Ice House of Anna Ioannovna. Photo, video. Cruel fun: how Anna Ioannovna married the jesters Anna Ioannovna's Ice Palace

12.08.2023

There are few flattering reviews about Anna Ioannovna’s 10-year reign; she loved entertainment and celebrations, for which she spared no expense. Just remember her magnificent coronation. Moreover, the empress’s amusements were often quite cruel towards her subjects. Thus, the empress turned Prince Mikhail Golitsyn, who married an Italian abroad and dared to convert to Catholicism, into one of her many palace jesters.

For trying to hide his wife in the German Settlement and apostasy, Golitsyn was subjected to constant humiliation. In the palace he had his own basket, where the newly-made jester “hatched his eggs.” At feasts he had to treat guests to kvass, for which he was nicknamed Kvasnik. In addition, his duties included enduring constant insults and ridicule from the courtiers, “he did not dare to offend anyone, he did not even dare to say any impolite word to those who mocked him.” The situation of the former prince was terrible, but everything was not enough for the empress, and she decided to marry her favorite Kalmyk firecracker Avdotya Buzheninova to Golitsyn. She once complained to Anna Ioannovna that she was no longer young, but wanted to get married. And so this bow-legged, ugly dwarf was prepared to be the bride of a well-born groom.

Wedding train. (Pinterest)

The Empress enthusiastically began organizing the wedding. A grandiose masquerade was planned, the main participants of which were to be representatives of the different peoples inhabiting the Russian Empire. The Empress issued several decrees to prepare for the celebration. It was ordered to “select in the Kazan province from the Tatar, Cheremis and Chuvash peoples each three pairs of male and female sexes in half and see that they are not vile in themselves, and put them in the best dress with all the utensils according to their custom, and so that In the men’s field were bows and their other weapons and the music they used...” The same decrees were sent to other provinces, in Moscow they ordered to find “eight young women and as many of their husbands who knew how to dance, who were not vile in themselves, ... from the shepherds, six were young men who could play the horns.”

The organization was headed by Artemy Volynsky. Under his leadership, a detailed ceremony for the masquerade procession was drawn up, and costume designs were developed. The wedding train was supposed to travel along all the main streets of the city and past the royal palace. Since the wedding was a punishment for accepting Catholicism, the whole procession became, as it were, a mockery of someone else's faith. At the head of the procession was the Roman god Saturn in a chariot drawn by deer, then the astrological symbol of the North Star in a carriage on eight cranes, four shepherds riding on cows and playing horns, then sorcerers, the funny “guard” of the groom in turned out fur coats and riding on goats, musicians with bagpipes, snouts, balalaikas, followed by sleighs drawn by bulls or dogs, in which guests and mummers in national costumes of different nationalities rode. There were Bacchus, riding on a barrel, and satyrs, and Neptune, throwing frozen fish into the crowd, and various walkers. The bride and groom were put in an iron cage on an elephant, they were accompanied by araps, assistants on camels, costumed priests and cupids. 150 pairs of representatives of the peoples of Russia were dressed in ceremonial national costumes, thereby, as it were, demonstrating the wealth and unity of the vast empire.

Ice House Project. (Pinterest)

Vasily Trediakovsky also took part in the “stupid wedding”. Perhaps the empress wanted to punish him for his connections with Catholics. He, wearing a mask and a funny dress, had to compose a “buffoon sermon” for the bride and groom. On the eve of the celebration, Trediakovsky was brought to participate in the preparations for the wedding, beaten and ordered to write a greeting for the holiday:

Hello, married fool and fool,
also a bitch, that’s the figure.
Now is the time for you to have some fun,
Now the residents should be furious in every possible way,
Kvasnin is a fool and Buzhenin’s byadka
they got together lovingly, but their love is disgusting...

After this, he was kept in custody for two days, and then, on February 6, 1740, he was sent to a “stupid wedding.”

Bride and groom in a cage on an elephant. (Pinterest)

For the celebration, the Empress ordered the construction of an Ice House on the Neva. The winter was very harsh; it was 30 degrees below zero. But the empress was little concerned about how the bride and groom would get married in the ice. The building reached 60 meters in length, 6 in height and 5 in width. The façade was decorated with ice sculptures, and at the gate stood ice dolphins that spewed burning oil. A life-size ice elephant was even built, “this elephant was empty inside and so cunningly made that... at night, to great surprise, it threw out burning oil.” The house had a living room, a buffet, a toilet, and a bedroom. Architect Pyotr Eropkin and academician Georg Kraft were hired for construction.

