Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov (1733–1811) was a Russian baron and a member of the

Stroganov The Stroganovs or Strogonovs (russian: link=no, Стро́гановы, Стро́гоновы), French spelling: Stroganoff, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen. From the time of Ivan ...

family. He was an assistant to the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, a longtime President of the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

, director of the

Russian Imperial Library The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...

and a member of the Russian Academy.

Life

Stroganov was born on 3 January 1733 in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, a son of baron Sergey Grigoryevich Stroganow. During 1752–1757 he studied at the universities of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

(art treasures), and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(chemistry, physics, and metallurgy). In Paris he was a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and visited

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

. After the death of his father in 1756, he completed the decoration of the

Stroganov Palace The Stroganov Palace (Russian: Строгановский дворец) is a Late Baroque palace at the intersection of the Moika River and Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, Russia. The palace was built to Bartolomeo Rastrelli's designs for Baro ...

in 1760. In 1780 he became a senator. In 1783 he became a member of the

Russian Academy The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy (russian: Академия Российская, Императорская Российская академия) was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia ...

, and one of the editors of the Academic Dictionary. Stroganov was a member of the commission on elaborating the new

code of laws A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

during the reign of

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

(1762–1796). From 1800 until his death he was a president of the

and director of the Imperial Public Library (1800–1811). He was the second director of the library (after Choiseul-Gouffier). He was also a member of the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

. From 1801 as chairman of a board of trustees, he was a supervisor of the

Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg Kazan Cathedral or Kazanskiy Kafedralniy Sobor (russian: Каза́нский кафедра́льный собо́р), also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, is a cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Nevsky Pr ...

.Строганов Александр Сергеевич
In 1805 he proposed to

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...

the establishment of a special Manuscript Depository ("депо манускриптов") at the Imperial Library. Manuscripts taken from the collection of

Peter P. Dubrovsky Peter Petrovich Dubrovsky russian: Пётр Петрович Дубровский (born December 9, 1754 in Kiev, died January 9, 1816 in Petersburg), was a Russian bibliophile, diplomat, paleographer, secretary of the Russian Embassy in France, c ...

formed the basis of this depository. Stroganov was also a collector of pictures of famous artists. He died on 27 September 1811 in

References

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stroganov, Alexander Sergeyevich 1733 births 1811 deaths Philanthropists from the Russian Empire Counts Russian librarians Members of the Russian Academy Alexander Sergeyevich Active Privy Councillors, 1st class (Russian Empire) Burials at Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)

Life

References

Further reading

External links