Prince Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn Ambassador of Catherine 2. The meaning of Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich in a brief biographical encyclopedia

Dmitry's early childhood may have passed in a manor near Moscow or in Moscow, where his father's regiment was quartered. Education, like his brothers, he received in the Cadet Corps. For some time he served as a captain in the army.

Diplomatic Service

In 1767, due to a diplomatic conflict: humiliation of the title of Catherine II in official correspondence with St. Petersburg by the Versailles court, Golitsyn was ordered to "leave Paris without an audience." During his stay in Russia, he received the title of real chamberlain and the rank of privy councillor. In 1769 he was appointed "Minister Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to the States General of the United Provinces of the Lower Netherlands". His diplomatic activity in The Hague was mostly aimed at ensuring the safety of Russian merchant ships in the conditions of the war for the independence of the British colonies in North America. The extent of Golitsyn's participation in the creation of the "Declaration of Armed Neutrality" (1780) has not been fully clarified. However, according to the studies of historians and, above all, N. N. Bolkhovitinov, Golitsyn was the initiator of the creation of the "Declaration ..." and the compiler of its draft. Golitsyn, on the other hand, persuaded Stadtholder William V, who had previously been a supporter of England, to join the countries that adopted the "Declaration ...".

Probably, the dissatisfaction of the Russian court with Golitsyn's contacts with Adams, the US representative in the Netherlands, explains his recall from The Hague and subsequent appointment as envoy to Turin (November 24, 1782). Never leaving for Turin, at the end of 1783, Golitsyn resigned and remained to live in Holland.

Family

Portrait of Princess Amalia Golitsyna

In 1767, forced to leave France, Golitsyn asked permission to stay abroad to continue his education. Neither his direct superiors, nor the empress, to whom Golitsyn addressed through Falcone, gave him this opportunity. For health reasons, he delayed his departure to Russia for several months. In the summer of 1768, while undergoing treatment in Aachen, the prince met the daughter of the Prussian General Field Marshal Samuel von Schmettau, Amalia, who accompanied Frederick II's daughter-in-law Ferdinand on a trip to the resort. The wedding took place in Aachen on August 14, 1768. The young people arrived in St. Petersburg in October of the same year. As soon as Golitsyn received a new appointment, the couple left for Holland. In Berlin, the Golitsyns had a daughter, Marianna (December 7, 1769), a year later, in The Hague, their son Dmitry (December 22, 1770). From 1774, perhaps striving for a less formal way of life, Amalia Golitsyna lived near The Hague and was engaged in raising children. At first sharing her husband's atheistic way of thinking, the princess later became very religious. In 1780, a break occurred between the spouses, and Amalia Golitsyna moved with her children to Munster. In 1786, the princess converted to Catholicism and opened a religious and mystical salon (Kreise von Münster). Nevertheless, the couple corresponded and Golitsyn sometimes visited his family in Munster. At the age of 50, his daughter will become the wife of Prince Salma.

Golitsyn and the peasant question. Physiocrats

Golitsyn D. A. Bust by M. Kollo

Golitsyn at the time of his service in France was a regular visitor to the salon of Victor Mirabeau, a kind of branch of the circle of the founder of the physiocracy F. Quesnay. He became one of the first Russians who joined the ideas of the Physiocrats. In his letters to Chancellor A. M. Golitsyn, realizing the need to increase the productivity of agriculture in Russia, D. Golitsyn spoke in favor of the liberation of the peasants and the granting of property ownership to them, the gradual formation of land ownership through the purchase of land by farmers, the creation of a middle class, the destruction of subsistence farming. In correspondence with the chancellor, Golitsyn referred to the example of Denmark, he closely followed the course of socio-economic reforms in this country. In 1766, Golitsyn studied more than half of the works on legislation favorable to agriculture submitted to the competition announced by the economic society in Bern. In his letters to A. M. Golitsyn, the envoy retells and extensively quotes some of the competitive works. Believing that changes should be achieved gradually, by force of persuasion, he believed that the most effective example would be set by the Empress herself. Golitsyn's letters were read by Catherine II, judging by the notes left on them, she was very skeptical about his proposals, and, unlike the prince, did not idealize the noble landowners. A supporter of social change, Golitsyn was nevertheless an opponent of the revolutionary upheaval. Later, influenced by the events of the French Revolution, he would write:

In 1796, Golitsyn published the book “On the Spirit of Economists, or Economists Justified from the Accusation that Their Principles and Ideas Formed the Basis of the French Revolution” (“De l” esprit des economistes ou leses economists justifies d “avoir pose par leurs principes les bases de la revolution francaise"), where he argued that the physiocrats of the older generation did not strive for revolution, but tried to support the collapsing existing system.

Scientific work

Even at the time of work in Paris, Golitsyn was interested in scientific and technical innovations, followed the natural science literature and maintained correspondence with scientists. Golitsyn's letters, sent to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences through diplomatic channels, were valuable because in the last decade of the 18th century and the first years of the 19th, literature from abroad almost did not arrive in Russia.

