words of the apostle: “In purity, in understanding, in long-suffering, in kindness, in unfeigned love, in the word of truth, in the power of God, in the armor of righteousness with the right hand and with the soul... as one who mourns, one who rejoices always as one who is poor, and one who makes many rich, as one possessing nothing, but containing everything.” Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna May Her memory be filled with praise. Belonging to the number of the greats of this world, living among luxury and grandeur, She in no way wanted to be idle and left behind the memory of a good intention, pure thought and good deed. The daughter of a famous mother, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, She was brought up from childhood in a clear atmosphere of sublime feelings and lofty interests; in a special environment where they are accustomed to valuing intelligence, pure art, serious thought and all educational and charitable activities - where the thought of duty, combined with the calling and greatness of power, is firmly rooted. Pure and deep love brought Her into a happy marriage with the Duke of Mecklenburg. In the fullness of family happiness, She built Her new home, following the traditions inherited from her mother, and, like Her, she appeared both during Her time, and especially after Her death, at the head of a hospitable home that attracted the best forces of intellect, education and talent from society. They were attracted by the grace of taste, sensitivity of spiritual interests, inquisitive inquiries about subjects of science and the public good, cherished traditions of the old Mikhailovsky Palace - and, finally, by the simplicity and dignity of favorable treatment with everyone who approached the Grand Duchess. She firmly held the banner of dignity befitting a Russian Grand Duchess, protecting the primordial traditions of the Royal family to which she belonged, and of the era that raised Her. After the death of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, the daughter took over the care of all the charitable, educational and educational institutions that the Deceased was in charge of and which arose through Her thoughts and under Her patronage. She devoted herself to this concern with all her soul, not leaving her, one might say, neither day nor night. The conscientiousness of the Grand Duchess in everything she undertook was truly remarkable and could serve as an example for everyone. She did not want, it seemed, to rest for a single hour, to remain idle, and Her whole day was filled, in strict order, with various activities: receptions, reports, music, painting, reading, visiting educational institutions, hospitals, orphanages. Every day several people were invited to dinner, respected by the hostess or known to Her for their activities in science, art, or administration. When a foreign scientist, artist, doctor, statesman, famous for his activities came to St. Petersburg, the Grand Duchess considered it her duty to invite him to Her place, question him, and show him Russian and princely hospitality. She devoted Her evening in the family circle to a conversation with old friends of the Mikhailovsky Palace, whom She invited to Her place. From time to time, She organized concerts and holidays at Her place, which will long remain in the memory of the society that gathered for these evenings, which were distinguished by a special elegance of choice, organization and execution... When foreign scientists and doctors gathered in St. Petersburg for meetings or congresses, the Grand Duchess considered it Her duty to open the doors of Her Palace wide and luxuriously for them and show them the attention that was dearly valued by everyone. Possessing significant means, She did not spare them such wide hospitality, considering it a duty of representation inherent in Her rank. For the summer, the Grand Duchess moved first to Kamenny Island, then to Oranienbaum, but even here the daily course of Her activities did not stop: visits to classes, school exams and hospitals continued from here; and in Oranienbaum every morning She visited the shelter that She had set up for sick children who were brought there for the summer from the capital’s children’s hospitals. Thus Her life passed and peacefully ended, filled with an ardent, unceasing desire, directed towards goodness and unceasing activity caring for goodness. May Her memory be eternal! For all of us, Her life serves as an example of fidelity to the duty of calling, teaching us not to abandon, for the sake of peace, the work entrusted to us by Providence and to serve it with all our might until the end of our lives. ETERNAL MEMORY IN THE DECEASED BOS TO THE GOVERNOR EMPEROR ALEXANDER ALEKSANDROVICH MOSCOW'S FAREWELL TO ITS TSAR October 31, 1894 With a broken heart, with longing and sobbing, Moscow waited for its Tsar. And now, finally, the deplorable gates have opened, He is here, in the midst of us, lifeless, silent, in the very place where He appeared to us, crowned and exalted, in all His beauty, and our souls were touched by looking at Him, and we cried joyful tears of emotion. Now in the same place we cry and weep, thinking of death! His accession to the kingdom was terrible. He sat on the throne of His Fathers, watered with tears, with bowed head, in the midst of popular horror, in the midst of hissing anger and sedition. But the quiet light that burned in His soul, with humility, with submission to the will of Providence and duty, dispelled the accumulated fogs, and He arose to revive the hopes of the people. When He appeared to the people, His speech was rarely heard, but His glances were more eloquent than