Alexey Olenin

Alexey Olenin in 1836, by Nikolai Utkin, after Franz Krüger. Alexey Nikolayevich Olenin (Aleksey Nikolaevich Olenin, ; in Moscow – in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian archaeologist, most notable for being a director of the Imperial Public Library between 1811 and 1843 and the sixth president of the Imperial Academy of Arts between 1817 and 1843.

Early life Olenin was born into a noble family in Moscow. He received his initial education at home. Then in 1774, as was customary at the time among Russian aristocracy, he was enrolled in the Corps of Pages. In 1780 he was sent to study history and art history in Dresden.

Career In 1785 Olenin returned to Russia to start a military career. In parallel he was writing a dictionary of military quotations and in 1786 he was elected to the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, even though the dictionary had not yet been published. In December 1786 Olenin quit military service, but in 1789 he rejoined the army. He was sent to Pskov and subsequently, in 1789—1790, participated in the Russo-Swedish war. In 1795 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and retired from military service for good.

After 1795 Olenin was employed on a variety of civil positions, including director of the Saint Petersburg Mint (1799). In 1811 he was appointed director of the Imperial Public Library. He went on to illustrate a number of books, including the selected works of Gavrila Derzhavin and a book of fables by Ivan Khemnitser. In 1804 he was elected a member of the Academy of Arts. Anna Olenina did not marry until 1840.

Death Alexey Olenin died in Saint Petersburg in 1843, still in office, and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.