Count, Russian military and statesman, associate of Peter I, general-general, head of the secret search office in 1731-1746. Amazing eighteenth century figure
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 early orphans, all the cares for them were taken by their only serf father, peasant Anokha. Up to twenty years, Ushakov led an unremarkable village life. In 1691, Peter I issued a decree ordering all nobles, without exception, free from service, to come to Moscow at the disposal of the tsar.
Service
The Ushakov brothers arrived in Moscow and all five were enlisted. Andrei Ivanovich, a handsome, tall and strong young man, was called the "kid" for his dexterity and strength, - he was enrolled in the first Transfiguration Guards regiment then created. Produced as a non-commissioned officer, he was spotted by the king 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 to observe the construction of ships. Having become a guards captain, Ushakov received numerous estates as a gift and constantly, throughout his career, received instructions from the tsar himself.
In 1715 he was already a major guard and commander of the 4th battalion of the Life Guard Preobrazhensky 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, and Ushakov was constantly there. On the day of the proclamation of Emperor Peter I made Ushakov major general (1721). In 1725, he became the head of the criminal affairs group. Catherine I granted him a lieutenant general and awarded him the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. After the abolition of the Secret Chancellery in 1726, he actively participated in investigating the failure of the expedition sent by Peter I to the pirates of Madagascar on the island of Sant'Maria. It was directly related to the equipment of expeditions by the Russian expedition of Vitus Bering (1728), and later of Ivan Fedorov and Mikhail Gvozdev to the shores of America (1732).
Upon joining the throne of Anna Ioannovna, he signed a petition of the nobility, condemning the attempt of the Supreme Council to limit imperial power (1730). In 1730 he was appointed senator, in 1731 - the head of the renewed work under the new name of the secret search office; took a zealous participation in the search for various important cases, for example, the Volynsky case.
In the reign of John Antonovich, whose mother was the ruler Anna Leopoldovna, when there was a struggle about who to be regent, Ushakov supported Biron. But Biron soon fell, and Ushakov became mercy under the ruler, safely freeing himself from the charge of assisting the fallen temporary worker. He refused to join the party that carried out the 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 conducting the investigation in the case of Osterman and other opponents of Elizabeth Petrovna.
While all the influential members of the previous administration were deprived of their seats or exiled, Ushakov fell into the renewed composition of the Senate (1741). Empress Elizabeth, under the pretext of Ushakov’s advanced age, and in fact, in order not to lose sight of him, appointed him the assistant, who became his successor - Count A. I. Shuvalov. The Highest General Decree of July 15, 1744, General-General, Senator Andrei Ivanovich Ushakov was elevated to the count of the Russian Empire dignity. 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 spans 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 major guard, a man whom the tsar himself valued and respected. 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 drawn in the saddle, blood spilled on the battlefields of the Northern War. It was under these conditions that Andrei Ivanovich’s qualities manifested themselves as diligence, courage, energy, persistence in achieving the goal, and excellent organizational skills. These same qualities have repeatedly helped Ushakov during command of the Cossack sabotage squad operating on the communications of the Swedish army, during battles in Poland against supporters of Stanislav Leshchinsky and the Swedish corps of Krassov, while preparing for the defense of Ukrainian lands from the invasion of the Crimean Tatars.
However, circumstances so happened that the main talents of Ushakov were not revealed on the battlefield and not in the fight against external enemies, but in protecting the state from such dangers as bribery, embezzlement and official crimes.