speeches, for they attracted the people’s soul to themselves: the quiet, deep and affectionate soul of the people was reflected in them, and sweet and encouraging sympathies sounded in His voice. They did not see His sovereign greatness in deeds of victory and military glory, but they saw and felt how every human grief and every need resonated in His soul, and how it hurt and turned away from blood, enmity, lies and violence. Thus, by itself, His image grew before the people, before all of Europe and before the whole world, attracting hearts to Him and silently preaching everywhere the blessing of peace and truth. Moscow will not forget the radiant day of His Coronation, bright, quiet, like Easter day. Here, it seemed, He and His Russia were looking into each other’s eyes, kissing each other. The pious Tsar, clothed with all the greatness of the dignity and priesthood of the church, showed to His people in the church all the greatness of His royal humility. Do not forget that moment when the royal crown shone on His forehead, and before Him, kneeling, the Queen accepted the crown from Him - She, doomed to Him as a pledge of love, on her deathbed, by her dying brother. From that very day, the people fell in love with Her, believing in the holiness of the union blessed by God, and when They appeared to the people, inseparable together, in His and Her gaze they sensed the same caress of the loving Russian soul. And then His coffin appeared in the heart of Russia, in the Archangel Cathedral, among the tombs under which the initial leaders of the Russian Land rest. Who among all should be likened to Him! The orphaned people mourned all of them at one time, and even the quietest Tsar Alexei mourned... But over whom were there such tears? Over whom did the people's soul grieve and pity so much! Moscow saw Him off, saw Him off forever, and the iron horse carried Him far away, to the new Tomb of the Russian Tsars. Farewell, our beloved King! Farewell, Pious, dear to the people, quietest Tsar Alexander Alexandrovich!.. The Lord gave us Your thirteen-year reign... And the Lord took it away! Blessed be the Name of the Lord from now on and forever. Speech at a meeting of the historical society Man makes history; but it is equally true and even more significant that history shapes man. A person can recognize and explain himself only through his entire history. From the first minute of existence, the human spirit uncontrollably, continuously strives to express every ability, every thought, every sensation, to embody it in action - and this entire encyclopedia of events and actions constitutes human life. In this sense, life, constituting a chain of events interconnected by a logical connection of cause and action, is at the same time a mystery of the soul: there are events in life that act in a fatal, mysterious way on a sensitive soul, determining the aspirations, will, character and entire destiny of a person. But man is the son of his land, the offspring of his people: bone from bones, flesh from the flesh of his ancestors, the sons of the same people, and his mental nature is their nature, with its distinctive qualities and shortcomings, with its unconscious aspirations seeking a conscious outcome. Every nation, like an individual, has its own history, its own network of events and actions in which the national soul strives to embody itself. In historical science, an inquisitive mind, critically examining facts, actions and characters, wants to determine their exact reliability and grasp their mutual connection and internal significance in the destinies of the social and state life of the people. With deep interest, with pleasure, with surprise, we read the pages of this book, admiring the sharpness of the critical mind, the art of the artist; According to the old expression, history is the teacher of peoples, citizens and rulers, but which of them benefited from its lessons? Who, closing a book that had captured all his attention, did not feel in his soul the bitter consciousness that before him was opening a chronicle as old as the world of human pride, selfishness, cruelty and ignorance, a scroll in which “pity and sobbing and grief” were written? In another, deeper sense, the history of the land and people forms a man, a son of his land, if he has a sensitive soul. A sensitive soul brings its living feeling into history, and then every fact, every character in history responds to what the soul believes that the mind is able to embrace, so that one’s own spiritual life becomes a text for a person, and the chronicle of history is a commentary on it. In this light, events reveal their mysterious meaning to him, and the dead chronicle is enlivened by the poetry of the spiritual life of an entire people. Otherwise, in which science, analyzing the facts and evidence about them, sees one legend that has developed in the popular imagination, this very thing receives the meaning of a phenomenon that has justified itself in life and in history, and becomes the truth for the spirit. Whatever the decomposing analysis of a learned historian achieves in the study of legends about Vladimir, about Demetrius, about Sergius, about Alexander Nevsky, for a sensitive soul this phenomenon, this image becomes a constellation, shedding its rays on it, making its course over it in the firmament of heaven. It seems to me that this is how the soul of the deceased, unforgettable Sovereign was formed, whose memory we have now gathered to honor in the Society founded by Him. His soul was sensitive in responsiveness to everything in which the nature of his land and his people revealed itself to him. He grew up next to his elder brother, the heir to the throne, one