Efim Kurganov. “Who was Prince Tsitsianov, whom Pushkin mentioned?” Tsitsianov, Pavel Dmitrievich Prince Tsitsianov Ivan Gavrilovich

And I will sing of that glorious hour,
When, sensing a bloody battle,
To the indignant Caucasus
Our double-headed eagle rose;
When on the gray Terek
For the first time the thunder of battle struck
And the roar of Russian drums,
And in the battle, with an insolent brow
The ardent Tsitsianov appeared.

Prince Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov is a little-known character. Meanwhile, it was he who laid the foundation for that diverse, cruel, tragic phenomenon that we call the Caucasian War. It was he who determined the main features of the relationship between Russia and the mountain peoples for decades to come, it was he who outlined the foundations of both power and peace policies.

The Caucasian War is associated primarily with the name of Ermolov. Ermolov perfectly understood the significance of Tsitsianov, considered him his teacher in Caucasian affairs and remembered him constantly:

- “Since the death of the glorious Prince Tsitsianov, who can be a model for everyone and for whom there were not only no equals, no lower ones, my predecessors left me a lot of work.”

- “Our own officials, having rested from the fear that the severity of the glorious Prince Tsitsianov instilled in them...”

- “...The weakness and inability of those in charge here after Prince Tsitsianov, the only person!”

“I was pleased to read other books that rightly speak about the glorious Tsitsianov. Truly, after his death there was no one like him. I don’t know how long it will be before we find one, but for the present time, that is, for myself, I will say before the altar of honor that I am far from equal to him. His every action in this land is amazing; and if you look at the small means that he disposed of, much should seem incomprehensible.”

- “I will not be like my predecessors in weakness, but if I am at least a little like Prince Tsitsianov, then neither this region nor the faithful subjects of our Sovereign will lose anything.”

- “All the fiends of the local kings and sovereign princes are not worth one mad dog! I have a lot to do, otherwise I would get to work on them and remind them of the times of Prince Tsitsianov, whose memory alone makes him tremble.”

Ermolov was an unkind, vain man, prone to humiliation rather than pride, one might say envious, and such exaltation of his predecessor must have some extraordinary reasons. There must be some rare coincidence of worldviews, some essential personality traits, ideas about how exactly Georgia and the Caucasus should be pacified.

Here, obviously, there is not only a certain coincidence of ideas, but also Tsitsianov’s mode of action is precious for Ermolov as a saving experience.

Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov was born on September 8, 1754 in Moscow. His father came from a very good Georgian princely family, which already in the time of Prince Pavel Dmitrievich became related to the last Georgian Tsar George XII, who married Princess Tsitsianova. But even under Peter, the grandfather of Prince Pavel Dmitrievich went to Russia and served in the hussars under Anna Ioannovna. Our father Tsitsianov was a completely enlightened man and no less Russified. He taught his son European languages ​​and generally raised him as a Russian nobleman.

At the age of seventeen, he began real service as an ensign in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, then, at his own request, he transferred to the army and at the age of thirty was given command of the St. Petersburg Grenadier Regiment, with which he took part in the Second Turkish War. At the age of 39, he was promoted to major general - so far a rather ordinary, although quite successful, military career. The Polish uprising of 1794 was a turning point in his fate.

“He was naturally gifted with a sharp mind, well educated by upbringing, knowledge and long-term experience in military service, he was honest and wanted to be fair; but in this latter he was often mistaken. At the same time, he was quick-tempered, proud, impudent, proud and stubborn to the point that he finally lost his life... Considering himself smarter and more experienced than everyone else, he very rarely accepted anyone’s advice. There were few people among his subordinates about whom he had a good opinion. If someone could not or did not want to cause trouble in his service, he did not stop with all sorts of caustic ridicule, in which he was very sharp. But for such answers to him, even in jokes, he blushed, got angry, and sometimes took revenge. This character of his was the cause of many troubles for him in his youth.”

Prince Pavel Dmitrievich was a man of powerful temperament, which contributed to the formation of a military leadership style, but also had its own considerable human costs.

In the Caucasus, Tsitsianov decided to behave in accordance with the ideas of the local rulers - that is, like an eastern despot, while representing a civilized European power. This duality, obviously, to a certain extent corresponded to the personality traits of Prince Pavel Dmitrievich - on the one hand, a typical Moscow gentleman, Catherine's nobleman (this is clear from the letters to him of his close friend Count Rostopchin), a Russian general with the corresponding concepts, on the other - a man who easily got used to the image of a powerful satrap, a khan above khans, who did not stop at any means to achieve complete obedience - to himself, and, accordingly, to Russia. As we will see, Ermolov chose a very similar model of behavior.

