Melgunov, Alexey Petrovich

Born on February 9 ( 20 ), 1722 , the son of the St. Petersburg vice-governor Pyotr Naumovich Melgunov and his wife Euphemia Vasilievna, nee. Rimsky-Korsakova (1705-1762). He was brought up in the land gentry corps . He knew German well . He was a page in the court of Elizaveta Petrovna . Commanded the Ingermanland Infantry Regiment .

Since 1756, the adjutant (with the rank of foreman ) Pyotr Fedorovich , was in the circle of his closest associates.

On December 28, 1761, he was promoted to major general , and in February, to lieutenant general ; accepted denunciations of "intent on the first and second paragraph." He participated in the preparation of the most important legislative acts of Peter III, which opened up the prospect of progressive transformations (manifesto on the destruction of the Secret Chancellery , decree on the liberties of the nobility , etc.) Peter III granted him 1000 souls and land in the capital, appointed him a member of the Special Assembly under the emperor . February 10, 1761 was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .

At the time of the overthrow of Peter III on June 28, 1762, he remained faithful to the emperor, for which he paid with arrest and disgrace, but Catherine II soon invited him back to service and in 1764 appointed him governor-general of the Novorossiysk province . He proved himself to be a skilled and enlightened administrator, organized a printing house in the fortress of St. Elizabeth , was the first to carry out archaeological excavations of Scythian barrows on the Dnieper (gold and silver items from barrows made up the “ Melgunov treasure ” in the Hermitage) ^{[1] [2]} . Compiled a report on the reform of public education in Russia.

In 1765, he was "granted to Moscow by the Senator and the Chamber Board President." He was a deputy of the Committee on the Compilation of the New Code (1767), the director of state distilleries.

From 1777 until the end of his life he was a rank of real secret adviser and was Yaroslavl , and from 1780 he was also the Vologda governor-general . At different times, the territory under his control included the Vologda, Kostroma, Arkhangelsk lands.

April 1, 1777 arrived in Yaroslavl . He took his task not purely administratively and did not at all try to formally limit himself to the establishment of a government system introduced at that time by Catherine II in Russia. The authorities, in his opinion, realized themselves not by despotic coercion, but on the basis of the European concept of enlightened monarchism . It is based on the idea of ​​a social contract, the consent of the estates, leading to the common good. In governorate, he implemented a program of activities that combined educational and Masonic ideas and ideals. Faith, law, mercy are the cornerstones of the Melgunov rule.

Melgunov had to create a province from scratch: map new cities, develop trade and industry in them, stimulate the development of education, culture, charity. He organized the administrative apparatus of governorate, fought against abuses in state institutions, for the approval of the rule of law. He conducted a study of the territory of the governorate, organized its topographical description. During the reign of Melgunov, the cities of Rybinsk, Mologa, Poshekhonye, ​​Myshkin, Danilov, Petrovsk and Borisoglebsk were formed. Everywhere, carte blanche received trade, especially bread, including wholesale and intermediary. Melgunov eagerly helped in the construction of factories, gave incentives to an enterprising merchant ... He owned the project of the North Catherine Canal, connecting Dvina and Kama. One of the first Melgunov began the implementation of a new judicial reform.

He had a reputation as a kindhearted person, a humane official who condemned cruelty, even the one permitted by law. It is known, in particular, that he sought punishment of savage landowners, using all means, up to the appeal to the empress. He founded a prison in Korovniki, thereby civilizing the conditions of imprisonment. In 1781, he initiated and carried out a secret mission: he organized the sending from the prison in Kholmogory to Denmark of the family of the Braunschweig prince Anton Ulrich - potential candidates for the throne; at the same time he treated the Braunschweig family as humanely and noble as possible.

Melgunov combined fruitful administrative activities with various cultural activities. His works ensured the cultural flourishing in the region. He tried to transfer to Yaroslavl all forms of metropolitan cultural life. The theaters in Yaroslavl and Vologda, the first provincial private printing house in Russia, the first Russian provincial magazine, a gymnasium and a school in Yaroslavl, a sailing school in Kholmogory, a shelter for old and homeless people and a system for helping the starving — all this testified to an extraordinary request and design of the governor, rebuilt the culture of his capital.

Gives Yaroslavl the features of an administrative and cultural center of great vicariousness. Under his leadership, a redevelopment of the center of Yaroslavl took place in the spirit of classicism, the governor for the first time "gave Yaroslavl the look of a European city" (local historian V. Listvitsyn ). A meaningful conceptual project was laid down in the city plan. The main spiritual accents in its landscape are temples that have closed the perspectives of the streets. Yaroslavl streets lead to the temple, symbolizing the path of a Christian; any movement along them can be perceived as a movement towards God. In the semantic series of the central, Ilyinsky Square, faith was united with the law: the Church of Elijah the Prophet was adjacent to the Government Places and the governor's palace. The corps of the Government Office, as a frame of law, encloses a square, in the center of it is a temple - a center of eternity, a source of grace. The dedication of the temple to the prophet Elijah takes on special significance: the temple is an embodied prophetic word - prediction, teaching and communion - this is a bright prophecy about Paradise, about the return of direct communion with God. The Temple of Elijah is primarily a symbol of Paradise. Enclosures for Offices may be understood as sheets of an open book of the Law. The word of the Law revealed itself to the prophetic word, constantly correlating with it, for complete harmonious correspondence. The governor’s palace was to ensure his constant presence in this center of the true word - as the guarantor of the triumphant order, the servant of the doubly expressed Truth.

