In the middle of the last century, an enthusiastic local historian, describing the sights of the Moscow Neskuchny Garden, claimed that it "represents a picture in which only Vernet or Bryullov can perfectly portray all the charms of picturesque views." 1 And the popular Moscow writer S. N. Glinka compared the views of the Neskuchny Garden with the world-famous landscapes of Switzerland even earlier .2
Now the former Neskuchny Garden is part of the Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after A.M. Gorky. On one side it faces Leninsky Prospekt (formerly Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street), and on the opposite side it is closed by Pushkinskaya Embankment. The garden has not lost its picturesque character, and the old lime alleys, decorative bridges and gazebos, Summer, Bath, Hunting lodges and the former Palace of Alexandria remain a reminder of its history. In the middle of the XVIII century, the estates of Princes Trubetskoy, Golitsyn and breeder P. A. Demidov were located on the territory of the Neskuchny Garden. Its southern part was owned by Prince N. Y. Trubetskoy. It was his fiefdom that was actually called Neskuchny. The 1753 album of the Trubetskoy estate, which is kept in the Museum of Architecture in the Donskoy Monastery, helps to recreate the appearance of Neskuchny at that time: a wooden country house of classical style, the "Versailles Park" with trimmed trees, bridges and grottoes decorated the garden. The prince himself was rarely here and did not come for long. Having started his career under Peter I, Trubetskoy rose to the rank of Prosecutor General, senator, president of the Military College and received the rank of Field Marshal General. He lived through eight reigns and was favored by autocrats as diverse in character as Anna Ivanovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, and Pyotr Fyodorovich. However, under Catherine II, he was dismissed " from both military and civil service forever."

His contemporary, the first president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Princess E. R. Dashkova, wrote with a very caustic irony about this quirky courtier. Trubetskoy's biographer, on the other hand, assessed the prosecutor General's abilities as follows: "He ... adroitly considered changing circumstances , always knew how to leave the weakened party in a timely manner and go over to the side of the strengthened party."3 The prince was reputed to be a man of extensive intelligence, a lover of poetry, and was friendly with the satirist A. Kantemir. In 1791, Neskuchnoye passed to his younger brother, D. Y. Trubetskoy, and in the 20s of the XIX century. its owner was retired ensign L. A. Shakhovskaya 4 . Another rarity of the eighteenth century, N. P. Golitsyn's "mustachioed princess", a powerful and mysterious old woman who served as the prototype of Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", also lived in their own possessions in these places. 5 After the death of the princess, the house in the Serpukhov part was inherited by her son, the Moscow Governor-General D. V. Golitsyn. Not without humor, A. I. Herzen noted his "freedom of thought": "Prince Golitsyn liked people with a free way of thinking, especially if they expressed it well in French. The prince was not very good at Russian. " 6
In the northern part of the Neskuchny Garden, there was a magnificent mansion of the owner of Nevyansk factories in the Urals, P. A. Demidov. This pretender to originality breeder was known as a patron of the arts. He donated large sums of money to the Moscow University, and at his expense the Moscow Orphanage for Poor Infants was built (now the building houses the Military Engineering Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky). The chronicler of Moscow reports: "There is a legend that when Catherine II ordered the architect Kazakov to draw up a plan for the construction of the present university, Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov expressed a desire to build it as his dependent on Vorobyovy Gory; for this purpose, he appointed 1,500,000 rubles. But the Empress's permission was not granted. " 7 On the territory of his estate, Demidov ordered a huge botanical garden to be laid out in the form of five terraces, 203 square meters each.,

1 N. Gorchakov. Panorama or view of Moscow from the Kremlin Mountain. Moskvityanin, 1844, No. 9, p. 175.

2 "Guidebook in Moscow, published by Sergey Glinka", Moscow, 1824, p. 361.

3 "Journal of N. Y. Trubetskoy's own book on his return in 1717 from the German land". "Russian Antiquity", 1870, vol. 1, p. 8.