Here is a sample of Tsitsianov’s message to one of the rulers, the Sultan of Elisu: “Shameless Sultan with a Persian soul! And you still dare to write to me. You will wait for me to visit you, for the fact that you have not paid part of the tribute in silk for two whole years, that you accept the fugitive Aghalars of the Russian Empire and give them shelter, and that you sent three hundred troops to Baba Khan with the Jarians.

You have the soul of a dog and the mind of a donkey, so can you deceive me with your insidious excuses, explained in a letter? If only you knew that if your man comes to me again without silk, of which a hundred liters a year is imposed on you, then he will be in Siberia, and until you become a faithful tributary of my great Sovereign Emperor, until then I will wish for your blood wash your boots."

However, in a report to Alexander after the first punitive action that he had to take, Prince Pavel Dmitrievich wrote with genuine excitement how difficult it was for him to decide to set fire to the village, which he had never had to do in his life.
But it was a rational attitude. Yermolov also had this paradox, who also burned villages and hung mullahs by their feet, despite the fact that Griboedov, who by no means excluded the mountaineers from among God’s creatures, wrote about Yermolov’s kindness.

At the beginning of 1804, two years after taking office and a month after one of his main military achievements - the capture of the powerful fortification of Ganj, Prince Pavel Dmitrievich began to ask to resign, although his extensive plans had not yet been realized.

Tsitsianov, indeed, could no longer boast of excellent health during these years, but, not receiving his resignation, he actively performed a wide variety of functions for another two years - until his death in the Baku campaign, including leading physically exhausting expeditions. It was not a matter of an “exhausted body,” but a growing uncertainty about the ability to accomplish his task in the ways he had chosen. And from this point of view, the attempt to leave at the moment of triumph is psychologically understandable - after the capture of Ganja, on the one hand, and on the other - the gradual groping for other methods.

Obviously, the prince began to realize that in the inevitable all-out clash with the most warlike mountain peoples like the Chechens and Circassians, who live in inaccessible mountains and forest areas, neither menacing invective nor occasional punitive strikes would achieve the desired result.

It must be borne in mind that Tsitsianov’s cruelty and uncompromisingness extended not only to the khans. He was merciless to any manifestations of discontent among the ordinary population. When the Ossetians, driven to despair by the pathological bullying of the Russian bailiff assigned to them, rebelled, declaring that they were loyal subjects of the Russian Tsar, but could no longer tolerate the bullying of the local authorities, Tsitsianov, despite the sympathetic report of General Prince Volkonsky towards the rebels, ordered General Prince Eristov, in the event of the rebels’ refusal to unconditionally submit, “to stab, chop, and burn their villages with the cruelty of weapons, in a word, when entering their homes and dealing with them, the thought of mercy should be destroyed, as for villains and barbarians.”

To stimulate agriculture, Tsitsianov intended to resettle peasants from Little Russia to Georgia. What is extremely significant is that it actually prepared the ground for the liquidation of the institution of the Khanate. But for all his efforts, the region was as far from true pacification at the time of his death in 1806 as at the time of his arrival
Here it is appropriate to recall the Decembrist Rosen, who said about the Caucasian drama: “It seems that the very beginning was wrong.”

The real enemy of the Russians in the Caucasus was the lower mountain element, which existed according to completely different psychological laws, observing the sad fate of the Georgian dynasty and most of the khans.
The harsh and simple method of conquest and control, as already mentioned, the further, the more it caused Prince Pavel Dmitrievich to feel hopeless. Over the past two years, he has been persistently looking for a compromise option.

Desperate to achieve his goals only through a “thunderstorm” and a demonstration of military strength, Prince Pavel Dmitrievich is looking for ways to peacefully “domesticate” and morally enlighten the “Asians.” But he proposes to do this without deviating one iota from his fundamental thesis - an “Asian” is worthy only of contempt, and Russian morals and Christian concepts should be set as a standard to follow.

Tsitsianov’s death is also somewhat symbolic.

The Russians moved through the Shirvan Khanate, and, in this case, Tsitsianov managed to persuade the Shirvan Khan to join Russia. Khan took the oath of citizenship on December 25, 1805. From Shirvan, the prince notified the Khan of Baku about his approach, demanding the surrender of the fortress. After a very difficult transition through the Shemakha Mountains, Tsitsianov and his detachment approached Baku on January 30, 1806.

