Kuznetsky Bridge

The history of the oldest and most elegant street in Moscow dates back to the 15th century. At that time, the Cannon Yard was founded by Ivan III, around which the Kuznetskaya Sloboda was formed. Therefore, the bridge thrown at this place over the Neglinka River was named Kuznetsky. At first a wooden bridge was built, but since it began to flood, in 1756, instead of a wooden bridge, a white-stone, three-span, 12 m wide and 120 m long Kuznetsky Bridge was built according to the design of D.V. Ukhtomsky. When construction was coming to an end, Ukhtomsky thought: “If we build stone benches near the bridge and rent them out to free people, then over time they will pay for themselves and the declared Kuznetsky Bridge and be able to maintain it.”
His decision was approved, and fashionable shops and shops were founded near the bridge.
In 1819, the Neglinka River was enclosed in a pipe, and the bridge was filled up. Now the Kuznetsky Bridge is underground, and all that remains of it is the name of the street.
Kuznetsky Most has always been a sanctuary of fashion. The most expensive and fashionable shops, the best restaurants and cafes were located here; the elite of Moscow society always gathered here.
Onlookers gathered here to watch the experiment that the Moscow authorities had staged: petty thieves, caught stealing, dressed in the latest fashion, were forced to sweep this street, and the crowd accompanied all this with caustic jokes. Thus, the police punished these people for violating the order.
This street has always been loved by Europeans, especially the French as trendsetters. It was this love that saved the Kuznetsky Bridge in 1812 from a fire in Moscow: French soldiers themselves extinguished the fire and saved the shops of their fellow citizens from the flames.
Aristocrats continued to buy everything on Kuznetsky Most. After the revolution of 1917, practically nothing changed. Kuznetsky Most is again one of the most expensive streets in Moscow. This is where everything new appears in Moscow: the first telephone exchange, the first illuminated advertising, and in 1924 the first traffic light.
Today, this street has not lost its chic, and to this day couples and young people love to walk here, and guests of the capital have something to see on Kuznetsky Bridge:
1. Kuznetsky Most, 5/5 – Berlin House
2. Kuznetsky Most, 9/10 – restaurant “Yar”
3. Kuznetsky Most, 12 – Pavlov Passage
4. Kuznetsky Most, 15/8 – Moscow International Trade Bank
5. Kuznetsky Most, 19 – “Mur and Meriliz” store
6. Kuznetsky Most, 22/24 – complex of buildings of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation

Length: 0.79 km

This place is considered to be the most romantic on the entire Kuznetsky Most.
Despite the fact that in 2002 the office building “Berlin House” was erected here, which was built by agreement of Moscow Mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov and the mayor of Berlin, this building is included in the list of the ten “ugliest” buildings of the 2000s; many Muscovites still associate this place with the love story of one of the most romantic couples, Ivan Annenkov and Polina Gebl.
It was in this place that the Annenkov house was located, at the address: Kuznetsky house 5/5, in 1776 for the Governor General of Siberia I.V. Jacobi built a large house with a classic semicircular extension with columns, to which two three-story buildings were added on both sides. According to assumptions, the architect of this house is V.I. Bazhenov. In 1786, the house went to the dowry of the Governor General’s daughter Anna Ivanovna, who married retired captain A. N. Annenkov. Having become a widow in 1803, A.I. Annenkova owned the house alone. The childhood and youth of Ivan Annenkov, the only son and heir to a huge fortune, passed here.
The fashion house "Dyumansi", located nearby, at the address: Kuznetsky house 9/10, where Polina worked, was located nearby. Here Anna Ivanovna Annenkova loved to shop, and her only son never refused to accompany her. He simply could not help but meet his beloved. Ivan Annenkov was handsome - tall, slender, blue-eyed, and also kind. Polina, a French woman, immediately drew attention to him. And Ivan Annenkov noticed a slender, pretty, well-mannered girl. They started dating. Ivan twice proposed to Polina to secretly marry, but Polina refused, realizing that his mother, Anna Ivanovna Annenkova, would be against an unequal marriage and would not give her blessing.
Shortly before the uprising on December 14, 1825, Annenkov informed Polina that events were coming, for participation in which he could be exiled to hard labor, but Polina swore to him that she would follow him everywhere. Despite the fact that on Senate Square I.A. Annenkov was not present, he was found guilty because he did not inform the authorities about the plot being prepared, and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. All this time, Polina was in Moscow, as she was pregnant and would soon give birth. After the birth of her daughter, she leaves her in the care of Ivan’s mother, A.I. Annenkova, and she herself went to St. Petersburg to submit a petition addressed to Nicholas I. Her petition was accepted. The emperor, touched by her devotion to her loved one, allowed her to go to the prison and ordered her to be given a cash allowance, but forbade her to take the child with her to Siberia.
Polina describes her first date with I.A. Annenkov in hard labor in his memoirs, saying that it was impossible to describe the joy with which they rushed into each other’s arms.
Polina could not become the wife of the heir to a huge fortune, but she was happy, becoming the wife of the exiled convict Ivan Annenkov and proudly bore the name Praskovya (after the wedding, Polina was given this name) Egorovna Annenkova all her life. Finally, the lovers had no barriers. Until her last days, she looked after Ivan Annenkov, surrounded him with love and care, and until her death she did not remove from her hand the bracelet cast by Nikolai Bestuzhev from her husband’s shackles.
Restaurant "Yar"
The history of the famous restaurant “Yar” arose in 1826, when on one of the oldest streets in Moscow - Kuznetsky Most, in the house of the merchant Chavannes (No. 9), an establishment was opened that served gourmet lunches and dinners.
"...How long will I be in this hungry melancholy
Involuntary fasting
And with cold veal
Remember Yar's truffles?..."
A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"
For the first time, an article about the restaurant was published in the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper, which stated that the dishes in this establishment would be served at “very reasonable prices,” which was not true. Even a meager breakfast in this restaurant cost an amount equal to the income of an average-income family.
The name “Yar” has nothing to do with a spring, a ravine, the restaurant was built thanks to the Frenchman Tranquil Yard, after which it inherited the name of its creator.
The restaurant was located in a profitable location: in the same building were located the shop of the court perfumer L. Buns, a wine and snuff store, a bookstore with the library of I. I. Gautier, and this ensured a huge flow of visitors. Also, “Yar” was visited by famous people, thanks to which it was considered a prestigious place. Lunch at the Yard is touched upon in “The Past and Thoughts” by A. Herzen, and is also mentioned at some points in the story “Youth” by L. N. Tolstoy and in the story “Unhappy” by I. S. Turgenev. Important people from the imperial families, the literary elite, bankers, and stock exchange entrepreneurs spent time here. The “spirit of the times” was sufficiently felt in the restaurant; the fabulous establishment was a place where people who made history met. Regular visitors to “Yar” were generally recognized classics of world literature - A.S. Pushkin, A.P. Chekhov, A.I. Kuprin, Maxim Gorky, “tsar’s friend” - G. Rasputin, Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Morozov.
Despite the gigantic prices, Yar quickly became a trendsetter in the restaurant niche. However, the old unpretentious premises could no longer accommodate everyone, and already in 1848 the restaurant moved.
Now there is a bank in this building. The building belongs to the category of valuable objects.

