Chief of Police. First Chief of Police. See what “Chief General of Police” is in other dictionaries

14.01.2024

How Tsar Peter the First founded the police in Russia and who
first Chief of Police of St. Petersburg
appointed.

No matter how many dogs are pinned on Peter
Historians, lovers of sensations,
He remains an example for the authorities,
Which all of them cannot compete with.

Peter, like a grandmaster in a chess game
The supporter was of non-trivial moves. -
He was not afraid to elevate the smart ones
To the titles of counts and ranks of generals.

And on Russian Police Day it is worth remembering
That, having created a police force in Russia,
He was the first to install her as chief
Clever Anton de Wijer. -

Having given the rank of adjutant general,
He is a cabin boy from a former Dutch corvette,
selected for his intelligence in Amsterdam,
Appointed** first Chief of Police General
The capital he built on the Neva.

Lev Postolov

On Police Day (now Police Day) in Russia, a concert with boring pop stars is usually shown on TV, and police officers are on duty in the subway and on the streets in full dress uniform. But few people remember who created the police in the Russian Empire.

From the ship to the ball

1697 In honor of the arrival of the Grand Embassy from Russia, led by the young Tsar Peter, in Amsterdam, the Dutch stage demonstration maneuvers. Several dozen sailboats line up in Hey Bay and a naval battle begins. Peter, having already learned a little Dutch, takes command of the Dutch flotilla. The most efficient and understanding cabin boy on the ship turns out to be young Antoine De Vieira. “And you, like a monkey, took off along the shrouds, tightening and loosening the sails,” the Russian Tsar admires. Antoine gratefully accepts a gold thaler from Peter and introduces himself: “My name is Anton Divier. I am from Portugal. Of the Jewish race."

The cabin boy's Jewish origin does not bother Peter at all, who valued skill and intelligence in people and attached little importance to their nationality. Antoine enters the service of the sovereign. Page. Thus began the path of the Jewish boy Antoine de Vieira to the title of the first policeman of a huge country.

Anton Manuilovich Devier (in historical documents there are also other variants of the Russian spelling of his surname - Divier, Divier, Devier, Devier) was born in Holland, in the city of Amsterdam, on February 22, 1682.
From birth his name was Antonio de Vieira - a very strange first and last name for a Dutchman, but would be more suitable for a Portuguese.
Indeed, the de Vieira family moved to Holland from Portugal in 1673. Only the de Vieira were not Portuguese (in the sense of ethnic origin), but Sephardic Jews.
Sephardi Jews settled on the territory of what is now Portugal back in the 1st century BC, that is, when not only was Portugal not there, but even the Portuguese as a people had not yet appeared, and semi-wild tribes of Lusitanians lived in the mountains, only recently conquered by the Romans.
The conquerors constantly changed - first the Romans, then the Visigoths, then the Arabs, then the Christians, and the kingdom of Portugal appeared only in the 12th century, when Jews had lived on this land for more than a thousand years.
Moreover, the Jews in Portugal lived quite well - they had their own communal self-government, their own court, they obeyed only the king, and no one except the king could order the Jews or judge them. Among the Jews were ministers of finance, royal advisers, and court doctors.
However, in 1497, most Jews were expelled from Portugal, and at the insistence of neighboring Spain.
In 1492, Spain ended the war with the Muslim Emirate of Granada. The war ended with a Spanish victory, but the victors were ruined - all the money went to the war, and the royal treasury was empty.
Then the Spanish King Ferdinand (who died because he was eaten to death by lice) and his wife, Queen Isabella (who was proud of the fact that she washed only twice in her life), decided to replenish the treasury at the expense of Spanish Jews.
“Their Catholic Majesties” issued a decree according to which Jews had to either be baptized or leave the country, leaving all their property and money to the state.
Some people who know Jews solely from anecdotes mistakenly believe that money is the most important thing for Jews, but Ferdinand and Isabella knew Jews not from anecdotes, but from real life, and they calculated everything correctly - almost all Spanish Jews chose to leave the country as beggars, but don't give up your faith. Only very few were baptized.
The king and queen received quite a large amount of money from this operation with the expulsion of the Jews, but it was a one-time gain - the money was spent very quickly, and the country lost many talented entrepreneurs who, having emigrated to other countries, were able to “promote” there from scratch, and began benefit the enemies of Spain.
The Turkish Sultan Bayezid II, who granted political asylum to Spanish Jews, spoke about Ferdinand’s decision in the following words:
“Until this day, I considered the Catholic King Ferdinand a smart sovereign and a good politician. But is he really a politician? He devastated his country and enriched my possessions!”
Indeed, thanks to the Jews, the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire became the strongest state in the Mediterranean, and even the discovery of America and American gold did not help Spain cope with the Turks.
And what does Portugal have to do with it? The fact is that not all Jews emigrated to Turkey; many settled in Portugal. This greatly worried Ferdinand and Isabella, and they, fearing the future strengthening of Portugal, began to demand that the Portuguese king Manuel I expel the Jews, promising him their daughter as a wife.
There were no male heirs in Spain, and King Manuel of Portugal, hoping to become king of Spain in the future, in 1497, in exchange for marrying a Spanish princess, duplicated in his country the Spanish decree of 1492 on the expulsion of the Jews.
By the way, Manuel never managed to become the Spanish king. In the words of the Turkish Sultan, he also “devastated his country” and enriched the Ottoman Empire, which became the main country of residence for Sephardic Jews.
The vast majority of the Jews of Portugal chose to leave the country as beggars rather than be baptized, and only a very few agreed to convert to Christianity. Among these few were the de Vieira family.
However, the de Vieiras were baptized only to stay, and continued to practice Judaism in secret, a secret religion that was passed down in the family from generation to generation for almost two centuries.
The secret Jews were monitored by the Inquisition, and when the de Vieiras felt threatened with exposure, they emigrated to Holland in 1673.
The head of the family, Manuel de Vieira, was a gunsmith, but his son Antonio, born in Holland (in 1682), did not have time to learn his father’s craft, since his father died too early, and the teenager had to join the Dutch navy as a cabin boy.
So, he served with the king as a page, first for the four and a half months that Peter spent in Holland, and then, leaving Holland forever, Antonio de Vieira went on a further long trip with the “Grand Embassy” across Europe.
At the end of August 1698, the “Grand Embassy” returned to Russia, and with it the royal page, who was already 16 years old, first came to the country that became his new homeland. In Russia, the young page was greeted kindly. Especially the ladies - sixteen-year-old De Vieira was very handsome. The young man's career is rapidly going uphill: from pages to Peter's orderlies, from orderlies to adjutant general.
In Russian documents, Antonio, son of Manuel, was recorded as Anton Manuilovich, and the surname “de Vieira” was recorded as Devier, while in many documents, as already mentioned, the spellings Devier, Devier, Diviere and Diviere are found.

And two years later, Anton Devier clashed with another tsar’s close associate, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. The conflict occurred on the basis of love.
In 1710, 28-year-old Anton Devier set out to marry the younger sister of His Serene Highness, Anna Danilovna Menshikova. The bride was in the past the mistress of Peter the Great, but an adjutant is a position in which squeamish people do not serve, and even among the noblest nobles of Europe it was not considered shameful to marry a former sovereign mistress (a very illustrative example is the history of the Deer Park).
Peter was tired of his former mistress, and, besides, she herself really liked Anton Devier, and she agreed to marry him, and the king did not object to this. All that was left to do was to get consent from her older brother.
But suddenly problems arose. When Adjutant General Anton Devier came to the house of Alexander Menshikov to ask for his sister’s hand in marriage, His Serene Highness was so indignant at the vile proposal, in his opinion, that he rushed at Devier with his fists, and they began to fight.
At the noise, ten of Alexander Danilovich’s servants ran into the room. Taking advantage of their numerical superiority, Menshikov's servants tied up Devier. After this, His Serene Highness ordered the servants to flog the groom, which was done, after which he was thrown into the street.
Why Menshikov was so indignant at Devier’s intention to marry his younger sister has not yet been clarified by historians. However, there is information that at the time of the matchmaking the groom had already “knocked up” the bride, and this circumstance, presumably, aroused the wrath of her older brother.
Although for some reason the Highness Prince was not angry with the Tsar, who had long ago “spoiled” Anna Danilovna.
The flogged Adjutant General Anton Devier complained to the Tsar about Menshikov. To this Peter replied, “He refused you, but he won’t dare refuse me,” and together with Devier he went to the house of His Serene Highness, where he asked Menshikov for Anna Danilovna’s hand in marriage for his adjutant general.
As Peter predicted, Menshikov did not have the courage to refuse the Tsar, and in July 1710, Anton Manuilovich Devier finally married Anna Danilovna Menshikova.
The newlyweds move to St. Petersburg, which is under construction, which is still poorly adapted for life. Wolves roam the streets, the people, brought by force to Peter’s favorite brainchild, commit robbery and drink tirelessly. From time to time, wooden buildings catch fire - and the fire quickly devours the fruits of the king’s labors and aspirations. Peter doesn’t know how to cope with all this chaos. All major conflicts have always been suppressed by the military, but the soldiers are trained only to fight or, in extreme cases, to suppress riots. Getting them to keep order in the city is not easy. Peter instructs Antoine, who by that time had already become quite Russified and is called Anton Divier, to deal with the chaos reigning in the city.

