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APRAKSIN, THEDOR MATVYEEVICH (1671-1728)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 230 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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APRAKSIN, THEDOR MATVYEEVICH (1671-1728) , See also:Russian soldier, began See also:life as one of the pages of See also:Tsar See also:Theodore III., after whose See also:death he served the little tsar See also:Peter in the same capacity. The playfellowship of the two lads resulted in a lifelong friendship. In his twenty-first See also:year Apraksin was appointed See also:governor of See also:Archangel, then the most important commercially of all the Russian provinces, and built See also:ships capable of weathering storms, to the See also:great delight of the tsar. He won his colonelcy at the See also:siege of See also:Azov (1696). In 1700 he was appointed See also:chief of the See also:admiralty, in which See also:post (from 1700 to 1706) his unusual technical ability was of great service. While Peter was combating See also:Charles XII., Apraksin was constructing fleets, See also:building fortresses and havens (See also:Taganrog). In 1707 he was transferred to See also:Moscow. In 1708 he was appointed See also:commander-in-chief in Ingria, to defend the new See also:capital against the Swedes, whom he utterly routed, besides capturing See also:Viborg in Carelia. He held the chief command in the See also:Black See also:Sea during the See also:campaign of the Pruth (1711), and in 1713 materially assisted the See also:conquest of See also:Finland by his operations from the See also:side of the sea. In 1719–1720 he personally conducted the descents upon See also:Sweden, ravaging that See also:country mercilessly, and thus extorting the See also:peace of Nystad, whereby she surrendered the best See also:part of her Baltic provinces to See also:Russia. For these great services he was made a senator and See also:admiral-See also:general of the See also:empire. His last expedition was to See also:Reval in 1726, to See also:cover the See also:town from an anticipated attack by the See also:English See also:government, with whom the relations of Russia at the beginning of the reign of Catharine I. were strained almost to breaking-point.

Though frequently threatened with terrible penalties by Peter the Great for his incurable See also:

vice of peculation, Apraksin, nevertheless, contrived to See also:save his See also:head, though not his See also:pocket, chiefly through the See also:mediation of the See also:good-natured empress, Catharine, who remained his friend to the last, and whom he assisted to See also:place on the See also:throne on the death of Peter. Apraksin was the most genial and See also:kind-hearted of all Peter's pupils. He is said to have never made an enemy. He died on the loth of See also:November 1728. See R. Nisbet See also:Bain, The Pupils of Peter the Great (See also:London, 1897). (R. N.

End of Article: APRAKSIN, THEDOR MATVYEEVICH (1671-1728)

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