Like many naturalists of the 18th century, Golitsyn was interested in various fields of science. Becoming a Russian envoy to Holland, he established contacts with Dutch scientists from different cities. Around 1776, Golitsyn set up his own laboratory in The Hague, but he also experimented in foreign laboratories, and also assisted other scientists. Judging by a letter dated February 28, 1778 to Swinden, Golitsyn had the largest electrostatic machine at that time (the diameter of two disks was 800 mm) of his own design. Having retired in 1783, the prince was able to come to grips with scientific research.

Electricity

Golitsyn summarized the results of his experiments on electricity in the works: "Letter on some objects of electricity ..." and "Observations on natural electricity through a kite". In the first work, the question of the nature of electricity was considered (Golitsyn's concept is one of the variations of the fluid theory), a guess was made about "rays emanating from a positively charged body", the topic of lightning protection devices was discussed, as well as the effect of electricity on biological processes (using the example of electrification of chicken eggs hatched by a mother hen). In his second work, Golitsyn drew an analogy between a cloud carrying an electric charge and a Leyden jar and described attempts to charge the latter with a kite in different weather, noting the lack of a sustainable result. Golitsyn also conducted a series of experiments to prove that a pointed-shaped spark gap is more effective than rounded or flat spark gaps. In the article "Letter on the shape of lightning rods" (July 6, 1778, published in 1780), he covered this issue in detail. Golitsyn developed the design of a single-rod lightning rod with the provision of isolation of its metal parts from the building structures of the protected facility to prevent their damage when the rod is heated from a lightning strike. A similar lightning rod was installed in Rosendal Castle (Geldern). Golitsyn in this installation anticipated modern standards for lightning protection of explosive and fire hazardous objects. Together with Svinden, Golitsyn carried out experiments to discover the effect of electricity on magnetism. Scientists stopped a step away from success: placing a magnetic needle in the plane of the spark discharge, they did not detect its movement under the influence of electricity. A positive result could be achieved if the arrow were above or below the discharge. Based on unsuccessful experiments, Swinden denied the connection between electricity and magnetism.

Mineralogy

Having become interested in mineralogy in the 80s, Golitsyn, like many others, began collecting samples - mostly in the mountains of Germany. His collection of minerals was replenished with receipts from Russia, the prince was greatly assisted in this by PS Pallas. Forster, who visited Golitsyn in 1790, spoke of her this way: “The prince’s mineralogical cabinet is a collection of a connoisseur who himself collected and preserved it, which happens infrequently and is instructive in its own way. We marveled at the one and a half pound block of flexible Peyresca sandstone brought from Brazil; the experiments of the prince convinced us that the decomposed types of Siebengebirg granites near Bonn are even more strongly attracted by a magnet than basalts.

The last and largest work of Golitsyn was "Collection of names in alphabetical order, accepted in mineralogy for lands and stones, metals and semi-metals and mountain resins ..." (Gallitzin D. Recuel de noms par ordre aiphabetique apropries en Mineralogie aux terres et pierres, aux metaux et demi metaux et au bitume… Brunsvik, 1801, p. 320; Nouvelle edition Brunsvik, 1801, p. 316). The second, corrected, edition of the "Collection ..." came out just before the death of the author. The book was not translated into Russian, but domestic mineralogists were familiar with it, in particular, V. M. Severgin used material from Golitsyn's "Collection ..." when compiling the "Detailed Mineralogical Dictionary".

Examining the Spessart plateau on one of his last trips, the prince discovered an unknown mineral. Golitsyn sent a sample of the mineral to Klaproth in Berlin: a chemical study showed that it was titanium oxide with iron. The prince sent a sample of the mineral with the results of the analysis to the Jena Mineralogical Society. Its founder and director Lenz called the mineral "gallicinite" (the name lasted until the middle of the 19th century, the name rutile is currently used).

In the summer of 1799, Golitsyn was elected president of the Jena Mineralogical Society. Despite a serious illness, the prince took an active part in his work.

Before his death, Golitsyn transferred his collection to the Mineralogical Museum of Jena (a cargo weighing 1850 kg arrived in December 1802), asking that samples be placed according to the Gauy system.

Volcanology

Golitsyn was one of the first to study extinct volcanoes in Germany, noting the amazing silence of local naturalists, when “their [volcanoes] number is amazingly large, their products are very diverse and they are constantly in sight; the materials that emitted these volcanoes have been used for centuries…” The prince saw the reason for this in the relative youth of mineralogy and volcanology and in the absence of a unified classification of minerals. "A Memoir on Some Extinct Volcanoes of Germany" was provided by Golitsyn in February 1785 to the Brussels academicians (Gallitzin D. Memoire sur guelgues vilcans etenits de l "Allemaqne. - Mem. Acad. Bruxelles, 1788, 5, p. 95-114). In In his work, the prince summarized the results of the study of volcanoes in the Rhine region below Andernach, in Hesse and near Göttingen (in the Fulda river basin) and noted the success of French scientists in studying the volcanoes of Auvergne, Languedoc and Dauphine.Working on the "Memoir ..." Golitsin used the works of Buffon, Dolomier, Hamilton and criticized a number of provisions of Neptunism.

