Since 220 years ago, the English doctor Edward Jenner was the first in the world to vaccinate against smallpox, controversy has not subsided whether vaccinations are so dangerous and whether it is worth refusing them because of the risk of complications.
Catherine II, Fyodor Rokotov, 18th century
Koryavin, Ryabov, Ryabkov, Ryabtsev, Shadrin, Shcherbakov, Shchedrin, Shcherbin... Familiar names for everyone. However, not everyone knows that they came from the nicknames that were given to people who had had smallpox: pockmarked, generous, pockmarked ... You know, this smallpox is an unpleasant thing. Fever, chills, headache, aches. And most importantly, sores all over the body, which, if the sufferer survives, permanently disfigure the face.
They say that she came to the Europeans from the East. Either it was brought by the Arabs who conquered the Iberian Peninsula (VIII century), or the crusaders picked up this treasure in the Holy Land (XI century), or ... Although why guess? It is important that the disease has settled in Europe thoroughly, annually claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and disfiguring people how much in vain. Nobody knew what to do with her.
Prayers, spells, amulets, spells, potions and bloodletting did not help. The infection spared no one. In 1694 she killed her wife English king William II Mary, and in 1774 - the French monarch Louis XV. Yes, there is a long way to go. In 1730, Tsar Peter II died from her.
Peter II, 1730 So the heart of Princess Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (the future Empress Catherine II) must have beaten at double speed when she received the news that her fiancé (the future sovereign Peter III) fell ill with smallpox. Still would.
She came to Russia from a provincial German town (in February 1744) in order to successfully marry. And here is such a disaster. Die, Pyotr Fedorovich, and she will immediately be sent back to her native hole. And the chance to become the wife of the monarch, perhaps, will never fall again.
Catherine in her youth, Louis Caravaque, 1745 But God was merciful. Pyotr Fedorovich survived (although the marks, as usual, remained) and the wedding took place. And then - a well-known thing: after the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III ascended the throne, but 186 days later he was overthrown, and on July 9, 1762, a purebred German woman reigned in Russia under the name of Catherine II, who ruled the country for 34 years.
Ekaterina Alekseevna and Pyotr Fedorovich, A. R. Lischevskaya, 1756 But back to smallpox. In the East, after many centuries of suffering, they adapted to instill it. In a healthy person, a small incision was made on the arm and pus from the infected individual's mature pockmark was placed there (this procedure is called inoculation).
The disease transmitted in this way proceeded in a milder form and did not leave scars. It is reported that especially often vaccinations were given to girls doomed to a harem life. So the success in the fight against this infection in the Muslim East was to a certain extent due to lust.
Harem, Fernand Cormon, 1877 Europe was introduced to this method by the wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Mary Wortley Montague, in 1718.
Here, listen to what Voltaire writes about this in his “Philosophical Letters”: “In the reign of George the First, Madame Wortley-Montagu, one of the smartest English women, who also had a huge influence on the minds, during the embassy mission of her husband in Constantinople received the decision without hesitation to vaccinate smallpox to a child born by her in that country.
Her chaplain could tell her as much as he liked that this was not a Christian custom, bringing success only to the infidels - Madame Wortley's son felt great after the vaccination. On her return to London, this lady shared her experience with the Princess of Gaul, the current Queen...
From the moment when rumors reached her (the queen) about the inoculation, or introduction, of smallpox, she ordered to make an experiment on four criminals condemned to death: in this way she saved their lives doubly, for she not only saved them from the gallows, but and, by means of artificially inoculated smallpox, protected them from the possible disease of smallpox, from which they might die in the course of time.
The princess, convinced of the benefits of the experiment, ordered her children to be vaccinated with smallpox. England followed her example, and since that time at least ten thousand first-born children owe their lives to the Queen and Madame Wortley-Montagu, and as many daughters owe their beauty to them.
Mary Wortley Montagu by Charles Gervase, 1716 It is very remarkable that Voltaire talks about this with delight and admiration. But, in essence, we are dealing with a rabid violation of human rights.
Only after successful experiments, smallpox was inoculated into representatives of the royal family. Such were the manners.
And what about Catherine? This woman, reputed to be an enlightened monarch, was aware of all the advanced ideas of her time. And, of course, she had heard of inoculation.
