Prince of Oldenburg. History of the Oldenburg dynasty

One of the first private universities in Russia - the St. Petersburg Institute of Law named after Prince Peter of Oldenburg - had its license revoked. This happened after an appeal from the presidential office. The essence of the claims is unclear, and all parties refrain from explaining.

The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region satisfied the claim of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science (Rosobnadzor), in which the agency demanded that the license to conduct educational activities be canceled from the St. Petersburg Institute of Law named after Prince Peter of Oldenburg.

The institute was founded in 1992. At first it was called the Petersburg School of Law, but later it was renamed. The educational institution positions itself as a successor to the traditions of the Imperial School of Law, founded by the nephew of Emperor Nicholas I, Prince Peter of Oldenburg.

According to the SPARK information system, the institute belongs to its former rector Evgeny Garkusha, the current rector Arkady Gutnikov, Viktor Pronkin, and Elena Kostina. The institute reached its maximum revenue of 11.5 million rubles in 2008. After that, it began to decline, decreasing in 2011 to 4.5 million rubles. The loss of the Institute in the same year amounted to 2 million rubles. The Institute is located in the historical and cultural monument "Profitable house of the merchant Polezhaev" at 5/3 Starorusskaya street in the Central district of St. Petersburg.

According to the Arbitration Court, in June 2012 Rosobnadzor received an appeal from the presidential apparatus stating that the institution was allegedly violating licensing requirements. What exactly is not reported. “We do not have the right to disclose information about specific violations. This can only be obtained from the organization itself,” Alexander Argunov, deputy head of the Department for Supervision and Control of Educational Institutions and Scientific Organizations of Rosobrnadzor, explained on the website.

In response to the appeal, the department in August of the same year arranged an on-site inspection, which confirmed the information. As a result, the company received an order to eliminate the violation. But the company never did. As a result, Rosobrnadzor suspended the license in January of this year. The institute still had the opportunity to correct the omission before the end of March, but it did not take advantage of it. As a result, Rosobrnadzor filed a lawsuit to suspend the license. Representatives of the institute did not appear at the meeting, therefore, on July 2, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region granted the application of the inspection body in their absence. The management of the institute still has the opportunity to challenge the decision, but it has already made a decision to change the profile of the institution.

"The Institute, having completed the training of students under the "specialist-lawyer" program, did not conduct training under a new license for the implementation of the "bachelor" program, and is currently an institution of additional and additional professional education and continues its programs and projects in the field of education and law. So the decision on a license for a higher education program is of a completely technical and routine nature," Rector of the Institute Arkady Gutnikov told dp.ru.

The German House of Oldenburg is one of the most powerful and oldest in Europe, whose representatives were on the thrones of Denmark, the Baltic states, Norway, Greece and were related to the Romanovs, the kings of Sweden, as well as the children and grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth II in Britain. Now, in 2016, it is headed by Duke Christian, who was born in 1955.

Dynasty of Oldenburg

Before moving on to the Russian Empire, it is necessary to indicate the branches of this mighty house. The older branch of the dynasty ruled in Denmark from about 1426 to 1863, and also in Livonia for 10 years in the 16th century. and Norway were dukes of Schleswig-Holstein. The Oldenburg dynasty gave rise to the Glücksburg line from 1863, descended from the house of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, who rule in Denmark from 1863 to the present. Members of this line are now on the Norwegian throne. Its representatives were the Basils of Greece from 1863 to 1974.

Russian empire

After the death of the grandson of Peter the Great from smallpox in 1730, the male generation of the Romanov family ended. But for some time Russia was ruled by the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizabeth. She died without issue in 1761. After the coup of 1762, a German princess, the daughter of Prince Anhalt-Zerbst, ended up on the Russian throne. Her husband was Karl-Peter-Ulrich (Peter III), a representative of the Holstein-Gottorp branch, the younger line of the Oldenburgs. Thus, their son and his subsequent children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were only nominally Romanovs. They all married princesses from German and Danish families.

Oldenburgs in Russia

He invited a young, well-educated relative to serve in Russia. Georgy Petrovich of Oldenburg (1784-1812), the Emperor's cousin, was appointed in 1808 Governor-General of Estonia. He energetically set to work. The prince paid special attention to the peasant question. In 1909 he married Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, sister of Alexander and Nikolai Pavlovich. In the same year, Prince Oldenburgsky was appointed to the post of Tver, Novgorod and Yaroslavl Governor-General.

