Boyarina Morozova is a legendary personality. The life story of noblewoman Morozova
Boyarina Morozova - the most famous Old Believer
10 women who influenced the history of Russia / Russia is feminine
This year, on the eve of March 8, the website “Russia for Everyone” talked about women who left a serious mark on the history of Russia. Of course, there are infinitely more such representatives of the fair sex - you can read these amazing life stories! All of them are united by strength of spirit, love for family, homeland, devotion to their beliefs and inner beauty. Next in the project: || || || || || || || ||
IN AND. Surikov. Sketch for the painting "Boyarina Morozova". 1881-1884. The head of the noblewoman is covered with lining, between 1881 and 1884This woman became a symbol of fearlessness and devotion to religious beliefs. Boyarina Morozova is perhaps the most famous representative of the Old Believer branch of Orthodoxy. Feodosia Prokopyevna was born on May 21, 1632 in Moscow. Her father, Sokovnin Prokopiy Fedorovich, was a okolnichy and was related to the first wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, Maria Ilyinichna. Theodosia was one of the courtiers who accompanied the queen.
At the age of seventeen, the girl was married to Gleb Ivanovich Morozov, a representative of a noble boyar family related to the Romanov family.
Feodosia Prokopyevna occupied the place of a riding noblewoman and had great influence in Moscow.
A representative of the Old Believer faith, Morozova always treated the poor and holy fools favorably and gave them alms. In addition, adherents of the Old Believers often gathered in her house to pray according to ancient Russian canons near ancient icons. The woman had close contact with Archpriest Avvakum and did not accept the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. She wore a hair shirt in order to “pacify the flesh.” At the same time, Theodosia attended the church of the new rite, thereby arousing the distrust of the Old Believers.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich did not like the beliefs of the riding noblewoman; he repeatedly tried to influence Morozova through relatives, but the obstinate noblewoman stood her ground. Finally, the sovereign's patience ran out. On the evening of November 16, 1671, Archimandrite Joachim came to Morozova with Duma clerk Hilarion. The noblewoman’s sister, Princess Evdokia Urusova, was also in the house. To show their disrespectful attitude towards the guests, Theodosia and Evdokia went to bed and, lying down, answered the questions of those who came. After interrogation, the women were shackled and left under house arrest. Two days later, Morozova was transported first to Chudov, and then to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.
After the noblewoman’s imprisonment, her only son Ivan died, two brothers were exiled, and all property went to the royal treasury.
At the end of 1674, Morozova was transferred to the Yamskaya courtyard. There she was tortured on the rack to force her to renounce her religious beliefs, but the woman remained unshaken. The richest and most influential Muscovite in the past died on November 2, 1675 from exhaustion. Shortly before her death, she asked the guards to wash her shirt in the river so that she could die in clean clothes.
Morozova was glorified 200 years later by the famous artist Vasily Surikov - his painting “Boyaryna Morozova” is famous throughout the world. The work of 1887 is an oil painting, currently located in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Why was church reform carried out?
Changes in the socio-economic and political development of Russia in the second half of the 17th century also affected the Russian church. The accumulation of practical knowledge led to a weakening of the religious worldview. Church reform was dictated by the need to strengthen discipline, order, and moral principles of the clergy. The expansion of ties with Ukraine (reunification with which took place during this period, in 1654) and the Greek East required the introduction of the same church rituals in the Orthodox world. The spread of printing opened up the possibility of unifying church books.
At the end of the 1640s, a Circle of zealots of ancient piety was formed in Moscow, which included prominent religious figures: the royal confessor Stefan Vonifatiev, the rector of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square John, Nizhny Novgorod residents Avvakum and Nikon and others.
The son of a Mordovian peasant Nikon (in the world Nikita Minov) became abbot of the Kozheozersky monastery (Kargopol region). His acquaintance and friendship with Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich, apparently, led to the fact that he soon became the archimandrite of the Novospassky Monastery - the family tomb of the Romanovs. Since 1652, Nikon has been the Moscow patriarch.
In an effort to turn the Russian Church into the center of world Orthodoxy, the powerful patriarch began reforms to unify rituals and establish uniformity in church services. Greek rules and rituals were taken as a model. The reforms gave rise to massive discontent in society. Old Believers and supporters of reforms argued about which models - Greek or Russian - to unify church books. They also argued about how to cross themselves - with two or three fingers, to make a religious procession - in the direction of the sun or against the sun, and so on.
The split in society led to a serious social conflict, the most acute manifestation of which was the uprising in the Solovetsky Monastery of 1668-1676. It ended in the defeat of the Old Believers: out of 600 defenders of the fortress, only 50 people survived.
The leaders of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum and his associates, were exiled to Pustozersk in the lower reaches of Pechora, where they spent 14 years in an earthen prison, after which they were burned alive. Since then, Old Believers often subjected themselves to “baptism of fire” - self-immolation in response to the coming of “Nikon the Antichrist” into the world.
The Old Believers, which broke away from the official church, were persecuted by both the church and the state. Until now, Old Believers live in compact communities in different regions of the country and practically do not participate in its life.
Boyarina Morozova Feodosia Prokopyevna (born May 21 (31), 1632 - death November 2 (12, 1675) - supreme palace noblewoman. She was arrested for her adherence to the “old faith”, exiled to the Pafnutievo-Borovsky Monastery and imprisoned in the monastery prison, where she died of starvation.
What is known about Feodosia Prokopyevna
The image of the noblewoman Morozova in the national memory is connected with the painting by V. Surikov, beloved by the people. Even the writer V. Garshin, having seen the artist’s painting 100 years ago at an exhibition, predicted that descendants would not be able to “imagine Feodosia Prokopyevna otherwise than how she is depicted in the painting.” It is difficult for a contemporary to be impartial, but we understand that Garshin, as it turned out, was a good prophet. Many people imagine the noblewoman Morozova as a stern, elderly woman, as in the picture, who fanatically raised her hand in a double-fingered motion. Well, Surikov knew history well and, in the main, did not go against the truth, but he needed the details of fiction for the sake of symbolic generalizations.
Boyarina Morozova was not old - look at the dates of her life. The noblewoman was arrested 4 years before her death, then she was not even forty, but the people’s memory could only capture the martyr for the idea as having lived, wise and alien to any frivolity.
Why did the glory of the noblewoman Morozova cross centuries? Why, among thousands of sufferers for the faith, was this woman destined to become a symbol of the schismatics’ struggle against the “Nikonians”?
On the artist’s canvas, Feodosia Prokopyevna addresses the Moscow crowd, the common people - a wanderer with a staff, an old beggar woman, a holy fool, and all those who actually represented the social stratum of fighters against new rituals. However, Morozova was not an ordinary disobedient woman. The Miracle Monastery, where she was taken, was located in the Kremlin. It is not known whether Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich watched from the palace passages as the people saw off his favorite, as she proclaimed anathema to the “wicked,” but there is no doubt that the thought of Morozova haunted him and gave him no rest.
Morozov family
The noblewoman stood too close to the throne, knew the tsar too well, and besides this, the Morozov family was one of the most noble. There were less than ten such high-ranking families in Russia; at least the Romanovs, to whom Alexei Mikhailovich belonged, had no more rights to the throne than any of the Morozovs. One can guess to what extent the tsar felt uncomfortable when giving the order to arrest the noblewoman. However, there were other things to worry about.
The Morozov brothers, Boris and Gleb, were relatives of the Tsar's father Mikhail and in their youth served as bedsitters for the elder Romanov, this was an exceptional position at court. When 17-year-old Alexei was crowned king in 1645, Boris Morozov became his closest advisor. It was the boyar who chose Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya’s wife for the sovereign and played the first role at the wedding - he was with the sovereign “in his father’s place.” Ten days later, Boris Morozov, a widower and already an elderly man, married the Tsarina’s sister Anna for a second marriage and became the Tsar’s brother-in-law.