Anton Devier continued to serve as the tsar's adjutant general, and was considered one of the people closest to the tsar - he had the right to enter Peter without a preliminary report at any time of the day, and he was entrusted with leading the upbringing of the tsar's daughters.
In 1718, great changes took place in the official career of Anton Devier - Peter the Great established the police in Russia, and Devier became the first head of the Russian police on May 27, 1718.
It is necessary to clarify that initially the police existed only on the territory of St. Petersburg, and in other cities it appeared much later, and the position of Anton Devier was called “police chief general of St. Petersburg.”
Anton Devier ensured order in the city, significantly reduced the number of crimes, and even for the first time in history began the fight against environmental pollution - the police caught those people who dumped garbage in the Neva and beat them with a whip.
In Western Europe at that time, no one was fighting the pollution of rivers, and, for example, the waters of the Thames River flowing through London were so fetid that in the British Parliament they were afraid to open the windows even in extreme heat, because such an “aroma” came from the river that the deputies couldn't stand it. There was no Devier of his own in England.
In addition, Chief of Police Anton Devier took up the fight against crime in the consumer market - for selling low-quality goods and for unreasonable price increases (trade margins over 10%), traders were whipped and even sent to hard labor.
By the way, the governor of St. Petersburg was Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, and now he and Devier began to conflict not only on the basis of personal hostile relationships, but also on official matters - everyone dissatisfied with Devier ran to complain to Menshikov, but the tsar in these disputes was always on Devier’s side .
At the same time, when Peter found shortcomings in Devier’s work, he himself punished him, only not with a whip, but with a baton.
There is a known real historical case when Peter the Great and Anton Devier were traveling together in a buggy and inspecting the city, and when they drove along the bridge across the canal near New Holland, it turned out that several boards had been torn from the bridge and stolen. Then Peter personally beat the police chief with a baton for insufficiently combating the theft of state property, after which the sovereign and the beaten police chief moved on.
By the way, it is possible that the boards from the bridge were torn off on the orders of Menshikov, who knew in advance where the Tsar and Devier would go, and wanted to “frame up” his enemy in this way.
However, other than beating with a baton, the incident on the bridge had no other consequences for Anton Devier, and he remained in the post of St. Petersburg police chief general.
In 1721, Anton Devier ordered the installation of the first lanterns and benches for rest in St. Petersburg.
However, Devier's other initiatives are quite controversial and dubious.
Thus, it was prohibited to live in the city without registration, all citizens had to report to the police about everyone coming and going, then entry and exit into and out of the city began to be allowed only with passports issued by the police, and at all entrances to the city there were checkpoints and No one was allowed in or out without a passport.
Then Devier tightened control over movements in St. Petersburg, and established something like a curfew: in the evening, all streets were blocked off with barriers, guards were posted, and only military personnel, priests and midwives could walk around the city, and all other St. Petersburg residents who wanted to walk along the city streets on white nights, they caught him and beat him with a whip. The barriers were removed only in the morning.
Peter the Great was delighted with the activities of the Devierov police, and even wrote that “the police promote rights and justice, create good order and moral teachings, provide everyone with security from robbers, thieves, rapists and deceivers and the like, drive away dishonest and indecent living , and forces everyone to work and to an honest trade, ... prevents high prices and brings contentment in everything necessary for human life, prevents all the diseases that happen, brings cleanliness to the streets; ... educates young people in chaste purity and honest sciences; in short, above all these The police are the soul of citizenship and all good order and the fundamental support of human security and convenience."
In 1725, Peter the Great died, and his widow Catherine the First ascended the throne, who treated Devier well, left him in the post of Chief of Police, and in 1726 awarded him the title of count.