He energetically took up the improvement of these places and actively visited county towns, controlling the work of the administration. Simultaneously with this work, he was asked to take up shipping in Russia. In addition, work on overland communications has also been added. Tver was the permanent residence of the young couple. And already in 1909, the deepening of the Ladoga Canal began. Since there were not enough specialists, the prince suggested opening a new educational institution, which would produce engineers. The emperor supported his undertakings, visited the prince in Tver, where he got acquainted with the works of Karamzin on history. The prince rebuilt the old canals very energetically, which earned him the gratitude of the emperor. When the war began, Georgy Petrovich gathered the militia, food, and placed prisoners. But, suddenly ill, the young Prince of Oldenburg died in 1812, leaving young children.

Children and grandchildren

His son Peter was born in 1812, who became an orphan at the age of 8. At the request of his mother, he was raised by his grandfather. Prince Peter of Oldenburg lived in Germany and received a good education. Abroad, he also studied Russian. Emperor Nicholas I called his nephew to serve in Russia. He was granted an estate in Peterhof, and also enrolled in the elite Preobrazhensky Regiment.

He quickly rose through the ranks and four years after his arrival in Russia he received the position of lieutenant general. Then he moved to the civil service and became a senator. He was engaged in jurisprudence and, having made sure that there were not enough lawyers in Russia, he achieved the establishment of the School of Law. He bought the building with his own money. Petr Georgievich was actively involved in social activities. For 20 years he paid much attention to women's education. He opened an orphanage with his own funds. His son, Alexander Petrovich, actively continued his noble work.

Childhood

Prince Alexander was born in 1844. As it should be among the highest aristocracy, the Prince of Oldenburg was immediately accepted into the guard with the rank of ensign. In the same way, his three brothers were preparing for service for the good of the country. They received home education, they were all waiting for a military career.

Youth

Due to the fact that the two brothers at different times committed and lost the favors of Emperor Alexander II and the titles of princes, Alexander Petrovich became the heir to the head of the house of the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg. He received at home the most versatile, one might say, encyclopedic education, read a lot, since the family had an excellent library, and eventually became a professional lawyer.

Marriage

The Prince of Oldenburg married the daughter of the Duke of Leuchtenberg. Evgenia Maksimilianovna was engaged in a great social activity. Princess of Oldenburg patronized the Red Cross, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and the Mineralogical Society. Together with her husband, she took care of charitable, educational and medical institutions, which were overseen by her husband's father. Princess of Oldenburg attracted prominent artists of her time to work on creating art postcards with reproductions of paintings from the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery. Her educational activities continued after the revolution. She also opened art schools in the provinces and St. Petersburg.

Activities of Alexander Petrovich

And in the Life Guards in peacetime, and at the Prince of Oldenburg, he showed himself to be an energetic, demanding officer in the first place. During the war, he lived like a Spartan. I did not use any additional amenities in the form of a crew or a personal chef. His troops distinguished themselves when crossing the passes of the Balkan Mountains. He was awarded a golden sword and a dagger "For bravery". When he retired, he continued his father's work.

He stood at the origins of the creation of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in which I.P. Pavlov, conducting experiments in physiology. It also conducted research on the fight against tuberculosis. The plague that broke out in the Caspian Sea was stopped when Prince Alexander personally went to fight the epidemic. In addition, he created a climatic resort in Gagra, which is still used today.

Castle of the Prince of Oldenburg

It was built in Gagra. Around it, on the coast, a park was laid out with citrus trees, slender cypresses and exotic agaves. The castle of the Prince of Oldenburg was built in the Art Nouveau style by the architect I.K. Luceran. The snow-white palace, covered with red tiles, with chimneys and a falconer's tower, is strikingly beautiful. But neither time nor people spared him. Now the palace is in disrepair and needs emergency restoration.

Despite the diverse activities that Prince Alexander was engaged in, his merits are almost forgotten. He went to the fields of the World War and was the supreme head of the sanitary and evacuation unit, he supplied the army with food. After the February Revolution, he was fired. And in the fall of 1917 he left the country forever. The prince died in France at the age of 88, having outlived both his wife and his only son.

About the orphanage of Prince Peter of Oldenburg, whom contemporaries called "an enlightened benefactor", and about the wide and "smart" social service of the Oldenburgsky family - another story under the heading "Charity and power in the history of Russia"

The building of the orphanage (real school) of Prince P. G. Oldenburg. Early 1900s

Start. Shelter opens

In 1842, Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg took under his patronage a newly opened night orphanage in the Rozhdestvenskaya part of St. Petersburg. In 1846, he presented the emperor with a plan for reorganization, and 60 thousand rubles were allocated from the funds of the city's Board of Trustees. Two adjacent stone houses with a yard and a garden were purchased, at the corner of Glukhoy and Prachechny lanes. A charitable institution has moved here. Day June 28, 1846 is considered the date of the formation of the Shelter of Prince P. G. Oldenburg. And in 1848, the Charter on the "Orphanage of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg" was approved.

