Panin, Nikita Ivanovich

According to the pre-revolutionary authors, he was (by mother) the great-grand nephew of His Excellency Prince A. D. Menshikov ; his aunt was the wife of a related imperial family M.I. Leontyev . Born on September 15, 1718 in Danzig , spent his childhood in Pernov , where his father, Ivan Vasilyevich Panin (1673-1736), was a commandant . Brother of General Peter Panin , brother-in-law of diplomats I. I. Neplyuev and A. B. Kurakin .

In 1740, he was promoted to Cornet from the Wahmister of the Horse Guards. Elizaveta Petrovna attracted the attention of himself and at one time was considered a dangerous rival to Razumovsky and Shuvalov .

In 1747 he was appointed ambassador to Denmark , but after a few months he was moved to Stockholm , where he spent 12 years; here he had to fight against the strengthening of royal power (with the weakness of which the Russian government hoped to have more influence), and, therefore, against the representatives of France .

During his stay in Sweden, Panin, according to contemporaries, was imbued with sympathy for the constitutional system . He was a creature of Bestuzhev , and therefore his position with the fall of the latter and with the coup that took place in the half of the 1750s. in Russian politics (the rapprochement between Russia and France , the Anglo-Prussian convention), it became very difficult.

Having a powerful enemy in the person of Count Vorontsov , who replaced Bestuzhev, Panin repeatedly asked for his resignation when he was unexpectedly appointed (June 29, 1760), instead of Bekhteev , the tutor of Pavel Petrovich. Panin became close to Catherine, especially after the death of Elizabeth.

Peter III , although he granted him the rank of Actual Privy Councilor and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called , did not trust him and always kept with him one of his adjutant wings . Panin understood the need for a coup, but, according to Catherine herself, wished him in favor of Pavel Petrovich.

When, after the coup of 1762 , in which Panin himself, along with Dashkova , who was very close to him, took a lively part, the power remained with Catherine, he made, in the opinion of historian S.M. Solovyov , an attempt to limit the arbitrariness of this power by presenting the project to the empress the establishment of the Imperial Council and Senate reform.

In the introduction to the project, Panin, according to the historian, sharply criticized the arbitrariness that prevailed in the administration (“in the conduct of cases, there was always more power of persons than the power of state seats”) and proposed the establishment of a Council of 6-8 ministerial members; all papers that require the signature of the sovereign had to go through this council and be certified by one of the ministers. To the Senate, the project was entitled "to have the freedom to represent the Highest Command, if they ... could obscure the laws or the welfare of the people ."

This project was rejected by the empress. In a letter to Vyazemsky she wrote: “ another thinks that for a long time he has been in this or that land, everything should establish everything according to the politics of this or that of his beloved land ”. Despite this, Panin did not lose his position, most likely due to the exceptional circumstances of Catherine's accession to the throne and his influence on Paul, whose teacher he was; Catherine, in her own words, was afraid to remove him. A more cautious opinion on the rejection of the Panin project was expressed by N. D. Chechulin. ^[1] .

This role of Panin is explained by his position in all subsequent time among the fighting court parties (he always had to fight against the Orlovs ) and his relationship to the empress, who were never sincere and good. Until very recently, he was accused, among other things, of deliberately corrupting Paul and, for his own personal purposes, contributing to the discord between the empress and her son; but Poroshin’s notes show that he was very serious about his task as an educator.

The name Panin is associated with all issues of the foreign policy of the Russian government during the period from 1762 to 1783. As the first unofficial adviser to the empress, he was made a senior member of a foreign college upon dismissal on a vacation of Vorontsov in 1763. Soon then, upon the removal of Bestuzhev, he was entrusted with managing all the collegial affairs, although he was never chancellor. The resolution of questions about Russia's relations to the states of Northern Europe led Panin to create a system of the so-called “Northern Union”, or “ Northern Chord ”, which brought him to charge of doctrinaire. With this system, Panin wanted, to exalt the prestige and significance of Russia, to create an alliance of all the northern powers around it, to counter the aspirations of the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties; to this end, he tried - generally unsuccessfully - to unite states whose interests were completely opposite, such as Prussia with England and Saxony.