However, in April 1727, when the empress became seriously ill and was near death, a “bath scandal” occurred, which fatally affected the future fate of Anton Devier.
On April 24, 1727, His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov appeared to the seriously ill Empress and said that “when Her Imperial Majesty deigns to rise from sleep, then Anton Devier will take the girls and ask about everything that he should not have done, and once I found the bathhouse with a certain girl, and with whom, he himself will say, and told him why he locked himself in the bathhouse with the girl and what he was doing with that girl, he asked me not to inform Her to the Imperial Majesty, and he told me, that he asked everything that Her Imperial Majesty was doing without him.”
The Empress was so outraged that she ordered Devier to be arrested!
On the same day, Anton Devier was arrested in the imperial palace by the guards guard, and during the arrest he tried to stab Menshikov with a sword, who directly gave the order for Devier’s arrest to the captain of the guard.
What angered the empress so much, and why was the chief general of police arrested just because he “locks himself in the bathhouse with a girl and what he does with that girl”?
The fact is that those “girls” with whom Devier communicated so closely were the empress’s ladies-in-waiting, and asking them about “what Her Imperial Majesty was doing without him” was perceived as an invasion of the empress’s private life.
What else Devier did with the girl in the bathhouse, other than talking, was of little interest to the Empress and Menshikov.
An investigation was launched against Anton Devier, during which he was tortured three times. In addition, many people were interrogated, including high-ranking leaders of the army and state.
The same “certain girl” with whom Devier went to the bathhouse was also identified and interrogated; In the materials of the criminal case against Devier, her last name is not mentioned; she is listed there as “court maiden Katerina.”
Most likely, Katerina’s last name was not indicated due to the fact that she was a relative of some person very close to the Empress, and they did not want to compromise this person by mentioning her last name in a criminal case, and Menshikov, if you remember, also kept silent about her surname, hinting that let Devier himself say who she is (“and with which, he will say himself”).
This court maiden explained to the investigation that “his lordship bothered her and Devier in the bathhouse, and she spoke to him in her own private words, and he did not ask her about words related to behavior at court, and she did not tell him.”
Anton Devier admitted that he repeatedly “sat and talked” with the girls in the bathhouse, but denied that he asked the girls about the empress.
During the investigation, it also turned out that Devier did not show sadness about the Empress’s illness, and even persuaded others not to be sad, for example, he said at the table to her daughter Anna Petrovna: “Enough, Empress, you are a sad person,” and then some “crying Sofya Karlusovna spit instead of dancing and told her “there’s no need to cry.”
The police chief himself explained that he was simply comforting the crying ladies, but Menshikov and the empress considered this to be “insolent acts.”
Let us also note that neither Devier nor the girl Katerina found out whether they had sex in the bathhouse, or, as they put it then, “fornication” - the investigation was not interested in the sexual side of the issue, they only wanted to know what they were talking about in the bathhouse .
All these gatherings with the girls in the bathhouse and consoling the crying could be considered, even with a very strong desire to dig into something, at most insolence and disrespect for the empress, but Menshikov really wanted to present Devier as a conspirator.
Chief General Ivan Buturlin, member of the Governing Senate and Supreme Privy Council Pyotr Tolstoy and Chief Prosecutor of the Governing Senate Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev were brought into the case.
It turned out that in conversations with them Devier expressed that it would be better if the empress appointed as her heir (which was rumored, but there was no decree yet) not the grandson of Peter the Great from Tsarevich Alexei, who was put to death, Peter Alekseevich Jr., but one of his daughters - Elizaveta Petrovna or Anna Petrovna (as we remember, Devier was their teacher).
Moreover, what is most important, the initiator of the conversations was not Devier at all! Skornyakov-Pisarev, Tolstoy and Buturlin themselves began such conversations with Devier, and he only agreed with his interlocutors.
The matter did not go further than conversations, and the nobles could not even decide which of them would go to the empress with a proposal for the candidacy of the heir to the throne, and everything remained at the level of conversations.
It is now difficult for us to understand what is so seditious in conversations about who will become the next head of state - for a democratic society, discussion of candidates is a completely normal thing, but in the conditions of the Russian absolute monarchy, when the heir to the throne was determined not by the will of the people or even by law, but exclusively By decree of the current emperor, conversations about the identity of a possible heir were considered resistance to the will of the sovereign, and even treason.
However, please note, this is very important - at that time the heir to the throne had not yet been appointed, that is, no one was going to resist the will of the empress - for the reason that the empress had not yet expressed this will in any way, and the so-called “conspirators” were engaged in fortune-telling about a possible future heir, like a daisy - "Peter - Elizabeth - Anna", and they did not know or plan anything specific.
Menshikov, as you might guess, was against Elizaveta Petrovna or Anna Petrovna becoming heirs, and supported the candidacy of Pyotr Alekseevich the grandson, since he intended to marry his daughter Maria to him, and thereby become related to the reigning family.
Meanwhile, the empress’s health was deteriorating, she became very ill, and early in the morning of May 6, 1727, Alexander Menshikov came to her and slipped two documents for her to sign. Having signed them, Catherine the First fell into unconsciousness and died a few hours later.
One of the two decrees signed before his death declared Pyotr Alekseevich the heir to the throne, and the other decree announced the verdict in the case of Anton Devier and his “accomplices” - Buturlin, Tolstoy, Skornyakov-Pisarev, as well as Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, who also “appeared” in one of conversations.
The verdict said that they tried “to reason and interpret, how much more should they dare to determine the heir to the monarchy according to their own will, who pleases whom, and not according to the high will of Her Imperial Majesty,” and it was decided that Devier and Tolstoy “as if the criminals responsible for this should be executed death" (with deprivation of ranks and orders); Buturlin, deprived of his ranks, was sent into exile in distant villages; Dolgoruky was “excommunicated from the court,” demoted in rank, and sent to serve in a distant garrison; Skornyakov-Pisarev should be exiled to Siberia.
On the same day, Tsarevna Elizabeth, on behalf of her mother (that is, having forged the signature of the already deceased empress), signed a second decree, according to which the death penalty for Tolstoy and Devier was replaced by exile: the first - to the Solovetsky Monastery, and the second - to Siberia, and this decree as an imperial was submitted for execution.
She could not do more for her teacher, since Menshikov had the power, and she could pay dearly for forging the signature of the late empress.
By the way, taking into account the fact that the decree on the heir to the throne was signed simultaneously with the verdict, and at the time of Devier’s conversations with Tolstoy, Buturlin and others, the heir had not yet been appointed, even from the point of view of the laws of that time, Devier did not commit any crime and did not resist " the high will of her imperial majesty."
Thus, Menshikov actually misled the empress, a woman who was not very literate, and, taking advantage of her serious illness and inability to correctly perceive the surrounding situation, slipped her a deliberately unjust sentence to sign in order to get rid of her long-time enemy.
And how did Anton Devier’s wife, Anna Danilovna, react to her husband’s gatherings in the bathhouse with the court maiden Katerina?
She was not offended by her husband for this, especially since from the case materials and all available documents, only the fact that Devier and Katerina were together in the bathhouse and their conversation was proven, but it is unknown whether they had sex there or not.
Anna Danilovna even tried to intercede with her brother on behalf of her husband, but His Serene Highness refused to talk to her sister, and she was forced to turn to him in writing, and even called him “father and “sovereign”:
“Most Serene Prince, gracious father and sovereign, I accept the courage from my immeasurable grief to ask you, gracious father and sovereign, about my husband, about intercession and gracious representation to Her Imperial Majesty, our most merciful empress, so that you may graciously turn your anger.”
Menshikov did not even respond to this humiliating letter from his sister. Moreover, he ordered his sister and children to be sent from St. Petersburg to the village!
And Anton Devier himself was sent to serve exile in the Zhigansk winter quarters, 800 versts from Yakutsk. For political reasons, Menshikov could not openly convict Elizabeth of forging the imperial decree abolishing the death penalty, and the exile of the enemy to the permafrost region also suited him - he hoped that Devier would soon die there.
However, His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov did not triumph for long: the young sovereign Peter the Second changed his mind about marrying his daughter, and already on September 6, 1727, he deprived Menshikov of all titles, positions and ranks, and sent him into exile to Berezov (the current territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), where the former “most illustrious” died two years later.
Evil was punished, but good did not triumph: Devier was never returned from exile.
Only in 1739 was he transferred from the category of simple exiles to chiefs - from the Zhigansk winter quarters he was transported to Okhotsk and appointed chief of the Okhotsk port. Taking up the task with renewed vigor, Antoine Manuilovich brings the port into proper condition and even creates a nautical school there, which will later turn into the navigation school of the Siberian flotilla. Among Anton Devier’s other affairs, one can highlight the equipment of the Vitus Bering expedition.
In 1741, the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, who, as we remember, was a pupil of Anton Devier, ascended the Russian throne, and forged a decree replacing the death penalty with exile.
On December 1, 1741, Elizabeth issued her own imperial decree to drop all charges against Anton Devier and return him from exile.
Due to the fact that the road from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk then took about six months, by the time the courier with the decree got there, by the time Devier got to the capital, the year 1743 had already arrived.
Anton Manuilovich's wife had died by this time, and what became of the court maiden Katerina, with whom he went to the bathhouse, is unknown.
Orders and the title of count were returned to Anton Devier, in July 1744 he received the military rank of general-in-chief, and in December 1744 Devier was again appointed chief of police of St. Petersburg, but his health was already weakened, and the hero of the first in the history of Russia " bath scandal" died on June 24, 1745, at the age of 63.

Series of messages "

Of the year .

Peter I personally participated in the writing of the “Points given to the St. Petersburg Chief of Police.” These included supervision of order in the broadest sense and control over the construction of the new capital of the Russian Empire. To solve problems, the Chief of Police Office created in 1715 (after the death of Peter I, the Main Police Chief Office) and an army regiment were transferred to the Chief of Police General. All ranks of this regiment became police officers. In addition, the police chief general exercised all-Russian leadership of police departments in large cities.

The position of Chief of Police since 1722 corresponded to the 5th class of the table of ranks. He was subordinate to the Governing Senate under the control of the emperor. The first chief general of police was Count Devier.

The post of Chief of Police of Moscow existed in 1731-32 with its subordination to the Governing Senate.

In 1734, the Chief of Police was subordinated to the Cabinet of Ministers. In 1746, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, by her decree, reassigned the chief general of police directly to the emperor. Complaints against the police chief general could only be directed to the emperor (empress). The position began to correspond to the 3rd class (the first chief general of police of the 3rd class was A.D. Tatishchev, whose appointment to this position was marked by such an increase in its rank).

The Chief of Police General continued to lead the local police through the Chief of Police Office. From 1762 he was called the Chief Director over all police forces. In 1764, due to the transfer of leadership of the local police to the governors, this position was abolished.

The name, however, remained in St. Petersburg until 1782 as a designation for the chief of the local police.

The position of the all-Russian head of police was renewed by the manifesto on the creation of the Ministry of Police dated June 25, 1810. It said: “the rank of Chief of Police General is restored under the name of the Minister of Police.”

