Prince Alexander Nikolayevich Golitsyn (December 19 [O.S. December 8], 1773 – December 8 [O.S. November 22], 1844) was a statesman of the Russian Empire. He served as Procurator of the Most Holy Synod from 1803 to 1816 and as Minister of Education from 1816 to 1824. He was a confidant of Alexander I, who until the end of his life treasured his "intimacy and advice".
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Origin and youth
The only son of the captain of the guard, Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Golitsyn (Alekseevich line), from his third marriage with Alexandra Alexandrovna Khitrovo (1736–1796), the grandson of the Moscow governor Sergei Alekseevich Golitsyn (1695–1758). Widowed two weeks after the birth of her son, the mother in 1776 married retired Major Mikhail Kologrivov. She treated her son strictly and coldly, but the influential court lady Marya Perekusikhina fell in love with the "funny and pungent" boy and, by order of Catherine II, in 1783 he was enrolled in the Page Corps moving from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
The main focus was on teaching secular communication, French, fencing, dancing and horseback riding.
Thus, from infancy, Prince Golitsyn had access to the courtyard, where at first it was valued as a participant in the children's games of the Grand Dukes – Alexander and Constantine, and then – as a witty and clever gentleman. His brother (by father) Mikhail Golitsyn, who took the place of the Yaroslavl governor, built the estate of Karabikha (now a museum-reserve) under the city.
Another brother (by mother), Dmitry Kologrivov, accompanied the undersized prince Golitsyn in his mischief. Both brothers very skillfully imitated the manners and reprimand of others. Count Fyodor Tolstoy wrote:
Prince Golitsyn, brought up at court and only for the court. Having a sharp mind by nature, he was particularly distinguished by his ability to mimic and imitate the voices of others, so much so that in another room it was impossible not to be deceived and not to take him for the one whom he mimicked.
Career
After graduating from the Page Corps in 1794, he was received as the lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. But a year later he returned to the court and became a chamber junker of the small court of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, and in 1796 he was transferred to the large imperial court. In 1799 he received the rank of chamberlain and in the same year became commander of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. He was expelled from Saint Petersburg by Emperor Paul I in the same year for an unknown reason.
After the accession to the throne of Alexander I, Prince Golitsyn, as a person close to him, was appointed first as "Procurator" of the I and later III Departments of the Senate, and then on October 21, 1803, at the insistence of the emperor, assumed the post of Procurator of the Holy Synod. In 1810, while maintaining his former position, he became the head of the foreign confessions, in 1816 – the Minister of Education.
Partly under the influence of Rodion Koshelev, this Epicurean and Volterian of Catherine's training, elected in 1806 as a member of the Russian Academy, turned to piety with a pronounced sentimental-mystical color. He easily undertook to explain to the emperor the most complex theological questions, although he knew the history of religion superficially and considered true Christianity "foggy sentimental pietism mixed with Orthodox dogmas, various heretical and sectarian teachings". Moscow Metropolitan Philaret recalled:
When the emperor appointed [Prince Alexander Golitsyn] as procurator, he said: "How can I be Procurator of the Synod? You know that I do not have faith". – "Well, complete, naughty, come to your senses". "When – said Golitsyn after – I saw that the members of the Synod were doing things seriously... and I became more serious, more respectful of the affairs of faith and the Church; when after a year or two I asked myself: do I believe? – I saw, that I believe, as I believed in childhood".
Having proclaimed piety as the foundation of true enlightenment, Golitsyn headed for the clericalization of education, which under his leadership was zealously pursued by Mikhail Magnitsky and Dmitry Runich. He was suspicious of contemporary literature, which was expressed in the extreme censorship.
Personal life
Golitsyn spent his whole life a bachelor and was known for his intimate relationships with men. Nikolai Yazykov in a letter of 1824 cites an anecdote, "as if the sovereign had called for the famous sodomite Bantysh-Kamensky and ordered him to compile a list of all his acquaintances on this part, that Bantysh-Kamensky presented him with such a list, starting with the Minister of Education, then there was the chancellor and so on... After that he had an audience with the emperor and certified him oath in the truth of his report". Alexander Pushkin ridiculed Golitsyn in the epigram "Here is the Tail Protector...". The famous memoirist and homosexual Philip Vigel recalls Golitsyn even more biasedly: "Without blushing, you can't talk about him, I won't say anything more: I'm not going to stain these pages with his stupidity, his baseness and vices".
Proceedings
Prince Alexander Golitsyn compiled for Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna "Opinion on the Difference Between the Eastern and Western Churches, with the History of Their Separation", which was published only in 1870.
Encounter with Scottish Missionaries
Source:
On May 26, 1818, Dr Robert Ross MD, newly ordained minister representing the Edinburgh (later Scottish) Missionary Society, sailed from Leith with his new wife and other missionaries, Messrs Gray and Liddell and Mr and Mrs Macpherson for St Petersburg, Russia. Robert Ross’s commission was to go to the Kalmut (sic Kalmat) Tartars (sic Tatars), with the principal object being the translation of the Old Testament into the Tartar (sic) or Turkish language and the revising of the translation of the New Testament for a second edition. It was proposed to set up a printing press at Astrakhan for this purpose.
They arrived in Astrakhan on 14 February 1821. The ultimate objective of Dr Ross going to Astrakhan was the eventual sortie into the Crimean Peninsula to take the good news of the Gospel of Christ into this area.
A letter from Prince Galitzin (sic), Minister of State and Religion, and President of the Russian Bible Society, outlined their responsibilities and offered them full support and safe conduct, and also a letter of introduction to the Governor of the Crimea. In the Prince’s letter, he writes:
The object of your visiting the Crimea, being the establishment of an institution for the instruction of Tartar (sic) children and then goes on to say that in teaching these children, it would be necessary to have the voluntary permission of the parents and to take into consideration the local circumstances. Once all this was assessed, the Prince would put the whole idea to the Emperor. Further in his letter he wrote:
A most important observation for you is to avoid on every occasion appearing ostensibly as Missionaries. This designation is never employed by an individual of foreign Religious Instructors in the Russian Empire, although their object may be to proclaim and promote Christian truth among those who belong not to the Christian religion.
He then goes on to ask as to what name they would call themselves and ends his letter with:
Awards and honors
Russian
1799 – Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Commander's Cross;
1804 — Order of Saint Anne, 1st Class;
1814 — Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky;
1826 — Order of Saint Vladimir, 1st Class;
1826 — Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called;
1826 – Diamond to the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called;
1830 – Chancellor of Russian Orders;
1831 — Order of the White Eagle;
1831 — Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st Class;
1834 – Portrait of the Emperor Sovereign with Diamonds;
1838 – Badge "For XL Years of Immaculate Service";
1842 – Pension According to the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.
Foreign
1842 — Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia).