Where was Bruce Lee buried? The strongest boy on the planet is the Russian Bruce Khlebnikov Where is Bruce Lee located.
Born October 21, 1989. His abilities began to manifest themselves already in early childhood and largely thanks to my mother. Named after the famous Bruce Lee.
As a child, Bruce was stronger than all the boys in the yard, so his mother sent him to a karate group. At the age of 5, Bruce became the champion of Russia in wushu, and at 6, he won a gladiator show: there he had to push the Volga at speed.
At the age of 8, Bruce lifted an 8-kilogram weight 300 times. He held two people (80 kg) on his shoulders for 10 minutes, sitting on the splits on two chairs spread apart. He broke 15 tiles stacked together with one blow (the strength of his small fist was 300 kg). Tears wall calendars (400 pages) and books (up to 700 pages). And I also squatted 2 thousand times within an hour.
At the age of 11, he pulled a fighter-bomber, lifted 240 tons on a hanging twine, moved a 38-ton crane ten centimeters, tied to it with his long hair.
In June 2001, at the airfield of the Flight Test Institute in Zhukovsky, he moved an Albatross L-39 aircraft weighing 4 tons to a distance of about one and a half meters. The plane was tied to Bruce's hair.
On July 27, 2001, on the runway of the Zhukovsky military airfield, Bruce Khlebnikov sets a Guinness record by moving two combat aircraft (a 4-ton fighter jet moved by 142 cm, a bomber weighing 12 tons by 68 cm, while fastened with shoulder straps).
On August 29, 2001, Bruce tore 365 tear-off calendars in 1 hour and 29 minutes. Each calendar weighs 166 grams and is approximately 365 pages long.
On August 6, 2002, in Samara, Bruce pulled the Zarnitsa steamship (22 tons) with his hair along with its passengers over a distance of more than 10 meters.
On September 22, 2002, in Batumi (Georgia), Bruce dragged a pleasure boat (105 tons) a distance of 15 meters, tying it with a rope to his hair.
On April 19, 2004, 14-year-old Bruce Khlebnikov moved two tram cars with his hair and dragged them a little more than three meters.
On July 25, 2004, in Yakutsk, Bruce uses his hair to move a truck crane with a total weight of 38.5 tons.
2005 in Kemerovo, Bruce dragged a 17-ton bus with his hair.
Bruce Khlebnikov set his 30th record on January 31, 2006. With his bare hands, he tore 500 tear-off calendars in 38 minutes.
Peter the Great had a very close associate - the Scot Jacob Bruce, one of the most educated people in Russia, a mysterious and unique personality in all respects. He is a direct descendant of the oldest royal family (two of his ancestors were kings of Scotland) and a Russian count, politician, diplomat and military man, engineer, topographer, naturalist, mathematician, creator Russian artillery, astronomer, astrologer... Participating in all of Peter’s campaigns and carrying out his most varied assignments, he found time for self-education, in particular, mastering seven languages perfectly.
Obsessed with the passion of a collector, Bruce collected something all his life - paintings, ancient coins, rare minerals, herbariums. He did not lag behind Peter in terms of the home cabinet of curiosities. His “cabinet of curious things” was the only one of its kind in Russia and after the death of the owner it joined the cabinet of curiosities of the Academy of Sciences.
And he not only collected, but also crafted and designed himself. The Hermitage houses a mirror made by Bruce, through which he “communicated with the world of the dead.” Polished metal mirrors of that time had a lifespan of no more than 2 years. And Bruce’s mirror retains its properties to this day. The telescope, made by him personally, was 18 meters long. According to his will, it was transferred to the Hermitage. Now all that remains of it is a one-foot-long stub. The count's other creations, much more intriguing and mysterious, will be discussed a little later.
The breadth of Bruce's knowledge and interests is evidenced by the rich scientific and technical library he collected, numbering one and a half thousand volumes. Ancient manuscripts of ancient scientists, translations and originals, 233 books on physical and mathematical sciences, 116 on medicine, 71 on geography and geology, more than 90 volumes on military disciplines, as well as poetry and astronomy, works on history, genealogy and heraldry, philosophy and linguistics, biology and artistic crafts, home economics, gardening, cooking, pyrotechnics and... arcane science.
Jacob Bruce's library was one of the best and most valuable in Russia. He bequeathed his collection to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In December 1735, after the death of its owner, the library traveled on 30 carts from Glinka’s estate near Moscow to St. Petersburg. In today's money it is valued at approximately £3 million.
Jacob Bruce - outstanding figure
Yakov Vilimovich Bruce was born in 1670. His father William Bruce arrived in Muscovy at the invitation of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1647. TO adolescence Yakov had already mastered three languages and was interested in mathematics, physics and military affairs. At the age of 14, he, along with his older brother Roman, enlisted in the amusing Petrovsky regiment (transformed into the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments), which determined his enchanting military and diplomatic career: lieutenant - colonel - major general from artillery - chief of all Russian artillery - general governor of both capitals - and general-feldtzeichmeister at 30 years old.
The young Tsar of All Rus' (Peter was 2 years younger than Jacob), who also sought to absorb as much knowledge as possible and trusted foreigners more than his own dark people, could not help but notice the outstanding abilities of the Scot. They immediately became close and became friends. And Peter did not let Jacob go until his death - neither in military campaigns, nor at diplomatic meetings... nor in the secret search for truth.
Semi-childish games in the Amusing Regiment a few years later grew into serious military battles. Bruce takes part in military campaigns and battles, later reforms the Russian army and heads the artillery, directs major military operations, including the famous battle of Poltava in 1709. Peter called the victory a triumph of Russian artillery and awarded Bruce the highest state award - the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called.
The peace treaty with Sweden, which put an end to the Northern War in 1721, was entrusted to be signed by J. Bruce and A. Osterman, after which Peter, who highly valued his friend and associate and generously rewarded him for his faithful service and sharp mind, granted Jacob the title of count and 500 peasant households in Karelian district.
Yakov started a family at the age of 25, marrying Margarita von Manteuffel (Marfa Andreevna), the daughter of General Tsoge von Manteuffel, a native of the Baltic states. Tsar Peter himself was the best man at the wedding. Later, Margarita-Martha was one of the five ladies of state of Empress Catherine. She died several years before her husband, leaving him no offspring.
In 1697, Peter I included Bruce in the “Great Embassy”, during which a new anti-Swedish alliance was formed consisting of Russia, Saxony and Denmark. By order of the sovereign, Bruce left for England - “for mathematical science in the English state,” as well as to study artillery. He stayed in London more than a year, finding and recruiting scientists and teachers to work in Russia, purchased books and instruments, simultaneously mastering the wisdom of astronomy and astrology. In London, Peter and Jacob met Isaac Newton.
In Moscow, at the intersection of the Garden Ring, Sretenka and 1st Meshchanskaya, Sukhareva stood or was built at the behest of Peter in 1695 and served as a barracks for the soldiers of Colonel Sukharev. The height of the tower rivaled the Kremlin in popularity. It existed until 1934, considered an outstanding monument of Russian architecture.
