Tsar Maslenitsa – in the Presidential Library rare materials

This year’s Maslenitsa week begins on February 12. Whatever Maslenitsa was called among the people - "honest", "broad", "merry", "binge". "Although I lay down everything with myself, but spend Maslenitsa" – according to this proverb seven Maslenitsa days were held for everyone, regardless of age and rank. Details of how one of the most colorful holidays in Russia was celebrated by its rulers can be found by referring to digital copies of unique publications available on the portal of the Presidential Library.

I. N. Bozheryanov in the historical essay "How Russian people celebrate and celebrated Christmas, New Year, Epiphany and the Maslenitsa", published in 1894, begins the story of the traditions of the Maslenitsa week since the time of Peter the Great as "the chief exponent of foreign fun in Russia" . It was with him when during the Maslenitsa they began building booths and carousels in the squares and organizing masquerades. Obeying the will of Peter, the boyars, who considered first for a great sin to dress up, now "assiduously rallied and changed their clothes several times a day".

The first grandiose masquerade was given by Peter I "on Thursday the cheese week" in 1722 in Moscow. Here is how the historian Bozheryanov describes him: "The procession was opened by a harlequin riding on a large sledge, harnessed by six horses, marching one after the other and decorated with trinkets. In the other sledges, Prince Zotov, who was dressed in a black robes of red velvet, was beaten by an ermine, Bacchus was sitting on his barrel at his feet; behind him is a retinue, closed by a jester, who was sitting in a sleigh, driven by four pigs. Then the procession of the navy itself began, under the leadership of Neptune, sitting on his chariot with a trident in his hands harnessed by two sirens. In the procession there was also Prince-Caesar Romodanovsky in the imperial robe and princely crown. He occupied a place in a large boat, which was carried by two living bears. Finally, a huge company appeared - an 88-gun ship built entirely on the model of the Friedemaker ship, launched in March 1721 in St. Petersburg. He had three masts, and full arms up to the last block inclusive. On this ship, driven by sixteen horses, Peter the Great himself sat in the clothes of a naval captain with naval generals and officers and maneuvered them as if on the sea. This ship was followed by a gilded gondola of the Empress, who was in the costume of a Frisian peasant woman, and her suite consisted of court ladies and gentlemen dressed in Arabic. For the gondola appeared the real members of the masquerade, known as the "restless abode"; They sat in wide, long sleighs, made like a dragon's head and dressed up as wolves, cranes, bears, dragons, presenting fables in the faces of Ezopov. Such a colorful and wonderful masquerade procession through the Tver Gate reached the Kremlin with cannon shots, where it arrived in the evening. The next day, as well as on the third and second of February, the collection was appointed at the gates, which were then built by the merchants. This masquerade ended with magnificent fireworks and feasting. In the continuation of the four days of the Moscow carnival, the participants who participated in it changed their costumes several times over".  

It is interesting that in the book of A. Tereschenko "Life of the Russian people", published in 1848, an electronic copy of which is also available on the portal of the Presidential Library, there is a description of a similar Maslenitsa tradition prevalent in Siberia. The ethnographer explained this: "The carriage of a ship with sails and tackles, etc., was borrowed from the masquerade given by Peter the Great in Moscow on Maslenitsa, and introduced to Siberia by settlers and officials who are still introducing a lot of new things into this region and spreading the taste and a hunt for everything good and elegant".

But let us go back to the first Malenitsa carnival. Franz Lefort, the closest assistant and advisor to Peter I, in one of his letters told how the following days of the butter week of 1722 were going: "On the 5th we were still in Tver fordstade and walked, from there we went to Tsaritsyn Meadow, where the Tsar treated us, and where there was again a firework, which ended the holiday. It cannot be said that during this celebration the wine was drunk by force and compulsion; on the contrary, we are sometimes frozen".

Peter the Great in St. Petersburg founded by him, was amused at Maslenitsa with a masquerade. Participants in the carnival gathered in the square opposite the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (now the Trinity Zhivonachnaya chapel was built in its place), the so-called pyramid of four frigates erected in honor of the victory of the Russian fleet in the Battle of Grengham. At the signal given by the state, who was dressed as a drummer, everyone threw off their cloaks and remained in carnival costumes. "Here in the middle of the Spaniards, Greeks, Turks, Chinese and Indians, there were carols with long beards, carrying carts of high royal haidukas, sung as children. Then followed the cheerful, animated katanya, where, among the many huge sledges made in the likeness of boats, in which were disguised members of the royal family, foreign ministers and nobles of both sexes, Neptune was visible in a sink with a trident, drawn by two sirens; Bacchus with a cup in one and with a laurel wreath in the other hand, a royal clown dressed as a bear, in a sleigh harnessed by six cubs", - writes I. N. Bozheryanov in his historical essay. On the eve of the masquerades, which lasted throughout the Maslenitsa week, the participants gathered in the palace of Prince Menshikov, where everyone was told his place in the procession. Masks at the time of the carnival were forbidden, for this threatened there was a fine - 50 rubles. 

