Letters of Peter 1 to Evdokia Lopukhina. Peter the Great did not forgive betrayal (9 photos)

Queen Evdokia Fedorovna nee Lopukhina(at birth Praskovya Illarionovna, otherwise Elena; June 30 [July 9] 1669 - August 28 [September 7] 1731) - queen, first wife of Peter I (from January 27 to), mother of Tsarevich Alexei, the last Russian queen and the last reigning equal non-foreign wife of the Russian monarch.

Biography

Drawing at the beginning "Books of love are a sign in an honest marriage," presented in 1689 as a wedding gift to Peter the Great.

She was chosen as a bride by Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna without agreeing on this issue with her 16-year-old groom. The mother was prompted to the idea that it was time for her son to get married by the news that Praskovya Saltykova was expecting a child (2 months after Peter’s wedding to Lopukhina, Princess Maria Ivanovna was born). Natalya Kirillovna was seduced in this marriage by the fact that although the Lopukhin family, which was among the Naryshkin allies, was seedy, it was numerous, and she hoped that they would guard the interests of her son, being popular in the Streltsy troops. Although there was talk about Peter's marriage to a relative of Golitsyn, the Naryshkins and Tikhon Streshnev prevented this.

The wedding of Peter I and Lopukhina took place on January 27, 1689 in the church of the Transfiguration Palace near Moscow. The event was significant for those who were waiting for Peter to replace the ruler Sophia, “since according to Russian concepts, a married man was considered an adult, and Peter, in the eyes of his people, received the full moral right to rid himself of his sister’s guardianship.”

Evdokia was raised according to the ancient customs of Domostroy, and did not share the interests of her pro-Western husband. Boris Ivanovich Kurakin was married to her sister Ksenia from 1691. He left a description of Evdokia in “History of Tsar Peter Alekseevich”: “And there was a princess with a fair face, only an average mind and disposition not similar to her husband, which is why she lost all her happiness and ruined her whole family ... True, at first the love between them, the king Peter and his wife, it was a fair one, but it only lasted for a year. But then she stopped; besides, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna hated her daughter-in-law and wanted to see her with her husband more in disagreement than in love. And so it came to an end such that great deeds followed in the Russian state from this marriage, which were already obvious to the whole world ... "The Lopukhins, who soon after the wedding turned out to be" in sight "of court life, he characterizes as follows:"... people are evil , stingy tellers, of the lowest minds and who do not know the least in the courtiers ... And by that time everyone hated them and began to argue that if they came to mercy, they would destroy everyone and take over the state. And, in short, they were hated by everyone and everyone was looking for evil or danger from them.

Three sons were born from this marriage during the first three years: the younger ones, Alexander and Pavel, died in infancy, and the eldest, Tsarevich Alexei, born in 1690, was destined to a more fatal fate - he would die on the orders of his father in 1718.

Peter quickly lost interest in his wife and from 1692 became close in the German Quarter with Anna Mons. But while his mother was alive, the king did not openly demonstrate antipathy towards his wife. After the death of Natalya Kirillovna in 1694, when Peter left for Arkhangelsk, he ceased to maintain correspondence with her. Although Evdokia was also called the queen, and she lived with her son in a palace in the Kremlin, her relatives, the Lopukhins, who held prominent government positions, fell into disgrace. The young queen began to maintain communication with people dissatisfied with Peter's policies.

tonsured

In 1697, just before the tsar’s departure abroad, in connection with the discovery of the conspiracy of Sokovnin, Tsykler and Pushkin, the tsarina’s father and his two brothers, the boyars Sergei and Vasily, were exiled by governors away from Moscow. In 1697, Peter, while on the Grand Embassy, ​​from London instructed in writing his uncle Lev Naryshkin and boyar Tikhon Streshnev, as well as the queen’s confessor, to persuade Evdokia to become a nun (according to the custom accepted in Rus' instead of divorce). Evdokia did not agree, citing her son’s youth and his need for her. But upon returning from abroad on August 25, 1698, the king went straight to Anna Mons.

