Home habits and privacy of Suvorov
From the notes of retired sergeant Ivan Sergeev, who was under Suvorov for sixteen years without a radiance // Mayak, the magazine of modern education, art and education // 1842. - T. 1. - Prince. 2. - S. 100 — 108.Details of the privacy of Suvorov belong Stories; they express his peculiar habits, complementing the features of the outstanding Russian leader of victories, unparalleled in everything. There have been many heroes in Russia, but only one Suvorov. Like him we will not find in the annals of the world.
We gathered the following information from the notes of a retired sergeant Sergeev, who had been at Suvorov for sixteen years without a trace.
Suvorov's day began at the first hour of midnight. He often ordered to wake himself up over the first roosters. In wartime, or on the occasion of some important matters, he used to get up earlier, ordering his warden strictly to wake him up without listening to the excuses. "If I do not listen, drag me by the leg!"
Suvorov was sleeping covered one sheet. Rising from his bed, not yet dressed, he began to run back and forth through the bedroom, and in the camp, on his tent, and marched to the beat. This lasted for an hour before tea, while holding notebooks in his hand, he loudly repeated Tatar, Turkish and Karelian words and conversations. For an exercise in Karelian, he even kept a few Karel with him, from his own peasants.
After finishing the lessons that he continued in this manner daily, he washed himself. Hand washstands have never been served to him; instead, two buckets of the coldest water and a large copper basin, in the same two buckets, were brought into the bedroom. For half an hour he threw water out of his buckets onto his face, saying that he was helping his eyes. After that, his servants had to pour the rest of the water gently on his shoulders, so that the water rolled down like a stream, rolled to his elbows, for which Suvorov kept his elbows in that position. Wash ends at midnight on 2. Then Suvorov’s cook entered the bedroom with tea, he only poured tea for him, and even in his presence boiled water. Having poured half a cup, he served the Prince to taste if the tea was strong, diluted with water. Suvorov liked black tea, better analysis, and also ordered to sift through a sieve. On skorme days, he drank three cups with cream, without bread and without crackers, on fast days without cream, but strictly observed all the posts, not excluding the middle and Friday.
When serving tea, I demanded white paper to write down my lessons and which they had ejected. Instead of nut ink, he always wrote in Chinese ink.
After tea, Suvorov did not appoint the cook what to cook, but always asked him: what will you have for the guests? The cook replied that he invented. And for me what? the Prince asked, and on the fast day the cook answered: ear, and in skimy soup. It was hot. Suvorov almost never ate cake. Sauces are rare. - A big dinner party for guests was from 7 dishes, and never more. After tea, Suvorov, still undressed, sat on the sofa, and began to sing the spiritual concerts of Bortnyanskoe and Sarti on musical books; the singing lasted for an hour. Suvorov loved to sing and always sang with bass. Having finished singing, he dressed himself, usually no longer, as in five minutes; after that, he washed his face again with cold water, and ordered the valet Proshka to call his adjutant, Colonel Danilo Davydovich Mandrykin, with written deeds.
7 was not yet available when Suvorov went to divorce, and each time he said to the soldiers: “Brothers! Courage, bravery, vigor, exertion, victory and glory! Take care of the bullet for three days. First if and second if kill the third one with a bullet! One scientist, but ten unlearned, "and so on. By divorce, he always went out in the uniform of the regiment, which was then on guard.
After the divorce, if there were no written cases, he ordered the engineer Colonel Falconi to be called in to read foreign newspapers in French and German; at the end of reading the newspapers, he suddenly asked: “prepared to eat?” - and sat down at the table at 8 in the morning hours. By the same time, guests were invited, invited to dinner. While waiting for honorary visitors, lunch was sometimes postponed until 9 in the morning.
Suvorov never had breakfast and never had dinner. Before dinner, I always drank one glass of caraway sweet vodka, but no more, but for lack of caraway, a glass of golden vodka, and always ate with rare. In case I had been ill with a stomach, I drank instead a glass of pennic mixed with crushed pepper.
In the course of the dinner I drank Hungarian or Malaga with great moderation, and champagne during solemn days. Sometimes he did not like fruits and delicacies; instead, supper was served to him a lemon, sprinkled with thin slices, sprinkled with sugar, or three spoons of jam, which he drank with sweet wine.
In the army, Suvorov never dined alone. The table was always covered for fifteen, twenty or more devices for military generals and other officials who made up his retinue. Suvorov never sat on the master's place, but always from the side, on the right side of the table, at the very corner.
The cutlery for him was special. Always a tin spoon, on a silver specimen. When it happened, they asked him why he preferred a tin spoon, he replied that there is poison in silver. His knife and fork were with white bone stalks; glass and glasses are also different.
The dishes were not put on the table, but were worn straight from the kitchen, from the fire, hot, in the dishes, carrying each guest around and starting with the older one. Suvorov, however, was offered not every dish, but only that which he always ate.