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Notes

Literature

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, encyclopedia. Ed. edition of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Olma-press, 2002. ISBN 5-224-03722-0

An excerpt characterizing the Chief of Police

- The power is yours! - Dron said sadly.
- Hey, Drone, leave it! - Alpatych repeated, taking his hand out of his bosom and with a solemn gesture pointing it to the floor at Dron’s feet. “It’s not that I can see right through you, I can see right through everything three arshins below you,” he said, peering at the floor at Dron’s feet.
The drone became embarrassed, glanced briefly at Alpatych and lowered his eyes again.
“You leave the nonsense and tell the people to get ready to leave their houses for Moscow and prepare carts tomorrow morning for the princesses’ train, but don’t go to the meeting yourself.” Do you hear?
The drone suddenly fell at his feet.
- Yakov Alpatych, fire me! Take the keys from me, dismiss me for Christ's sake.
- Leave it! - Alpatych said sternly. “I can see three arshins right under you,” he repeated, knowing that his skill in following bees, his knowledge of when to sow oats, and the fact that for twenty years he knew how to please the old prince had long ago gained him the reputation of a sorcerer and that his ability to see three arshins under a person is attributed to sorcerers.
The drone stood up and wanted to say something, but Alpatych interrupted him:
- What did you think of this? Eh?.. What do you think? A?
– What should I do with the people? - said Dron. - It completely exploded. That's what I tell them...
“That’s what I’m saying,” said Alpatych. - Do they drink? – he asked briefly.
– Yakov Alpatych got all worked up: another barrel was brought.
- So listen. I’ll go to the police officer, and you tell the people, so that they give up this, and so that there are carts.
“I’m listening,” answered Dron.
Yakov Alpatych did not insist any more. He had ruled the people for a long time and knew that the main way to get people to obey was to not show them any doubt that they might disobey. Having obtained from Dron the obedient “I listen with,” Yakov Alpatych was satisfied with this, although he not only doubted, but was almost sure that the carts would not be delivered without the help of a military team.
And indeed, by evening the carts were not assembled. In the village at the tavern there was again a meeting, and at the meeting it was necessary to drive the horses into the forest and not give out the carts. Without saying anything about this to the princess, Alpatych ordered his own luggage to be packed from those who had come from Bald Mountains and to prepare these horses for the princess’s carriages, and he himself went to the authorities.

X
After her father's funeral, Princess Marya locked herself in her room and did not let anyone in. A girl came to the door to say that Alpatych had come to ask for orders to leave. (This was even before Alpatych’s conversation with Dron.) Princess Marya rose from the sofa on which she was lying and said through the closed door that she would never go anywhere and asked to be left alone.
The windows of the room in which Princess Marya lay were facing west. She lay on the sofa facing the wall and, fingering the buttons on the leather pillow, saw only this pillow, and her vague thoughts were focused on one thing: she was thinking about the irreversibility of death and about that spiritual abomination of hers, which she had not known until now and which showed up during her father’s illness. She wanted, but did not dare to pray, did not dare, in the state of mind in which she was, to turn to God. She lay in this position for a long time.
The sun set on the other side of the house and slanting evening rays through the open windows illuminated the room and part of the morocco pillow that Princess Marya was looking at. Her train of thought suddenly stopped. She unconsciously stood up, straightened her hair, stood up and went to the window, involuntarily inhaling the coolness of a clear but windy evening.

made a Jew the first police chief

Anton Manuilovich Devier (1682 - 1745) - a prominent statesman and military figure, associate of Peter I, first Chief of Police of St. Petersburg (1718-1727 and 1744-1745), count (1726), general-in-chief (1744).

From the ship to the ball

De Vieira was from the Portuguese Marranos. The ancestors of the creator of the Russian police were forced to be baptized, but secretly professed the Jewish faith. However, De Vieira's parents were forced to move to Holland when the fires of the Inquisition flared up with renewed vigor in Portugal. De Vieira never hid his Jewish origin, but Peter loved smart foreigners. And in Russia the young page was greeted kindly. Especially by the ladies - sixteen-year-old De Vieira was very handsome. The young man's career is rapidly going uphill: from pages to Peter's orderlies, from orderlies to adjutant general. However, the love of the Russian Tsar was not shared by his boyars. Having learned about the connection between his sister Anna and a young Jew, Peter’s favorite Alexander Menshikov in a rage attacks De Vieira with his fists, and then orders the servants to flog the seducer.

Generalissimo Alexander Danilovich Menshikov

They say that by that time Anna was already pregnant from her lover. Peter becomes furious when he learns about Menshikov's trick. The Tsar gives the order - and the Jew De Vieira marries Anna Menshikova, whose brother will from then on turn into his merciless enemy.

Crimes and punishments according to Diviere

The newlyweds move to St. Petersburg, which is under construction, which is still poorly adapted for life. Wolves roam the streets, the people, brought by force to Peter’s favorite brainchild, commit robbery and drink tirelessly. From time to time, wooden buildings catch fire - and the fire quickly devours the fruits of the king’s labors and aspirations. Peter doesn’t know how to cope with all this chaos. All major conflicts have always been suppressed by the military, but the soldiers are trained only to fight or, in extreme cases, to suppress riots. Getting them to keep order in the city is not easy. Peter instructs Antoine, who by that time had already become quite Russified and is called Anton Divier, to deal with the chaos reigning in the city.

Peter the First

“Gentlemen Senate! - Peter issues a decree on May 27, 1718. “For the best order in this city, we appointed a chief general of police, who was appointed adjutant general Divier; and gave points on how to manage the business entrusted to him.”

Divier, with his characteristic responsibility and efficiency, found himself in his place. Gradually, order in the city began to be restored. Crimes (even robbery) were punished harshly - most often by death. In his department there were 10 officers, 20 non-commissioned officers and 160 “good soldiers”. It was not difficult to recognize them on the street: they wore green camisoles with red cuffs and purple caps. The Chief of Police himself personally traveled around the city every day and kept order. But he was busy with more than just drunken fights.

Peter, who adored St. Petersburg, was forced to be distracted from the construction of the city by taking care of government affairs. So he entrusted the reliable Divier with developing the new capital. And Divier took up the matter decisively. To begin with, he created a fire department, installed a fire tower in the city and issued an order according to which all residents, upon hearing the bell, must run to put out the fire. The Tsar himself always ran ahead of other St. Petersburg residents to the burning houses. St. Petersburg stopped burning to the ground and finally began to grow. Further more. All the main streets, buried in mud, by order of Diviere, are paved with stone, and furman workers appear in the city, who collect and transport sewage outside the capital. At the end of each street there are barriers, through which only military men, noblemen, midwives and priests are allowed to pass at night. Anyone who wanted to walk around St. Petersburg at night, but did not have the right to do so, was caught and beaten with a whip. Divier introduces strict rules for population registration, which make it possible to accurately determine the number of residents and visitors to the city. Those guilty of non-compliance with order are punished with all cruelty. The beggars suffer the most, who, on Divier's orders, were beaten with batogs and expelled from the city.

In general, Diviere cannot be called a gentle ruler. To restore order in the city, he resorted to draconian measures: for gambling, drunkenness, failure to comply with passport regulations, even for singing songs on the street, violators were punished with considerable fines. And if, having paid off, the ugly one never learned to obey the laws, he was sent to Siberia or to the chopping block. Those who dumped garbage into the Neva were beaten with batogs - Divier carefully ensured that the river was not turned into a drainage canal.

The king is delighted and proud of his idea. “The police promote rights and justice, give birth to good orders and moral teachings, provide everyone with security from robbers, thieves, rapists and deceivers and the like,” he writes, “drive away dishonest and indecent living, and force everyone to work and honest trade ... prevents high prices and brings contentment in everything necessary for human life, prevents all emerging diseases, keeps the streets clean ... educates young people in chaste purity and honest sciences; in short, above all these, the police are the soul of citizenship and all good order and the fundamental support of human security and convenience.”

Peter promotes Divier to major general and gives him more and more powers. Over time, Divier becomes more than a guardian of order. He oversees the construction of bridges and buildings. And he succeeds in this too: accustomed to the European architectural tradition, Divier brings a European spirit to the city’s development plan. The buildings that are erected with his participation delight Peter with their sophistication. But the king punishes misdeeds cruelly and humiliatingly.

Once Diviera had to experience such an outburst of the sovereign’s anger, even in public. Once Peter and the Chief of Police were driving around the city in a one-wheeler. However, they were forced to stop in front of the bridge in New Holland: the coachman noticed in time that several boards were missing from the bridge's masonry. Either, out of a well-known Russian habit, they forgot to put it in, or, also out of habit, they stole it. Peter orders the coachman to fix the bridge immediately. Diviera invites you to get out of the carriage and strokes your back with his staff, saying, “This will better add to your memory of caring for and maintaining bridges in order.” He cooled down, however, just as quickly as he flared up - he immediately put his hand on Divier’s shoulder with the words “Don’t charge me. Sit down, brother,” and continued the interrupted conversation. They say, by the way, that the same vengeful Menshikov, who at that time was the governor of St. Petersburg and every now and then complained to Peter about the police chief, had something to do with this incident. The king, however, always remained on Divier's side.

A fall

After the death of Peter, the life of the influential police chief changed little. Catherine I, who ascended the throne, gladly invited the courteous Divier to her place, he entertained her with conversations and his education. The Empress showered the faithful police chief with favors: Divier was elevated to the rank of count, received the rank of senator and lieutenant general and even received the highest award in the Russian Empire - the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. And Anna Danilovna, Divier’s wife, was included in the empress’s retinue and became a lady-in-waiting.

