Павел Строганов: Ресейлік әскери қолбасшы және мемлекет қайраткері

Russian military commander and statesman

Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov (Граф Павел Александрович Строганов; 18 June 1774 – 22 June 1817) was a Russian military commander and statesman, Lieutenant General, Adjutant General to Alexander I of Russia. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government reform of Alexander I.

Count Stroganov was born on 18 June 1774 in Paris, and was called "Popo" in his family. He was a son of Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov and, his second wife, Princess Ekaterina Petrovna Trubetskaya (daughter of Prince Peter Nikitich Trubetskoy). His godfather was the Russian Emperor Paul I, and his childhood friend was the future Tsar Alexander I. His father was a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, who later became a Count of the Russian Empire. After his father's death in 1811, Pavel, as the only son, inherited his father's entire fortune. At the time of his birth, his parents were living in Paris at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, where they had moved following their 1769 marriage. In Paris, he was educated by Gilbert Romme, who had lived in Paris since 1774 and earned his living by teaching mathematics. After a ten year stay in France, Stroganov's parents returned to St. Petersburg in the beginning of 1779. Shortly thereafter, they separated and his mother relocated to her Brattsevo Estate and took up with Ivan Rimsky Korsakov, a former lover of Empress Catherine the Great. In order to hide the relationship from Pavel, his father sent him on a years long journey, both in Russia and abroad, with his tutor, Gilbert Romme.

In 1779, the young Stroganov was enlisted for military service as a cornet of the Horse Regiment of the Life Guards and he received the rank of Second lieutenant of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment in 1786. At the time, Stroganov was serving under Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, who gave him permission to leave Russia to complete his education. From 1786 to 1789, they traveled all over Europe, visiting many European countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Prussia and France. He initially visited Riom, Romme's hometown, and from 1787 he began to study botany at the University of Geneva. Later, Stroganov took up the study of theology, as well as chemistry and physics. In addition, he practiced his German and took up various sports, most notably fencing and horseback riding. In his free time, he made trips to the mountains and was engaged in amateur mineralogy. At the end of May 1788, Romme and Count Stroganov left Switzerland, moving first to a house owned by Romme's mother in Auvergne, before visiting Creusot and Lyon, and moving to Paris, where the French Revolution was just flaring up. Pavel wrote to his father that they had gone to Paris in connection with the forthcoming convocation of the Estates General. On 16 July 1790, Romme received a letter from Stroganov's father dated 20 June 1790 demanding he leave Paris. Before leaving, they managed to enroll Pavel in the Jacobin Club (under the name citizen Ocher; Romme joined three years later in 1793). On 10 August 1790, Pavel and Romme were issued passports to travel to Riom, before moving to Zhimo where Romme began to prepare for the elections. In November 1790, his cousin Nikolay Novosiltsev arrived in France to retrieve Pavel, likely because of his connection with the revolutionary Théroigne de Mericourt (who had been arrested by the Austrian government), and the two left for Russia in December 1790.

Upon his return to Russia, the young Count Stroganov was advised to settle in the Brattsevo estate near Moscow, where his mother lived, as he was forbidden to return to St. Petersburg. During this time, Stroganov was a member of the Preobrazhensky Regiment and by 1791 he was a lieutenant. By 1792, he was a Chamber Junker. In 1795, Stroganov resumed communication with his childhood friend, Tsarevich Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander I, who told him that he was "an enthusiastic admirer of the French Revolution" and also considered himself a "Jacobin". Stroganov was alarmed by such sentiments of the Grand Duke, the count considered that Alexander was in the grip of "dangerous delusions" and turned to his cousin Novosiltsev to jointly protect Alexander from rash actions. After the assassination of the Emperor Paul I in March 1801, and the accession of Alexander to the throne, Count Stroganov became a favorite of the new Emperor. In July of the same year, he presented the Emperor with his idea for the creation of a Privy Committee, that outlined plans for reforms in the country. As founder and member of the Committee, he was at the head of the triumvirate which included Prince Viktor Kochubey and Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. In addition, he was a supporter of the abolition of serfdom in Russia. In 1798, he was promoted to Chamberlain. From 1802 to 1807, he concurrently served as Privy Councillor, Senator, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Assistant Minister of the Internal Affairs. In 1806, Alexander appointed him Chargé d'affaires and head of a diplomatic mission to London. He resigned his position as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and his position of Senator in March 1807, but continued to play an important role as advisor to Emperor Alexander, who continued to seek his advice on diplomacy and military affairs.

Count Stroganov accompanied Emperor Alexander in the campaign against Napoleon as part of the Third Coalition and became a participant in the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz which led to a French victory in which the Treaty of Pressburg precipitated an effective end of the Third Coalition and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. From 1809 to 1811, he served in the Army of the Danube, participating in many battles with the Turks during the conflict between the Russian and Ottoman Empires. After the death of his widow in 1845, their eldest daughter Natalia Pavlovna inherited the Perm primacy, who issued a power of attorney to her husband Sergei Grigoryevich Stroganov to manage the primacy. For another daughter, Adelaïda Pavlovna, a Majorat was established on the basis of the Maryino Estate, which passed into the Golitsyn family. Together, they had five children, one son and four daughters:

Alexandre Pavlovitch Stroganov (1794–1814), who was killed at the Battle of Craonne during the War of the Sixth Coalition. Natalia Pavlovna Stroganova (1796–1872), sole heir to the Stroganov estates; she married her cousin Count Sergei Grigoryevich Stroganov (1794–1882) in 1818. Adelaïda Pavlovna Stroganova (1799–1882), who inherited Maryino Estate from her mother in 1845; she married Prince Vassili Sergueïevitch Golitsyn (1794–1836) in 1821. Elizaveta Pavlovna Stroganova (1802–1863), who married Prince Ivan Dmitrievitch Saltykov (1797–1832). Olga Pavlovna Stroganova (1808–1837), who married Count Pavel Karlovitch Fersen (1800–1884).