Examination
St. Evgeniy Botkin. Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov: “The veneration of the new martyrs in our church has not developed. Akathist to the holy new martyr doctor Evgeniy Botkin

St. Evgeniy Botkin. Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov: “The veneration of the new martyrs in our church has not developed. Akathist to the holy new martyr doctor Evgeniy Botkin

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Yevgeny Botkin, a doctor who did not leave the emperor at his death hour and was shot along with him and his family in Yekaterinburg. The biography of the new ascetic is recalled by “Russian Planet”.

Emperor's family

Despite the fact that the Botkin dynasty faithfully served two Russian emperors at once - Alexander II and Alexander III, Evgeny Botkin received the position of life physician (court physician) not because of the achievements of his eminent ancestors (his father was the famous doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin, in whose honor one of the central hospitals in Moscow is named). When the position of chief physician of the imperial family became vacant in 1907, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna said that she wanted to see Botkin in this capacity. When she was told that there were two doctors in St. Petersburg with that last name, she added: “The one who was in the war!”

Botkin went to war as a volunteer. By that time, he had achieved good success in his medical career, was married, and had four children. In the years Russo-Japanese War he coordinated the work of medical units during Russian army. The position is administrative, but Botkin, despite this, preferred to spend more time on the front line and was not afraid, if necessary, to play the role of a company paramedic, helping soldiers directly on the battlefield.

For his efforts, he was awarded officer military orders, and after the end of the war he wrote the book “The Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War.” This book led Botkin to the position of physician of the imperial family. After reading it, Alexandra Fedorovna did not want to see anyone but him as the imperial doctor.

The Empress chose Yevgeny Botkin for another reason - the illness of Tsarevich Alexei. As a doctor, Botkin studied immunology, as well as the properties of blood. Monitoring the health of the young crown prince, who had hemophilia, became one of his main duties at the imperial court.

The opportunity to occupy such a high position was also back side. Now Botkin had to constantly be close to the imperial family, working without days off or vacations. Botkin's wife, having become infatuated with a young revolutionary 20 years younger than her, left Evgeniy Sergeevich with a broken heart. Botkin was saved only by the love and support of his children, and also by the fact that over time the imperial family became no stranger to him. Botkin treated his august patients with sincere love and attention; he could not leave the sick prince’s bedside at night. To which young Alexey will subsequently write to him in a letter: “I love you with all my little heart.”

“Botkin was known for his restraint. None of the retinue managed to find out from him what the empress was sick with and what treatment the queen and heir followed. He was, of course, a servant devoted to their majesties,” General Mosolov, head of the chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, said about Botkin.

Last way

When the revolution happened and the imperial family was arrested, all the servants and assistants of the sovereign had a choice: to stay or leave. The Tsar was betrayed by many, but Botkin did not abandon his patients even when it was decided to send Nicholas II and his entire family to Tobolsk, and then to Yekaterinburg.

Even just before the execution, Yevgeny Botkin had the opportunity to leave and choose a new place of work. But he did not leave those to whom he had become attached with all his soul. After the last offer made to him to leave the emperor, he already knew that the king would soon be killed.

“You see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives. For a person in my position it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all must understand this,” Johann Meyer, a former captured Austrian soldier who went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, quotes him in his memoirs.

In his letters, Botkin wrote: “In general, if “faith without works is dead,” then “works” without faith can exist, and if one of us adds faith to works, then this is only due to the special mercy of God towards him. This justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at God’s demand to sacrifice his only son to him.”

In the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks read out the decision of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies to the emperor and his entire family. The sentence was carried out immediately - along with the royal family, the life doctor Botkin, the life cook Kharitonov, the valet and the room girl were also shot.

The first shots were fired at Nicholas II. With two bullets that flew past the main target, Botkin was wounded in the stomach. After the assassination of the Tsar, the Bolsheviks finished off their victims. Commandant Yurovsky, who oversaw the execution, later indicated that Botkin was still alive for some time. “I finished him off with a shot to the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. The remains of the doctor of the last Russian emperor were subsequently never found - only his pince-nez was found among other material evidence in a pit in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg, where the bodies of the dead were dumped.

The turmoil that swept through Russia after the 1917 revolution did not just lead to the fall of the monarchy and the destruction of the empire. In Russia everything collapsed overnight state institutions, and all the moral principles of personality for each individual person seemed to have ceased to operate. Evgeny Botkin was one of the few evidences that even in an era of general insanity, revelry and permissiveness, one can remain human, true to my word, honor and duty.

