Bludov, Dmitry Nikolaevich

He came from an ordinary noble family of the Bludovs . Born in the Shuye district of Vladimir province , in his father's estate Romanovo. Having lost his father early, he was brought up by his mother Ekaterina Ermolaevna, daughter of state adviser Yermolai Vasilyevich Tishin. After moving with her to Moscow , in 1800 he entered the service of the Foreign Affairs Archives , where he met, among others, the brothers Turgenev , Dashkov and Vigel . In his notes, the latter does not spare kind words in relation to Bludov, who later granted him patronage.

Thanks to the patronage of the wife of Field Marshal Kamensky, the young Fornication joined the foreign collegium and moved to St. Petersburg . As the cousin of V. A. Ozerov and the cousin of G. R. Derzhavin, he was readily accepted among the capital's writers. Together with Zhukovsky ^[3] he was in the ranks of young writers who, under the banner of Karamzin, fought with ironic weapons against the extremes of the Shishkov school.

Having entered the diplomatic field early, Bludov limited his participation in literature to close ties with young writers of the Karamzin circle, who often turned to him for advice. In 1815, Bludov, Dashkov and several other people organized the Arzamas society, where Bludov was given the comic name “Kassandra”. After Karamzin’s death, he prepared for publication the last, unfinished volume of “ History of the Russian State ” ^[4] . It is known that shortly before his death, the historian pointed to Emperor Nicholas Bludov as a conservative and enlightened person, that is, worthy to take a place in the highest state administration.

Having experienced in childhood the strong influence of one of his tutors, an emigrant Count de Fontel, the Fornication combined admiration for the educational philosophy of the 18th century with an extremely negative attitude towards the French Revolution . This influence was subsequently joined by the stay of Bludov in the diplomatic service in the constitutional monarchies - Sweden and England . In London, where Bludov spent more than two years (1817-1820), first as an adviser to the embassy, ​​and then as charge d'affaires, he closely monitored political and literary life.

Immediately upon his accession to the throne, Nicholas I appointed Bludov to the responsible place of the clerk of the Supreme Court over the Decembrists . The compilation of an indictment on the results of this case earned Bludovu favor in the eyes of the monarch and allowed to advance. This fornication report was defeated in absentia by N. I. Turgenev in the book “Russia and the Russians” (Paris, 1847).

At the end of the trial, the Fornication was granted to the state secretaries, and in the same 1826 he took the place of the Comrade Minister of Education and, at the same time, the General Manager of Foreign Confessions. In 1828, the emperor expressed his special favor to Bludov regarding the establishment of Greek-Uniate churches in Russia and granted him secret advisers .

In 1830, Bludov managed the Ministry of Justice for several months in the absence of Dashkova, from 1832 the Ministry of the Interior, from 1837 the Ministry of Justice until December 1839, when he was granted the position of Privy Privy Councilor and was appointed Chief Executive of the Second Division of Own E. I. V. Chancellery , member of the Council of State and chairman of its department of laws. According to the verdict of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

A typical bureaucrat of Nicholas’s reign, educated and capable, but devoid of any originality, perfectly able to adapt to circumstances, essentially a conservative, but ready to make concessions to the “new trends” in detail, Bludov successfully made his career under a wide variety of circumstances ^[5] .

From 1832 to 1838, Dmitry Nikolaevich Bludov served as chairman of the Siberian Committee ^[6] .

Since 1840, the Fornication was present in the Department of Affairs of the Kingdom of Poland . Under his editorship as the chief manager of the II division, two editions of the Code of Laws (1842 and 1857) were published; he was the main figure in the compilation of the Penal Code of 1845, which introduced some order into the punishment system, which traditionally suffered from uncertainty in Russia.

April 15, 1845 was awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called ^[7] .

In 1847, Bludov signed a concordat with Roman curia . During the revolutionary unrest of 1848, he dissuaded Nikolai from the closure of universities. In 1855, he responded to the death of the monarch with his memoir “The Last Hours of the Life of Emperor Nicholas I,” then translated into Polish, German, English, and French.

