Cheshikhin, Evgraf Vasilievich

E. V. Cheshikhin was born in the family of an auditor in Orenburg. His father was attached to army units, so he had to travel all over Russia , and he saw his family quite rarely. Cheshikhin received a secondary education at the Dvina gymnasium , which enjoyed good fame - he graduated from it in 1843. Then he entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University , in particular, the second department. Immediately, from the first months of training, the future patriarch of Livonia journalism plunged into the abyss of merciless political-philosophical disputes between such famous figures of Russian culture as Timofey Nikolaevich Granovsky , the founder of Russian medieval studies , Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky , whose word in criticism meant a lot, Alexander Ivanovich Gertsen and Nikolai Platonovich Ogarev , both future dissident migrants, who also played a significant role in the political culture of Russia in the mid-19th century. In this creative discussion atmosphere, Evgraf Cheshikhin was tempered. At the same time, Slavophiles and Westernizers constantly clashed in ideological combat in the university stands. In his student years, Cheshikhin began to sympathize with the Slavophil worldview — he remained an ardent admirer afterwards. Moreover, as his teachers in the field of the historical concept of Slavophilism, he called the well-known representative of this trend of Russian social thought, Alexei Khomyakov , who would soon violently speak out in defense of the cultural and Renaissance trend of the young Russians , as well as Yury Samarin , author of the acclaimed, scandalous “Letters from Livonia” in which he made a crushing criticism of the national monopoly of the Ostsee Germanity in Livonia .

After completing his studies at the university, Cheshikhin wanted to devote himself to teaching, but he had to give in to the insistence of his parents and enter the service as an accountant for the engineering team at Zamo Замć Fortress, in which he served from 1848 to 1862, when he took off on the career ladder and Cheshikhin received Honorary, but responsible clerk position in Riga District Engineering Department. So Cheshikhin turns out to be in Riga , a multicultural and bureaucratic city, a kind of quintessence of the Western spirit, where Cheshikhin was faced with a malocreative path of a prominent, but still official. Immediately after his arrival, Cheshikhin was actively involved in social activities that directly related to the spheres of life of the Russian population of the region. Already on April 6, 1865, a foundation committee was opened in the city, the purpose of which was to collect donations for the opening of a women's gymnasium. A young appointee Cheshikhin joined the committee. Despite the fact that a total of just over 100,000 people lived in the city at that time, the patrons donated about 12,000 rubles (the State Department of Finance allocated 27,000), and the education officials gave the green light to build an educational institution for girls Lomonosov gymnasium , which was famous for a high level of secondary education, and from its notable students can be called Elena Nurenberg-Shilovskaya-Bulgakova . Later, in 1873, largely due to his efforts, at the very beginning of Suvorovskaya Street another secondary school was opened - the Rizhskaya Aleksandrovskaya gymnasium for men (the building was built by the first Latvian national architect Janis Baumanis ), the first director of which was a prominent teacher and famous translator of classical literary texts Grigory Yanchevetsky , father of Vasily Yan , a famous writer who worked with historical themes and studied in this gymnasium before going to Revel . This institution is known as the first secondary school in the Baltics, where instruction was conducted entirely in Russian, and the Latvian language was optional taught for the first time in the history of Russian education. Evgraf Cheshikhin was a member of the Petropavlovsk Orthodox Society , the Russian literary circle of Livonia , the founder of which he himself was (as well as the libraries at this circle, which was often referred to as the richest best Russian library in the Baltic provinces). He also contributed to the emergence of the first Russian cultural societies, alliances and clubs, although in his philosophical articles and notes he often reasoned on the creation of a culturally universal society that could unite people of different nationalities on the same spiritual and moral basis.

The time period of Cheshikhin’s activities in Livonia coincided with the time of radical reforms prepared by Emperor Alexander II , which were to be aimed at overthrowing Ostsee domination in all spheres of cultural and social life in the Baltic provinces of the empire. At the same time, the local Russian population showed a desire for national unity, as opposed to the dominance of German cultural centers and societies. At a certain point, it became clear that the Russians needed a periodical that would appear in their language and contribute to their cultural and political cohesion. Cheshikhin immediately showed support for striving for national unity and came out for overcoming the medieval stereotypes in the provincial structure. Thus, thanks to the efforts of Evgraf Cheshikhin, the first issue of the Riga Herald was released, which was received with sincere joy by the Russians in the province. However, it cannot be argued that Cheshikhin advocated solely for the unification of the Russians on a nationalistic basis, with rejection of representatives of other cultures. In his nonfiction essays, Cheshikhin put forward the concept of multicultural unity based on the full unity of the Latvian, Latvian and Russian.