Pavlov's Passage

At the beginning of the 18th century, on the site of the current building at No. 12 on Kuznetsky Most Street, there were the possessions of the steward I.M. Verderevsky. Later, the owners were many famous people, even Count P.B. Sheremetyev, and only in the 1870s the building came into the possession of the merchant K.S. Popov, who completely demolishes the previous buildings and erects a new Passage building designed by architect A.I. Rezanova.
Due to the height of the structure, this building dominated the street and was visible from afar, so all the numerous shops were popular. Also, apartments in this house were rented to such famous people of that time as: physicist A.A. Eikhenwald, artist of the Maly Theater M.A. Reshimov.
Also in a five-story building, one of the tallest in Moscow at that time, the first Moscow telephone exchange was opened in 1882. At first, they started hiring only men, but they couldn’t cope: they were very often distracted and quarreled with clients. Now the offers were only for unmarried girls, so that they would not think about anything extraneous while working. The requirements were as follows: a girl, from 18 to 25 years old, unmarried, height at least 165 cm. The work was very prestigious, but the girls could not withstand such a load for a long time, since work at the station required constant concentration, due to a mistake by the telephone operator, subscribers were not connected.
The Passage building continued to live. Popov’s successors had a love for everything new in their blood, so in 1885 the first illuminated advertisement appeared on this building.
In 2005, Pavlov's passage was demolished and in its place an exact copy was erected, but built using new technologies. Today this building houses government agencies.
KUZNETSKY BRIDGE, 15/8 Moscow International Commercial and Industrial Bank L.S. Polyakova
In the 70s XVIII The building located on this site belonged to the merchant Dellavos.
But the owners always changed from year to year, and finally it began to belong to I.G. Firsanov, and a little later his daughter Vera Firsanova. In the mid-1890s, she sold this estate to Polyakov, who founded the Moscow International Trade Bank.
The entrance to the Bank building was from the corner of Rozhdestvenka and Kuznetsky Most street. It was a very beautiful building at that time. The prototype of this Renaissance building was the world's first building built for bank employees, the Holy Spirit Building in Rome. A semi-circular window above the entrance, a tower-like projection, which created the illusion of exaggerated size and made this house more majestic at the intersection of two streets.
And in 1901, a restaurant opened in the building, which differed from all other restaurants of that time in that it did not have ordinary waiters, and all service was performed through special machines.
The restoration of this Bank was carried out only in 1995 according to the design of the architect V.A. Boev at the expense of the owners of Mosbusinessbank.

Shop "Mur and Merliz"
The history of the modern TSUM began in the 19th century, when two Scottish entrepreneurs Archibald Meriliz and Andrew Muir created the commercial company Muir and Meriliz in St. Petersburg. In the 1880s, the community moved to Moscow, where they rented the building of the former estate of Prince Gagarin, but it only sold ladies' hats and haberdashery, which brought in little profit.
Soon the merchant house acquired a building of impressive size to build a store on Teatralnaya Square, on the site where the current TSUM is located in our time. The creators decided to erect a building with a significant and multifaceted store, similar in image to the Whiteley's store in London or the Bon Marché in Paris.
A few years later, “Mur and Merliz” switched to selling small-piece goods for personal or home consumption, expanded its assortment, and thanks to this became the main and first department store in our country.
Its success was clearly visible due to the speed with which new departments were opened. The uniqueness of the store was manifested in the fact that it sent out its catalogs for free throughout the country. And those purchases whose cost exceeded first 75 rubles, and then 25 rubles, the store delivered to any point in Russia, and took on the costs of delivering things to the European part of the country, which was very beneficial for buyers who do not live in the capital.
The goods in the Myur and Merliz store were of excellent quality, and the sellers were exemplary helpful and tactful. When the buyer was not satisfied with the purchase, it was immediately replaced with a new product. For children, going to the store was a dream come true, because magnificent and exceptional toys were waiting for them here.
In February 1892, there was a fire that resulted in the burning of most of the building. But the fire was quickly extinguished, and the goods suffered more damage from water than from fire.
After this event, the store lost heart, since over the past month the demand for goods has dropped significantly, and the store began to lose its image.
On the evening of November 24, 1900, after the store had just been restored to a favorable appearance, a second fire occurred. It was visible at a considerable distance from the building itself, and many residents came running to see an event of such magnitude. Everything around was blazing with fire, and the heart of Moscow was painted in bright red and orange colors, this was visible from the windows of many houses.
After this fire, it was decided to build a new building (designed by V.G. Shukhov): new building - new opportunities. In the newly opened store, everything was the first time in a store of this kind: the waiting room, electric elevators, information desk. “Mur and Merliz” continued to keep their mark. Today this building houses the Central Department Store.
Saltychikha Estate

At the intersection of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most in house No. 22/24 in the 18th century there was the estate of Daria Saltykova. The estate was guarded by huge hungry dogs, matching their owner - an angry and envious woman. For a long time, the crimes committed by this woman went unpunished, since she belonged to an ancient noble family and did not skimp on gifts, but Catherine II, who had just ascended the throne, did not remain indifferent to the complaints of the serfs. Catherine the Great said that Saltykova does not have the right to be called a woman, she is either a freak of the human race or a man. Daria Saltykova was sentenced to be deprived of her noble title, she had to stand chained to a pole with the inscription “torturer and murderer,” and was also sentenced to life imprisonment in an underground solitary confinement cell. Saltychikha spent 23 years in prison until her death.
Now on the site of D.N. Saltykova’s house there is an FSB reception building.

The appearance of a city is a reflection of the people who live in it. Times, political systems, architectural styles change, horses are replaced by cars and highways. The metropolis is forced to adapt to all these conditions and correspond to the modern pace of life. Some cities are lucky. There it is possible to find a compromise between modernization and preservation of historical buildings.

But it also happens differently. New ideology, power, historical changes, like a natural force, destroy everything in their path, leaving only black and white photographs of past masterpieces. Lost monuments, buildings, the whole history of the great city, which disappeared along with them. Today in the section “Unknown Russia” Ekaterina Laiter will show you unusual and unknown Moscow.

Sukharevskaya Tower

Now only Sukharevskaya Square reminds of the Sukharevskaya Tower. The square itself got its name from the tower. The tower was built in 1692-1695 on the orders of Peter I. It was a grandiose structure, especially for Moscow at that time. The height of the tower was 60 meters, it was even called the bride of the bell tower of Ivan the Great. The Sukharevskaya Tower was also called the sorcerer’s tower. The fact is that on its top floor there was an astronomical observatory. It was organized by Jacob Bruce, a chemist, engineer and astronomer. There were many legends around Bruce's personality; his contemporaries considered him a warlock. The Sukharevskaya Tower was a symbol of the capital.

But in 1933, a decision was made to demolish the Sukharevskaya Tower in order to expand the movement. For the intelligentsia of that time, this was a tragedy. Imagine if they suddenly announced the demolition of St. Basil's Cathedral (and they wanted to demolish it too). Cultural figures tried to save the tower and even wrote a letter to I.V. Stalin. But the leader of the proletariat responded like this: “I personally think this decision is correct, believing that Soviet people will be able to create more majestic and memorable examples of architectural creativity than the Sukharev Tower...” In June 1934, the tower was completely dismantled, and the square was renamed Kolkhoznaya.