After the wedding there was a feast, and in the evening Kvasnik-Golitsyn and the firecracker Avdotya were sent to their palace on an icy wedding bed, and a guard was posted so that they would not run away. The cold was fierce; according to the empress’s evil plan, the newlyweds were supposed to freeze overnight, but in the morning they were found alive. They say that Avdotya bribed the guards and brought warm clothes into the palace.

Wedding in the Ice House. (Pinterest)

The empress's fun caused indignation both in the Russian Empire and around the world. The mockery of jesters was considered low, and the huge expenses for a useless holiday were unjustified. But the empress did not care much about other people's opinions. True, the “stupid wedding” turned out to be her last cruel fun. Six months later, the empress died. Avdotya gave birth to Golitsyn two children, but a couple of years after the wedding she died from the effects of hypothermia. Golitsyn had the humiliating title of jester revoked and part of his lands and property was returned. Soon after the death of his joker wife, he married again.

Peter the Great died in 1725. For two years after him, his beloved wife Catherine I reigned. For another three years, his young grandson, Peter II, ruled the country. He was 11 years old when he ascended the Russian throne, and only 14 years old when he died in Moscow after contracting smallpox. And in 1730, a second woman appeared on the Russian throne - Empress Anna Ioannovna. Daughter of Peter I's elder brother, Ioann. Reviews from contemporaries about her are contradictory. But everyone agrees that she is cruel, treacherous and extravagant. Her favorite and confidant is the Duke of Courland, Ernst Biron, an equally cruel, power-hungry and cunning man.

The queen's appearance evoked harsh assessments - mainly from women. Here's what her contemporary Princess Ksenia Dolgorukova wrote about her: “... She was terrible to look at. She had a disgusting face. She was so big when she walks among gentlemen - head taller than everyone and extremely fat!” And indeed, the two-meter tall, eight-pound niece of Peter the Great, with traces of pockmarks on her face (pockmarked!), could be “disgusting to the eye!”

Anna Ioannovna, together with her favorite Biron, incited fear with denunciations, executions, torture, exile and brutal extravagant entertainment. One of the historians writes: “Dashing winds rocked the great country, took thousands of lives, raised and overthrew cheerful favorites.”

The Russian court under Peter I, distinguished by its small number and simplicity of customs, was completely transformed under Anna Ioannovna. But only five or six years have passed since Peter’s death! The thirty-seven-year-old empress wanted her court to be equal in pomp and splendor to other European courts. Ceremonial receptions, celebrations, balls, masquerades, performances, fireworks, and entertainment continuously took place at court. The queen loved to spend a lot of time with her favorite Biron and among her hangers-on and jesters. And among Anna Ioannovna’s friends there was one middle-aged and very ugly Kalmyk woman. Her name was Avdotya Ivanovna. She enjoyed special favor and bore the surname Buzheninova in honor of her favorite dish. One day she told the empress that she would willingly marry. The Empress wished to find a groom for the Kalmyk woman herself. And since Buzheninova played the role of a cracker for the queen, Anna Ioannovna decided to marry her to one of the jesters - six jesters “worked” at court to entertain the queen. An extraordinary jester was chosen as the groom!

This was Prince Mikhail Alekseevich Golitsyn, demoted for misconduct. Grandson of the famous boyar of Peter's time. The prince's wife died in 1729, and the fifty-year-old prince, in order to dispel his grief, asked permission to travel abroad. But in Florence he fell in love with an Italian woman of low birth and married her. At her insistence, he converted to the Catholic faith.

Returning to Moscow, the prince carefully hid his Italian identity and change of faith from everyone. But soon rumors reached the empress. Golitsyn was brought to St. Petersburg and put in a secret office, where he was “interrogated with partiality.” By order of the empress, the marriage was dissolved and the wife was sent abroad. And the prince himself was demoted to “pages”, despite his age, and appointed court jester. His duties included entertaining the queen with jokes, serving her kvass (the courtiers nicknamed him “the kvassnik”), and sitting in a basket near the king’s office.

So, it was decided to marry the Kalmyk joker to the former prince, and now a jester, Golitsyn. The empress's idea of marrying a jester to a firecracker met with complete sympathy among her circle of associates. On the advice of her frivolous friends, Anna Ioannovna ordered to celebrate the wedding of the “young couple” in the most “curious way.”

A special “masquerade commission” was immediately created. It was decided to build a house of ice on the Neva and marry a jester and a firecracker in it. Fortunately, there was a terrible cold outside: the thermometer showed minus 35 degrees, severe frosts began in November 1739 and lasted until March 1740. And the wedding was scheduled for February 1740. We had to rush to build mansions on the ice.