From his exceptional position he was able to extract everything he could. And if a good fortune for a gentleman of that era was considered to be the ownership of 300 peasant households, then Morozov had more than 7,000 of them. Unheard of wealth!
The career of Gleb Ivanovich, a very ordinary man, completely depended on the success of his brother. The younger Morozov married the unborn 17-year-old beauty Feodosia Sokovnina, who was very friendly with the queen. Boris Ivanovich died without leaving heirs, and all of his huge fortune went to his younger brother, who also died soon, making his widow and the youth Ivan Glebovich the richest people in the Russian state.
The life of noblewoman Morozova
Boyar Morozova was surrounded not just by wealth, but by luxury. Contemporaries recalled that she rode in a gilded carriage, which was drawn by 6-12 best horses, and about 300 servants ran behind. On Morozov’s Zyuzino estate, a huge garden was laid out where peacocks walked. Considering all this - Morozova’s successful marriage, luxurious life, personal friendship with the royal family - one can understand Archpriest Avvakum, who saw something absolutely exceptional in the fact that Theodosia Prokopyevna renounced “earthly glory.” The noblewoman in fact became an ardent opponent of church reforms. The temperament of a public figure raged within her, and she was able to fully realize herself by defending the old faith.
The house of a rich and influential noblewoman turned into the headquarters of opponents of innovations, critics of amendments to church books; the leader of the schismatics, Archpriest Avvakum, came here and lived for a long time, receiving shelter and protection. All day long Morozova received wanderers, holy fools, priests expelled from monasteries, creating a kind of opposition party to the royal court. The noblewoman herself and her sister Princess Evdokia Urusova were blindly devoted to Avvakum and listened to the fiery preacher in everything.
But it would be wrong to assume that noblewoman Morozova was a fanatic and a “blue stocking.” Even Avvakum noticed that she had a cheerful and friendly character. When her old husband died, she was only 30 years old. The widow “tormented” her body with hair shirt, but hair shirt did not always help to pacify the flesh. Avvakum in his letters advised his pupil to gouge out her eyes in order to get rid of the temptation of love.
The archpriest also accused the noblewoman of stinginess in relation to their common cause, but, most likely, it was not just stinginess, but the thriftiness of the mistress. Morozova selflessly loved her only son Ivan and wanted to transfer to him all Morozov’s wealth safe and sound. The noblewoman's letters to the disgraced archpriest, in addition to discussions about faith, are filled with purely feminine complaints about her people, discussions about a suitable bride for her son. In a word, Feodosia Prokopyevna, possessing enviable strength of character, had very human weaknesses, which, of course, makes her asceticism even more significant.
The noblewoman, being a close friend of the sovereign's wife, had a strong influence on her. Maria Ilyinichna, of course, did not oppose her husband’s reforms of the church, but in her soul she still sympathized with the rituals of her parents and listened to the whispers of Feodosia Prokopyevna. Alexei Mikhailovich hardly liked it, but the tsar, who loved his wife, did not allow attacks against the noblewoman, although the latter became increasingly intolerant of innovations and openly supported the tsar’s enemies.
1669 - the queen died. For another two years, Alexey Mikhailovich was afraid to touch the rebellious noblewoman. Apparently, there was sadness for his untimely departed wife, but most of all the sovereign was wary of the indignation of the old boyar families, who could see in the encroachment on Theodosia Prokopyevna a precedent for reprisals against high-ranking families. Meanwhile, Morozoav took monastic vows and began to be called nun Theodora, which, of course, strengthened her fanaticism and “standing up for the faith.” And when in 1671, the tsar, finally consoled, played a wedding with Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, noblewoman Morozova did not want to come to the palace, citing illness, which Alexei Mikhailovich considered an insult and neglect.
Arrest
It was then that the sovereign recalled all the past grievances to the boyar Morozova; Apparently, it was also affected by the fact that the king, like a mere mortal, did not like the friend of his beloved wife and, like any man, was jealous of her. The autocrat unleashed all his despotic power on the rebellious noblewoman.
On the night of November 14, 1671, Morozova was escorted in chains to the Chudov Monastery, where they began to persuade her to take communion according to the new rite, but Elder Theodora answered firmly: “I will not take communion!” After torture, he and his sister were sent away from Moscow to the Pechersky Monastery. There, the conditions of the prisoners were relatively tolerable. At least the noblewoman could maintain communication with her friends. Servants could visit her and bring her food and clothing.
Archpriest Avvakum continued to pass on instructions to his spiritual daughter. And she just needed warm, compassionate support - the noblewoman’s only, dearly beloved son died. The grief was also increased by the fact that she could not say goodbye to him, and what was it like for her, nun Theodora, to find out that her son was given communion and buried according to new “unholy” rites.
The new Patriarch Pitirim of Novgorod, who sympathized with the supporters of Avvakum, turned to the autocrat with a request to release Morozova and her sister. In addition to considerations of humanity, there was also a share of political intent in this proposal: the imprisonment of the boyar, her sister and their friend Maria Danilova, who was firm in her faith, made a strong impression on the Russian people, and their release would rather attract to a new ritual than deterrence. But the sovereign, not cruel by nature, this time turned out to be adamant. The version again suggests itself that he was burning with some kind of personal resentment towards Morozova, or perhaps he felt awkward in front of Feodosia Prokopyevna because of his marriage to the young beauty Naryshkina and wanted to forget about the past. However, why guess?..
Death of the noblewoman
Having considered the circumstances of the execution of the hated noblewoman, Alexei Mikhailovich decided that the prisoners should not be burned at the stake, because “even death is red in the world,” but ordered the Old Believers to be starved to death, throwing them into the cold pit of the Borovsky Monastery. All the property of the noblewoman Morozova was confiscated, her brothers were first exiled, and then they were also executed.
The drama of Morozova’s last days defies description. Poor women, driven to despair by hunger, asked the jailers for at least a piece of bread, but were refused. Princess Urusova was the first to die on September 11, followed by Feodosia Prokopyevna who died of exhaustion on November 1. Before her death, she found the strength to ask the jailer to wash her shirt in the river, so that, according to Russian custom, she would die in a clean shirt. Maria Danilova suffered the longest, for another whole month.
The once great Morozov family ceased to exist.
A. M. Panchenko | Boyarina Morozova - symbol and personality
Boyarina Morozova - symbol and personality
The memory of the nation strives to give each major historical character an integral, complete appearance. Proteism is alien to the memory of the nation. She seems to “sculpt” her heroes. Sometimes we can talk about such a “statue” only conditionally: it exists as a kind of “national feeling”, consisting of various facts, assessments, emotions, it exists as an axiom of culture, which does not need proof and, most often, is not fixed in the form of a clear formula. But in some cases, the “statue” of a historical figure is directly cast into a verbal or plastic form. This happened to the noblewoman Fedosya Prokopievna Morozova, who remained in the memory of Russia as V.I. Surikov wrote her.
Analyzing the controversy and rumors about this painting (it was the main event of the fifteenth traveling exhibition), N.P. Konchalovskaya, Surikov’s granddaughter, cites, among others, a review by V.M. Garshin: “Surikov’s painting surprisingly vividly represents this wonderful woman. Anyone who knows her sad story, I am sure, will forever be captivated by the artist and will not be able to imagine Fedosya Prokopyevna otherwise than how she is depicted in his painting.” It is difficult for contemporaries to be impartial, and their predictions do not often come true. But Garshin turned out to be a good prophet. Over the nearly hundred years that separate us from the fifteenth exhibition of the Itinerants, Surikov’s Morozova has become the “eternal companion” of every Russian person. “Otherwise” it is truly impossible to imagine this 17th-century woman, ready to endure torture and death for the sake of a cause of the rightness of which she is convinced. But why exactly did Surikov’s Morozova become an iconographic canon and historical type?