However, Menshikov did not give up hope of taking revenge on his unwanted relative. When the empress fell ill with alcoholic fever (Catherine was weak to alcohol), he convinced her that Divier was “not saddened enough” by her illness. And he demanded an order to arrest the police chief. Diviere was tortured and even strung up on a rack. Menshikov was delighted: unable to bear the suffering, Divier confessed to the conspiracy and betrayed his “accomplices” - all Menshikov’s enemies. They were stripped of all titles and property and exiled to God-forgotten Yakutia, 9,000 miles from St. Petersburg. Anton Manuilovich would have to wait many years for relief from suffering. Peter II will replace Catherine I on the throne, and after him the empire will pass into the hands of Anna Ioannovna. The new empress will suddenly remember Diviere, who is languishing in exile, but will not return him to St. Petersburg, but will make him commander of the port of Okhotsk. Taking up the matter with renewed vigor, Antoine Manuilovich brings the port into proper condition and even creates a nautical school there, which will later turn into the navigation school of the Siberian flotilla.

Surprisingly, Divier will still return to St. Petersburg - when the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, who loved the police chief since childhood, ascends the throne. She will return all titles and property to Diviere and put him back in charge of the police. However, after fifteen years of exile, Anton Manuilovich’s health was undermined, he often fell ill, no one in the city was afraid of him anymore, and in six months he would quietly repose in his home. The inscription was engraved on his tombstone: “General-in-Chief Count Anton Manuilovich Divier...”

Thus ended the journey of the Jew Antoine De Vieira, who created a police service in Russia, cleansed St. Petersburg of impurities and brought order to the capital. But this whole story is of little interest to current police chiefs, although it would be very instructive for them.

Material prepared by Alina Rebel

http://www.jewish.ru/history/facts/2013/11/news994321769.php

In the 1990s, the Russian public was shocked by two sex scandals. First, in 1997, a video recording made in 1995 was made public, in which a man surprisingly similar to the Minister of Justice V. Kovalev was having fun with girls in a bathhouse, and then, in 1999, a video recording appeared in which he was filmed with girls, a man very similar to Prosecutor General Yu. Skuratov. Both the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General were dismissed.

However, the first “bathhouse scandal” in the history of Russia occurred back in 1727, and its hero, as you might guess, was the highest rank of law enforcement agencies - Chief of Police of St. Petersburg Anton Devier. He just couldn't get away with resignation.

As Alexander Galich once wrote, “And from the audience they shout to me: “Give me the details!”, so let’s move on to the details: both the details of the biography of Anton Devier, and the details of the first “bathhouse scandal” in Russian history.

Anton Manuilovich Devier (in historical documents there are also other variants of the Russian spelling of his surname - Divier, Devier, Divier, Devier) was born in Holland, in the city of Amsterdam, on February 22, 1682.

From birth his name was Antonio de Vieira - a very strange first and last name for a Dutchman, but would be more suitable for a Portuguese.

Indeed, the de Vieira family moved to Holland from Portugal in 1673. Only the de Vieira were not Portuguese (in the sense of ethnic origin), but Sephardic Jews.

Sephardi Jews settled on the territory of what is now Portugal back in the 1st century BC, that is, when not only was Portugal not there, but even the Portuguese as a people had not yet appeared, and semi-wild tribes of Lusitanians lived in the mountains, only recently conquered by the Romans.

The conquerors constantly changed - first the Romans, then the Visigoths, then the Arabs, then the Christians, and the kingdom of Portugal appeared only in the 12th century, when Jews had lived on this land for more than a thousand years.

At the same time, the Jews in Portugal lived quite well - they had their own communal self-government, their own court, they obeyed only the king, and no one except the king could order the Jews or judge them. Among the Jews were ministers of finance, royal advisers, and court doctors.

However, in 1497, most Jews were expelled from Portugal, and at the insistence of neighboring Spain.

In 1492, Spain ended the war with the Muslim Emirate of Granada. The war ended with a Spanish victory, but the victors were ruined - all the money went to the war, and the royal treasury was empty.

Then the Spanish King Ferdinand (who died because he was eaten to death by lice) and his wife, Queen Isabella (who was proud of the fact that she washed only twice in her life), decided to replenish the treasury at the expense of Spanish Jews.

“Their Catholic Majesties” issued a decree according to which Jews had to either be baptized or leave the country, leaving all their property and money to the state.

Some people who know Jews solely from anecdotes mistakenly believe that money is the most important thing for Jews, but Ferdinand and Isabella knew Jews not from anecdotes, but from real life, and they calculated everything correctly - almost all Spanish Jews chose to leave the country as beggars, but don't give up your faith. Only very few were baptized.

The king and queen received quite a large amount of money from this operation with the expulsion of the Jews, but it was a one-time gain - the money was spent very quickly, and the country lost many talented entrepreneurs who, having emigrated to other countries, were able to “promote” there from scratch, and began benefit the enemies of Spain.

The Turkish Sultan Bayezid II, who granted political asylum to Spanish Jews, spoke about Ferdinand’s decision in the following words:

“Until now, I considered the Catholic King Ferdinand an intelligent sovereign and a good politician. But is this a politician? He devastated his country and enriched my possessions!

Indeed, thanks to the Jews, the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire became the strongest state in the Mediterranean, and even the discovery of America and American gold did not help Spain cope with the Turks.

And what does Portugal have to do with it? The fact is that not all Spanish Jews emigrated to Turkey - many settled in Portugal. This greatly worried Ferdinand and Isabella, and they, fearing the future strengthening of Portugal, began to demand that the Portuguese king Manuel I expel the Jews, promising him their daughter as a wife.

There were no male heirs in Spain, and King Manuel of Portugal, hoping to become king of Spain in the future, in 1497, in exchange for marrying a Spanish princess, duplicated in his country the Spanish decree of 1492 on the expulsion of the Jews.

However, Manuel never succeeded in becoming the Spanish king. In the words of the Turkish Sultan, he also “devastated his country” and enriched the Ottoman Empire, which became the main country of residence for Sephardic Jews.

The vast majority of the Jews of Portugal chose to leave the country as beggars rather than be baptized, and only a very few agreed to convert to Christianity. Among these few were the de Vieira family.

However, the de Vieiras were baptized only to stay, and continued to practice Judaism in secret, a secret religion that was passed down in the family from generation to generation for almost two centuries.

The secret Jews were monitored by the Inquisition, and when the de Vieiras felt threatened with exposure, they emigrated to Holland in 1673.

The head of the family, Manuel de Vieira, was a gunsmith, but his son Antonio, born in Holland (in 1682), did not have time to learn his father’s craft, since his father died too early, and the teenager had to join the Dutch navy as a cabin boy.

In August 1697, the Russian “Great Embassy” arrived in Holland, which included a certain “sergeant Peter Mikhailov” - Tsar Peter the Great was hiding under this pseudonym. Moreover, absolutely everyone knew about this, and the “police officer” was greeted exactly like a king.

The distinguished guest was shown a training battle of Dutch warships, and 25-year-old Peter was so carried away that he swam to one of the frigates, climbed aboard, and began to command the battle in Dutch, which he had managed to learn a little.

During the battle, the Russian Tsar drew attention to the cabin boy, who very deftly, “like a monkey,” climbed the shrouds and secured the sails, and after the end of the training battle he called him over.

This cabin boy was Antonio de Vieira.

The cabin boy introduced himself, and immediately informed the king that he was of “Jewish descent,” but Peter did not suffer from national and religious prejudices, and invited the 15-year-old cabin boy to enter his service. Antonio agreed.

He served the king as a page - first for the four and a half months that Peter spent in Holland, and then, leaving Holland forever, Antonio de Vieira went on a further long trip with the “Grand Embassy” across Europe.

At the end of August 1698, the “Grand Embassy” returned to Russia, and with it the royal page, who was already 16 years old, first came to the country that became his new homeland.

In Russian documents, Antonio, son of Manuel, was recorded as Anton Manuilovich, and the surname “de Vieira” was recorded as Devier, while in many documents, as already mentioned, the spellings Diviere, Devier, Devier and Diviere are found.

At first, Anton Devier continued to serve as the royal page, then he became the royal orderly, and accompanied the sovereign on military campaigns. In 1708, 26-year-old Anton Devier became adjutant general.