Sparing people and wanting to avoid bloodshed, Tsitsianov once again sent the khan an offer to submit, and set four conditions:
- there will be a Russian garrison in Baku;
- Russians will manage the income;
- the merchants will be guaranteed from oppression;
- the eldest son of the khan will be brought to Tsitsianov as an amanate.
After quite long negotiations, the khan declared that he was ready to submit to the Russian commander-in-chief and betray himself into eternal citizenship of the Russian Emperor
In view of this, Tsitsianov promised to leave him as the owner of the Baku Khanate. The Khan agreed to all the conditions set by the prince and asked Tsitsianov to set a day for accepting the keys.

The prince set February 8th. Early in the morning he went to the fortress, having with him 200 people who were supposed to remain in Baku as a garrison. Half a mile before the city gates, the Baku elders were waiting for the prince with keys, bread and salt and, presenting them to Tsitsianov, announced that the khan did not believe in his complete forgiveness and asked the prince for a personal meeting. Tsitsianov agreed, gave back the keys, wanting to receive them from the hands of the khan himself, and rode forward, ordering Lieutenant Colonel Prince Eristov and one Cossack to follow him.

About a hundred steps before the fortress, Hussein-Kuli Khan, accompanied by four Baku residents, came out to meet Tsitsianov, and while the khan, bowing, brought the keys, the Baku men fired; Tsitsianov and Prince. The Eristovs fell; the khan's retinue rushed towards them and began to chop down their bodies; at the same time, artillery fire opened on our detachment from the city walls.
This act of the khan was sharply different from the behavior of the brave and proud warrior, Ganja Javad Khan. Having sworn allegiance to the Persian Shah, he remained faithful to him and courageously defended the fortress.
Huseynkuli Khan sent the severed head of the prince to the Persian Shah, and the body was buried in the fence of the only Christian church in Baku at that time - the Armenian Holy Mother of God.
General Bulgakov, who took Baku in the same 1806, buried his ashes in the Baku Armenian Church, and the governor in 1811-1812. Georgian Marquis Paulucci transported him to Tiflis and buried him in the Zion Cathedral. A monument was erected over Tsitsianov’s grave with an inscription in Russian and Georgian.

Monument to Tsitsianov in Baku

In 1846, a monument “for eternal memory” was erected in Baku, which was located one hundred meters from the murder site, at the end of Tsitsianovskaya Street (Ali Bayramova in 1923-1993, from 1993 Tabriz Khalilbeyli), on the border of the suburb near the Shamakhi road .
It is placed on the spot where he was killed on February 8, 1806, at a distance of 100 steps from the Shemakha fortress gates.

The initiator of the installation of the monument was the Viceroy in the Caucasus and Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian troops, Grand Duke Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The monument was built at the expense of the Armenian Thomas Aivazov.

The monument was a pyramidal column on a pedestal, with an image of a dagger and a pistol on it and stands on a pedestal, to which 2 staircases lead."

This is what A.A. Gasanova writes in her book “Gardens and Parks...”

"Tsitsianovsky Square was located in the central part of Baku at the foot of Bazarnaya Street. From this street, one of the most crowded in the city, there was a good view of the green square and the surrounding space. The stone staircase of a semicircular shape is the landscape quality of the site. Having located the courtyard garden, surrounded by buildings and successfully connected the space of the square and the space of the street.The beautiful balustrade over the retaining wall, the mirror of the pool and the fountain located next to the stairs created the expressive color of Tsitsianovsky Square and was in harmony with its green spaces.
The undoubted merit of the architect Hajibababekov is the organic inclusion of small architectural forms into the composition of the park. The architect successfully used the adjacent streets; he managed to “isolate” the green space and give it an intimate character by grouping trees and shrubs in the form of wings, arranging green spaces parallel to each other, and achieving a multifaceted perspective. At the same time, they covered up the unimportant and, on the contrary, improved the perception of the most advantageous panoramas. Another important circumstance is that due to the wings, other plants were shaded from the rays of the scorching sun, which corresponded to the hot climate of the southern city.

Tsitsianovsky Square occupied an important central place in the city - on the border between the suburb and the Shemakha road. Its emergence was connected not only with the opening of the monument to Prince Tsitsianov in 1846, but also with the presence of “pure water from the Khan’s spring” here. Next to the monument there was a huge stone reservoir built in the 60s, intended to supply water to the residents of the suburb.
Thus, there were favorable conditions for landscaping the territory, although small in area (about 0.6 hectares), but very important in its spatial location. Already in the early 80s, the square was almost completely formed and looked like a blooming garden with a picturesquely drawn green parterre. This square offered an interesting view not only from the upper terrace of Bazarnaya Street, but also from the windows of the nearby two-story caravanserai.

