Count Nikolay Semyonovich Mordvinov (17 April 1754 – 30 March 1845) was one of the most reputable 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...

n political thinkers of Alexander I

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

's reign. He is associated with the reforms of Mikhail Speransky

Mikhail Speransky

Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was probably the greatest of Russian reformers during the reign of Alexander I of Russia. He was a close advisor to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and later to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, he is sometimes called the father of Russian liberalism.-Early life and...

, who he advised on the ways to improve the performance of the national economy.

Mordvinov was an admiral's son and started his career in the Navy at an early age. An Anglophile like his peer Chichagov

Vasili Chichagov

Vasili Yakovlevich Chichagov was an admiral in the Russian Navy and an explorer. He was the father of Pavel Chichagov, a Russian admiral during the Napoleonic Wars.-Background:...

, he spent three years — from 1774 to 1777 - serving on English ships in British North America

British North America

British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...

. In 1783, he accompanied Chichagov during his expedition into the Mediterranean. However, he felt ill at ease with Potemkin's and De Ribas

José de Ribas

José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons known in Russia as Osip Mikhailovich Deribas was a Russian admiral of Spanish-Irish origin who founded the city of Odessa...

's management of the Imperial Russian Navy

Imperial Russian Navy

The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

 and retired in the late 1780s.

His career took a leap forward under Emperor Paul, who shared his intense dislike of Potemkin's coterie and recalled Mordvinov to service with the rank of Admiral. In 1799, he was appointed Vice-President of the Admiralty. Three years later, when the Admiralty was transformed into the Navy Ministry, he became the first Navy Minister of Imperial Russia, but ceded this post to Pavel Chichagov

Pavel Chichagov

Pavel Vasilievich Chichagov or Tchichagov was a Russian military and naval commander of the Napoleonic wars.He was born in 1767 in Saint Petersburg, the son of Admiral Vasili Chichagov and his English wife. At the age of 12 he was enlisted in the Guard. In 1782 he served in a campaign in the...

 within three months.

Mordvinov's independent-mindedness and Anglophile way of life made him a darling of the Muscovite society. In 1806, the Muscovite nobility elected him to lead a volunteer corps rallied against Napoleon. He became particularly popular with young liberals, who admired his courage to oppose the government when needed. Both Kondraty Ryleev and Alexander Pushkin dedicated enthusiastic poems to him.

He considered serfdom

Serfdom

Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...

 to be the main obstacle to the successful economic development of
Russia, and wrote that “Freedom, property, enlightenment and justice are the
main and only origins of wealth”. He also advocated free enterprise, principles
of private property and, like Vorontsov

Vorontsov

Vorontsov, also Woronzow, Woroncow is a celebrated Russian family, which attained the dignity of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire in 1744 and Serene Princes of the Russian Empire in 1852....

, defended a protectionist customs tariff.

In 1823, Mordvinov was elected President of the Free Economic Society

Free Economic Society

Free Economic Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture and Husbandry was Russia's first learned society which formally did not depend on the government and as such came to be regarded as a bulwark of Russian liberalism.-18th century:...

, a high-profile position which he filled for 17 years. During his term in office, he outlined his economic views in a number of writings. Mordvinov died at the age of 90 in St Petersburg.

Honours and awards

• Order of St. Andrew
  Order of St. Andrew
  The Order of St. Andrew the First-Called is the first and the highest order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.- Russian Empire :The Order was established in 1698 by Tsar Peter the Great, in honour of Saint Andrew, the first apostle of Jesus and patron saint of Russia...
  
  
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  The Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.-History:The introduction of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was planned by Emperor Peter I of Russia...
  
  
• Order of St. Vladimir
  Order of St. Vladimir
  The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
  
  , 1st class
• Order of St. Anne
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
  , 1st class