From great to funny: the Presidential Library reveals unknown facts from the lives of famous people

The Presidential Library’s e-collections, numbering today more than 770,000 units of storage, is called the national treasury of the history of Russia, as the documents and books digitized by library specialists are “prescribed in eternity”. Here is available both royal decrees and the first editions of the printing house of Ivan Fyodorov, as well as official biographies of prominent statesmen and little-known facts from their lives. This “story in gigabytes” also takes place for funny incidents and curiosities that sometimes happened to the powerful of the world.

How an ordinary soldier outwitted the great generalissimo

Famously, the great Russian commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov always enjoyed the respect of his subordinates. The soldiers loved him like a father, despite the fact that the legendary generalissimo was rather strict. His main demand was quick answers to any questions. And the words “I don't know” kindled anger in him. The book of V. A. Lunin “Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, the famous Russian hero” (1900), which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal, states that in such cases the commander “shouted, scolded, stamped his feet, but that was the end of the matter”.

It also describes a rather funny case. Once Alexander Vasilyevich went around to check the sentries. He asked one soldier: “How many stars are there in the sky?” Without hesitation, the soldier answered: “Let me count them” and began to count. It was freezing. Suvorov, who was tired of waiting for an answer, left, saying: "Outwitted me".

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How a guilty person was different from suspects

Once, Emperor Nicholas I visited the prison with a check and decided to ask the prisoners who was guilty with what. This story is detailed in the book by N. Yermilov "Stories from the life of Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich" (1900), a digital copy of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

- On suspicion of robbery, Your Majesty! – they said.

“On suspicion of murder!” - answered others.

- On suspicion of arson, - the third reported.

And only one old man, all overgrown with a beard, with callused hands, said:

- For a reason, Tsar-father! I killed a friend of mine during the fight, I had enough of him in the temple...

- So what, you are sorry now, aren’t you?

The old man then told Nicholas Pavlovich that the late friend had a family left, and that he, the murderer, would never be able to atone for his sin. Even the prisoner himself, as it turned out, had an old wife, a sick son and little grandchildren. Before them, he is also guilty - he went to prison and left without a breadwinner.

The sovereign, after hearing these words of repentance, immediately ordered the jailers:

- Since here all the honest people and the guilty are only one old man, then in case he does not spoil these “suspected” people, remove him from prison and send him home to his relatives.

Old man was in joy. He went to his family and lived a righteous life.

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Laughter is the engine of progress

The sister of the great Russian poet Pushkin recalled that as a child, Alexander Sergeevich was a “fat, silent and clumsy boy who was purposely forced to walk and run”. Here is one of the funny cases that is described in the book by V. V. Veresaev Pushkin in Life (1928). It is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. Nadezhda Osipovna, the mother of the future master of rhyme, went for a walk with him. Pushkin was then seven years old. It so happened that the boy did not keep up with his mother and fell behind. Sasha was not very upset and sat down to rest right in the middle of the street. This situation could not but cause smiles and good-natured laughter of passersby. But Pushkin, the future inveterate duelist, and not just the poet, was angry with that.

- Well, nothing to grin your teeth! - suddenly angry child blurted out.

They say that since then, as if fearing ridicule, Pushkin "became more cheeky, and the former sluggishness turned even into playfulness".

... Comic and dramatic, little-known and so popular that they are attributed to folk art, but you can always find real facts from national history in electronic copies of unique publications stored in the Presidential Library’s collections.