Facts about the Russian Empire. Interesting facts about rulers, leaders, kings and kings (20 facts)

As we know, every country has its own leader or ruler. We also have our own president. But this is not what we will be talking about. Below is a small selection of interesting facts about the leaders of different states.

1. Japanese Emperor Akihito is the 125th head of state in an unbroken dynasty dating back to the 1st century BC.

13. The conqueror Tamerlane built pyramids from the skulls of defeated slaves.

14. Among the first 15 Roman emperors, only Claudius did not have relationships with men, for which they mocked him, saying that since he only had relationships with women, he himself became effeminate.

15. After Abraham Lincoln's death, his body was reburied 17 times.

16. The English king Henry VIII began minting copper shillings instead of silver shillings and covering them with silver. But over time, the silver wore away, especially in the area of ​​the king’s nose, and for this the king received the nickname “Old Brass Nose.”

17. Louis XIV washed the feet of 12 beggars on Holy Thursday and also kissed them. True, initially the beggars were examined by doctors.

18. Queen Elizabeth of England was proclaimed queen in 1952, but ascended the throne only a year and a half later, until the mourning ended.

19. The words Tsar and Kaiser come from the word "Caesar".

20. And finally, a small story about the nicknames of “Russian presidents”:

Why is Putin a crab? Because in one of the interviews he said the phrase “I worked like a galley slave.” Like a slave and like a crab sound exactly the same to the ear.

Why Medvedev Shmel? This is what his classmates nicknamed him when, in his youth, at one of the weddings, he dressed up as a gypsy and sang the song “Shaggy Bumblebee.” Later this information was leaked onto the World Wide Web.

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— interesting and funny facts about everything in the world.

Time erases memory - the more we move away in time from the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire, the more difficult it is for us to understand what it was like. I offer an entertaining selection of scattered facts about Tsarist Russia.

1. In Tsarist Russia there was no ban on the free carrying of weapons. Until the coup of 1917, weapons could be freely purchased in gun stores.

2. In the Russian Empire, the kilogram was not a measure of mass; this function was performed by a pound, the nominal weight of which is 16.38 kg.

3. The revolutionary coup made another adjustment to the traditions of the Russian Empire - before it, Russia was the least drinking country on the European continent. Russia was considered the most sober power in Europe, second only to Norway in these indicators, until the beginning of the 20th century.

4. Russian Emperor Nicholas II was related to the Emperor of the British Empire, George V, who was his cousin.

5. Emperor Peter III (referred to from birth as Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp), whose reign occurred in 1761 - 1762. was of German origin.
The great-nephew of the Swedish King Charles XII on his father's side, he was initially raised as the likely heir to the throne of Sweden. There is historical information that in 1751, having learned that his uncle had become the king of Sweden, the future emperor said: “They sent me off to damned Russia, where I feel like a state prisoner! Now, if they had left me free, I would now be ruling over a civilized people.”

6. The Russian Empire entered the twentieth century with the largest and most promising oil production and oil refining industry in the world: domestic processing of all oil then reached 94%.

7. 1904 - there are 21 million horses in the Tsar’s (for comparison, in the rest of the world there are approximately 75 million). It is noteworthy that 60% of peasant farms had 3 or more horses.
8. “Chanel No. 5” was not invented by Coco Chanel. The author of the famous fragrance was a Russian emigrant perfumer named Verigin, who worked with native Muscovite Ernest Bo in the Chanel perfume department.
9. In 1913, Russia's income from trading butter abroad was at the same level as from gold mining.

10. The most numerous class in Tsarist Russia was the peasantry.
Confessions in imperial Russia: Orthodox - 69.5%, Muslims - 11.1%, Catholics - 9.1%, Jews - 4.2%.
11. Emperor Nicholas II is the first head of state to announce the idea of ​​global disarmament. His proposal was announced in The Hague (1898) and was intended for the heads of state of Europe.
12. On the eve of the First World War, Russia supplied as much grain as the United States, Canada and Argentina combined.