First of all, because the artist was faithful to historical truth. To verify this, it is enough to compare the composition of Surikov’s painting with one of the scenes of the Long Edition of the Tale of the Boyarina Morozova, which is published and studied by A. I. Mazunin in this book. What we see in the picture happened on November 17 or 18, 1671 (7180th according to the old account “from the creation of the world”). The noblewoman had already been in custody for three days “in the human mansions in the basement” of her Moscow house. Now they “put a cap on her neck,” put her on a log and took her to prison. When the sleigh reached the Chudov Monastery, Morozova raised her right hand and, “clearly depicting the addition of a finger (Old Believer two-fingered - A.P.), raising herself high, often enclosing herself with a cross, and also often clinking her cap.” It was this scene of the Tale that the painter chose. He changed one detail: the iron “neck”, the collar worn by the noblewoman, was attached with a chain to the “chair” - a heavy stump of a tree, which is not in the picture. Morozova was not only “laden with heavy irons”, but also “tormented by the inconvenience of the chair,” and this block of wood lay next to her on the firewood. People of the 19th century knew shackles of a different design (they were described in detail in “The House of the Dead” by Dostoevsky). The artist, apparently, decided here not to deviate from the customs of his time: a canvas is not a book, you cannot attach a real comment to it.
However, loyalty to the ancient Russian source does not fully explain the fate of “Boyaryna Morozova”, her role not only in Russian painting, but also in Russian culture in general. In his beautiful paintings about other outstanding people, Surikov also did not sin against the truth, but the characters in these paintings are “representable” in other guises, “otherwise.” Of course, we willingly or unwillingly compare the heroes of “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps” and “Menshikov in Berezovo” with their lifetime portraits. But after all, “parsun” was not written from Ermak Timofeevich and Stenka Razin, so there is no possibility for comparison, and yet neither Surikov’s Ermak nor Surikov’s Razin became canonical “statues”.
The fact is that long before Surikov, in the national consciousness, the noblewoman Morozova turned into a symbol - a symbol of that popular movement, which is known under the not entirely accurate name of schism. In essence, this movement has two symbols: Archpriest Avvakum and noblewoman Morozova, a spiritual father and a spiritual daughter, two fighters and two victims. But there were many thousands of warriors and sufferers at the beginning of the schism. Why Avvakum remained in historical memory is understandable. Avvakum is a genius. He had a completely exceptional gift of speech - and, therefore, the gift of persuasion. But why did Russia choose Morozova?
In Surikov’s painting, the noblewoman addresses the Moscow crowd, the common people - a wanderer with a staff, an old beggar woman, a holy fool, and they do not hide their sympathy for the noble prisoner. And so it was: we know that the lower classes rose up for the old faith, for whom the authorities’ encroachment on a time-honored ritual meant an encroachment on the entire way of life, meant violence and oppression. We know that wanderers, beggars, and holy fools found bread and shelter in the noblewoman’s house. We know that people of her class blamed Morozova for her adherence to the “simple people”: “You received into the house... holy fools and others like that... adhering to their teachings.” But there was one more person to whom on that November day Morozova extended two fingers, for whom she rattled her chains. This man is Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Miracle Monastery was located in the Kremlin. The noblewoman was taken near the sovereign's palace. “I think it’s holy, as if the king is looking at the crossing,” writes the author of the Tale, and most likely writes from the words of Morozova herself, to whom he was very close and with whom he had the opportunity to talk in prison (very interesting considerations about the author’s personality are given in research by A.I. Mazunin). It is not known whether the tsar looked at the noblewoman from the palace passages under which the sleigh rode, or did not look. But there is not the slightest doubt that thoughts about her actually haunted Alexei Mikhailovich. For the tsar, she was a stumbling block: after all, it was not about an ordinary disobedient woman, but about Morozova. To understand how loud it sounded in the 17th century. this name, it is necessary to take a genealogical excursion into distant times.
When in 1240 Prince Alexander Yaroslavich defeated the Swedes on the Neva, then in this battle “six brave men, like yours... strong,” who were described in the Life of Alexander Nevsky, especially distinguished themselves. One of them, Gavrilo Aleksich, chasing enemies, in the heat of battle rode along a gangway onto a Swedish ship, and “overthrew him from the board with his horse into the Neva. By the grace of God, I came out from here unharmed, and again I came upon them, and fought with the commander himself in the midst of their regiment.” Another knight, Misha (aka Mikhail Prushanin), “on foot with his retinue, rushed onto the ships and destroyed three ships.” Of the six “braves,” we chose these two senior warriors (or boyars, which is the same thing), since in the 17th century. The fates of their later descendants were again intertwined and came into contact with the fate of the noblewoman Morozova.
Under the grandson of Alexander Nevsky, Ivan Danilovich Kalita, the first prince of the Moscow appanage, who received the label for the great reign, the descendants of these knights moved to Moscow and gave rise to the largest boyar families. From Gavrila Aleksich, who, according to genealogies, was the great-grandson of Ratsha, came the Chelyadnins, Fedorovs, Buturlins, and Pushkins. From Misha Prushanin - Morozovs, Saltykovs, Sheins. In terms of fame and position, only two or three boyar families could compete with these families - such as the family of Alexander Zern (Velyaminov-Zernov, Saburov and Godunov) and the family of Andrei Kobyla, whose fifth son, Fyodor Koshka, became the ancestor of the Romanovs and Sheremetevs.
When in the 15th century the end of inheritance came, a stream of Rurikovichs poured into Moscow, henceforth the capital city of all Rus', to serve Ivan III. But several of the most prominent lines of the untitled boyars resisted the influx of princes and did not lose “honor and place.” In the eyes of the people of the oprichnina era, Ivan the Terrible was opposed not so much by his peer and former friend, and then the rebel and fugitive Kurbsky, who came from the Yaroslavl appanage princes, as by the son of Gavrila Aleksich in the ninth generation, the richest boyar Ivan Petrovich Fedorov, who was old enough to be the tsar’s father. And it is no coincidence that in 1567, the “crowned wrath”, suspecting this man, respected by all for justice, who had the highest rank of equerry and headed the government of the zemshchina, of a conspiracy, framed the reprisal against him as a scene of rivalry. Ivan the Terrible ordered Fedorov to be dressed in royal robes, given a scepter and placed on the throne. Then the king, “by God’s will,” bowed at his feet and gave all honors according to palace custom, and with his own hands stabbed the mummered king to death.
There is nothing strange in the fact that Ivan the Terrible, who was proud of the antiquity of his family and who traced it through Rurik to Emperor Augustus himself, saw a rival in a man without a princely title. Our ancestors had their own concepts of nobility, which were very different from our concepts. To be a descendant of Rurik or Gediminas did not mean very much in itself. “In Muscovite Rus', a person’s place on the ladder of service ranks... was determined not only by origin, but also by the combination of a person’s serviceability and services, taking into account his birth, i.e., the service level of his “parents”, relatives in general, and first of all his direct ancestors - father, grandfather, etc. along the direct and nearest lateral lines.” The ancestors of I.P. Fedorov “were so “great” and well known to everyone that in various acts they were called by name and patronymic and did not use any family nickname.” Most princes could not even think about being equal to them, for title and nobility in the eyes of ancient Russian society were not at all the same thing.
Let us show this using the example of Prince D. M. Pozharsky, who came from the younger line of Starodub princes. Recognized by all Russian people, “from the tsar to the huntsman,” as the savior of the fatherland, this national hero experienced many humiliations. He continually lost local disputes because his father and grandfather “lost honor” while serving as city clerks and provincial governors. Prince D. M. Pozharsky, although of Rurik blood, was of good birth. For us, this combination looks like an oxymoron, but in the old days, noble princes were distinguished from noble-born princes. Once Pozharsky did not want to serve as a “place below” Boris Saltykov, a distant relative of the Morozovs. He struck with his brow the dishonor of Tsar Mikhail, and the descendant of Rurik, the savior of Russia, was “given over” to the descendant of Misha Prushanin.
