In 1708 Hetman Ivan Mazepa, hoping for military support from the Swedish king Charles XII, went for the separation of Ukraine from Russia and the creation of an independent state. Russian Tsar Peter I ordered Russian troops led by Menshikov to destroy the capital Baturin

The capture of Baturin - (Ukrainian Zdobuttya Baturina; “Baturinskaya tragedy” (Ukrainian “Baturinsky tragedy”) - an episode of the Russian-Swedish war (1700 - 1721), during which the troops of Peter I captured and destroyed the capital of Hetman Mazepa - the city of Baturyn. In historical literature, these events were called “The Ruin of Baturyn” (in modern publications the term “Massacre in Baturyn” is sometimes also used).


As a result of the Pereyaslav Rada (1654), the subsequent Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667 and the Truce of Andrusovo (1667), the territories lying east of the Dnieper (left-bank Ukraine) went to Russia, and those lying to the west (right-bank Ukraine) - to Poland. The terms of the truce were confirmed by the peace treaty of 1686. In 1687, Ivan Mazepa became the ruler (hetman) of left-bank Ukraine.

In the initial period of his reign, Mazepa remained loyal to Russia, but during the Russian-Swedish war (1700-1721) he entered into a secret conspiracy with the Swedish king Charles XII and the king of Poland Stanislav Leszczynski

According to the version of events officially disseminated in Ukraine, Menshikov, having learned about Mazepa’s transition to the Swedish side, using the help of Priluki Colonel Ivan Nos, who indicated a secret passage, broke into the residence of Hetman Mazepa - Baturin with troops and razed it to the ground.


The events in Baturin are described in the diary of Chambelian Charles XII Gustav Adlerfeld:

The Tsar, wishing to take revenge on Mazepa, against whom he published a formidable manifesto, ordered Menshikov to immediately attack his capital until the Swedes arrived to help. Menshikov attacked her on November 3 and took her. Then he gave the order to torture everyone without distinction of age or gender, and after the inhuman massacre he forcibly brought out the women who were still alive. He took the heavy guns from there, and there were about forty of them. He also barbarically plundered and burned the entire city and mills. One part of the garrison happily crossed the Seimas, but its commander was caught and tortured. He was a Prussian and his name was Koenigsek...

Detailed description The capture of Baturin was given by Daniel Defoe in the book “A Reliable History of the Life and Deeds of Peter Alekseevich, the Present Tsar of Muscovy, Written by a British Officer of the Tsarist Service”:

Prince Menshikov went to east side Ukraine with 24,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry, in order to force most of the Cossacks of that side to return to the oath and began to approach Baturin, Mazepa’s residence, which he strengthened as far as time and place allowed. Mazepa, in fulfillment of his plan, placed 6,000 Cossacks there, brave, strong and determined people who, among other things, were very well equipped with everything necessary for his defense. The prince, in spite of everything, immediately approached the castle and immediately attacked it in the Swedish manner. He could lose no time in observing all the necessary rules of a long siege. Having built three batteries in two days with the help of many men, he opened such a fierce fire that in one night and day he made a sufficient breach. It couldn’t be called real in the full engineering sense, but it made it possible to begin an assault. The garrison defended itself with great tenacity and killed many Muscovites in the ditch. But the Russians kept pressing forward and, inspired by the presence of their commanders, fell into such a rage, and besides, they were in such numbers that they burst into the castle with a sword in their hands and killed all, as said above, 6,000 traitor Cossacks, in pieces, without giving None of them have mercy. This was partly a fair retribution not only to those who committed treason and rebellion, but also as a deterrent to others who showed some inclination to rebel. This also led to the looting of the castle by soldiers. The consequences of the execution did not end there; it greatly intimidated other Cossacks to rebel in favor of the Swedish king, which was the intention of their entire nation. In addition, she reduced the army of the Swedish king by 6,000, and these 6,000 were part of the 10,000 who joined the Swedes with their hetman.

