The very one, according to Alexander Pushkin, "Sheremetev noble" received many awards for his military exploits and merits in the diplomatic field. Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, whose biography is described below, became one of the first field marshals in Russia and a large landowner, the first in the history of the Russian state to be granted the rank of count. An ardent associate of Peter I, who had a close origin with him, was engaged in state affairs for more than half a century, was married twice, had eight children and acquired a huge amount of possessions by the end of his life. It is worth to get acquainted with a brief biography of Boris Sheremetev.
Ancient boyar clan
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, first granted the title of Russian count, came from the most prominent noble family of the Russian state. The beginning of the enormous “Sheremetev state” was laid by the marriage of his heir to the daughter of Prince A. M. Cherkassky, an outstanding statesman under Peter I. The first owner, Count N. P. Sheremetev, remained known to Russian history as a philanthropist who founded the estates Kuskovo and Ostankino near Moscow .
By their origin, the Sheremetevs (like the Romanovs) date back to Andrei Kobyl, the Moscow boyar of the times of Ivan Kalita. Among the ancestors of Boris Petrovich Sheremetv, a brief biography of which will be considered later, there are many boyars, governors, governor. Some of them achieved a high position due to personal merit, others - by kinship with the royal dynasty. For example, Elena Ivanovna, the great-granddaughter of the founder of the clan Andrei Konstantinovich Sheremet, was married to the son of Ivan the Terrible, whom the tsar killed in a fit of anger in 1581.
The influence of the Sheremetevs on state affairs increased significantly in the seventeenth century. Fyodor Ivanovich, who died two years before the birth of Boris Petrovich, promoted the accession to the throne of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov and was an ardent supporter of strengthening the influence of the Zemsky Cathedral in matters of public administration. His cousin, Peter Nikitich, stood in Pskov at the head of the defense against False Dmitry II. The count branch of the Sheremetevs originates precisely from Boris Petrovich, who was granted this title for pacifying the uprising in Astrakhan.
Among the Sheremetevs were not only military leaders and diplomats, but creative personalities. For example, Boris Sergeyevich Sheremetev, born in 1822, was engaged in music. The composer wrote a romance to the words of the poem "I loved you" by A. Pushkin, "Still languishing with longing" for the words of F. Tyutchev and so on.
The family of the first count in Russia
By the standards of the mid-seventeenth century, the closest relatives of Boris Petrovich were educated people who, communicating with foreigners, took all the best from them. The father of one of the first general field marshals in Russia, Pyotr Vasilyevich Sheremetev, spent most of his life in court service, accompanied Tsar Alexei in his pilgrimage campaigns, attended the receptions of foreign embassies and high-ranking guests. He participated in wars with Sweden and the Commonwealth, a campaign in Riga. Pr Fedore Alekseevich became a nobleman, but the relatives of the new tsar decided to remove the influential statesman from Moscow and made an appointment to Tobolsk, and then to Kiev.
The mother of Boris Petrovich, Anna Fedorovna Volynskaya, led her pedigree from Prince Bobrok-Volynsky, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo. She became the first wife of Peter Vasilievich. Five sons and one daughter were born in the marriage. Boris was the eldest child in the family - he was born on April twenty-fifth (May fifth) in 1652. Three years later, Fedor was born, then Ivan, Vasily (1659), Vladimir (1668) and Maria. All the children of Anna and Peter Sheremetev (except Ivan, who died in 1682) occupied a prominent position among those close to the court. After the death of Anna Fedorovna, Peter Vasilievich remarried to Maria Ivanovna Shishkina (Samarina).
Children's years of Boris Sheremetev
The offspring of an ancient family from an early age was familiar with the elements of culture and lifestyle of Europeans. The father of the future count, Petr Vasilyevich, shaved his beard and wore a Polish dress, which made him very different from his contemporaries. But no one spoke a word to Sheremetev because of his outstanding administrative and military talents.
The boyar arranged his eldest son in the Kiev college (later the academy). The young man knew Latin and could freely speak Polish. He was very fond of Kiev, through which initially the Europeanization of the state and the introduction of the younger generation to the culture of Western Europe took place.