Frederick II , who needed an alliance only with Russia, impeded the implementation of the Panin project. When implementing this system, Panin drew his main attention to the attitude towards Sweden , and his policy in this direction was very unsuccessful: his attempt to subordinate Sweden exclusively to Russian influence and eliminate French cost Russia enormous money and did not lead to the desired result. As if seeking an excuse for armed intervention, Panin announced the slightest change to the Swedish constitution as an excuse for breaking up; but when, in 1772, Gustav III restored the autocracy, Russia, occupied by the Turkish war, had to come to terms with this, and the matter went without a war with Sweden, especially thanks to the intervention of Frederick II.

Along with the question of the "Northern Chord", questions of relations with Poland and Prussia should have been resolved. Panin entered into an alliance with Prussia, giving Russia the opportunity to expand its influence in Poland. Until 1772, he did not seem to be such a blind supporter of Prussia as he was exhibited. He sought to include Poland, in its entirety, in the sphere of influence of Russia, and was not inclined to share this influence, and even more so - the territory of Poland itself.

To a certain extent, Russian politics owed his energy to the enthronement of Stanislav Ponyatovsky; no less energetically and quite in agreement with Catherine Panin acted on the dissident issue, seeing the expansion of the rights of dissidents as strengthening Russian influence; However, he could not carry out all his demands in this direction. On the issue of the destruction of liberum veto, Panin for some time disagreed with both Catherine and Frederick, believing that strengthening Poland could only be beneficial for Russia, which would have a useful ally in it. But he did not foresee the complications that threatened interference in the internal affairs of Poland, and was completely unprepared for the outbreak of war with Turkey in 1768. This war had a very adverse effect on his situation; blame him for all failures; he was guilty of breaking up with Turkey and of the fact that Russia remained in this struggle without allies. At the same time, Frederick II took advantage of this war to carry out the long-held project of dividing Poland between Austria, Russia and Prussia. The agreement on this occasion led to the end of the war with Turkey, as it eliminated the intervention of Austria; Turkey alone could not fight for a long time. It was impossible to look at the acquisition of part of Poland as a victory, since Austria and Prussia received the best parts for nothing. Panin was reproached for strengthening Prussia; Orlov said that people who made a separate agreement deserve the death penalty. From this time on, Panin’s situation became especially difficult, he remained a supporter of an alliance with Prussia, and the empress was more and more inclined towards Austria; at the same time, the discord between her and Paul, whose closest friend and adviser he was, intensified.

In 1771–72, the struggle between the Panin and Orlov parties was especially strong. When it was decided that Paul would marry, he managed to secure an influence on his future wife. Catherine was very unhappy with this intervention of Panin in her family affairs and took advantage of Pavel’s marriage to remove him from the position of educator. She gifted him richly; in 1773, he became the first-ever true secret adviser of the 1st class (which corresponded to the rank of state chancellor). At the same time, the empress joyfully wrote (October 1773) to Ms. Bielke that "her house was cleansed."

The relationship between Catherine and the two Panin brothers (see Peter Ivanovich Panin ) was very strained; with extreme displeasure, she appointed Peter Panin as commander in chief against Pugachev . The story written by the Decembrist M.A. Fonvizin dates back to this time about the drafted, as if only D.I. Fonvizin , who was the secretary of Panin, under the guidance of Panin himself, the draft constitution and the plot against Catherine.

After the death of Paul’s first wife and after his marriage to Maria Feodorovna, Panin managed to maintain his influence on the young court, so that even the parents of the latter acted according to his instructions; he used this influence to maintain his former position and defend the alliance with Prussia, which expired in 1777. Raised by Panin, Paul was an ardent admirer of Frederick II. When, after Cheshen’s peace, Catherine finally leaned to the side of Austria, Panin had to come to grips with the influence of Joseph II , who eventually managed to get closer to the Grand Duchess, proposing to marry off Maria Feodorovna’s sister as his nephew, heir to the Austrian throne.