In this pompous building, Peter decided to open the first secular church in Rus'. educational institution mathematical and navigational sciences (Navigation School), and appointed his enlightened associate to lead it. Here Bruce had his own office-laboratory, and in the upper part of the tower he built an observatory - the first in Moscow, in which he taught future sailors to observe the stars and planets.
He himself compiled and published the map starry sky and wrote a scientific treatise on the law of universal gravitation - “The Theory of Planetary Motion.”
Fluency in European languages allowed him to make translations himself. Thus, he translated Christian Huygens’s book “Cosmoteoros”, which expounded the Copernican system and Newton’s theory of gravity, calling it “The Book of the World”. This work became a textbook for Russian schools and institutes for a long time.
Bruce also created an astrological and geological-ethnographic map of Moscow, noting on it the disastrous and favorable places. The radial-ring structure of Moscow, divided into 12 sectors, according to the signs of the Zodiac, was proposed by him to Peter during the large-scale reconstruction of the capital and formed the basis for the subsequent layout. He drew up maps of Russian lands, from Moscow to Asia Minor, during the campaign against Azov in 1696.
In 1706, edited by Bruce, the first civil calendar in Rus' with astrological forecasts was published.
It enjoyed enormous popularity and was reprinted and expanded many times until the mid-19th century. People called these calendars nothing more than “Bruce” or “Bruce”. But researchers of the legacy of Peter the Great’s magician claim that Bruce had only an indirect relationship with him, acting as an editor-censor...
Occult science under Peter the Great
All of the above depicts a serious, thorough and businesslike person and is least suitable for the second part of the story, in which Jacob Bruce will appear in a completely different capacity, thanks to which such nicknames (or definitions) as sorcerer, warlock, black magician have stuck to him forever , Russian Nostradamus. The emperor himself, in his free time from feasts and modernization of Russia, was not averse to having fun with spiritualism and magic. And the glorious scientist-warrior kept him company. Only for Yakov it was not entertainment, but life itself.
Peter I It was, literally, in his blood that he was drawn to occult science. His ancestor, Edward Bruce, King of Ireland (brother of Robert the First Bruce, king-liberator of Celtic Scotland), at the beginning of the 14th century was the most influential Master of the Templar Order, the Scottish Master of St. Andrew. It was rumored that Jacob Bruce secretly belonged to the Freemasons, who are supposedly the heirs of the Templars. Although the Templar Order was abolished and dissolved by Pope Clement V in 1312, Freemasonry as a movement arose in the 18th century.
Muscovites who lived near the Sukharev Tower began to notice that at night a light was mysteriously flickering in its upper part. And then rumors spread throughout the city that a certain secret “Neptune Society” was meeting in the Sukharev Tower, the members of which were the tsar’s close friend Franz Lefort, Jacob Bruce, Alexander Menshikov, several other nobles and Peter the Great himself. These were, it is believed, meetings of the Masonic lodge. And after Lefort’s death, the Neptune Society was allegedly headed by Bruce.
There is a version that during his stay in London, Bruce introduced the sovereign to Freemasonry.
One way or another, it is not known for certain, but in the collection of articles and materials “Freemasonry in its past and present,” edited by the prominent historian S. Melgunov (and N. Sidorov), published in 1914, it is written: “Among the Russian Freemasons there was legend that the first Masonic lodge in Russia was established by Peter the Great immediately upon his return from his first trip abroad: Christopher Wren himself, the famous founder of New England Freemasonry (and no less famous architect and mathematician - ed.), supposedly initiated him into the sacraments of the Order... This legend, devoid of any documentary basis, finds only indirect confirmation in the high respect that the name of Peter enjoyed among the Russian brothers of the 18th century.”
Jacob Bruce Glinka's estate
In 1725 Bruce had to last time to serve his sovereign friend - as the chief manager at his funeral (“Supreme Chief Marshal of the Sad Commission”). After the death of the Russian autocrat, a struggle for power began.
Historians testify that the mighty Peter the Great died of pneumonia, but they do not exclude the possibility that he was poisoned. Catherine I reigned for only two years (1725-1727) and died at the age of 43. She was replaced by Peter's grandson, 11-year-old Peter II, who died at the age of 14 (1727-1730). Then there was Anna Ioanovna, who held the throne for 10 years (1730-1740). Immediately after the death of Peter the Great, all of Bruce’s associates were mysteriously ordered to live long.
The first successor, the widow-empress Catherine I, still favored Bruce and even awarded him the Order of Alexander Nevsky. But the Russian Nostradamus, apparently, decided not to tempt fate and in 1726, a year after the death of Peter, he retired with the rank of field marshal general, and a year later he bought from Prince Dolgorukov the Glinka estate and several villages, 42 versts east of Moscow , where he retires until the end of his days.
The estate was located on a peninsula, between the Klyazma rivers and its tributary Vorya, surrounded by forests and swamps. And underneath there were supposedly dungeons and passages several kilometers long...
This version is supported by traces of ancient settlements and burial mounds discovered in the surrounding area. Already in our days, psychics and dowsers tried to study the estate of the sorcerer count. And they all agreed that passages in the bowels of the estate really exist, and in them there is a large number of objects of unknown purpose - metal, wood, glass. And also - that the estate stands on the “energy node” of the planet.
Bruce built his new estate himself, turning it into a “scientific and mystical institute of one person,” where everything was subordinated to his research, observations and experiments. On the roof of the main palace house, he built himself an observatory, similar to the one he had in the Sukharev Tower. And in the dungeons he set up laboratories, studying physics, chemistry, optics, and most importantly, witchcraft and alchemy.
Several entrances to the underground labyrinths, located directly under the house, were walled up half a century ago, and were never studied after Bruce's death. Moscow documentarians and authors of the TV show “Seekers” spoke about this. A couple of years ago, they made an attempt to unravel the secrets of Jacob Bruce by visiting all his places, including the Glinka estate (which now houses the Monino sanatorium), and made a film called “The Sorcerer of Peter the Great.”
Glinka Estate Bruce was dubbed the sorcerer not only by popular rumor, but also by history itself. True, it was based on the collection of rumors and legends that circulated about him. These tales would be quite suitable for a Hollywood horror film. But there is no smoke without fire. Only now, three centuries later, we certainly cannot separate the wheat from the chaff. What remains is a dispassionate retelling of the mysterious deeds of a high-ranking magician. Here are some of them.
He assembled a “mechanical bird” from iron plates with human head(“Bruce’s dragon”) and, by decree of the sovereign, had the right to fly it only over Moscow at night - so as not to frighten people. Which is exactly what the general-feldtzeichmeister did, starting from the window of the Sukharev Tower, to the surprise of those who were awake...
There is a version that the first Russian airplanes of the early twentieth century were designed according to his drawings.
