Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov

For more information on Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov, visit Britannica.com.

("Minga") (1782 - 1856), leading statesman during the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I.

Although Mikhail Vorontsov was considered a military hero (his portrait hangs in the Hero's Hall of the Hermitage), mainly for his generalship at the Battle of Borodino (1812) and his command of the Russian occupation army in France (1815 - 1818), his historical significance is due to his rule as governor-general and viceroy in New Russia and Caucasia from 1823 to 1854. Born a count in an illustrious and wealthy family of imperial servitors, he was awarded the titles of field marshal and most illustrious (Svetleyshy) prince of the Russian Empire for his service.

Vorontsov was an unshakably loyal servitor to the emperors, yet thanks to his upbringing in England (his father, Semen Vorontsov, was the Russian ambassador) and an excellent education, as well as his high social status and fabulous wealth, in attitude and action he was more Western, liberal, and business-minded than his conservative Russian colleagues. The poet Pushkin out of spite called him "half lord and half merchant." He was one of Russia's largest serf-owners. Although he supported emancipation in principle, he spurned overtures to join the Decembrist plotters, many of whom received their inspiration in France under his command. The serfs, he said, could be freed only when the Emperor decided to do so. Indeed, he was named by Nicholas I to serve on the commission set up in 1826 to investigate the Decembrist conspiracy.

Vorontsov excelled in the field of imperial administration. In New Russia, from its capital Odessa, and in Caucasia from Tbilisi, his government brought vast improvements to the economic life and sheer physical appearance of these southern regions. He attempted, with limited success, to improve the operation of the notoriously corrupt and inefficient imperial bureaucracy. He decentralized decision making in these peripheral territories of the empire, partly by bringing educated locals into the civil service. He also fought constantly, with limited success, for some autonomy from the jealous central ministries in St. Petersburg. He encouraged local businesses. He brought steamboats from England to improve transportation up the rivers and on the Black Sea. He established and supported educational and cultural institutions. He personally supervised the design and construction of parks and public buildings in the major cities.

A bitter opponent of the Crimean War and the unexpected enmity with his beloved England, Vorontsov retired in 1854 in failing health, after a third of a century of service, and died two years later. In an unusual expression of public admiration for Imperial Russia, public subscriptions paid for commemorative statues of him in Odessa and Tbilisi. A beautiful museum dedicated to his good works and lasting memory, currently open to the public, is located in one of his former palaces, the famous Bloor-designed palace in Alupka, not far from Yalta on the "Russian Riviera," the beautiful Crimean coast.

Bibliography

Rhinelander, Anthony. (1990). Prince Michael Vorontsov: Viceroy to the Tsar. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

—ANTHONY RHINELANDER

Count Michael I. Vorontsov.

Count Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (Russian: Михаи́л Илларио́нович Воронцо́в) (1714–1767) was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who laid foundations for the fortunes of the Vorontsov family.

At the age of fourteen, Vorontsov was appointed a kammerjunker at the court of the tsesarevna Yelizaveta Petrovna, whom he materially assisted during the famous coup d'etat of December 6, 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers. On January 3, 1742, Vorontsov married Anna Skavronskaya, the empress's cousin, and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor. His jealousy of Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin induced him to participate in Count Lestocq's conspiracy against that statesman. The empress's affection for him (she owed much to his skilful pen and still more to the liberality of his rich kinsfolk) saved him from the fate of his accomplices, but he lived in a state of semi-eclipse during the domination of Bestuzhev.

On the disgrace of Bestuzhev, Vorontsov was made imperial chancellor in his stead. Though well-meaning and perfectly honest, Vorontsov as a politician was singularly timorous and irresolute, and always took his cue from the court. Thus, under Yelizaveta Petrovna he was an avowed enemy of Prussia and a warm friend of Austria and France; yet he made no effort to prevent Peter III from reversing the policy of his predecessor. Yet, he did not lack personal courage, and endured torture after the revolution of July 9, 1762, rather than betray his late master. Having promoted his niece Elizabeth as a favourite mistress of Peter III, he naturally greatly disliked his wife Catherine, and at first refused to serve under her, though she reinstated him in the dignity of chancellor. When he found that the real control of foreign affairs was in the hands of Nikita Panin, he resigned his office in 1763.

Vorontsov Palace on Sadovaya Street in St Petersburg.

Mikhail Voronzov may be said to have revived the fortunes of his ancient and illustrious family. His name is preserved in the lavish St Petersburg palace he commissioned to the imperial architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. He squandered most of his personal fortune upon that edifice but was subsequently constricted to sell it to the crown for the lack of funds required to complete its interior decoration. His niece Catherine was on intimate terms with her royal namesake, and his nephew Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov likewise attained the dignity of imperial chancellor in the early years of Alexander I's reign.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• Online museum of the Vorontsov Family

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