View source for Peter Shafirov

{{Short description|Russian statesman}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Peter Shafirov
| native_name         = {{No bold|Пётр Шафиров}}
| image               = Shafirov.jpg
| caption             = Portrait of Shafirov
| birth_date          = 1670
| birth_place         = [[Smolensk]], [[Tsardom of Russia]]
| death_date          = 1 March 1739
| death_place         = [[Saint Petersburg]], [[Russian Empire]]
| office              = Head of the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia)|''Posolsky Prikaz'']]
| term_start          = 1706
| term_end            = 1708
| predecessor         = [[Fyodor Alexeyevich Golovin|Fyodor Golovin]]
| successor           = [[Gavriil Golovkin]]
| office2             = 
| term_start2         = 
| term_end2           =
| predecessor2        = 
| successor2          = 
| nationality         = [[Russians|Russian]]
| citizenship         = 
| alma_mater          = 
| party               = 
| profession          = 
| native_name_lang    = ru
| rank                = 
| awards              = [[Order of St. Andrew]]<br>[[Order of the White Eagle (Poland)|Order of the White Eagle]]
}}

[[Baron]] '''Peter Pavlovich Shafirov''' ({{langx|ru|Пётр Павлович Шафиров}}; 1670–1739) was a [[Russians|Russia]]n statesman and a prominent [[coadjutor]] of [[Peter the Great]].

==Early life and career==
Shafirov was born into a [[Polish Jew]]ish family. His father, Pavel Shafirov, was a translator in the Russian [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]], whose parents converted to the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] after [[Smolensk]] was ceded to Russia by Poland in 1654.

Peter Shafirov first made himself useful by his extraordinary knowledge of foreign languages. He was the chief translator in the Russian Foreign Office for many years, subsequently accompanying Tsar Peter on his travels. He was raised to the [[Russian nobility]] as a [[baron]] and received the rank of [[Chancellor|vice-chancellor]]. He was considered a [[diplomat]] of the highest order.

==Diplomatic missions==
Shafirov concluded the [[Treaty of the Pruth|Peace of the Pruth]] during the [[Pruth River Campaign|campaign of 1711]]. Peter left him in the hands of the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] as a hostage, and on the breaking of the peace he was imprisoned in the [[Yedikule Fortress|Seven Towers]]. Finally, however, with the aid of the British and Dutch ambassadors, he defeated the diplomacy of [[Charles XII of Sweden]] and his agents, and confirmed the good relations between Russia and Turkey by the treaty of Adrianople (June 1713).

In 1718, Shafirov was appointed vice-president of the department of Foreign Affairs, and a [[Governing Senate|senator]].

==Sentencing and end of life==

In 1723, however, he was deprived of all his offices and sentenced to death. The capital sentence was commuted at the last minute to banishment, first to [[Siberia]] and then to [[Veliky Novgorod|Novgorod]]. Embezzlement and disorderly conduct in the senate were the offences charged against Shafirov. On the death of Peter, Shafirov was released from prison and commissioned to write the biography of his late master. However, the successful rivalry of his supplanter, [[Andrei Osterman]], prevented Shafirov from holding any high office during the last fourteen years of his life.

==Works==
In 1717, he authored a treatise entitled ''A discourse concerning the just causes of the war between Sweden and Russia'',<ref name="Cracraft">{{cite book|last=Cracraft|first=James|title=The Revolution of Peter the Great|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionofpete00crac/page/70|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0-674-01196-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionofpete00crac/page/70 70]|chapter=Diplomatic and Bureaucratic Revolutions|chapter-url-access=registration}}{{subscription required}}</ref> a historical tract on the war with Charles XII. Shafirov detailed some of the greatest exploits of the tsar-regenerator.

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{EB1911|wstitle=Shafirov, Peter Pavlovich, Baron|volume=24|last= Bain |first= Robert Nisbet |author-link= Robert Nisbet Bain|page=760|short=1}}

==Further reading==
* Cracraft, James. "Diplomatic and Bureaucratic Revolutions". in ''The Revolution of Peter the Great'' (Harvard University Press, 2003)
* Butler, W. E. "Shafirov: Diplomatist of Petrine Russia." '' History Today'' (Oct 1973), Vol. 23 Issue 10, pp  699–704 online.

{{Foreign ministers of Russia and the Soviet Union}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shafirov, Peter Pavlovich}}
[[Category:1670 births]]
[[Category:1739 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Russian businesspeople]]
[[Category:18th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Barons of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Diplomats of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Russian people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)]]
[[Category:Senators of the Russian Empire]]