We talked a lot about Doctor Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz.

German by nationality, Catholic by religion, Friedrich Joseph Haz came to Russia in 1806 (he was then 26 years old) as the personal physician of Princess V.A. Repnina-Volkonskaya. He had an extensive private practice in Moscow, consulted in Moscow hospitals and almshouses, and treated patients free of charge in the Preobrazhensky almshouse.

In 1807-1812, Haaz was the chief physician of the Moscow Pavlovsk Hospital. He was drafted into the active army, participated in foreign campaigns of 1813-1814, and reached Paris with the army. In the same year, he retired and went to his native Bad Münstereifel to visit his seriously ill father, after whose death he returned to Moscow again, where he began private medical practice.

From August 14, 1825, at the proposal of the Moscow military governor-general, Prince D.V. Golitsyn, accepted the position of staff physicist of the Moscow Medical Office, where he launched a vigorous activity and fight against routine and clerical inertia, which caused the discontent of numerous medical officials who blamed his foreign origin and some odd behavior, since Fyodor Petrovich gave his salary to the staff physicist who held this position before his appointment. On July 27, 1826, Fyodor Petrovich resigned and again began private practice.

Hometown of F.P. Gaaza - Bad Münstereifel . From here . Follow the link for an excellent walk through a very beautiful German town, where there is a bust of a doctor and a memorial plaque.

From 1828 until almost his death, in 1853, Haaz was a permanent member of the Moscow Prison Trustee Committee, and since 1829 also the chief physician of Moscow prison hospitals. In this field, Fyodor Petrovich devoted all his strength, his life and his funds to charitable activities, which completely embraced him.

Haaz cared not only about food and medical care for prisoners in prisons and prison hospitals. At that time, to transport convicts, the “General Dibich rod” was used - an iron pin with rings into which the hands of 8-10 convicts were inserted. The convicts were not removed from the rod until their destination - in a terribly uncomfortable position, with numb limbs, constantly accompanied by their comrades, people had to sleep, eat, and relieve their natural needs all the way to Siberia... And this is how those convicted for the most harmless crimes suffered - “serious” criminals had individual heavy shackles. F.P. Haaz came up with more humane light shackles, tested them on himself and insisted that they replace the “Diebich rod”. He also achieved the abolition of shaving half the heads of female prisoners.

Haaz almost completely rebuilt the Butyrka prison, equipping the cells with windows, washbasins and bunks (before that, prisoners slept on the floor), and collected money to ransom serf children so that they could go into exile with their parents.

In 1840-1843 F.P. Haaz was appointed chief physician of the Staro-Catherine Hospital. With his direct participation, a Hospital for Laborers was established in Moscow in 1844, and Haass became its chief physician. In the same year, the Police Hospital opened, where Haas also held the position of chief physician, a position he held until his death in 1853.

Photo from the site http://moskva.kotoroy.net/

The hospital is located in an abandoned house of the former Mondelini Orthopedic Institute. The building was renovated by Haaz using his own funds and funds from benefactors. It was designed for 150 beds, but from 1844 to 1853, when Fyodor Petrovich died, about 30 thousand people were treated there. The doctor sometimes placed patients in his small rooms at the hospital. Later the hospital began to be called Aleksandrovskaya (in honor of Alexander III), but people for a long time called it “Gaazovskaya”. Currently, this building houses the Research Institute of Hygiene and Health Protection of Children and Adolescents (Maly Kazenny Lane, 5).

Arriving in Russia, Haaz, thanks to his private practice among wealthy patients, became a wealthy man; he had his own house on Kuznetsky Most, a fairly large estate, several hundred serfs, and a cloth factory. There was even an estate in the village of Tishkovo. He traveled around Moscow in a carriage drawn by a train of four white horses.

So, Haaz died in poverty. To the Vvedensky cemetery, the last refuge of the “holy doctor,” as Muscovites called him, a crowd of twenty thousand accompanied the coffin with Haaz’s body. There had not been such a funeral in Moscow for a century.

Monument to F.P. Gaaza in the village of Tishkovo near Moscow.

Haas's grave at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow. From here

In 1909, a monument was erected in the hospital courtyard - a bronze bust by the famous sculptor Andreev, designed by the artist Ostroukhov. The chief physician of this hospital, Vsevolod Sergeevich Puchkov, was the author of two small books about Haase.

In 1910-1911, folk festivals were held at the Haaz monument; pupils from all Moscow orphanages and prison choirs attended. These days, some Moscow trams and horse-drawn carriages were decorated with portraits of the “holy doctor”.

Sokolniki. Celebration of memory of F.P. Haaza on the opening day of the shelter. 1914

By the way, celebrations are still held in the hospital courtyard near the Haaz monument. For example, here is a story aboutcharity concert at the celebration dedicated to the 230th anniversary of the birth of the doctor or holiday for children at the monument to Haas (October 1, 2011).

People of very different views spoke and wrote about Fyodor Petrovich Haaz with love and respect - like-minded people of Herzen and staunch conservatives. Slavophile Shevyrev dedicated a poetic obituary to him:

He has a warm heart,
Having revealed the Savior through teaching,
All compassion for crime
Filled existence with life.

Chekhov remembered him when he traveled around Siberia and Sakhalin.

The first book about the life and work of Fyodor Petrovich Gaazpublished in 1897 by academician Anatoly Fedorovich Koni- scientist, lawyer, historian, writer, friend of Leo Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Nekrasov and V. Korolenko. Until 1914, this book was reprinted five times (see the link above for the full text of Kony’s book). And this is the title page of a publication from our rare books department:

Over the same years, more than 20 popular books, including children’s books, were published about the “friend of the unfortunate,” the “protector and helper of the humiliated and suffering,” and the “holy doctor” Haase.

A book was published in London in 1985 Lev Kopelev“Saint Doctor Fyodor Petrovich”, and in 1993 it was published in Russia (Petro-RIF publishing house in the series “Personality and History”). In 2012, the book was published by the Rudomino Book Center of the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature and was presented by the general director of the library, Ekaterina Yuryevna Genieva, at the Days of German Culture in our library. (Electronic version of the book).

A.I. Gentle

Friedrich Joseph Has - a native of a German town - became the Moscow “holy doctor” Fyodor Petrovich Haas, a truly Russian devotee of active good. A devout Catholic, he fraternally “gave his soul” for all suffering people who professed other religions, for freethinkers and atheists. Infinitely tolerant and genuinely meek, he did not even hate his opponents and persecutors. Every day throughout his life, full of tireless hard work, he effectively implemented his motto: “Hurry to do good!”.

Fedor Petrovich Gaaz

Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz, a Russian doctor of German origin, dedicated his life to easing the plight of prisoners and exiles.

When he was buried, more than 20 thousand people came to see the doctor off on his last journey. And on the gravestone were carved the words: “Hurry to do good,” which he always followed and which can be considered his testament to all of us.

Reading about such amazing people, you always involuntarily ask the question: what prompts prosperous, well-to-do people (Dr. Haass was just such a person) to turn to the destinies of the most disadvantaged and despised people by society? What is the source of their mercy and selfless service to those from whom they could receive neither glory nor reward? “An eccentric,” some said about him. “A fanatic,” others said. “Saint,” said others.

Maybe his biography can explain something?

From the biography of Dr. Haas (1780-1853)

Dr. F.P. Gaaz

Gaaz(Friedrich-Joseph Haas, Fedor Petrovich), senior doctor at Moscow prison hospitals, was born on August 24, 1780 in Münstereifel, near Cologne (Prussia) into a Catholic family. He studied at the Universities of Jena and Göttingen, and began his medical practice in Vienna.

He first came to Russia in 1803, and in 1806 he began working as the chief physician of the Pavlovsk Hospital in Moscow.

In 1809-1810 traveled to the Caucasus twice, where he studied and explored mineral springs - currently Caucasian Mineral Waters: Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk, Essentuki. He described his journey and discoveries in the book “Ma visite aux eaux d’Alexandre en 1809 et 1810”.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 he worked as a surgeon in the Russian army.

After this, for some time F.P. Haaz stayed in his homeland, Germany, and in 1813 he decided to finally settle in Russia. In Moscow, he had a large medical practice, enjoyed the respect and love of the city residents, and was a quite wealthy man.

This, perhaps, is where the first part of his successful, in some sense even standard, biography ends.

Fracture

In 1829, the Committee for the Guardianship of Prison Society was opened in Moscow. Moscow Governor General Prince D.V. Golitsyn called on Dr. Haas to join the Committee. From that moment on, the doctor’s life and work changed decisively: he accepted someone else’s misfortune with all his soul, the fate of the prisoners began to worry him so much that he gradually stopped his medical practice, gave away his funds and, completely forgetting himself, devoted all his time and all his strength to serving the “unfortunate”, and his views on the prisoners were similar to the views of ordinary Russian people, who always pitied the disadvantaged, the poor, and the sick.

Prison cases in Russia at that time

They were a sad sight.

The prisoners were kept in dim, damp, cold and dirty prison premises, which were always overcrowded. Neither age nor the type of crime were taken into account, so those who were, for example, imprisoned for debt, and those who committed serious crimes and also led an antisocial lifestyle were kept together.

The food in the prisons was poor, and there was almost no medical care. People were kept in conditions of cruel treatment: they were chained to heavy chairs, placed in stocks, collars with knitting needles were put on them, which deprived people of the opportunity to lie down... Despair and embitterment reigned among the prisoners.

Exiles on the rod

When exiles were sent to Siberia, the prisoners, handcuffed in pairs, were secured to an iron rod: an iron rod was threaded through the handcuffs. At the same time, differences in height, strength, health, and type of guilt were not taken into account.

There were from 8 to 12 people on each rod; they moved between the stage points, dragging behind them those weakened on the road, the sick and even the dead.

In the transit prisons there was even greater hopelessness.

Dr. Haas's Guardianship of Prisons

Dr. Haaz accepted the suffering of the unfortunate prisoners with all his soul. It would seem, why did a successful doctor need to take so close to his heart the problems of people who were far from his own moral principles? Why was there any need to feel sorry for them - after all, they were criminals? The fact is that he saw a person in any person, even in an outcast. For 23 years, day after day, he fought against state cruelty, which turned the punishment of people into torment.

First of all, he began to fight against these rods on which the unfortunate prisoners were “strung.” Prince Golitsyn supported him in this, and the exiles were allowed to move only in shackles, without a rod.

But no funds were allocated for shackles, and Dr. Haase constantly allocated his own funds for lighter shackles.

Allocated funds for lighter shackles

Then he achieved the abolition of shaving half of women's heads.

Then he ensured that the Rogozh half-stage was built with basic hygiene requirements for the exiles, covering the hand and foot hoops from the exiles’ chains with leather, cloth or linen.

He was present at the departure of each batch of prisoners from Moscow and became acquainted with their needs, monitored their health and, if necessary, left them for treatment in Moscow. Of course, the authorities protested against this. But Haaz tried not to pay attention to them and always consoled those who were sick, weak or in need of spiritual consolation and encouragement. He brought them supplies for the journey, blessed them and kissed them, and sometimes walked with a party of prisoners for several miles.

He corresponded with the prisoners, fulfilled their requests from afar, and sent them money and books. The exiles nicknamed him “the holy doctor.”

