The name of the legendary Russian scientist Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev makes more than one generation of researchers turn again and again to the study of monuments of Russian antiquity and "hidden" samples of Russian literature. And it's not just that his authority in the scientific world is great, his ideas are alive and many attitudes are correct. Buslaev himself, despite the amazing versatility of subjects of study and fecundity in science, was a whole person. "His mind worked not in abstract schemes, but in a living synthesis; his interests did not fit under strictly delimited headings..." (Vinogradov P. In Memory of Buslaev // In Memory of Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev. Moscow, 1898).

F. I. Buslaev in his works repeatedly turned to the explanation of the demonic beginning, images and traditions of Russian and European cultures, where the miraculous, incomprehensible often became legendary, passed down from generation to generation as a real fact of life. There was such an episode in the life of F. I. Buslaev, when he was 27 years old. And evidence of this is the original note submitted at the request of F. I. Buslaev to the famous and popular Moscow fool and fortune-teller I. Ya. Koreisha in those years, and the latter's answer on a small piece of paper with a barely readable entry. These texts were found by us in RGALI (f. 69, op. 1, ed. chr. N 63 [2 l.]) and date back to 1845. Next, we offer our transcript, transmitted without changes, while preserving the author's spelling and punctuation.:

Father Ivan Yakovlevich Bless Theodore and do not leave him in your holy prayers. Tell me if he will be safe. Will he get married soon

Text by I. Y. Koreishi's hand in simple pencil, stylized Old Russian entry with elements of secret writing:

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1845 roca mca dekemreya XIV days

pray to the Lord

Yes in the infernal fields

completely heal yourself

And he won't get married soon.

A belly pudet zdorovou

student of education (...)

(A few words follow. The recording is illegible. Some letters are marked with crosses.)

Neither in the memoirs of F. I. Buslaev, nor in the" Memoirs " of the scientist himself, nor in the books and essays about I. Ya. Koreish did we find any mention of this curious episode, where, as it seemed to us, the miraculous prediction of the Moscow fool received reliable confirmation.

Let's say a few words about I. Y. Koreish. He was born in the early 1780s in Smolensk in the family of a priest, studied at the Smolensk seminary, and then at the theological academy, and for some time worked as a teacher. Historians of begging as a household phenomenon in Russia, with various additions, rather ironically narrate the beginnings of his "asceticism". Thus, I. G. Pryzhov wrote that I. Ya. Koreisha "lived in Smolensk, was engaged in managing something, did something and ... went into the forest, deciding to be a fool" (Twenty-six Moscow false prophets, false fools, fools and fools. Published by N. Barkov, Moscow, 1864).

Other historians, in particular E. Poselyanin, drew the" life "of Koreisha in a different, more pleasing tone:" From his youth he sought solitude, loved spiritual books, kept apart from his comrades... "(Poselyanin E. Russian Ascetics of the 19th century. 3rd St. Petersburg, 1910).

According to the writers of everyday life, I. Y. Koreisha visited the holy places, later retired from teaching and shut himself up in his younger years, when he lived in Smolensk. After one "inconvenient" incident (he forbade marriage to a girl who was wooed by a passing official who pretended to be single), he was secretly transported to Moscow and placed in the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital for the Insane, where he was held for the rest of his life. According to the same E. Poselyanin, " Ivan Yakovlevich had high spiritual gifts. When he saw them for the first time, he would tell them all their past lives in detail. And the future, with all its details, had no cover for him."

Another interesting fact noted by I. G. Pryzhov is also interesting: "In addition to snuff, another, so to speak, symbol of the otherworldly spirit of Ivan Yakovlevich are the notes that he distributes to visitors. Ivan Yakovlevich's little notes are worn on the cross; they heal from diseases of the heart.

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toothache, but most importantly, the meaning of what is written in them is divined by fate." When I. Y. Koreisha died (1861), "Hyacinth of Tulips" (under this pseudonym the famous publicist F. V. Miller hid his name) he composed a poem in memory of Koreisha, and the first mention of it is already contained in the records of the monk Parfeny from 1856.

Writers also addressed this colorful figure, in particular, N. S. Leskov. I. G. Prygov twice wrote the" life " of Koreisha in different books. By the way, it should be noted that during his student years, I. G. Pryzhov listened to lectures by F. I. Buslaev at Moscow University.

Many figures of Russian culture of the XIX century, officials, visiting landowners were interested in the Holy Fool. There is evidence that N. V. Gogol came to the Preobrazhenskaya hospital before the burning of the second volume of "Dead Souls", but did not dare to go inside. An interesting narrative about the life of I. Ya. Koreisha is written by one of his admirers - "novitiate", where there are many interesting circumstances worthy of careful reading and study (See: Kireev A. F. The Fool Ivan Yakovlevich Koreisha. Koreisha served as the prototype of the holy fool Semyon Yakovlevich in F. M. Dostoevsky's" Demons". In the XX century, the works of B. Pilnyak and A. Rovner reflect the image and prophecies of the Moscow fool.

In conclusion, we will mention one more detail. The F. I. Buslaev Foundation has a rare document in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library. This is a horoscope compiled for F. I. Buslaev. The manuscript is dated 1843 (OR RSL, f. 42, cardboard 11, unit xr. N 4). A little later, in 1845, F. I. Buslaev receives a" note " from Koreisha. Being a man of religious and secular education, F. I. Buslaev not only in his works, but also on his own life experience comprehended the world of folk culture. Perhaps his personal observations, meetings with rare people, visits to unfamiliar prayer houses and almshouses (which he wrote about more than once) fueled the rich imagination of the scientist, his refined taste and noble mind, which later led to the creation of such masterpieces of world science as the "Russian Facial Apocalypse" and many others. the now-forgotten pamphlet of the scientist " Demon. To the history of Moscow Morals of the XVII century " (Moscow, 1881) contained echoes of the history of Koreisha that reminds us very much and was based on real facts of the past.

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