Shuvalov, Pyotr Andreevich

Came from the oldest branch of the Shuvalov family. His father, Count Andrei Petrovich , was chief marshal and member of the State Council . Mother Fekla (Thekla) Ignatyevna Valentinovich (1801-1873), in her first marriage was married to P. A. Zubov . Brothers and sisters: Pavel (1830-1908, diplomat), Sophia (1829-1912, married to a member of the State Council A. Bobrinsky ), Olga (1833-1859).

Shuvalov was brought up in the Page Corps , after which he was promoted to cornet on August 10, 1845, and began his military service in the Life Guards Horse Regiment . The following year he was already promoted to lieutenant , in 1851 - to the headquarters of the captains , and in December 1852 - to the captains of the captains . In the Crimean War ( 1853 - 1856 ) he was part of the troops guarding the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, as commander of the 5th squadron of the Life Guards Horse Regiment.

In August 1854 , appointed adjutant of the Minister of War, Shuvalov arrived in St. Petersburg and was soon sent to Kiev and some other cities to expedite the march of reserve brigades of the 8th, 16th and 17th infantry divisions and batteries 5th and 6th artillery divisions. In addition, he was instructed to monitor the transportation of gunpowder to the Crimea. Having fulfilled the assignments assigned to him, Shuvalov went to Sevastopol , but did not stay there for long, only two months. From Sevastopol he was sent to Kazan to send gunpowder to the Crimea from the Kazan plant. Returning to Sevastopol, shortly before the occupation of his allied forces, took part in the repulsion of the assault on August 27, 1855 and for the courage shown in this matter, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree with swords.

Upon his return to Petersburg, he was appointed the adjutant wing in September of that year, and at the beginning of the next year went to Paris with Prince A.F. Orlov , the appointed representative of Russia in Paris to conclude a peace treatise. These were the first steps of Shuvalov in the diplomatic field. Returning to Petersburg in April of the same year, he was promoted to colonel , and in November he was sent to the 6th Army Corps to oversee his disbandment and bringing into peaceful composition.

At the end of this trip, which was completed quite successfully, Shuvalov was appointed in February 1857 to correct the position of the St. Petersburg Chief Police Officer. From this time, in fact, its influence on the domestic policy of Russia begins. In December of the same year, he was promoted to major general , appointed to the retinue of E. I. V. and confirmed in his position as chief police officer. Knowing the low opinion of St. Petersburg society about his police, he used great efforts to raise the reputation of the latter in the eyes of the population of the capital.

After spending three and a half years at the head of the St. Petersburg city police, in November 1860 , Shuvalov was appointed director of the general affairs department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, in addition, a member of the commission on provincial and district institutions. As director of the department, he joined the party of ardent opponents of the abolition of serfdom, which was headed by his father, Prince. V.V. Dolgoruky and Prince A. S. Menshikov . Following the dismissal of Lansky and N. A. Milyutin from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shuvalov’s influence increased significantly, especially since his appointment as chief of staff of the gendarme corps and manager of the Third Division of His Imperial Majesty’s Chancellery . He was a member of the Ostsee Committee on Land Reform in the Ostsee Region ^[3] .

Three years later, in 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed to correct the position of the Livonia, Estland and Courland governor-general and the commander of the troops of the Riga Military District . The appointment to these important and responsible posts, especially at that time, in such young years (he was only 36 years old) clearly indicated the wide confidence with which the government treated him. However, approved the following year in the posts held by him, a year later he had already left the Baltic Region, having been appointed Adjutant General to E. I. B., and after that the chief of the gendarmes and the chief head of the Third Division of Own E. I. B. Chancellery (1866-1874).

The influence of Shuvalov on domestic politics for seven years (from 1866 to 1874) was given such importance that he was called the “vice emperor” and “Peter IV”. At the same time, these are far from bright pages in his biography. As the closest adviser to Emperor Alexander II , he recommended to the posts of ministers of internal affairs and justice the same opponents of any reforms as he was. In 1872, Shuvalov was promoted to general from the cavalry. Meanwhile, his influence on domestic politics gradually began to decrease and move on to D. A. Milyutin . Then Shuvalov became interested in the foreign policy of Russia and in 1874 was appointed a member of the Council of State and Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of England and Ireland.

This new appointment was unsuccessful for Shuvalov, since he could not successfully deal with such large diplomatic talents as Disraeli Lord Beaconsfield . He always easily conducted it, and Shuvalov was usually the last to find out what he should know first. His diplomatic activity is full of the most unforgivable blunders that began in the first year with his statement that we would not occupy Khiva and its territory. This statement tied our hands when our troops took Khiva. Then followed a series of concessions to the British in Afghanistan, without any compensation on their part.

Shuvalov’s weakness towards the British during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 was especially harmful to Russia. Being an opponent of armed intervention in the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, he tried his best to delay the declaration of war, which made it possible for the Turks to arm themselves perfectly. Acting in this direction, he signed a protocol with Lord Derby on March 31, 1877 , by virtue of which Europe agreed to improve the fate of Turkish Christians.

However, despite this, three weeks later the war was declared. Then, assuring the Russian government that England had decided to fight by all means, he helped the latter achieve what Russia promised her not to transfer hostilities to the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The consequence of this was the complete inaction of our Baltic fleet, the inability to block Constantinople and prevent Egypt from openly helping Turkey. When the Russian troops crossed the Balkans and approached the walls of Constantinople, then, at the insistence of c. Shuvalov, hostilities were suspended, which gave the full opportunity for Austria-Hungary and England to really prepare for war.