“So many invisible spiritual threads connect us with the new martyrs and confessors of our Church; undoubtedly, through their prayers our country is preserved in Orthodoxy, and their example of fidelity to Christ is so important for our current lukewarm life...”

07.02.2016 Through the labors of the brethren of the monastery 13 567

“Today the Russian Church joyfully rejoices, glorifying its new martyrs and confessors: saints and priests, royal martyrs, noble princes and princesses, reverend men and women and all Orthodox Christians, who in the days of the godless persecution laid down their lives for faith in Christ and kept the Truth with their blood. Through their intercession, O Long-suffering Lord, preserve our country in Orthodoxy until the end of the age."

(Troparion to the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia)

Today, on the feast of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, His Eminence Pankratiy, Bishop of Trinity, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the monastery courtyard in Moscow.

“I celebrated the Divine Liturgy today with a special feeling; so many invisible spiritual threads connect us with the new martyrs and confessors of our Church; undoubtedly, through their prayers our country is preserved in Orthodoxy, and their example of fidelity to Christ is so important for our current lukewarm life, so that through repentance and contrition for one’s sins to return again and again to a truly Christian life. It was joyful to realize the small involvement in the fact that the wonderful holy passion-bearer Eugene the doctor is now glorified by the entire Church and today the liturgical act of his canonization as a saint took place in Yekaterinburg. Here is the word from Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg:

“Today we celebrated a memorial service here for the last time for Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin, who was killed in this place 98 years ago. Killed along with the royal family and instead of those who were able to stay with them. There were four people with them, not because there were only four of them left, but because others were not allowed in. But those who were allowed in were still a handful of people. Just like at the Cross of the Lord, there were also few people left when Christ was crucified.

You and I stand here today, at this sacred place, at this Russian Golgotha, and let us think about the fact that it took us, the Church, 98 years to canonize those who laid down their lives as martyrs for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. How many more years do we need for us to realize all the severity and all the misfortune that befell our people, our Motherland these 98 years ago? And when we realize this, maybe then something will change in our lives?

In the meantime, we live as we lived before, and while neither rumors of war, nor current misfortunes, nor illnesses and other terrible events concern us - we live as we lived, burying our heads in the sand so as not to see or hear, so as to not knowing anything and not feeling anything. And the time is approaching, and we must realize this and pray, pray and pray. We have no other means to change anything: no army, no navy, nothing else that a person who has power and strength can have. But we have something that many others do not have: we know Christ, we know the power of prayer, and we must use it today, strive for it, so that our life turns into prayer. So that we begin to pray consciously, openly, sincerely, and pray not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but in a special way to pray again and again for our Motherland, for our holy Church.

And to be believers and faithful, as Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin was - a great man and man who - we know and believe - today stands before the throne of God and prays for everyone standing here and covers us with his grace-filled prayer cover - the cover of a martyr. Today we commemorated him for the last time: “Rest with the saints,” and tomorrow we will ask him: “Holy passion-bearer Eugene, pray to God for us.”

Today, February 7, 2016, in the Church on the Blood, Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye with the clergy of the Yekaterinburg diocese, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Bishops, glorified the passion-bearing physician Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin.

PASSION-BEARER EUGENE DOCTOR (BOTKIN)

Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, St. Petersburg province, into the family of the famous Russian general practitioner, professor of the Medical-Surgical Academy, Sergei Petrovich Botkin. He came from the Botkin merchant dynasty, whose representatives were distinguished by their deep Orthodox faith and charity, helped the Orthodox Church not only with their own means, but also with their labors. Thanks to a reasonably organized system of upbringing in the family and the wise care of his parents, many virtues were implanted in Eugene’s heart from childhood, including generosity, modesty and rejection of violence. His brother Pyotr Sergeevich recalled: “He was infinitely kind. One could say that he came into the world for the sake of people and in order to sacrifice himself.”

Evgeniy received a thorough education at home, which allowed him to enter the fifth grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium in 1878. In 1882, Evgeniy graduated from high school and became a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at St. Petersburg University. However, the very next year, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the newly opened imperial preparatory course. Military Medical Academy. His choice medical profession from the very beginning was conscious and purposeful. Peter Botkin wrote about Evgeny: “He chose medicine as his profession. This corresponded to his calling: to help, to support in difficult times, to ease pain, to heal endlessly.” In 1889, Evgeniy successfully graduated from the academy, receiving the title of doctor with honors, and in January 1890 he began his labor activity at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

At the age of 25, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin married the daughter of a hereditary nobleman, Olga Vladimirovna Manuilova. Four children grew up in the Botkin family: Dmitry (1894–1914), Georgy (1895–1941), Tatyana (1898–1986), Gleb (1900–1969).

