335 years ago, on June 9, 1686, a son was born in the family of the pastor of the church of the Apostle Paul in the Westphalian city of Bochum. If everything went as it should, then he would have a standard and quiet modest German career. Like his grandfather and father, he would have become a pastor or perhaps a professor of theology. There are, as they say, twelve such quarries in every dozen. However, fate was pleased to write the name of this man in the Big Story. True, not in Germany, but in Russia, so that even the name Hermann Johann Friedrich he was replaced by Andrey Ivanovich. The surname, however, remained the same & nbsp; & mdash; Osterman.
This name immediately causes a number of unmanageable associations. Osterman? Yes, yes, of course we do. The court of Empress Anna Ioannovna, intrigue and guile, and also the terrible “German dominance”;:Osterman, Minich and & nbsp; & laquo; fiend & raquo; Biron the three of them staged large-scale repressions and drove many natural Russians behind Mozhay. In the literal sense, it is Osterman who is considered responsible for the fall and exile of the most prominent associate. Peter I & nbsp; Alexander Menshikov in & nbsp;Berezov. Especially relished is the fact that after 15 years in the&Beryozov was also exiled, and Osterman himself was exiled, as they say, under the daughter of Petrova, the Empress Elizabeth the “German domination” has ended, and the truth has triumphed.
The real truth is that just under Anna Ioannovna, a strict course was taken to eradicate the “German dominance”. In the beginning of the XX century. historian Vasily Stroev he published a good monograph, “The Bironov Region and the Cabinet of Ministers,” where it is stated with some surprise that during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the number of foreigners in the Russian service is steadily decreasing. The most interesting thing is that this very Cabinet of Ministers was created by the thought of Andrei Osterman. So what’s behind all the businessthis authority is worth this non-ordinary figure. Not ordinary even by the standards of the XVIII century, which gave our country a number of exceptionally talented individuals. But this is a special case. A German who actually blocks the road to Russia for the Germans.There is something fascinating about this.
However, how long did Osterman remain German? This is a big question. Historian Vladilen Vinogradov For example, he believed that Russia was not Osterman’s second homeland, but his only one. Indeed, it is difficult to find a person who would have done more for Russia in those times than Andrey Ivanovich. Management reform, fleet reform, defining foreign policy vectors for many years to come. Development of the famous “Table of Ranks” tool, which includedone of the most serious social elevators. Powerful infusions into science. Under his care was the famous Great Northern Expedition, which secured for Russia the riches of Siberia and the Arctic. Well & nbsp; and & nbsp; other, on trifles:reduction of the noble service, reduction of taxes, measures for the development of trade, industry and literacy, improvement of the judicial and financial parts…
All this was based on a serious knowledge of Russia and the Russians. Osterman was Russified not only by the documents, but in fact. Here is what his contemporary, the Prussian, wrote about him king Frederick II A skilful pilot, he ruled the helm of the empire with a faithful hand in the era of the most violent upheavals, being cautious and brave, depending on the circumstances, and knew Russia as surely as the human body. Note that the French artist and doctor Joseph-Guichard du Verney he was then considered an unsurpassed expert in anatomy, so the compliment turned out to be brilliant and very flattering at the same time for Osterman and for Russia.
This is partly because, unlike many other foreigners in the Russian service, Osterman had nowhere to go back to. In Russia, he got under bad circumstances, and in his homeland, he was waiting for a trial and, possibly, execution.
One can accurately date the day when the small German career of the pastor’s son, a student at the University of Jena, was interrupted. Here is what appears in the book of the deceased of the Lutheran community of the city of Jena: “A student is buried Borherding who, on May 4, 1703, at half-past eleven in the morning, was stabbed by a student named Ostermann, a burgher from Westphalia. Subsequently, a story about a student duel will be invented. However, the duel was not a real murder. Young Osterman, who was not yet 17, was forced to flee to Amsterdam.
Russia, then waging a Northern War with Sweden, resembled a kind of personnel vacuum cleaner. The Russian service attracted everyone in a row, in whom it was possible to see at least some abilities. The past dark deeds turned a blind eye. And just when Osterman was in Amsterdam, without a penny in his pocket and without prospects, the Russian Vice-Admiral Cornelius Kruis arrived there. . It was Osterman who joined him as a sub-skipper, but on the way to Russia it turned out that the young man was capable of languages and office work. So Osterman’s Russian career began. In contrast to the small German one, it almost immediately becomes large. The secretary of Vice-Admiral Kruis was noticed by Tsar Peter himself. His phenomenal flair worked this time, too. Osterman becomes first a secret clerk in the field office of the tsar, and then his personal secretary.Russian Russian For a couple of years, the German is learning Russian, and it seems that he is even beginning to think in Russian. Here is what Peter himself wrote about him: “Not once in a single case did this man make a mistake. I instructed him to write to foreign courts, and to my ministers who were at foreign courts, in German, French, and Latin. He always gave me rough notes in Russian so that I could see if he understood my thoughts well. I have never noticed in his works even the slightest flaw.
Actually, Osterman had some shortcomings. But they passed through the category of the struggle of the good with the best. For example, in 1721 Osterman proved himself to be hardly a greater patriot of Russia than the tsar himself. He took a serious risk, but in the end he won. Moreover, he left both the tsar and Russia in the win.
He was assigned to help To James Bruce in the conclusion of the peace of Nishtadt with Sweden. A peace that summed up a long, bloody war. And this war fed up with Peter I to such an extent that he showed cowardice at the last moment and decided to return the city of Vyborg to the Swedes, captured in 1710, in the name of the speedy signing of the treaty. To do this, I sent a new proposal to Nishtadt, where Osterman was already negotiating. Vez offer Pavel Yaguzhinsky– Peter’s confidant. Osterman learned about the essence of this proposal through his own channels. And it went right down his throat. How so? Give the Swedes what they’ve won? No, it’s unthinkable. But it is unthinkable and outright to trample on the monarch’s will…
And then Osterman, who knew about Yaguzhinsky’s weakness for drinking, writes a letter to the commandant of Vyborg, Ivan Shuvalovwith a request to detain the royal courier at least for a couple of days. The latter fulfilled the request perfectly, pumping Yaguzhinsky with vodka and buying Osterman time. When Yaguzhinsky finally arrived in Nishtadt, peace had already been signed. Vyborg remained for Russia forever.
Peter was impressed by Osterman’s dexterity. For the peace of Nishtadt, he gets the title of baron and something else. Peter, valuing such a valuable frame, decides to firmly tie Osterman to Russia. And & nbsp; acts as a matchmaker. In & nbsp; wives of a clever German will be determined Marfa Streshneva, a representative of a noble boyar family, who is related to the tsar. Of course, this relationship is remote, Marfa Ivanovna was the grandmother of Peter I & nbsp;great-great-granddaughter. But the fact is the fact. It’s a great honor.
Marfa Osterman. Portrait by Frankart, 1738
But even greater was the love between a German student who had not yet completed his studies and a Russian aristocrat. When Osterman was exiled to Beryozov in 1742, his wife received the highest permission to settle on her estate and not to follow her husband into exile, as was previously the practice. For & nbsp;84 & nbsp; years before & nbsp;the feat of the Decembrist wives MarfaIvanovna rejected this offer and went to exile with her Andrey Ivanovich. She died in 1781, long outliving her husband, who died in 1747. And witnessed his posthumous triumph. Catherine the Great fully rehabilitated Osterman, confirming all his titles “in a sign of high appreciation of his services to the royal house”.