Evgeny Botkin is a tsarist doctor. Tsarist life-physician evgeny botkin Doctor e botkin and tsesarevich alexei

Yevgeny Botkin is revered as a holy doctor who fulfilled the highest destiny in relation to his patients, who gave them all his strength and life itself ...

IN LINK

In 1917, the residents of Tobolsk were extremely lucky. They got their own doctor: not only of the capital's education and upbringing, but always, at any moment, ready to come to the aid of the sick, moreover, free of charge. The Siberians sent for the doctor sledges, horse teams, or even a complete trip: no joke, the personal doctor of the emperor himself and his family! It happened, however, that the patients did not have transport: then the doctor in a general's greatcoat with spattered insignia climbed across the street, bogged down to his waist in the snow, and nevertheless ended up at the bedside of the sufferer.

He treated better than local doctors, and did not take payment for treatment. But the compassionate peasant women shoved him either a basket of eggs, or a layer of bacon, or a bag of pine nuts or a jar of honey. The doctor returned to the governor's house with gifts. There, the new government kept the abdicated sovereign and his family under guard. The doctor's two children were also languishing in confinement and were as pale and transparent as the four Grand Duchesses and the little Tsarevich Alexei. Passing the house where the royal family was kept, many peasants knelt down, bowed to the ground, mournfully baptized themselves, as if on an icon.

CHOICE OF THE EMPRESS

Among the children of the famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin, the founder of several major directions in medicine, the physician-in-chief of two Russian autocrats, the youngest son Yevgeny did not seem to shine in anything special. He had little contact with his illustrious father, but followed in his footsteps, like his older brother, who became a professor at the Medical and Surgical Academy. Evgeny graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with dignity, defended his doctoral dissertation on the properties of blood, got married and volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War. This was his first experience in military field therapy, his first encounter with a harsh reality. Shocked by what he saw, he wrote detailed letters to his wife, which were later published as "Notes on the Russo-Japanese War."

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna drew attention to this work. Botkin was granted an audience. No one knows what the august personage was talking about in private, suffering not only from the fragility of her health, but most of all from the carefully hidden incurable illness of her son, the heir to the Russian throne.

After the meeting, Yevgeny Sergeevich was asked to take the position of the tsarist life-doctor. Perhaps his work on the study of blood played a role, but, most likely, the empress guessed in him a knowledgeable, responsible and selfless person.

In the center, from right to left, E. S. Botkin, V. I. Gedroits, S. N. Vilchikovsky. In the foreground is Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Olga

FOR YOURSELF - NOTHING

This is how Evgeny Botkin explained to his children the changes in their lives: despite the fact that the doctor's family moved to a beautiful cottage, entered government support, could participate in palace events, he no longer belonged to himself. Despite the fact that his wife soon left the family, all the children expressed a desire to stay with their father. But he rarely saw them, accompanying the royal family for treatment, rest, and diplomatic trips. At the age of 14, Evgeny Botkin's daughter Tatyana became the mistress of the house and managed expenses, giving out funds for the purchase of uniforms and shoes to her older brothers. But no absences, no hardships of the new way of life could destroy those warm and trusting relationships that connected the children and the father. Tatiana called him "invaluable daddy" and subsequently voluntarily followed him into exile, believing that she had only one duty - to be near her father and do what he needed. The tsar's children also treated Yevgeny Sergeevich with the same tenderness, almost in a kindred way. In the memoirs of Tatyana Botkina, there is a story about how the Grand Duchesses poured water from a jug for him when he was lying with a sore leg and could not get up to wash his hands before examining the patient.

Many classmates and relatives were jealous of Botkin, not realizing how difficult his life was in this high post. It is known that Botkin had a sharply negative attitude towards the personality of Rasputin and even refused to accept his patient at home (but he himself went to help him). Tatyana Botkina believed that the improvement in the health of the heir when visiting the "elder" came just when Yevgeny Sergeevich had already carried out therapeutic measures that strengthened the boy's health, and Rasputin attributed this result to himself.

Leib-medic E.S. Botkin with his daughter Tatyana and son Gleb. Tobolsk. 1918 g.

LAST WORDS

When the sovereign was asked to choose a small retinue to accompany him into exile, of the generals he indicated, only one agreed. Fortunately, there were faithful servants among others, and they followed the royal family to Siberia, and some also accepted a martyrdom along with the last Romanovs. Among them was Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. For this, the physician-in-chief did not have a question of choosing his own destiny - he made it a long time ago. In the dead months under arrest, Botkin not only healed, strengthened, spiritually supported his patients, but also played the role of a home teacher - the royal spouses decided that the education of children should not be interrupted, and all prisoners studied with them in some subject.

His own youngest children Tatiana and Gleb lived nearby in a rented house. The Grand Duchesses and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna sent postcards, notes, small gifts, made with their own hands, in order to brighten up the difficult life of these guys, who at their own request followed their father into exile. The children could see "daddy" only a few hours a day. But even from the time when he was released from arrest, Botkin found the opportunity to visit sick Siberians and rejoiced at the suddenly opened opportunity for wide practice.

In Yekaterinburg, where the execution took place, Tatyana and Gleb were not allowed, they remained in Tobolsk. For a long time they did not hear anything about their father, and when they found out, they could not believe it.

Ekaterina Kalikinskaya

, Yekaterinburg) - Russian doctor, physician of the family of Nicholas II, nobleman, saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, passion-bearer, righteous. The son of the famous doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin. He was shot by the Bolsheviks along with the royal family.

Biography

Childhood and study

He was the fourth child in the family of the famous Russian doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin (life-doctor of Alexander II and Alexander III) and Anastasia Aleksandrovna Krylova.

In 1878, on the basis of the education he received at home, he was immediately admitted to the 5th grade of the 2nd Petersburg classical gymnasium. After graduating from high school in 1882, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University, however, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he went to the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy.

In 1889 he graduated from the academy third in the graduation, being awarded the title of doctor with honors.

Work and career

From January 1890 he worked as an assistant doctor 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, got acquainted with the structure of Berlin hospitals.

At the end of his business trip in May 1892, Yevgeny Sergeevich became a doctor of the court chapel, and in January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky hospital as a supernumerary resident.

On May 8, 1893 he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine "On the question of the influence of albumosis and peptones on some functions of the animal organism" at the Academy, dedicated to his father. The official opponent on defense was I.P. Pavlov.

In the spring of 1895 he was sent abroad and spent two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listened to lectures and practiced with leading German doctors - professors G. Munk, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. In May 1897 he was elected assistant professor of the Military Medical Academy.

In the fall of 1905, Evgeny Botkin returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the Academy. Since 1905 he has been an honorary medical worker. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George. At the request of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, he was invited as a doctor to the royal family and in April 1908 was appointed physician-in-chief of Nicholas II. He stayed in this position until his death.

He was also an advisory member of the Military Sanitary Scientific Committee at the Imperial Headquarters, a member of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society. Since 1910 he has been a full state councilor.

Link and doom

He was killed along with the entire imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918. According to the memoirs of Ya. M. Yurovsky, the organizer of the murder of the royal family, Botkin did not die right away - he had to be “shot”.

“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, died for my children, for friends, for business ... I died, but not yet buried, or buried alive - all the same, the consequences are almost the same ...

I don’t indulge myself with hope, I don’t lull myself with illusions and look straight into the eyes of unadorned reality ... I am supported by the belief 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 some of us join the works of faith, then it is only by the special mercy of God ...

This also justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as full 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 to him. "

Canonization and rehabilitation

On February 3, 2016, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to glorify passion-bearer of the righteous Eugene doctor... At the same time, other servants of the royal family were not canonized. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, commenting on this canonization, said:

The Council of Bishops made a decision to glorify Doctor Yevgeny Botkin. I think this is a long-desired decision, because he is one of the saints who is revered not only in the Russian Church Abroad, but also in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, including the medical community.

On March 25, 2016, on the territory of the Moscow City Clinical Hospital No. 57, Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky consecrated the first church in Russia in honor of the righteous Evgeny Botkin.