might say in His shadow, feeding His soul with friendship with Him, receiving from Him the impressions and tastes of His mental and moral development. Those were the years of disorderly fermentation of minds in science, in literature and in society, but near the Tsarevich there were people who were able to draw His attention to the phenomena of Russian life, to the treasures of the people's spirit both in the history of the people and in their literature. These were F.I. Buslaev and S.M. Soloviev. Under their influence, the tastes of both brothers and their interest in Russian antiquity were formed. During His travels across Russia, inspired day after day by the popular movement that greeted Him everywhere, the Tsarevich managed to get to know and love His people and trace the course of their history on ancient monuments. I managed to get to know and love the nature of the indigenous Russian region, so akin to the Russian spirit. His soul grew and strengthened on his native soil, in his native atmosphere, and in letters to his beloved brother He conveyed His feelings to Him. The year 1865 arrived. He brought terrible grief to Russia - God wanted to take away her bright hope from Russia. Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich died - and left the future destinies of Russia as an inheritance to his beloved Brother, passing on to Him all the behests of His young soul. An unexpected, unexpected burden fell on the soul of the new Tsarevich, and He accepted it in humility, as a duty entrusted to Him by Providence, He accepted it and in the depths of His soul trusted God for His and Russia’s fate. Now, by the will of God, while mourning Him, we see and feel how this faith was fully justified. From that day, until his accession to the throne in 1881, He matured in silence, without thinking, without wondering about the terrible hour that marked His accession to the kingdom. These years were truly years of education for Him, and it was carried out in the spirit of the historical covenants of the Russian people and the Russian state. Even in childhood, His favorite reading was the historical novels of Zagoskin and Lazhechnikov, and in Him, as in many Russian children, this reading aroused the first movement of love for the fatherland and national pride. He retained his interest in this reading both in his youth and in the subsequent years of His life. Conversations with S.M. Solovyov revealed to Him the inner meaning of Russian history and the significance of the struggle waged by the state that was gathering the land against anti-state and anti-linguistic forces. He happened to meet with smart Russian people, and He loved to listen to their speeches about Russian antiquity and judgments about the affairs and events of modern times from a Russian point of view: this is how that sensitivity to Russian interests grew in Him, which during the years of the reign was revealed to us in the power of true state wisdom. The monuments of Russian antiquity, which He studied visually during his trips around Russia, were always a subject of special interest for Him, and He subtly felt the peculiar beauty of lines and decorations that distinguishes the type of our ancient church architecture. Since then, He demanded for His consideration all projects of new church buildings, and His eye with amazing fidelity distinguished everything that in individual parts of the building violated its integral harmony or did not agree with the main type. In His soul, the best attractive features reflected that image of a Great Russian man, which attracted to him the sympathy of all those who managed to get to know him closely. Both in people and in institutions, everything artificial, pretentious and pompous was disgusting to Him; but a simple person, approaching Him, felt his spiritual affinity with the Russian Sovereign. And for the individual, and for the people, and for society - the entire value of history is self-awareness. Both the individual and the people - represented by the authorities - recognize themselves in their history. The history of the development of this self-awareness here in Russia is instructive. It is worth comparing two eras in this regard - the beginning and end of the current century, the time of two Alexander Emperors - Alexander I and Alexander III. The first Alexander also loved Russia and His people, but His upbringing did not give Him the opportunity to learn either the history of His country or His people. He was born at a time when the common people were known under the general name of vile people, and from above few people discerned in him the appearance of dignity; when Western culture, transferred to Russian soil, was expressed only in the external forms of a way of life alien to us; when the Church itself was looked upon from above as an institution necessary for the people, but inferior in dignity to the Roman cult of the enlightened West. Both mind and heart irresistibly attracted the young Sovereign to a lofty goal - to rule for the good of the people, to establish order in the chaos of institutions, to eradicate abuses, to resolve the constraining bonds of slavery and prejudice. But the ideal to which His aspirations and plans were applied was not in Russia, but outside it. Brought up by La Harpe in the spirit of abstract ideas of philosophy of the 18th century, He drew His abstract ideal from them, and Russian history, Russian reality was closed to Him and seemed to be a clear field on which one could build anything. Surrounded by a galaxy of young advisers, He, together with them, plunged into dreams: not knowing the nature of the people and their needs, he dreamed of a representative