Alexander II (1818–1881) went after the bear with a spear and hated Moscow. Nicholas I (1825–1855) was the only non-smoking Russian Emperor. Alexander III

The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II (1868–1918) and Prince Nicholas of Greece (1872–1938)
Photo: State Archive of the Russian Federation, ca. 1899–1900

Alexander II (1818–1881) went after the bear with a spear and hated Moscow. Nicholas I (1825–1855) was the only non-smoking Russian Emperor. Alexander III (1881–1894) did not disdain “mater”, but he was the first of the tsars to address his subordinates as “you.” And Nicholas II (1868–1918) wrote down and carefully sketched absolutely all the jewelry that was ever given to him.

Of all the Emperors, only Nicholas I did not smoke. Accordingly, the people working with him also did not smoke. And those who worked with those who worked did not smoke either. Those who worked with those who worked with those who worked did not smoke either. And so on. Therefore, smokers were treated very poorly throughout his reign. Smoking was prohibited even on the streets and squares. The rest of the emperors smoked. It is curious that Empresses Catherine and Elizabeth loved snuff. They were both right-handed, but they always took tobacco from snuff boxes with their left hand - tobacco turned the skin on their hand yellow, and therefore the left hand is yellow and smells of tobacco, and the right hand is for kissing.

This is a snuff box from the erotic collection of Nicholas I:

By the way, he is very happily married and began collecting an erotic collection as a hobby. This is not surprising. Each of our subsequent emperors continued to collect this collection. And Alexander II, and Alexander III, and Nicholas II.

Passionate hunter Alexander II killed his first bear at the age of 19. And not with a gun, but with a spear. He threw his hat over the bear and forward. The collection of the Gatchina Arsenal contains the spears with which Alexander went to hunt the bear.

The diary entries about the hunting of Nicholas II are surprising. It felt like he had some kind of complex that he was breaking down during the hunt. Here are some entries.

January 11, 1904: “The duck hunt was very successful - a total of 879 were killed.”

Buchanan recalled that on one of the hunts, Nicholas II killed 1,400 pheasants.

In 1900, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Nikolai killed 41 bison. And he went hunting to Belovezhskaya Pushcha every year. It is interesting that the German Emperor Wilhelm II persistently asked Alexander III to go hunting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, but Alexander never took Wilhelm with him. Alexander had a strong dislike for William.

The photo shows Nicholas II after his next deer hunt. It's not that simple there either. It was forbidden to shoot deer and those with less than 10 branches in the antlers.

When at the beginning of the First World War in Russia they began to intern the Germans who were in the Russian service of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, they took all but two. One of these two lucky ones was Nikolai's hunter and royal huntsman Vladimir Romanovich Dits.

Alexander III always emphasized his Russianness. Addressing everyone as “you,” he did not disdain using Russian language to speed up his subordinates or express his feelings to them in Russian. When communicating with his subordinates, he had no posture - he was very simple, like a simple Russian person. Then this beard is his. And he himself liked to be Russian. Although he had no illusions on this score. His mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were German princesses. They say that when he read the “Notes” of Catherine II and learned from them that the father of his great-grandfather Paul I was not Peter III, but an ordinary Russian nobleman, he was very happy. Peter the Third was a Holstein-Gottorp prince, and a Russian nobleman was still Russian - this greatly increased his, Alexander’s, share of Russian blood. Hence the joy.

Alexander I addressed his subordinates using “you,” but this was due to the fact that at court, they mostly communicated in French; when they switched to Russian, they invariably switched to “you.” Nicholas I said “you” to everyone. Alexander II and his brothers treated their subordinates in the same way. Subordinates were very afraid when Alexander II addressed them as “you” - this meant an official tone and the beginning of a scolding and thunderstorm. The first king who began to say “you” to his subordinates was Alexander III.