Walls of China Town

Kitay-Gorod and the Kremlin are the most ancient districts of Moscow. This is where Moscow began. The Kitai-Gorod wall was laid in 1535 under Elena Glinskaya, mother of Ivan the Terrible. It was a fortification structure, just over 2.5 km long, the thickness of the walls was 6 meters. 12 towers and four gates were also erected. The wall was rebuilt several times. In the 18th century it lost its defensive significance. In the 19th century, several break gates were made, and in 1871 Tretyakovsky Passage was built.

In 1934, the Kitai-Gorod wall was almost completely demolished. Only a section of the wall on Revolution Square and an element of the foundation of the Varvara Tower in the underground passage of the Kitay-Gorod metro station survived. In 1995-2000 Some of the demolished elements of the wall were recreated. So in 1995, the Resurrection Gate leading to Red Square was restored. In 1997, a section of the wall along Teatralnaya Square with the Round Tower was rebuilt, and in 2000, a section adjacent to the Tretyakovsky Proezd arch was rebuilt.

Voentorg

The Voentorg building was located on Vozdvizhenka Street, building 10. It was built in 1910-1913. commissioned by the Economic Society of Officers of the Moscow Military District. It was a wonderful monument of Art Nouveau architecture. The interior decoration of the building was distinguished by grace and elegance. The main staircase was lined with Italian marble, and the walls were decorated with paintings. In 1935, all this splendor was dismantled. In 2003, the Moscow government decided to demolish the Voentorg building. As with I.V. Stalin, public protests could not change the decision taken by the authorities. Voentorg was demolished, and a shopping and office center was built in its place.

Ensemble of Kadashevskaya embankment

Zamoskvorechye, of course, was luckier than other districts of Moscow. Many architectural monuments have been preserved here. But, unfortunately, there are exceptions here too. Kadashevskaya embankment was built under Catherine II. Its architecture was unique for Moscow. There were ancient two-story houses with arches here. In 1994, by order of Yu.M. Luzhkov houses and cultural monuments “Kadashevskaya Embankment” were demolished: No. 12, 16, 18 and 30.

Strastnoy Monastery

Pushkinskaya Square (until 1937 Strastnaya) is a favorite meeting place for Muscovites. Here is the famous monument to A. S. Pushkin by A. M. Opekushin. The building of the former Rossiya cinema is also located here. But did you know that the Holy Monastery for women used to stand on this site? It was founded by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1654 around the already existing five-domed temple. The monastery received its name in honor of the Passionate Icon of the Mother of God.

In the mid-1770s, the Passion Monastery almost completely burned down. Catherine II issued a decree on its restoration. In 1855, according to the design of the architect M. D. Bykovsky, a new bell tower topped with a tent was built. There were beautiful flower beds around the monastery. The monastery was famous throughout Moscow for the wonderful singing of the nuns. After the revolution, the monastery was closed, and the anti-religious museum of the Union of Atheists of the USSR was placed in its premises. In 1937, the Passion Monastery was demolished.

Famusov's house

Very close to the Passion Monastery there was a house in which the family of Maria Ivanovna Rimskaya-Korsakova lived at the beginning of the 19th century. This house was called among Muscovites “Famusov’s house.” The fact is that A. S. Griboyedov’s cousin was married to the son of M. I. Rimskaya-Korsakova. It is believed that in “Woe from Wit” A. S. Griboyedov described Maria Ivanovna’s entourage and the balls arranged for her. A. S. Griboyedov and A. S. Pushkin visited this house more than once.

In the mid-19th century, the house was turned into the Stroganov School. During Soviet times, the Communist University of the East was located here. In 1927, the Izvestia newspaper building was built next to the house. Over time, there was not enough work space for newspaper employees. And then nothing better was thought up than to expand the area by demolishing the priceless monument. And again there were public protests. And again no one heard them. Famusov's house was demolished in 1967.

Miracles Monastery

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Kremlin looked different, not like it does now. After the revolution, 17 churches were destroyed on the territory of the Kremlin. All of them were unique monuments. Among them was the Chudov Monastery. Its construction was started by Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow, who cured the wife of a Horde khan from blindness. In gratitude for this, the miracle metropolitan was given a place to build a temple. The first church was erected in 1365. In 1503, a new temple was built instead of the ancient church.

In the second half of the 18th century, a porch with turrets in the Gothic style was added to the temple. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the temple was captured by the French, and it housed the headquarters of the Napoleonic army. According to tradition, the royal children were baptized in the monastery. The children of Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, Alexander II, were baptized here. Representatives of the most noble Moscow families were buried within the walls of the monastery. The revolution of 1917 brought destruction to the monastery. In 1929, the ancient temple, a miracle of Moscow architecture, was destroyed.

Annenkov House

There is an opinion that the Annenkov house was designed by V.I. Bazhenov. However, there are other circumstances that made this house famous and valuable for Muscovites. The Annenkov House is associated with the romantic love story of the Decembrist I. A. Annenkov and the Frenchwoman Polina Gebel. This story is the basis for the novel “The Fencing Teacher” by A. Dumas and one of the plot lines of the film “The Star of Captivating Happiness.” The Annenkov House, located on Petrovka Street, belonged to the daughter of the Governor-General of Siberia, married to A.I. Annenkova. She was incredibly rich and had a powerful and tough character. More than a hundred servants lived in her house, ready to fulfill all the whims of the lady. A. I. Anenkova’s wardrobe consisted of 5,000 dresses.

Her son, the future Decembrist I. A. Annenkov, spent his childhood and youth in a house on Petrovka. In 1825, he met Polina Gebel, who served as a clerk in a store on Kuznetsky Most. She often visited the Annenkovs' house and left memories of it. After the Decembrist uprising, Polina Gebel followed I. A. Annenkov to Siberia, where they finally got married. As for the house, in 1837 the bankrupt A.I. Annenkova sold it to the Mikhalkovs. The Mikhalkovs turned it into an apartment building and owned it until the 1917 revolution. There were cafes, shops, and a cinema here, which were visited by famous writers and singers. In 1946, during the reconstruction of Petrovka, the Annenkov house was demolished.

Nikita Kirsanov. "The family of the Decembrist I.A. Annenkov" (part 1).

The Annenkovs are an old noble family, dating back to the 15th century. By the middle of the 18th century, Nikanor Ivanovich Annenkov, the grandfather of the future Decembrist, had estates with thousands of serfs in the Nizhny Novgorod, Simbirsk and Penza provinces. After the death of N.I. Annenkov's lands were divided between his three sons: Nikolai (1764-03/28/1839), Arkady (07/29/1797) and Alexander. The younger Alexander became the heir to Nizhny Novgorod estates: Puzskaya Sloboda in Lukoyanovsky district, the village of Vazyan, the villages of Ozerki, Bolshaya Pecherka, Neledino in Arzamas district (now Vadsky and Shatkovsky districts), the village of Bortsovo in Nizhny Novgorod district (now Dalnekonstantinovsky district).

Alexander Nikanorovich, the father of the Decembrist, captain of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, having retired, lived in Nizhny Novgorod and served as an adviser to the Nizhny Novgorod Civil Chamber. Later he moved to Moscow, where he died in 1803.