Simultaneously with work at the hospital E.S. Botkin was engaged in science, he was interested in questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis. In 1893 E.S. Botkin brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After 2 years, Evgeniy Sergeevich was sent abroad, where he completed an internship at medical institutions Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1897 E.S. Botkin was awarded the title of private associate professor in internal medicine with the clinic. At his first lecture, he told students about the most important thing in a doctor’s activity: “Let us all go with love for a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him.” Evgeniy Sergeevich considered the service of a physician to be a truly Christian activity; he had a religious view of illnesses, saw their connection with state of mind person. In one of his letters to his son George, he expressed his attitude towards the medical profession as a means of learning God’s wisdom: “The main delight that you experience in our work ... is that for this we must penetrate deeper and deeper into the details and the mysteries of God’s creations, and it is impossible not to enjoy their purposefulness and harmony and His highest wisdom.”

Since 1897 E.S. Botkin began his medical career in the communities of nurses Russian Society Red Cross. On November 19, 1897, he became a doctor at the Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy, and on January 1, 1899, he also became the chief physician of the St. Petersburg Community of Sisters of Mercy in honor of St. George. The main patients of the community of St. George were people from the poorest strata of society, but doctors and staff were selected with special care. Some upper-class women worked there as ordinary nurses. general principles and considered this occupation honorable for themselves. There was such enthusiasm among the employees, such a desire to help suffering people, that the St. George’s residents were sometimes compared to the early Christian community. The fact that Evgeniy Sergeevich was accepted to work in this “exemplary institution” testified not only to his increased authority as a doctor, but also to his Christian virtues and respectable life. The position of chief physician of the community could only be entrusted to a highly moral and religious person.
In 1904, the Russian-Japanese War began, and Evgeniy Sergeevich, leaving his wife and four small children (the eldest was ten years old at that time, the youngest four years old), volunteered to go to Far East. On February 2, 1904, by decree of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society, he was appointed assistant to the Commissioner-in-Chief of the active armies for medical affairs. Occupying this rather high administrative position, Dr. Botkin was often in the forefront. During the war, Evgeniy Sergeevich not only showed himself to be an excellent doctor, but also showed personal bravery and courage. He wrote many letters from the front, from which a whole book was compiled - “The Light and Shadows of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905.” This book was soon published, and many, after reading it, discovered new sides of the St. Petersburg doctor: his Christian, loving , an infinitely compassionate heart and an unshakable faith in God. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, having read Botkin’s book, wished for Evgeniy Sergeevich to become the personal doctor of the Royal Family. On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1908, Emperor Nicholas II signed a decree appointing Dr. Botkin as personal physician of the Imperial Court.

Now, after the new appointment, Evgeniy Sergeevich had to constantly be with the emperor and members of his family; his service at the royal court took place without days off or vacations. A high position and closeness to the Royal Family did not change the character of E.S. Botkin. He remained as kind and attentive to his neighbors as he had been before.
When did the first one begin? World War, Evgeniy Sergeevich asked the sovereign to send him to the front to reorganize the sanitary service. However, the emperor instructed him to remain with the empress and children in Tsarskoe Selo, where, through their efforts, infirmaries began to open. At his home in Tsarskoe Selo, Evgeniy Sergeevich also set up an infirmary for the lightly wounded, which the Empress and her daughters visited.

In February 1917, a revolution occurred in Russia. On March 2, the sovereign signed the Manifesto abdicating the throne. The royal family was arrested and taken into custody in the Alexander Palace. Evgeniy Sergeevich did not leave his royal patients: he voluntarily decided to be with them, despite the fact that his position was abolished and his salary was no longer paid. At this time, Botkin became more than a friend for the royal prisoners: he took upon himself the responsibility of acting as an intermediary between the imperial family and the commissars, interceding for all their needs.