We also find evidence of the capture of Baturin in the travel diary of the Slovak writer Daniel Krman, who traveled through Ukraine with Charles XII: “It [Baturyn] was the residence of the governor Mazepa, who had buried treasures here. Due to the treachery of his servant, he lost them. This servant had blank sheets of paper, signed and sealed by his master. Thus he forged a letter that gave him the right to enter the town and carry out the orders of his master. When the servant was allowed in, he attacked the castle, took it, took the treasures, and devastated the town with sword and fire. About three hundred people escaped through the castle walls, but most were killed. We only saw smoky mills, collapsed houses, human corpses that were half burned and bloody.” The story, obviously, does not deserve much confidence - the mythical “servant” who attacked the “castle” and devastated it does not in any way resemble the real Menshikov.


On November 14, 2008, events for the reburial of the victims of the Baturyn tragedy took place in Baturin. The remains were reburied in the newly built Castle Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, which, on the orders of Menshikov, was burned by Russian troops after the capture of the city. The new temple was restored according to the model of Orthodox Ukrainian churches of the late 17th century by craftsmen from the Lviv region with the assistance of the Kharkov regional state administration. A crypt was specially built under the temple, where the remains of the victims of the Baturin tragedy were placed. The rite of consecration of the temple and a prayer service for the victims of the tragedy were conducted by the head of the Chernigov diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Bishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn Illarion.

« Baturin tragedy» - official name events in Baturyn in Ukraine, established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. On April 2, 2008, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, by its order, approved an action plan to prepare for the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the events associated with the military-political speech of Hetman Mazepa and the signing of the Ukrainian-Swedish union. This order, among other things, provides: “14. Organize and hold events in the IV quarter of 2008 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Baturyn tragedy... 16. Organize an International scientific and practical conference on the occasion of the Baturyn tragedy in the city of Chernigov and the town of Baturyn.” The Chernihiv Regional State Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Education and Science and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine were appointed as responsible for the events.

History of the city of Baturin

History of the name of the city Baturin
Baturin is a city in the Bakhmach district of the Chernigov region, located on the left bank of the Seim River (the left tributary of the Desna, the Dnieper basin) 217 ​​kilometers northeast of Kiev and 143 kilometers from the regional center of Chernigov (by road). Population 2,652 people (according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine as of January 1, 2014).

Foundation of Baturin

Baturyn was founded shortly after the signing of the Deulin truce of 1618 between the Muscovite kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of which the territory of Chernigovo-Severshchyna, including the territory where modern Baturyn is located, came under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1625, Shchasny Vyshel (Polish-royal captain), who received an order from the king to settle desert territories in the Seversky Principality, ordered his servant Matey Stakhursky to settle (besiege) the Baturyn settlement. By the end of the 1620s, Baturin already had a permanent population. In the early 1630s, the city belonged to the Starodub elder Pavel Trizna. At the beginning of the Smolensk War of 1632-1634, Baturinsky Castle was taken by Moscow troops and remained uninhabited throughout the entire period of hostilities. It was rebuilt by the people of Novgorod-Seversky, the elder A. Pesochinsky, but around 1635, the crown treasure of Jerzy Ossolinsky forced A. Pesochinsky to renounce his claims to Baturyn. From 1648 to 1708, Baturin was the center of hundreds, first of the Borznyansky (1648-1649), and then of the Chernigov regiment (1649-1654). From 1654 until the liquidation of the regimental system in Left Bank Ukraine in 1782, the hundred was invariably part of the Nizhyn regiment. After the destruction of the city in 1708, the center of the hundred was in the village of Mitchenki.