The Great Empress really wanted to protect herself from a terrible disease that once almost destroyed her future and which was always somewhere nearby: for example, in May 1768, Countess Anna Sheremetyeva died from her.
Countess Anna Sheremetyeva, Ivan Argunov, 1768 The Russian ambassador in London was instructed to find out which of the local doctors was the most knowledgeable and experienced in this matter, and Dimsdale was recommended to him. Further negotiations were held and after some hesitation, the physician agreed. And in the summer of 1768 he arrived in St. Petersburg with his son Nathaniel.
It is reported that before subjecting the empress to the procedure, the doctor demonstrated his skills on several volunteers. And only after their recovery did he express his readiness to instill smallpox in the empress. Everything happened under the cover of secrecy. Realizing the degree of risk, Catherine ordered that mail horses be kept ready so that the English guests could immediately escape if something went wrong.
And the situation really could turn into a tragedy. Imagine, the Empress becomes ill, and a rumor instantly spreads around the city that she was killed by two foreign Herods, who probably worship the devil. Immediately people gather and commit reprisals against visitors ...
However, the fears were in vain. On October 23 (according to the old style - October 12), Catherine was inoculated. The material, that is, fresh smallpox, was kindly provided by the peasant boy Alexander Markov, for which he was granted the nobility.
The empress was filled with enthusiasm and issued a decree on mandatory inoculation. But, they say, this initiative did not have much success, because it is very difficult to force the Russian people to do something unusual and suspicious.
By the way, a medal was knocked out in memory of smallpox vaccination in Russia. On one side of it is a portrait of the Empress, and on the other - the temple of Aesculapius1, from which the healed Catherine and her heir (Paul) come out, and happy Russia with the kids runs towards them.
Well, the English doctor received a baronial title for his work, which was also granted to his son, the title of a life physician (court doctor) and a lifetime pension of 500 pounds a year. He was offered to stay at the Russian court, but he refused and returned to his homeland, where he opened his "smallpox vaccination house."
It was October 1768. In the magnificent palace of Tsarskoye Selo, Catherine II was secretly ill from everyone. And the life physician of the Empress Dimsdale wrote in his diary with delight: "Many other smallpox appeared and smallpox completely poured, at will to great pleasure." His joy was explained simply: the empress, born German princess Sophia von Anhalt-Zerbst, decided to test the then newfangled remedy for smallpox before introducing it in Russia, and the experience was a success.
Few escaped smallpox and love
Smallpox, or smallpox, began to rage in Europe from the 6th century. Entire cities died out. It was almost impossible to meet a city dweller without scars from healed smallpox ulcers on his face in those years. In France, the police in the 18th century considered "the absence of traces of smallpox on the face" one of the special signs. And the Germans had a saying "Von Pocken und Liebe bleiben nur Wenige frei" - "Few people manage to avoid smallpox and love."
The first method of combating smallpox in Europe was variolation. As Professor Yuri Zobnin from St. Petersburg explains, the essence of the method was that biological material was extracted from the pockmarks of convalescent patients, which was then artificially grafted onto healthy people. In the 18th century, they did it like this: they pulled an infected thread under the incised skin.
For Europe, variolation was opened by the wife of the British ambassador, who returned to London from Turkey. But variolation did not give a 100% guarantee. And before the invention of Jenner, that is, before the inoculation of cowpox, which is not dangerous for humans, which everyone began to do en masse in the 20th century, there was still half a century left. Therefore, in England they decided to test the reliability of the method by experimenting with criminals and children from orphanages. After that, the family of the British King George I still decided on infected threads.
Risk empress
And in Russia, smallpox epidemics assumed terrifying proportions. This can be judged at least by the number of surnames that have survived to this day, the etymology of which goes back to nicknames: Ryabovs, Ryabtsevs, Ryabinins, Shchedrins, Shadrins, Koryavins. And the name of the author of this article - Ryabko - is also from there. But there were no experiments to test variolation in Russia. Having learned about the vaccination, Empress Catherine II decided to try it first on herself.
