Saltykov, Mikhail Alexandrovich

Count M. A. Saltykov was born in 1767, was the son of A. M. Saltykov and Maria Sergeyevna, nee Volchkova (in the second marriage to Peter Passek ). The Catherine era with its educational ideas and in particular the influence of the father, on the one hand; personal character traits: pride, lack of practical ability to apply to circumstances, on the other hand, once and for all tell a certain coloring of his whole life and can fully explain the variability of his career and the contradictory reviews of his contemporaries. In 1787, at the end of the Shlyakheti cadet corps, Saltykov began his military service as lieutenant. This service, which coincided with the last years of the reign of Empress Catherine , represents a series of brilliant successes. Already in the next 1788, we find him at the headquarters of His Grace Prince Potemkin , as the General Headquarters of the Quartermaster for the Black Sea Fleet. Thus, Saltykov takes part in the second Russian-Turkish war . 1789, July 5th he was already promoted to second-major in the Sumy hussar regiment with the presence of Prince Potemkin. Six months later, on January 1, 1790, he became a lieutenant general auditor. A month later, on February 1 of the same year, he was transferred as prime minister to the St. Petersburg Dragoon Regiment, and on November 2, 1795 he received the rank of colonel in the same regiment. From October 3, 1793 to November 29, 1796, he was on errands at the Office of the President of the Military College, General-General Count N.I. Saltykov . A brilliant military career, proximity to Prince Potemkin, family ties, sophisticated secular manners, education, intelligence and beauty create Saltykova, in these last years of Empress Catherine, success and a prominent position at court. On March 1, 1794, N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky wrote to Prince A. B. Kurakin : “Platon Zouboff goes into the rooms where Prince Potemkin lived. "His place is occupied by Saltykov, son A. M. , grandson of M. M. , who was in the patrimonial collegium."

On November 26, 1796, the empress died, and on the 29th of the same month, Saltykov with the rank of colonel retired and remained out of work during the entire reign of Emperor Paul . On May 1, 1797, he married the daughter of the owner of the French boarding house in St. Petersburg, Elizabeth Frantsevna Richard, and led a quiet family life. The wedding was in St. Petersburg in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment ^[2] .

