Count Orlov Biography

Almost at once, Empress Catherine bought the estate. It was a gift to a retired and acutely in need of the favorite. The first of the favorites of the “case” of Grigory Grigoryevich ended as suddenly as it began. Noticed by the Grand Duchess at the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, he became one of the key figures in Catherine's conspiracy against his husband. When on June 28, Peter III was successfully overthrown, Grigory Orlov, even not yet showered with ranks and awards, began to earnest all the benefits of his new position.

Empress's friend Princess Dashkova, also an active participant in the events, recalled how on the very first day of Victory she found the favorite lying, collapsing, in the chambers of the new autocrat and carelessly opening the most secret papers. Orlov’s frivolity was striking, but Catherine forgave him everything for a long time. Grigory Grigoryevich became the count of the Russian Empire, the gentleman of the main orders, the actual chamberlain and Adjutant General.

In the year, Franz I a special letter appropriated Orlov and his descendants of the title of the brightest prince of the Holy Roman Empire, but Catherine allowed him to wear it in Russia only nine years later. Grigory Orlov, burdened with many posts, did not effectively engage in any of them. But confidently and deftly eliminated competitors and revealed conspiracies against himself and his family.

The first and main of them was the so -called Khitrovsky compression of the year, named after Fyodor Alekseevich Khitrovo. He and several other participants in the Catherine coup were outraged by the Empress’s plans to officially marry Grigory Orlov and, as the investigation showed, decided to kill the favorite and his brothers. Since Catherine was convinced that the conspiracy was not against her, but against the "tyranny of the Orlovs", and did not want to water the beginning of her reign with blood, Khitrovo did not fall on the scaffold, but was sent to the estate granted to him for the support of the coup of year ago.

But Grigory Grigoryevich, although he did not become the husband of the Empress, remained at the top. In the beginning of the x, the star of Orlova quickly rushed to sunset. Although the favorite has finally coped with one of the most important instructions-he defeated the Moscow epidemic of the plague, pride and neglect of deeds began to bother Catherine. He was tired and he himself, like a favorite, a mighty Potemkin’s figure in all respects has already grown between him and the august mistress.

Orlov could only stumble. In the year, he goes to Fokshany for negotiations with the Turks. Grigory Grigoryevich, confident in success, does not notice that every day of the wire, with every trick of the Ottoman diplomats, removing the outcome that is beneficial for Russia, the irritation of Catherine reaches the fatal limit. Finally, Orlov, tired of long bickering, goes to Petersburg without permission, where he falls under the red -hot hand of the empress.

Requests and exhortations lead to some reconciliation. Catherine is memorable and grateful, but removes Grigory Grigoryevich from the yard, sending him abroad to be treated, leaving him full content. Orlov now travels or returns. The longing in its former quarrel is somewhat dispelled in love with a cousin, young Catherine Zinoviev. The kinship is too close from marriage, but the empress decides to arrange the happiness of the former favorite: under her influence, no one, even the synod, doubts the legality of marriage, and the purchase of the bride’s estates corrects the financial situation of the new family.

Next is the tragedy. Ekaterina Zinovieva, having married at eighteen years, dies at twenty -two, and Orlov goes crazy. Saving in childhood, who does not recognize the prince locked anyone in the non -casual palace. There he dies in the year, not living until forty -nine years old. He did not leave legitimate children, but the empress gave birth to the favorite of the son of Alexei, who received the surname Bobrinsky and founded a very glorious family.

Remembering the first favorite of imperial times, Catherine said that he was a genius and brave man, but possessed the kindness of the lamb and the heart of the chicken. Alexey Grigoryevich Orlov-Chesmensky. Alyosha’s brother, among the Orlov brothers, was the third most senior, but, perhaps, the first in glory, both bright and dark. If Gregory was known to Donjuan even before his “chance”, then Alexei, who was not inferior in status and adventures, was a desperate brave and Bretter.

His beauty forever ruined the scar in the duel. Having actively participated in the preparation of the Catherine coup, Alexei Grigoryevich was sent to accompany the depressed emperor to Ropsha, where Peter III was waiting for a terrible and inglorious end. It was he who sent the empress to the empress rather cheeky and frank notes about the position of the prisoner.

The last of them, the most terrible, however, turned out to be a fake, but this does not change the essence of the matter: Alexei Orlov is the one who killed Peter or contributed to his murder. Unlike Gregory, he did not rest on the acquired count dignity, nor in lush and meaningless positions. Alexei developed a marine expedition plan against Turkey and, heading the squadron, defeated the Ottoman fleet with Chesme in the year.On land, he harmed Turkey, investing considerable funds in the resistance of the Balkan peoples, primarily Albanians.

Staying in Italy, Count Orlov-Chesmensky defeated local residents and diplomats with unimaginable breadth and luxury. For example, having decided to celebrate the anniversary of the Chesmensky Victory, he bought a ship, raised a Turkish flag on it and sank it in the bay with the fire of his squadron in the eyes of the inhabitants, in many crowded on the shore. With the same thorough scope, he also carried out an operation to capture and deliver to his homeland of an impostor, represented by the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna, whom the tradition calls Princess Tarakanova.