The commission chose a place on the Neva for the construction of the Ice House - between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace, approximately where the Palace Bridge is now. The only material to build the house was ice! They cut it into large slabs, placed them one on top of the other and poured water on them for bonding, which immediately froze, soldering the slabs tightly.

The house was assembled with grace - this can be seen from the engravings of those times. Its facade was about 16 meters long, about five meters wide and about six meters high. All around the roof was a gallery decorated with pillars and statues. A porch with a carved pediment divided the building into two large halves. Each has two rooms: one has a living room and a buffet, the other has a toilet and a bedroom. Light entered the rooms through windows with glass made of the thinnest ice! Behind the ice-cold glass stood “funny paintings” written on canvas. They were lit from the inside at night by many candles.

In front of the house were six three-pound ice cannons and two two-pound mortars, from which they fired more than once! All this is made of ice. At the gate, also made of ice, there were two ice dolphins, using pumps to eject fire from ignited oil from their jaws.

There were pots with ice branches and leaves on the gate. Ice birds sat on the icy branches. On the sides of the house rose two pointed quadrangular pyramids. Large octagonal lanterns hung inside the pyramids. At night, people climbed into the pyramids and turned the glowing lanterns in front of the windows - to the delight of the constantly crowded spectators.

On the right side of the house stood a life-size ice elephant. With an icy Persian sitting astride him. And next to him on the ground stood two icy Persian women. An eyewitness says: “This elephant was empty inside and so cunningly made that during the day it let out water almost four meters high. And at night, to great surprise, it threw out burning oil.”

And in the Ice House in one of the rooms there were two mirrors, a dressing table, several candlesticks (candlesticks), a large double bed, a stool and a fireplace with ice-cold wood. In the second room there was a carved table, two sofas, two armchairs and a carved stand that contained tea utensils - glasses, glasses and dishes. In the corners of this room there were two statues depicting Cupids. And on the table there was a large clock and cards. All these things are very skillfully made from ice and “painted with decent natural colors.” Ice-cold firewood and candles were smeared with oil and burned.

In addition, an ice bath was built at the Ice House according to Russian custom! It was drowned several times and hunters could steam in it!

By personal order of the highest order, for the “curious wedding” of Buzheninova and Golitsyn, two people of both sexes of all tribes and peoples were brought to St. Petersburg from different parts of Russia. There were three hundred people in total! On February 6, 1740, the marriage of the illustrious jester with a firecracker took place - the usual order in the church. After which the “wedding train,” driven by Chancellor Tatishchev, drove past the palace along all the main streets of the city.

The procession was opened by the “young people”, who showed off in a large iron cage placed on an elephant. And the “poezzhans”, that is, the visiting guests, followed the elephant: there were Abkhazians, Ostyaks, Mordovians, Chuvash, Cheremis, Vyatichi, Samoyeds, Kamchadals, Kirghiz, Kalmyks and others. Some rode camels, others rode deer, others rode dogs, fourth rode oxen, fifth rode goats, still others rode pigs, and so on. All the guests are “multi-lingual” in their national costumes, with “music and toys belonging to each family,” in sleighs made like the animals and fish of the sea.

After a hearty lunch, dancing began: each couple danced their national dance to their national music. The amusing spectacle greatly amused the empress and the noble spectators.

After the end of the ball, the young couple, accompanied by the still long “train” of guests of different tribes, went to their Ice Palace.

There they were placed in an ice bed with various ceremonies. And a guard was posted at the house - out of fear that the happy couple would not decide to leave their not entirely warm and comfortable bed before the morning.

One of his contemporaries vividly describes the further fate of the Ice House as follows: “Since the severe cold from the beginning of January until March was almost continuous, this house stood without any damage until that time. At the end of March 1740, it began to decline and little by little, especially on the midday side, to fall."

Legends circulated all over the world about the Ice House, myths and fairy tales were created. People were surprised that it was possible to build from ice “in severe cold.” By pouring water on the ice floes you can “unite” them. That ice can be sharpened, drilled, chopped, painted, and by the “method of anointing with oil” - fire can be produced, and at the same time it can be shot from “it”.

But reasonable, mournful, condemning words were also heard. This is how one of the enlightened people of that time describes the “stupid disgrace.” “In the story of the Ice House, I see the height of extravagance! Is it permissible to use human hands for work so vain and insignificant? Is it permissible to humiliate and mock humanity in such a shameful way? Is it permissible to waste state support on whims and absurd fun?! Amusing the people, There’s no need to corrupt people’s morals!”

