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

What coin Suvorov kept all his life?

Once, Empress Catherine the Great was walking in Peterhof near the Monplaisir Palace. The royal peace was guarded by the soldiers of the Semenov regiment and among them the future famous commander Alexander Suvorov. He could not even imagine that day he would meet the Empress herself personally. This meeting is described in the book of S. R. Mirov Alexander Suvorov, his life and military exploits with the application of anecdotes and his apt words (1900), which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Catherine suddenly turned her regal attention to one of the sentries. He was short - his appearance was somewhat amusing. But he was very clever and hard the soldiers gave Catherine the honor. The empress approached him and found out that in front of her was the son of her acquaintance Vasily Suvorov. Catherine the Great therefore decided to encourage the guard and handed him a silver ruble.

- Empress! I will not take it, - Suvorov told her respectfully. - The law prohibits taking money when guarded.

“Well done”, - the empress replied, patted his cheek, gave her hand a kiss to him, and laid the ruble on the ground. - Take it when you change!

Alexander Vasilievich from then until the end of his days, kept this coin.

Royal habits

Emperor Nicholas I, the grandson of Catherine the Great, had such a trait in his character - he loved everything he was very much into, and the new things were almost certainly criticized. This is detailed in the rare book "Traits from the Life of Nikolai Pavlovich" (1900), which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The sovereign was given a new horse, and he, without even having passed a mile and a half on it, said: “It is weak!” The same thing happened to the new carriage. The tsar, having learned that it was new, as a rule, uttered: "Uncomfortable and narrow, it is simply impossible to go" or "Short!" Nowhere to stretch my legs!

Then the servants came up with the following trick: the horse was fresh or only the crew made by masters Nicholas Pavlovich was served in the evening, at dusk, when he was going, for example, to the theater. And in the morning, when the emperor asked “What kind of horse is this, what kind of carriage?” They honestly answered:

- Yesterday they went to the theater, Your Majesty!

And the tsar did not object.

How Pushkin helped his sister

Famously, the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, in addition to versification, perfectly mastered two more “arts”: contrive conflicts and defuse them. It is detailed in the book by V. V. Veresayev Pushkin in Life (1928), a digital copy of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Once in childhood, the sister of Alexander Sergeevich Olga nagged and angered his mother. That cracked her on the cheek and deprived of dinner. The girl was very offended by this, she said: “I'll hang myself, but I won't ask for forgiveness!” Meanwhile, little Sasha found a carnation somewhere and began to diligently drive it into the wall. Assistant of the nanny saw that.

- What are you doing, sir? - she asked.

“Yes, my sister, she says she is going to hang herself, so I want to give her a nail”, - Pushkin replied and laughed.

The rest laughed, and thus the conflict was settled.

...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.