Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world.
Count
Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselyov or
Kiseleff (Па́вел Дми́триевич Киселёв) ' onMouseout='HidePop("71393")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Moscow">Moscow
Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
— ,
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) is generally regarded as the most brilliant
RussianRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
reformer during
Nicholas INicholas I , , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometres.Nicholas I was born in Gatchina to Emperor Paul I and...
's generally
reactionaryReactionary refers to any political or social movement or ideology that seeks a return to a previous state . The term originated in the French Revolution, to denote the counter-revolutionaries who wanted to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime...
reign.
Early military career
Kiselyov first distinguished himself during the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
, serving as Count Miloradovich's
aide-de-campAn aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
in the
Battle of BorodinoThe Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, marching with the Russian army all the way to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and gaining promotion to
Alexander IAlexander I of Russia , also known as Alexander the Blessed served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and Ruler of Poland from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania.He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later...
's aide-de-camp at the close of the campaign.
Five years later, Kiselyov was appointed Chief of Staff of the Second Army, stationed in
TulchynTulchin is a small city in the Vinnytsya Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Tulchynsky Raion , and was the chief centre of the Southern Society of the Decembrists.The current estimated population is around 13,500 ....
,
PodoliaThe region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova is also a part of Podolia...
. It was there that he first tried to implement his reforms, including the mitigation and condemnation of
corporal punishmentCorporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to change an undesirable attitude or behaviour...
, which aroused the animosity of the powerful
War Minister-War Collegium:The War Collegium was created in the course of Government reform of Peter I 11 December 1717.-Presidents:* Prince Alexander Menshikov 1717 – 1724.* Prince Anikita Repnin 1724 – 1726.* Prince Mikhail Golitsin 1728 – 1730....
, Count Arakcheyev.
Pavel PestelColonel Pavel Ivanovich Pestel was a Russian revolutionary and ideologue of the Decembrists.In 1805-1809, Pavel Pestel studied in Dresden. In 1810-1811, he was a student at the Page Corps, from which he would graduate in the rank of praporshchik. Pestel was then sent to the Lithuanian Regiment of...
and other
DecembristsThe Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
who formed the southern revolutionary league served under Kiselyov and were supported by him, although the extent to which their collusion was encouraged by Kiselyov's liberalism has been disputed.
Administration of the Danubian Principalities
During the
Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829The Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829 was sparked by the Greek War of Independence. The war broke out after the Sultan, incensed by the Russian participation in the Battle of Navarino, closed the Dardanelles for Russian ships and revoked the Akkerman Convention.When the hostilities erupted, the...
Kiselyov was appointed to command the Russian occupying troops in
WallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and
MoldaviaMoldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, and appointed Plenipotentiary President of the Divans in Wallachia and Moldavia (
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
governor) on October 19, 1829 (he was in
ZimniceaZimnicea is a town in Teleorman county, Romania , a port on the Danube opposite the Bulgarian city of Svishtov.-History:...
at the time). He remained the most powerful man in the
Danubian PrincipalitiesDanubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...
until 1834, when
Mahmud IIMahmud II
was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born at Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid I. His reign is notable mostly for the extensive legal and military reforms he instituted...
, the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
SultanThe Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
, appointed new
hospodarHospodar or gospodar is a term of Slavonic origin, meaning "lord" or "master".The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia were styled hospodars in Slavic writings from the 15th century to 1866. Hospodar was used in addition to the title voivod...
s,
Alexandru II GhicaAlexandru II or Alexandru D. Ghica , a member of the Ghica family, was Prince of Wallachia from April 1834 to 7 October 1842 and later caimacam from July 1856 to October 1858....
in Wallachia and
Mihail SturdzaMihail Sturdza was a prince of Moldavia from 1834 to 1849. A man of liberal education, he established the Mihaileana Academy, a kind of university, in Iaşi. He brought scholars from foreign countries to act as teachers, and gave a very powerful stimulus to the educational development of the...
in Moldavia.
Under his administration, the two states got their first constitutions, the
Regulamentul OrganicRegulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia...
("Organic Statute",
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
: Règlement organique, Russian: Oрганический регламент,
Organichesky reglament), introduced in Wallachia in 1831 and in Moldavia in 1832, which remained valid until the 1859 union of the principalities, with a short intermission in Wallachia during the 1848 Revolution. The Statute, despite its shortcomings, had a beneficient effect on the economy and politics of the Principalities. He was also responsible for the creation of one of the most important arteries in
BucharestBucharest is the capital city, industrial and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River....
,
Şoseaua KiseleffŞoseaua Kiseleff is a major road in Bucharest that runs as a northward continuation of Calea Victoriei. The road was created in 1832 by Pavel Kiselyov, the commander of the Russian occupation troops in Wallachia and Moldavia...
(Kiseleff Road), a northward continuation of
Calea VictorieiCalea Victoriei is a major avenue in central Bucharest. It leads from Splaiul Independenţei to the north and then northwest up to Piaţa Victoriei, where Şoseaua Kiseleff continues north....
(then known as Podul Mogoşoaiei).
Emancipation projects
Back in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
in 1835, Kiselyov was admitted to the
State Council of Imperial RussiaThe State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.- 18th century :Early Tsar's Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....
and to the secret committees deliberating on effective ways to emancipate the serfs. The same year, Kiselyov submitted to the tsar a comprehensive programme for reforms, which scared conservative landowners so much that the monarch had it laid to rest. It is believed that the programme was based on Kiselyov's own memorandum, which he had first prepared as early as 1816.
Two years later, Kiselyov was appointed Imperial Minister of State Properties, a key post which he filled with great efficiency for 18 years. In 1839, Kiselyov became a count and reformed the administration of state-owned peasants. He also instituted a system of schools for peasant children, popularly known as the Kiselyov Schools. The minister could not persevere with other reform plans, as the ascendancy of reactionary forces lasted until Nicholas's death in 1855. Nicholas's successor,
Alexander IIAlexander II Nikolaevich , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
, dispatched Kiselyov to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the capacity of Minister Plenipotentiary to deal with the effects of the
Crimean WarThe Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British Empire, France, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia on the other. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
.
Kiselyov was married to Countess Sofia, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki's daughter, but their only son died in infancy. As a result, the old courtier spent much time with his nephews and heirs from the Milyutin family. Although he hoped to see
Nicholas MilyutinNikolay Alekseyevich Milyutin was a Russian statesman remembered as the chief architect of the great liberal reforms undertaken during Alexander II's reign, including the emancipation of the serfs and the establishment of zemstvo....
presiding over the emancipation reform that followed, his aspirations in this regard were only partially rewarded. His other nephew,
Dmitry MilyutinCount Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin was Minister of War and the last Field Marshal of Imperial Russia...
, was responsible for the sweeping reforms of the Russian military in the 1870s. Kiselyov remained in the diplomatic service until 1862, when failing health compelled him to lay down his offices. He never returned to Russia and died in Paris ten years later.