Wha-oh?? Me - in this? Single breasted? What are you talking about? Don’t you know that no one fights in single-breasted clothes anymore? Ugliness! War is at our doorstep, but we are not ready! No, we are not ready for war! ©

On the New Year, 1845, Nicholas I gave his 22-year-old daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, a royal gift - she became the chief of the 3rd Elisavetgrad Hussar Regiment. The bomb was there - in the uniform that Olga was now supposed to wear on such occasions. The fact is, like any woman, Olga wanted it to be beautiful, but her father wanted it to be according to the Charter. Olga didn’t want embroidered chakchirs, didn’t want a saber, didn’t want trousers, but wanted a skirt. The conflict was serious. Women are very flexible. They can forgive, forget, sacrifice and, in general, whatever they want, but they cannot wear clothes that they do not like. Olga did not like the saber - a completely understandable desire of a 22-year-old girl. A compromise was found in an exchange: Nikolai agreed to a skirt. Olga was so happy that she agreed to the saber.

Alexander II was rapidly losing his reputation because of this second marriage to Ekaterina Dolgoruka. They got married when forty days had not yet passed since the death of his first wife. And she was not a match for him, and stupid, and by calculation on her part, and much, much more. Relatives, society, those closest to him - everyone began to turn away from him because of this. The most radical options were considered by hotheads. Why did He marry her??? It turns out that he promised to marry her in front of the icon.

His two youngest sons, Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail, were sent by their father, Nicholas I, to the front in the Crimean War. Since they were sent to the front not for show, but to inspire the soldiers, things were very real there - bullets whistled and shells exploded. The guys really fought there. Shoulder to shoulder with grown men. Nikolai was 23 years old at that time, Mikhail was 21.

Alexander II hated Moscow. Despite the fact that he himself was born in it - in the Chudov Monastery - he did not love it and could not stand it. I tried to leave it as quickly as possible and return as often as possible. I'm trying to imagine myself in his place in this sense. It’s not about hating Moscow (:-)), but about hating my hometown, the city where I was born - St. Petersburg. It doesn’t turn out very well and it’s not clear how this could be.

Alexander III was just born in St. Petersburg. But he also said that he hated his hometown - St. Petersburg. The happiest time of the year for him was Easter, when they left for Moscow. He loved Moscow very much. I enjoyed going there and didn’t want to go back. He didn’t even live in St. Petersburg - he and his family lived in Gatchina. But this is rather due to the fact that in big St. Petersburg he could easily be killed by terrorists, like his father, and in small Gatchina this was impossible to do, but he left St. Petersburg as soon as he moved away from his dying father.

The children of the kings learned foreign languages ​​in large numbers. They spoke to their relatives, monarchs and princely houses of Europe without translators. Plus the wife’s parents, mother-in-law and father-in-law, with whom it is also advisable to speak Danish, like Alexander III. Therefore, teaching children foreign languages ​​was very intensive. At the request of Empress Maria Feodorovna, in 1856, Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gorchakov prepared a memorandum on the education of the Grand Dukes. Regarding foreign languages, Gorchakov believed that the Emperor’s children should be taught Russian, then French and German. Gorchakov especially noted that there is no need to teach children English - no one speaks it in Europe anyway. Now it would be so! We, Francophiles, would rejoice :-)

Nicholas I was the first to speak Russian at the Court. Under Alexander II, French returned, but even with him his son, the future Alexander III, but for now Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, spoke Russian. Alexander III emphasized his Russianness in every possible way. He even couldn’t stand the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna because she spoke Russian very poorly, with a monstrous accent - the wives of the Grand Dukes, mostly German princesses, were forced to learn this Russian at their wedding age, and therefore who he learned it well, and some, like Ekaterina Mikhailovna, poorly. The Tsar did not like her very much and called her children “poodles.”

This is Alexander III. He is in almost all photographs with a big beard. His father Alexander II, long before the Turkish War, forbade the wearing of beards by his Decree - he did not like them. And no one wore it. Look at the portraits of nobles and officials of that time - not a single one has a beard. Mustaches, sideburns - please, but the chin is bare. But the Russian-Turkish war began and for the duration of the war the Tsar allows those who wish to grow a beard. And everyone was released. Including the future Alexander III. However, immediately after the war, Alexander II again forbade wearing beards - “to get yourself in order,” as Alexander writes in the Decree. And again everything was shaved off. Only one person did not shave - his son Alexander Alexandrovich. So I always wore a beard after that. And when he was the Grand Duke and after, when he became a king. To put it mildly, the relationship between father and son was rather cool. They didn't get along very well - father and son.

