Kantemir, Dmitry Konstantinovich

Dmitry Cantemir was born in the Moldovan village Silisteni (Silişteni; now Vaslui County , Romania ) in the family of the emperor Constantine Cantemir . Early lost mother. The father, being himself illiterate, invited Greek teachers for the children and gave them a good home education.

Having entered the Moldavian throne in 1685, Konstantin Cantemir had, according to the customs of that time, sent to Istanbul hostage one of his sons, first the eldest - Antioch, and in 1687 ^[4] instead of the younger, Dmitry. (Some sources indicate different dates: 1688 ^[5] and 1689 ^[6] .) During a three-year stay in the capital of the empire, Cantemir improved his knowledge of literature, philosophy, music, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.

In 1691, Cantemir returned to Iasi, and after the death of his father in 1693, he was elected ruler, but under pressure from Kantemirov’s rival Prince Wallachia Konstantin Brinkovian, Port displaced Dmitry already twenty days later. He returned to Constantinople, where, with short breaks, he lived until 1710. During this period, Cantemir published his first works on philosophy, ethics, music, compiled descriptions of Moldova and Turkey.

In 1710, during the war of Turkey with Russia, Dmitry Cantemir was appointed by the Moldavian prince and had to take part in hostilities. The hopes placed by the Turkish court on Cantemir testify to his ability to conceal designs. Even in Constantinople, he contacted Russian diplomats and assisted Ambassador Tolstoy .

Dissatisfied with the Vizier and wanting to save his country from the Turkish yoke, Cantemir signed an agreement with Peter I on April 13, 1711 in Lutsk , pledging to inform him about Turkish affairs. The treaty contained 17 points and in the basic provisions repeated the agreement signed by Metropolitan Gideon in 1656 . The Moldavian principality was supposed to join Russian citizenship, maintaining the status of an independent, sovereign state and former customs within the country. The privileges of the Moldavian boyars remained. The gospodar throne was assigned to the Cantemir dynasty. Moldovan principality returned the land seized by Turkey and turned into rayi , the country was freed from Turkish tribute. The treaty, after promulgation, met with the support of the entire Moldovan population. Only a small group of boyars was against the break with Turkey. The Treaty of Cantemir was beneficial for Moldova, since, if it was implemented, the country was freed from the Turkish yoke, separated from Turkey moving towards decay, and joined the upsurge of Russia at that time.

With the army, led by Field Marshal Sheremetev , Tsar Peter I personally went to Moldova. On the Prut River , about 75 km south of Yass , the 38 thousand Russian army was pressed to the right bank by the Allied 120 thousand Turkish army and 70 thousand cavalry of the Crimean Tatars. The decisive resistance of the Russians forced the Turkish commander to conclude a peace agreement, according to which the Russian army escaped from the hopeless environment at the price of concession to Turkey of Azov and the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov , which had been conquered in 1696, by Turkey. Moldavia remained under Turkish oppression.

At the end of the Prut campaign, Dmitry Kantemir with 1000 Moldovan boyars arrived in Russia and received the princely dignity of the Russian Empire with the title of Lordship, a significant pension, Dimitrovka , Kantemirovka and other estates in the present Oryol region , and the right of life and death over the Moldovans who arrived with him in Russia .

During Peter's campaign in Persia, Kantemir managed the tsar's camping office and made various appeals and manifestos to the people of Persia.

Considered as a candidate for the post of President of the Academy of Sciences . ^[7]

Children

Left two daughters and four sons. One of his daughters, Maria Cantemir , became the mistress of Peter I and bore his son, so there was talk of replacing Catherine with her, but the boy did not survive.

In addition to Dimitrovka , where he died, Kantemir owned the estate near Moscow Black Dirt (now the territory of the museum-reserve Tsaritsyno) and the house in St. Petersburg Marble Lane - the first independent work of B. Rastrelli (not preserved).

“Prince Dimitri was of average height, drier than thick. The view was pleasant and it was quiet, affectionate and reasonable. He usually got up at five o'clock in the morning and, after smoking a pipe of tobacco, drank coffee according to the Turkish custom; Finally, in his office, he practiced science until noon; This was the hour of his dinner. In the table, his favorite dish is chickens made with sorrel. He never drank a solid guilt ever since he happened to be sick for two weeks from the onago's excesses: this case instilled in him a disgust for drinking. He had a habit of sleeping a little after dinner, then he returned to the teaching until seven o'clock. Then he went into his household affairs and oversaw his family. He had dinner with him at ten o'clock and went to bed at midnight. In the subsequent, being made a member of the Senate, he found himself obliged to change the way of life ... " ^[8]

Dmitry Cantemir was buried in the Cathedral of the Nikolo-Greek Monastery in Moscow . In the same cathedral were later buried by the efforts of Maria Cantemir remains of Antiochus Cantemir who died in Paris ^[9] . The remains of Kantemirov rested in the cathedral, having survived the fire of Moscow in 1812 . In the Soviet period , the persecution of the clergy and believers began . In 1923, the Nikolo-Greek Monastery was closed by the Soviet authorities and its premises were sealed until 1935 ^[10] . In the winter of 1935, the monastery buildings, including the graves, were demolished to build the building of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR ^[11] .