Having visited his mistress on the first day and visited several more houses, the tsar only a week later saw his legal wife, and not at home, but in the chambers of Andrei Vinius, the head of the Postal Department. Repeated persuasion was unsuccessful - Evdokia refused to take her hair, and on the same day asked for the intercession of Patriarch Adrian, who stood up for her, but to no avail, only provoking the rage of Peter. After 3 weeks she was taken under escort to a monastery. (There are indications that he actually wanted to execute her first, but was persuaded by Lefort).

On September 23, 1698, she was sent to the Suzdal-Pokrovsky Monastery (the traditional place of exile for queens), where she was tonsured under the name of Elena. The archimandrite of the monastery did not agree to tonsure her, for which he was taken into custody. In the Manifesto, later published in connection with the "case of Tsarevich Alexei", ​​Peter I formulated accusations against the former tsarina “...for some of her disgusts and suspicions.” It is worth noting that in the same 1698, Peter tonsured his two half-sisters Martha and Theodosia for sympathy for the deposed Princess Sophia.

Six months later, she actually left monastic life, starting to live in a monastery as a laywoman, and in 1709-10 she entered into a relationship with Major Stepan Glebov, who came to Suzdal to conduct recruitment, which was introduced to her by her confessor Fyodor Pustynny.

From Evdokia’s letter of gratitude to Peter: “Most merciful sir! In past years, and in which I do not remember, according to my promise, I was tonsured in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery in the old woman and was named Elena. And after being tonsured, she wore a monastic dress for six months; and not wanting to be a monk, leaving monasticism and throwing off her dress, she lived in that monastery secretly, under the guise of monasticism, as a laywoman ... "

According to some indications, the Glebovs were the neighbors of the Lopukhins, and Evdokia could have known him since childhood.

From Evdokia’s letter to Glebov: “My light, my father, my soul, my joy! I know that the damned hour has come that I must part with you! It would be better if my soul parted with my body! Oh my light! How can I be in the world without you, how can I be alive? My damned heart has already heard a lot of something that makes me sick, I’ve been crying for a long time. Oh, with you, I know it will grow. I don’t have any lover than you, by God! Oh, my dear friend! Why are you so dear to me? My life in the world is no longer for me! Why were you angry with me, my soul? Why didn't you write to me? Wear, my heart, my ring, loving me; and I made the same one for myself; That's why I took it from you..."

The case of Tsarevich Alexei

Suzdal Intercession Monastery

Sympathy for the exiled queen remained. Bishop Dositheus of Rostov prophesied that Evdokia would soon be a queen again and commemorated her in churches as the “great empress.” They also predicted that Peter would reconcile with his wife and leave the newly founded Petersburg and his reforms. All this was revealed from the so-called. Kikinsky search in the case of Tsarevich Alexei in 1718, during the trial of which Peter learned about her life and relations with opponents of reforms. Her participation in the conspiracy was open. Captain-Lieutenant Skornyakov-Pisarev was sent to Suzdal to search, and he arrested her along with her supporters.

On February 3, 1718, Peter gave him the command: “Decree of the bombardment company to captain-lieutenant Pisarev. You should go to Suzdal and there, in the cells of my ex-wife and her favorites, inspect the letters, and if there are any suspicious letters, take them under arrest from those from whom you took them and bring them with you along with the letters, leaving a guard at the gate.”

Skornyakov-Pisarev found the former queen in a secular dress, and in the church of the monastery he found a note where she was remembered not by a nun, but by “Our pious great empress, queen and Grand Duchess Evdokia Fedorovna,” and wished her and Tsarevich Alexei “a prosperous stay and a peaceful life , health and salvation and in all good haste now and henceforth many and countless years to come, in a prosperous stay for many years to live.” .