At the table, he loved the guests to talk incessantly; in the case of silence, he cried out: "Yes, say my brothers something!"
Due to the weakness of the stomach, Suvorov observed the greatest moderation in food; his valet Prokhor Dubasov, called Proshka, always stood at the table, and did not allow him to eat too much, but took away his plate, not being convinced by any requests, because he knew, in the case of Suvorov’s ill health, that he himself would be responsible, and would undergo strict to recovery: for what gave the excess to eat?
If someone invited Suvorov to dinner, he usually invited him to be a cook. When he didn’t cook, Suvorov didn’t eat anything at the table, and complained about his illness.
Before dinner, going to the table, he read a loud prayer: Our Father. After the table, always baptized three times. He prayed diligently in the morning and in the evening for a quarter of an hour, and with earthly bows.
Throughout the time of Great Lent, Divine service was sent to him every day. At the same time, Suvorov almost always served as a deacon, knowing the church service better than many parish deacons. The first week of Lent ate a mushroom dish. In other weeks I used fish. On a passionate always a stew, and then with a vengeful week, I was content with one tea, and then without bread.
On Holy Week, having listened to the matins and early mass in the church, I became one with the clergy and became a Christian with everyone, no matter who was in the church. During all this time, the valets were standing behind him, with baskets of painted eggs, and Suvorov gave everyone an egg, but he did not take it from anyone. Easter and Easter cake with a vengeance Holy Week were offered to his guests.
On Troitsyn Day, and on Semik, Suvorov always liked to dine in the grove with his guests, under the birch trees, decorated with colorful ribbons, while singing stanzels and at the sounds of music in different places of the grove. After lunch, he began to play round dances, but not with girls, but with soldiers, and with military ranks.
During Christmas time, in Kherson, Suvorov called to his parties, for which he gathered a lot and the ladies, amused himself in forfeits, and in different games, but mostly loved the game: the smoking room was alive. When the hour of sleep came, he quietly left the guests in the bedroom, and the ball continued without him, sometimes until dawn.
At Shrovetide, he was very fond of buckwheat pancakes, and rode from the mountains. This week he had balls at Kherson and other places, sometimes three times.
He never celebrated his birthday and birth, but always celebrated the solemn birthdays and namesake names of the Empress and Her Heir, also Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich. In these days he was in the Church in all his orders and in all splendor. After the general prayer service, he served his special prayer for the health of the Tsar's house with kneeling; invited guests to dinner, and sometimes to the ball.
After lunch, Suvorov again washed himself, drank a glass of English beer with grated lemon peel and sugar, and went to bed for about three hours, but when things happened, his rest was reduced. I went to rest, completely undressed.
The bed served him hay, laid as high as the front bed. A thick canvas sheet was stained over the hay, a thin linen sheet on it, in the heads of his two downy pillows, which were busy behind him everywhere. A third linen sheet served him instead of a blanket. In cold weather, he also covered himself with a blue cloak.
After getting up after dinner I dressed with the same speed as in the morning.
His clothes, in addition to linen, consisted of a rosette bottom dress with codpieces. Sitting on a chair, he put on his knee pads, and his tunic (a white robe with sleeves). It was his home, room outfit. In conclusion, he wore the neck of the Alexander or Anninsky Order; but on departure he was always in uniform, put on all the crosses, and on solemn days all the ribbons and stars.
In winter, in any cold he did not wear on himself not only a fur dress, but even warm jerseys and gloves, even if he had to stand in the cold all day, in one uniform. In the most severe frosts, under Ochakov, Suvorov on divorces was in one supertest, with a helmet, on his head, and on solemn days in uniform and wearing a hat, but always without gloves. He did not wear a raincoat or coat in the rain.
Empress Catherine the Great bestowed upon him and ordered to wear in the Tauride Palace an expensive sable coat of Polish cut covered with split green velvet, with gold buttonholes on the front, and with gold tassels on the laces, and asked him to ride in it. From obedience to the Queen, Suvorov wore a fur coat several times - when leaving the carriage in which he carried her.
In winter, he loved his rooms to be as warm as in a bath; most of the day he walked around the room without any dress. The summer apartment, in Kherson, in Warsaw, and wherever it happened, I always chose with a garden, and every day before dinner, and sometimes after dinner, ran around the whole hour for a steep garden along the paths, without rest, in one lower dress, and boots; and returning to the bedroom, he went to bed.
His apartment consisted largely of three rooms. The first room was his bedroom, and at the same time an office. The second went to the dining room, living room, hall; the third was appointed for his servants.
From 12 hours until dawn, his bedroom was always lit with two wax candles, the best wax. In the valet room, near the bedroom, one was greasy in the pelvis, all night.
Suvorov went to the bath three times and four times a year, and kept the terrible heat on the shelf: after which ten buckets of cold water were poured over him, and always two buckets suddenly.