Unknown artist. Portrait of Alexander Nikanorovich Annenkov. Early 1800s

Ivan Alexandrovich’s mother, Anna Ivanovna, was the daughter of Irkutsk Governor-General I.V. Jacobia. After the death of her father and husband, she became the heir to a huge fortune of five thousand serfs, land in five provinces of Russia and two stone houses in Moscow.

Named after his maternal grandfather, Ivan Aleksandrovich Annenkov was born on March 5, 1802. He received a traditional home education, and in 1817-1819. attended lectures at Moscow University (did not complete the course). After passing the exam at the General Staff, on August 10, 1819, he entered service as a cadet in the Cavalry Regiment.

Laconic, somewhat slow, short-sighted, but straightforward and knowing the value of words and promises, I.A. Annenkov quickly made friends in the regiment, among whom were many future Decembrists: P.N. Svistunov, A.M. Muravyov, F.F. Vadkovsky... Member of the Southern Secret Society A.V. Poggio actually lived in his house.

November 1, 1819 I.A. Annenkov was promoted to estandard cadet, on December 21 of the same year - to cornet, and finally, on March 13, 1823, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

In 1824, Ivan Alexandrovich was accepted by P.I. Pestel to the St. Petersburg branch of the Southern Society. Taking advantage of the full support of his comrades, Annenkov also participated in the activities of the Northern Society, actively discussing the program documents of the northerners, but at the same time remaining an ardent supporter of P.I.’s “Russian Truth”. Pestel.

In the December armed uprising I.A. Annenkov was assigned an important role: he had to lead the Guards Cavalry Regiment to Senate Square. Two days before the uprising, Annenkov reported to the chief of staff of the conspirators E.P. Obolensky that the cavalry guards are not ready to move and it is unlikely that he will be able to convince them to support the rebel regiments. And so it happened. Annenkov was on Senate Square on December 14, 1825, but, alas, on the opposite side of his comrades. His platoon covered the guns of Colonel Neslukhovsky’s brigade, who “forgot” to take combat charges to the square.

After the defeat of the uprising on Senate Square, named during interrogation by one of the Decembrists, I.A. Annenkov was arrested in the regiment barracks. At first he managed to hide his affiliation with the rebels, but from the testimony of V.S. Tolstoy and M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, Annenkov’s role in the secret society became known. He was sentenced under category II to 20 years of hard labor, deprivation of ranks and nobility, and to lifelong settlement in Siberia. Later, as a result of confirmation, the term of hard labor was reduced to 15 years. On October 10, 1826, shackled, Annenkov went to Siberia (signs: height 2 arshins 7 7/8 vershoks, “white, elongated face, blue eyes, myopic, long, wide nose, hair on the head and eyebrows dark brown ").

Six months before the uprising, Ivan Alexandrovich met the daughter of a Napoleonic officer, Jeannette Paul (b. June 9, 1800), who came to Moscow under the fictitious name of Polina (Paulina) Goebl as a milliner to work at the Dumancy trading house. In the summer, young people met at a fair in Penza. Ivan Aleksandrovich arrived there as a “repairer” - to purchase horses for the regiment. Polina arrived with the Dumancy store. The Annenkovs had estates in the Simbirsk, Penza and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, and the young people, under the guise of visiting them, made a short trip. In one of his villages, Ivan Alexandrovich agreed with the priest and found witnesses to marry Polina, but she, fearing the wrath of Anna Ivanovna, refused the ceremony. Later, in her memoirs, Polina will write: “Ivan Alexandrovich did not stop pursuing me and insistently demanded a promise to marry him, but I wanted him to first obtain his mother’s consent to the marriage, which was very difficult to do, since his mother was known as an extremely arrogant, proud and completely heartless woman. All of Moscow knew Anna Ivanovna Annenkova, constantly surrounded by extraordinary, fabulous pomp... The French told me about her. And those who took part in me were sure that she was inaccessible. ", an arrogant woman will rebel against the marriage of her son with a poor girl." The flared passion turns into a deep feeling. They returned to Moscow in November 1825.

December 14th turned all their plans and dreams upside down. Ivan Alexandrovich was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and Polina was left alone, without funds, expecting a child. On April 11, 1826, a girl was born who was named Sashenka.

Life forced her to turn to Annenkov’s mother. Anna Ivanovna coldly greeted the young Frenchwoman. She flatly refused her request to organize her son’s escape: “He must submit to fate,” declared “Jacobikha” (as Muscovites called her among themselves) categorically. Having learned that Polina wanted to go to Siberia for her son, she began to dissuade her, but she was adamant. However, she gave Polina the money.

Edmond Pierre Martin. Portrait of Anna Ivanovna Annenkova. 1820s

Goebl fights for his happiness. She travels to Vyazma, where military maneuvers took place under the personal supervision of Nicholas I, and with great difficulty receives permission to follow her groom. In Moscow, with Anna Ivanovna, Polina leaves little Sasha. Parting with my daughter was incredibly painful, but taking her to Siberia was even more madness. In addition, the wives of the Decembrists following their husbands to Siberia were strictly forbidden to take children with them. When parting, Polina could not even imagine that they would meet only 24 years later, in 1850. Alexandra Ivanovna Teplova will come with her children to Tobolsk and Ivan Aleksandrovich Annenkov will see his eldest daughter there for the first time.

Almost without funds, without knowing the Russian language, which she never learned until the end of her days, Polina Gobl gets to Chita. There, in the wooden St. Michael the Archangel Church, which has survived to this day, she marries Ivan Alexandrovich. Only at the time of the wedding were the shackles removed from the groom.

All the years of hard labor, Praskovya Egorovna, as she began to be officially called after the wedding, lived next to the prison stockade, and from 1836 she lived with Ivan Alexandrovich in a settlement, first in the village of Belsky, Irkutsk province, and then in Turinsk and Tobolsk, steadfastly enduring all the hardships and adversity.

In 1830, the Decembrists were transferred from Chita to the Petrovsky plant. The wives left earlier to settle in the new place. Praskovya Egorovna made this journey together with her children - one-and-a-half-year-old Annushka (03/16/1829-06/16/1833) and three-month-old baby Olenka (b. 05/19/1830), who was very ill. “It’s hard for you to imagine,” wrote I.I. Pushchin to N.A. Bestuzhev in September 1854 from Yalutorovsk, “that Olenka, who was taken from Chita to Petrovskoye as an infant, is now a 24-year-old woman - very sweet and kind.”

The warm and caring attitude of her parents' friends accompanied Olenka Annenkova throughout the difficult path of her childhood. She remembered both the prison and the harsh life in Belsky - the first two years after leaving hard labor for settlement. More opportunities opened up for the girl after her parents moved to Western Siberia, to Turinsk. “Their daughter (the Annenkovs - N.K.), a lovely nine-year-old child, comes to us almost every day to take a music lesson from me, and a French lesson from her mother. She is so meek and friendly, so sensible, that it’s hard to see her and study with her. “It’s a pleasure,” Kamilla Petrovna Ivasheva wrote to her relatives.

