Глава шестнадцатая. Пастырь и Маргарита 1832

To warm the souls of people - Saint Philaret possessed this rare gift to the fullest. This was one of the main goals of his life. It’s amazing how many things fell on the Bishop every day, but how lengthy his letters were, addressed to people in need of consolation! “Why do you think that joy is far away? She is close: behind the sorrow, as in the Song of Songs, the groom is behind the wall near the bride. Evening may be weeping, but in the morning there will be joy. Is it far? - he wrote in the 1820s to Margarita Mikhailovna Tuchkova, the inconsolable widow of the hero of the Battle of Borodino, Major General Alexander Alekseevich Tuchkov. The Good Shepherd led Margarita, freeing her from the captivity of grief... The Crimean Tatar Naryshka, going to serve the Moscow sovereigns, did not know that he would descend from a family very famous in Russia. The Naryshkins rose to prominence under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who married Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. Even the style of architecture of that time was called Naryshkin Baroque. Under Peter I, the son of Natalya Kirillovna, the family became even more enriched, and the royal steward Matvey Naryshkin bore the clownish rank of patriarch of the most drunken cathedral. Margarita Mikhailovna Naryshkina was the same age as Metropolitan Philaret, even a year older than him, but he would become the true spiritual father of this woman, who received a full cup of both happiness and suffering. At the age of sixteen she married the brilliant Moscow handsome man Pavel Lasunsky. She didn’t like him, but with his refined manners and bouquets of lilies of the valley he managed to win the mother’s heart, and she insisted that her daughter agree. Things didn’t work out from the very beginning, and soon Pavel began disappearing from home at night and did not hide the fact that he had taken a mistress. But that’s not enough - Lasunsky turned out to be a spendthrift and an avid gambler. Once, having lost to smithereens, he tried to steal her family jewelry from his wife in order to pay off his debt. Margarita saw this, rushed to take away the treasures and received such a blow from her husband that she fell unconscious and was then sick for a long time. She developed nervous fever. One night she woke up feeling a pleasant coolness on her face. A certain young man sat at the head of the bed and applied a cold compress to her hot forehead. She recognized him immediately. It was an acquaintance of her husband, young Colonel Alexander Tuchkov, whom she had recently met. He was three years older. At first, Alexander did not pay attention to her, but when Margarita began to sing, enchanted by her wonderful voice, he fell in love with her. All evening they played four hands, sang duets, talked about music, about their favorite composers. And she felt tenderness for this wonderful man. This is how their love began. They met from time to time at similar evenings, again sang and played the piano together... And now he secretly entered her bedroom and sat next to her... Lasunsky's behavior became public, Margarita's mother obtained permission for a divorce, but when Tuchkov immediately after the divorce wooed Margarita, the mother, frightened by her previous marriage, resolutely refused, although her daughter this time agreed. For four years Tuchkov lived in Paris, where his parents sent him to study, and all these four years Alexander and Margarita corresponded. Seeing her daughter kiss her lover’s letters, the mother softened, and when Tuchkov returned, she agreed to a new marriage. The wedding took place in a small church on Prechistenka. The first time, marrying Lasunsky, Margarita was dressed in a lush Parisian dress. Now she was wearing a modest wedding dress. She was very worried, and when she left the church, she saw everything in a fog. Suddenly a certain wanderer in rags jumped out of this fog and handed her a gnarled stick: -Mother Mary! Take the staff! And she gratefully took the stick, thinking that he had given it so that she could lean on it. Margarita did not yet know what kind of omen it was!.. The newlyweds soon left for their Tula estate and there they lived happily for a whole year, reveling in each other. But a new war with Napoleon began, and Tuchkov at the end of 1806 was ordered to accept the Revel Musketeer Regiment. Separation was destined for lovers, but Margarita did not want separation so much that she told her husband about her decision to go to war with him. Tuchkov failed to forbid his wife from accompanying him, and on the day of departure he did not even recognize her in the thin boy who sat on the box of his carriage in his orderly’s overcoat. It was a real feat in the name of love. The pampered aristocrat lived in camp conditions, cared for the wounded, and generously helped disadvantaged local residents. On May 24, 1807, the Revel regiment bravely fought the French in the battle of Gutstadt, being in the vanguard of Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration. Tuchkov