Peter Shafirov

Baron Peter Pavlovich Shafirov (; 1670–1739) was a Russian statesman and a prominent coadjutor of Peter the Great. Early life and career Shafirov was born into a Polish Jewish family. His father, Pavel Shafirov, was a translator in the Russian Foreign Office, whose parents converted to the Russian Orthodox Church after Smolensk was ceded to Russia by Poland in 1654. Peter Shafirov first made himself useful by his extraordinary knowledge of foreign languages. He was the chief translator in the Russian Foreign Office for many years, subsequently accompanying Tsar Peter on his travels. He was raised to the Russian nobility as a baron and received the rank of vice-chancellor. He was considered a diplomat of the highest order. Diplomatic missions Shafirov concluded the Peace of the Pruth during the campaign of 1711. Peter left him in the hands of the Turks as a hostage, and on the breaking of the peace he was imprisoned in the Seven Towers. Finally, however, with the aid of the British and Dutch ambassadors, he defeated the diplomacy of Charles XII of Sweden and his agents, and confirmed the good relations between Russia and Turkey by the treaty of Adrianople (June 1713).