Botkin Evgeny Sergeevich. “He who endures to the end will be saved”: the medical and moral duty of Doctor Botkin

, passion-bearer, righteous doctor

He received a home education and was immediately accepted into the fifth grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, but after passing the exams for the first year of the university, he went to the junior department of the newly opened preparatory course at the Military Medical Academy.

One of the reasons for such a cautious attitude was the non-Orthodox confession of some of them; however, E. S. Botkin’s Old Believers were not mentioned in the report. The motive for the canonization of non-Orthodox persons in the ROCOR was the precedents of the Church glorifying victims of persecution of Christians who did not accept baptism - for example, pagans who joined Christians during execution.

On October 7 of that year, at the next meeting of the working group to harmonize the months of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church Abroad, chaired by the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and with the participation of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, “they noted the results of a study of the feat of persons revered in the Russian diaspora. The possibility of church-wide glorification was recognized the following saints, previously canonized by the Russian Church Abroad: ‹…› the righteous passion-bearer Eugene the doctor (Botkin), who suffered along with the royal family in the Ipatiev House (+1918, commemorated July 4/17)."

Taking into account the above opinion of the working group, on February 3 of this year the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church made a decision to bless church-wide veneration "

In 1907, after the death of the Royal Family physician Gustav Hirsch, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, when asked who she would like to invite to replace the family doctor, immediately answered: “Botkina.”

Representatives of the Botkin merchant family, famous in Russia, were major benefactors and organizers of churches, donated a lot to churches and orphanages. Many belonged to this family famous personalities: writers, artists, writers, art critics, collectors, inventors, diplomats, and doctors. The father of Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, who in April 1908 became the family physician of the last Russian Emperor, was famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin - general practitioner, physician of Alexander II and Alexandra III, who gained fame as an outstanding scientist, sophisticated diagnostician, talented teacher and public figure.

Evgeniy Sergeevich was the fourth child in large family. He was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, received an excellent home education, on the basis of which he was immediately accepted into the fifth grade of the Second St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. Special attention The family paid attention to the religious education of children, which, of course, bore fruit. The boy also received a thorough music education, acquired a refined musical taste. On Saturdays, the capital's elite gathered at the Botkins' house: professors of the Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists, such as I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov, N.M. Yakubovich, M.A. Balakirev. The spiritual and everyday atmosphere of the house had a great influence on the formation of the character and personality of the future physician of the Royal Family.

From childhood, Evgeniy was distinguished by his modesty, kind attitude towards others, and rejection of fights and any violence. His older brother, Russian diplomat Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin, remembers him: “From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection. He was never like other children. Always sensitive, delicate, inwardly kind, with an extraordinary soul, he was terrified of any fight or fight. We other boys used to fight furiously. As usual, he did not participate in our fights, but when a fist fight became dangerous, he stopped the fighters, risking injury. He was very diligent and smart in his studies."

Evgeny Botkin's brilliant abilities in the natural sciences were evident even in the gymnasium. After graduating, following the example of his father, a doctor, he entered the junior department of the newly opened preparatory course at the Military Medical Academy. In 1889, Evgeniy Sergeevich successfully graduated from the academy, receiving the title of “doctor with honors” and was awarded the personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded to “the third highest scorer in his course.”

Evgeny Botkin began his medical career in January 1890 as a medical assistant at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. A year later, he went to study in Germany, studied with leading European scientists, and became acquainted with the structure of Berlin hospitals. In May 1893, Evgeniy Sergeevich brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1897 he was elected privat-docent of the Military Medical Academy.

His introductory lecture to students reflects the attitude that has always distinguished him towards the sick: “Once the trust you have acquired in patients turns into sincere affection for you, when they are convinced of your invariably cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the ward, you are greeted by a joyful and welcoming mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which will often help you much more than with mixtures and powders... Only a heart is needed for this, only sincere heartfelt sympathy for the sick person. So don’t be stingy, learn to give it with a wide hand to those who need it. So let us go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him.”

In 1904, with the beginning Russo-Japanese War, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin volunteered for the front and was appointed head of the medical unit Russian society Red Cross. More than once he visited the front lines, replacing, according to eyewitnesses, a wounded paramedic.

In the book he published in 1908, “The Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From Letters to his Wife,” he recalled: “I was not afraid for myself: I have never felt the strength of my faith to such an extent. I was absolutely convinced that, no matter how great the risk to which I was exposed, I would not be killed if God did not wish it. I didn’t tease fate, I didn’t stand at the guns so as not to disturb the shooters, but I realized that I was needed, and this consciousness made my position pleasant.”

From a letter to his wife from Laoyang dated May 16, 1904: “I am more and more depressed by the course of our war, and therefore it hurts that we are losing so much and losing so much, but almost more because the whole mass of our troubles is only the result of the lack of people of spirituality, a sense of duty, that petty calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God.” At the end of the war, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir III and II degrees with swords “for distinction rendered in cases against the Japanese.”

Outwardly very calm and strong-willed, Doctor Botkin was distinguished by his fine spiritual organization. His brother P. S. Botkin describes next case: “I arrived at my father’s grave and suddenly I heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother [Evgeniy] lying in the snow. “Oh, it’s you, Petya; “Here, I came to talk to dad,” and again sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and powerful man could cry like a child.”

Evgeniy Sergeevich’s family life did not work out. His wife, Olga Vladimirovna Botkina, left him, carried away by fashionable revolutionary ideas and a student at the Riga Polytechnic College, 20 years younger than her. At that time, the Botkins’ eldest son, Yuri, was already living separately; son Dmitry, a cornet of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, went to the front at the beginning of the First World War and soon died heroically, covering the retreat of a Cossack reconnaissance patrol, for which he was posthumously awarded St. George's Cross IV degree. After his divorce from his wife, Dr. Botkin was left in the care of his youngest children, Tatyana and Gleb, whom he loved selflessly, and they responded to him with the same adoration.

After being appointed as His Imperial Majesty’s physician, Doctor Botkin and his children moved to Tsarskoe Selo, where the Royal Family lived since 1905. The duty of the life physician included the treatment of all members of the royal family: he regularly examined the Emperor, who had fairly good health, and treated the Grand Duchesses, who had, it seemed, suffered from all known childhood infections.

Of course, the poor health of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Tsarevich required great attention and care from the doctor. Nevertheless, being a moral and extremely decent person, Evgeniy Sergeevich never touched upon the health of his highest-ranking patients in private conversations.

Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, General A.A. Mosolov noted: “Botkin was known for his restraint. None of the retinue managed to find out from him what the empress was sick with and what treatment the queen and heir followed. He was, of course, a devoted servant to Their Majesties.” The doctor’s daughter Tatyana also recalls: “My father always considered any gossip and rumors about the Royal Family completely unacceptable, and even to us children, he did not convey anything other than facts that had already been accomplished.”

Very soon, physician Evgeny Botkin sincerely became attached to his august patients, captivated by their simple and kind attitude, attention and sensitive care for everyone around him. Having suffered a serious illness on the imperial yacht “Standard” in the fall of 1911, the doctor wrote to his eldest sons: “...I am much better and again I only have to thank God for my illness: it not only gave me the joy of receiving our dear little [younger children Tanya and Gleb ] in my lovely cabin, not only brings them the joy of visiting me here, where they like it so much, but gave them the extraordinary happiness of being caressed by all the Grand Duchesses, the Heir to the Tsarevich and even Their Majesties.

I am also truly happy, not only with this, but also with the boundless kindness of Their Majesties. To calm me down, the Empress comes to me every day, and yesterday the Emperor himself came. I cannot tell you how touched and happy I was. With their kindness They made me Their servant until the end of my days..."

From another letter, dated September 16, 1911: “Everyone was so kind to our little ones that I was simply touched. The Emperor gave them his hand, the Empress kissed their humble heads, and they themselves will write to you about the Grand Duchesses. Alexey Nikolaevich’s meeting with Gleb was incomparable. At first he said “you” to both Tanya and Gleb, but soon switched to “you”. One of the first questions to Gleb was: “What is the name of this hole?” “I don’t know,” Gleb answered embarrassedly. - “Do you know?” – he turned to Tanya. “I know - half-portico.”

Then again questions to Gleb: “Whose crutch is this?” “Papulin,” Gleb answers quietly. [This is what Dr. Botkin’s children always called their father, Evgeniy Sergeevich] “Whose?” - surprised question. “Papulin,” Gleb repeats, completely embarrassed. Then I explained what this strange word meant, but Alexey Nikolaevich repeated his question several times later, in the middle of another conversation, interested in the funny answer and, probably, in Gleb’s embarrassment, but he already answered boldly...

Yesterday, when I was lying alone during the day and sad about the children who had left, suddenly, at the usual time, Anastasia Nikolaevna came to entertain me and wanted to do everything for me that my children did, for example, let me wash my hands. Maria Nikolaevna also came, and we played zeros and crosses with her, and now Olga Nikolaevna ran in - really, like an Angel, in the air. Kind Tatyana Nikolaevna visits me every day. In general, everyone spoils me terribly...”

The children of Dr. Evgeniy Botkin also retained vivid memories of the days spent in Tsarskoye Selo, not far from the Alexander Palace, where the Royal Family lived. Tatiana Melnik-Botkina would later write in her memoirs: “The Grand Duchesses... constantly sent bows, sometimes a peach or an apple, sometimes a flower or just candy, but if one of us got sick - and this happened to me often - then certainly every day even Her Majesty inquired about my health, sent holy water or prosphora, and when I was shaved after typhoid fever, Tatyana Nikolaevna knitted a blue cap with her own hands.

And we were not the only ones who enjoyed any exceptional favor from the Royal Family: They extended their care and attention to everyone they knew, and often in their free moments the Grand Duchesses went to the rooms of some scullery maid or watchwoman to nurse the children they Everyone loved me very much.”

As can be seen from the few surviving letters of Dr. Botkin, he was especially affectionately attached to the Heir. From a letter from Evgeny Sergeevich, written on March 26, 1914 on the way to Sevastopol: “...beloved Alexey Nikolaevich is walking under the window. Today Alexey Nikolaevich walked around the carriages with a basket of small blown eggs, which he sold for the benefit of poor children on behalf of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna, who boarded the train with us in Moscow..."

Very soon, it was the Tsarevich who became the main object of Evgeniy Sergeevich’s worries and medical care. It was with him that the doctor spent most of his time, often during life-threatening attacks, without leaving Alexei’s sick bedside for days and nights. From the doctor’s letter to the children (Spala, October 9, 1912): “Today I remember you especially often and clearly imagine how you must have felt when you saw my name in the newspapers under a bulletin about the health of our beloved Alexei Nikolaevich... I am unable to convey To you, what am I worried about... I am unable to do anything except walk around Him... unable to think about anything except about Him, about His Parents... Pray, my children... Pray daily, fervently for our precious Heir... »

Spala, October 14, 1912: “... He is better, our priceless patient. God heard the fervent prayers offered to Him by so many, and the Heir positively felt better, glory to You, Lord. But what were those days? How the years have taken a toll on the soul... And now she still cannot fully recover - the poor Heir will still need to recover for so long and so many more accidents may be on the way...”

In the summer of 1914, riots began in St. Petersburg. Striking workers walked the streets in droves, destroyed trams and lampposts, and killed policemen. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina writes: “The reasons for these riots were not clear to anyone; the caught strikers were earnestly interrogated as to why they had started all this trouble. “We ourselves don’t know,” were their answers, “they gave us three rubles and said: beat the trams and the policemen, so we beat them.” Soon the First began world war, which initially caused a grandiose patriotic upsurge among the Russian people.

Since the beginning of the war, the Emperor lived almost continuously at Headquarters, which was located first in Baranovichi and then in Mogilev. The Tsar instructed Doctor Botkin to stay with the Empress and the children in Tsarskoe Selo, where, through their efforts, infirmaries began to open. In the house where Evgeniy Sergeevich lived with his children, he also built an infirmary, where the Empress and her two eldest daughters often came to visit the wounded. One day, Evgeniy Sergeevich brought little Tsarevich there, who also expressed a desire to visit the wounded soldiers in the infirmary.

“I am surprised at their ability to work,” Evgeniy Sergeevich told his daughter Tanya about the members of the Royal Family. – Not to mention His Majesty, who amazes with the number of reports that he can accept and remember, but even Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna. For example: Before going to the infirmary, she gets up at 7 o’clock in the morning to take a lesson, then they both go to bandages, then breakfast, more lessons, a tour of the infirmaries, and when evening comes, they immediately take up needlework or reading.” .

During the war, all the everyday life of the imperial physician was spent the same way - at work, and holidays were distinguished by attending the Liturgy with children in the Fedorov Sovereign Cathedral, where members of the Royal Family also came. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina recalled: “I will never forget the impression that gripped me under the arches of the church: the silent orderly rows of soldiers, the dark faces of Saints on blackened icons, the faint flickering of a few lamps and the pure, gentle profiles of the Grand Duchesses in white scarves filled my soul with tenderness. , and fervent words of prayer without words for this Family of the seven most modest and greatest Russian people, silently praying among their beloved people, burst out of the heart.”

