![Shirinsky1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Shirinsky1.jpg)
Prince Platon Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (russian: Платон Александрович Ширинский-Шихматов; 1790–1853) was
Nicholas I's deputy
education minister (1842–50) and education minister (1850–53) who spearheaded the
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (russian: Правосла́вие, самодержа́вие, наро́дность, Pravoslávie, samoderzhávie, naródnost'), also known as Official Nationality,Riasanovsky, p. 132 was the dominant imper ...
policy introduced by his predecessor
Sergey Uvarov
Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov (russian: Граф Серге́й Семёнович Ува́ров; 5 September Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._25_August.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/> O.S._25_August">O ...
. He was also an amateur poet and translator.
Shirinsky-Shikhmatov came from a
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different princely family that could trace its lineage to
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
. He served with distinction in the
Russian Navy during the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. As a protégé of admiral
Alexander Shishkov
Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov (russian: Алекса́ндр Семёнович Шишко́в) (, Moscow - , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian writer, literary critic, philologist, memoirist, military and statesman, Admiral (1824). He created a n ...
he followed his mentor from the navy to the ministry of education. Boasting that he was but "a blind tool of his emperor's will", he sought to increase the number of university students who were of noble origin at the expense of commoners. He believed that it was the nobility's duty to rule Russia.
The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia
/ref>
Shirinsky-Shikhmatov's most durable achievement was the Archaeographic Commission
The Archaeographic Commission (Археографическая комиссия) was set up in St. Petersburg in 1834 by Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, Nikolay Ustryalov, and Pavel Stroyev with the aim of publishing historical and ethnographic mat ...
set up in 1834 to oversee the publication of medieval archives and chronicles. It continues under a different name to this day.
References
1790 births
1853 deaths
Education ministers
Members of the Russian Academy
Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Russian male poets
Russian nobility
Russian people of Tatar descent
19th-century poets
19th-century translators
19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire
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