Portrait painting. How Catherine II, risking her own life, set a personal example for her subjects by vaccinating against smallpox Catherine's first vaccination 2

1760s

Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva(December 18 (29) - May 17 (28) - maid of honor, daughter of P. B. Sheremetev; the bride of the mentor of the Grand Duke Count N. I. Panin.

In her father’s house on the embankment of the Fontanka River, 34, home “noble” performances were played, in which Pavel Petrovich also took part, for example, on March 4, 1766, a comedy was presented in one act “Zeneida”, in which the Grand Duke, Countess took part Anna Petrovna in the role of a sorceress, and Countess Daria Petrovna and Natalya Petrovna Chernysheva, moreover, according to the recollections, diamonds worth 2 million rubles were worn on four persons participating in the performance. On July 22, 1766, at the court carousel, Anna Petrovna "gloriously distinguished herself in the Roman quadrille", and received a gold medal with her name.

Around the same time, the tutor of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich S. A. Poroshin fell in love with Anna Sheremeteva. As they said, he even wooed her, the matter ended in a scandal and the removal of Poroshin from the court. It was said that Empress Catherine II planned that one of the richest brides in Russia, Anna Sheremeteva, would become the wife of one of the brothers of her favorite Grigory Orlov, but Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin wooed the countess.

The engagement of Countess Anna Pavlovna and Count Nikita Panin, chief chamberlain of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, an old friend and contemporary of her father, took place at the beginning of 1768 in St. Petersburg. And on May 23, 1768, a few days before the wedding, Anna Sheremeteva died of smallpox. It was rumored that an unknown rival put in a snuffbox, which Sheremeteva gave the groom, a piece of matter that had contact with a smallpox patient.

Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva, daughter of Count Peter Borisovich, bride of Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, maid of honor of the wise Monarchini, who passed away in the 24th year, 1768, May 17 days, was buried in this place, and instead of the marriage chamber, her body was betrayed to the bowels of the earth, and her immaculate soul returned to its immaculate source in the eternal life, to the eternal and living God.
And You, O God! heed the voice of the parent,
May his daughter be taken away by Fate,
Toliko in heaven is praiseworthy before You,
Koliko was laudably on the earth"

Interestingly, Count Nikolai Sheremetev bequeathed himself "to be buried in the same monastery, near the coffin of my late sister, Countess Mary Petrovna Sheremeteva, who in her life was called Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing Sheremetev, Anna Petrovna

- My God! For what? ... - Nikolai shouted in despair.
The uncle's hunter, on the other hand, rode to cut the wolf, and his dogs again stopped the beast. Again he was surrounded.
Nikolay, his stirrup, his uncle and his hunter twirled over the beast, hooting, screaming, every minute about to get off when the wolf sat on his back and every time he started forward when the wolf shook himself and moved towards the notch, which was supposed to save him. Even at the beginning of this persecution, Danila, having heard hooting, jumped out to the edge of the forest. He saw how Karay took the wolf and stopped the horse, believing that the matter was over. But when the hunters did not get off, the wolf shook itself and again went to the duck. Danila released his brown not to the wolf, but in a straight line to the notch, just like Karay, to cut the beast. Thanks to this direction, he jumped to the wolf while the second time he was stopped by his uncle's dogs.
Danila galloped silently, holding the drawn dagger in his left hand and, like a flail of milk, with his rapnik along the pulled up sides of the brown.
Nikolai did not see or hear Danila until the brown one panted past him, breathing heavily, and he heard the sound of a body falling and saw that Danila was already lying in the middle of the dogs on the rear of the wolf, trying to catch him by the ears. It was obvious to the dogs, and to the hunters, and to the wolf that it was all over now. The beast, frightened, flattening its ears, tried to get up, but the dogs clung to it. Danila, getting up, took a falling step and with all his weight, as if lying down to rest, fell on the wolf, grabbing him by the ears. Nikolai wanted to stab, but Danila whispered: “No need, we’ll do it,” and changing position, he stepped on the wolf’s neck with his foot. They put a stick in the wolf's mouth, tied it up, as if bridling it with a pack, tied its legs, and Danila twice rolled over the wolf from one side to the other.
With happy, exhausted faces, a living, full-grown wolf was mounted on a shy and snorting horse and, accompanied by dogs squealing at him, was taken to the place where everyone was supposed to gather. The young ones were taken by the hounds and three by the greyhounds. The hunters gathered with their prey and stories, and they all came up to watch the hardened wolf, who, hanging his big-lobed head with a bitten stick in his mouth, looked with large, glassy eyes at this whole crowd of dogs and people surrounding him. When they touched him, he, trembling with his bandaged legs, wildly and at the same time simply looked at everyone. Count Ilya Andreich also rode up and touched the wolf.
“Oh, what a motherfucker,” he said. - Mother, huh? he asked Danila, who was standing beside him.
- Seasoned, your excellency, - Danila answered, hastily taking off his hat.
The count remembered his missing wolf and his encounter with Danila.
“However, brother, you are angry,” said the count. Danila said nothing and only smiled shyly, a childishly meek and pleasant smile.