received the Order of St. George, 4th degree. Then there were battles on the banks of Pasarga, near Jankendorf, near Heilsberg and Friedland. In 1808, the Revelites were included in the corps of Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly and sent to Finland to fight the Swedes. Tuchkov's regiment fought during the occupation of Randasalmi and Kuopio, where it twice threw Swedish troops into the sea, at Edensalmi, where it repulsed the enemy's night sabotage; On December 12, 1808, Alexander Alekseevich received the rank of major general. In May 1809, he already commanded the vanguard of the corps of General Pyotr Andreevich Shuvalov. And all these years Margarita Mikhailovna was next to her husband. Only one thing could separate them - a child. But five years passed, and the Lord still did not give it to them. Only in the autumn of 1810 in Riga, through which Tuchkov’s regiment passed, was it discovered that Margarita was pregnant. But even then she did not agree to leave her husband. In April, the Revel regiment was in the Minsk province. Here the Tuchkovs had a son, Nikolenka. Alexander demanded that his wife return to Moscow, but Margarita quickly learned to nurse a child on the go, and seeing that her son was growing strong and healthy, Tuchkov was only surprised and did not demand that his wife take Nikolasha to Moscow. So another year passed. And only in May 1812, Alexander Alekseevich strictly demanded that Margarita Mikhailovna, taking Nikolenka, go away from the theater of upcoming military operations. This time he was adamant. The night before parting, Margarita suddenly screamed in her sleep: - Borodino! They will kill you at Borodino! Tuchkov woke her up and calmed her down. He took out a marching map and studied it for a long time and carefully. – You see, there is no Borodin here. But when Margarita fell asleep, she again had a nightmare. She was running down the street and suddenly came across a white wall, from which blood was oozing, forming letters, and from the letters - French words: “Your fate will be decided at Borodino.” She ran further, ran into her parents’ house, and her father carried Nikolenka towards her and said in a terrible voice: - Alexander is no more. You will have to raise your son alone. In the morning, Margarita spoke about her dreams and again begged her husband not to send her to Moscow. But in vain. She was put into a carriage and taken to the Mother See. There, in her parents' house, she greeted with horror the news of Napoleon's advance. The dream turned out to be prophetic. Alexander Alekseevich died heroically on the Borodino field. Margarita was first notified by her father - as in that prophetic dream, he entered carrying Nikolenka in his arms. Then Margarita was told how her valiant husband walked with a banner in his hands, but was struck by grapeshot and his body could not be taken out of the battlefield... There, at Borodino, on the Utitsky mound, Lieutenant General Nikolai Tuchkov, Alexander’s brother, was mortally wounded, who then died in Yaroslavl and was buried in the Tolga Monastery... As soon as the opportunity presented itself - this was after Napoleon’s expulsion from Moscow - Margarita Mikhailovna went with her husband’s orderly to the Borodino field. The bodies of the victims have been lying here for two months! Tuchkova knew approximately where to look, and for several days, from dawn to dusk, she diligently examined section after section, turned over the corpses, looked into the faces... It’s scary to even imagine what she experienced in those days! But it helped that in previous years she had become accustomed to both the smell of rotting bodies and the sight of disfigured faces. How much can you get used to this? She failed to find anything. There were exciting rumors that she found a hand with a ruby ​​ring, which only Alexander Alekseevich wore, and buried this hand there, at the site of her husband’s death. But, most likely, this is just a legend. Otherwise, Margarita Mikhailovna would not have failed to tell about this in her letters. However, there is evidence that she wore her husband’s ruby ​​ring until the end of her life - apparently, the general gave it to his wife when parting... Margarita sold all her other jewelry. She also mortgaged the Tula estate. She needed money for construction. In 1817, the Minister of War, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn, told her exactly where Tuchkov was last seen. At this place, near the middle Bagration flush, Margarita erected a memorial chapel, and soon began to build a memorial church, the Savior on Spilled Blood, and this became the first building on the Borodino field. Alexander I allocated ten thousand rubles for this. Nikolenka grew, the church grew, every year they both became taller and stronger... In 1820, the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands on the Borodino Field was consecrated by Moscow Archbishop Augustine (Vinogradsky). A symbolic grave with a white marble cross was built in the church, on which was the inscription: “Remember, O