View source for Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov

{{Short description|Russian Statesman}}[[Image:Petershuvalov.jpg|thumb|Pyotr Shuvalov in 1850.]]
'''Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov''' ({{langx|ru|Граф Пётр Андре́евич Шува́лов}}) (27 July 1827, [[Saint Petersburg]] – 22 March 1889, Saint Petersburg) was an influential [[Russia]]n statesman and a counselor to [[Tsar]] [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]].

==Biography==
Pyotr Andreyevich came from the [[Shuvalov|Shuvalov family]] which has been prominent in the Russian culture and politics since the mid-18th century. His father, Count Andrey Petrovich Shuvalov, was a prominent figure at the courts of [[Nicholas I of Russia]] and [[Alexander II of Russia]]. His mother was Thekla Ignatyevna Walentinowicz, [[Prince Zubov]]'s widow and heiress. Count [[Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov]] was his brother. [[Rundāle Palace]] was notable family estate.

After graduating from the [[Corps of Pages]], Pyotr Shuvalov rose through the ranks of Alexander II's [[retinue]], making [[adjutant|wing adjutant]], [[major general]] of the retinue and [[adjutant general]] in short order. In 1857 he was put in charge of the [[Saint Petersburg]] police and went to [[France]] for training.

In 1860 Shuvalov was appointed director of the Department of General Affairs of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs]] and, in 1861, was made Chief of Staff of the [[Special Corps of Gendarmes]]. He proposed for the Corps to be abolished, which contributed to his reputation as a [[liberalism|liberal]] and an [[Anglophile]]. His plan was rejected, and he resigned in late 1861. He served elsewhere in the early 1860s and, in 1864, was appointed [[governor-general]] of the [[Baltic region]].

After [[Dmitry Karakozov]]'s unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Alexander II in April 1866, Shuvalov was made Chief of [[Special Corps of Gendarmes|Gendarmes]] and Executive Head of the [[Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery]], a [[political minister|ministerial]] position at the time. He formed a group of similarly-minded moderate ministers (A. P. [[Bobrinsky]], S. A. Greig, K. I. Pahlen, [[Dmitriy Tolstoy]]) and, with the help of the Tsar's [[confidant]] [[Field Marshal]] [[Aleksandr Baryatinskiy]], pursued a policy of moderate reform. Politically, he was simultaneously opposed to the [[Slavophiles]] and the so-called [[Russian Party]] as well as to the more liberal reformers like Minister of War [[Dmitry Milyutin]] and [[Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia|Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich]].{{ref|Reformers}}

Shuvalov was in favor of developing local self-government but on the basis of strengthening the political position of the landed [[gentry]]. In the long run, he envisioned a system of national representation with a [[constitution]] and a bicameral [[parliament]], modelled on the earlier aristocratic English model, but he disclosed his parliamentary ideas only in 1881, when he had safely retired:{{ref|Parliament}}

[[Image:Petr Andreevich Shuvalov, half-length portrait, facing right, in uniform LCCN99615593.jpg|left|thumb|Pyotr Shuvalov]]
:''an advisory assembly can bring no benefit whatsoever. One must openly introduce a constitutional system by establishing two houses and giving them a decisive voice. If this cannot be done immediately, one must, at least, erect a foundation upon which real representative government could eventually arise.''

Shuvalov continued his predecessors' reforms although more cautiously. He reorganized [[zemstvos]] in 1870 and overhauled the military in 1874, reducing the length of service from 15 years to 6. At the same time, he strengthened the government's censorship system and limited the zemstvos' taxation powers.{{ref|Julicher}} In 1872, he was promoted General of the Cavalry (1872), a rank equivalent to full [[General]] in other armies.