Catherine was very unhappy with Panin's machinations against this marriage; rumors were circulating about his disgrace at the beginning of 1781. Panin’s disgrace is somewhat unclear, both with his activities on the declaration of “ armed neutrality ” and with his relationship to Potemkin , who, together with the British ambassador Harris, acted against him. The question of who owns the initiative of the declaration of 1780, that is, Panin or Catherine, remains open. In May 1781, Panin took a vacation and retired to the Dugino estate granted to him, but in September of that year he returned to Petersburg and tried to delay Pavel’s overseas trip, which was supposed to entail even closer rapprochement between the “young court” and Joseph II.

During this overseas trip, Panin maintained correspondence with Paul. At the same time, the famous Bibikov case was played out; in Bibikov ’s censored letters to Kurakin (a close relative and friend of Panin), accompanying Pavel Petrovich, Catherine read complaints about the suffering of the fatherland and the “sad situation of all good-minded people”. Catherine attached great importance to this matter and was looking for more important persons for Bibikov and Kurakin. Upon the return of the young couple from abroad, Paul’s relationship with Panin somewhat changed for the worse. March 31, 1783 Panin died.

During the last years allotted to him, together with his brother, General Peter Panin, he prepared a constitutional draft, which, after the death of Panin himself and his brother, the trustees of the latter transferred to the reigning Paul I. This was the first constitutional draft in Russian history. It consisted of two parts. The first - the preamble - explained why Russia needs a government subject to "fundamental and indispensable laws." The second part was a draft of the constitution (without using this word), which Peter Panin made on the basis of conversations with his dying brother. In the preamble, Nikita Panin emphasized that the supreme power is entrusted to the sovereign "for the common good of his subjects." He proceeded from the premise that the source of power of each government is in the agreement between the people and the ruler, which the people chose to govern it, and that the foundations of power are only such. It followed that the emperor could not act arbitrarily, but must respect the laws. Where “where arbitrariness is the supreme law”, there is “a strong common bond and cannot exist”, there is no usual bundle of “mutual rights and obligations” connecting the ruler and his subjects; it is a state, not a fatherland, it is a citizen, not a citizen. Such a state is weak: it is a “colossus held in chains. The chains are broken, the colossus falls and collapses by itself. "Despotism, heard from anarchy, rarely returns to it very rarely." ^[2] Panin emphasizes the importance of private property, which before that was not in Russia and the subject of political theory ^[3] . Political freedom, he wrote, is inextricably linked to property rights. It is nothing more than a right to use:

But without liberty to use, what does it mean? Equally, this liberty cannot exist without a right; for then she would have no purpose; therefore, it is obvious that one cannot violate liberties without destroying property rights, and one cannot destroy property rights without violating liberties.

- In the same place. S.11

Freedom, combined with ownership, is the foundation of national welfare. In this outline of the basic law, it was established that the Russian ruler was Orthodox, but other religions had the right to free circulation. The inheritance of the throne, broken after Peter the Great, must be streamlined. The rights of each estate were proclaimed in the headings, but were not explained below. Every citizen can do everything that is not prohibited by law; all courts send activities publicly. New taxes are not introduced without preliminary discussion in the Council of Ministers and its staff. In the midst of the traditionally unbridled autocracy, Panin’s Western ideas were a counterbalance manifesting liberal values. After many years, this document influenced the Decembrists M. S. Lunin and N. M. Muravyov , the author of the draft constitution. ^[four]

Pavel could immortalize his gratitude to Panin only after the death of Catherine, erecting a monument to him in the church of St. Magdalen in Pavlovsk . Catherine, comparing Panin and Orlov in a letter to Grimm , puts the latter much higher and says that Panin had many major flaws, but he knew how to hide them.

