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Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov

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Pyotr Shuvalov in 1850.

Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov(Russian:Граф Пётр Андре́евич Шува́лов) (27 July 1827,Saint Petersburg– 22 March 1889, Saint Petersburg) was an influentialRussianstatesman and a counselor toTsarAlexander II.

Biography

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Pyotr Andreyevich came from theShuvalov familywhich has been prominent in the Russian culture and politics since the mid-18th century. His father, Count Andrey Petrovich Shuvalov, was a prominent figure at the courts ofNicholas I of RussiaandAlexander II of Russia.His mother was Thekla Ignatyevna Walentinowicz,Prince Zubov's widow and heiress. CountPavel Andreyevich Shuvalovwas his brother.Rundāle Palacewas notable family estate.

After graduating from theCorps of Pages,Pyotr Shuvalov rose through the ranks of Alexander II'sretinue,makingwing adjutant,major generalof the retinue andadjutant generalin short order. In 1857 he was put in charge of theSaint Petersburgpolice and went toFrancefor training.

In 1860 Shuvalov was appointed director of the Department of General Affairs of theMinistry of Internal Affairsand, in 1861, was made Chief of Staff of theSpecial Corps of Gendarmes.He proposed for the Corps to be abolished, which contributed to his reputation as aliberaland anAnglophile.His plan was rejected, and he resigned in late 1861. He served elsewhere in the early 1860s and, in 1864, was appointedgovernor-generalof theBaltic region.

AfterDmitry Karakozov's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Alexander II in April 1866, Shuvalov was made Chief ofGendarmesand Executive Head of theThird Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery,aministerialposition at the time. He formed a group of similarly-minded moderate ministers (A. P.Bobrinsky,S. A. Greig, K. I. Pahlen,Dmitriy Tolstoy) and, with the help of the Tsar'sconfidantField MarshalAleksandr Baryatinskiy,pursued a policy of moderate reform. Politically, he was simultaneously opposed to theSlavophilesand the so-calledRussian Partyas well as to the more liberal reformers like Minister of WarDmitry MilyutinandGrand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.[1]

Shuvalov was in favor of developing local self-government but on the basis of strengthening the political position of the landedgentry.In the long run, he envisioned a system of national representation with aconstitutionand a bicameralparliament,modelled on the earlier aristocratic English model, but he disclosed his parliamentary ideas only in 1881, when he had safely retired:[2]

Pyotr Shuvalov
an advisory assembly can bring no benefit whatsoever. One must openly introduce a constitutional system by establishing two houses and giving them a decisive voice. If this cannot be done immediately, one must, at least, erect a foundation upon which real representative government could eventually arise.

Shuvalov continued his predecessors' reforms although more cautiously. He reorganizedzemstvosin 1870 and overhauled the military in 1874, reducing the length of service from 15 years to 6. At the same time, he strengthened the government's censorship system and limited the zemstvos' taxation powers.[3]In 1872, he was promoted General of the Cavalry (1872), a rank equivalent to fullGeneralin other armies.

In 1873, Shuvalov was sent toLondonon a mission to arrange a marriage betweenGrand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russiaand theDuke of Edinburgh.The mission was a success and the two married in January 1874. Shuvalov was also supposed to reassure the British government that Alexander II had no plans to conquer theCentral AsianKhanate of Khiva.Although Khiva fell to Russian troops in 1874, he was able to blame it on the generals' excess of zeal and so it did not damage Shuvalov's reputation in London.[4]

In April 1874, theCommittee of Ministersapproved the creation of an experimental commission with representation fromZemstvo,local gentry and cities. Although the commission was charged only with reviewing a single previously prepared bill on hiring agricultural laborers, the very notion was apparently deemed so radical that in November 1874, Shuvalov was sent into honorary exile asambassadortoLondon.However, other more mundane explanations for his downfall, boasting about his influence on the tsar[5]or making an incautious remark about his mistressCatherine Dolgorukov,[6]have also been suggested.

Shuvalov played an important role in the negotiations between Russia andGreat Britainduring and after theRusso-Turkish War, 1877-1878and was instrumental in avoiding conflict between the two powers after theTreaty of San Stefano.With the conclusion of theTreaty of Berlin, 1878,Russian public opinion turned against him since he was seen as too conciliatory and too willing to yield to British and especiallyGermandemands. Although Alexander II at first resisted public pressure to remove Shuvalov, further deterioration of Russo-German relations in 1879 forced him into retirement.

Notes

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  • ^See Richard S. Wortman.Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy. Volume Two: From Alexander to the Abdication of Nicholas II,Princeton University Press, 2000,ISBN0-691-02947-4p. 114
  • ^See:
  • ^See Walter Moss.Alexander II and His Times: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky,Anthem Press, 2002,ISBN1-898855-59-5,295p.Part III
  • ^See Thomas S. Pearson.Russian Officialdom in Crisis: Autocracy and Local Self-Government, 1861-1900,Cambridge University Press, 1989, paperback edition 2004,ISBN0-521-89446-8p. 38
  • ^See Adam Bruno Ulam.Prophets and Conspirators in Pre-Revolutionary Russia,Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, 1998 (2nd expanded edition),ISBN0-7658-0443-3pp. 173–174.
  • ^See Peter Julicher.Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars,McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC, 2003,ISBN0-7864-1612-2p. 188.

References

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  • Weeks Jr, Richard G. "Peter Shuvalov and the Congress of Berlin: A Reinterpretation."Journal of Modern History51.S1 (1979): D1055-D1070.online
  • Valentina G. Chernukha and Boris V. Anan'ich. "Russia Falls Back, Russia Catches Up: Three Generations of Russian Reformers" inReform in Modern Russian History: Progress Or Cycle?,tr. and ed. Theodore Taranovski, Cambridge University Press, 1995,ISBN0-521-45177-9(Papers from a conference entitled "Reform in Russian and Soviet History -- Its Meaning and Function" held May 5-May 7, 1990, organized by the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Shuválov, Peter Andreivich, Count".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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