With him there were no more than four close ministers. The eldest of them, the valet Prokhor Dubasov, is so much known under the name Proshka, tested in zeal and loyalty. In respect of his master's merit, on the opening day of the monument to Suvorov on the Tsaritsyn Meadow, the Most Merciful were granted a class rank with a penny on 1200 rubles a year, and died in the 1823 year 80. The Podkamerdiner Sergeant Sergeev, who kept this note, was under Suvorov from 1784 and entered from the Kozlov Musketeer Regiment, and later was under the son of the hero, Arkady Alexandrovich, until his very death, beating his son in the same river that delivered the father a glorious name Rymniki. The third sub-commander Sergeant Ilya Sidorov, the fourth paramedic. All four, they slept near the bedroom of Suvorov.
Suvorov often slept on his back, and from that he was subjected to a rush of blood, shouted in a dream, and in that case was his order to wake him up immediately in order to prevent harmful consequences. - Once he asked Sergeyev, who had come to wake him at midnight: “I shouted”? Your Excellency shouted, Sergeyev replied. “Why didn't you wake me up then?” It was still ten o'clock, said Sergeyev. “Call me, Tishchenko.” And Tishchenko was a Little Russian, Suvorov’s adjutant, an illiterate person who was used for reprisals.
Suvorov did not keep any animals with him, but when he saw a dog or a cat in the yard, he loved to caress them in his own way; having met the dog, he shouted: “din, din”, and seeing the cat: “meow, meow”, imitating their voice.
He did not tolerate his portraits, and only one Empress convinced him, by taking Warsaw, to agree that they would write off the portrait and make a bust. There were no mirrors in his house, and if there were mirrors in his apartment, he was covered with sheets. "God have mercy, he said, I do not want to see another Suvorov."
He also didn’t like and never had, neither with himself, nor in his room, neither wall nor canteens, nor pocket watches, saying that a soldier should know time without a clock.
In winter and summer, he wore cotton stockings. Not only did he not like doctors, but even when officers or soldiers asked to go to the hospital, he said to them: “Do not go to this poorhouse. The first day you will have a soft bed, I eat good, and on the third day there is a coffin! ” Doctors will die for you. And it is better if you are ill if you drink a glass of wine with a list, run, jump, lie and be healthy! ”
During the Polish and Turkish wars, during a hike, especially at large, tedious crossings, on a halt, to relax at noon or in the evening, Suvorov, when he got off the horse, threw himself on the grass, and wallowing on the grass for several minutes, saying: “it’s good to have blood on the glass!” and ordered the soldiers to do the same. ”
He never smoked tobacco, but during the day he liked to sniff long-sided tobacco, and very often. - On weekdays, I kept a golden snuffbox, and on a holiday covered with diamonds, with a portrait of Empress Catherine II or with the monograms of Joseph II, and other European Sovereigns who gave him snuffboxes, and changed them almost daily; but did not like to sniff from his snuffbox. The exception was only for Prince Grigory Semenovich Volkonsky, with whom he was in friendship.
Suvorov was very fond of smearing with lipstick and tidying up with perfume, especially with the dressed one, with whom he wetted his knot every day.
For all his life, Suvorov had no women in his servants.
Observing the privacy and habits of Suvorov, with which he seemed to have separated himself from humanity, we must look into them for the expression of his spirit and the necessity of his nature. Then the very oddities of his will be presented to us by the determination of genius to subordinate circumstances to oneself, and not oneself to circumstances. They helped him not to be exposed to the conditions of high life, which could prevent him from carrying out his enterprises.
The imaginary foolishness of Suvorov had a great purpose and deep meaning. The main deviation from the ordinary life of others was the habit of getting up at midnight, and walking naked for several hours. Other oddities were the consequences of the former. Not surprisingly, the man who got up at 12 at night hours was eating dinner at 8 hours of the morning.
He who wanted to accustom himself and his warriors, to be always ready to repel enemies, to night transitions through forests and fields, to find himself above the enemies' head, had to not know ordinary sleep and rest; that was the main cause of the cessation of order in his life. For this, he woke up his army until dawn, and his quick transitions at night gave rise to a folk tale about Suvorov, a peasant of invisibility.
He walked naked for several hours to accustom himself to hunger and overcome the weakness of his nature. With this habit, and pouring cold water over himself, one might say that he tempered his body from the effects of bad weather, seemed like a supernatural being.
His simplicity, temperance, patience, alien to all bliss, akin to him with the warriors who loved him as a father. He taught his example, to endure all the difficulties of life. - Loving simplicity, even to the primitive poverty of humanity, Suvorov sometimes appeared in all his splendor, in all his stars and orders, so it was on the solemn Royal Days, in the holy Church, where he bowed his gray face to the ground, and sang for the spiritual deacon songs. Such an example of piety ignited faith in the hearts of warriors. They considered him invincible, and were invincible with Suvorov.
Suvorov’s adjutant Friedrich Anting would later write a three-volume biography of the commander.
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