Baturin as part of Tsarist Russia

In the middle XVII century Baturin was a fairly protected city. This is how Baturin is described in 1654: the city of Baturin stands near the Seim River, under the city Lake Popovka flows into the Seim River, an earthen rampart was made around the city on three sides towards the lake, on both sides of that rampart it is fenced with oak logs, in that earthen rampart three There are travel gates, there are towers on two gates, there are no towers on the third gate, there are six blind corner towers. A ditch was made around the earthen rampart on three sides towards the mountain, and on the fourth side along the mountain from that earthen rampart up to the lake it was fenced with a standing stockade. There are nine cast-iron arquebuses (firearms) in the city along the towers and along the wall. A master's yard was made on the mountain above the lake, around that yard there was an earthen embankment made of a ditch, on that embankment there was a fort fenced with round oak logs, in that fort a driveway gate was made, on the gate there was a tower and three blind towers, around that yard near the walls on three sides ditch, and that fort was blocked in two by a standing fort, and two ditches were made near those walls. In 1654, Ivan Zolotarenko (at that time a designated hetman) received a royal charter for the town of Baturin with all the lands belonging to him. A year after this, Zolotarenko reported to the tsar that the town of Baturin had burned down, and in return he asked Borzna and Glukhov. A certificate for Glukhov was issued, however, since Ivan Zolotarenko was in Belarus all the time from the granting of Baturin to his replacement with Glukhov, then, presumably, Baturin was listed as Zolotarenko only on paper. From 1669 to 1708, Baturyn was the residence of the hetmans of Left Bank Ukraine. In November 1708, after Peter I finally became aware of Hetman Ivan Mazepa's defection to the side of the Swedish king Charles XII, Baturin was completely ruined and burned by Moscow troops under the command of Prince A. Menshikov. Menshikov was able to enter Baturin thanks to one of the elders of the Prilutsky regiment, Ivan Nos, who indicated the place through which it was possible to freely enter the fortress. The fled Baturin residents, returning to their native ashes, began to settle near the city, in the outskirts, which were not completely ruined. This is how the Lizogubov Chronicle for 1708 describes the destruction of the city: “Many people there disappeared from the sword, since they fled from all the villages; many people in the Seimas drowned, escaping on the ice that was not yet strong, many were burned, who were hiding in mansions, in cellars , in the pits." Baturin, together with the villages that belonged to him, was granted to Prince Menshikov in 1726, but the Baturin volost did not remain with him for long, until his fall (in 1727), when, together with other Menshikov estates, it was taken into the treasury. Baturyn again became the hetman's capital in 1750, along with the decree of Kirill Razumovsky as hetman. In 1760, Baturin was given to Razumovsky “for eternal and hereditary possession.” After the abolition of the hetmanate in 1764, Razumovsky lived in St. Petersburg for 11 years and returned to Baturin only in 1776, where he lived the rest of his life (died in 1803). Around 1772, Kirill Razumovsky began construction of a large stone house in Baturin, which was never completed and in which no one lived. Since 1782, Baturin was the center of the volost of the Konotop district of the Novgorod-Seversky governorship, which in 1791 became part of the Chernigov governorship. Since 1797, the Baturinskaya volost was part of the Little Russian province, and since 1802, the Chernigov province. By the end of the 19th century, there were 939 households in Baturyn and 5,091 inhabitants.

Baturin in the XX-XXI centuries

In 1923, districts were created in the Chernigov province, and instead of volosts, districts. Baturin became the center of the Konotop district of the Chernigov province. In 1925, the provinces were liquidated. In 1932, after another administrative-territorial reform, Baturin became part of the newly created Chernihiv region. Since 1960, Baturin has been an urban-type settlement. In 2008, Baturin was classified as a city of regional significance.

Origin of the name Baturin

The name of the city probably comes from the Russian dialect word batura - tower, tower, fortress. There is also a legend according to which the name of the city is derived from the name of the Polish king Stefan Batory (reigned from 1576 to 1586), who founded Baturyn, according to one version, for the residence of the Cossack hetmans, and according to another version, as his estate. However. there were no Cossacks yet on the left bank of the Dnieper during the reign of Stefan Batory.

Sources:

1. http://della.com.ua/distance/

2. Kulakovsky P. Chernigovo-Siverschyna at the warehouse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1618-1648) - K., 2006

3. V.M. Zaruba Administrative-territorial structure and administration of the Zaporozhye Military District at 1648_1782 river - Dnipropetrovsk, 2007

4. Jury books 1654 r. Bilotserkivsky and Nizhinsky regiments / Order: Y. Mitsik, M. Kravets - K., 2003

5. Acts relating to the history of Southern and Western Russia, Volume 14, Document No. 7 - St. Petersburg, 1889

6. Lazarevsky A.M. Description of Old Little Russia. Volume 2 Regiment Nezhinsky - K., 1893

7. "Teplovka". A page from the history of old Baturin // Kiev Antiquity No. 11 - K., 1890

