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.

Tsykler was the son of a colonel from the foreign order regiment. He was drafted into military service in 1671, and appointed stolnik after eight years of service as a Strelets sub-colonel. In 1682, he became a companion to the statesmen Fyodor Shaklovity and Ivan Miloslavsky, and a campaigner for Sophia of Russia, who trusted 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 of Sophia's conspiracy; for this he was elevated to the rank of Duma nobleman and was sent as a voivode to Verkhoturie. In 1696, he was recalled to Moscow to build fortresses on the shore of the Azov sea.

Many considered this 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 the 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 down the house in which the tsar was residing. Upon hearing this, Peter immediately traveled to the place where the conspirators were gathering, personally arrested them, and put them on trial.

During the trial, Tsykler explained under torture that he was motivated by Peter's reproaches against his friendship with Miloslavsky. He also partially incriminated Sophia, leading to her imprisonment 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 in 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, understood the conspiracy as a demonstration of the indignation and opposition of the grandees. Otto Pleyer, an Austrian resident in Moscow, attributed 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).