Tsarevich Alexei, the only surviving son of Evdokia

During interrogation, Glebov testified, “And I fell in love with her through the old woman Kaptelina and lived fornication with her.” Elders Martemyan and Kaptelina testified that “nun Elena allowed her lover to come to her day and night, and Stepan Glebov hugged and kissed her, and we were either sent by the quilted jackets to go to our cells, or walked out.” Captain Lev Izmailov, who conducted a search of the guards, found 9 letters from the queen from Glebov. In them, she asked to leave military service and achieve the position of governor in Suzdal, recommended how to achieve success in various matters, but mainly they were dedicated to their love passion. Evdokia herself testified: “I lived fornicately with him while he was recruiting, and that’s my fault.” In a letter to Peter, she confessed everything and asked for forgiveness so that she “You cannot die a worthless death.”

On February 14, Pisarev arrested everyone and took them to Moscow. On February 20, 1718, in the Preobrazhensky dungeon, a confrontation took place between Glebov and Lopukhina, who were not locked in their relationship. Glebov was accused of writing “tsifir” letters, in which he poured out “dishonest reproaches concerning the banner of the high person of His Royal Majesty, and to indignation against His Majesty of the people.” The Austrian Player wrote to his homeland: “Major Stepan Glebov, terribly tortured in Moscow with a whip, hot iron, burning coals, tied to a post for three days on a board with wooden nails, did not confess to anything.” Then Glebov was impaled and suffered for 14 hours before dying. According to some instructions, Evdokia was forced to be present at the execution and was not allowed to close her eyes or turn away.

After a brutal search, other supporters of Evdokia were executed, others were whipped and exiled. Monks and nuns of Suzdal monasteries, Krutitsy Metropolitan Ignatius and many others were convicted of sympathy for Evdokia. The abbess of the Intercession Monastery Martha, the treasurer Mariamne, the nun Capitolina and several other nuns were convicted and executed on Red Square in Moscow in March 1718. The council of clergy sentenced her to be beaten with a whip, and in their presence she was flogged. On June 26 of the same year, her only son, Tsarevich Alexei, died. In December 1718, her brother Lopukhin, Abram Fedorovich, was executed.

She died during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who treated her with respect and came to her funeral. Before her death, her last words were: “God made me know the true price of greatness and earthly happiness.” She was buried in the cathedral church of the Novodevichy Convent near the southern wall of the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God next to the tombs of princesses Sophia and her sister Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Petersburg will be empty

“Petersburg will be empty” (Petersburg will be empty)- a prophecy (spell) about the death of the new capital, allegedly uttered by Evdokia Lopukhina before being sent to the monastery - “This place will be empty!”

Children

1. Alexander Petrovich (prince) (-).
2. Pavel Petrovich (prince) ()

Evdokia Lopukhina - the first wife of Peter I.

Lopukhina Evdokia Fedorovna (1670-1731), the last Russian queen, the first wife of Peter I. Born Avdotya Illarionovna Lopukhina, daughter of the Streltsy head Illarion (Fedor) Avraamovich Lopukhin.

The name and patronymic of the royal bride were changed before the wedding, which was supposed to ward off damage from her.

The Lopukhins were close to the Naryshkins, and Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, on the advice of her brother Lev Kirillovich, chose Evdokia Lopukhina as her son’s bride, trying to rely on an influential family popular among the Streltsy troops.

Evdokia Lopukhina was raised in the strict traditions of Orthodoxy and Domostroy. She was pretty and was chosen as a bride by Peter's mother without any coordination of this issue with the groom - and at that time the consent of the young people was not required - everything was decided by the parents of the newlyweds.

In February 1690, Lopukhina had her first son, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, and in October 1691, her second son, Tsarevich Alexander Petrovich, who died soon after. Desiring a measured, old-testament Moscow life, she did not want to change the usual way of life, and this led to increasing hostility between the spouses. Evdokia, brought up in the old days, could not attract her young and energetic husband and understand the reason for his passion for “Mars affairs” and “Neptune fun.” She did not share Peter’s views and therefore could not forgive her husband for his constant absences from home.

Even the birth of sons could no longer bring them closer. The cooling between the spouses began in 1692, when Peter I met the daughter of a merchant, Anna Mons, in the Moscow German Settlement.

