Pavel Yaguzhinsky

The Count (from 1731) Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky (Yagushinsky) (1683, in Grand Duchy of Lithuania – 17 April 1736, in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian statesman and diplomat, associate of Peter the Great, Chamberlain, Ober-Stallmeister (1727), General-in-chief (1727), the first Attorney General in Russian history (1722–1726, 1730–1735). He was famous for his honesty and integrity, which Peter the Great appreciated in him in the first place.

Origin If someone was found guilty in violation of etiquette at the assembly, it was supposed to drain the 1.5-liter "Cup of the Big Eagle". This moment is depicted on the sketch of Valentin Serov The son of the organist Yaguzhinsky, a native of Lithuania, he probably originated from the town of Kublichi of the Połock Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the Kublichi area now forms part of the Ushachy district of Vitebsk Region in present-day Belarus). In 1687, together with his father's family, he arrived in Russia.

Thanks to his sharpness and sense of duty, he proved himself in the service of Fedor Golovin (as a page, then as a Page of the Chamber). In 1701 he was enlisted in the guard, in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, becoming the orderly of Tsar Peter the Great in place of Menshikov. He converted from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy.

Diplomatic missions of Peter I In 1710 – the captain of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. He married Anna Feodorovna Khitrovo and received a large dowry for her, which included, among other things, the village of Avchurino (manor) and the village of Sergeevskoye (now Plavsk). Even earlier (9 July 1706), an island on the Yauza River near German Settlement was received from Peter I into eternal possession.

During the Northern War, Yaguzhinsky regularly performed Peter's diplomatic missions, and in 1713 traveled abroad with him. In 1711 he participated in the Prut campaign. In the same year, he accompanied Peter to Carlsbad and Torgau to the wedding of Tsarevich Alexei. In June 1711 he received the rank of colonel, on 3 August 1711 – Adjutant general. On 19 February 1712 he became the second in Russian history (after Semyon Naryshkin) who was granted the rank of chamberlain.

Yaguzhinsky is one of the few who attended the king's marriage to Marta Skavronskaya. In November 1713 he was sent to the Copenhagen court with the notice of the arrival of Peter the Great with the army in the duchy of Mecklenburg.

Soon, Anna Feodorovna was placed in one of the Moscow monasteries, and Yaguzhinsky, partly due to the insistence of Peter I, addressed the Synod with a request for divorce "so that I would not continue in such a disastrous and otherwise life, but my poor little children would not have suffered from such an indecent mother". Yaguzhinskaya justified her, saying that "she did these indecent acts in her unconsciousness and melancholy, which happened in Petersburg in 1721, and in grief and sorrow from separation from her roommate and children, from boredom and loneliness".

At the request of Yaguzhinsky, his first wife, by the decree of Empress Catherine I, was imprisoned in the Theodore Monastery "until the end of her days", from where she tried to escape twice, but was caught. She died, having lived in a monastery for ten years, as a nun with the name of Agafya. His duties included the fight against embezzlement:

According to the characteristics of the Soviet historical encyclopedia, the first prosecutor general "was distinguished by directness, honesty and integrity, tirelessness in the work". There is a case in which, irritated by the general embezzlement, Peter I demanded in the Senate to adopt a law according to which everyone who steals more than a piece of rope from the state will be on this rope hanged. Shocked senators depressed silent. Finally, the almighty prosecutor general Pavel Yaguzhinsky, an honest and charming alcoholic, answered the king that then Peter would not have a single citizen, because "we all steal, who are more, who are less". Shocked by this answer that entered the history of Russia, the tsar did not dare to adopt such a law. The emperor tirelessly noted the merits of Yaguzhinsky.

In May 1724, at the establishment of the coronation of Catherine I of the Chevalier Guard Regiment, he was appointed its commander with the rank of lieutenant captain. Since 24 October 1727 he was a general-in-chief, although he did not serve in the army for a long time. In the same year (20 December), a rich Siberian Order was subordinated, from which he was to receive a salary "by rank". From 31 December 1730 – Lieutenant Colonel of the Life Guard Horse Regiment. In the period from 2 October 1730 to 1731 – the Prosecutor General of the Senate. On his initiative, the first Russian Cadet Corps was created. On 19 January 1731 he was awarded the title of count. However, two years later, Biron, having no means to overcome Osterman's influence, began to bother about Yaguzhinsky's return to Russia. On 28 April 1735 he entered into the Cabinet of Ministers with the return of the post of ober-stallmeister. His second-hand widow married the diplomat Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin. In 1743, in a Lopukha case, she was publicly carved with a whip and sent to Yakutsk exile.

Reviews of contemporaries In notes, the Spanish ambassador, the Duke of Lyria, reports about him:

Awards Order of Saint Andrew (11 July 1724) Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (30 August 1725)

Family

Wife from 1710, Anna Fedorovna Khitrovo (died 30 July 1733), the only daughter of the clerk Fedor Alexandrovich Khitrovo (died 1703), the granddaughter of Alexander Khitrovo, a rich and influential man. Divorced in 1723. Couple had children: ...Pavlovich (died on 9 August 1724), in 1723 he was sent by his father to study in Germany, where he died. Catherine Pavlovna (1713/14–1738), married from 1730 to Vasily Lopukhin (1711-1757). Natalya Pavlovna (1716–1786), was married to Lieutenant-General Fedor Ivanovich Golovin (1704-1758). Praskovya Pavlovna (171...–1775), from 1738, married to Senator Prince Sergei Gagarin (1713—1782). In 1743, she and her husband were involved in the well-known Lopukhina case, which, however, did not have bad consequences for them, they were saved by the ignorance of the German language, although all the conversations took place in their presence. Wife from 10 November 1723 was Anna Gavrilovna Golovkina (170...—1751), maid of honor, daughter of the Chancellor Count Gavriil Golovkin. Had a son and three daughters. Sergei Pavlovich (1731–1806), was promoted to lieutenant-general, was married by his first marriage to Anastasia Ivanovna Shuvalova, sister of Ivan Shuvalov; the second on Barbara Nikolaevna Saltykova (1749–1843), died without leaving heirs. Maria Pavlovna (1732–1755), Maid of Honor, on 14 February 1748 was married to Count Andrei Mikhailovich Efimovskiy (1717–1767) with the court marshal of the courtyard. Anna Pavlovna (1733–1801), maid of honor, from 1754 wife of Count Peter Apraksin, later became a nun under the name of Augusta.

Artistic images Yury Tynyanov («Wax Figure», 1930) Viktor Dobrovolsky («Peter the Great», 1937) Oleg Tabakov («How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor», 1976) Vyacheslav Grishechkin (Movie series «Secrets of Palace Coups», 2000—2008) Aleksandr Zbruyev («Balakirev the Buffoon», 2002) Valery Solovyov («Peter the Great: The Testament», 2011) Arseny Mironov («Chronautics», 2012)