Yury Golovkin
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Count Yurii Alexandrovich Golovkin () (1762–1846) was a Russian
diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
who served as Russian Minister (ambassador) in
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
(1813–18) and in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
(1818–1822), but is best remembered for his leadership of the ambitious mission to China despatched in 1805.


Ancestry

Golovkin was born in
Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
to Count Alexander Alexandrovich Golovkin and his wife, Baroness Wilhelmina-Justina von Mosheim. He was brought up in Paris as a Protestant. His father was a grandson 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 chancellor, Gavriil Golovkin. On his death Wilhelmina-Justina remarried
Jean-Louis-Paul-François, 5th duc de Noailles Jean de Noailles, 5th Duke of Noailles (''Jean Louis Paul François''; 26 October 1739, Paris20 October 1824) was a French nobleman and scientist. Early life Jean-Louis-Paul-François de Noailles was the son of Catherine de Cossé-Brissac and L ...
. After the fall of the
Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for " ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...
in France, Yury went to Russia and entered the service of
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 ...
.


China mission

The Russian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (14 January 1770 – 15 July 1861), also known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish szlachta, nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, Chairman of ...
, had been preparing a mission to China for several years, partly in response to the growing Napoleonic hold over Europe, which left Russia with few possibilities for expansion. The resulting embassy was in some respects Russia's answer to the embassy sent by Britain in 1793 under Earl Macartney, for the economic importance of Russian trade with China through the
Russian-American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the c ...
was very significant. The
Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) The Treaty of Kyakhta (or Kiakhta), along with the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), regulated the relations between Imperial Russia and the Qing Empire of China until the mid-19th century. It was signed by Tulišen and Count Sava Lukich Raguzinskii- ...
had permitted trade at the town of
Kyakhta Kyakhta (, ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Russia border. The town stands directly opposite the Mongolian border to ...
on the Russian-Chinese border (now the Russian-Mongolian border), roughly halfway between
Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...
and Urga (present-day
Ulan Bator Ulaanbaatar is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipality is located in north central Mongolia at an ...
). However, the growth of European trade with China on the Chinese coast in and around Canton was giving rise to the future of Russian trade with China and in February 1803 Count
Nikolay Rumyantsev Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (; 3 April 1754 – 3 January 1826), born in Saint Petersburg, was Russia's Foreign Minister and Chancellor of the Russian Empire in the run-up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1808–12). He was the son of ...
, the Minister of Commerce, proposed a full-scale assault on what he saw as the commercial isolation of East Asia. In the end there were three components to this strategy; the first was Golovkin's mission, which travelled overland across Siberia in the winter, the second was
Nikolai Rezanov Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (, – ), a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperor of All Russia, Emperors of All Russia—Catherine the Great, Paul, and Alexa ...
’s mission to Japan, and the third was
Adam Johann von Krusenstern Adam Johann von Krusenstern (; 10 October 177012 August 1846) was a Russian admiral and explorer of Swedish and Baltic German descent, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth in 1803–1806. Life Krusenstern was born i ...
’s circumnavigation of the globe, the first achieved by a Russian ship. The pretext of the Golovkin mission was to inform the Chinese government of the accession of Tsar
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 495 to 454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Alexander I Theopator Euergetes, surnamed Balas, ruler of the Seleucid Empire 150-145 BC * Pope Alex ...
, but the real objective was to secure permission for Russian ships to enter Canton, to negotiate for the opening of a Russian consulate in Beijing and to secure Chinese agreement to the despatch of a Russian mission to Tibet. Early in January 1806 Golovkin and his cortège reached Urga (Ulan Bator) on their way to Beijing. In Urga, in bitterly cold weather, the entire company were invited to attend an open-air reception at which they were expected to perform the kowtow before a table on which stood a wooden tablet and three candles. Golovkin refused, declaring that he would be happy to prostrate himself before the emperor but could not do so before a piece of wood. With that, the prospects for the mission melted away, and Golovkin and his large train had to retrace their steps to Irkutsk and then St Petersburg.


Ramifications

Nothing significant has been written on the Golovkin expedition, even in Russia, since 1875. For the post-war period that may largely be due to the enforced sensitivities of Soviet scholars to the delicacy of Sino-Soviet relations, for, as one of them put it in 1959, it was all a question of the penetration and exploitation of the Chinese market, and that was hardly a friendly act. The Golovkin embassy was a political failure, but it provided a unique intellectual opportunity which was not missed by contemporaries in St Petersburg.
Filipp Vigel Filipp Filippovich Vigel (; – ) was a Russian noble of Swedish extraction who served in the foreign ministry. He accompanied Count Golovkin on his 1805 mission to China, presided over the department of foreign religions and governed the tow ...
’, whose reminiscences are a valuable source for the workings of Russian upper-class society in the nineteenth-century, recorded that the prospect of travelling to China excited much interest; his own motives for participating were, however, somewhat mercenary, for he was short of money and it was only through his influential connections that he was able to land himself with a well-paid position on the embassy in a clerical capacity. More significantly, the embassy included a party of scientists and other ‘savants’ under the direction of the Academy of Sciences and under the leadership of Count
Jan Potocki Count Jan Potocki (; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in Poland. He is known chiefly for his ...
(1761–1815). Potocki's leadership of the scientific team was not simply a matter of his personal connections with the fellow Pole, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, for his intellectual and political credentials for fulfilling that role were impeccable, and without him it is unlikely that the brilliant German orientalist, Julius Klaproth, would have had any part to play in the mission. Others in the party of scientists carried out a detailed exploration of Siberia, studies of the flora and fauna, and so on.V. N. Basnin, ed., 'Vostochnaya Sibir'. Zapiski o komandirovke na ostrov Sakhalin', ''Chteniya v imperatorskom obshchestve istorii i drevnostei Rossiiskich'', 1875 vol. 2, Section 5, pp. 142-4.


References


Further reading

* M. B. Davydova et al., ''Russko-Kitaiskie otnosheniya b XIX veke'', vol. 1 (Moscow: Pamiatniki Istoricheskoi Mysli, 1995). * V. N. Basnin, ‘O posol’stve b Kitai grafa Golovkina’, ''Chteniya v imperatorskom obshchestve istorii i drevnostei Rossiiskich'', 1875 vol. 4, Section 5, pp. 1–103.
Diplomatic biography of Golovkin in Russian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golovkin, Yury 1762 births 1846 deaths Diplomats of the Russian Empire Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to Austria 19th-century diplomats People from Lausanne Ambassadors of the Russian Empire to China