In 1873, Shuvalov was sent to [[London]] on a mission to arrange a marriage between [[Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia]] and the [[Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Duke of Edinburgh]]. The mission was a success and the two married in January 1874. Shuvalov was also supposed to reassure the British government that Alexander II had no plans to conquer the [[Central Asia]]n [[Khanate of Khiva]]. Although Khiva fell to Russian troops in 1874, he was able to blame it on the generals' excess of zeal and so it did not damage Shuvalov's reputation in London.{{ref|Khiva}}

In April 1874, the [[Russian Council of Ministers|Committee of Ministers]] approved the creation of an experimental commission with representation from [[Zemstvo]], local gentry and cities. Although the commission was charged only with reviewing a single previously prepared bill on hiring agricultural laborers, the very notion was apparently deemed so radical that in November 1874, Shuvalov was sent into honorary exile as [[ambassador]] to [[London]]. However, other more mundane explanations for his downfall, boasting about his influence on the tsar {{ref|Pearson}} or making an incautious remark about his mistress [[Catherine Dolgorukov]],{{ref|Ulam}} have also been suggested.

Shuvalov played an important role in the negotiations between Russia and [[Great Britain]] during and after the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878]] and was instrumental in avoiding conflict between the two powers after the [[Treaty of San Stefano]]. With the conclusion of the [[Treaty of Berlin, 1878]], Russian public opinion turned against him since he was seen as too conciliatory and too willing to yield to British and especially [[Germany|German]] demands. Although Alexander II at first resisted public pressure to remove Shuvalov, further deterioration of Russo-German relations in 1879 forced him into retirement.

==Notes==
*{{note|Reformers}} See Richard S. Wortman. ''Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy. Volume Two: From Alexander to the Abdication of Nicholas II'', Princeton University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-691-02947-4}} p.&nbsp;114
*{{note|Parliament}} See:
**Peter Waldron. ''The End of Imperial Russia, 1855-1917'', St. Martin's Press, 1997, {{ISBN|0-312-16537-4}} p.&nbsp;16
**Valentina G. Chernukha and Boris V. Anan'ich. "Russia Falls Back, Russia Catches Up: Three Generations of Russian Reformers" in ''Reform in Modern Russian History: Progress Or Cycle?'', tr. and ed. Theodore Taranovski, Cambridge University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-521-45177-9}} (Papers from a conference entitled "Reform in Russian and Soviet History -- Its Meaning and Function" held May 5-May 7, 1990, organized by the [[Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies]] of the [[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]]), p.&nbsp;73-74
*{{note|Khiva}} See Walter Moss. ''Alexander II and His Times: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky'', Anthem Press, 2002, {{ISBN|1-898855-59-5}}, 295p. [https://archive.today/20000902103801/http://www.emich.edu/public/history/moss/atpt3.htm Part III]
*{{note|Pearson}} See Thomas S. Pearson. ''Russian Officialdom in Crisis: Autocracy and Local Self-Government, 1861-1900'', Cambridge University Press, 1989, paperback edition 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-89446-8}} p.&nbsp;38
*{{note|Ulam}} See Adam Bruno Ulam. ''Prophets and Conspirators in Pre-Revolutionary Russia'', Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, 1998 (2nd expanded edition), {{ISBN|0-7658-0443-3}} pp.&nbsp;173–174.
*{{note|Julicher}} See Peter Julicher. ''Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars'', McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7864-1612-2}} p.&nbsp;188.

==References==
* Weeks Jr, Richard G. "Peter Shuvalov and the Congress of Berlin: A Reinterpretation." ''Journal of Modern History'' 51.S1 (1979): D1055-D1070. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1878445 online]
*Valentina G. Chernukha and Boris V. Anan'ich. "Russia Falls Back, Russia Catches Up: Three Generations of Russian Reformers" in ''Reform in Modern Russian History: Progress Or Cycle?'', tr. and ed. Theodore Taranovski, Cambridge University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-521-45177-9}} (Papers from a conference entitled "Reform in Russian and Soviet History -- Its Meaning and Function" held May 5-May 7, 1990, organized by the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
*{{EB1911|wstitle = Shuválov, Peter Andreivich, Count|volume=25 }}

==External links==

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[[Category:1827 births]]
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[[Category:Politicians from Saint Petersburg]]
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[[Category:Members of the State Council (Russian Empire)]]
[[Category:Chiefs of the Special Corps of Gendarmes]]
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[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st class]]
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