Skaryatin, Yakov Fedorovich

The son of Captain-Lieutenant Fyodor Vasilyevich Skaryatin (d. 1787) and his wife Elizabeth Nikolaevna. His great-grandfather Skaryat-Aga was in the service of the Crimean Khan until 1770, but during the Russo-Turkish war he sided with the Russian Empire and took an active part in the defeat of the Turkish Sultan. After baptism, he took the name Tikhon. His son - Vasily Skaryatovich was the first leader of the Little Archangel nobility . Jacob's brother Vasily was the maternal grandfather of the composer N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov .

In August 1783 he was recorded as the ensign of the Izmailovsky regiment . October 15, 1800 received the rank of staff captain. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Skaryatin was among the 12 conspirators involved in the murder of Paul I. That night they entered the Mikhailovsky Castle , and then into the emperor’s bedroom. According to the most common version, Skaryatin owned a “scarf that ended the life of Paul I” ^[1] ; he is credited with the fact of strangling the king with his own or another's scarf ^[2] . Many in St. Petersburg knew about his involvement in the murder of the emperor, including Tsarevich Alexander .

In 1803 he received the rank of captain, and in December of that same year, Colonel. He took part in a foreign campaign against the French troops and in the battle of Austerlitz . He was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir and St. John of Jerusalem . In 1806, for health reasons, retired.

He lived in his ancestral estate - Trinity Oryol province , where he was successfully engaged in agriculture and horse breeding . He financed the construction of the Cathedral of Peter and Paul Cathedral in Orel. One of the trustees of the Committee for the charity of the young poor (1819-1823); Full member of the Moscow Society of Agriculture (1822-1823).

During the trips to St. Petersburg, the Skaryatins couple lived in their own house on Fontanka Embankment, 7 and regularly visited high-profile salons. From memorial evidence it is known that Yakov Fedorovich was on friendly terms with Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky and the family of Count G.I. Chernyshev , and during the illness of the latter he conducted his household affairs and managed the whole house.

In society, Skaryatin met with Pushkin , who was familiar with his sons. According to the memoirs of A.O. Smirnova , in 1834 Skaryatin was at the ball at Count Fikelmon . Zhukovsky sat down with him and began to question all the details of the murder of Paul I: “How did you end, finally?” He simply answered, very calmly: “I gave my scarf, and they strangled it” ^[3] . This story is also confirmed by Pushkin's diary entry of February 28, 1834.

He died in 1850 and was buried in the ancestral village of Troitsky.

Wife - Princess Natalia Grigoryevna Shcherbatova (d. After 1851), daughter of Prince Grigory Alekseevich Shcherbatov and Anastasia Nikolaevna Dolgorukova; sister of Prince A. G. Shcherbatov . In her youth she was beautiful and, together with her sisters, “made up the best decoration of Moscow balls” ^[4] . According to Count M. D. Buturlin , in the mid-1820s, "Madame Skaryatina was still very good-looking, although both her eldest sons entered the Army Dragoon Regiment as junkers" ^[5] . In addition to her sons, she raised six nephews - the orphans of Petrovo-Solovovo , the children of her sister Anna, who died tragically in 1821. Married:

• Fedor (1806–11.04.1835), cavalry guard, adjutant of Prince D.V. Golitsyn, a talented artist, painted in oil, died of paralysis in Florence, and is buried in the Greek Orthodox cemetery in Livorno.
• Gregory (1808-1849), major general , died in the Hungarian war .
• Vladimir (1812-1870), the ranger of the courtyard, was killed during a bear hunt.
• Alexander (1815-1884), diplomat, consul general in Naples, court clerk; amateur singer and composer, collector of old notes; married to Countess Elena G. Shuvalova .
• Dmitry (1819 — after 1865), Little Archangel leader of the nobility; legalized the children who have been accustomed from the domestic girl Domna Prokofievna. His joy renewed the church in the family village of Krasnoye ^[6] .
• Nikolai (1821–1894), participant in the Crimean War, Privy Councilor, Kazan Governor.