Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn (, tr. ; 1643–1714) was a Russian

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

and statesman of the 17th century. He belonged to the Golitsyn as well as Romodanovsky Muscovite noble families. His main political opponent was his cousin Prince Boris Alexeyevich Golitsyn.

Biography

Golitsyn spent his early days at the court of Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich (reigned 1645-1676), where he gradually rose to the rank of

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

. In 1676 he was sent to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

to restrain the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

and took part in the Chigirin campaign of the Russo-Turkish War of 1676-1681. Personal experience of the inconveniences and dangers of the prevailing system of preferment - the so-called ''

mestnichestvo In History of Russia, Russian history, ''mestnichestvo'' (, ; from wikt:место#Russian, ме́сто, a position) was a feudal hierarchical system in Russia from the 15th to 17th centuries. ''Mestnichestvo'' was a complicated system of se ...

'', or rank priority, which had paralyzed the Russian armies for centuries - induced him to propose its abolition, which Tsar

Feodor III Feodor or Fyodor III Alekseyevich (; 9 June 1661 – 7 May 1682) was Tsar of all Russia from 1676 until his death in 1682. Despite poor health from childhood, he managed to pass reforms on improving meritocracy within the civil and military stat ...

carried out in 1678. The May revolution of 1682 placed Vasily Golitsyn at the head of the Posolsky Prikaz, or

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. During the regency (1682-1689) of Sophia, the half-sister of

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, whose intimate friend he became, he served as the principal minister of state (1682–1689) and as keeper of the great seal, a title bestowed upon only two Russians before him,

Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin (; 1605–1680) was a Russian statesman. He was a '' diak'' of the '' posolsky prikaz'' (foreign ministry). He was the first junior noble to attain the boyar title and highest offices of state not as a resul ...

(1605-1680) and

Artamon Matveyev Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev (; – ) was a Russian statesman, diplomat and reformer. He served as the head ('' dyak'') of the foreign ministry (''Posolsky prikaz'') from 1671 to 1676 during the reign of Alexis of Russia, succeeding Afanasy Or ...

(1625-1682). In home affairs his influence was insignificant, but his foreign policy was distinguished by the

Treaty of Nerchinsk The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China after the defeat of Russia by Qing China at the Siege of Albazin in 1686. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as ...

(1689), which set the Russo-Chinese border north of the

Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...

, and by the

Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 The Polish-Russian Peace Treaty of 1686, officially known as Treaty of Perpetual Peace , , but also known in Polish tradition Grzymułtowski Peace, ) was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to finally ...

with Poland, whereby Russia at last definitively recovered

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. By the terms of the same treaty, Russia acceded to the grand league against the Porte. Golitsyn's two expeditions against

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 proved unsuccessful, and made him extremely unpopular. Only with the utmost difficulty could Sophia get the young tsar Peter to decorate the defeated commander-in-chief as if he had returned a victor. In the political contest between Sophia and Peter of August–September 1689, Golitsyn half-heartedly supported his mistress and shared her ruin. Peter spared his life - owing to the supplications of his cousin Boris - but deprived him of his boyardom, confiscated his estates and banished him successively to

Kargopol Kargopol () is a town and the administrative center of Kargopolsky District in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on both sides of the Onega River, several miles north of Lake Lacha, in the southwestern corner of the oblast. Population: ...

, to Mezen and to Kholmogory, where he died on 21 April 1714. Golitsyn was unusually well educated. He was a great friend of foreigners, who generally alluded to him as "the great Golitsyn". He expounded to them some drastic reform measures, such as the abolition of serfdom, the promotion of religious toleration, and the development of industrial enterprises. As Golitsyn was eager to avoid all forms of violence and repression, his program was more cautious and "realistic" than that of Peter the Great. Political upheavals prevented him from executing any of these plans.

Sources

* Derek Wilson (2010) Peter the Great, p. 8, 13,37.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golitsyn, Vasily Vasilyevich 1643 births 1714 deaths 17th-century Russian nobility

Vasily Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian language, Russian: wikt:Василий, Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek language, Greek origin and corresponds to ''Basil (name)#Given name, Basil''. It may refer to: *Vasily ...

Romodanovsky family