At the end of February 1917, Russia was swept by a wave of revolutionary events. The Tsar and Empress were accused of high treason and, by order of the Provisional Government, were placed under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo. They were repeatedly offered to secretly leave Russia, however, all proposals of this kind were rejected by them. Even while imprisoned in cold Tobolsk and enduring various hardships, Alexandra Fedorovna told Doctor Botkin: “I’d rather be a scrubber, but I’ll be in Russia.”

The commissioners of the Provisional Government asked the imperial retinue to leave the Royal Family, otherwise the former courtiers would have to share their sad fate. As a deeply decent and sincerely devoted person to the Royal Family, Doctor Botkin remained with the Sovereign.

Tatyana Melnik-Botkina describes the day when her father made this decision: “...My father, who had been on duty all night with Their Highnesses, had not yet returned, and at that moment we joyfully saw his carriage driving into the yard. Soon his footsteps were heard along the stairs, and he entered the room wearing a coat and a cap in his hands.

We rushed to him with greetings and questions about the health of Their Highnesses, who were all already lying down [seriously ill with measles], but he kept us away so as not to infect us with measles and, sitting aside by the door, asked if we knew what was happening. “Of course we do, but is it all that serious?” - we answered, now alarmed by the appearance of our father, in whom, through his usual restraint and calmness, something was slipping that frightened us. “So seriously that there is an opinion that, in order to avoid bloodshed, the Sovereign must abdicate the throne, at least in favor of Alexei Nikolaevich.”

We responded to this with deathly silence. “There is no doubt that here, in Tsarskoye, protests and riots will begin and, of course, the palace will be the center, so I kindly ask you to leave home for now, since I myself am moving to the palace. If my peace of mind is dear to you, then you will do it.” - “When, to whom?” - “No later than two hours later, I must be back to the palace, and before that I would personally like to take you.” And indeed, two hours later my younger brother and I were already installed with an old friend of our parents...”

At the end of May 1917, Dr. Botkin was temporarily released from arrest because the wife of his eldest son Yuri was dying. After her recovery, the doctor asked to return to Their Majesties, since according to the rules, a person from the retinue released from arrest could not be allowed back in. Soon he was informed that the Chairman of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky personally wanted to see him.

The conversation took place in Petrograd: Kerensky warned Botkin about the decision of the Provisional Government to send the arrested Family of the Sovereign to Siberia. However, on July 30, Doctor Evgeniy Sergeevich entered the Alexander Palace among the arrested, and on the night of July 31 to August 1, he and members of the Royal Family were taken to Tobolsk.

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin with his daughter Tatyana and son Gleb

In Tobolsk, it was prescribed to observe the same regime as in Tsarskoe Selo, that is, not to let anyone out of the designated premises. Dr. Botkin, however, was allowed to provide medical care to the population. In the house of the merchant Kornilov, he had two rooms in which he could receive patients from the local population and guard soldiers. He wrote about this: “Their trust especially touched me, and I was pleased by their confidence, which never deceived them, that I would accept them with the same attention and affection as any other patient and not only as an equal, but also as a patient who has every right to all my care and services.”

Since the Tsar, Empress and Their children were not allowed to go beyond the fence, Doctor Botkin, without their knowledge, wrote a letter to Kerensky, in which he said that he considered it his duty as a doctor to declare the lack of exercise for those arrested and ask permission to allow them walks into the city, even if under guard. Soon Kerensky's reply came with permission, however, when Evgeniy Sergeevich showed the letter to the chief of the guard, the latter stated that he could not allow walks, since an attempt on the Tsar's life could occur.

According to Botkin’s daughter Tatyana, who came to her father in Tobolsk with her younger brother, such assumptions were completely unfounded, since almost the entire population of the city treated the members of the Royal Family with the same loyal feelings.

In April 1918 he arrived in Tobolsk close friend Ya.M. Sverdlov Commissioner V. Yakovlev, who immediately declared the doctors also arrested. Doctor Botkin, who even with the arrival of the Bolsheviks continued to wear his uniform - a general's coat and shoulder straps with the Sovereign's monograms - was asked to remove his shoulder straps. He replied to this that he would not take off his shoulder straps, but if this threatened any trouble, he would simply change into civilian clothes.

From the memoirs of Tatyana Melnik-Botkina: “On April 11... around 3 o’clock, my father came to tell us that by order of Yakovlev, he and Doctor Derevenko were also declared arrested along with Their Majesties, it is unknown for how long, maybe only for a few hours , or maybe for two, three days. Taking only a small suitcase with medicines, a change of linen and washing supplies, my father put on his clean palace dress, that is, the one in which he never went to the sick, crossed himself, kissed us, as always, and left.

It was a warm spring day, and I watched him carefully cross the muddy street in his heels in his civilian coat and felt hat. We were left alone, wondering what the arrest could mean. At about seven o'clock in the evening Klavdia Mikhailovna Bitner came running to us. “I came to tell you in confidence that Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna are being taken away tonight, and your father and Dolgorukov are going with them. So, if you want to send something to dad, then Evgeny Stepanovich Kobylinsky will send a soldier from the guard.” We thanked her from the bottom of our hearts for the message and began to pack our things, and soon received farewell letter from my father."

The basement of the Ipatiev House, in which the Royal Family and their faithful servants were killed

According to Yakovlev’s statement, either Tatishchev or Dolgorukov, and one each of the male and female servants, were allowed to go with the Emperor. There were no orders about the doctors, but even at the very beginning, having heard that Their Majesties were coming, Doctor Botkin announced that he would go with Them. “What about your children?” – asked Alexandra Feodorovna, knowing about his close relationship with the children and the worries that the doctor experienced when separated from them. Evgeniy Sergeevich replied that the interests of Their Majesties always come first for him. The Empress was moved to tears by this and thanked him very heartily.

On the night of April 25-26, 1918, Nicholas II with Alexandra Fedorovna and daughter Maria, Prince Dolgorukov, maid Anna Demidova and doctor Evgeny Botkin, under the escort of a special detachment led by Yakovlev, were sent to Yekaterinburg. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina writes: “I remember with a shudder this night and all the days that followed. One can imagine what the experiences of both parents and children were, who were almost never separated and loved each other as much as their Majesties and Highnesses loved...

That night I decided not to go to bed and often looked at the brightly lit windows of the governor’s house, in which, it seemed to me, sometimes the shadow of my father appeared, but I was afraid to open the curtain and very clearly observe what was happening, so as not to incur the displeasure of the guards. At about two in the morning the soldiers came for the last things and my father’s suitcase... At dawn I put out the fire...

Finally, the gates of the fence opened and the coachmen, one after another, began to drive up to the porch. The courtyard became lively; figures of servants and soldiers appeared, carrying things. Among them stood the tall figure of His Majesty's old valet Chemadurov, already ready to leave. Several times my father came out of the house, wearing Prince Dolgorukov’s hare sheepskin coat, because Her Majesty and Maria Nikolaevna, who had nothing but light fur coats, were wrapped in his coat...

Here we go. The train left the gate of the fence opposite me and bent past the fence, straight towards me, and then turned left under my windows along the main street. In the first two sleighs sat four soldiers with rifles, then the Emperor and Yakovlev. His Majesty sat on the right, wearing a protective cap and a soldier's overcoat. He turned around, talking to Yakovlev, and I, as now, remember His kind face with a cheerful smile. Then again there were sleighs with soldiers holding rifles between their knees, then a cart, in the depths of which one could see the figure of the Empress and the beautiful face of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, also smiling with the same encouraging smile as the Sovereign’s, then again soldiers, then a sleigh with my father and Prince Dolgorukov. My father noticed me and, turning around, blessed me several times..."

Neither Tatyana nor Gleb had a chance to see their adored father again. To all their requests for permission to follow their father to Yekaterinburg, they were told that even if they were taken there, they would never be allowed to meet with those arrested.

The Red Army soldiers removed the prisoners who arrived in Yekaterinburg from the train and searched them. Prince Dolgorukov was found with two revolvers and a large sum of money. He was separated and taken to prison, and the rest, in cabs, to the Ipatiev mansion.

The regime of detention in the “special purpose house” was strikingly different from the regime in Tobolsk. There was no room for Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin - he slept in the dining room on the floor with his valet Chemadurov. The house itself was surrounded by a double fence, one of which was so high that only the golden cross was visible from the Ascension Church, located on the mountain opposite; however, as follows from the doctor’s letters, it gave great pleasure to the prisoners to see the cross.

Botkin’s daughter Tatyana noted: “... Still, the first days, apparently, were still more or less bearable, but already the last letter, marked on the third of May, was, despite all the meekness of my father and his desire to see only good in everything, very gloomy. He wrote about how offensive it is to see undeserved distrust and receive sharp refusals from the guards when you turn to them as a doctor asking for indulgences for prisoners, at least for walks in the garden. If dissatisfaction slipped into my father’s tone, and if he began to consider the guards harsh, then this meant that life there was already very difficult, and the guards began to scoff.”

In the State Archive Russian Federation the last, unfinished letter from Evgeniy Sergeevich, written the day before, is kept scary night murders: “I am making one last attempt to write a real letter - at least from here... My voluntary imprisonment here is as unlimited by time as my earthly existence is limited. In essence, I died, I died for my children, for my friends, for my cause... I died, but not yet buried, or buried alive - it doesn’t matter, the consequences are almost the same...

The day before yesterday I was quietly reading... and suddenly I saw a brief vision - the face of my son Yuri, but dead, in a horizontal position, with eyes closed. Yesterday, while reading the same thing, I suddenly heard a word that sounded like “Daddy.” I almost burst into tears. And this word is not a hallucination, because the voice was similar, and for a moment I had no doubt that it was my daughter, who should be in Tobolsk, speaking to me... I will probably never hear this such a dear voice again and will not feel those dear hugs with which my children spoiled me so much...

I don’t indulge myself in hope, I’m not lulled by illusions and I look the unvarnished reality straight in the eye... I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved” and the consciousness that I remain faithful to the principles of the 1889 edition. If faith without works is dead, then works without faith can exist, and if one of us adds faith to works, then this is only due to God’s special mercy towards him...

This justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at the request of God to sacrifice his only son».

The last Russian physician, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, fulfilling his medical and human duty, consciously remained with the Royal Family until the last days of Their lives and, together with them, suffered a martyr’s death in the basement of the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918.

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“I finished him off with a shot to the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. He posed openly and bragged about the murder. When they tried to find the remains of Dr. Botkin in August 1918, they found only pince-nez with broken glass. Their fragments mixed with others - from medallions and icons, vials and bottles that belonged to the family of the last Russian Tsar.

On February 3, 2016, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin was canonized by the Russian Church. Orthodox doctors, of course, advocated for his glorification. Many appreciated the feat of the doctor who remained faithful to his patients. But not only that. His faith was conscious, hard-won, despite the temptations of time. Evgeniy Sergeevich went from unbelief to holiness, like a good doctor goes to a patient, depriving himself of the right to choose whether to go or not. It was forbidden to talk about him for many decades. At that time he was lying in an unmarked grave - as an enemy of the people, executed without trial. At the same time, one of the most famous clinics in the country was named after his father, Sergei Petrovich Botkin - he was glorified as a great doctor.

The first doctor of the empire

And this glory was completely deserved. After the death of Dr. Pirogov, Sergei Botkin became the most respected doctor in the Russian Empire.

But until the age of nine he was considered mentally retarded. His father, a wealthy St. Petersburg tea merchant Pyotr Botkin, even promised to give Seryozha a soldier, when it suddenly turned out that the boy could not distinguish letters due to severe astigmatism. Having corrected Sergei’s vision, we discovered that he had a great interest in mathematics. He was going to follow this path, but suddenly Emperor Nicholas I forbade the admission of persons of non-noble origin to any faculties except medicine. The sovereign’s idea was far from reality and did not last long, but it affected the fate of Sergei Botkin in the most happy way.

His fame began in Crimean War, which Sergei Petrovich spent in Sevastopol in the medical detachment of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. At the age of 29 he became a professor. Before reaching forty, he founded the Epidemiological Society. He was the personal physician of Emperor Alexander the Liberator, and then treated his son, Alexander the Peacemaker, combining this with work in free outpatient clinics and “infectious barracks.” His living room was sometimes filled with up to fifty patients, from whom the doctor did not charge a penny for their appointment.

Sergei Petrovich Botkin

In 1878, Sergei Petrovich was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors, which he led until his death. He died in 1889. They say that in his entire life, Sergei Petrovich made only one incorrect diagnosis - to himself. He was sure that he suffered from liver colic, but died from heart disease. “Death took away its most implacable enemy from this world,” the newspapers wrote.

“If faith is added to the doctor’s deeds...”