Since 1839 I.A. Annenkov was allowed to serve as a fourth-class clerk in the zemstvo court, and in 1841 the family moved to Tobolsk. The Annenkovs' sons Ivan (11/8/1835-1886) and Nikolai (12/15/1838-08/29/1870) studied at the gymnasium here, daughters Olga and Natalya (06/28/1842-1894) received home education. Olga became friends with Masha Frantseva, the daughter of a close friend of the Decembrists, official D.I. Frantseva, and together with her helped the elders in the affairs of female Lancaster schools. The reserved and sympathetic girl enjoyed the trust of older women as well; she became especially close to Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina, the wife of the Decembrist M.A. Fonvizina.

Olga Ivanovna was not yet twenty years old when in January 1850 the Petrashevites were brought to Tobolsk under escort. Together with his mother and N.D. Fonvizina, she was among those who supported F.M. Dostoevsky in the first days of Siberian captivity. Fyodor Mikhailovich reported this support to his brother in his first letter after hard labor: “I’ll just say that participation and lively sympathy rewarded us with almost complete happiness. The exiles of the old days (that is, not they, but their wives) took care of us as if they were relatives. What wonderful souls, experienced by 25 years of grief and selflessness. We saw them briefly, because they kept us strictly. But they sent us food, clothes, comforted and encouraged us. I, who traveled lightly, without even asking for my clothes, repented of this. ... they even sent me dresses." And later - more about this: “When I entered the prison I had some money, I had a little in my hands, out of fear that it would be taken away, but just in case it was hidden, that is, taped, in the binding of the Gospel, which could be to carry to the prison, a few rubles. This book, with money taped into it, was given to me back in Tobolsk by those who also suffered in exile and considered the time of exile for decades and who had long been accustomed to seeing a brother in every unfortunate person.”

It is known that Dostoevsky kept this Gospel all his life, read it on the day of his death and passed it on to his son. Talking about her husband’s last hours, Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya named in her memoirs Olga Ivanovna Annenkova and her mother among those whom Fyodor Mikhailovich saw in Tobolsk.

“I will always remember that from my very arrival in Siberia, you and your entire excellent family took full and sincere participation in both me and my comrades in misfortune. I cannot remember this without a special, consoling feeling and, it seems, , I will never forget,” Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote to the elder Annenkova in October 1855 from Semipalatinsk.

The life of the Annenkovs themselves in Tobolsk exile was far from serene, although outwardly quite prosperous compared to their first Siberian decade. The eldest son Vladimir (18 or 28.10.1831-27.10.1898) entered the civil service in 1850. Ivan Aleksandrovich himself gradually experienced career growth. But soon after the arrival of the Petrashevites, they experienced unrest and trouble. This was connected with Olga’s trip to Yalutorovsk, when the authorities made them acutely aware of the powerless position of even the second generation in the families of the Decembrists. By this time I.A. Annenkov held the position of collegiate registrar and served as deputy of the Tobolsk order on exiles. On September 23, 1850, he was presented with a package from the Tobolsk civil governor K.F. Engelke classified as "secret":

“Dear Sovereign, Ivan Alexandrovich! I humbly ask you to hand over the enclosed letter to your daughter, Olga Ivanovna, to her and accept the assurance of my utmost respect.

Karl Engelke."

“Dear Empress Olga Ivanovna! By order of His Excellency, the Governor-General of Western Siberia, I humbly ask you to respond to me: on what basis did you deign to leave Tobolsk for Yalutorovsk without asking permission from your superiors and, as soon as such permission is given only by especially for good reasons, then for what purpose did you undertake this trip and with whom exactly?

Would you like to deliver your answer to me with an inscription in secret, in your own hands?

Please accept, dear lady, the assurance of my respect for you.

Karl Engelke."

Engelke's politeness did not hide the police nature of the question. Olga Annenkova did not respond to the governor. Her father answered instead. He dryly explained that he had read the letter to his daughter and had not handed it over. “My daughter could not answer Your Excellency’s questions on her own without my help because she would not understand the official style of your letter and the reasons why the local authorities consider it necessary to deprive her of the freedom granted to everyone and on the basis of general legal provisions. In order to do them understandable to her, it would be necessary to explain my situation to her and touch on several political events that had an impact on my life, which, unfortunately, are now reflected on her, an innocent victim, which I always wanted to avoid... She left Tobolsk for a walk with the permission of her mother, she traveled to Yalutorovsk without any political purpose, I can assure you that, solely for entertainment, in the company of Mrs. Muravyova (the wife of the Decembrist A.M. Muravyov - N.K.) and Fon-Vizina, who invited her with them."

The Tobolsk and Yalutorovsk colonies of the Decembrists, connected by the closest ties of friendship, constantly communicated with each other, using unofficial channels to transmit letters, books, and parcels. For the authorities, the trip of the three women was not only a violation of the exile regime, but also unwanted contact with the Yalutorov Decembrists. Of course, Olga participated in this, as well as in visiting the Petrashevites in prison, with full awareness of all the circumstances.

It soon became clear that the Governor-General of Western Siberia, Prince P.D. Gorchakov reported to St. Petersburg about a trip to Yalutorovsk. At the beginning of 1850, Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina turned to Gorchakov with a request to soften the position of Petrashevsky’s followers Dostoevsky and S.F. Durova; She still hoped then for the good relations that the Fonvizins had previously established with the family of the governor-general (his wife was Fonvizin’s relative). But then the story played out with the inheritance case, decided by the adviser to the Tobolsk provincial government D.I. The Frantsevs were not in favor of the prince. In this process, Gorchakov opposed his own daughters, who, having recently lost their mother, maintained warm relations with Natalya Dmitrievna. The exasperated governor-general took a purely official position regarding the Tobolsk Decembrists.

“Due to his attitude towards Mr. Chief of the Gendarme Corps, the Governor General of Western Siberia,” Engelke wrote in November 1850, turning again to I.A. Annenkov, “with whom he brought to the attention of Count Orlov (Chief of the Gendarmes. - N .K.) about the trip of Mrs. Von-Vizina, Muravyova and your daughter Olga to Yalutorovsk, the manager of the III department of His Majesty’s own chancellery, dated October 12th, No. 2087, reported to His Excellency Prince Peter Dmitrievich (Gorchakov. - N.K.), that this circumstance, due to the absence of Count Alexei Fedorovich (Orlov. - N.K.), was left to the discretion of the Minister of War, and his lordship, recognizing Von-Vizina, Muravyova and your daughter guilty of unauthorized absence from their place of residence, they deigned to order a strict reprimand to be given to them for their inappropriate act.

Having myself been informed by the Governor General’s order No. 136 dated November 5, I humbly ask you to announce this recall of the Minister of War to your daughter and inform me in writing about the execution.”

Edmond Pierre Martin. Portrait of Ivan Varfolomeevich Yakobiy. 1820s

Those at the top considered Gorchakov’s zeal unnecessary and limited themselves to suggestion. But the governor-general and the Tobolsk police chief did not calm down and continued to torment the Tobolsk colony for some time with restrictions and nagging. “Now you already know that the Yalutorov trip created a mess, which had important consequences for all of us, so that it called me to extreme measures,” wrote N.D. Fonvizina to the Yalutorovsk archpriest S.Ya. Znamensky. “But the prince did not calm down, despite In response to my notification that I asked and am waiting for rules from St. Petersburg, he collected from somewhere and made up his own rules, where he calls us the wives of state criminals and also exiled convicts, while recently, according to orders from St. Petersburg, they took subscriptions from ours so as not to be called by them so, and under the supervision of the police for non-employees, and for employees according to the rank or place occupied in the service, as a result of which the prince himself, in the order to the governor prohibiting me from going to the waters, calls me the wife of someone under the supervision of the police. This paper is his with other documents. I sent it to Count Orlov. Now he decided to swear, I think that’s why he gave out the rules so that when reading them, the police chief would scold us in our eyes. I didn’t allow him to read it to himself, precisely because I was expecting some kind of answer to my message in C. .-Petersburg. But best of all, they wanted to take subscriptions from us that we would follow the rules; and the chief of police is a terrible piece of trash, he is so determined that he is watching everywhere, but he was not ordered to let us out of the city." Such was the situation in Tobolsk in November 1850...