government, supposedly supposed to establish reason and truth in the government; not knowing the Orthodox Church in its national meaning, I dreamed of equalizing all faiths with it and of the indifference of churches and creeds; dreamed of restoring Poland, not knowing history, which would tell Him that the Kingdom of Poland meant slavery and oppression for the entire Russian people. From that time until the accession of Emperor Alexander III to the throne, too half a century passed. During this period of time, it is difficult to calculate how many successes have been made, how Russian historical self-awareness has grown - and its most noticeable growth dates back precisely to the time of the upbringing and first youth of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. Many new monuments were discovered and made public, illuminating the history of folk life, young scientists appeared with independent views on institutions, events and characters, a keen interest in monuments of folk art in songs, epics, music, and architecture arose in literature and in society. A circle of culturally educated people gathered in Moscow, animated by the idea of ​​the need for national self-awareness in studying the past destinies of their country and their people; they appeared in society and in literature with a protest against the false attitude towards Russian life and its needs, against complacent ignorance and indifference to everything that concerned the most vital interests of Russia. These were people who were looking for an ideal in the past of their homeland for organizing its future destinies, and they were the first to consciously clarify for everyone the inseparable connection of the Russian people with faith and with the Orthodox Church. Regardless of the extremes of the teaching, this word was necessary in view of the cloud of cosmopolitanism and liberal doctrinaire approaching from the West: that is why the activities of this circle were important in the history of Russian education. The young Heir Tsarevich, who early became acquainted with this direction through A.F. Tyutchev, could not help but sympathize with him with a sensitive Russian heart, loving His people and land, and thirsting for truth and direct action for His land. In the midst of such phenomena and influences, the future Emperor grew and was formed. And at the same time, faith in Him grew and strengthened among the people, which was justified throughout His 13-year reign. For the strength of government there is nothing more important, there is nothing more valuable than the people’s faith in their ruler, for everything rests on faith. No matter what happened, everyone knew and were sure to what, in important cases of state life, He would give a negative and to what a positive answer from His Russian soul. Everyone knew that He would not give up the Russian, bequeathed by history, interest either in the Polish or on other outskirts of the foreign element, that He deeply preserves in His soul the same faith and love for the Orthodox Church as the people, understanding all its educational significance for the people - finally, that together with the people He believes in the unshakable significance of the Autocratic power in Russia and will not allow for it, in the ghost of freedom, a disastrous confusion of languages and opinions. When we lose a neighbor, a loved one, we do not think to ask: what did he do - we only feel what he was - and for us the most precious thing, the most tangible thing is his living image, with all the moral atmosphere that surrounded him, everything that came from him to us and kept in us that harmony of life, which, with his death, we lost. And it seems at this moment - he is not there - how can we live without him? It was with this feeling that the entire Russian people trembled, struck by the news that Tsar Alexander III had left us. The soul of the people merged with His soul and, having lost Him, itself became confused. This feeling is still alive today. Whoever wants to catch it, and feel it, and merge with it - let him go to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and to this grave watered with tears - and see how now and tomorrow it is filled, solemnly, from morning to evening, with quiet prayer, by an endless crowd of people flocking to this grave from all over Russia. Particularly in education, the concern should not only be to bring children to a certain order, to bring them within certain boundaries: it is necessary that life grows and develops, without being deformed in iron forms, so that it is not dried up by an inexorable routine - the easiest way of management, so convenient for lifeless figures, for formalists of government. What is most clear in my mind is my moral silhouette, as if carved on a black field. I hold on to it with all severity, and I have always successfully defended it within myself, pushing away from it various clouds: sometimes pink, sometimes green, sometimes blue, with which they often tried to color it. And near it I built a wide, level, dry and deserted place on all sides, so that there is no way to get to it by any hidden or flowery paths: the most insignificant enemy is immediately visible on the horizon. I love the past - I feel that its roots are in the depths of my soul, that from here my soul draws strength for vigor and patience. And it seems to me that the past is the only time of our existence on which thought can dwell without embarrassment: its faded colors, soft outlines, transparency of perspective - all this enhances its meaning. And the present, and the future - where to stop here! The environment around me arouses a feeling of disgust in me, the future does not