The belief is widespread that they were going to say goodbye to a poet in a duel in the largest temple of St. Petersburg, but the authorities prevented this. We checked whether this story corresponds to reality.
March 1, 2024 Russian politics Alexei Navalny buried In Moscow, almost two weeks after his death in a colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Relatives And Companions The opposition has repeatedly reported that the authorities prevented the organization of farewell ceremony. On the day of the funeral of Navalny, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, historian and supporter of politician Tamara Eidelman Published In the social network X post, which scored more than 335,000 views and began as follows: “When Pushkin died, he was first about to catch on in the huge Isaac's Cathedral, and then they were afraid of excitement and, of course, without ads transferred the funeral service to a small stable church, where only the close poets and diplomats fell.”
The assertion that Pushkin was planned to be a funeral in the largest temple of St. Petersburg are also found in earlier publications. I wrote about this, for example "Independent newspaper»In 2019: "When Alexander Pushkin died, they announced to the people that the poet’s funeral service would take place in the Isaac's Cathedral, capable of accommodating several thousand people. But the people were shamelessly deceived".
Isaac's Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg. But the building of the XIX century has survived to this day There were several "predecessors" - Churches, also consecrated in honor of St. Isaac Dalmatian.
The first Isaac's Church appeared in the city in 1710, when a one -story wooden drawing barn under the Admiralty was adapted for the services - the building is quite large for the barn, but very modest for the main temple of a rapidly growing city. In 1712, Peter I was married in the church, and after a few years they began to build a new - stone one to replace it.
The new church was laid in 1717 and was strikingly different from the first, reminding the appearance of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the construction of which started five years earlier. High slender spiers on the bell tires of both temples repeatedly attracted lightning, the blows of which led to fires and serious destruction. During the next recovery work, it turned out that the main problem of the new Isaac's Church is again connected with its size - this time it turned out to be not too small, but too much for the insufficiently fortified non -wing coast. It was decided to make out the temple and build a new one a little further from the main St. Petersburg river - on modern Isaacievskaya Square.
The third version of the church was waiting for an even more difficult fate. The laying of the building took place in 1768 by decree of Catherine II, but after her death, the architect of the cathedral Antonio Rinaldi left Russia and the construction stopped. Pavel I instructed Vincenzo Brennes to continue the work (there was already 1798 in the yard). Due to the reduction in financing, the architect was forced to change the initial project: to reduce the height of the bell tower, to abandon the four small domes and the bastard of the upper part of the building (they managed to lining under Catherine). As a result, the temple consecrated in 1802 caused such conflicting feelings among the Petersburgers that a new competition was announced in just seven years - the project of the capital restructuring of the cathedral.
After long ups and downs, the project, at the direction of Alexander I, was prepared by the French architect Auguste Montferrand. The laying of the foundation of the fourth Isaac's Cathedral began in 1818, the work continued for 40 years, and the temple was consecrated only in 1858. Pushkin’s death came about the middle of the process. At this moment, the Cathedral was completely absent from the main dome.
Could Pushkin be funny in this building? Definitely no. Nevertheless, an invitation ticket was preserved in which the widow of the poet reported that the funeral service would be held in the Isaac's Cathedral. The explanation, as this is possible, lies in the clarification: "... in the Isaac's Cathedral, which is in the Admiralty." The fact is that during the construction the liturgical functions of the temple were delegated to the premises specially equipped in 1821 in the walls of the Admiralty located nearby, in its southwestern part, on the second floor.
It is time to compare the size of the object, the “temporarily acting” of the Isaac's Cathedral, and the rescue-adultery. Personally, not everyone will be able to visit the first now (as early as the early Soviet years, the assembly hall of the Higher Naval Engineering School was arranged there). But you can look at both churches in satellite images and find that their main volumes (in the center of the pictures, the scale of the same) differ insignificantly - the temporary Isaac Temple is only a little more than the stable.
You can also compare photos of their interiors and come to a similar conclusion.
It is unlikely that the funeral service was postponed due to such an insignificant difference in the size of the churches. On the other hand, the fact of a sudden transfer of service to any other, not declared in advance the place could really complicate the public worship of the poet and thereby prevent hypothetical folk unrest. That's what about that Writes Poet and close friend of Pushkin Vasily Zhukovsky in a letter to the head of the third branch to Count Benkendorf:
“What would be to make the police if she could really foresee something like that? To take with a greater vigilance the same precautions that are observed with any ordinary burial, and not to admit to the whole society that the government is afraid of the conspiracy, not to insult with their absurd accusations of people who do not deserve suspicions, in a word, not to produce the excitement that she wanted to warn with her inappropriate measures. Instead of that, the church was changed for the funeral service, the body was transferred to it at night, with some secret, which struck all, without torches, almost without guides; And at the minute of the removal, which gathered no more than ten closest friends of Pushkin, the gendarmes filled the chamber where they prayed for the deceased, they cordoned off us, and we, so to speak, took the body to the church. What intention could we have suggested in us? What could they be afraid of us? I can’t explain this. And, I admit, being filled with my main feeling, sadness about the end of Pushkin, I was a minute of removal and did not notice what happened around us; After that, it occurred to me and brutally offended me. ”
From Letters Sofia Karamzina, writer and historian Nikolai Karamzin can find out that these “inappropriate measures” have not had a special action:
On Monday, on the day of the funeral, that is, the funeral service, a myriad crowd gathered, who wanted to attend it, entire departments asked for permission not to work in order to be able to pray, all members of the academy, artists, students of the university, all Russian actors. The stable church is not great, and only those who had tickets, that is, almost exclusively high society and the diplomatic corps, which appeared in full force, let go there. <...> The whole square was blocked by a huge crowd, which rushed to the church, as soon as the worship was over and the doors opened; And they quarreled, crushed each other to carry the coffin in the basement, where he was supposed to stay while he was not taken to the village.
Karamzin, of course, could exaggerate a little (so, in fact, at least four ambassadors were absent at the ceremony), and it is most likely impossible to objectively assess the degree of fullness of space before the church. But it is easy to calculate its area - about 10,000 square meters. m. This is comparable to the area of the Pushkinsky square in Moscow and gives an idea of the possible size of the crowd.
In fairness, the stable church is just the closest to the apartment, where Pushkin died two days after a duel with Daurus. The distance to it is from the sink, 12 is only 330 m, and to the Admiralty - three times more (a little more than 1 km), if you move along the shortest route through the palace square past the winter palace (which is unlikely to be desirable), and more than four times more (1.4 km), if you bypass the imperial residence by the side. It is in the nearest church Sent Behind the priest, when the poet found out that his wound was deadly, and wished to take communion. Yes, the transfer of funeral service with a high probability was associated with police precautions, but nevertheless, the choice of the final place can be considered as quite logical.
So, Pushkin was really originally planned to be a funeral in the Isaac's Cathedral, but not in the "huge", as Eidelman wrote, not in the temple that is now known under this name, but in the room, "temporarily performing his duties." It only slightly differs the size of the stable church, where the funeral service has passed. So if the authorities were afraid of unrest, then they were not concerned about the spaciousness of the Isaac's Temple in the Admiralty.
Photo on the cover: Svklimkin / Wikimedia Commons
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