Family

Evgeny Botkin · Alexey Volkov Anastasia Gendrikova Anna Demidova Vasily Dolgorukov Clement Nagorny Ivan Sednev Ilya Tatishchev Alexey Trup Ivan Kharitonov Ekaterina Schneider Yakov Yurovsky Pyotr Ermakov

An excerpt characterizing Botkin, Evgeny Sergeevich

“It's a good thing,” said the man who seemed to Petya to be a hussar. - Do you have a cup left?
- And over there by the wheel.
The hussar took the cup.
“It’s probably light soon,” he said, yawning, and walked somewhere.
Petya should have known that he was in the forest, in Denisov’s party, a mile from the road, that he was sitting on a wagon, beaten off from the French, near which the horses were tied, that the Cossack Likhachev was sitting under him and sharpening his saber, that there was a big black spot to the right - a guardhouse, and a red bright spot below to the left - a burning fire, that the person who came for a cup is a hussar who wanted to drink; but he knew nothing and did not want to know it. He was in a magical realm, in which there was nothing like reality. A big black spot, maybe there was a guardhouse, or maybe there was a cave that led into the very depths of the earth. The red spot may have been fire, or perhaps the eye of a huge monster. Maybe he is now sitting on a wagon, but it may very well be that he is not sitting on a wagon, but on a terribly high tower, from which if he fell, he would fly to the ground all day, a whole month - all fly and never reach ... It may be that just a Cossack Likhachev is sitting under the wagon, but it may very well be that this is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most excellent person in the world, whom no one knows. Maybe it was as if the hussar was passing by for water and went into the hollow, or maybe he had just disappeared from sight and completely disappeared, and he was not there.
Whatever Petya saw now, nothing would have surprised him. He was in a magical realm in which anything was possible.
He looked up at the sky. And the sky was as magical as the earth. It was clearing in the sky, and clouds flew quickly over the tops of the trees, as if revealing the stars. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was clearing and showing a black, clear sky. Sometimes it seemed that these black spots were clouds. Sometimes it seemed that the sky was high, rising high above the head; sometimes the sky descended completely, so that you could reach it with your hand.
Petya began to close his eyes and sway.
The drops were dripping. There was a quiet talk. The horses laughed and fought. Someone was snoring.
- Burning, burning, burning, burning ... - whistled a sharpened saber. And suddenly Petya heard a harmonious chorus of music playing some unknown, solemnly sweet hymn. Petya was musical, just like Natasha, and more than Nikolai, but he never studied music, did not think about music, and therefore the motives that suddenly occurred to him were especially new and attractive to him. The music played louder and louder. The chant grew, passed from one instrument to another. What is called a fugue was happening, although Petya had not the slightest idea of ​​what a fugue was. Each instrument, sometimes similar to a violin, sometimes to trumpets - but better and cleaner than violins and trumpets - each instrument played its own and, without having finished playing the motive, merged with another, which began almost the same, and with the third, and with the fourth , and they all merged into one and again scattered, and again merged, now in the solemn church, now in the brightly brilliant and victorious.
“Oh, yes, it's me in a dream,” Petya said to himself, swinging forward. - It's in my ears. Or maybe this is my music. Well, again. Go ahead my music! Well!.."
He closed his eyes. And from different sides, as if from afar, sounds fluttered, began to harmonize, scatter, merge, and again everything combined into the same sweet and solemn hymn. “Oh, what a charm it is! As much as I want and how I want, ”Petya said to himself. He tried to lead this huge choir of instruments.
“Well, quieter, quieter, freeze now. - And the sounds obeyed him. - Well, now it's fuller, more fun. Even more joyful. - And from an unknown depth rose the intensifying, solemn sounds. - Well, voices, bother! " - Petya ordered. And at first, from afar, male voices were heard, then female voices. The voices grew, grew in a steady solemn effort. Petya was scared and joyful to listen to their extraordinary beauty.
The song merged with the solemn victorious march, and drops dripped, and burning, burning, burning ... the saber whistled, and again the horses fought and whinnied, not breaking the chorus, but entering it.
Petya did not know how long this went on: he was enjoying himself, all the time he was amazed at his pleasure and regretted that there was no one to tell him. Likhachev's gentle voice woke him up.
- Done, your honor, spread the guardian in two.
Petya woke up.
- It's dawn, really, it's dawn! He cried.
Horses previously unseen were visible to their tails, and a watery light could be seen through the bare branches. Petya shook himself, jumped up, took out a ruble from his pocket and gave Likhachev, waving, tasted the saber and put it in its sheath. The Cossacks untied the horses and tightened the girths.
“Here's the commander,” said Likhachev. Denisov came out of the guardhouse and, calling to Petya, ordered to get ready.

Quickly in the semi-darkness they dismantled the horses, tightened the girths and sorted them out according to commands. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, plopping with a hundred feet, walked forward along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse on the bit, eagerly awaiting the order to sit down. Having been washed with cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his spine, and in his whole body something was trembling quickly and evenly.
- Well, are you all ready? - said Denisov. - Come on horses.
The horses were served. Denisov got angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, having scolded him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite him on the leg, but Petya, not feeling his heaviness, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who had moved behind in the darkness, drove up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fedorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please… for God's sake… ”he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about Petya's existence. He looked back at him.
- About one you pg "osh," he said sternly, "to obey me and not to meddle.
During the entire journey Denisov did not speak a word more with Petya and drove in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, it was already noticeably brightening in the field. Denisov talked something in a whisper with the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov touched his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their backs and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the hollow. Petya rode next to Denisov. The tremors in his entire body intensified. It became brighter and brighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Having driven down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack who was standing beside him.
- Signal! He said.
The Cossack raised his hand, a shot rang out. And at the same instant there was the sound of pounding horses in front of them, shouts from different directions, and more shots.
At the same instant, as the first sounds of stomping and shouting were heard, Petya, hitting his horse and releasing the reins, without listening to Denisov shouting at him, galloped ahead. It seemed to Petya that all of a sudden, like the middle of the day, it was brightly dawning the minute the shot was heard. He galloped to the bridge. Cossacks galloped along the road ahead. On the bridge he ran into a straggler Cossack and rode on. Ahead, some people — they must have been the French — were running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.
Cossacks crowded around one hut, doing something. A terrible cry came from the middle of the crowd. Petya galloped up to this crowd, and the first thing he saw was the pale face of a Frenchman with a trembling lower jaw, holding on to the shaft of a pike directed at him.
- Hurray! .. Guys ... ours ... - Petya shouted and, giving the reins to the heated horse, galloped forward along the street.
Shots were heard ahead. Cossacks, hussars and Russian ragged prisoners who fled from both sides of the road, all loudly and awkwardly shouted something. A dashing Frenchman, without a hat, with a red scowling face, in a blue greatcoat, fought off the hussars with a bayonet. When Petya jumped up, the Frenchman had already fallen. Again he was late, it flashed through Petya's head, and he galloped over to where he heard frequent shots. Shots rang out in the courtyard of the manor house where he had been with Dolokhov last night. The French sat there behind a fence in a dense garden overgrown with bushes and fired at the Cossacks who were crowding at the gate. Approaching the gate, Petya in the powder smoke saw Dolokhov with a pale, greenish face, shouting something to people. “Take a detour! Infantry wait! " - he shouted, while Petya drove up to him.
- Wait? .. Uraaaa! .. - Petya shouted and, without hesitating a single minute, galloped to the place where the shots were heard and where the powder smoke was thicker. A volley was heard, and empty bullets squealed into something. The Cossacks and Dolokhov jumped up after Petya into the gate of the house. The French, in the wavering thick smoke, some threw down their weapons and ran out of the bushes to meet the Cossacks, others ran downhill to the pond. Petya galloped on his horse along the courtyard and, instead of holding the reins, waved both hands strangely and quickly, and farther and farther knocked off the saddle to one side. The horse, having run up to the fire smoldering in the morning light, rested, and Petya fell heavily on the wet ground. The Cossacks saw how quickly his arms and legs twitched, despite the fact that his head did not move. The bullet pierced his head.
After talking with a senior French officer, who came out to him from behind the house with a scarf on a sword and announced that they were surrendering, Dolokhov dismounted and walked over to Pete, who was lying motionless, with outstretched arms.
“Ready,” he said, frowning, and went to the gate to meet Denisov, who was on his way to see him.
- Killed ?! - Denisov cried out, seeing from afar that familiar to him, undoubtedly lifeless position, in which Petya's body lay.
“Ready,” Dolokhov repeated, as if pronouncing the word gave him pleasure, and quickly went to the prisoners, who were surrounded by dismounted Cossacks. - We will not take! - he shouted to Denisov.
Denisov did not answer; he rode up to Petya, dismounted from the horse and with trembling hands turned Petya's already pale face, stained with blood and mud, towards him.
“I'm used to something sweet. Excellent raisins, take all of them, ”he remembered. And the Cossacks looked back in surprise at the sounds similar to a dog barking, with which Denisov quickly turned away, went up to the fence and grabbed it.
Among the Russian prisoners recaptured by Denisov and Dolokhov was Pierre Bezukhov.