He examined each prisoner before being sent to the prison

This extraordinary man accomplished many glorious, but secret to others, deeds. At various times he collected large sums to supply shirts for the prisoners being sent, and sheepskin coats for minors; donated to buy bandages for prisoners suffering from hernia. And how passionately he interceded for those who, in his opinion, were convicted innocently or deserved special mercy! In such cases, he stopped at nothing: he argued with Metropolitan Philaret, wrote letters to Emperor Nicholas and the Prussian king, the brother of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and once, when the sovereign visited a prison castle, begging for the forgiveness of a 70-year-old man destined for exile to Siberia and detained by him due to illness and decrepitude in Moscow, did not want to get up from his knees until the touched Emperor pardoned him.

Dr. Haaz believed that many of the criminals became such as a result of their lack of religious and moral self-awareness, so he supplied the prisoners with spiritual literature and the Holy Scriptures, purchasing large quantities of such books for sending to Siberia. On his initiative, a prison hospital and a school for the children of prisoners were opened.

Dr. F.P. Gaaz

Dr. Haass fought for the abolition of the right of landowners to exile serfs.

He even ransomed some prisoners (74 people) and petitioned for the release of children (more than 200 cases). As a prison doctor, Dr. Haaz was extremely attentive to his charges: he visited them several times a day, talked with them about their affairs and family. When the prisoners were temporarily moved to a state-owned house near Pokrovka, he immediately began to accept homeless people there who had fallen ill on the streets. And he himself lived in a small apartment at the hospital, in the most sparse surroundings, among books and instruments. Here he consulted patients who came to him in the morning, supplied them with free medicines, and shared with them his last meager means. His popularity among the population of Moscow was enormous. He lived in complete solitude, completely devoted to the cause of charity, not retreating either from work, or from ridicule and humiliation, or from the coldness of those around him and the clerical quibbles of his colleagues. His motto “hurry to do good” supported him and filled his entire life with its content. There was no “foreign” pain or “bad” people in his life. He also did not have his own family, since he believed that there was not enough time for the outcasts: convicts, the poor, the sick. He was a Catholic, but the strict zealot of Orthodoxy, Saint Philaret (Drozdov), blessed to serve a prayer service for his health.

Tall, with kind and thoughtful blue eyes, in a shabby dress and mended stockings, he was always on the move and was never sick, until the first and last illness broke him. On August 16, 1853, he died, saying a touching goodbye to everyone who walked through the open doors of his apartment.

Dr. Haaz was buried in the Catholic cemetery on the Vvedensky Hills in Moscow.

The grave of Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz at Vvedensky Cemetery (Moscow)

The Federal State Treatment and Prevention Institution “Regional Hospital named after Dr. F. P. Gaaz” was named in honor of the doctor.

(Haas) - physician-philanthropist; born on August 24, 1780 into a German family in Münstereifel, near Cologne.

His grandfather was a doctor of medicine, his father was a pharmacist.

Despite the large family (it consisted of five brothers and three sisters) and limited funds, all brothers received an excellent education.

Initially, G. studied at a local Catholic church school, then took courses in philosophy and mathematics at the University of Jena and, finally, completed a course in medical sciences in Vienna, where he also specially studied eye diseases under the guidance of the then famous ophthalmologist Adam Schmidt.

G. was once invited to the sick prince. Repnin, who lived temporarily in Vienna; the treatment was very successful, and the grateful patient persuaded the young and talented doctor to go with him to Russia.

Since 1802, G. settled in Moscow; at first completely unfamiliar with the Russian language, he quickly got used to the new place and, due to his thorough knowledge in the field of medicine, acquired extensive practice.

He was often invited to consultations; the doors of Moscow hospitals and charitable institutions were open to him.

Reviewing these institutions, G. found many patients suffering from the eyes and, always responsive to the grief and suffering of his neighbor, with the permission of the Moscow governor Lansky, energetically took up their treatment free of charge.

Rumors about the activities of the young skilled doctor reached St. Petersburg; On June 4, 1807, the office of the Moscow Pavlovsk Hospital received an order stating that Empress Maria Feodorovna found G. “worthy to be appointed chief doctor at the Pavlovsk Hospital over the medical unit.” But having taken up the responsible and troublesome position of chief physician of the hospital, G. did not stop caring for his free patients and always found time to visit them. For his activities, he was nominated by Lansky to the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree; G. valued this insignia very much and invariably wore it until his death on his worn, but always neat tailcoat. In 1809 and 1810 G. made two trips to the Caucasus to get acquainted with the local mineral springs.

The result of these trips was a very valuable work published by G. in 1811: “Ma visite aux eaux d” “Alexandre en 1809-1810” (M., 1811, 4°), where he gave a scientific and systematic description of already known and again the sources he discovered (sulfur-alkaline in Essentuki), recorded many chemical, topographical and meteorological observations he made, vividly depicted the nature and life of the Caucasus; in the author's frequent digressions and arguments one can hear deep respect for science and indignation at its unworthy and selfish servants. On June 1, 1812, G. left public service, but already in 1814 he entered the active army, worked actively in the war and reached Paris with our troops.

At the end of the campaigns, he retired and went to his native Münstereifel, where he found the whole family gathered at the bedside of his dying father. However, G. did not stay in his homeland for long; After the death of his father, he was irresistibly drawn to Russia, with which he had already become accustomed.

At first, after returning to Moscow, G. was engaged in private practice and soon became a famous doctor, who was invited everywhere and to whom patients often came from the most remote areas, so that, despite his selflessness, he became the owner of a large fortune: he had a cloth factory, an estate , house in Moscow, traveled, according to the custom of that time, in a carriage drawn by a train of four white horses.

But he did not forget the poor people and devoted a lot of time to seeing free patients, whom he helped not only with advice, but often with money.

In 1825, Moscow Governor-General Prince. Golitsyn turned to G. with a proposal to take the position of Moscow Stadt Physicist; after much hesitation, he accepted this position on August 14, 1825 and, with his characteristic energy, began to actively carry out various reforms in the medical part of the city and at the same time ardently fight the apathy and indifference with which his colleagues in the medical office treated their work .

G. had to endure many difficult moments and sorrows during his short tenure as a staff physicist; his ardent, lively activity constantly collided with cold clerical inertia.

Both his superiors and his colleagues were dissatisfied with G.’s “restless activity”: complaints and denunciations were sent against him; everything, from his foreign origin to the fact that he gave his salary as a stadt physicist to his displaced predecessor, was blamed on him, and a year later (July 27, 1826) he was forced to leave his position and again took up private practice. On January 24, 1828, it was allowed to establish a provincial prison committee in Moscow, “at the suggestion and insistence” of Prince. D. V. Golitsyna.

The prince carefully selected the personnel of the committee, several times changed the list of persons who seemed worthy to him to serve the great and difficult task of transforming prisons, but in all his lists the name of G. invariably appeared. In 1830, G. was appointed a member of the committee and the chief physician of Moscow prisons ( in 1830-1835 he also combined the position of secretary of the committee).

From that time on, for almost 25 years, he devoted all his strength, his entire life and all his material resources to this new activity, which completely captured him. He brought into it a sincere love for people, an unshakable faith in truth and a deep conviction that crime, misfortune and illness are so closely related to each other that it is sometimes completely impossible to distinguish between them;

G. set himself the goal of “fair, without vain cruelty, treatment of the guilty, active compassion for the unfortunate and charity of the sick”; nothing could stop him in his unwavering pursuit of this goal: neither clerical quibbles, nor sidelong glances and ironic attitudes from his superiors and colleagues, nor clashes with the powers that be, nor even bitter disappointments.

He was always true to his motto, expressed in his book "Appel aux femmes": "hurry to do good." Once or twice a week, large consignments of prisoners were sent from the Moscow transit prison on Vorobyovy Gory to Siberia; G. was always present during these dispatches for many years; here he first became personally acquainted with the situation of the prisoners and their life and ardently took up the task of possibly alleviating their difficult situation.

First of all, he was struck by the torturousness and injustice of the method of transporting exiles on the rod: while the convicts walked alone, shackled with leg shackles, less important criminals were transported on the rod and endured severe torment, so that as a favor they asked the commanders to be treated as with convicts.

G. energetically began to work for the abolition of the rod, but, despite the sympathy and support of the prince. Golitsyn, these efforts remained fruitless for a long time;

G., meanwhile, was experimenting with replacing the rod with shackles, but lighter ones than those that had existed until then. Finally, he managed to make shackles with a chain, a yard long and weighing three pounds, which were strong enough, but at the same time not so tiring for the person chained on the campaign; G. made an ardent petition to the committee for permission to put in these shackles all the prisoners passing through Moscow on the rod; At the same time, he also presented funds for procuring the first batch of such shackles, promised to continue to provide funds for them from “virtuous people” and asked permission to adapt the forge that already existed on Vorobyovy Gory for the production of lightweight shackles. While there was a long office correspondence on this issue, Prince. Golitsyn decided to introduce new shackles in Moscow for the prisoners, who greeted this reform with delight and gratitude and called the new shackles “Haazovsky.” The heads of the local transport teams looked with displeasure at the innovation, which caused a lot of trouble, but G. himself vigilantly and tirelessly followed the work of reforging the prisoners and throughout his entire subsequent life, with the exception of his last days, he was invariably present at the Sparrow Hills when each batch of prisoners was sent .

When later the book. Golitsyn often had to go abroad due to illness, and G. was thus deprived of his support; the bosses began to sharply refuse requests to reforge the prisoners.

But the “exaggerated philanthropist,” as the commander of the internal guard Kaptsevich called G., continued to “pursue his line” and even achieved the release of all decrepit and crippled prisoners from chains.

Seeing how prisoners came to Moscow with frostbitten hands in those places on which the iron rings of handcuffs were put on, G. began to energetically work on sheathing handcuffs with leather, which he achieved in 1836, when a decree was issued “on the universal sheathing of nuts in Russia” the chains have skin." No less persistently did F.P. petition for the abolition of shaving half the head for those who were not deprived of all rights.

And these efforts were crowned with complete success: on March 11, 1846, the State Council abolished universal head shaving and reserved it only for exiled convicts.

The food issue also attracted G.'s attention, and when in 1847 and 1848. a temporary order followed to reduce the prisoners' allowance by one-fifth; he contributed 11,000 rubles “from an unknown charitable person.” to a committee to improve the food of those kept in the transit castle. Back on April 2, 1829, G. strenuously petitioned the prince. Golitsyn that the latter authorize him to testify to the state of health of all prisoners in Moscow and subordinate to him in this regard the police doctors who were negligent in this matter; his request was respected.

In 1832, through his efforts and with the funds he collected, a hospital with 120 beds was built for prisoners on Vorobyovy Gory, which came under his direct supervision.

Here he could leave the unfortunate people in Moscow for some time “due to illness”, he could remove the shackles from them and give them the opportunity to gather their moral and physical strength in front of the “Vladimir woman”, warm up mentally and find consolation and support.

But not only for the sick and weak, but for all transit migrants in general, he obtained permission to stay in Moscow for a week, so that he could really get acquainted with their needs and help them. During this week G. visited the party at least four times. He also obtained permission to organize a half-stage at the other end of Moscow, namely behind the Rogozhskaya outpost, since the first transition from Moscow to Bogorodsk was very long, and the fulfillment of various formalities delayed the performance of the parties until 2-3 o’clock in the afternoon. It was to this Rogozhsky half-stage that F.P. drove up every Monday, early in the morning, in his old-fashioned cab, well-known throughout Moscow, loaded to the brim with supplies for the transit workers.