4 P. V. Sytin. From the history of Moscow streets, Moscow, 1958, p. 258.

5 See N. A. Rabkin. Historical prototype of the "Queen of Spades". Voprosy Istorii, 1968, No. 1.

6 A. I. Herzen. Essays, Vol. VIII, Moscow, 1956, p. 173.

7 N. Gorchakov. Op. ed., p. 177.

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an amphitheater descending to the Moskva River. 700 serfs, working day and night, spent two years leveling a hill for the garden, where Demidov could show the world the fruits of his hobbies and inventions.

In 1781, Academician P. S. Pallas was invited to inspect the garden, and soon published "A catalog of plants located in the garden of His Excellency the full State Councilor and Imperial Educational Home of the famous benefactor Prokopy Akinfievich Demidov in Moscow". 2200 species of greenhouse and wild plants are named in the catalog, and it concludes with these words:"This garden not only does not have a similar one throughout Russia, but it can be compared with many other glorious botanical gardens in other countries both by the rarity and the multitude of plants contained in it." 8 Ten years after the death of the Ural breeder, his property was in the hands of Count A. G. Orlov, who lived out a turbulent life in the Mother see, once filled with military victories and illuminated by the smiles of fortune. The Chesma hero, who destroyed the Ottoman fleet at Navarin and Chesma (1770), "the leader of the midnight flag" 9, in the words of A. S. Pushkin, the one to whom Catherine II, in her own words, was "lent a part of the splendor of her reign", on December 2, 1775, "forever dismissed from all service", departed from the banks of the Neva River to Moscow.

In addition to his military campaigns against Turkey, the count's assets also included active participation in the coup d'etat of 1762, the assassination of Peter III in Ropsha, and the seduction of Princess Tarakanova.10 In Moscow, Orlov settled in the Kaluzhskaya Zastava district. His old house stood on the site where one of the buildings of the First City Clinical Hospital named after N. I. Pirogov is now located. Orlov was a very rich man, marked by royal favors. An obelisk with the image of the Chesma winner decorated Tsarskoe Selo. In the count's casket were the orders of St. George, Alexander Nevsky, and St. Andrew the First-Called, documents on generous grants of land, money, and serfs ' souls; in the study hung a sword encrusted with diamonds, and there was a gold cup - gifts from the Empress. The aging count lived a private life in Moscow, which caused idle gossip. 48 years old, he married 20-year-old beauty Avdotya Lopukhina. His wife soon died of consumption, leaving Orlov with an only daughter. In 1796, the Demidov lands, the garden and the palace were transferred to him. In Neskuchny, balls, fireworks, imitations of naval battles began to be arranged, and a Gypsy choir sang. Passion for fistfights, cockfights, and the breeding of tummy pigeons distinguished the life of the disgraced favorite. Covered in gold and diamonds, old Orlov went out to Moscow festivities: to Devichye Pole, near Novinskoe, to Sokolniki. Distinguished by his athletic build and rare physical strength, he sometimes took part in fistfights himself.

In Neskuchny, Orlov built a huge arena and kolymazhny yard. The Botanical Garden was replaced by stables, and near the Demidov Palace there were treadmills for trotting sled horses and riding trips. The former naval commander became the founder of Russian horse breeding. The Orlovsky Trotter sled-a breed obtained by crossing horses from Arabia, Central Asia and Transcaucasia with Luxembourg, Dutch and English breeds - remained unsurpassed in the world of horse breeding for more than 100 years and was the fruit of many years of work by Orlov and the horse breeder V. I. Shishkin who was in his service 11 . Orlov gave horses to the grandsons of Catherine II, high-ranking friends, but also did not disdain baryshnichestvo, putting horse breeding on a broad commercial footing.

