Grigory Karpovich Kotoshikhin (russian: Григорий Карпович Котошихин) ( 1630 – November 1667) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

diplomat,

podyachy A Podyachy or podyachiy (; from the Greek ''hypodiakonos,'' "assistant servant") was an office (bureaucratic) occupation in ''prikazes'' (local and upper governmental offices) and lesser local offices of Russia in 15th-18th centuries. As an anac ...

of the

Posolsky Prikaz A prikaz (russian: прика́з, ''prikaz''; , plural: ) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in Muscovy and in Russia from the 15th to the 1 ...

, and writer. In 1658–61, Grigory Kotoshikhin was one of those sent on a

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

to negotiate the

Treaty of Valiesar The Treaty of Valiesar ( et, Vallisaare vaherahu, russian: Валиесарский договор 1658) was a treaty between Russia and Sweden, which concluded the Russo-Swedish theater of the Second Northern War. It was signed in the estate of Va ...

and

Treaty of Cardis The Treaty of Cardis was a peace settlement made in 1661 between Tsardom of Russia and the Swedish Empire. This particular agreement ended the Russo–Swedish War (1656–1658). It took place in Cardis Manor (nowadays Kärde) in Estonia. Base ...

with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. In the spring of 1664, he was dispatched to see Prince

Yakov Cherkassky Yakov (alternative spellings: Jakov or Iakov, cyrl, Яков) is a Russian or Hebrew variant of the given names Jacob (name), Jacob and James (name), James. People also give the nickname Yasha ( cyrl, Яша) or Yashka ( cyrl, Яшка) used for Ya ...

and take charge of his army's clerical work. In August, however, Grigory Kotoshikhin

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to the

Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...

and moved to

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. After that, he went to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

via

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru County, Ida-Viru county, at the Extreme points of Estonia, eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva (river), Narva river which ...

and was admitted to the Swedish service. Kotoshikhin converted from Orthodoxy to Lutheran Protestantism and adopted the name Ivan-Alexander Selitsky. In the fall of 1667, he was executed at

for killing, while drunk, the owner of the house where he had been living. Grigory Kotoshikhin authored a work called ''On Russia during the Reign of Alexey Mikhailovich''Google Books
(first published in 1840), which represents a valuable source of history of the mid-17th century

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotoshikin Grigory 1667 deaths Converts to Lutheranism from Eastern Orthodoxy People executed by the Swedish Empire People executed for murder Tsardom of Russia people Russian defectors Diplomats of the Russian Empire Russian people executed abroad Year of birth unknown 17th-century executions by Sweden Former Russian Orthodox Christians 1630 births