Kotoshikhin, Grigory Karpovich

The son of a monastery treasurer accused of embezzlement.

In the late 1650s he was a scribe , and then a clerk in an embassy order .

Sent to the embassy of Prince I.S. Prozorovsky and A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin to conclude the Cardis Peace (1661) with Sweden , Kotoshikhin played a prominent role in the negotiations. He talked with the commissar of the Swedish Compound Adolf Ebers, who for a monetary reward reported information about secret instructions given by the Russian commissioner ^[2] .

At the end of 1663 or the beginning of 1664, Kotoshikhin was sent to the army of Princes Y. K. Cherkassky and I. S. Prozorovsky standing on the Dnieper for negotiations with the Poles. The governor, Prince Yuri Alekseevich Dolgorukov , who succeeded Cherkassky and Prozorovsky, demanded that Kotoshikhin write a denunciation of his predecessors. Not wanting to fulfill this requirement and fearing revenge of Dolgorukov, Kotoshikhin in 1664 fled first to Poland and offered his services to King Jan Casimir , who appointed him a salary of 100 rubles a year. Then Gregory left for Prussia and Lubeck , where Johann von Horn, Russia's secret agent who did not know about his betrayal, asked Kotoshikhin to deliver a secret message to Moscow. Kotoshikhin immediately sailed to Narva , from where he was sent to Stockholm , where he informed the Swedes of all known information.

Abroad Kotoshikhin took the name of Johann Alexander Seletsky ^{[3] [4]} (according to other sources - Selitsky ^{[5] [6]} ), in addition, he refused Orthodoxy and converted to Protestantism . In Stockholm, he was admitted to the Swedish service and was included in the state archive. On November 24, 1665, the Swedish king issued a special decree granting him a salary of 200 silver Ricksdealers . Here he wrote an essay on Russia during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich . At home, Kotoshikhin was accused of "theft." Prince Romodanovsky demanded that the Swedish government send Kotoshikhin with an escort to Veliky Novgorod , where, of course, torture and execution would await him, but the government of Charles XI did not agree.

For the murder while intoxicated, the owner of the house where he lived, Kotoshikhin-Seletsky was decapitated in Stockholm in 1667 by a court verdict. The last days of his life, he was detained in a prison in the southern suburbs of Stockholm, Södermalm, near the church of St. Mary.

The deceased was called Daniel Anastasius, he was a translator from Russian. Anastasius suspected Kotoshikhin of vicious communication with his wife, Maria da Fallentina ^[7] . On August 25, 1667, while drunk, Kotoshikhin and Anastasius quarreled, and Kotoshikhin inflicted four blows on the master with a Spanish dagger (stylet) ^[8] .

The body of Kotoshikhin was delivered to the anatomical theater of the University of Uppsala , where until recently his skeleton was strung on copper and steel wires ^{[5] [9] [10]} .

The manuscript of Kotoshikhin's work was in Swedish translation at several libraries in Sweden. It is known that King Gustav III reported the manuscript of Kotoshikhin to Catherine II , who allegedly was going to rewrite it, which she did not do. In the 30s of the XIX century A.I. Turgenev found out about its existence. In 1837, S.V. Soloviev , professor at the University of Helsingfors, found this translation in the Stockholm State Archive, and in 1838 he found in the library of Uppsala University the original, which had the title “Grigory Karpov Koshikhin, Ambassadorial Order of the Clerk, and then Ivan Alexander Seletsky call work in Stokholm 1666 and 1667 ” ^{[11] [4]} .

Soon the book was published in small circulation in Russia. Initially, the work was called "On Some Russian Ceremonies." The translation into Swedish was called “Description of the Moscow State, of various classes of people who are in it, and of their customs, both during joy and during sorrow, as well as a description of their military affairs and home life.” In 1669, this work was widely circulated among Swedish nobles. Only a few had access to the original ^[12] .

In Soviet historical literature, the abbreviated title of the work “On Russia in the Reign of Alexei Mikhailovich”, which is still used today, has been established.

Kotoshikhin’s work is divided into 13 chapters, in which he talks about tsars and the royal family, their way of life, court ceremonies, about tsarist officials and servants, about the relations of Russian tsars with foreign sovereigns, about tsar’s courts, orders, cities, their governance, about the organization of the army, about mercantile people and trade, about peasants, about the boyars and their way of life. Well acquainted with all aspects of the life of the Russian state, Kotoshikhin provides valuable data for studying the state and public life of pre-Petrine Russia. Actual inaccuracies are few in number and unimportant.

Having acquired many Western views, Kotoshikhin negatively refers to the outdated organization of the Russian kingdom.

The personality of Grigory Kotoshikhin first attracted attention in Sweden. His first biographer was a translator from Russian, Olof Didrikson Barckhusen (Olof Didriksson Barckhusen, d. 1687), in his introduction to Kotoshikhin's essay, which gave a short essay, “Selitsky’s Life” ^[13] .

In Russian historical literature, the life and work of Kotoshikhin first attracted the attention of the historian of the professor of the Novorossiysk University (1888-1895) A.I. Markevich , who dedicated a special monograph to him “Grigory Karpovich Kotoshikhin and his essay on Russia in the half of the 17th century” (Odessa, 1895), containing a detailed source study and archaeographic analysis of his work on Russia of the 17th century ^[14] .

In Soviet literature, the image of Kotoshikhin was first addressed by the Soviet writer, historian and journalist R. T. Peresvetov , who described in detail his unusual fate in the essay “Biography of a Skeleton” (1961), which was included in the book “Secrets of Faded Lines”, dedicated to the secrets of Russian historical archives ^[15] , in a revised form, also published in the book “Following the Traces of Findings and Losses,” dedicated to the search for ancient manuscripts.

The life story of Kotoshikhin is also described in the historical miniature of Valentin Pikul “The History of a Skeleton” (late 1980s).

The fate of Kotoshikhin is also devoted to the novel by the Russian writer Anatoly Pryvastkin “King Montpasier Marmelazh First,” which he completed in 2008 , shortly before his death.

• The work of Kotoshikhin published by Imp. by the archaeographic commission three times: in 1840, 1859 and 1884. [one]
• Kotoshikhin G. K. About Russia during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich / Prep., Comm. and decree. prof. G.A. Leontieva. - M.: ROSSPEN , 2000 .-- 272 p.: Ill. - Series “Russian Historical Library”. - ISBN 5-86004-125-X .

• Kotoshikhin, Grigory Karpovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Kotoshikhin, Grigory Karpovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• J.K. Grotto , Art. in the "Collection of Dep. Russian lang and literature Imp. Acad. Science ”(vol. XXIX, 1882).
• Markevich A.I. Grigory Karpovich Kotoshikhin and his essay on the Moscow State. - Odessa: type. HQ, 1895 .-- 181 p. Reprint: A. Markevich Grigory Karpovich Kotoshikhin and his essay on the Moscow state in the half of the 17th century. The story of a betrayal and the creation of an outstanding book about Russia. - M .: Lenand; Publ. URSS Group, 2016 .-- 184 p. - (Academy of Basic Research. History). - ISBN 978-5-9710-2510-8 .
• Peresvetov R.T. Secrets of faded lines. - M .: Children's literature, 1961. - 288 p.
• Peresvetov R.T. In the wake of finds and losses. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1961 .-- 264 p.
• Valentin Pikul "The Story of a Skeleton."
• Pristavkin A. I. "King of Montpasier Marmalade First"
• Pristavkina M. How was the "Fruit Jelly" born

• Vladimir Abarinov . The fate of the defector Radio Liberty , 11/29/2017