In 1806, Alexander I remembered the old man. Orlov was entrusted with the command of the 5th region of the zemstvo army, which should be prepared for the upcoming battles with the Napoleonic army. And just at this time, V. N. Karazin, the author of bold projects of state transformations, an educator highly valued by A. I. Herzen, who had been dismissed from state positions and exiled to an estate near Kharkiv, addressed him with a letter. He offered himself to Orlov as an assistant. The reply letter of the grandee, written on December 17, 1806, allows us to judge his political and civil positions 12 . Quite

8 L. P. Alexandrov. The past of the Neskuchny Garden, Moscow, 1923, p. 20.

9 A. S. Pushkin. Essays. Vol. 3, part 1. Moscow, 1948, p. 190.

10 See S. S. Lurie. Princess Tarakanova. Voprosy Istorii, 1966, No. 10.

11 V. O. Witt. From the history of Russian horse breeding, Moscow, 1952.

12 State Library named after V. I. Lenin. Handwritten department, f. "Autographs", ed. xr. 4, p. 43.

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cautious, he feared political compromise, and his message - polite and cold, with a hint of mild contempt-denies help and assistance to a man who has incurred the royal wrath... The count died a year later.

The only heiress of real estate, estimated at 40 million rubles, and 30 thousand serfs remained his daughter AA Orlova. An educated woman, not without gifts and intelligence, she condemned herself to loneliness, and donated a huge fortune to the church. It was said that under the dress of the lady-in-waiting of the chamber, this fashionable lady wore a monk's hair shirt. Being under the influence of the ignorant and militant chernoriznik Archimandrite Photius, she, being close to the court, tried to influence Alexander I accordingly, contributed to the downfall of the Minister of Education A. N. Golitsyn and played a significant role in state affairs. "The daughter of the famous Alexey Grigoryevich, who strangled Peter III, thought to redeem her father's soul by giving Photius and his monastery most of the innumerable estates forcibly taken from the monasteries by Catherine, and indulging in violent fanaticism," wrote A. I. Herzen about her.

Neskuchnoye was not damaged by fire during the invasion of Napoleon's army in 1812. The enemy, retreating from Moscow, passed by the Count's palace and estate. Neither in the notes, nor in the letters, nor in the diaries of that time, nor in biographical sketches about the Orlovs there are any reports about the stay of the French in Neskuchny. Apparently, the flight of the "great army" was so hasty that even the splendor of these possessions could not attract the conquerors. In August 1816, Orlova gave a grand ball in honor of Alexander I, who arrived with the Guard in Moscow. "The ball was concluded with fireworks and a shield for 100 fathoms with allegorical transparent paintings representing the memorable events of 1812 and the general peace of Europe" 14. On December 16, 1825, after the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, the Decembrist I. D. Yakushkin visited Neskuchny. At the Countess's house, he met her cousin, the Decembrist M. F. Orlov. "Well, General, it's all over," he announced by way of greeting, and heard Mikhail Orlov's prophetic reply that this was only "the beginning of the end."

And the last, again "political" ball took place in Neskuchny already in honor of the coronation of Nicholas I. "Today is the ball at Countess Orlova's," A. S. Pushkin wrote from Moscow on September 16, 1826, to his friend P. A. Osipova, "the huge arena is facing the hall; she has borrowed 40 thousand rubles' worth of bronze and a thousand people are invited. " 15 After the coronation, Orlova traveled with the imperial family to Berlin and then retired from the world. "Her palace became more and more empty and completely silent, finally," wrote A. I. Herzen. There was no longer the clatter of ancient bowls or the chorus of songwriters, and no one took any more care of the protected steeds... There now sat Photius, a narrow-minded fanatic, making incoherent speeches and adding to the horror of his broken soul; the daughter of the haughty Count of Chesmensk listened humbly to the ominous speech, carefully covering his feet with a shawl... "Anna," said Photius, "bring me some water," and she ran for it, " now sit down and listen.". She would sit down and listen. "Poor woman! ...Vast estates, factories, everything went to the decoration of the St. George monastery; there she moved the coffin of her father... In the vestments of icons and in Archimandrite hats, the riches of Orel glimmer sadly in the uneven half-light..."16. The Countess bequeathed to be buried in this monastery next to her confessor Photius.