Confession

Member-Director of the Dutch Society of Sciences (1777)
Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1778)
Foreign member of the Brussels Academy of Sciences (1778)
Foreign member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1788)
Foreign member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1793)
Member of the German Academy of Naturalists (Leopoldina, Halle) under the name of Maecenas III (1795)
Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (1798)
Member of the St. Petersburg Free Economic Society (1798)
President of the Jena Mineralogical Society (1799-1803)

Last years

In 1795, before the occupation of Holland by French troops, Golitsyn moved to Braunschweig. In recent years, he was seriously ill and experienced financial difficulties. He died of consumption in Braunschweig on March 16, 1803, was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Nicholas (the grave has not been preserved). The prince's personal archive was kept in Braunschweig and perished during World War II.

Awards

Order of St. Anne, 1st class.

Golitsyn's translations and books published by him

In 1771, having learned from the relatives of Helvetius about the unpublished work he had left, “On Man, His Mental Abilities and His Education” (De l "homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles et de son education), Golitsyn, who was personally acquainted with the philosopher and shared his views , decided to publish a book. Through the vice-chancellor, the prince informed the empress of his intention. Catherine II requested a copy of the work of Helvetius. In December 1772, the first part of the book was rewritten, but, without waiting for Catherine's decision, Golitsyn published the book in The Hague (June 1773) with a dedication to the empress... The work of Helvetius, with some provisions of which not everyone agreed in France, was approved in Russia.

In 1773, Golitsyn edited the book of the professor of the Paris Military School Keralio "History of the war between Russia and Turkey, in particular the campaign of 1769." The work of Keralio was published in St. Petersburg in French without indicating the name of the author in one volume with the "Genealogy of the Princes Golitsyns" and "Remarks on an anonymous article from the" Military Encyclopedia "on the Russian-Turkish war and the campaign of 1769" According to historians, the second and third parts of the edition were written by D. A. Golitsyn. "Remarks" is a critical analysis of an article that appeared in January-April 1770 in the journal "L" Encyclopedie Militaire, where the course of the military campaign was presented in a distorted light, and there were also attacks on the commander of the 1st Russian army A. M. Golitsyn.

In 1785, Golitsyn translated into French the first description of the physical geography and economy of the Crimea by K. I. Gablitz. “A physical description of the Tauride region by its location and all three kingdoms of nature” was published in 1788 in The Hague with a preface and comments by Golitsyn, who noted that the author continued the work begun by descriptions of travel “through the vast expanses of the empire” by Pallas, Johann and Samuil Gmelin , Lepekhina .

"Defense of M. de Buffon"

In 1790-1793. in the Parisian Journal de physique, published by Jean Meteri, several articles by J. A. Deluc were published attacking his scientific opponents, including Buffon. In response to Deluc and the chemist Balthazar de Sage, who also published material in the journal against progressive French naturalists, an anonymous Defense de M. de Buffon(1793, The Hague). In Russia, this work was published in the journal New Monthly Works, translated by D. Velichkovsky, N. Fedorov, P. Kedrin and I. Sidorovsky. According to the surviving copy with a dedication inscription of Golitsyn, it was established that he was the author of the pamphlet. This is the only work of the prince that has been translated into Russian. Recognizing some of Buffon's theories as erroneous, the author of "Defence ..." consistently denied the accusations of Deluc and Sage against him:

... scientists of all countries, working in the improvement of sciences, continue to show respect for these [Buffon's works], despite the errors that have crept into them. I spent a deliberate part of my life in acquaintance with Camper, Allaman and others; I know quite a few scientists in Germany. They are not quite the opinions of Messrs. Deluc and Sage: they think and speak frankly, they even write that the work of M. de Buffon, with all its errors, is and will forever be the work of a man with talents, and not a dry, so to speak, journal, like that of the ancient Pliny; this is a collection of events that led him to reasoning and conclusions, whether they are fair or false, but always proving that he had to reflect and delve deeply into everything that his ornate pen inscribed to us.

Golitsyn's works

"Lettre sur quelques objets d" Electricite "(The Hague 1778, in Russian, St. Petersburg, 1778);
"Defense de Buffon" (The Hague, 1793);
"De l" esprit des economistes ou les economistes justifies d "avoir pose par leurs principes les bases de la revolution francaise" (Braunshv., 1796) and others;
published a posthumous essay by Helvetius: "De l" homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles et de son education "(The Hague, 1772), the manuscript of which was acquired by purchase,
and Keralio, "Histore de la guerre entre la Russie et la Turquie, et particulierement de la campaqne de 1769" (Amsterdam, 1773), with his own notes.

