Zvenigorodsky, Andrei Dmitrievich

Under Ivan the Terrible in 1575, he was one of the heads in Serpukhov in the regiment of the boyar Ivan Vasilyevich Sheremetev , and in 1581 in the city of Smolensk . In 1582 he was a commander in Bryansk , and then in Toropets . In 1583, he participated in the embassy to Smolensk for the exchange of prisoners and was called the “ governor of Arzamas ” on this occasion ^[1] .

At the end of 1584, according to the “ Chernihiv and Putivl messages ”, the sovereign sentenced the governor of Prince Ivan Samsonovich Turenin and Prince Zvenigorodsky, and the head of Stepan Fendrikov Blagovo, to be sent to Chernihiv (the governor was Pisemskaya at that time). In the city it is ordered to be: Prince Turenin and Pisemsky, and in the prison: Prince Zvenigorod and Blagovo. This distribution remained in force for the 1585th year. In 1586-87 Prince Zvenigorod was one of the governors in Smolensk in the fortress; at the beginning of 1588 he was released from there, and in the autumn of the same year he served as commander in Bolkhov ^[1] .

On May 30, 1594, during the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich , Prince A. D. Zvenigorodsky was sent as ambassador to Persia to Shah Abbas (to Kizilbashi, as Persia was then called in Moscow State ). This trip is an outstanding event in the diplomatic activity of Prince Zvenigorodsky and at the same time clarifies the very important relations of the Moscow state to Persia, Turkey and Georgia . When exactly Prince Zvenigorodsky returned to Moscow is unknown; it is only known that in October 1595, therefore almost one and a half years after leaving Moscow, he did not arrive yet in Kazan , on the way back from Persia ^[1] .

Prince A. Zvenigorodsky was sent to Persia: the Tatar translator Stepan Polukhanov (who had previously entered the Russian Embassy of Birkin and Pivov in Kakheti (1587-1588) ), the clerk Druzhina Kuzmin, interpreter Aydor Pavlov, the Ambassador of the Shah Abbas at the Moscow imperial court Azi Khosrov and Kizilbash krechetnik Bulat-bek. According to the sovereign's decree from Kazan to Astrakhan, a hundred archers with a centurion were to accompany them all, and thirty “ best ” archers from Astrakhan to Persia. From Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich two letters were sent to the Shah: one in response to the letter of the Shah sent with Ambassador Azi-Khosrov, and the other about his Iskinder's messenger. But from Boris Godunov there are three letters: to the shah, his neighbor Fergat Khan and the Gilani Meghdi-Gula-Khan. The beginning of the tsarist letters was written, according to the new sovereign's decree, “ with increment ”, due to the fact that the Shah wrote to him “ with much praise and high-ranking .” The purpose of the embassy was: to inform the shah that, according to his request, transmitted in 1590 by his ambassadors Butak-bek and Andi-bek, Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, according to the report of his brother-in-law, boyar Boris Feodorovich Godunov, he was ready to be with the shah “ in friendship and of love by all the great sovereigns, ”and, as stated in the royal charter,“ your ambassadors and envoys open the way for your people to our states, and they walk and trade people without any arrest . ” Boris Godunov gave orders to Prince Zvenigorodsky, as he was to rule the shah from him, show his “ commemoration ” and submit letters; as for Gilan's Meghdi-Guli-Khan and Shahov’s neighbor, Fergat-Khan’s man, upon Godunov’s instructions, it was not the Prince of Zvenigorod, but the translator of Polukhanov who should have given the letters and commemoration ^[1] .

Using Prince Zvenigorod’s “ Article List ”, you can tell about his stay in Persia and about the conversations that Shah Abbas led with him. Prince Zvenigorodsky arrived at the Gilyanskaya pier on September 22 and let him know about his arrival by cannon shooting, as a result of which, along with the ambassadors of the sovereign, sandals were sent from Gilani, where they came from the beads to cross the beads. The ambassador of the shah Azi-Khosrov and the gullet-eater Bulat-bek arrived in Gilan a week later, because, despite the entreaties of Prince Zvenigorod, they sat down in Astrakhan to another bus, and they were blown to the sea by the wind: “the weather was great oncoming ” ^[1] .

Only a month and a half after arriving in Gilan , Prince Zvenigorodsky received permission to move to Kashan for submission to the Shah. The reasons for this delay were first waiting for Azi-Khosrov to arrive in Gilan, and then clarifying various misunderstandings, such as the requirement of the bailiff Amirkun-Prince, that Prince Zvenigorod allowed the commanding Gilan people to inspect the “ wake ” brought by him from the tsar and from Godunov, as well as his " Own junk ". Prince Zvenigorodsky declared that ambassadors, envoys and messengers of Shah Abbas “ in the sovereign of our state will be a great honor and honor, and they are not smoldered and do not copy them, and such disgrace does not live above them ”. Prince Zvenigorodsky warned that if an inspection was made, then the ambassadors of the Shah would also do the same in the Muscovite state " and so unsuitably between the sovereigns and the good cause did not commit fault " ^[1] .

