Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy

Nikita Trubetskoy

Prince Nikita Yurievich Trubetskoy ( Russian Никита Юрьевич Трубецкой , German outdated also Trubetzkoi ; born May 16 ^{. Jul} / 26. May  1699 ^greg. , † October 5 ^jul. / 16th October  1767 ^greg. In Moscow ) was a Russian statesman, Generalprokureur and Field Marshal .

Trubetskoi was the son of the senator, general procurator and later governor of Belgorod Yuri Jurjewitsch Trubetskoi and his wife Elena Grigoryevna, nee. Cherkasskaya. His father was extremely well educated himself, and was anxious to give his son a good education, and sent him abroad with a younger brother. After his return to Russia in 1719 Trubetskoy was married to Anastasia Gavrilovna Golovkina. The young prince was related to two influential families through his mother and wife, as the prominent witnesses of the young couple testify: Peter the Great , Grand Duchess and later Empress Katharina Alexejewna , Prince Menshikov and his wife.

In 1722 Trubetskoi joined the Preobrazhensky Guard Regiment . In 1730 he was one of the most ardent opponents of the Supreme Privy Council, which wanted to make Anna Ivanovna's election as Russian Empress conditional. Therefore, he quickly made a career under the rule of this monarch. In 1736 during the Russo-Turkish War he was entrusted with securing supplies and embezzled large sums of money. As a result, the supply of the army completely collapsed, which had a decisive influence on the course of the war. Half of the Russian soldiers in Crimea died of starvation. He only escaped the punishment for this offense because the then Commander-in-Chief Münnich , as a foreigner, did not want to become hostile to an old Russian family. In 1738 he was even promoted to General War Commissioner . In this capacity he had to deal with the supply of the entire Russian army.

With his appointment as General Prokureur (Attorney General) in 1740 Trubezkoi switched from military to community service. He survived the political turmoil after Anna Ivanovna's death thanks to his family ties to the Grand Chancellor Cherkassky . After Elisabeth Petrovna's accession to the throne , Trubezkoi led the show trial of the fallen men of the old regime: Ostermann , Münnich , Löwenwolde , Mengden , Golowkin . All of the accused were sentenced to death and then pardoned by the empress and given life imprisonment.

At her coronation in 1742, Empress Elisabeth Trubezkoi awarded the Order of St. Andrew . After that, the prince gradually withdrew into private life, but retained the office of general procurator. That changed after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756, when he was appointed a member of the war conference and field marshal general. Trubetskoi was actively involved in the overthrow of the Grand Chancellor Bestushev-Ryumin . In 1760 he resigned the post of General Procurator due to illness, but at the same time became President of the War Conference.

After Elizabeth's death, Trubetskoi was one of the closest people around Peter III. , but moved to the camp of Catherine II in good time . In 1762 he was entrusted with the preparations for the coronation of the new empress in Moscow. In 1763 Trubetskoi resigned from office due to poor health. He spent the last four years of his life in Moscow. There he wrote memoirs that were first published in 1870.

Trubetskoi was, according to his contemporaries, a very agile man who knew how to serve everyone in power. This is evidenced by the memoirs of Bolotow , Voronzowa-Daschkowa and Shcherbatow .

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