G. walked around the prisoners, distributed supplies to them, encouraged them, gave them farewells and said goodbye to them, often even kissing those in whom he managed to notice “a living soul.” And often one could see how he - in a tailcoat, with the Vladimir Cross in his buttonhole, in old shoes with buckles and high stockings, and if it happened in winter, then in tan high boots and an old wolf fur coat - walked several miles with the party, continuing his conversation with the exiles.

This attitude towards the prisoners aroused a lot of displeasure against G., and their consequence was that in 1839 he was completely removed from witnessing the transferees.

This order deeply offended him, but nothing could break his energy and force him to retreat from a cause that he considered right.

Relying on his title and right as director of the prison committee, G. just as carefully continued to visit the transit prison and just as ardently stood up for “his” prisoners.

His tenacity and perseverance finally tired of his opponents: they gave up on the “exaggerated philanthropist” and began to turn a blind eye to his activities.

It is clear with what love and deep respect the prisoners looked at “their holy doctor,” and during his entire “service” in prison, not a single rude word touched his ears, even in the cells of the most hardened criminals, to whom he entered calmly and always alone. With the hope of consolation and possible relief from their plight, the migrants went to Moscow and left it for distant Siberia, carrying in their hearts the memory of the pure image of a man who laid down his life to serve his unfortunate and destitute brother. When the sad news of the death of their intercessor subsequently reached these people, they used their pennies to build an icon of St. Theodora Tiron with an unquenchable lamp in front of her.

No less fruitful was G.’s work in transforming the Moscow provincial prison castle, which was in the most terrible condition.

According to the repeated representations of G. book. Golitsyn, through the prison committee, allowed him, as an experiment, to rebuild one of the corridors of the castle in an economic way, and he set to work, sparing no expense to speed it up. In the middle of 1833, part of the prison castle took on an exemplary appearance for that time: clean cells, painted with oil paint, were illuminated by wide windows and were equipped with bunks that rose during the day; washbasins and retreats were installed, expelling the foul-smelling “bowl” from the cells; a well was dug in the yard, and the yard was lined with Siberian poplars.

G. set up workshops in prison: bookbinding, carpentry, shoemaking, tailoring and even weaving bast shoes.

In 1836, through his labors and with donations collected by him, due to lack of space in the provincial castle, a school for arrested children was established at the transit prison;

G. loved children very much, often visited this school, caressed the children and followed their progress.

He also cared about the spiritual education of the prisoners and constantly worked with the committee to distribute the Gospel and books of spiritual and moral content to them.

G., at his own expense, published a book entitled: “A.B.V. of Christian Good Morality” and distributed it to all exiles passing through Moscow.

In this book, which began with texts from the Gospel and the Epistles of the Apostles, the author convinces the reader not to laugh at the misfortune of another, not to be angry, not to slander, and most importantly, not to lie. Thanks to G.’s selfless efforts, a “police hospital for the homeless” (now the Alexander Hospital) arose, which the people called Gaazovskaya.

In 1844, 150 sick prisoners were temporarily transferred to the house of the Orthopedic Institute in Malo-Kazenny Lane on Pokrovka.

This house was repaired and adapted for a hospital using G.’s personal funds and donations collected by him. Here he brought in his carriage those sick people whom he sometimes happened to pick up on the street during his constant travels around the city. When the prisoners were subsequently transferred to the prison infirmary, G. tried with all his might to preserve this hospital for homeless patients and ensured that it was recognized as a permanent institution.

In “his” hospital, G. established “his own” rules.

Gentle, delicate, courteous, treating his work with sincere love, he demanded the same from his subordinates; but above all this, he demanded the truth from them and could not stand lies. In his activities, G. found support in the governor-general, Prince. D. V. Golitsyn and Prince. A. G. Shcherbatov; but since 1848, when gr. Zakrevsky, all requests and petitions of G. began to be recognized as not worthy of attention.

At the beginning of August 1853, G. fell ill (he developed a huge carbuncle) and it immediately became clear that there was no hope of recovery.

He suffered greatly, but not a single complaint, not a single groan escaped his lips, and on August 16 he died as calmly and quietly as he bore his difficult life. A crowd of twenty thousand accompanied his coffin to his final resting place in the cemetery on the Vvedensky Hills. After his death, poor furniture, worn clothes, several rubles of money, books and astronomical instruments were found in a modest apartment; the latter were the only weakness of the deceased, and he bought them, denying himself everything: after a hard day of work, he rested, looking through a telescope at the stars.

The manuscript “Appel aux femmes” that remained after him, in which G., in the form of an appeal to Russian women, sets out the moral and religious principles that permeated his life, was published by his executor, Dr. A. I. Paul. G. did not leave behind any fortune.

But the moral legacy that he left to people was great. If during his lifetime G.’s moral influence on Muscovites was strong, so that his mere appearance in front of a worried crowd during the cholera of 1848 and a few words were enough to calm this crowd and force it to disperse, then after death the bright image of this man can serve a shining example to the whole world of how the ideal of Christian love for people can be realized on earth under the most difficult living conditions.

And despite this, G.’s name was forgotten for a long time, and only in 1890 A.F. Koni, in his report read at the St. Petersburg Law Society, reminded Russian society of one of its remarkable figures. On October 1, 1909, a monument to F. P. Haaz was unveiled in the courtyard of the Alexander Hospital in Moscow, and by the same time the “Olginsky Charitable Society in Memory of Dr. F. P. Gaaz” was established with a fund of 20,000 rubles.

A.F. Koni, "Fedor Petrovich Gaaz". - S.V. Puchkov, “On the characteristics of Dr. F.P. Haas.” - Professor I.T. Tarasov, “Friend of Unfortunate Humanity.” - Klavdiya Lukashevich, “Friend of the unfortunate, Doctor Haass.” - G. S. Petrov, “Friend of the disadvantaged, F. P. Haaz.” - E. N. Krasnogorskaya, “Friend of the Unfortunate F. P. Haaz.” - "Moskovskie Vedomosti", 1853 (obituary). - Lebedev's essay in the "Russian Bulletin" for 1858 - Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, vol. XIV (Art. A.F. Koni). - The spiritual testament of F. P. Haaz was published in the Collection of P. I. Shchukin (vol. X) and reprinted in the “Russian Archive” (1912, No. 6). O. I. Davydova. (Polovtsov)

Fedor Petrovich Gaaz

Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz, a Russian doctor of German origin, dedicated his life to easing the plight of prisoners and exiles.

When he was buried, more than 20 thousand people came to see the doctor off on his last journey.

And on the gravestone were carved the words: “Hurry to do good,” which he always followed and which can be considered his testament to all of us.

Reading about such amazing people, you always involuntarily ask the question: what prompts prosperous, well-to-do people (Dr. Haass was just such a person) to turn to the destinies of the most disadvantaged and despised people by society? What is the source of their mercy and selfless service to those from whom they could receive neither glory nor reward?

“An eccentric,” some said about him. “A fanatic,” others said. “Saint,” said others.

Maybe his biography can explain something?

Dr. F.P. Gaaz

Gaaz(Friedrich-Joseph Haas, Fedor Petrovich), senior doctor at Moscow prison hospitals, was born on August 24, 1780 in Münstereifel, near Cologne (Prussia) into a Catholic family.

He studied at the Universities of Jena and Göttingen, and began his medical practice in Vienna.

He first came to Russia in 1803, and in 1806 he began working as the chief physician of the Pavlovsk Hospital in Moscow.

In 1809-1810 traveled to the Caucasus twice, where he studied and explored mineral springs - currently Caucasian Mineral Waters: Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk, Essentuki. He described his journey and discoveries in the book “Ma visite aux eaux d’Alexandre en 1809 et 1810”.

During the Patriotic War of 1812

worked as a surgeon in the Russian army.

After this, for some time F.P. Haaz stayed in his homeland, Germany, and in 1813 he decided to finally settle in Russia. In Moscow, he had a large medical practice, enjoyed the respect and love of the city residents, and was a quite wealthy man.

This, perhaps, is where the first part of his successful, in some sense even standard, biography ends.

Fracture

In 1829, the Committee for the Guardianship of Prison Society was opened in Moscow.

Moscow Governor General Prince D.V. Golitsyn called on Dr. Haas to join the Committee.

Haaz Fedor (Friedrich Joseph) Petrovich

From that moment on, the doctor’s life and work changed decisively: he accepted someone else’s misfortune with all his soul, the fate of the prisoners began to worry him so much that he gradually stopped his medical practice, gave away his funds and, completely forgetting himself, devoted all his time and all his strength to serving the “unfortunate”, and his views on the prisoners were similar to the views of ordinary Russian people, who always pitied the disadvantaged, the poor, and the sick.

Prison cases in Russia at that time

They were a sad sight.

The prisoners were kept in dim, damp, cold and dirty prison premises, which were always overcrowded.

Neither age nor the type of crime were taken into account, so those who were, for example, imprisoned for debt, and those who committed serious crimes and also led an antisocial lifestyle were kept together.

The food in the prisons was poor, and there was almost no medical care. People were kept in conditions of cruel treatment: they were chained to heavy chairs, placed in stocks, collars with knitting needles were put on them, which deprived people of the opportunity to lie down... Despair and embitterment reigned among the prisoners.

Exiles on the rod

When exiles were sent to Siberia, the prisoners, handcuffed in pairs, were secured to an iron rod: an iron rod was threaded through the handcuffs.

At the same time, differences in height, strength, health, and type of guilt were not taken into account.

There were from 8 to 12 people on each rod; they moved between the stage points, dragging behind them those weakened on the road, the sick and even the dead.

In the transit prisons there was even greater hopelessness.

Dr. Haas's Guardianship of Prisons

Dr. Haaz accepted the suffering of the unfortunate prisoners with all his soul.

It would seem, why did a successful doctor need to take so close to his heart the problems of people who were far from his own moral principles? Why was there any need to feel sorry for them - after all, they were criminals? The fact is that he saw a person in any person, even in an outcast.

For 23 years, day after day, he fought against state cruelty, which turned the punishment of people into torment.

First of all, he began to fight against these rods on which the unfortunate prisoners were “strung.” Prince Golitsyn supported him in this, and the exiles were allowed to move only in shackles, without a rod.

But no funds were allocated for shackles, and Dr. Haase constantly allocated his own funds for lighter shackles.

... allocated funds for lighter shackles

Then he achieved the abolition of shaving half of women's heads.

Then he ensured that the Rogozh half-stage was built with basic hygiene requirements for the exiles, covering the hand and foot hoops from the exiles’ chains with leather, cloth or linen.

He was present at the departure of each batch of prisoners from Moscow and became acquainted with their needs, monitored their health and, if necessary, left them for treatment in Moscow.

Of course, the authorities protested against this. But Haaz tried not to pay attention to them and always consoled those who were sick, weak or in need of spiritual consolation and encouragement. He brought them supplies for the journey, blessed them and kissed them, and sometimes walked with a party of prisoners for several miles.

He corresponded with the prisoners, fulfilled their requests from afar, and sent them money and books.

The exiles nicknamed him “the holy doctor.”