The old count rode home; Natasha and Petya promised to come immediately. The hunt went on, as it was still early. In the middle of the day the hounds were let into a ravine overgrown with dense young forest. Nicholas, standing on the stubble, saw all his hunters.
Across from Nikolai there was greenery and there stood his hunter, alone in a hole behind a prominent hazel bush. The hounds had just been brought in, Nikolai heard the rare rut of the dog known to him - Voltorna; other dogs joined him, now falling silent, then again starting to drive. A minute later, a voice was heard from the island on the fox, and the whole flock, having fallen down, drove along the screwdriver, in the direction of the greenery, away from Nikolai.
He saw galloping red-capped surfers along the edges of the overgrown ravine, he even saw dogs, and every second he expected a fox to appear on the other side, in the greenery.
The hunter, who was standing in the pit, set off and released the dogs, and Nikolai saw a red, low, strange fox, which, having fluffed out a pipe, hurriedly rushed through the greenery. The dogs began to sing to her. Here they approached, now the fox began to wag in circles between them, more and more often making these circles and circling around him with a fluffy pipe (tail); and then someone's white dog flew in, and after it a black one, and everything was mixed up, and the dogs, with their backs apart, slightly hesitant, became a star. Two hunters jumped up to the dogs: one in a red cap, the other, a stranger, in a green caftan.
"What it is? thought Nicholas. Where did this hunter come from? It's not uncle's."
The hunters fought off the fox and for a long time, slowly, stood on foot. Near them, horses with their protrusions of saddles, and dogs lay on poles. The hunters waved their hands and did something with the fox. From there the sound of a horn was heard - the agreed signal of a fight.
- This is the Ilaginsky hunter, something is rebelling with our Ivan, - said the aspirant Nikolai.
Nikolay sent a stirrup to call his sister and Petya to him, and walked at a pace to the place where the hounds were gathering the hounds. Several hunters galloped to the scene of the fight.
Nikolai got off his horse, stopped near the hounds with Natasha and Petya, who had driven up, waiting for information about how the matter would end. A fighting hunter with a fox in toroks rode out from behind the edge of the forest and rode up to the young master. He took off his hat from a distance and tried to speak respectfully; but he was pale, breathless, and his face was vicious. One of his eyes was blackened, but he probably didn't know it.

The parents of Anna-Sergey Vasilyevich and Varvara Petrovna (ur. Almazova) had 5 sons and 6 daughters. They owned at that time a considerable fortune - 3000 souls of serfs in the Moscow, Tver and Tula provinces. Nevertheless, the family was in a cramped financial situation. Most years Sh. lived in their villages, the village of Valochanovo, Kolomna district or Mikhailovsky, Podolsky district, and for three winter months they moved to Moscow, where they had their own house in the parish of the Kharitonya church, in Ogorodniki.