The collector of legends Pavel Bogatyrev retold in the 19th century - in the essays “Moscow Antiquity”, the testimonies of Bruce’s contemporaries about his mechanical maid, of wondrous beauty and indistinguishable from a living girl. She supposedly “knew how to talk and walk, but had no soul.” The iron doll served the count in the Sukharev Tower. After resigning, he took her to his estate near Moscow.
The serfs, when they saw the doll, at first ran away in panic, but then they got used to it and among themselves began to call her “Yashkina’s woman.” “Baba” could do all the housework, serve guests coffee and even talk. Whether this is true or fiction is unknown. But among Bruce’s papers, drawings of a mechanical robot were found. (The image of a maid doll is also present in the film “The Sorcerer of Peter the Great.”)
And Bruce could, to the surprise of his guests, “with a wave of his magic wand” turn his garden pond into a skating rink in the middle of a hot summer. Believing in this, our contemporaries began in all seriousness to study the strangely rectangular pond in Glinki, trying to find a clue at its bottom. Bruce is also credited with mastery of hypnosis - the ability to cause visual hallucinations in others. (Isn’t this how his guests “beheld” a summer pond covered with ice?)
“But what else did this Bruce know: he knew all these secret herbs, and wonderful stones, he made different compositions from them, he even produced living water...” - the peasants whom he treated as a healer said about him.
About living water They mentioned it for a reason. The mysterious magician finally found the secret of the elixir eternal youth, having tried it first on others, and then on myself. The method was not only risky, but also barbaric - the experiments required old people or “freshly deceased” dead people. To rejuvenate someone who was still alive, he had to first be killed and then revived.
The goal of Bruce's experiments, as you might guess, is his own immortality. But it was precisely on this point that the alchemist magician stumbled... We have already agreed that I am only retelling legends and rumors. And in this part they become completely creepy and implausible.
Bryusov calendar. Reprint 1875 Bruce - after death
Jacob Bruce died strangely, incomprehensibly and unexpectedly in 1735. And he died during his final experience in Glinki. The count ordered his Turkish servant to cut his body into four pieces with a sword, bury it in the garden and water the remains with the elixir of eternal youth for three days and three nights. And on the fourth day, dig it out. The body must grow together, resurrect and rejuvenate. But the servant messed up something, hurried or did not finish it, because the royal messengers arrived at the wrong time - the wounds had already begun to heal, but there was no revival, and the sorcerer of Peter the Great died before he was 66 years old. He was buried in the German settlement.
And of course, this story could not help but acquire some “afterlife romance.” After Bruce's death, every night Muscovites saw a light at the top of the Sukharev Tower, in the observatory. This is the spirit of the sorcerer guarding his “Black Book,” the superstitious whispered. 200 years later, when the tower was demolished, the spirit moved to the old estate in Glinki. Around the same years, his crypt was found and the remains were handed over to the anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov to reconstruct the appearance of Peter the Great’s associate. But the remains mysteriously disappeared. Only what he was wearing survived.
And now about the Black Book, which excited the imagination of several generations, including powerful of the world this. According to persistent legend, Bruce had some special magic book. No one really knows which one it is. According to one version, it was very ancient book, which belonged to King Solomon himself. “She revealed all the secrets to him,” wrote Pavel Bogatyrev, “and through this book he could find out what was in any place in the earth, he could tell who had what hidden where... This book cannot be obtained: it is not given to anyone and is in a mysterious room where no one dares to enter.” Not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands after his death, the sorcerer allegedly walled it up in the wall of the Sukharev Tower.
In the collection “100 Great Mysteries of History” you can read that Catherine I believed in the existence of the book, and after the death of the sorcerer, she tried to find it by ordering a search of the observatory and its entire scientific archive, which was transferred to the Academy of Sciences. But I never found anything.
To prevent anyone else from using the priceless book, the empress placed a guard at the tower, which supposedly no one dared to remove until the October Revolution. And even the Bolsheviks did not immediately abolish it. Only in 1924 was the post at the Sukharev Tower dissolved, and a public services museum was opened at the Bruce Observatory.
Stalin also knew about the existence of the mysterious book, and showed particular interest in the legacy of the sorcerer Peter the Great. The fact that the leader of the country of Soviets took the layout of the Moscow metro as a basis astrological chart Moscow, proposed by Bruce, with 12 stations on the Circle Line - in accordance with the signs of the zodiac, I already mentioned in the last issue of “Chaika”.
In 1934, Stalin ordered the demolition of the Sukharev Tower. But under no circumstances should they blow it up, as was done with all the buildings and temples that interfered with the leader, but dismantle it brick by brick, under strict control, and deliver all finds to him personally.
The above-mentioned “seekers” took as a basis in their film another version about the “Black Book,” that is, about a notebook that personally belonged to the count.
Bruce had a laboratory in which the scientist sorcerer conducted mysterious experiments,” presenter Valery Ivanov-Tagansky explains his version. - Valuable discoveries and observations obtained secret knowledge he wrote it down in the Black Notebook. These manuscripts were hunted during his lifetime. One can only guess what secrets the alchemist's book kept. The discovery of these recordings could be a real sensation.
Alas, there is no sensation, since the book “is not given to anyone”...
No one knows what is true and what is colorful fiction from the field of science fiction - Jacob Bruce took his secrets with him.
The Guinness Book of Records has been replenished with the Russian surname Khlebnikov. In August 2001 Bruce Khlebnikov recognized as the strongest boy on the planet.
What this skinny twelve-year-old child does is not only beyond the power of any strongman in the world, but seems to go beyond human capabilities.
“Impossible, unrealistic, incredible,” say everyone who saw his performances or video recordings.
Yes, no one but him can do this.
Nelly Alexandrovna, Bruce’s mother, turns on the video recording of the records. And Bruce’s grandmother immediately runs out of the room. Her blood pressure rises.
“I can’t,” says Grandma Rosa. - Oh, I can’t see... How painful it is for him, how hard it is... And, clutching his heart, he leaves. So as not to see how a fragile child with a gentle face moves a four-ton fighter attached to his hair one and a half meters. His hair, by the way, is also an achievement in the book of records - he has the longest male hair in the world, 1 meter 10 centimeters, which is certified in a special diploma.
Nelly Alexandrovna is calmer, since “it’s better not to disturb Bruce,” but, of course, she is also worried. He shows us a recording of an experiment that took place on July 27, 2001 in Zhukovsky, during which Bruce moved the fighter by 148 cm. After which a twelve-ton bomber (three times heavier) appeared on the runway. Bruce moved it too – by 68 centimeters. 
For the umpteenth time, reviewing the footage of her son moving the bomber, Nelly Alexandrovna still adds: But he moved it! Proud of his son.
On August 29 last year, Bruce set another record - without rest, he tore 365 wall calendars with his hands.
On this day, Bruce will set a new world record. In the editorial office of Argumenty i Fakty, in the state of suspended twine, it will hold a weight of 230 kilograms.
In addition, Bruce plans to break the American record for inflating hot water bottles. Everyone, of course, remembers the density of this rubber, imagine that Bruce inflates thick rubber heating pads like air balloons, which then burst. But there is one American - an adult man who inflated four hot water bottles in ten minutes. Bruce decided to inflate four hot water bottles in five minutes to break the American record. Mom thinks that he gave himself five minutes just in case. Maybe it will work out faster.
