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ORDUIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 238 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORDUIN - NASHCHOKIN, ATHANASY LAVRENTEVICH (?-168o), See also:

Russian statesman, was the son of a poor See also:official at See also:Pskov, who saw to it that his son was taught Latin, See also:German and See also:mathematics. Athanasy began his public career in 1642 as one of the delineators of the new Russo-See also:Swedish frontier after the See also:peace of Stolbova. Even then he had a See also:great reputation at See also:Moscow as one who thoroughly understood " German ways and things." He was one of the first Muscovites who diligently collected See also:foreign books, and we hear of as many as sixty-nine Latin See also:works being sent to him at one See also:time from abroad. He attracted the See also:attention of the See also:young See also:tsar Alexius by his resource-fulness during the Pskov See also:rebellion of 165o, which he succeeded in localizing by See also:personal See also:influence. At the beginning of the Swedish See also:War, Orduin was appointed to a high command, in which he displayed striking ability. In 1657 he was appointed See also:minister-plenipotentiary to treat with the Swedes on the Narova See also:river. He was the only Russian statesman of the See also:day with sufficient fore-sight to grasp the fact that the Baltic seaboard, or even a See also:part of it, was See also:worth more to Muscovy than ten times the same amount of territory in Lithuania., and, despite ignorant See also:jealousy of his colleagues, succeeded (Dec. 1658) in concluding a three-years' truce whereby the Muscovites were See also:left in See also:possession of See also:ali their conquests in See also:Livonia. In 166o he was sent as plenipotentiary to a second See also:congress, to convert the truce of 1658 into a permanent peace. He advised that the truce with See also:Sweden should be prolonged and See also:Charles II. of See also:England invited to mediate a See also:northern peace. Finally he laid stress upon the immense importance of Livonia for the development of Russian See also:trade. On being overruled he retired from the negotiations.

He was the See also:

chief plenipotentiary at the abortive congress of Durovicha, which met in 1664, to terminate the Russo-See also:Polish War; and it was due in no small measure to his See also:superior ability and great tenacity of purpose that See also:Russia succeeded in concluding with See also:Poland the advantageous truce of Andrussowo (Feb. 1667). On his return to Russia he was created a See also:boyar of the first class and entrusted with the direction of the foreign See also:office, with the See also:title of " See also:Guardian of the great Tsarish See also:Seal and Director of the great Imperial Offices." He was, in fact, the first Russian See also:chancellor. It was Orduin who first abolished the onerous See also:system of tolls on exports and imports, and established a See also:combination of native merchants for promoting See also:direct commercial relations between Sweden and Russia. He also set on See also:foot a postal system between Muscovy, See also:Courland and Poland, and introduced gazettes and bills of See also:exchange into Russia. With his name, too, is associated the See also:building of the first Russian See also:merchant-vessels on the See also:Dvina and See also:Volga. But his whole official career was a See also:constant struggle with narrow routine and personal jealousy on the part of the boyars and clerks of the See also:council. He was last employed in the negotiations for See also:con-firming the truce of Andrussowo (See also:September 1669; See also:March 1670). In See also:January 1671 we hear of him as in attendance upon the tsar on the occasion of his second See also:marriage; but in See also:February the same See also:year he was dismissed, and withdrew to the Kruipetskymonastery near See also:Kiev, where he took the See also:tonsure under the name of Antony, and occupied himself with See also:good works till his See also:death in 1680. In many things he anticipated See also:Peter the Great. He was absolutely incorruptible, thus See also:standing, morally as well as intellectually, far above the level of his See also:age. See S.

M. Solovev, See also:

History of Russia (Rus.), vol. xi. (St See also:Petersburg, 1895, seq.) ; V. Ikonnikov, " See also:Biography of Orduin-Nashchokin " (in Russkaya Starina, Nos. 11-12) (St Petersburg, 1883) ; R. Nisbet See also:Bain, The First Romanovs (See also:London, 1905, chaps. 4 and 6). (R. N.

End of Article: ORDUIN

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