About the party of prisoners in which Pierre was, during his entire movement from Moscow, there was no new order from the French authorities. This party on October 22 was no longer with the troops and carts with which it left Moscow. Half of the convoy with breadcrumbs, which followed the first crossings, was repulsed by the Cossacks, the other half went ahead; there were not one more infantry cavalrymen who were walking in front; they all disappeared. The artillery, which had been visible in front of the first crossings, was now replaced by the huge wagon train of Marshal Junot, escorted by the Westphalians. A wagon train of cavalry items rode behind the prisoners.
From Vyazma, the French troops, formerly marching in three columns, were now marching in one heap. Those signs of disorder that Pierre noticed at the first halt from Moscow have now reached their last degree.
The road they followed was paved on both sides by dead horses; ragged people, backward from different teams, constantly changing, then joined, then again lagged behind the marching column.
Several times during the campaign there were false alarms, and the soldiers of the convoy raised their guns, fired and ran headlong, crushing each other, but then they gathered again and scolded each other for their vain fear.
These three assemblies, marching together - the cavalry depot, the depot for prisoners and Junot's wagon train - still constituted something separate and integral, although both of them, and the third, were quickly melting away.
The depot, which had one hundred and twenty carts at first, now had no more than sixty; the rest were repulsed or abandoned. From Junot's convoy, several carts were also left and recaptured. Three carts were plundered by the backward soldiers who came running from the Davout corps. From the conversations of the Germans, Pierre heard that more guards were placed on this wagon train than for the prisoners, and that one of their comrades, a German soldier, was shot at the orders of the marshal himself for the fact that a silver spoon belonging to the marshal was found on the soldier.
Most of these three gatherings melted depot of prisoners. Of the three hundred and thirty people who left Moscow, now there were less than a hundred. The prisoners, even more than the saddles of the cavalry depot and than Junot's wagon train, weighed down the escorting soldiers. Junot's saddles and spoons, they understood that they could be useful for something, but why was it necessary for the hungry and cold soldiers of the convoy to stand guard and guard the same cold and hungry Russians who were dying and lagging behind the road, whom they had ordered to shoot? not only incomprehensible, but also disgusting. And the escorts, as if afraid in the woeful situation in which they themselves were, not to surrender to their feeling of pity for the prisoners and thereby worsen their situation, treated them especially gloomily and severely.
In Dorogobuzh, while, having locked the prisoners in the stable, the escort soldiers left to plunder their own shops, several people of the captured soldiers dug under the wall and fled, but were captured by the French and shot.
The previous order, introduced at the exit from Moscow, so that the captured officers should go separately from the soldiers, has long been destroyed; all those who could walk walked together, and Pierre from the third crossing had already joined again with Karataev and the purple bow-legged dog, which chose Karataev as its master.
With Karataev, on the third day of leaving Moscow, he developed the same fever from which he lay in the Moscow hospital, and as Karataev weakened, Pierre moved away from him. Pierre did not know why, but since Karataev began to weaken, Pierre had to make an effort on himself in order to approach him. And coming up to him and listening to those quiet groans with which Karataev usually lay down on halts, and feeling the now intensifying smell that Karataev was emitting from himself, Pierre moved away from him and did not think about him.

Foreign medicine in Russia has always been trusted more than their own. And the Russian monarchs are to blame for this ... Thanks to this belief, the influence of some doctors went far beyond the scope of medicine. But the cost of a medical error was also great.

Probably, he was the first foreign doctor who received the position of court doctor at the Moscow court. Onton arrived in Russia in 1485 from the German Land with the hope of becoming the first "guy in the village." However, doctor Nemchin did not manage to win the laurels of Doctor House. John III, then reigning in Muscovy, entrusted Otnon with the treatment of the ailing son of Kasimov prince Danjar-Karakuchi. The Tatar patient died, possibly unable to withstand the high technologies of Western medicine, which then actively used mercury. After that, Onton Nemchin had to experience the Russian technologies of reprisal: "... bring him to the river to Moscow under a bridge, and slaughter him with a knife, like a sheep." So, the first "pancake" of progressive Western medicine in Russia came out lumpy.

Mistro Leon Zhidovin

Four years later, a new ambassador of progressive European medicine appeared in Muscovy - Mister Leon, whom Muscovites, who did not know about anti-Semitism at that time, nicknamed Leon Zhidovin. The doctor arrived from Venice as part of a group of Italian specialists - architects, engineers, jewelers, called by John III to the Moscow court. A month after his arrival, Leon had the opportunity to show off his skill: the heir to the throne, John the Young, fell ill with "kamchyuga at the feet". Mistro Leon volunteered to solve the problem. With the permission of John III, he began to "use the prince's potion, burned his body with gallons of hot water." However, the heir got worse and worse, until March 6, 1490, he appeared before the Lord. Well, “at Balvanovka on April 22 ″ was done with Mistro Zhidovin.

The sad experience of the first two doctors did not stop the flow of Western specialists. Vasily III had three doctors from Constantinople and one German prisoner, and Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian Anglomaniac, relied on British medicine. In 1568, according to John Vasilyevich's petition, Queen Elizabeth of England sent to Moscow Dr. Arnulf Lindsay, whose books on medicine and mathematics were thundering throughout Europe. The king liked Arnulf so much that he was "just a cure for no use." The British physician soon became one of the closest persons to the throne. Moreover, his advice was limited not only to medicine. So, the doctor actively lobbied British trade interests, expressed his opinion on the state structure of Russia and called on the tsar to get rid of some of the boyars. Despite the royal love, Lindsay's career was also short-lived. During another fire in Moscow, a British medic disappeared into his cellar and suffocated from carbon monoxide there.

This doctor became the second major hobby of John Vasilyevich after Arnulf Lindsay. Fatal infatuation. ... Unlike Arnulf, the Dutchman Elisha had little interest in medicine in its classical sense. This Life-Medic of His Majesty was fascinated by alchemy, or rather, poisons. They say that in their production Bomelius achieved such an art that he could accurately predict the day and hour of death of the victim who took the potion. Other "strengths" of the Dutchman were knowledge of astrology and black magic. Elisha boasted that he could cause natural disasters, fires, and famine with the help of conspiracies. The boyars feared the "evil sorcerer Bomeliya" much more than Ivan Vasilievich himself. It was they who "set him up": when Grozny went to put things in order in Novgorod, he received a denunciation that the Dutchman was preparing a political conspiracy against the tsar. God takes care of the saved, John IV decided to play it safe. According to the laws of the genre, Elisha was first pulled up on a rack, and then fried on a fire. The boyars breathed a sigh of relief.

Another English served in the medical service at Rurikovich. In 1594, after much persuasion by Boris Godunov, he accepted an offer to become a physician to Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. It was a real event, since medical scientists of this caliber had never visited Russia before. This is about the same as if today Jude Law starred with Nikita Mikhalkov, and John Terry moved to play for Zenit. Mark Ridley became a beacon of enlightenment for the Russian elite. Thanks to him, many boyar children received excellent education in mathematics, chemistry, physics, etc. In a matter of months, he studied Russian and compiled Russian-English and English-Russian dictionaries, in which Russian words were written in Cyrillic. Four years later, Queen Elizabeth recruited Ridley to serve as her personal physician. When the doctor left Russia, Boris Godunov wrote to the Queen: “We are returning him to Your Majesty with our royal benevolence and praise for serving us and our predecessor with faith and truth. If British doctors, pharmacists and other learned people wish to come to Russia in the future, they will always enjoy a good reception, a decent place and free admission. "

Until the end of his life, this great scientist was proud of the fact that he served as a physician in Muscovy.

Artemy Ivanovich Diy

Another British star on the horizon of Russian court medicine. Artemy Ivanovich Diy, aka Arthur Di, the son of the famous scientist and alchemist John Dee, arrived at the service as a physician to the court of Mikhail Fedorovich. It is interesting that Boris Godunov himself persuaded John Dee to become a life-doctor for a long time, and now, several decades later, his beloved son arrived in the Kremlin. Artemy Ivanovich not only treated Tsar Mikhail, but also taught him the basics of alchemy and physics. According to legend, under the leadership of this Englishman, some of the alchemical opuses were encrypted in the tiles of the Royal Chambers of the Ipatiev Monastery, the beloved abode of the first Romanovs. Dee stayed in Moscow for 14 years, during which he was engaged in the development of domestic pharmaceuticals and wrote his famous alchemical treatise Fasciculus Chemicus. Some conspiracy theorists say that Artemy Ivanovich Diy served as a resident of British intelligence. Considering the fact that his father, John Dee, is considered the creator of the world's first intelligence service, then anything can be.

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, St. Petersburg province. He was the fourth child born of the first marriage of his father Sergei Petrovich to Anastasia Aleksandrovna Krylova. (Dr. S.P. Botkin was a world-famous luminary of the Russian therapeutic school.)

Both the spiritual and the household atmosphere in this family was unique. And the financial well-being of the Botkin clan, inherent in the entrepreneurial activity of his grandfather Pyotr Kononovich Botkin, a well-known supplier of tea in Russia, allowed all his heirs to lead a comfortable existence on a percentage of that. And maybe that is why there were so many creative personalities in this family - doctors, artists and writers. But along with this, the Botkins were also related to such famous figures of Russian culture as the poet A.A. Fet and philanthropist P.M. Tretyakov. Himself Evgeny Botkin from early childhood was a passionate admirer of music, calling classes such a "refreshing bath".