Church of the Nativity on Sands, which gave the name to the streets of the Rozhdestvensky part

Initially, the orphanage provided children with an elementary education, with special attention paid to handicrafts in the women's department, and handicrafts in the men's department. For about ten years there was a shelter in these conditions, and in 1857 a new charter was put into effect, according to which the curriculum of both departments was changed: in the men's department, teaching was introduced in the amount of 4 classes of a real progymnasium, in order to facilitate the transition of the best pupils in secondary schools, and in girls - seven-year education at the rate of women's institutes and gymnasiums.
The orphanage began to take shape as a special institution in which education, moral education and the further fate of the students were determined by the ideas and active care of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg, one of the most enlightened benefactors of his time.

Prince

Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg was born on August 14, 1812 in Yaroslavl.
A few days before the Battle of Borodino, Prince Georgy Petrovich of Oldenburg and his wife, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, had a son, named at baptism Konstantin-Friedrich-Peter, later known in Russia under the name of Prince Peter Georgievich. Four months from birth, the prince lost his father, and was transferred to his grandmother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Paul I, and then, when Ekaterina Pavlovna entered into a new marriage with the Crown Prince of Wirtemberg, he followed his mother to Stuttgart.
At the age of eight, he lost his mother, and was (at the wish expressed by the princess before her death) was taken to Oldenburg to his grandfather, Duke Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig of Oldenburg, where he received further education.
The prince studied ancient and new languages, geometry, geography, as well as the Russian language. During the last time of his stay in Oldenburg, he was especially interested in legal sciences and logic under the guidance of Christian Runde.

J.-D. Chur, portrait of Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky in the uniform of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment (1842)

At the end of 1830, Emperor Nicholas I summoned the prince to the Russian service. On December 1, 1830, the prince arrived in St. Petersburg, was greeted very cordially by the emperor and enrolled in active service in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. Since that time, the prince has permanently resided in Russia.
During his five-year service in the regiment, the prince was promoted to major general for distinction in service, and on December 6, 1834, to lieutenant general.
From an early age, the prince was distinguished by a high ability to empathize, was brought up in humanistic traditions, and showed his good heart already as an officer of the regiment: he drew attention to the bitter fate of soldier's children, in most cases left without any education. On his initiative, a school was set up in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and he took it under his closest supervision: along with literacy, this school also paid attention to moral education.

This was the first experience, which was subsequently successfully applied in other regiments. The prince also made a lot of efforts to improve the soldier's life in hygienic terms.

execution

But in 1834, the prince left military service - for the reason that he witnessed an egregious case of corporal punishment. The case, however, turned out to be egregious only for Prince Peter Georgievich.
The reason for the transition of Peter Georgievich from military service to civilian service was the following episode, which he told in detail to Secretary of State Polovtsov. During his service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the prince had, on official duty, to be present when a woman was subjected to corporal punishment and driven through the ranks, and the soldiers were inflicted with stick blows on her bare shoulders. Outraged by such a picture, Pyotr Georgievich went from the place of execution to the then Minister of the Interior, Count Bludov, and told him that he would never again take part in the execution of such a punishment that did not exist among any more enlightened people, and therefore asked Bludov report to the Sovereign Emperor his request for dismissal from military service. The request was quickly granted.

Public and charitable work

The prince's social and philanthropic activities began: he was most interested in educational projects.

In May 1835, by personal decree of Nicholas I, according to the plan and at the expense of the Prince of Oldenburg, and with the close participation of M. M. Speransky, in order to educate legally competent personnel for administrative and judicial activities, the Imperial School of Law was founded.

S. K. Zaryanko, "Hall of the School of Law with groups of teachers and pupils" (1840)

On September 30, 1839, the prince was appointed the highest honorary guardian in the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees and a member of the Councils of the Educational Society for Noble Maidens and the School of the Order of St. Catherine. On October 14 of the same year, he was entrusted with the management of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

The activity of the prince took on a broader dimension from 1844, when he was entrusted with the position of Chairman of the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees. The gradual increase in the number of women's educational institutions required new forms of management, their charters themselves needed to be revised. To this end, on January 1, 1845, a special Main Council was established under the chairmanship of the Prince of Oldenburg, which for a long time played the role of a special ministry of women's education in Russia.