In the last decade of March 1935, the leadership of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR received information from the Office for the Clearing of the Territory of a Heavy Industry Building under Construction that gravestones of the father and son Cantemir were found in the basement of the destroyed monastery ^[11] . Probably in the discovery of burials the role was played by the Romanian revolutionary I. Dick . In his autobiography (compiled July 10, 1936), Dick reported ^[12] :

In 1925, when conducting some historical research, I discovered in Moscow the remains of the Moldavian ruler Dimitri Cantemir, which, according to my proposal in 1935, in June, were transferred to Romania as historical values

As a result of the appeal of Dick, on April 3, 1935, David Stern talked with the head of the Romanian diplomatic mission in the USSR Edmond Chuntu ^[13] . Chuntu was offered a tombstone from the grave of Dmitry Cantemir ^[13] . After a conversation with Chuntu, Stern turned to the Committee for the Protection of Historical Monuments, to Professor Ivanov. Stern reported that the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR decided to transfer to Romania three gravestones (after their discovery) - Dmitry Cantemir, his wife and daughter ^[14] . In this regard, Stern requested that Ivanov establish “the belonging of the tombstones to the three persons”, precisely defined “the location of their remains” and prepared all this “by issuing relevant acts” for the “transfer of the Romanian mission in Moscow” ^[15] .

At the time of the appeal of Stern, the remains of Kantemir were already destroyed. Back in early February 1935, the leadership of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies addressed a letter to the State Historical Museum . This letter requested, in view of the “ongoing demolition of the cathedral of the former Greek monastery on Nikolskaya Street,” to “open the tombs there for the removal of museum items and take the remains of the first Russian satirist Antiochus Cantemir to the literary corner of the new cemetery” ^[16] . A resolution was imposed on this letter: “Unfortunately, your appeal was a month late” ^[16] . This meant that all the graves, including Kantemirov, were demolished by January 1935 and taken to a landfill with construction waste ^[16]

It is not surprising that Ivanov did not fulfill the request on time. Stern, in a letter of May 14, 1935, set the deadline for the execution of this request - May 25 of the same year ^[15] . This time, the "remains" found. On May 21, 1935, a group of archaeologists led by GI Chervyakov, a senior researcher at the State Historical Museum, began excavations in the church, where the remains of Kantemirov were buried ^[15] . The remains were extracted, on the basis of which an act was drawn up. The remains and the act were solemnly transferred to the Romanian diplomatic mission on June 1, 1935 in one of the halls of the State Historical Museum ^[17] . On June 4, 1935, Chuntu informed Romanian Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu that he had received two historical notes from Ivanov, “which allow us not to doubt the authenticity of the remains found” ^[18] .

The Russian historian V.I. Tsvirkun revealed a number of inconsistencies in the act of Ivanov ^[19] :

• Ivanov reports that three tombstones were found, on two of which you can decipher the words "Moscow ... in Moscow". According to Ivanov, the data on those buried under these plates coincide with the dates of death of the writer Antiochus Cantemir. As Antiochus asked in his testament to bury him next to the grave of his father, Ivanov concluded that “the neighboring grave with an erased inscription belongs to Dmitry Kantemir”. Tsvirkun noted that the read words mentioning Moscow are in no way connected with the biography of Antioch. On the tombstone should be mentioned the place of birth and death of Antioch - Constantinople and St. Petersburg ;
• Ivanov said that "non-Russian type of men's clothing, leather sandals and a belt - Persian" were found in the grave of Dmitry Kantemir. Zvirkun noted that Cantemir, at the end of 1719, had replaced Moldovan clothes with a European dress;
• Ivanov referred to some monastic records, according to which the father and son of Cantemir were buried in the "refectory of the lower church on the right side of the entrance." Tsvirkun noted that Ivanov was unlikely to have these “records”, since in 1923 the library of the monastery was partially destroyed and partially stolen.

The “remains” of Prince Dmitry Kantemir were delivered to Romania. The Romanian opposition had doubts about their authenticity. Politician K. Arzhitoyanu demanded "scientific expertise to determine their authenticity" ^[20] . The examination was denied. “The remains of Cantemir” was hastily buried in the vestibule of the cathedral in Iasi , without waiting for the construction of the crypt ^[20] . The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania gave unofficial instructions to the press, which stopped all controversy about the authenticity of the remains ^[20] . Thus arose the “Tomb of Cantemir” in the Cathedral of the Three Saints in Iasi.

