Prince Fyodor Yuryevich Romodanovsky (; ca. 1640 – 1717) was one 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 ...

's foremost assistants in the task of modernizing

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He served as the country's first head of

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

, operating the from 1686 to his death. An influential

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 ...

from the Romodanovsky family, Prince Fyodor was given the post of the head of the Preobrazhensky

prikaz A prikaz (; , plural: ) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive bureaucracy , office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Tsardom of Russia from the 15th ...

in 1686, when its functions involved the administration of the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky units. His integrity and resolution won him the admiration of young Tsar Peter (), who made him "

Generalissimo ''Generalissimo'' ( ), also generalissimus, is a military rank of the highest degree, superior to field marshal and other five-star ranks in the states where they are used. Usage The word (), an Italian term, is the absolute superlative ...

" of his toy army. During Peter's frequent absences from the capital between 1695 and 1699 he entrusted Romodanovsky with governing the country. When the Streltsy Uprising of 1698 erupted in Peter's absence, Romodanovsky ruthlessly suppressed it. For his vital services to the crown Peter jocundly styled Romodanovsky "His

Caesarean Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because vaginal delivery would ...

Majesty" (кесарское величество) and "Prince Caesar" (князь-кесарь). Romodanovsky also had the right to keep his own court at

Ropsha Ropsha ( rus, Ропша, p=ˈropʂə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, settlement in Lomonosovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Lomonosovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated about south of Petergof, Peterhof and south ...

(south of Peterhof) and to promote officers. The Tsar addressed him in German as "Min Herr Koenig" ("My Lord King") and signed his own letters "Your Majesty's humblest servant Piter". Until his death, on 17 September 1717, Romodanovsky remained in charge of the secret police, the

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 ...

n prikaz, and the

Apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is an Early Modern English, archaic English term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in Brit ...

; basically he operated as the second-most powerful man (and the most feared man) in Russia until his death. Long after Romodanovsky's death, Klyuchevsky (1841-1911) described him as a "a monstrum by appearance, a vicious tyrant by character". Most of Peter the Great's biographies tend to overlook the role of Romodanovsky, who served as an unconditional supporter of Peter and as his most-feared and very effective official. While other Peter's adherents built and fought, Romodanovsky ensured, with an iron hand, that there was no opposition. Fyodor Romodanovsky's only son, ( 1677–1730) succeeded him in office at the Preobrazhensky prikaz from 1717 to 1729.

See also