Lanskoy, Vasily Sergeevich

From the noble family Lansky , known from the end of the 15th century. The son of the landowner of the Kholmsky district of the Novgorod province Sergei Artemievich Lansky (1711-1785) from his marriage with Anna Fedorovna Ushakova (1724-1809). Cousin of the favorite of Empress Catherine II - Adjutant General A. D. Lansky . Together with his brothers (there were eight sons in the family) he received a home education.

January 11, 1767 was enlisted in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment . In 1777 he was promoted to ensign , on January 1, 1781 - to lieutenant colonel with the transfer to the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment , on April 3, 1783 he was appointed general-krigskomissar. He participated in the Turkish (1787-1791) and Polish (1792-1794) campaigns, in 1794 he was promoted to major general. On November 24, 1794, he was promoted to full state councilor and appointed Saratov governor . In April 1796, after the abolition of the Saratov province , he was transferred to the Tambov province , and with the restoration of the first in 1797, he was returned to his old post. July 9, 1800 promoted to Privy Councilor .

By the decree of Alexander I of June 9, 1803, he was dismissed from the post of the Saratov governor and was appointed the Grodno governor . With the establishment of the Lithuanian-Grodno province, the government drew attention to the fact that there was not a single Orthodox church in the provincial city of Grodno , which caused considerable difficulties for the Orthodox residents of the city. In this regard, the idea arose of adapting the building of the Farny Church (Fara Vitovta), which had been damaged by fire, into an Orthodox church. Lansky had to do this. By decree of the king of February 29, 1804, 18 thousand 341 rubles in silver were released from the state treasury for these purposes. Work on the distortion of the temple lasted about three years, and on August 7, 1807 the church was consecrated.

In October 1809 he was appointed senator . In 1812, Lansky was entrusted with the command of the commandant command of the army, with the erection of a regular secret adviser in the next rank. During the evacuation of state property, cultural property, officials and archives from the Grodno province, Lanskoy acted indecisively, waiting for instructions from the military governor Rimsky-Korsakov. Since December 23, 1812 - a valid Privy Councilor .

From March 25, 1813 to 1815 - Governor-General of the Principality of Warsaw , from 1814 to May 12, 1815 - President of the interim Supreme Council of the Principality of Warsaw . On June 15, 1815 he was appointed viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland , which entailed concerns about the introduction of a new management order. On November 19, 1815, he was appointed a member of the Polish Council of State, and on November 4, 1819, he was appointed chairman of the Commission for the adoption of petitions for the Highest Name of the Bringed.

From 1823 to 1828, Vasily Sergeyevich Lanskoy acted as chairman of the Siberian Committee ^[1] .

February 22, 1824 was elected chairman of the Commission for the Construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral . From August 29, 1825 to April 19, 1828 - the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire , from January 22, 1825 - a member of the State Council . He took a number of measures to streamline and regulate the activities of the Ministry of the Interior. According to Vigel , “the labors and pleasures exhausted the mental strength of this old man even more than the bodily ones”: his subordinates ruled all affairs, each in its part without any unity, and for one all the odious Arakcheev was awake ^[2] .

Since June 1, 1826 he was a member of the Supreme Criminal Court in the case of the Decembrists . With his participation, the III Branch of His Imperial Majesty’s Chancellery (political police) was created from the chancellery, which was in charge of the political police. On April 19, 1828, he was dismissed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and from the post of chairman of the Petition Commission with retaining membership in the State Council, and on February 24, 1829, from service.

According to the opinion of F.F. Vigel, Lanskoy was smart, amiable, leisurely and non-familiar, very knowledgeable in business. In his youth, he was a dashing Hussar colonel and a passionate lover of the attractive sex. As a Saratov governor, he proved himself an active and skilled manager. Living in Poland, in the delights of the local ladies, Lanskoy found an apology to his private infidelities. Over the years, he became bald, “like a billiard ball”, but continued to be an unstoppable celadon and a great lover of young pretty women ^[2] .

Recent years Lanskoy lived in St. Petersburg, where he died in June 1831 during the cholera epidemic . According to K. Ya. Bulgakov , “he died in the morning and said that he was surely from cholera, but he was to blame for it: every day he bathed, despite the cold weather, which was already beyond his age” ^[3] .

He was twice married. First wife (polka), last name unknown.

The second wife is Varvara Matveevna Pashkova (176. —1831), the daughter of a major, a pupil of Princess M.V. Baryatinsky, and until her marriage she lived in the house of her daughter Princess E. F. Dolgorukova , where she “tried to stay away from everyone” ^[4] . For the merits of her husband, November 20, 1815 was granted to the cavalry ladies of the Order of St. Catherine (the Small Cross) . According to Princess N. I. Golitsyna, Lansky's house was one of the most pleasant in the capital ^[5] :

They were nice people: an old father, a sweet mother and four daughters, competing with each other in the ability to like, a lot of guests, no stiffness, sophisticated upbringing, enlightenment, courtesy and ancient hospitality, warmed by the warmth so rare in St. Petersburg. The sisters were bound by the most tender and exemplary friendship, they made up one soul, as it were, and this soul radiated everything that attracted friends to them.

She died exactly a week after her husband’s death, but not from cholera ^[6] . Children:

• Anna Vasilievna (08/18/793 - 07/08/1868), the maid of honor, according to contemporaries, was very similar to Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna; married (from 01.22.1817) to the actual state adviser, Prince Alexander Borisovich Golitsyn (1792-1865). The marriage was unhappy and the couple lived on the road. Their only daughter, Zinaida (1818–1845), was married to the cadet-junker Count K.K. Tol (1817–1884), the son of General K. F. Tol , a famous participant in the Patriotic War of 1812.
• Sofya Vasilievna (04.25.1796-31.03.1877), maid of honor, not married.
• Lyudmila Vasilievna (06.23.1799-17.08.1834), behind chamberlain Alexander Nikolayevich Shakhmatov (1797-1859).
• Varvara Vasilievna (04.12.1800-26.10.1881), maid of honor, not married.
• Nikolay Vasilievich (02/18/808 - 08/17/18/1845), state adviser.

• History of Russian clans
• https://web.archive.org/web/20090628141615/http://osvas.ru/PAPKI/army/marshali/lanskoi.html