These words, full of anger and truth, are true not only for the monstrous “fun” with the Ice House, but, unfortunately, for many other facts in the history of the Russian State!
I. Metter
The story was published in the magazine

How Anna Ioannovna shocked the public

V. Jacobi “Ice House” (1878). © / Public Domain

In February 1740, the Russian Empress held wedding celebrations that became a symbol of her ten-year reign.

Miracle for the poor widow

After the death of Peter I, the Russian Empire entered a period called by historians “the era of palace coups.” The dynastic crisis, which was partly caused by the first Russian emperor himself, led to the fact that in 1730 Anna Ioannovna, the niece of Peter the Great, the daughter of his brother and co-ruler Ivan V, ascended the Russian throne.

Few people describe the ten-year era of Anna Ioannovna's reign in excellent terms. Indeed, this period cannot in any way be called the heyday of the Russian state.

There were many reasons for this, among which the main one seems to be Anna Ioannovna’s complete unpreparedness for government.

Anna Ioannovna was married at the age of 17 to the Duke of Courland, Friedrich Wilhelm. Family life simply did not have time to develop - the husband died less than three months after marriage.

Despite this, Peter I sent the dowager duchess to live in the domain of her late husband, in Courland. The local nobility did not favor the duchess, and Anna Ioannovna lived in very unenviable conditions, which in no way corresponded to her origin.

Therefore, when, after 20 years of such a life, Anna Ioannovna learned that she was being offered nothing less than the crown of the Russian Empress, it was a real miracle for her.

Take a walk, crazy empress...

But by no miracle could the Dowager Duchess of Courland turn into a wise and far-sighted politician capable of moving the state forward.

State policy during this period was determined by those court parties that managed to get ahead of their competitors in the struggle for influence on the empress.

Among the most influential figures of that era was Anna Ioannovna’s favorite, the Courland nobleman Ernst Johann Biron, thanks to which the era itself received the name “Bironovism.”

Anna Ioannovna herself, having emerged from Courland poverty, behaved like a real nouveau riche. State money flowed like a river for all kinds of entertainment events and the maintenance of the court, which during her reign grew several times.

The empress had a special passion for all kinds of dwarfs and hunchbacks who formed the staff of her court jesters. This hobby seemed quite strange to many, but, of course, no one dared to argue with Anna Ioannovna.

The empress's favorite was the Kalmyk firecracker Avdotya Ivanovna. Anna Ioannovna liked her, it is believed, because of the extremely unpresentable appearance of the firecracker, against the background of which the empress herself, who did not shine with beauty, looked advantageous.

Somehow, at the end of 1739, Anna Ioannovna noticed that Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova (the empress gave the firecracker’s surname in honor of the Kalmyk woman’s favorite dish) was sad. Having asked what was the matter, she found out that Avdotya Ivanovna dreams of marriage. The Kalmychka at that time was about 30 years old, which by the standards of the 18th century was considered a very respectable age.

Anna Ioannovna was inspired by the idea of marrying off her favorite and having a grand party for the occasion.

Anna Ioannovna

Nicknamed "Kvasnik"

The empress quickly found a groom - another court jester, Mikhail Alexandrovich Kvasnik, was assigned to this role.

Unlike the Kalmyk woman Buzheninova, Kvasnik was a well-born nobleman who fell into terrible disgrace.

Mikhail Alexandrovich belonged to the senior branch of the family of princes Golitsyn, being the grandson of Vasily Golitsyn, the favorite of Princess Sophia. After Sophia's defeat in the struggle for power, two-year-old Mikhail Golitsyn, along with his grandfather and father, found himself in exile, from which he was able to return only after the death of Golitsyn Sr. in 1714.

After this, it seemed that Mikhail Golitsyn’s life was going well. He was sent by Peter I to study abroad, at the Sorbonne. Upon his return, he entered military service, which he completed with the rank of major.

In 1729, after the death of his first wife, Mikhail Golitsyn went abroad, leaving two children in Russia. There he marries a second time and converts to Catholicism.

Golitsyn took the change of faith very lightly, and in 1732 he returned to Russia without fear with his new family. Friends, having learned about Mikhail Golitsyn's conversion to Catholicism, were horrified - the new Empress Anna Ioannovna considered such apostasy to be a grave crime. Mikhail Golitsyn was advised by his acquaintances to “keep a low profile,” which he did, secretly settling in the Moscow German Settlement.

But the world is not without “good people” - Mikhail Golitsyn was reported, and soon he appeared before the court of the angry Anna Ioannovna.

Prince Golitsyn had little choice - execution or dishonor. Mikhail Alexandrovich chose dishonor. His Catholic wife was sent into exile, and he himself, having been baptized again into Orthodoxy, was assigned to the role of court jester.