These ancient Russian concepts of nobility explain why it cannot be considered a historical incongruity that after the Time of Troubles, the escheated throne went to the untitled but “great” “Cat Family”, that Monomakh’s hat ended up on the head of Mikhail Romanov. If fate had been more favorable to the Fedorovs or the Morozovs, they too could have become the founders of a new dynasty.
Morozovs in the XV-XVI centuries. retained an exceptionally high position. In the one and a half century period from Ivan III to the Time of Troubles, up to thirty Duma members, boyars and okolnichys emerged from this family. Although the disgraces and executions of Grozny did not spare the Morozovs either (in the 60s, boyar Vladimir Vasilyevich “dropped out”, in the 70s, his cousin, the famous governor boyar Mikhail Yakovlevich, people of the generation of I.P. Fedorov); although at the time of the accession of the Romanovs there were only a few representatives of this family left, which was destined to be suppressed in the 17th century, it was precisely the reign of the first two Romanovs that was the time of greatest success for the Morozovs.
Two of them, brothers Boris and Gleb Ivanovich, in their youth were sleeping companions of their peer Mikhail Fedorovich, i.e., “home, room, closest people.” Apparently, they received this appointment due to their relationship and affinity with the Romanovs. Suffice it to say that one of their relatives was the great-grandfather of Tsar Mikhail’s mother, and the other two relatives, the Saltykovs, were his cousins. Boris Ivanovich Morozov was granted a boyar status in 1634, in connection with his appointment as uncle to Tsarevich Alexei Mikhailovich. When Alexei married into the state in 1645, his mentor became a temporary worker, a “strong man.” As they put it then, the king “looked out of his mouth.”
In June 1648, a rebellion broke out in Moscow, “the mob rose up against the boyars” - and above all against Boris Morozov. But this did not particularly harm him: the king, with tears, “begged” the world for his breadwinner. The uncle held his pupil tightly in his hands and, using all his dexterity and influence, chose for him a bride from among the noble Miloslavskys, Maria Ilyinichna. At the wedding, Boris Morozov played the first role - he was “in his father’s place” with the sovereign. Ten days later they celebrated another wedding: Boris Morozov, a widower and already an elderly man, married the Tsarina’s sister Anna for a second marriage and became the Tsar’s brother-in-law. He made the best of his absolutely exceptional situation. In 1638, Boris Morozov owned more than three hundred peasant households. This is a good condition, but common for a boyar of that time. Fifteen years later, he had 7,254 households, twenty times more! This is unheard of wealth. Only the Tsar's uncle Nikita Ivanovich Romanov and one of the Cherkasy princes, Yakov Kudenetovich, had the same number of households. All other boyars, titled and untitled, were inferior to Boris Morozov many times over. The career of Gleb Ivanovich Morozov, a completely ordinary person, is, as it were, a reflection of the career of his older brother. They started out the same way - with the king's sleeping bags and the princes' uncles. But Tsarevich Ivan Mikhailovich, to whom Gleb Morozov, who was made a boyar on this occasion, was assigned, died as a minor. From that time on, the progress of Gleb Morozov slowed down and depended entirely on the success of his brother. Like the latter, he also married for the second time and also to a noble woman - the 17-year-old beauty Fedosya Prokopyevna Sokovnina. The Sokovnins, Likhvin and Karachev boyar children, fell into the midst of the Moscow nobility due to their close relationship with the Miloslavskys. Fedosya Prokopyevna was most likely married to Gleb Morozov “from the palace.” She became the “visiting noblewoman” of the tsarina (this was a great honor), who always treated her like a family and, while she was alive, always stood up for her before the tsar.
Boris Morozov died in 1662 childless. His estates were inherited by his younger brother, who himself was a very wealthy man (2110 households according to the list of 1653). Almost simultaneously with Boris, Gleb Ivanovich died, and the only owner of this enormous fortune, second perhaps only to that of the “eminent people” the Stroganovs, turned out to be the youth Ivan Glebovich, and in fact his mother Fedosya Prokopyevna Morozova.
She was surrounded not only by wealth, but also by luxury. Her Moscow house was luxurious. Avvakum recalled that she rode out in a carriage with “musiya and silver,” which was carried by “many argamaks, 6 or 12, with rattling chains,” and which was accompanied by “100 or 200, and sometimes three hundred” servants. Luxury also penetrated into the estates near Moscow, which was new and unusual then. The fact is that, according to ancient tradition, boyar estates had a purely economic purpose. The first to break this tradition was Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who established several luxurious estates near Moscow. Among them, Izmailovo and Kolomenskoye, the “eighth wonder of the world,” stood out. His uncle did not lag behind the tsar, who set up his village of Pavlovskoye in the Zvenigorod district with great pomp, which became “a kind of dacha”, where the boyar “went for entertainment... inviting guests... sometimes the tsar himself.” Gleb Morozov followed their example. In the mansion of his village of Zyuzin near Moscow, the floors were “written chessboard”, the garden occupied two acres, and peacocks and peahens walked in the yard. In this case, the Tsar and the Morozov brothers imitated Europe, and above all the Polish “potentates”. It was in the 17th century, during the Baroque era, that manor life began to flourish in Poland. During his campaigns in the mid-50s, the tsar had the opportunity to see the luxurious residences of magnates. By the way, Gleb Morozov, who was a member of the sovereign’s staff, also took part in these campaigns.
Taking into account all this - the antiquity and “honor” of the Morozov family, their family ties with the Tsar and Tsarina, their position in the Duma and at court, their wealth and luxury of private life, we will better understand Archpriest Avvakum, who saw something completely exceptional in the fact that noblewoman Morozova renounced “earthly glory”: “It’s not surprising that 20 years and one summer torment me: I am called to myself, let me shake off the burden of sin. And behold, this man is poor, inferior and foolish, from a selfless man, I have no clothes and gold and silver, I have a priestly family, the rank of archpriest, I am filled with sorrows and sorrows before the Lord God. But it’s wonderful to think about your honesty: your family, - Boris Ivanovich Morozov was an uncle to this king, and a nurturer, and a breadwinner, he was sick for him and grieved more than his soul, having no peace day and night.” Avvakum in this case expressed the popular opinion. The people recognized Morozova as their intercessor precisely because she voluntarily “shook off the dust” of wealth and luxury, voluntarily became equal to the “simpletons.”
We will better understand the behavior of the Moscow nobility. Having not succeeded in trying to reason with the lost sheep, seeing that even appeals to her maternal feelings were in vain, the nobility nevertheless for a long time resisted the bishops who carried on the noblewoman’s cause with such zeal. Particularly zealous were the ignorant Joachim, then the Archimandrite of Miracles, and Metropolitan Pavel of Sarsk and Podonsk - both extremely cruel people. But even the gentle patriarch Pitirim changed his character when he realized how much Morozov hated his “Nikonian faith.” “Roaring like a bear” (according to the author of the Tale), the patriarch ordered the noblewoman to be dragged “like a dog, with a cap by the neck,” so that Morozova on the stairs “considered all degrees to be her head.” And at this time Pitirim shouted: “Blow the martyr in the morning!” (i.e. at the stake, because back then it was customary to burn people “in the log house”). However, again “the bolyars were not up to the task,” and the bishops had to give in.
Of course, the nobility defended not so much the person, not Fedosya Morozova as such, but class privileges. The nobility was afraid of the precedent. And only after making sure that this matter was safe for her in terms of class, that it was “not an example or a model,” the nobility renounced the noblewoman Morozova. They now began to look at the lost sheep as a black sheep - according to the proverb, “in the family there is a black sheep, and on the threshing floor there is damage.”
Only Morozova's brothers, Fyodor and Alexey Sokovnin, remained faithful to her, just as Princess Evdokia Urusova, her younger sister, who suffered and died with her, was faithful to her. Tsar Alexei hastened to remove both brothers from Moscow, appointing them governors in small towns. It was a link that could not be called honorable. Apparently, the tsar knew or suspected that the Sokovnins had not only a blood connection with their sisters, but also a spiritual one, that they all stood for “ancient piety.” Apparently, the king feared them - and not without reason, as later events showed.
