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 ...

Alexey Mikhailovich Cherkassky or Tcherkassky (, – ) was a Russian statesman who served as the

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

from 1740 to 1742, at the beginning of Empress

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

's reign.

Life

Prince Cherkassky stemmed from one of Russia's richest families which descended from the sovereign rulers of

Circassia Circassia ( ), also known as Zichia, was a country and a historical region in . It spanned the western coastal portions of the North Caucasus, along the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. Circassia was conquered by the Russian Empire during ...

, a relation to Prince

Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky (), born Devlet-Girei-mırza (; died 1717), was a Imperial Russia, Russian officer of Circassians, Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia. Background A Muslims, Mus ...

. His surname translates as "Circassian". In 1702, Prince Cherkassky held a post of senior ''

stolnik Stolnik (, , , , ) was a court office in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, responsible for serving the royal table, then an honorary court title and a district office. It approximately corresponds to English term wikt:pantler, "pantler". S ...

'' (tsar's personal assistant) and was soon assigned to assist his father, Prince Mikhail Yakovlevich Cherkassky, who had been a

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

Tobolsk Tobolsk (, ) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1587, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and was the historic capita ...

at that time. Tcherkassky served under his father for 10 years and in 1714 was summoned to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. There, he was appointed member of the Urban Construction Commission. In 1719,

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 ...

sent Aleksey to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

as governor. In 1726, he became a senator. During the election of

Anna Ivanovna Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administration ...

for the Russian throne in 1730, Cherkassky, the richest man in Russia in terms of the amount of

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

s he owned at that time, was in charge of the

gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...

party, which had been in opposition to the ''verkhovniki'' (members of the

Supreme Privy Council The Supreme Privy Council () of Imperial Russia, founded on 19 February 1726 and operative until 1730, originated as a body of advisors to Empress Catherine I. History Originally, the council comprised six members— Alexander Menshikov, Fyodor ...

). For his services to the Crown he was appointed one of the three

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

s and was promoted to the rank of grand chancellor in 1740. As a cabinet minister, Tcherkassky signed a trade agreement with

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in 1734. In his post as chancellor, he signed a treaty with

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

in 1740 and Great Britain in 1741. A Baroque palace built for Prince Cherkassky on

Palace Quay The Palace Embankment or Palace Quay (Russian: Дворцовая набережная, Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya) is a street along the Neva River in Central Saint Petersburg which contains the complex of the Hermitage Museum buildings (including ...

to Yeropkin's designs has been rebuilt into the Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherkassky, Alexey Mikhailovich 1680 births 1742 deaths 17th-century Russian nobility 18th-century politicians from the Russian Empire 18th-century diplomats of the Russian Empire Senators of the Russian Empire Foreign ministers of the Russian Empire Chancellors of the Russian Empire Circassian people from the Russian Empire