Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev

Nicholas Novosiltsev

Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev (Russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Новоси́льцев) (1761–1836) was a Russian statesman and a close aide to Alexander I of Russia.

He was a natural son of a wealthy nobleman, married to the aunt of Count Pavel Stroganov. This relationship secured for him a place in the Privy Committee that outlined the Government reform of Alexander I. He drafted a constitution for the Russian empire that mirrored the constitution suggested by Speransky; unlike Speransky's, Novosiltsev's constitutional suggestion had been accepted by Alexander but the plan was abandoned after Alexander's death in 1825.

In 1804 to 1805, Sweden, Russia, England, Austria, Prussia and the Kingdom of Naples planned to form a coalition against Bonaparte's France. Alexander I sent Novosiltsev to mediate in the negotiations between England and France after Napoleon made a peace offering to England when he learned of the anti-Gallic coalition. Before leaving Berlin, Novosiltsev learned that Bonaparte had taken both Genoa and Lucca, and notified Alexander, ending the mediation towards peace in 1805.

Between 1815 and 1830 he served in the government of the Kingdom of Poland; from 1813 to 1815 he governed the finances of the occupied Duchy of Warsaw. In the Kingdom of Poland, he was the tsar's commissar at the Council of State. He organized and led the Russian secret police there (okhrana).^[1] From 1824, he was curator of Vilna Governorate's education and science. He was a supporter of Russification policies, persecuted many pro-Polish organizations and activists, and was detested by contemporary Polish society.

He concluded his career as the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. Nicholas I made him a count in 1835.

References

1. ^ http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/57460,,,,nowosilcow_nikolaj_nikolajewicz,haslo.html

Academic offices
Preceded by Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolai	President of the Russian Academy of Sciences 1803–1810	Succeeded by Sergey Uvarov

Persondata
Name	Novosiltsev, Nikolay Nikolayevich
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1761
Place of birth
Date of death	1836
Place of death