One of the founders of Russian clinical medicine, the first in Russia to put its study on natural science foundations. Creator of the largest school of Russian clinicians, professor at the Military Medical Academy (1861).

Main scientific works

"On the absorption of fat in the intestines" (1860); "The course of the clinic of internal diseases". Issue 1-3. (1867-1875); "On the mobility of the kidneys" (1884); "Graves' disease and a tired heart" (1885); "Clinical lectures by S.P. Botkin. Issue 1-3. (1887-1888).

Contribution to the development of medicine

The founder of the largest therapeutic school (45 out of 106 students of S.P. Botkin headed clinical departments in various cities of Russia, 85 defended dissertations for the degree of doctor of medicine. Among his students are I.P. Pavlov, A.G. Polotebnov, V. G. Lashkevich, N. Ya. Chistovich, V. P. Obraztsov, V. N. Sirotinin, V. A. Manassein, I. I. Molesson, N. P. Simanovsky, N. A. Vinogradov, etc.)

In 1860-1861. organized the first clinical experimental laboratory, where the first Russian studies on clinical pharmacology and experimental therapy were carried out.

For the first time in the history of domestic science, he realized a fruitful union of medicine and physiology. He widely introduced physical and chemical research methods into the clinic.

Created a new direction in medicine, called I.P. Pavlov nervism. In his views, he proceeded from the materialistic understanding of the organism as a whole, which is inextricably linked with its environment and controlled by the nervous system. He considered the nervous system the main carrier of the unity of the organism.

For the first time he described the clinical picture of infectious hepatitis (" Botkin's disease), recognizing it as a common infectious disease. He contributed a lot to the study of rheumatism, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the kidneys, lungs, typhus, typhoid fever and relapsing fever.

In the clinic of S.P. Botkin, after careful scientific development, oxygen therapy was first used for diseases of the lungs, bronchi and nervous system.

Together with his students, he established the participation of the spleen in the deposition of blood (1875), which was later confirmed by the experiments of the English physiologist J. Barcroft.

Significantly supplemented the description of the clinic of Basedow's disease (after the name of the German doctor Basedow, who described it in 1840). Author of the neurogenic theory of the pathogenesis of Graves' disease. He gave an exhaustive description of the clinic of the mobile kidney and scientifically substantiated the method of its recognition. Revealed the difference between nephritis and nephrosis. He was the first to describe in detail lobar pneumonia, its etiology and pathogenesis.

One of the founders of military field therapy.

He expressed the thesis about the existence in the body of physiological mechanisms that give it the ability to fight diseases.

Together with his students, he studied in the experiment and in the clinic the effect of medicines (digitalis, lily of the valley, adonis, potassium salts, etc.). S.P. Botkin considered medicine as the science of disease prevention and treat the sick."

He was an active public figure. In 1878 he was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors, remaining in this post until the last days of his life. Contributed to the founding in 1872 of women's medical courses.

The initiator of the organization of free medical care "for the poor classes", the construction of the Alexander barracks hospital in St. Petersburg, which has become exemplary in medical and scientific terms.

In 1880, he began publishing the Weekly Clinical Newspaper.

In 1882, as chairman of the Subcommittee on School and Sanitary Supervision in City Schools, he successfully organized the fight against a severe epidemic of diphtheria and scarlet fever.

Botkin Evgeny Sergeevich (May 27 (June 8), 1865, Tsarskoye Selo - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) - Russian doctor, life physician of the family of Nicholas II, nobleman. Shot by the Bolsheviks along with the Royal family.

