Era of Nicholas I through eyes of contemporary. Presidential Library marks 225th anniversary of Baron Modest Andreevich Korff

On September 23 (September 11 according to the old calendar) 1800, Baron Modest Andreevich Korf, a statesman, historian, director of the Imperial Public Library, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and chairman of the State Council's Department of Laws, was born in St. Petersburg.

A graduate of the renowned Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and a classmate of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, after completing his studies, he began working at the Ministry of Justice a classmate of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, after completing his studies he began working as a translator at the Ministry of Justice, later worked under the leadership of Mikhail Speransky and throughout his life held high positions in the state administration. You can learn more about Korf's brilliant career on the Presidential Library portal in the section On this Day.

Another aspect of his work is also interesting. Modest Andreevich left behind memoirs in which he described his era in detail, the people with whom fate brought him together, Emperor Nicholas I, his entourage, the events that took place at that time, everyday observations, and much more. Thanks to the Presidential Library, you can take a trip back in time and literally see Russia in the 1830s–1850s through the eyes of an attentive eyewitness. Baron Korff's writings, published in the historical journal Russkaya Starina (Russian Antiquity) in 1899–1904, are available on the institution's website from anywhere in the world.

"These notebooks contain excerpts from the diary I kept from 1838 to 1852, as well as several notes I made in the years preceding it," writes Korf. "I immediately put down on paper much of what I saw and heard, experienced and felt..."

The entries are presented in chronological order – "in the very order in which the flow of modern life poured forth. That is why they follow one after another in a motley mixture of the most significant and the insignificant, minor adventures, anecdotes, celebrations, everyday words, etc., with stories about state events, depictions of the most important affairs of the era, and biographies and characteristics of its figures, as I knew and understood them. The reader, leafing through them, will be like walking through a gallery hung with a wide variety of paintings depicting both objects of domestic life and the highest historical subjects," the author tells us.

The reader of these notes is presented with a series of vivid, lively portraits of Korf's contemporaries, both famous and unknown, noble and ordinary people.

Much attention in these memoirs is, of course, devoted to the personality of Emperor Nicholas I and his activities. The overall assessment is as follows: "The reign of Emperor Nicholas was rich in countless traits, some brilliant and soul-stirring like an electric spark, others touching and tender, but always revealing his lofty, bright, poetic soul. He was born to rule with both body and spirit, but also to be loved—and hardly any monarch, let alone any woman, has ever had so many fanatical, ecstatic admirers. But how he knew how to rule minds and hearts!"

We see the emperor not only attending to state affairs in the palace offices, but also, for example, climbing the scaffolding of the newly constructed St. Isaac's Cathedral to inspect the work: "He admired the views of the whole of St. Petersburg from this height for a long time and regretted only one thing, namely that the monument to Peter the Great stands somewhat to the side of the church, which disrupts the symmetry. "However," he said to the members of the commission on the construction of the cathedral surrounding him, "I would never dare to move this shrine, and I dare to hope that my descendants will not either."

It was easy to meet the sovereign on the city streets: "If anyone wanted to meet Emperor Nicholas face to face in the winter and early winter of 1845 (and for several years after), all they had to do was walk along Malaya Morskaya Street around 3 o'clock before lunch and along Bolshaya Street around 7 o'clock. At that time, he visited his daughter at the Mariinsky Palace and, combining this with a walk, either went to her or returned from her."

Incidentally, the Mariinsky Palace also receives special attention in Korf's notes: "The palace for Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna near the Blue Bridge was completed with finishing and decoration by 1845. On January 1, the church was consecrated there, and then selected individuals were allowed to view it, and on January 7, the entire public was allowed to view it, although tickets were distributed indiscriminately to all who wished to attend, except for the common people, which is why the crowd of curious onlookers became so large that it led to a stampede. By decree of January 8, this palace, with its services and all its decorations, was granted to the Grand Duchess for perpetual and hereditary possession and was named Mariinsky; and then the young couple, who had lived in the Winter Palace until then, moved into their new home.

Even more interesting information about life in 19th-century Russia, prominent statesmen, and significant events of that time can be found in the historical materials presented on the Presidential Library portal in the basic collectionsRussian People and State Authority.