Peter I finally left his wife in 1694 after the death of his mother. Lopukhina was still called the queen, she lived with her son in the Kremlin, but her relatives, the Lopukhins, who held prominent government positions, had already fallen into disgrace. After Peter I returned from abroad in 1698, Tsarina Evdokia was exiled by Peter I to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery and forcibly tonsured as a nun under the name Elena.

In the Manifesto of 1718, published in connection with the “case of Tsarevich Alexei,” Peter I formulated accusations against the former queen: “... for some of her objections and suspicions.” Lopukhina was not assigned maintenance from the treasury; She received everything she needed from her relatives.

In 1709, Stepan Glebov, with the rank of major, found himself in Suzdal on business and at the same time visited his peer and longtime acquaintance Evdokia Lopukhina. Glebov asked about her life and talked about his unsuccessful marriage, which lasted sixteen years and did not bring him any joy.

After the first date, he gave Evdokia two skins of arctic foxes, sables and thick brocade. Then Glebov began regularly sending food to the unfortunate beauty. Year after year passed, but their love grew stronger and blossomed. They dreamed that she would be released and they could become a happy couple.

During the investigation into the case of Kikin and Tsarevich Alexei, Evdokia Lopukhina’s participation in the 1718 conspiracy was also discovered. Lopukhina was accused of involvement in this and was interrogated “with bias,” forcing her to give testimony and confession of a secret relationship with General S. Glebov.

In a letter to Peter, she confessed everything and asked for forgiveness so that she “would not die a rootless death.” Having brutally executed everyone involved in the case, including S. Glebov, Peter limited himself to transferring his ex-wife to the Ladoga Assumption Monastery. Under Empress Catherine I, Evdokia Lopukhina was imprisoned in Shlisselburg and kept in strictly secret custody as a state criminal under the name of a “famous person.” With the accession of Peter II, the grandson of Evdokia, she was transferred to Moscow to the Novodevichy Convent - she was given a large annual allowance of 60 thousand rubles and assigned special services.

Lopukhina did not play any role at the court of Peter II.

Emperor Peter II, with his beloved sister Natalya Alekseevna and aunt, the young beauty Elizaveta Petrovna, with whom young Peter was in love, settled in the Kremlin Palace. There his grandmother Evdokia visited him, but the royal grandchildren soon became bored with her instructions. Emperor Peter II, having surrounded the former recluse with honors and provided her with money, which she had been deprived of for so long, considered his duty fulfilled.

After the death of the young Emperor Peter II and in connection with the suppression of the direct line of Peter I, the candidacy of Evdokia Lopukhina was even considered by the Supreme Privy Council as a possible contender for the throne, but Lopukhina refused the crown. In recent years, at the Novodevichy Convent, she lived in chambers that later became known as “Lopukhin’s.”

Kindly treated by the new Empress Anna Ioannovna, Tsarina Evdokia Feodorovna reposed peacefully on August 27 (September 9), 1731 in the Moscow Novodevichy Convent, having outlived the close descendants of her husband-Emperor Peter I: his second sovereign wife Catherine I, children from his second marriage, except for Princess Elizabeth. And also all his children, including the innocently murdered Tsarevich Alexei and, finally, the unexpected death of his only grandson - Emperor Peter II (1730).

Tsarina Evdokia Fedorovna was buried in the Moscow Novodevichy Convent near the southern wall of the Cathedral of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God.

Evdokia Lopukhina was the daughter of the steward Illarion Avraamovich Lopukhin, who came from an old boyar family. She became the first wife of Peter I. Their marriage took place on January 21, 1689. On the same day, Evdokia’s father Illarion adopted a new name - Fedor. His daughter, having become a queen, was already called Evdokia Fedorovna.

On February 18, 1690, Evdokia was born the first-born Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. A week after the birth of his son, the delighted Peter gave a “magnificent” fireworks display on Presnya.

Three or four years after the marriage of Peter and Evdokia passed in peace and prosperity. But soon Anna Montz captured the king’s heart.

Busy with government reform, Peter went abroad.

In 1696, before leaving, he decided to part with Evdokia. From London he wrote to the boyars Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin and Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev, so that they would “lure” her to voluntarily take monastic vows to the monastery.

