How Russian nobles were obsessed with playing cards

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Card games for many Russian nobles were a real passion and obsession. They could lose their wife at cards or defend their honor in a card match instead of a duel.

“The next evening Hermann appeared at the table again. Everyone was expecting him. Generals and privy councilors left their whist to see the game so extraordinary. Young officers jumped off the sofas; all the waiters gathered in the living room. All surrounded Hermann. The other players did not bet their cards, eagerly awaiting what he would end up with.

Hermann stood at the table, preparing to ponte alone against the pale, but still smiling Chekalinsky. Each one printed out a deck of cards. Chekalinsky shuffled. Hermann withdrew and put down his card, covering it with a pile of bank notes. It was like a duel. Deep silence reigned all around. The game of whist, described in The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin, was a popular pastime among Russian nobles.

Gambling in Russia was known as early as the 17th century. In the "Cathedral Code" of 1649, they are mentioned in the chapter "On robbery and tatina affairs". There they were equated with the "grain" - the modern dice game for us. It was popular among thieves and robbers, and the governors were ordered to punish those who played it. The gamblers were told to cut their fingers.

Neither in the time of Alexei Mikhailovich, nor Mikhail Fedorovich, nor Peter I with Catherine, card games were heard. At that time, hunting, balls, billiards and chess were popular among the nobility. Ivan the Terrible and Alexei Mikhailovich played chess themselves. And Peter I even sometimes forced his comrades-in-arms to form a party for him. The emperor did not like card games and did not allow them at assemblies (balls).

Passion by cards

Card games became widespread among the nobility only during the time of Anna Ioannovna. The 18th century was a time of imitation of European culture, and foreign card games suddenly began to be considered the standard of decent pastime.

“Thanks to the serfdom system and the exemption from compulsory service, the nobility got the opportunity to realize themselves in creating a subculture of comfort and entertainment, in which the card game was an occupation, a business,” historian Vyacheslav Shevtsov says about playing cards among the nobles at a conference on the topic “Card game in the public life of Russia”. - “Playing cards not only structured time, but also performed a communicative function. Commercial or power games accompanied conversation, acquaintance, the position in society was determined by the circle of card partners."

Card games at that time were divided into commercial and gambling. The first kind was considered decent, while the second was condemned by secular society. The purpose of gambling card games was primarily aimed at winning money. The higher the rate, the higher the risk, and hence the excitement of the players. The emotional intensity attracted the player more and more, many lost everything overnight. The fate of the player depended on chance and luck. The games of chance were: shtos, baccarat and pharaoh.

Commercial card games were the opposite of gambling. The rules of gambling are simple, while commercial games were built according to complex rules, so only professionals and experienced gamblers could play them. It was impossible to rely only on chance in them. Because of this, many have compared commercial card games to an intellectual game such as chess. The commercial games were: whist, screw and preference.

Despite the great popularity of card games among both nobles and peasants, the state tried to ban such leisure activities. The officials were frightened by the fact that lands and huge sums of money were quickly lost. This became a frequent reason for the ruin of the nobles. In one of the decrees of Empress Elizabeth of June 16, 1761, it was stated that gambling for money and expensive things "to no one and nowhere (except for apartments in the palaces of Her Imperial Majesty) should not play under any pretext or pretext."

It was especially important to play cards "not to win, only to pass the time" and "for the smallest amounts of money." The violators were demanded a fine of twice their annual salary.

Excitement in spite of prohibitions

However, neither decrees nor prohibitions frightened the nobles. Why is that? Gambling attracted more and more gamblers among the upper classes because of its principle. The man did not know whether he would win or not. Thus, he imagined that he was not playing with an equal player, but with fate. Luck, happiness or failure - everything made a Russian nobleman of the 18th century happy. The severity of the laws limiting life gave rise to the need for detente.