Golitsyn became Anna Ioannovna’s sixth jester and, like the other five, had a personal basket in which he was supposed to hatch eggs. During feasts, he was ordered to pour and serve kvass to the guests, which is where his new nickname and surname came from - Kvasnik.

The home where hearts connect

The morally broken and crushed Kvasnik, who, according to some contemporaries, had lost his mind due to everything that happened to him, of course, could not resist marrying the “maiden Buzheninova.”

The Empress took up the matter in a big way, creating a special “Masquerade Commission”, which was to prepare the celebrations. It was ordered that no money be spared for the wedding.

It was decided to organize the celebrations in a specially built Ice House, similar to those that were erected under Peter the Great, but on a much larger scale. The plan was facilitated by the weather - the winter of 1739/40 was very severe, the temperature constantly remained below 30 degrees below zero.

The location for the house was chosen on the Neva between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace, approximately on the site of the modern Palace Bridge.

The ice was cut into large slabs, laid one on top of the other and watered with water, which immediately froze, tightly soldering the individual blocks.

The facade of the house was about 16 meters long, 5 meters wide and about 6 meters high. A gallery decorated with statues stretched around the entire roof. A porch with a carved pediment divided the building into two halves. Each had two rooms: one was a living room and a buffet, the other was a toilet and a bedroom. Six ice cannons and two mortars were placed in front of the house, which could fire real shots. Two ice dolphins were installed at the gate, throwing burning oil out of their jaws. There were pots with ice branches and leaves on the gate. Ice birds sat on the branches. On both sides of the house rose ice pyramids, inside of which hung large octagonal lanterns.

Super project of the 18th century

On the right side of the house stood a life-size ice elephant with an ice Persian on top. Two icy Persian women stood near the elephant. According to eyewitnesses, during the day the elephant released four-meter jets of water, and at night - similar jets of burning oil. Some claimed that the elephant sometimes “dispensed” alcohol.

In the Ice House itself, in one of the rooms there were two ice mirrors, a dressing table, several candlesticks, a large double bed, a stool and a fireplace with ice wood. In the second room there was an ice table, two sofas, two armchairs and a carved buffet with dishes. In the corners of this room there were two statues depicting Cupids, and on the table there was a large clock and cards. All these things were made from ice and painted with paints. Ice-cold firewood and candles were smeared with oil and burned. In addition, there was even an ice bath at the Ice House, which also functioned.

The Ice House project, apart from what it was built for, was truly unique. To bring Anna Ioannovna’s idea to life, scientists and engineers of that time had to find completely unique solutions.

The design and construction of the Ice House was directly supervised by the architect Pyotr Mikhailovich Eropkin, the creator of the first master plan of St. Petersburg, and academician Georg Wolfgang Kraft, a physicist and mathematician who provided the entire scientific part of the project.

Wedding night on an icy bed

But even this seemed not enough to Anna Ioannovna. It was ordered to bring two representatives of all tribes and peoples living in Russia, in national clothes and with national instruments, to the celebration. By the beginning of February 1740, 300 such people had gathered in St. Petersburg.

The celebrations themselves took place in February 1740. The date most often given is February 6, although sometimes they talk about February 12 or other days.

At the head of the “wedding train” were the newlyweds, placed in an iron cage placed on an elephant. Following them rode representatives of small and large nationalities of Russia, some on camels, some on deer, some on oxen, and some on dogs...

After the wedding there was a feast and dancing in the church. Anna Ioannovna was in excellent spirits, pleased with the implementation of her own idea.

After the ball, Kvasnik and Buzheninova were taken to the Ice House and after the ceremonies they were laid on an ice bed, with a guard posted so that the newlyweds would not try to escape from their luxurious bed until the morning. And there was a reason to escape - few people would want to spend the night lying on a piece of ice in a forty-degree frost, from which no burning ice logs could save them.

In the morning, the half-dead jesters were finally released from the house, which could well have become a crypt for them.

"Enough tolerating this!"

From time immemorial, in Rus' they loved to go out on a grand scale, regardless of their means, which often surprised foreigners. However, this time the “wedding in the Ice House” amazed not only foreigners, but also the Russians themselves. The expenditure of such enormous resources and effort on such an insignificant goal outraged many. Anna Ioannovna’s undertaking was called a “disgrace,” and the mockery of Kvasnik and Buzheninova was considered humiliating even by the standards of that far from tender time.

Of course, this muted murmur worried Anna Ioannovna little, but it turned out that the “buffoon wedding” became the last noticeable event of her reign.

The ice house, thanks to the frosts, stood until the end of March 1740, and then began to gradually melt and disappeared naturally in April.