Nicholas II manically kept rather detailed notes. Diaries and albums are sometimes full of such completely unimportant details that it seems that the author is sick. This is how I see the famous “Jewelry Album” of Nicholas II. In it he wrote down absolutely all the jewelry that had ever been given to him. Not only did he write who gave it, but he also carefully sketched what was given to him. 305 entries. Wow. Here, for example, is one of the album pages. The jewelry that will interest you most was given to Nikolai by Alix:

They say that any power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts completely. Russian rulers of different eras were no exception to this rule, and they cannot be called ascetic people even with great stretching. Many historical anecdotes have been preserved about Russian kings and queens. We offer you some of them.

Peter the Great and the dwarfs

Emperor Peter I loved dwarfs from childhood, and during his reign it was common practice for noble nobles to keep Lilliputians as jesters. However, Peter himself took this hobby to the extreme. From time to time he ordered a naked midget to be baked in a pie, so that in the middle of dinner he would suddenly jump out of the pie to the fear of the guests and to the amusement of the emperor.

Peter even tried to breed dwarfs. For the wedding of the Tsar's jester Yakim Volkov and the dwarf who served the Tsarina, more than seventy dwarfs, mostly poor peasants, were brought from all over Russia. They were dressed in specially tailored clothes of European styles, drunk with wine and forced to dance to entertain those present. The emperor was very pleased.

Catherine the Second and the collection of erotica

According to the official version, the collection was destroyed in 1950. A catalog issued in the 1930s and several photographs taken by German officers during World War II have been preserved. There is a version that Catherine II’s secret office was located not in Gatchina, but in Peterhof, and can still be found.

Ivan the Terrible and the fake Tsar

During the 11 months of Simeon's reign, Ivan, with his hands, returned to the treasury all the lands previously granted to monasteries and boyars, and in August 1576 he just as suddenly took the throne again. Simeon's relations with subsequent kings were extremely unhappy. Boris Godunov ordered him to be blinded, False Dmitry I forced him to go to a monastery, Vasily Shuisky exiled him to Solovki. The burial place of Simeon is located under the foundation of the cultural center of the Likhachev Plant, on the site where the necropolis of the Simonov Monastery was once located.

Alexander II and his sense of humor

Alexander III and genealogy

Elizaveta Petrovna and women's pride

One day, after a ball, the court hairdresser was unable to wash and comb Elizabeth’s hair, which was sticky from hairdressing potions. The Empress was forced to cut her hair. Immediately, the ladies of the court were ordered to shave their heads and wear black wigs until the order was rescinded. Only the future Catherine II, who had recently suffered an illness and lost her hair during the illness, avoided shaving her head. Moscow ladies were allowed not to shave their heads, provided that they hide their hairstyles under black wigs.

Paul I and official zeal

Two hours before the end of the exercises, the emperor, along with the regiments besieging the fortress, was caught in a heavy downpour. The commandant of the fortress was ordered to immediately open the gates and let Paul in, but he flatly refused to carry out the order. The Emperor was soaked through. Exactly at twelve o'clock the gates opened, and Pavel, bursting into the fortress in anger, attacked the commandant with reproaches.

He calmly showed the emperor the order signed in his own hand. Pavel had no choice but to praise the colonel for his diligence and discipline. The commandant immediately received the rank of major general and was sent to stand guard in the continuing rain.

Alexander I and honesty

Seeing the book in the same place, the emperor again asked the caretaker if he had read the book since they saw each other. The caretaker again warmly assured him that he had read it more than once. Alexander leafed through the Bible - the banknotes were in place. He chided the caretaker for deception and ordered the money to be distributed to the orphans.

We invite you to read about the most striking love stories in the Russian imperial dynasty.
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Interesting historical facts about the rulers of Russia.
40 interesting facts about the Rurik family.

The Rurik family was in power in Russia for seven centuries. He left behind noble descendants and a lot of mysteries.

1. The Rurikids ruled for 748 years - from 862 to 1610.
2. Almost nothing is known for certain about the founder of the dynasty - Rurik.