He examined each prisoner before being sent to the prison

This extraordinary man accomplished many glorious, but secret to others, deeds. At various times he collected large sums to supply shirts for the prisoners being sent, and sheepskin coats for minors; donated to buy bandages for prisoners suffering from hernia.

And how passionately he interceded for those who, in his opinion, were convicted innocently or deserved special mercy! In such cases, he stopped at nothing: he argued with Metropolitan Philaret, wrote letters to Emperor Nicholas and the Prussian king, the brother of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and once, when the sovereign visited a prison castle, begging for the forgiveness of a 70-year-old man destined for exile to Siberia and detained by him due to illness and decrepitude in Moscow, did not want to get up from his knees until the touched Emperor pardoned him.

Dr. Haaz believed that many of the criminals became such as a result of their lack of religious and moral self-awareness, so he supplied the prisoners with spiritual literature and the Holy Scriptures, purchasing large quantities of such books for sending to Siberia.

On his initiative, a prison hospital and a school for the children of prisoners were opened.

Dr. F.P. Gaaz

Dr. Haass fought for the abolition of the right of landowners to exile serfs.

He even ransomed some prisoners (74 people) and petitioned for the release of children (more than 200 cases).

As a prison doctor, Dr. Haaz was extremely attentive to his charges: he visited them several times a day, talked with them about their affairs and family.

When the prisoners were temporarily moved to a state-owned house near Pokrovka, he immediately began to accept homeless people there who had fallen ill on the streets. And he himself lived in a small apartment at the hospital, in the most sparse surroundings, among books and instruments. Here he consulted patients who came to him in the morning, supplied them with free medicines, and shared with them his last meager means. His popularity among the population of Moscow was enormous.

He lived in complete solitude, completely devoted to the cause of charity, not retreating either from work, or from ridicule and humiliation, or from the coldness of those around him and the clerical quibbles of his colleagues.

His motto “hurry to do good” supported him and filled his entire life with its content. There was no “foreign” pain or “bad” people in his life. He also did not have his own family, since he believed that there was not enough time for the outcasts: convicts, the poor, the sick. He was a Catholic, but the strict zealot of Orthodoxy, Saint Philaret (Drozdov), blessed to serve a prayer service for his health.

Tall, with kind and thoughtful blue eyes, in a shabby dress and mended stockings, he was always on the move and was never sick, until the first and last illness broke him.

On August 16, 1853, he died, saying a touching goodbye to everyone who walked through the open doors of his apartment.

Dr. Haaz was buried in the Catholic cemetery on the Vvedensky Hills in Moscow.

The grave of Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz at Vvedensky Cemetery (Moscow)

The Federal State Treatment and Prevention Institution “Regional Hospital named after Doctor F.” was named in honor of the doctor.

Doctor Fedor Petrovich Gaaz

“Birth” of Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz

Friedrich Joseph Haas (1780-1853) was born in the ancient picturesque town of Münstereifel near Cologne. Friedrich Joseph Haas was born into a poor and large family of a pharmacist. After graduating from a Catholic church school in Cologne, and then taking courses in physics and philosophy at the University of Jena, Haas went to Göttingen, where he received his medical education.

1802 Vein. Russian diplomat Repin showered his gratitude on the young doctor:

You are so sensitive, dear Doctor Haas!

From one of your touches I feel the illness leaving me.

My duty, my purpose, Mr. Ambassador, is to give advice to the grieving and instill hope for a successful outcome,” the twenty-two-year-old ophthalmologist and surgeon blushed.

“I dare say, dear doctor, you will go far,” Repin continued.

World fame awaits you, although not here, in washed-up Vienna, but in another place. I invite you to serve great Russia, where you can give free rein to your mind and heart. And she will thank you generously and immortalize your name.

The successful Viennese doctor could not resist the unctuous attack of the Russian diplomat.

In 1802, Haaz settled in Moscow, quickly gaining fame and practice. Over time, he will master the Russian language well, call himself Fyodor Petrovich and consider Russia his “second fatherland.”

Appointed in 1807 as the chief physician of the Pavlovsk hospital, Haaz, in his free time, treated patients in almshouses and shelters, for which he was awarded the Vladimir Cross, IV degree, of which he was very proud. In 1809-1810 he made two trips to the Caucasus, compiling a description of mineral waters, recognized as “the first and best of its kind,” after which Zheleznovodsk and Kislovodsk began their history.

The idea of ​​​​rebuilding state-owned hospitals and pharmacies haunted Haass. He made grandiose plans to create a coherent medical care system in Moscow. And suddenly the Patriotic War of 1812 broke out.

Haaz, without hesitation, went to the active army to organize medical support for Russian soldiers, with whom he reached Paris. It wouldn't hurt to rest. But Haaz returns to Moscow, burned by the enemy. The vast majority of the population was left without shelter or medical care. Haas is appointed stadt physicist - chief physician of the Moscow Medical Office, head of all state-owned medical institutions and pharmacies.

There were not many of them, and they all needed expansion and development.

In 1814, Haaz was enlisted in the active Russian army and was near Paris. After the end of the foreign campaign of the Russian troops, he retired.

Upon returning to Moscow, Haaz engaged in private practice, becoming one of the most famous doctors. Taking a closer look at his second homeland, Haaz realized that in the Russian capital it is not enough to be a compassionate doctor; one must also become an unusually active organizer in order to make medicine accessible and effective.

And when he was offered to head the Pavlovsk hospital, which is near the Serpukhov outpost, he accepted the offer without hesitation.

From the very first days of his new position, Fyodor Petrovich (as he was called in Russia) developed an unusually vigorous activity.

Developed and faced the stunning indifference of officials to medical problems. The restless doctor had to use all the heat of his ardent heart, incredible perseverance, his authority as a doctor, warrior, and general in order to adequately represent the interests of the patients in the power structures of the city. And as a result of titanic efforts - the opening of first an eye hospital, and then a hospital for unskilled workers.

This gave impetus to the implementation of new ideas.

The shame and pain of the chief physician of Moscow were in places not so remote. Diseases were rampant in the prisons - prisoners were rotting in the literal sense of the word, the prison system itself had a devastating effect on their health.

The doctor-thinker not only won, but also suffered bitter defeats.

He tried to streamline the sale of medicines in the city - the authorities “besieged” him, proposed to establish an ambulance service - they considered it unnecessary, demanded the introduction of smallpox vaccination in Moscow - the papers were lost by the clerks... But when pictures of cholera riots came to mind, the bitterness instantly receded and evaporated. In organizing events to tame cholera, Haaz had no equal. Angry crowds were convinced that doctors were the carriers of the infection.

However, after listening to Haas’s convincing speeches, the rioters went home and began to do what “the doctor ordered.” Residents recklessly believed in the general in a white coat.

Renewed private practice allowed Haaz to purchase a house in Moscow and an estate near Moscow with a cloth factory set up there.

Haaz led the quiet life of a wealthy, prosperous person: he dressed in European fashion, had a magnificent trip, read a lot, corresponded with the philosopher Schelling. His life changed dramatically in 1827, when forty-seven-year-old Haaz became one of the members of the newly established “prison committee.” Haass was convinced that there is a close connection between crime, misfortune and illness, therefore unnecessary cruelty should not be applied to the guilty, compassion should be shown to the unfortunate, and charity should be shown to the sick.

Holy Doctor

Prisoners elevated Haas to the rank of “holy doctor” when he became the chief physician of Moscow prisons. The medical general worked in this, perhaps the most difficult field, for almost twenty-five years. Haaz introduced so much new, humane and extraordinary into the prison world order that his ideas remain relevant to this day.

At the transit point on Vorobyovy Gory he opened a prison hospital, which he was in charge of.

Fyodor Petrovich organized a special arrest department at the Staroyekaterininskaya hospital, which he visited daily.

Haaz devoted himself to service without reserve.

Service and duty were two sides of the same coin for him. He served solely at the behest of his heart.

Selflessness, a heightened sense of compassion and participation in the destinies of prisoners earned Haaz truly legendary fame.

All the convicts knew about the “holy doctor.” Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, while serving his sentence in Siberia, saw firsthand the strength of the prisoners’ love for their intercessor. Researchers believe that Haaz was the prototype of Prince Myshkin.

Most of the positive things that the Moscow Prison Committee did during its work were associated exclusively with the activities of Dr. Haas in it.

He achieved the construction of a prison hospital at the transit prison on Vorobyovy Years (1832), and the organization of a police hospital at the Naryshkin estate in Maly Kazenny Lane. With his funds, the prison hospital was reconstructed, medicines, bread, and fruits were purchased. Staying in the hospital was a blessing for the sick and exhausted prisoners, whom Haaz always detained for treatment under any pretext. Part of the prison castle, rebuilt with Haas's money, took on an exemplary character: in addition to the hospital, there was a school for children and workshops - bookbinding, carpentry, shoemaking, tailoring and even weaving bast shoes.

F did a lot.

P. Haaz and for young children of prisoners, most often exiled serfs. In the files of the Moscow Prison Committee, there were 317 petitions from Haas, begging the landowners not to separate children and parents. If exhortations did not help, Haaz invariably mentioned some anonymous benefactor who was ready to pay the landowner for his mercy. As a result, the children were reunited with their parents.

Haaz also achieved the organization of schools for the children of prisoners.

On April 27, 1829, Dr. Haase spoke for the first time in the prison committee against the inhumane conditions of transporting prisoners. One could hope for something, but in 1844, the eternal protector and supporter of Haas’s humanistic ideas, Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn, died.

In despair that all good deeds could go to waste, Haass writes a letter to the Prussian king Frederick William IV, in which he asks the monarch to inform his sister, the wife of Nicholas I, about the barbarity in the prison case, so that she would tell her royal husband about it.

Haas's fears were justified - in November 1848, the new Governor-General of Moscow, Zakrevsky, by his orders limited the powers of the prison doctor and practically deprived Haas of the opportunity to influence prison affairs.

But the doctor continued to protest, submit petitions, proposals for pardoning prisoners, proposals for ransom at public expense from a debtor's prison, and financial support for these debtors.

During the period from 1829 to 1853, only 142 Haas petitions for pardoning prisoners or commuting their sentences were officially registered.

And, despite the prohibitions, until his last days, Fyodor Petrovich did everything as he saw fit. It didn’t matter to Haas that officials scolded him as an “exaggerated philanthropist” and called on him to “cut down.” He considered the happiest days in his life to be the day when the “rod” was replaced (an iron rod about a meter long, to which 8-10 prisoners were handcuffed; for many months as the exiles moved through the prison, the rod connected people completely different in age, height, health and strength) “individual shackles” and the opening day of the Police Hospital for vagabonds and beggars.

For twenty years, Haaz escorted all convict parties from Moscow. Every Monday, Doctor Haass appeared in an old-fashioned carriage known throughout Moscow, loaded to the brim with supplies for transit workers.

Herzen recalled Haase in Past and Thoughts, and Anatoly Koni wrote a wonderful essay about him. “The personality of the “holy doctor” was of great interest to Dostoevsky, who wrote: “In Moscow there lived an old man, a “general”, that is, an actual state councilor, with a German name, he spent his whole life hanging around prisons and among criminals; Each shipment to Siberia knew in advance that the “old general” would visit it on the Vorobyovy Gory (“The Idiot”, 6th chapter of the 3rd part).