Two years later, on August 25, 1698, Peter returned from his trip. On the day of his arrival, he did not serve a thanksgiving prayer in the Assumption Cathedral for a safe return, but managed to visit some houses on the outskirts of Moscow, and visited the Montz family in a German settlement. He went to his village of Preobrazhenskoye to spend the night.

The Tsar did not stop by to visit his legal wife Evdokia Fedorovna and see his son. Not only that, what most struck the Moscow aristocracy, Peter ordered his entourage to persuade the queen to leave Moscow and take monastic vows into a monastery. The queen did not agree.

According to some information, on August 31, in Moscow, in the house of postmaster Vinius, Tsar Peter talked privately with Evdokia for four hours, in vain convincing her to take monastic vows in the nearest monastery. As can be seen from the case, Evdokia again refused to be tonsured into the monastery. And yet, on September 25, she was forcibly exiled to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, “under the authority of the abbess,” leaving her only eight-year-old son, Tsarevich Alexei, to be raised by her aunt, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. In a closed carriage, accompanied by a small retinue and guard, Evdokia arrived in Suzdal on the evening of September 27, 1698.

So Queen Evdokia became a nun of the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, “elderness” Elena, although she was only 25 years old.

A “cobblestone cell” with several spacious little rooms and a vestibule was built especially for the exiled queen. The cell was located on the western side of the gateway Church of the Annunciation, into which a passage was built from the cell, leading to a door made in the northern arch. The door led into the church gallery, which was converted into a corridor. At the end of this corridor, in the corner eastern room, the queen’s prayer room was built, hidden from the view of the worshipers.

Six months after her tonsure, the exiled queen stopped thinking about the firm vows of the monastery community, about fasting and prayer. She shed her monastic, blueberry robe and resumed her secular lifestyle.

Evdokia establishes connections with Moscow relatives and, first of all, with her brother Abraham Fedorovich Lopukhin, sister-in-law Maria Alekseevna and in general with circles that sympathize with her and are dissatisfied with Peter’s new reforms.

The connection between Moscow and Suzdal was initially established through a peasant from one of the estates of Abraham Lopukhin, Mikhail Bosogo. Acting as a messenger, Mikhail Bosoy managed to come to the Intercession Monastery several times a year to see Evdokia, delivering her “Moscow favors” each time - 50 rubles from Maria Alekseevna and various gifts of food and clothing, as well as specially assigned oral news “about moods” " in Moscow.

Feeling the support of her high-ranking relatives, as well as the sympathy of a fairly large group of courtiers, Evdokia begins to take active action. She is no longer content with the boundaries of Suzdal, she begins to travel to remote monasteries “on pilgrimage.” Thus, her trips to the Snovitsky and Bogolyubov Kuzmin monasteries and to the Zolotnikovsky hermitage became frequent. Evdokia usually made her trips in a closed carriage.

The newly installed archimandrite of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimievsky Monastery, Dosifei, won her over with all sorts of inventions about miracles supposedly occurring from icons and visionary dreams. One day he brought two icons to the queen and ordered several hundred bows to be placed in front of them a day, saying that “he heard voices from the icons that Evdokia would reign,” that is, she would be queen again in the same year. However, when all the deadlines set by the “visionary” icons passed and the predictions were not fulfilled, Dosifei explained this by the sins of the queen’s late father Fyodor Lopukhin, who was allegedly mired in hell.

Thus, nine years of monastic life passed in hopes of returning to Moscow.

In 1710, Stepan Bogdanovich Glebov was sent to Suzdal for recruitment.

Glebov was already an old man. He had a wife, Tatyana Vasilievna, and children. Some call him Major General. In Moscow, he had his own courtyard outside the Prechistensky Gate, where his family lived for most of the time. In addition to the Moscow court, Glebov also had a court in St. Petersburg in the Schleswig settlement on the Admiralty side and land in 1217 quarters of crops. Of course, already knowing about the stay of the exiled Queen Glebov in the Suzdal Intercession Monastery, he decided to visit her and sympathize with her alone. The guardian of Evdokia's spiritual life, Archpriest of the Suzdal Cathedral Fyodor Pustynny, was not slow to please his new friend - to arrange a meeting between Glebov and Evdokia. After the first and very difficult meeting in monastic conditions, Glebov began to often visit the queen’s cell at different times of the day, and later at night.

