ГОСУДАРЕВА СЛУЖБА ПЕТРОВСКОГО ЛЕЙБ-МЕДИКА Г. ПОЛИКАЛЫ В РОССИИ И ОСМАНСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ

Abstract

The article explores the activities of the Russian agent in Istanbul, doctor Georgy Polikalа. It analyzes the medic’s contacts with the Russian diplomatic representative P. A. Tolstoy, who gave secret instructions to Policala. Since 1711, he has been officially registered for service in Russia as a life physician of Tsarina Ekaterina Alekseevna. The doctor enjoyed special favor of both Peter I and his second wife. The facts of the participation of Polycalа in the treatment of other members of the royal family, such as Princess Charlotte Christina Sofia, the wife of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, are also noted. The surviving sources make it possible to partly reconstruct Polycalа’s mission in Istanbul in 1721, when, in addition to the official instructions of Peter I, related to the presentation of the tsar’s letter to the sultan, he was also engaged in preparing the escape of A. Cantemir, who was in Turkish captivity. The authors also consider Polikala’s connections with the family of the Moldavian ruler, in particular, examining a plot common in historiography about the participation of the medic in the termination of Maria Cantemir’s pregnancy by order of Ekaterina Alekseevna. The documents available to historians do not allow confirming this fact. There was also an attempt to engage Polycalа in January 1725 to the treatment of Peter I. The last fact of the physician’s biography confirmed by archival sources is filing a request for resignation in May of the same year.