In 1844, the first Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy in Russia was founded by the prince; the Mariinsky hospital (1858) and the Mariinsky women's school were opened; an orphanage for one hundred children (in 1871 it was renamed the Orphanage of Catherine, Maria and Georgy); children's hospital (1869), where for the first time in the history of domestic medicine, patients were placed according to the profile of the disease (since 1918 it has been named after the pediatrician K. A. Rauchfus).
In general, the Prince of Oldenburg is one of the largest benefactors of his time: the women's institute of Princess Theresa of Oldenburg owes its funds and active care for its emergence and development; hospitals Obukhovskaya, Mariinskaya, Petropavlovskaya and others; Educational House, etc.

On savings from money "for pins"

The prince was married to Princess Theresia-Wilhelmine-Frederick-Isabella-Charlotte of Nassau. There were eight children in their family: Alexandra, Nikolai, Maria, Alexander, Ekaterina, George, Konstantin, Theresia.

Children of Peter Georgievich and Theresia Vasilievna of Oldenburg. Ser. 1850s Lithography

The wife helped her husband in charity work, in organizing women's education.

V.I. Gau, portrait of Princess Theresa of Oldenburg, nee Nassau (1836)

Princess Theresia of Oldenburg opened a women's school in her own name using savings from "toilet money". She also participated in the opening of the first Holy Trinity community of sisters of mercy in Russia, which provided a range of services: shelter, treatment, education, upbringing, restoration of mental strength.
Pyotr Georgievich died in 1881 and was buried at the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Sergius Primorskaya Male Hermitage (founded in 1732 and flourished during the governorship of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov), near Strelna.

In 1889, a monument was erected to the prince with the inscription "Enlightened Benefactor" in front of the building of the Mariinsky Hospital on Liteiny Prospekt, and in 1912, in connection with the centenary of his birth, part of the Fontanka River embankment was named the Embankment of Prince Peter of Oldenburg.

Pupils of the orphanage of the Prince of Oldenburg and sisters of mercy at the monument to P. G. Oldenburg in front of the Mariinsky hospital on the day of the 100th anniversary of his birth (St. Petersburg, 1912, K. K. Bulla's photo studio)

The shelter is expanding. New building

And yet, the prince's favorite brainchild was the "Orphanage of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg."
The results of the training at the orphanage were so favorable, and the payment for maintenance so insignificant, that the number of those wishing to enter the orphanage quickly increased, and its walls (at the corner of Glukhoy and Prachechny lanes) soon proved too cramped. Fortunately, the St. Petersburg City Public Administration in 1858 conceded free of charge for the construction of a new house for a shelter the city land located in the 12th company of the Izmailovsky regiment.

Capital was also needed to build a house, and Prince Peter Georgievich donates 40 thousand rubles from his own property. The noble initiative caused an influx of other donations, it was possible to begin the construction of a new building, which was built. The new four-storey building, designed by Academician of Architecture Heinrich Khristianovich Stegeman, was consecrated on October 22, 1861; and on December 5 of the same year, in the presence of Prince P. G. Oldenburgsky and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich the Elder and his wife, a house church was consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God Satisfy my sorrows.

Church of the Prince of Oldenburg's shelter. Interior. Photo from the 1890s

According to the curricula, the male and female departments of the shelter gradually approached the type of secondary educational institutions, with the only difference being that, in addition to general education subjects, a lot of time was devoted to teaching handicrafts and needlework. On December 31, 1890, the orphanage was granted the rights of state-owned real schools by the highest will, equating its rights departments with educational institutions of the Ministry of Public Education. Graduates of the orphanage got the opportunity to continue their studies in higher educational institutions.

Since 1867, exhibitions of "fashion items and children's costumes" made by the hands of pupils have been held annually. Later, needlework training was temporarily discontinued and the pupils were only engaged in sewing linen for the Shelter, but then “they found it expedient to open a fashion store at the shelter and introduce fine work classes.”

Pupils and pupils, philanthropists and members of the Board of Trustees, teachers and servants of the P.G. Oldenburgsky shelter at the New Year tree (beginning of the 20th century)

Pupils of the orphanage of Prince P. G. Oldenburg with teachers and a priest of the orphanage church (1900s)

Pupils of the orphanage of Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky in the workshop for the manufacture of musical instruments (1911)

Pupils of the orphanage of the Prince of Oldenburg at a meal (1900s)

Pupils of the orphanage of Prince P. G. Oldenburg in a gymnastics class (1900s)

The “Regulations on the Shelter” (1890) stated: “1. The purpose of the orphanage is to bring up and educate children of both sexes, mostly orphans, without distinction of their origin, state or religion. 2. The shelter consists of men's and women's departments, the first being subdivided into: a) real, b) lower mechanical and technical, and c) handicraft. 3. The shelter is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. The main management of these belongs to the trustee and the Board of Trustees attached to him, and the direct management is entrusted to the director, with the assistance of the pedagogical and economic committees. 28. The trustee of the shelter is appointed, with the highest permission, the eldest in the family descendant of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg, who died in Boz.

Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg took over the baton of charity from his father. He had a brilliant military career: he participated in the battles near Gorny Dubnyak, in the siege of Plevna, crossed the Balkans, took part in the final defeat of Suleiman Pasha; He had the rank of General of Infantry and the rank of Adjutant General.

Peter Georgievich and Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg; portrait from photographs (1910)

And at the same time, Alexander Petrovich was a trustee of the Imperial School of Law, founded by his father, the Shelter of Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg, a charity home for the mentally ill, and a patron of the Society for Assistance to Needy Students of the Women's School of Princess Theresa. The Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine owes its existence to the initiative and generous donations of Prince Alexander Petrovich. The institute became the main business of the prince's life.

But Alexander Petrovich did not forget the orphanage of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg. Since 1884, the program of the men's department was expanded to the course of real schools. The girls began to prepare "for the duties ahead of them in life, raising them in a strictly religious spirit, the Shelter wants to teach them culinary arts, housekeeping and hygiene." Since 1890, graduates of the men's section of the Shelter received the rights of graduating from lower mechanical and technical schools and real schools of the Ministry of Public Education, and a pedagogical class was added to the women's section.

A student of the Real School (orphanage) of Prince P. G. Oldenburg (beginning of the 20th century); a badge consisting of crossed letters P (shelter), P (Peter) and O (Oldenburgsky) on the headdress of a student of the shelter; Token of the Guardianship of the Imperial Philanthropic Society for collecting donations for the upbringing and placement of poor children in craftsmanship (on the lapel of the uniform jacket - see photo of the student). Similar tokens were nominal, and were made of silver and gold. Tokens were awarded for special services to society, as a rule, for a large monetary donation. The possession of such a token increased the social status of the owner. How was this young man so distinguished that he was given a similar badge? It is unlikely that this was a monetary donation. This educational institution did not study children from wealthy families. Most likely he was awarded a token for community service.

In 1900, a branch of the orphanage was opened in Luga, on an estate donated to him by the local City Administration. In 1903, the orphanage founded a school-health resort on the Black Sea coast, in Gagra, where children studied, forced to live in a warm climate due to their health. At the Gagra branch, a folk elementary school was founded with co-education of children of both sexes.

Shelter branch in Luga (real school); early 20 in

View of the building of the shelter (dacha) of Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky in Lesnoy (1911)

The Prince's wife in 1868 was Evgenia Maksimilianovna, daughter of Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, who throughout her life supported her husband's charitable undertakings.

Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky with his daughter-in-law Princess E.M. Oldenburg in the estate of Princess Ramon in the Voronezh province (until 1881)

The orphanage lasted more than sixty years, until the revolution itself.

“A brief historical outline of the fifty-year activity of the Shelter of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg. 1846-1896" St. Petersburg, 1896. Printing house of P.P. Soikin

The most valuable consequence and indicator of the success of the work of the family of the princes of Oldenburg was the fate of those with whom they had to meet on their life path, directly or indirectly, when the name itself served for good deeds. Grateful pupils to perpetuate the memory of the Oldenburgs established scholarships in their name. In honor of P.G. Oldenburg, Moscow charitable organizations opened an orphanage, an Oldenburg school, a shelter named after Pyotr Georgievich for blind children. A two-class school of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg also arose in St. Petersburg.

In the autumn of 1917 A.P. Oldenburgsky emigrated to France, where he died in 1932. Buried in Biarritz.
The grave of Peter Georgievich Oldenburg in the 1920s. ruined.
The Church of the Nativity on the Sands was demolished in 1934. Rozhdestvensky streets were renamed Soviet.
After the revolution, the apartments of the shelter were not empty, a special hospital was located here, during the war years - a hospital, after the blockade was broken - the 1st and 12th schools and the House of Pioneers of the Leninsky District. On April 30, 1944, the Preparatory Naval School was formed here with a three-year training period.

The building is now very dilapidated and in need of a major overhaul.

However, times are changing. For example, gymnasium No. 157, whose history began in 1868 as the history of the Christmas Women's Gymnasium - since 1869 under the patronage and care of Princess Evgenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg, in 2000 the historical name was returned: in 1899, by the highest order of Nicholas II St. Petersburg Christmas Gymnasium was given a special name: "St. Petersburg Gymnasium of Princess Evgenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg"
And the temple on the Sands is going to be recreated.