Context
Catherine was vaccinated against smallpox secretly, in the presence of only the most trusted associates. “Inoculation of smallpox was considered a dangerous business, and the empress could not risk her health without the approval of the court,” says Vadim Erlikhman, candidate of historical sciences. “The next day, she went to Tsarskoe Selo, where she was treated for a week until she fully recovered. taken from the son of the sergeant major Alexander Markov, six or seven years old, who then received the nobility and the surname Ospenny.
Judging by the memoirs of the doctor, the empress behaved submissively: “On October 19, she dozed and fell asleep all night, but her sleep was interrupted many times. The pain in the head and back continued with fever. I did not want to eat at all all day, and did not deign to eat anything except a little tea, oatmeal and water in which apples were boiled. Then the heir Pavel Petrovich was grafted. The English physician Thomas Dimsdale received a baronial title, the title of a life physician and a large pension for inoculating Catherine with smallpox.
Be in fashion
But not a title, not a title or an estate, but a pockmark from the empress - that was the dream of every courtier. According to Alexandra Bekasova, dean of the Faculty of History at the European University in St. Petersburg, soon after the experiment, about 140 aristocrats were "inoculated" by Catherine.
"Now we have only two conversations: the first is about the war (Russian-Turkish - author's note), and the second is about vaccination. Starting from me and my son, who is also recovering, there is no noble house in which there were not several vaccinated, but many regret that they had natural smallpox and cannot be fashionable. Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, Count Kirill Grigoryevich Razumovskoy and countless others passed through the hands of Mr. Dimsdal, even to beauties ... Here is an example, "the Empress wrote in a letter to the future Vice-President of the Admiralty College, and the then Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to England, Count Chernyshev.
Ekaterina's example can be called, in modern terms, a PR campaign. But we must not forget the risk she put her life at risk by being the first to try vaccination on herself. And this risk was justified - not only for her, but for very many of her subjects.
The 18th century showed us a whole gallery of beautiful stories of all-conquering love. These include Nikolai Lvov and Maria Dyakova, Natalya Sheremeteva and Ivan Dolgorukov and, of course, Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev and Varvara Alekseevna Cherkasskaya.
The son of the famous field marshal of the Petrine era and the richest bride in Russia at that time knew each other from childhood. Varya Cherkasskaya was a close friend of Natalya Borisovna Sheremeteva and often visited the Kuskovo estate near Moscow. Pyotr Sheremetev was in love with a cheerful and lively girl for a long time, they talked about an imminent wedding, but the lovers had to wait 10 long years for happiness. The fact is that the sister of Peter Borisovich, Natalya, married Prince Ivan Dolgorukov. After the death of Peter II, the entire Dolgoruky family was exiled to Berezov, so Varvara's father forbade an alliance with the Sheremetevs, who were related to the disgraced Dolgorukovs.
Varvara Alekseevna Cherkasskaya
For 10 whole years, Pyotr Borisovich waited for his happiness, and Varvara, who became the maid of honor of the Empress, invariably refused numerous suitors who were looking for her hands. Only after Elizabeth Petrovna came to power, the lovers were able to get married. Varvara Cherkasskaya brought an enviable inheritance to the Sheremetevs, which included 70,000 souls of serfs and land on which their son, Nikolai Petrovich, would build a beautiful Ostankino palace, the pearl of the estate art near Moscow. In general, the fortune of P. B. Sheremetev doubled and he became the owner of 44 estates in 28 provinces and 140 thousand souls of serfs.
The marriage was very happy, the couple lived in perfect harmony and raised children. In 1767, Varvara Alekseevna died, Pyotr Borisovich outlived her by 11 years and died in 1788.
Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva
Unfortunately, fate was not so favorable to the daughters of Peter Borisovich and Varvara Alekseevna. One of them, Mary, will die as an infant. The eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva, shone in the light. Balls, carousels, receptions, home performances, artists painted her portraits, the sculptor Shubin created her marble bust - life smiled at her. Contemporaries found Anna Petrovna charming: "a charming woman, had small black eyes, a swarthy, lively face, small, thin, beautiful hands, but her facial features were not good."
Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva in a carousel costume
Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin wooed Anna Petrovna and received consent, a magnificent celebration was being prepared, but a few days before the wedding, the bride contracted smallpox and died. It was rumored that the embittered rival put in the snuffbox, a gift from the groom, a piece of cloth infected with smallpox.