– Russian scientist and diplomat (ambassador to France and the Netherlands), prince; honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a number of foreign. academies and scientific about-in. A friend of Voltaire and Diderot, G. in his philosophy. views adjoined to the materialists of the 18th century. For the first time (in 1773) he published the book. Helvetius "On Man". He wrote a work in defense of Buffon - "Protection of Mr. Buffon from the unjust and obscene attacks of Mr. Deluc and Sage" ("D? fence de Mr de Buffon contre les attaques injustes et ind? centes de M. Deluc et Sage", 1793). Not understanding bourgeois. the essence of the teachings of the French. physiocratic economists, G. considered it the best defense of the foundations of feudalism ("On the spirit of economists or economists justified from the accusation that their principles formed the basis of the French revolution" - "De l´?sprit des ?conomistes ou les ?conomistes justifi ?s d´avoir pos?par leurs principes les bases de la R?volution Fran?aise", 1796). To preserve the rule of the nobility, G. proposed to let the peasants go free for high redemption payments, without allotment of land. Some of the many G.'s letters (kept in the TsGADA, Golitsyn fund, cases 1111-1125) were published in the book: "Selected works of Russian thinkers of the second half of the 18th century", vol. 2, 1952 (p. 33-45). Lit.: Bak I. S., Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn (philosophical, socio-political and economic views), "Historical Notes", 1948, v. 26. I. Buck. Moscow.

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GOLITSYN Dmitry Alekseevich

15(26). 05.1734 - 23.02 (6.03). 1803, Braunschweig) - diplomat, scientist, publicist. In 1762-1768. - Ambassador to France, in 1768-1798. - in the Netherlands; member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a number of foreign academies, member of the Free Economic Society. Socio-political views of G. developed within the framework of the noble-aristocratic worldview, experiencing the influence of Western European ideology, Ch. arr. ideas of the physiocrats and fr. enlighteners. While abroad, G. maintained contact with such thinkers as O. Mirabeau, Voltaire, D. Diderot; in 1773 he published posthumously in The Hague Op. K. A. Helvetia "About Man". Calling for the "implantation" of science and art in Russia in order to overcome "ignorance", G. considered philosophy to be the most important and useful knowledge in this regard, which teaches how to be highly moral, how to soften passions and control oneself, instills humanity and kindness in a person . "Jacobins, revolutionaries, propagandists and democrats", in his own words, "illegally" "usurped" the honorary title of philosophers. He considered real philosophers fr. "economists", in defense of which he wrote in French. language great work "On the Spirit of the Economists, or Economists, justified from the charge that their principles are the basis of the French Revolution" (1796). According to the natural-philosophical ideas of G., osn. natural laws are the work of divine wisdom; they form the primary order of nature; but nature does not remain in a state of unchanging rest. G. shared the thoughts of J. Buffon about the emergence of a new order of things in nature through compounds, decompositions, new combinations of its elements, thereby paying tribute to deism and mechanism of the 18th century. In his ideas about man, G. significantly diverged from orthodox Christian views and was guided by the achievements of natural-scientific anthropology of the 18th century. In his opinion, man is a two-legged animal, which differs from other animals in the ability to speak, to communicate his ideas to his own kind using language, the desire to see everything and know everything out of curiosity; the unique quality of a person is to have property. Social order, according to G., is a branch of the general physical order; its laws must not be arbitrary; property, security, freedom are the principles of the social order, consistent with the physical order of nature. A state contrary to freedom - slavery - is the last, according to G., the degree of degradation of a human being, the humiliation of the mind, and the corruption of morals. On this basis, he advocated the liberation of the peasant from serfdom, without land, but with the right to movable and immovable property. The state of society as a whole, its morals, the nature of the nation, the development of science and the arts G. makes it dependent on "good" laws (or lawlessness), on "good" (or "bad") political institutions. He shared the idea of D. Hume about the consequences arising from "good" laws: laws provide property, property gives rise to confidence and peace of mind, from which curiosity develops, and knowledge is born from curiosity. Sharing the principle "Freedom - in the monarchy, slavery - in the republic," he preached the ideal of a monarchy based on "fair" laws. Based on the principles of the Physiocrats, from all classes of the society of the main. G. considered the class of landowners to be producing and "constituting everything in the nation", to-ry and should be the most privileged class. He considered the presence of a third estate, although unproductive in nature, to be useful for Russia. Freethinking, advocacy of philosophy as an independent science, naturalistic ideas with elements of deism and mechanism, and anthropology objectively put G. in opposition to the dominant Orthodox religious worldview, and strengthened the Renaissance and enlightenment trends in Russian. philosophical thought 2nd floor. 18th century

PHOTO - GAGARINS

SON of Darya Vasilievna Gagarina (1708-1774) Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn.
The Golitsyns are one of the most noble and ancient princely families in Russia, leading their genealogy from the son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Narimund, who reigned in Novgorod in the 15th century and received the name Gleb at baptism. From the family came 2 field marshals, 22 boyars, 16 governors, 37 senior dignitaries, 14 Golitsyns fell on the battlefield, Vasily Vasilyevich (d. In 1619) was even one of the contenders for the Russian throne. Princes, senators, scientists, military men, numerous representatives of the Golitsyns faithfully served Russia for six centuries, having taken a prominent place in the history of their Fatherland.

