Глава первая. Попович Вася 1782–1791

There are so many explanations for the name of the Moscow region Kolomna!.. Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl’s dictionary says: “Kalamen. Kalomenie Wed Ryaz. outskirts, neighborhood, neighborhood. That’s why the name of the city Kolomna: the outskirts of Moscow.” The residents of Kolomna do not like this version; they argue, saying that it was the Ryazan residents who began to name their outskirts in honor of the city of Kolomna, which lies on the border of two rival principalities - Moscow and Ryazan. The people of Kolomna prefer other interpretations. For example, that the city was named after the nearby quarries, they say, gradually the name Kamenolomnya turned into Kolomnya, and then - Kolomna. Others say that the Kolomenka River, on which the city was founded in the 12th century, flowed past the market. The market was then called “menok”, the river was nicknamed Okolomenka, then it became Kolomenka, and the city of Kolomna grew on it. Like Moscow on the Moskva River, so Moscow’s younger sister Kolomna is on the Kolomenka River. By the way, it flows into the Moscow River. There is also a bizarre explanation: they say that three Russian cities come from the Oka. Where the Oka flows through the meadows, the city of Okaluga arose - Kaluga. Where Oka is wide, there is Okashira - Kashira. And where the Eye begins to meander and break, the Okalomannaya - Kolomna. The interpretation is funny, but nothing more. The Oka flows through the meadows not only near Kaluga, it becomes wide much further than Kashira, and it begins to wind and break east of Kolomna. And most importantly, the city of Kolomna initially did not grow on the Oka, but at the confluence of the Kolomenka with the Moscow River, and only in a few centuries it grew in breadth to the shore of the Oka. The Kolomna mischief makers have invented some very absurd inventions. It’s as if Sergius of Radonezh, having visited this city, returned very offended: “I asked them for a drink, and they staked me!” Or as if Mamai came to them, and they staked him out! But such an interpretation can only inspire the same mischievous people from science, because both Sergius and Mamai were in history much later than the name of Kolomna appeared. Now the residents of the city call themselves Kolomna residents. The word is sonorous, and the bells ring in it. And in former times, their self-name was different, not so cheerful, but at the same time more majestic, with an important gait - Kolomnyan. Kolomnyanin Mikhail Fedorovich Drozdov was a priest, that is, he came from a priestly family. And they arranged for him to marry the priest - the daughter of Nikita’s father, the archpriest of the Church of the Epiphany, fifteen-year-old Dunya, who turned sixteen only after the wedding. And they got married on Monday, January 10th. And the year was 1782 from the Nativity of Christ. They began to live in the father-in-law's house near the church. Kolomna is located on clay soils. The clay is good, and therefore, if you look at the map of the city of that time, it is easy to notice that many blocks are shaded with oblique stripes and it is said that this marks the places of residence of potters. The Church of the Epiphany was also located in the pottery quarter. To this day it stands majestically among the trees, now being the garrison church of the Kolomna Higher Command Artillery School. Epiphany Church, Church of John the Baptist, Church of the Epiphany in Gonchary - the names are different, but the church is one, this very one. Only then, in 1782, it had not yet been rebuilt in the classicist style. Erected in 1680–1689, the church still retained the features of that era, the Naryshkin Baroque. Although in the late 1770s - early 1780s, the titan of Russian classicism Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov worked in Kolomna, rebuilt the bishop's house and the Intercession Church. Gave impetus to the development of a new direction of architecture in Kolomna. But the wave of classicism will reach the Epiphany Church only in the first years of the new century. Soon after the wedding, on February 6, Mikhail Fedorovich Drozdov was installed as a deacon in the main Kolomna church - the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, founded by Dmitry Donskoy. But he and his wife still lived in the house at the church of his father-in-law, Archpriest Nikita. It was in this house that the future luminary of Orthodoxy was born. The addition to the family of Deacon Michael and his wife Evdokia occurred early in the