Count, Russian military and statesman, associate of Peter I, general-in-chief, head of the secret search office in 1731-1746. Amazing figure of the eighteenth century
Andrey Ushakov: biography
Born in 1672 in the Novgorod province. The son of a poor nobleman from the Ushakov family. Andrei Ivanovich and his four brothers were left orphans early, all the care of them was taken over by the only serf of their father, the peasant Anokh. Until the age of twenty, Ushakov led an unremarkable village life. In 1691, Peter I issued a decree ordering all nobles, without exception, who were free from service, to appear in Moscow at the disposal of the tsar.
Service
The Ushakov brothers arrived in Moscow and all five were enlisted as soldiers. Andrei Ivanovich - a handsome, tall and strong young man, for his dexterity and strength he was called "kid" - was enrolled in the first Guards regiment created at that time - Preobrazhensky. Promoted to a non-commissioned officer, he was noticed by the tsar and in 1708 was granted the captain-lieutenant of the guard, then Peter the Great elevated him to the rank of secret fiscal (1714) and instructed him to oversee the construction of ships. Having become a captain of the Guards, Ushakov received numerous estates as a gift and constantly, throughout his career, received instructions from the tsar himself.
In 1715, he was already a guard major and commander of the 4th battalion of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. After the death of F. Yu. Romodanovsky in 1717, the Secret Chancellery was transferred to St. Petersburg, and its leadership was entrusted to Ushakov and the old Count P. A. Tolstoy. Tolstoy did not deal with the affairs of the Chancellery, but Ushakov was there constantly. On the day of the proclamation of the Emperor, Peter I promoted Ushakov to the rank of major general (1721). In 1725 he became the head of the group on criminal cases. Catherine I granted him the rank of lieutenant general and awarded him the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. After the abolition of the Secret Chancellery in 1726, he took an active part in investigating the failure of the expedition sent by Peter I to the pirates of Madagascar on the island of Sant Maria. He was directly related to the equipment of expeditions by the Russian expedition of Vitus Bering (1728), and later Ivan Fedorov and Mikhail Gvozdev to the shores of America (1732).
Upon Anna Ioannovna's accession to the throne, he signed a petition from the nobility, condemning the Supreme Council's attempt to limit the imperial power (1730). In 1730 he was appointed senator, in 1731 - head of the office of secret investigative affairs, which had resumed its work under a new name; took a zealous part in the search for various important cases, for example, in the Volynsky case.
During the reign of John Antonovich, whose mother was the ruler Anna Leopoldovna, when there was a struggle over who should be the regent, Ushakov supported Biron. But Biron soon fell, and Ushakov entered the mercy of the ruler, safely freeing himself from the accusation of helping the fallen temporary worker. He refused to join the party that carried out a coup in favor of Elizabeth Petrovna, but when the coup took place, he retained an influential position under the new empress and even participated in the commission that investigated the case of Osterman and other opponents of Elizabeth Petrovna.
While all influential members of the previous administration were deprived of their seats or exiled, Ushakov was included in the renewed Senate (1741). Empress Elizabeth, under the pretext of Ushakov's old age, but in fact, in order not to lose sight of him, appointed him an assistant, who became his successor, Count A. I. Shuvalov. Senator Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov was elevated to the dignity of the count of the Russian Empire. He died in 1747 and was buried in the Annunciation tomb of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Important period
The first and very important period of A. I. Ushakov covers 14 years of his life - from 1704 to 1718. During this period, Andrei Ivanovich made a dizzying career from an ordinary guards regiment to a brigadier and a guard major, a man who was appreciated and respected by the tsar himself. His path was not strewn with roses, behind every new military rank, behind every grace of the monarch there were sleepless nights, thousands of kilometers of roads spent in the saddle, blood shed on the battlefields of the Northern War. It was in these conditions that such qualities of Andrei Ivanovich manifested themselves as diligence, courage, energy, persistence in achieving the set goal, and excellent organizational skills. The same qualities more than once helped Ushakov during the command of the Cossack sabotage detachment operating on the communications of the Swedish army, during the battles in Poland against the supporters of Stanislav Leshchinsky and the Swedish corps of Krassov, during the preparation for the defense of the Ukrainian lands from the invasion of the Crimean Tatars.
However, the circumstances developed so that the main talents of Ushakov were revealed not on the battlefields and not in the fight against external enemies, but in protecting the state from such dangers as bribery, embezzlement and malfeasance.
Personal life
Ushakov was married to a wealthy widow, Elena Leontyevna Apraksina, nee Kokoshkina. The wedding with her took place through the petition of Peter I. The couple occupied a magnificent mansion on the Palace Embankment, 16. Their only daughter Ekaterina Andreevna (1715-1779) was married to the diplomat Count PG Chernyshev. They were the parents of Countess Darya Petrovna Saltykova and Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, known as Princesse Mustache (the prototype of the protagonist of Alexander Pushkin's story "The Queen of Spades"). Ushakov's stepson was Field Marshal General SF Apraksin (1702-1758), the patronage of his stepfather helped him make a quick career.
wife: Elena Leontievna
Stepson: Stepan Apraksin
daughter: Ekaterina
Granddaughter: Daria Saltykova
Granddaughter: Natalia Golitsyna