Gymnasium No. 157 of St. Petersburg named after Princess E. M. Oldenburg on Proletarian Dictatorship Street (formerly Lafonskaya Street). The building was built in 1901, where the Christmas Women's Promnasia, founded in 1868, moved. Modern photo

Shelter building address: St. Petersburg,
12th Krasnoarmeiskaya st., 36-38

Website materials used: wikipedia.org, encblago.lfond.spb.ru, citywalls.ru, humus.livejournal.com, forum.kladoiskatel.ru, rusdeutsch.ru, photoarchive.spb.ru, piteroldbook.ru, trud.ru, blagoros.ru, gym157.spb.ru

Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg

Joseph-Desire Court (1797-1865) Portrait of Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky in the uniform of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment (1842)

Oldenburg (German von Oldenburg) - a noble family, a branch of the Holstein-Gottorp line of the Oldenburg dynasty, the former rulers of the duchy (later the Grand Duchy) of Oldenburg. They were closely related to the Romanov dynasty that ruled the Russian Empire. The younger line of the house, the descendants of Peter Friedrich Georg, bore the title of princes of Oldenburg and princes of Romanovsky.

O. A. Kiprensky. Portrait of Prince G. P. Oldenburg, 1811.

Prince Pyotr Georgievich of Oldenburg (1812, Yaroslavl - 1881, St. Petersburg) - His Imperial Highness (1845), Russian military and statesman, member of the Russian Imperial House, grandson of Paul I, infantry general (04/16/1841), chief of the Starodubsky cuirassier regiment named after him, senator, member of the State Council and chairman of the department of civil and spiritual affairs, chief administrator of the IV Department of the Own E. I. V. Chancellery, honorary guardian and chairman of the St. School of Jurisprudence, St. Petersburg Commercial School, Imperial Alexander Lyceum, honorary member of various scientists and charitable societies, chairman of the Russian Society of International Law, trustee of the Kyiv House of Charity for the Poor, patron of the Eye Hospital.

early years

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna Prince George Petrovich of Oldenburg

A few days before the Battle of Borodino, Prince Georgy Petrovich of Oldenburg and his wife, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, had a son, named Konstantin-Friedrich-Peter at baptism, later known in Russia under the name of Prince Peter Georgievich. Four months from birth, the prince lost his father and was transferred to his grandmother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Paul I, and then, when Ekaterina Pavlovna entered into a new marriage with the Crown Prince of Württemberg, he followed his mother to Stuttgart.

Portrait of Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828) George Doe

At the eighth year of age, he lost his mother, and, at her request, expressed by the princess before his death, was taken to Oldenburg to his grandfather, the Duke of Oldenburg Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig, where he received further education along with his elder brother Prince Friedrich-Paul- Alexander.

Peter Friedrich Ludwig of Oldenburg (1755-1829)

Etzhorn bei Oldenburg

Eitinsky or Oitinsky castle(Facade of the castle)

Interior

The circle of sciences that the prince was supposed to pass included, among other things, ancient and new languages, geometry, geography, as well as the Russian language. During the last time of his stay in Oldenburg, the prince was especially fond of jurisprudence and logic under the guidance of Christian Runde. In 1829, according to the Peace of Adrianople, Greece received political independence and some diplomats of that time called the Prince of Oldenburg a candidate for the Greek throne. But at the end of 1830, Emperor Nicholas I summoned the prince (his nephew) to the Russian service.

In Petersburg

Painting "Arch of the General Staff" by Vasily Sadovnikov. Watercolor.

On December 1, 1830, the prince arrived in St. Petersburg, was greeted very cordially by the emperor, enrolled in active service in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment and made the owner of the estate in Peterhof. During his five-year service in the regiment, the prince first commanded the 2nd battalion, and then (temporarily) the regiment, and for distinction in service on August 6, 1832 he was promoted to major general, and on December 6, 1834 to lieutenant general. On his initiative and under his control, a school was set up in the Preobrazhensky Regiment; Along with teaching literacy in this school, attention was also paid to the moral side of the students.

Portrait of Emperor Nicholas I.Franz Krüger

Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior of All Guards in St. Petersburg, lithograph of the first half of the 19th century.

On March 12, 1835, he was appointed a member of the council of military educational institutions, and in May of the following year he temporarily corrected the duties of the head of military educational institutions. On December 6 of the same year he was appointed chief of the Starodub cuirassier regiment. At the same time, the prince did not stop his education and continued to study literature (he translated Pushkin's Queen of Spades into French in 1834), history, natural sciences, and especially legal sciences (under the guidance of K. I. Arsenyev).

works[ J. Cura. State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg)

Palace of Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky in St. Petersburg.

Dacha of Prince P. Oldenburgsky in St. Petersburg.