Tsitsianov, of course, did not inspire love in the Caucasus, like all the conquerors and colonizers of the Caucasus.

The brutal conquest of Ganja, the conquest of Baku

After the death of the prince. Tsitsianov Jumshud Melik-Shakhnazarov bombarded St. Petersburg with denunciations: “We meliks distinguished ourselves more than them in battles and were worthy of the highest awards and favors, but the hatred for the Armenian people rooted in the heart of the late Prince Tsitsianov did not allow him to convey to the most gracious sovereign about tedious service and diligence is our"

Georgian historians blame him for his measures to Russify the region, the eviction from Georgia of all members of the Kakheti-Kartala Royal House. For example, Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov sent the following messages to his fellow Georgians: “Infidel scoundrels! You probably think that I am Georgian... I was born in Russia, grew up there and have a Russian soul. You will wait for my visits, and then I will not burn your houses, I will burn you, I will take the wombs out of your children and wives...”

In general, it seems interesting to me that Georgians who occupy high positions in Russia become more Russian than the Russians themselves. Example - Stalin, Beria.
And maybe not only Georgians..... IMHO

And the Bolsheviks demolished the monument to Tsitsianov, why, it is difficult to understand.
But I think not out of good intentions, thinking about the residents of Ganja and Shamakhi who suffered during colonization.

Tsitsianov, Pavel Dmitrievich (prince, 1754 -1806) - infantry general. In 1786 he was appointed commander of St. Petersburg. grenadier regiment, at the head of which he began his combat career with honors during the 2nd Turkish War during the reign of Catherine. In 1796, at the behest of the empress, he went to Transcaucasia under the command of Count. Zubova. In 1797 he retired; upon the accession of Alexander I, he again entered the service; in 1802 he was appointed inspector of infantry in the Caucasus, Astrakhan military governor and commander-in-chief in Georgia. Partly through diplomacy, partly through weapons, he managed to win over various rulers of the Caspian coast, Dagestan and Transcaucasia to the side of Russia, despite the fact that his activities were complicated by the war with Persia (see Persian Wars of Russia) and were hampered by the extremely limited number of troops that he could have at his disposal. : Due to the war with Napoleon, it was impossible to send reinforcements to Georgia. At the beginning of 1806, Ts. undertook an expedition against the fortress of Baku, which at the same time was approached from the sea by Zavalishin’s squadron. The Baku owner, Hussein Khan, agreed to surrender; the trusting Ts., accompanied by only two people, drove up to the very walls of the fortress to accept its keys, but here he was treacherously killed, and our troops, having lost their main commander, retreated. Subsequently (1811), Ts.'s ashes were transported to Tiflis and buried in the Zion Cathedral. Wed. Dubrovin, "Transcaucasia from 1803 to 1806." (SPb., 1866); Zubov, “Description of memorable incidents in Armenia” (St. Petersburg, 1811); his, “The exploits of Russian troops in the Caucasian countries”; "The Life of Prince Tsitsianov" (M., 1823).
"Brockhaus and Efron"

Russian military leader, prince, infantry general

Biography

He began serving in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment in 1772. In 1786, he was appointed commander of a grenadier regiment, at the head of which he began his combat career with honors during the 2nd Turkish War during the reign of Catherine. In 1796, at the behest of the Empress, he went to Transcaucasia under the command of Count Zubov. In 1797 he retired; upon the accession of Alexander I he again entered service.

In 1802, he was appointed inspector of infantry in the Caucasus, Astrakhan military governor and commander-in-chief in newly annexed Georgia.

Partly through diplomacy, partly through weapons, he managed to win over various rulers of the Caspian coast, Dagestan and Transcaucasia to the side of Russia, despite the fact that his activities were complicated by the war with Persia (see Russian-Persian Wars) and were hampered by the extremely limited number of troops with which he could to dispose: due to the war with Napoleon, it was impossible to send reinforcements to Georgia. He showed himself to be a talented administrator, but Georgian historians blame him for his measures to Russify the region, the eviction of all members of the Kakheti-Kartala Royal House from Georgia.

