Ivan Tsykler

Ivan Yeliseevich Tsykler (Tzykler) (Template:Lang-ru, before 1660 – 20 February [O.S. 4 March] 1697) was a Russian nobleman of the 17th century, who was dismembered in 1697 on charges of conspiracy against Peter I.

Son of a colonel from the foreign order regiment, Tsykler was drafted into military service in 1671, and appointed stolnik after eight years of service. After being appointed a Strelets sub-colonel. In 1682, he become a companion to statesmen Fyodor Shaklovity and Ivan Miloslavskiy, and fellow campaigner for Sophia of Russia who trusted in him as her most faithful follower. In 1687–1688, Tsykler took part in the first Crimean campaign of Vasily Galitzine. In 1689, after the revolt of Peter I against Sophia, Tsykler informed Peter I about Sophia's conspiracy; for this he was elevated to the rank of the Duma nobleman and was sent as voivode to Verkhoturie. In 1696, he was recalled to Moscow to build fortresses on the shore of the Azov sea.

Many considered this. The bookie is great. appointment an honorable exile, but the increasing cruelty of Peter I towards opponents of his reforms motivated Tsykler to plot against him. Other participants involved in this plot were okolnichiy Alexei Sokovnin and stolnik Matvei Pushkin. In February 1697, two Streletses: Yelizariev and Silin, notified Peter about Tsykler's plan to burn the house in which the tsar was residing. Upon hearing this, Peter immediately travelled to the place where the conspirators were gathering, personally arrested them, and put them on trial.

During the trial, under torture, Tsykler explained that he was motivated by Peter's reproaches against his friendship with Miloslavsky. He also partially incriminated Sophia, whereupon she was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent. The exhumed corpse of Miloslavsky, who had died in 1685, was put under the scaffold during the execution of the conspirators. Following the execution on 20 February [O.S. 4 March] 1697, the heads of Tsykler and his accomplices'were put on pikes and exhibited on the Red Square for several days. Trykler's two sons were exiled to Kursk and forbidden to return to Moscow under the tsar's decree.

John Perry, who came to Russia soon after Tsykler's conspiracy, mentions that it was a demonstration of indignation of opposition grandees. Otto Pleyer, an Austrian resident in Moscow, attributes particular importance to the plot, stating that it was aimed against Peter I, the royal family, the tsar's campaigners and all the foreigners in the country. The fact that a plot allegedly aimed against foreigners was being directed by the son of a foreigner is not usually mentioned.

Sources

• Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Циклер, Иван Елисеевич (in Russian).