It is known that Nikita Ivanovich was very upset by the loss, he never married. Anna Petrovna was buried in St. Petersburg at the Lazarevsky cemetery.
Anna Petrovna
Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva, daughter of Count Peter Borisovich, bride of Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, maid of honor of the wise Monarchini, who passed away in the 24th year, 1768, May 17 days, was buried in this place, and instead of the marriage chamber, her body was betrayed to the bowels of the earth, and her immaculate soul returned to its immaculate source in the eternal life, to the eternal and living God.
And You, O God! heed the voice of the parent,
May his daughter be taken away by Fate,
Toliko in heaven is praiseworthy before You,
Koliko was laudably on the earth"
Varvara Petrovna Sheremeteva
The fate of Anna Petrovna's sister, Varvara, cannot be called happy either. A tender romantic girl was married off to Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, the eldest son of the last hetman of Little Russia and the nephew of the favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
In this marriage, Varvara Petrovna did not live, but suffered for 10 years, after which the count forced his wife to leave the house and children and live separately. He had a different family for a long time - a peasant woman Marfa Sobolevskaya and 10 children, who in the world were called "pupils" and received the name Perovsky.
Varya Sheremeteva in childhood
One of the reasons for the gap between the spouses, contemporaries believed that their sons came out "unsuccessful." Counts Peter and Kirill Alekseevich, although they had court ranks, led a wasteful life, and Count Kirill fell ill with a mental disorder.
If Varvara Petrovna had been a high society lioness or a zealous housewife, had she shared her husband's passion for the natural sciences, perhaps they would have gotten along. And she, as if to sin, was a simple-minded and timid woman, helpless and indecisive, superstitious and God-fearing. The husband, an atheist, a mystic and a freemason, who had a difficult character, a severe and quick-tempered disposition, took away the children from his wife “in order to avoid a bad moral influence.”
Daughters - seven-year-old Varenka and two-year-old Katyusha - the count entrusted the care of his sister, Countess Praskovia Gudovich. He assigned foreign tutors to nine-year-old Peter and four-year-old Kirill.
Varvara Petrovna Razumovskaya
The further fate of Varvara Petrovna was sad: "Remote against her will from her dearly loved children, this poor woman, despite her sixteen thousand souls, surrounded herself with favorites, pupils, Kalmyks and Kalmyks, freedmen of both sexes, poor noblewomen and all sorts of accustomers and accustomers. From the countess completely refused society and, except for children ... and the closest relatives, almost did not accept anyone ... "
Varvara Petrovna Razumovskaya died in 1824.
A. Krasko "Three centuries of the city estate of the Sheremetevs. People and events"
A. Alekseeva "Ring of Countess Sheremeteva"
W. Eriksen. Catherine II
Especially for such a case, in 1768 a doctor was discharged from London. The courtiers sang of the courage of the empress, and she replied that in England even a street boy is not afraid of vaccination. Catherine's example was followed by many aristocrats.
Love and smallpox are inevitable
In fact, Catherine had been afraid of smallpox since childhood. In Europe, half of the cases ended in death, and the survivors hid traces of smallpox scars under a layer of white and rouge. Deaths in Europe reached 1 million per year, in Russia the numbers were even higher.
In 1730, 14-year-old Peter II died of smallpox. Wealthy and royal families tried to protect themselves from the infection, but it penetrated everywhere. When the future empress arrived in Russia, her fiancé, Pyotr Fedorovich, fell ill with smallpox. He recovered and until the end of his life suffered from the realization of his deformity.
The Germans had a saying: "Love and smallpox are inevitable," and the French in the description of the criminals indicated a special sign: "There are no scars from smallpox."
Medical history
The method that Catherine experienced on herself was not safe. Vaccination of a strain of cowpox, safe for humans, began only in the 19th century, and compulsory vaccination was introduced in Russia a hundred years later.
In the reign of Catherine, smallpox was inoculated by "variolation". Its essence was that an incision was made on the arm and material from a smallpox patient was placed in the wound (or a thread soaked in pus was pulled under the skin). The treatment could not be called safe, but the mortality rate with it was 20 times lower than with infection with smallpox.
