Manuscript DS in Cyrillic, bearing an autograph endorsement signed "Catherine," three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8.25 x 12.5, February 23, 1765. Petition submitted on behalf of Ivan Bogomolov, who announces that he has been in service since 1737 and had participated in Her Majesty Empress Elizabeth Petrovna's elevation to the throne; and since then had been serving in the Life-Guards company, where he rose to the rank of corporal for respectful conduct. In 1763, by an imperial edict, he was assigned supervision over the Palace of the Protection, the garden, and the toboggan slides. However, he is paid only 30 kopecks a day, and has been given neither an apartment nor food allowance, making it impossible for him to support himself with his wife and children. He therefore asks for an order to retire from the position with a supplement to his pension, or a one-time grant of money collected on the toboggan slides. Catherine pens her instructions in the left margin of the first page (translated): "Place on the retired list with promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and upon retirement, if indeed collected the aforesaid amount of six hundred thirty-one roubles, pay out this amount to him from his own patrimonial office. Catherine." In fine condition. Accompanied by a full transcription and translation.
The fabled Russian ice slides, commonly called the 'Russian Mountains,' were one of Catherine's favorite winter pastimes. Consisting of a 70-foot tall timber tower connected to 600-foot long ice ramp, patrons on the slides would whoosh down on toboggans. Catherine was so fond of the ice slides that, in the Gardens of Oranienbaum in Saint Petersburg in 1784, she had a warm-weather version of them built, involving wheeled carts on grooved tracks—the origin of the modern roller coaster.
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