The Botkin family played a lot of music. Sergei Petrovich himself played the cello to the accompaniment of his wife, taking private lessons from the professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory I.I. Seifert. Thus, from early childhood E.S. Botkin received a thorough musical education and acquired a fine ear for music.

In addition to playing music, the Botkin family also lived a rich social life. The capital's elite gathered for the famous "Botkin Saturdays": professors of the IMPERIAL Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists, among whom were such outstanding personalities as I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov and others.

Since childhood, E.S. Botkin, such character traits as modesty, a kind attitude towards others and a rejection of violence began to appear.

So in his book "My Brother" Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin wrote: “From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection. He never looked like other children. Always sensitive, out of delicacy, inwardly kind, with an extraordinary soul, he felt horror from any fight or fight. We other boys used to fight violently. He, as usual, did not participate in our fights, but when the fistfight took on a dangerous character, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fighters. He was very diligent and smart in his studies. "

Primary education at home allowed E.S. Botkin in 1878 immediately entered the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium, where almost immediately his brilliant abilities in the field of natural sciences manifested themselves. Therefore, after graduating from this educational institution in 1882, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. However, the example of a doctor father and love of medicine turned out to be stronger, and the next year (having passed the exams for the first year of the university) he entered the junior department of the opened Preparatory Course of the Imperial Military Medical Academy.

In 1889, Yevgeny Sergeevich's father dies and almost at the same time he successfully graduates from the IVMA third in the graduation, having been awarded the title of Doctor with honors and a personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded to "the third highest points in his course ..."

Practicing Aesculapius E.S. Botkin began in January 1890 as an Assistant Physician at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, and in December of the same year he was sent to Germany, where he undergoes internship with leading doctors and gets acquainted with the arrangement of hospitals and hospital affairs.

After completing his medical practice in May 1892, Yevgeny Sergeevich began work as a Doctor of the Imperial Court Singing Chapel, and from January 1894 he again returned to work at the Mariinsky Hospital as a supernumerary Resident.

Along with the clinical practice of E.S. Botkin is engaged in scientific research, the main areas of which were work in the field of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis, the protective properties of blood corpuscles, etc.

In 1893 E.S. Botkin marries Olga Vladimirovna Manuilova, and the next year their first-born son Dmitry is born in their family. / Running a little ahead, it must be said that the family of Evgeny Sergeevich had four children: sons - Dmitry (1894-1914), Yuri (1896-1941), Gleb (1900-1969) and daughter - Tatiana (1899-1986) /

May 8, 1893 E.S. Botkin brilliantly defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic "On the question of the influence of albumosis and peptones on some functions of the animal organism", which he dedicates to his father. And his official opponent in this defense was our outstanding compatriot and physiologist I.P. Pavlov.

In 1895, E.S. Botkin is sent to Germany again, where for two years he has been improving his qualifications, practicing in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, and also attending lectures by German professors G. Munk, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others.

In May 1897, E.S. Botkin was elected as a Privat-docent at the Institute of World Medical Studies.

On October 18, 1897, he reads his introductory lecture to students, which is very remarkable in that it very clearly shows his attitude towards the sick:

“Once the trust of patients you have acquired passes into sincere affection for you, when they are convinced of your invariably cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the ward, you are greeted with a joyful and welcoming mood - a precious and powerful medicine that you will often help much more than with potions and powders. (…) Only a heart is needed for this, only a sincere heartfelt sympathy for a sick person. So do not be stingy, get used to giving it with a wide hand to the one who needs it. So, let's go with love to a sick person, so that together we can learn how to be useful to him. "

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, E.S. Botkin volunteered for the Active Army, in which he was appointed Head of the Medical Unit of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK) in the Manchurian Army.

However, occupying this rather high administrative position, he, nevertheless, prefers to be at the forefront most of the time.

It is said that once a wounded Company Paramedic was brought to the Field Hospital. Having provided him with first aid, E.S. Botkin took his medical bag and went to the front line instead.

His attitude to participation in this war, Dr. E.S. Botkin describes in some detail in his book Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-5. (From letters to his wife) ", published in St. Petersburg in 1908, some excerpts from which are given below:

“I was not afraid for myself: never before had I felt the power of my Faith to such an extent. I was completely convinced that no matter how great the risk that I was exposed to, I would not be killed if God did not want it, I did not tease fate, did not stand at the guns so as not to interfere with the shooting, but I knew that I was needed, and this consciousness made my position pleasant. "

“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 people's lack of spirituality, a sense of duty, that small calculations become higher than concepts about the Fatherland, higher than God. " (Laoyang, May 16, 1904),

“I have just read all the latest telegrams about the fall of Mukden and our terrible retreat to Telnik. I cannot convey to you my feelings. (…) Despair and hopelessness grips the soul. Will we have something in Russia? Poor, poor homeland. " (Chita, March 1, 1905).

Wartime work of doctor E.S. Botkin, in his post, did not go unnoticed by his immediate superiors, and at the end of this war "For the difference rendered in cases against the Japanese", he was awarded the Orders of St. Vladimir II and III degrees with swords and a bow.

But outwardly calm, strong-willed and always benevolent Doctor E.S. Botkin was in fact a very sentimental person, as P.S. Botkin in the already mentioned book "My Brother":

“…. I came to my father's grave and suddenly I heard sobs in the deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother (Eugene) lying in the snow. “Oh, it's you, Petya, you've come to talk to daddy,” and sobs again. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, no one could even imagine that this calm, self-confident and domineering person could weep like a child. "

On May 6, 1905, Doctor E.S. Botkin is appointed Honorary Life-Medic of the Imperial Family, which he learns about while still in the Active Army.

In the fall of 1905, he returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the IVMA, and in 1907 he was appointed Chief Physician of the St. George Community of Sisters of Mercy of the Red Cross, the medical department of which had been headed by his late father since 1870.

After the death of Leib-Medic Gustav Ivanovich Hirsch, which followed in 1907, the Royal Family was left without one of those, the vacancy of which required urgent filling. The candidacy of the new court doctor was named by the Empress herself, who, when asked whom she would like to see in his place, answered: "Botkina." And when asked which of them it was (at that time there were two Botkins in St. Petersburg), she said: "The one who fought." (Although ES Botkin's brother, Sergei Sergeevich, was also a participant in the last Russo-Japanese War.)

Thus, starting on April 13, 1908, Yevgeny Sergeevich Botkin became the Honorary Life-Medic of the Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich and His Family, exactly repeating the career path of his father, who was the Life-Medic of two previous Emperors - Alexander II and Alexander III.

It must be said that by that time all the Medical ranks (as the doctors at the Imperial Court were officially called) serving the Royal Family were on the staff of the Ministry of the Imperial Court and Districts, representing a rather significant group of the best titled specialists in many medical specialties: therapist , surgeon, ophthalmologist, obstetrician, pediatrician, dentist, etc.

His love for the sick, E.S. Botkin also transferred to the August patients, since his immediate duties included medical supervision and treatment of all members of the Royal Family: from the terminally ill Heir to the Tsarevich to the Tsar.

The Tsar himself was directly related to E.S. Botkin with undisguised sympathy and trust, patiently enduring all medical and diagnostic procedures.

But if the health of the Tsar was, one might say, excellent (except for poor dental heredity and periodic pains of a hemorrhoidal nature), then the most difficult patients for Dr. Botkin were the Empress and the Heir.

Even in early childhood, Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt suffered from diphtheria, the complications after which over the years affected rather frequent attacks of rheumatism, recurrent pain and swelling in the legs, as well as in violation of cardiac activity and arrhythmias. And, in addition, the development of those was in no small measure facilitated by the five transferred births, which finally undermined Her already weak body.

Due to these constant ailments, eternal fears for the life of Her infinitely sick Son and other internal experiences, the outwardly dignified, but in fact very sick and early aging Empress, was forced to give up long walks, soon after his birth. In addition, due to the constant swelling of her legs, She had to wear special shoes, over the size of which, at times, evil tongues made fun of. Pains in the legs were often accompanied by constant palpitations, and the accompanying bouts of headaches for weeks deprived the Empress of peace and sleep, which is why She was forced to stay in bed for a long time, and if she went out into the air, it was only in a special stroller ...

But even more trouble is for Dr. E.S. Botkin was delivered by the Heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, whose congenital and fatal illness demanded his increased medical attention. And it so happened that he spent days and nights at his bedside, providing him not only medical care, but also doctoring medicine, which is not less important for any patient - human participation in the patient's grief, giving this unfortunate creature all the warmth of his heart.

