Cornelius Yakovlev
In the gallery of the cathedral in the wall, there is a plate, behind which the army ataman Cornelius Yakovlev is buried. The inscription on the plate: “In the year 7188 (1680) on 16th of July, the servant of God, the military ataman Cornelius Yakovlevich, reposed in the day of the holy martyr Afinogen and his disciples”. Devoted to the sovereign, Cornelius, the first of the Don Cossacks in the summer of 1671, while in Moscow, took the oath of allegiance to Alexei Mikhailovich. This was the first oath of the Don Cossacks. Earlier in 1632, the Cossacks denied the king kissing the cross for allegiance. The main articles of the oath consisted in the fact that “elders and Cossacks should disarm all indignations and secret conspiracies against the sovereign, send the main conspirators to Moscow, and execute their followers according to military law. If any of them, in violation of the oath, changing the sovereign will begin to communicate with the enemy – with the Poles, Germans and Tatars – with such traitors, not sparing their lives to fight, do not join to such intruders or even think about that. With Kalmyks no further intercourse, except for exhortations to serve the sovereign faithfully. Do not gather and make conspiracy with the Cossacks to fight anyone, to rob anyone, to kill, and in all matters do not bear false witness. On the health of the sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich and his royal family not to encroach, and besides, another sovereign – Polish, Lithuanian, German and other lands of kings, kings or foreign princes – not to call and not to wish, and if they hear or recognize the sovereign or the entire royal family have amassed a conspiracy or other kind of intent, arising from the Russians or foreigners, and with such intruders, not sparing the life to fight. ”