morning of December 26, 1782, the day after the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, when the Church celebrates the Council of the Blessed Virgin Mary, believers gather to honor the Ever-Virgin Mary, Joseph the Betrothed and his son Jacob, who accompanied the Holy Family in their flight to Egypt. A curious note was made at the birth of the baby. It was indicated that he was born two weeks ahead of schedule. Why was this important? To answer this question we need to go back nine months. Easter in 1782 was March 27. If the boy was born on time, then it turns out that he was conceived during Holy Week of Lent. It can be assumed that Deacon Michael had to answer. Perhaps even swear that he and his wife did not commit a sin. That is why it was necessary to indicate the fact of premature birth. Born the day after the Nativity of Christ, the first-born of the Drozdov couple received baptism on January 1, 1783, on the day of the Lord’s circumcision, which is also noteworthy, because Christ replaced circumcision with baptism. Having accepted the carnal circumcision of the Old Testament, the Savior established for his followers spiritual circumcision, the New Testament. In addition to the circumcision of Christ, on January 1, the Church commemorates St. Basil the Great. This archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia, who lived in the 4th century, became famous for successfully preaching Christianity in many lands and converting many to Christ. He compiled a special rite of the liturgy of the Byzantine rite, performed only ten times a year - on the Sundays of Lent, except for Palm, on Thursday and Saturday during Holy Week, on the eve of Christmas and Epiphany, as well as on January 1. In honor of St. Basil the Great, the baby, who was baptized in the Church of the Epiphany, was named Vasily. The name is very beloved among the Russian people. Suffice it to say that in terms of frequency of Russian surnames in the 19th century, the Vasilievs were in second place after the Ivanovs, and the Petrovs were in third. His uncle Peter became the godfather of the future saint. In February, Deacon Mikhail became a priest. He was assigned to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Yamskaya Sloboda. There is a house next to the church. The Drozdov family moved there. But Vasya did not live there for long. Mikhail Fedorovich and Evdokia Nikitichna had other children, and Vasya was taken back to his grandparents’ house. It was spacious here, two rooms, a mezzanine, beautiful paper wallpaper on the walls, a large mirror in a beautiful frame, in the rooms there were Dutch ovens decorated with tiles. Nikita Afanasyevich and Domnika Prokopyevna especially attached their hearts to their grandson and doted on him. And he felt reciprocal affection. Grandfather was the first to go to church to prepare for the next service. The grandmother finished her housework and hurried to church at the start of the service, taking her granddaughter with her. The smells of wax and incense, the singing of a choir, the shine and trembling of lights on the wicks of candles, the mysterious light of lamps, the faces of icons, the solemn rite of worship, the fragrant smoke of a censer! stern exclamations of the priests... For a person who, at a conscious age, began to go to the church of God, all this until the end of his days will remain something a little new. For people like Vasya Drozdov, it was as naturally received from life as food and drink, the ability to breathe, walk... And losing the Church is equivalent to suddenly losing sight or hearing. Prayers, troparia, kontakia, the entire divine service - he did not have to try to remember all this, it was memorized by itself, easily and unhindered almost every day flowed into him, like a river flows into a lake, filling it with clean water. And this healing water could never dry up in it. Uncle Petya took his godson to church, and Vasya received communion every Sunday. He developed his own ideas about what and how was happening in the church. From infancy, his poetic nature began to show itself, joyfully flying towards imagery. When at the end of the service the candles were extinguished, from which smoke rushed upward, it seemed to Vasya that these prayers were being sent to heaven. One day, watching how the candles of the large chandelier were being extinguished, how the smoky streams were running and running upward, he told his mother standing next to him: - Mom, the service will end soon. The prayer went to God. The first thing Vasya began to make in his life was