In Petersburg, slides and buffoons for Maslenitsa were built on the Neva, between the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace. Here Biron "in the last days of his power at Maslenitsa gave St. Petersburg an unprecedented spectacle. He wanted to build an ice house for the fun of the Empress Anna Ioanovna; began a rush of work, which, thanks to standing severe frost, reaching 40°, moved quickly and the ice house was soon ready".

All these undertakings were made for the wedding of the cracker Avdotya Buzheninova and Prince Golitsyn, known in the clownish "rank" as Kvasnik, - a man educated but fallen into disfavour because he accepted the Catholic faith for marrying an Italian woman.

The celebration, which took place on February 1740, was ordered to bring to St. Petersburg two representatives of all the tribes and peoples living in Russia, in national clothes and with national instruments. There were 300 of such people. All of them - who are on camels, who are on reindeer, who are in oxen, and who also on dogs, by "train" followed the newlyweds who sat in an iron cage set on an elephant. After the wedding, a feast and dancing took place, and then Kvasnik and Buzheninov were taken to the Ice House and guarded, so that the newlyweds could not escape until morning. 

A full description of the "ice house" and all the things that were in it (and everything was literally from furniture, dishes and even firewood) was made in 1741 by Academician Georg Wolfgang Kraft, an electronic copy of this document is available on the portal of the Presidential Library, and the event itself formed the basis of a famous novel by Ivan Lazhechnikov.

Catherine II immediately after her coronation, which took place on Maslenitsa, arranged a three-day masquerade in Moscow called "Triumphant Minerva", "songs and choruses" composed by A. P. Sumarokov. According to I. Bozherianov: "Important and ridiculous branches were formed with decent symbols: so on the high chariot Parnassus, Apollo, Muses were portrayed. Here Mars sat with the heroes in full armor. Here they saw Pallas with a helmet on his forehead and a spear; at the feet of her owl with mathematical tools. Then there was Bacchus with Silenus, with Bacchante, under the canopy, etc. All the chariots were considered to be up to 250, some of them were Vesomes of the 12th, and others of 24 oxen: there were up to 4,000 active persons".

When in 1777 Catherine II awaited the birth of her grandson Alexander, she joyfully arranged festivities, which went down in history under the name of the "brilliant" Maslenitsa. The diplomat, the British envoy at the court of Catherine, James Garris, reported: "The Empress was pleased to arrange during the carnival a holiday which, with its splendor and grace, surpassed everything that can be thought up in this way. Over dinner, dessert was served on precious dishes that glittered in stone for up to two million pounds sterling "(with the diplomatic correspondence of Sir James Harris - Count Malmesbury you can get familiar on the portal of the Presidential Library). After the meal, games were started, and the empress presented a diamond to those who appeared to be the winner in them. In just one evening, she gave her approximate around 150 precious stones.

Maslenitsa in St. Petersburg in the time of Catherine II was really a carnival. In the unique historical document placed on the Presidential Library's portal - "Notes Serving History ..." (1881) by S. A. Poroshin, educator of Pavel Petrovich, there is the following description of the "butterl" of 1765. In the first four days of the festive week, theater performances were given in the court theater, and on the fifth "the agenda was to go to the comedy in a fancy dress and from there, who is willing to go to the Laskatel 'masquerade, to the old wooden palace. This masquerade is supposed to continue from this evening to Sunday until morning". The old wooden palace, where, by the way, the future emperor Pavel I was born, now does not exist anymore, in its place the Mikhailovsky Castle now stands. The 11-year-old Pavel himself did not take part in the amusements: "His Highness ... did not come out of the bedchamber", as "a tumor appeared behind his ears" and he was "applied a poultice".

Catherine II came to the masquerade in the "male domino coffee-colored and walked arm in arm with Prince Orlov and the maid of honor Anna Panina. The Empress bowed to Poroshin twice and, finally, calling him to her, joked with him more than half an hour, not showing who she was".

On this masquerade there was also the well-known Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova who arrived in Petersburg that year. In his notes he shared his impressions of what he saw: "The whole atmosphere of the ball represented a spectacle of bizarre luxury in the decoration of rooms and dresses of guests; the overall view was magnificent. Admiring them, I suddenly heard someone's words: "Look, here's the Empress; she thinks that no one will know her; but wait, soon everyone will be able to distinguish her from the unrelenting companion of Orlov".

Cheerful festivities, arranged by her in her youth, Catherine will remember to an advanced age. A curious note from October 25, 1792 (at that time the empress was 64th year) in the diary of State Secretary of Catherine II A. V. Khrapovitsky, you can see it on the portal of the Presidential Library. The Empress, talking with her State Secretary about Ubri's house, where he lived, "was pleased to say that in 1766 the butter was in Passek, Petr Bogdanovich, he knows the dining room with five windows, and then Stroganov drove in a masked dress and a courier was wearing Harlequin. With pleasure she repeated, as all this is still remembered".

What the costume and the crew looked like, can be based on the fact that the Stroganov was one of the richest nobles of Catherine's court and a great connoisseur of the arts, for which he later was made president of the Imperial Academy of Arts. By the way, in one of her comedies Catherine "brought out" Stroganov under the very "Maslenitsa" name "Sam-Blin". An electronic copy of the rare edition of 1893 "Compositions of Empress Catherine II" is also presented on the Presidential Library portal.