In 1834 he left military service. The reason for the transition to the civil service was the following case (known from the words of Polovtsov, who was told by the prince himself). During his service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the prince had, on official duty, to be present at the corporal punishment of a woman, and on her bare shoulders, the soldiers were struck with sticks. Outraged by such a picture, the prince went from the place of execution to the then Minister of the Interior, Count Bludov, and told him that he would never again take part in orders to carry out such a punishment, which did not exist among any enlightened people, and therefore asked report to the Emperor his request for resignation. The prince was appointed a member of the consultation at the Minister of Justice, and after that (April 23, 1834) a senator.

Kozlov, A. Portrait of Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg: [Print]. - Late 1850s - early 1860s. - 1 sheet: Lithography;

Imperial School of Law

In the new place, the prince quickly became convinced that Russia was in dire need of officials with a legal education, and that this required a special legal higher educational institution. The prince worked out in detail the draft of the new "School of Law" and brought it to the discretion of the sovereign, with a promise to donate the amount necessary for the purchase of a house and the initial equipping of the school. The letter of the prince with the project, dated October 26, 1834, the sovereign handed over to M. M. Speransky, with the inscription: the noble feelings of the prince are worthy of respect. Please, after reading, talk to him and let me know both your comments and what will be agreed between you and the prince.

Speransky, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Varnek A.G.

On May 29, 1835, the State Council had already considered and approved the project and staff of the School of Jurisprudence worked out by the Prince, together with Speransky, and on the third day the Imperial Rescript followed, with which the Prince was entrusted with the organization of the school. By the end of November of the same 1835, the building bought at the expense of the prince at the corner of Fontanka and Sergievskaya streets (now Tchaikovsky street) was remade and adapted to open a school in it (at the same time, the acquisition of the building and its adaptation and furnishing cost the prince more than 1 million rubles ). December 5, 1835 was followed by a solemn, in the presence of the sovereign-emperor, the opening of the school. On the same day, by the Highest Rescript, the prince was approved with the rank of trustee of the school and awarded the Knight of the Order of St. Vladimir II degree. From the moment the school was founded until his death, for almost half a century, the prince did not leave the most cordial concerns about this institution.

School of law building

School of law building

S.K. Zaryanko. Hall of the School of Law with groups of teachers and pupils (1840)

Social activity

On December 6, 1836, he was ordered to be present in the State Council in the Department of Civil and Ecclesiastical Affairs with the right to hold the position of chairman in his absence. On February 25, 1842, the Highest was ordered to be the chairman of the mentioned department, and in this rank, the prince took an active part in the reforms of the 1860s, namely in the reform of the peasantry and the judiciary.

Portrait of Prince P. G. Oldenburg

In April 1837, he married the daughter of the Duke of Nassau Wilhelm, Princess Theresa-Wilhelmina-Charlotte.

In 1838, due to numerous personal and official activities, he asked to be dismissed from his presence in the Senate, and this request on February 17 of the same year was respected. On September 30, 1839, he was appointed the highest honorary guardian in the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees and a member of the Councils of the Educational Society for Noble Maidens and the School of the Order of St. Catherine. On October 14 of the same year, he was entrusted with the management of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

Hospital for the poor (Mariinsky) in St. Petersburg. Lithography. 1820s

Pupils of the orphanage of Prince Peter of Oldenburg and sisters of mercy at the monument to P. G. Oldenburg in front of the Mariinsky Hospital on the day of the 100th anniversary of his birth. St. Petersburg. 1912. Photo of the studio of K. K. Bulla

The prince's activity took on a broader dimension from 1844, when he was entrusted with the position of Chairman of the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees. The gradual increase in the number of women's educational institutions required new forms of administration, and their very statutes needed to be revised. To do this, in 1844, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Prince of Oldenburg, which developed categories, states and programs. Then (December 30, 1844) at the IV Det. The Educational Committee was established by the own EIV Chancellery as the central department for the educational part in women's educational institutions; and from January 1, 1845 - a special Main Council chaired by the Prince of Oldenburg and for a long time playing the role of a special ministry of women's education in Russia.

In 1851 he was appointed chairman of the Educational Committee, and thus became the head of women's upbringing and education. In his activities, the prince took care of the further and wider development of the educational business and always met the needs of the educational institutions subordinate to him. Of the works and notes of the prince, one should mention the note he compiled in 1851 and soon implemented on the teaching of gymnastics; then "Instruction for the education of pupils of women's educational institutions" (1852). In 1855. The Main Council, under the chairmanship of the prince, developed a charter for women's educational institutions, which was approved on August 30, 1855 by the Highest. On April 19, 1858, at the thought and instructions of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and with his active assistance, the first seven-grade women's school for incoming girls was opened in Russia, called the Mariinsky, the trustee of which was the prince.