And a little later, in mid-June, Bruce will be pulling a thirty-ton plane at one of the Moscow airfields.
The plans are to pull a barge or ship. Nelly Alexandrovna says that all of Bruce’s plans are coming true. If he feels that he will do it, then he plans to do it.
Now a special show is being prepared for him at the Olimpiysky sports complex, where tens of thousands will be able to see the unique boy with their own eyes. But what will happen there is still a trade secret.
How it all began
Nelly Alexandrovna really loved watching films with Bruce Lee. They lived in Baku, and her pregnancy occurred at the height of interethnic hostility. It was very difficult and scary. And so as not to remember what is happening in real life, future mom I watched a movie. Leaving into the world of Bruce Lee.
If I have a son, she said, I’ll name him Bruce. Through thick and thin.
Closer to the due date, it became impossible to stay in Baku. And the family turned into refugees. Bruce was born on a train on the stretch from Tula to Moscow. Bruce took his first steps at the Sayany Hotel in Moscow. All the staff loved the smiling, cute child, spoiled him as much as they could, and admired him from the bottom of their hearts. Real miracles began to happen much later - when Bruce was three years old.
Nelly Alexandrovna realized that her child was unusual as soon as he was born - “Bruce was born bald, with small narrow eyes - a real Chinese Shaolin monk.” And when the child’s hair began to grow, the mother, by some instinct, decided not to cut the boy’s hair, at least until school. At school, teachers also allowed Bruce to walk “out of shape.” They never cut it. Recently, the famous astrologer Pavel Globa, having met with Bruce, said that a child should not cut his hair. Mowgli - everyone talks about Bruce when he goes to the arena to perform.
“Like a bird flew across the sofas,” says the grandmother. And my mother remembers that from early morning Bruce would go to the room where there was a VCR and start playing with tapes or watching films - of course, with the participation of Bruce Lee and Van Damme... And imitate them. At the age of five, Bruce demonstrated such a stretch at Van Damme’s press conference, where he was brought to show off the celebrity, that Van Damme himself was amazed.
At four years old, the mother took the child to the karate section. The coach was shocked by such impudence: “What three years, we accept children from the age of 12.” But my mother persuaded me to watch... “If you don’t like it, we’ll leave.” Liked. And Bruce began to train.
An hour and a half. During the first meditation in his life, the child fell asleep. He was only four years old.
At the age of five, the boy was already walking on nails and glass. At the age of five, the child was burned with fire. At the age of five, he was filmed on television for the first time, and at the same time publications in the press began about the unusual child.
At the age of seven, Bruce became a prize-winner at the Moscow Wushu Championship. He was awarded only third place, but he competed with juniors much older than himself.
By the age of 12, the champion had lost interest in wushu and became interested in martial arts.
Who does he train with? strong boy planets?
With adults. With European karate champions.
To the stars. Through Russian thorns.
The records set by Bruce and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records were planned by him himself. He declares that he will be able to reach a certain milestone, and his family will not contradict him on this. “He decides for himself what to do, and it’s impossible to dissuade him,” says Nelly Alexandrovna.
She is so confident in her son that she is almost calm for the child performing dangerous stunts. “He himself knows what is needed.”
And Bruce, before another world record, as an adult, tells his mother that there is no need to stand here and worry. Go, mom. Take a walk somewhere, I can handle it.
And are you walking?
No, I'm standing on the sidelines. I'm watching.
- Scary?
I'm already used to it. It used to be very scary. I always understood that what Bruce has is from God. He's a son first Mother of God, and then – my child. The main thing is not to interfere with what he is doing, not to harm, and to the best of his ability, to help Bruce follow his own path.
Bruce Khlebnikov at school and at home
Does Bruce go to school?
No. He is at homeschooling. This is better, and the school director agrees with this. On the one hand, it is difficult for him to combine the regime in which he best engages with his studies - he goes to bed late and gets up late. On the other hand, I’m just afraid for him,” says the mother.
Are you afraid?
Certainly. He's a child. There will definitely be some clashes, someone will definitely say something offensive - Bruce and I understood very well what envy is - even on the part of adults. What if the child can’t restrain himself? What then? After all, the force of Bruce’s fist is 400 kilograms.
He manages to study at home and takes additional classes in English. He has an unusual way of receiving and transmitting information, not like ours. For example, Bruce doesn't have the patience to read a book. And he asks me to read. As soon as I pick up a book and start reading, he absorbs the information instantly.
Sometimes he can put a book in front of him and begin to copy sheet by sheet. Bruce often spends his nights composing music on his laptop. Or he’s thinking about something of his own. If a child is unusual, he is unusual in everything.
Like all kids, Bruce had colds. If he felt really bad and couldn’t go to training, he was terribly worried. But mostly he walked and overcame his illness himself. In training and without drugs.
Nelly Alexandrovna, what do you eat? unusual child?
But here he is almost the same as all the children. We have to persuade him to eat something. He digs twice and gets up from the table. In general, he eats soup very rarely - only broth - I specially strain it. Moreover, both at home and at performances.
When we went to demonstrate Bruce’s capabilities in Kemerovo and lived at the residence of Aman Tuleyev, they specially cooked for Bruce and served him meat delicacies, but it was the same story with them...
Aren't you sorry that your child's childhood ended so early?
Him unusual childhood and your way. He goes the way he should go.
Of course Bruce plays with the children. Just recently he was playing like a child with toys. But in Lately communicates mainly with adults. It's more interesting for him that way.
First thing, first thing - planes
It’s difficult to walk with Bruce,” says Nelly Alexandrovna. They recognize him, pay attention, ask for autographs. One day he wanted to ride the subway, so we went - we immediately found out and asked for an autograph. But he doesn’t see anything, doesn’t hear anything – he’s always all in himself.
They write letters to him. Girls are writing! But he doesn’t answer anyone - he doesn’t like to write letters. He says I’d better call.
We have very a good relationship with Vyacheslav Fetisov. And Bruce is friends with his daughter. And the girl is very proud of her friend. This was especially evident in America - “Do you know what friend I have in Russia?”
Children have a pure consciousness, so they immediately grasp the truth, says Bruce Khlebnikov’s producer Seyran Muradyan. - After all, we should be proud that in Russia, in our country, the strongest boy on the planet lives.
Elena Kiseleva
"PRAVDA.Ru"
Photo from the personal archive of the Khlebnikov family
Name: Jacob Brius
Age: 65 years old
Place of Birth: Moscow
A place of death: Moscow region
Activity: Russian statesman
Family status: was married
Jacob Bruce - biography
Pushkin called the descendant of the Scottish kings, who faithfully served the Tsar of Russia, the “Russian Faust” - and there were good reasons for that...
