Sidorov, Tikhon Egorovich

A native of the village Nezlobnoy . From the Cossack estate of the 1st brigade of the Tersky army.

He began military service in the Volga regiment in 1847 .

In 1854, Tikhon Egorovich Sidorov received the rank of non-commissioned officer .

In 1855 he continued to serve in the Life Guards of the Caucasus Cossack Squadron of His Own Imperial Majesty the Convoy.

He was selected from the 2nd Volga regiment of the Terek Cossack army :

“In 1863, the following ranks were selected from the I-brigade of the Terek Cossack Army for service at the main imperial apartment: Cossacks Aleksey Matyuschenko, Tikhon Barakov and Aksyon Borodin from the 1st Volzhsky Regiment. The officer Tikhon Sidorov , the clerk Artyom Nelepa, the Cossacks Pavel Parshin and Nifey Yesenin, were listed in the 2nd Volzhsky regiment, only 7 people. ”

- Emelyanov O.B., Emelyanova L.A., Klochkov S.V. Pages of the history of the village of Nezlobny Volga Cossack Regiment. S. 90-92. ^[four]

In 1864 - 1865 he was sent on the Highest Journey of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna to Germany and France, where he was under Maria Alexandrovna and the dying Heir Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. “For his excellent diligent service while the Empress was in Nice, he was graciously bestowed with a golden watch for number 5921 and the same chain.”

In 1865 he was in the internal service in the Terek Cossack Army .

October 18, 1866 was appointed Cossack chamber to the Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna (from 1881 - Empress ), and was with her until 1888 , until her death ^[1] .

“Cossack chambers, who occupied full-time positions in the“ room servant of Their Imperial Majesties ”, were in the service exclusively with the empresses and carried out their personal guard”

- N. I. Tarasova ^[5]

Tikhon Egorovich Sidorov was awarded four military awards for military merit:

• The insignia of the Military Order under No. 88059 - for participation in hostilities in the Caucasus ( 1851 ).
• Medal "For the Conquest of the Western Caucasus"
• Medal "In memory of the war of 1853-1856"
• The Cross "For Service in the Caucasus" (1864)

In addition, for a long service at the Imperial Court, T.E. Sidorov was awarded, apparently, with all the possible awards for that time for lower court servants .

For example, he had both gold and silver medals “For zeal” on the ribbons of the orders of St. Andrew the First-Called, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Anna and St. Stanislav. That is, on the tapes of the orders of the Russian Empire, starting from the youngest (St. Stanislav) - to the oldest (St. Andrew the First-Called) order.

• Medal "In memory of the coronation of Emperor Alexander III . "
• Gold medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called .
• Gold medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .
• Gold medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Anne .
• Gold medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Stanislav .
• Silver medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called .
• Silver medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .
• Silver medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Anne .
• Silver medal "For zeal" on the ribbon of the Order of St. Stanislav .
• Sign of His Majesty's Own Convoy ^[6]
• Gold watch no. 5921 with a gold chain.

Tikhon Egorovich Sidorov with his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna and daughters Praskovia, Ekaterina and Maria occupied a state-owned apartment in Anichkov Palace .

The accident of the Imperial train occurred on October 17, 1888 at 14 hours 14 minutes on the 295th kilometer of the Kursk - Kharkov - Azov line south of Kharkov. The royal family was traveling from Crimea to St. Petersburg . The train was driven by two locomotives, and the speed was about 68 km / h. Under such conditions, there were a descent of 10 cars. Moreover, the path at the crash site passed along a high embankment (about 5 fathoms ^[7] ).

According to eyewitnesses, a strong push threw from the place of all those traveling on the train. After the first push there was a terrible crack, then a second push occurred, even stronger than the first, and after the third, quiet push, the train stopped.

A terrible picture of destruction appeared before the eyes of those who survived the crash. Everyone rushed to look for the imperial family and soon saw the king and his family safe and sound. The carriage with the imperial dining room, in which Alexander III and his wife Empress Maria Fyodorovna were with their children and retinue, was completely destroyed: without wheels, with flattened and destroyed walls, he reclined on the left side of the embankment; its roof lay partly on the lower frame . The first push drove everyone to the floor, and when the floor collapsed after the destruction and there was only one frame left, everyone was on the embankment under the roof.

Throughout the imperial train, consisting of 15 wagons, only five survived, stopping from the automatic brakes of Westinghouse . Both steam locomotives also remained intact. The wagon, in which there were court servants and a pantry, was completely destroyed, and all who were in it were killed on the spot and found in a disfigured form. 13 mutilated corpses were raised on the left side of the embankment from the remains of this car. Among the dead was found the disfigured body of Tikhon Egorovich Sidorov. Half of his head was cut off from him.

