Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov

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Pyotr Shuvalov in 1850.

Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov (Russian: Граф Пётр Андре́евич Шува́лов) (27 July 1827, Saint Petersburg – 22 March 1889, Saint Petersburg) was an influential Russian statesman and a counselor to Tsar Alexander II.

Biography

Pyotr Andreyevich came from the

Prince Zubov's widow and heiress. Count Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov was his brother. Rundāle Palace
was notable family estate.

After graduating from the

Corps of Pages, Pyotr Shuvalov rose through the ranks of Alexander II's retinue, making wing adjutant, major general of the retinue and adjutant general in short order. In 1857 he was put in charge of the Saint Petersburg police and went to France
for training.

In 1860 Shuvalov was appointed director of the Department of General Affairs of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs and, in 1861, was made Chief of Staff of the Special Corps of Gendarmes. He proposed for the Corps to be abolished, which contributed to his reputation as a liberal and an Anglophile. His plan was rejected, and he resigned in late 1861. He served elsewhere in the early 1860s and, in 1864, was appointed governor-general of the Baltic region
.

After

Slavophiles and the so-called Russian Party as well as to the more liberal reformers like Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin and Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.[1]

Shuvalov was in favor of developing local self-government but on the basis of strengthening the political position of the landed gentry. In the long run, he envisioned a system of national representation with a constitution and a bicameral parliament, modelled on the earlier aristocratic English model, but he disclosed his parliamentary ideas only in 1881, when he had safely retired:[2]

Pyotr Shuvalov
an advisory assembly can bring no benefit whatsoever. One must openly introduce a constitutional system by establishing two houses and giving them a decisive voice. If this cannot be done immediately, one must, at least, erect a foundation upon which real representative government could eventually arise.

Shuvalov continued his predecessors' reforms although more cautiously. He reorganized

General
in other armies.

In 1873, Shuvalov was sent to

Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia and the Duke of Edinburgh. The mission was a success and the two married in January 1874. Shuvalov was also supposed to reassure the British government that Alexander II had no plans to conquer the Central Asian Khanate of Khiva. Although Khiva fell to Russian troops in 1874, he was able to blame it on the generals' excess of zeal and so it did not damage Shuvalov's reputation in London.[4]

In April 1874, the

Catherine Dolgorukov,[6]
have also been suggested.

Shuvalov played an important role in the negotiations between Russia and

Treaty of Berlin, 1878, Russian public opinion turned against him since he was seen as too conciliatory and too willing to yield to British and especially German
demands. Although Alexander II at first resisted public pressure to remove Shuvalov, further deterioration of Russo-German relations in 1879 forced him into retirement.

Notes

References

External links

Media related to Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov at Wikimedia Commons

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