In 1803 he organized a Georgian militia of 4,500 volunteers, which joined the Russian army. In 1804, he took the Ganja fortress by storm, subjugating the Ganja Khanate, for which he was promoted to infantry general. Then he also subjugated the Shirvan Khanate. He took a number of measures to encourage crafts, agriculture and trade. He founded the Noble School in Tiflis, which was later transformed into a gymnasium, restored the printing house, and sought the right for Georgian youth to receive education in higher educational institutions of Russia.

Intending to establish control over Baku, Tsitsianov besieged it and obtained a promise from the local khan to hand over the fortress to the Russians. In February 1806, a ceremony for the peaceful surrender of Baku was supposed to take place. Accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Prince. Elizbar Eristov and one Cossack Tsitsianov drove up to the walls of the fortress. When Baku Khan Huseyn-Kuli handed him the keys to the city, Ibrahim Khan (one of the khan’s close associates) killed Tsitsianov with a sudden pistol shot. Prince Eristov was also killed.

And I will sing of that glorious hour,
When, sensing a bloody battle,
To the indignant Caucasus
Our double-headed eagle has risen;
When on the gray Terek
For the first time the thunder of battle struck
And the roar of Russian drums,
And in the battle, with an insolent brow,
The ardent Tsitsianov appeared...

Having beheaded Tsitsianov, the khan and his servants took his head with them and took refuge in the fortress. Having lost their commander, the small Russian army was forced to retreat. Hussein-Kuli sent Tsitsianov's head to the Persian Shah. But the khan did not triumph for long: already in October 1806, when Russian troops again approached Baku, Hussein-Kuli fled, and his khanate passed to Russia.

In 1811, Tsitsianov’s body was transported to Tbilisi and buried in the Zion Cathedral. During the three years and five months of his rule of Georgia, Tsitsianov significantly expanded Russian possessions in Transcaucasia. His literary work and translations from French of various works, including comedies and poetry, are also known.

Prince Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov (Pavle Dimitris Dze Tsitsishvili , 8 (19) September 1754, Moscow - 8 (20) February 1806, near Baku) - Russian military leader of Georgian origin, infantry general (1804), one of the conquerors of Transcaucasia. Representative of the family of Georgian princes Tsitsishvili.

Pavel Tsitsianov was born in Moscow into the family of Dmitry Pavlovich Tsitsishvili and Elizaveta Bagration-Davitashvili. Tsitsianov’s ancestors lived in Russia since the emigration of the Georgian king Vakhtang VI.

He began serving in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment in 1772. In 1786, he was appointed commander of a grenadier regiment, at the head of which he began his combat career with honors during the 2nd Turkish War during the reign of Catherine.

In 1796, at the behest of the Empress, he went to Transcaucasia under the command of Count Zubov. In 1797 he retired; upon the accession of Alexander I he again entered service.

In 1802 he was appointed inspector of infantry in the Caucasus, Astrakhan military governor and commander-in-chief in newly annexed Georgia.

Partly through diplomatic means, partly through weapons, he managed to win over various rulers of the Caspian coast, Dagestan and Transcaucasia to the side of Russia, despite the fact that his activities were complicated by the war with Persia and hampered by the extremely limited number of troops that he could have at his disposal: due to the war with Napoleon, it was impossible to enter Georgia reinforcements were sent. He showed himself to be a talented administrator, but Georgian historians blame him for his measures to Russify the region, the eviction of all members of the Kakheti-Kartala Royal House from Georgia.

Monument to Tsitsianov in Baku

In 1803 he organized a Georgian militia of 4,500 volunteers, which joined the Russian army. In 1804, he took the Ganja fortress by storm, subjugating the Ganja Khanate, for which he was promoted to infantry general. Then he also subjugated the Shirvan Khanate. He took a number of measures to encourage crafts, agriculture and trade. He founded the Noble School in Tiflis, which was later transformed into a gymnasium, restored the printing house, and sought the right for Georgian youth to receive education in higher educational institutions of Russia.

Intending to establish control over Baku, Tsitsianov besieged it and obtained a promise from the local khan to hand over the fortress to the Russians. In February 1806, a ceremony for the peaceful surrender of Baku was supposed to take place. Accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Prince. Elizbar Eristov and one Cossack Tsitsianov drove up to the walls of the fortress. When Baku Khan Huseyn-Kuli handed him the keys to the city, Ibrahim-bek (one of the khan’s close associates) killed Tsitsianov with a sudden pistol shot. Prince Eristov was also killed.

