Adam Vasilyevich Olsufiev (January 27, 1721 – July 8, 1784) was a figure in the Russian Enlightenment, a lover of literature, the patron of opera and theaters, Cabinet Minister and State Secretary of Empress Catherine II. He ended his career as a senator with the rank of Actual Privy Councilor. Grandfather of Count Vasily Olsufiev.
Biography
Came from the Olsufievs. The son of Ober-Hofmeister Vasily Dmitrievich and his wife Eva Ivanovna, née Golender, who was Swedish by birth. At baptism, he received the name Vasily, but at the behest of Emperor Peter I, who wished to be godfather, but who was late to his baptism, was named by a name uncommon among the Russians, Adam. Therefore, Adam Vasily had two names, but on all acts and documents he was signed by Adam.
At the age of seven, he lost his father and remained in the arms of his mother, who soon after the death of her husband remarried Colonel Wenzel. Wenzel took up his education and on February 17, 1732, identified him in the then-newly opened Gentry Cadet Corps. Here Adam Vasilyevich spent seven years, and managed to attract attention with his remarkable talents and ability to languages; therefore, when the War with Turkey began in 1735 and Field Marshal Count Minikh turned to the Corps with a request to give him a young man who knows languages, the choice of superiors immediately fell on young Olsufiev. He was released from the Corps with the promotion from corporal to commissioner on assignments in the army Carabinier Regiment and was appointed to be a member of Minikh circle to conduct his foreign correspondence.
At the end of hostilities, during which he was inseparably at the field marshal, Olsufiev joined the diplomatic service and was appointed secretary of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen under envoy Baron Johann Korf. Olsufiev's overseas stay was very long; he became so settled in Denmark that he married a Danish woman, who, however, soon died, leaving him no offspring. Returning to Russia and soon marrying Maria Vasilyevna Saltykova, Olsufyev expelled from the Copenhagen mission and entered the service in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs to Chancellor Bestuzhev.
Through the relatives of his wife, in particular through her brother, Sergei Saltykov, who enjoyed the great location of Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna, Adam Vasilyevich became known to the young Grand Duchess and soon rose into the ranks of her adherents still rare then; he helped the Grand Duchess correspond with her mother, relations with which she was most strictly forbidden, and earned her favor with his cheerful, accommodating character, wit and wide education. In November 1756, Olsufiev was promoted to state councilor and then made a member of the reorganized by him and Pugovishnikov in 1758, on behalf of Chancellor Vorontsov, the Foreign College, as well as personal secretary of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
Since that time, he began to quickly move up the ranks, and, on the recommendation of the cabinet minister, Baron Cherkasov, who had asked the Empress for retirement in old age, began to carry out his duties, managing the Empress's personal income and Siberian gold and silver mines, and after death the baron took his place, becoming the cabinet minister. When Chancellor Bestuzhev was disgraced, Adam Vasilievich, as cabinet minister, drafted a manifesto on his dismissal. The position of Olsufiev, as a person close to the empress, was at that time very ticklish among the three warring camps, that is, the empress herself, the heir to the throne and the young grand duchess. It was necessary to have a lot of tact and dexterity, so as not to annoy one or the other side, and he succeeded completely. He did not lose the empress's confidence until the last days of her life and, being at the bedside of the dying empress, had the opportunity to once again make sure of her great disposition to him; the empress alone left him at her bed, making death orders to the heir and in his presence expressed to the Grand Duke her last will. At that time, Adam Vasilievich was already a Privy Councilor and Knight of the Order of Alexander Nevsky.