Service at the court of Alexei Mikhailovich
The life path of the owner of the estate on Fontanka was typical for that time. Young people usually began service at the age of fifteen and completed it when they received a retirement due to old age. For more than half a century, Boris Petrovich did not belong to himself; he served the tsar and the Fatherland. This, incidentally, explains the late marriages of many representatives of the nobility, and the dependence of the landowner, who is not able to independently engage in economic affairs, on managers.
At thirteen, he entered the service under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Boris Sheremetev served as a roommaker. Some documentary evidence of exactly what he did was preserved. Young Boris Petrovich accompanied the tsar on trips to the monasteries, served in rooms, during ceremonies he stood in ceremonial robes near the throne, and on the hunt he played the role of the squire Alexei Mikhailovich. The career of a young nobleman developed slowly.
He received the boyar rank only to his thirty years. This made it possible to govern the state, that is, to sit in the Duma and carry out the orders of the sovereign in both the military and diplomatic fields.
Military career of a young nobleman
In military affairs and diplomacy, Sheremetev stood out during the regency of Sophia Alekseevna. But after a quarrel with favorite Sofia, Prince Golitsyn, he was sent to command the troops protecting the state’s borders in Belgorod. Being far from the capital, Boris Petrovich could not choose between Tsarevna Sophia and her half-brother Peter I. Of course, the future prominent military leader joined the victorious side, being among the supporters of the tsar. In the military field, Boris Petrovich proved himself in the Crimean and Azov campaigns, where he commanded an army operating against the Crimean Tatars, but the real glory brought him action on the battlefields of the Northern War.
Sheremetev’s diplomatic skills
At first Peter I did not trust Sheremetev, but found it possible to entrust him with a number of diplomatic affairs. Prior to this, the nobleman participated in the signing of the Eternal Peace with the Commonwealth and headed the embassy sent to Warsaw. Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, whose biography by that time already included certain merits in diplomatic activity, under Peter I went on a diplomatic mission to Europe.
Diplomatic missions on this trip were unspoken. In the order of Peter between the lines, you can clarify the need to find allies in Europe. During the trip, Sheremetev visited Malta, where he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Knights, Austria, Poland and Italy. This greatly expanded the horizons of the boyar, so that upon his return to Moscow, Boris Sheremetev began to cut the beards and hem of caftans.
Relations with Peter I
The future count was an ardent supporter of Peter I. He supported the young sovereign, realizing that Russia needed reforms. Boris Petrovich Sheremetev on the reforms of Peter 1 spoke out only positively. The Russian sovereign and the nobleman, in general, were united by fairly close relations, although there were periods when Peter did not trust Boris Petrovich and even put an assistant to him, who was supposed to monitor the actions of the military leader in Astrakhan. It is interesting that in his will Sheremetev asked to become the clerk of the tsar himself, appealing to the fact that his ancestors had Mikhail and Alexei Romanov as executors of the last will.
Participation in the northern war
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, in the years of the battles of the Northern War, commanded cavalry, participated in the unsuccessful Narva battle. At this time, revealed his talent as a commander and patriotism. Despite the defeat, the king wrote a letter of encouragement to the commander and made him an general-general. At the beginning of 1701, Boris Sheremetev waged the so-called small war, and at the end of the year he led the army in a campaign against Livonia, participated in the battle of Erestfer.
At the end of December 1701, Sheremetev defeated the Swedes, and then undertook another campaign against Livonia. For the first victory, he received the title of Field Marshal and the Order of St. Andrew. At the end of the summer of 1702, the military leader occupied Marienburg with his army and captured Martha Skavronskaya, who later became a servant of Peter I, and later became empress under the name of Catherine I (first as the wife of the reigning Tsar Peter, and then as the reigning empress).
In 1705, Sheremetev was sent to Astrakhan to suppress the rebellion. For the successful execution of the order, Boris Petrovich was elevated to count, and his son Mikhail received the rank of colonel of the local infantry regiment. In addition, the tsar awarded his loyal commander with earthly possessions in the Yaroslavl province and an annual salary of ten thousand rubles. After the field marshal returned to the army.
