Count Ivan Grigoryevich Chernyshyov (1726 – 1797; ) was an Imperial Russian

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

and General Admiral, prominent during the reign of Empress

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

Life and career

He started his career serving under his more illustrious brother Zakhar Chernyshyov at the Russian missions in

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(1741) and

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(1742–45). In 1749 he was commanded to resign from diplomatic service and marry Countess Elizabeth Yefimovskaya, a cousin of Empress Elizabeth. All three Chernyshov brothers backed Catherine in the coup that placed her on the Russian throne in 1762, after the assassination of her husband, Peter III. They were handsomely rewarded for their loyalty. Catherine II first appointed Ivan Chernyshov to serve in the

Governing Senate From 1711 to 1917, the Governing Senate was the highest legislative, judicial, and executive body subordinate to the Russian emperors. The senate was instituted by Peter the Great to replace the Boyar Duma and lasted until the very end of the R ...

. In 1768, Chernyshov was awarded the role of Chief

Plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word can als ...

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. On his return to Russia two years later, he was made Vice-President of the Admiralty; a position he retained until 1796. Being on friendly terms with Nikita Panin, the tutor and closest adviser to the future

Emperor Paul Paul I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted ...

, he was promoted to the rank of Navy

upon the latter's ascension to the throne. By that time, Chernyshov's health was giving out and he had been living abroad for five years.

Family

Two of the Field Marshal’s grandchildren were tied to the Decembrist plot to overthrow Tsar Nicholas I in 1825. His grandson, Zakhar Grigoryevich Chernyshov, was an active participant in the uprising. Zakhar’s sister, Alexandra ("Alexandrine") Chernysheva, was married to the author of the Decembrist

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, Nikita Muravyov. Chernyshov's niece, Natalya Petrovna Galitzine, better known at the Russian court as " Princesse Moustache", was romanticized by Pushkin under the name of The Queen of Spades in his eponymous story from 1834.Binyon, T.J. ''Pushkin: A Biography,'' page 699. New York: Harper Collins, 2002

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chernyshyov, Ivan 1726 births 1797 deaths Counts of the Russian Empire Field marshals of the Russian Empire Imperial Russian Navy admirals 18th-century military personnel from the Russian Empire Burials at the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)