The possibility of her rise at the Moscow court and the accession of her son Alexei turned many heads. In connection with this, the popularity of the exiled queen also grew. A public pilgrimage began to the Suzdal Intercession Monastery.

Nun Elena styled herself no other than Queen Evdokia, and she used to say to those visiting her: “Everything that is ours is the sovereign’s.

And the sovereign for his mother, who repaid the archers, because you know. And my son has already fallen out of diapers.”

Rumors also reached Glebov’s wife Tatyana Vasilyevna, who reproached both her husband and Evdokia for the relationship that had developed between them. Apparently, due to the efforts of Glebov’s wife and Abraham Lopukhin, Glebov was recalled on official duty from Suzdal to Moscow. It must be assumed that Glebov deeply hoped for Alexei’s accession to the throne and had in mind to make a career for himself in the future through Evdokia. But then he realized that his relationship with the exiled queen had gone too far, and he sharply changed his behavior. Evdokia deeply believed in Stepan’s love, she wrote to him in her letters: “Soon forgot me, who separated me, poor thing, from you? What did I do to your wife? What harm did she do to her? How have I angered you? Why didn’t you, my soul, tell me how I annoyed your wife, and you listened to your wife? Why, my friend, did you leave me?..”

But Glebov had already avoided meetings in Evdokia. Convinced of his departure from Suzdal, Evdokia sent him letter after letter:

“My light, my father, my soul, my joy! I know that the damned hour has come that I must part with you! Oh my light, how can I be in the world without you, how can I be alive! There is no one dearer to me than you... You know, you yourself wished for it, that you should not be here... Why, my father, don’t you come to me? You are my friend, you will not forget me. And I won’t forget you for an hour! Oxf my friend! Oh my light! My darling! I sent you a tie, wear it, my soul, how can I forget your love!..”

In 1715, Glebov decided to visit the exiled queen.

Glebov’s position at this time had apparently already deteriorated significantly, since Evdokia, in her letter to her brother Abraham, asked for help for the Glebov family.

Glebov’s connection with the queen’s brother was established even earlier, the latter had a close relationship with Alexander Kikin. Kikin, in turn, was connected by a wide network of correspondence directly with foreign countries.

And these are only the main milestones around which a dense network of accomplices and like-minded people of the anti-Petrine bloc was woven, with the goal of Alexei Petrovich's accession to the All-Russian throne.

The son of Peter and Evdokia, Tsarevich Alexeiros, is in the Moscow Palace, far from his father.

In 1709, Peter sent him to study abroad, to Dresden. Abroad, Peter married his son to the sister of the wife of Emperor Charles VI, Charlotte of Wolfenbüten. In 1715, their son Peter (the future Tsar Peter II) was born - the grandson of Evdokia.

All attempts of Peter I to involve his son in government activities, to raise him as his closest assistant, were met with the stubborn nature and refusal of the heir.

Peter, convinced that his son’s refusal was not only a passive refusal, but also a hidden threat, suggested to the prince: either take monastic vows or go to Macklenburg. Alexei agreed to go to his father, but under the pretext of a trip he decided to secretly flee abroad. On September 26, 1716, the prince, taking 10,000 chervonets in gold, left St. Petersburg. Turning off the designated road, he fled to the Austrian Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg, his brother-in-law through his deceased wife. On the way, before reaching Libau, he met his aunt, Princess Marya Alekseevna, who was returning from Carlsbad. The princess took him into her carriage, where she had a rather lengthy conversation with him. It was about the son's relationship with the tsar, about mother Evdokia, languishing in the Suzdal monastery, about helping her and other state affairs, and mainly about the possible death of his father and his accession, Alexei, to the Russian throne.