Alexander III personally ordered the removal of the wounded from the wreckage of the broken cars. The empress with medical personnel went around the wounded, gave them help, trying in every possible way to alleviate the suffering of the patients, despite the fact that she herself had a damaged arm above her elbow and that she remained in one dress. An officer coat was thrown over the tsarina’s shoulders, in which she provided assistance.

A total of 68 people were injured in the crash, of which 21 people died ^[8] . Only at dusk, when all the dead were identified and not a single wounded were left without help, the tsarist family took the second tsarist train (retinue) that arrived here and departed for Lozovaya station .

The empress wrote about Sidorov’s death in at least two letters.

1. From a letter to his brother, the Greek king George I of November 6, 1888:

“But what sorrow and horror we experienced when we saw many killed and wounded, our dear and devoted to us people ... My dear elderly Cossack, who has been with me for 22 years, was crushed and completely unrecognizable, since he did not have half his head ... "

- Empress Maria Fedorovna ^[9]

2. From a letter to her husband, Emperor Alexander III (no date):

“At noon we arrived at the crash site. There was a very touching reception with bread and salt: the governor of Kharkov, nobles, peasants. We went to a very nice little church, there was a prayer service. Then, with the scorching heat, we laid the first stone of a large church, which, according to the plan, should be very beautiful. Then we looked from below at the height with which the poor baby fell from the car. She seemed even more grandiose, and what had happened was even more terrible. At this place a large cross was erected. All the dead and all the remains found were buried there, including half of the head of my unfortunate Sidorov ... "

- Empress Maria Fedorovna ^[10]

After the collapse of the imperial train, most of the dead lower ranks were buried in a mass grave near the crash site. By order of the empress, the body of the Cossack chamber Tikhon Yegorovich Sidorov was transported to St. Petersburg and buried in the Volkovsky Orthodox cemetery , on the Glazunovsky bridges (now the Glazunovsky track) ^[1] .

The canopy over the grave and the decoration (icons, silver wreaths, commemorative plaques with the names of other victims of the disaster, utensils, etc.) were stolen in the 1920s and 1930s during the general looting of the cemetery. The tombstone in the early 2000s was tumbled down by vandals and they tried to demolish the grave. However, through the efforts of M. N. Kolotilo and L. G. Kolotilo, the monument was restored ^{[1] [3]} .

• Tarasova N.I. A liverier costume in the Hermitage collection: from the experience of attribution work / Questions of museology. 2011. No 1 (3). S.133-140.
• Kokosov V.N. Kazak Sidorov / Literary St. Petersburg (Newspaper, St. Petersburg branch of the Union of Writers of Russia) , October, (2), 2013. P. 4 ( Rubric “On the heroes of the past” ).
• Kokosov V.N. Cossack and memory // Romanov dynasty and the Cossacks as factors of Russian history and culture / Ch. ed. V.N. Evseev, Doctor of Philology. n., prof. - Tyumen: Publishing House of the Tyumen State University, 2013. S. 110-114. ISBN 978-5-400-00898-6
• Emelyanov O.B., Emelyanova L.A., Klochkov S.V. Pages on the history of the village of Nezlobnaya Volga Cossack Regiment. - Pyatigorsk: Publishing House "RIA on Kavminvody", 2009. - 444 p. ISBN 978-5-89314-217-4
• Kudrina Yu. V. Empress Maria Fedorovna. 1847-1928 M., 2000.
• Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Fedorovna. Correspondence. 1884-1894. M., 2005.
• Davydov Yu.V. Crowned Valkyrie. - M .: Time, 2005 .-- 304 s. ISBN 5-9691-0019-6
• The last Russian Emperor. Family and Yard of Nicholas II at the turn of the century / Exhibition catalog. - St. Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum, 2013. P. 22 - 23. (No. 9. The uniform of the Cossack chambers is festive and everyday: the top caftan, lower chekmen .; No. 10. The uniform of the front Cossack chamber: top caftan, lower chekmen.)
• The highest court servants. Livery costume of the late XIX - early XX centuries in the Hermitage collection / Catalog of the temporary exhibition. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the State. Hermitage, 2014 - 416 pp. ISBN 978-5-93572-558-7 ^{[11] [12]}

• The highest court servants. A livery costume from the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the Hermitage collection / Video accompanying the temporary exhibition
• News broadcast on the 100TV channel on August 14, 2014, at 20.04.

• “The collapse of the royal train in 1888 near Kharkov” - an article on the reference and information portal “Your beloved Kharkov”
• Topographic map of the section of the Southern Railway, where the Imperial train crashed, on the MetaKarta site
• The event of October 17, 1888 on Yandex