And two years later, Anton Devier clashed with another tsar’s close associate, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. The conflict occurred on the basis of love.

In 1710, 28-year-old Anton Devier set out to marry the younger sister of His Serene Highness, Anna Danilovna Menshikova. The bride was in the past the mistress of Peter the Great, but an adjutant is a position in which squeamish people do not serve, and even among the noblest nobles of Europe it was not considered shameful to marry a former sovereign mistress (a very illustrative example is the history of the Deer Park).

Peter was tired of his former mistress, and, besides, she herself really liked Anton Devier, and she agreed to marry him, and the king did not object to this. All that was left to do was to get consent from her older brother.

But suddenly problems arose. When Adjutant General Anton Devier came to the house of Alexander Menshikov to ask for his sister’s hand in marriage, His Serene Highness was so indignant at the vile proposal, in his opinion, that he rushed at Devier with his fists, and they began to fight.

Hearing the noise, ten of Alexander Danilovich’s servants ran into the room. Taking advantage of their numerical superiority, Menshikov's servants tied up Devier. After this, His Serene Highness ordered the servants to flog the groom, which was done, after which he was thrown into the street.

Why Menshikov was so indignant at Devier’s intention to marry his younger sister has not yet been clarified by historians. However, there is information that at the time of the matchmaking the groom had already “knocked up” the bride, and this circumstance, presumably, aroused the wrath of her older brother.

Although for some reason the Most Serene Prince was not angry with the Tsar, who had long ago “spoiled” Anna Danilovna.

The flogged Adjutant General Anton Devier complained to the Tsar about Menshikov. To this Peter replied “He refused you, but he won’t dare refuse me.”, and together with Devier went to the house of His Serene Highness the Prince, where he asked Menshikov for Anna Danilovna’s hand in marriage for his adjutant general.

As Peter predicted, Menshikov did not have the courage to refuse the Tsar, and in July 1710, Anton Manuilovich Devier finally married Anna Danilovna Menshikova.

In 1718, great changes took place in the official career of Anton Devier - Peter the Great established the police in Russia, and Devier became the first head of the Russian police on May 27, 1718.

It is necessary to clarify that initially the police existed only in the territory of St. Petersburg, and in other cities it appeared much later, and the position of Anton Devier was called “police chief general of St. Petersburg.”

Anton Devier ensured order in the city, significantly reduced the number of crimes, and even for the first time in history began the fight against environmental pollution - the police caught those people who dumped garbage in the Neva and beat them with a whip.

In Western Europe at that time, no one was fighting the pollution of rivers, and, for example, the waters of the River Thames flowing through London were so fetid that in the British Parliament they were afraid to open the windows even in extreme heat, because such an “amber” came from the river that the deputies couldn't stand it. There was no Devier of his own in England.

In addition, Chief of Police Anton Devier took up the fight against crime in the consumer market - for selling low-quality goods and for unreasonable price increases (trade margins over 10%), traders were whipped and even sent to hard labor.

The governor of St. Petersburg at that time was Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, and now he and Devier began to conflict not only on the basis of personal hostile relations, but also on official matters - everyone dissatisfied with Devier ran to complain to Menshikov, but the tsar was always on the side in these disputes Deviera.

At the same time, when Peter found shortcomings in Devier’s work, he himself punished him, only not with a whip, but with a baton.

There is a known real historical case when Peter the Great and Anton Devier were traveling together in a buggy and inspecting the city, and when they drove along the bridge across the canal near New Holland, it turned out that several boards had been torn from the bridge and stolen. Then Peter personally beat the police chief with a baton for insufficiently combating the theft of state property, after which the sovereign and the beaten police chief moved on.

By the way, it is possible that the boards from the bridge were torn off on the orders of Menshikov, who knew in advance where the Tsar and Devier would go, and wanted to “frame up” his enemy in this way.

However, other than beating with a baton, the incident on the bridge had no other consequences for Anton Devier, and he remained in the post of St. Petersburg police chief general.

In 1721, Anton Devier ordered the installation of the first lanterns and benches for rest in St. Petersburg.

However, Devier's other initiatives are quite controversial and dubious.

Thus, it was prohibited to live in the city without registration, all citizens had to report to the police about everyone coming and going, then entry and exit into and out of the city began to be allowed only with passports issued by the police, and at all entrances to the city there were checkpoints and No one was allowed in or out without a passport.

Then Devier tightened control over movements in St. Petersburg, and established something like a curfew: in the evening, all streets were blocked off with barriers, guards were posted, and only military personnel, priests and midwives could walk around the city, and all other St. Petersburg residents who wanted to walk along the city streets on white nights, they caught him and beat him with a whip. The barriers were removed only in the morning.

Peter the Great was delighted with the activities of the Devierovo police, and even wrote that “the police promote rights and justice, give birth to good order and moral teachings, provide everyone with security from robbers, thieves, rapists and deceivers and the like, drive away dishonest and indecent living, and force everyone to work and honest trade, ... prevents high prices and brings contentment in everything necessary for human life, prevents all emerging diseases, brings cleanliness to the streets; ... educates young people in chaste purity and honest sciences; in short, above all these, the police are the soul of citizenship and all good order and the fundamental support of human security and convenience.”.

In 1725, Peter the Great died, and his widow Catherine the First ascended the throne, who treated Devier well, left him in the post of Chief of Police, and in 1726 awarded him the title of count.

However, in April 1727, when the empress became seriously ill and was dying, a “bath scandal” occurred, which fatally affected the future fate of Anton Devier (details can be read in the books by N.I. Pavlenko “Chicks of Petrov’s Nest” and “Peter II ", which contains excerpts from archival documents).

On April 24, 1727, His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov appeared to the seriously ill Empress and said that “When Her Imperial Majesty deigns to rise from sleep, then Anton Devier will take the girls and ask about everything that he should not have done, and once I found him in the bathhouse with a certain girl, and with whom, he himself will say, and told him “Why does he lock himself in a bathhouse with a girl and what is he doing with that girl, he asked me not to inform Her Imperial Majesty, and told me that he asked everything that Her Imperial Majesty was doing without him.”.

The Empress was so outraged that she ordered Devier to be arrested!

On the same day, Anton Devier was arrested in the imperial palace by the guards guard, and during the arrest he tried to stab Menshikov with a sword, who directly gave the order for Devier’s arrest to the captain of the guard.

What angered the empress so much, and why was the police chief general arrested just because he “he locks himself in a bathhouse with a girl and what does he do with that girl”?

The fact is that those “girls” with whom Devier communicated so closely were ladies-in-waiting of the empress, and asking them about “What is Her Imperial Majesty doing without him?”, was perceived as an invasion of the empress’s private life.

What else Devier did with the girl in the bathhouse, other than talking, was of little interest to the Empress and Menshikov.

An investigation was launched against Anton Devier, during which he was tortured three times. In addition, many people were interrogated, including high-ranking leaders of the army and state.

The same one was also identified and interrogated "some girl", with whom Devier went to the bathhouse; in the materials of the criminal case against Devier, her last name is not mentioned, she is listed there as "court maiden Katerina".

Most likely, Katerina’s last name was not indicated due to the fact that she was a relative of some person very close to the Empress, and they did not want to compromise this person by mentioning her last name in a criminal case, and Menshikov, if you remember, also kept silent about her surname, hinting that let Devier himself say who she is ( “and with which, he himself will say”).

This court maiden explained to the investigation that “His lordship got her and Devier in the bathhouse, and she spoke to him in her own private words, and he didn’t ask her about words about behavior at court, and she didn’t tell him.”.

Anton Devier admitted that he repeatedly went to the bathhouse with girls "sat and talked", however, he denied that he asked the girls about the empress.

During the investigation, it also turned out that Devier did not show sadness about the Empress’s illness, and even persuaded others not to be sad, for example, he said at the table to her daughter Anna Petrovna: “Enough, madam, sad woman” and then some “I turned the crying Sofya Karlusovna around instead of dancing and told her, “There’s no need to cry.”.

The police chief himself explained that he was simply comforting the crying ladies, but Menshikov and the empress considered it "insolent acts".

We also note that neither Devier nor Katerina’s girlfriend found out whether they had sex in the bathhouse, or, as they put it then, “fornication” - the investigation was not interested in the sexual side of the issue, they only wanted to know what they were talking about in the bathhouse .