He was the fourth child in the family of the famous Russian doctor Sergei Botkin (life physician of Alexander II and Alexander III) and Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova. In 1878, on the basis of the education received at home, he was immediately admitted to the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, however, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he left for the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy. In 1889 he graduated from the academy third in graduation, having received the title of doctor with honors. 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 organization of Berlin hospitals. At the end of the business trip in May 1892, Evgeny Sergeevich became a doctor in the court choir, and from January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky hospital as a supernumerary intern. On May 8, 1893, he defended his dissertation at the Academy for the degree of Doctor of Medicine “On the question of the effect of albumose and peptones on some functions of the animal body”, dedicated to his father. IP Pavlov was the official opponent on defense. 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. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. In May 1897 he was elected Privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy. In 1904, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, he volunteered for the active army and was appointed head of the medical unit of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK) in the Manchurian army. The doctor himself went to the front line more than once, replacing the wounded paramedic. His personal courage was combined with heartfelt faith. The mournful thoughts that this shameful war aroused in the ardent patriot testified to his deep religiosity: calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God. He, like many Russian people of that time, had a heavy foreboding: “We will have something in Russia! Poor, poor homeland! ”“ For the differences shown in cases against the Japanese ”he was awarded officer military orders - orders of St. Vladimir III and II degrees with swords, St. Anna of the II degree, St. Stanislav of the III degree, the Serbian Order of St. Sava of the II degree and the Bulgarian - "For Civil Merit". In the autumn of 1905, Evgeny Botkin returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George. At the request of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, he was invited as a doctor to the royal family and in April 1908 he was appointed life physician to Nicholas II. Once the prince, from whom Botkin did not leave for days, confessed to him: "I love you with all my little heart." He remained in this position until his death. He was also an advisory member of the Military Medical Scientific Committee at the Imperial Headquarters, a member of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society. He had the rank of real state councilor. The medical talent of Dr. Botkin was combined with the high moral qualities of the soul. E.S. Botkin was destined to become the last Russian life doctor. After the February Revolution and the arrest of the royal family, the Provisional Government offered Botkin a choice - to stay with his until recently royal patients or leave them. The Bolsheviks later presented him with the same choice. The doctor answered them: "I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives." Then, in his last letter, he admitted that his spiritual strength was strengthened by the Word of the Lord: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). He was shot along with the entire imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Canonized by ROCOR in 1981, along with other executed. On October 30, 2009, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate 52 people from the entourage of Emperor Nicholas II and his family who were subjected to repression after the Revolution. Among the rehabilitated is Evgeny Botkin. Yevgeny Botkin had four children: Yuri, Dmitry, Gleb and Tatyana. In 1910, Botkin divorced his wife (Olga Vladimirovna). Son Dmitry - a cornet of the Life Guards of the Cossack regiment - died in World War I (December 3, 1914, he covered the retreat of the reconnaissance Cossack patrol. He was awarded posthumously the St. George Cross of the IV degree). After the revolution, Tatyana and Gleb Botkin followed their father into exile in Tobolsk, but the authorities did not let them into Yekaterinburg. After the defeat of the whites, Tatyana and Gleb went into exile. Abroad, Tatyana Botkina (married - Melnik) wrote "Memoirs of the Royal Family", where she also mentioned her father. Currently, Botkin's grandson lives in France - Konstantin Konstantinovich Melnik-Botkin (the son of Tatyana Botkina, who led the French special services in the 1960s, and Konstantin Melnik - they had three children in total).

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Yevgeny Botkin, a doctor who did not leave the emperor at his death hour and was shot along with him and his family in Yekaterinburg. The biography of the new ascetic is recalled by the Russian Planet.

Emperor's family

Despite the fact that the Botkin dynasty faithfully served two Russian emperors at once - Alexander II and Alexander III, Evgeny Botkin received the position of a life physician (court physician) not because of the achievements of his eminent ancestors (his father was the famous doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin, after whom one of the central hospitals in Moscow is named). When in 1907 the position of the chief physician of the imperial family was vacated, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna said that she wanted to see Botkin in this capacity. When she was told that there were two doctors in St. Petersburg with that name, she added: “The one who was in the war!”

Botkin went to war as a volunteer. By that time, he had achieved good success in his medical career, was married and had four children. During the Russo-Japanese War, he coordinated the work of medical units under the Russian army. The position is administrative, but Botkin, despite this, preferred to spend more time on the front line and was not afraid, in which case, to play the role of a company paramedic, helping soldiers right on the battlefield.

For his work, he was awarded officer military orders, and after the end of the war he wrote the book Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War. This book led Botkin to the post of medical officer of the imperial family. After reading it, Alexandra Feodorovna did not want to see anyone but him as an imperial doctor.

The Empress chose Yevgeny Botkin for another reason - the illness of Tsarevich Alexei. As a doctor, Botkin studied immunology, as well as the properties of blood. To monitor the health of the young crown prince, who was ill with hemophilia, became one of his main duties at the imperial court.

There was a downside to being able to hold such a high position. Now Botkin had to constantly be close to the imperial family, to work without days off and holidays. Botkin's wife, carried away by a young revolutionary 20 years younger than her, left Yevgeny Sergeevich with a broken heart. Botkin was saved only by love and support from his children, and also by the fact that over time the imperial family became not a stranger to him. Botkin treated his august patients with sincere love and attention, he could not leave the bedside of the sick prince at night. To which young Alexei would later write to him in a letter: “I love you with all my little heart.”

“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 heir followed. He was, of course, a servant devoted to their majesties, ”said General Mosolov, head of the office of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, about Botkin.

Last way

When the revolution happened and the imperial family was arrested, all the servants and assistants of the sovereign had a choice: to stay or leave. Many betrayed the Tsar, but Botkin did not leave the patients even when it was decided to send Nicholas II with his whole family to Tobolsk, and then to Yekaterinburg.