A deliberately infected organism coped with the disease more easily. True, sometimes the infection caused new epidemics. So, the Englishman Gaberden calculated that over 40 years of using "variolation" died by 25 thousand more people than before vaccination. The French Parliament banned such treatment six years before Catherine went on the experiment. In England, the treatment was used before the advent of the vaccine.
Turkish method
Dangerous, but still the treatment was carried out by the Turks. With infected threads, they vaccinated girls for the harem. The wife of the British ambassador, Mayor Montagu, saw how the Turks were treating smallpox, and in 1718 decided to inoculate her son. The chaplain tried to dissuade her - supposedly the method only works on Muslims.
The boy survived, and Mary shared the method with the Queen, then the Princess of Gallic. Intrigued, the princess ordered the treatment to be tested on several criminals sentenced to death. Then they tested the treatment on four children from the orphanage. All survived. Members of the royal family were next instilled.
personal example
In addition to the fact that the Russian Empress was afraid of smallpox, she wanted to protect her son. In 1768, Countess Sheremetyeva died of smallpox, and her fiancé was the tutor of the Tsarevich. The infection was approaching the royal palace.
I. Argunov. Portrait of Countess A.P. Sheremeteva Jr. Without being distracted by statistics and percentages, Catherine ordered to find a good foreign doctor. She decided to test the method on herself and give her smallpox material to her son for inoculation.
In October of the same year, doctor Dimsdale was brought to St. Petersburg, straight to the chambers of the Empress. In London, he observed many vaccinated patients and claimed that there were no deaths. The material was taken from a six-year-old boy, Sasha Markov (on the recovery of the Empress, he was granted the nobility and the surname Ospenny).
Engraving. Portrait of T. Dimsdale It was rumored that at first the doctor held a demonstration on volunteers. Only when they recovered did he carry out "variolation" for Catherine II.
Imperial experiment
One can only imagine the horror of court ladies and gentlemen forced to walk, dine at the same table or play cards with the infected Catherine. Finally, on the sixth day, the Empress showed signs of illness, and she retired to Tsarskoye Selo.
Dimmesdale watched the recovery progress, and Catherine ordered that a team of post horses be kept ready. In the event that the empress dies, the doctor had to urgently leave the country in order to avoid lynching. However, everything went well, the Empress recovered in a week.
The Tsarevich inopportunely fell ill with chickenpox, but 140 aristocrats were already lined up for vaccination. It was fashionable and prestigious to graft a smallpox from the empress. Soon the crown prince recovered, and on November 10 he was also inoculated with smallpox.
The doctor was granted a lifetime pension and the title of baronet. After 13 years, he again visited Russia to instill the grandchildren of Catherine II.
Enlightened Russia
Odes were composed to the glory of the empress, a commemorative medal was issued with the inscription “She set an example by herself”, the ballet “Defeated Prejudice” was staged with allegorical figures of sciences and superstitions.
Caricature. T. Dimsdale and opponents of vaccination While the Russians were vaccinated, the French king Louis XV died of smallpox. “What barbarity,” said Catherine. Science allows you to treat this disease. The empress herself said that by her example she tried to save her subjects from death, because the shepherd is responsible for his sheep.
Since then, November 21 in Russia has been celebrated as the day when the fear of a deadly disease was defeated. And since 1980, the smallpox virus has been stored only in laboratory test tubes.
He instructed Neelov to make "The village of the Tsar's palaces, gardens, mountains and other amusements, plans, facades and profiles at the very speed, on clean paper, of mediocre size." In 1768, for the execution of this work, “Alexandrian paper, the cleanest, large and medium hand”, ink, pencils and two students - architect Vasily Mylnikov and artist Andrei Bogdanov - were sent to the drawing workshop. They began work on the first ceremonial album, which later received the name "Neel". All these drawings are close in terms of the technique of execution and the accuracy of reproducing the historical plan of the city (excluding the territory of the park, which is given in separate parts in the design version. “The master plan for the entire Tsarskoye Village” V. I. Neelov handed over to the Office of the Tsarskoye Village buildings before leaving abroad. It was a fixation plan depicting the state of the imperial residence in anticipation of extensive work on laying out the landscape park.This album reflects the appearance of Tsarskoye Selo buildings up to a year and is an important source for researchers of the architecture of Tsarskoye Selo of the 18th century.Compiled by Neelov, the album was the first systematic collection of drawings on the palace -park complex of Tsarskoye Selo.