And such participation could not fail to find a mutual response in the soul of his little patient, who would one day write to his beloved doctor: "I love you with all my little heart."

In turn, Evgeny Sergeevich also wholeheartedly became attached to the Heir and all the other Members of the Royal Family, more than once telling his household that: "With their kindness, They made me a slave until the end of my days."

However, the relationship of Leib-medic E.S. Botkin and the Royal Family were not always so cloudless. And the reason for this is his attitude to G.E. Rasputin, who served as the very "black cat" that ran between him and the Empress. Like most loyal subjects, who knew about Elder Gregory only from the words of people who had never communicated with him, and therefore, through their thoughtlessness, in every way exaggerated and fanned the most dirty rumors about him, which were initiated by the empress's personal enemies in the person of the so-called “blacks”. (This is how the Empress called her enemies, united around the Court of Montenegrin Princes - Stana Nikolaevna and Militsa Nikolaevna, who became the wives of the Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich Jr. and his brother Peter Nikolaevich.) And, strange as it may seem, not only people far from the Highest believed in them. Dvora, but also such close persons as E.S. himself. Botkin. For he, having fallen under the influence of these rumors and gossip on a universal scale, sincerely believed in them, and therefore, like many, considered G.E. Rasputin as the "evil genius" of the Royal Family.

But as a person of exceptional honesty, who never betrayed his principles and never compromised, if such a compromise contradicted his personal conviction, E.S. Botkin somehow refused even to the Empress Her request to host G.E. Rasputin. “It is my duty to provide medical assistance to anyone,” said Yevgeny Sergeevich. But I won't accept such a person at home. "

In turn, this statement could not but cool down for some time the relationship between the Empress and Her beloved Life-Medic. Therefore, after one of the crises of illness that happened to the Heir to the Tsarevich in the fall of 1912, when Professor E.S. Botkin and S.P. Fedorov, as well as Honorary Life-Surgeon V.N. Derevenko recognized themselves powerless before such, the Empress began to trust G.E. Rasputin. For the latter, possessing God's Gift of healing, is not known to the aforementioned luminaries. And therefore, by the power of prayer and conspiracies, he was able to stop in time the internal bleeding that had opened up in the Heir, which with a high degree of probability could have ended in death for him.

As a doctor and a man of exceptional morality, E.S. Botkin never spoke on the side about the health of his August patients. Thus, the Chief of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, Lieutenant General A.A. Mosolov in his memoirs "At the Court of the Last Russian Emperor" mentioned that: “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 the Heir followed. He was certainly a loyal servant to Their Majesties. "

Occupying such a high position and being very close to the Emperor, E.S. Botkin, however, was very far from any "interference in Russian state policy." However, as a citizen, he simply could not help but see all the pernicious public sentiments, which he considered the main reasons for the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. He also well understood that the hatred of the Tsar's Family and the entire House of Romanovs, incited by the enemies of the Throne and the Fatherland, was beneficial only to the enemies of Russia - the Russia that his ancestors had served for many years and for which he fought on the battlefields.

After reconsidering his attitude towards G.E. Rasputin, he began to despise those people who composed or repeated various fables about the Tsar's Family and Her personal life. And he spoke about such people as follows: "If it were not for Rasputin, then the opponents of the Tsar's Family and the revolutionaries would have created him with their conversations from Vyrubova, if it had not been for Vyrubova, out of me, whoever you want."

And further: “I don’t understand how people who consider themselves monarchists and talk about the adoration of His Majesty can so easily believe all the gossip that is spread, they can spread it themselves, erecting all sorts of fables on the Empress, and don’t understand that by insulting Her, they thereby offend Her August Spouse, who is supposedly adored. "

By this time, not everything was developing well and Yevgeny Sergeevich's personal life.

In 1910, leaving the children in his care, his wife left him, carried away by the revolutionary ideas that were fashionable at that time, and with them a young student of the Riga Polytechnic Institute who was suitable for her son, who was 20 years younger than her. After her departure, E.S. Botkin was left with three youngest children - Yuri, Tatyana and Gleb, since his eldest son, Dmitry, had already lived independently by that time. Inwardly deeply worried about the departure of his wife, Yevgeny Sergeevich began to give the warmth of his soul to the children in his care with even greater energy. And I must say that those - who adored their father, paid him in full reciprocity, always waiting for him from work and worrying whenever he was late.

Using the undoubted influence and authority at the Highest Court, E.S. Botkin, however, never used it for personal purposes. So, for example, his inner convictions did not allow him to put in a word to procure a "warm place" even for his own son Dmitry - the Horunzhy Life Guards Cossack Regiment, who went to the front at the beginning of the First World War and died on December 3, 1914. (The bitterness of this loss became an unhealing bleeding wound in his father's heart, the pain from which remained in him until the very last days of his life.)

And a few years later, new times began in Russia, which turned out to be a political catastrophe for it. At the end of February 1917, a great turmoil began, started by a handful of traitors, which already at the beginning of March led to the Tsar's abdication from the throne.

Subjected to house arrest and held in custody in the Tsarskoye Selo Alexander Palace, the Tsar and His Family, in fact, turned out to be hostages of future events. Limited by freedom and isolated from the outside world They stayed in it only with the closest people, including E.S. Botkin, who did not want to leave the Tsar's Family, which became even more dear to him with the beginning of the trials that fell to her lot. (Only for a very short time did he leave the August Family to help the widow of his deceased son Dmitry, who was sick with typhus, and when her condition no longer aroused his fear, Yevgeny Sergeevich, without any requests and coercion, returned back to the August Prisoners.)

At the end of July 1917, the Minister-Chairman of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky announced to the Tsar and His Family that instead of a trip to the Crimea, they would all be sent to one of the Siberian cities.

True to his duty, E.S. Botkin, without a moment's hesitation, decides to share their fate and go to this Siberian exile with his children. And when the Tsar asked whom he would leave his youngest children Tatyana and Gleb to, he replied that for him there is nothing higher than caring for Their Majesties.

Arriving in Tobolsk, E.S. Botkin, along with all the servants of the former. Tsar, lived in the house of the fish merchant Kornilov, located near the Governor's House, where the Tsar's Family was settled.

In the house of Kornilov E.S. Botkin occupied two rooms, where, in accordance with the permission received, he could receive the soldiers of the Consolidated Guards Detachment for the protection of the former Tsar and the local population, and where on September 14, 1917, his children Tatiana and Gleb arrived.

About these last days of medical practice in his life, about the attitude of soldiers, residents of Tobolsk and the local population who came to him from afar, E.S. Botkin wrote in his last letter to his "friend Sasha": “Their confidence touched me especially, and I was gladdened by their confidence, which never deceived them, that I will receive them with the same attention and affection as any other patient, and not only as an equal to myself, but also as a patient who has all the rights for all my worries and services. "

The life of the family of Dr. E.S. Botkina in Tobolsk is described in detail in the book of memoirs of his daughter Tatyana "Memories of the Tsar's Family and Her Life before and after the Revolution." So, in particular, she mentions that, despite the fact that her father's personal correspondence was censored, he himself, unlike other prisoners, could freely move around the city, his apartment was never searched, and sign up to him anyone who wishes could have an appointment.

But the relatively serene life in Tobolsk ended with the arrival of the Extraordinary Commissioner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V.V. Yakovlev with a detachment of militants, who announced to the Tsar's Family that, by order of the Soviet government, he would have to take Her out of the city in the very near future, according to the route known only to him.

And again, even in this situation, full of anxiety and uncertainty, Leib-Medic E.S. Botkin, faithful to his medical and moral duty, sets out together with the Sovereign, the Empress, Their Daughter Maria and others to meet his death.

On the night of April 25-26, 1918, they leave Tobolsk and follow carts towards Tyumen. But what is characteristic! Suffering from endless road shaking, cold and renal colic along the way, Dr. E.S. Botkin remains a doctor even in this intolerably painful environment for him, having given his fur coat to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, who, having gone on this long journey, did not bring really warm clothes with her.

On April 27, the August Prisoners and their accompanying persons reached Tyumen, and on April 30, after several days of road trials and adventures, they were taken to Yekaterinburg, where E.S. Botkin was placed under arrest at the Don as a prisoner.

While in the Ipatiev house, E.S. Botkin, faithful to his medical duty, did everything in order to somehow alleviate the fate of his Crowned patients.