The largest philanthropist in the Russian province of the XVIII century (outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow). Basically, he donated to charity business the income from the sale at the beginning of his Yaroslavl reign of Yelagin Island in St. Petersburg (Melgunov Island in 1776-1793) and property in Moscow in the Triumfalnaya Square area. Not far from Ilyinskaya Square, he created the Neighborhood Charity House (1786), which was built and (mainly) maintained by philanthropists, the main of whom was Melgunov himself, a unique cultural and spiritual center in the Russian province of those years. First of all, this is a hotbed of wide charity, the embodiment of the covenant of generous alms. His plan, embodied in life, combined the viceroy’s concerns for spiritual help (there was a church at the House), religious and secular education (the school functioned here, the printing house was probably at the same time) and charity (children and old people lived in the house in full content). Distributed 400 alphabet, centrally purchased by him at the Academy of Sciences. In the provision of the House, it was written that those in need “can at any time come to the House of Charity either by themselves or by letting themselves know through whom they will be accepted immediately.” He rightly called the House of Charity the best monument to Melgunov Prot. John Troitsky, author of the first book about Yaroslavl. The local historian L.N. Trefolev also agreed with him, declaring the House "an eternal monument" to its founder.

The most important components of Masonic education in Yaroslavl were Melgunov’s home theater and the first Russian provincial magazine “The Solitary Pecheron”, published with his direct participation, through which an attempt was made to spiritually awaken the local society, to introduce it to new feelings and thoughts, to the most important problems of mankind. Melgunov also collected “for the Hermitage“ some remnants of Zyryan ancient papers ”.

He loved science and was engaged in a lot of German literature. Loving “splendor” and fun, Melgunov often treated officials, merchants and the nobility in Yaroslavl and the St. Petersburg aristocracy in Mishin (now Elagin Island ); one of the Misha celebrations (1776) was sung by G.R. Derzhavin .

He died on July 2 (13), 1788, was buried in the hospital church of the All-Merciful Savior of the Tolgsky Monastery near Yaroslavl.

A.P. Melgunov was married twice and had two children:

• The first wife is Margarita Parmenovna Lermant ^[3] , one of the favorite palace girls of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
• The second wife from May 1, 1766, Natalia Ivanovna Saltykova (1742-1782), the youngest of the sisters of His Grace Prince Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov . Natalia Ivanovna shared her lush and cheerful life with her husband, she was the hostess at the luxurious holidays given on the island of Yelagin and Primorsky Dvor that he visited and visited by Catherine II, and then in Yaroslavl, after Melgunov was appointed governor of Yaroslavl. After the arrest of her aunt, the famous " Saltychikha ", Natalia Ivanovna took her young sons to the upbringing. She died in Yaroslavl and was buried in the Tolgsky monastery, near Yaroslavl. Six years later, her husband was buried next to her. Two children:
• Vladimir Alekseevich (d. 1804), lieutenant of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment .
• Ekaterina Alekseevna (1770-1853), stats lady, wife of General Prince D.P. Volkonsky , who did more than anyone else for the prosperity of the Sukhanovo estate near Moscow.

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  Natalia Ivanovna

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  Catherine. Portrait of a brush by Leonty Miropolsky

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  Dmitry Volkonsky

Chevalier of Russian orders:

• St. Andrew the First-Called (1780),
• Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky (1761),
• The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir of the first degree (1785).

Cavalier of the Holstein Order of St. Anne (1762).

• Melgunov Alexey Petrovich . Official website of the Government of the Vologda Oblast
• Chronos biography
• Melgunov, Alexei Petrovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Ermolin E.A. , Sevastyanova A.A. Inflamed to the Fatherland with love. Yaroslavl 200 years ago: culture and people. Yaroslavl, 1990.
• Ermolin E.A. , Yaroslavl style. Yaroslavl, 2007.
• Trefolev L.N. Alexey Petrovich Melgunov, Governor-General of Catherine’s Times // Russian Archive, 1865. - Ed. 2nd. - M., 1866. - St. 873-952. - Appendix: Fortunatov F. Notes and additions of a Vologzhanin to an article about A.P. Melgunov (From the stock of family papers and memory)
• A person who is very useful to the state / Governor Alexei Melgunov became the godfather of Ust-Sysolsk
• Smirnov Y. E. Alexei Petrovich Melgunov . - Yaroslavl: Yaroslav the Wise, 2011 .-- 72 p.