On May 26, 1832, the Minister of the Tsar's Court, P. M. Volkonsky, received a rescript from Nicholas I on the purchase of the house and garden of Countess A. A. Orlova to the state treasury for 1.5 million rubles. "The house to be purchased should be called the Alexandrian Summer Palace, and it should be assigned to the Moscow palace office." 17 Even earlier, in 1826, Neskuchnoye itself was acquired by the treasury. And on December 18, 1842, a deed of sale was signed in the name of the Department of appanages with Prince D. V. Golitsyn on the sale of his land plot with the building there for 30 thousand rubles in silver. Neskuchny Sad became the summer residence of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I. On the territory of three old manors

13 A. I. Herzen. Essays, vol. VIII, p. 283.

14 N. Gorchakov. Op. ed., p. 176.

15 A. S. Pushkin. Essays, Vol. 13, Moscow, 1937, p. 296

16 A. I. Herzen. Dashkova's notes. "Polar star". Book 3. Moscow, 1966, pp. 265-266.

17 L. P. Aleksandrov. Op. ed., p. 38.

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perestroika, typical for that era, is taking place. The Demidov Palace, and then the Orlov Palace, takes on a cold, formal look. Cast-iron chains appear around him, swaying in a melancholy fashion, mounted on poles. Nearby grows the indispensable Nikolaev brig. Demidovsky Garden turns into a grove, greenhouses are broken, earthen terraces are filled in, the Golitsyns ' house is demolished. The picturesque Egyptian Gazebo and Chinese Bridge are also being scrapped 18 .

In the "New guide" to Moscow in 1833 it is written:: "In recent times, this garden has become even more famous. The management of the imperial Moscow theaters, seeking all possible means to give the public pleasure in stage entertainment, with the highest permission, arranged a summer air theater in the middle of the Neskuchny Garden. The tall trees of the garden serve as a backdrop for a vast stage that is more than 10 fathoms long. The sky, often picturesque at sunset, forms the majestic ceiling of this theater, which accommodates more than 1,500 spectators in chairs, boxes and galleries. " 19
The Summer Theater opened on May 17, 1830. However, his life was short. In 1835, the building was scrapped and replaced by a new theater in Petrovsky Park.

In the summer of 1830 A. S. Pushkin visited the Neskuchny Garden 20 . I. S. Turgenev's visit to Neskuchny is mentioned in one of his autobiographical novels - "First Love", the action of which dates back to the summer of 183321 .

In the 40s of the last century, Neskuchny Sad turned out to be a place of interesting experiments in the field of aeronautics. Here, on two occasions, a certain Robertson 22 ascended in a huge balloon . The 1850 guidebook already reflects the appearance of the imperial estate: "The Neskuchny Garden adjoins the garden of the Alexandrian Summer Palace. This excellent garden is more like a grove with cleared paths due to its location, irregularity and huge trees. The trees are not cut, they do not form pavilions, alleys, or bosquettes: everywhere you can see nature in all its wild charm. " 23 At the end of the XIX century. Neskuchny Sad was closed to the public: the palace, ringed by police and soldiers ' posts, was the home of Alexander III's son, the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, tormented by a hereditary fear of assassination attempts and finally killed in February 1905 by a bomb thrown by Ivan Kalyaev .24
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the garden and the palace were nationalized. In 1921, the Furniture Museum 25 was opened in the former Alexandrian Palace . Five years later, the territory of the Neskuchny Garden became part of the Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after A.M. Gorky. The Museum of Folk Studies has placed its exhibits in the palace. In 1934, the palace building became the residence of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

18 Yu. I. Shamshurin. Podmoskovnye, Part II, issue IX, Moscow, 1914, pp. 50-53.

19 "Novy guidebook", Part II, Moscow, 1833, pp. 224-226.

20 N. O. Lerner. Works and Days of Pushkin, St. Petersburg, 1910, p. 214.

21 I. S. Turgenev. Essays, vol. 6, Moscow, 1955, pp. 275-276.

22 N. Gorchakov. Op. ed., p. 175.

23 I. Milyutin. Description of Moscow and its attractions. Book 2. Moscow, 1850, p. 281.

24 A. Kovalensky. Neskuchny sad, Moscow, 1930, p. 118.

25 See E. M. Zenz. History of a single collection. Voprosy Istorii, 1968, No. 7.

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