SHUVALOV (sometimes written SCHOUVALOFF), PETER ANDREIVICH, COUNT (18271889)

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 1 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SHA-SIV

SHUVALOV (sometimes written SCHOUVALOFF), PETER ANDREIVICH, COUNT (18271889) , Russian diplomatist, was born in 1827 of an old Russian family which rose to distinction and imperial favour about the middle of the 18th century. Several of its members attained highrank in the army and the civil administration, and one of them may be regarded as the founder of the Moscow University and the St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

of the Fine Arts. As a youth Count Peter Andreivich showed no desire to emulate his distinguished ancestors. He studied just enough to qualify for the army, and for nearly twenty years he led the agreeable, commonplace life of a fashionable officer of the Guards. In 1864 Court influence secured for him the appointment of

Governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

-General of the Baltic Provinces, and in that position he gave evidence of so much natural ability and tact that in 1866, when the revolutionary fermentation in the younger section of the educated classes made it advisable to place at the head of the political police a man of exceptional intelligence and energy, he was selected by the emperor for the post. In addition to his regular functions, he was entrusted by his Majesty with much

work

WORK

of a confidential, delicate nature, including a mission to London in 1873. The ostensible object of this mission was to arrange amicably certain diplomatic difficulties created by the advance of Russia in Central Asia, but he was instructed at the same time to prepare the way for the

marriage

MARRIAGE

of the grand duchess Marie Alexandrovna with the duke of Edinburgh, which took place in January of the following year. At that time the emperor Alexander II. was anxious to establish cordial relations with

Great

GREAT

Britain, and he thought this object might best be attained by appointing as his diplomatic representative at the British Court the man who had con-ducted successfully the

recent

RECENT

matrimonial negotiations. Count Shuvalov was accordingly appointed

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

to London; and he justified his selection by the extraordinary diplomatic ability he displayed during the Russo-Turkish War of 187778 and the subsequent negotiations, when the relations between Russia and

Great

GREAT

Britain were strained almost to the point of rupture. After the publication of the treaty of San Stefano, which astonished Europe and seemed to render a conflict inevitable, he concluded with Lord Salisbury a

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

convention which enabled the two powers to meet in congress and find a pacific solution for all the questions at issue. In the deliberations and discussions of the congress he played a leading part, and defended the interests of his country with a dexterity which excited the admiration of his colleagues; but when it became known that the San Stefano arrangements were profoundly modified by the treaty of Berlin, public

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

in Russia con-
xxv. Idemned him as too conciliatory, and reproached him with having needlessly given up many of the advantages secured by the war. For a time Alexander II. resisted the popular clamour, but in the autumn of 1879, when Prince Bismarck assumed an attitude of hostility towards Russia, Count Shuvalov, who had been long regarded as too amenable to Bismarckian influence, was recalled from his post as

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

in London; and after living for nearly ten years in retirement, he died at St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

in 1889. (D. M. W.)

End of Article: SHUVALOV (sometimes written SCHOUVALOFF), PETER ANDREIVICH, COUNT (18271889)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SHA_SIV/SHUVALOV_sometimes_written_SCH.html">
SHUVALOV (sometimes written SCHOUVALOFF), PETER...
</a>

(Previous)
SHUTTLE (O. Eng. shitel, &c.; from the same wor...

(Next)
SHUYA

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email