When it was decided to move the royal family to Tobolsk, Dr. Botkin was among the few close associates who voluntarily followed the sovereign into exile. Doctor Botkin's letters from Tobolsk amaze with their truly Christian mood: not a word of grumbling, condemnation, discontent or resentment, but complacency and even joy. The source of this complacency was a firm faith in the all-good Providence of God: “Only prayer and ardent boundless hope in the mercy of God, invariably poured out on us by our Heavenly Father, support us.” At this time, he continued to fulfill his duties: he treated not only members of the Royal Family, but also ordinary townspeople. A scientist who for many years communicated with the scientific, medical, and administrative elite of Russia, he humbly served, as a zemstvo or city doctor, to ordinary peasants, soldiers, and workers.

In April 1918, Dr. Botkin volunteered to accompany the royal couple to Yekaterinburg, leaving his own children, whom he loved dearly and dearly, in Tobolsk. In Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks again invited the servants to leave the arrested, but everyone refused. Chekist I. Rodzinsky reported: “In general, at one time after the transfer to Yekaterinburg, there was an idea to separate everyone from them, in particular, even the daughters were offered to leave. But everyone refused. Botkin was offered. He stated that he wanted to share the fate of the family. And he refused."
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the royal family and their associates, including Dr. Botkin, were shot in the basement of Ipatiev’s house.

A few years before his death, Evgeniy Sergeevich received the title of hereditary nobleman. For his coat of arms, he chose the motto: “By faith, fidelity, labor.” These words seemed to concentrate all the life ideals and aspirations of Dr. Botkin. Deep inner piety, the most important thing - sacrificial service to one's neighbor, unwavering devotion to the Royal Family and loyalty to God and His commandments in all circumstances, loyalty to death. The Lord accepts such fidelity as a pure sacrifice and gives the highest, heavenly reward for it: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

At the evening service in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery, amemorial service for all those who suffered during the time of godless persecution for the faith of Christ , where prayers were offered for all the innocent victims during the years of hard times.

In 1917, the residents of Tobolsk were extremely lucky. They now have their own doctor: not only from the capital’s education and upbringing, but also always, at any moment, ready to come to the aid of the sick, and free of charge. The Siberians sent sleighs, horse teams, and even a full ride for the doctor: no joke, the personal doctor of the emperor himself and his family! It happened, however, that the patients did not have transport: then the doctor in a general’s overcoat with tattered insignia would move across the street, getting stuck waist-deep in the snow, and still end up at the bedside of the sufferer.

He treated better than local doctors, and did not charge for treatment. But compassionate peasant women thrust him either a bag of eggs, a layer of lard, a bag of pine nuts or a jar of honey. The doctor returned to the governor's house with gifts. There, the new government kept the abdicated sovereign and his family in custody. The doctor's two children also languished in prison and were as pale and transparent as the four Grand Duchesses and the little one. Tsarevich Alexei. Passing by the house where the royal family was kept, many peasants knelt down, bowed to the ground, and mournfully crossed themselves, as if on an icon.

Empress's Choice

Among the children of the famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin, the founder of several major trends in medicine, the life physician of two Russian autocrats, the youngest son Evgeniy did not seem to shine with anything special. He had little contact with his illustrious father, but followed in his footsteps, like his older brother, who became a professor at the Medical-Surgical Academy. Evgeniy graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with dignity, defended doctoral dissertation due to blood properties, got married and volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War. This was his first experience of military field therapy, his first encounter with cruel reality. Shocked by what he saw, he wrote detailed letters to his wife, which were later published as “Notes on the Russo-Japanese War.”

I noticed this work Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Botkin was granted an audience. No one knows what the august lady said in private, suffering not only from the fragility of her health, but most of all from the carefully hidden incurable illness of her son, the heir to the Russian throne.

After the meeting, Evgeniy Sergeevich was offered to take the position of the royal physician. Perhaps his work on studying blood played a role, but, most likely, the empress recognized him as a knowledgeable, responsible and selfless person.

In the center, from right to left, E. S. Botkin, V. I. Gedroits, S. N. Vilchikovsky. In the foreground is Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with the Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Olga. Photo: Public Domain

For myself - nothing

This is exactly how Evgeny Botkin explained to his children the changes in their lives: despite the fact that the doctor’s family moved to a beautiful cottage, entered government support, and could participate in palace events, he no longer belonged to himself. Despite the fact that his wife soon left the family, all the children expressed a desire to stay with their father. But he rarely saw them, accompanying the royal family for treatment, rest, and on diplomatic trips. Evgeny Botkin's daughter Tatyana at the age of 14 she became the mistress of the house and managed expenses, giving funds for the purchase of uniforms and shoes to her older brothers. But no absences, no hardships of the new way of life could destroy the warm and trusting relationship that bound the children and father. Tatyana called him “unvalued daddy” and subsequently voluntarily followed him into exile, believing that she had only one duty - to be close to her father and do what he needed. The royal children treated Evgeniy Sergeevich just as tenderly, almost like a family. Tatyana Botkina's memoirs contain a story about how the Grand Duchesses poured water from a jug for him when he was lying with a sore leg and could not get up to wash his hands before examining the patient.