On March 4, 1697, the okolnichy Alexei Prokopyevich Sokovnin, a “hidden schismatic,” ended his days on the chopping block. He was beheaded on Red Square because, together with Streltsy Colonel Ivan Tsykler, he was at the head of a conspiracy for the life of Peter I. Among the executed conspirators was the steward Fyodor Matveevich Pushkin, married to the daughter of Alexei Sokovnin. The Pushkins, as the weakest branch of Gavrila Aleksich’s family in terms of “honor and place,” began to rise at the end of the 16th century, after the death of more noble relatives in oprichnina. The 17th century was a period of greatest success for the Pushkins, but it ended in their disaster - unexpected and undeserved, because the execution of one conspirator turned into actual disgrace for the entire numerous family. If the Morozovs in the 17th century. died out in the literal sense of the word, then fate was preparing political death for Pushkin: from now on and forever they were expelled from the ruling stratum.
But let’s return to the confrontation between noblewoman Morozova and Tsar Alexei. Even after the break with Nikon, the Tsar remained faithful to church reform, since it allowed him to keep the church under control. The Tsar was very concerned about the resistance of the Old Believers, and therefore he had long been dissatisfied with Morozova. He, of course, knew that at home she prayed in the old way; Apparently, he knew (through his sister-in-law Anna Ilyinichna) that the noblewoman wore a hair shirt, he also knew about her correspondence with Avvakum, imprisoned in Pustozersk, and that her Moscow chambers were a refuge and stronghold of the Old Believers. However, the tsar did not take decisive steps for a long time and limited himself to half-measures: he took away part of the estates from Morozova, and then returned them, tried to influence her through relatives, etc. The sadness of Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna played a great role in these hesitations, but the matter should not be reduced only to her intercession. After all, after her death (1669), the tsar spared Morozova for another two and a half years. Apparently, he was content with Morozova’s “small hypocrisy.” From the Tale it is clear that she “for the sake of decency ... went to the temple,” that is, she attended Nikonian worship. Everything changed dramatically after her secret tonsure.
If the noblewoman Fedosya could bend her soul “for the sake of decency,” then the nun Theodora, who took monastic vows, was not fit for “a little hypocrisy.” Morozova “began to shirk” the worldly and religious duties associated with the rank of “mountaine” (palace) noblewoman. On January 22, 1671, she did not appear at the Tsar’s wedding with Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, citing illness: “My legs are very sad, and I can neither walk nor stand.” The king did not believe the excuse and took the refusal as a grave insult. From that moment on, Morozova became his personal enemy. The bishops cleverly played on this. During the dispute about faith, they posed the question directly (there was a catch in the directness): “In brevity, we ask you, according to the service book according to which the sovereign tsar and the blessed queen and the princes and princesses receive communion, have you received communion?” And Morozova had no choice but to answer directly: “I will not take communion.”
The author of the Tale puts into the mouth of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich significant words regarding his feud with Morozova: “It’s hard for her to brother with me - the only one who can overcome everything from us.” It is unlikely that these words were ever uttered: in fact, the autocrat of all Rus' could not, even for a moment, admit that he would be “overcome” by the noblewoman, who was rigid in disobedience. But fiction has, in its way, no less historical value than an immutably established fact. In this case, fiction is the voice of the people. The people perceived the fight between the Tsar and Morozova as a spiritual duel (and in the battle of the spirit, the rivals are always equal) and, of course, were entirely on the side of the “combatant.” There is every reason to believe that the king understood this perfectly well. His order to starve Morozova to death in the Borovsk pit, in the “unlighted darkness”, in the “earthly suffocation” strikes not only with cruelty, but also with cold calculation. The point is not even that death is red in the world. The fact is that a public execution gives a person the aura of martyrdom (if, of course, the people are on the side of the executed). This is what the king feared most of all, he was afraid that “the last misfortune would be worse than the first.” Therefore, he doomed Morozova and her sister to a “quiet”, long death. Therefore, their bodies - in matting, without a funeral service - were buried inside the walls of the Borovsk prison: they feared that the Old Believers would dig them up “with great honor, like the relics of holy martyrs.” Morozova was kept in custody while she was alive. She was left in custody even after her death, which put an end to her suffering on the night of November 1–2, 1675.
In creating a symbol, history is content with a few large strokes. Private life is indifferent to national memory. The life of a mortal man, his earthly passions - all these are little things, they are carried away by the river of oblivion. There is a reason for such selectivity, because history remembers, first of all, heroes, but there is also a danger, because the true appearance of a person is involuntarily distorted.
The spirit of fanaticism emanates from Surikov’s Morozova. But it is wrong to consider her a fanatic. Old Russian man, unlike the man of the Enlightenment culture, lived and thought within the framework of religious consciousness. He was “fed” by faith as his daily bread. In Ancient Rus' there were any number of heretics and apostates, but there were no atheists, which means fanaticism looked different. Boyarina Morozova is a strong character, but not fanatical, without a shadow of gloominess, and it is not for nothing that Avvakum wrote about her as a “cheerful and loving wife” (amiable). She was not at all alien to human passions and weaknesses.
We learn about them first of all from Avvakum, who, as a spiritual father, instructed, scolded, and sometimes cursed Morozova. Of course, Habakkuk’s scolding behavior should not always be taken at face value. Often it was a “therapeutic”, healing technique. When Morozova was in prison torn over her dead son, Avvakum wrote her an angry letter from Pustozersk, even calling her “thin dirt,” and ended with this: “Don’t worry about Ivan, I won’t scold her.” But in some cases, the spiritual father’s reproaches seem quite reasonable.
After the death of her old husband, Morozova remained a young, thirty-year-old widow. She “tormented” her body with a hair shirt, but the hair shirt did not always help. “Stupid, crazy, ugly,” Avvakum wrote to her, “gouge out those little eyes of yours with the shuttle that Mastridia did.” Avvakum had in mind the example of the Venerable Mastridia, whose life the noblewoman knew from the Prologue (under November 24). The heroine of this life gouged out her eyes to get rid of the temptation of love.
Avvakum also accused Morozova of stinginess: “And now... you write: you’ve become impoverished, father; there is nothing to share with you. And I couldn’t even laugh at your disagreement... Alms flow from you like a small drop from the depths of the sea, and then with a reservation.” From his point of view, Habakkuk was right. When we read that the noblewoman sent eight rubles to Pustozersk, “two rubles for the priest alone, and he shared six rubles with the brothers of Christ,” then we involuntarily remember the gold and jewelry that she hid from the authorities. In this case, one cannot but agree with Avvakum. However, this was not just stinginess, but also the homeliness of a zealous housewife. Morozova, by her position, was a “seasoned widow,” that is, a widow who manages the estates until her son comes of age. That’s why she cared about “how... the house is built, how to gain more fame, how... villages and villages are harmonious.” The “seasoned widow” kept for her son the wealth accumulated by his father and uncle. She hoped that the son, no matter how the mother’s fate turned out, would live in “earthly glory” befitting his famous family.
Morozova loved her Ivan very much. Feeling that the king’s patience was coming to an end, that trouble was at hand, she hurried to marry her son and consulted with her spiritual father about the bride: “Where should I get one - from a good breed, or from an ordinary one. Those who are of a better breed than girls are worse, and those girls are better than those who are of a worse breed.” This quote gives a clear idea of Morozova. Her letters are women's letters. We will not find discussions about faith in them, but we will find complaints about those who dare to “deceive” the noblewoman, we will find requests not to listen to those who bully her in front of the archpriest: “No matter what you write, it’s all wrong.” The one who dictated, and sometimes wrote these “letters” with her own hand, was not a gloomy fanatic, but a housewife and mother, busy with her son and household chores.