James (Jacob) Daniel Bruce was born in 1670 in Moscow. He was a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland in the 14th century. Jacob's grandfather fled from Cromwell's terror to Muscovy and made a good military career; father, also an officer, died in the war with the Turks. Yakov was mentored by teachers from Kukuy - the German settlement. At the age of 17 he entered military service.
Jacob Bruce - soldier and scientist
During the attempted palace coup by Princess Sophia, Bruce led a funny regiment to defend Pyotr Alekseevich - then he entered his inner circle. There were also common outrages with the young king in Kukui, but Yakov also participated in all his campaigns. During Northern War fell into disgrace for being late with his squad to their destination. But it seems that the tsar completely trusted him: he soon gave command of all the artillery. The “work” of Bruce’s guns became a significant contribution to all of Peter’s victories.
Yakov ended up on the Grand Embassy to Europe by chance. During one of the wild drinking sessions, he quarreled with Fyodor Romodanovsky, who was left to rule the country. He came to Peter in Holland and complained that Prince Caesar had tortured him with a hot iron. Romodanovsky swore: Bruce had imagined all this in a drunken delirium. Peter did not investigate - he simply left the complainant with himself. Yakov Vilimovich, of course, was often drunk, like everyone around Peter. At the same time, he was distinguished by amazing zeal. He constantly studied in Europe: either in London with a private teacher, or in Oxford.
The persistent young man gained truly encyclopedic knowledge, which he used not only for practical, but also for academic purposes. Already in our time, Bruce’s 1698 manuscript “The Theory of Planetary Motion” was discovered in England - the first Russian scientific work according to the law of universal gravitation. In addition, he made translations into Russian of major scientific works, compiled dictionaries, wrote the first geometry textbook in Russia. He published the famous “Bruce calendar” of astrological predictions. Supervised all Russian industry and mining.
In Europe, Bruce brought the king together with great scientists: Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton, architect Christopher Wren, poet Alexander Pope, astronomer John Flamsteed. It is important that all these people are Freemasons. Most likely, Bruce was one - or rather, a Templar, like his ancestor, King Robert.
The fact that Yakov Vilimovich was fulfilling a certain mission in Russia, and not just “catching happiness and rank,” is evidenced by his caution. Thus, for successful negotiations on peace with Sweden, Peter granted him the title of count, 500 peasant households and the Glinka estate. Bruce accepted all this, but rejected the rank of actual privy councilor - second in the Table of Ranks. I was afraid that such an honor would outrage a foreigner and a non-religious Russian society. Apparently he didn't want to be seen...
Freemasonry researcher Leonid Matsikh argued: back in England, Newton and Wren gave Bruce the authority to found a lodge in Russia. Perhaps for the tsar he was an intelligent interlocutor, to some extent even a spiritual mentor (unlike, say, Menshikov, Peter’s partner in all sorts of rampages). After all, Yakov is 2 years older than Peter, and at that time this meant a lot. But it’s hard to say how Bruce actually felt about all sorts of esotericism. He is more of a skeptical scientist than an enthusiastic mystic.
Russian Freemasons trace their history back to the Neptune Society, which met in Moscow, in the tower built by Pyotr Sukharev. But, firstly, it was not Bruce who led these meetings, but Franz Lefort. And secondly, it is unlikely that the tsar, with his concepts of autocracy, would submit to some “master of the chair.” Apparently, these games of occultism and secret societies were for him a kind of entertainment, like “an all-joking cathedral.”
Ring of King Solomon
Bruce turned the Sukharev Tower into the first Russian observatory, where he spent his nights making astronomical and astrological observations. It is possible that he conducted alchemical experiments. The most ominous rumors circulated around Moscow. For example, that the ring of King Solomon was kept in the tower, commanding evil spirits. But main theme there was Bruce's "Black Book", which gave absolute knowledge of all the secrets of the earth. They said that it was hidden in the most secret room of the tower and was guarded by 12 spirits. They say that Peter demanded that it be given to him, threatening him with death, but Bruce flatly refused, since the tome was written by Satan himself, and if the king opened it, the wrath of God would fall on the country.
Then the creepy book was allegedly walled up in the wall of the tower, and the spirit of Bruce guarded it even after his death. There was also a very real guard at the tower, which was removed only in 1924. And 10 years later it was demolished - despite the protests of prominent art critics. They say that Stalin himself insisted on this and that the tower was not broken, but carefully dismantled, carefully inspecting each fragment. We found a lot of interesting things, but not the Black Book. And they also say: in the crowd watching the demolition, they saw a strange old man in archaic clothes...
Another legend is connected with the mansion of Count Musin-Pushkin. On its façade there is a white board shaped like a coffin lid. Were on it before sundial with an astrological calendar that Bruce made for the owner of the house. But the count's heirs painted them over, and the warlock cursed the clock - now it predicts misfortune. Before something bad happens, bloody spots appear on the “lid of the coffin” - the last time this happened was before Chechen war. And sometimes visible white cross, supposedly pointing to a secret room where the philosopher's stone is hidden. A hidden room in the house was indeed found, but completely empty.
They also say that the sorcerer walled up his wife under the clock for some offense. This is complete nonsense: Bruce was happily married to the Estonian German Margaret (Marfa) Tsöge von Manteuffel for 33 years, and after her death he lived as a widower.
Retired magician
When the Tsar died, Bruce went into the shadows, wisely not entering into the fight that the “chicks of Petrov’s nest” began among themselves. He lived in Glinki under the protection of a platoon of soldiers. But even here his personality accumulated the most incredible rumors. Even 100 years later, peasants told how the “royal arikhmet-chik” froze the pond in the middle of summer so that his guests could go ice skating. Or that he had a mechanical doll that served him and even flirted with guys. Amazingly, the drawings of the “mechanical man” actually ended up among Bruce’s papers.
The count, according to legend, ordered his servant to cut himself into pieces and water them with “living water.” And every time he came to life. But one day the servant forgot to water, and the magician remained dead. Others argued that he did not die at all, but flew away to God knows where on a “mechanical bird.” The ghost of Bruce regularly appeared in the estate, as soon as the new owners tried to redo something. In the end, they all moved out of there...
Now the Bruce Museum is open in the estate. Its visitors are eeriely impressed by the 57 strange stone masks on the pediment. The count himself, who died in April 1735, was buried in Kukui, in the Church of St. Michael. Under Soviet rule, it was destroyed, and Bruce's remains were sent to the laboratory of Mikhail Gerasimov. However, they mysteriously disappeared from there. Only the clothes of Yakov Vilimovich have been preserved in the collections of the Historical Museum. And the ring from the skeleton’s hand, according to rumors, was taken by Stalin.
To this day, people talk about meetings with the ghost of Bruce - either at the site of the Sukharev Tower, or at his ruined grave, or in Glinka.
Candidate of Philological Sciences I. GRACHEVA (Ryazan).
Yakov Vilimovich Bruce. From an engraving from the early 18th century.
Princess Sophia is surrounded by seven medallions with allegories of virtues. Engraving from 1688.
Young Peter I. Engraving by Schonebeck. 1703
Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. Engraving from Peter's time.