The writer Yuri Lotman in his book Life and Traditions of the Russian Nobility (18th - early 19th century) says about this phenomenon as follows: “Strict regulation, which penetrated into the private life of a person in the empire, created a psychological need for explosions of unpredictability. And if, on the one hand, attempts to guess the secrets of unpredictability were fueled by the desire to order the disordered, then, on the other hand, the atmosphere of the city and country, in which the “spirit of bondage” was intertwined with the “strict look,” gave rise to a thirst for the unpredictable, wrong and accidental."

Hope for winning and excitement excited the imagination of the players. They surrounded the very process of the game with an aura of mystery and were superstitious. For example, in the book "Secrets of the Card Game" (1909) published by "People's Use" there is a table of correspondence between happy days for the game and the player's birthday.

The 19th century was the heyday of card games. They have become entertainment not only for adults, but also for young people. The older generation did not like this and they tried to warn young people about the negative consequences of the card game.

For example, in the book of Yuryev and Vladimirsky 1889 issue “Rules of social life and etiquette. Good form "the game is called" a shame in living rooms, corruption of morals and a brake on enlightenment. " However, expressing contempt for gambling, the authors nevertheless come to the conclusion: "To live with wolves, howl like a wolf" - and give youth advice on ethics for playing cards: when can you sit down at the table, with whom you can talk during the game, and with whom not. As Yuriev and Vladimirsky explain, “knowledge of card games can often provide a chance to get out of the difficulty” when you have to take the place of a player absent at the table.

The fears were not in vain. The carelessness and excitement of the players often led to tragedies. One of these stories happened in Moscow in 1802. There were three characters: Count Lev Razumovsky, Prince Alexander Golitsyn and his young wife Maria Golitsyna. The count was in love with the princess, and Golitsyn knew about it. Fortunately for Razumovsky, the prince was obsessed with playing cards.

Once they met at a card table, where the highest stake was … Maria Golitsyna. The prince was not worried that he might lose his wife, “who, as he knew, reciprocated Razumovsky,” notes the historian Georgy Parchevsky in his book “Bygone Petersburg. Panorama of metropolitan life . As a result, Count Razumovsky won Maria Golitsyna at cards.

Fate favored the beloved - the church allowed divorce. However, the result of the circumstances of this event - the loss in cards - became known to the whole city, because of which the now young Razumovskaya was ostracized. Emperor Alexander I helped her out of the difficult situation.

In 1818 the Razumovskys were at a ball in Moscow, where the entire royal family was also present. Maria Razumovskaya was sitting at the end of the tsar's table. When the supper began, the sovereign turned to her with a question, calling her a countess. Undoubtedly, this made Razumovskaya happy: her second marriage and status was recognized by the tsar himself.

For wealth and honor

However, the loss of honor, the loss of a huge amount of money and even a whole fortune still did not frighten people. More and more new players sat down at the table with a green cloth, wanting to get rich and try their luck.

The card game was not only entertainment, but even a source of income for the nobles. The most famous favorite of fortune is Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, a duelist and gambler. In his youth, he lost a lot, but then Tolstoy came up with a number of his own rules of the game, which helped him to recoup. Here is one of his rules: "Having won a doubly expected amount, hide it, and play on the first one as long as there is a desire, game and money." Soon he began to win and reported on the victories in his diary: "I won 100 rubles from Odahovsky, and a quit with everyone in the Crimea", "I won another 600 clean rubles and owe me 500 rubles."

In the card game, the nobles could defend their honor, as in a duel. The duel in which the opponents collided, although it was bloodless, was cruel right up to the shame of the rival's honor before the audience: “The game is like a weapon, the game - and its result is an act of revenge” - Georgy Parchevsky describes the “card” duels in his book “Past Petersburg. Panorama of metropolitan life.

Beginning in the 17th century, the card game captured the minds of Russian noblemen for several centuries. She penetrated into Russian literature, folklore, the leisure of the nobles. Many famous historical figures, Russian writers and poets played cards.

The terminology of card games was widely used in literature in the 19th century, for example, in Alexander Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades". The poet himself played cards, which was repeatedly confirmed by his friends and notes in drafts. “Pushkin rightly told me once that the passion for the game is the strongest of the passions,” wrote a close friend of Pushkin, Alexei Wolf, in his diary.