Therefore, her “small hypocrisy” is understandable, and the hesitations that are reflected in the Tale are understandable. Where torture is discussed, the author writes that Morozova “victoriously” denounced “their crafty retreat” from the rack. Here the influence of the hagiographic canon is obvious, according to which a sufferer for faith always endures torture not only courageously, but also “joyfully.” But much stronger and more humanly authentic is the end of this episode, when the noblewoman began to cry and said to one of those overseeing the torture: “Is Christianity dead to torture a person?”
And she died not as a hagiographic heroine, but as a person. “Servant of Christ! - the noblewoman, tortured by hunger, cried out to the archer guarding her. - Do you have a father and mother alive or have they passed away? And if they are alive, let us pray for them and for you; Even if we die, we will remember them. Have mercy, servant of Christ! I’m very tired of hunger and I’m hungry for food, have mercy on me, give me a little kolachik,” And when he refused (“No, lady, I’m afraid”), she asked him from the pit for at least a piece of bread, at least “a few crackers,” although an apple or a cucumber - and all in vain.
Human weakness does not detract from the feat. On the contrary, she emphasizes his greatness: in order to accomplish a feat, you must first of all be human.
The story of Boyarina Morozova is the main source of information about this wonderful woman. The publication and research of A.I. Mazunin, who carefully studied the manuscript tradition, allows us to read this text in a new way. But the Tale is valuable not only for its historical material. This is a work of high artistic quality. This monument of ancient Russian literature will certainly be appreciated by the modern reader.
Quote according to the book: Konchalovskaya Natalya. The gift is priceless. M., 1965. P. 151.
The Tale of Boyarina Morozova / Prep. texts and research by A.I. Mazunin. L., “Science”, 1979.
For the genealogy of the Morozovs and other boyar families, see the book: Veselovsky S. B. Research on the history of the class of service landowners. M., 1969.
Life of Alexander Nevsky cit. from the book: Izbornik. Collection of works of literature of Ancient Rus'. M., 1970.
Veselovsky S. B. Research on the history of the class of service landowners. P. 103.
Right there. P. 55.
“In the literal sense of the word, this meant extraditing the accused as a complete servitor. In local affairs, “surrender by head”... had a symbolic and everyday meaning... The accused local with a submissive look, with his head uncovered, walked to the courtyard of his new master. The latter, probably in the presence of his children, household members and the entire household, gave the local a more or less severe reprimand, made him feel the full extent of his power and then mercifully forgave him. Depending on the mutual relations of the colliding individuals and surnames, the matter could end either in a similar scene or in complete reconciliation. The man acquitted by the court invited the local man given to him by his “head” to his house, and the recent enemies, over a glass of wine, conscientiously tried to eliminate moments of personal resentment” ( Veselovsky S. B. Research on the history of the class of service landowners. P. 104).
Zabelin I. E. Home life of Russian queens in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ed. 3rd. M., 1901. P. 101.
Cm.: Vodarsky Ya. E. The ruling group of secular feudal lords in Russia in the 17th century. - In the book: Nobility and serfdom in Russia in the 16th-18th centuries. Sat. in memory of A. A. Novoselsky. M., 1975. P. 93.
Right there. For comparison, we point out that, according to the calculations of Ya. E. Vodarsky, at that time the Duma people had on average households: the boyars had 1567, the okolnichy 526, the Duma nobles 357 (ibid., p. 74).
Materials for the history of the schism for the first time of its existence, published... ed. N. Subbotina. T. V, part 2. M., 1879. P. 182-183.
Petrikeev D.I. Large serf farm of the 17th century. L., 1967. P. 46.
Cm.: Tikhonov Yu. A. Moscow region estates of the Russian aristocracy in the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries. - In the book: Nobility and serfdom in Russia in the 16th-18th centuries. pp. 139-140.
The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself, and his other works. M., 1960. P. 216.
Right there. P. 296.
Right there. P. 213.
Right there. P. 208. It is interesting to compare this phrase with one incident from Avvakum’s youth, which he spoke about in his Life: “When I was still in trouble, a girl came to confess to me, burdened with many sins, guilty of fornication... Guilty... I But the three-repentant doctor himself fell ill, burning inside with the fire of prodigal fire, and I felt bitter in that hour: I lit three lights and stuck them to the forehead, and laid my right hand on the flame, and held it until the evil in me died out, having fermented” (ibid. P. 60). Here Habakkuk acted directly “according to the Prologue”: in the Prologue under December 27 there is a similar story about a monk and a harlot.
Barskov Ya. L. Monuments of the first years of Russian Old Believers. St. Petersburg, 1912. P. 34.
Right there. P. 37. Of course, eight rubles was a lot of money at that time. But Avvakum and his Pustozersky “prisoners” had to spend more than any resident of Moscow. Here is an example: in order to send a letter to Morozova, Avvakum had to give the archer a whole half.
Barskov Ya. L. Monuments of the first years of Russian Old Believers. P. 34.
Right there. pp. 41-42.
Right there. pp. 38-39.
Material: http://panchenko.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=2330
To depict the conflict between the individual and the state, the opposition of a black spot to the background - for Surikov, artistic tasks of equal importance. “Boyaryna Morozova” might not have existed at all if it weren’t for the crow in the winter landscape. “...Once I saw a crow in the snow. A crow sits in the snow with one wing held back. Sits like a black spot in the snow. So I couldn’t forget this stain for many years. Then he wrote “Boyaryna Morozova,” Vasily Surikov recalled about how the idea for the painting came about.
To create “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution,” the painting that made him famous, Surikov was inspired by the interesting reflexes on his white shirt from the flame of a lit candle in daylight. The artist, whose childhood was spent in Siberia, recalled in a similar way the executioner who carried out public executions in the city square of Krasnoyarsk: “Black scaffold, red shirt - beauty!”
Surikov’s painting depicts the events of November 29 (according to modern times), 1671, when Feodosia was taken away from Moscow as a prisoner.
An unknown contemporary of the heroine in “The Tale of Boyarina Morozova” says: “And she was quickly taken past Chudov (the monastery in the Kremlin, where she had previously been escorted for interrogation) under the royal passages. Having extended his hand to his gum... and clearly depicting the shape of the finger, raising it high, he often guarded it with a cross, and often clinked his cap in the same way.”
1. Feodosia Morozova.“Your fingers are subtle... your eyes are lightning fast,” her spiritual mentor Archpriest Avvakum said about Morozova. Surikov first wrote the crowd, and then began to look for a suitable type for the main character. The artist tried to paint Morozov from his aunt Avdotya Vasilievna Torgoshina, who was interested in the Old Believers. But her face was lost against the background of the multicolored crowd. The search continued until one day a certain Anastasia Mikhailovna came to the Old Believers from the Urals. “In kindergarten, in two hours,” according to Surikov, he wrote a sketch from her: “And when he inserted her into the picture, she conquered everyone.”
The noblewoman, who rode around in luxurious carriages before her disgrace, is transported in a peasant sleigh so that the people can see her humiliation. The figure of Morozova - a black triangle - is not lost against the background of the motley crowd that surrounds her; she seems to split this crowd into two unequal parts: excited and sympathetic - on the right and indifferent and mocking - on the left. 
2. Dual fingers. This is how the Old Believers folded their fingers when crossing themselves, while Nikon enforced three-fingeredness. It has long been customary in Rus' to make the sign of the cross with two fingers. Two fingers symbolize the unity of the dual nature of Jesus Christ - divine and human, and the bent and connected three remaining ones - the Trinity. 
3. Snow. It is interesting to the painter because it changes and enriches the color of the objects on it. “Writing in the snow turns out differently,” said Surikov. - There they write in the snow with silhouettes. And in the snow everything is saturated with light. Everything is in purple and pink reflexes, just like the clothes of the noblewoman Morozova - outer, black; and a shirt in the crowd..." 
4. Drovni.“There is such beauty in the logs: in the hoofs, in the elms, in the sanitary drains,” the painter admired. “And in the bends of the runners, how they sway and shine, like forged... After all, Russian firewood needs to be sung about!..” In the alley next to Surikov’s Moscow apartment, there were snowdrifts in winter, and peasant sleighs often drove there. The artist walked behind the firewood and sketched the furrows they left in the fresh snow. Surikov spent a long time searching for the distance between the sleigh and the edge of the picture that would give it dynamics and make it “go.” 