Even before the execution, Yevgeny Botkin had the opportunity to leave and choose a new job. But he did not leave those to whom he managed to become attached with all his heart. After the last proposal made to him to leave the emperor, he already knew that the king would soon be killed.

“You see, I gave the king my word of honor to stay with him as long as he lives. It is impossible for a man of my position not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all must understand this, ”Johann Meyer, a former captive Austrian soldier who defected to the Bolsheviks, quotes him in his memoirs.

In his letters, Botkin wrote: “In general, if “faith without deeds is dead,” then “deeds” without faith can exist, and if one of us joins deeds with faith, then this is only by the special grace of God to him. This also justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as complete 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.

In the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks read out to the emperor and his entire family the decision of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Soviet of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies. The sentence was carried out immediately - along with the royal family, the life physician Botkin, the life cook Kharitonov, the valet and the room girl were also shot.

The first shots were fired at Nicholas II. Two bullets that flew past the main target, Botkin was wounded in the stomach. After the assassination of the tsar, the Bolsheviks finished off their victims. Commandant Yurovsky, who oversaw the execution, later indicated that Botkin was still alive for some time. “I finished him off with a shot in the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. The remains of the doctor of the last Russian emperor were subsequently never found - only his pince-nez was found among other material evidence in a pit in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg, where the bodies of the dead were dumped.

The turmoil that engulfed Russia after the 1917 revolution did not just lead to the fall of the monarchy and the destruction of the empire. In Russia, all state institutions collapsed overnight, and all the moral principles of the individual for each individual seemed to have ceased to operate. Evgeny Botkin was one of the few evidences that even in an era of general insanity, revelry and permissiveness, one can remain a man true to his word, honor and duty.

The life path of prominent people is of particular interest to contemporaries. After all, by examining the biography of those individuals who have really achieved something in their lives, we can find the right way to arrange our own lives. Just such outstanding people include the most famous doctors who became pioneers or founders in some medical areas. And one of these unique specialists is Sergei Petrovich Botkin, whose biography will interest us today. Let's try to figure out what this doctor is famous for and what was his contribution to medicine.

When was Botkin born, what are his years of life?

Botkin Sergey Petrovich was born in Moscow seventeenth September 1832 in a fairly wealthy merchant family. He was the youngest of the eleventh child, and from an early age he was distinguished by special abilities and increased curiosity. Many advanced people of those times entered the Botkins' house, including Belinsky and Herzen, Pikulin and Stankevich. It is believed that it was their ideas that particularly contributed to the formation of the worldview of the young Sergei.

Until the age of fifteen, the future doctor was brought up at home, and then he entered a private boarding school for three years. In this educational institution, he was one of the best students.

In 1850, young Botkin entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of Medicine, and successfully graduated from it five years later. At the same time, Sergei Petrovich, the only one from the entire course, managed to pass the exams for the honorary degree of a doctor, and not a doctor. After that, Sergei Petrovich Botkin officially appeared - a doctor.

After graduating from the university, the young specialist, together with the famous Pirogov medical detachment, participated in the Crimean campaign, Botkin acted as an intern at the Simferopol military hospital. It was this activity that made it possible for the doctor to acquire a lot of necessary practical skills.

By the end of 1855, Sergei Petrovich returned to Moscow, and then went abroad, in order to supplement his education as much as possible. During the four years of his business trip, Botkin managed to visit several European countries, as well as get married. After moving to St. Petersburg, the doctor defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic "Absorption of fat in the intestines."

Soon Sergei Petrovich received the post of professor of the department at the academic therapeutic clinic.
It was from this moment that the full-fledged research activity of the doctor began. He created an amazing laboratory where he conducted a variety of tests, studied the effects of medicines, considered the physiology of the human body and various pathologies. In addition, the scientist reproduced many pathological processes in animals, which helped to reveal the patterns of such diseases.

In 1861, Botkin opened the very first free outpatient clinic, and less than ten years later he was given the honorary position of a life doctor. Sergei Petrovich was engaged in the treatment of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, he accompanied her on trips. Soon the doctor received the title of academician, and opened unique first-of-its-kind courses in St. Petersburg to train women doctors.

In 1875, Botkin's wife died, and he married a second time.

During the Russian-Turkish war, Sergei Petrovich accompanied Emperor Alexander II on the Balkan front for about seven months. During this time, the scientist insisted on prophylactic chinization of the troops, sought to improve the nutrition of the soldiers, and also conducted standard rounds and gave various consultations.

In 1878, Botkin was elected chairman of the Society of Russian Doctors, and he remained in this position until the end of his life. Sergei Petrovich managed to achieve the building, which today bears his name. Such an initiative was taken up in other large cities, where medical facilities were also built.