8. A.A.Rusov Description of the Chernigov province Volume 2 - Chernigov, 1899

9. Baturin: stories of history Collection of documents and materials / Editorial Board O.B. Kovalenko and in. - Chernihiv, 2000

10. V.I. Dal Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language Volume 1 M., 2006


In 1989, former factory worker and junior researcher Elena Baturina began a long and difficult path to the top of business. In 1991, the Inteko company appeared, engaged in the production of household items made of plastic. In 2002, the main activity was supplemented by the construction of buildings on the basis of house-building plant No. 3, which was gradually supplemented by cement factories and its own bank. Since 2011, the entrepreneur has been moving her business abroad, where she continues her development activities. In 2016, Forbes listed her as the richest woman in Russia with a net worth of $1.1 billion.

 

It is believed that big business is a sphere of fierce competition and harsh natural selection, the lot of men. Sometimes ladies show themselves in it no worse than the stronger half of humanity.

The story of Elena Baturina's business creation is a vivid example of how a woman, a mother of two daughters, a caring wife, managed to take on the difficult burden of a business, make it profitable and achieve unconditional success.

Elena Nikolaevna Baturina- entrepreneur, founder of the Inteko corporation, the only female billionaire in Russia, whose fortune, according to Forbes, was estimated at $1.1 billion in 2016, wife of the former mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov. Her story is striking in that she managed to achieve success in completely “non-female” industries - industrial production and construction.

“It’s very good that I’m a woman. A woman will always find something to do.”

The results of Baturina’s work on the stock market are also indicative: she has always effectively formed and rebuilt her investment portfolio, supplementing it with assets of “blue chips” - Sberbank of Russia, Gazprom, etc.

A separate page in the biography of Elena Baturina is the numerous lawsuits she won (the total amount of compensation is estimated at 1-3 million rubles), mainly related to challenging false information disseminated by the media.

“It seems to me that the poor people steal and take, those who cannot earn money. I don’t consider myself one of those people.”

Being the daughter of ordinary workers, forced to go to work at a factory immediately after graduating from school, Elena Baturina managed to overcome the chasm and top the list of the richest women in Russia.

In 1989, she began her journey in business as part of a cooperative created together with her brother Victor. Two years later, her main brainchild appeared - the Inteko company, which became not only a key milestone in Baturina’s business, but also a part of Russian history. After all, it was she who created a number of large construction projects in Moscow: the Shuvalovsky and Grand Park residential areas, the Volzhsky microdistrict, the Fusion complex and the academic building of Moscow State University.

The personality of Elena Baturina is surrounded by numerous scandalous rumors. But one thing is certain: this woman managed to achieve success in business, and she continues to implement successful projects.

“I know that if I had allowed myself any illegal actions during more than 20 years of doing business, I would have killed myself. And I’m glad that my conscience is clear, because this allows me today to look everyone in the eye completely openly.”

In 2010, the entrepreneur was first included in the Forbes magazine rating with a fortune of $2.9 billion, and in 2011 she took 77th place in the list of successful Russian businessmen.

In 2012, Elena completely ceased her entrepreneurial activities in Russia and launched a development business in Europe. In 2013, she was ranked 12th among the wealthiest people in the UK, where she moved to be close to her daughters.

In 2017, her fortune, according to Forbes, amounted to $1 billion, a decrease of $100 million compared to the previous year. This allowed her to take 90th place in the authoritative ranking.

To this day, she continues to be the richest woman in Russia. Throughout her entire period of entrepreneurial activity, Baturina has been a well-known philanthropist and philanthropist, who has donated about $300 million to charitable purposes. In 2012, she created the BE OPEN charitable foundation.

How did it happen that a girl from a working-class family became the creator of the Inteko business empire? How did she manage to move from producing plastic basins and glasses to creating large-scale construction projects, maintaining her fortune and reputation even after leaving Russia? The secrets of the Russian businesswoman's success lie in the history of the creation of her life's work.

