Shchelkalov, Vasily Yakovlevich

The youngest of the three sons of the deacon Ya.S. Shchelkalova.

The name of V. Ya. Shchelkalov is first found in the Thousand Book (1550) and the Yard Notebook of 1552 ^[2] .

In 1566 he participated in the Zemsky Sobor on the continuation of the war with Poland ^[3] .

The following year he traveled with the ambassadors of John IV to Sigismund II Augustus to conclude a peace treaty ^[4]

The exaltation of Vasily Shchelkalov, like his brother Andrei, was associated with oprichnnye executions (1570), when the most prominent leaders of the command apparatus were killed. The greatest influence was enjoyed in the last years of the reign of Tsar Ivan IV and the first years of the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich , when the brothers were active participants in the palace struggle (1584-1587).

From 1570 to 1601 he ruled the Nizhny Novgorod quarter. Mentioned in the retinue of the king, among other clerks, during the campaign " in Veliky Novgorod and the lands of Svej " (1572). In winter (1572/73) it is mentioned in the king’s retinue during the campaign to Paide. In the spring (1575), at the direction of Ivan the Terrible, he was negotiating with the envoy of the Danish King Frederick II , who sent Secretary Eisenberg to the Moscow court because of the Livonian fortresses Apsl (Gapsal), Kolover (Loden) and Ligover (Leal), and negotiations were held on July 07 Eisenberg in Staritsa, which was led by A. Nagoy and V.Ya. Shchelkalov. Mentioned in the retinue of the king in the campaign " according to the Crimean news " in Kaluga (1576) and among the clerks in the Livonian campaign of the king (April 1577) ^[2] .

S ( 1577 - 1594 ) Shchelkalov - 1st clerk of the Rank Order and an active participant in diplomatic negotiations and Russian embassies. In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, together with his brother Andrei, he supported the Zemsky part of the Duma in his struggle for power at court, and in the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich went over to the side of Boris Godunov , who headed the palace apparatus. In the summer (1584) (shortly after the celebrations of the coronation of Fyodor Ivanovich) V.Ya. Shchelkalov sent with treasurer P.I. Golovin at the courtyard of the Moscow company to D. Gorsey , to hear a disputed case with English and Russian merchants. He supervised (1585) a special financial body - the Second Quarter, which was responsible for the cities: Galich, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Belozero. Sent (June 1, 1587) to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the rank of printer and duma clerk (after the disgrace in 1589/90 of the duma nobleman RV Alferyev, the sovereign, the press was completely transferred to Shchelkalov) ^[2] .

The clever clerk of the Ambassadorial order (from June 30, 1594, as his brother Andrei was dismissed) and at the same time a printer (from 1595 ). Upon the death of his brother Andrei, he made a contribution to the Pereyaslavsky Fedorovsky Monastery (1597/98). The Austrian messenger M. Schiel who traveled to Russia (1598) reported that at the end of the mourning for Tsar Fedor Ivanovich (February 17). when the meetings of the Zemsky Sobor again began, "the great chancellor Vasily Yakovlevich Shchelkalov proposed (people) to swear allegiance to the princes and boyars (Boyar Duma), which was refused , agreeing to swear only to the brother of Tsarina Irina Boris Godunov ." The initiator of the transfer of power to the boyars, clerk Shchelkalov handed (March 16-17, 1598) to the Danish ambassadors a “ notice ” outlining the story of Boris’s reign in a pro-Gadun spirit. In the same year he was localized with Yaselnych M.I. Tatishchev ^[2] .

He also managed the order of the Kazan Palace and the Streletsky order .

Foreigners , especially the British , did not like Vasily Shchelkalov, nor his brother Andrei Yakovlevich , and gave very unflattering reviews about them, mainly because the Shchelkalovs sought to destroy the trade privileges of foreign merchants ^[5] .

In (May-June 1601 ) he was disgraced “ for arbitrariness ”, but was not subjected to repression, since in (October-November 1601) the printer and the duma ambassador, clerk Shelkalov was in the capital and participated in negotiations with Polish ambassadors (23-24 November). The ambassadors of Georgia explained the reason for his disgrace (August 1601) by the fact that Shchelkalov allegedly gave “ feed to the Georgian ambassadors and money without a royal command ”. They hiked 55 horsemen (1604), which speaks of the enormous wealth of the clerk. False Dmitry I , who appeared in Moscow , granted him a roundabout (1605) ^[2] .

Although, according to contemporaries, Vasily Yakovlevich was inferior to his brother in “ diplomatic dexterity ” and mind, he was the most influential clerk after his brother in the history of Russia .

The Shchelkalov brothers were one of the richest people of their time and were related by kinship to many of the most notable surnames of Russia.

Vasily Yakovlevich Shchelkalov was married to the sister of a nobleman N.P. close to Boris Godunov Chupchugov, from marriage with whom he had the only son of Ivan Vasilievich ^[2] .

• Shchelkalov Ivan Vasilievich - steward and governor in Suzdal (1614) ^[2] .

• Rudakov V.E. ,. The Shchelkalovs, Andrei Yakovlevich and Vasily Yakovlevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Likhachev N.P. Bit clerks in the 16th century. - Kaz. , 1888.
• Likhachev N.P. Library and Archive of Moscow Sovereigns in the 16th Century. - SPb. , 1894.
• Serbov N.,. Shchelkalov, Vasily Yakovlevich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Sadikov P. A. Essays on the history of the oprichnina. - M .; L. - 1950.
• Skrynnikov R.G. Oprichny terror. - L., 1969.
• Rogozhin N. M. The Shchelkanov brothers // The Eye of Great Russia: On the History of the Russian Diplomatic Service of the 16th – 17th Centuries / Ed. E.V. Chistyakova ; Comp. N.M. Rogozhin. - M .: International Relations , 1989. - S. 71-92. - 240, [16] p. - ( From the history of diplomacy ). - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7133-0059-5 .