Portrait of Count Andrei Ivanovich Osterman. Unknown artist of the second quarter of the 18th century.
Catherine I. Engraving by I. Zubov. 1721
Sukharev Tower in Moscow. Engraving early XIX century.
When the young Tsar Peter began to gather an amusing army, two ignoramuses, brothers Roman and Yakov Bryus, stood under his banner. Their grandfather Jacob, a descendant of Scottish kings, in the middle of the 17th century left his homeland, engulfed in the fire of the Great English Revolution, and went to seek his fortune in distant Muscovy. He faithfully served the Tsar and the Russian land, led the Pskov regiment and died in 1680 with the rank of major general. His son Vilim rose to the rank of colonel and died near Azov.
Yakov Vilimovich Bruce was more than two years older than Tsar Peter. And at the time when Peter, with youthful excitement, indulged in “Mars fun” near Moscow, Yakov had already fully learned the hardships and mortal dangers of real military affairs. He took part in two Crimean campaigns organized by Sophia’s favorite V.V. Golitsyn. Moscow, to which Bruce returned, hid in pre-storm anticipation: the struggle for the royal crown between Sophia and the grown-up Peter had reached its climax. Unexpectedly, Peter left Preobrazhensky for the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, gathering all his supporters around him. The executive Bruce, together with the amusing ones, arrived at the Lavra, and from that moment his fate turned out to be closely connected with the fate of the Russian Tsar.
Together with Peter, Bruce fought near Azov. When Peter went abroad as part of the Great Embassy, Jacob came to him in Amsterdam in 1697. Bruce brought a map of the lands he had compiled from Moscow to Asia Minor, which he intended to print abroad. But he himself was unwell: before leaving Moscow, in the house of Prince Caesar F. Yu. Romodanovsky, he received severe burn hands. During long absences from Moscow, Peter handed over the reins of government to Prince Caesar, treated him with emphatic respect and humbly signed his letters: “Eternal servant of Your Most Serene Majesty, bombardier Peter.” But Peter’s resentment towards Romodanovsky, who did not save his friend, was so great that in anger, forgetting the ceremoniously courteous etiquette of his previous messages, he wrote:
“Beast! How long have you been burning people? And the wounded from you came here.” And regarding Romodanovsky’s addiction to strong drinks, in allegorical language called Ivashka Khmelnitsky, there was an unambiguous threat: “Stop being a connoisseur with Ivashka, he will give you a face.” Prince Caesar, the formidable head of the Secret Order, answered with imperturbable dignity: “In your letter it is written to me that I know Ivashka Khmelnitsky; and that, sir, is not true... If I and Ivashka are no strangers, we always wash ourselves in blood; "Your business in your leisure time began to keep acquaintance with Ivashka, but we have no time. And what Yakov Bruce reported that he burned his hand from me, and that became his drunkenness, and not from me." Peter lowered his tone and preferred to make peace with a joke: “It is written that Jacob Bruce did this out of drunkenness; and it’s true, only in whose courtyard and in whose presence? And what’s in the blood, and that’s why you drink tea and drink more for fear. But we really can’t, because we are constantly studying.”
Bruce also began to study diligently. Together with Peter, as part of the great embassy, he visited England. In London, the Russian Tsar and Bruce met and talked with the great Isaac Newton. Abroad, Bruce studied mathematics and artillery organization. War with Sweden was inevitable, and Russia needed updated, powerful artillery. This responsible task was entrusted to Bruce.
In 1700, trying to prevent the Swedes from invading the Izhora land, Peter sent an army to meet them under the command of Bruce, who already held the rank of major general of artillery. But the uncoordinated actions of various departments led to the fact that Yakov Vilimovich was unable to quickly gather those standing in different places shelves. In Peter’s office files there is an entry: “On July 28, 1700, Jacob Bruce, Ivan Chambers, and Vasily Korchmin were sent from Moscow quickly to Novgorod. They arrived in Novgorod in 15 days, for which Yakov Bruce received wrath from His Majesty and was denied command.”
However, the royal disgrace did not last long. Subsequent events and especially the defeat near Narva showed that not only Bruce, but the entire Russian army was not yet ready to confront the Swedish army. In 1701, Bruce was sent to Novgorod in place of the Novgorod governor, Prince I. Yu. Trubetskoy, who was captured near Narva.
Yakov Vilimovich hastily began to fortify the city, build a cannon yard, manufacture shells, and train gunners. At Narva, the Russians lost almost all their artillery. The Tsar gave a strict order to urgently transfer some of the church bells to the cannons. But the Duma clerk A. A. Vinius, who supervised these works, with patriarchal slowness promised more than he did, justifying himself by the negligence of the artisans. “In the artillery business,” he wrote to Peter, “there are many difficulties: it’s hard to stop, Sovereign, from the drunkenness of the artisans, who cannot be weaned from that passion either by kindness or by beating.” The alarmed king almost begged Vinius: “For God’s sake, hurry up with artillery as much as possible; time is like death.”
The Russian army launched a new offensive. Bruce, not having time to settle down in Novgorod, wandered with his guns along military roads. In 1702, with his participation, Shlisselburg was taken, then other fortresses occupied by the Swedes. Preparing for the siege of Narva, Peter complained in a letter to Romodanovsky that there were not enough guns and artillery servants: “Why will our work here be a great stop, without which we cannot begin, which I myself told Vinius many times, who drilled me into the “Moscow immediately." What would you like to interrogate him about: why is such an important matter being done with such negligence?" Vinius was removed, and in 1704 the Order of Artillery was headed by Bruce with the rank of Feldmeister General. Under his leadership, navigation, artillery and engineering schools were opened.
Yakov Vilimovich's letters hardly reveal his personal life, these are business messages about the number of guns and artillery supplies, about the royal orders completed, etc. It seemed that he had no personal life at all, all his thoughts and efforts were devoted to serving Russia. And yet this stern, reserved man knew hobbies and worries that few understand: he was a passionate collector. Bruce collected paintings, collections of ancient coins and rare minerals, and herbariums. He owned
several languages and had the richest library for those times. The breadth of Bruce's scientific knowledge and interests is evidenced by his books - on mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, botany, history, art, etc. But Yakov Vilimovich was especially proud of his home cabinet of curiosities - a collection of various rarities and "curiosities".
In the inventory of the cabinet compiled after his death, for example, the following things appear: “a small round mirror in which a large face appears”; "various large and small shells 99"; "Chinese shoes woven from grass"; "stone mushroom"; "Indian pumpkin"; "mammoth head bone"; "amber containing flies"; a box with a “small natural snake” and similar curiosities. Officials could not even define some objects and simply wrote: “a certain oblong fruit”, “two balls of a certain fruit”... No wonder the French envoy Campredon, advising his government in 1721 on how to win Bruce’s favor, emphasized that Yakov Vilimovich not one of those who can be bribed with money, and offered to use his collecting passion: “His Royal Majesty would give him great pleasure if he presented him with a collection of prints of the royal palaces engraved by order of the late king.”
