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Artamon Matveyev

Type Figure Region Russia Time 1625–1682 Also known as Artamon Matveyev (variant)

Artamon Matveyev was a 17th-century Russian statesman, diplomat, and cultural patron, a late favorite of Alexis I who promoted Westernization, reform…

Timeline

  1. 1648–1660Moscow · RussiaBorn into a boyar family, he served at court from the 1640s, was sent on embassies to Scandinavia and elsewhere, became familiar with Western European politics and culture, and gradually won the tsar's trust.
  2. 1661–1670Moscow · RussiaIn the 1660s he became one of Alexis's most trusted Westernizers, patronizing theater and Western-style education, and married the Scottish-born Mary Hamilton; he took part in diplomatic negotiations with Poland and Sweden, laying the groundwork for his later control of the Foreign Office.
  3. 1671–1682Moscow · RussiaFrom 1671 he headed the Foreign Office and was sent on an embassy to Denmark; after Alexis's death he lost his protector and was killed by the mob in the Moscow uprising of May 1682, dealing a heavy blow to the reformist faction.

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