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Vorontsov
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or (or WoRONZOFF), the name of a Russian family, various members of which are distinguished in Russian history.
Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (1714-1767), Russian imperial chancellor, was the first to become prominent. At the age of fourteen he was appointed a Kammer junker at the court of the cesarevna Elizabeth Petrovna, whom he materially assisted during the famous coup d'ctat of the 6th of December 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers. On the 3rd of January 1742 he married Anna Skavronskaya, the empress's cousin; and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor. His jealousy of Alexis Bestuzhev induced him to participate in Lestocq's conspiracy against that statesman. The empress's affection for him (she owed much to his skilful pen and still more to the liberality of his rich kinsfolk) saved him from the fate of his accomplices, but he lived in a state of semi-eclipse during the domination of Bestuzhev (1744-1758). On the disgrace of Bestuzhev, Vorontsov was made imperial chancellor in his stead. Though well-meaning and perfectly honest, Vorontsov as a politician was singularly timorous and irresolute, and always took his cue from the court. Thus, under Elizabeth he was an avowed enemy of Prussia and a warm friend of Austria and France; yet he made no effort to prevent Peter III. from reversing the policy of his predecessor. Yet he did not lack personal courage, and endured torture after the Revolution of the 9th of July 1762 rather than betray his late master. He greatly disliked Catherine II., and at first refused to serve under her, though she reinstated him in the dignity of chancellor. When he found that the real control of foreign affairs was in the hands of Nikita Panin, he resigned his office (1763). Vorontsov was a generous protector of the nascent Russian literature, and, to judge from his letters, was a highly cultivated man.
Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov (1741-1805), Russian imperial chancellor, nephew of the preceding and son of Count Roman Vorontsov, began his career at the age of fifteen in the Izmailovsky regiment of the Guards. In 1759, his kinsman, the grand chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich, sent him to Strassburg, Paris and Madrid to train him in diplomacy. Under Peter III. he represented Russia for a short time at the court of St James's. Catherine II. created him a senator and president of the Board of Trade; but she never liked him, and ultimately (1791) compelled him to retire from public life. In 1802 Alexander I. summoned him back to office and appointed him imperial chancellor. This was the period of the triumph of the Vorontsovs, who had always insisted on the necessity of a close union with Austria and Great Britain, in opposition to Panin and his followers, who had leaned on France or Prussia till the outbreak of the Revolution made friendship with France impossible. Vorontsov was also an implacable opponent of Napoleon, whose "topsy-turvyness" he was never weary of denouncing. The rupture with Napoleon in 1803 is mainly attributable to him. He also took a leading part in the internal administration and was in favour of a thorough reform of the senate and the ministries. He retired in 1804. He possessed an extraordinary memory and a firm and wide grasp of history.
His "Memoirs of my Own times" (Rus.) is printed in vol. vii. of the Vorontsov Archives. Semen Romanovich Vorontsov (1744-1832), Russian diplomatist, brother of Alexander Romanovich, distinguished himself during the first Turkish War of Catherine II. at Larga and Kagula in 1770. In 1783 he was appointed Russian minister at Vienna, but in 1785 was transferred to London, where he lived for the rest of his life. Vorontsov enjoyed great influence and authority in Great Britain. Quickly acquainting himself with the genius of English institutions, their ways and methods, he was able to render important services to his country. Thus during Catherine's second Turkish War he contributed to bring about the disarmament of the auxiliary British fleet which had been fitted out to assist the Turks, and in 1793 obtained a renewal of the commercial treaty between Great Britain and Russia. Subsequently, his extreme advocacy of the exiled Bourbons, his sharp criticism of the Armed Neutrality of the North, which he considered disadvantageous to Russia, and his denunciation of the partitions of Poland as contrary to the first principles of equity and a shock to the conscience of western Europe, profoundly irritated the empress. On the accession of Paul he was raised to the rank of ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and received immense estates in Finland. Neither Vorontsov's detention of the Russian squadron under Makarov in British ports nor his refusal, after the death of Bezborodko, to accept the dignity of imperial chancellor could alienate the favour of Paul. It was only when the emperor himself began to draw nearer to France that he began to consider Vorontsov as incompetent to serve Russia in England, and in February 1800 all the count's estates were confiscated. Alexander I. on his accession at once reinstated him, but ill-health and family affairs induced him to resign his post in 1806. From that time till his death in 1832 he continued to live in London.
Besides his valuable Note on the Russian War (Rus.) and numerous letters, Vorontsov was the author of an autobiography (in Russky Arkhiv, Petersburg, 1881) and "Notes on the Internal Government of Russia" (Rus.) (in Russky Arkhiv, 1881).
Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov (1782-1856), Russian prince and field-marshal, son of the preceding, spent his childhood and youth with his father in London, where he received a brilliant education. During 1803-4 he served in the Caucasus under Tsitsianov and Gulyakov, and was nearly killed in the Zakatahko disaster (January 15, 1804). From 1805 to 1807 he served in the Napoleonic wars, and was present at the battles of Pultusk and Friedland. From 1809 to 1811 he participated in the Turkish War and distinguished himself in nearly every important action. He was attached to Bagration's army during the war of 1812, was seriously wounded at Borodino, sufficiently recovering, however, to rejoin the army in 1813. In 1814, at Craonne, he brilliantly withstood Napoleon in person. He was the commander of the corps of occupation in France 'from 1815 to 1818. On the 7th of May 1823 he was appointed governor-general of New Russia, as the southern provinces of the empire were then called, which under his administration developed marvellously. He may be said to have been the creator of Odessa and the benefactor of the Crimea. He was the first to start steamboats on the Black Sea (18;8). The same year he succeeded the wounded Menshikov as commander of the forces besieging Varna, which he captured on the 28th of September. In the campaign of 1829 it was through his energetic efforts that the plague, which had broken out in Turkey, did not penetrate into Russia. In 1844 Vorontsov was appointed commanderin-chief and governor of the Caucasus with plenipotentiary powers. For his brilliant campaign against Shamyl, and especially for his difficult march through the dangerous forests of Ichkerinia, he was raised to the dignity of prince, with the title of Serene Highness. By 1848 he had captured two-thirds of Daghestan, and the situation of the Russians in the Caucasus, so long almost desperate, was steadily improving. In the beginning of 1853 Vorontsov was allowed to retire because of his increasing infirmities. He was made a field-marshal in 1856, and died the same year at Odessa. Statues have been erected to him both there and at Tiflis.
See V. V. Ogarkov, The Vorontsovs (Rus.) (Petersburg, 1892); Vorontsov Archives (Rus. and Fr.) (Moscow, 1870, &c.); M. P. Shelverbinin, Biography of Prince M. S. Vorontsov (Rus.) (Petersburg,1858). (R. N. B.) V0R0SMARTY, Mihaly (1800-1855), Hungarian poet, was born at Puszta-Nyek on the 1st of December 1800, of a noble Roman Catholic family. His father was a steward of the Nadasdys. Mihaly was educated at Szekesfejervar by the Cistercians and at Pest by the Piarists. The death of the elder Vordsmarty in 1811 left his widow and numerous family extremely poor. As tutor to the Perczel family, however, Vdrdsmarty contrived to pay his own way and go through his academical course at Pest. The doings of the diet of 1825 first enkindled his patriotism and gave a new direction to his poetical genius (he had already begun a drama entitled Salmon), and he flung himself the more recklessly into public life as he was consumed by a hopeless passion for Etelka Perczel, who socially was far above him. To his unrequited love we owe a whole host of exquisite lyrics, while his patriotism found expression in the heroic epos Zaldn futdsa (1824), gorgeous in colouring, exquisite in style, one of the gems of Magyar literature. This new epic marked a transition from the classical to the romantic school. Henceforth VOrosmarty was hailed by Kisfaludy and the Hungarian romanticists as one of themselves. All this time he was living from hand to mouth. He had forsaken the law for literature, but his contributions to newspapers and reviews were miserably paid. Between 1823 and 1831 he composed four dramas and eight smaller epics, partly historical, partly fanciful. Of these epics he always regarded Cserhalom (1825) as the best, but modern criticism has given the preference to Ket szomsed vdr (1831), a terrible story of hatred and revenge. When the Hungarian Academy was finally established (November 17, 1830) he was elected a member of the philological section, and ultimately succeeded Karoly Kisfaludy as director with an annual pension of Soo florins. He was one of the founders of the Kisfaludy Society, and in 1837 started the Athenaeum and the Figyelmezo, the first the chief bellettristic, the second the best critical periodical of Hungary. From 1830 to 1843 he devoted himself mainly to the drama, the best of his plays, perhaps, being Verndsz (1833), which won the Academy's Ioo-gulden prize. He also published several volumes of poetry, containing some of his best work. Szozat (1836), which became a national hymn, Az elhagyott anya (1837) and Az uri holgyhoz (1841) are all inspired by a burning patriotism. His marriage in 1843 to Laura Csajaghy inspired him to compose a new cycle of erotics. In 1848, in conjunction with Arany and Petdfi, he set on foot an excellent translation of Shakespeare's works. He himself was responsible for Julius Caesar and King Lear. He represented Jankovics at the diet of 1848, and in 1849 was made one of the judges of the high court. The national catastrophe profoundly affected him. For a short time he was an exile, and when he returned to Hungary in 1850 he was already an old man. A profound melancholy crippled him for the rest of his life. In 18J4 he wrote his last great poem, the touching A ven cigdny. He died at Pest in 1855 in the same house where Karoly Kisfaludy had died twenty-five years before. His funeral, on the 21st of November, was a day of national mourning. His penniless children were provided for by a national subscription collected by Ferencz Deak, who acted as their guardian.
The best edition of VorOsmarty's collected works is by Pal Gyulai (Budapest, 1884). Some of them have been translated into German, e.g. Gedichte (Pest, 1857); Ban Marot, by Mihaly Ring (Pest, 1879); Ausgewahlte Dichte, by Paul Hoffmann (Leipzig, 1895). See Pal Gyulai, The Life of Vorosmarty (Hung.) (3rd ed., Budapest, 1890), one of the noblest biographies in the language; Brajjer, Vorosmarty, sein Leben and seine Werke (Nagy-Becskerek, 1882). (R. N. B)
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Vorontsov'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/v/vorontsov.html. 1910.