All these gatherings with the girls in the bathhouse and consoling the crying could be considered, even with a very strong desire to dig into something, at most insolence and disrespect for the empress, but Menshikov really wanted to present Devier as a conspirator.

Chief General Ivan Buturlin, member of the Governing Senate and Supreme Privy Council Pyotr Tolstoy and Chief Prosecutor of the Governing Senate Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev were brought into the case.

It turned out that in conversations with them Devier expressed that it would be better if the empress appointed as her heir (which was rumored, but there was no decree yet) not the grandson of Peter the Great from Tsarevich Alexei, who was put to death, Peter Alekseevich Jr., but one of his daughters - Elizaveta Petrovna or Anna Petrovna (as we remember, Devier was their teacher).

Moreover, what is most important, the initiator of the conversations was not Devier at all! Skornyakov-Pisarev, Tolstoy and Buturlin themselves began such conversations with Devier, and he only agreed with his interlocutors.

The matter did not go further than conversations, and the nobles could not even decide which of them would go to the empress with a proposal for the candidacy of heir to the throne (or heiress to the throne), and everything remained at the level of conversations.

It is now difficult for us to understand what is so seditious in conversations about who will become the next head of state - for a democratic society, discussion of candidates is a completely normal thing, but in the conditions of the Russian absolute monarchy, when the heir to the throne was determined not by the will of the people or even by law, but exclusively By decree of the current emperor, conversations about the identity of a possible heir were considered resistance to the will of the sovereign, and even treason.

However, please note, this is very important - at that time the heir to the throne had not yet been appointed, that is, no one was going to oppose the will of the empress - for the reason that the empress had not yet expressed this will in any way, and the so-called “conspirators” were engaged in fortune telling about a possible future heir, like a daisy - “Peter - Elizabeth - Anna”, and they did not know or plan anything specific.

Menshikov, as you might guess, was against Elizaveta Petrovna or Anna Petrovna becoming heirs, and supported the candidacy of Pyotr Alekseevich the grandson, since he intended to marry his daughter Maria to him, and thereby become related to the reigning family.

Meanwhile, the empress’s health was deteriorating, she became very ill, and early in the morning of May 6, 1727, Alexander Menshikov came to her and slipped two documents for her to sign. Having signed them, Catherine the First fell into unconsciousness and died a few hours later.

One of the two decrees signed before his death declared Pyotr Alekseevich the heir to the throne, and the other decree announced the verdict in the case of Anton Devier and his “accomplices” - Buturlin, Tolstoy, Skornyakov-Pisarev, as well as Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, who also “appeared” in one of conversations.

The verdict said that they tried “to reason and interpret, how much more dare to determine the heir to the monarchy according to one’s own will, who pleases whom, and not according to the high will of Her Imperial Majesty”, and it was decided by Devier and Tolstoy “as if the criminals who commit this should be executed by death”(with deprivation of ranks and orders); Buturlin, deprived of his ranks, was sent into exile in distant villages; Dolgoruky "excommunicate from the yard", demote him in rank, and send him to serve in a distant garrison; Skornyakov-Pisarev should be exiled to Siberia.

On the same day, Tsarevna Elizabeth, on behalf of her mother (that is, having forged the signature of the already deceased empress), signed a second decree, according to which the death penalty was replaced by Tolstoy and Devier with exile: the first - to the Solovetsky Monastery, and the second - to Siberia, and this decree as imperial was handed over for execution.

She could not do more for her teacher, since Menshikov had the power, and she could pay dearly for forging the signature of the late empress.

By the way, taking into account the fact that the decree on the heir to the throne was signed simultaneously with the verdict, and at the time of Devier’s conversations with Tolstoy, Buturlin and others, the heir had not yet been appointed, even from the point of view of the laws of that time, Devier did not commit any crime and did not resist “ the high will of Her Imperial Majesty."

Thus, Menshikov actually misled the empress, a woman who was not very literate, and, taking advantage of her serious illness and inability to correctly perceive the surrounding situation, slipped her a deliberately unjust sentence to sign in order to get rid of her long-time enemy.

And how did Anton Devier’s wife, Anna Danilovna, react to her husband’s gatherings in the bathhouse with the court maiden Katerina?

She was not offended by her husband for this, especially since from the case materials and all available documents, only the fact that Devier and Katerina were together in the bathhouse and their conversation was proven, but it is unknown whether they had sex there or not.

Anna Danilovna even tried to intercede with her brother on behalf of her husband, but His Serene Highness refused to talk to her sister, and she was forced to turn to him in writing, and even called him “father and “sovereign”:

“Most Serene Prince, gracious father and sovereign, I accept the courage from my immeasurable grief to ask you, gracious father and sovereign, about my husband, about intercession and gracious representation to Her Imperial Majesty, our most merciful sovereign, so that you may graciously turn your anger.”

Menshikov did not even respond to this humiliating letter from his sister. Moreover, he ordered his sister and children to be sent from St. Petersburg to the village!

And Anton Devier himself was sent to serve exile in the Zhigansk winter quarters, 800 versts from Yakutsk. For political reasons, Menshikov could not openly convict Elizabeth of forging the imperial decree abolishing the death penalty, and the exile of the enemy to the permafrost region also suited him quite well - he hoped that Devier would soon die there.

However, His Serene Highness Prince Menshikov did not triumph for long: the young sovereign Peter the Second changed his mind about marrying his daughter, and already on September 6, 1727, he deprived Menshikov of all titles, positions and ranks, and sent him into exile to Berezov (the current territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug), where the former “most illustrious” died two years later.

Evil was punished, but good did not triumph: Devier was never returned from exile.

Only in 1739, from the category of simple exiles, he was transferred to chiefs - from the Zhigansk winter quarters he was transported to Okhotsk, and appointed head of the Okhotsk port, where, among Anton Devier’s other affairs, one can highlight the equipment of Vitus Bering’s expedition.

In 1741, the daughter of Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, who, as we remember, was a pupil of Anton Devier, ascended the Russian throne, and forged a decree replacing the death penalty with exile.

On December 1, 1741, Elizabeth issued her own imperial decree to drop all charges against Anton Devier and return him from exile.

Due to the fact that the road from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk then took about six months, by the time the courier with the decree got there, by the time Devier got to the capital, the year 1743 had already arrived.

Anton Manuilovich's wife had died by this time, and what became of the court maiden Katerina, with whom he went to the bathhouse, is unknown.

The orders and the title of count were returned to Anton Devier, in July 1744 he received the military rank of general-in-chief, and in December 1744 A.M. Devier was reappointed Chief of Police of St. Petersburg, but his health was already weakened, and the hero of the first “bathhouse scandal” in Russian history died on June 24, 1745, at the age of 63.

Quite a lot of books and articles have been written about the police of pre-revolutionary Russia. But most of them describe the Russian police in the 19th - early 20th centuries, with the policemen, police officers and bailiffs familiar to us from classical Russian literature. Meanwhile, the formation of the Russian police began much earlier and its structure, governing bodies and the nature of the service in the earlier period are also very interesting.

The creation of a new type of Russian police was initiated by Peter I as part of the modernization of the country's governing bodies. Moreover, during the reign of Peter, the police meant not only the protection of public order and the fight against crime, but also any management activity in the field of security, fire protection, supervision of the behavior of subjects and their observance of religious rites. On May 27, 1718, Peter I introduced the post of Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. With his own hand, Peter also participated in the drafting of the “Points given to the St. Petersburg Chief of Police,” which prescribed his job responsibilities. In particular, Peter I included in the competence of the Chief of Police not only the supervision of maintaining order in St. Petersburg, but also the general management of the construction and arrangement of the new capital. The Chief of Police Office, created three years earlier, was transferred to the subordination of the Chief of Police General. To directly support the orders of the Chief of Police, an army infantry regiment was assigned to his disposal. Officers and lower ranks of the regiment became employees of the St. Petersburg police. In addition, the police services of the country's major cities were subordinate to the chief of police of the capital. The position of Chief of Police corresponded to class 5 of the Table of Ranks, i.e. the rank of state councilor or the rank of brigadier in the army.