Maxim Gorky was convinced that “Haase should be read everywhere, everyone should know about him, for he is more holy than Theodosius of Chernigov.” And only Leo Tolstoy said: “Philanthropists such as, for example, Dr. Haass, about whom Kony wrote, did not bring benefit to humanity.”

Hurry up to do good!

Fyodor Petrovich has passed seventy.

The years are not short, and my health is not what it was before - it’s time to calm down. But it was not there! Haaz dreamed all his life of building a hospital for the poor, for those who suddenly fell ill or were injured. In the end, he turned the dream into reality. I sold my house, invested all my savings in construction - the hospital was built. In fact, this was the first emergency medical care facility in Russia.

The Gaazovskaya hospital in Maly Kazenny Lane on Pokrovka accepted patients around the clock and in unlimited numbers.

When one day Fyodor Petrovich was informed that there were no places, all 150 beds were filled, and the sick were being transported, he ordered to place them in his apartment.

In the memoirs of the Moscow “postal director” Alexander Bulgakov we read: “Although Haaz was over 80 years old, he was very cheerful and active, all year round (in severe frosts) he always traveled in boots and silk stockings. Every Sunday he went to the Sparrow Hills and was present when criminals and convicts were sent to hard labor in Siberia.

Alexander Turgenev, who was very friendly with Haaz, introduced me to him. They persuaded me to go with them to Vorobyovy Gory one time. I readily agreed, because I had long wanted to explore this establishment. Through the efforts of Haas, a very good hospital was built here; through his efforts and the alms he begs, the exiles find all the comforts of life here. Haaz treats them like a tender father would treat his children... A chain of convicts set off on their journey with us, most of them on foot...

Haaz said goodbye to everyone and gave some money, bread and Bibles for the journey.” By the way, he also distributed two books, written and published with his own hand, to everyone leaving Moscow: “The ABC of Christian Good Morality” and “Call to Women” - about mercy, compassion and love.

Another eloquent page from Bulgakov’s memoirs. “Speaking of Dr. Haase, I cannot help but include an anecdote that can replace his entire biography.

This happened during the general government of Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn, who loved Haaz very much, but often quarreled with him for his inappropriate and illegal demands. Among the exiles who were to be sent to Siberia, there was one young Pole. Haaz asked the prince to order the shackles to be removed from him. “I cannot do this,” answered the prince, “everyone will ask for the same mercy, they put shackles on so that the criminal cannot escape.”

“Well, order the guard around him to be doubled; he has wounds on his legs, they will never heal, he suffers day and night, has neither sleep nor peace.” The prince refused for a long time and hesitated, but the insistence and requests were so intensified and repeated so often that the prince finally agreed to Gaz’s demands.

Some time later, the door of the prince’s office opens, and one can imagine his surprise when he sees Dr. Haass, walking with great difficulty and wearing a huge shackle on his silk stocking.

The prince could not refrain from laughing. “What happened to you, dear Haaz, have you gone crazy?” cried the prince, throwing away the paper he was reading and getting up from his seat. “The unfortunate prince, for whom I asked you, ran away, and I came to take his place as a prisoner! I am more guilty than he is and must be punished." If it weren’t for Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn, but another boss, a criminal case would have ensued, but the prince’s relationship with the Emperor was such that he knew how to protect both himself and Dr. Haass, to whom he gave, however, a severe crackdown.

He left the office, bursting into tears, repeating: “I am the most unfortunate of mortals, the prince said that I should never dare to ask him for any mercy again, and I will no longer be able to help a single unfortunate person!

Until the end of his life, Haaz proved by personal example that with love and compassion it is possible to resurrect the good that remains in embittered people.

Neither clerical callousness, nor the ironic attitude of the powers that be, nor bitter disappointments stopped him. The public did not always understand compassion for the criminal, believing that “it is better to help a good father of a family, a widow, or orphans, rather than some notorious villain.”

“You keep talking, Fyodor Petrovich, about innocently convicted people,” Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow once angrily reprimanded Haaz, “but there are no such people.”

If a person is subjected to punishment, it means that he is guilty.” “You have forgotten about Christ, sir!” Haaz cried out beside himself.

After several minutes of agonizing silence, Metropolitan Philaret quietly answered: “No, Fyodor Petrovich! When I uttered these hasty words of mine, it was not I about Christ - Christ forgot me ... "

Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz came to Russia as a fairly rich man, and then increased his wealth through extensive practice among wealthy patients, but all his property went to charity.

“The white horses and carriage quickly disappeared, the abandoned cloth factory, left without a “master’s eye,” was auctioned off, and the real estate was sold without a trace” (from an essay by A.F. Koni). Haaz worked and lived in the Main House of the Police Hospital estate until his death. He was buried at public expense, at the expense of the police station, since his own funds were not left even for burial. Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz left no heirs, but he was seen off on his last journey by almost 20 thousand Muscovites of all classes and conditions - a crowd unprecedented for Moscow at that time.

After almost half a century, ordinary people in Moscow called the Police Hospital “Gaazovskaya” and visited the grave of a doctor with shackles on an iron fence at the Vvedenskoye cemetery. The same “haases” that made the lives of thousands of convicts easier.

Life after death

In August 1853

Fyodor Petrovich fell ill. I returned home late. Before going to bed, I looked at the bottomless sky for a long time. And in the morning Haaz was gone. The heart of the ascetic doctor stopped of immeasurable kindness. Silently resting on the table was a manuscript with the amazing words: “Hurry to do good.”

Having given away everything he had, Fyodor Petrovich died in poverty and loneliness. In his apartment there was only old furniture and a telescope. The police buried Haass at their own expense. The ashes of Fyodor Petrovich rest in the German Cemetery in Moscow.

Forty years after Haase’s death, Muscovites used donations to build a monument to the famous doctor.

It was opened on October 1, 1909 in the courtyard of the legendary Gaazovka. The newspaper “Russian Doctor” wrote: “The sculptor N. A. Andreev did not take anything for his work.” The inscription was knocked out on the pedestal: “Hurry to do good.”

At the Vvedensky cemetery in Moscow - residents of the surrounding streets still call it by its old name, Nemetsky - there is a grave: a dark gray stone with a dark gray cross, a black fence; cast-iron column risers, dark rods, and shackles hanging on top of them - chains with wide handcuffs and “shackles”.

Good Doctor Haas

Engraved on the stone: 1780-1853 and several lines of Latin. The words from the Gospel in Russian sound like this: “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds awake; truly I say to you, he will gird himself and make them sit down, and he will come and serve them.”

Haaz's shackles and broken chains are one of the main elements of the tombstone at the grave of the “holy doctor.” The fence, like the monument in Maly Kazenny Lane in Moscow, was made by the outstanding sculptor N.

A. Andreev.

“At all times of the year, there are fresh flowers, cloth and paper, on this grave, sometimes lush bouquets, more often modest bunches of lilies of the valley, daisies, or just one carnation, tulip.

One hundred and fifty years ago, all Moscow old-timers knew Fyodor Petrovich Haaz. When he rode in a shaking carriage or walked along the street, tall, slightly stooped, big-headed, in a black tailcoat with a lace frill - shabby, yellowed, but carefully ironed, in short black trousers and the same old-fashioned shoes with large iron buckles, he was warmly treated Greetings on the Moscow streets were high-ranking aristocrats riding in carriages with coats of arms, and beggars on church porches, generals, officers, “watchmen” with halberds, cab drivers, craftsmen, university professors and students, courtyard servants of famous Moscow bars, merchants, Okhotskaya Ryad clerks and elegant society ladies.

Doctor Fedor Petrovich Gaaz

Hurry up to do good!

Thinking about how to break out of the vicious circle of dependence on the desires of my “I”, my whims and conflicts, I was constantly looking for a person who could successfully combine sacrifice and love for people with the fight against those who laughed and prevented this sacrifice from being carried out.

And I found such a person.

This is the doctor Haaz Fedor Petrovich (real name Friedrich Joseph). And it is he who owns the motto “Hurry to do good!”

Haaz was born in 1780 in Germany, into a large family. His father was a pharmacist, his grandfather a doctor of medicine. A pupil of a Catholic church school, Haass took a course in philosophy and mathematics in Jena, then studied medicine at the University of Vienna. At the invitation of the Russian nobleman Repnin, whose wife he successfully cured of an eye disease, the promising, twenty-two-year-old doctor found himself in Moscow.

At first, he treated rich and wealthy people, which allowed him to quickly achieve material well-being - to have a beautiful house in Moscow, an estate in Tishki near Moscow, in which there was a cloth factory; and his snow-white trotters provided him with almost the best ride in Moscow.

But even then, this Russified German treated poor patients for free and successfully in shelters and charitable institutions.
In 1807, Empress Maria Feodorovna herself found that he was worthy of becoming the chief doctor at the Pavlovsk hospital.

But Haaz not only treated.

He was also a scientist. Having traveled to the Caucasus, he explored the mineral springs there, tested their effects and made recommendations for their medicinal use.

Essentuki, Kislovodsk and others began with the discoveries of Haas - balneology arose. He was awarded the rank of court councilor and the Order of Vladimir, fourth degree. Since 1814, he was in the active Russian army, and reached Paris with it.

When in 1820 D. became governor-general of Moscow.

V. Golitsyn, who, knowing Haas’ conscientiousness and professionalism, appointed him chief physician of Moscow. In the public service, honest Haaz immediately made enemies for himself. Complaints and denunciations were written against him by those whom he annoyed, in their words, with “captious pedantry.” After all, Haaz demanded that the floors in hospitals be washed daily, bed linen changed weekly, that doctors monitor the preparation of good-quality food, preventing abuse and theft of patients.

At the same time, he could give his salary to the dismissed predecessor, believing that he was fired unfairly, based on a false denunciation, and the dismissed person needed money more than he, Haaz, since he had three children. For officials and heads of hospitals, this was incomprehensible and they were openly indignant at the fact that they had to obey some “crazy German.” And they called him a quarrelsome, restless person, the author of absurd projects.

Haaz did not have a wife or children, but he had a pupil, the Jewish orphan Leib Norman.

The boy was drafted from Lithuania to a military settlement, but on the way he fell ill, ended up in the police, from where Haaz pulled him out, taught him, and Norman subsequently became a doctor in Ryazan.

From the outside, by the age of fifty, Haaz was rich and prosperous. He dressed in the European fashion of his youth - he wore a black tailcoat, a white jabot with cuffs, shoes with buckles, powdered his hair, collecting it at the back in a bun and tying it with a black bow.

Reached ranks and position in society. He corresponded with European philosophers. But in his sixties, according to his biographers, something happened in the doctor’s soul and his life changed dramatically.

By this time, in 1824, he became one of the members of the prison guardianship committee and at the same time was appointed chief physician of Moscow prisons.

And, like Mother Teresa in the 20th century, being a prosperous headmistress of a Catholic school for girls, one day, having bought a cheap sari at the market, disappeared into the slums of Calcutta with two rupees in her pocket.

So, at one time, Haaz, according to the Russian lawyer A.F. Koni, “faced with the terrible world of prisons and transfers, experienced a severe shock and forever stopped living for himself.”

He began to live in prison hospitals and devoted his whole life to easing the suffering of the most rejected and humiliated members of society, for which he received the nickname “holy doctor.”

What brought him to this asceticism? God knows the hearts of people!