Pupils of the institute in the house church at the altar

In the same year, several more public schools were opened in St. Petersburg. On February 26, 1859, the prince approved the "Rules of Internal Order of the Mariinsky Women's School", which fully reflected those humane ideas, the constant bearer of which was the prince. Following the model of the Mariinsky School, public educational institutions were soon opened in the provinces; by 1883 there were already up to thirty of them. On August 12, 1860, the draft Regulations on the main department of the institutions of Empress Maria were approved by the Highest; according to the Regulations, the main management of these institutions was concentrated in the IV department of His Majesty's Own Chancellery; the head of the department was ex officio chairman of the Main Council of Women's Educational Institutions and the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees.

Alexander-Mariinsky School in Irkutsk

Mariinsky Women's College, Perm

Mariinsky Women's School. Shadrinsk

The sovereign appointed Prince P. G. Oldenburgsky as the chief administrator, approved the project, so that on the position and decree it was displayed: "Tver, August 14, that is, the birthday of Prince Oldenburgsky." On May 5, 1864, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Educational Society for Noble Maidens, in the Imperial Rescript addressed to him, among other things, it was said: “The title of chief manager was only a fair recognition of your twenty years of merits for the benefit of institutions under your direct patronage.”

Atelier "Former Levitsky Light Painting". Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg: [Photo]. - First floor. 1860s -

In 1844, under his chairmanship, rules and regulations were developed for two-year pedagogical courses at the Alexander Women's Schools in St. Petersburg and Moscow; in addition, the theoretical and practical courses of candidates at both metropolitan orphans' institutes were transformed. Finally, due to the rapid spread of women's gymnasiums and the lack of well-trained teachers, pedagogical courses were founded in 1863, and in 1871, according to the prince and his initiative, a French class was established at the Nikolaev Orphan's Institute with a two-year course for pupils of the institute who completed the course with the first awards. In 1864, a teacher's seminary was established, at the St. Petersburg

Educational home and opened 20 primary schools in its districts; the number of schools, as well as the number of shelters, gradually increased.

Courtyard of the Elizabethan Orphanage. School named after Empress Maria Feodorovna

On March 10, 1867, with the highest permission, he opened in St. Petersburg at his own expense an orphanage for 100 children under the name "Shelter in memory of Catherine and Mary", since 1871 renamed the "Orphanage of Catherine, Maria and George".

In addition, the vocational school at the Moscow Orphanage was also obliged to him for many improvements and transformations, the charter and staff of which were again developed in 1868, and the school itself was renamed the Imperial Moscow Technical School. The results of the reforms were not long in coming: the exhibits of the school attracted general attention at Russian and foreign exhibitions.

In 1840 he was appointed chief director of the St. Petersburg Commercial School, which he subjected to fundamental reforms. On June 28, 1841, the new charter of the school was approved by the Highest, and since then the prince has been a trustee of the latter. In the same year, the prince assumed the title of president of the Imperial Free Economic Society, and from 1860 was its honorary member; during the chairmanship of the prince, a new charter of the society was also developed.

Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky and daughter-in-law Princess E.M. Oldenburg in Ramon.

On November 6, 1843, he was entrusted with the main command of the Alexander Lyceum, which in that year was included in the department of institutions of Empress Maria. In 1880 he created the "Russian Society of International Law", the opening of which, under his chairmanship, followed on May 31 of that year.

Was engaged in charity; to his funds and care were obliged for their emergence and development: the Women's Institute of Princess Theresa of Oldenburg; Shelter of His Highness Prince P. G. Oldenburg. Children's Hospital of Prince Peter of Oldenburg; the aforementioned shelter in memory of Catherine, Mary and George; Holy Trinity Sisters of Mercy; hospitals Obukhovskaya, Mariinskaya, Petropavlovskaya and others; Educational House, etc.

Sisters of Mercy and the wounded in the ward of the Intercession Community Hospital. Petrograd. 1914-1916. Photo studio K. K. Bulla

Already an old man, having celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his public service, dejected by ailments and unable to climb stairs without outside help, the prince continued to visit the institutions entrusted to him, deal with current affairs and take a keen interest in everything that was subject to his conduct.

Prince Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg (1812-1881)

He died of transient pneumonia on May 2, 1881, at 7:45 in the afternoon. His death was hastened by the news received of the assassination by terrorists of Emperor Alexander II, whom he was on friendly terms with.

On May 8, 1881, his solemn burial took place at the cemetery of the Sergius Hermitage, where at that time the graves of many prominent citizens of St. Petersburg and the Russian state were located.