On November 3, near Kashan, the prince of Zvenigorod was met, on the orders of the Shah, by Shigamet-Agha and Azi-Khosrov, who were accompanied by about fifty horsemen. Near the Kashan they met the prince of Zvenigorod with about a thousand pedestrian Kashan inhabitants. In Kashan, Prince Zvenigorodsky was given mansions near the palace of shah, from where they brought carpets to decorate his home. Shigamet-aga and his comrades stated to Prince Zvenigorodsky that the shah ordered to send elegant horses from his own horse stable, with precious saddles to him and the former ambassadors with him, but the dispatched went, apparently, on the other way, and therefore did not have time for him towards Upon learning of this malfunction, the shah sent Azi-Khosrov to tell Prince Zvenigorodsky that if he took it “ for annoyance, ” the shah orders him to execute Shigamet-agu in his presence. Prince Zvenigorodsky asked him to tell the Shah that he beats his salary on such a salary and asks not to put his disgraces on Shigamet ^[1] .

On November 5, Azi-Khosrov came to Prince Zvenigorod and said that the Shah ordered him to be at his embassy, ​​in the amusing courtyard on the Maidan, in the presence of " tour and Bukhara merchants and other lands of many people "; the sovereign commemorations should have been immediately offered both by those brought by Prince Zvenigorod and sent by Azi-Khosrov. Shah wished that "the Shah's devious enemies, the Turks and Bukharas, would have a chance to have such a great sovereign sovereign with him ." Prince Zvenigorodsky strongly opposed the fulfillment of this intention of the Shah and insisted that Abbas accept him in his court, not in the presence of the enemies of the Shah and Tsar Fedor Ivanovich, and that the “ sovereign commemoration ” was not carried along with the junk that was sent from Azi-Khosrov. On the same day, Prince Zvenigorodsky was at the reception of the Shah, who agreed to replace the Persian order with the Moscow ones and allowed Prince Zvenigorodsky "to be at his hand " and not at his foot, as was customary in his court. The prince of Zvenigorodsky ruled the embassy in charge of the sovereign, bowed the rules and filed a letter, and commemorated the painting, first from Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, and then from Boris Godunov ^[1] .

The next day, the Shah called Prince Zvenigorod to his " for fun ." For him, festivities with music and dancing and war games were organized in the gardens, in which the shah himself took part: he rode frisky argamak and engaged in archery shooting. In the evenings, candles and “ reeds with food potions, oil and sulfur ” were lit on the walls of the amusement yard; in the middle of the courtyard a food potion was lit in the pipes of the brass . Shah Abbas boasted of his chambers with water held in them, saying: “ neither with my grandfather, nor with my father, there were no such buildings; All this is arranged by me since I reign . " He showed the Shah to Prince Zvenigorodsky and the rows in the evening lighting; it is obvious that the decoration of the shops made the impression of something elegant, rich and festive on the prince of Zvenigorod. “ And in a row at all the shops ” - we read in the “List of Articles” - “the walls and ceilings are upholstered with stones and roads, and kindyaks, and vyboykami, and all the goods in all the shops are hung on the walls and policemen, and many candles and chiracs lighted in all the shops and put to the goods . " Of the treasures of the Shah, the Prince of Zvenigorod especially liked: the yellow yachon , weighing 100 spools (it turned out that the shah intended him as a gift to the Russian tsar), Tamerlan’s saddle, decorated with precious stones, yachts, lalas and turquoise, helmets and armor of Persian work and damask swords , brought from India ^[1] .

Shah did not send out his neighbors “ in reply ” to Prince Zvenigorodsky, but talked with him about all matters himself, with the help of a interpreter . Shah asked Prince Zvenigorodsky about the relationship of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich to Turkey, the Crimea , Tsar of Rome (that is, the German emperor Rudolf ), the Lithuanian king, Kakhetian king Alexander , the Dagestan ruler Shevkal , the Nogai Horde and the Bukhara Khan . Prince Zvenigorodsky answered everything according to the sovereign's instructions ^[1] .

