Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GREGORY (Grigorii) GRIGORIEVICH ORLOV...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 293 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

GREGORY (Grigorii) GRIGORIEVICH See also:ORLOV, See also:COUNT (1734-1783) , See also:Russian statesman, was the son of Gregory Orlov, See also:governor of See also:Great See also:Novgorod. He was educated in the See also:corps of cadets at St See also:Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' See also:War, and was wounded at Zorndorf. While serving in the See also:capital as an See also:artillery officer he caught the See also:fancy of See also:Catherine II., and was the See also:leader of the See also:conspiracy which resulted in the dethronement and See also:death of See also:Peter III. (1762). After the event, Catherine raised him to the See also:rank of count and made him See also:adjutant-See also:general, director-general of See also:engineers and general-in-See also:chief. At one See also:time the empress thought of marrying her favourite, but the See also:plan was frustrated by Nikita See also:Panin. Orlov's See also:influence became See also:paramount after the See also:discovery of the Khitrovo See also:plot to See also:murder the whole Orlov See also:family. Gregory Orlov was no states-See also:man, but he had a See also:quick wit, a fairly accurate appreciation of current events, and was a useful and sympathetic counsellor during the earlier portion of Catherine's reign. He entered with See also:enthusiasm, both from patriotic and from economical motives, into the question of the improvement of the See also:condition of the See also:serfs and their partial emancipation. He was also their most prominent See also:advocate in the great See also:commission of 1767, though he aimed primarily at pleasing the empress, who affected great liberality in her earlier years. He was one of the earliest propagandists of the Slavophil See also:idea of the emancipation of the Christians from the See also:Turkish yoke. In 1771 he was sent as first Russian plenipotentiary to the See also:peace-See also:congress of See also:Focshani; but he failed in his See also:mission, owing partly to the obstinacy of the See also:Turks, and partly (according to Panin) to his own outrageous insolence.

On returning without permission to St Petersburg, he found himself superseded in the empress's favour by Vasil'-chikov. When See also:

Potemkin, in 1771, superseded Vasil'chikov, Orlov became of no See also:account at See also:court and went abroad for some years. He returned to See also:Russia a few months previously to his death, which took See also:place at See also:Moscow in 1780. For some time before his death he was out of his mind. See also:Late in See also:life be married his niece, Madame Zinoveva, but See also:left no See also:children. See A. P. Barsukov, Narratives from Russian See also:History in the 78th See also:Century (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1885).

End of Article: GREGORY (Grigorii) GRIGORIEVICH ORLOV, COUNT (1734-1783)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GREGORY (Gregorius) 		[next]
GREGORY II

Site © 2006 - Net Industries