The conflict with the Governor General excluded the possibility of significantly influencing the position of the Petrashevites located in Omsk through the highest local authorities. What remained was the path of concrete everyday help and care, which the families of the Decembrists and their friends took. For Olga Annenkova, the opportunity soon arose to connect to this directly in Omsk.

In March 1851, Olga Ivanovna and Fonvizina read “Poor People” by Dostoevsky. The book was sent to Natalya Dmitrievna by S.Ya. Znamensky. This is how the acquaintance that began in the Tobolsk transit prison continued. At this time, everyone already knew about the upcoming move of everyone’s favorite, Olenka, in connection with her marriage. “After Easter I expect newlyweds again: Olenka Annenkova is marrying Omsk engineering officer Ivanov, after the wedding they promise to come to Bronnikov’s house, and the owner of the house loves it,” wrote I.I. Pushchin G.S. Batenkov March 5, 1851

Konstantin Ivanovich Ivanov (1822-04/2/1887), husband of O.I. Annenkova, was a classmate of F.M. Dostoevsky in the engineering corps; He graduated in 1844 (a year later than the writer) from the lower officer class with the rank of ensign and was sent to field engineers. Studying in related courses, they, of course, knew each other. And Dostoevsky writes about him to his brother Mikhail in his first letter after hard labor as if he were an acquaintance.

The phrase in “Notes from the House of the Dead” about the author’s acquaintances and “old school friends” who served “in that city,” with whom he resumed “relations,” is directly related to Ivanov.

When Dostoevsky was brought to Omsk, Ivanov, a military engineer with the rank of second lieutenant, served there as an adjutant to Major General Borislavsky, the chief of engineers of the Siberian Separate Corps.

The journals (protocols) of the Council of the Main Directorate of Western Siberia contain a number of documents that make it possible to present the nature of Konstantin Ivanovich’s service. He was often sent to other cities of Western Siberia in connection with the construction or repair of state-owned buildings of the military department, for inspection, development of construction estimates, etc. The reports he provided contained specific technical proposals for construction and repair, which combined good professional training with clear and impeccable an honest (as there were a lot of abuses in this area in Siberia, as now) approach to business.

Frequent and long trips, especially to Tobolsk, made it possible for Konstantin Ivanovich to meet the Decembrists. The young engineer organically entered their circle. This is evidenced, in particular, by his contacts with I.I. Pushchin. He visited Pushchin in Yalutorovsk even without Olga Ivanovna, and after leaving Siberia, he corresponded with Ivan Ivanovich: “The mail came again, bringing only one letter from Konstantin Ivanovich from Kronstadt... Ivanov is strengthening Kronstadt tirelessly - he says that for three months he has been working like never. Sometimes he barely has time to have lunch." Letters from K.I. have been preserved. Ivanov to the Decembrist P.N. Svistunov in 1857, filled with the concerns of the Decembrist “artel”, connections of exiled families returning from Siberia.

The chief of the engineering team, Borislavsky, was also in charge of prison work. As his adjutant, Konstantin Ivanovich could to some extent influence the choice of jobs to which Dostoevsky and Durov were assigned, and in exceptional cases even organize their meetings outside the prison under the pretext of fictitious assignments. This is exactly how the meeting between Fyodor Mikhailovich and Evgeny Ivanovich Yakushkin, the son of the Decembrist I.D., was arranged. Yakushkin, who came to Siberia on business with the Boundary Corps, where he served. In Omsk, the younger Yakushkin stayed with K.I. Ivanova. The very next day, Dostoevsky was brought by a guard to clear snow in the courtyard of the state-owned house where the Ivanovs lived. “He didn’t clear the snow, of course, but spent the whole morning with me,” E.I. Yakushkin wrote many years later about this meeting. “I remember that I was terribly sadly impressed by the sight of Dostoevsky entering the room in a prisoner’s dress, wearing in chains, with an emaciated face bearing traces of severe illness. There are certain points in which people immediately agree. After a few minutes we talked like old acquaintances. We talked about what was happening in Russia, about current Russian literature. to some newly emerging writers, he spoke about his difficult situation in the prison companies. He immediately wrote a letter to his brother, which I delivered upon my return to St. Petersburg.”

Talking in “Notes from the House of the Dead” about how he and the Pole Boguslavsky went from prison to the engineering office as clerks for three months, Fyodor Mikhailovich noted: “There were people among the engineers (one of them in particular) who really sympathized with us ". On February 22, 1854, Dostoevsky wrote to his brother words that may serve as a key to assessing the writer’s Omsk contacts. This is connected with the name of Konstantin Ivanovich: “If I had not found people here, I would have died completely. K.I. Ivanov was like a brother to me. He did everything he could for me. I owe him money. If he is in St. Petersburg , thank him. I owe him 25 silver rubles. But how can I pay for that cordiality, the constant readiness to fulfill every request, attention and care as for my own brother? And he is not the only one, there are a lot of noble people in the world.” The last passionate phrase from the mouth of a deep and reserved man, not at all inclined to enthusiastic outpourings, written a week after his release from a convict prison, is truly significant.

