Nikita Zotov
Nikita Moiseevich Zotov was a childhood tutor and lifelong friend of Russian Tsar Peter the Great. Zotov held a number of state posts, including from 1701 a leading position in the Tsar’s personal secretariat. Peter learned long passages from the Bible, which he could still recite from memory forty years later.
About Nikita Zotov in brief
Nikita Moiseevich Zotov was a childhood tutor and lifelong friend of Russian Tsar Peter the Great. Historians disagree on the quality of Zotov’s tutoring. Not much is known about his life aside from his connection to Peter. Zotov held a number of state posts, including from 1701 a leading position in the Tsar’s personal secretariat. Three years before his death, Zotov married a woman 50 years his junior. He died in December 1717 of unknown causes. Peter I was born to Natalia Naryshkina on 30 May 1672. Peter’s half-brother and godfather Feodor, the “semi-invalid eldest surviving son of Maria Miloslavskaya”, became the Tsarevna of Russia in 1676. At the age of three, in 1674 or 1675, Peter received a primer from Tsar Alexis to help him learn the alphabet. Two years later, Tsar Feodor suggested to Peter’s mother that he begin his studies. Estimates of the exact year when Peter’s Tutoring began range widely; numerous authors refer to a starting date as early as 1677, and as late as 1683, though multiple references specifically identify 12 March 1677 as the beginning of Peter’s tutororing. Peter was also raised to the rank of a nobleman and was deeply enthralled by the prospect of teaching Peter.
Peter learned long passages from the Bible, which he could still recite from memory forty years later. After the books were sprinkled with holy water, Peter began his first lesson in the morning after Peter’s death in 1717. Peter began to sing and sing in his memory, and Zotov also taught his student to sing in the Prayer Book, and then in the first in the alphabet, and in the second in the prayer book, and the third in the Book of Lamentations. Peter died in 1728, and was succeeded by his half-sister Tsaritsa Natalia, who was later to become Tsar of Russia. Peter and Natalia were good friends, and Peter remained close to Peter until the former’s death. He was also a member of the All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters, and regularly led them in games and celebrations. He became part of the “Jolly Company”, a group of several dozen of Peter’s friends that eventually became The All- Jokey Company. He also was mockingly appointed ‘Prince-Pope’ of the Synod, and often accompanied Peter on many important occasions, such as the Azov campaigns and the torture of the Streltsy after their uprising.
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This page is based on the article Nikita Zotov published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