In agreement with the Empress, Alexei Orlov promised to marry the unfortunate and, apparently, not quite a sane girl and lured her aboard his flagship in May, who stood on the Livorno raid. The sad story ended in the end of the impostor in imprisonment, but she died of illness, and not by the hands of the executioner or killers. In the same year, Orlov resigns. He lives in his estates, brings the first singing and dancing gypsies to Russia, bred famous trotches.

Upon the death of Catherine, the new emperor, Pavel Petrovich, arranges the reburial of the remains of his father from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Those whom he considers the killers should carry imperial regalia in front of Peter's coffin. Alexey Orlov is meekly, but proudly subordinates. The joy and delight of the last years of the life of the great and terrible Yekaterinin noble was Anna, a daughter from the early deceased Evdokia Lopukhina.

After the death of her father, under the Christmas of the year, she began long spiritual searches, which led her to the famous archimandrite of Photius, whose associate and material patroness she became. In addition, in the year, from the peasants of her estates, she compiled and equipped the militia. Anna Alekseevna was eagerly transferred to her serfs to free stoopers or into a specific department.

By the end of her days, she sold the treasures and estates, as well as the famous Khrenovsky horse factory. And she died in the year, on the day of the namesake of her father. Brother Ivan the oldest brother Orlov, Ivan Grigoryevich, was the Catherine's favorites and heroes "Place in his father." Remaining in the shade, he led their confusing property affairs, especially Gregory's motionness.

He did not take active participation in the coup, but he was erected in the count's dignity with his brothers, and later, during the Empress’s journey, specially for Catherine rebuilt the stone palace, which is considered one of the first in the Volga region. Again, unlike famous brothers, he was a very cautious and cunning man, he tried not to be the capital, where life, as he always emphasized, was very ruined for him.

He supported Catherine undertakings, if noticeably, then in moderation. So, in the work of the commission on a new course, he participated modestly and in the reservoir-as a deputy from the nobles of the Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk province.

So it is in his personal life: if he sinned, then quietly, if, it happened, he was played largely, then not in debt. A man of reasonable rules, he is involved in the compilation of the charter of the English club, under which there is his signature among six autographs of the founders. Ivan Grigoryevich died in the year, leaving no offspring. To the sunset of the reign of Elizabeth, he is already a young hero of the Seven Years War, a handsome man and a fabulous strongman adopted at the court of the extinct empress.

Possessing, with all his masculinity, a very pretty and quite feminine face for which, in addition to natural fun, is nicknamed the brothers “Dushka”, Fyodor is an indispensable participant in Elizabethan balls with dressings, on which he shone as one of the most beautiful “ladies”. Like the brothers, he did not like the strange reign of Peter III, and he actively passes to the side of Catherine oppressed by soldiers.

After a successful coup, he, of course, is also a count and a general, but the state service, since he was appointed chief prosecutor of one of their departments of the Senate. Like Ivan, Fedor is involved in the work of the stated commission, and this is, at his proposal, a new set of laws is drawn up in three estate sections. In the year, he, after another brother, Alexei, goes to sea.

Under the leadership of Admiral Spiridov, it differs with Chesme, breaking through the Turkish line and saving the crew of the "Holy Eustathius" from the explosion. The hero receives a sword strewn with diamonds, George of the 2nd grade and the rank of general general. And two years later, it resigned with an increase in rank to the general-general. A new life is fully consistent with his joyful character.

He takes a lot in many and carefully raises illegitimate children. In the last year of his life, both Fedor and Empress Catherine allowed to give sons and daughters the nobility and the right to bear the surname and coat of arms of his father. Vladimir: forward, to Orlov-Davydov, the youngest of the Orlov brothers was brought up in the family of the eldest, Ivan Grigoryevich, and many character traits were like him.

After the coup, he, of course, is a count, but not a hero, not a cavalier and not a general. In the year, twenty -year -old Vladimir is sent to study natural sciences at the University of Leipzig. Returning three years later, he does not stop his classes, but now - in the high position of the director of the Academy of Sciences, who was in the care of Kirill Razumovsky, for whom she was only one of many synecur.

Vladimir Orlov was appointed to put in order infinitely confusing academic affairs, but not quite coped with the task. A man is unhealthy, rather an introvert, he diligently kept a diary, corresponded with European scientists, traveled around Europe and Russia. In the year, Vladimir Orlov resigned, lived a long life and died in the year. Since he survived his son Gregory, it is precisely he can be considered the last of the “same” Orlovs, except for the legalized sons of Fedor.

The family continued along the female line, and the son of the youngest daughter of Vladimir, Natalia, who married the secret adviser Peter Davydov, will receive the right to the surname and title of grandfather in the year and will become the first Count Orlov-Davydov.