Ivan Grigorovich

Ivan Konstantinovich Grigorovich (Russian: Иван Константинович Григорович) (26 January 1853 – 3 March 1930) served as Imperial Russia's last Naval Minister from 1911 until the onset of the 1917 revolution.

Early career

Grigorovich was from a Russian noble family and opted for a military career after the death of his father, Konstantin Ivanovich Grigorovich. Graduating from the

Grigorovich was politically sympathetic to the Octobrist Party and was nominated as a candidate for Prime Minister in 1916; however his candidacy was rejected due to objections from dowager tsarina Maria Feodorovna over Grigorovich's liberal views.^[1]

Post-Revolution

Grigorovich was dismissed from office in the wake of the February Revolution on 31 March 1917. He served on the Historical Commission and was asked to write his memoirs (which were only published in 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, he was dismissed in October 1921 due to downsizing, and lived in extreme poverty, suffering frequently from pneumonia and for sometime lived in the apartment of Aleksey Krylov. From his retirement he asked for permission to get medical treatment abroad, and left for France in the autumn of 1924.^[1] He lived in exile in France in poverty until his death in 1930, with an income by selling his own oil paintings of seascapes. On his death, he was initially buried in the Russian Cemetery in Menton. In 2005 the urn containing his ashes was taken aboard the cruiser Moskva, which carried his remains to Novorossiysk. The ashes were then flown to Saint Petersburg and buried in his family vault in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in accordance with his will.

The Russian Navy has named the first of the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates after Ivan Grigorovich.

He was awarded Order of Prince Danilo I, Order of the Cross of Takovo and a number of other decorations.^[2]

Notes

References

• ISBN 0-8108-4927-5
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