On another handwritten plan, dated by us to 1766-1768, the wooden Material Yard, built (in the future Kupalny) in the first row of the 60s of the 18th century, is marked for the first time: a complex of buildings (wooden storerooms) located along the perimeter of the site in the form of an irregular quadrangle. From the south-west, the Material Yard bordered on a wooden one, from the south-east - On the road to the Sovereign Slavyanka.
Behind the turn of the Bypass road towards the western stone wall of the Menagerie, on the plan of 1766-1768, you can see the canal for the first time.
For the first time, the location of the Galician (former Dubinka) brick factories was recorded on the plans. According to modern topography, this is the intersection of Kadetsky Boulevard and Artilleriyskaya Street. To the east of the factories, closer to the road to Grafskaya Slavyanka (now Pavlovsk highway), along the bed of the ancient Galitsky stream, there was a small factory settlement. The data of the plans, especially the boundary plans, which contain extremely accurate information, are confirmed by information from textual materials about the transfer of brick factories in 1767 to the Slavyanskaya road in the Sofia district.
In addition to the described topographic objects, the villages that existed at that time are marked on the plan: Bolshaya Ladoga on the Ladoga Creek (near the future Kazan cemetery). Malaya Ladoga (west of Bolshaya Ladoga). Kumolosari (Gummolosary), Big and Small Katlino (south of Malaya Ladoga).
Despite the appearance of new roads, Tsarskoe Selo presented a rather strange picture on the plans of the second half of the 1760s. Due to the undeveloped space to the north of the Big Pond, its historical plan visually "split" into the northern and southern parts, at the same time giving rise to the feeling of a closed space. It was intensified due to the “mirror reflection” of the two bastions of the Menagerie, facing the New Garden, in the bastions built under Elizaveta Petrovna at the circumferences of the Large Front Court, on the site of future palace kitchens.
To manage the matter of colonization and organized colonies, the manifesto of 1768 was established in St. Petersburg. the "Chancery of Guardianship of Foreigners", which had "power and advantages equal to those of state colleges"; she received annually 200,000 rubles. for assistance with relocation.
- On January 23, 1768, Catherine II arrived in Tsarskoye Selo under cannon fire, after almost a year's absence. She was met by those who came from St. Petersburg, Guard Lieutenant Colonel V.M. Suvorov, L.Ya. Ovtsyn, Major Guards A, L. Shcherbachev, Prince P. A. Golitsyn. When Her Majesty left the inner apartments, the aforementioned brought worship, and were commended to the hand. Then, as always, a game of cards in the "Amber Room" at the usual time. Evening meal on 18 couverts.
- On April 21, the Empress celebrated her birthday in Tsarskoye Selo. At the end of the Divine Liturgy in the church, Catherine II deigned to impose the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called on His Excellency Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov. At this time, I.P. Elagin and was in Tsarskoe Selo.
In his autobiographical notes “A sincere confession in my deeds and thoughts”, D. I. Fonvizin described a visit to Tsarskoye Selo in 1768.
The playwright recalled that: "Arriving in Tsarskoye Selo, I was delighted, I found a special room allotted for me, in which nothing could interfere with my exercises." In the mornings, Fonvizin took walks in the Tsarskoye Selo park. During one of these walks, he met with Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov. Just like I.P. Elagin, he was the Secretary of State of the Empress. Teplov published several works of a moralizing and philosophical nature, a collection of Russian songs set to music by himself. Collaborated in the academic journal "Monthly essays". At the meeting in Tsarskoye Selo Garden, the conversation turned to the comedy Brigadier, which Fonvizin promised to read to Teplov. Then we talked about the book of the philosopher Samuel Clark, who tried to justify the existence of God. - On April 27, Catherine II with all her retinue left Tsarskoye Selo for St. Petersburg to attend the performance of a new Italian opera.
At 10 o'clock, Her Imperial Majesty returned to Tsarskoe Selo.
