Museum complex

Objects from a dinner service of the Officer Assembly (“officer’s restaurant”) of the Count Arakcheyev Grenadier regiment

N.M.Sipyagin factoryMoscow governorate, Bogorodetsky uyezd, village Elizavetino
The 1820’s
The inscription on the upper body: «Округъ Воен(ных): Посел(ений) Грен. Гр. Аракчеева Пол(ка)». On two sides of the body there are escutcheons with a crown, a star and the inscription: «За веру и верность» (“For Faith and Loyalty”)
Porcelain; overglaze covering, painting, gilding
Acquisition: from P.I. Shchukin collection, 1906–1912
Showcase 1

Rare objects that characterize the everyday life of the officers of one of the first Grenadier regiments placed as a “military settlement” near “Gruzino” estate which belonged to powerful Count A.A.Arakcheyev. Arakcheyev’s land holdings and nearby territories in Nizhny Novgorod governorate became a model site for the first military settlements, and later – the center of the “Northern” district of settlements in Russia.
Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev (1769–1834), General of the artillery, in 1808–1810 was Minister of War. Since 1815, due to Emperor’s frequent travel abroad, Arakcheyev exercised practical day-to-day control of the State. His governance called “arakcheyevshchina” was characterized by excessive rigor close to arbitrariness. He proposed one of the most radical projects of serfdom abolishment and at the same time he promoted military settlements known as “the worst of all types of serfdom”.

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P.A.Viazemsky wrote: “It is known that Arakcheyev was not the author of the idea. It belonged, in fact, to Sovereign and in that case it stems from may be an erroneous but humane intention. Exempting people from annual and heavy recruitment, installation of army in every day family life … whittling away the distinction between the notion a peasant and a warrior. The union of both in one person matched Alexander’s ideas and aspirations”.
Regions of military settlements were established in the north-west and the south-west of Russia after 1816 during the postwar financial and agrarian crisis in order to create military reserves and Army self-sufficiency. In those settlements soldiers combined military service and agricultural work, and officers aimed to assist and support the State military and economic project.

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