Count Alexey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin (June 1, 1693 – April 21, 1768), Grand Chancellor of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, was one of the most influential and successful Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

s of the 18th century. He was chiefly responsible for Russian foreign policy during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna.

Early life and career

Alexey was born at Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 to an old noble family of Novgorod descent. His father, Pyotr Bestuzhev

Pyotr Bestuzhev

Count Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was a Russian statesman who effectively governed the Duchy of Courland in the name of Anna Ivanovna between 1712 and 1728....

, was later to become the Russian ambassador to the duchy of Courland

Courland

Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...

. Educated abroad with his elder brother Mikhail

Mikhail Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin

Count Mikhail Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was a Russian diplomat. He was the son of Pyotr Bestuzhev and elder brother of the more famous Aleksey Bestuzhev....

 at Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Aleksey especially distinguished himself in languages and the applied sciences.

In 1712, Peter the Great

Peter I of Russia

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

 attached Bestuzhev to Prince Kurakin at the Utrecht Congress, that he might learn diplomacy

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

; and for the same reason permitted him in 1713 to enter the service of the elector of Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

. The elector, who became King George I of Great Britain

George I of Great Britain

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....

, took him to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1714, and sent him to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 as his accredited minister with a notification of his accession. Bestuzhev then returned to England, where he remained four years. This period laid the necessary groundwork for his brilliant diplomatic career.

Bestuzhev curiously illustrated his passion for intrigue in a letter to the tsarevich Alexey Petrovich at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, assuring his "future sovereign" of his devotion, and representing his sojourn in England as the deliberate seclusion of a zealous but powerless well-wisher. This extraordinary indiscretion might well have cost him his life, but the tsarevich destroyed the letter. (A copy of the letter taken by way of precaution, beforehand, by the Austrian ministers, survived in the Vienna archives.)

On his return to Russia, Bestuzhev served for two years without any salary as chief gentleman of the Bedchamber at the court of Anne of Courland. In 1721, he succeeded Vasily Dolgorukov

Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov

Prince Vasiliy Lukich Dolgorukov was a Russian diplomat and minister who was the most powerful man in the country in the later years of Peter II's reign....

 as Russian minister at Copenhagen. Copenhagen at that time formed a nexus of diplomatic intrigue, for George I of Great Britain had the aim of arming the northern powers against Peter the Great, and Bestuzhev received the commission to counteract this.

On the occasion of the peace of Nystad

Treaty of Nystad

The Treaty of Nystad was the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War. It was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and Swedish Empire on 30 August / 10 September 1721 in the then Swedish town of Nystad , after Sweden had settled with the other parties in Stockholm and Frederiksborg.During...

 (1721), which terminated the Great Northern War

Great Northern War

The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...

's 21 years of struggle between Russia and Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Bestuzhev designed and had minted a commemorative medal

Medal

A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...

 with a panegyrical Latin inscription, which so delighted Peter (then at Derbent

Derbent

Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...

) that he sent a letter of thanks written with his own hand and his portrait set in brilliants. It was at this time that the many-sided Bestuzhev invented his famous "drops", or tincture toniconervina Bestuscheffi. (The French brigadier Lamotte stole the recipe and made his fortune by introducing it at the French court, where it was known as Elixir d'Or).

The sudden death of Peter the Great (February 8, 1725) seriously injured Bestuzhev's prospects. For more than ten years he remained at Copenhagen, looking vainly towards Russia as a sort of promised land from which he was excluded by enemies or rivals. He rendered some important services, however, to the empress Anne (reigned 1730–1740), who decorated him and made him a privy councillor. He also won the favour of Ernst von Biren

Ernst Johann von Biron

Ernst Johann von Biron was a Duke of Courland and Semigallia and regent of the Russian Empire .-Biography:Born as Ernst Johann Biren in Kalnciems, Courland, he was the grandson of a groom in the service of Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland, who bestowed upon him a small estate, which Biron's...

, and on the tragic fall of Artemy Petrovich Volynsky

Artemy Petrovich Volynsky

Artemy Petrovich Volynsky was a Russian statesman and diplomat. His career started as a soldier but was rapidly upgraded to minister under Peter the Great and governor of Astrakhan...

 in 1739, Bestuzhev returned to Russia to take Volynsky's place in the council. He assisted Biren to obtain the regency in the last days of the empress Anne, but when his patron fell three weeks later (November 1740), his own position became extremely precarious.