In October 1740, Anna Ioannovna died, appointing Ivan Antonovich, the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna, as her successor.

Anna Leopoldovna, who became regent for her young son, was overthrown along with him as a result of another palace coup, but during her time in power she managed to do a great thing - she abolished the staff of court jesters.

V. Jacobi. Jesters at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna.

Russian Empire after death Peter I entered a period called by historians “the era of palace coups.” The dynastic crisis, which was partly caused by the first Russian emperor himself, led to the fact that in 1730 she ascended the Russian throne Anna Ioannovna- niece of Peter the Great, daughter of his brother and co-ruler Ivan V.

Few people describe the ten-year era of Anna Ioannovna's reign in excellent terms. Indeed, this period cannot in any way be called the heyday of the Russian state.

There were many reasons for this, among which the main one seems to be Anna Ioannovna’s complete unpreparedness for government.

Anna Ioannovna was married off at the age of 17 to Duke of Courland Friedrich Wilhelm. Family life simply did not have time to develop - the husband died less than three months after marriage.

Therefore, when, after 20 years of such a life, Anna Ioannovna learned that she was being offered nothing less than the crown of the Russian Empress, it was a real miracle for her.

Take a walk, crazy empress...

But by no miracle could the Dowager Duchess of Courland turn into a wise and far-sighted politician capable of moving the state forward.

State policy during this period was determined by those court parties that managed to get ahead of their competitors in the struggle for influence on the empress.

Among the most influential figures of that era was Anna Ioannovna’s favorite, Courland nobleman Ernst Johann Biron, thanks to which the era itself received the name “Bironovism.”

Was the Empress's favorite Kalmyk cracker Avdotya Ivanovna. Anna Ioannovna liked her, it is believed, because of the extremely unpresentable appearance of the firecracker, against the background of which the empress herself, who did not shine with beauty, looked advantageous.

Anna Ioannovna was inspired by the idea of marrying off her favorite and having a grand party for the occasion.

Nicknamed "Kvasnik"

The empress quickly found a groom - another court jester was assigned to this role, Mikhail Alekseevich Kvasnik.

Unlike the Kalmyk woman Buzheninova, Kvasnik was a well-born nobleman who fell into terrible disgrace.

Mikhail Alekseevich belonged to the senior branch of the family princes Golitsyn being a grandson Vasily Golitsyn, favorite Princess Sophia. After Sophia's defeat in the struggle for power, two-year-old Mikhail Golitsyn, along with his grandfather and father, found himself in exile, from which he was able to return only after the death of Golitsyn Sr. in 1714.

In 1729, after the death of his first wife, Mikhail Golitsyn went abroad, leaving two children in Russia. There he marries a second time and converts to Catholicism.

Golitsyn took the change of faith very lightly, and in 1732 he returned to Russia without fear with his new family. Friends, having learned about Mikhail Golitsyn’s conversion to Catholicism, were horrified - the new Empress Anna Ioannovna considered such apostasy to be a grave crime. Mikhail Golitsyn was advised by his acquaintances to “keep a low profile,” which he did, secretly settling in the Moscow German Settlement.

But the world is not without “good people” - Mikhail Golitsyn was reported, and soon he appeared before the court of the angry Anna Ioannovna.

Prince Golitsyn had little choice - execution or dishonor. Mikhail Alekseevich chose dishonor. His Catholic wife was sent into exile, and he himself, having been baptized again into Orthodoxy, was assigned to the role of court jester.

The home where hearts connect

The Empress took up the matter in a big way, creating a special “Masquerade Commission”, which was to prepare the celebrations. It was ordered that no money be spared for the wedding.

The location for the house was chosen on the Neva between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace, approximately on the site of the modern Palace Bridge.

The ice was cut into large slabs, laid one on top of the other and watered with water, which immediately froze, tightly soldering the individual blocks.

Super project of the 18th century

The Ice House project, apart from what it was built for, was truly unique. To bring Anna Ioannovna’s idea to life, scientists and engineers of that time had to find completely unique solutions.

The design and construction of the Ice House were directly supervised architect Pyotr Mikhailovich Eropkin, creator of the first general plan of St. Petersburg, and Academician Georg Wolfgang Kraft, a physicist and mathematician who provided all the scientific part of the project.

Wedding night on an icy bed

The celebrations themselves took place in February 1740. The date most often given is February 6, although sometimes they talk about February 12 or other days.

After the wedding there was a feast and dancing in the church. Anna Ioannovna was in excellent spirits, pleased with the implementation of her own idea.

In the morning, the half-dead jesters were finally released from the house, which could well have become a crypt for them.

"Enough tolerating this!"