A girl from a working family

On the eve of International Women's Day - March 8, 1963, a daughter, Elena, was born into a family of workers at the Moscow Frazer plant. She became the second child and the long-awaited girl. During her childhood, the baby was in poor health. None of those close to me could have imagined that the fragile Lenochka would turn into a strict, assertive, purposeful and sometimes extremely tough entrepreneur.

The family did not live well, which is why Elena had to enter the factory at the age of 17. After finishing her day shift, the girl hurried to her evening classes at the institute. This challenging schedule laid the foundations for a strong character.

After graduation, she was invited to work at a research institute. In an effort to build a career, Baturina agreed.

Reference: Elena's work at the Moscow Institute of Economic Problems was successful: she quickly became a research fellow, and later the head of the secretariat. Subsequently, she was called to the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee to the position of chief specialist, where she first met her future husband, Yuri Luzhkov.
Source: Forbes

However, the monotonous work in government agencies seemed boring and divorced from reality to Elena Baturina. There was only one solution - to go into business.

First steps and birth of Inteko

In 1989, a sales and installation cooperative was registered software in the name of Elena Baturina. The co-founder was her older brother Victor. However, the lack of sufficient start-up capital and knowledge of how to start a business prevented the business from gaining momentum.

But Elena was not going to give up. In 1991, she created Inteko LLP, which became known as a manufacturer of plastic products - dishes, household items, chairs, etc. The decision turned out to be successful, since this was a relatively new field of activity for Russia.

“Russia is not Europe, where all niches have long been occupied. 18 years ago, our nascent market had an almost empty field; we just had to choose the right direction in which to move. We decided to go into production.”

In 1994, the company, using mainly borrowed capital (approximately 6 million rubles), acquired a plastics processing plant. Thanks to the victory in 1998 in the tender for the supply of 80 thousand plastic seats for the construction of the Luzhniki stadium, the company managed to repay the loan.

Elena Baturina's company managed not only to survive the default of 1998, but even to reorganize into a closed joint stock company and significantly gain a foothold in the Russian market. In the early 2000s, it accounted for:

  • 1/4 of the production of all plastic products in the country;
  • 15-20% of the plastics market.

Moreover, since 1999, the Inteko company begins to follow a diversification strategy: along with plastic products, it moves to the production of modern finishing materials (for panel and monolithic construction), and practices architectural design and real estate business.

Development of the construction industry

Elena Baturina did not stop there. Until the early 2000s, she had her sights set on the construction industry. However, the lack of impressive free capital and concerns about high risks hampered.

Chance helped her break into the industry. In 2001, the lawyer of the widow of the director of the Moscow house-building plant No. 3 came to the entrepreneur. Frightened by the threats of competitors, the woman offered Inteko to buy a stake from her (52%). Elena realized that this was an opportunity and agreed to the deal.

In the period from 2002 to 2005. the new enterprise built an average of 500 thousand square meters of housing per year.

Interesting fact: During the heyday of the construction business, Baturina’s daughters, Elena (2002) and Olga (2004), were born.

Baturina realized that further expansion and diversification of Inteko could bring her serious results. And, without neglecting the possibility of using borrowed capital, she continued her journey in the ocean of business.

“To succeed, a woman needs to be head and shoulders above her partners and competitors”

In subsequent years, the Inteko group of companies is continually replenished with new members:

  • 2002 - separation of the construction company Strategi LLC, which specializes in the construction of monolithic buildings, within Inteko;
  • 2003 - acquisition of two cement plants;
  • 2004 - purchase of shares in four enterprises producing construction materials;
  • 2005 - purchase of assets of the Russian Land Bank (RZB) mainly for the purpose of ensuring financial transactions for the main business.

The active growth of Baturina’s business allowed her to engage in the construction of elite buildings and standard houses. The design bureau, which operated as part of Inteko from the first years of its activity, created sketches of apartments with improved layouts and worked out the design of facades in detail.

Economies of scale and a balanced approach to business are the main criteria for Baturina’s victories in public and private tenders.