A Russian diplomat, colonel, acting privy councilor, chamberlain, ambassador, chemist, mineralogist, volcanologist - this is all one outstanding person, a representative of the third branch of the Golitsyn (Alekseevichi) princes, the grandson of Princess Anastasia Petrovna Golitsyna (nee Princess Prozorovskaya, a member of the Most Joking Council founded by Peter I ), the son of the lieutenant of the Butyrsky regiment, Prince Alexei Ivanovich Golitsyn (1707–1739) and Princess Daria Vasilievna Gagarina (1708–1774) Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn.

Alexey Ivanovich Golitsyn b. March 3, 1707 d. 5 June 1739
Entry:183789
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Generation painting
Rod Golitsyn
gender male
Full name
from birth Alexey Ivanovich Golitsyn
Parents

; Anastasia Petrovna Prozorovskaya (Golitsyna) [Prozorovskie] b. October 22, 1665 d. March 10, 1729
Events

Title: Prince

Military rank: Lieutenant of artillery

April 18, 1728 marriage: ; Daria Vasilievna Gagarina (Golitsyna) [Gagarins] b. 8 May 1708 d. 1774

Had - 5 CHILDREN

February 9, 1729 the birth of a child:
; Ivan Alekseevich Golitsyn [Golitsyn] b. February 9, 1729 d. 1 August 1767

6 April 1731 birth of a child:
; Pyotr Alekseevich Golitsyn [Golitsyn] b. 6 April 1731 d. 4 May 1810

February 21, 1732 birth of a child:
; Fedor Alekseevich Golitsyn [Golitsyn] b. February 21, 1732 d. 1782

April 4, 1733 birth of a child:
; Alexey Alekseevich Golitsyn [Golitsyns] b. 4 April 1733

May 15, 1734 child born: Moscow, Russia,
; Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn [Golitsyn] b. 15 May 1734 d. 23 February 1803

1735 child birth:
; Ekaterina Alekseevna Golitsyna (Golovina) [Golitsyny] b. 1735 d. 1802

Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn b. 15 May 1734 d. 23 February 1803
Entry:183861
complete tree
Generation painting
Rod Golitsyn
gender male
Full name
from birth Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn
Parents

Title: Prince

3 August 1768 marriage: Berlin, ; Amalia-Adelgeida von Schmettau [?] b. 16 August 1734 d. 15 April 1806

26 November 1769 child born: Berlin, Prussia, ; Marianna Dorothea Golitsyna (Salm-Reiferscheid-Krautheim) [Golitsyny] b. 26 November 1769 d. 11 December 1823

11 December 1770 child born: The Hague, Netherlands, ; Dimetriy-Augustin Golitsyn [Golitsyn] b. December 11, 1770 d. 24 April 1840

Russian scientist and diplomat, ambassador to France and the Netherlands, friend of Voltaire and other French enlighteners, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1778). Author of works on natural science, philosophy, political economy. A supporter of the easing of serfdom.