Lord, in Thy kingdom Alexander, who was killed in battle!” Above the right choir, Margarita Mikhailovna personally installed the Revel regimental icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which later became known as miraculous. The widow Tuchkova obtained permission for the monks of the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery to perform services in the church. The blessing for this was given by Archbishop Filaret, who arrived at the Moscow See. After the Decembrist uprising, grief again entered the family of Margarita Mikhailovna. Her brother Mikhail was arrested and accused of preparing the Moscow rebellion. He was sentenced to twelve years of hard labor. Alas, Margarita’s maternal happiness turned out to be short-lived! At the age of fourteen, the son was assigned to the Corps of Pages. After studying for a year in St. Petersburg, Nikolai Alexandrovich came to Moscow to stay before Christmas 1826 and then caught a cold and developed a fever. The mother gathered the best doctors, and they determined that there was nothing wrong and the young man would soon recover. However, after wandering around in delirium for three days, he died in the arms of his mother, who could only mournfully exclaim: For what?! For what?! Having lost her husband, she has now lost her son. Only the church remained. Having buried Nikolenka in the crypt of the Spaso-Borodinskaya Church, Tuchkova remained to live nearby, in a small church gatehouse, so that from now on she would always be at the place where Alexander died and where Nikolai was buried. Soon a small community arose around the Spaso-Borodinsky Church. Margarita’s skills as a nurse came in handy - the peasants of the surrounding villages came to her for treatment, and even for good advice. Since 1821, Archbishop Filaret became the Moscow bishop. His sermons penetrated the hearts of all the inconsolable who mourned their fallen in the war of 1812, who died in peacetime. There was also something consonant with Margarita’s soul: for five and a half years she and her husband were in the Revel regiment, and Filaret was once the Bishop of Revel. And suddenly an invitation comes from the bishop to visit him at the Trinity Compound. Margarita knew that many widows and mothers who had lost children found consolation in Filaret. His friendship with Countess Ekaterina Novosiltseva, goddaughter of Empress Catherine II and adopted daughter of Count Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov, was well known. In the autumn of 1825, she suffered the same severe grief as Tuchkova, but the grief was aggravated by the fact that Novosiltseva herself was involved in the death of her beloved son. Wing adjutant Vladimir Novosiltsev fell in love with Maria Chernova at a ball and frivolously asked for her hand in marriage. The proud and arrogant mother was indignant that her son wanted to marry a girl of not such high origin - although the bride’s father was a general, but one of the children of soldiers, and with the “common” name of Pakhom - and she resolutely forbade this marriage. The brother of the insulted girl, Lieutenant of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, Konstantin Chernov, challenged Vladimir to a duel, which ended tragically. Both duelists were killed. Chernov died on the spot, and the mortally wounded Novosiltsev was transferred to some inn, where he died on a billiard table. By the way, Chernov was a member of the Northern Society of Decembrists, and his second in that ill-fated duel was none other than Kondraty Ryleev, who in less than a year would be hanged from the crown of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Filaret wrote letters to Novosiltseva, in which he pastorally consoled the poor culprit of the death of her own son: “The Mother of Him Crucified for us, who experienced the greatest of the Mother’s sorrows, may she accept the prayer of the grieving mother in order to bring it to the throne of Her Son and God.” “Sorrows have made you feel the need for the consolation of faith. It's good that you noticed her. If you were happier in the world, perhaps you would not have known this need and would not have found this consolation. What of this? Recognize that sorrows are a blessing from God, and thank God for them.” To Novosiltseva’s complaints that the world condemned her and that she began to despise the light for this, the bishop replied: “There is no need to despise the light, just as there is no need to respect it. Good is worthy of respect, evil is contemptible, and in the world there is both. That it is hard to be in contempt, this thought should be the subject of repentance. Blessed is he to whom glory and dishonor in the world are all the same. Sorrow, that the ill-fated are not respected enough, suggests the idea that ill-fated is a virtue. And it is neither dignity nor unworthiness, but a visitation from God, partly strict, partly merciful. People should respect the unfortunate, but the unfortunate have no right to demand this... How do you say that God did not hear your prayer for your son? “He heard and