There is an opinion that many orders went to her thanks to the high position of her husband. However, it is worth paying attention to the fact that all the tasks assigned to Inteko were completed efficiently and on time. Here we were talking about the personal qualities of the entrepreneur, and not about her influential husband.

“It’s all about genes - a person is either a leader by nature or not. I have always been a leader"

In 2005, Elena Baturina decides to concentrate her efforts on the construction of monolithic housing and commercial real estate: this area brought the greatest profit to Inteko. As a result, it sells DMK No. 3 and all cement plants and invests most of the proceeds in its core activities.

At the same time, the original direction of Inteko’s functioning was not forgotten: the corporation provided plastic utensils to the majority of bistros in Moscow and the Moscow region.

She used the remaining amount to purchase securities of Russia's largest corporations (mainly shares of Sberbank and Gazprom). This step was regarded by many analysts as very far-sighted: it was it that helped Inteko stay afloat in 2008-2009, when the entrepreneur sold part of the highly profitable shares and covered the burning bank loans.

“I don’t think I made a great career because all my life I dreamed of being an analyst. Someone should sit as an eminence grise and write analytical materials.”

Coat of arms of Baturin (city)
A country Ukraine
Region Chernihiv region
Area Bakhmachsky district
City Council Baturinsky City Council
Postcode 16500
City with 2008
Confessional composition Christianity
Population 3066 people (2010)
First mention 1625
Timezone UTC+2, in summer UTC+3
KOATUU 7420355300
National composition Ukrainians - predominantly
Climate type temperate moderate continental
Coordinates Coordinates: 51°20′00″ N. w. 32°53′00″ E. d. / 51.333333° n. w. 32.883333° E. d. (G) (O) (I)51°20′00″ n. w. 32°53′00″ E. d. / 51.333333° n. w. 32.883333° E. d. (G) (O) (I)
Telephone code +380 4635
Vehicle code CB/25
Square 0.7 km²
Average height 130-140 m

Baturin (Ukrainian Baturin) is a city located on the territory of the Bakhmachsky district (Chernigov region, Ukraine) on the left bank of the Seim River (the left tributary of the Desna). The capital of Cossack Ukraine in the 17th-18th centuries. Baturin was considered a city in the period 1625-1923. and since 2008 it has again acquired the status of a city.

Story

First mentioned in 1625. In 1669-1708 - the seat of the hetmans of Left Bank Ukraine. In 1708, Hetman Mazepa decided that the opportunity had come to break with the Russian Tsardom. After Mazepa united with Charles XII, Russian Tsar Peter I ordered Menshikov to capture Baturin, and Baturin was taken.

One of the Sich kurens was named after the city. After the resettlement of the Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Kuban, the Baturinskoye Kuren village was founded - the modern village of Baturinskaia.

Famous people associated with the city

  • Orlik, Grigor (born 1702) - French military leader, lieutenant general, son of Hetman Philip Orlik, the closest ally of Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa;

    • Gallery

    Reserve "Hetman's Capital". Rozumovsky Palace.

    On this territory there was Old Russian fortification.

    History of the 16th-17th centuries

    History of the 20th century

    In 1923, districts were created in the Chernigov province, and instead of volosts, districts. Baturin became the center of the Konotop district of the Chernigov province. In 1925, the provinces were liquidated. In 1932, after another administrative-territorial reform, Baturin became part of the newly created Chernihiv region.

    Since 1960, Baturin has been an urban village.

    Modern history

    In official documents of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the events of 1708 are called the “Baturyn tragedy”.

    Currently, 5 objects are being reconstructed in Baturyn: the citadel, the palace of Hetman Razumovsky, Kochubey’s house, the Resurrection Church and the Resurrection School at the temple. The village has a cinema and a public library.

    A bus line connects Baturyn with Bakhmach and Konotop. Nearest railroad station- Bakhmach.

    Write a review about the article "The History of Baturin"

    Notes

    Links

    • History of cities and villages of the Chernigov region, 1983.