5. Clothes of the noblewoman. At the end of 1670, Morozova secretly became a nun under the name of Theodora and therefore wears strict, albeit expensive, black clothes. 
6. Lestovka(on the noblewoman’s hand and on the wanderer’s right). Leather Old Believer rosary in the form of steps of a ladder - a symbol of spiritual ascent, hence the name. At the same time, the ladder is closed in a ring, which means unceasing prayer. Every Christian Old Believer should have his own ladder for prayer. 
7. Laughing pop. When creating characters, the painter chose the most striking types from the people. The prototype of this priest is the sexton Varsonofy Zakourtsev. Surikov recalled how, at the age of eight, he had to drive horses all night on a dangerous road, because the sexton, his traveling companion, had gotten drunk, as usual. 
8. Church. Painted from the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Novaya Sloboda on Dolgorukovskaya Street in Moscow, not far from the house where Surikov lived. The stone temple was built in 1703. The building has survived to this day, but requires restoration. The outlines of the church in the painting are vague: the artist did not want it to be recognizable. Judging by the first sketches, Surikov was initially going, according to sources, to depict the Kremlin buildings in the background, but then decided to move the scene to a general Moscow street of the 17th century and focus on a heterogeneous crowd of citizens. 
9. Princess Evdokia Urusova. Morozova’s own sister, under her influence, also joined the schismatics and eventually shared the fate of Feodosia in the Borovsky prison. 
10. Old woman and girls. Surikov found these types in the Old Believer community at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery. He was well known there, and women agreed to pose. “They liked that I was a Cossack and didn’t smoke,” said the artist. 
11. Wrapped scarf. A chance find by the artist still at the sketch stage. The raised edge makes it clear that the hawthorn has just bowed low to the condemned woman, to the ground, as a sign of deep respect. 
12. Nun. Surikov wrote it from a friend, the daughter of a Moscow priest, who was preparing to take monastic vows. 
13. Staff. Surikov saw one in the hand of an old pilgrim who was walking along the road to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. “I grabbed the watercolor and grabbed it,” the artist recalled. - And she has already left. I shout to her: “Grandma! Grandmother! Give me the staff! And she threw away the staff - she thought I was a robber.” 
14. Wanderer. Similar types of wandering pilgrims with staves and knapsacks were also encountered at the end of the 19th century. This wanderer is Morozova’s ideological ally: he took off his hat while seeing off the condemned woman; he has the same Old Believer rosary as she does. Among the studies for this image there are self-portraits: when the artist decided to change the turn of the character’s head, the pilgrim who originally posed for him was no longer to be found.
15. Fool in chains. Sympathizing with Morozova, he baptizes her with the same schismatic double-finger and is not afraid of punishment: holy fools were not touched in Rus'. The artist found a suitable sitter at the market. A little man selling cucumbers agreed to pose in the snow wearing nothing but a canvas shirt, and the painter rubbed his chilled feet with vodka. “I gave him three rubles,” said Surikov. - It was a lot of money for him. And the first thing he hired was a reckless driver for a ruble of seventy-five kopecks. That’s the kind of man he was.” 
16. Icon “Our Lady of Tenderness”. Feodosia Morozova looks at her over the crowd. The rebellious noblewoman intends to answer only to heaven. 
Surikov first heard about the rebellious noblewoman in childhood from his godmother Olga Durandina. In the 17th century, when Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich supported the reform of the Russian church carried out by Patriarch Nikon, Feodosia Morozova, one of the most noble and influential women at court, opposed the innovations. Her open disobedience aroused the anger of the monarch, and in the end the noblewoman was imprisoned in an underground prison in Borovsk near Kaluga, where she died of exhaustion.
The confrontation of an angular black spot with the background is for the artist a drama as exciting as the conflict of a strong personality with royal power. Conveying the play of color reflexes on clothes and faces to the author is no less important than showing the range of emotions in the crowd seeing off the convicted person. For Surikov, these creative tasks did not exist separately. “Abstraction and conventionality are the scourges of art,” he argued.
ARTIST Vasily Ivanovich Surikov
1848 - Born in Krasnoyarsk into a Cossack family.
1869–1875 - Studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he received the nickname Composer for his special attention to the composition of paintings.
1877 - Settled in Moscow.
1878 - Married a noblewoman, half-French, Elizabeth Charest.
1878–1881 - Painted the painting “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution.”
1881 - Joined the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
1883 - Created the canvas “Menshikov in Berezovo”.
1883–1884 - Traveled throughout Europe.
1884–1887 - Worked on the painting “Boyaryna Morozova”. After participating in the XV Traveling Exhibition, it was purchased by Pavel Tretyakov for the Tretyakov Gallery.
1888 - Widowed and experiencing depression.
1891 - Came out of the crisis, wrote “The Capture of the Snowy Town.”
1916 - Died, buried in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
The famous painting by artist Vasily Surikov “Boyaryna Morozova” depicts a woman in black clothes sitting on a firewood. She is taken to prison in front of a crowd of people. This is the heroine of the picture - Feodosia Morozova. You can see from the noblewoman’s face that she understands that she is doomed to torment. But thanks to his proud spirit and strong will, he is not afraid of suffering. I am ready to endure them for the sake of faith, which I will not give up... But we do not know what was hidden in the very depths of the woman’s heart. Who was the only one she truly loved? After all, a woman cannot help but love...
We met our eyes
...Feodosia Sokovnina by the age of 17 was already a bride of marriageable age. Her father, boyar Prokopiy Sokovnin, was one of the close associates of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov (17th century). He didn’t have much wealth, but he had the sovereign’s respect. And, of course, he wanted a noble groom for his eldest daughter.
Happiness overwhelmed him when he learned that Gleb Morozov, the uncle of Tsar Ivan’s younger brother, wanted to woo Feodosia. He did this on the advice of his older brother Boris, who was Alexei Mikhailovich’s teacher.
By the age of 50, Gleb was already a widower, but had no children. He turned out to be a profitable match for Feodosia Sokovnina. And he was lucky - the young girl was miraculously beautiful, and had a kind and gentle disposition. Feodosia's parents were happy that the wedding of their eldest daughter opened up an equally profitable future for her younger ones - sister Evdokia and brothers Fyodor and Alexei.
The matchmaking turned out colorful, like something out of a fairy tale. 12 beautiful thoroughbred horses pulled a large gilded carriage. A dressed-up Gleb Morozov sat in it. One coat of valuable fur was worth a lot. Frankly, he didn’t really want all these public ceremonies and wedding paraphernalia. Still, the groom is not the first freshman... In the sense that he was already married once.
The boyar's carriage was accompanied by more than a hundred servants. Needless to say, it was impressive! The heart of inexperienced Feodosia beat in trembling excitement, often and often. Although she married “blindly”, without knowing her future husband in advance, she could not help but understand that from now on she would live in wealth.
From childhood, Feodosia was distinguished by the fact that she never dared to disobey her mother and father. That’s why she didn’t resist their agreement to marry her to boyar Morozov. Until then, she had not fallen in love with anyone, she was completely absorbed in the life of her parents’ family. Moreover, her mother was of a domineering nature. Perhaps this is why in the future rebellion will appear in the character of Feodosia...
The Morozov estate was located in Zyuzin, near Moscow. The main structure was a stunning palace, decorated and painted in the latest fashion of the time. It was there that the wedding took place.
So that all the nobles could look at Morozov’s new darling, the wedding festivities lasted a whole week. On the third day of the celebration, the royal couple came to the Morozov estate: the young sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich and his wife Maria Ilyinichna.
It was from this moment, according to some chroniclers, that the tragic story of noblewoman Morozova began, making her immortal...
