Alexander Ivanovich Shuvalov

Alexander Ivanovich Shuvalov

Alexander Ivanovich Shuvalov ( Russian Александр Иванович Шувалов ; * 1710 ; † 1770 ) was the head of the Secret Chancellery ( State Security ) under Elizabeth Petrovna .

biography

Alexander Ivanovich Shuvalov was the son of General Ivan Maximovich Shuvalov the Elder, who commanded the fortresses of Vyborg and Arkhangelsk . Shuvalov belonged to the small group that accompanied the future Empress Elisabeth Petrovna in her exile in Izmailovo (now Moscow ). He was a member of the Guard and was actively involved in the coup d'état that brought Elizabeth to the throne. This ensured him the lifelong gratitude of the monarch, who made him chamberlain in 1741 and count in 1746 .

For years Shuvalov headed the Secret Chancellery, a kind of state security police . In this position he eliminated all political enemies of Elisabeth and his own family. When the empress' health deteriorated, Alexander Shuvalov openly sympathized with the political views of the heir to the throne and later emperor Peter III. who appointed him Field Marshal after his accession to the throne (January 5, 1762) . With Catherine II's accession to the throne (July 9, 1762), Shuvalov's career came to an abrupt end. He was accused of plotting against the monarch. Shuvalov then resigned all offices and retired to his possessions, where he died in 1770.

Contemporaries describe Alexander Shuvalov as an extremely unsympathetic person who also had nervous twitching of the facial muscles.

swell

• The history of the Russian Empire
• The Romanovs
• Biography of Peter the Third
• Orenburg topography