Remembering this years later, the former Commandant of the House of Special Purpose Ya.M. Yurovsky wrote:

“Dr. Botkin was a loyal friend of the family. In all cases, for various needs of the family, he acted as an intercessor. He was devoted body and soul to his family and experienced the hardships of their lives with the Romanovs. "

Almost the same thing, more than forty years later, was recalled by his former assistant G.P. Nikulin:

“As a rule, we always intercede on all kinds of things, which means that there has always been business, here, Dr. Botkin. It means that he addressed ... "

And in this they were both absolutely right, since all the requests of the arrested were transmitted, either directly to the Commandants of the Don (A.D. Avdeev or Y.M. Yurovsky, who replaced him), or to the members of the Ural Regional Council on duty (those were appointed in the first month of the stay of the Royal Family in DON, where they were on daily duty).

After arriving in Yekaterinburg and accommodation in the Ipatiev house of the August Children transported from Tobolsk, Doctor E.S. Botkin understands that his "Dying forces" there is clearly not enough to care for the sick Heir Tsesarevich.

Therefore, the very next day he writes to A.G. Beloborodov's note of the following content:

"Yekaterinburg.

B [Yekaterinburg] Regional Executive Committee

Mr. Chairman.

As a doctor who has been observing the health of the Romanov family for ten years,currently under the jurisdiction of the Regional Executive Committeein general, and Alexei Nikolaevich in particular, I appeal to you, Mr. Chairman, with the following earnest request. Alexey Nikolaevich, whose treatmentconducted by Dr. Vl. [adimir] Nik. [olayevich] Derevenko, is subject to joint pains under the influence of ears, which are absolutely inevitable in a boy of his age, accompanied by sweating of fluid in them and the most severe pain as a result. Day and night in suchcases, the boy suffers so inexpressibly that none of his closest relativesto speak of his chronically ill heart, his mother, who does not spare herself for him, is unable to withstand caring for him for a long time. My fading strength is also lacking. Klim Grigorievich Nagorny, who was with him, after several sleepless and full of torment nights, knocks off his feet and would not be able to endure at all, if the teachers of Alexei Nikolaevich, Mr. Gibbs, and especially his teacher Mr. Gilliard. Calm and balanced, they, replacing one another, by reading and changing impressions, distract the patient from his sufferings during the day, alleviating them and giving his relatives and Nagorny the opportunity to sleep and gather strength to replace them in turn. G. Gilliard, to whom Alexei Nikolaevich for the seven years that he has been with him permanently, is especially accustomed and attached, sometimes spends whole nights around him during his illness, letting the exhausted Nagorny go to sleep. Both teachers, especially, I repeat, Mr. Gilliard, are absolutely irreplaceable for Aleksei Nikolaevich, and I, as a doctor, must admit that they often bring more relief to the patient than medical supplies, the supply of which for such cases, self-medication, is extremely limited.

In view of all of the above, I decide, in addition to the request of the parents,nogo, disturb the Regional Executive Committee with the most zealous petitionadmit yy. Gilliard and Gibbs to continue their dedicated service inAlexei Nikolayevich Romanov, and in view of the fact that the boy is just now in one of the most acute bouts of his suffering, especially hard for him due to overwork travel, not refuse to admit them - at least one Mr. Gilliard - to him tomorrow.

Dr. Ev. [Genius] Botkin

Passing this note to the addressee, commandant A.D. Avdeev could not refrain from imposing his own resolution on her, which perfectly expressed his attitude, not only to the sick child and doctor E.S. Botkin, but also to the entire Royal Family as a whole:

“Having looked at the real request of Dr. Botkin, I believe that one of these servants is superfluous, that is, the children are all royal and can watch the sick, and therefore I suggest that the Chairman of the Regional Council immediately put these presumptuous masters in their position. Commandant Avdeev ".

Currently, among many researchers of the royal theme, who in their works place a certain stake on the so-called "eyewitness memories" of J. Meyer. (Former prisoner of war of the Austro-Hungarian army Johann Ludwig Mayer, who published those in 1956 in the German magazine "Seven Days" under the title "How the Tsar's Family died." DON, the political leadership of the Urals came up with the idea to talk with Doctor E.S. Botkin, summoning him to the premises of the "Revolutionary Headquarters".

« (…) Mobius, Maklavansky and Doctor Milyutin were sitting in the room of the Revolutionary Headquarters when Doctor Botkin entered. This Botkin was a great.(…)

Then Maklavansky began to speak:

- Listen, doctor, - he said in his pleasant, always sincere voice, - the Revolutionary headquarters has decided to release you. You are a doctor and want to help people who are suffering. For this you have enough opportunities with us. You can take over the management of a hospital in Moscow or open your own practice. We will even give you recommendations, so that no one can have anything against you.

Dr. Botkin was silent. He looked at the people sitting in front of him and, it seemed, could not overcome a certain distrust of them. It seemed that he sensed a trap. Maklavansky must have felt it, as he continued convincingly:

- Please understand us correctly. The future of the Romanovs looks somewhat bleak.

It seemed that the doctor was slowly beginning to understand. His gaze shifted from one to the other. Slowly, almost stammering, he dared to answer:

- I think I understood you correctly, gentlemen. But, you see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he is alive. For a man of my position, it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave the heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You should still understand this ...

Maklavansky cast a quick glance at his comrades. After that, he turned again to the doctor:

- Of course, we understand this, doctor, but you see, the son is incurable, you know this better than we do. Why do you sacrifice yourself for ... well, let's say, for a lost business ... For what, doctor?

- Lost case? - Botkin asked slowly. His eyes glistened.

- Well, if Russia dies, I can die too. But in no case will I leave the king!

- Russia will not die! Mobius said sharply.

- We'll take care of it. A big nation will not die ...

- Do you want to separate me by force from the king? - asked Botkin with a cold expression on his face.

- I still do not believe this, gentlemen!

Moebius looked at the doctor intently. But now Doctor Milyutin has entered.

“You bear no responsibility in a lost war, Doctor,” he said in a corny voice.

- We cannot reproach you with anything, we only consider it our duty to warn you about your personal death ...

Doctor Botkin sat in silence for several minutes. His gaze was fixed on the floor. The commissars already believed that he would change his mind. But suddenly the appearance of the doctor changed. He got up and said:

- I am glad that there are still people who are concerned about my personal fate. I thank you for meeting me halfway ... But help this unfortunate family! You will do a good job. There, in the house, the great souls of Russia bloom, who are doused with the mud of politicians. I thank you gentlemen, but I will stay with the king! - said Botkin and stood up. His height exceeded everyone else.

“We're sorry, Doctor,” Moebius said.

- In that case, go back again. You can think it over. "

Of course, this conversation is pure fiction, as well as the personalities of Maklavansky and Dr. Milyutin.

And, nevertheless, not everything in J. Meyer's “memories” turned out to be the fruit of his unbridled imagination. So, the "Revolutionary Headquarters" mentioned by him actually existed. (Until May 1918, it was called the Headquarters of the Revolutionary Western Front for Combating Counter-Revolution, after which its employees were enrolled in the staff of the Central Siberian District Military Commissariat in which J. Meyer began to occupy a very modest position as a copyist of the Agitation Department).

Like all the prisoners of the Ipatiev house, Doctor E.S. Botkin wrote letters and received answers to them from distant Tobolsk, where his daughter Tatyana and his youngest son Gleb remained. (Currently, the State Archive of the Russian Federation has several letters to T.E. Botkina, which she wrote to her father in Yekaterinburg.)

Here is an excerpt from one of them from May 4 (April 23) 1918, in which she puts all her daughter love:

« (…) My precious, golden beloved daddy!

Yesterday we were terribly delighted with your first letter, which went for a whole week from Yekaterinburg; nevertheless, these were the freshest news about you, because Matveyev, who arrived yesterday with whom Gleb talked, could not tell us anything except that you had renal colic<неразб.>I was terribly afraid of this, but judging by the fact that you already<неразб.>wrote that I was healthy, I hope that this colic was mild.(…)

I can't imagine when we will see each other because I have no hope for<неразб.>leave with everyone, but I will try to come nevertheless closer to you. Sitting here without you<неразб.>very boring and aimless. You want something to do, but you don't know what to do, and how long will you have to live here? During this time, there was only one letter from Yura, and even that old one dated March 17, and nothing else.

Until I finish, my dear. I don't know if my letter will reach you. And if it does, then when. And who will read before you(this phrase is inscribed between the lines in small handwriting. - Yu.Zh.)

I kiss you, my dear, much, much and hard - as I love.

Goodbye my dear, my golden, my beloved. Hope to see you soon. I kiss you many more times.

Your Tanya".

« (…)I am already writing to you from our new rooms and I hope that this letter will reach you, because Commissar Khokhryakov is taking him. He also said that he could deliver you a chest with things, in which I put everything that we had of your things, i.e. several photographs, boots, linen, dress, cigarettes, blanket and autumn coat. I also handed over the pharmacies to the commissioner as family property, I don’t know if you will receive our letter. I embrace you very tightly, my beloved, for your such good and affectionate letters. "

Yevgeny Sergeevich also wrote letters from the Ipatiev house. He wrote to his younger children - Tatiana and Gleb in Tobolsk, to his son Yuri, and also to his younger brother Alexander Sergeevich Botkin. To date, it is known about at least four of his letters to the last two persons. The first three, dated April 25 (May 8), April 26 (May 9) and May 2 (15), were addressed to Yuri, and the fourth, written on June 26 (July 9), to Alexander ...