In this house on May 8, 1811, Anna Sergeevna was born. in 1826, the Moscow nobility elected her father, a retired titular adviser Sergei Vasilievich Sh., as the chief caretaker of the Hospice House of Count Sh., and he remained in this post until his death in 1834. Shortly before this, the Count Dmitry Nikolaevich Sh. Sergei Vasilyevich performed his troublesome duties conscientiously and received an approving review from the emperor when he visited the Hospice House during his stay in Moscow in 1831. The sovereign granted Sergei Vasilyevich Sh. the court title of chamberlain, and appointed his eldest daughter Anna to the maid of honor of the empress.
Her appointment as a lady-in-waiting took place in November 1832. Anna arrived in the capital and settled in the Winter Palace next to other ladies-in-waiting.
Anna Sh. received a home education, traditional for a noble girl of that time (Pushkin's time).
About 70 letters were kept in the home archive of Sh., which Anna wrote to her parents. In 1832-1834, they were published in 1902 by her son, Count Sergei Dmitrievich Sh.
In one of her letters in August 1833, Anna wrote: "... For two evenings I have been combing my hair with curls at the request of the Empress, who prefers to see me with curls rather than smooth hair. The sovereign also finds that the new hairstyle is better; so I'm almost obliged to leave my comfortable hairstyle..." (see other photo) It was in these curls that the artist Christina Robertson portrayed her. The ladies-in-waiting were not free to choose a spouse. They needed to enlist not only the approval of their parents, but also to obtain consent to marriage from the king and queen, which turned out to be not an easy task. The sad love story of Anna Sh became evidence of this.

They fell in love, but Uncle Litta, who took care of his nephew, did not agree to the marriage. M.B. because the condition of Anna's parents was already upset by this time, and the Litt family was fabulously rich. Perhaps the fact that the young man belonged to the Catholic Church played a role here, and the girl belonged to the Orthodox. ., the elder Litta considered Sh. not noble and influential enough to intermarry with their family. Soon the young man left St. Petersburg.
At the time of the acquaintance of Anna and Dmitry Nikolaevich, Sh. Anna was 16 years old, and the count really liked her. Subsequently, he repeatedly told his son that he regretted that he did not listen then to the voice of his heart and did not make an offer. Yes, and Anna's parents, apparently, did not make any plans for this at that time - the count was very rich, served in the most privileged guards regiment, and he was surrounded by a dense ring of Moscow and St. Petersburg. mothers who wanted to marry their daughters to him. The wedding of Anna and Count Dmitry took place 9 years after they met. They lived only 12 years. After the wedding, Count Dmitry Nikolayevich appointed his wife an annual allowance of 120,000 rubles. banknotes. Surviving documents show how she disposed of this money. Countess A.S. considered that, first of all, she should help her relatives, and determined 24,000 for the maintenance of her mother and younger brothers Sergei and Boris. A little more than 3,000 went to pay for her pensioners in educational institutions, about 1,000 went to pay pensions assigned by her. She herself received 7,000 rubles a month "for wardrobe and other expenses." On April 15, 1838, their first child was born in the Fountain House, named Nikolai, in honor of his grandfather, Count Nikolai Petrovich. father of Anna Sergeevna.
Anna Sergeevna died in the Kuskovo Church of the Savior in 1849, in an article about the dead under No. 5 it is written: "On June 11, Her Excellency Countess Anna Sergeevna Sheremeteva, aged 38, died of a cold, was buried by the priest Fyodor Alekseevich and was buried on the 15th in the Znamenskaya Church of the Novospassky Monastery. A copy This entry was issued on December 21, 1872 and was among the documents of the home archive in the Fountain House (which is now stored in the Russian State Historical Archive).
The author of the book about the Fountain House, Alla Krasko, had to hear talk about it even from the living descendants of Anna Sergeevna that she was poisoned by the broth that was served to the table that day. In the Museum of V.A. Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time great exhibition opens "Queen of Flowers" dedicated to the image of a rose in different types art.
Visitors to the exhibition can get acquainted with the works of art of painting, graphics, arts and crafts, clothing, photographs, books dedicated to the rose. Like a magic box filled with beautiful treasures, the museum opens its doors, inviting you to take a closer look at beautiful masterpieces that glorify beauty, love, femininity and tenderness. We walked through the halls with bated breath, stopping for a long time at each exhibit. And everywhere we were surrounded by roses - large and small, drawn, embroidered, engraved or live, being the center of the composition or just a small, but no less important element of it.

Unknown Russian artist. Portrait of an unknown woman with a girl.
1845. Oil on canvas.

Please note that the rose here is not only in the center of a charming composition. It looks like roses are embroidered both on the woman's shawl and on the delicate transparent collar. These beautiful little details are very interesting to look at and they are in every exhibit presented at the exhibition, whether it is a portrait or a beaded handbag.

Fireplace screen. 1845. Western Europe
Mahogany, carving, polishing, wool and silk embroidery.