Having beheaded Tsitsianov, the khan and his servants took his head with them and took refuge in the fortress. Having lost their commander, the small Russian army was forced to retreat. Hussein-Kuli sent Tsitsianov's head to the Persian Shah. But the khan did not triumph for long: already in October 1806, when Russian troops again approached Baku, Hussein-Kuli fled, and his khanate passed to Russia.

In 1811, Tsitsianov’s body was transported to Tbilisi and buried in the Zion Cathedral. During the three years and five months of his rule of Georgia, Tsitsianov significantly expanded Russian possessions in Transcaucasia. His literary work and translations from French of various works, including comedies and poetry, are also known.

In 1846, at the site of Tsitsianov’s original burial at the northern gate of the Baku fortress, by order of the governor of the Caucasus, Prince M. An obelisk monument was erected to S. Vorontsov. During the Soviet years, the monument was destroyed. Nowadays, in this place in front of the building of the Museum of Azerbaijani Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi, there is a park named after Nizami Ganjavi, called Tsitsianovsky Square in the imperial years.

And I will sing of that glorious hour,
When, sensing a bloody battle,
To the indignant Caucasus
Our double-headed eagle has risen;
When on the gray Terek
For the first time the thunder of battle struck
And the roar of Russian drums,
And in the battle, with an insolent brow,
The ardent Tsitsianov appeared...

A. S. Pushkin, “Prisoner of the Caucasus.”

A.S. Pushkin wrote in “An Imaginary Conversation with Alexander the First: “Every free word, every illegal composition is attributed to me, just as all sorts of witty inventions are attributed to Prince Tsitsianov.” Who was this Prince Tsitsianov, whom Pushkin mentioned? And which of the Tsitsianov princes is this? Pushkin had in mind Dmitry Evseevich Tsitsianov (1747-1835), the famous storyteller and wit of that time. I managed to find his anecdotes in “Eugene Onegin” and “The Little House in Kolomna”; Nikolai Gogol and Pyotr Vyazemsky listened to his oral stories, etc. But lordly Moscow disappeared, became a thing of the past, and D.E. began to be forgotten. Tsitsianov, its faithful representative and writer of everyday life, who had the reputation of the “Russian Munchausen”.

Oral stories were never collected together, and this once famous figure was thoroughly forgotten. And I had to recreate a book about the “Russian Munchausen” from old memoirs and diary scraps.

What is known about Prince D.E. himself? Tsitsianov?

As you know, in 1724 the Georgian king Vakhtang the Sixth emigrated to Russia. In his huge retinue, which included more than a thousand people, was Prince Yevsey (Yase) Tsitsishvili. His son Dmitry became known as the “Russian Munchausen”. He did not serve anywhere, seeing the meaning of his life in pleasing Muscovites with luxurious dinners and magnificent “witty inventions.”

What is known and documented is that D.E. Tsitsianov was the founder of the Moscow English Club, restored in 1801 (after the ban under Emperor Paul the First): subsequently, in commemoration of this merit, he was elected its honorary member for life. Tsitsianov lived in St. Petersburg for about ten years, and then he visited the St. Petersburg English Club, pleasing its members with his witty stories.

On the day of the December uprising, Tsitsianov found himself on Senate Square (and it was no coincidence that he ended up: he did not particularly favor the sons of Emperor Paul Alexander and Nicholas, preferring Catherine the Second to them) and drove away the metropolitan, whom Nikolai Pavlovich had asked to exhort the rebels. Several Tsitsian stories have been preserved about this episode. But Tsitsianov especially loved to talk about Prince Grigory Potemkin, claiming that he was his adjutant, but there is no documentary evidence of this - you can only refer to the stories of Tsitsianov himself. It was an anecdote from the Potemkin cycle that ended up in Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.”

A whole series of Tsitsian’s “witty inventions” were preserved in the family tradition. Here the great merit of the famous memoirist A.O. Smirnova Rosset: Tsitsianov was related to her, being the brother of her grandmother Ekaterina Evseevna, née Tsitsianova. Most likely just through A.O. Smirnov-Rosset and Nikolai Gogol touched upon the Tsitsian heritage.

And the first, it seems, is about the significance of oral stories by D.E. Tsitsianova stated P.A. Vyazemsky: he did this in a note included in the “Old Notebook”: “There are liars who are ashamed to call liars; they are poets of their own, and often there is more imagination in them than in jury pots. Let’s take, for example, Prince Tsitsianov.”

The book “Russian Munchausen” collects, if possible, all the oral heritage of D.E. Tsitsianova.