...The young and handsome king met the eyes of young Theodosia and for a long time could not take his eyes off. Something caught his attention in this girl. As soon as the week of wedding celebrations at the Morozovs ended, he ordered the couple to come to him for an audience.
From then on, the young attractive noblewoman became close to the court. She herself came to the royal chambers, and Alexei visited her husband’s estate from time to time. He liked to communicate with Feodosia, who was smart and mature beyond her years, who had her own opinion on everything. Surprisingly, she knew history well and understood politics.
Hard times
People immediately started talking about the fact that the sovereign and the noblewoman had a relationship that went beyond business and even friendship. When, a year after the wedding, the Morozov couple had a boy, who was named Ivan, there were few doubts that this was the son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and not her legal husband Gleb. Moreover, he is the same blue-eyed and fair-haired.
In addition, there have long been rumors that both Morozov brothers are not capable of having offspring. Neither Boris nor his older brother Gleb had children. True, the king hardly needed such a relationship, with a likely claim to the throne. Therefore, he would never officially recognize him in the world. But it turned out even worse...
If Boyar Morozov had remained alive, perhaps Feodosia would not have taken the road that turned out to be disastrous for her. But in 1662, both Morozov brothers died one after another. First Boris, and then Gleb. Gleb's inheritance, according to the law, passed to his son Ivan. But since he was still a minor (12 years old), Feodosia was appointed manager of the estate. And a woman without a husband, and even in power, seems to many to be potentially dangerous.
The noblewoman became bolder in her statements and actions. And in Rus' at that time there were riots, Romanov had fewer and fewer supporters, he was nervous...
After the death of Patriarch Joseph, the church authorities changed, which began to advocate changes in the likeness of the Catholic Church, where the pope has all the power. It was then that three fingers were introduced, although until then all believers made the sign of the cross with two fingers.
Patriarch Nikon.
The new Patriarch Nikon insisted that the appearance of the cross change: from eight-pointed to four-pointed. The king did not contradict the patriarch. At that moment, he saw in him the only force that could influence the people and calm them down.
Theodosia and the patriarch immediately developed mutual hostility. She did not like the new church changes. She didn't want to follow them. Enmity began between them. And it turned out that Tsar Alexei, frightened to death, was ready to betray a loved one. The king did not defend Feodosia. He disowned her.
At first, he stopped communicating and avoided meetings. And as soon as his wife Maria died, he soon married young Natalya Naryshkina. All this time the noblewoman preached the old faith, helped the poor, and communicated with like-minded people.
I didn’t go to Tsar Morozov’s wedding.
Then Alexey Mikhailovich became seriously angry. In addition, he had long been dissatisfied with the fact that she was friends with Archpriest Avvakum, who was a true adherent of the old faith and called on the people not to renounce it. Then Romanov ordered Archimandrite Joachim of the Chudov Monastery to arrest the noblewoman Morozova.
Iron collar
...There was a loud knock on Feodosia's house. Joachim, who appeared on the threshold, announced the king’s order for arrest. But to make everything as reliable as possible, I conducted a “preliminary investigation.” The archimandrite demanded that Theodosia show how she made the sign of the cross. She raised her head proudly and crossed herself with two fingers. Following her, her sister Evdokia, who spent the night that night with Feodosia, did the same.
Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov
Joachim laughed loudly and said: “You didn’t know how to be submissive. Therefore, by royal command, you should be expelled from your own home.” The noblewoman did not move from her place. Then the servants forcibly carried her and her sister out of the house, put them in leg shackles and threw them into the basement. In a couple of days they were supposed to be taken for interrogation to the Kremlin.
The sisters were interrogated by Joachim and Metropolitan Pavel Krutitsky. They demanded obedience from Morozova. And, had she admitted her “mistake” and submission to the king, she would probably have been released in peace. But the noblewoman was adamant, calling the sovereign’s representatives heretics.
The next morning, iron collars, to which thick chains were attached, closed around the necks of Theodosia and Evdokia. It was decided to separate the sisters and take them to different monasteries. Morozova was sent to the former courtyard of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. On a log she made her way through the Kremlin, past the royal chambers.
A large crowd gathered to watch this. Why, the noblewoman herself is being taken! Once she was admitted to the king, but now she is an ordinary prisoner. One of the moments of Morozova’s journey, when she raises her hand to the royal windows, thinking that the sovereign will see her, is most likely shown in Surikov’s painting.
...The noblewoman had been languishing in prison for more than six months when the news reached her, which she was told with special gloating at the behest of the Tsar - her son Vanya had died... She was sobbing for a whole week. Howled like a wounded wolf. It seemed that her moans could be heard in every nook and cranny of the monastery. She had never felt as bad as in those terrible days.
Some people from the royal circle suggested that Ivan died not without the participation of the sovereign. After all, while the younger Morozov was alive, all the wealth that belonged to him by inheritance was inaccessible to the tsar. And after Vanya’s death everything went to the royal treasury. But the bullying of the one with whom Alexey Mikhailovich once had close contact did not stop there...
Probably, the tsar hoped that the death of his only son would undermine the noblewoman’s strength and she would give up her position. Accept a new faith. He will repent. But she didn't.
Hell's torment
It was ordered that Morozova, her sister Evdokia and another of their associates, Maria, who was also arrested, be subjected to cruel torture - being raised on a rack. It was bitterly cold. The women were stripped of almost all their clothing, leaving them naked to the waist. His hands were put behind his back and his wrists were tied. And with tied hands they lifted him to a great height from the ground. Theodosia screamed about the inhumanity of the torturers. They hung for at least forty minutes. The rough ropes rubbed the skin of my wrists. Blood oozed from the wounds...
But the atrocities did not end there. Theodosia, Evdokia and Maria were thrown into the snow and began to be beaten with whips. The pain was terrible. It seemed as if this horror would never end. But finally everything calmed down, and the half-dead prisoners were taken away, each to their own place of detention.
After some time, Morozova was transferred first to the Novodevichy Convent, and later to Khamovnicheskaya Sloboda.
No matter how much some of the tsar’s associates tried to persuade the tsar to finally take pity on the noblewoman, he only stamped his feet and shouted: “Don’t you dare interfere! I don't want to hear about her! In general, I’ll die from the world, since you remind me of her!” Well, just like dad, as they say - an apple from an apple tree...
And his promise immediately after what was said began to be fulfilled. Feodosia, and then Evdokia, were immediately transported to the small town of Borovsk (the supposed location of the earthen pit), where they were locked up in prison. At first it seemed that fate took a little pity on the women exhausted in captivity. They were given food and prayer.
The punishing hand (hand, palm - note “I Want to Know Everything”) appeared to the courageous sisters in the person of clerk Bessonov. He, being sent by the tsar to bring the matter “to a conclusion and a fair end,” ordered both Old Believers to be put in a deep earthen pit and not given either food or water. Dirt, cold, hunger, thirst...
It became obvious that the days of Theodosia and Evdokia were numbered... The younger sister could not stand it first. Dying, she asked Theodosia to sing prayers over her. Her lifeless body was wrapped in matting and buried in the courtyard of the prison.
A few days later, the noblewoman felt that her turn to say goodbye to the world was about to come. It's funny to say, but she was only 43 years old. By today's standards, she is a woman in her prime, who has many chances to start all over again. Including in my personal life.
But then, in the 17th century, she was considered almost an old woman. And even more so after the ordeal, it was even more impossible to look at her without tears. Gray hair, wrinkles of suffering... Only a subtle sparkle of disobedience remained in Theodosia’s eyes until her last breath. And... the beat of a loving heart.
Borovsk chapel at the site of the death of Boyarina Morozova.
She remembered the goodness of her venerable late husband, she felt gratitude to Avvakum... And, of course, she did not hold a grudge against Alexei Mikhailovich, despite the fact that he was the culprit of all her torment. She forgave him, because “he didn’t know what he was doing.”
But who did the noblewoman love most of all, whose image is forever etched in history? Whether this is true or not, there is evidence that some historical documents record her words: “I love Christ even more than my own son.”