I am Bruce Biography

Yakov Vilimovich Bruce. Princess Sophia surrounded by seven medallions with allegories of virtues.

Engraving of the year. Young Peter I. engraving Shhonebek. Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. Engraving of Peter's time. Portrait of Count Andrei Ivanovich Osterman. Catherine I. engraving I. Sukharev Tower in Moscow. Engraving at the beginning of the XIX century. Their grandfather Jacob, a descendant of the Scottish kings, in the middle of the 17th century left his homeland, covered by the fire of the Great English Revolution, and went to look for happiness in distant Muscovy.

He devotedly served the king and Russian land, headed the Pskov regiment and died in the year in the rank of Major General. His son Wilim rose to the colonel and died near Azov. Yakov Vilimovich Bruce was more than two years older than Tsar Peter. And at the time when Peter with a youthful excitement indulged in the “Mars of the Mars” under Moscow, Yakov already completely learned the hardships and deadly dangers of a real military affair.

He participated in two Crimean campaigns organized by the favorite of Sophia V. Moscow, to which Bruce returned, lurked in a pre -heating expectation: the struggle for the royal crown between Sofia and the grown up Peter reached the climax. Suddenly, Peter left Preobrazhensky in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, gathering all supporters around him. The Executive Bruce, along with the amusements, arrived in Lavra, and from that moment his fate turned out to be closely related to the fate of the Russian tsar.

Together with Peter, Bruce fought under the Azov. When Peter went abroad as part of the Great Embassy, ​​Yakov arrived in Amsterdam in the year. Bruce brought the land from Moscow to Asia Minor, which he intended to print abroad. But he himself was unhealthy: before leaving Moscow in the house of Prince Caesar F. Romodanovsky, he received a strong burn of his hand.

Peter during long absences from Moscow handed over to Prince Caesar the Brothers of the Board, treated him with emphasized respect, and humbly signed in letters: "The always slave of your Majesty Bombardir Peter." But Peter’s resentment against Romodanovsky, who did not protect his friend, was so great that in anger, forgetting the ceremonial and learning etiquette of previous messages, he wrote: "Beast!

How long did you get people? And the wounded people came from you." And as for the addictions of Romodanovsky to strong drinks, in the allegorical language called Ivashka Khmelnitsky, there was an unambiguous threat: "Stop the expert with Ivashko, to be a murmur from him." The Prince-Caesar, the formidable head of the secret order, answered with a calm dignity: “In your letter it is written to me that I know with Ivashki Khmelnitsky; and that, the gentleman, is not true for me with the Ivaski of the expert, we are always washed in the blood; He burned, and then he became drunken, not from me.

" Peter reduced the tone and preferred to conclude the world with a joke: "It is written that Jacob Bruce did his own drunkenness; and the truth is, only in whose yard and at whom? And what is in blood, and from the tea, and you can’t drink more for fear. But we are truly, because it is constantly in learning." Bruce also diligently set about learning. Together with Peter, - entering the Great Embassy - he visited England.

In London, the Russian king and Bruce met and talked with the Great Isaac Newton. Abroad, Bruce studied mathematics and organization of artillery. The war with Sweden was inevitable, and Russia needed an updated powerful artillery. This is a responsible assignment and was assigned to Bruce. In the year, trying to warn the invasion of the Swedes into the Izhora land, Peter sent them to meet the army under the command of Bruce, which already bore the rank of major general of artillery.

But the mismatch of the actions of various departments led to the fact that Yakov Vilimovich could not quickly gather the regiments standing in different places. They ripened to Novgorod in 15 days, for which he perceived the anger Jacob Bruce and the team was refused him. "However, the royal opal was not long. Further events and especially the defeat under the Narva showed that not only Bruce, but the entire Russian army was not ready to confront the Swedish army.

In the year, Bruce was sent to the Novgorod, instead of the Novgorod governor of the prince I. Trubetskoy, taken to the same time. The captivity under Narva. Under Narva, the Russians lost almost all of the artillery. The king gave a tough order part of the church bells to urgently pour on the guns. But the Duma clerk A. Vinius, who overshadowed these works, promised more with patriarchal leisurely than he did, justifying himself in the negligence of the artisans.