Of course, this muted murmur worried Anna Ioannovna little, but it turned out that the “buffoon wedding” became the last noticeable event of her reign.

The ice house, thanks to the frosts, stood until the end of March 1740, and then began to gradually melt and disappeared naturally in April.

In October 1740, Anna Ioannovna died, appointing her successor Ioann Antonovich, the son of his niece Anna Leopoldovna.

Anna Leopoldovna, who became regent for her young son, was overthrown along with him as a result of another palace coup, but during her time in power she managed to do a great job - she abolished the staff of court jesters.

V. Jacobi. Jesters at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna.

There are amazing legends about love in Russian history.
This old legend is connected with the name of Prince Mikhail Alekseevich Golitsyn, who lived during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the niece of Peter the Great.

Here is the opinion of her contemporary, Princess Ksenia Dolgorukova, about the queen:

“.. She looked terrible. She had a disgusting face. She was so big when she walked among the gentlemen - everyone was head taller and extremely fat! " But Anna Ioannovna was not only scary in appearance.
Her activities were marked by exile, executions, denunciations, and dubious kinds of entertainment, in which the first place was occupied by the favorite Biron and numerous hangers-on and jesters.

Valery Ivanovich Jacobi (1834-1902) “Ice House” 1848

At the end of her reign, in the bitter winter of 1740, Anna Ioannovna, not knowing how else to entertain herself, announced an unprecedented performance - an “ice wedding.” Prince Kvasnik-Golitsyn was appointed groom; The ugly Kalmyk woman Avdotya Buzheninova, so nicknamed for her love for boiled pork, was chosen as his wife.

Mikhail Alekseevich Golitsyn was born in Moscow, in the family of Prince Alexei Vasilyevich Golitsyn and Maria Isaevna, née Kvashnina. He was the grandson of Vasily Golitsyn, the famous favorite of Princess Sophia. In 1689, together with his grandfather and father, he was sent into exile, first to the city of Kargopol, and later to the village of Kologory (about 200 versts from Arkhangelsk). He received a good education at home under the guidance of his grandfather.

After the death of the latter, the family was returned from exile. Subsequently, Peter I sent Mikhail abroad to study and listened to lectures at the Sorbonne. Afterwards he was in military service and retired with the rank of major. In 1729, immediately after the death of his first wife, Marfa Khvostova, the fifty-year-old prince, leaving two children in Russia, went to travel abroad to dispel his grief.
In Florence, he fell in love with an Italian woman of low birth, and fell in love so much that he changed his faith in order to marry her. It was love for which Golitsyn converted to the Catholic faith.
Mikhail Alekseevich did not attach any importance to the change of faith, which he soon bitterly regretted.
In 1732, the couple and their little daughter returned to Russia. Here they learned that the empress was very strict on religious issues. Therefore, Golitsyn, carefully hiding both his foreign wife and his change of religion from everyone, secretly settled in Moscow, in the German Settlement. But they still reported him to the empress. The Empress, having learned about the prince’s apostasy, angrily recalled Golitsyn to the capital. His marriage was declared illegal. Golitsyn’s wife was sent into exile (there is a version - they were expelled from the country), and he himself was ordered to take a place among the court “fools”-clowns.
In 1732-1740. - a court jester who, since 1737, bore the nickname “Kvasnik” (His duties included serving Russian kvass to the Empress and her guests).
But even this punishment seemed not enough to her. She decided to marry him to one of her hangers-on, the ugly Kalmyk Avdotya Ivanovna, who bore the name Buzheninova, arranging the wedding “in the most curious way.” By “highest command” a house made of ice was built on the Neva, in which the “jester” and the firecracker were to be married.

The ice house and the clownish wedding in it during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. Engraving. No later than 1740.

The Ice House, one of the most original amusements of Empress Anna Ioannovna, was invented by chamberlain A.D. Tatishchev.

A special masquerade commission, chaired by Cabinet Minister A.P. Volynsky, chose a place on the Neva between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace for the construction of the “Ice House” [back in 1733, an ice fortress was built on the Neva; buildings made of ice, in the sense of oddities, were also found in Western Europe]. Under her supervision, a house was built exclusively from slabs of pure ice, laid one on top of the other and watered with water for connection; it was eight fathoms in length, two and a half in width and three in height. In front of the house there were six ice cannons and two mortars, at the main gate there were two dolphins, from whose mouths burning oil was gushing.
The roof of the house was decorated with statues. The interior of the house was also made of ice.
On the sides of the house were erected high pyramids with approximately clocks and lanterns on the windows; Nearby there was an ice elephant, from whose trunk a burning oil fountain was gushing, and an ice bath, which was heated with straw.
The appearance of the house and a detailed description of it are given by S. N. Shubinsky, in the book: “Historical Sketches and Stories” (St. Petersburg, 1893, pp. 121-126).