When you look at such things, the heart stops. It is strange and wonderful to think that once they were interior items, they simply decorated the house, creating comfort and warmth. That someone created this beauty with their own hands, stitch by stitch, thread by thread, with love and tenderness. How wonderful it must be to sit near the fireplace with such a screen and admire the amazing flowers, examining them in detail.

Argunov Ivan Petrovich (1729-1802)
Fragment. Portrait of Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremetyeva
Until 1768. Oil on canvas.

Masterpieces are here at every turn, wherever you look. There are paintings by well-known masters or anonymous ones that have lost the name of the author due to the prescription of time, but each is good. The soul of the artist and his talent are invested in each. You are surprised how many treasures the museum still keeps, regularly presenting us with the opportunity to admire one or the other of them. There are things with history here. And if it is not always possible to find out about the existence of an object, then you can look for information about the people depicted in the portraits. So, on this you can see Anna Petrovna Sheremetyeva (1744-1768), the eldest daughter of P.B. and V.A. Sheremetevs. She was an amateur actress, an artist. In her father's house on the embankment of the Fontanka River, home "noble" performances were played, in which Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich also took part. For example, on March 4, 1766, the comedy in one act “Zeneida” was presented, in which the Grand Duke, Countess Anna Petrovna took part in the role of a sorceress, and Countess Daria Petrovna and Natalya Petrovna Chernysheva, and according to the memoirs, four people participating in the performance were wearing diamonds in the amount of 2 million rubles. In 1760, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna granted Anna the maid of honor with the rare permission to live at home rather than in the palace.Anna Petrovna was engaged to the mentor of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Count N.I. Panin. But a few days before the wedding, Anna Sheremeteva died of smallpox. It's so bright, but short life. But this is history. You can get to know her, become interested in her, by coming to the museum and seeing this or that portrait or other exhibit.
However, even if you cannot learn more about the history of an exhibit or a person, you can simply admire, such as this bell in the form of a rose.

Bell in the form of a rose to call the servants.
First half of the 19th century. Russia. Bronze, chasing, gilding.

Quite tiny, but incredibly beautiful. Sometime someone's well-groomed hand lifted him up and shook him lightly, forcing him to make a melodic ringing. Somewhat earlier, someone's, much less polished, but skillful hand created this miniature flower. It makes you want to take it in your hands. However, this often happens to me with exhibits, many of them I just want to touch.

Unknown artist of the 18th century. Presumably C. G. Prenner (1720-1766)
Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich in infancy.
Canvas, oil.

This portrait is attributed to the painter Georg Kaspar Joseph von Prenner. He pcame to Russia, to the court of Elizabeth Petrovna, in 1750 at the invitation of Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, vice-chancellor Russian Empire, who was interested in literature and sciences, a well-known friend and patron of Lomonosov.The contract was concluded for 5 years. The fashionable, "overseas" artist had a lot of orders. However, toWhen the contract ended, Count Vorontsov did not want to renew it. It is said that he considered the artist too hot-tempered and did not get along well with people.
But we will not discuss his character, but admire his work. And we can take a closer look lovely roses embellishing the portrait.

Fragment. Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich in infancy.
Canvas, oil.

Gently pink, with almost transparent extreme petals, they reign among other flowers, overshadowing them with their beauty. However, their age is not long, some summers are already falling, sinking to the feet of the baby. The reign of Paul I would also be short-lived. However, the artist could not know about this.

Shamshin Pyotr Mikhailovich (1811-1895)
Portrait of Nikolai Pavlovich Krivtsov as a child. Fragment.
1842. Oil on canvas.

And here amazing beauty children's portrait. The kid seems to be alive, now he will laugh and stretch out his plump hands to you. About P.M. Shamshin write that he was mainly a church painter. His images and wall paintings are in many St. Petersburg churches, in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in the Gatchina city cathedral, in the Zion Cathedral in Tiflis, in the Ivangorodskaya Church in Narva, and some others. But look, an incredibly lively children's portrait that causes an involuntary smile .
Where are the roses? - you ask. Come look for roses in the museum.

On this vase, I would like to pay attention not only to the queen of flowers, although she is undeniably magnificent, but also to some other details of the vase. Like her legs. Look, these are the heads of elephants!