In 1881, Botkin stood at the origins of the sanitary business in St. Petersburg, he led the institute of sanitary doctors, organized the start of free home care, and also created the institute of the so-called "Duma doctors". The scientist was also involved in the development of measures to optimize the sanitary condition of Russia and to reduce the mortality rate in the country.

Botkin died at the end of 1889 in Menton, the cause of death was liver disease, which was complicated by heart disease. The Botkin family thinned out, but twelve children remained after the scientist, two of whom also became doctors. The Botkins are a living example of a family that served their Fatherland. Among them were writers, artists, patrons, collectors and business people... In a word, the old Botkin family has someone to be proud of.

This is a portrait of Sergei Petrovich Botkin by the artist I.N. Kramskoy

What contribution did Botkin make to medicine?

Botkin is recognized as the founder of scientific clinical medicine. His clinical and theoretical views on the issues of medicine are presented in his three editions of the Course of the Clinic of Internal Diseases, as well as in more than thirty lectures.

Sergei Petrovich in his views treated the human body as a complex integral system, which is in a strong and inseparable unity, as well as in connection with the outside world. Botkin is the author of a new direction in medicine, which was characterized as the direction of nervism.

It was Sergei Petrovich who made a number of important discoveries in the medical field. It was he who first thought about the specificity of the protein structure in different organs. Botkin was also the first to point out that catarrhal jaundice is a representative of infectious ailments. For this and not only, Botkin in medicine is immortalized by the disease of his estate - Botkin's disease. In addition, this scientist carried out the development of diagnostics and clinics for a prolapsed and wandering kidney.

Sergei Petrovich Botkin was an outstanding physician whose contribution to the development of clinical medicine is difficult to overestimate.

In 1907, after the death of the life physician of the Royal Family, Gustav Hirsch, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, when asked who she would like to invite to the place of the family doctor, immediately answered: “Botkin”.

Representatives of the well-known merchant family of the Botkins in Russia were major benefactors and organizers of churches, they donated a lot to churches and orphanages. Many famous personalities belonged to this family: writers, artists, writers, art historians, collectors, inventors, diplomats, and also doctors. The father of Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, who in April 1908 became the life physician of the family of the last Russian Emperor, was the famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin, a general practitioner, life physician of Alexander II and Alexander III, who gained fame as an outstanding scientist, subtle diagnostician, talented teacher and public figure.

Evgeny Sergeevich was the fourth child in a large family. He was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoye Selo, received an excellent home education, on the basis of which he was immediately admitted to the fifth grade of the Second Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. Particular attention in the family was paid to the religious education of children, which, of course, bore fruit. The boy also received a thorough musical education, acquired a delicate musical taste. On Saturdays, the capital's beau monde gathered in the Botkins' house: professors of the Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists, such as I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov, N.M. Yakubovich, M.A. Balakirev. The spiritual and everyday atmosphere at home had a great influence on the formation of character and the formation of the personality of the future life physician of the Royal Family.

From childhood, Eugene was distinguished by modesty, a kind attitude towards others, rejection of fights and any violence. His elder brother, Russian diplomat Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin, recalls him: “From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection. He was never like other children. Always sensitive, delicate, inwardly kind, with an extraordinary soul, he was terrified of any fight or fight. We other boys used to fight furiously. He, as usual, did not participate in our fights, but when the fist fight took on a dangerous character, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fight. He was very diligent and smart in his studies.

The brilliant abilities of Evgeny Botkin in the natural sciences manifested themselves in the gymnasium. After graduating, following the example of his father, a doctor, he entered the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy. In 1889, Evgeniy Sergeevich successfully graduated from the academy, having received the title of "doctor with honors" and was awarded the personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded to "the third highest score in his course."

Evgeny Botkin began his medical career in January 1890 as an assistant doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. A year later, he went to study in Germany, studied with leading European scientists, got acquainted with the organization of Berlin hospitals. In May 1893 Evgeny Sergeevich brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1897 he was elected Privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy.

His introductory lecture to students reflects his attitude towards patients, which has always distinguished him: “Once the trust you have acquired from patients turns 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 friendly mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which you will often help much more than potions and powders ... Only the heart is needed for this, only sincere cordial participation in a sick person. So do not be stingy, learn to give it with a wide hand to those who need it. So let's go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him.

In 1904, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin volunteered for the front and was appointed head of the medical department of the Russian Red Cross Society. More than once he was at the forefront, replacing, according to eyewitnesses, a wounded paramedic.

In his 1908 book, Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From Letters to My Wife, he recalled: “I was not afraid for myself: I had never felt the strength of my faith to such an extent. I was fully convinced that no matter how great the risk I was exposed to, I would not be killed unless God wanted it. I didn’t tease fate, I didn’t stand by the guns so as not to interfere with the shooters, but I realized that I was needed, and this consciousness made my situation pleasant.