V.V. Atlasov, an enterprising Ustyug man, sent in 1697 to explore the Kamchatka lands, returned to Moscow and brought with him a small yellow-skinned man. Atlasov took it from the Kamchadals, who told interesting story. About two years ago, a large boat with strangers washed up on their shore. Unaccustomed to the harsh life and meager food of the Kamchadals, the foreigners quickly died. There's only one left. In a report compiled in 1701, Atlasov noted: “And that polonenik’s disposition is much polite and reasonable.” When the prisoner saw the Russian explorers, who felt like they belonged to the civilized world, he “cryed heavily” with joy. The foreigner successfully mastered the Russian language. In Moscow it was finally possible to find out that he was Japanese. He was the first Japanese whom Russia saw. And even the official officials did not quite understand where his mysterious country was located and what kind of people lived there. Atlasov called him an “Indian” in his report. In the papers of the Order of Artillery he was called even more cunningly: “A Tatar of the Japanese state named Denbey.”
And the energetic Peter was already making far-reaching plans. Having transferred Denbey to the tutelage of the Artillery Order, the Tsar commanded: “How can he, Denbey, learn the Russian language and literacy, and teach him, Denbey, his Japanese language and 4 or 5 people are shy about reading and writing." Regarding religion, Peter ordered Denbey not to oppress: "And about baptism into the Orthodox Christian faith give him, the foreigner, the freedom to console him, the foreigner, and tell him: how he will learn the Russian language and literacy and the Russians will be shy about their
teach him language and literacy - and he will be released to the land of Japan." But most likely Denbey never managed to return to his native shores. It is known that he was eventually baptized under the name Gabriel, and a school of Japanese translators operated in Moscow until 1739.
Bruce, who, as head of the Artillery Order, looked after and “comforted” Denbey, began to dream of Japan. Brunswick resident in Russia F.-H. Weber in his Notes says that Bruce dreamed of finding a way from Russia to Japan and sent an expedition that set sail from the Far Eastern coast to search for this unknown land, but died in a storm. Weber also reported: “This Bruce had a cabinet of Chinese curiosities, and he was very sorry that it was impossible to acquire accurate information about the position and characteristics of the Chinese state, because the embassies assigned there and all Russian merchants do not have the right to stay there for more than 3 or at most 4 months."
Peter, who appreciated Bruce’s versatile scientific knowledge, in 1706 transferred the Moscow Civil Printing House to his jurisdiction. From here came the first calendar, popularly called the “Bryusov calendar”. In fact, the compiler of the calendar was V. A. Kiprianov, and Bruce only supervised his work. Kiprianov is also an extraordinary person. A resident of the Moscow craft settlement Kadashi, a merchant who supplied candle goods to the Armory, Kiprianov was at the same time interested in mathematics, studied navigation, spoke foreign languages, mastered the art of engraving, and was interested in astrology. He compiled maps and teaching aids, wrote the essay “Planetik”, dedicating it to Tsar Peter and Tsarevich Alexei. According to researchers, Planetik gave Peter the idea to release a public calendar. The sources for the calendar were ancient Russian renunciation books - thunderers, carolers and others - and Western European astrology. Using the fortune-telling tables of the calendar, it was possible to obtain a prediction for any day of any year, which ensured the calendar great popularity not only in the 18th century, but also in the 19th century.
Russia fought incessantly during the time of Peter the Great, and Bruce, who led the artillery, went through all the military campaigns. During the Battle of Poltava, his guns, with powerful fire, greatly contributed to the victory of the Russian army, for which Yakov Vilimovich received the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. English Ambassador Charles Whitworth reported in 1709 that Bruce was highly valued at the Russian court: “He is very good with both the Tsar and Prince Menshikov.” Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetev sought Bruce’s friendship, writing: “I ask again: do not leave me in your love and do not make me forgetful...”
Peter also gave Bruce very delicate instructions: searching in Europe for brains and talents that could serve the prosperity of Russia. In 1711, the tsar sent him to Berlin “to hire craftsmen of noble arts that we need.” Fully trusting Bruce’s broad knowledge and business economy, the tsar wrote in the accompanying letter: “And what he, our general, promises and concludes in contracts, everything will be kept from us without derogation.” In 1712, Peter, in letters to Bruce, either asked to make inquiries about one of the German architects and, if the result was favorable, to conclude a contract with him, or instructed to find a master of rare perspective painting, or to lure a skilled gardener who designed royal parks into the Russian service. Yakov Vilimovich was also involved in the purchase of instruments for scientific and nautical purposes. He acquired works of art and rarities for the royal collection. During such trips, he met the German scientist G. Leibniz and then corresponded with him.
Having established the Senate, Peter appointed Bruce to it, making him president of the Berg and Manufactory colleges in 1717. Now Bruce was in charge of the development of the mining industry and factory business in Russia. However, at the same time, he continued to improve Russian artillery, promising the Tsar that he could achieve a higher rate of fire for the guns. The delighted Peter answered: “If you find this, then a great thing will happen, for which I greatly thank your diligence.” In the same 1717, Bruce had to become a diplomat, to whom Peter entrusted a responsible mission. Together with A.I. Osterman, he went to the Åland Congress to develop conditions for concluding peace with Sweden.
The death of the Swedish king Charles XII interrupted the negotiations. But in 1721 they resumed. Osterman's subtle resourcefulness and Bruce's unshakable firmness successfully complemented each other, and the energetic assertiveness with which the Russian envoys defended Russia's interests confused foreign residents. Bruce and Osterman fulfilled the assignment entrusted to them with honor. Under the terms of the Peace of Nystadt, Livonia, Estland, Ingermanland, part of Karelia and the Moonsund Islands went to Russia. Peter, having received the news of such an end to the negotiations, was so pleased that even the confused tone of the response letter conveyed his excitement: “The unexpectedly speedy news made us and everyone very happy<...
понеже трактат так вашими трудами
сделан - хотя б
написав нам и только бы для подписи
послать шведам - более бы того
учинить нечего, за что вам зело
благодарствуем; и что славное в
свете сие дело ваше никогда
забвению предатися не может, а
особливо николи наша Россия такого
полезного мира не получала".
Bruce was elevated to the dignity of count and received 500 peasant households as a reward. V.N. Tatishchev argued that Peter, wanting to give Bruce more significance in the negotiations, intended to make him an actual Privy Councilor. This is the second rank after chancellor in the Table of Ranks. But the honest and scrupulous Bruce refused and “he himself represented to His Majesty that although he was a subject, he was a non-believer, this rank was indecent for him and could henceforth bring His Majesty a reason for regret.”
Chamber-junker F.-V. Berchholtz, who arrived in Russia in the retinue of the Duke of Holstein, noted in his diary that the Russian Tsar showed special favor to Bruce. So, at the wedding of I. A. Musin-Pushkin’s daughter in 1721, Peter “sat not far from the entrance doors, but so that he could see those dancing, all the nobles were sitting around him, but His Majesty mostly talked with Feldzeichmeister General Bruce, who was sitting next to him on the left side." Bruce was not only a faithful executor of Peter’s sovereign plans, but also took part in his family affairs. Peter instructed Yakov Vilimovich to regularly visit Tsarevich Alexei, apparently hoping that the conversations of an intelligent and widely educated person would influence the unlucky heir. Bruce's wife Maria Andreevna (Margarita Manteuffel) was also at the prince's court. It is characteristic that Bruce did not put his signature on the death sentence for Alexei.