In 1710, the military leader took Riga, for which he received a house in the city. In 1711, Boris Sheremetev participated in the Prut campaign and was forced to sign the peace on unfavorable conditions, leaving his son Mikhail Borisovich as a pledge.
A pretty aged, tired and big Sheremetev wanted to get a haircut in the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra in 1712, but instead he married a young beauty - Anna Petrovna Slatykova, the widow of Naryshkin (in girlhood). Since then, Sheremetev settled in Kiev, and went to Petersburg or Moscow only with reports on what was happening in Little Russia.
In 1715, Boris Sheremetev was sent to Pomerania and Mecklenburg to command the expeditionary force. It was necessary to carry out joint actions against the Swedes with the Prussian king.
Marriage to the daughter of the steward Alexei Chirikov
At seventeen, Boris Sheremetev married Evdokia (Avdotya) Alekseevna Chirikova, the daughter of the stolnik Alexei Panteleevich and Fedosya Pavlovna. The only daughter of wealthy parents had a rich dowry. The seventh volume of A. Barsukov’s work “Rod of the Sheremetevs” contains a list: an estate in the village of Kireevskoye with villages in Alatyr district, the village of Paniny Prudy, villages in the Ryazan district and things worth four thousand rubles.
On the occasion of the marriage, Boris Petrovich received a royal gift - four thousand rubles and two hundred yards in a village in Rzhevsky district. From this began his possessions, which at the end of his life turned the boyar into a large landowner. He was constantly busy with the service, so he entrusted the management of villages to the elders, rulers and the house office.
Evdokia Alekseevna Sheremeteva in 1671 gave birth to a daughter, Sophia, in 1672 - the heir to Mikhail, and in 1673 - another daughter, Anna. She died in about 1697. Daughters Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, biography described above, married early. Sophia in marriage became Princess Urusova, Anna married Count Golovin and already in 1718 became a widow. The widow and children of his son Alexei Boris Sheremetev, by will, gave possession of his first wife.
Second marriage with the widow Anna Naryshkina
In 1712, the sixty-year-old field marshal remarried. The choice of the military leader was the 25-year-old widow Anna Petrovna Naryshkina (first marriage), nee Saltykov. Her first marriage was for Uncle Peter I, from her former husband she had a daughter, Anna.
Boris Petrovich had five children from his second marriage. The first son, Pyotr Borisovich, was born in 1714 in Priluki, the second son, Sergey-August, was born in Poland in 1715. The boy was baptized by the Polish king. Therefore, the son of Sheremetev has a double name. So, the Orthodox child was baptized by the head of the Catholic state. This was due to political reasons and symbolized an alliance between countries. In 1716, daughter Vera was born, and four months before her father passed away, in November 1717, the youngest daughter of Boris Petrovich, Catherine, was born.
The legacy of the military leader Sheremetev
Toward the end of his life, Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev owned eighteen estates, in which almost twenty thousand souls of serfs lived. Peter Borisovich became the main heir to a prominent military leader and statesman. At the time of writing the will, the boy was only five years old.
In those days, the law obliged the nobility to allocate only one heir (at the free choice of the testator, that is, it could not be the eldest son). Such an order was introduced in order to force young nobles who did not inherit their father’s estate to enter the service. The remaining children received precious icons and cash security in the amount of approximately three thousand rubles per year, and the youngest daughter, Ekaterina Boris Petrovich, was not mentioned at all in the will.
Soon the order of the same inheritance was canceled, but the descendants of Count Sheremetev remained offended. Many of them were sure that Pyotr Borisovich (pictured below), the heir to his father’s estates, “robbed” them. Four generations of the field marshal's family made material claims.
Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev died after a very crippled illness in Moscow in February 1719. He did not live a couple of months to sixty-seven years. The coffin with the body of the deceased was buried in the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.
All economic affairs after the death of Sheremetev fell on the shoulders of his widow Anna Naryshkina. The countess died in 1728 at a comparative young age - almost 42 years old. The son of Boris Petrovich, Pyotr Borisovich, moved to St. Petersburg in the thirties of the 18th century, arranging the main residence of the count family in the Fountain House.