Having learned about his son’s escape, Peter sent the nobles Tolstoy and Rumyantsev to the Austrian emperor to secretly seek the extradition of the heir. Alexei at that time was in Saint Elmo in Naples, where he was discovered by Peter’s agents. After lengthy negotiations, Russian diplomats managed to persuade the prince to return to Russia, under the pretext of forgiveness by his father.

At the very first interrogation, which was conducted by Peter himself, the prince named his accomplices and like-minded people. The terrible trial “The Case of Tsarevich Alexei” unfolded. The Preobrazhensky Prikaz, where the investigation took place, was daily replenished with more and more new victims involved in the prince’s case.

The search case spread to Suzdal and Rostov, to Bishop Dosifei. The next day, after the Tsarevich’s testimony, by the Tsar’s decree, the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment rushed from the bombardier, Captain-Lieutenant Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev, from Moscow.

The clever detective and ruthless inquisitor of the Secret Chancellery Skornyakov-Pisarev arrived in Suzdal on February 10, 1718 at 10 o’clock in the afternoon and, without stopping at the voivode’s courtyard, drove straight to the Intercession Monastery. It was Monday, the monastery was quiet. The monasteries, having heard early mass, had a meal. Having passed through the invisible lower gate, Skornyakov-Pisarev went straight to the queen’s cell and suddenly entered it. The timid Evdokia stood in “secular dress, in a padded jacket and a warrior.” A general search began. Skornyakov rushed to the bast chest, in which he did not find a black dress among the secular clothes. When he opened the box and took out two letters, Evdokia rushed to take them from the detective’s hands. The letters turned out to be fresh, and both from Moscow. One of them is from the solicitor of the Intercession Monastery, Mikhail Voronin, the second, without an address or signature, was written by the hand of Evdokia’s brother, Abraham Lopukhin.

Mikhailo Voronin notified his brothers that the prince was traveling from abroad to Moscow. It is clear from the letter that, although it was addressed to the brothers Vasily and Ivan Voronin, who were ministers of the Intercession Monastery, it was intended for the information of Evdokia.

the monastery of elders, clergy women and girls, the entire church clergy and some secular ones, went with Evdokia to Moscow.

Suzdal “well guards” arrived in Preobrazhenskoye on February 14 and were placed in different rooms “under a strong guard.” On the same day, the “Suzdal search” began. In a stone dungeon, under an inexorable whip and hot iron, people shouted out new names of their accomplices and like-minded people. And again the messengers rushed to all ends of the Russian Empire, bringing with them more and more victims entangled in the Suzdal case.

On February 19, 1718, the treasurer Maremyan was summoned for questioning. The talkative old woman, afraid to hide anything, told everything she knew and heard, and even what was not relevant. This time Maremyana showed: “Yes, how Stepan Bogdanov Glebov was recruiting soldiers in Suzdal, the sergeant Fyodor Pustynny spoke about him, so that the queen would let him in, and I tried to dissuade him for about two days. Before his arrival, he sent two arctic fox furs, a pair of sables, from which she made herself a hat, and 40 tails; and then she let me in many times during the day and in the evenings.” Further, having told how Glebov came during the Annunciation Matins, about you escorting him beyond the fence and scolding the queen, Maremyana added: “Yes, he was Stefan who visited her at night... Stefan passed by us, but we did not dare to move.”

After Maremyana’s testimony on the same day, Captain Lev Izmailov of the Life Guards arrested Stepan Glebov and took him in shackles to the Office of Secret Affairs, and on February 20 he testified with his own hand: “How I was in Suzdal at the recruiting of soldiers about 8 or 9 years ago, then time, her confessor Fyodor the Pustynny brought me to the cell of the former Tsarina Elena, and through this confessor I sent her a gift: two arctic fox furs, a couple of sables, a school of German baiberek and food. And he fell in love with her through the old woman Capitolina and lived with her fornication... And after that, about two years ago, he came to her and saw her..."

Admitting a close relationship with Evdokia, Glebov firmly and categorically denied the participation attributed to him in the escape of Tsarevich Alexei abroad.