From a letter to my wife from Laoyang dated May 16, 1904: “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 a lack of people of spirituality, a sense of duty, that small calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God. At the end of the war, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir III and II degree with swords "for the difference shown in cases against the Japanese."

Outwardly, a very calm and strong-willed doctor Botkin was distinguished by a fine mental organization. His brother P. S. Botkin describes the following incident: “I arrived at my father’s grave and suddenly heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother [Eugene] lying in the snow. “Oh, it's you, Petya; here, I came to talk with dad, ”and again sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and domineering person could sob like a child.

The family life of Evgeny Sergeevich did not work out. His wife, Olga Vladimirovna Botkina, left him, carried away by fashionable revolutionary ideas and a student at the Riga Polytechnic College, 20 years younger than her. At that time, the eldest son of the Botkins, Yuri, was already living separately; son Dmitry - a cornet of the Life Guards of the Cossack regiment - with the outbreak of World War I went to the front and soon died heroically, covering the retreat of the reconnaissance Cossack patrol, for which he was posthumously awarded the St. George Cross of the IV degree. After a divorce from his wife, the younger children, Tatyana and Gleb, whom he selflessly loved, remained in the care of Dr. Botkin, and they responded to him with the same adoration.

After his appointment as a life physician of His Imperial Majesty, Dr. Botkin and his children moved to Tsarskoye Selo, where the Tsar's Family lived since 1905. The duty of the life physician included the treatment of all members of the royal family: he regularly examined the Emperor, who had fairly good health, treated the Grand Duchesses, who seemed to have been ill with all known childhood infections.

Of course, the poor state of health of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Tsarevich demanded great attention and care from the doctor. Nevertheless, being a moral and extremely decent person, Evgeny Sergeevich never touched upon the health issues of his highest patients in private conversations.

Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, General A.A. Mosolov noted: “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 heir followed. He was certainly a devoted servant to Their Majesties." The doctor's daughter Tatyana also recalls: "My father always considered any gossip and gossip about the Royal Family to be completely unacceptable, and even to us children, he did not convey anything other than already known facts."

Very soon, the life physician Evgeny Botkin sincerely became attached to his august patients, subdued by their simple and kind attitude, attention and sensitive care for everyone around him. Having suffered a serious illness on the imperial yacht Shtandart in the autumn of 1911, the doctor wrote to his eldest sons: “... I am much better and again I should only thank God for my illness: it not only gave me the joy of receiving our dear little [younger children Tanya and Gleb ] in my sweet cabin, not only brings them the joy of visiting me here, where they like it so much, but gave them the extraordinary happiness of being treated kindly by all the Grand Duchesses, the Heir Tsesarevich and even Their Majesties.

I am also truly happy, not only with this, but also with the boundless kindness of Their Majesties. To reassure me, the Empress comes to me every day, and yesterday the Sovereign himself was there. I can't tell you how touched and happy I was. By their kindness they made me their servant until the end of my days…”

From another letter, dated September 16, 1911: “Everyone was so kind to our little ones that I was simply touched. The sovereign gave them a hand, the Empress kissed their humble heads, and they themselves will write to you about the Grand Duchesses. The meeting between Alexei Nikolaevich and Gleb was incomparable. At first he said to Tanya and Gleb “you”, but soon switched to “you”. One of the first questions to Gleb was: “What is the name of this hole?” “I don’t know,” Gleb answered embarrassedly. - "Do you know?" he turned to Tanya. "I know - a half portico."

Then again questions to Gleb: “Whose crutch is this?” “Papulin,” Gleb answers quietly. [So the children of Dr. Botkin always called their father, Evgeny Sergeevich] “Whose?” - a surprised question. - "Papulin", - repeats the completely embarrassed Gleb. Then I explained what this strange word meant, but Alexei Nikolayevich repeated his question several times later, in the midst of another conversation, interested in a funny answer and, probably, Gleb's embarrassment, but he already answered boldly ...

Yesterday, when I lay alone during the day and was sad about the children who had left, suddenly, at the usual time, Anastasia Nikolaevna came to entertain me and wanted to do everything for me that my children did, for example, to let me wash my hands. Maria Nikolaevna also came, and we played noughts and crosses with her, and now Olga Nikolaevna ran in - right, like an Angel, flying in. Good Tatyana Nikolaevna visits me every day. In general, everyone spoils me terribly ... "

The children of Dr. Evgeny Botkin also retained vivid memories of the days spent in Tsarskoye Selo, not far from the Alexander Palace, where the Tsar's Family lived. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina later wrote in her memoirs: “The Grand Duchesses ... constantly sent bows, sometimes a peach or an apple, sometimes a flower or just a candy, but if one of us got sick - and this happened to me often - then by all means every day even Her Majesty inquired about her health, sent holy water or prosphora, and when I had my hair cut after typhoid, Tatyana Nikolaevna knitted a blue cap with her own hands.

