Artamon Sergeevich Matveev is a well-known national statesman. He served as head of the Ambassadorial order, was the head of the Russian government at sunset, the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It is considered one of the first “Westerners”, who long before Peter I called for paying more attention to foreign experience and actively adopting it. In addition, Matveev was a fan of art, standing at the origins of the court theater.
Career
Artamon Sergeevich Matveev was born in 1625. His father was a clerk who performed diplomatic missions. In particular, in 1634 he was in Turkey, and in 1643 - in Persia.
At the age of twelve, the hero of our article was determined to live in the royal palace, was brought up with the future king Alexei. In his youth, Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev was sent to serve in Little Russia, took part in the wars with the Commonwealth, in 1656 besieged Riga.
In the rank of colonel and streletsky head of the third order in the regiment of Prince Alexei Nikitich Trubetskoy besieged Konotop. This was one of the key battles of the Russo-Polish war of 1654–1667. Trubetskoy was opposed by the hetman Vygovsky. Having been ambushed, the noble cavalry was defeated, after which Trubetskoy was forced to retreat. Vygovsky’s local success did not fundamentally affect the situation. After their defeat, he participated in negotiations with the hetmans Gonsevsky and Vygovsky.
In 1654, Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev took part in the Pereyaslavl parliament. It was a meeting of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, at which the decision was finally made to join the Zaporizhzhya army in the Russian kingdom. After that, the Cossacks swore allegiance to the king.
Approximate King
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who had known Artamon Matveev since childhood, contributed to the advancement of his career. In 1666–1667, the hero of our article was invited to the Great Moscow Cathedral, convened by the sovereign. On it, Alexei Mikhailovich actually arranged a trial of Patriarch Nikon, accusing him of schism.
Within the framework of this cathedral, Artamon Matveev accompanied in Moscow the eastern patriarchs, who specially came to Russia.
In 1669, together with Prince Grigory Grigorievich Romodanovsky, he participated in the organization of the Glukhov Rada. When he returned to Moscow, he was appointed head of the Little Russian Order instead of Athanasius Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin. In this post he oversaw the management of the territories that are part of the Left-Bank Ukraine.
An important event in the biography of Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev took place in 1671, when he was appointed head of the Ambassadorial order. In this position he was in charge of relations with foreign states, the exchange and redemption of prisoners, as well as the management of a number of territories in the south-east of the country. In the same year he received the rank of Duma nobleman. A year later, okolnichalo, then the near okolnichalo and, finally, the near boyar in 1674.
King's wife
It was in the house of the boyar Artamon Matveeva Alexey Mikhailovich met with a relative of his wife Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina. The girl at that time was brought up in the chambers of Matveev’s wife. Naryshkina became the second wife of Alexei Mikhailovich, the mother of the future Russian emperor Peter I.
All this brought the emperor even closer to the hero of our article. The letters that the king wrote to Matveyev testify to their friendship. For example, he asked Artamon Sergeyevich to come to them, claiming that the children were orphaned without him, and that he himself had no one to consult with.
Westernism
Boyarin Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev especially appreciated relations and communication with foreigners. I always rejoiced when some overseas novelties took root on Russian soil. For example, under the Ambassadorial order, he organized a printing house, thanks to which he managed to assemble an extensive library. In the biography of Artamon Matveev there is another noteworthy episode - he was among the organizers of the first pharmacy in Moscow.
According to the European fashion of that time, his house was furnished and cleaned. With paintings of German work, painted ceilings, watches of the most intricate design. All this was so relevant that even foreigners paid attention.
According to the Western model, relations were also built in the family. The wife often appeared in male society. He gave his son Andrew a European-style education.
It is noteworthy that at the same time he paid attention not only to the western direction in Russian foreign policy. For example, with Armenian merchants, he concluded a contract favorable for the court to trade Persian silk. It was Matveyev who initiated the Moldavian boyar Nikolai Spafariy to go reconnaissance in China.
Conducting international affairs, the hero of our article tried in every possible way to avoid conflicts with the Swedes. He farsightedly looked to the future, seeing in them assistants in neutralizing the influence of the Commonwealth in the Dnieper.
Passion for art
Telling even a brief biography of Artamon Sergeyevich Matveev, it is necessary to pay enough attention to his love of art. It was he who invited the translator of the Ambassadorial order and the teacher from the German settlement Yuri Mikhailovich Givner to assemble a troupe of actors to amuse the tsar with theatrical performances.
With his participation, Lutheran pastor Johann Gregory from the Holy Roman Empire in 1672 staged the first play of the Russian theater. It was called "Artaxerxes Action." Interestingly, until the middle of the 20th century, this work was officially considered lost. But in 1954, information was immediately discovered about two of his lists, preserved in different libraries.