Annenkovs in Nizhny Novgorod

{The essay was compiled by S.Ya. Gessen and A.V. Predtechensky based on the stories of E.K. Gagarina, according to documents from the family archive and according to letters from the Decembrists to the Annenkovs (collection of the Pushkin House).) Source : Polina Annenkova. Memories M.: Zakharov, 2003. - 384 p. -- (Series "Biographies and Memoirs"). OCR Lovetskaya T.Yu. Annenkov did not immediately decide to leave Tobolsk when the manifesto of Alexander II opened the way for the Decembrists to European Russia. By this time, Ivan Alexandrovich’s immobility had acquired Homeric proportions. No wonder a student of the Decembrists, Tobolsk seminarian M.S. Znamensky, recalled that he even took a napkin at dinner “with such a lazy look with which I was able to take only Cicero.” Decembrist L.S. Bobrishchev-Pushkin angrily joked that it took Annenkov two hours to move from one chair to another. It was not easy for such a person to set out on a long journey in winter, and all the impatience of Praskovya Egorovna, who was burning with the desire to go to Russia as soon as possible, seemed to lead to nothing. Thus, in various delays, the year 1856 ended, and with the onset of the next year, 1857, Ivan Alexandrovich fell seriously ill, and his very life was in danger. Under such conditions, the question of departure, of course, was again postponed indefinitely. But even then, when Annenkov had already begun to recover, he still did not dare to set out on a long journey due to poor health, Praskovya Egorovna was nervous and mopey in Tobolsk, the children - Olga and Ivan, who had been in Russia for a long time, were sad and did not know how to explain these delays. And Annenkov remained in gloomy indecision, despite the insistence of his Decembrist friends, who had long since moved to the other side of the Urals and who were urging Ivan Alexandrovich to quickly follow their example. “I am sure,” Svistunov wrote from Nizhny Novgorod, “that travel will improve you more accurately than all the medicines combined. Hit the road as soon as possible.” From the very beginning, Annenkov had the idea of ​​moving to Nizhny, where the Decembrist A.N. Muravyov was then governor. His comrades were working in this direction. Svistunov, who was planning to move from Nizhny to Kaluga, took care in advance of finding premises for the Annenkovs and bequeathed to them all his household furnishings. He, together with I.I. Pushchin and E.I. Yakushkin, the son of a Decembrist, bothered about his official position upon his return to Russia. Among other worries, Annenkov was worried about the prospect of being subjected to new petty supervision at home. This alarm was not unfounded, and its sources are extremely interesting for characterizing the situation of the generally amnestied Decembrists. On January 16, 1857, from N. Novgorod, Svistunov wrote to Annenkov “regarding the paper known to you, which spoke of the supervision to which Minister Lanskoy, or, rather, an official of his office, wanted to subject you to his private order. Sergei Petrovich (Trubetskoy) wrote to his sister Potemkina, referring to the Russian proverb “where the king favors, the huntsman will not demote.” She spoke with Dolgoruky, whom she met in the salon, who testified to her that he had not heard of any order regarding supervision of you by anyone. The most curious thing about this is that there is a paper from one of the ministers to the Siberian governors, which requires the establishment of two categories: one for those amnestied, the other for those left under supervision. Viktor Antonovich (Artsimovich) sent an official to the local governor, through whom he instructed him to establish supervision over Pushchin. The governor was extremely surprised by this news and turned to the minister for clarification. He believes that this is secret surveillance, and, therefore, the business of the gendarmerie, while he has neither the authority nor the means for this." Soon after that, the question of Annenkov's transfer took full shape. On February 7, Svistunov informed Ivan Alexandrovich that I heard from the governor himself about his transfer. After that, however, it took about another six months for the combined efforts of Praskovya Egorovna and her Decembrist friends to take effect. In June, Annenkov was assigned “to serve in the Nizhny Novgorod province with the appointment to serve under the governor of the province. state," and at the end of the next month the Annenkovs left for Nizhny. Praskovya Egorovna was nearly sixty years old when she returned to Russia. The noisy thunderstorms were far behind, and life, which was becoming more and more normal, no longer required that colossal strain of all mental strength, as before. Even through thirty years of exile, despite all the hardships and illnesses, she seemed to carry her amazing vitality intact. The Siberian snows were powerless to extinguish the fire that burned in her, but now, at sunset, this fire itself could only illuminate the family hearth. The Annenkovs settled in Nizhny forever. They rented a house on Bolshaya Pechorka. Everything they experienced nurtured their tastes in a new way, limiting their needs. Therefore, their furnishings were extremely modest: in the living room there was a sofa, three armchairs on each side, chairs along the walls, and a couch near the window, Praskovya Yegorovna’s favorite place. A strict, established order reigned in the family. While Praskovya Egorovna reigned supreme in the female half, in all other matters Ivan Alexandrovich played the leading role. And it must be said that in his home life he was extremely despotic: the whole house lived as Annenkov wanted. For Praskovya Egorovna, with her French upbringing, this state of affairs seemed completely natural, and she could not imagine any other life. And Annenkov’s imperious character often made itself felt very thoroughly by all family members. So, without his permission, no one, not even his wife, had the right to order the horses to be pawned, and they were usually forced to walk. But when there was a fair in the city, all the city stores, excluding food stores, were transferred there. It was extremely difficult to get to the fair on foot due to the long distance. In such cases, one had to turn for help to Praskovya Egorovna, who, having seized a happy moment from her husband, received the required permission. For several days at a time, unharnessed horses, covered in fat, were taken out of the stables; they got tired unusually quickly and, by the time they returned home, they were literally completely covered in soap. Ivan Alexandrovich stood on the porch and invariably, at the sight of the lathered horses, became angry at the newcomers: “They drove the horses in again!” His concern for the horses extended to the point that he personally tried not to disturb them. “I’ll be home on Saturday,” he writes to his wife during one of his trips, “for me there’s no need to bother the horses. A cart for my suitcase will be enough, and I’ll arrive in a cab.” The family got up and had a snack at nine o'clock in the morning, after which Ivan Alexandrovich usually retired to his office, or to the "Noble Chancellery", located at home, or went to the zemstvo government. Lunch was at five, and in the interval, according to his established order, he was not supposed to eat. O.I. succeeded with difficulty. Ivanova to obtain permission from her mother to give her children breakfast. Breakfasts took place, however, in the dining room, but at a small table, hastily, and Praskovya Egorovna invariably stood in the doorway leading to Ivan Alexandrovich’s rooms, in such a way that he could not see this violation of order. “Well, eat, eat quickly,” Praskovya Egorovna hurried, “or grandfather will see!..” At five o’clock the whole family gathered for dinner, which lasted two hours, because Annenkov ate extremely slowly and a lot, and, Despite the fact that there were 6-5 dishes, he always took a second serving, and until he finished, of course, the next dish was not served. After dinner, Ivan Alexandrovich went to bed for two hours, and then deathly silence reigned in the house, although he slept like a hero, so that no noise could disturb him. In the evening, the old people sat in the living room, he on the sofa, she on the couch, sewing or knitting. Annenkov sat invariably in one position, crossing his legs so that he could see his sole. Apparently this was still a prison habit. At least, Praskovya Egorovna said that he sat like that in the fortress for hours. He always had a snuff-box in his hand, and often the hand with the snuff remained hanging in the air for a long time. So they sat until two and three o'clock in the morning, deep in their thoughts. Even in old age, Praskovya Egorovna was the complete opposite of her husband. She was never idle, and her mobility knew no bounds. Although she never learned to speak Russian well and expressed herself terribly, she nevertheless communicated well and very energetically with the servants. Of course, there were some oddities. So, one day, while caring for the flowers, of which there were many in the first room, she shouted to the footman: “Hurry, hurry, bring the filthy chair!” - “What a filthy chair?” - "Out of the kitchen! Filthy chair!" The granddaughter guessed that this was supposed to mean a stool. Despite all this, Praskovya Egorovna kept the household in exemplary order. True, the Annenkovs lived a secluded life. But although they did not hold receptions, nevertheless, due to the high and influential position that Ivan Alexandrovich occupied in Nizhny, they visited them all day long. He didn’t always even come out, and Praskovya Egorovna received everyone. She constantly rushed around the house, and often Ivan Alexandrovich, sitting in a chair, shouted to his wife, who was somewhere upstairs in the mezzanine: “Polina, give me a handkerchief,” although this last one lay two steps away from him. The center of the Annenkovs' concerns were children. These concerns became especially acute in Siberia, as the sons began to grow up, and they had to think about their future fate. In 1849, the eldest son Vladimir graduated from the gymnasium, and Ivan Alexandrovich began to bother about getting him into the university. His efforts were not crowned with success, and the talented and gifted young man was forced to begin his service as a clerical scribe. But even in those difficult times, his undeniable merits prevailed over the stigma of being the “son of a state criminal,” and he subsequently achieved the post of chairman of the district court. The Annenkovs’ second son, Ivan, also began his career in the same way. Very soon, however, he decided to go into military service, where he believed he would find more opportunities to advance, and a new long correspondence began. Only at the end of December Annenkov learned that “the sovereign emperor, following the most submissive report of the request of the provincial secretary Annenkov (one of the former state criminals), deigned to give the highest order: his son, Ivan Annenkov, who completed his course at the Tobolsk gymnasium, with the right to the rank of 14th grade, to determine agrees with his desire to enter military service as a non-commissioned officer without an exam, with the rights of a volunteer of the first category." This Ivan, Vanyusha, who was not distinguished by a particularly positive character and enjoyed dizzying success with women, was the subject of special care and concern for his parents. It must, however, be noted that the Annenkovs gave their sons complete freedom of action, and if they happened to influence the children, they did it completely insensitively to the latter. The youngest son, Nikolai, who died around 1873, was ill for a long time. Mention of his illness is found in Praskovya Egorovna’s letter to her husband dated April 11, 1859, and she takes advantage of the random occasion to teach her husband a little lesson about his constant fears: “The doctor who was treating his son suffered a blow that paralyzed his whole body, which left me This is extremely upsetting. This is a warning to you, dear friend: you are so afraid of any loss of blood, and yet you should thank God when this happens.” In 1862, Annenkov, after much work, managed to arrange for Nikolai to work as a peace mediator in Penza (as he later did for Ivan). On this occasion, in a letter to his wife, dated September 7, he burst out with a bitter philippic regarding the disobedience of his sons: “There is no sweetness with children. Everyone wants to do things their own way, they are always unhappy with what I do for them, but they themselves only do stupid things.” . Nikolai's death was the last blow that 73-year-old Praskovya Egorovna was destined to survive. She suffered this loss with her characteristic stoicism, but she could not recover at all. She stopped going out, and then the heavy duty of accompanying her youngest, unmarried daughter Natalia to balls fell on Ivan Alexandrovich, who performed this duty with his usual accuracy and methodicality. Natalya, who had shown signs of mental illness since childhood, was morbidly afraid of everything cold to such an extent that she would not touch the door handle with her bare hand. Therefore, Ivan Alexandrovich, some time before leaving for the ball, put her bracelets in the pockets of his coat and methodically walked around the rooms, waiting for them to warm up. He was just as methodical and efficient in relation to all the responsibilities he assumed. And there were a lot of these responsibilities. In addition to active participation in the implementation of the peasant reform and holding the position of district leader of the nobility, he had to pay a lot of attention to his estates, which he inherited in an extremely neglected state, mortgaged and remortgaged in the guardianship council. Therefore, he often happened to travel on business, and any such trip was torture for Ivan Alexandrovich. He was preparing to travel for two weeks, or even longer. They brought a suitcase from the attic, which stood open all day long, while Praskovya Egorovna followed on his heels, insisting on his speedy departure. As before, before leaving Siberia, he came up with all sorts of delays and delays. But even having already set off, Annenkov showed an irresistible tendency to make various stops, although he himself reproached himself for this. His letters to Praskovya Egorovna are full of explanations and interpretations of travel delays. Every time it happens that “the road is terrible”, “there is a lot of snow”, “you can only move by walking”, etc. Like many Decembrists who returned to Russia, Annenkov took an ardent and active part in the implementation of peasant reform. He first encountered the issue of emancipating the peasants in 1858, when he was appointed a government member of the Committee for Improving the Living Life of Landowner Peasants. Later, he was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial presence, and in this position he was closely related to the development of the reform of 1861. Finally, after the reform, Annenkov took the position of chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Congress of World Mediators. In this field, he earned great popularity among the advanced strata of Nizhny Novgorod society, who saw in him one of the most humane and convinced figures of peasant reform. This is how the last years of the old Decembrist and his wife passed, even in their decline more than once overshadowed by alarming clouds. In 1860, Annenkov traveled abroad for four months. Following this, in 1861, Praskovya Egorovna also went to her homeland. Unfortunately, no traces of this trip have survived, except for an accidental mention in the draft manuscript of her memoirs. She probably wasn’t gone for long, because Annenkov, positively, could not live without her. “You can’t imagine how hard it is for me without you,” he complained to her in 1862 from Penza. In the family circle, Praskovya Egorovna loved to make fun of her husband good-naturedly at this external lack of independence and slowness. In his absence, she often recalled an incident from Annenkov’s youth, when he was late for a divorce and, in order to avoid a fine, put soldiers in cabs and thus arrived on time at his destination. She also told another incident dating back to the time of their stay in Nizhny. On the journey of the Grand Duchess, the future Empress Maria Feodorovna, Annenkov was supposed to have an audience, to which he went with his youngest daughter. However, they took so long to get ready and dress that they arrived at the Kremlin when all the carriages were already leaving. Having waited until the patrol ended, Annenkov nevertheless drove to the Kremlin and asked to report on himself. He was given an audience. Praskovya Egorovna, who saw the patrol through the window, greeted her husband with reproaches: “Well, of course, you’re late!” Annenkov, with his characteristic equanimity, answered: “Not at all. We were received separately.” The death of Praskovya Egorovna came suddenly. On the morning of September 14, 1876, she was found in bed, already cold. That same morning, essentially, the life of Ivan Alexandrovich also ended - he could not live without her, his mental illness progressed rapidly, and more than a year later, on January 27, 1878, he was gone. “After the death of I.A. Annenkov,” wrote the Decembrist Rosen in his obituary, “eight of the so-called Decembrists remained alive.” The circle of the first Russian revolutionaries, thinning out, was already closing in...

