Gavriil Golovkin

Gavriil Golovkin
Гавриил Иванович Головкин
Portrait of Golovkin
Head of the Posolsky Prikaz
In office 1706–1708
Preceded by	Pyotr Shafirov
Succeeded by	himself (as Head of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs)
Head of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs
In office 1717–1734
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Andrey Osterman
Personal details
Born	1660 Moscow, Tsardom of Russia
Died	20 January 1734 Moscow, Russian Empire
Profession	Statesman, diplomat
Awards	Order of St. Andrew Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky Order of the White Eagle

Count Gavrila (Gavriil) Ivanovich Golovkin (Russian: Гаври́ла (Гаврии́л) Ива́нович Голо́вкин) (1660 – 20 January 1734) was a Russian statesman who formally presided over foreign affairs of the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1706 until his death. The real control over Russian diplomacy during his lengthy term in office was exercised by Boris Kurakin until 1727 and by Andrey Osterman after his death.

In 1677, while still a young man, Gavrila Golovkin was attached to the court of the tsarevich Peter, with whose mother Nataliya he was connected, and vigilantly guarded him during the disquieting period of the regency of Sophia. He accompanied the young tsar abroad on his first foreign tour, and worked by his side in the dockyards of Zaandam. In 1706, he succeeded Golovin in the direction of foreign policy, and was created the first Russian grand-chancellor on the field of Poltava (1709). Golovkin held this office for twenty-five years.

In the reign of Catherine I, he became a member of the Supreme Privy Council, which had the chief conduct of affairs during this and the succeeding reigns. The empress also entrusted him with her last will whereby she appointed the young Peter II her successor and Golovkin one of his guardians. On the death of Peter II in 1730, he declared openly in favour of Anna, duchess of Courland, in opposition to the aristocratic Dolgorukovs and Galitzines, and his determined attitude on behalf of autocracy was the chief cause of the failure of the proposed constitution, which would have converted Russia into a limited monarchy. Under Anna, he was a member of the first cabinet formed in Russia, but had less influence in affairs than Osterman and Munnich.

In 1707, Golovkin was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1710 a count of the Russian Empire. He was one of the wealthiest, and at the same time one of the stingiest, magnates of his day. His ignorance of any language but his own made his intercourse with foreign ministers very inconvenient. For the ultimate disgrace of his relatives, see the Lopukhina Affair. Yury Golovkin, Russia's first ambassador to China, was his great-grandson.

External links

• List of Descendants at European Dynastics.com

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Golovkin, Gavriil Ivanovich". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 226.