    An excerpt characterizing the History of Baturin

    In the summer of 1809, Pierre returned to St. Petersburg. From the correspondence of our Freemasons with foreign ones, it was known that Bezukhy managed to gain the trust of many high-ranking officials abroad, penetrated many secrets, was elevated to the highest degree and was carrying with him a lot for the common good of the masonry business in Russia. The St. Petersburg Masons all came to him, fawning on him, and it seemed to everyone that he was hiding something and preparing something.
    A solemn meeting of the 2nd degree lodge was scheduled, in which Pierre promised to convey what he had to convey to the St. Petersburg brothers from the highest leaders of the order. The meeting was full. After the usual rituals, Pierre stood up and began his speech.
    “Dear brothers,” he began, blushing and stammering, and holding the written speech in his hand. - It is not enough to observe our sacraments in the silence of the lodge - we need to act... act. We are in a state of sleep, and we need to act. – Pierre took his notebook and began to read.
    “To spread pure truth and bring about the triumph of virtue,” he read, we must cleanse people from prejudices, spread rules in accordance with the spirit of the times, take upon ourselves the education of youth, unite in unbreakable bonds with the smartest people, boldly and together prudently overcome superstition, unbelief and It is stupidity to form people loyal to us, bound together by a unity of purpose and having power and strength.
    “To achieve this goal, one must give virtue an advantage over vice, one must try to ensure that an honest person receives an eternal reward for his virtues in this world. But in these great intentions there are many obstacles that hinder us - the current political institutions. What to do in this state of affairs? Should we favor revolutions, overthrow everything, drive out force by force?... No, we are very far from that. Any violent reform is reprehensible, because it will not correct the evil in the least as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need for violence.
    “The entire plan of the order must be based on the formation of strong, virtuous people and bound by the unity of conviction, a conviction consisting in everywhere and with all their might to persecute vice and stupidity and to patronize talents and virtue: to extract worthy people from the dust, joining them to our brotherhood. Then only our order will have the power to insensitively tie the hands of the patrons of disorder and control them so that they do not notice it. In a word, it is necessary to establish a universal ruling form of government, which would extend over the whole world, without destroying civil bonds, and under which all other governments could continue in their usual order and do everything except that which interferes with the great goal of our order, then is the achievement of virtue's triumph over vice. Christianity itself presupposed this goal. It taught people to be wise and kind, and for their own benefit to follow the example and instructions of the best and wisest people.
    “Then, when everything was immersed in darkness, preaching alone was, of course, enough: the news of the truth gave it special power, but now we need much stronger means. Now it is necessary for a person, controlled by his feelings, to find sensual delights in virtue. Passions cannot be eradicated; we must only try to direct them to a noble goal, and therefore it is necessary that everyone can satisfy their passions within the limits of virtue, and that our order provides the means for this.
    “As soon as we have a certain number of worthy people in each state, each of them will again form two others, and they will all be closely united with each other - then everything will be possible for the order, which has already managed to secretly do a lot for the good of mankind.”
    This speech made not only a strong impression, but also excitement in the box. The majority of the brothers, who saw in this speech the dangerous plans of Illuminism, accepted his speech with a coldness that surprised Pierre. The Grand Master began to object to Pierre. Pierre began to develop his thoughts with greater and greater fervor. There has not been such a stormy meeting for a long time. Parties formed: some accused Pierre, condemning him as an Illuminati; others supported him. Pierre was struck for the first time at this meeting by the infinite variety of human minds, which makes it so that no truth is presented in the same way to two people. Even those of the members who seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way, with restrictions, changes that he could not agree to, since Pierre’s main need was precisely to convey his thought to another exactly as he himself understood her.
    At the end of the meeting, the great master, with hostility and irony, made a remark to Bezukhoy about his ardor and that it was not only the love of virtue, but also the passion for struggle that guided him in the dispute. Pierre did not answer him and briefly asked whether his proposal would be accepted. He was told that no, and Pierre, without waiting for the usual formalities, left the box and went home.