Many classmates and relatives envied Botkin, not understanding how difficult his life was in this high position. It is known that Botkin had a sharply negative attitude towards Rasputin’s personality and even refused to accept his sick man at his home (but he himself went to him to help). Tatyana Botkina believed that the improvement in the heir’s health when visiting the “elder” occurred just when Evgeniy Sergeevich had already carried out medical measures that strengthened the boy’s health, and Rasputin attributed this result to himself.

Last words

When the sovereign was asked to choose a small retinue to accompany him into exile, only one of the generals he indicated agreed. Fortunately, there were faithful servants among others, and they followed the royal family to Siberia, and some suffered martyrdom along with the last Romanovs. Among them was Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin. For this life physician there was no question of choosing his fate - he made it a long time ago. In the dark months under arrest, Botkin not only treated, strengthened, and spiritually supported his patients, but also served as a home teacher - the royal couple decided that the education of their children should not be interrupted, and all prisoners taught them in some subject.

His own youngest children, Tatyana and Gleb, lived nearby in a rented house. The Grand Duchesses and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna sent cards, notes, and small gifts made with their own hands to brighten up the difficult life of these children, who of their own free will followed their father into exile. Children could only see “daddy” for a few hours a day. But even from the time when he was released from arrest, Botkin carved out the opportunity to visit sick Siberians and rejoiced at the suddenly opened opportunity for wide practice.

Tatyana and Gleb were not allowed into Yekaterinburg, where the execution took place; they remained in Tobolsk. For a long time we didn’t hear anything about my father, but when we found out, we couldn’t believe it.

Among the decisions of the recently held Council of Bishops was the decision to canonize Dr. Evgeniy Botkin, who accompanied The royal family in Yekaterinburg and was killed in 1918 along with the Royal Passion-Bearers.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk

I think this is a long-desired decision, because he is one of those saints who are revered not only in the Russian Church Abroad, but also in many dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as in the medical community, like the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, who is revered as a healer , now Dr. Evgeniy Botkin will be revered as a saint.

With regard to other royal servants, as well as those persons who were killed along with Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna in Alapaevsk, the study of their lives and the circumstances of their death will continue, the DECR chairman said.

The Romanov family's own doctor, Evgeny Botkin, was canonized by the Russian Church Abroad in 1981 together with the royal servants - cook Ivan Kharitonov, footman Aloysius Trupp and maid Anna Demidova.

Participants in the V All-Russian Congress of Orthodox Medical Workers, which was held from October 1 to October 3 of the previous year in the northern capital, decided to petition the Russian Orthodox Church about the possibility of canonizing medical worker Evgeny Botkin.

How right it is to finally canonize the doctor of the royal family, Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin.

He didn’t have to go to Yekaterinburg; he volunteered himself. He could freely leave the Ipatiev House, no one would say a word. His feat did not even consist of martyrdom by gunshot, but in this absolutely medical, calm, very everyday sacrifice. This is such a great dignity - devoid of pride, arrogance and crown-seeking. The same thing - do what you must and be what your heart and God commands.

Why does this happen to people? Rare and precious. From absolute unalloyed love and kindness, probably.

With the king to the end

Botkin went to war as a volunteer. By that time, he had achieved good success in his medical career, was married, and had four children. During the Russo-Japanese War, he coordinated the work of medical units under the Russian army. The position is administrative, but Botkin, despite this, preferred to spend more time on the front line and was not afraid, if necessary, to play the role of a company paramedic, helping soldiers directly on the battlefield.

There was a downside to being able to hold such a high position. Now Botkin had to constantly be close to the imperial family, working without days off or vacations. Botkin's wife, having become infatuated with a young revolutionary 20 years younger than her, left Evgeniy Sergeevich with a broken heart. Botkin was saved only by the love and support of his children, and also that over time the imperial family became no stranger to him. Botkin treated his august patients with sincere love and attention; he could not leave the sick prince’s bedside at night. To which young Alexey will subsequently write to him in a letter: “I love you with all my little heart.”