Evgeniy was the fourth child in the family. Survived the death of his mother when he was ten years old. She was a rare woman worthy of a husband: she played many instruments and had a keen understanding of music and literature, and was fluent in several languages. The couple organized the famous Botkin Saturdays together. Relatives gathered, including the poet Afanasy Fet, philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov, and friends, including the founder of Russian physiology Ivan Sechenov, writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, composers Alexander Borodin and Mily Balakirev. All together at the large oval table they formed a highly peculiar gathering.

In this wonderful atmosphere passed early childhood Evgenia. Brother Peter said: “Inwardly kind, with an extraordinary soul, he was terrified of any fight or fight. We other boys used to fight furiously. He, as usual, did not participate in our fights, but when a fist fight became dangerous, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fighters...”

Here one can see the image of a future military doctor. Evgeniy Sergeevich had the opportunity to bandage the wounded on the front line, when shells exploded so close that he was covered with earth. At his mother’s request, Evgeniy was educated at home, and after her death he immediately entered the fifth grade of the gymnasium. Like his father, he initially chose mathematics and even studied for a year at the university, but then he still preferred medicine. He graduated from the Military Medical Academy with honors. His father managed to be happy for him, but that same year Sergei Petrovich passed away. Pyotr Botkin recalled how hard Evgeny experienced this loss: “I came to my father’s grave and suddenly heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother lying in the snow. “Oh, it’s you, Petya, you came to talk to dad,” and again the sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and powerful man could cry like a child.”

Having lost the support of his parent, Evgeniy achieved everything on his own. Became a doctor at the Court Chapel. He trained in the best German clinics, studying childhood diseases, epidemiology, practical obstetrics, surgery, nervous diseases and blood diseases, on which he defended his dissertation. At that time, there were still too few doctors to afford a narrow specialization.

Evgeniy Petrovich married 18-year-old noblewoman Olga Vladimirovna Manuilova at the age of twenty-five. The marriage was amazing at first. Olga was orphaned early, and her husband became everything to her. Only her husband’s extreme busyness upset Olga Vladimirovna - he worked in three or more places, following the example of his father and many other doctors of that era. From the Court Chapel he hurried to the Mariinsky Hospital, and from there to the Military Medical Academy, where he taught. And this doesn't include business trips.

Olga was religious, and Evgeny Sergeevich was skeptical about faith at first, but later completely changed. “There were few believers among us,” he wrote about the academy graduates shortly before his execution, in the summer of 1918, “but the principles professed by everyone were close to Christian. If faith is added to the actions of a doctor, then this is due to the special mercy of God towards him. I turned out to be one of these lucky ones - through a difficult ordeal, the loss of my first-born, six-month-old son Seryozha.

"Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War"

This is what he called his memories of the front, where he headed the St. George Hospital of the Red Cross. The Russo-Japanese War was the first in Botkin's life. The result of this protracted business trip was two military orders, experience in helping the wounded and enormous fatigue. However, his book “Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War” began with the words: “We are traveling cheerfully and comfortably.” But that was on the road. Next entries completely different: “They came, these unfortunate ones, but they didn’t bring any groans, complaints, or horrors with them. They came, largely on foot, even wounded in the legs (so as not to have to travel in a gig along these terrible roads), patient Russian people, now ready to go into battle again.”

Once, during a night round of the Georgievsky hospital, Evgeniy Sergeevich saw a soldier named Sampsonov, wounded in the chest, hugging a delirious orderly. When Botkin felt his pulse and stroked it, the wounded man pulled both his hands to his lips and began to kiss them, imagining that it was his mother who had come. Then he began to call his aunts and kissed his hand again. It was amazing that none of the sufferers “complained, no one asked: “Why, why am I suffering?” - how people in our circle grumble when God sends them trials,” wrote Botkin.

He himself did not complain about the difficulties. On the contrary, he said that before it was much more difficult for doctors. I remembered one hero-doctor of the times Russian-Turkish war. He once came to the hospital in an overcoat on his naked body and in torn soldier's footwear, despite the severe frost. It turned out that he met a wounded man, but there was nothing to bandage him with, and the doctor tore his linen into bandages and a bandage, and dressed the soldier in the rest.

Most likely, Botkin would have done the same. His first feat, described rather sparingly, dates back to mid-June. While traveling to the front line, Evgeniy Sergeevich came under artillery fire. The first shrapnel exploded in the distance, but then the shells began to land closer and closer, so that the stones they knocked out flew into people and horses. Botkin was about to leave the dangerous place when a soldier wounded in the leg approached. “It was the finger of God that decided my day,” Botkin recalled. “Go calmly,” he said to the wounded man, “I will stay for you.” I took a medical bag and went to the artillerymen. The guns fired continuously, and the ground, covered with flowers, shook underfoot, and where Japanese shells fell, it literally groaned. At first it seemed to Evgeniy Sergeevich that a wounded man was groaning, but then he became convinced that it was the ground. It was scary. However, Botkin was not afraid for himself: “Never before have I felt the strength of my faith to such an extent. I was completely convinced that, no matter how great the risk to which I was exposed, I would not be killed if God did not wish it; and if He wishes, that is His holy will.”

When the call came from above: “Stretcher!” - He ran there with the orderlies to see if there were anyone bleeding. Having provided assistance, he sat down to rest for a while.

“One of the battery orderlies, handsome guy Kimerov looked at me, looked, and finally crawled out and sat down next to me. Whether he felt sorry to see me alone, whether he was ashamed that they left me, or whether my place seemed enchanted to him - I don’t know. He, like the rest of the battery, however, was in battle for the first time, and we started talking about the will of God... Above us and around us it was vomiting - it seemed that the Japanese had chosen your slope as their target, but while working you don’t notice the fire .

- Forgive me! – Kimerov suddenly screamed and fell backwards. I unbuttoned it and saw that his lower abdomen was pierced, the front bone was broken off and all the intestines came out. He quickly began to die. I sat over him, helplessly holding his intestines with gauze, and when he died, I closed his head, folded his hands and laid him more comfortably ... "

What captivates us in Evgeniy Sergeevich’s notes is the absence of cynicism, on the one hand, and pathos, on the other. He walked surprisingly smoothly all his life between extremes: lively, joyful and at the same time deeply worried about people. Greedy for everything new and alien to revolution. Not only his book, his life is the story, first of all, of a Russian Christian, creating, suffering, open to God and all the best that is in the world.

“There is still no fight, and I continue to write. We should follow the example of the soldiers. I ask one wounded man whom I found writing a letter:

- What, friend, are you writing home?

“Home,” he says.

- Well, are you describing how you were wounded and how well you fought?

- No, I’m writing that I’m alive and well, otherwise the old people would start taking out insurance.

This is the greatness and delicacy of the simple Russian soul!”

August 1, 1904. Retreat. Everything that could be dispensed with was sent to Liaoyang, including the iconostasis and the tent in which the church was built. But the service continued anyway. Along the ditch that surrounded the field church, they stuck pine trees, made the Royal Doors out of them, placed one pine tree behind the altar, the other in front of the lectern prepared for the prayer service. They hung the image on the last two pine trees. And the result was a church that seemed even closer than all others to God because it stood directly under His heavenly cover. Before the prayer service, the priest, who in battle under heavy fire gave communion to the dying, said a few simple and heartfelt words on the topic that prayer is for God, and the service is not lost for the Tsar. His loud voice echoed clearly over the nearby mountain in the direction of Liaoyang. And it seemed that these sounds from our eerie distance would continue to jump from mountain to mountain to relatives and friends standing in prayer, to their poor, dear homeland.

“- Stop, people! - God's anger seemed to say: - Wake up! Is this what I teach you, unfortunate ones! How dare you, unworthy ones, destroy what you cannot create?! Stop, you crazy people!

Botkin recalled how he met an officer who, as the father of a young boy, was trying to be placed away from the front line. But he was eager to join the regiment and finally achieved his goal. What happened next? After the first battle, this unfortunate man, who until recently longed for war and glory, presented to the regiment commander the rest of his company, about twenty-five people. “Where is the company?” - they asked him. The young officer’s throat was constricted, and he could barely say that she was all there!

“Yes, I’m tired,” Botkin admitted, “I’m inexpressibly tired, but I’m tired only in my soul. She seems to have gotten sick all over me. Drop by drop my heart was bleeding out, and soon I will not have it: I will indifferently pass by my crippled, wounded, hungry, frozen brothers, as if I were passing by an eyesore on a kaoliang; I will consider as habitual and correct what just yesterday turned my whole soul upside down. I feel how she is gradually dying inside me..."

“We were drinking afternoon tea in a large dining tent, in the pleasant silence of a happy home environment, when K. rode up to our tent on horseback and, without dismounting from his horse, shouted to us in a voice in which we could hear that everything was lost and there was no salvation:

- Peace, peace!

Completely killed, entering the tent, he threw his cap on the ground.

- World! - he repeated, sitting down on the bench..."

The wife and children have been waiting for Evgeniy Sergeevich for a long time. And there was also someone waiting for him, about whom he had not thought during the war, who was still lying in the cradle. Tsarevich Alexei, an unfortunate child born with a severe hereditary disease - hemophilia. Blood diseases were the subject of Evgeniy Sergeevich’s doctoral dissertation. This predetermined the choice of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna who would become the new physician of the Royal Family.

Life physician of the emperor

After death personal doctor The Royal Family, Doctor Hirsch, and the Empress were asked who should take his place. She replied:

- Botkin.

– Which one? - they asked her.

The fact is that Evgeniy Sergeevich’s brother, Sergei, was also well known as a doctor.

“The one who was in the war,” explained the Queen.

They did not tell her that both Botkins took part in the hostilities. Evgeniy Sergeevich was known throughout Russia as a military doctor.

Alas, Tsarevich Alexei was seriously ill, and the Empress’s health left much to be desired. Due to swelling, the Empress wore special shoes and could not walk for a long time. Attacks of palpitations and headaches confined her to bed for a long time. A lot of other responsibilities also piled up, which Botkin attracted like a magnet. For example, he continued to be involved in the affairs of the Red Cross.

Tatyana Botkina with her brother Yuri

The relationship with his wife, although they had previously loved each other, began to rapidly deteriorate. “Life at court was not very fun, and nothing brought variety to its monotony,” recalled daughter Tatyana. “Mom missed me terribly.” She felt abandoned, almost betrayed. For Christmas 1909, the doctor gave his wife an amazing pendant ordered from Faberge. When Olga Vladimirovna opened the box, the children gasped: the opal, trimmed with diamonds, was so beautiful. But their mother only said displeasedly: “You know that I can’t stand disgrace! They bring misfortune! I was about to return the gift back, but Evgeniy Sergeevich patiently said: “If you don’t like it, you can always exchange it.” She exchanged the pendant for another one, with an aquamarine, but there was no increase in happiness.

No longer young, but still beautiful woman, Olga Vladimirovna was languishing, it began to seem to her that life was passing by. She fell in love with her sons' teacher, the Baltic German Friedrich Lichinger, who was almost half her age, and soon began to live openly with him, demanding a divorce from her husband. Not only the sons, but also the younger children - Tatyana and mother's favorite Gleb - decided to stay with their father. “If you had left her,” Gleb told his father, “I would have stayed with her. But when she leaves you, I stay with you! During Lent, Olga Vladimirovna decided to take communion, but on the way to church she injured her leg and decided that even God had turned away from her. But my husband doesn’t. The spouses were one step away from reconciliation, but... all the courtiers in Tsarskoe Selo, all former acquaintances looked through her, as if she were an empty place. This hurt Evgeny Sergeevich no less than his wife. He was angry, but even the children saw her as a stranger. And Olga Vladimirovna suddenly realized that it wouldn’t be the same as before. Then there was Easter, the most joyless of their lives.

“A few days later, we were relieved to learn,” Tatyana wrote, “that she was leaving again “for treatment.” The farewell was difficult, but short. The reconciliation proposed by the father did not take place. This time we felt that the separation would be long, but we already understood that it could not be otherwise. We never mentioned our mother's name again."

At this time, Doctor Botkin became very close to the Tsarevich, who was suffering terribly. Evgeniy Sergeevich spent whole nights at his bedside, and the boy once confessed to him: “I love you with all my little heart.” Evgeny Sergeevich smiled. Rarely did he have to smile when talking about this royal child.

“The pain became unbearable. The boy’s screams and cries were heard in the palace, recalled the head of the palace guard, Alexander Spiridovich. – The temperature rose quickly. Botkin never left the child’s side for a minute.” “I am deeply surprised by their energy and dedication,” wrote the teacher of Alexei and the Grand Duchesses, Pierre Gilliard, about doctors Vladimir Derevenko and Evgeniy Botkin. “I remember how, after long night shifts, they were glad that their little patient was safe again. But the improvement of the heir was attributed not to them, but to... Rasputin.”