Grand Chancellor of the Russian Empire

Bestuzhev's chance came when the empress Elizabeth, immediately after her accession (December 6, 1741), summoned him back to court and appointed him vice-chancellor. For the next twenty years, during a period of exceptional difficulty, Bestuzhev practically controlled the foreign policy of Russia.

At this time, Bestuzhev judged France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 the natural enemy of Russia. The interests of the two states in Turkey

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and Sweden clashed diametrically, and Russia needed always to fear the intrigues of France in these three countries, all of which bordered it. The enemies of France thus necessarily became the friends of Russia, and her friends were conversely viewed as Russia's enemies. Consequently, Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 became Russia's "natural" allies, while the aggressive and energetic king Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...

, then engaged in the War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession  – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...

 of 1740–1748, presented a danger to guard against. Bestuzhev therefore adopted the policy of bringing about a quadruple alliance between Russia, Austria, Great Britain and Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, to counterpoise the Franco-Prussian league. He however stood on dangerous ground. The empress Elizabeth herself had an aversion to an alliance with Great Britain and with Austria, whose representatives had striven to prevent her accession; many of her personal friends, in the pay of France and Prussia, took part in innumerable conspiracies to overthrow Bestuzhev. Despite these hindrances, Bestuzhev, aided by his elder brother Mikhail, carried out his policy step by step.

Russia and Sweden had commenced hostilities in 1741. On December 11, 1742 Bestuzhev concluded a defensive alliance between Great Britain and Russia. He had previously rejected with scorn the proposals of the French government to mediate between Russia and Sweden on the basis of a territorial surrender on the part of the former. Bestuzhev conducted the war so vigorously that by the end of 1742, Sweden lay at the mercy of the empress. At the peace congress of Åbo

Treaty of Åbo

The Treaty of Åbo or the Treaty of Turku was a peace treaty signed between the Russian Empire and Sweden in Turku on 7. Augustjul./ 18. Augustgreg...

 (January — August 1743) Bestuzhev insisted that Sweden cede the whole of Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 to Russia, thus completing the work of Peter the Great. But the French party contrived to get better terms for Sweden by artfully appealing to the empress Elizabeth's fondness for the house of Holstein

Holstein

Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

. The Swedes, at the desire of Elizabeth, accepted Adolphus Frederick

Adolf Frederick of Sweden

Adolf Frederick or Adolph Frederick was King of Sweden from 1751 until his death. He was the son of Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach....

, duke of Holstein, as their future king, and, in return, received back Finland, with the exception of a small strip of land up to the Kymmene River.

Nor could Bestuzhev prevent the signing of a Russo-Prussian defensive alliance in March 1743. He however deprived it of all political significance by excluding from it the proposed guarantee of Frederick's Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

n conquests. Moreover, through Bestuzhev's efforts, the credit of the Prussian king (whom he regarded as more dangerous than France) at the Russian court fell steadily, and the vice-chancellor prepared the way for an alliance with Austria by acceding to the Treaty of Breslau

Treaty of Breslau

The Treaty of Breslau was a preliminary peace agreement signed on 11 June 1742 following long negotiations at the Silesian capital Wrocław by emissaries of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria and King Frederick II of Prussia ending the First Silesian War....

 of June 11, 1742 on November 1, 1743).

The bogus Lopukhina Conspiracy, however, got up by the Holstein faction, aided by France and Prussia, who persuaded Elizabeth that the Austrian ambassador had intrigued to restore Ivan VI

Ivan VI of Russia

Ivan VI Antonovich of Russia , was proclaimed Emperor of Russia in 1740, as an infant, although he never actually reigned. Within less than a year, he was overthrown by the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Peter the Great's daughter...

 to the throne, alienated the empress from Austria for a time. Thus Bestuzhev's ruin appeared certain when, in 1743, the French agent, Jacques-Joachim Trotti, marquis de la Chétardie

Jacques-Joachim Trotti, marquis de La Chétardie

Jacques-Joachim Trotti, marquis de La Chétardie was a French diplomat who engineered the coup d'etat that brought Elizaveta Petrovna to the Russian throne in 1741...

, arrived to reinforce his other enemies. But Bestuzhev found a friend in need in Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who laid foundations for the fortunes of the Vorontsov family....