In 1786, this plot passed to Jacobi’s daughter A.I. Annenkova, who was called the “Queen of Golconda” for her enormous wealth. It was here that her son, Decembrist and member of the Southern Society Ivan Annenkov, spent his childhood and youth.

The life of the Annenkov family is described in the memoirs of the Decembrist’s wife, Frenchwoman Polina Gebl.

How to read facades: a cheat sheet on architectural elements

After the Decembrist's arrest, she followed him into exile. The conditions were unenviable: Ivan Annenkov even came to the wedding ceremony under escort. This story inspired Alexandre Dumas to create the novel The Fencing Teacher. It is not surprising that the book was banned in Russia. This only spurred interest in her.

The house on Kuznetsky Most belonged to the Annenkovs until 1837. Then the Mikhalkovs bought it and turned it into a profitable property. The building housed restaurants, hotels and photo studios.

After the revolution, a café of poets, “Musical Snuff Box,” was opened in the premises of the Tremblay confectionery in the Annenkov house. Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Shershenevich, Burliuk read their works there. And in 1920, the building housed the editorial office of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

Despite the official status of an architectural monument, during reconstruction in 1946 the Annenkov house was demolished. In its place appeared a square where the summer veranda of the Druzhba cafe was located for 40 years.

In 2002, the Berlin House office and shopping center appeared on the corner with Petrovka. Architectural critics believe that the building violates the established scale of street development and is one of the ten ugliest buildings in Moscow.