Less than a month after the death of Emperor Paul, on April 7, 1801, Mikhail Alexandrovich received the rank of chamberlain and entered into the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Collegium “for use in matters at its discretion, in accordance with his rank and abilities”. September 16, 1812 was called to the post of trustee of the Kazan educational district after the death of the first trustee S. Ya. Rumovsky . The arrival in Kazan of a new trustee, imbued with the best of intentions, was not slow to bring beneficial results. As you know, the foundation of Kazan University took place in 1804, at the same time S. Ya. Rumovsky was appointed the first trustee of him and the Kazan educational district, and the charter of the new university was issued, by virtue of which self-government was granted to him. But Rumovsky for the entire time of his guardianship has never visited Kazan, and the charter for various reasons was not put into effect. The director of the Kazan gymnasium and professor of history at Kazan University, I.F. Yakovkin , who managed to deftly acquire the full confidence of Rumovsky, unchecked all the affairs of the university. All complaints from university professors and even administrative authorities about Yakovkin’s abuses remained fruitless: he always managed to get rid of the charges raised against him and remained an unlimited manager of the university until the death of Rumovsky. The first thing the new trustee did when he arrived in Kazan in February 1813 was to report to the Minister of Education Count A.K. Razumovsky about the deplorable state of the university. Saltykov’s attention is especially focused on the economic side: university buildings are in miserable condition, large sums of money allocated annually for their repair are used to no one knows where, there is no control regarding the spending of sums of money. The reason for all the evils Saltykov considers Yakovkina, with whom at first he had a collision. Mikhail Alexandrovich draws close to German professors, who really at that time represented the best part of the university staff. His efforts to eliminate Yakovkin’s order were not immediately crowned with success. Already at the beginning of 1814, Yakovkin manages to receive a significant monetary reward from the ministry , according to the idea of ​​the still late trustee. But that was his last triumph. Saltykov is diligently trying to carry out the charter, and on July 5 ( 17 ), 1814 the grand opening of the university followed. Management passes into the hands of the Council of the University , Yakovkin is thus eliminated from business and is finally being shut off. This discovery of the university on the basis of the charter given to it back in 1804 can be considered the most important event for the whole time of the care of Count Saltykov. This was very well understood among the professors of that time, and the day of July 5th was marked by enthusiastic speeches, which expressed confidence that from then on the prosperity of sciences at Kazan University would begin, and his pets would give useful figures for all aspects of life ( Perevoshchikov's speech). The good consequences were not slow, of course, to show up in the improvement of the administrative and economic part. As for the “prosperity of the sciences,” the highest aspirations of the new trustee and the university council, just like any charters, could help the cause. Life did not provide material for the implementation of this charter. The Germans remained the best professors, but they were not enough, many departments were empty, and attempts to create Russian professors from graduating from the university were only rarely successful. Saltykov in this regard, of course, could not help: the state of modern Russian society, as well as the exceptional remote position of Kazan University, were the reason. However, his individual measures that have reached us are imbued with the desire to at least partially improve the situation. In 1816, a decree was passed that professors, at their request, would replace empty departments not in their specialty with half a salary. It was unlikely that these lectures could be of great benefit, but nevertheless, something was better than nothing. When Saltykov appeared, young professors from Russians who graduated from the university ( G.I. Solntsev ). There is news of the attempt by the professor of anatomy Ebers to set up a clinic at the university, without which successful occupations of his subject were completely impossible. Mikhail Aleksandrovich, leaving at that time, in 1816, in Petersburg readily offered the house of a trustee that he did not need. However, for some reason this business was unsuccessful - the ministry found it inconvenient to give this house to the clinic. But times have changed again: on August 4, 1818, Saltykov was fired, according to his petition, from the position of trustee, leaving only the department of the College of Foreign Affairs . In 1819, an audit of Kazan University was followed by M.L. Magnitsky , rumors about which, just like the appointment of Prince A.N. Golitsyn before that Minister of Education , made Mikhail Alexandrovich hurry to resign. Finally, in the last period of his life, during the reign of Emperor Nicholas, S. gradually took a number of honorable posts and received the highest awards. In April 1828, he was a Privy Councilor with all salaries retained; in December of that year, he was a senator. In February 1830, he was appointed honorary guardian of the Moscow Board of Trustees and, together with Senator Ogaryov, carried out an audit of the Ryazan province. On March 30 of the same year, he was appointed Chief Executive of the Moscow Commercial School, then a member of the College Council of the Order of St. Catherine and the manager of the Alexander School. On April 20, 1849, according to the petition, he was dismissed with retirement. Such are the last years of the life of this idealist, admirer of Rousseau and philosophers of the 18th century, who greeted the French revolution with sympathy and deserved with all his aversion to terror, the name of the Jacobin. Sometimes he was accused of excessive pride, of a bizarre and bad disposition, of inability to conduct business. But in the same sharp reviews of contemporaries, involuntary respect for his natural mind and high development is heard, thanks to which S. has gone a whole generation forward from his time. It should be added that throughout his long stay in Moscow, where he had his own house, S. revolves in the center of artistic and literary interests, is a prominent member of the literary society "Arzamas" and is in the most friendly relations with such people like Baron Delvig and Pushkin . (The daughter of Mikhail Alexandrovich, Sofya Mikhailovna - in the first marriage to Baron Delvig). “Bow to me, the venerable, cleverest Arzamas, your future father-in-law,” Pushkin writes to Delvig in October 1825. Taking all this into account, it will be necessary to admit that Saltykov was one of those people whose value is not in their practical activities, but in the spiritual warehouse of a person who unselfishly strove to achieve a lofty ideal.

• Saltykov, Mikhail Alexandrovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.