Arseniy Zakrevskiy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait by George Dawe in the Military Gallery
Portrait by George Dawe in the Military Gallery

Count Arseniy Andreyevich Zakrevsky (Russian: Арсений Андреевич Закревский) (September 13(24), 1783 or 1786 - January 11(23), 1865, Florence) was a Russian statesman and Minister of the Interior from April 19 of 1828 to November 19 of 1831.

Polish-born, his early career was in the Russian armed forces where he rose to the rank of infantry general (1829). He was trusted by Emperor Nicholas I, as he was a military and reactionary soul. Between 1823 and 1831, Count Zakrevski served as the Governor General of the Grand Duchy of Finland. In the period 1828-31, he also briefly served as the Minister of Interior of the entire empire. He was elevated to the title of count in the Finnish nobility, and was registered in the House of Nobility under the name Zakrewsky as the Finnish comital house number 9. This made him and his family "Finnish citizens", which also meant that afterwards when out of office, they did not need passports to go to the territory of the grand duchy from the Russian side of the border, a coveted privilege.

His predecessor as Governor General of Finland was Count Fabian Gotthard von Steinheil, and his successor was the simultaneous Imperial Naval Minister, Prince Alexander Sergeievich Menšikov.

Preceded by
Vasily Lanskoy
Minister of Interior
April 1828 – November 1831
Succeeded by
Dmitry Bludov