fulfilled it better than you can understand... May the Lord do His work in you and give you consolation, victory, strength and protection in communication with Him.” To letters in which Novosiltseva admitted her despair, Filaret responded very sternly: “I recently read that despair is a product of pride. So, let humility be your guardian from thoughts of despair”; “The sacrifice of Christ is so great that at the sight of it all small human sacrifices should disappear”; “I regret that the presence of fun even now increases your despondency. What is to blame for your despondency: innocent joy or the image of joy in an inanimate creature that God has adorned? Is it necessary to be more upset that the works of God that we see are beautiful? Novosiltseva complained that she did not know whether her son’s dueling sin was forgiven, and the Lord did not give any signs. Filaret was strict here too: “Do not complain that you did not see a sign that affirms hope, but rather blame yourself for wanting a sign. In the Gospel you see that the Lord did not praise those who sought a sign”; “When you feel that you could die of joy after receiving the desired sign, you thereby pronounce the sentence that you should not be given a sign that you would not accept in order.” And now Metropolitan Philaret has taken upon himself the trouble of comforting another inconsolable woman - the widow and mother Tuchkova. In the Bishop’s reception room, Margarita encountered a woman who brought her three healthy, blossoming sons under the blessing. And immediately resentment at my fate flared up in my heart. Entering Filaret and speaking to him, she soon could not stand it and exclaimed in despair: - Why did the Lord take everything from me?! The Bishop answered unexpectedly sternly and even angrily: “Apparently, I wasn’t humble enough.” At this point the widow’s resentment spread to the metropolitan, and the unfortunate woman jumped up and ran out all in tears. What was the reason for such strictness? Firstly, Filaret saw that his visitor lacked an understanding of the Divine causes of life phenomena. Perhaps there was another reason. Frenchness. An ugly phenomenon of Russian high society at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries. Many people rarely spoke Russian at all. Gallomania was not even damaged by Napoleon's invasion. In 1812, there were cases when Russian men killed nobles only after hearing them speak French, because they mistook them for Frenchmen. For some time the nobles came to their senses. And then everything starts all over again. There was such a sad joke: a Russian nobleman in Europe seems to be disguised as a Tatar, but in Russia he seems to be a born Frenchman. Alas, by the time of her meeting with Filaret, Margarita Mikhailovna had not yet gotten rid of the habit of speaking only French. And so she comes, complains that God took her husband and son away from her, and complains in the language of those who caused her widowhood! Vladyka himself spoke excellent French. Perhaps he answered her in this language too. After some time, the shepherd personally came to Margarita and asked to forgive him for the harshness of his words. From that time on, their friendship and correspondence began. Filaret became her shepherd. Margarita complained to him that she was suffering from loneliness. The shepherd answered: “Loneliness is not a bad thing when you know how to use it. Isn't it good when no one and nothing in the world stops a person? Then he remembers God and goes straight to Him. Loneliness on earth leads to heavenly society.” He wrote to her about the healing properties of tears and with this he also consoled the poor woman: “The Lord and His joy are with you especially now. Water from Jerusalem roses is something extraordinary. She wouldn't be for me; but let it be brought to the altar from you like pure, blessed tears. Oh! Something is happening in Jerusalem now: is the water pure, like tears, or are there many tears, like water? They say he was robbed..." Margarita wrote about her enduring melancholy: “The day is like a day: matins, mass, then tea, a little reading, lunch, vespers, insignificant needlework, and after a short prayer - a long night. That's all life! Life is boring, death is scary - this is a subject for reflection. The Lord’s Mercy, His Love – that is my hope!” The shepherd answered her: “Knowing your faith and hope, I force myself to think that sadness now has less power over you and that your heart, exhausted by suffering, begins to feel consolations that, like drops of dew, flow from the Source of eternal bliss. Two years of painful, desperate grief - a contented sacrifice to the world and the flesh. Do not be surprised at this name: even the mourning of the saints for temporary deprivation is not called a favorable sacrifice to God, and our prolonged and heavy lamentation is not only not pleasing to God, but can even be sinful... Pray for the healing of your sorrow and together ask the Lord for the continuation of temporary life, as much as is needed to prepare for the eternal. Your husband is with the