For his time, Dmitry Cantemir was an unusually educated person; In addition to his native Moldavian, he knew Turkish , Persian , Arabic , Greek , Latin , Italian , Russian, and French .

The first scientific works of Cantemir were released during his stay in Constantinople. The philosophical treatise “Divanul sul gylchava ynseptuluy ku lumya sa si judetsul sufletuluy ku trupul” (“Divan, or Sage's Dispute with the World, or Straight of the Soul with the Body”) was published in 1686 in Iasi in Greek and Moldavian. It was followed by “Laude ketre izoditor shi kaitre virtutiya ynvetseriy lui” (“Praise to the teacher and the dignity of his teachings”) in Moldavian and “Sacro sanctae scientiae indempingibilis imago” (“Sacred science an indescribable image” in Latin (1700). The works of Van Helmont’s natural-philosophical system were developed in the period written in “Compendiolum universae logices institution” (“Universal shortened logic”) dedicated to the theory of knowledge.

In 1703-1704 Cantemir created the “Book of the Science of Music” (“Edvar-i Musiki”), and in 1704–1705. - the first novel in the Moldovan language “Hieroglyphic history” (published in 1883) ^[21]

Cantemir made a great contribution to the development of Turkish music. He became a virtuoso performer on tanbur and nae , organized a music school, collected and recorded Turkish melodies using the original musical notation of his own invention, and became widely known as a composer. His works are performed in concerts of Turkish classical music so far. ^[22]

In Russia, Dmitry Cantemir continued his scientific research, which was greatly influenced by Peter's reforms. His book “The Book of Sistim, or On the State of the Muhammadan Religion” (St. Petersburg, 1722) played a great role in its time. ^[23] D. Cantemir participated in the negotiations of Peter I with Shamkhal Tarkovsky Adil-Gerem as a translator. In 1722, for the first time, he carried out the Latin translation of Derbent-name and introduced this work of the Kumyk chronicler into scientific circulation. ^[24] .

Dmitry Cantemir is the author of a number of historical (" Historical, geographical and political description of Moldova ", "Chronicle of the Old Romans-Moldovans", "History of the rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire") and philosophical ("Metaphysics", "Hieroglyphic history", "Supreme the judgment or controversy of the sage with the world or the litigation of the soul with the body ") works Kantemir - author of the works "Divan ...", "The Life of Konstantin Kantemir", "Hieroglyphic History" and others. After 1711, Cantemir’s scientific interests turned to history. Cantemir’s scientific work was highly appreciated by his contemporaries: he was elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences , some of his works, such as The History of the Exaltation and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, are still an invaluable source of details for scholars in studying the phenomenon of the Ottoman Empire.

Works

• "The indescribable image of holy science" ( lat. Sacrosanctae scientiae indepingibilis imago ). The manuscript in Latin is kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Lenin State Library of the USSR.
• "Universal abbreviated logic" ( lat. Compendiolum universae logices institutiones ). The manuscript in Latin is kept in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts, fund 181, deed 1329 (Moscow).
• The Book of Sistima or the State of the Muhammadan religion. - SPb., 1722.
• “Prince of Moldavia” ( Latin Principis Moldaviae ). - Petropoli, 1727 (Dimitri Cantemir "Description of Moldova").

Other editions of the same work:

• "Dimitri Kantemir, the former prince in Moldova, a historical, geographical and political description of Moldova with the life of a writer." From the German translations translated Vasily Levshin. - Moscow. In the university printing at N. Novikov, 1789.
• Skrisoarea Moldovei de Dimitrie Cantemir domnul her ... Monastirea Neamtul la anul 1825.
• Operele principelui Demetriu Cantemiru. Descriptio Moldaviae. - Buc., 1872.
• Dimitri Cantemir " Description of Moldova ." Translation from Latin L. Pankratieva. - Chisinau, "Map Moldovenienaske", 1973.

• “Hieroglyphic history” ( Mold. History of hieroglyphics ). - Chisinau, 1957. Manuscript in Moldovan language. Moscow. Main archive management. Archive of ancient acts, fund 181, deed 1419.
• "The history of the formation and fall of the Ottoman Empire" ( lat. Anatationes increraenta et decrementa Aulae Othomanicae ). The manuscript in Latin is kept at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Sector of Oriental Manuscripts, Foundation 25, Case 5/1084; 6/1085.
• “Ancient Romano-Moldavian-Vlachian Chronicles” ( Mold. Chronicles of Vecimi and Romano-Moldo-Vlachilor ). The manuscript in Moldovan language is kept in Moscow. Main archive management. Archive of ancient acts, fund 181, deed 1420.
• "Description of Moldova" ( mold. Tablets Moldovei ). - Chisinau, 1957. (mol.)