Peter appointed Anton Devier, a man of interesting destiny, one of his closest favorites and associates, as the first Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. Anton Manuilovich Devier ended up in the Russian Empire, one might say, completely by accident. He was born in 1682 in Amsterdam into a poor Jewish family that moved to Holland from Portugal during the persecution of the Iberian Sephardic Jews. When Anton's father Manuel Devier died, the young man joined a Dutch ship as a cabin boy. It is quite possible that he would have spent his whole life as a sailor, perhaps he would have died in some naval battle or settled “in retirement” in one of the overseas Dutch colonies. But a chance meeting completely changed the entire future fate of the young Sephardi. When Peter I was in Holland, where he learned the maritime trade, he met a young cabin boy. In 1697, 15-year-old Devier came to Russia with Peter. For a long time he was the personal orderly of Peter I. Extremely friendly towards foreigners, especially the Dutch, Peter provided his favorite with a dizzying career in Russia, which a person from a poor Jewish family in his native Holland could not even dream of. In July 1708, Devier received the rank of captain, and in the same year he became a major and then a lieutenant colonel of the grenadier regiment. On August 3, 1711, 29-year-old Anton Devier received the rank of adjutant general. By the way, this rank was established specifically for Anton Devier and another favorite of Peter, Pavel Yaguzhinsky.

Even before his appointment as Chief of Police of the new capital, Anton Devier carried out various important assignments of Peter, for example, in 1715 he supervised the construction of the seaport in Revel. Since Peter trusted Devier very much and even supported him when Anton Manuilovich wooed Menshikov’s sister, there was nothing surprising in the appointment of the former Dutch cabin boy and then Russian officer as Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. Moreover, Devier had an idea about life in European cities, and Peter I wanted public order and governance in the new capital to meet European standards of that time.

The Chief of Police of St. Petersburg was formally subordinate to the Governor General of St. Petersburg Menshikov. But in fact, Devier was actually directly subordinate to Emperor Peter I. The positions of deputy police chief general, 4 officers and 36 lower ranks were established in the St. Petersburg police. The police of the new Russian capital were so small in the first time of their existence. A clerk and 10 clerks were responsible for the conduct of affairs in the Main Police Chief Office of St. Petersburg. The competence of the police chief's office included the protection of public order, fire protection, city improvement, drainage of swampy areas (a very urgent task for St. Petersburg at that time), and garbage collection on city streets. The police had the right to impose punishments in criminal cases, i.e. also performed the functions of a judicial authority. It is possible that if not for the death of Peter I, the development of the Russian police would have occurred at a more rapid pace, since the emperor sought to organize a police service in the country comparable to the European police of that time. It should be noted that Anton Devier, who held the post of Chief of Police of St. Petersburg, really did a lot to develop the system of policing and ensuring public safety in the Russian capital. In particular, it was at the instigation of Devier that a professional fire service was organized in the capital, also subordinate to the chief general of police.

Devier remained at the post of Chief of Police of St. Petersburg for nine years - until 1727. He participated in the investigation of the case of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and signed his death warrant. In 1725, Devier received the rank of major general, and in 1726 - lieutenant general and the title of count. Devier received the honor of becoming a count due to the fact that after the death of Peter he supported the transfer of power in the country to Catherine I. However, already in 1727 Devier fell into disgrace. Menshikov’s long-standing hostility towards the Chief of Police played a role. As you know, at one time Menshikov and Devier had a conflict over Devier’s matchmaking with the sister of Peter’s all-powerful favorite. The emperor then stood up for Devier and ordered Menshikov to marry his sister to him. After the death of Peter, Devier lost his patron, and Menshikov, who retained serious influence, continued his intrigues against him. Finally, on April 24, 1727, Devier was arrested. On May 27, 1727, he was accused of intending to eliminate Peter II from inheriting the throne, deprived of his nobility and count's title, the rank of lieutenant general, beaten with a whip and exiled to Siberia.

Peter II appointed Chief General Count Burchard Christoph von Münnich (Munich) as the new Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. Although in the common view Minich is a typical martinet, a representative of the era of military coups, in reality he was a talented and educated person, a professional military engineer. For a long time he had nothing to do with managerial or police functions at all, but was engaged exclusively in military engineering. A native of Oldenburg, Minich received a good engineering education, after which he served for twenty years in various European armies as a military engineer. Minich had the opportunity to serve as an engineering officer in the armies of France, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel and Poland, and to participate in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Minich received the rank of colonel in the German armies, and major general in the Polish-Saxon army. In 1721, Minich was invited to Russia as a specialist in engineering. He was entrusted with the planning of the fortifications of the Kronstadt fortress. Then Minikh, who was well versed in hydraulic structures, was involved in organizing navigation on the Neva River and supervised the construction of the Baltic port and the Ladoga bypass canal. For his achievements, Minich was promoted to lieutenant general. In 1726, he received the rank of General-in-Chief, and in 1727 he was entrusted with the post of Chief of Police of St. Petersburg. Actually, this was Minich’s first appointment not directly related to engineering.

Further strengthening of the police of the Russian Empire took place in the 1730s and was associated with the creation of new police services and the expansion of police activities not only to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also to other cities of the country. In provincial cities, the police were led by an officer with the rank of captain or lieutenant, who was subordinate to a non-commissioned officer, a corporal, ten privates and two clerical servants. This was the usual composition of the city police department at that time. Since the police at that time were still small and weak, army units were involved in performing police functions. In 1733, a decree “On the establishment of police in cities” was issued, which gave rise to the creation of police institutions throughout the Russian Empire and served as the starting point for the formation of the country’s regular police. By the way, in 1741 Anton Devier was returned from exile, and in 1744 he re-took the post of St. Petersburg Chief of Police. But the years of exile in Siberia took their toll - Devier was seriously ill and resigned in 1745 due to illness. That same year, the founder of the St. Petersburg police died at the age of 63.

In 1741, the prototype of the current units for combating offenses in the field of the consumer market and administrative legislation (BPPRiAZ) was created. This was the Trade Police, established by the Senate on the basis of the report of Police Chief General Saltykov. In particular, he concluded that it was necessary to create a special body to monitor the trade in food supplies. The trade police were supposed to set a tax on food and building materials, monitor the pricing of food and other goods, monitor the quality of products sold, be responsible for order and cleanliness in the markets, suppress illegal trade and fight tavern, supervise the observance of decency in trade establishments.

At the same time, in 1741, the status of the Chief of Police was raised from 5th to 3rd class of the Table of Ranks. Now the post of chief of police corresponded to the army rank of lieutenant general, the guards rank of colonel and the civilian rank of privy councilor. The Chief of Police was introduced into the Senate along with the presidents of the Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs Collegiums. However, despite the increase in the status of the Chief of Police, during the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, many shortcomings and shortcomings remained in the organization of the country's police service.

Further modernization of the police system of the Russian Empire took place already under Catherine II. The Empress paid significant attention to issues of maintaining order in the empire, ordering the creation of a zemstvo police in addition to the city police. In the districts, lower zemstvo courts were created, which were in charge of maintaining public order. In 1782, a decision was made to create deanery boards as the main city police bodies. The deanery council included a head - the mayor, two bailiffs for criminal and civil matters, two elected controllers - ratman, elected by the townspeople for six months to carry out supervisory functions over the activities of the police authorities.

Paul I, who replaced Catherine II at the head of state, carried out further reform of the police authorities. He abolished deanery boards in Russian cities and assigned the police the functions of monitoring the activities of officials. In order to improve the work of the police, Paul I made police chiefs and commandants financially responsible for unsolved thefts of public funds. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, under Pavel, the position of chief police officer was introduced, who led the police. Subordinate to the chief police chief were private inspectors who led parts of the city, and they, in turn, were subordinate to the quarterly non-commissioned private inspectors with two quarterly commissars.

The creation of a professional police also raised the question of training personnel to occupy “officer” positions in police departments. There was no special school for training police personnel in Russia in the 18th century. However, police officers were recruited from graduates of the Land Noble Cadet Corps, opened in 1732. But most of the cadets saw themselves in the future as guards or army officers, or, in extreme cases, as civilian officials. The police service remained of little prestige, which inevitably affected the quality of personnel. Officers often entered the police service who, for some reason, were forced to leave the guard, the army, and even civil administrative institutions. On the other hand, the police also became a haven for “disabled people,” as honored veterans of military service were then called, who, due to age or illness, were not capable of further service in the army or guards units. This state of affairs was widespread and it did not at all contribute to improving the functioning of public order authorities. The weakness of the police of that time is also shown by the large number of popular uprisings, the causes of which were suppressed and the Russian police were unable to fight them without the help of army units.

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Notes

Literature

An excerpt characterizing the Chief of Police

made a Jew the first police chief