Volkonsky, Grigory Petrovich

He came from the family of princes Volkonsky . The son of His Grace Prince Peter Mikhailovich Volkonsky (1776-1852), Field Marshal and Minister of the Imperial Court and inheritances ; mother - Princess Sofya Grigoryevna Volkonskaya (1785-1868), state lady.

Service

He received home education, from 1819 he studied at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa , but in 1820 he left it at the request of his father, who was dissatisfied with the setting up of the academic case at the Lyceum and decided to send his son to Paris, where he finished his education.

Upon returning from abroad, in 1822 Volkonsky joined the College of Foreign Affairs as a student. In 1828 he was ranked as a Russian mission in Naples; in 1829 made a junk chamber. From 1830, he was an official of the Asian Department, from 1831 to 1839 he was the head of the boarders and the head of the archaeological commission of the Academy of Arts in Rome , established " for the search for antiquities ." From 1835 - chamberlain, from the beginning of the 1840s Volkonsky was in the Russian mission at the papal court.

In 1839-1842, he was an assistant to the trustee, and in 1842-1845, he was the trustee of the Petersburg school district , and from 1845, he was the trustee of the Odessa school district . Since 1847, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an honorary member of St. Petersburg University, since 1850 an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts . In 1852 he was bestowed with the court rank of "in the position of a hofmeister", in 1862 - the rank of hofmeister.

Died in Nice; Prince Volkonsky’s body was transported and buried in his estate in the village of Semenovka (Seimeny village, Bessarabian region ) next to his mother. Later, the ashes of Prince Volkonsky were reburied three times. His second wife reburied him in the cathedral church of Akkerman ^[2] . In 1962, while repairing the floor of the church, which was adapted for the school gym, the burial place was desecrated and plundered, and the remains of the prince and his relatives were reburied in the city cemetery. In the early 1990s, Volkonsky's ashes were reburied near the northern wall of St. George's Church ^[3] .

The musician, for his magnificent bass, he was nicknamed in the society "second Lablash ." He was friends with the tenor Roubini . Belonged to the circle of the Vielgorsky brothers and V.F. Odoyevsky , where he met with Pushkin . Participating in the performances of the imperial theater, according to A. O. Smirnova ^[4] : "Gregoire Volkonsky made a splash with his voice." Count D. M. Buturlin, an amateur singer himself, wrote about the voice of Volkonsky ^[5] :

According to the recollections of Prince S.M. Volkonsky , Grigory Petrovich was a typical representative of the aristocratic bohemia. In Rome, where he lived for many years, he patronized Russian artists. His palazzo Salviati was the only private house where Pope Pius IX let the singing Sistine Chapel sing. Extremely generous and wasteful, he never bought individually, always in dozens. He was kind and gentle ^[6] .

The first wife (from 1838) - Countess Maria Alexandrovna Benkendorf (05.23.1820 - 04.11.1880), godmother of Empress Maria Fedorovna, maid of honor, daughter of Count A. H. Benckendorf . Hanselt's apprentice, who dedicated her romance in B flat minor . Almost constantly lived abroad. According to a contemporary, Princess Volkonskaya, “a permanent inhabitant of Rome, was one of the most charming women you can imagine: tall, thin, with harmonious, graceful movements of a fragile body, with a beautiful pale face and luxurious blond hair” ^[7] . Inherited the family estate of Schloss Fall . Her marriage was not happy, and for the last twelve years of her life she lived separately from her husband, while he, “addicted” and “weak-willed,” lived in complete isolation from his family. Died of a stomach ailment in Rome, buried in a family cemetery in Keila Joa Park. There were two children in the marriage:

• Elizaveta Grigoryevna (1838-1897), author of books on Catholic apologetics and the book “The Clan of the Volkonsky Princes”. She was married to a Russian statesman, Prince Mikhail Sergeyevich Volkonsky , with whom she had sons: Sergey (1860-1937, Russian theater figure, director, writer), Peter (1861-1948, leader of the nobility), Alexandra (1866-1934, Catholic priest, author of scientific books) and Vladimir (1868-1953, vice-chairman of the State Duma).
• Pyotr Grigorievich (1843–1896), the court’s mastermaster , from the mid-1870s was ill with a nervous breakdown close to insanity, the cause of which was said to be his wife Vera Alexandrovna (1848–1924), the maid of honor of the court and the daughter of Prince A . D. Lvov

The second wife (from 1881) - Lidia Alexandrovna Vaksel (1834-1897), a housekeeper, after the death of Volkonsky, inherited the estate in Bessarabia and all his movable property, lived in Odessa.

• Prince Volkonsky Grigory Petrovich // List of civilian ranks of the first three classes. Corrected on February 1, 1882. - SPb. : Printing House of the Governing Senate , 1882. - P. 104.