Their content is also very interesting. So, for example, in his first letter, he talked about the weather and extremely short walks:

“… Especially after being outdoors, in the kindergarten, where I sit most of the time. Yes, and this time so far, due to the cold and unpleasant weather, was very short: only the first time, when we were released, but yesterday we walked for 55 minutes, or even 30, 20 and even 15. After all, the third day we had another 5 degrees of frost, and this morning it was still snowing, but now, however, it is already over 4 degrees of heat ”.

The second letter mentioned above was more lengthy. However, it is noteworthy that in him he not only does not complain about his fate, but even in a Christian way pity his persecutors:

“... While we are still in our temporary, as we were told, premises, which I do not regret at all, as because it is quite good, and because in the "constant" withoutthe rest of the family and their attendants would probably be very empty, if, as it is hoped, it was at least the same size as the house in Tobolsk. Indeed, the kindergarten here is very small, but so far the weather has not made me regret especially about it. However, I must make a reservation that this is purely my personal opinion, because with our common obedience to fate and the people to whom it has entrusted us, we do not even ask the question of “what the coming day is preparing for us”, because we know that “ the day is dominated by his malice "... and we only dream that this self-contained spite of the day would not be really evil.

... And we already had to see a lot of new people here: the commandants change, more precisely, they change often, and some commission came to inspect our premises, and they came to interrogate us about money, with a surplus (which, by the way, I have , as usual, and did not appear) to transfer for storage, etc. In a word, we cause them a lot of trouble, but, really, we did not impose on anyone and did not ask for anything. I wanted to add that we were not asking for anything either, but I remembered that this would be wrong, since we are constantly forced to bother our poor commandants and ask for something: then the denatured alcohol came out and there is nothing to heat the food on, or to cook rice for vegetarians, then we ask for heels, then the water supply is clogged, then the laundry needs to be washed, then the newspapers should be received, etc., etc. It's just a shame, but it’s impossible otherwise, and that’s why it is especially expensive and comforting every kind smile. So now I went to ask permission to walk a little in the morning: although it was fresh, the sun was shining affably, and for the first time an attempt was made to take a walk in the morning ... And it was also affably allowed.

... I finish with a pencil, because as a result of the holidays I could not yet receive either a separate pen or ink, and I still use strangers, and even then more than anyone else. "

In his third letter to E.S. Botkin also told his son about the new events that took place in the place of their new imprisonment:

“… Since yesterday, the weather has sharply turned to warmth, a piece of the sky visible from my window, which has not yet been painted over with a limestone, is an even gray-blue color, indicating cloudlessness, but from all the caresses of nature we are destined to see a little, because ... we are only allowed an hour a day to walk in one or two steps ...

... Today I am renewing my letter paper, which was kindly delivered to me yesterday, and I am writing with my new pen and my ink, which I updated yesterday in a letter to the children. taking possession of someone else's pen and inkwell, I constantly prevented someone from using them, and the gray paper that Tanyusha had laid for me, I had long worn out and wrote on pieces of writing; I took out all the little envelopes except one.

... Well, we took a walk for exactly an hour. The weather turned out to be very pleasant - better than one might have expected behind the stained glass. I like this innovation: I no longer see a wooden wall in front of me, but I sit as in a comfortable winter apartment; you know, when the furniture is in covers, like we have now, and the windows are white. True, the light, of course, is much less and it turns out to be so scattered that it hurts weak eyes, but things are heading towards summer, which happens here, perhaps, very sunny, and we, Petrograd residents, are not spoiled by the sun. "

His last birthday in his life E.S. Botkin Evgeny Sergeevich also met at Ipatiev's house: on May 27 (14) he turned 53 years old. But, despite such a still relatively small age, Evgeny Sergeevich already felt the approach of death, which he wrote about in his last letter to his younger brother Alexander, in which he recalls the days gone by, pouring out all the pain of his soul ... (His, quite voluminous text , it is hardly worth citing, since it was published more than once in various editions. Tatyana Melnik (nee Botkina) " Life of the Tsar's Family before and after the revolution ", M., firm" Ankor ", 1993; "Tsarsky Life-Medic" THOSE. Botkin, edited by K.K. Melnik and E.K. Miller. St. Petersburg, ANO Tsarskoe Delo Publishing House, 2010, etc.)

This letter remained unsent (at present it is kept in the State Archive of the Russian Federation), which was later recalled by the already mentioned G.P. Nikulin:

“Botkin, then ... I repeat that he always interceded for them. I asked them to do something for them: call the priest, you know, here ..., take them out for a walk or, there, subordinate a watch, or something else, there, some little things.

Well, once I checked Botkin's letter. He wrote it, he addressed his son (younger brother - Yu.Zh.) to the Caucasus. So, he writes something like this:

“Here, my dear (I forgot, there, what was his name: Serge or not Serge, no matter how), here I am there. Moreover, I must inform 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. We live this way and that way (he "so" - it is covertly writes). Moreover, I don’t dwell on the details because I don’t want to bother ..., I don’t want to bother people whose duties are to read [and] check our letters. "

Well, that was the only letter with me ... He did not write again. The letter [this], of course, was not sent anywhere. "

And his last hour E.S. Botkin met with the Royal Family.

July 17, 1918, at approximately 1 o'clock. 30 minutes. at midnight, Evgeny Sergeevich was awakened by the Commandant Ya.M. Yurovsky, who told him that in view of the alleged attack on the house of the anarchist detachment, all those arrested should go down to the basement, from where they might be transported to a safer place.

After Dr. E.S. Botkin woke everyone else up, all the prisoners gathered in the dining room, from where they proceeded through the kitchen and the adjacent room to the staircase of the upper floor. They are accompanied by Ya.M. Yurovsky, G.P. Nikulina, M.A. Medvedeva (Kudrina), P.Z. Ermakova and two Latvians with rifles from the internal guard descended along it to the lower floor and through the door available there they went out into the courtyard. Once on the street, they all walked a few meters through the courtyard, after which they entered the house again and, passing through the suite of rooms on the lower floor, ended up in the very one where they had been martyred.

It makes no sense to describe the whole course of further events, since this has been written about many times. However, after Ya.M. Yurovsky announced to the prisoners that they were "forced to shoot", Yevgeny Sergeevich could only utter in a voice slightly hoarse with excitement: "So they won't take us anywhere?"

After, through considerable efforts, Ya.M. Yurovsky finally stopped the shooting, which took on a disorderly character, many of the victims were still alive ...

“But when finally I managed to stop(shooting. - Yu.Zh.), - he wrote later in his memoirs, - I saw that many were still alive. For example, Dr. Botkin was lying with his elbow on his right hand, as if in a resting pose, with a revolver shot[I am] finished with him ... "

That is, Ya.M. Yurovsky directly confesses that he personally shot the former Leib-Medik E.S. Botkin and is almost proud of it ...

Well, time has put everything in its place. And now those who considered themselves "heroes of October" have passed into the category of ordinary people and murderers and persecutors of the Russian people.

And the Christian feat of Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, as the successor of the glorious medical dynasty and a man of duty and honor, even decades later did not go unnoticed. At the Local Council of the ROCOR held on November 1, 1981, he was numbered among the Holy New Martyrs of Russia from the power of the godless victims under the name of Holy New Martyr Yevgeny Botkin.

On July 17, 1998, the remains of E.S. Botkin were solemnly buried together with the remains of the Members of the Royal Family in the Catherine Chapel of the Cathedral of Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg.

Ecology of life. People: Deep inner piety, the most important thing is sacrificial service to one's neighbor, unshakable devotion to the Royal family and loyalty to God ...

Evgeny Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, in the family of Sergei Petrovich Botkin, an outstanding Russian scientist and doctor, founder of the experimental direction in medicine. His father was a court physician for Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III.

As a child, he received an excellent education and was immediately admitted to the fifth grade of the St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. After graduating from high school, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University, but after the first year he decided to become a doctor and entered the preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy.

Yevgeny Botkin's medical career began in January 1890 as an assistant physician at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. A year later, he went abroad for scientific purposes, studied with leading European scientists, and got acquainted with the structure of Berlin hospitals.

In May 1892, Yevgeny Sergeevich became a doctor of the Court Capella, and in January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky hospital. At the same time, he continued his scientific activity: he was engaged in immunology, studied the essence of the process of leukocytosis and the protective properties of blood corpuscles.