- In 1768, by decree of Catherine II, “porcelain dishes” were sent to Tsarskoye Selo from the storerooms of Smolny; among 188 items were products of Chinese and Japanese workshops.
Early 1768. The court returned to St. Petersburg. The smallpox epidemic that spread this year did not spare even the members of high Petersburg society. AT May In 1768, the bride, Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremetyeva, was fatally ill with smallpox. Then the Empress, turning to the mediation of I.P. Elagina, writes to him May 5th from Tsarskoye Selo. She asks to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich urgently arrived in Tsarskoye Selo, and N.I. Panin, his tutor, would have appeared in Tsarskoye Selo only after two weeks, i.e. survived the quarantine.
May 6 in Tsarskoe Selo arrives at six o'clock in the evening Imperial Highness Pavel Petrovich.
Ekaterina and Pavel Petrovich returned to St. Petersburg only July 10.
On Sunday evening October 12, 1768, Dimsdale, together with his assistant son and a sick child, were taken by secret passage to the Empress's chambers in the Winter Palace. There she was vaccinated with smallpox.
October 12 in the morning Her Imperial Majesty moved to Tsarskoye Selo. Together with her, the doctor Dimsdale also came, who in his notes described those days in Tsarskoye Selo: they were many who, as she supposed, never had smallpox, said to me: “I must rely on you to tell me, as soon as this will be possible, when illness can stick to others from me. I would like to keep this matter a secret, but God forbid that I hide my position for at least a minute, when it may be dangerous for others.
From October 13 to October 18, the Empress did not show the slightest concern about what had been done to her. She ate as before with others, went for walks with her retinue, played cards in the Amber Room, and carried on a casual conversation. And only on October 19, she announced to others that smallpox had been vaccinated in her, and she was secluded in her inner chambers. Only on October 30, Catherine II, in the morning, went for a walk in a carriage, and in the evening she deigned to play cards with her gentlemen in the Amber Room.
On November 1, a prayer service was held in the court church that Her Imperial Majesty deigned to be freed from smallpox, while cannon firing was carried out. After that, the Empress with her retinue went to Petersburg.
On November 16, 1768, Catherine wrote to the Governor-General of Livonia Brown: “You, General, tell me that fearlessness was needed on my part when inoculating smallpox, therefore, I must believe that this is so; meanwhile, I thought that this fearlessness is found in England in any street boy ... ".
The Empress perfectly understood what a personal example meant. The example turned out to be fateful for the empire. He was followed by the enlightened wing of the nobility (the precedent for a small demographic boom was, as it were, created: this ... gave XIX century additionally a considerable number of officers). After 3 years, the 71-year-old doctor will return to Russia with his wife, Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, who will leave
Having experienced the inoculation of smallpox on herself, Catherine prompted the Tsarevich to secure himself with a similar remedy. On November 20, a Senate decree followed on the safe inoculation of smallpox to the empress and the crown prince; it was immediately said that with her permission, for the future, it was established to celebrate November 21 in all cities of the empire, since from that day healing smallpox vaccination began to spread throughout Russia. It was supposed, after a thanksgiving service, to ring the bells all day, and then illuminate the cities; at the same time, the day of November 21 was included in the calendar as a day of service, with the release of offices and schools from classes.
A historical anecdote: Catherine the Great, generously praising Dr. Dimsdale for his diligence and success in inoculating herself and her kind son with smallpox, did not forget that seven-year-old baby Alexander Danilov, son of Markov, from whom the doctor took smallpox matter and safely vaccinated Her Majesty. She remembered the sadness of his father and mother, who were sure that after this she would lose her beloved and only son. She remembered the pitiful wailing of her mother and her request to the doctor that he not take smallpox from her son, who they had alone. She also remembered the generous speech of her father, who persuaded his wife to obey, if not this Mr. Doctor, then at least the monarch, who has the power not only to take away their son, but also their life; because Dr. Dimmesdale then told this touching story to the Empress. She remembered this, and wishing to reward their sorrow with her mercy and goodwill, she most mercifully granted Alexander Danilov Markov the noble dignity to him and his descendants; and some time later, by her royal decree, she ordered Markov to be called Smallpox, and not Markov.
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