martyrs, your son is with the virgins, the Lord leads you this way and that in order to make you a participant in this and that joy... Our job is to bear the crosses imposed with love, childlike humility and Christian hope, and not measure them and do not compare them with others, do not complain in deprivation... It is not a sin to think that perhaps you have been chosen as an instrument to console thousands of those who suffer.” Margarita sent him gifts, including those made by her own hands. The shepherd thanked: “When you send me simple and necessary handicrafts, then I have a true gain and willingly think that during cholera my legs were preserved from cramps with the help of stockings, worked with kind and humane hands...” Margarita understood the high value of Philaret’s sermons and began to compile her own collection of these works by her shepherd. Subsequently, many of the sermons of Moscow Chrysostom were preserved only due to their presence in this collection. The first of these is the “Conversation on Pious Zeal,” delivered on July 5, 1832 at Trinity Cathedral. In it, Filaret touched on a very important topic of true and ostentatious adherence to religious customs. He said: – You light a candle in front of the holy image and believe that by doing so you have performed some kind of service to God. But you know that God and His saints, who dwell in the holy, heavenly lordships, have no need for an earthly, material lamp; You see that even in the church sometimes one could do without it with the help of the great, daily lamp of God in heaven. What does your service with a lighted candle mean and how can it be pleasing to God and His saints? – It should be a visible sign of the spirit burning in you, of your pious zeal... The Church is consoled, concluding from the sign that you are burning in spirit, and God is pleased with the sacrifice of your heart... The fiery shepherd called to be ardent in the faith, finding vivid and accurate comparisons: “When a cauldron is boiling on a fire, then neither an insect dares to approach it to defile it, nor an insolent domestic animal to steal the food being prepared in it for a person.” But when it is removed from the fire and cools down, then insects swarm around it and fall into it, and an insolent dog or a cunning cat can approach, desecrate, and steal. Likewise, when a person’s soul boils with the fire of Divine desire, this spiritual fire serves it at the same time as both strength for action and armor for protection. But if negligence allows this fire to go out, and pious zeal cools down, then vain, crafty, unclean thoughts will be born and swarm in the sensory area, fall into the depths of the soul and defile it, and insolent passion can come and plunder in the soul what was prepared in it to please God. Filaret continued to speak about the true and the ostentatious in his Assumption sermon of the same year: “Let us think, brethren, how ignoble, and burdensome, and useless it is to live only for show, as many do in moral, social, and home life. They show everything, they expose everything, they trumpet everything, they proclaim every insignificant matter, like a kokosh his newborn egg. But the proclamation of the kokoshi is more fundamental: it proclaims an egg that has truly been born and remains; and the vain proclaim what does not exist, or by proclaiming they destroy what is proclaimed... Christian! Be, not seem: this is one of the important rules for you. Know the incomparable dignity of humble, quiet, hidden virtue. It tends to be a mystery to the earth, because it is of a heavenly nature and exists for the sky. Margarita began to think about tonsure and asked for advice. The shepherd gradually prepared her for the monastic feat: “You can lead a monastic life without a vow... What is done for a lifetime, it is better to do it slowly rather than hastily... The fathers also say: if there is no contrition and tenderness, one should suspect whether there is vanity...” Year after year, Filaret’s letters to her contain fewer and fewer comforting words about grief over his wife and son, and more and more conversations about how to live in a monastic community. The pious women's society created by Tuchkova on the Borodino field, with the blessing of the Metropolitan, received the status of a Spassky women's charitable dormitory institution. Saint Philaret compiled his “Rules”, in which he stated that “the special duty of those staying in this hostel is to offer prayers for the Orthodox leaders and soldiers who in these places laid down their lives in battle for the faith of the sovereign and the fatherland in the summer of 1812.” So the shepherd, step by step, prepared the disappearance of Margarita. She should have passed away, just as Vasily Drozdov once passed away. ...The portrait of Alexander Tuchkov, painted by George Dow, was placed in the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. At the request of Margarita Mikhailovna, the artist decorated the general’s chest with a medal for 1812, which was awarded only in 1813. But didn't he deserve this reward?