, the empress's confidant, who shared his political views. Still his position remained most delicate, especially when the betrothal between the grand-duke Peter

Peter III of Russia

Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...

 and Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst (afterwards Catherine II

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

) took place against his will, and Elizabeth of Holstein, the mother of the bride, arrived in the Prussian interests to spy upon him. Frederick II, conscious of the instability of his French ally, now keenly wished to contract an offensive alliance with Russia; and the first step to its realization required the overthrow of Bestuzhev, "upon whom," he wrote to his minister Axel von Mardefeld, "the fate of Prussia and my own house depends." But Bestuzhev succeeded, at last, in convincing the empress of Chétardie's impudent intrigues, and on June 6, 1744, that diplomatist received orders to quit Russia within twenty-four hours. Five weeks later Bestuzhev became grand chancellor (July 15, 1744). Before the end of the year Elizabeth of Holstein also suffered expulsion from Russia, and Bestuzhev remained supreme.

Anti-Prussian coalition

European diplomacy at this time focused on the king of Prussia, whose apparently insatiable acquisitiveness disturbed all his neighbours. Bestuzhev's offer, communicated to the British government at the end of 1745, to attack Prussia if Great Britain would guarantee subsidies to the amount of some £6,000,000, carried no weight now that Austria and Prussia had started coming to terms. Then Bestuzhev turned to Austria, and on May 22, 1746 concluded an offensive and defensive alliance between the two powers manifestly directed against Prussia. In 1747, he also signed alliances with Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and the Porte

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. At the same time Bestuzhev resisted any rapprochement with France, and severely rebuked the court of Saxony for its intrigues with that of Versailles.

About this time he felt hampered by the persistent opposition of the vice-chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov

Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who laid foundations for the fortunes of the Vorontsov family....

, formerly his friend, now his jealous rival, whom Frederick the Great secretly supported. In 1748, however, Bestuzhev got rid of Vorontsov by proving to the empress that Vorontsov had received money from Prussia.

The hour of Bestuzhev's triumph coincided with the peace congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled at the Imperial Free City of Aachen—Aix-la-Chapelle in French—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, on 24 April 1748...

 (April to October 1748), which altered the whole situation of European politics and introduced fresh combinations: the breaking away of Prussia from France and a rapprochement between England and Prussia, with the inevitable corollary of an alliance between France and the enemies of Prussia.

Bestuzhev's violent political prejudices at first prevented him from properly recognizing this change. Passion had always been too large an ingredient in his diplomacy. His Anglomania also misled him. His enemies, headed by his elder brother Mikhail and the vice-chancellor Vorontsov, powerless while his diplomacy seemed faultless, quickly took advantage of his mistakes. When, on January 16, 1756, the Anglo-Prussian, and on May 2, 1756 the Franco-Austrian alliances formed, Vorontsov advocated the accession of Russia to the latter league, whereas Bestuzhev insisted on a subsidy treaty with Great Britain. But his influence had started to wane. The totally unexpected Anglo-Prussian alliance had justified the arguments of his enemies that England seemed impossible, while his hatred of France prevented him from adopting the only alternative of an alliance with her.

To prevent underground intrigues, Bestuzhev now proposed the erection of a council of ministers to settle all important affairs, and its first session (14 March–30 March 1756) proposed an alliance with Austria, France and Poland against Frederick II, though Bestuzhev opposed any composition with France. He endeavoured to support his failing credit by a secret alliance with the grand-duchess Catherine, whom he proposed to raise to the throne instead of her Holstein husband, Peter, from whom Bestuzhev expected nothing good either for himself or for Russia. He conducted negotiations through the Pole Stanislaus Poniatowski.

The accession of Russia to the anti-Prussian coalition (1756) of the Seven Years' War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...

 (1756–1763) occurred over Bestuzhev's head, and the cowardice and incapacity of his friend, the Russian commander-in-chief, Stephen Apraksin

Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin

Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin , a relative of Fyodor M. Apraksin, commanded the Russian armies during the Seven Years' War. He should not be confused with his son Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin, who had a notable military career in the service of Catherine the Great....

, after winning the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf

Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf

The Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf was a victory for the Russian force under Field Marshal Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin over a smaller Prussian force commanded by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt, during the Seven Years' War.- Background :...

 (August 30, 1757), became the pretext for overthrowing the chancellor. His unwillingness to agree to the coalition became magnified in opposition accounts into a determination to defeat it, though obviously that he could only gain by the humiliation of Frederick, and his opponents never proved anything against him.

Nevertheless he lost the chancellorship and suffered banishment to his estate at Goretovo (April 1759), where he remained till the accession of Catherine II (June 28, 1762). Catherine recalled him to court and made him a field marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

. However, he took no leading part in affairs and died on April 21, 1768, the last of his race.