Spouses

• ( 1682 - May 11 , 1713 , Moscow ).
• January 14 , 1717 - Anastasia Ivanovna Trubetskaya ( 1700 - 1755 ).

Children

• Dmitry died in 1758 .
• Mary (1700-1757). Notable for its extraordinary beauty. It was rumored that Peter I, after the scandal with Mons, was going to divorce Catherine and marry Maria Cantemir. Immediately upon accession, Catherine removed her rival to the southern villages.
• Serban (170? —1780), brigadier. Wife - Avdotya Moiseevna Alfimova ^[25] . Daughter - Helen (1744 -?). He owned a plot in Trehsvyatitelsky Lane in Moscow. He was buried in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.
• Matthew (1703-1771), lieutenant captain of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. From 1734 he was married to Princess Agrafen Yakovlevna Lobanova-Rostovskaya (1708 (1704?) - 1772), the daughter of Ya. I. Lobanov-Rostovsky .
• Constantine (1703-1747). His wife (since 1724) is Princess Anastasia Dmitrievna Golitsyna (1698-1746), the daughter of Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn and Anna Yakovlevna Odoyevskaya. Childless marriage.
• Smaragda (1703-1719).
• Antioch (1708-1744).
• Catherine-Smaragda (1720–1761) - the youngest daughter from marriage with Anastasia Ivanovna Trubetskoy , a famous beauty of her time and husband (c November 6, 1751) Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn . In 1757 she opened a fashionable salon in Paris, which she kept until her death. Being barren, she stood at the beginnings of obstetrics in Russia. In memory of his beloved wife, whom he survived for 30 years, Dmitry Mikhailovich bequeathed to build the Golitsyn hospital , in the lobby of which for a long time hung her large parade portrait by Van Loo .

In the south of Moldova , the city of Cantemir and Cantemir region was formed.

In the Oryol region, the district center is named after him Dmitrovsky.

On December 5, 2003, in honor of the execution of the 333th anniversary of the death of Dmitry Cantemir, the Park of Dmitry Cantemir was opened with the financial support of the Romanian government in Istanbul . The grand opening ceremony was attended by a large Romanian delegation led by Romanian President Ion Iliescu ^[26] .

The name of its owner called the estate Kantemirovka . During the Great Patriotic War , heavy fighting took place in the Kantemirovka area. In connection with the release of the station in December 1942, Kantemirovskaya Street and Kantemirovsky Bridge in St. Petersburg were named. In the battles of Kantemirovka, the 4th Panzer Division formed in 1942 near Voronezh and received baptism of fire, which received the name of Kantemirovskaya in memory of these events. In turn, in honor of the division named Kantemirovskaya street in Moscow . The name of the street is the station of the Moscow metro " Kantemirovskaya ".

In 2014, Dmitry Cantemir erected a monument in Moscow on the territory of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve .

Cinema

• Muschetarul român - a full-length film shot in Romania in 1975 . Director - Gheorghe Vitandis
• Dimitrie Cantemir - filmed in Moldova , 1973 , Director Vlad Ioviță and Vitali Kalashnikov.
• Cantemir ( 1973 ). Directed by - Gheorghe Vitanidis .
• Mihai Voluntir - “ Dmitry Cantemir ” ( 1974 ).
• Mikhail Boyarsky - “ Peter the First. The Will ”( 2011 ).

• Kantemir, Dmitry Konstantinovich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Mokhov N. A. Moldavia of the Feudal Epoch: (From the most ancient times to the beginning of the XIX century) / Acad. Sciences Moldavia. SSR. Institute of history. - Chisinau: Map Moldovesenaske, 1964. - p. 350-359. - 440 s.

• Babiy A.I. Dmitriy Kantemir. - M .: Thought , 1983. - 176 p. - ( Thinkers of the past ). - 60 000 copies
• Gusterin P.V. First Russian Orientalist Dmitry Cantemir / First Russian Orientalist Dmitry Kantemir. — М. : Восточная книга, 2008. — 112 с. - 1000 copies — ISBN 978-5-7873-0436-7 .
• Густерин П. В. По следу Кантемира. Российскому востоковедению исполняется 300 лет // Российская газета . 2011, № 147 (8 июля).
• Густерин П. Русскоязычная коранистика досоветского периода // Вопросы истории . — 2015. — № 5. — С. 160.
• Цвиркун В. И. Димитрий Кантемир: Страницы жизни в письмах и документах . - SPb. : Нестор-История, 2010. — 412, [16] с. — ISBN 978-5-98187-598-4 .

• Густерин П. В. Об одном историческом труде Д. К. Кантемира
• Густерин П. В. Об исламоведческом труде Д. К. Кантемира
• Историческое, географическое и политическое описание Молдавии = Description Antiqui Et Hodierni Status Moldaviae. (inaccessible link)