3. Until the 15th century, none of the Russian tsars called themselves “Rurikovich”. The scientific debate about the personality of Rurik began only in the 18th century.

4. The common ancestors of all Rurikovichs are: Rurik himself, his son Igor, grandson Svyatoslav Igorevich and great-grandson Vladimir Svyatoslavich.

5. The use of a patronymic as part of a family name in Rus' is a confirmation of a person’s connections with his father. Noble and ordinary people called themselves, for example, “Mikhail, Petrov’s son.” It was considered a special privilege to add the ending “-ich” to the patronymic, which was allowed to people of high origin. This is how the Rurikovichs were called, for example, Svyatopolk Izyaslavich.

7. Old Russian chronicles began to be compiled 200 years after the death of Rurik and a century after the baptism of Rus' (the appearance of writing) on ​​the basis of oral traditions, Byzantine chronicles and the few existing documents.

8. The most prominent statesmen from the Rurikids were the Grand Dukes Vladimir the Holy, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod the Big Nest, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the Third, Vasily the Third, Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

9. For a long time, the name Ivan, which is of Jewish origin, did not extend to the ruling dynasty, but starting from Ivan I (Kalita), it is used to refer to four sovereigns from the Rurik family.

10. The symbol of the Rurikovichs was a tamga in the form of a diving falcon. The 19th century historian Stapan Gedeonov associated the very name of Rurik with the word “Rerek” (or “Rarog”), which in the Slavic tribe of Obodrits meant falcon. During excavations of early settlements of the Rurik dynasty, many images of this bird were found.

11. The families of the Chernigov princes trace their origins to the three sons of Mikhail Vsevolodovich (great-great-grandson of Oleg Svyatoslavich) - Semyon, Yuri, Mstislav. Prince Semyon Mikhailovich of Glukhov became the ancestor of the princes Vorotynsky and Odoevsky. Tarussky Prince Yuri Mikhailovich - Mezetsky, Baryatinsky, Obolensky. Karachaevsky Mstislav Mikhailovich-Mosalsky, Zvenigorodsky. Of the Obolensky princes, many princely families later emerged, among which the most famous are the Shcherbatovs, Repnins, Serebryans, and Dolgorukovs.

12. Among the Russian models from the time of emigration were princesses Nina and Mia Obolensky, girls from the most noble princely family of the Obolenskys, whose roots go back to the Rurikovichs.

13. The Rurikovichs had to abandon dynastic preferences in favor of Christian names. Already at baptism Vladimir Svyatoslavovich was given the name Vasily, and Princess Olga - Elena.

14. The tradition of the direct name originates in the early genealogy of the Rurikovichs, when the Grand Dukes bore both a pagan and Christian name: Yaroslav-George (Wise) or Vladimir-Vasily (Monomakh).

15. The historian counted 200 wars and invasions from 1240 to 1462.

"Calling of the Varangians"

16. One of the first Rurikovichs, Svyatopolk the Accursed, became an anti-hero of Russian history due to accusations of murdering Boris and Gleb. However, today historians are inclined to believe that the great martyrs were killed by the soldiers of Yaroslav the Wise, since the great martyrs recognized Svyatoslav’s right to the throne.

17. The word “Rosichi” is a neologism from the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” This word as a self-name of the Russian times of the Rurikovichs is not found anywhere else.

18. The remains of Yaroslav the Wise, whose research could answer the question of the origin of the Rurikovichs, disappeared without a trace.

19. In the Rurik dynasty there were two categories of names: Slavic two-basic - Yaropolk, Svyatoslav, Ostromir and Scandinavian - Olga, Gleb, Igor. Names were assigned a high status, and therefore they could belong exclusively to a grand ducal person. Only in the 14th century did such names come into general use.

20. Since the reign of Ivan III, the version of the origin of their dynasty from the Roman Emperor Augustus has become popular among the Russian Rurik sovereigns.

21. In addition to Yuri, there were two more “Dolgorukys” in the Rurik family. This is the ancestor of the Vyazemsky princes, a descendant of Mstislav the Great Andrei Vladimirovich Long Hand and a descendant of St. Michael Vsevolodovich of Chernigov, Prince Ivan Andreevich Obolensky, nicknamed Dolgoruky, the ancestor of the Dolgorukov princes.

