Statesman.
He was the wisest and most educated Russian statesman of the 17th century. Golitsyn was the Foreign Minister and a lover of Tsarevna Sophia Alexeyevna.
Background
Lived: 1643-1714.
Vasily Golitsyn came from the old aristocratic family. His career began as a war commander in service of tsar Alexey I. Fyodor III promoted him to the rank of boyar and he held several high posts. By Golitsyn’s initiative the outdated system of rank priority (“Mestnichestvo”) was dropped in 1678.
Career
As a lover of the regent Sofia Alexeyevna Vasily Golitsyn made a marvelous career. He became the Foreign Minister and the guardian of the tsar’s great seal.
Golitsyn’s greatest achievement was the signing of the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1683. It united Russia with the Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
He also negotiated the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, that set the Russo-Chinese border. His two Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 were, however, a failure and robbed him of his popularity.
Golitsyn was the great westernizer and an exceptionally educated man. He spoke Latin and Greek fluently and was discussing the abolition of serfdom and establishing religious freedom.
Decline
In September 1689, Peter the Great deposed regent Sophia Alexeyevna and sent her to monastery. Golitsyn was thereafter deported and sent to Kholmogory near Archangel, where he died in 1714.
Vasily Golitsyn
Statesman.
He was the wisest and most educated Russian statesman of the 17th century. Golitsyn was the Foreign Minister and a lover of Tsarevna Sophia Alexeyevna.
Background
Lived: 1643-1714.
Vasily Golitsyn came from the old aristocratic family. His career began as a war commander in service of tsar Alexey I. Fyodor III promoted him to the rank of boyar and he held several high posts. By Golitsyn’s initiative the outdated system of rank priority (“Mestnichestvo”) was dropped in 1678.
Career
As a lover of the regent Sofia Alexeyevna Vasily Golitsyn made a marvelous career. He became the Foreign Minister and the guardian of the tsar’s great seal.
Golitsyn’s greatest achievement was the signing of the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1683. It united Russia with the Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
He also negotiated the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, that set the Russo-Chinese border. His two Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 were, however, a failure and robbed him of his popularity.
Golitsyn was the great westernizer and an exceptionally educated man. He spoke Latin and Greek fluently and was discussing the abolition of serfdom and establishing religious freedom.
Decline
In September 1689, Peter the Great deposed regent Sophia Alexeyevna and sent her to monastery. Golitsyn was thereafter deported and sent to Kholmogory near Archangel, where he died in 1714.
Ivan V