The turn of interrogation came to Queen Evdokia. To soften her fate, Evdokia sent a confession to the king on the way from Suzdal, in which, recognizing herself as guilty, she asked for forgiveness.

However, during the consideration of the case, no attention was paid to this guilty party. On February 21, Evdokia was taken to the interrogation and torture chamber. She fully confirmed the testimony of Maremyana and Stepan Glebov presented to her, and after a confrontation with Glebov at the General Court, she gave the following personal testimony: “On February 21, the former queen, Elder Elena, was brought to the General Court and with Stepan Glebov at the confrontation she said that she lived with him fornication, as he was at the recruiting station; and that's my fault. I wrote with my own hand, Elena.”

On February 22, the former archimandrite of the Spassky Monastery, Bishop of Rostov Dosifei, was brought to Moscow, and on February 23, in his own hand

in a letter he submitted his following testimony: “I had no extreme acquaintance or love with Stepan Glebov.” Further, Dositheus wrote how Glebov and Evdokia came to him at the Spassky Monastery at night and ordered prayers to be sung and one day stayed for dinner. Dosifey tried to shift all the blame onto Glebov, shielding himself. “And Stepan came to me after the time when the Tsar’s Majesty was legally married to the Empress Tsarina Ekaterina Alekseevna, and said to me: “Why do you, bishop, stand for the fact that the sovereign marries another from a living wife? And I told him, I’m not big and it’s none of my business and there’s no reason for me to talk about it.”

On February 27, at a church council, Dosifei was removed from the rank of bishop. From that time on, in all acts he was called the defrocked Demidka.

In total, 35 people were involved in the search case in Suzdal. Among them are Tsarevich Alexei's aunt Tsarevna Marya and her singer Fyodor Zhuravsky, Tsarina Evdokia's brother Avraam Lopukhin and their relative Gavrila, Prince Semyon Shcherbatov, who in his letters titled Evdokia "the noble sovereign, queen", messengers between Moscow and Suzdal: Grigory Sobakin, Kirill Matyushin and Mikhail Bosoy; Princess Golitsyna, who transmitted palace news to the circles of Evdokia's adherents through Princess Maria Alekseevna, Princess Troekurova, Evdokia's sister, and the Suzdal landrats, who honored Evdokia, instead of looking after her and reporting her behavior to the government.

The investigation went on for a month, and on March 14-16, at the general courtyard, the “ministers” pronounced a verdict on the Suzdal search case.

The verdict was signed by Prince Romodanovsky, Boris Sheremetyev - Field Marshal General, Count Apraksin, Count Gavrilo Golovin, Tikhon Streshnev, Prince Pyotr Prozorovsky, Baron Pyotr Shafirov, Alexei Saltykov, Vasily Saltykov.

Stepan Glebov was ordered to inflict a cruel death penalty, to take away all the property of the sovereign, “for writing letters from him to indignation at his royal majesty of the people and intent on his health and to defame his royal majesty’s name and her majesty Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna ... yes, because he worthy of the death penalty, that he lived fornication with the former queen, the old woman Elena, for which they themselves were guilty.

The death penalty was imposed on both Bishop Dosifei and Klyuchar Fyodor the Pustynny.

During the investigation in the Secret Chancellery, 150 people were arrested and imprisoned in Vladimir and Suzdal. Some were whipped and exiled to Siberia.

After the death of Peter I, during the reign of Catherine I, in 1725, by order of the Empress, she was transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress.

She was liberated from the Shlisselburg fortress on August 1, 1727, and in September she went to Moscow, to the Novodevichy Convent, where she settled in the newly built chambers.

his place, announced that "her majesty, grandmother, was kept according to her high dignity in all contentment." Immediately at the meeting of the Council, the staff of her court was worked out and her maintenance was assigned - 60,000 rubles per year. In addition, a volost of 2,000 peasant households was handed over for food.

Having achieved the restoration of her position at the end of her life, Evdokia outlived her husband Peter I, her son Alexei and even her grandson Peter II. Having lived in contentment for the rest of her life in the Novodevichy Convent for about three years, she died on August 27, 1731 at the age of 62.