    The melancholy that he was so afraid of came over Pierre again. For three days after delivering his speech in the box, he lay at home on the sofa, not receiving anyone and not going anywhere.
    At this time, he received a letter from his wife, who begged him for a date, wrote about her sadness for him and about her desire to devote her whole life to him.
    At the end of the letter, she informed him that one of these days she would come to St. Petersburg from abroad.
    Following the letter, one of the Masonic brothers, less respected by him, burst into Pierre's solitude and, bringing the conversation to Pierre's marital relations, in the form of fraternal advice, expressed to him the idea that his severity towards his wife was unfair, and that Pierre was deviating from the first rules of a Freemason , not forgiving the repentant.
    At the same time, his mother-in-law, the wife of Prince Vasily, sent for him, begging him to visit her for at least a few minutes to negotiate a very important matter. Pierre saw that there was a conspiracy against him, that they wanted to unite him with his wife, and this was not even unpleasant to him in the state in which he was. He didn’t care: Pierre didn’t consider anything in life to be a matter of great importance, and under the influence of the melancholy that now took possession of him, he did not value either his freedom or his persistence in punishing his wife.
    “No one is right, no one is to blame, therefore she is not to blame,” he thought. - If Pierre did not immediately express consent to unite with his wife, it was only because in the state of melancholy in which he was, he was not able to do anything. If his wife had come to him, he would not have sent her away now. Compared to what occupied Pierre, wasn’t it all the same whether he lived or not lived with his wife?
    Without answering anything to either his wife or his mother-in-law, Pierre got ready for the road late one evening and left for Moscow to see Joseph Alekseevich. This is what Pierre wrote in his diary.
    “Moscow, November 17th.
    I just arrived from my benefactor, and I hasten to write down everything that I experienced. Joseph Alekseevich lives poorly and has been suffering from a painful bladder disease for three years. No one ever heard a groan or a word of murmur from him. From morning until late at night, with the exception of the hours during which he eats the simplest food, he works on science. He received me graciously and seated me on the bed on which he was lying; I made him a sign of the knights of the East and Jerusalem, he answered me in the same way, and with a gentle smile asked me about what I had learned and acquired in the Prussian and Scottish lodges. I told him everything as best I could, conveying the reasons that I proposed in our St. Petersburg box and informed him about the bad reception given to me and about the break that had occurred between me and the brothers. Joseph Alekseevich, having paused and thought for a while, expressed his view of all this to me, which instantly illuminated for me everything that had happened and the entire future path ahead of me. He surprised me by asking if I remembered what the threefold purpose of the order was: 1) to preserve and learn the sacrament; 2) in purifying and correcting oneself in order to perceive it and 3) in correcting the human race through the desire for such purification. What is the most important and first goal of these three? Of course, your own correction and cleansing. This is the only goal we can always strive for, regardless of all circumstances. But at the same time, this goal requires the most work from us, and therefore, misled by pride, we, missing this goal, either take on the sacrament, which we are unworthy to receive due to our impurity, or we take on the correction of the human race, when we ourselves are an example of abomination and depravity. Illuminism is not a pure doctrine precisely because it is carried away by social activities and is filled with pride. On this basis, Joseph Alekseevich condemned my speech and all my activities. I agreed with him in the depths of my soul. On the occasion of our conversation about my family affairs, he told me: “The main duty of a true Mason, as I told you, is to improve himself.” But often we think that by removing all the difficulties of our life from ourselves, we will more quickly achieve this goal; on the contrary, my lord, he told me, only in the midst of secular unrest can we achieve three main goals: 1) self-knowledge, for a person can know himself only through comparison, 2) improvement, which is achieved only through struggle, and 3) to achieve the main virtue - love of death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its futility and can contribute to our innate love of death or rebirth to a new life. These words are all the more remarkable because Joseph Alekseevich, despite his severe physical suffering, is never burdened by life, but loves death, for which he, despite all the purity and height of his inner man, does not yet feel sufficiently prepared. Then the benefactor explained to me the full meaning of the great square of the universe and pointed out that the triple and seventh numbers are the basis of everything. He advised me not to distance myself from communication with the St. Petersburg brothers and, occupying only 2nd degree positions in the lodge, try, distracting the brothers from the hobbies of pride, to turn them to the true path of self-knowledge and improvement. In addition, for himself, he personally advised me, first of all, to take care of myself, and for this purpose he gave me a notebook, the same one in which I write and will henceforth write down all my actions.”