Evgeniy Sergeevich did not like Rasputin, believing that he was playing at being an old man, without actually being one. He even refused to accept this man into his home as a patient. However, being a doctor, he could not refuse help at all and personally went to the patient. Fortunately, they saw each other only a few times in their lives, which did not prevent the emergence of rumors that Evgeniy Sergeevich was a fan of Rasputin. This was, of course, slander, but it had its own background. Infinitely more than Gregory, Botkin despised those who organized the persecution of this man. He was convinced that Rasputin was just an excuse. “If there had been no Rasputin,” he once said, “then the opponents of the Royal Family and the preparers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, if there had been no Vyrubova, from me, from whomever you want.”

"Dear Old Well"

Doctor Botkin gives the crown princesses Maria and Anastasia a ride

For the attitude of Yevgeny Vasilyevich Botkin to the Royal Family, you can choose only one word - love. And the more he got to know these people, the stronger this feeling became. The family lived more modestly than many aristocrats or merchants. The Red Army soldiers in the Ipatiev House were later surprised that the Emperor wore mended clothes and worn-out boots. The valet told them that before the revolution his master wore the same thing and the same shoes. The Tsarevich wore the old nightgowns of the Grand Duchesses. The girls did not have separate rooms in the palace; they lived in twos.

Sleepless nights hard work undermined the health of Evgeniy Vasilyevich. He was so tired that he fell asleep in the bath, and only when the water cooled down did he struggle to get to bed. My leg hurt more and more, I had to use a crutch. At times he felt very bad. And then he changed roles with Anastasia, becoming her “patient”. The princess became so attached to Botkin that she was eager to serve him soap in the bathroom, kept watch at his feet, perched on the sofa, never missing an opportunity to make him laugh. For example, when a cannon was supposed to fire at sunset, the girl always pretended to be terribly afraid and hid in the farthest corner, covering her ears and peeking out with big, feignedly frightened eyes.

Botkin was very friendly with Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. She had a kind heart. When, at the age of twenty, she began to receive small pocket money, the first thing she did was volunteer to pay for the treatment of a crippled boy, whom she often saw while walking, hobbling on crutches.

“When I listen to you,” she once told Doctor Botkin, “it seems to me that I see in the depths of an old well clean water" The younger crown princesses laughed and from then on sometimes in a friendly manner called Dr. Botkin “dear old well.”

In 1913, the Royal Family almost lost him. It all started with the fact that Grand Duchess Tatiana, during celebrations in honor of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, drank water from the first tap she came across and fell ill with typhus. Evgeniy Sergeevich left his patient, while becoming infected himself. His situation turned out to be much worse, since duty at the princess’s bedside brought Botkin to complete exhaustion and severe heart failure. His brother Alexander Botkin treated him - tireless traveler and inventor who built during the Russo-Japanese War submarine. He was not only a doctor of science in medicine, but also a captain of the second rank.

Another brother, Pyotr Sergeevich, a diplomat, having learned from a telegram that Evgeny was completely unwell, rushed to Russia from Lisbon, changing from express to express. Meanwhile, Evgeniy Sergeevich felt better. “When he saw me,” wrote Peter, “he smiled with a smile that was so familiar to his loved ones, almost tender, very Russian.” “He scared us,” said the Emperor to Peter Sergeevich. – When you were notified by telegram, I was in great alarm... He was so weak, so overworked... Well, now that’s behind me, God took him under his protection once again. Your brother is more than a friend to me... He takes everything that happens to us to heart. He even shares our illness.”

Great War

Shortly before the war, Evgeniy Sergeevich wrote to children from Crimea: “Support and take care of each other, my dear ones, and remember that every three of you must replace the fourth one with me. The Lord is with you, my beloved ones.” Soon they met, happy - they were one soul.

When the war began, there was hope that it would not last long, that joyful days would return, but these dreams melted away every day.

“My brother visited me in St. Petersburg with his two sons,” recalled Pyotr Botkin. “Today they are both leaving for the front,” Evgeniy simply told me, as if he had said: “They are going to the opera.” I couldn’t look him in the face because I was afraid to read in his eyes what he hid so carefully: the pain of my heart at the sight of these two young lives leaving him for the first time, and maybe forever...”

“I was appointed to intelligence,” said son Dmitry when parting.

“But you haven’t been appointed yet!” Evgeniy Sergeevich corrected him.

- Oh, it will be soon, it doesn’t matter.

He was actually assigned to intelligence. Then there was a telegram:

“Your son Dmitry was ambushed during the offensive. Considered missing. We hope to find him alive."

Not found. The reconnaissance patrol came under fire from German infantry. Dmitry ordered his men to retreat and remained last, covering the retreat. He was the son and grandson of doctors; fighting for other people's lives was something completely natural for him. His horse returned with a shot through the saddle, and the captured Germans reported that Dmitry had died after giving them his last Stand. He was twenty years old.

On that terrible evening, when it became known that there was no more hope, Evgeniy Sergeevich did not show any emotions. When talking to a friend, his face remained motionless, his voice was completely calm. Only when he was left alone with Tatyana and Gleb did he quietly say: “It’s all over. He’s dead,” and cried bitterly. Evgeniy Sergeevich never recovered from this blow.

Only work saved him, and not just him. The Empress and Grand Duchesses spent a lot of time in hospitals. The poet Sergei Yesenin saw the princesses there and wrote:

...Where are pale shadows and sorrowful torments,
They are for the one who went to suffer for us,
Regal hands stretch out,
Blessing them for the hereafter hour.
On a white bed, in a bright glare of light,
The one whose life they want to return is crying...
And the walls of the infirmary tremble
From pity that their chest tightens.

Pulls them closer and closer with an irresistible hand
Where grief puts sadness on the forehead.
Oh, pray, Saint Magdalene,
For their fate.

In Tsarskoe Selo alone, Botkin opened 30 infirmaries. As always, I worked to the limit of human strength. One nurse recalled that he was not just a doctor, but a great doctor. One day, Evgeniy Sergeevich approached the bed of a soldier who came from a peasant background. Due to his severe wound, he did not recover, he only lost weight and was in a depressed state of mind. Things could have ended very badly.

“Darling, what would you like to eat?” – Botkin unexpectedly asked the soldier. “I, your honor, would eat fried pig ears,” he replied. One of the sisters was immediately sent to the market. After the patient ate what he ordered, he began to recover. “Just imagine that your patient is alone,” taught Evgeniy Sergeevich. – Or maybe he is deprived of air, light, nutrition necessary for health? Pamper him."

The secret of a real doctor is humanity. This is what Dr. Botkin once said to his students:

“Once the trust you have acquired in patients turns into sincere affection for you, when they are convinced of your unfailingly cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the room, you are greeted by a joyful and welcoming mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which will often help you much more than with mixtures and powders... Only a heart is needed for this, only sincere heartfelt sympathy for the sick person. So don’t be stingy, learn to give it with a broad hand to those who need it.”

“You need to treat not the disease, but the patient,” his father Sergei Petrovich liked to repeat. It meant that people are different, they cannot be treated the same. For Evgeniy Sergeevich, this idea received another dimension: you need to remember the patient’s soul, this means a lot for healing.

We could tell a lot more about that war, but we won’t linger. Time to talk about the latest feat of Dr. Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin.

The day before

The breath of revolution, increasingly foul, drove many crazy. People did not become more responsible; on the contrary, willingly talking about saving Russia, they energetically pushed it towards destruction. One of these enthusiasts was Lieutenant Sergei Sukhotin, an insider in high society circles. Shortly after Christmas '16, he dropped in to see the Botkins. On the same day, Evgeniy Sergeevich invited a front-line soldier, whom he was treating for wounds, to visit - an officer of the Siberian riflemen, Konstantin Melnik. Those who knew him said: “Give him ten men, and he will do the work of hundreds with minimal losses. He appears in the most dangerous places, without bowing to bullets. His people say he's under a spell, and they're right."

Sukhotin, with gloating, began to retell yet another gossip about Rasputin - an orgy with young ladies from society, about the officer husbands of these women who brazenly burst into Grigory with sabers, but the police prevented them from finishing him off. The lieutenant did not limit himself to this bullshit, declaring that Rasputin and the Empress’s maid of honor Anna Vyrubova were German spies.

“Forgive me,” the Miller suddenly said, “what you are asserting here is a very serious accusation.” If Vyrubova is a spy, you must prove it.

Sukhotin was stunned, then contemptuously and stupidly began to talk about some kind of intrigue.

– What intrigues? – Konstantin tried to clarify. – If you have evidence, give it to the police. And spreading rumors is pointless and dangerous, especially if it harms Their Majesties.

“I am of the same opinion as Melnik,” Evgeniy Sergeevich intervened, wanting to put an end to this conversation. – Such things cannot be stated without evidence. In any case, we must trust our Sovereign under all circumstances.

Less than a year later, Sukhotin will take part in the murder of Grigory Rasputin. Then he would settle well under the Bolsheviks, marry Leo Tolstoy’s granddaughter Sophia, but he would not live to see forty, crippled by paralysis.

It won't work either three years after talking about how Tatyana Botkina will become the wife of Konstantin Melnik. Botkin will have already been shot by this time. “Trust our Sovereign under any circumstances.” This was an extremely accurate and intelligent recommendation given by a doctor to a seriously ill country. But the time was such that people believed liars most of all.

“Basically, I’m already dead.”

On March 2, 1917, Botkin went to visit the children who lived nearby under the supervision of their landlady Ustinya Alexandrovna Tevyashova. She was a 75-year-old stately old lady - the widow of the Governor General. A few minutes after Evgeniy Sergeevich entered the house, a crowd of soldiers with rifles burst into it.

“You have General Botkin,” an ensign in a hat and a red bow approached Ustinya Alexandrovna.

- Not a general, but a doctor, who came to treat a patient.

It was true, Evgeniy Sergeevich really treated the owner’s brother.

– It’s all the same, we were ordered to arrest all the generals.

“I also don’t care who you should arrest, but I think that when talking to me, the widow of the adjutant general, you, firstly, should take off your hats, and secondly, you can get out of here.”

The taken aback soldiers, led by their leader, took off their hats and left.

Unfortunately, there are not too many people like Ustinya Alexandrovna left in the empire.

The sovereign with his family and that part of his entourage that did not betray them found themselves under arrest. It was allowed to go out only to the garden, where an insolent crowd eagerly watched the Tsar through the bars. Sometimes she showered Nikolai Alexandrovich with ridicule. Only a few looked at him with pain in their eyes.

At this time, revolutionary Petrograd, according to the memoirs of Tatyana Botkina, was preparing for a holiday - the funeral of the victims of the revolution. Since they decided not to call priests, the relatives of the victims stole most of the already few bodies. We had to recruit from the dead some Chinese who died of typhus and unknown dead. They were buried very solemnly in red coffins on the Champ de Mars. A similar event was held in Tsarskoe Selo. There were very few victims of the revolution there - six soldiers who died drunk in the basement of a store. They were joined by a cook who died in the hospital and a rifleman who died while quelling a riot in Petrograd. They decided to bury them under the windows of the Tsar’s office in order to insult him. The weather was beautiful, the buds on the trees were green, but as soon as the red coffins were carried into the park fence to the sounds of “you have fallen a victim in the fatal struggle,” the sun became clouded and wet snow began to fall in thick flakes, obscuring the insane spectacle from the eyes of the Royal Family.

At the end of May, Evgeniy Sergeevich was temporarily released from custody. The daughter-in-law, the wife of the deceased Dmitry, fell ill. The doctor was told that she was dying, but the young widow managed to get out. Returning back to arrest turned out to be much more difficult; I had to personally meet with Kerensky. He, apparently, tried to dissuade Yevgeny Sergeevich, explaining that soon the Royal Family would have to go into exile, but Botkin was adamant. The place of exile was Tobolsk, where the atmosphere was sharply different from the capital. The Tsar continued to be revered here and was seen as a passion-bearer. They sent sweets, sugar, cakes, smoked fish, not to mention money. Botkin tried to repay this handsomely - a world-famous doctor, he treated for free everyone who asked for help, and took on the completely hopeless. Tatyana and Gleb lived with their father.

Evgeniy Sergeevich’s children remained in Tobolsk - he guessed that going with him to Yekaterinburg was too dangerous. Personally, I was not at all afraid for myself.

As one of the guards recalled, “this Botkin was a giant. On his face, framed by a beard, piercing eyes sparkled from behind thick glasses. He always wore the uniform that the sovereign granted him. But at the time when the Tsar allowed himself to remove his shoulder straps, Botkin opposed this. It seemed that he did not want to admit that he was a prisoner.”

This was seen as stubbornness, but the reasons for Evgeniy Sergeevich’s perseverance lay elsewhere. You understand them by reading his last letter, which was never sent to his brother Alexander.

“In essence, I died, I died for my children, for my friends, for my cause,” he writes. And then he tells how he found faith, which is natural for a doctor - there is too much Christian in his work. He says how important it has become for him to also take care of the Lord. The story is common Orthodox man, but suddenly you realize the full value of his words:

“I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved.” This justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end. How Abraham did not hesitate at God’s demand to sacrifice his only son to Him. And I firmly believe that just as God saved Isaac then, He will now save my children, and He Himself will be their father.”

