Alexander Turgenev

Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev (; (27 March [7 April] 1784, Simbirsk - 3 December 1845, Moscow) was a Russian statesman and historian.

Biography Alexander Turgenev was born in Simbirsk in 1784. His father, Ivan Petrovich Turgenev (1752-1807) was one of the most enlightened men of his time. Alexander was educated at Moscow University, where he met the poet Vasily Zhukovsky; they formed a friendship that lasted until the death of Turgenev. From 1802 to 1804 he studied history and political science at the University of Göttingen, and then traveled with his friend Andrey Kaisarov.

He served in the Ministry of Justice, took part in the work of the commission to formulate laws, and accompanied the Tsar, Alexander I, abroad in 1810. Afterwards he was appointed Director of the Department of the General Directorate of Religious Affairs of Foreign Faiths; at the same time he was made an assistant secretary of the State Council and a senior member of the committee drafting the law. When the Ministry of Religious Affairs and National Education was formed in 1817, Turgenev headed the Department of Religious Affairs. Then in 1844, the botanist Boissier published Turgeniopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants (from Bulgaria and western asia) but also belonging to the family Apiaceae. It was likewise named in Alexander Turgenev's honor.