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VORONTSOV

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 844 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VORONTSOV .) She received an exceptionally See also:

good See also:education, having displayed from a very See also:early See also:age the masculine ability and masculine tastes which made her whole career so singular. She was well versed in See also:mathematics, which she studied at the university of See also:Moscow, and in See also:general literature her favourite authors were See also:Bayle, See also:Montesquieu, Boileau, See also:Voltaire and Helvetius. While still a girl she was connected with the See also:Russian See also:court, and became one of the leaders of the party that attached itself to the See also:grand duchess (afterwards empress) See also:Catherine. Before she was sixteen she married See also:Prince Mikhail See also:Dashkov, a prominent Russian nobleman, and went to reside with him at Moscow. In 1762 she was at St See also:Petersburg and took a leading See also:part, according to her own See also:account the leading part, in the coup d'etat by which Catherine was raised to the See also:throne. (See CATHERINE II.) Another course of events would probably have resulted in the See also:elevation of the Princess Dashkov's See also:elder See also:sister, See also:Elizabeth, who was the See also:emperor's See also:mistress, and in whose favour he made no See also:secret of his intention to depose Catherine. Her relations with the new empress were not of a cordial nature, though she continued devotedly loyal. Her See also:blunt See also:manners, her unconcealed scorn of the male favourites that disgraced the court, and perhaps also her sense of unrequited merit, produced an estrangement between her and the empress, which ended in her asking permission to travel abroad. The cause of the final See also:breach was said to have been the refusal of her See also:request to be appointed See also:colonel of the imperial See also:guards. Her See also:husband having meanwhile died, she set out in 1768 on an extended tour through See also:Europe. She was received with See also:great See also:consideration at See also:foreign courts, and her See also:literary and scientific reputation procured her the entree to the society of the learned in most of the capitals of Europe. In See also:Paris she secured the warm friendship and admiration of See also:Diderot and Voltaire.

She showed in various ways a strong liking for See also:

England and the See also:English. She corresponded with See also:Garrick, Dr See also:Blair and See also:Principal See also:Robertson; and when in See also:Edinburgh, where she was very well received, she arranged to entrust the education of her son to Principal Robertson. In 1782 she returned to the Russian See also:capital, and was at once taken into favour by the empress, who strongly sympathized with her in her literary tastes, and specially in her desiie to elevate Russ to a See also:place among the literary See also:languages of Europe. Immediately after her return the princess was appointed " directeur " of the St Petersburg See also:Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1784 she was named the first See also:president of the Russian Academy, which had been founded at her See also:suggestion. In both positions she acquitted herself with marked ability. She projected the Russian See also:dictionary of the Academy, arranged its See also:plan, and executed a part of the See also:work herself. She edited a monthly See also:magazine ; and wrote at least two dramatic See also:works, The See also:Marriage of See also:Fabian, and a See also:comedy entitled Toissiokoff. Shortly before Catherine's See also:death the See also:friends quarrelled over a tragedy which the princess had allowed to find a place in the publications of the Academy, though it contained revolutionary principles,. according to the empress. A partial reconciliation was effected, but the princess soon afterwards retired from court. On the See also:accession of the emperor See also:Paul in 1796 she was deprived of all her offices, and ordered to retire to a miserable See also:village in the See also:government of See also:Novgorod, " to meditate on the events of 1762." After a See also:time the See also:sentence was partially recalled on the See also:petition of her friends, and she was permitted to pass the closing years of her See also:life on her own See also:estate near Moscow, where she died on the 4th of See also:January 181o. Her son, the last of the Dashkov See also:family, died in 1807 and bequeathed his See also:fortune to his See also:cousin Illarion Vorontsov, who there-upon by imperial See also:licence assumed the name Vorontsov-Dashkov; and Illarion's son,Illarion IvanovichVorontsov-Dashkov(b.1837), held an See also:appointment in the See also:tsar's See also:household from 1881 to 1897. The See also:Memoirs of the Princess Dashkoff written by herself were published in 184o in See also:London in two volumes.

They were edited by Mrs W. See also:

Bradford, who, as See also:Miss See also:Wilmot, had resided with the princess between 1803 and 18o8, and had suggested their preparation.

End of Article: VORONTSOV

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