Then, taking part in the revision of the San Stefan Treaty and being one of the representatives of Russia at the Berlin Congress, Shuvalov, with his shortsightedness, contributed to the fact that the Congress of Powers nullified everything that was so difficult for us to get in the Turkish War. After the congress, Shuvalov still traveled around European yards with assurances of a peace-loving mood in Russia and then he returned to London . The following year, Germany entered into a secret alliance with Austria-Hungary against Russia. Having learned about this, the Russian government sent Shuvalov to Bismarck and Vienna. This was the last diplomatic assignment given to him, since in the same year he was dismissed from the title of British Ambassador.

However, there is another assessment of the activities of Shuvalov. According to a prominent historian Vinogradov, “Manners of a secular man, sociability, good looks, helped him to penetrate not only the cabinet of ministers, but also into the salons of their spouse. In the higher spheres of London they began to call him simply “Shu”, and to achieve this was not easy. To this day, a researcher who is acquainted with his dispatches is amazed at the degree of his knowledge of British government affairs: his reports almost textually conveyed not only cabinet decisions, but also the course of the debate, and the opinions of individual speakers in them, although this was not recorded anywhere. except for private records ” ^[4] .

Upon the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander III, Shuvalov was sent to the Austrian emperor and the King of Italy with the order to deliver handwritten notifying letters about the accession of Emperor Alexander III to the All-Russian throne. Upon fulfillment of this request, he was ordered to be present in the department of laws of the State Council , but the very next year he was fired from this presence due to illness. Then, two years later, he was appointed a member of a special commission established to draft local government projects.

On May 24, 1864, Count Shuvalov was married to the widow of Countess Elena Ivanovna Orlova-Denisova (1830–1922), the granddaughter of Count G. A. Stroganov and the sister of the military ataman of the Don Army, M. I. Chertkov . In marriage they had one son Andrei (1865-1928).

According to P. A. Valuev , Countess Shuvalova was a smart, lively woman and had a positive influence on her husband, the only thing she lacked was education ^[5] . March 28, 1871 was granted the cavalry ladies of the Order of St. Catherine (the Lesser Cross) .

Following her daughter-in-law, Elizaveta Chertkova , Countess Shuvalova became interested in the sermons of Lord Redstock and became a member of the St. Petersburg community of evangelical Christian Pashkovites ^[6] . Thanks to this, the meetings of the Pashkovites took place in the basement of the Shuvalovs' house, in the room of the believing coachman of the family, despite the fact that the Count served as the head of the Main Gendarme Office during this period, and the meetings of the Pashkovites were prohibited by the government ^[6] . Taking advantage of her position, Shuvalova helped the persecuted shtundists and often petitioned for one or several exiles, to ease the punishment, or even completely release those who were exiled for faith. And her requests were often crowned with success ^[6] .

In recent years, the couple lived separately, the countess spent a lot of time in Moscow. At her husband’s funeral, she protested against the rites of the Orthodox Church over the deceased and ended her protest by leaving the funeral ^[7] .

Elena Ivanovna became the prototype of Countess Katerina Ivanovna Charskaya in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy " Anna Karenina " ^[8] .

• Cornet (08/10/1845)
• Lieutenant (1846)
• Staff Captain (1851)
• Captain (12.1852)
• Adjutant Outhouse (09.1856)
• Colonel (04.1857)
• Major General (12/06/1857)
• Lieutenant General (12/15/1864)
• Adjutant General (03/27/1866)
• Cavalry General (01.1872)

• Order of St. Stanislav 1st degree (1860)
• Order of St. Anne 1st degree (1863)
• Golden Broadsword “For Courage” (1863)
• Order of St. Vladimir , 2nd degree with swords (1867)
• Order of the White Eagle (1868)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1870)
• Diamond signs to the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (1874)
• Order of St. Vladimir 1st degree
• Badge of Immaculate Service for XL years (1888)

Foreign:

• Hanover Royal Guelph Order of the 4th degree (1855)
• Hesse-Darmstadt Order of Ludwig , Grand Cross (1855)
• Bavarian Order of Merit of St. Michael , Grand Cross (1864)
• French Legion of Honor , great officer (1867)
• Prussian Order of the Crown of the 1st degree (1867)
• Wurttemberg Order of Frederick 1st degree (1867)
• Hesse-Darmstadt Order of Philip the Benevolent 1st degree (1867)
• Bavarian Order of Civil Merit of the Bavarian Crown , Grand Cross (1868)
• Snuffbox with a portrait of King of Prussia William I (1870)
• Saxe-Weimar Order of the White Falcon (1870)
• Württemberg Order of the Württemberg Crown , Grand Cross (1871)
• Austro-Hungarian Austrian Order of Leopold , Grand Cross (1872)
• Turkish Order of Ottomanism , 1st Degree (1872)
• Prussian Order of the Red Eagle , large cross (1872)
• Austro-Hungarian Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen , Grand Cross (1874)
• Belgian Order of Leopold I , Grand Cross (1874)
• Saxon Order of the Route Crown , Grand Cross (1874)
• Nassau Golden Lion Order Nassau
• Greek Order of the Savior , Great Cross (1876)

• List to the generals by seniority . - SPb. , 1888.
• Shuvalov, Peter Andreevich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Kolpakidi A., North A. Special Services of the Russian Empire. - M .: Yauza Eksmo, 2010 .-- S. 148 - 155. - 768 p. - (Encyclopedia of special services). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-43615-6 .

• Kashirina Varvara Viktorovna. "Great society split" in the assessment of Russian secular and spiritual writers of the XIX century // Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodsk State University. Social and human sciences. - 2015. - No. 7 (152) . - S. 57-62 .
• Liven S.P. Spiritual Awakening in Russia . - Korntal: Light in the East , 1967. - 125 p.