Vase-planter. 1830-1840s. Russia. Imperial Porcelain Factory.
Porcelain, molding, overglaze and underglaze polychrome painting, gilding, bronze, casting, chasing, polishing.

Remember, we told you about the exhibition of the Imperial Porcelain Factory in Tsaritsyno? The exhibition has passed, but the photos remain. So you can look at us and compare the work of the masters of the plant at different times.
And now let's look at another portrait from the exhibition at the Tropinin Museum.

Unknown artist of the first quarter of the 19th century.
Portrait of a lady dressed with roses and a green shawl.
1825. Oil on canvas.

Yes, we know nothing about the lady or the artist. But that doesn't stop us from looking at the details. A beautiful lace bonnet adorned with roses and coquettish curls peeking out from under it, a thin stripe on a shawl embroidered, it seems, also with roses. The top sleeve of the dress is thin and sheer, most likely protecting the more delicate pale pink fabric of the lower sleeve. The lady looks at us a little inquiringly, as if asking - why are you tearing me away from the book?
And it is quite easy to imagine such an inkwell in the shape of a melon in the house of this lady.

Melon-shaped inkwell. 1830s France. Factory of Jacques Petit.

Fragment. Melon-shaped inkwell. 1830s France. Factory of Jacques Petit.
Porcelain, molding, relief, overglaze painting, gilding.

Of course, this is not all the exhibits that can be seen at the exhibition. There are a few more lovely dresses and hats that refused to be photographed because of the stack, desperately glaring. There are many lovely little things, fans, handbags, beaded canes, caskets. Of course, beautiful portraits. And nearby, in vases, live roses are fragrant.

Roses are alive.

These beauties, for example, grew up in the dacha of one of the museum employees. Incredibly large, beautiful, fragrant. A great addition to the exhibit.
Come to the exhibition. Don't miss the meeting with the beautiful rose!

The exhibition will include:
* decoupage workshops and photography;
* lectures on varieties of roses with recommendations for their cultivation and reproduction, and much more.
Details can be found.

For young artists An art competition will take place as part of the exhibition. Those wishing to take part in it before October 10 can send to the Museum of V.A. Tropinin drawings depicting a rose, made in any technique (pencil, ink, gouache, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, tempera, etc.). Competition regulations posted

) - maid of honor, daughter of P. B. Sheremetev; the bride of the mentor of the Grand Duke Count N. I. Panin.

In her father’s house on the embankment of the Fontanka River, d. 34, home “noble” performances were played, in which Pavel Petrovich also took part, for example, on March 4, 1766, a comedy was presented in one act “Zeneida”, in which the Grand Duke, Countess took part Anna Petrovna in the role of a sorceress, and Countess Daria Petrovna and Natalya Petrovna Chernysheva, moreover, according to the recollections, diamonds worth 2 million rubles were worn on four persons participating in the performance. On July 22, 1766, at the court carousel, Anna Petrovna "gloriously distinguished herself in the Roman quadrille", and received a gold medal with her name.

Around the same time, the tutor of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich S. A. Poroshin fell in love with Anna Sheremeteva. As they said, he even wooed her, the matter ended in a scandal and the removal of Poroshin from the court. It was said that Empress Catherine II planned that one of the richest brides in Russia, Anna Sheremeteva, would become the wife of one of the brothers of her favorite, Grigory Orlov, but Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin was engaged to the countess.

Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva, daughter of Count Peter Borisovich, bride of Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, maid of honor of the wise Monarchini, who passed away in the 24th year, 1768, May 17 days, was buried in this place, and instead of the marriage chamber, her body was betrayed to the bowels of the earth, and her immaculate soul returned to its immaculate source in the eternal life, to the eternal and living God.

And You, O God! heed the voice of the parent,
May his daughter be taken away by Fate,
Toliko in heaven is praiseworthy before You,
Koliko was laudably on the earth"

W. Eriksen. Catherine II

Especially for such a case, in 1768 a doctor was discharged from London. The courtiers sang of the courage of the empress, and she replied that in England even a street boy is not afraid of vaccination. Catherine's example was followed by many aristocrats.

Love and smallpox are inevitable

In fact, Catherine had been afraid of smallpox since childhood. In Europe, half of the cases ended in death, and the survivors hid traces of smallpox scars under a layer of white and rouge. Deaths in Europe reached 1 million per year, in Russia the numbers were even higher.