22. Significant confusion in the identification of the Rurikovichs was introduced by the ladder order, in which, after the death of the Grand Duke, the Kiev table was occupied by his closest relative in seniority (and not his son), the second in seniority relative, in turn, occupied the empty table of the first, and so on princes moved in order of seniority to more prestigious tables.

23. Based on the results of genetic studies, it was assumed that Rurik belonged to the N1c1 haplogroup. The area of ​​settlement of people of this haplogroup covers not only Sweden, but also areas of modern Russia, the same Pskov and Novgorod, so the origin of Rurik is still unclear

24. Vasily Shuisky was not a descendant of Rurik in the direct royal line, so the last Rurikovich on the throne is still considered the son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich.

25. Ivan III’s adoption of the double-headed eagle as a heraldic sign is usually associated with the influence of his wife Sophia Paleologus, but this is not the only version of the origin of the coat of arms. Perhaps it was borrowed from the heraldry of the Habsburgs, or from the Golden Horde, who used a double-headed eagle on some coins. Today, the double-headed eagle appears on the coats of arms of six European states.

26. Among the modern “Rurikovichs” there is the now living “Emperor of Holy Russia and Third Rome”, he has the “New Church of Holy Russia”, “Cabinet of Ministers”, “State Duma”, “Supreme Court”, “Central Bank”, “ Plenipotentiary Ambassadors", "National Guard".

27. Otto von Bismarck was a descendant of the Rurikovichs. His distant relative was Anna Yaroslavovna.

28. The first American president, George Washington, was also Rurikovich. Besides him, 20 more US presidents were descended from Rurik. Including father and son Bushi.

29. One of the last Rurikovichs, Ivan the Terrible, on his father’s side was descended from the Moscow branch of the dynasty, and on his mother’s side from the Tatar temnik Mamai.
30. Lady Diana was connected with Rurik through the Kyiv princess Dobronega, daughter of Vladimir the Saint, who married the Polish prince Casimir the Restorer.

31. Alexander Pushkin, if you look at his genealogy, is Rurikovich through his great-grandmother Sarah Rzhevskaya.

32. After the death of Fyodor Ioannovich, only his youngest - Moscow - branch was stopped. But the male offspring of other Rurikovichs (former appanage princes) by that time had already acquired surnames: Baryatinsky, Volkonsky, Gorchakov, Dolgorukov, Obolensky, Odoevsky, Repnin, Shuisky, Shcherbatov...

33. The last chancellor of the Russian Empire, the great Russian diplomat of the 19th century, friend of Pushkin and comrade of Bismarck, Alexander Gorchakov was born into an old noble family descended from the Yaroslavl Rurik princes.

34. 24 British Prime Ministers were Rurikovichs. Including Winston Churchill. Anna Yaroslavna was his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

35. One of the most cunning politicians of the 17th century, Cardine Richelieu, also had Russian roots - again through Anna Yaroslavna.

36. In 2007, the historian Murtazaliev argued that the Rurikovichs were Chechens. “The Rus were not just anyone, but Chechens. It turns out that Rurik and his squad, if they really are from the Varangian tribe of Rus, then they are purebred Chechens, moreover, from the royal family and speaking their native Chechen language.”

37. Alexander Dumas, who immortalized Richelieu, was also Rurikovich. His great-great-great-great...grandmother was Zbyslava Svyatopolkovna, the daughter of Grand Duke Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, who was married to the Polish king Boleslav Wrymouth.

38. The Prime Minister of Russia from March to July 1917 was Grigory Lvov, a representative of the Rurik branch descending from Prince Lev Danilovich, nicknamed Zubaty, a descendant of Rurik in the 18th generation.

39. Ivan IV was not the only “formidable” king in the Rurik dynasty. “Terrible” was also called his grandfather, Ivan III, who, in addition, also had the nicknames “justice” and “great”. As a result, Ivan III received the nickname “great”, and his grandson became “formidable”.

40. “Father of NASA” Wernher von Braun was also Rurikovich. His mother was Baroness Emmy, née von Quisthorn.