He, of course, did not reveal all this to the children in his messages from Ipatiev’s house. He wrote something completely different:

“Sleep peacefully, my beloved, precious ones, may God protect and bless you, and I kiss and caress you endlessly, as I love you. Your dad...” “He was infinitely kind,” Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin recalled about his brother. “One could say that he came into the world for the sake of people and in order to sacrifice himself.”

The first to die

They were killed gradually. First, the sailors who were looking after the royal children, Klimenty Nagorny and Ivan Sednev, were taken out of the Ipatiev mansion. The Red Guards hated and feared them. They hated them because they allegedly dishonored the honor of sailors. They were afraid because Nagorny - powerful, decisive, the son of a peasant - openly promised to beat them in the face for theft and abuse of royal prisoners. Sednev was silent for the most part, but he was silent so that goosebumps began to run down the backs of the guards. The friends were executed a few days later in the forest along with other “enemies of the people.” On the way, Nagorny encouraged the suicide bombers, but Sednev remained silent. When the Reds were driven out of Yekaterinburg, the sailors were found in the forest, pecked by birds, and reburied. Many people remember their grave strewn with white flowers.

After their removal from Ipatiev’s mansion, the Red Army soldiers were no longer ashamed of anything. They sang obscene songs, scrawled obscene words on the walls, and painted vile images. Not all guards liked this. One later spoke with bitterness about the grand duchesses: “They humiliated and offended the girls, they spied on the slightest movement. I often felt sorry for them. When they played dance music on the piano, they smiled, but tears flowed from their eyes onto the keys.”

Then, on May 25, General Ilya Tatishchev was executed. Before going into exile, the Emperor offered to accompany him to Count Benckendorff. He refused, citing his wife’s illness. Then the Tsar turned to his childhood friend Nyryshkin. He asked for 24 hours to think about it, to which the Emperor said that he no longer needed Naryshkin’s services. Tatishchev immediately agreed. Very witty and kind person, he greatly brightened up the life of the Royal Family in Tobolsk. But one day he quietly admitted in a conversation with the teacher of the royal children, Pierre Gilliard: “I know that I will not come out of this alive. But I pray for only one thing: that they not separate me from the Emperor and let me die with him.”

They were separated after all - here on earth...

The complete opposite of Tatishchev was General Vasily Dolgorukov - boring, always grumbling. But at the decisive hour he did not turn away, did not chicken out. He was shot on July 10.

There were 52 of them - those who voluntarily went into exile with the Royal Family to share their fate. We named only a few names.

Execution

“I don’t indulge myself in hope, I don’t lull myself into illusions and I look the unvarnished reality straight in the eye,” wrote Evgeniy Sergeevich shortly before his death. Hardly any of them, prepared for death, thought otherwise. The task was simple - to remain ourselves, to remain people in the eyes of God. All prisoners, except the Royal Family, could have bought life and even freedom at any moment, but they did not want to do this.

Here is what the regicide Yurovsky wrote about Yevgeny Sergeevich: “Doctor Botkin was a faithful friend of the family. In all cases, for one or another family need, he acted as an intercessor. He was devoted body and soul to his family and, together with the Romanov family, experienced the severity of their life.”

And Yurovsky’s assistant, executioner Nikulin, once grimaced, undertook to retell the contents of one of Yevgeny Sergeevich’s letters. He remembered the following words there: “...And I must tell you that when the Tsar-Sovereign was in glory, I was with him. And now that he is in misfortune, I also consider it my duty to be with him.”

But these non-humans understood that they were dealing with a saint!

He continued to treat, helping everyone, although he himself was seriously ill. Suffering from cold and kidney colic, back in Tobolsk he gave away his fur-lined overcoat Grand Duchess Mary and the Queen. They then wrapped themselves in it together. However, all the doomed supported each other as best they could. The Empress and her daughters looked after their doctor and injected him with medicine. “Suffers very much...” – the Empress wrote in her diary. Another time she told how the Tsar read the 12th chapter of the Gospel, and then he and Dr. Botkin discussed it. We are obviously talking about the chapter where the Pharisees demand a sign from Christ and hear in response that there will be no other sign than the sign of the prophet Jonah: “For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart earth for three days and three nights." This is about His death and Resurrection.

For people preparing for death, these words mean a lot.

At half past two on the night of July 17, 1918, the arrested were awakened by Commandant Yurovsky, who ordered them to go down to the basement. He warned everyone through Botkin that there was no need to take things, but the women collected some small change, pillows, handbags and, it seems, a small dog, as if they could keep them in this world.

They began to arrange the doomed in the basement as if they were going to be photographed. “There aren’t even chairs here,” said the Empress. The chairs were brought. Everyone - both the executioners and the victims - pretended not to understand what was happening. But the Emperor, who at first held Alyosha in his arms, suddenly put him behind his back, covering him with himself. “That means we won’t be taken anywhere,” Botkin said after the verdict was read out. It was not a question; the doctor's voice was devoid of any emotion.

Nobody wanted to kill people who, even from the point of view of “proletarian legality,” were innocent. As if by agreement, but in fact, on the contrary, without coordinating their actions, the killers began to shoot at one person - the Tsar. It was only by chance that two bullets hit Evgeniy Sergeevich, then the third hit both knees. He stepped towards the Emperor and Alyosha, fell to the floor and froze in some strange position, as if he was lying down to rest. Yurovsky finished him off with a shot to the head. Realizing their mistake, the executioners opened fire on the other condemned prisoners, but for some reason they always missed, especially on the Grand Duchesses. Then the Bolshevik Ermakov used a bayonet and then began shooting the girls in the heads.

Suddenly, from the right corner of the room, where the pillow was moving, a woman’s joyful cry was heard: “Thank God! God saved me!” Staggering, the maid Anna Demidova - Nyuta - rose from the floor. Two Latvians, who had run out of ammunition, rushed to her and bayoneted her. Alyosha woke up from Anna’s scream, moving in agony and covering his chest with his hands. His mouth was full of blood, but he still tried to say: “Mom.” Yakov Yurovsky started shooting again.

Having said goodbye to the Royal Family and her father in Tobolsk, Tatyana Botkina could not sleep for a long time. “Every time, closing my eyelids,” she recalled, “I saw before my eyes pictures of that terrible night: my father’s face and his last blessing; the tired smile of the Emperor, politely listening to the speeches of the security officer; the look of the Empress clouded with sadness, directed, it seemed, into God knows what silent eternity. Having mustered the courage to get up, I opened the window and sat on the windowsill to be warmed by the sun. This April, spring really radiated warmth, and the air was unusually clean...”

She wrote these lines sixty years later, perhaps trying to say something very important about those she loved. About the fact that after night comes morning - and as soon as you open the window, Heaven comes into its own.

Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin

The Botkin family is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful Russian families, which gave the country, and the world, many outstanding people in a wide variety of fields. Some of its representatives remained industrialists and traders before the revolution, but others went entirely into science, art, and diplomacy and achieved not only all-Russian, but also European fame. The Botkin family is very correctly characterized by the biographer of one of its most prominent representatives, the famous clinician and physician Sergei Petrovich: “S.P. Botkin came from a pure-blooded Great Russian family, without the slightest admixture of foreign blood, and thus serves as brilliant proof that if talent Slavic tribe add extensive and solid knowledge, together with a love of persistent work, then this tribe is capable of producing the most advanced figures in the field of pan-European science and thought.” For doctors, the surname Botkin primarily evokes associations with Botkin’s disease (acute viral parenchymal hepatitis); the disease is named after Sergei Petrovich Botkin, who studied jaundice and was the first to suggest its infectious nature. Someone may remember the Botkin-Gumprecht cells (corpuscles, shadows) - the remains of destroyed lymphoid cells (lymphocytes, etc.), detected by microscopy of blood smears; their number reflects the intensity of the process of destruction of lymphocytes. Back in 1892, Sergei Petrovich Botkin drew attention to leukolysis as a factor “playing a primary role in the body’s self-defense,” even greater than phagocytosis. Leukocytosis in Botkin's experiments with both the injection of tuberculin and the immunization of horses against tetanus toxin was later replaced by leukolysis, and this moment coincided with a critical decline. The same was noted by Botkin with fibrinous pneumonia. Later, the son of Sergei Petrovich, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, became interested in this phenomenon, to whom the term leukolysis itself belongs. Evgeniy Sergeevich later described lysed cells in the blood when typhoid fever, but not in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But as well as Botkin the senior doctor is remembered, Botkin the junior doctor is so undeservedly forgotten... Evgeny Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo in the family of the outstanding Russian scientist and doctor, founder of the experimental direction in medicine Sergei Petrovich Botkin, physician Alexander II and Alexander III. He was the 4th child of Sergei Petrovich from his 1st marriage to Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova. The atmosphere in the family and home education played a big role in the formation of Evgeniy Sergeevich’s personality. Financial well-being the Botkin family was founded entrepreneurial activity grandfather Evgeniy Sergeevich Pyotr Kononovich, a famous tea supplier. The percentage of the trade turnover allocated to each of the heirs allowed them to choose a business to their liking, engage in self-education and lead a life not very burdened with financial worries. There were many Botkins in the family creative personalities(artists, writers, etc.). The Botkins were related to Afanasy Fet and Pavel Tretyakov. Sergei Petrovich was a fan of music, calling music lessons a “refreshing bath”; he played the cello to the accompaniment of his wife and under the guidance of Professor I.I. Seifert. Evgeniy Sergeevich received a thorough musical education and acquired a refined musical taste. Professors of the Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists came to the famous Botkin Saturdays. Among them is I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov, N.M. Yakubovich, M.A. Balakirev. Nikolai Andreevich Belogolovy, friend and biographer of S.P. Botkina, public figure and a doctor, noted: “Surrounded by his 12 children ranging in age from 30 years to a one-year-old child... he seemed like a true biblical patriarch; the children adored him, despite the fact that he knew how to maintain great discipline and blind obedience to himself in the family.” About Evgeniy Sergeevich’s mother, Anastasia Alexandrovna: “What made her better than any beauty was the subtle grace and amazing tact, spilled throughout her entire being and which were the result of that solid school of noble upbringing through which she went through. And she was brought up remarkably versatile and thoroughly... On top of this, she was very smart, witty, sensitive to everything good and kind... And she was the most exemplary mother in the sense that, passionately loving her children, she knew how to preserve the necessary pedagogical self-control, carefully and intelligently monitored their upbringing, and promptly eradicated the emerging shortcomings in them.” Already in his childhood, Evgeniy Sergeevich’s character showed such qualities as modesty, kind attitude towards others and rejection of violence. In Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin’s book “My Brother” there are the following lines: “From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection... Always sensitive, out of delicacy, internally kind, with an extraordinary soul, he felt horror from any fight or fight ... As usual, he did not participate in our fights, but when a fist fight became dangerous, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fighters. He was very diligent and smart in his studies." Primary home education allowed Evgeniy Sergeevich to immediately enter the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium in 1878, where the young man’s brilliant abilities in the natural sciences were revealed. After graduating from high school in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. However, the example of his father, a doctor, and the worship of medicine turned out to be stronger, and in 1883, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the newly opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy (MMA). In the year of his father’s death (1889), Evgeniy Sergeevich successfully graduated from the academy third in the graduating class, was awarded the title of doctor with honors and the personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded to “the third highest scorer in his course...”. Medical path E.S. Botkin began in January 1890 as a medical assistant at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. In December 1890 on own funds he was sent abroad for scientific purposes. He studied with leading European scientists and became familiar with the structure of Berlin hospitals. At the end of his foreign business trip in May 1892, Evgeniy Sergeevich began working as a doctor in the court chapel, and in January 1894 he returned to perform medical duties at the Mariinsky Hospital as a supernumerary resident. Simultaneously with clinical practice E.S. Botkin was studying scientific search, the main directions of which were questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis, and the protective properties of blood cells. He brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine “On the question of the influence of albumoses and peptones on some functions of the animal body,” dedicated to his father, at the Military Medical Academy on May 8, 1893. The official opponent for the defense was I.P. Pavlov. In the spring of 1895 E.S. Botkin is sent abroad and spends two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listens to lectures and practices with leading German doctors- Professors G. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. Scientific works and reports of foreign business trips were published in the Botkin Hospital Newspaper and in the Proceedings of the Society of Russian Doctors. In May 1897 E.S. Botkin was elected privat-docent of the Military Medical Academy. Here are a few words from the introductory lecture given to the students of the Military Medical Academy on October 18, 1897: “Once the trust you have acquired in patients turns into sincere affection for you, when they are convinced of your invariably cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the room, you are greeted by a joyful and welcoming mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which will often help you much more than with mixtures and powders... Only a heart is needed for this, only sincere heartfelt sympathy for the sick person. So don’t be stingy, learn to give it with a wide hand to those who need it. So, let’s go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him.” In 1898, Evgeniy Sergeevich’s work “Patients in the Hospital” was published, and in 1903 - “What does it mean to “pamper” the sick?” With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), Evgeniy Sergeevich left for active army volunteer and was appointed head of the medical unit of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROSC) in the Manchurian Army. Occupying a fairly high administrative position, he nevertheless preferred to spend most of his time in advanced positions. Eyewitnesses said that one day a wounded company paramedic was brought in for dressing. Having done everything that was required, Botkin took the paramedic’s bag and went to the front line. The sorrowful thoughts that this shameful war evoked in the ardent patriot testified to his deep religiosity: “I am more and more depressed by the course of our war, and therefore it hurts... that the whole mass of our troubles is only the result of people’s lack of spirituality, a sense of duty, that petty calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God.” Evgeniy Sergeevich showed his attitude to this war and his purpose in it in the book “Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From Letters to his Wife,” published in 1908. Here are some of his observations and thoughts. “I was not afraid for myself: never before have I felt the strength of my faith to such an extent. I was absolutely convinced that no matter how great the risk I was running, I would not be killed unless God so wished it. I didn’t tease fate, I didn’t stand at the guns so as not to disturb the shooters, but I realized that I was needed, and this consciousness made my position pleasant.” “I just read all the latest telegrams about the fall of Mukden and our terrible retreat to Telpin. I can’t convey to you my feelings... Despair and hopelessness cover my soul. Will we have something in Russia? Poor, poor homeland" (Chita, March 1, 1905). “For the distinction rendered in cases against the Japanese,” Evgeniy Sergeevich was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, III and II degrees with swords. Outwardly very calm and strong-willed, Doctor E.S. Botkin was a sentimental man with a fine spiritual organization. Let us turn again to the book by P.S. Botkin “My Brother”: “...I came to my father’s grave and suddenly heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother (Evgeniy) lying in the snow. “Oh, it’s you, Petya, you came to talk to dad,” and more sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and powerful man could cry like a child.” Dr. Botkin on May 6, 1905 was appointed honorary physician of the imperial family. In the fall of 1905, Evgeniy Sergeevich returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. In 1907, he was appointed chief physician of the St. George community in the capital. In 1907, after the death of Gustav Hirsch, the royal family was left without a physician. The candidacy for the new life physician was nominated by the empress herself, who, when asked who she would like to see as her life physician, answered: “Botkina.” When she was told that two Botkins are now equally famous in St. Petersburg, she said: “The one who was in the war!” (Although brother Sergei Sergeevich was also a participant in the Russo-Japanese War.) Thus, on April 13, 1908, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin became the personal physician of the latter’s family Russian Emperor, repeating the career path of his father, who was the life physician of two Russian tsars (Alexander II and Alexander III). E.S. Botkin was three years older than his august patient, Emperor Nicholas II. The tsar's family was served by a large staff of doctors (among whom there were a variety of specialists: surgeons, ophthalmologists, obstetricians, dentists), doctors more titled than the modest private assistant professor of the Military Medical Academy. But Dr. Botkin was distinguished by a rare talent for clinical thinking and an even more rare feeling of sincere love for his patients. The duty of the life physician was to treat all members of the royal family, which he carried out carefully and scrupulously. It was necessary to examine and treat the emperor, who had amazingly good health, and the grand duchesses, who had, it seemed, suffered from all known childhood infections. Nicholas II treated his doctor with great sympathy and trust. He patiently endured all the diagnostic and treatment procedures prescribed by Dr. Botkin. But the most difficult patients were Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei. As a little girl, the future empress suffered from diphtheria, complications of which included attacks of pain in the joints, swelling of the legs, palpitations, and arrhythmia. Edema forced Alexandra Fedorovna to wear special shoes and give up long walks, and palpitations and headaches prevented her from getting out of bed for weeks. However, the main object of Evgeniy Sergeevich's efforts was Tsarevich Alexei, who was born with a dangerous and fatal disease - hemophilia. It was with the Tsarevich that E.S. spent most of his time. Botkin, sometimes in life-threatening conditions, days and nights, without leaving the bedside of the sick Alexei, surrounding him with human care and sympathy, giving him all the warmth of his generous heart. This attitude found a mutual response on the part of the little patient, who would write to his doctor: “I love you with all my little heart.” Evgeniy Sergeevich himself also sincerely became attached to the members royal family, more than once telling his household: “With their kindness they made me a slave until the end of my days.”

