Alexander Borisovich Kurakin

Prince Alexander Borissowitsch Kurakin ( Russian Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Кура́кин ; born January 18, 1752 in Moscow , † June 24, 1818 in Weimar ) was a Russian statesman. At times he was Vice Chancellor. He became known as a diplomat during the negotiations for the peace of Tilsit and as the Russian ambassador in Paris before Napoleon's Russian campaign broke out .

Alexander Borisovich Kurakin

Life

He was a member of the Russian aristocracy and a descendant of Boris Kurakin . His father was Boris Alexandrovich Kurakin. He was temporarily along with Paul I behaved. He was his close confidante and accompanied Paul on his travels to Germany and France in 1776 and 1782.

In 1796 he was appointed Minister and Vice Chancellor. In 1802 he took his leave after the murder of the emperor.

In 1806 he became envoy in Vienna . In 1807 Alexander I commissioned him to complete the peace negotiations in Tilsit after the fourth war of coalition was lost . He was considered a pedant and paid close attention to rankings, status and appearance (due to his habit of only showing himself adorned with medals and diamonds, he was nicknamed le prince diamond in Paris ). However, he was more intelligent than his critics assumed. In the struggle between England and France for world supremacy, he argued that Russia should behave neutrally and use the dispute to its own advantage. Although he saw France as a threat to Russia, after the defeat he pleaded for an agreement and a division of Europe into a French and a Russian sphere of influence. He was then appointed first-class secret councilor and field marshal à la suite . A year later he was sent to Paris as envoy. Kurakin was considered the epitome of the rich and lavish Russian nobleman and was referred to as the prince diamond . Politically he did little to meet Napoleon.

At the festivities in honor of Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise of Austria , he was torn down and almost trampled underfoot by the crowd. Napoleon threatened Kurakin with war for the first time in 1810, but later tried to express his friendship with Russia on various occasions. During the celebrations of his forty-second birthday, Napoleon once again accused Russia of hostile intentions towards Kurakin in 1811. Recently, a spy scandal put a strain on Kurakin's relationship with the emperor.

Shortly before the start of the Russian campaign, he was not given an exit permit for a long time and stayed at his country house near Paris. He lost a large part of his property in the fire in Moscow . After the victory in 1814, he welcomed Alexander on behalf of the Senate with the honorary title "the blessed". Due to an illness he had to stay in Berlin for some time and then temporarily withdrew from state affairs before he was appointed to the Russian State Council. In 1817 he withdrew completely for health reasons.

He was not married, but he had several illegitimate children: from Akulina Dmitrievna Samoilova the barons Wrjevsky and from an unknown woman Barone Serdobin .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Adam Zamoyski: Napoleon: One life . CH Beck, 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72497-8 , pp. 594 .
2. ↑ Dominic Lieven : Russia against Napoleon: The battle for Europe. Munich 2009, oZ
3. ^ Adam Zamoyski: 1812: Napoleon's campaign in Russia . Munich 2012, p. 24.
4. ^ Adam Zamoyski: 1812. Napoleon's campaign in Russia. Munich 2012, pp. 81, 92, 128f.

literature

• New episode of the conversation lexicon. 1st section of the second volume. Leipzig 1825, p. 64.
• General German real encyclopedia. Volume 5, Leipzig 1819, p. 556.