Count Panin was one of the most educated Russian people of his time, so, according to foreign ambassadors, he "looked more like a German"; Catherine called it an encyclopedia . He was interested in a wide variety of issues from the field of state knowledge and was familiar with many classical works of philosophical literature . One of the people closest to him, the famous Fonvizin , points to a humane way of thinking and a strict sense of legality in eloquent words; some freedom of thought in matters of faith is evidenced by the fact that, when Platon Levshin was invited to lawmakers to Pavel Petrovich, Panin was most interested in whether he was superstitious , and in a letter to Vorontsov, who was ill from lean food, he said that the law does not require the ruin of health, and the ruin of passions, " it’s hardly possible to fix the hedgehog with mushrooms and repo .

Panin belonged to the Freemasons . About his honesty and kindness and in his time there were no two different opinions; even his enemies respected him as a proud and honest person. Of the 9,000 souls that he received at the time of Paul’s marriage, he distributed half to his secretaries, Fonvizin, Ubri and Bakunin.

Panin was a sybarite by nature, he liked to live well; according to Bezborodko, he had the best cook in the city. In the capital, he occupied the house of P.V. Zavadovsky on Bolshaya Morskaya Street , 20. The French diplomat Lavo wrote down the routine of the Tsar’s Minister ^[5] :

He was very fond of food, women and the game; from constant food and sleep, his body represented one mass of fat. He got up at noon; his companions told him funny things for up to an hour; then he drank chocolate and set to work on the toilet, which lasted up to three hours. About half past four a dinner was served, which dragged on for up to five hours. At six, the minister went to rest and slept until eight. His lackeys needed a lot of work to wake him, lift him up and make him stand on his feet. At the end of the second toilet, a game began, ending at about eleven. The game was followed by dinner, and after dinner, the game began again. At about three in the morning, the minister went to his house and worked with Bakunin , the chief official of his department. He went to bed usually at five in the morning.

Panin was not married, but the passion for women was often blamed on him. His bride was Countess Anna Sheremeteva , who died of smallpox in 1768. In his declining years, rumor called him "an intimate friend" Maria Talyzina , a woman monstrously fat. It is known for certain that they together were engaged in the upbringing of their nephews, the princes Kurakin ( Alexander and Alexei ), when they lost their parents.

For all the versatile activities that Panin had to show, he was very lazy and slow. Catherine said that he would someday die from being in a hurry.

The translator of the College of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Pakarin, posed as the son of Catherine II and Nikita Panin ^{[6] [7]} .

• Emelyan Pugachev - Igor Gorbachev
• Mikhailo Lomonosov - Alexander Shvorin
• Imperial Hunt - Anatoly Shvedersky
• Favorite - Valery Kukhareshin
• The Catherine Musketeers - Yuri Tomoshevsky
• Great - Vladimir Krylov
• Catherine. Takeoff - Sergey Koltakov

• Braudo A.I. Panin, Nikita Ivanovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Gavryushkin A.V. Count Count Nikita Panin: From the History of Russian Diplomacy of the 18th Century . - M .: International Relations , 1989. - 176, [8] p. - ( From the history of diplomacy ). - 50,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7133-0261-7 .
• Elizabeth I. Instructions to the Obergofmeister during his imperial highness, sovereign Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, Mr. General Lieutenant, chamberlain and gentleman Nikita Ivanovich Panin. 1761 / Communication L. N. Trefolev // Russian Archive, 1881. - Prince. 1. - Vol. 1. - S. 17-21.
• De parello. The image and characteristics of the persons occupying the first and main places at the Petersburg court. (1783) / Publ. N. Grigorovich // Russian Archive, 1875. - Prince. 2. - Vol. 6. - S. 113-125.
• Panin N.I. The most comprehensive presentation of a weak concept and opinion on the upbringing of his imperial highness, sovereign Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. Note by Count N.I. Panin. 1760 / Communication T. A. Sosnovsky // Russian antiquity, 1882. - T. 35. - No. 11. - S. 313-320.