SON of Darya Vasilievna Gagarina (1708–1774)
Photo - gagarins

Daria Vasilievna Gagarina (1708-1774) Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn.
Like his brothers, Dmitry Golitsyn studied at the Cadet Corps, then continued his education at German universities, where he studied mainly physical and mathematical sciences. At first, according to the custom of that time, Prince Golitsyn was in military service in the Izmailovsky regiment (in 1757 he was sent to the French army with the rank of captain), and then he moved to the diplomatic service, which he began in Paris in 1760 with an envoy who temporarily replaced Prince D. M. Golitsyn (1721–1793). In 1762-1763, in the rank of embassy adviser, having received an appointment from Peter III, Golitsyn was chargé d'affaires in France, and in October 1763, Catherine II already appointed the twenty-six-year-old Prince Golitsyn as minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Versailles with the rank of chamber junker (perhaps the appointment was due to the fact that the brother of D. A. Golitsyn Peter, captain of the Izmailovsky regiment, was an active participant in the coup of 1762, which brought Catherine to the throne).
During his service in Paris, Golitsyn mainly had to deal with the Polish question, which complicated relations between France and Russia. Another important aspect of his activities was the strengthening of cultural ties between the two countries. In his private reports to Catherine II, D. A. Golitsyn introduced her to various phenomena of the social and intellectual life of France, in particular, it was he who proposed the candidacy of the sculptor Etienne Falconet to create a monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg. Through Prince Golitsyn, the Russian Empress negotiated the transfer publications of the "Encyclopedia" by Diderot and d'Alembert in one of the cities of Russia, after the French authorities forbade the printing of new volumes in their country. Through the mediation of a young envoy, Catherine II acquired a collection of books by Diderot, who needed money, and he himself was appointed her librarian for life. Golitsyn was a supporter of concluding a trade agreement with France and, in a report dated April 13, 1766, he argued to the empress that "the agreement cannot but be advantageous for Your Majesty's empire, since Russia constantly needs French goods, which are generally almost cheaper than other European ones." Catherine replied: "At least there weren't all of them." But, being an opponent of the import of French goods, she was not averse to luring representatives of French industry to her and instructed Golitsyn to persuade French Protestants to move to Russia. This gave rise to unpleasant explanations with the French government. Misunderstandings were also caused by the refusal of the Court of Versailles to give the Russian Empress the title of Votre Majeste Imperiale under the pretext that the application of any epithet to the words Votre Majeste ("Your Majesty") is contrary to the rules of the French language. On a report about this to Golitsyn dated April 28, 1766, Catherine II wrote: "It is against the regular language and Russian protocol to accept letters without proper titles." As a result of disputes, in August 1767 Golitsyn was ordered to "leave Paris without an audience", transferring the mission to an adviser. However, he was so accustomed to Parisian life that he could not part with France, and in November asked permission to remain abroad to continue his education. However, neither his direct superiors, nor the empress, to whom Golitsyn addressed through Falcone, gave him this opportunity (Catherine II expressed the opinion that he would find an opportunity to use his talents in the fatherland). During his stay in Russia, Dmitry Alekseevich received the title of real chamberlain and the rank of privy councillor. In August 1769, Prince Golitsyn was appointed "Minister Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to the States General of the United Provinces of the Lower Netherlands", but only in March 1770 was he received in The Hague by the government of the republic. His diplomatic activity in the Netherlands was mostly aimed at ensuring the safety of Russian merchant ships in the conditions of the war for the independence of the British colonies in North America. Golitsyn sympathized with the struggle of the North American colonies for independence, some historians believe that he was even the initiator and drafter of the "Declaration of Armed Neutrality" (1780), according to which countries that did not participate in the war received the right to defend their ships transporting goods by force belligerent powers, which, of course, was not in the hands of England. Golitsyn, on the other hand, persuaded the stadtholder of the Netherlands, William V, who had previously been a supporter of England, to join the countries that adopted the "Declaration". After staying in The Hague for 12 years, in 1782 Prince Golitsyn was transferred to Turin, but he did not want to go there and, at the request, was dismissed with a pension (probably his recall from The Hague and subsequent appointment as envoy to Turin is due to the dissatisfaction of the Russian court with Golitsyn's contacts with John Adams, US Representative in the Netherlands). Dmitry Alekseevich was awarded during his diplomatic service the title of real chamberlain (1769) and the Order of St. Anna (November 24, 1782). Leaving The Hague in 1782, Golitsyn settled in Braunschweig. In recent years, he was seriously ill and experienced financial difficulties. Prince Golitsyn died of tuberculosis in Braunschweig on March 16, 1803, at the age of 69, and was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Nicholas. Ironically, the grave has not been preserved, as well as the personal archive of the prince kept in Braunschweig, which died during the Second World War.
However, D. A. Golitsyn was noted not only in the diplomatic field. He was a real son of the Age of Enlightenment, was friends with Voltaire Diderot and other French enlighteners, was interested in the natural sciences, philosophy, and political economy.
Even at the time of his work in Paris, Golitsyn was interested in scientific and technical innovations, followed the natural science literature and maintained correspondence with scientists. Golitsyn's letters, which he sent to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences through diplomatic channels, were valuable because in the last decade of the 18th century and the first years of the 19th century, almost no literature from abroad arrived in Russia.
Like many naturalists of the 18th century, Golitsyn was interested in various fields of science. Becoming a Russian envoy to Holland, he established contacts with Dutch scientists from different cities. Around 1776, Golitsyn set up his own laboratory in The Hague, but he also experimented in foreign laboratories and assisted other scientists. Judging by a letter dated February 28, 1778, to the Dutch mathematician and physicist Swinden, Golitsyn had the largest electrostatic machine of his own design at that time (the diameter of two disks was 800 mm). Having retired in 1783, the prince was able to come to grips with scientific research.
In 1777, he sent to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences his "Letter on Certain Subjects of Electricity", later published as a separate pamphlet. For this work, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy, as well as a foreign member of the Imperial-Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts in Brussels. In addition, Golitsyn collected a rich collection of minerals and published more than a dozen works in this area.
He became widely known in scientific circles, became a foreign member of the Swedish and Berlin Academies of Sciences, President of the Jena Mineralogical Society.
Socio-political views of Golitsyn developed within the framework of the noble-aristocratic worldview, under the influence of Western European ideology, mainly the ideas of the Physiocrats and the French Enlightenment. In 1773, in The Hague, he published posthumously the work of K. A. Helvetius "On Man". Calling for the "implantation" of science and art in Russia in order to overcome "ignorance", Golitsyn considered the most important and useful knowledge in this regard to be philosophy, which teaches how to be highly moral, how to soften passions and control oneself, instills in a person humanity and kindness. At the same time, he considered the French economists to be real philosophers, in whose defense he wrote in French a great work "On the Spirit of Economists, or Economists, justified from the accusation that their principles are the basis of the French Revolution" (1796). In his ideas about man, Golitsyn significantly diverged from orthodox Christian views and was guided by the achievements of natural-scientific anthropology of the 18th century. Social order, according to Golitsyn, is a branch of the general physical order; its laws must not be arbitrary; property, security, freedom are the principles of the social order, consistent with the physical order of nature. Slavery, as a state contrary to freedom, is the last, according to Golitsyn, the degree of degradation of the human being, the humiliation of the mind, the corruption of morals. On this basis, he advocated the liberation of the peasant from serfdom, without land, but with the right to movable and immovable property. Believing that the land should be the inviolable property of the noble landowners, Golitsyn proposed to release the peasants into the wild for high redemption payments without allocating land. He called on Empress Catherine II to set an example for the liberation of the peasants. However, Golitsyn believed that "having moved so quickly from slavery to freedom, they [peasants] will not use it to strengthen their well-being, and most of them will indulge in idleness." Sharing the principle "Freedom - in the monarchy, slavery - in the republic", he preached the ideal of a monarchy based on "fair" laws. Freethinking, advocacy of philosophy as an independent science, naturalistic ideas with elements of deism and mechanism, anthropology objectively put D. A. Golitsyn in opposition to the dominant Orthodox religious worldview, strengthened the Renaissance and Enlightenment tendencies in Russian philosophical thought of the second half of the 18th century.