Prince A. Zvenigorodsky was also commissioned by Boris Godunov to patrol about the shah’s leave of Muscovite Konstantin, son of Tsar Alexander, to the Moscow state. Shah agreed to the execution of this request in the event that Prince Constantine himself wished to leave Persia. Prince Zvenigorod was allowed to see the prince and personally speak with him; the prince who converted to Islam and was married to a Persian woman, however, avoided meeting with Prince Zvenigorod and chose to remain in Persia ^[1] .

In addition to the relations of the Moscow tsar to various foreign sovereigns, Shah Abbas asked Prince Zvenigorodsky: 1) “ what kind of births are in the Moscow State the largest, ” that is, important, 2) about the Siberian land, 3) about the size of the guns, 4) They are caught, 5) whether pearls are cheap and where they get it from, etc. According to Prince Zvenigorodsky, the royal brother-in-law, Boris Feodorovich Godunov, enjoys the greatest honor: “ Every king and prince and prince and the state children of love and grief ask Boris Fedorovich ” ... and he "led by their petition whom the sovereign of our sadness and trades about all of them. " About the Siberian land, Prince Zvenigorod said that it is very large, that there were up to two hundred cities in it, and more recently, churches were built and more than twenty cities were built; that measures are being taken to settle Siberia . Regarding cannons, of which there is a fair amount, Prince Zvenigorodsky put it this way: “ but their cores do not live much longer than a human being’s core. And if our great sovereign sends his governors under the cities, and then three thousand people and more live under large cannons ” ^[1] .

Shah paid special attention to Prince Zvenigorodsky, for example, one evening in the amusement yard he put him next to him and, pointing to the Indian ambassador, who was sitting below Prince Zvenigorodsky, said: “His sovereign Dzheldin-Ayber owns countries immeasurable, almost two-thirds of the populated world , but I respect your king even more, which is why honor turns out to be yours! ". Shortly before the holiday of Prince Zvenigorod of Kashan, the Shah went hunting in Kazbin; on the way back, the Shah drove in to visit Prince Zvenigorod, accompanied by King Jurgen of Kurum, Fergat Khan and his neighbors. Prince Zvenigorodsky treated them with wine and honey and hit the shah with his forehead - he offered him a hat from a black-brown fox; he gave Fergat Khan the same hat. The Shah repeatedly bestowed expensive clothes on Prince Zvenigorodsky, and on the next day after his visit, he was granted not only a “ Kamchatka Kamchat gold ” and outerwear covered with gold velvet, a dagger and a saber, but also a carnelian trimmed with gold and an image of the Most Pure Mother of God painted on gold in Persia from the fryazhskoy icon, which was sent to the shah from Ormus ^[1] .

On March 9, 1595, Prince Zvenigorodsky asked for his departure from Persia, but the Shah replied that he would let him go when the time came. Exactly a month later, Prince Zvenigorodsky’s vacation followed; in parting, he received an argamak with a saddle and a bridle as a gift from the shah. Simultaneously with the prince of Zvenigorod, the shah ordered the embassy to be sent to Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich; he appointed Pakize Imam-Kula as his ambassador and ordered Prince Zvenigorodsky to go to Gilan without waiting for him. On May 9, Prince Zvenigorodsky left Gilani, and only on August 6 he arrived in Astrakhan , where he lived for almost a month, intending to continue his journey with the Kizilbash ambassador. Since the latter did not appear, on September 1, Prince Zvenigorod one went from Astrakhan. As can be seen from the preserved part of the “List of Articles”, Prince Zvenigorodsky collected a lot of valuable information about the relations of Shah Abbas to Turkey, Bukhara , etc. Whether Prince Zvenigorodsky received an award from Tsar Fedor Ivanovich for his embassy in Kizilbashi is unknown ^[1] .

The embassy of Prince Zvenigorod in Persia should be recognized as successful, since the views of Shah Abbas on his relationship to the Moscow State were clarified and, having mastered Khorasan and the Shirvan region, the Shah would help oust the Turks from the Caspian region. The Moscow government wanted to get Georgia, and the shah agreed to cede it, but warned about the slyness of the Georgian Tsar Alexander, who flatters the sovereign of Moscow and at the same time pays tribute to the Turkish sultan. Through the Moscow government, Shah Abbas was ready to enter into relations with the German emperor Rudolph . In a word, as the Shah himself said to Prince Zvenigorod, he wanted to be with the king Theodore Ivanovich “ in strong friendship, fraternity and love, and in exile forever motionless ” ^[1] .

• Belokurov, "Bit records for the Time of Troubles"., M. 1907,
• Veselovsky, “Monuments of diplomatic and trade relations between Moscow Russia and Persia”, St. Petersburg. , 1890, t. I.
• Karamzin, N. M. , “ History of the Russian State ”, X.
• S. Soloviev , “ History of Russia since Ancient Times ”, VII.