But we know that Haass was a Christian for whom the Gospel was the norm of life. He wrote to his adopted son: “Happiness lies not in the desire to be happy, but in making others happy. To do this, you need to listen to the needs of people, take care of them, not be afraid of work, helping with advice and deeds.”

The most significant thing he managed to do in his new field was the introduction of light shackles.

Before this, prisoners were transported to hard labor, chained to one iron rod by 7-8 people, without distinction of gender, age or state of health. On one such rod, girls and old men, inveterate murderers and those who had simply lost their passports had to walk side by side for several months. While chained, they ate, slept, relieved themselves... The locks with which the prisoners were attached to the rod were locked with a key, which was sealed and kept in a special bag for the accompanying person all the way.

And under no circumstances (even in the event of the death of any of those being transported) could they be unlocked before arriving at the next stage...

With his own money, he organized forges for forging light shackles, and he himself once went through a long stage with the prisoners, shackled in them, to make sure whether his calculations were correct and whether the fate of the unfortunate ones was really alleviated. Almost entirely with his own money, Haaz rebuilt the “Prison Castle” - Butyrka Prison. For the first time, windows were made in the cells and a washbasin was installed; it was possible to sleep on bunks (until then they slept on the floor).

He did a lot - he collected funds to ransom serf children so that they could go into exile with their parents, he opened a hospital for the homeless, tramps, former prison prisoners...

There was not enough government money, nor were there enough donations. Haaz used his own funds - this is how a carriage with white trotters, a house in Moscow, an estate, a factory disappeared...

It is characteristic that Haaz never set revolutionary goals for himself - he did not call for the abolition of autocracy and serfdom, and did not encroach on the right of those in power to dispose of their property.

He just (!) fulfilled Christ’s commandments, set a specific, executable goal and did not give up until he succeeded in achieving it and prayed: “so that when everyone gathers before God, the authorities will not be condemned by criminals and will not, in turn, suffer a heavy punishment...” He constantly interceded for the prisoners, and when Metropolitan Philaret remarked that there were no innocent prisoners, Haaz jumped up and exclaimed: “You have forgotten Christ, Master!”

He was also demanding of himself.

For example, out of 293 committee meetings, he was absent from only one - due to illness. And he was just as demanding of others, in particular, of the staff of his hospital, widely practicing fines (for drunkenness, rudeness, negligence, etc.), and he then used the collected money for the benefit of the patients.

But he was not a formalist.

One day, before lunch, a sick man came to Haaz, who was already living at the hospital. And when Haaz left for a minute, there was neither the patient in the room nor the silverware lying on the table. The watchman and soldiers detained the thief and followed the police. Taking advantage of their absence, Haaz said to the thief: “You are a false person, you deceived me and wanted to steal. God will judge you, but now run quickly before the soldiers return; but try to correct your soul, you can’t escape God like you can from a security guard.”

He answered the indignant household members: “Theft is a big vice. But I know how the police torture; and who knows, maybe my action will touch his soul...” That’s why the police chief, who once even wanted to expel Haas for being too kind to the prisoners - it was him, Haas, who asked to calm the crowds of people excited by rumors, as if “the authorities and doctors are allowing cholera.”

And Haaz calmed people who were ready for pogroms and riots. They believed him! He loved these people. In front of everyone, he could kiss a cholera patient on the lips to prove the impossibility of contracting this disease in this way. He selflessly cared for the sick. For example, one day a peasant girl was brought to the hospital, dying of lupus. The ulcer on the face was so foul that even the mother had difficulty approaching it. But Haaz sat at her bedside for a long time every day, kissed the girl, read her fairy tales, and did not leave until she died.
But Haaz cared not only about earthly things.

He compiled and published at his own expense a small book entitled “The ABC of Christian Good Morality. About leaving swearing and reproachful words and generally indecent words about one’s neighbor, or about the beginnings of love” and handed it to the prisoners, chained and heading off to Siberia...

... On a blizzard winter evening, Haaz went to visit the patient.

There were no passers-by. Suddenly three people came out of the alley, wrapped in rags.

- Well, take off your fur coat and hat, and live up. And come on... If you make a peep, we’ll crush you.

- Shall I give you my fur coat? Fine. I see you are all poorly dressed. And I'll give you the money. But I ask for one favor.

"Holy Doctor" F.P. Gaaz

I am doctor. I hasten to see the patient. I won’t get to him without a fur coat. Let's go together. At the gate I will take off my fur coat.

One of them laughed angrily and waved his baton, but the other, older one, held him back, came close, and peered:

- Brothers! Yes, this is Fyodor Petrovich! Father, my dear, who would dare to offend you?

Forgive me, for Christ's sake. Let's go, father, we'll see you off. We won't take anything from you...

F.P. Haaz died on August 16, 1853. All his property went to charity, so he was buried at the expense of the police.

On his grave, the fence of which is framed by prisoner shackles, lines from the Gospel are carved: “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds awake; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and make them sit down, and he will come and serve them.” Ev.

Luke 12:37.

P.S. On the eve of the publication of this issue of the newspaper, my bag with an almost finished article about Haase and all the materials about him was stolen. To be honest, I was very upset... But in some incomprehensible way - it would take a long time to talk about this - the bag was returned to me on the same day.

I am not a mystic - but I know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the miracle is that He transforms and moves people to do Actions. For some, such a feat was accomplished by the hero of this article, and for others (I quote Haas): “... the prisoner Alekseev, by the occasion of reading the New Testament, touched by the Word of God, was humbled by the power of conscience and discovered...”
Let our hearts open!

The most famous interregional hospital of the Russian penal system is named after Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz. More than a century and a half has passed since his death. A huge period of time. During this time, many generations passed away. Millions of people are forgotten. But the memory of Dr. Haase lives on. We publish several articles about F.P. in our magazine. Haase, which we found on the Internet.

Good Doctor Haas

I was returning from the Vvedensky (German) cemetery. It was bitterly cold. Near the Semenovskaya metro station there is a glazed rectangular parallelepiped - a police post. There is a man lying in front of the booth. I knock on the police:

The man will freeze!

Which ambulance will take him? After all, he is covered in lice. He first needs to do disinfection, and this costs money. - Then, mockingly: - And you take him home with you and give him some tea.

What to do? I have a seriously ill father at home. I live on the other side of Moscow. There is no money for a taxi. And who will jail us? Appeal to those indifferently passing by? Start a scandal? They’ll take you away and say you’re drunk, and they might send you to a sobering-up center. To clear my conscience, I called 02. The girl on duty said:

Thank you. Let's take action.

Then I was punished twice for my cowardice. Every other day I walk from the Vodny Stadion metro station. A dead man lies by the fence. Above him in a helmet, body armor and with a machine gun is a riot policeman:

Here, I'm frozen. I'm waiting for the "corpse truck" to arrive.

The next day, not 20 meters from the Rechnoy Vokzal metro station, I come across a dead man lying on his back. His face was already covered with frost. Passersby bypass the frozen man and run on. On the subway they told me:

We have already called twice, no one is coming.

It’s scary what city we live in! But more than one hundred and fifty years ago, a police hospital was set up in Moscow, where such poor homeless people, picked up on the street, were taken.

We celebrated the ninety-fifth anniversary of our good friend Tatyana Evlampievna Nikolaeva. I noticed a photograph hanging on the wall. A man in a sweatshirt, wearing simple round glasses. A clear, round face framed by a short beard. A combination of simplicity of appearance with a mind shining in his eyes and a reflection of rare kindness and spirituality on his face. Apparently, he was an extraordinary person.

Is this your husband, Tatyana Evlampievna?

No, this is my dad. He died when he was only 32 years old. Very young, he already became a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University. It was a custom then: medical professors worked for free in hospitals for the poor several times a week. Dad contracted typhus from a beggar girl. He cured her, but he himself died.

The police hospital in Moscow was founded by the famous doctor Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz. Many generations of Muscovites were brought up on the legends of Fyodor Petrovich. Herzen, Turgenev, Kuprin, Koni, Dombrovsky, Okudzhava wrote about Haas... In 1912, the most complete biography of Haas, “Reformer of the Russian Prison Case,” written by Karl Hetzel, was published in Leipzig.

“There is such a close relationship between crime, illness and misfortune that it is sometimes difficult and sometimes impossible to separate one from the other. What is necessary is fair, non-cruel treatment of the guilty, deep sympathy for the unfortunate and careful care for the sick,” Haaz wrote in 1830 to Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn. Prince Golitsyn is the Moscow governor-general, chairman of the Moscow prison committee created by order of Nicholas I.

Friedrich Joseph Haase was born into the family of a priest (according to other sources - a pharmacist) in western Germany, near Cologne, on August twenty-eighth, 1780. Haaz probably comes from "haaze" - hare. So his surname could be translated simply into Russian - “Zaitsev”. But in Russia he became Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz. Friedrich Joseph was distinguished by outstanding abilities and varied interests. Received an excellent education. First, mathematical - he has several interesting works in mathematics. Then he graduated from the theological faculty. But his active, ebullient nature was looking for a wider field of activity, and Friedrich also graduated from the Faculty of Medicine. Becomes a great doctor. He treated eye diseases especially well. Both right-handed and left-handed at the same time - he worked equally deftly with both hands at once; quickly, almost painlessly, removed cataracts. He became famous in the fight against infectious eye diseases.

In 1802, the Russian nobleman Repnin, whom Haaz cured of trachoma, persuaded him to come to Russia. The endless snow-covered plains of the mysterious country have long attracted the young man. Her Imperial Majesty the Dowager Empress (widow of Paul I) Maria Feodorovna, who did a lot for the development of Russian free medicine, drew the attention of the energetic, skillful physician. After Haaz successfully overcame a severe infectious eye disease in one of the Moscow hospitals, Maria Fedorovna appointed him chief physician of the Pavlovsk hospital (now it is the fourth city clinical hospital). Fyodor Petrovich receives whole crowds of sick people at his home, in hospitals, and in shelters for the poor. Treatments are free everywhere. Haaz is appointed to higher and higher positions, although envy and slander accompanied him. Haaz had a talent for making enemies for himself, especially among senior officials. Fyodor Petrovich was hampered by his direct, uncompromising character and hot temperament. Haass never managed to overcome two evils in Moscow hospitals: theft of government property and drunkenness of doctors in the workplace. It should be noted that anti-alcohol agitation at that time was considered “the most dangerous sedition” in Russia.

Fyodor Petrovich was also the founder of the Caucasian resorts, where a monument was subsequently erected to him. During two expeditions in 1809 and 1810, he studied the properties of Caucasian mineral waters and described them. Haas's work is considered classic.

In 1812 he entered the army as a military surgeon. With Russian troops he reached Paris. But, apparently not getting along well with the army authorities, he decides to stay in Germany. He didn’t get along well in his homeland, he realized that he had already become Russian, and he became homesick. After returning to Russia, Haass was showered with honors. He is the personal physician of the imperial family; patients come to him from all over Russia. And despite the fact that he devotes a lot of time to free medicine and charity, in addition to his desire, Haaz became rich. He has two houses in Moscow and a cloth factory in the suburbs. Fyodor Petrovich rides out in a carriage drawn by four horses. He is famous as a fan of dressing smartly and as a salon talker. He reads a lot and is in active correspondence with the famous German philosopher Schelling.