GOLITSYN DMITRY ALEKSEEVICH

Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich - see the article Golitsyns (writers and scientists).

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn

Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich (1734-1803) - prince, diplomat. Since 1754, he served in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, since 1760 - in the Russian embassy in Paris, where he established friendly relations with prominent enlighteners - Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu , D "Alember and others. He was a translator of a number of their works into Russian. In his reports to Petersburg, he proposed to free the peasants from serfdom, sell them part of the state lands, etc. In 1769 - 1782 - an envoy in The Hague. One of the authors of the adopted Catherine II Declaration of Armed Neutrality (1780). Supported recognition by Russia United States of America met with the future president of the United States D. Adams. After retiring, he lived abroad and was engaged in science (mineralogy, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.).

Danilov A.A. History of Russia IX - XIX centuries. Reference materials., M, 1997.

Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich (1734-1803), Russian philosopher, economist and diplomat, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1790), a number of foreign academies and scientific societies. In his economic writings, he paid considerable attention to the development of the population of Russia. Being a supporter of the physiocrats, Golitsyn believed that agricultural labor ensures the existence and development of the state. He advocated the mitigation of serfdom, offering to release the peasants into the wild for high redemption payments, without allotment of land. Golitsyn condemned the prohibition of the transition of peasants to the urban estates, believed that the reason for the poor development of industry in Russia was the small number of people employed in industry and trade. Golitsyn's economic ideas were actually directed against serfdom and contributed to the development, albeit limited, of bourgeois relations.

S. D. Valentey.

Demographic encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Chief editor D.I. Valentey. 1985.

Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich (15 (26), 05.1734 - 23.02 (03.07. 1803, Braunschweig) - diplomat, scientist, publicist. In 1762-1768 - ambassador to France, in 1768-1798 - in the Netherlands; member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a number of foreign academies, member of the Free Economic Society. Socio-political views of Golitsyn developed within the framework of the noble-aristocratic worldview, being influenced by Western European ideology, mainly the ideas of the physiocrats and the French enlighteners. While abroad, Golitsyn maintained contacts with such thinkers as O. Mirabeau, Voltaire , D. Diderot; in 1773 he published posthumously in The Hague K. A. Helvetia « About a human". Calling for the “planting” of science and art in Russia in order to overcome “ignorance”, Golitsyn considered the most important and useful knowledge in this regard to be philosophy, which teaches how to be highly moral, how to soften passions and control oneself, instills humanity and kindness in a person. "Jacobins, revolutionaries, propagandists and democrats", in his view, "illegally" "usurped" the honorary title of philosophers. He considered the French "Economists" to be real philosophers, in whose defense he wrote a great work in French "On the Spirit of the Economists, or Economists, justified from the accusation that their principles are the basis of the French Revolution" (1796). According to Golitsyn's natural-philosophical ideas, the basic natural laws are the work of divine wisdom; they form the primary order of nature; but nature does not remain in a state of unchanging rest. Golitsyn shared thoughts J. Buffon about the emergence of a new order of things in nature through combinations, decompositions, new combinations of its elements, thereby paying tribute to deism and mechanism of the 18th century. In his ideas about man, Golitsyn differed significantly from orthodox Christian views and focused on the achievements of the natural science anthropology of the 18th century. In his opinion, man is a two-legged animal, differing from other animals in the ability to speak, to communicate his ideas to his own kind through language, the desire to see everything and know everything out of curiosity; the unique quality of a person is to have property. Social order, according to Golitsyn, is a branch of the general physical order; its laws must not be arbitrary; property, security, freedom are the principles of the social order, consistent with the physical order of nature. A state contrary to freedom - slavery - is the last, according to Golitsyn, the degree of degradation of a human being, the humiliation of the mind, the corruption of morals. On this basis, he advocated the liberation of the peasant from serfdom, without land, but with the right to movable and immovable property. The state of society as a whole, its morals, the character of the nation, the development of science and the arts Golitsyn makes dependent on "good" laws (or lawlessness), on "good" (or "bad") political institutions. He shared the idea D. Yuma about the consequences of "good" laws: laws provide property, property gives rise to confidence and peace of mind, from which curiosity develops, and from curiosity knowledge is born. Sharing the principle "Freedom - in the monarchy, slavery - in the republic", he preached the ideal of a monarchy based on "fair" laws.