wooden crosses made from splinters. And his first childhood games were, of course, being a priest. He threw a scarf over his shoulders, tied something here and there, and began to “serve.” He attached a weight to the string and waved a toy censer of his own making. It was a surprise to look at such a young priest. – In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit... Let us pray to the Lord!.. His hearing is amazing. – There is no doubt: he will turn out to be a good priest! Come on, Vasyatka, let’s go play the harp now! What a magical word “harp” is! And grandpa has them themselves, like some kind of special treasure. In a box with legs. The lid opens, underneath there are rows of strings, from which Grandfather Nikita extracts a variety of delightful sounds. He sits down next to the harp on the chair. The grandson also moves his chair closer. “The most sacred musical instrument,” says grandfather. – King David sang his psalms to the psalter. And “psalter” in Greek is harp. Only our harps are big. Cannot be carried. That is why they are sometimes called “recumbent harp”. Such gusli appeared in Russia under Elizaveta Petrovna, and under Catherine the Great they became widespread. The composer and singer Vasily Fedorovich Trutovsky, who bore the title of chamber musician and court guslister, was famous for playing them. In such a “lying harp” the sound range increased to five or even seven octaves. Chromatic tuning was introduced for them. And it was the Russian priests who loved them most of all, which is why people began to call them that: “priest’s harp.” Vasya used to look with all his eyes at how his grandfather plucked the strings with his dexterous fingers, listened as if enchanted, and soon he gradually began to master the instrument, learning to play himself. Vasya hardly knew his other grandfather. The parish priest Fyodor Ignatievich Drozdov was widowed early, handed over the parish to his son Mikhail and lived in solitude, in fasting and prayer, like a monk; all his food consisted of bread, cabbage and kvass. This was not how life was at all in Grandfather Nikita’s house. Here are these harps, which were so fun to play. - Oh boy! Everything is grasped on the fly! - the parents rejoiced. “Here’s marshmallow for you, Vasenka, just the way you like it.” Pastila is a famous Kolomna treat. Popovich Vasya, like all the other boys, popovichs, children of potters and carpenters, coachmen and carpenters, loved to run to the factory where this apple miracle was made, to catch the smells emanating from where it was produced, to dream: “Oh, if only they would give me a whole bucket of marshmallows for my belly!” From the marshmallow factory - let's go to the slaughterhouses! But there are other impressions - terrible. Vasya did not feel any pleasure watching the unfortunate cattle being led to slaughter, listening to how it was indignant and grumbling, anticipating the approaching terrible end. - If you regret it so much, why do you eat meat? Don't eat meat! “If you don’t eat meat, you’ll become a monk.” No, he didn’t go to the slaughterhouses with the guys. It’s another thing to play war with Turkey on the creek. – You will be Georgians. You are Turks. And we, Russians, will protect Georgians. – We don’t want to be Turks! But someone has to, otherwise what kind of game of war is this if everyone is their own? I had to agree. Today we are Turks, tomorrow you will be. Battle of Kinburn. Capture of Khotin. Capture of Ochakov. Victory at Focsani. Triumph on Rymnik. Siege and assault of Izmail. Everyone wants to be Suvorov. - You?! Yes, you, Vaska-popovich, are too small. - And they say Suvorov is not very tall. - Who is hiding? - Daddy. And he knows everything. He reads newspapers. - Priests are not supposed to read newspapers. No, they don’t take him to Suvorov. Apparently, you really will have to become a monk. There is more and more talk about soon entering a theological seminary. The boy was taken away from his grandparents and moved to Yamskaya Sloboda to live with his father and mother. My father has a huge library. Mikhail Fedorovich was known in Kolomna as a bookworm and loved collecting books. This love passed on to his first-born son. Vasya, having learned to read and write, greedily devoured everything that his father had in his book collection. I especially liked the poems – Derzhavin’s odes. Eh, I wish I could learn to write like that too! Life, how diverse and rich you are! I want to master everything, learn everything, know everything. I want to be a poet, a musician, Suvorov, a priest, and a monk...