After the start of the great reforms, the Fornication remembered the progressive aspirations of his youth and again managed to prove useful to the supreme power. He developed a draft judicial reform, providing for a departure from the estate system and the separation of the judiciary from the executive. Since 1857, he was a member of the committee to consider decisions and assumptions about the serfdom in Russia. During the reign of Alexander II, Bludov was appointed president of the Academy of Sciences (1855) and the committees of the Jewish (1856) and orphanages (1857), chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers (1862).

Since 1859, according to the order of awarding, he was a member of the pensioners - knights of the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (800 rubles a year).

He died on February 19 ( March 2 ), 1864 , was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra ^[8] . The notes that he kept throughout his life remained unpublished, although extensive excerpts from them were publicized by Yegor Kovalevsky in his biography of Bludov, published two years after his death.

At the age of 16, Dmitry Bludov fell in love with the 24-year-old maid of honor, Princess Anna Andreevna Shcherbatova (1777-1848). Young Shcherbatova was notable for her delicate facial features; at court, many found her in resemblance to Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna . Because of her youth, the Fornication could not marry, the princess for a long time remained beyond his reach. A few years later, having reached a position in the world, Bludov made an offer. The mother of the bride became an obstacle to the marriage; she did not want to hear about this marriage. Princess Antonina Voinovna Shcherbatova, nee Yavorskaya (1756-1812) was known for her piety, strict rules, she was proud of her nobility, was severe and arrogant. To many young people worthy of her daughter, she refused in her hand, and refused to Bludov. The efforts of Countess Anna Pavlovna Kamenskaya ( mother of the Commander-in-Chief ), who replaced Bludova, his late mother, with whom she was in close friendship, and the quick official exaltation of Bludov broke the long-term stubbornness of Princess Scherbatova. On April 28, 1812, the long-awaited wedding of 27-year-old Dmitry Bludov and 34-year-old Anna Shcherbatova took place. In the marriage, the Bludovs had children:

• Antonina Dmitrievna (1813−1891) - maid of honor, author of "Notes" with memories of Pushkin.
• Lidia Dmitrievna (1815−1882) - maid of honor , married since 1837 to Yegor Ivanovich Shevich (1808-1849), son of I. E. Shevich .
• Andrei Dmitrievich (1817−1886) - diplomat, served as ambassador to Sweden, then to Belgium.
• Vadim Dmitrievich (1819−1902).

Bludov owned an apartment building at 80 Nevsky address, the second from the corner of Liteiny prospect ^[9] . In the house of Bludov, writers have always met a warm welcome, found support and advice. The largest writers (including L.N. Tolstoy ) read their works in the house of Bludov even before they appeared in print.

• He was awarded the orders of St. Anne, Alexander Nevsky and the White Eagle.
• Member of the Russian Academy (1831)

• Count Bludov Dmitry Nikolaevich // List of civil ranks of the first III classes. Corrected on July 1, 1863 .. - SPb. : Printing House of the Governing Senate , 1863. - S. 10.
• Fornication Dmitry Nikolaevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Bludov, Dmitry Nikolaevich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Kovalevsky, E.P. “Count Fornication and his time. The reign of Emperor Alexander I ”, pdf
• I. I. Dmitriev “Letters to Dmitry Nikolaevich Bludov”, pdf
• I. I. Dmitriev "Letter to Dmitry Nikolaevich Bludov 1820", pdf

The biography of Bludov, which was compiled by E.P. Kovalevsky , was brought up only to 1826, published under the title "Count of the Fornication and His Time" (St. Petersburg, 1866) and is included in the Collection of Op. E. P. Kovalevsky ”(St. Petersburg, 1871, v. 1); attached to it are several historical notes of Count Bludov and his thoughts and remarks, which were also published separately (St. Petersburg, 1866). The writer Mikhail Longinov immediately responded to the death of Bludov as well, already in the autumn of 1864 he published a separate book about him, “The late Count D. N. Bludov.”

• Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Fornication, Dmitry Nikolaevich // Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron . - SPb. , 1908-1913.
• Fornication Dmitry Nikolaevich | Vladimir region .