Ivan Ivanovich Melissino

Iwan Iwanowitsch Melissino (Gallery of Rectors, Lomonosov University, Moscow)

Iwan Iwanowitsch Melissino ( Russian Иван Иванович Мелиссино ; * 1718 in Riga ; † 23 March ^July / 3 April  1795 ^greg. In Moscow ) was a Russian civil servant and second director of Moscow University .

Life

Melissino came from an ancient Greek family related to Byzantine emperors . Melissino's father Ivan Afanassjewitsch Melissino had entered Russian service. Melissino received his first training in the First St. Petersburg Cadet Corps (1732-1740) together with Alexander Petrovich Sumarokow .

In 1746 Melissino entered civil service in the Chancellery of the General Government of Reval . He then worked in St. Petersburg in the commission for the revision of the Art Chamber and the Library of the Academy of Sciences .

In 1753 Melissino made the acquaintance of Princess Praskovia Vladimirovna Dolgorukova (1735-1824), daughter of Riga Governor Vladimir P. Dolgorukov and sister of General Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgorukov , who fell in love with Melissino and wanted to marry him. Her father was strictly against it and forbade her to see him again. Praskovia Vladimirovna proposed to Melissino to marry her friend, which he did in 1754.

In 1757 Melissino became director of Moscow University on the suggestion of the curator Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, succeeding the late Alexei Mikhailovich Argamakov . After analyzing the disordered financial situation of the university, he discovered that the financial resources were insufficient and asked the curator Shuvalov for quick help. He initiated the establishment of a university church. He looked after the life of the undergraduate and university high school students and proposed the establishment of a university hospital. In the summer of 1757 and in the winter of 1759–1760 he presented the best university high school students in St. Petersburg, including Grigori Alexandrowitsch Potjomkin and Dennis von Wiesen , the founders of Moscow University, Empress Elisabeth , curator Schuwolow and Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Lomonossow . He took care of equipping the university print shop and bought books for the university library.

In 1759 Melissino became a widower. Praskovia Vladimirovna fled her father's house and married Melissino in 1760, whereupon her father disinherited her. After the death of her father in 1761, her brother assigned her to an estate so that she was now provided for. The marriage remained childless.

1760–1762 Melissino took part in the deliberation of the new university statutes. In 1763 Melissino was dismissed as director of Moscow University, and his successor was Mikhail Matveevich Cheraskov .

In 1763 Melissino became chief procuror of the holiest ruling synod in St. Petersburg with the rank of Real Councilor of State (fourth class ) as the successor to Prince Alexei Semjonowitsch Koslowski . The chamberlain (fifth class) Grigori Alexandrovich Potjomkin was appointed his first assistant . For the church reform planned by Catherine II , Melissino made proposals for increased secularization . In Protestant sense he proposed in particular the abolition of offices, the worship of icons and relics , and the last rites , the reduction of religious services, the closure of the monasteries , the simplification of divorce , the abolition of the episcopal celibacy and wearing civilian clothes for the priests before . There was a long correspondence with Catherine II about these proposals, which were not heard by her or the Synod. In 1768 Melissino lost the office of chief procurator. His successor was Pyotr Petrovich Chebyshev .

In 1768 Melissino became honorary curator of the Moscow orphanage founded by Ivan Ivanovich Bezkoi in 1764 , of which he was now an assistant. At Melissino's request, Catherine II appointed him curator of Moscow University in 1771 to succeed Vasily Evdokimowitsch Adodurow . He kept this office until his death. Melissino developed scientific work in the field of Russian language and literature . To this end, he founded the Free Russian Assembly Society in the summer of 1771 , of which he was then president. At their meetings, he presented his program to promote natural language. He also worked as a translator. In 1783 he was elected to the Russian Academy . Together with other Moscow members of the Academy, he worked on the Academy Dictionary of the Russian Language, for which he was able to win many lecturers and students at Moscow University. With Melissino's support, the college of professors at Moscow University was established by Dmitri Sergejewitsch Anitschkow (1771), Chariton Andrejewitsch Tschebotarjow (1776), Iwan Andrejewitsch Sibirski (1778) and from abroad by Christian Friedrich von Matthäi , Ignaz Josef Wetsch , Michail Iwanowitsch Skiada (all 1776 ) and Ferenc Keresztúri (1778).

In 1778 Melissino received permission to travel abroad while retaining the title of curator. His successor as Moscow university curator was Mikhail Matwejewitsch Cheraskow. After his return to Moscow in 1782, Melissino soon expressed his dissatisfaction with the work of Professor Johann Georg Schwarz and the tenant of the university printing house Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov , through which the spirit of Martinism at the University of Moscow spread. Melissino pushed through the removal of Professor Johann Georg Schwarz from the university and fought against the Brotherhood of Schwarz and Novikow, whose activities had led to the dissolution of his Free Russian Assembly. In 1786 he founded the Moskowskije Vedomosti . In 1790 he founded the Moscow Russian edition of since 1780 in Hamburg appearing political journal . His last activities included the completion of the main building with the house church of the Moscow University on Mochowaja Ulitsa.

After Melissino's death, his widow Praskovia Vladimirovna built the Church of the Assumption of Mary as a memorial for her husband on her country estate in the village of Konstantinowo near Moscow. She had taken in and raised the one-year-old Alexei Mikhailovich Pushkin in 1772 after his father had been exiled to Tobolsk for suspected involvement in his brother's banknote counterfeiting and his mother had followed him.

Melissino's younger brother was General Pyotr Ivanovich Melissino .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Мелиссино (Иван Иванович) . In: Brockhaus-Efron . tape XIX , 1896, p. 28 ( Wikisource [accessed November 14, 2017]).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Летопись Московского университета: Мелиссино Иван Иванович (accessed November 14, 2017).
3. ↑ Исторический Вестник 9 (1899), p. 796.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Андреев А. Ю., Цыганков Д. А .: Императорский Московский университет: 1755–1917: энциклопедический словарь . Российская политическая энциклопедия (РОССПЭН), Moscow 2010, ISBN 978-5-8243-1429-8 , p. 433-435 .
5. ↑ Политический журнал . In: Brockhaus-Efron . tape XXIV , 1898, p. 312-313 ( Wikisource [accessed November 14, 2017]).