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MATVYEEV, ARTAMON SERGYEEVICH ( -1682)
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See also:MATVYEEV, ARTAMON SERGYEEVICH ( -1682) , See also:Russian statesman and reformer, was one of the greatest of the precursors of See also:Peter the See also:Great. His parentage and the date of his See also:birth are uncertain. Apparently his birth was humble, but when the obscure figure of the See also:young Artamon emerges into the See also:light of See also:history we find him equipped at all points with the newest ideas, absolutely See also:free from the worst prejudices of his See also:age, a ripe See also:scholar, and even an author of some distinction. In 1671 the See also:tsar Alexius and Artamon were already on intimate terms, and on the retirement of See also:Orduin-Nashchokin Matvyeev became the tsar's See also:chief counsellor. It was at his See also:house, full of all the wondrous, See also:half-forbidden novelties of the See also:west, that Alexius, after the See also:death of his first See also:consort, Martha, met Matvyeev's favourite See also:pupil, the beautiful Natalia Naruishkina, whom he married on the 21st of See also:January 1672. At the end of the See also:year Matvyeev was raised to the See also:rank of okolnichy, and on the 1st of See also:September 1674 attained the still higher dignity of See also:boyar. Matvyeev remained See also:paramount to the end of the reign and introduced See also:play-acting and all sorts of refining western novelties into Muscovy. The deplorable See also:physical See also:condition of Alexius's immediate successor, See also:Theodore III. suggested to Matvyeev thedesirability of elevating to the See also:throne the sturdy little tsarevich Peter, then in his See also:fourth year. He See also:purchased the See also:allegiance of the stryeltsi, or musketeers, and then, summoning the boyars of the See also:council, earnestly represented to them that Theodore, scarce able to live, was surely unable to reign, and urged the substitution of little Peter. But the reactionary boyars, among whom were the near kinsmen of Theodore, proclaimed him tsar and Matvyeev was banished to Pustozersk, in See also:northern See also:Russia, where he remained till Theodore's death (See also:April 27, 1682). Immediately afterwards Peter was proclaimed tsar by the See also:patriarch, and the first See also:ukaz issued in Peter's name summoned Matvyeev to return to the See also:capital and See also:act as chief adviser to the tsaritsa Natalia. He reached See also:Moscow on the 15th of May, prepared " to See also:lay down his See also:life for the tsar," and at once proceeded to the See also:head of the Red See also:Staircase to meet and argue with the assembled stryeltsi, who had been instigated to See also:rebel by the See also:anti-Petrine See also:faction. He had already succeeded in partially pacifying them, when one of their colonels began to abuse the still hesitating and suspicious musketeers. Infuriated, they seized and flung Matvyeev into the square below, where he was hacked to pieces by their comrades. See R. Nisbet See also:Bain, The First Romanovs (See also:London, 1905) ; M. P. Pogodin, The First Seventeen Years of the Life of Peter the Great (Rus.), (Moscow, 1875) ; S. M. Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.), (vols. 12, 13, (St See also:Petersburg, 1895, &c.) ; L. Shchepotev, A.S.Matvyeev as an Educational and See also:Political Reformer (Rus.), (St Petersburg, 1906). (R. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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