In the spring of 1723, Peter celebrated his next wedding anniversary with Catherine. Yakov Vilimovich, in charge of the celebrations, organized a grandiose procession of ships in St. Petersburg, placed on runners and drawn by horses. Campredon said: “The king was traveling on a 30-gun frigate,
fully equipped and with sails spread. Ahead in a boat in the form of a brigantine with pipes and kettledrums on the bow of it rode the manager of the holiday, the chief artillery chief, Count Bruce." In 1724, during the coronation of Catherine, Bruce carried the imperial crown in front of her, and Bruce's wife was one of the five ladies of state, supporting Catherine's train. And the next year, Bruce had to serve his sovereign friend for the last time - he was the chief manager at the funeral of Peter I.
Catherine I, having established herself on the Russian throne, did not forget Bruce’s merits, awarding him the Order of Alexander Nevsky. But seeing how the “chicks of Petrov’s nest,” who had previously served the Russian state amicably, began a cruel enmity, dividing honors and spheres of influence at Catherine’s court, Bruce in 1726 chose wisely to retire with the rank of field marshal general. In 1727, he bought Glinka’s estate near Moscow from A.G. Dolgoruky, laid out a regular park, built a house with an observatory and retired to the estate without leaving, studying his favorite sciences. He became interested in medicine and helped surrounding residents by preparing herbal medicines. Bruce died in 1735, just shy of 66 years old. He had no children. The Spanish Ambassador de Liria wrote about him: “Gifted with great abilities, he knew his business and the Russian land well, and with his irreproachable behavior he earned everyone’s love and respect.”
However, over time, a different image of Bruce - a sorcerer and warlock - became stronger in people's memory. Bruce gave reasons for such suspicions in his youth. At the end of the 17th century, the Sukharev Tower was built in Moscow, and Muscovites with superstitious fear began to notice that from time to time at night a light mysteriously flickered in the upper windows of the tower. It was the Tsar’s friend F.Ya. Lefort who assembled the “Neptune Society,” which, according to rumors, was interested in astrology and magic. The society included eight more people, and among them - the inquisitive tsar himself, Menshikov and Yakov Bruce, inseparable from him.
Bruce's attraction to arcane knowledge was, one might say, hereditary. His ancestor, the Scottish king Robert the Bruce, founded the Order of St. Andrew in the 14th century, uniting the Scottish Templars. According to legend, after the death of Lefort, Jacob Bruce headed the Neptune Society. In addition, he was engaged in astronomical observations at the Sukharev Tower. Bruce's reputation as an "astrogazer" and deep scientific knowledge gave rise to fantastic legends among ordinary people. As P.I. Bogatyrev said in his essays “Moscow Antiquity,” Muscovites were convinced that “Bruce had a book that revealed all the secrets to him, and through this book he could find out what was in any place in the earth, he could say who has something hidden somewhere... This book cannot be obtained: it is not given to anyone and is in a mysterious room where no one dares to enter.”
The basis for such legends could be real facts. The officials who compiled the inventory of Bruce's office found many unusual books there, for example: “The Philosophy of the Mystic in German”, “The New Heaven in Russian” - as indicated in the inventory. There was also a completely mysterious book, consisting of seven wooden tablets with incomprehensible text carved on them. Popular rumor claimed that the magical book of Bryusov once belonged to the wise King Solomon. And Bruce, not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands after his death, walled it up in the wall of the Sukharev Tower. And after the tower was destroyed, they began to say that this happened for a reason and that it was all to blame - the powerful and dangerous spells contained in Bruce’s book. And Bruce’s very death was sometimes attributed to his magical experiments.
In the second half of the 19th century, M. B. Chistyakov recorded the stories of peasants from the village of Chernyshino, Kaluga province, which once belonged to Bruce. The peasants said that the owner of the village was the tsar’s “arichmetik”, he knew how many stars there were in the sky and how many times the wheel would turn until the cart reached Kyiv. Looking at the peas scattered in front of him, he could immediately name the exact number of peas: “But what else did this Bruce know: he knew all these secret herbs and wonderful stones, he made different compositions from them, he even produced living water...”
Deciding to try the miracle of revival and rejuvenation on himself, Bruce allegedly ordered his faithful servant to cut himself into pieces with a sword and then water him with “living water.” But this required a long period of time, and then the king inopportunely missed his “arihmetschik.” The servant had to confess everything and show the master’s body: “They look - Bryusovo’s body has completely grown together and the wounds are not visible; he has his arms outstretched, as if sleepy, he is already breathing, and a blush is playing on his face.” The Orthodox Tsar was outraged in spirit and said with anger: “This is an unclean thing!” And he ordered to bury the sorcerer in the ground forever.
Bruce also appears as a magician and warlock in the works of Russian romantics: in V. F. Odoevsky’s story “Salamander”, in I. I. Lazhechnikov’s unfinished novel “The Sorcerer on the Sukharev Tower”.
The new reality of the twentieth century made its own adjustments to the legends about Bruce. They claimed that he did not die, but created an airship and flew on it to God knows where. The tsar ordered his books to be walled up (again in the Sukharev Tower), and all the medicines to be burned. In this way, a whole body of legends grew and varied, in which Bruce appeared as something like a Russian Faust.
There really is something mysterious about Bruce's fate. It is unclear where and how the son of a serving nobleman, who was enrolled in the “amusing” class in his fourteenth year, managed to receive such a brilliant education, which then allowed him to acquire deep knowledge in various fields of science? His inner world and home life remained impenetrable to prying eyes, especially in his last years, spent almost in hermit-like solitude. Bruce undoubtedly showed an interest in occult science, but it is not entirely known how he assessed this. Judging by some data, Yakov Vilimovich had a skeptical rather than a mystical mindset. According to one of his contemporaries, Bruce did not believe in anything supernatural. And when Peter showed him the incorruptible relics of the holy saints in Sofia of Novgorod, Bruce “attributed this to the climate, to the quality of the land in which they were previously buried, to the embalming of bodies and to abstinent life...”
But ironically, the very name of Bruce later became associated with something mysterious and supernatural. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the church in the former German settlement, where Bruce was buried, was destroyed, and the remains of the count were transferred to the laboratory of M. M. Gerasimov. But they disappeared without a trace. Only Bruce's restored caftan and camisole have survived; they are in the collections of the State Historical Museum. But rumors arose about the ghost of Bruce, who allegedly visited his house in Glinki.
Recently, a museum was opened in the former Bryusov estate with the help of local historians. His activities will undoubtedly help to clarify many “blank spots” in the biography of one of the most prominent associates of Peter I.