inspire me in any way - I don’t see anything in it that would correspond to my spiritual aspirations. This is what weighs me down, what meets me in the public sphere. The soul wants to fight this feeling, but is unable to overcome it, and at other moments I already recognize in myself the inevitability of moral decline - I feel that it has already begun and is increasing as the habit of putting on a mask of decency intensifies. In the world it is so easy to acquire this wild habit of looking indifferently at both grief and temptation, turning with a clear smile to people whom you despise, covering your disgust with triple armor, with pain in your heart and with an imperturbable calmness on your face, going through all sorts of dirt - this is a temptation that is difficult to resist, but it introduces moral decay into a proud soul. Those who have a lot of soft tenderness in their souls, those who do not find it difficult to submit, still have a pacifying power. Everything is reflected too strongly in my soul, and as a result my thoughts are rebellious and there is no balance... At such moments my gaze seeks refuge at the sanctuary of divine power and the doors of the majestic building of the Catholic Church open before me! I honor the church of my country because I learned to know her and her meekness helped me appreciate all her strength. They don’t want to know it, they judge it wrongly out of ignorance - and I ardently stand up for it every time an opportunity presents itself to show it in its true form. Could it not be gratifying for me to invest a drop of my labor in the cause of truth, which, while shedding light in the minds, at the same time arouses in the hearts a feeling of brotherly love? The difference in dogmas is not an important matter for me, because this is not where I see salvation... But all this does not entail solidarity with the entire creed of the church, silent agreement with any part that is contrary to the Protestant teaching: everything I think, everything I say, everything I do answers it completely... My heart finds in this description (of Wiene’s family life) a perfect image of what the Protestant Church can accomplish. She achieves this - despite her errors, despite the abyss of unbelief that opens up on her path, despite the strict dryness of her worship - she achieves it solely because of her fiery desire for the truth, for this name of God, which is dearest to the German spirit. To establish a true connection between what a person does and what he thinks and feels, and to revive all feelings at the source of eternal truth and eternal love - this is the ideal of human life! From Kostroma. My stay here is a chronicle of revelations: I live as if in another world. At every step I understand better and differently what I had a completely false concept about in St. Petersburg. When the divine or ideal principle appears in forms unusual for us, we tend not to recognize, and sometimes even to resolutely deny the presence of the ideal principle itself in these forms. But how soon, through the unusual shell, you begin to recognize the beating of the heart, to feel - so to speak - the warmth of divine life - a new light penetrates into the soul and into rational thought - and you want to cry out: I see, I feel - and I believe! Since I have been breathing here a completely national atmosphere, the features of which, often touching, are explained to me by serious people, I have been experiencing a strange impression: it seems to me that from St. Petersburg we are all speaking French with this young Siegfried, who is called the Russian people; and he, in our opinion uneducated, but so kind and so strong, understands only Russian speech! Yesterday I spent the morning in the monastery: you know how majestic, how magnificently the divine service is performed in this beautiful, artistically restored cathedral. After mass there was a prayer service in the hospital and then a meal for the poor. About a hundred crippled beggars sat at long tables: they were served by nuns and girls from Mother Mary's school, with such joyful zeal that it was fun to watch. The lame people entered through the wide open doors, leading the blind; behind the peasant women, bent over from old age and illness, came old men even more decrepit. Both the nuns and girls greeted them with affectionate greetings: the spirit of broad brotherhood reigned in this modest hall, so that it seemed that Christ himself was present here. When steaming bowls were placed on the tables, bread was distributed, and the poor, after prayer, began to eat their food with a contented look, Mother Maria ordered the girls to sing, and first of all they sang, God bless the Tsar... The closer I look at monastic life in Russia, the more I understand the deep significance of the monastery for the whole country and the great good that is still expected from it in the future, and the more I am amazed at the indifference with which it is treated in Petersburg. How much I enjoy my stay in Moscow. Despite the bad weather, the tiresome travel, even despite the visits that I can’t stand, I still rest here... I feel in a natural atmosphere, surrounded by legends that from the past give the present a special meaning. Despite the mental and moral decline of Moscow, here you meet people who have access to abstract ideas, people who are interested in more than one thing that relates to their self. And also, what is this calm worth, in which you can concentrate for serious work! But I wouldn’t finish if I had to list everything I like about Moscow: bad impressions are absorbed by good ones, and all this strengthens my moral strength in reserve. You might be interested in: