Greater Poland, Ivan Ermolaevich

The son of Major General Yermolai Ivanovich Velikopolsky (d. 1804) from his second marriage to the wealthy Kazan landowner Princess Nadezhda Sergeevna Bolkhovskaya (1770-1825). He received home education, studied grammar, general history, geography, arithmetic, physics and economics, spoke French and German. From 1812 to 1814 he attended lectures at Kazan University. He began his service in May 1815 as a lieutenant in the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment .

Having settled in St. Petersburg, he led a fun life of the secular rich guardsman. Excellent command of the French language, wit, lively and cheerful character allowed him to make acquaintances in high society and in literary circles. He was familiar with A. A. Delvig and I. I. Pushchin , his best army friend was the future general N. N. Annenkov . In 1819, due to an unfortunate loss in cards, Velikopolsky greatly upset his fortune, and in January 1821, after the rebellion of the Semenovsky regiment, he was transferred by the highest order with the rank of staff captain to the Pskov Infantry Regiment . Failing to come to the place of his new ministry, he transferred to the Staroingermanlandsky Infantry Regiment , which was stationed in Pskov and its environs. It was there that he renewed his Petersburg acquaintance with Pushkin , who then lived in the village. Mikhailovsky , with whom he later exchanged evil epigrams.

In February 1827, with the rank of major, he retired and began to organize his money affairs. For the most part, he lived in Moscow or in his beloved estate of Chukavino in the Tver province, Staritsky district, which he got after the death of his mother. In Chukavino, he completely rebuilt the estate, taught all his serfs to read and write, and set up a school for peasant children. In 1842, he invented a new method of processing flax and the last 25 years of his life tried to introduce it into use; but, being a man extremely impractical, he received only losses. Among his unsuccessful experiments was the construction of a cigar factory in Chukavino in the late 1850s and many other similar proposals.

In the last years of his life, he planned to play a wonderful portrait of Shakespeare in the lottery, but did not receive proper permission and sent Michelle to the Shakespeare Society through the British Consul in Petersburg; he soon died and his daughter could no longer get the portrait back from England. He died suddenly in February 1868, completely healthy the day before, he was found dead in the morning in his bed. He was buried in Chuvakino in the fence of the Vladimir Church.

Wife (from 13.11.1831) - Sofya Matveevna Mudrova (08.23.1815-07.04.1897), granddaughter of the professor and rector of Moscow University Kh. A. Chebotaryov and daughter of the famous doctor M. Ya. Mudrov . Greater Poland has long been familiar with the Wise family; his father was on friendly terms with Matvey Yakovlevich and in his youth belonged to the same Masonic lodge. Upon his retirement, Ivan Ermolaevich often visited Moscow and visited the family of a famous doctor. Soon, a friendship was established between him and Sofia Matveevna, then turned into love, and, in the end, he asked for her hand. At the same time, the doctor of medicine D.K. Tarasov got married to Mudrova, but neither one nor the other received a decisive answer. In July 1831, Mudrov died, before his death, he conveyed to his wife his wish that their daughter should become Velikopolsky’s wife ^[2] . She brought her husband a significant dowry and a house on Presnensky Ponds in Moscow. Their marriage was not successful, Sofya Matveevna was sick a lot and suffered from mental disorder. She was buried next to her husband in Dude. Their daughter:

• Nadezhda Ivanovna (1832–1909), left diary entries about her father’s life, was married to N. A. Chaplin (1815–1866).

A passion for writing appeared y Greater Poland very early; already in 1810 he wrote poetry. His first work was the song "To the Dove" - ​​a very weak imitation of Dmitriev. Among his poems were elegy, messages, epigrams, madrigals, triolets, songs in the Russian spirit, fables, epitaphs, charades and riddles in verses. In addition to poems scattered throughout the magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, he wrote: “To Erast” (satire on players, M., 1828); “Surprise” (opera-interlude-vaudeville, M., 1830); “Vladimir Vlonsky” (tragedy in 4 acts, M., 1837), “Love and Honor” (drama, St. Petersburg, 1841); "Yantersky" (tragedy, St. Petersburg, 1841). Sometimes he wrote under the pseudonym Iveliev. As a writer of little interest, Greater Poland was very popular in the literary circles of 1820–40 due to the remarkable kindness of his and the delicate readiness to help all needy writers.

• M. M. Velikopolsky, Ivan Ermolaevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1892. - T. Va. - S. 828.