Nikolai Kropotkin biography

Sigulda, Siguldas kapi Person of Latvian Switzerland is beautiful in the summer and comfortable in winter. The inhabitants of Latvia appreciated its beauty a thousand years ago.

The name of one of the parts of the city of "Turayde" sounds like "Garden God". Imagine, for example, Latvia, the beginning of a century. There are no more than a thousand people in tiny Riga. The most crowded place in Latvia, there are thousands of residents, there are several castles, the Kaupo Livo Leader boils to the side of Christians and led the crusaders to the storm of his own castle.

It would be poor and boring without Sigulda. Gutman. Something like "Vasya was here." By the way, the first recorded recording of this kind in Sigulde belongs to the centuries. Sometimes, the famous people visited Zegvold: the initiator of the Northern War, the leader of the Livonia, and then the Russian army general Johann Reingold Patkul, the most famous philosopher Johann Herder.

Emperor Alexander II visited here in the year. The autograph on the wall of the cave, however, was left not by him, but by the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nikolai. However, tourists came to Zegefold only episodically, the future resort was considered a deaf province. In the second half of the city century, several estates were in Zegvold. They belonged to the princes Liven and here the Russian trace clearly visible.

After all, who are the princes of Liven? Yes, the descendants of that very Lebal Kaupo who lived here before the crusaders arrived. As for the Kropotins, they received a considerable part of the sigulda just as a dowry. By the way, by that time the land here for more than a hundred years was inherited along the female line. At first, Empress Anna Ioannovna for combat merits granted the estate to the talented commander of the Riga Governor General Field Marshal Peter Lassi.

The daughter of Field Marshal married Yuri Brown, also the future Field Marshal and the future governor general. Sigulda again became dowry. But Brown, like Lassi had no sons. His daughter married a noble nobleman von Borkh and presented Siguldu to Borkhov. In the middle of the century, the proud German Olga von Borh succumbed to the charm of Prince Dmitry Kropotkin and became his wife.

At the end of the age, the estate was ruled by her son - Prince Nikolai Dmitrievich Kropotkin. After the death of his mother, he was brought to the matrix of the local nobility and allowed to be called the title von Kropotkin. However, it is thought that in fact, not Nikolai Dmitrievich could be proud of the bailiff von, but on the contrary, local barons were obliged to consider that Prince Kropotkin became their neighbor, their fellow countryman!

However, in the second half of the city century, the fate of representatives of the family of numerous scribes developed differently. One of them even worked as an accountant at the Ryazan gymnasium. Peter Kropotkin, a talented scientist and theorist of anarchism, was fame. Nikolai Dmitrievich Kropotkin, undoubtedly, was the exact opposite of his distant relative.

When Nikolai Dmitrievich became the owner of Sigulda, he was less than 25 years old, but he was already known for a business grip and a wide horizons. The estate began to breed thoroughbred cows and horses, acquired the latest agricultural machinery. Nikolai Dmitrievich was generally very fond of technology - he was the president of the Baltic automobile and flying club.

In the club, he was engaged in cars and aircraft - he was a member of the commission for testing pilots and airplanes. It happened to him to head the Baltic Automobile and Aero Club on International Auto Raders. A capable person made a brilliant career - at the age of 38 he is the vice -governor of Courland, at 40 - the vice -governor of the Livonia province and the ceremonial of the imperial court.

By the way, Kropotkin, perhaps, achieved the last post thanks to a high genus: if he is Rurikovich, then his mother is one of the most noble nobles of the Baltic. After all, von Borchi - immigrants from Italy, possibly Borgia, back in the 15th century, the Livonian knight von Borg married the girl Paleolog - niece of the last Byzantine emperor and sister of Sofia Paleolog - the wife of the Moscow sovereign Ivan Dmitrievich contributed not only to the development of equipment and agriculture in the Baltic states, he also developed tourism.

His parents also achieved that the railway passed through Sigold, the station appeared. A Swiss -style hotel was built on the estate of the princes of Kropotkin. It was this family that created the brand "Livonian Switzerland." Sigulda from a deaf province turned into a tourist town. Kropotkin sold plots to the cottages and farms of the peasants, about a thousand people lived in Siguld in a year, and in the summer, in the country period, three thousand.In fact, Prince Kropotkin can be called the founder of the city of Sigulda, of course, formally, Sigulda received the rights of the city only in the years of the last century.

This is how the pilgrimage to Sigulda described about a hundred years ago by the Riga intelligent Peter Rutskiy guide to Riga and its environs. The book said that Zegvold can be reached by train, by boat, there is a car message with him, and in the spring, tourists from Riga go to Latvian Switzerland on bicycles so, Sigulda became a city and a tourist center. The cabmen were waiting for tourists right at the station, it was possible to stay in the hotel here, take a walk along cozy paths, admire the ruins of the crusaders, beautiful hills, caves and fast Gauja Gauja about Sigulda even became known even in Moscow and St.

Petersburg. Famous Russian writers Fedor Sologub, Leonid Andreev, Valery Bryusov came here, after the First World War there were a certain Latvian folklorist Krishyanis Baron for some time. Prince Kropotkin took care of himself - built a villa, which contemporaries dubbed a "new castle." Perhaps the most unusual of his creations is an ice dignity, hundreds of meters long.

She became a kind of predecessor of the current famous sanctuary, where international competitions are held, the Latvians performed - the champions and prize -winners of the Olympic Games. History is ruthless. After the revolution, Prince Nikolai Kropotkin went on exile, lived in France. Abroad and died. His estate during agrarian reform was nationalized by the Republic of Latvia.