In 1730, 14-year-old Peter II died of smallpox. Wealthy and royal families tried to protect themselves from the infection, but it penetrated everywhere. When the future empress arrived in Russia, her fiancé, Pyotr Fedorovich, fell ill with smallpox. He recovered and until the end of his life suffered from the realization of his deformity.

The Germans had a saying: "Love and smallpox are inevitable," and the French in the description of the criminals indicated a special sign: "There are no scars from smallpox."

Disease history

The method that Catherine experienced on herself was not safe. Vaccination of a strain of cowpox, safe for humans, began only in the 19th century, and compulsory vaccination was introduced in Russia a hundred years later.

In the reign of Catherine, smallpox was inoculated by "variolation". Its essence was that an incision was made on the arm and material from a smallpox patient was placed in the wound (or a thread soaked in pus was pulled under the skin). The treatment could not be called safe, but the mortality rate with it was 20 times lower than with infection with smallpox.

A deliberately infected organism coped with the disease more easily. True, sometimes the infection caused new epidemics. Thus, the Englishman Gaberden calculated that over 40 years of the use of "variolation" 25 thousand more people died than before the introduction of vaccination. The French Parliament banned such treatment six years before Catherine went on the experiment. In England, the treatment was used before the advent of the vaccine.

Turkish method

Dangerous, but still the treatment was carried out by the Turks. With infected threads, they vaccinated girls for the harem. The wife of the British ambassador, Mayor Montagu, saw how the Turks were treating smallpox, and in 1718 decided to inoculate her son. The chaplain tried to dissuade her - supposedly the method only works on Muslims.

The boy survived, and Mary shared the method with the Queen, then the Princess of Gallic. Intrigued, the princess ordered the treatment to be tested on several criminals sentenced to death. Then they tested the treatment on four children from the orphanage. All survived. Members of the royal family were next instilled.

personal example

In addition to the fact that the Russian Empress was afraid of smallpox, she wanted to protect her son. In 1768, Countess Sheremetyeva died of smallpox, and her fiancé was the tutor of the Tsarevich. The infection was approaching the royal palace.

I. Argunov. Portrait of Countess A.P. Sheremeteva Jr.

Without being distracted by statistics and percentages, Catherine ordered to find a good foreign doctor. She decided to test the method on herself and give her smallpox material to her son for inoculation.

In October of the same year, doctor Dimsdale was brought to St. Petersburg, straight to the chambers of the Empress. In London, he observed many vaccinated patients and claimed that there were no deaths. The material was taken from a six-year-old boy, Sasha Markov (on the recovery of the Empress, he was granted the nobility and the surname Ospenny).

Engraving. Portrait of T. Dimsdale

It was rumored that at first the doctor held a demonstration on volunteers. Only when they recovered did he carry out "variolation" for Catherine II.

Imperial experiment

One can only imagine the horror of court ladies and gentlemen forced to walk, dine at the same table or play cards with the infected Catherine. Finally, on the sixth day, the Empress showed signs of illness, and she retired to Tsarskoye Selo.

Dimmesdale watched the recovery progress, and Catherine ordered that a team of post horses be kept ready. In the event that the empress dies, the doctor had to urgently leave the country in order to avoid lynching. However, everything went well, the Empress recovered in a week.

The Tsarevich inopportunely fell ill with chickenpox, but 140 aristocrats were already lined up for vaccination. It was fashionable and prestigious to graft a smallpox from the empress. Soon the crown prince recovered, and on November 10 he was also inoculated with smallpox.

The doctor was granted a lifetime pension and the title of baronet. After 13 years, he again visited Russia to instill the grandchildren of Catherine II.

Enlightened Russia

Odes were composed to the glory of the empress, a commemorative medal was issued with the inscription “She set an example by herself”, the ballet “Defeated Prejudice” was staged with allegorical figures of sciences and superstitions.

Caricature. T. Dimsdale and opponents of vaccination

While the Russians were vaccinated, the French king Louis XV died of smallpox. “What barbarity,” said Catherine. Science allows you to treat this disease. The empress herself said that by her example she tried to save her subjects from death, because the shepherd is responsible for his sheep.

Since then, November 21 in Russia has been celebrated as the day when conquered fear before death. And since 1980, the smallpox virus has been stored only in laboratory test tubes.