Stepanov, Alexander Petrovich

Alexander Petrovich Stepanov was born on May 4, 1781 in the village of Zenovka, Kaluga province , in a family from the old noble family of the Stepanovs ^[3] . Father - Pyotr Semyonovich Stepanov - retired prime minister, court counselor , Kozelsky mayor (d. 1791). Mother - Pelageya Stepanovna Kashtalinskaya (d. 1826), one of the heirs to her uncle, chief ceremonies of the master M.F. Kashtalinsky .

After the death of his father, he was brought up in the guesthouse of a professor at Moscow University, B. B. Shaden. Since 1793 he studied at the noble boarding house of Moscow University. Upon graduation, he served in the army in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment . Transferred by ensign to the Moscow Grenadier Regiment . He served in the headquarters of A.V. Suvorov , participated in the Italian campaign . For his literary works, he received the nickname “Little Demosthenes” from Suvorov.

In Russia, he was adjutant to the Starooskol Musketeer Regiment of General Bykov . He married the daughter of General Bykov - Ekaterina Fedoseevna. In 1801 he retired with the rank of captain . Since December 5, 1802 in the service of the Department of Justice. In 1804 he received the title of college assessor .

Since August 1, 1804 - prosecutor in Kaluga . In 1809 he received the rank of college adviser . On January 5, 1812, he retired with the intention of enlisting in the military.

He participated in the Patriotic War of 1812 . In 1812 - 1814 worked under the leadership of Senator Kaverin, who was in charge of army food, and then the restoration of provinces. After the war, he again resigned. Settled in his estate Lovat Zhizdrinsky county . He raised children, wrote the poem "Suvorov". Having identified sons in the Noble boarding house, he went to Petersburg . Since 1822 he was an honorary member of the Imperial Society of Naturalists and a member of the Moscow Agricultural Society. Received the rank of state adviser .

Governorship in Krasnoyarsk

In 1822 he was appointed governor of the Yenisei province . He took up his duties on March 28, 1823.

Largely thanks to his assistance, the Minusinsk Tatars (the modern name is the Khakass ) received the rights of nomadic foreigners under the " Statute on the Management of Foreigners " by M. M. Speransky .

During Stepanov’s governorship in Krasnoyarsk there appeared: a pharmacy, a hospital, an order for public charity ( May 2, 1823 , by 1828 there were already 4 almshouses in the city), a city ​​garden , a printing house, a library, and six work houses for exiles. In 1823, the governor founded a scientific society in Krasnoyarsk called "Conversations about the Yenisei Territory."

According to Stepanov’s calculations, there were 77 stone and 24 wooden temples in the Yenisei province. According to official statistics, there are 1,221 literate people in the Yenisei province. At the end of the 1820s , about 25 thousand exiles lived in the province, of which about 4 thousand were women.

A man of progressive views, Stepanov built settlements for exiles, opened bread shops, opened schools, opposed the encumbrance of the peasants with taxes, prosecuted usury, and abuse of officials.

In 1825 he received the rank of State Councilor . In 1831, on a denunciation, he was removed from the governorship without the right to occupy high posts.

April 26, 1831 resigned as civil governor. In honor of the governor in Krasnoyarsk, a lane was named after Stepanov (currently the street of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat).

Governorship in Saratov

Since 1831 he lives in the village of Troitsky, Kaluga province. He composes poems, novels “Mystery”, “Inns”, writes a two-volume work “Description of the Yenisei province”. In 1834 he left for Petersburg to publish the novel The Inn.

December 5, 1835 appointed to the post of Saratov governor. He contributed to the closure of the Irgiz Old Believer monastery , which was the reason for the recall from the province. He was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 03/27/1837 with the appointment of a member of the statistical committee.

Alexander Petrovich died on November 25, 1837. He was buried in a family estate - the village of Troitsky of the Meshchersky district of the Kaluga province.

He began to write poetry at the age of 10. He maintained friendly relations with Mikhail Glinka , Karl Bryullov and especially with the Decembrist Batenkov .

Full member of the Society of lovers of Russian literature at Moscow University (from 02.26.1816). In 1817-1821 he was a member of the Kaluga Evenings literary society, in 1825 he participated in the publication of the Kaluga Evenings, or Excerpts from Works and Translations in Poems and Prose of Military Writers, which included poetic and prose works by members of this literary society.

Author of books and articles:

• "Suvorov." Poem. Published in 1821 in the Proceedings of Moscow University
• "About wild hemp, sin and flax growing in Siberia." Article. 1824 year
• The Instruction, 1824
• "Journey to Kyakhta from Krasnoyarsk." "A look at the physical position of the Minusinsk district." Articles in the Yenisei Almanac, Moscow, 1828
• "On the duties of the governor." Article. 1833 year . Not published.
• "Description of the Yenisei province", 1835 . Labor received the Demidov Prize (2500 rubles) in the "Statistics" section. Nicholas I gave Stepanov a diamond ring for this book.
• "Inn. Notes of the late Goryanov published by his friend N. P. Malov. " Novel. Published in 1835 , St. Petersburg.
• “Entry into the Masonic lodge in 1815” / Communication. P.A. Stepanov // Russian Antiquity, 1870. - T. 1. - Ed. 2nd. - SPb., 1870. - S. 221—227.
• "Admission to the Freemasons in 1815" / Communication. P.A. Stepanov // Russian Antiquity, 1870. - T. 1. - Ed. 3rd - SPb., 1875. - S. 223—229.
• and etc.

• Order of St. Anne of the III degree (per sword) - for the battle of Novi
• Order of St. Anne, II degree ^[4] .
• Order of St. Vladimir IV Degree ^[4]
• Commander's Cross of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem - for crossing St. Gotthard and fighting at the Devil's Bridge
• Order of St. Stanislav I degree - "for useful work on the device of the Yenisei province"

• Nikolai Alexandrovich ( 1807 - 1877 ) - cartoonist
• Peter Alexandrovich ( 1805 - 1891 ) - Russian general, Tsarskoye Selo commandant, writer
  • Philip Petrovich ( 1857 - 1931 ) - the first publisher of the protocols of the Zion of the wise
    • Nikolai Filippovich (1886-1981) - writer and publicist, public figure, author of books on Masonic subjects
  • Mikhail Petrovich (1853-1917) - Russian general, participant in the Russian-Turkish war.

In Krasnoyarsk, on December 7, 2016, a monument was unveiled to the first governor of the Yenisei province ^[5] by sculptors Kovalchuk, Andrei Nikolaevich and Mironov, Alexander Alexandrovich

• Stepanov, Alexander Petrovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1901. - T. XXXIa. - S. 594-595.
• B. Modzalevsky . Stepanov, Alexander Petrovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. , 1909. - T. 19: Smelovsky - Suvorin. - S. 382-385.

• Alexander Petrovich Stepanov
• Stepanov A.P. Adoption of the Freemasons in 1815 / Communication. P.A. Stepanov // Russian Antiquity, 1870. - T. 1. - S. 223—229.
• "Farewell to Siberia" // Krasnoyarsk worker: newspaper. - 2002. - April 5.