Zakhar Chernyshyov

Count Zakhar Grigoryevich Chernyshov or Tchernyshov ( _ru. Захар Григорьевич Чернышёв), (1722 - 1784), the eldest of three brothers, Zakhar, Ivan Tchernyshov, and Pyotr Tchernyshov , close friends of Timofei Evreinov, and the sons of Grigory Chernyshev, the first count Chernyshev and one of Peter the Great's generals, enlisted in the Russian military service since 1735.

It was Timofei, at the service of Empress Elisabeth, (Russian: Елизаве́та (Елисаве́т) Петро́вна) (December 29, 1709 – January 5, 1762 (New Style); December 18, 1709 – Empress 1740 through military force - December 25, 1761 (Old Style)), who squarely warned around the period 1745 - 1746 16 year old German born married lady Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, later Dowager Empress Catherine II of Russia, (Russian: Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II Velikaya; 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796) who reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years, from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 after a military push, about the tongue wisperings at the Imperial Court on her, then, candid and innocent mixings with the Tchernysov siblings, particularly Zakhar, the eldest..

Timofei Evreinov talked about the convenience for Zakhar, then around 23 years old, of leaving the Court pretexting to be busy with the Army and let alone the 16 year old married lady.

Therefore, Evreinov pressed for Zakhar undertaking, between other things, a diplomatic mission to Vienna. Moreover the married young German lady, later to become a brilliant and militarly agressive Empress, was closely monitored in her behavior by the Imperial Grand Chancellor Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, (Алексе́й Петро́вич Бесту́жев-Рю́мин), (June 1, 1693 – April 21, 1768), Grand Chancellor of Russia, and closely watched over by Empress Elizabeth cousin , Maria Choglokova, aged 24 but already with 7 kids.

After a period back at court, 38 years old Zakhar held the command of a Russian corps of approximately 20,000 soldiers who took held of Prussian Berlin in 1760, in the very bloody and extensive European War, (over 1 million deaths), known as Seven Years' War, (1756- 1763).

It enveloped both European and colonial theatres from 1756 to 1763, incorporating the Pomeranian War and the French and Indian War which was fought from 1754 to 1763.

In this understimated in these days war, Prussia, the Electorate Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Great Britain (including British colonies in North America, the British East India Company, and Ireland), were pitted against Austria, France, (including the North American colony of New France and the French East India Company), the Russian Empire, Sweden, and Saxony.

Portugal, (on the side of Great Britain and Prussia), and Spain, (on the opposite side, France, the Russian Empire, Sweden and Saxony between others), were later drawn into the conflict, and a force from the neutral Netherlands was attacked in India.

Zakhar rose to become Minister of War to her formerly inexperienced female mate, the empress Catherine the Great of Russia. He left no children and the Tchernyshov majorat, instituted by him, passed to a younger brother, .

With the accession of Peter III of Russia, formerly Duke of Holstein, formerly elected King of Sweden by the Swedish Parliament, former King of Finland by his aunt decission, the Russian Empress, soon to be assasinated after only 6 months of being "promoted" to new Emperor of Russia, he received instructions (May 1762) to join his forces with the former enemies, the Prussians.

Along with Frederick II of Prussia, (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786), Chernyshov came upon the formerly allied Austrian forces of Field Marshal Daun near Burkersdorf..

King Frederick had already decided to attack the Austrians when Chernyshev received orders to disengage from the Prussians. But at Frederick's request the Russian commander suppressed the order and participated in the Prussian victory of Burkersdorf (21 July 1762).

Once brief Emperor Peter III was assasinated, his German born wife Sophia, now Catherine the Great, in such a way that some 10 years later Chernyshev, already in his early fifties, became President of the War College (1773) and an Imperial Field Marshal (1773).

His success as an administrator provoked the jealousy of almighty ukrainian born Prince Potemkin, Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski, (Russian: Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Потёмкин, pronounced Patyómkin), (September 24 [O.S. September 13] 1739) – October 16 [O.S. October 5] 1791), upon whose insistence Chernyshev was sent away to govern Belarus, which had been snatched from Poland during the first partition several months prior to that..

He was responsible for the 1775 reform of the regional administration across the empire and became the first governor of the re-established Moscow guberniya.

References

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guberniya

*Ian GREY, (New Zealand, 1918 - ), Attaché Officer between the British and the Russian Navy, British Naval Attaché in Moscow Embassy for many years, under R. A. Longmire . "Catherine the Great". Unabridged translation into Spanish by Valentina Gómez de Muñoz for Ed. Pomaire (1962). Publ. Círculo de Lectores S.A., (1969), 295 pages. Depósito Legal: B. 18128 - 69.

* Isabel DE MADARIAGA. "Catherine the Great , a Short History ", 262 pages, Yale Univ. Press, (U. S. A.), 2nd edition, August 2002.17 b/w illustrations, ISBN: 9780300097221 ISBN-10: 030009722