As a doctor and how moral person, Evgeniy Sergeevich never in private conversations touched upon the health of his highest patients. Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, General A.A. Mosolov noted: “Botkin was known for his restraint. None of the retinue managed to find out from him what the empress was sick with and what treatment the queen and heir followed. He was, of course, a devoted servant to Their Majesties.” Despite all the vicissitudes in relations with royalty, Dr. Botkin was an influential person in the royal circle. The maid of honor, friend and confidant of the Empress Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva) stated: “The faithful Botkin, appointed by the Empress herself, was very influential.” Evgeniy Sergeevich himself was far from politics, however, as a caring person, as a patriot of his country, he could not help but see the destructiveness of public sentiment in it, which he considered the main reason for Russia’s defeat in the war of 1904-1905. He understood very well that hatred of the Tsar, of the imperial family, incited by radical revolutionary circles, was beneficial only to the enemies of Russia, the Russia that his ancestors served, for which he himself fought on the fields of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia, which was entering into the most brutal and bloody world battle. He despised people who used dirty methods to achieve their goals, who composed courtly nonsense about the royal family and its morals. He spoke about such people as follows: “I don’t understand how people who consider themselves monarchists and talk about the adoration of His Majesty can so easily believe all the rumors being spread, can spread them themselves, erecting all sorts of fables about the Empress, and do not understand that, By insulting her, they thereby insult her august husband, whom they supposedly adore.” It wasn't smooth and family life Evgeniy Sergeevich. Carried away by revolutionary ideas and a young (20 years younger) student at the Riga Polytechnic College, his wife Olga Vladimirovna left him in 1910. Three younger children remain in the care of Dr. Botkin: Dmitry, Tatyana and Gleb (the eldest, Yuri, already lived separately). But what saved him from despair were the children who selflessly loved and adored their father, who always looked forward to his coming, and who became anxious during his long absence. Evgeniy Sergeevich answered them in the same way, but never once took advantage of his special position to create any special conditions for him. His inner convictions did not allow him to put in a word for his son Dmitry, the cornet of the Life Guards Cossack regiment, who with the outbreak of the 1914 war went to the front and died heroically on December 3, 1914, covering the retreat of the Cossack reconnaissance patrol. The death of his son, who was posthumously awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree, for heroism, became an unhealing spiritual wound for his father until the end of his days. And soon an event took place in Russia on a scale more fatal and destructive than a personal drama... After the February coup, the empress and her children were imprisoned by the new authorities in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo, a little later they were joined by the former autocrat. Everyone from the environment former rulers The commissioners of the Provisional Government were offered the choice of either staying with the prisoners or leaving them. And many, who only yesterday swore eternal loyalty to the emperor and his family, left them at this difficult time. Many, but not as many as physician Botkin. At the very short time he would leave the Romanovs in order to provide assistance to the typhus-stricken widow of his son Dmitry, who lived here in Tsarskoe Selo, opposite the large Catherine Palace, in the doctor’s own apartment at 6 Sadovaya Street. When her condition ceased to inspire fear, he, without asking, coercion returned to the hermits of the Alexander Palace. The Tsar and Tsarina were accused of high treason, and an investigation was underway into this case. The accusation of the former tsar and his wife was not confirmed, but the Provisional Government felt fear of them and did not agree to release them. Four key ministers of the Provisional Government (G.E. Lvov, M.I. Tereshchenko, N.V. Nekrasov, A.F. Kerensky) decided to send the royal family to Tobolsk. On the night of July 31 to August 1, 1917, the family went by train to Tyumen. And this time the retinue was asked to leave the family of the former emperor, and again there were those who did this. But few considered it their duty to share the fate of the former reigning persons. Among them is Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. When the Tsar asked how he would leave the children (Tatyana and Gleb), the doctor replied that there was nothing higher for him than caring for Their Majesties. On August 3, the exiles arrived in Tyumen, from there on August 4 they departed by steamship for Tobolsk. In Tobolsk they had to live on the steamship "Rus" for about two weeks, then on August 13 the royal family was accommodated in the former governor's house, and the retinue, including doctors E.S. Botkin and V.N. Derevenko, in the house of the fishmonger Kornilov nearby. In Tobolsk, it was prescribed to observe the Tsarskoye Selo regime, that is, no one was allowed outside the designated premises, except for Doctor Botkin and Doctor Derevenko, who were allowed to provide medical care to the population. In Tobolsk, Botkin had two rooms in which he could receive patients. Evgeniy Sergeevich will write about the provision of medical care to the residents of Tobolsk and the guard soldiers in his last letter in his life: “Their trust especially touched me, and I was pleased by their confidence, which never deceived them, that I would receive them with the same attention and affection as every other patient and not only as an equal, but also as a patient who has all the rights to all my cares and services.” On September 14, 1917, daughter Tatyana and son Gleb arrived in Tobolsk. Tatyana left memories of how they lived in this city. She was brought up at court and was friends with one of the king's daughters, Anastasia. Following her, Dr. Botkin’s former patient, Lieutenant Melnik, arrived in the city. Konstantin Melnik was wounded in Galicia, and Dr. Botkin treated him at the Tsarskoye Selo hospital. Later, the lieutenant lived at his house: the young officer, the son of a peasant, was secretly in love with Tatyana Botkina. He came to Siberia to protect his savior and his daughter. To Botkin, he subtly reminded him of his deceased beloved son Dmitry. The miller recalled that in Tobolsk Botkin treated both townspeople and peasants from the surrounding villages, but did not take money, and they handed it to the cab drivers who brought the doctor. This was very helpful - Dr. Botkin could not always pay them. Lieutenant Konstantin Melnik and Tatyana Botkina got married in Tobolsk, shortly before the city was occupied by the Whites. They lived there for about a year, then through Vladivostok they reached Europe and eventually settled in France. The descendants of Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin still live in this country. In April 1918, a close friend of Ya.M. Sverdlov, Commissar V. Yakovlev, arrived in Tobolsk, who immediately declared the doctors also arrested. However, due to confusion, only Doctor Botkin was limited in freedom of movement. On the night of April 25-26, 1918, the Tsar with his wife and daughter Maria, Anna Demidova and Doctor Botkin, under the escort of a new special forces detachment under the leadership of Yakovlev, were sent to Yekaterinburg. A typical example: suffering from cold and kidney colic, the doctor gave his fur coat to Princess Maria, who had no warm clothes. After certain ordeals, the prisoners reached Yekaterinburg. On May 20, the rest of the royal family and some of the retinue arrived here. The children of Evgeniy Sergeevich remained in Tobolsk. Botkin’s daughter recalled her father’s departure from Tobolsk: “There were no orders about doctors, but at the very beginning, hearing that Their Majesties were coming, my father announced that he would go with them. “What about your children?” - Her Majesty asked, knowing our relationship and the terrible worries that my father always experienced when separated from us. To this my father replied that the interests of Their Majesties came first for him. Her Majesty was moved to tears and especially thanked her.” The regime of detention in a special purpose house (the mansion of engineer N.K. Ipatiev), where the royal family and its devoted servants were housed, was strikingly different from the regime in Tobolsk. But even here E.S. Botkin enjoyed the trust of the guard soldiers, to whom he provided medical assistance. Through him there was communication between the crowned prisoners and the commandant of the house, who became Yakov Yurovsky on July 4, and members of the Ural Council. The doctor petitioned for walks for prisoners, for access to Alexey’s teacher S.I. Gibbs and teacher Pierre Gilliard, tried in every possible way to ease the regime of detention. Therefore, his name appears more and more often in the last diary entries of Nicholas II. Johann Meyer, an Austrian soldier who was captured by the Russians during the First World War and defected to the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, wrote his memoirs “How the Royal Family Died.” In the book, he reports on the proposal made by the Bolsheviks to Dr. Botkin to leave royal family and choose a place of work, for example, somewhere in a Moscow clinic. Thus, Dr. Botkin knew for sure about the imminent execution. He knew and, having the opportunity to choose, chose loyalty to the oath once given to the king over salvation. This is how I. Meyer describes it: “You see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives. For a person in my position it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all need to understand this." This fact is consistent with the contents of the document stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation. This document is the last, unfinished letter from Evgeniy Sergeevich, dated July 9, 1918. Many researchers believe that the letter is addressed to younger brother A.S. Botkin. However, this seems undisputed, since in the letter the author often refers to the “principles of the 1889 edition,” to which Alexander Sergeevich had nothing to do. Most likely, it was addressed to an unknown friend and fellow student. “My voluntary imprisonment here is not limited by time as much as my earthly existence is limited... In essence, I died, I died for my children, for my friends, for my cause. I am dead, but not yet buried or buried alive... I do not indulge myself in hope, I am not lulled by illusions and I look the unvarnished reality straight in the eye... I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved,” and the consciousness that I remain faithful to the principles of the 1889 edition... In general, if “faith without works is dead,” then “works” without faith can exist, and if one of us adds faith to works, then this is only special to him the mercy of God... This justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at God’s demand to sacrifice his only son to him.” All those killed in N. Ipatiev’s house were ready for death and met it with dignity; even the killers noted this in their memoirs. At half past two on the night of July 17, 1918, the inhabitants of the house were awakened by Commandant Yurovsky and, under the pretext of transferring them to a safe place, he ordered everyone to go down to the basement. Here he announced the decision of the Ural Council to execute the royal family. With two bullets flying past the Sovereign, Doctor Botkin was wounded in the stomach (one bullet reached the lumbar spine, the other got stuck in the soft tissues of the pelvic region). The third bullet damaged both knee joint doctor, who stepped towards the king and prince. He fell. After the first volleys, the killers finished off their victims. According to Yurovsky, Dr. Botkin was still alive and lay calmly on his side, as if he had fallen asleep. “I finished him off with a shot to the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. Kolchak's intelligence investigator N. Sokolov, who conducted the investigation into the murder case in Ipatiev's house, among other material evidence in a hole in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki not far from Yekaterinburg, also discovered a pince-nez that belonged to Dr. Botkin. The last physician of the last Russian emperor, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981 along with others executed in the Ipatiev House.

The Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (February 2-3, 2016) canonized Dr. Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin in

Anna Vlasova

(Based on the works of L.A. Anninsky, V.N. Solovyov, Botkina S.D., King G., Wilson P., Krylova A.N.)

“There is nothing brighter than a soul that has been deemed worthy to endure for Christ something that seems terrible and unbearable to us. Just as those who are baptized with water, so those who undergo martyrdom are washed in their own blood. And here the spirit hovers with great abundance.” (St. John Chrysostom)

Eugene – translated from Greek as “noble”. The royal family of Nicholas II: his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and son Alexei, as well as their servants S. Botkin, A. Demidova, A. Trunn, I. Kharitonov are equated to passion-bearers. Who are the passion-bearers? These are Christian martyrs who endured suffering in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The saints who suffered martyrdom from their loved ones, fellow believers - the power of their malice, greed, and deceit. The character of the feat is goodness, non-resistance to enemies. The feat of passion-bearing is suffering for the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ.

The Botkin family is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable Russian families, which has given the country, and the world, many outstanding people in a wide variety of fields. Some of its representatives remained industrialists and traders before the revolution, others went entirely into science, art, diplomacy and achieved not only all-Russian, but also European fame. The Botkin family is very accurately characterized by the biographer of one of its most prominent representatives, the famous clinician and physician Sergei Petrovich: “S.P. Botkin came from a pure-blooded Great Russian family, without the slightest admixture of foreign blood, and thus serves as brilliant proof that if extensive and solid knowledge is added to the talent of the Slavic tribe, together with a love of persistent work, then this tribe is capable of producing the most advanced figures in the field of pan-European science and thoughts." For doctors, the surname Botkin primarily evokes associations with Botkin’s disease (acute viral parenchymal hepatitis), named after Sergei Petrovich Botkin, who studied jaundice and was the first to suggest its infectious nature. Someone may remember the Botkin-Gumprecht cells (corpuscles, shadows) - the remains of destroyed cells of the lymphoid series (lymphocytes, etc.), detected by microscopy of blood smears, their number reflects the intensity of the process of destruction of lymphocytes. Back in 1892, Sergei Petrovich Botkin drew attention to leukolysis as a factor “playing a primary role in the body’s self-defense,” even greater than phagocytosis. Leukocytosis in Botkin's experiments with both the injection of tuberculin and the immunization of horses against tetanus toxin was later replaced by leukolysis, and this moment coincided with a critical decline. The same was noted by Botkin with fibrinous pneumonia. Later, the son of Sergei Petrovich, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, became interested in this phenomenon, to whom the term “leukolysis” itself belongs.

But as well as the doctor Botkin Sr. is remembered, the doctor Botkin Jr. is so undeservedly forgotten... Evgeny Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, in the family of an outstanding Russian scientist and doctor, founder of the experimental direction in medicine, Sergei Petrovich Botkin, physician Alexander II and Alexander III. He was the 4th child of Sergei Petrovich from his 1st marriage to Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova. The atmosphere in the family and home education played a big role in the formation of Evgeniy Sergeevich’s personality. The financial well-being of the Botkin family was founded on the entrepreneurial activities of Evgeniy Sergeevich’s grandfather, Pyotr Kononovich, a famous tea supplier. The percentage of the trade turnover allocated to each of the heirs allowed them to choose a business to their liking, engage in self-education and lead a life not very burdened with financial worries.

There were many creative personalities in the Botkin family (artists, writers, etc.). The Botkins were related to Afanasy Fet and Pavel Tretyakov. Sergei Petrovich was a fan of music, calling music lessons a “refreshing bath”; he played the cello to the accompaniment of his wife and under the guidance of Professor I.I. Seifert. His son Evgeniy received a thorough musical education and acquired a refined musical taste. The capital's elite gathered for the famous Botkin Saturdays: professors from the Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists came. Among them is I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov, N.M. Yakubovich, M.A. Balakirev. Nikolai Andreevich Belogolovy, friend and biographer of S.P. Botkin, a public figure and doctor, noted: “Surrounded by his 12 children ranging in age from 30 years to a one-year-old child... he seemed like a true biblical patriarch; the children adored him, despite the fact that he knew how to maintain great discipline and blind obedience to himself in the family.” About Evgeniy Sergeevich’s mother, Anastasia Alexandrovna: “What made her better than any beauty was the subtle grace and amazing tact, spilled throughout her entire being and which were the result of that solid school of noble upbringing through which she went through. And she was brought up remarkably versatile and thoroughly... On top of this, she was very smart, witty, sensitive to everything good and kind... And she was the most exemplary mother in the sense that, passionately loving her children, she knew how to preserve the necessary pedagogical self-control, carefully and intelligently monitored their upbringing, and promptly eradicated the emerging shortcomings in them.”

Already in his childhood, Evgeniy Sergeevich’s character showed such qualities as modesty, kind attitude towards others and rejection of violence. In Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin’s book “My Brother” there are the following lines: “From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection... Always sensitive, out of delicacy, internally kind, with an extraordinary soul, he felt horror from any fight or fight ... As usual, he did not participate in our fights, but when a fist fight became dangerous, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fighters. He was very diligent and smart in his studies." Primary home education allowed Evgeniy Sergeevich to immediately enter the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium in 1878, where the young man’s brilliant abilities in the natural sciences were revealed. After graduating from high school in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. However, the example of his father, a doctor, and the worship of medicine turned out to be stronger, and in 1883, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the newly opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy (MMA). In the year of his father’s death (1889), Evgeniy Sergeevich successfully graduated from the academy third in the graduating class, was awarded the title of doctor with honors and the personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded to “the third highest scorer in his course...”.

Medical path E.S. Botkin began in January 1890 as a medical assistant at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. In December 1890, at his own expense, he was sent abroad for scientific purposes. He studied with leading European scientists and became familiar with the structure of Berlin hospitals. At the end of his foreign business trip in May 1892, Evgeniy Sergeevich began working as a doctor in the court chapel, and in January 1894 he returned to perform medical duties at the Mariinsky Hospital as a supernumerary resident. Simultaneously with clinical practice E.S. Botkin was engaged in scientific research, the main directions of which were questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis, and the protective properties of blood cells. He brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine “On the question of the influence of albumoses and peptones on some functions of the animal body,” dedicated to his father, at the Military Medical Academy on May 8, 1893. The official opponent for the defense was I.P. Pavlov.

In the spring of 1895 E.S. Botkin is sent abroad and spends two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listens to lectures and practices with leading German doctors - professors G. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. Scientific works and reports of foreign business trips were published in the Botkin Hospital Newspaper and in the Proceedings of the Society of Russian Doctors. In May 1897 E.S. Botkin was elected privat-docent of the Military Medical Academy. Here are a few words from the introductory lecture given to the students of the Military Medical Academy on October 18, 1897: “Once the trust you have acquired in patients turns into sincere affection for you, when they are convinced of your invariably cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the ward, you are greeted by a joyful and welcoming mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which will often help you much more than with mixtures and powders... Only a heart is needed for this, only sincere heartfelt sympathy for the sick person. So don’t be stingy, learn to give it with a wide hand to those who need it. So, let’s go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him.”

In 1898, Evgeniy Sergeevich’s work “Patients in the Hospital” was published, and in 1903 - “What does it mean to “pamper” the sick?” With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), Evgeniy Sergeevich volunteered for the active army and was appointed head of the medical unit of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROSC) in the Manchurian Army. Occupying a fairly high administrative position, he nevertheless preferred to spend most of his time in advanced positions. Eyewitnesses said that one day a wounded company paramedic was brought in for dressing. Having done everything that was required, Botkin took the paramedic’s bag and went to the front line. The sorrowful thoughts that this shameful war evoked in the ardent patriot testified to his deep religiosity: “I am more and more depressed by the course of our war, and therefore it hurts... that the whole mass of our troubles is only the result of people’s lack of spirituality, a sense of duty, that petty calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God.” Evgeniy Sergeevich showed his attitude to this war and his purpose in it in the book “Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From Letters to his Wife,” published in 1908. Here are some of his observations and thoughts. “I was not afraid for myself: never before have I felt the strength of my faith to such an extent. I was absolutely convinced that no matter how great the risk I was running, I would not be killed unless God so wished it. I didn’t tease fate, I didn’t stand at the guns so as not to disturb the shooters, but I realized that I was needed, and this consciousness made my position pleasant.” “I just read all the latest telegrams about the fall of Mukden and our terrible retreat to Telpin. I can’t convey to you my feelings... Despair and hopelessness cover my soul. Will we have something in Russia? Poor, poor homeland" (Chita, March 1, 1905). “For the distinction rendered in cases against the Japanese,” Evgeniy Sergeevich was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, III and II degrees with swords.

Outwardly very calm and strong-willed, Doctor E.S. Botkin was a sentimental man with a fine spiritual organization. Let us turn again to the book by P.S. Botkin “My Brother”: “...I came to my father’s grave and suddenly heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother (Evgeniy) lying in the snow. “Oh, it’s you, Petya, you came to talk to dad,” and more sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and powerful man could cry like a child.” Dr. Botkin on May 6, 1905 was appointed honorary physician of the imperial family. In the fall of 1905, Evgeniy Sergeevich returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. In 1907, he was appointed chief physician of the St. George community in the capital. In 1907, after the death of Gustav Hirsch, the royal family was left without a physician. The candidacy for the new life physician was nominated by the empress herself, who, when asked who she would like to see as her life physician, answered: “Botkina.” When she was told that two Botkins are now equally famous in St. Petersburg, she said: “The one who was in the war!” (Although his brother Sergei Sergeevich was also a participant in the Russo-Japanese War.) Thus, on April 13, 1908, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin became the life physician of the family of the last Russian emperor, repeating the career path of his father, who was the life physician of two Russian tsars (Alexander II and Alexander III).

E.S. Botkin was three years older than his august patient, Emperor Nicholas II. The tsar's family was served by a large staff of doctors (among whom there were a variety of specialists: surgeons, ophthalmologists, obstetricians, dentists), doctors more titled than the modest private assistant professor of the Military Medical Academy. But Dr. Botkin was distinguished by a rare talent for clinical thinking and an even more rare feeling of sincere love for his patients. The duty of the life physician was to treat all members of the royal family, which he carried out carefully and scrupulously. It was necessary to examine and treat the emperor, who had amazingly good health, and the grand duchesses, who had, it seemed, suffered from all known childhood infections. Nicholas II treated his doctor with great sympathy and trust. He patiently endured all the diagnostic and treatment procedures prescribed by Dr. Botkin. But the most difficult patients were Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei. As a little girl, the future empress suffered from diphtheria, complications of which included attacks of pain in the joints, swelling of the legs, palpitations, and arrhythmia. Edema forced Alexandra Fedorovna to wear special shoes and give up long walks, and palpitations and headaches prevented her from getting out of bed for weeks. However, the main object of Evgeniy Sergeevich's efforts was Tsarevich Alexei, who was born with a dangerous and fatal disease - hemophilia. It was with the Tsarevich that E.S. spent most of his time. Botkin, sometimes in life-threatening conditions, did not leave the sick Alexey’s bedside for days and nights, surrounding him with human care and sympathy, giving him all the warmth of his generous heart. This attitude found a mutual response on the part of the little patient, who would write to his doctor: “I love you with all my little heart.” Evgeniy Sergeevich himself also sincerely became attached to the members of the royal family, more than once telling his household: “With their kindness, they made me their slave until the end of my days.”

