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Birth of the last Tobolsk Governor of Tsarist Russia Nikolai Alexandrovich Ordovsky-Tanaevsky
N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky was born on July 3 (15), 1863 in St. Petersburg in the family of an official of the Department of Miscellaneous Taxes and Duties of the Ministry of Finance Alexander Dmitrievich and his wife Yulia Stepanovna. In addition to Nikolai, there were four more children in the family. From his father and aunt, he received love for the temple, for worship, the need to follow the instructions of the church.
The history of the double surname of the family dates back to 1696. After the capture of the fortress of Azov, the Little Russian Cossack centurion Demyan Tanaevsky was highly praised by Tsar Peter I. The sovereign granted him a double surname by issuing a decree: “For the victory over the Tatar horde, we order to be called Ordovsky-Tanaevsky".
In 1881, the hereditary nobleman N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky graduated from the gymnasium and entered the Pavlovsk Infantry School, where the royal children studied. He was released with the rank of second lieutenant in the Old Russian Infantry Regiment. After retiring, he began his career as an employee of the Ministry of Finance in the Revel Treasury Chamber. He held the positions of manager of the Tobolsk (1900–1904), Astrakhan (1904–1906) and Perm (1906–1915) state chambers, then governor of Tobolsk province (1915–1917).
During his service as the manager of the state chamber in Tobolsk, he managed to improve the financial situation of the province, together with the governor, he passed a law through the government that limited the possibilities for abuse by buyers of "soft gold". In 1901, on the initiative of N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky, the first congress of peasant chiefs in Siberia was convened in Tobolsk. The result of the work of the congress was the adoption of a law on accounting, which a year later was applied throughout Siberia.
Annually, on official business, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky traveled about 25 thousand miles on horseback. By the end of 1902, thanks to the close-knit activities of all employees, it was possible to establish complete order in the affairs of the Tobolsk State Chamber. The first auditor from the Department of the State Treasury arrived in 1902 and, following the results of the audit, sent a telegram to the Minister of Finance Sergei Witte: “I am amazed at the excellent fulfillment of obligations”.
In 1915, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky was appointed by Emperor Nicholas II to the post of Tobolsk governor. He went to the place of service with his son by train to Tyumen, then on horseback to Tobolsk, with a stop to change horses in Pokrovsky, at Rasputin's house. Near Tobolsk, across the Irtysh, they crossed on a large punt boat between moving ice floes. Directly from the crossing he drove to the Sophia-Assumption Cathedral of the Tobolsk Kremlin. At the request of N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky, Vladyka Anthony (Korzhavin) served a thanksgiving prayer service and a memorial service. These prayers, according to Nikolai Alexandrovich, were of decisive importance for his subsequent life. He donated 1000 rubles for the improvement of the temple.
In Tyumen, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky convened a special meeting and officially entered into the rights of the governor. The main thing in the new post was the uninterrupted supply of food to the army and the fight against speculators. For excellent, diligent service and special work, Emperor Nicholas II granted N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky the rank of real state councilor.
In Tobolsk, in lengthy conversations with Archbishop Tikhon, it became clear that N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky had been dreaming of monasticism since 1888 and that, being in a general's position, he graduated from the Missionary Courses in Perm. N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky received a blessing from the future Patriarch of All-Russia Tikhon.
Soon after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and Grand Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich from the throne, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky received a telegram from the Provisional Government demanding to transfer the province administration to the socialist V. N. Pignatti, a researcher at the Tobolsk Provincial Museum; resigned and by the summer of 1917 moved to Petrograd. He said that “I will not go to any of the members of the Provisional Government, for I served the emperor, I fulfilled his will. But I will not serve any government”. He did not accept either the February or October revolution, remaining until the end of his life in monarchical positions.
In 1918, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky was arrested on the so-called "officer's list" as a former lieutenant and ended up in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, miraculously escaping execution. In especially difficult days, he prayed earnestly. At the end of 1918, he managed to emigrate to Serbia, then to Germany, where in 1923 he was ordained a priest with a parish in Serbia. In monastic vows in 1928, he was named Nikon. In 1932 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, in 1939 - archimandrite. After the end of World War II, he was a priest in camps for displaced persons in southern Bavaria.
While in Germany in 1948, N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky began to write voluminous memoirs about his life in pre-revolutionary Russia (published in 1993 under the title “Memoirs (My Biography)”). The book was donated by descendants in 2010 to the Tyumen Regional Scientific Library. For a modern reader, especially a resident of Tyumen Region, memoirs are valuable because they contain information about the culture, economy of the region, describe the relationship of people of different classes, the characters of specific historical figures of the early twentieth century.
The life of N. A. Ordovsky-Tanaevsky in exile was full of wanderings, hardships and loneliness. Despite the difficulties, Schema-Archimandrite Nikodym served the people and the church for many years, was a pastor of at least 15 parishes. He died on September 19/20, 1950 at the age of 88 in the hospital of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria.
Lit.: Антуфьева Н. Тобольский губернатор – схиархимандрит Никодим / Н. Антуфьева Т. Шиянова // Тюменская область сегодня. 2012. 20 июня. С. 4; Большая Тюменская энциклопедия: в 4 томах. Тюмень, 2004. Т. 2: И–П. С. 399; Волков Т. Последний губернатор / Т. Волков // Вслух о главном. 2020. 26 июня. С. 13; Вычугжанин А. Наступление «последних дней» / А. Вычугжанин // Тюменская область сегодня. 2017. 11 марта. С. 7; Дубовская Е. Жили-были губернаторы... / Е. Дубовская // Тюменская правда. 2011. 15 сентября. С. 4; Кузнецов В. А. Феномен приходского монашества в русской эмиграции на примере бывшего тобольского губернатора / В. А. Кузнецов // Судьбы Романовых в судьбе Сибири: материалы научного форума / Тобольская биологическая станция РАН, ТюмГУ. Тюмень, 2010. С. 179–181; Сибирские и тобольские губернаторы: исторические портреты, документы. Тюмень, 2000. С. 452–461; Тобольский биографический словарь / сост.: В. Ю. Софронов, Ю. П. Прибыльский. Екатеринбург, 2004. С. 347–350; Шулинин Ю. А. От Ермака до Оленберга: хроника стольного града / Ю. Шулинин. Тюмень, 2010. С. 125, 355, 400.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Tyumen Region: pages of history: [digital collection];
The article has been prepared by the Tyumen branch of the Presidential Library