And we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed some exceptional location of the Royal Family: They extended their care and attention to everyone they knew, and often in free moments the Grand Duchesses went to the rooms of some dishwasher or watchman to babysit the children whom They everyone was very fond of it."

As can be seen from the few surviving letters of Dr. Botkin, he was especially reverently attached to the Heir. From a letter from Yevgeny Sergeevich, written on March 26, 1914, on the way to Sevastopol: “... the beloved Alexei Nikolaevich is walking under the window. Today Aleksey Nikolaevich walked around the wagons with a basket of small blown eggs, which he sold for the benefit of poor children on behalf of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who boarded the train with us in Moscow ... "

Very soon, it was the Tsesarevich who became the main object of anxiety and medical care of Yevgeny Sergeevich. It was with him that the doctor spent most of his time, often during life-threatening attacks, day and night, without leaving the bedside of the sick Alexei. From a letter from the doctor to the children (Spala, October 9, 1912): “Today I remember you especially often and clearly imagine how you must have felt when you saw my name in the newspapers under the bulletin on the state of health of our beloved Alexei Nikolaevich ... I am unable to convey You, what I am worried about ... I am not able to do anything except walk around Him ... I am not able to think about anything but Him, about His Parents ... Pray, my children ... Pray daily, fervently for our precious Heir ... »

Slept, October 14, 1912: “... He is better, our priceless patient. God heard the fervent prayers offered to Him by so many, and the Heir positively felt better, glory to Thee, Lord. But what were those days? How the years lay on the soul ... And now she still cannot completely straighten out - it will take so long for the poor Heir to get better and so many more accidents can be on the way ... "

In the summer of 1914 riots broke out in St. Petersburg. Crowds of striking workers walked the streets, destroyed trams and lampposts, and killed policemen. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina writes: “The reasons for these riots were not clear to anyone; caught strikers were diligently interrogated as to why they started this whole mess. “But we don’t know ourselves,” were their answers, “they hit us with trifles and they say: hit the trams and policemen, well, we beat them.” Soon the First World War began, which at first caused a grandiose patriotic upsurge among the Russian people.

Since the beginning of the war, the Emperor lived almost without a break at Headquarters, which was first in Baranovichi, and then in Mogilev. The Sovereign instructed Dr. Botkin to stay with the Empress and the children in Tsarskoye Selo, where infirmaries began to open through their efforts. In the house where Yevgeny Sergeevich lived with his children, he also set up an infirmary, where the Empress and her two eldest daughters often came to visit the wounded. Once Yevgeny Sergeevich brought there the little Tsarevich, who also expressed a desire to visit the wounded soldiers in the infirmary.

“I am surprised at their ability to work,” Evgeny Sergeevich told his daughter Tanya about the members of the Royal Family. – Not to mention His Majesty, who impresses with the number of reports that he can accept and remember, but even the Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna. For example: She, before going to the infirmary, gets up at 7 o’clock in the morning to take a lesson, then they both go to dressings, then breakfast, again lessons, a detour of the infirmaries, and when evening comes, They immediately take up needlework or reading ” .

During the war, all the everyday life of the imperial medical doctor went the same way - at work, and the holidays were distinguished by visiting the Liturgy with the children in the Fedorovsky Sovereign Cathedral, where members of the Royal Family also came. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina recalled: “I will never forget the impression that gripped me under the vaults of the church: the silent, orderly ranks of soldiers, the dark faces of the Saints on blackened icons, the faint flickering of a few lamps and the pure, delicate profiles of the Grand Duchesses in white scarves filled my soul with tenderness , and fervent words of prayer without words for this Family of the seven most modest and greatest Russian people, silently praying among the people they loved, escaped from the heart.

At the end of February 1917, a wave of revolutionary events swept Russia. The Sovereign and Empress were accused of high treason and, by order of the Provisional Government, were placed under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. They were repeatedly offered to secretly leave Russia, however, all proposals of this kind were rejected by them. Even being imprisoned in cold Tobolsk and suffering various hardships, Alexandra Fedorovna told Dr. Botkin: "I'd rather be a scrubber, but I'll be in Russia."

The commissars of the Provisional Government suggested that the imperial retinue leave the Royal Family, otherwise the former courtiers were threatened with sharing their unhappy fate. As a person deeply decent and sincerely devoted to the Royal Family, Dr. Botkin remained with the Sovereign.

Tatyana Melnik-Botkina describes the day when her father made this decision: “... My father, who had been on duty at Their Highnesses all night, had not yet returned, and at that moment we were happy to see his carriage entering the yard. Soon his steps were heard on the stairs, and he entered the room in a coat and with a cap in his hands.