The alarmed king almost begged Vinius: "For the sake of God, hurry to the artillery as possible; time, like death." The Russian army began a new offensive. Bruce, not having time to get settled in Novgorod, wandered with his guns on military roads. In the year, Shlisselburg was taken with his participation, then other fortresses occupied by the Swedes.Preparing for the siege of Narva, Peter complained in a letter to Romodanovsky that there were not enough guns and artillery servants: “From which we will be a great stop of our cause, without which I can’t think about it, which I myself told Vinius, who had a“ Moscow Tochais ”.

Navigatskaya, artillery and engineering schools were opened. The letters of Yakov Vilimovich almost do not reveal his personal life, these are business messages about the number of guns and artillery supplies, about the royal assignments, etc. It seemed that he had no personal life at all, all his thoughts and efforts were dedicated to the service of Russia. Nevertheless, this harsh, closed man knew hobbies and excitement, understandable to few: he was a passionate collector.

Bruce collected paintings, collections of ancient coins and rare minerals, herbarium. He mastered several languages ​​and had a richest library at that time. His books are said about the breadth of scientific knowledge and interests of Bruce - in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, botany, history, art, etc. But Yakov Vilimovich was especially proud of the homemade kunstkamera - a collection of various rarities and “curios”.

In the inventory of the cabinet compiled after his death, for example, there are such things: "A small mirror is small in which it seems to be a large face"; "shells of different large and small 99"; "Chinese wicker shoes from grass"; "Stone mushroom"; "Indian pumpkin"; "bone of mammoth head"; "Amber in which there are flies"; A box with a "small natural snake" and the like.

Officials could not even define some subjects and simply wrote: “a certain fruit is oblong”, “two balls of a certain fruit” is not without reason the French messenger of Campaurant, advising his government in the year, how to win the location of Bruce, emphasized that Yakov Vilimovich was not from those who could be bribed with money, and suggested using his collector’s excitement: “His Royal Majesty would deliver him to him Great pleasure if he had given him a collection of royal palaces engraved by order of the late king.

" Atlasov, an entrepreneurial Ustyuzh peasant, sent in the year to examine the Kamchatka lands, returning to Moscow, brought with him a small yellowish person. Atlasov took him from Kamchadals, who told a curious story. About two years ago, a large boat with strangers nailed to their shore. Unusual for the harsh life and meager food of Kamchadalov, strangers quickly died.

Only one was left. In the report compiled in the year, Atlasov noted: "But the temper that Podonenik is much polite and intelligent." When the prisoner saw Russian explorers, in which belonging to the civilized world was felt, he “cried” with joy. A stranger successfully mastered the Russian language. In Moscow, it was finally able to find out that this is a Japanese.

He was the first Japanese whom Russia saw. And even official ranks did not quite imagine where its mysterious country is and what kind of people live there. Atlasov in the report called him "Indian." In the papers of the order of artillery, he was also called the more tricky: "The Aponian state of the Tatar by the name of the Denbey." And the energetic Peter was already making far -reaching plans.

Having transferred Denbey to the custody of the artillery order, the king commanded: "And how he, Denbey, will be studied by the Russian language and literacy, and he, Denbey, to teach his Japanese language and literacy a man of 4 or 5." As for the religion, Peter ordered Denbey not to oppress: "And about baptism in the Orthodox Christian faith to give him, the foreigner, to the will and his, a foreigner, to console and say to him: how he would see the Russian language and literacy and he will teach Russian and literacy - and he will be let go into Japanese land." But most likely Denbey was not able to return to his native shores.

It is known that over time he was baptized under the name of Gabriel, and the school of translators from Japanese operated in Moscow up to a year. Bruce, who, as the head of the artillery order, took care of and "comforted" Denbey, began to dream of Japan. The Braunschweig resident in Russia F. Weber in his "Notes" says that Bruce dreamed of finding a way from Russia to Japan and sent an expedition that set sail from the Far Eastern coast to search for this unknown land, but died in a storm.

Weber also reported: "Bruce had a cabinet of Chinese rarities, and he was very regretted that it was impossible to acquire accurate information about the situation and features of the Chinese state, because the embassies decorated there and all Russian merchants have no right to stay there more than 3 or most 4 months." Peter, who appreciated the versatile scientific knowledge of Bruce, transferred the Moscow civil printing house to his jurisdiction.

From here came the first calendar, which received the name "Bryusov calendar". In fact, V. Kiprianov was the compiler of the calendar, and Bruce only supervised his work. Cyprianov is also an outstanding person.