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. ...

Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn (russian: Василий Васильевич Голицын, tr. ; 1643–1714) was a Russian

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient R ...

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

Life

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 Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were ...

. In 1676 he was sent to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

to restrain the

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

and took part in the

Chigirin Chyhyryn ( uk, Чигирин, ) is a city and historic site located in Cherkasy Raion of Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine. From 1648 to 1669 the city was a Hetman residence. After a forced relocation of the Ruthenian Orthodox metropolitan see ...

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 Russian history, ''Mestnichestvo'' (russian: ме́стничество, ; from ме́сто, a position) was a feudal hierarchical system in Russia from the 15th to 17th centuries. ''Mestnichestvo'' was a complicated system of seniority wh ...

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

Feodor III Fyodor III Alekséyevich (in Russian: ''Фёдор III Алексеевич'') or Feodor III Alekséyevich (9 June 1661 – 7 May 1682) was the Tsar of Russia between 1676 and 1682. While disabled and paralyzed from birth, he managed to pass ref ...

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 is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...

, and during the regency (1682-1689) of Sophia (the half-sister of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

) 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 (russian: Афанасий Лаврентьевич Ордин-Нащокин) (1605–1680) was a Russian statesman of the 17th century. He was the first junior noble to attain the ''boyar'' title and high ...

(1605-1680) and

Artamon Matveyev Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev (Артамон Сергеевич Матвеев in Russian) (1625–1682) was a Russian statesman, diplomat and reformer. Biography Because his father - Sergey Matveyev - was a notable diplomat, Artamon Matveyev ...

(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. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Range and kept the area between the Argun River ...

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

Amur River The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China (Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...

, and by the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 with Poland, whereby Russia at last definitively recovered

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

. By the terms of the same treaty, Russia acceded to the grand league against the

Porte Porte may refer to: *Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman empire *Porte, Piedmont, a municipality in the Piedmont region of Italy *John Cyril Porte, British/Irish aviator *Richie Porte, Australian professional cyclist who competes ...

, but Golitsyn's two expeditions against the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

( 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 (russian: Ка́ргополь) 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 o ...

, 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.

Source

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golitsyn, Vasily Vasilyevich 1643 births 1714 deaths Russian princes Vasily Romodanovsky family 17th-century Russian people 18th-century people from the Russian Empire