We rushed to him with greetings and questions about the health of Their Highnesses, who were all already lying [seriously ill with measles], but he pushed us aside so as not to infect measles and, sitting aside at the door, asked if we knew what was happening. “Of course we do, but is it all that serious?” - we answered, already now alarmed by the sight of our father, in whom something frightening slipped through his usual restraint and calmness. “So seriously that there is an opinion that, in order to avoid bloodshed, the Sovereign should abdicate the throne, at least in favor of Alexei Nikolaevich.”

We answered this with deathly silence. “Undoubtedly, protests and riots will begin here, in Tsarskoye, and, of course, the palace will be the center, so I beg you to leave home for the time being, since I myself am moving to the palace. If you value my peace of mind, then you will do it.” “When, to whom?” “I have to be back at the palace in two hours at the latest, and before that, I would like to take you personally.” And indeed, two hours later, my younger brother and I were already settled in with an old friend of our parents ... "

At the end of May 1917, Dr. Botkin was temporarily released from arrest, since the wife of his eldest son, Yuri, was dying. After her recovery, the doctor asked to return to Their Majesties, since according to the rules, a person from the retinue, released from custody, could not be allowed back. Soon he was given to know that the chairman of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky personally wanted to see him.

The conversation took place in Petrograd: Kerensky warned Botkin about the decision of the Provisional Government to send the arrested Family of the Sovereign to Siberia. Nevertheless, on July 30, Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich entered the Alexander Palace to the arrested, and on the night of July 31 to August 1, he was taken to Tobolsk together with members of the Royal Family.

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin with his daughter Tatiana and son Gleb

In Tobolsk, it was ordered to observe the same regime as in Tsarskoe Selo, that is, not to let anyone out of the allotted premises. Dr. Botkin, however, was allowed to provide medical care to the population. In the house of the merchant Kornilov, he had two rooms in which he could receive patients from the local population and guard soldiers. He wrote about this: “Their trust especially touched me, and I was pleased with their confidence, which never deceived them, that I would receive them with the same attention and affection as any other patient, and not only as an equal to myself, but also as patient, who has all the rights to all my cares and services.

Since the Sovereign, Empress and Their children were not allowed to go outside the fence, Dr. Botkin wrote a letter to Kerensky without their knowledge, in which he said that he considered it his duty as a doctor to declare a lack of exercise for the arrested and ask permission to give them walks in the city, even if under guard. Kerensky's answer soon came with permission, however, when Yevgeny Sergeevich showed the letter to the head of the guard, the latter declared that he could not allow walks, since an attempt on the Sovereign could occur.

According to Tatyana Botkin's daughter, who came to her father in Tobolsk with her younger brother, such assumptions were completely unfounded, since almost the entire population of the city belonged to the members of the Royal Family with the same loyal feelings.

In April 1918, a close friend of Ya.M. Sverdlov Commissioner V. Yakovlev, who immediately announced the doctors were also arrested. Dr. Botkin, who even with the advent of the Bolsheviks continued to wear a uniform - a general's coat and epaulettes with the monograms of the Sovereign - was demanded to remove his epaulettes. He replied to this that he would not take off his shoulder strap, but if this threatened with any trouble, he would simply change into civilian clothes.

From the memoirs of Tatyana Melnik-Botkina: “April 11 ... about 3 o'clock, my father came to tell us that, by order of Yakovlev, he and Dr. Derevenko were also declared arrested along with Their Majesties, it is not known for how long, maybe only for a few hours maybe two or three days. Taking only a small suitcase with medicines, a change of linen and washing accessories, my father put on his clean palace dress, that is, the one in which he never went to the sick, crossed himself, kissed us, as always, and went out.

It was a warm spring day, and I watched him carefully cross the muddy street on his heels in his civilian overcoat and fedora. We were left alone, wondering what the arrest could mean. At about seven in the evening, Klavdia Mikhailovna Bitner came running to us. “I came to tell you in confidence that Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna are being taken away tonight, and your father and Dolgorukov are going with them. So, if you want to send something to the pope, then Evgeny Stepanovich Kobylinsky will send a soldier from the guard. We thanked her heartily for the message and started packing, and soon received a farewell letter from my father.

The basement of the Ipatiev House, in which the Royal Family and their faithful servants were killed

According to Yakovlev, either Tatishchev or Dolgorukov, and one of the male and female servants, were allowed to go with the Sovereign. There were no orders about doctors, but even at the very beginning, having heard that Their Majesties were going, Dr. Botkin announced that he would go with Them. “But what about your children?” Alexandra Fyodorovna asked, knowing about his close relationship with the children and the anxieties that the doctor experienced in separation from them. Evgeny Sergeevich replied that the interests of Their Majesties always come first for him. The empress was moved to tears by this and thanked him very heartily.