ICE HOUSE
1. The facade of the Ice House and the view of the jester's wedding procession. 2. Section of the left room (front side). 3. Section of the left room (back side). 4. Section of the right room (front side). 5. Section of the right room (back side). 6. Plan of the Ice House: a, a, a - ice lattice; b - porch; P - canopy; R - right room; Q - left room; f - main gate; g, h - rear gate; m, n, k, l - windows; c — rear door; r, s - pyramids. 7. Dolphin spewing oil.

By personal order of the highest, two people of both sexes of all tribes and peoples inhabiting it were called to St. Petersburg from different parts of Russia for a funny wedding: there were up to 300 people who received local national clothes and musical instruments from the “masquerade commission”.

On February 6, 1740, a wedding was celebrated in the Ice House. The bride and groom were put in a cage mounted on an elephant. A spectacle unprecedented for St. Petersburg. The “young couple” was sent to the Ice Palace to spend their wedding night there.
The wedding retinue, which, according to an eyewitness, consisted of Votyaks, Mordovians, Cheremis, Samoyeds and other small peoples, rode on deer, dogs and pigs to the “Ice House” - a creation that was skillful and hellish at the same time.

V. A. Nashchokin (1707—ca. 1761) left a description of this wedding in his “Notes”:

Yes, also in 1740 there was a curious wedding. Prince Golitsyn got married, who then had a new surname Kvasnik, for which weddings were gathered from the entire state of commoners and heterolinguals, the most vile people, that is, Votyaks, Mordovians, Cheremis, Tatars, Kalmyks, Samoyeds and their wives, and other peoples from Ukraine, and following in the footsteps of the Bakhusovs and Venerins, in similar decoration, and with a shout for the amusement of that wedding. And we drove past the palace. The bride and groom sat in a specially made cage placed on an elephant, and the rest of the wedding train of the above-mentioned peoples, with music belonging to each family and various toys, followed on deer, dogs, and pigs.

Valery Ivanovich Jacobi (1834-1902) “Ice House” fragment

There were ice curtains in the bedchamber; the mattress, blankets and pillows were also made of ice. There was an ice clock in the living room and even the food in the dining room was carved from ice and painted with natural dyes. Ice firewood and candles smeared with oil were burning...
On the right side of the house stood a life-size ice elephant, on which an ice Persian sat astride; Two icy Persian women stood nearby on the ground. An eyewitness says:

“This elephant was empty inside and so cunningly made that during the day it let out water almost four meters high. And at night, to great surprise, he threw out the burning oil. Moreover, he could scream like a living elephant, with which the voice of a man hidden within him was produced through a trumpet.”

When everyone was seated at the festive tables, “Her Majesty’s pocket poet” Vasily Trediakovsky, another unwitting victim of this inhuman fun, announced the wedding verses ordered for him....
At night, a guard stood at the door of the “ice house” so that the young people would not escape from the chambers allotted to them.

Golitsyn and Buzheninova miraculously survived the freezing night on an icy bed and emerged the next morning alive from this icy hell (literary legend says that Avdotya Ivanovna, having bribed the guards, got hold of a sheepskin coat and thereby saved herself and her husband from death).
However, Avdotya Ivanovna was ill for a long time after this and died two years later after the birth of her second son Alexei.
Prince Golitsyn was so cruelly punished and humiliated for his love. Such were the customs...
But thanks to his love, humanity saw the Ice Palace, which could rightfully be called one of the wonders of the world.

The death of Empress Anna Ioannovna freed Golitsyn from his clownish duties. The new Empress Anna Leopoldovna banned “inhuman abuse” of “fools,” forever destroying the shameful title of court jester in Russia.

Mikhail Alekseevich left the capital and moved first to his family’s Arkhangelskoye, and after the death of Buzheninova, to the estate he bought in Kostentinkovo. Here he married Agrofen Alekseevna Khvostova, with whom he had three daughters.

Golitsyn lived in Kostentinkovo for another 35 years. He died in 1778, 90 years old.
In the struggle for human dignity and personal happiness, victory remained on his side.

Golitsyn M.A. after death, he was buried in the village of Bratovshchina, located near Moscow, along the old Trinity Road leading from Moscow to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Yaroslavl and further north to Arkhangelsk. Historian-ethnographer I.M. Snegirev reported that on the church porch of Bratovshchina he saw the prince’s tombstone, rooted in the ground and marked with a half-erased inscription.