Based on the principles of the physiocrats, of all classes of society, Golitsyn considered the class of landowners to be the main producing and "constituting everything in the nation", which should be the most privileged class. He considered the presence of a third estate, although not productive in nature, to be useful for Russia. Freethinking, advocacy of philosophy as an independent science, naturalistic ideas with elements of deism and mechanism, anthropology objectively put Golitsyn in opposition to the dominant Orthodox religious worldview, strengthened the Renaissance and enlightenment tendencies in Russian philosophical thought of the 2nd half of the 18th century.

V. F. Pustarnakov

Russian philosophy. Encyclopedia. Ed. the second, modified and supplemented. Under the general editorship of M.A. Olive. Comp. P.P. Apryshko, A.P. Polyakov. - M., 2014, p. 137.

Works: Letters // Chosen. prod. Russian thought in the second half of the 18th century. Moscow, 1952, vol. 2, pp. 33-45.

Literature: Bak I. S. Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn (Philosophical, socio-political and economic views) // Historical notes. 1948. T. 26.

Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich (15.V.1734 - 23.II.1803), prince, - Russian scientist and diplomat. Author of books and articles on natural science, philosophy and political economy. Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a number of foreign academies and scientific societies; member of the Free Economic Society in St. Petersburg. In 1762-1768 he was ambassador to France, in 1768-1798 - to the Netherlands. Friend of Voltaire, Diderot and other French enlighteners. In his philosophical views, he was close to the materialists of the 18th century. In political economy, he declared himself a supporter of the physiocratic school that had developed in France in the middle of the 18th century, which, under the feudal form, had a bourgeois essence. Not understanding this, Golitsyn, after the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century, justified Physiocratism from the accusation that it formed the basis of the economic policy of the French Revolution. Main work: “On the spirit of economists, or Economists justified from the accusation that their principles formed the basis of the French Revolution ...” (“De l” esprit des économistes ou les économistes justifiés d “avoir posé par leurs principes les bases de la Revolution Française, Par le prince D... de G...", Brunsvick, 1796). Believing that the land should be the inviolable property of the noble landlords, Golitsyn proposed to release the peasants into the wild for high redemption payments, without allocating land. In this case, the tenants of the landlords' land would be rich peasants who exploit their landless fellow villagers. Such a proposal objectively opened up some scope for the development of bourgeois relations under the conditions of the serfdom. Some of Golitsyn's numerous letters ( stored in TsGADA, Golitsyn fund, files 1111-1125) were published in the book: Selected works of Russian thinkers of the second half of the 18th century (vol. 2, 1952, pp. 33-45).

I. S. Bak. Moscow.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 4. THE HAGUE - DVIN. 1963.

Literature: Bak I. S., Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn. (Philosophical, socio-political and economic views), in the collection: IZ, vol. 26, (M.), 1948; History of Russian economic thought, vol. 1, part 1, M., 1955; Essays on the history of philosophical and socio-political thought of the peoples of the USSR, vol. 1, M., 1955.

Read further:

Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).

Compositions:

Letters // Selected. prod. Russian thought in the second half of the 18th century. Moscow, 1952, vol. 2, pp. 33-45.

Literature:

Fav. Russian works. thinkers of the second half of the 18th century, vol. 2, M. 1952.

Bak I. S., D. A. Golitsyn (philosophical, socio-political and economic views), in collection: Historical. notes, v. 26, [M.], 1948.

History of Russian economic thought, vol. 1, part 1, M., 1955;

Essays on the history of philosophical and socio-political thought of the peoples of the USSR, vol. 1, M., 1955.

Prince Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn Ambassador of Catherine 2. The meaning of Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich in a brief biographical encyclopedia

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GOLITSYN Dmitry Alekseevich

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Prince Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn Ambassador of Catherine 2. The meaning of Golitsyn Dmitry Alekseevich in a brief biographical encyclopedia

Diplomatic Service

Family

Golitsyn and the peasant question. Physiocrats

Scientific work

Electricity

Mineralogy

Volcanology

Confession

Last years

Awards

Golitsyn's translations and books published by him

"Defense of M. de Buffon"

Golitsyn's works

GOLITSYN Dmitry Alekseevich

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what DMITRY ALEKSEYEVICH GOLITSYN is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn

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