On the night of April 25-26, 1918, Nicholas II with Alexandra Fedorovna and daughter Maria, Prince Dolgorukov, the maid Anna Demidova and Dr. Evgeny Botkin, under the escort of a special detachment led by Yakovlev, were sent to Yekaterinburg. Tatyana Melnik-Botkina writes: “I remember with a shudder that night and all the days that followed. One can imagine what were the experiences of both parents and children, who almost never parted and loved each other as much as Their Majesties, Their Highnesses loved ...

That night I decided not to go to bed and often looked at the brightly lit windows of the governor's house, in which, it seemed to me, sometimes the shadow of my father appeared, but I was afraid to open the curtain and very clearly observe what was happening, so as not to incur the displeasure of the guards. At about two o'clock in the morning the soldiers came for the last things and my father's suitcase... At dawn I put out the fire...

Finally, the gates of the fence opened and the coachmen, one after the other, began to drive up to the porch. The yard became busy, the figures of servants and soldiers appeared, dragging things. Among them stood out the tall figure of His Majesty's old valet Chemadurov, who was already ready to leave. Several times my father came out of the house, in Prince Dolgorukov’s hare sheepskin coat, as Her Majesty and Maria Nikolaevna, who had nothing but light fur coats, were wrapped in his fur coat ...

Here we set off. The train left the fence gate opposite from me and turned past the fence, straight at me, in order to then turn left under my windows along the main street. In the first two sledges sat four soldiers with rifles, then the Sovereign and Yakovlev. His Majesty was sitting on the right, in a protective cap and a soldier's overcoat. He turned, talking to Yakovlev, and I still remember His kind face with a cheerful smile. Then again there was a sleigh with soldiers holding rifles between their knees, then a cart, in the depths of which one could see the figure of the Empress and the beautiful face of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, also smiling with the same encouraging smile as the Sovereign, then again the soldiers, then the sleigh with my father and Prince Dolgorukov. My father noticed me and, turning around, blessed me several times ... "

Neither Tatyana nor Gleb had a chance to see their adored father again. To all their requests for permission to follow their father to Yekaterinburg, they were told that even if they were taken there, they would never be allowed to meet with the arrested.

The prisoners who arrived in Yekaterinburg were removed from the train by the Red Army and searched. Prince Dolgorukov was found with two revolvers and a large sum of money. He was separated and taken to prison, and the rest, in cabs, to the Ipatiev mansion.

The regime of detention in the "house of special purpose" was strikingly different from the regime in Tobolsk. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin did not find a room - he slept on the floor in the dining room with the valet Chemadurov. The house itself was surrounded by a double fence, one of which was so high that only a golden cross could be seen from the Ascension Church, located on the mountain opposite; however, as follows from the doctor's letters, it was a great pleasure for the prisoners to see the cross.

Botkin's daughter Tatyana remarked: “... Still, the first days, apparently, it was still more or less tolerable, but already the last letter, marked on the third of May, was, despite all the meekness of my father and his desire to see only good in everything, very gloomy. He wrote about how insulting it is to see undeserved distrust and to receive sharp refusals from the guards when you turn to them as a doctor with a request for indulgences for prisoners, at least for walks in the garden. If there was discontent in my father’s tone, and if he began to consider the guards harsh, then this meant that life there was already very difficult, and the guards began to scoff.”

The State Archives of the Russian Federation store the last, unfinished letter of Evgeny Sergeevich, written on the eve of the terrible night of the murder: “I am making my last attempt to write a real letter - at least from here ... My voluntary imprisonment here is not limited by time, as my earthly existence is limited. In essence, I died, I died for my children, for friends, for a cause ... I died, but not yet buried, or buried alive - anyway, the consequences are almost the same ...

The day before yesterday I was reading calmly ... and suddenly I saw a brief vision - the face of my son Yuri, but dead, in a horizontal position, with his eyes closed. Yesterday, during the same reading, I suddenly heard a word that sounded like "Daddy." I almost burst into tears. And this word is not a hallucination, because the voice was similar, and for a moment I had no doubt that this was my daughter, who should be in Tobolsk, talking to me ... I probably will never hear this such a dear voice again and will not feel those so expensive hugs with which my children spoiled me so much ...

I don’t indulge in hope, I don’t lull myself into illusions, and I look straight into the eyes of unvarnished reality… I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved” and the consciousness that I remain true to the principles of the 1889 graduation. If faith without deeds is dead, then deeds without faith can exist, and if any of us joins deeds with faith, then this is only by the special grace of God to him ...

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

The last Russian physician Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, fulfilling his medical and human duty, consciously remained with the Royal Family until the last days of Their lives and together with them was martyred in the basement of the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918.

Orthodox messenger. PDF

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