But in 1827, when Fyodor Petrovich turned 47 years old, he experienced a severe spiritual crisis, which resulted in a complete change in his entire lifestyle. What's the matter? One can only guess. Haaz is an idealist, in the highest, purest sense of the word. In addition, the nature is passionate and hot. Woman? Long-term, ideal, platonic, selfless love, so common in German and Russian sentimentalism. The wife of an army comrade, a Decembrist. Seeing off a friend to Siberia. Separation forever from the goddess - the object of worship, following the husband of the Russian Woman. Haaz never married...

There is also evidence that the cause of the crisis was Haaz’s visit to a Moscow transit prison. Haass was shocked by the picture of the terrifying situation of a Russian prison that opened before him - the threshold of hell...

The crisis was so strong that it drove weak people to suicide. A strong character helped Fyodor Petrovich overcome trouble:

If you feel very bad, find someone who is even worse and try to help.

And the most disadvantaged in Russia were the prisoners, and from now on Haaz spends all his energy, time, and money on the “unfortunate” - that’s what he called them. For clothes and food, for prison hospitals and libraries, for workshops and... for shackles. He designed them himself, lightweight shackles, which, at his insistence, replaced the “rod of General Dibich.” Dibich's rod is an iron stick equipped with rings into which the hands of eight to ten convicts could be inserted at once. And so they had to go along the stage as a group. Those walking on the rod were limited in their movements and the free exercise of their natural needs. They endured all sorts of torments along the way. At halts they were deprived of normal rest; the only consolation of the unfortunate was not available to them - sleep. Haass loudly protested against the rod of General Dibich, saying that “this is an instrument of torture that teaches people to hate each other, teaches not to respect the suffering of others, forgets any shame, teaches in word and deed to indulge in meanness.” Those convicted of the most minor crimes and often innocent people were subjected to such suffering. For example, a landowner who bought serfs and did not want to spend money on transporting them to his remote estates sent them “through the stages” along with criminals sentenced to hard labor. And people walked like this the whole stage, sometimes dragging behind them an exhausted, half-dead comrade in misfortune.

Serious criminals had a privilege - the right to “personal” chains - hand and leg shackles. With tears in their eyes, the “light” criminals asked to be equated with the “heavy” ones. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is truly right: “I would not want any other fatherland... but disregard for human dignity, honor and even life... can lead to despair!” And the chains were too heavy. Up to one meter long and weighing up to five and a half pounds. Fyodor Petrovich designed the so-called “Haas chains” three-quarters of a meter long and weighing three pounds. One day, coming to Haaz, his comrade heard the incessant clanging of chains. The doctor, chained, tirelessly walked from corner to corner of his room, counting his steps. It was he who tested his “invention” on himself, deciding to walk the distance of the stage in shackles. At first, Haaz wanted to walk in chains through the streets of Moscow and further along Vladimirka: from Vorobyovy Gory to Gorenki. But the Moscow authorities forbade him to do this.

Every week, another batch of convicts sentenced to hard labor gathered on Vorobyovy Gory. They served a prayer service and moved on their mournful path. Relatives were allowed to accompany them to the village in front of Balashikha. That's why it got the name Gorenki. And every week Haaz accompanied the “unfortunate” on foot. At parting, he gave them sweets and oranges.

Why are you giving these hungry people candy? - said ill-wishers. - You better give them a piece of bread.

He will give them a piece of bread and another, but they will never see candy and apfelsin again,” answered Fyodor Petrovich.

Once, at a meeting of the Moscow prison committee, which was headed by the outstanding humanist Prince Golitsyn, Metropolitan Philaret reprimanded Dr. Haaz:

Well, what are you saying there, Fyodor Petrovich, about innocently convicted people? If someone is convicted, that means they are guilty.

Haaz exploded.

“You have forgotten Jesus Christ!” he shouted.

Silence. Everyone froze. How dare a German, a non-Orthodox, shout such terrible words to the head of the Russian Church! Filaret said quietly:

It was not I who forgot Jesus Christ, Fyodor Petrovich, when I said these thoughtless words. It is Christ who has forgotten me.

He stood up, blessed everyone and left.

Haaz ensured that all convicts passing through Moscow transit prisons were reforged into “his” shackles. But it didn’t stop there. He achieved complete liberation from the shackles of the weak and crippled. “It cannot be the real desire of the royal family that people who do not have legs still receive leg shackles, and since they do not have the opportunity to put on these shackles, they must carry them in a bag,” wrote Fyodor Petrovich. He opposed the idea of ​​having half of their heads shaved for everyone being transported through the convoy, even women. He insisted that the rings of the shackles be covered with leather. Before this, frostbite on the hands of shackles was a widespread phenomenon.

Haaz fought for this until the end of his life. It was tolerated, in the words of one dignitary, “as a necessary evil, against which it was as futile as it was boring.”

They laughed at Haaz, mocked him, and poisoned him. They wrote endless denunciations about him. For nineteen years, the most vile accusation of illegally embezzling 1,502 rubles of government money on prisoners hung over him.

One foreigner, having met Dr. Haass, spoke of him like this: “The ideas and lifestyle of this man are so unusual for our time that he is either a fool, a madman, or a saint!”

When Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich came to Moscow, he also visited prisons. The chief prison doctor Fyodor Petrovich Gaaz accompanied him. One day one of the jailers slandered Haaz to the king:

Your Majesty! But Fyodor Petrovich keeps in the infirmary an old man sentenced to hard labor. But the old man is healthy and should have been on his way for a long time.

Nicholas I turned menacingly to Haass:

Is this true, Fyodor Petrovich?

Haaz fell to his knees. The king felt somehow uncomfortable - after all, Haaz is almost 20 years older than him:

Well, that's enough, Fyodor Petrovich! I see that you repent, and I forgive you.

Haaz doesn't get up.

What else do you need, Fyodor Petrovich? I told you that I forgive you.

Your Majesty! Have mercy on the old man - he is innocent.

Well, Fyodor Petrovich! Well, Fyodor Petrovich! As you wish.

Haaz had the right eye. He immediately saw what kind of person was in front of him. But he also boldly entered the cell of inveterate villains and murderers. I tried to soften their souls, help, console. He wrote: “The profession of a doctor gives him access not only to the body, but also to the soul of the patient. And trying to heal the soul is just as important as healing the body.”

When a person felt bad, he could come to Haaz. A big, strong and infinitely kind man leans sympathetically towards him and looks into his eyes carefully:

Well, what do you have, darling? Don't despair! Everything will be fine!

Dr. Haaz lived at the police hospital he created in Maly Kazenny Lane. Here he died on August 16, 1853. In 1909, a monument to Fyodor Petrovich was erected in the hospital courtyard. The author of the monument, the famous sculptor Andreev, refused to take money for his work.

I could not find information about the nature of the doctor's dying illness. She took Fyodor Petrovich by surprise. He led a very correct lifestyle, was distinguished by his mighty strength and seemingly indestructible health. The disease developed very quickly and caused unimaginable suffering to the patient. On the last day of his life, when the pain became unbearable, the doctor ordered the apartment doors to be opened wide and to accept everyone who still needed his consolation and help. Moscow Metropolitan Filaret came to say goodbye to the dying man.

After the doctor's death, only a few old telescopes were found in his apartment - all that remained of his property. Tired of the sight of human suffering during the day, Haaz loved to look at the stars at night.

The coffin with the doctor’s body was carried in their arms from Pokrovka to the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Lefortovo. He was accompanied by a huge crowd - twenty thousand people. The then Moscow governor-general, Count Zakrevsky, sent a hundred Cossacks under the command of Captain Kinsky with the order to “disperse the mob.” But, having approached the funeral procession, the captain, shocked by the sight of the sincere grief of ordinary Russian people, got off his horse, ordered the Cossacks to return to the barracks and went on foot to fetch the coffin.

Having learned about the death of their beloved doctor, the convicts at the Nerchinsk mines purchased an icon of St. Theodore Stratilates with their own money.

On the central alley of the Vvedensky (German) cemetery there is a mighty gray stone, on it there is a large cross made of red granite. There is a fence of shackles around the grave. The grave is always covered in flowers. An old woman passing by stops and crosses herself at the monument:

Holy doctor, Fyodor Petrovich!

His famous words, which he himself followed throughout his life, are engraved on the monument:

HURRY TO DO GOOD!

Sergei Voznesensky

Sergei Aleksandrovich Voznesensky was born in 1940 in Moscow.
Graduated from the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. IN AND. Lenin. Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Teaches physics and biophysics at the Moscow Medical Academy named after. Sechenov.
Author of numerous scientific and scientific-methodological works, textbooks, articles.

Source: Moscow Magazine No. 12, 2004
http://www.moskvam.ru/2004/12/voznesensky.htm

"Man of God" Dr. Haase

On the site of the well-known observation deck on the former Sparrow Hills, the former Lenin Hills, near the rearing springboard, on the steep bank of the Moscow River, just opposite the Maiden Field, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior should have risen. But the architect Vitberg, who developed the temple project, was exiled to Vyatka, and blown up in the 30s. the temple was erected where the chlorine waters of a swimming pool are now splashing, shrouded in steam, as if transported to Moscow from Dante’s Hell. The observation deck will perhaps remind us of the final pages of the novel, where Woland’s cavalcade says goodbye to Moscow and forever leaves “the city with monastery gingerbread towers, with the sun broken into pieces in the glass.” But nothing now reminds us of the Vorobyovsky transit prison that once stood here, where Dr. Haaz spent whole days, first observing the construction of the forge, and then, almost throughout his entire life, monitoring the forging of prisoners into light shackles specially designed by him - instead of a terrible iron rod that shackled 10-12 prisoners.

Dr. Haass was a prison doctor. We find his biography in the magazine “Science and Life” (1980, No. 12), in the article by B. Okudzhava “Haaz has no refusal.” Friedrich Joseph Haas (Haas) was born in 1780 in the small Rhine town of Münstereifel into the family of a physician. He studied in Jena and Vienna. He became an assistant to Professor Schmidt, a famous ophthalmologist. Heeding the persuasion of Prince Repnin, his patient, he comes to Moscow. So in 1803 he became Fyodor Petrovich Haaz. The young doctor quickly gains fame. He carefully and carefully listens to and treats patients, talks in detail about the causes and course of the disease, first in French, and later in Russian. He makes no distinction between bars and serfs, rich and poor. In 1807, Dr. Haaz was appointed chief physician of the military hospital. In 1809-1810 he makes a trip to the Caucasus, where he discovers, explores and describes mineral springs, around which Zheleznovodsk, Pyatigorsk, Essentuki, Kislovodsk grow over time. Dr. Haaz practically lays the foundations of balneology. Emperor Alexander I awards him the Vladimir Cross, he receives the title of court councilor.

In 1812-1814. Dr. Haaz, as a military doctor, accompanies Russian troops on campaigns from Moscow to Paris. On the way back, he stops by his hometown, buries his father and returns to Moscow, where he remains forever. Wealth comes to him. He owns a village near Moscow with a hundred serfs, a cloth factory, a large house on Kuznetsky Most, and snow-white trotters. In 1822-1826. he holds the position of stadt physicist, that is, the chief physician of all Moscow. In 1826, Dr. Haaz contributed to the opening of an eye hospital in Moscow, and in 1828 he received an appointment to the Prison Guardianship Committee, established by a special imperial decree. For a quarter of a century, he missed only one of the 293 monthly committee meetings, when he himself was already seriously ill.