True, relations with the royal family were not always smooth and cloudless, which is mainly explained by the integrity of the doctor himself, who, with all his devotion, was not a blind performer and never compromised on issues of personal understanding of moral principles human relations. So, I received a refusal from him to my request to examine G.E. at home. Rasputina is the empress herself. In response to the request, Dr. Botkin stated: “It is my duty to provide medical assistance to anyone. But I won’t accept such a person at home.” This aroused the hostility of Alexandra Fedorovna, who, after one of the terrible crises of her son’s illness in the fall of 1912, when E.S. Botkin, professor S.P. Fedorov and honorary life surgeon V.N. Derevenko admitted their powerlessness over the disease, considering Alexei’s condition hopeless, and unconditionally trusted Rasputin.

As a doctor and as a moral person, Evgeniy Sergeevich never touched upon the health issues of his highest-ranking patients in private conversations. Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, General A.A. Mosolov noted: “Botkin was known for his restraint. None of the retinue managed to find out from him what the empress was sick with and what treatment the queen and heir followed. He was, of course, a devoted servant to Their Majesties.” Despite all the vicissitudes in relations with royalty, Dr. Botkin was an influential person in the royal circle. The maid of honor, friend and confidant of the Empress Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva) stated: “The faithful Botkin, appointed by the Empress herself, was very influential.” Evgeniy Sergeevich himself was far from politics, however, as a caring person, as a patriot of his country, he could not help but see the destructiveness of public sentiment in it, which he considered the main reason for Russia’s defeat in the war of 1904-1905. He understood very well that hatred of the Tsar, of the imperial family, incited by radical revolutionary circles, was beneficial only to the enemies of Russia, the Russia that his ancestors served, for which he himself fought on the fields of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia, which was entering into the most brutal and bloody world battle. He despised people who used dirty methods to achieve their goals, who composed courtly nonsense about the royal family and its morals. He spoke about such people as follows: “If Rasputin had not existed, then the opponents of the royal family and the preparers of the revolution would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, if there had been no Vyrubova, from me, from whomever you want.” And again: “I don’t understand how people who consider themselves monarchists and talk about the adoration of His Majesty can so easily believe all the rumors being spread, can spread them themselves, erecting all sorts of fables about the Empress, and do not understand that by insulting her, they thereby insulting her august husband, whom they supposedly adore.”

The family life of Evgeniy Sergeevich was not smooth either. Carried away by revolutionary ideas and a young (20 years younger) student at the Riga Polytechnic College, his wife Olga Vladimirovna left him in 1910. Three younger children remain in the care of Dr. Botkin: Dmitry, Tatyana and Gleb (the eldest, Yuri, already lived separately). But what saved him from despair were the children who selflessly loved and adored their father, who always looked forward to his coming, and who became anxious during his long absence. Evgeniy Sergeevich answered them in the same way, but never once took advantage of his special position to create any special conditions for him. His inner convictions did not allow him to put in a word for his son Dmitry, the cornet of the Life Guards Cossack regiment, who with the outbreak of the 1914 war went to the front and died heroically on December 3, 1914, covering the retreat of the Cossack reconnaissance patrol. The death of his son, who was posthumously awarded the St. George Cross of the IV degree for heroism, became an unhealing mental wound for his father until the end of his days.

And soon an event occurred in Russia, on a scale more fatal and destructive than a personal drama... After the February coup, the empress and her children were imprisoned by the new authorities in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, a little later they were joined by the former autocrat. Everyone from the entourage of the former rulers by the commissioners of the Provisional Government was offered the choice of either staying with the prisoners or leaving them. And many, who only yesterday swore eternal loyalty to the emperor and his family, left them at this difficult time. Many, but not as many as physician Botkin. For the shortest possible time, he would leave the Romanovs in order to provide assistance to the typhus-stricken widow of his son Dmitry, who lived here in Tsarskoe Selo, opposite the Grand Catherine Palace, in the doctor’s own apartment at 6 Sadovaya Street. When her condition ceased to inspire fear, he returned to the hermits of the Alexander Palace without requests or coercion. The Tsar and Tsarina were accused of high treason, and an investigation was underway into this case. The accusation of the former tsar and his wife was not confirmed, but the Provisional Government felt fear of them and did not agree to release them. At the suggestion of Archimandrite Hermogenes, four key ministers of the Provisional Government (G.E. Lvov, M.I. Tereshchenko, N.V. Nekrasov, A.F. Kerensky) decided to send the royal family to Tobolsk. On the night of July 31 to August 1, 1917, the family went by train to Tyumen. And this time the retinue was asked to leave the family of the former emperor, and again there were those who did this. But few considered it their duty to share the fate of the former reigning persons. Among them is Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. When the Tsar asked how he would leave the children (Tatyana and Gleb), the doctor replied that there was nothing higher for him than caring for Their Majesties.

On August 3, the exiles arrived in Tyumen, from there on August 4 they departed by steamship for Tobolsk. In Tobolsk they had to live on the steamship "Rus" for about two weeks, then on August 13 the royal family was accommodated in the former governor's house, and the retinue, including doctors E.S. Botkin and V.N. Derevenko, in the house of the fishmonger Kornilov nearby. In Tobolsk, it was prescribed to observe the Tsarskoye Selo regime, that is, no one was allowed outside the designated premises, except for Doctor Botkin and Doctor Derevenko, who were allowed to provide medical care to the population. In Tobolsk, Botkin had two rooms in which he could receive patients. Evgeniy Sergeevich will write about the provision of medical care to the residents of Tobolsk and the guard soldiers in his last letter in his life: “Their trust especially touched me, and I was pleased by their confidence, which never deceived them, that I would receive them with the same attention and affection as every other patient and not only as an equal, but also as a patient who has all the rights to all my cares and services.”

On September 14, 1917, daughter Tatyana and son Gleb arrived in Tobolsk. Tatyana left memories of how they lived in this city. She was brought up at court and was friends with one of the king's daughters, Anastasia. Following her, Dr. Botkin’s former patient, Lieutenant Melnik, arrived in the city. Konstantin Melnik was wounded in Galicia, and Dr. Botkin treated him at the Tsarskoye Selo hospital. Later, the lieutenant lived at his house: the young officer, the son of a peasant, was secretly in love with Tatyana Botkina. He came to Siberia to protect his savior and his daughter. To Botkin, he subtly reminded him of his deceased beloved son Dmitry. The miller recalled that in Tobolsk Botkin treated both townspeople and peasants from the surrounding villages, but did not take money, and they handed it to the cab drivers who brought the doctor. This was very helpful - Dr. Botkin could not always pay them. Lieutenant Konstantin Melnik and Tatyana Botkina got married in Tobolsk, shortly before the city was occupied by the Whites. They lived there for about a year, then through Vladivostok they reached Europe and eventually settled in France. The descendants of Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin still live in this country.

In April 1918, a close friend of Ya.M. Sverdlov, Commissar V. Yakovlev, arrived in Tobolsk, who immediately declared the doctors also arrested. However, due to confusion, only Doctor Botkin was limited in freedom of movement. On the night of April 25-26, 1918 former king with his wife and daughter Maria, Prince Dolgorukov, Anna Demidova and Doctor Botkin, under the escort of a special detachment of a new composition under the leadership of Yakovlev, were sent to Yekaterinburg. A typical example: suffering from cold and kidney colic, the doctor gave his fur coat to Princess Maria, who had no warm clothes. After certain ordeals, the prisoners reached Yekaterinburg. On May 20, the remaining members of the royal family and some of the retinue arrived here. The children of Evgeniy Sergeevich remained in Tobolsk. Botkin’s daughter recalled her father’s departure from Tobolsk: “There were no orders about doctors, but at the very beginning, hearing that Their Majesties were coming, my father announced that he would go with them. “What about your children?” - Her Majesty asked, knowing our relationship and the terrible worries that my father always experienced when separated from us. To this my father replied that the interests of Their Majesties came first for him. Her Majesty was moved to tears and especially thanked her.”

The regime of detention in a special purpose house (the mansion of engineer N.K. Ipatiev), where the royal family and its devoted servants were housed, was strikingly different from the regime in Tobolsk. But even here E.S. Botkin enjoyed the trust of the guard soldiers, to whom he provided medical assistance. Through him there was communication between the crowned prisoners and the commandant of the house, who became Yakov Yurovsky on July 4, and members of the Ural Council. The doctor petitioned for walks for prisoners, for access to Alexey’s teacher S.I. Gibbs and teacher Pierre Gilliard, tried in every possible way to ease the regime of detention. Therefore, his name appears more and more often in the last diary entries of Nicholas II. Johann Meyer, an Austrian soldier who was captured by the Russians during the First World War and defected to the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, wrote his memoirs “How the Royal Family Died.” In the book, he reports on the proposal made by the Bolsheviks to Dr. Botkin to leave the royal family and choose a place of work, for example, somewhere in a Moscow clinic. Thus, one of all the prisoners in the special purpose house knew for sure about the imminent execution. He knew and, having the opportunity to choose, chose loyalty to the oath once given to the king over salvation. This is how I. Meyer describes it: “You see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives. For a person in my position it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all need to understand this." This fact is consistent with the content of the document stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. This document is the last, unfinished letter from Evgeniy Sergeevich, dated July 9, 1918. Many researchers believe that the letter was addressed to his younger brother A.S. Botkin. However, this seems undisputed, since in the letter the author often refers to the “principles of the 1889 edition,” to which Alexander Sergeevich had nothing to do. Most likely, it was addressed to an unknown friend and fellow student. “My voluntary imprisonment here is not limited by time as much as my earthly existence is limited... In essence, I died, I died for my children, for my friends, for my cause. I am dead, but not yet buried or buried alive... I do not indulge myself in hope, I am not lulled by illusions and I look the unvarnished reality straight in the eye... I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved,” and the consciousness that I remain true to the principles of the 1889 edition. .. In general, if “faith without works is dead,” then “works” without faith can exist, and if one of us adds faith to works, then this is only due to God’s special mercy towards him... This justifies my last decision when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at God’s demand to sacrifice his only son to him.”

We will never know whether the doctor warned anyone about the impending massacre, but even the killers noted this in their memoirs that all those killed in Ipatiev’s house were ready for death and met it with dignity. At half past two on the night of July 17, 1918, the inhabitants of the house were awakened by Commandant Yurovsky and, under the pretext of transferring them to a safe place, he ordered everyone to go down to the basement. Here he announced the decision of the Ural Council to execute the royal family. The tallest of all, standing behind Nikolai and next to Alexei, who was sitting on a chair, Doctor Botkin, more mechanically than in surprise, said: “That means they won’t take us anywhere.” And after that shots rang out. Forgetting the distribution of roles, the assassins opened fire only on the emperor. With two bullets flying past the Tsar, Doctor Botkin was wounded in the stomach (one bullet reached the lumbar spine, the other got stuck in the soft tissues of the pelvic region). The third bullet damaged both knee joints of the doctor, who stepped towards the Tsar and Tsarevich. He fell. After the first volleys, the killers finished off their victims. According to Yurovsky, Dr. Botkin was still alive and lay calmly on his side, as if he had fallen asleep. “I finished him off with a shot to the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. Kolchak's intelligence investigator N. Sokolov, who conducted the investigation into the murder case in Ipatiev's house, among other material evidence, found pince-nez belonging to Dr. Botkin in a hole in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki not far from Yekaterinburg.

The last physician of the last Russian emperor, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981, along with others executed in the Ipatiev House.

Shoulder straps crimson gaps And the red cross that runs along the shoulder... He was the happiest of mortals, Serving as a doctor. And in this special feat Had a high gift of love, To lean towards the private Or close the king with yourself. He healed their wounds with courage, He was a hope, like Moses. And he simply called them: Tatyana, Anastasia, Alexey. Why didn’t I save myself, why didn’t I reject That terrible fatal basement - “I gave my word that I would not leave,” And he didn’t leave, he didn’t betray. He said, servant of the Fatherland: “I thank fate for everything” What is higher than duty, higher than life, Only a word given to the king. And conscience, the one that torments the heart, Or it makes me happy when I’m clean, May the meeting be inevitable In the palace of the Lord Christ. When from bullets, like from shimosa, The fatal basement exploded, He still lived, and in a peaceful pose Still prayed and breathed. And there was a road ahead And the horizon is bright. That day Eugene saw God, And that moment was like hundreds of years ago.

Sources and literature used:

1. Internet version of the Bulletin of the Moscow City Scientific Society of Therapists “Moscow Doctor”: http://www.mgnot.ru/index.php?mod1=art&gde=ID&f=10704&m=1&PHPSESSID=18ma6jfimg5sgg11cr9iic37n5

2. “The Tsar’s life physician. The life and feat of Evgeny Botkin." Publisher: Tsarskoye Delo, 2010