In 1893, he brilliantly defended his dissertation. The official opponent on the defense was the physiologist and the first Nobel laureate Ivan Pavlov.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), Yevgeny Botkin left for the active army as a volunteer and became the head of the medical unit of the Russian Red Cross Society in the Manchurian Army. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, despite the administrative position, he spent a lot of time on the front line. For distinction in work he was awarded many orders, including military officers.

In the fall of 1905, Yevgeny 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 life doctor. The candidacy of the new physician was named by the empress herself, who, when asked who she would like to see in this position, answered: "Botkin." When she was told that now two Botkins are equally known in St. Petersburg, she said: "The one that was in the war!"

Botkin was three years older than his august patient, Nicholas II. The duty of the physician was to treat all members of the royal family, which he carefully and scrupulously carried out. We had to examine and treat the emperor, who was in good health, and the grand duchesses who suffered from various childhood infections. But the main object of Yevgeny Sergeevich's efforts was Tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia.

After the February coup of 1917, the imperial family was imprisoned in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. All servants and assistants were offered to leave the prisoners at will. But Dr. Botkin stayed with the patients.

He did not want to leave them and when it was decided to send the royal family to Tobolsk. There he opened a free medical practice for local residents.

In April 1918, together with the royal couple and their daughter Maria, Doctor Botkin was transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. At that moment there was still an opportunity to leave the royal family, but the physician did not leave them.

Johann Meyer, an Austrian soldier who was captured by Russia during the First World War and sided with the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, wrote his memoirs "How the Tsar's Family Died." In the book, he informs about 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 of the special purpose house knew for sure about the imminent execution. He knew and, having the opportunity to choose, preferred loyalty to salvation to the oath given once to the king.

Here is how Meyer describes it: “You see, I gave the king my word of honor to stay with him as long as he is alive. For a man of my position, it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave the heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You should all understand this. "

Dr. Botkin was killed along with the entire imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918.

In 1981, together with others who were shot in the Ipatiev House, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

LIVING

Passion-sufferer EVGENY DOCTOR (BOTKIN)

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin came from the Botkin merchant dynasty, whose representatives were distinguished by their deep Orthodox faith and charity, they helped the Orthodox Church not only with their means, but also with their labors. Thanks to a reasonably organized system of upbringing in the family and the wise guardianship of parents, many virtues, including generosity, modesty and aversion to violence, were laid in Yevgeny's heart from childhood.

His brother Pyotr Sergeevich recalled: “He was infinitely kind. One could say that he came into the world for the sake of people and in order to sacrifice himself. "

Eugene received a thorough education at home, which allowed him in 1878 to immediately enter the fifth grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. In 1882, Evgeny graduated from high school and became a student of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University. However, the very next year, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Imperial Military Medical Academy. From the very beginning, his choice of the medical profession was deliberate and purposeful. Petr Botkin wrote about Eugene: “He chose medicine as his profession. This was consistent with his vocation: to help, support in difficult times, relieve pain, heal endlessly. " In 1889, Eugene successfully graduated from the academy, receiving the title of doctor with honors, and in January 1890 began his career at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

At the age of 25, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin married the daughter of a hereditary nobleman Olga Vladimirovna Manuilova. The Botkin family has four children: Dmitry (1894-1914), Georgy (1895-1941), Tatiana (1898-1986), Gleb (1900-1969).

Simultaneously with his work in the hospital, E. S. Botkin was engaged in science, he was interested in questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis. In 1893, ES Botkin brilliantly defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After 2 years, Evgeny Sergeevich was sent abroad, where he underwent practice in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin.

In 1897, E.S.Botkin was awarded the title of assistant professor in internal medicine with a clinic. At his first lecture, he told the students about the most important thing in the activity of a doctor: "Let us all go with love to a sick person, so that together we can learn how to be useful to him."

Yevgeny Sergeevich considered the service of a physician to be a truly Christian activity, he had a religious view of diseases, saw their connection with the state of mind of a person. In one of his letters to his son George, he expressed his attitude to the medical profession as a means of knowing God's wisdom: “The main delight that you experience in our business ... is that for this we have to go deeper and deeper into the details and the secrets of God's creations, and it is impossible not to enjoy their purposefulness and harmony and His highest wisdom. "

Since 1897, E. S. Botkin began his medical practice in the communities of sisters of mercy of the Russian Red Cross Society. On November 19, 1897, he became a doctor in the Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy, and from January 1, 1899, he also became the chief physician of the St. Petersburg Community of Sisters of Mercy in honor of St. George. The main patients of the community of St. George were people from the poorest strata of society, but doctors and staff were selected with the utmost care. Some women of the upper class worked there as ordinary nurses on a general basis and considered this occupation honorable for themselves. Such enthusiasm reigned among the employees, such a desire to help suffering people that the Georgians were sometimes compared with the early Christian community. The fact that Yevgeny Sergeevich was accepted to work in this "exemplary institution" testified not only to his increased authority as a doctor, but also to his Christian virtues and respectable life. The position of the chief physician of the community could only be entrusted to a highly moral and religious person.

In 1904, the Russian-Japanese war began, and Yevgeny Sergeevich, leaving his wife and four small children (the eldest was at that time ten years old, the youngest was four years old), volunteered for the Far East. On February 2, 1904, by a decree of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society, he was appointed assistant to the Chief Commissioner for the active armies in the medical department. Occupying this rather high administrative position, Dr. Botkin was often at the forefront.

During the war, Yevgeny Sergeevich not only showed himself to be an excellent doctor, but also showed personal courage and courage. He wrote many letters from the front, of which a whole book was composed - "The Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905". This book was soon published, and many, after reading it, discovered new sides of the St. Petersburg doctor: his Christian, loving, infinitely compassionate heart and unshakable faith in God.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, having read Botkin's book, wished that Yevgeny Sergeevich became the personal doctor of the Tsar's family. On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1908, Emperor Nicholas II signed a decree appointing Doctor Botkin as a physician to the Imperial Court.

Now, after the new appointment, Yevgeny Sergeevich had to constantly be with the emperor and members of his family, his service at the royal court proceeded without days off and holidays. The high position and closeness to the Royal family did not change the character of E. S. Botkin. He remained as kind and considerate to others as he was before.

When the First World War began, Yevgeny Sergeevich asked the sovereign to send him to the front to reorganize the sanitary service. However, the emperor instructed him to remain with the empress and the children in Tsarskoe Selo, where, through their efforts, hospitals began to open. At his home in Tsarskoe Selo, Yevgeny Sergeevich also set up an infirmary for the lightly wounded, which the empress and her daughters visited.

In February 1917, a revolution took place in Russia. On March 2, the sovereign signed the Manifesto on the abdication of the throne. The royal family was arrested and taken into custody in the Alexander Palace. Yevgeny Sergeevich did not leave his royal patients: he voluntarily decided to be with them, despite the fact that his post was abolished and his salary was stopped. At this time, Botkin became more than a friend for the royal prisoners: he took on the duty of being an intermediary between the imperial family and the commissars, interceding for all their needs.

When it was decided to move the Tsar's family to Tobolsk, Doctor Botkin was among the few confidants who voluntarily followed the Tsar into exile. The letters of Dr. Botkin from Tobolsk are striking in their truly Christian mood: not a word of murmur, condemnation, discontent or resentment, but complacency and even joy. The source of this complacency was firm faith in the all-good Providence of God: "Only prayer and ardent, boundless trust in the mercy of God, invariably poured out on us by our Heavenly Father, support us."

At this time, he continued to fulfill his duties: he treated not only members of the Royal family, but also ordinary townspeople. A scientist who had been in contact with the scientific, medical, and administrative elite of Russia for many years, he humbly served, as a zemstvo or city doctor, to ordinary peasants, soldiers, and workers.

In April 1918, Dr. Botkin volunteered to accompany the royal couple to Yekaterinburg, leaving his own children in Tobolsk, whom he loved dearly and dearly. In Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks again asked the servants to leave the arrested, but they all refused. Chekist I. Rodzinsky reported: “In general, at one time after the transfer to Yekaterinburg there was an idea to separate everyone from them, in particular, even the daughters were offered to leave. But they all refused. Botkin was offered. He stated that he wanted to share the fate of the family. And he refused. "

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the Tsar's family, their entourage, including Dr. Botkin, were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev house.

Several years before his death, Yevgeny Sergeevich received the title of hereditary nobleman. For his coat of arms, he chose the motto: "By faith, loyalty, work." In these words, as it were, all the ideals and aspirations of Dr. Botkin were concentrated.Deep inner piety, the most important thing is sacrificial service to one's neighbor, unshakable devotion to the Royal family and loyalty to God and His commandments in all circumstances, loyalty to death.

The Lord accepts such faithfulness as a pure sacrifice and gives for it the highest, heavenly reward: Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev. 2:10).