Dr. Haaz was the chief physician of all prison hospitals and took care of all prisoners, exiles, and convicts who were driven through Moscow to Siberia. Doctor Haaz accompanied each column, examined the sick, children and women, brought them food, linen, and warm clothes.

During epidemics, including cholera, Dr. Haase treated mainly the poor: the rich were afraid of infection and avoided doctors. The doctor expanded and improved existing hospitals, established new ones, and supervised their construction. A few years later, Dr. Haaz sells his house and village. All the money is spent on the construction and equipment of new medical institutions, on benefits for the sick and prisoners. He himself now lives in hospitals. First - in the building of Staroekaterininskaya (now the hospital of the Moscow Regional Clinical Institute in Orlovsky Lane), and from 1844 - in the “police” hospital in Malokazenny Lane (now it is Mechnikov Lane, and the Institute of Hygiene of Children and Adolescents is located in the building of the former hospital; namely there is a monument to Haas).

In recent years, the doctor lived with one servant who did not leave him until the end. Haaz spent everything that was left of his property, everything that he received from wealthy patients and benefactors, on expanding hospitals, on medicines, food, clothing and other necessary things for the poor, prisoners, exiles and their children.

Dr. Haaz believed, as A.F. notes in his biographical essay about him. Koni (1897), that a fair, without unnecessary cruelty, attitude towards the guilty, active compassion for the unfortunate and charity for the sick are necessary. Dr. Haass fought for this all his life. The words “hasten to do good” were his slogan, which he confirmed day after day. With unshakable love for people and truth, he did everything possible to mitigate the fate of the unfortunate sufferers. The strong emotional shock, apparently experienced at the first contact with them, left an imprint on the sensitive soul of this enlightened and noble man. A Catholic by faith, his whole being was imbued with active compassion for his neighbors, helping whom became not only his purely professional duty, but also a passionate spiritual attraction, an internal need, for the sake of which he gradually stopped living for himself altogether. All his fortune goes to helping the humiliated and disadvantaged. In 1853, a prominent and famous Moscow doctor, who had become a strange eccentric, an “exaggerated philanthropist,” was buried at the expense of the police.

No authorities could force Dr. Haase to give up his convictions. Here is one example. Two prison girls, sisters, asked not to be separated. One of them was sick, and the prison authorities agreed to keep her in transit for a while. The other, who had already been detained twice due to her sister’s illness, had her request denied. Dr. Haass convincingly asks Police Chief Miller to leave both of them. He doesn't agree. The doctor insists, saying that “rare cases can be as worthy of respect as the requests of these girls, who, being quite young, can better protect each other than one on their own from evil and strengthen them for good.” The doctor continues: “Talking to Mr. Miller in a language that those around me did not understand (that is, in a foreign language), I told him that I consider myself obliged to bring such an incident to the attention of the sovereign, but without having had time to bend Mr. Mshdor’s will to leniency, I reached to the point that he reminded him of the higher court, before which we both would not fail to appear together with these people, who then, from quiet subordinates, would be terrible accusers. Mr. Miller, having told me that this was not the place to do catechism, ended, however, by ordering both sisters to leave.”

With tremendous tenacity, Dr. Haass fights for his charges, trying in every possible way to alleviate their sad fate. It is becoming increasingly difficult to do this; opposition is growing, including from the highest-ranking officials. But the stubborn doctor does not lay down his arms. And gradually they give in to him. As A.F. writes Horses, perhaps some of his opponents, because of the gray mass of “depraved prisoners” who looked with hope and gratitude at the insulted but persistent eccentric, began to see that angel of the Lord, to whom he referred with such confidence and who had “his own article list".

Here's another piece of evidence. “I sometimes met Dr. Haas in some houses in Moscow,” his energetic posture reminded him of Luther; I found him in 1850 during his humane activities as a doctor at the prisoner's transit castle on Vorobyovy Gory. One Sunday I went there to witness the painful spectacle of these unfortunates being sent to Siberia; among them was one woman - sentenced to hard labor; she had already been placed in general formation for the procession on foot when the civil governor arrived; to the request of this prisoner to allow her to sit on one of the carts that always accompany the convoy and are designated for children and the weak, he refused in harsh terms; then Doctor Haaz approached her and, having ascertained her extreme exhaustion, turned to the governor with a statement that he could not allow her to be sent on foot; the governor objected and reproached him for being too kind to the criminal, but Haaz insisted and, saying that he was responsible for the sick, ordered this woman to be taken onto the cart; the governor wanted to cancel this order, but Haaz hotly said that he did not have the right to do this and that he would immediately report this to Governor General Zakrevsky; Then only the governor gave in, and the woman was sent away in a cart. On the same day, I witnessed how one convict was shackled, and so clumsily that his leg was covered in blood and he could not get up from pain - then Haaz ordered him to be unshackled, taking responsibility for a possible escape. Returning to Moscow, I went to the Rogozhskaya outpost, through which the convoy of prisoners was passing, and here again I met Doctor Haass, who wanted to make sure that his orders regarding weak prisoners had not been canceled, and who again approached the woman sitting on the cart with approval and warm words. freed by him from walking in stages.”

The doctor insists on canceling the order to drive the stage through the outskirts of Moscow, bypassing its busy and populated streets and without disturbing the peace of their inhabitants with the sight of exiles and the ringing of shackles. The idea of ​​​​protecting the “happy” from reminders of the “unfortunate” was incomprehensible to Haass and seemed to him to go against the good qualities of a Russian person who does not hold grudges against a punished criminal. This foreigner understood more deeply than the official authorities the high moral meaning of the compassionate attitude of the Russian person towards the unfortunate. In addition, sending the exiles through the outskirts deprived them of the abundant alms that poured in from everywhere on their way through Zamoskvorechye, Taganka and the Rogozhskaya part.

We read from A.F. Horses, as Fyodor Petrovich’s carriage, known throughout Moscow, drove up to the Rogozhsky half-stage on Monday morning and unloaded him and the baskets with supplies he had collected during the week for the transit workers. The doctor encouraged the convicts, and addressed some of them, in whom he had time to notice “a living soul,” with the words: “Kiss me, my dear,” and for a long time followed with his eyes the departing party, moving slowly, jingling with chains, along the famous Vladimirka. Sometimes Muscovites they met, hastily taking out alms, noticed that an old man in a tailcoat, with the Vladimir Cross in his buttonhole, in old shoes with buckles and stockings, and if it was winter, then in tan high boots, was walking along with the party - often for many miles and in an old wolf fur coat. But Muscovites were not surprised by such a meeting. They knew that this was “Fedor Petrovich”, “holy doctor” and “man of God”, as the people used to call him. They guessed that he probably needed to prolong his conversation with the exiles, or, perhaps, some kind of argument with their superiors.

The deepest Christian motives that underlay everything that Dr. Haas did were amazing and constant. The following episode is typical. The chairman of the prison committee, the famous Metropolitan Philaret, became bored with the doctor’s constant petitions for the “innocently convicted” prisoners. “You keep talking, Fyodor Petrovich,” said Filaret, “about innocently convicted people... There are no such people. If a person is subjected to punishment, it means that he is guilty.” The hot-tempered and sanguine Haaz jumped up from his seat. “You have forgotten about Christ, sir!” - he cried, indicating both the callousness of such a statement in the mouth of the archpastor, and the gospel event - the condemnation of the innocent Jesus Christ. Everyone was embarrassed and froze in place: no one had ever dared to say such things to Filaret, who was in an exceptionally influential position. But the depth of Filaret’s mind was equivalent to the depth of Haaz’s heart. He hung his head and fell silent, and then, after several minutes of agonizing silence, he stood up and said: “No, Fyodor Petrovich. When I uttered my hasty words, it was not I who forgot about Christ, - Christ forgot me!..” - he blessed everyone and left.

When Emperor Nicholas visited the Moscow prison castle, Haas’s “well-wishers” pointed out to the sovereign an old man of 70 years old, sentenced to exile in Siberia and detained by a doctor for a long time in Moscow due to decrepitude. "What does it mean?" - asked Emperor Haaz, whom he knew personally. Instead of answering, he knelt down. Thinking that he was asking for forgiveness in such a unique way for the indulgence he had allowed to the prisoner, the sovereign said to him: “Enough! I’m not angry, Fyodor Petrovich, why is it you, get up!” - “I won’t get up!” - Haaz answered decisively. - “I’m not angry, I’m telling you... What do you want?” - “Sire, have mercy on the old man, he has little time left to live, he is decrepit and powerless, it will be very difficult for him to go to Siberia. Have mercy on him! I won’t get up until you have mercy on him.” The Emperor thought... “On your conscience, Fyodor Petrovich!” - he finally said and uttered forgiveness. Then the happy and excited Haaz stood up from his knees.

Haaz did not limit himself to help and consolation. He persistently spread the gospel teaching among the prisoners and distributed books. “You need to see the zeal with which people ask for these books, the joy with which they receive them, and the pleasure with which they read them!” To do this, he entered into official relations with the wealthy St. Petersburg merchant Archibald Meriliz. “In the Russian people,” he wrote to him, asking for help, “there is, above all other qualities, the brilliant virtue of mercy, the readiness and habit of joyfully helping one’s neighbor in abundance in everything he needs, but one branch of beneficence is small in folk custom: this an insufficient branch of almsgiving is almsgiving with the books of the Holy Scriptures and other edifying books.” That's not enough. In 1841, Haaz published a book of 44 pages under the title: “A. B.V. Christian good behavior. About leaving behind swearing and reproachful words and generally indecent expressions regarding one’s neighbor, or about the beginnings of love for one’s neighbor.” Haaz distributed this book to everyone leaving Moscow in stages. The doctor himself made special bags for her storage, which were hung on a cord on her chest. He brought both handbags and books with him to the prison camp and shared them with everyone there.

Dr. Haaz fought hard for both a general softening of morals and a softening of legislation, in particular with regard to serfdom. Perhaps for the first time, he decisively and persistently introduced into use such concepts as the rights of prisoners, convicts, and exiles. His attitude towards the sick was especially cordial. He literally cried out (in front of Prince Shcherbatov) for the right to unlimited admission of patients, so that everyone, starting with the Governor-General, began to turn a blind eye to the “unrest” by tacit agreement.

While healing the body, Haaz knew how to heal a fallen or embittered spirit, reviving people’s faith in the possibility of good on earth. The true path to happiness, according to him, is not in the desire to be happy, but in making others happy. You need to love them, and the more often you show this love, the stronger it will be, like a magnet, the strength of which is maintained and increased because it is continuously in action.

Dr. Haas's last days were painful. He developed a huge carbuncle, but the doctor endured the suffering calmly and courageously, and his face, as always, shone with “some kind of holy calm and kindness.” Up to twenty thousand people flocked to the funeral, and the coffin was carried in their arms to the Vvedensky cemetery. After the death of the doctor, one of his colleagues publishes Haas’s manuscript “Appel aux femmes”, where, in the form of a spiritual testament and appeal to Russian women, the moral and spiritual principles that permeated the doctor’s life are set out, manifestations of love and compassion that constitute the driving force of his daily life are systematized. activities. With all his personality, Dr. Haass asserted: and there is only one warrior in the field!