The play was played in German, its plot was an arrangement of the biblical Book of Esther. The duration of the play was ten hours, and the artists played without intermission. It was first placed in the Preobrazhensky Palace.
Being an educated person, Matveev himself wrote literary works. They were mainly of historical content. It is believed that not one of them has survived to this day. It is known that among them was the "History of the election and wedding of the kingdom of Mikhail Fedorovich" and "The history of Russian sovereigns in military victories and faces."
In addition, he was related to the creation of the Tsar's Titular. This is a guide dedicated to monarchs and other top officials of Russia and foreign countries.
Opal
Soon after Alexei Mikhailovich died in 1676, Matveev was in disgrace. There is a version that he tried to put the minor Peter on the throne, speaking against the supporters of his brother Fedor.
There is another assumption. If you believe him, the decisive role in the fall of Matveyev was played by the Miloslavskys, who began to have too much influence at court. They decided to destroy Boyar from revenge, recalling old insults to him.
In a brief biography of Artamon Matveev, you can find information that he was formally accused of insulting a foreign ambassador, for which he was sent to Pustozersk with his whole family. This is a small village in the territory of the modern Nenets Autonomous Okrug. A few years later he was transferred to Mezen, located within the Arkhangelsk region.
At the same time, at the court, Matveyev had many supporters who supported him in every possible way. One of them was the second wife of Fedor Alekseevich Marfa Matveevna Apraksina, the godson of the hero of our article. Thanks to her intercession, the disgraced boyar was transferred to the village of Lukh in the Ivanovo region.
The death of the boyar
After being elected to the throne of Peter in 1682, power was in the hands of the Naryshkins. They had a good relationship with Matveyev, so they started by returning him from exile, providing the former honors that corresponded to his status.
On May 11, 1682, Matveev arrived in Moscow, and four days later Streletsky riot broke out in the capital. Artamon Sergeyevich became one of the first victims of this uprising. He attempted to convince the archers to not oppose the ruler, but was killed in front of the royal family.
This happened on the Red Porch. Boyar was thrown down to the square and chopped down. Matveev was 57 years old.
He was buried in the Armenian Lane at the Church of St. Nicholas in the Pillars. At the beginning of the XIX century, a monument on the grave was erected by his direct descendant Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, who at that time held the post of state chancellor. The church, where Matveev’s grave was located, was demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1938.
Personal life
Artamon Matveev’s wife, Evdokia Hamilton, came from an old Scottish noble family. She died in 1672 a few years before her husband fell into disgrace.
The granddaughter of the hero of our article, Maria Andreevna Matveeva, married the military commander and diplomat Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev, became the mother of the famous commander, the hero of the Seven Years and Russo-Turkish War of Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky. Moreover, persistent rumors circulated that she had given birth to him not from her legal husband, but from Peter the Great.
Diplomat son
A successful career was built by his son Andrei, who was awarded the title of count in the Holy Roman Empire. There he was for a long time in the status of permanent envoy of Russia.
Andrei Artamonovich was an associate of Peter I, who remembered how his father opposed the archers. In addition, Andrei was the only son of Matveyev. However, he was never particularly close to the king, did not take part in his military amusements. But he had first-class teachers who taught the young man foreign languages and even Latin.
Having become an ambassador, I constantly heard rave reviews about my education. It is considered one of the first domestic memoirists. He wrote the curious notes about the court of the French king Louis XIV. Like his father, he was a representative of Westerners, had one of the best private libraries in the country.
Portraits and Images
Apparently, the image of Matveyev and his wife Evdokia can be seen on the icon with Christ Emmanuel by an unknown court painter. Presumably, it was written in 1675–1676. At present, it is located in the Kolomenskoye Museum-Estate.
The icon depicts the bowed figures of a woman and a man. A man with a beard and a magnificent robe, and a woman in a long blanket. The assumption that the boyar couple is depicted here, and not the saints, allows a deviation from the accepted and approved iconographic scheme, which at that time was extremely rare and only in exceptional cases. In addition, the names of Evdokia and Artamon are inscribed over the heads of the couple.
The first assumption that Matveev is depicted on the icon was put forward by the Soviet restorer and architect Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky.
The figure of the boyar can be seen on the monument "1000th anniversary of Russia", which was installed in Veliky Novgorod in 1862.
Screen Avatars
More than once, the character of Matveev was interested in directors of historical films. In 1980, in the biographical drama of Sergei Gerasimov "The Youth of Peter", he is played by the honored artist of the RSFSR Dmitry Dmitrievich Orlovsky.
The picture just tells about the early years of the future Russian emperor, including the Streletsky riot, the victim of which was the hero of our article.
In 2011, Ilya Kozin plays in the historical series by Nikolai Dostal "The Split" by Matveev.