However, immediately after the first issues of the first Russian-language newspaper in the Baltics were published, both censorship and “non-censored” persecutions began on Cheshikhin. First of all, the engineering bosses fought against the young publisher, who could not accept the combination of literary and publishing activity with accounting. Cheshikhin himself soon began to suffer material hardships, which did not affect the publication of the newspaper, from which the Russian-speaking population of the region could learn the latest information about the everyday life and holidays of the Russian community, about political, cultural and scientific shifts in the life of Baltic Russians. In this area, the periodical, which was also published with the money of local patrons, was an invaluable help in many respects. Thanks to the financial support of the Moscow Slavophile circle, hotly speaking in support of the politically promising movement of the Young Tatars (its leader was Ivan Aksakov , a famous devotee of Slavophilism, Cheshikhin managed to make ends meet in the early 70s. A newspaper that faced the threat of closure due to lack of money was already in 1871 , continued to exist. every year the editors in the face Cheshihina insistently supported the initiatives of the tsarist government, especially the judiciary, rural, peasant reform And strenuously fought for the implementation of both gerderovskogo plan for cultural and historical association of provincial peoples and reform of the medieval city and the provincial government. However Cheshihina was a staunch opponent of the state policy of regional Russification and believed that this "Russian character" does not depend from the desire for full-scale domination of the Russian-speaking population of the region in all spheres of social and cultural life. To maximize the effective expression of the interests of the Russian community of Livonia I Cheshikhin chose a cunning way of drawing attention to the problematic moments of Russian social life. Since the censorship did not always approve of publications of articles in which “Russian interests” were expressed too “frankly”, he used the opportunity to familiarize administrators with popular “aspirations” through petitions, the compilation methods of which were well known to him. These report papers were necessarily signed by the most authoritative representatives of the Russian population, so that attention to the unresolved issue was guaranteed in almost all cases. One of these reports was addressed to Nikolai Manasein , who was appointed inspector of the Baltic region in 1882-83. This senatorial audit was initiated by the Minister of State Property Nikolai Ignatiev , who belonged to the government leaders of the “old leaven” and could decide on the outcome of the audit, which would be more suitable for representatives of different peoples of the provinces. In a legally competently drafted petition, Cheshikhin and his associates of the “craft” asked the future Minister of Justice to view the Russification policy regarding the “ autochthons ” of provincial lands. Another petition, similar in form and spirit, was sent to Ignatiev on the eve of the audit in 1881. However, following the results of this lengthy inspection, it was decided to reduce the autonomy rights of the Livonia and Courland provinces.

Cheshikhin became famous not only as a publisher of “Riga Gazette”, but also as a scientist, whose local history works became widely known in Russia and in Europe . In particular, he created a multi-volume historical-ethnographic essay "The History of Livonia from Ancient Times", which appeared after 1884 (7 issues were published in total), as well as a collection of articles on historical subjects under the general title "Collection of materials and articles on history of the Baltic region ", the first volume of which appeared in 1877. As for his journalistic activities in other press organs in the metropolis, among the publications with which Evgraf Cheshikhin collaborated include the Russian Archive , published under the Chertkovsky Library under the actual guidance of P. Bartenev , the Observer , and the St. Petersburg newspaper Novoe Time , which was published by Kirkor , Yumatov and Ustryalov . However, until his death Cheshikhin remained the editor of his brainchild; The newspaper’s editorial office was located on Teatra Street, 5 (the territory of the modern Old Town in Riga ), where Russian writer Ivan Goncharov used to drop in during his days of rest on the Riga Strand to discuss topical cultural and historical issues, as well as problems related to publishing. In parallel, his publishing activity developed his clerical career: in 1866, Cheshikhin was appointed to the post of collegiate adviser , and then, in 1868, he became an engineering official; in 1873 he was transferred to the First Siege Engineering Park. Two years before his death, in 1886, Cheshikhin resigned from his post.

Cheshikhin died on March 2, 1888 in Riga from a stroke and was buried at the Pokrovsky cemetery . In 1890, the residents of Riga installed a monument on his grave with the inscription “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for truth, they are filled with greed”, thus expressing their sincere gratitude to the defenders of the interests of Russian culture in the Livonia region.

In Daugavpils / Dinaburg, in 1999, the private Local Lore Prize named after Im. Evgraf Vasilievich Cheshikhin for the affairs of local history of the city. A sum of money is issued and is given to the laureate Diploma, №1, handed over in 1999, No. 10 on December 23, 2017 https://www.facebook.com/aleksandr.dmitriev.58/posts/1713929032004781?comment_id=1713933008671050¬if_id=1514055641824262¬iftif

The sons of Cheshikhin followed in the footsteps of their father. Vsevolod , a future German translator and authoritative literary critic, was friends with well-known Latvian writers - a reformer of the Latvian language, a supporter of the Social Democratic movement Rainis and a famous playwright Rudolf Blaumanis .
Vasily Cheshikhin gained fame as a publicist, journalist, publisher, supporter of liberal ideas. It was he who published the program, landmark brochure "The Liberation of Peasants and Russian Writers" in 1913.

• History of Livonia since ancient times. Volume 1. - Printed in the typography of A. I. Lipinsky, 1884. - 394 p. [one]
  • ... Volume 2. - Printed in the type lithography of A. I. Lipinsky, 1885. - 462 p. [2]
  • ... Vol 3 / E. V. Cheshikhin. - Printed in the typography of A. I. Lipinsky, 1887. - 160 p. [3]
• Brief history of the Baltic region. - Riga: typ. A.I. Lipinsky, 1884. - 71 p.
  • ... - 2nd ed., View. and replenishment. with biogr. information about E. V. Cheshikhin. - Riga: type. Muller, 1894. - VI, 74 p.

• In memory of Evgraf Vasilyevich Cheshikhin: By the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death (1888-2 March-1913): Sr. porr. E. V. Cheshikhin. - Riga: Riga. News., 1913. - 56 p.
• Cheshikhin, Evgraf Vasilievich , A Brief History of the Baltic Region on the website “ Runivers ”
• Outstanding Russian Latvians. - Riga: IK ZORIKS, 2008. - p. 22-23. - ISBN 978-9934-8028-0-5