Last way

The turmoil that swept through Russia after the 1917 revolution did not just lead to the fall of the monarchy and the destruction of the empire. In Russia, all state institutions collapsed overnight, and all the moral principles of the individual for each individual person seemed to cease to function. Evgeny Botkin was one of the few evidences that even in an era of general insanity, revelry and permissiveness, one can remain a person true to his word, honor and duty.

Pray to God for us, Saint Doctor Eugene!

Together with the royal family.

Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin

Date of Birth	May 27 (June 8)
Place of Birth	Tsarskoe Selo, Tsarskoe Selo, St. Petersburg province, Russian empire
Date of death	July 17th(1918-07-17 ) (53 years old)
A place of death
A country	Russian empire Russian empire
Scientific field	medicine
Place of work	IMHA
Alma mater	Imperial Military Medical Academy (1889)
Academic degree	M.D. (1893)
Known as	personal physician of Nicholas II
Awards and prizes
Evgeniy Sergeevich Botkin at Wikimedia Commons

Biography

Childhood and studies

He was the fourth child in the family of the famous Russian doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin (physician to Alexander II and Alexander III) and Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova.

In 1878, based on the education he received at home, he was immediately admitted to the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. After graduating from high school in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, however, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he went to the junior department of the opened preparatory course at the Military Medical Academy.

In 1889 he graduated from the academy third in the class, receiving the title of doctor with honors.

Work and career

From January 1890 he worked as a medical assistant at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. In December 1890 on own funds sent abroad for scientific purposes. He studied with leading European scientists and became familiar with the structure of Berlin hospitals.

At the end of his business trip in May 1892, Evgeniy Sergeevich became a doctor at the court chapel, and in January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky Hospital as a supernumerary resident.

On May 8, 1893, he defended his dissertation at the Academy for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, “On the question of the influence of albumin and peptones on some functions of the animal body,” dedicated to his father. The official opponent for the defense was I.P. Pavlov.

In the spring of 1895, he was sent abroad and spent two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listened to lectures and practiced with leading German doctors - professors G. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. In May 1897 he was elected privat-docent of the Military Medical Academy.

In the fall of 1905, Evgeny Botkin returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. Since 1905 - honorary life physician. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George.

Exile and death

He was killed along with the entire imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918. According to the memoirs of the organizer of the murder of the royal family, Ya. M. Yurovsky, Botkin did not die immediately - he had to be “shot.”

“I am making one last attempt to write a real letter - at least from here... My voluntary imprisonment here is as unlimited by time as my earthly existence is limited. In essence, I died, I died for my children, for my friends, for my cause... I died, but not yet buried, or buried alive - it doesn’t matter, the consequences are almost the same...
I do not indulge myself in hope, I am not lulled by illusions and I look the unvarnished reality straight in the eye... I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved” and the consciousness that I remain faithful to the principles of the 1889 edition. If faith without works is dead, then works without faith can exist, and if one of us adds faith to works, then this is only due to God’s special mercy towards him...
This justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at God’s request to sacrifice his only son to him.”

Canonization and rehabilitation, memory

On February 3, 2016, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church made a decision on church-wide glorification righteous passion-bearer Eugene the doctor. However, other servants of the royal family were not canonized. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) of Volokolamsk, commenting on this canonization, said:

The Council of Bishops made a decision to glorify Dr. Evgeniy Botkin. I think this is a long-desired decision, because this is one of the saints who is venerated not only in the Russian Church Abroad, but also in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, including in the medical community.

On March 25, 2016, on the territory of the Moscow City Clinical Hospital No. 57, Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky consecrated the first church in Russia in honor of the righteous Evgeniy Botkin.

In July 2018, in the Ekaterinburg Akademichesky microdistrict, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the death of the Romanov Tsars, a boulevard adjacent to the buildings of the Ural State Medical University and a plant for the production of pacemakers was named after Evgeny Botkin.

Family

Since 1891 he was married to Olga Vladimirovna Manuilova (1872-1946), whom he divorced in 1910. Their children:

Proceedings

“On the question of the influence of albumin and peptones on some functions of the animal body”
“Light and shadows of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From letters to his wife” 1908.

Notes

German National Library, Berlin State Library, Bavarian State Library, etc. Record #121807916 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012-2016.
Melnik (Botkina) T. E. Memories of the Royal Family and its life before and after the revolution. - M.: “Ankor”, 1993. (erroneous) (Preface to this edition)
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