Adam Vasilyevich Olsufiev (January 27, 1721 – July 8, 1784) was a figure in the Russian Enlightenment, a lover of literature, the patron of opera and theaters, Cabinet Minister and State Secretary of Empress Catherine II.

Here Adam Vasilyevich spent seven years, and managed to attract attention with his remarkable talents and ability to languages; therefore, when the War with Turkey began in 1735 and Field Marshal Count Minikh turned to the Corps with a request to give him a young man who knows languages, the choice of superiors immediately fell on young Olsufiev.

He was released from the Corps with the promotion from corporal to commissioner on assignments in the army Carabinier Regiment and was appointed to be a member of Minikh circle to conduct his foreign correspondence.

At the end of hostilities, during which he was inseparably at the field marshal, Olsufiev joined the diplomatic service and was appointed secretary of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen under envoy Baron Johann Korf.

Returning to Russia and soon marrying Maria Vasilyevna Saltykova, Olsufyev expelled from the Copenhagen mission and entered the service in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs to Chancellor Bestuzhev.

In November 1756, Olsufiev was promoted to state councilor and then made a member of the reorganized by him and Pugovishnikov in 1758, on behalf of Chancellor Vorontsov, the Foreign College, as well as personal secretary of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

In the same year, he was involved in active participation in the negotiations on a trade agreement with England, and managed by his attitude, knowledge and experience to gain a very flattering characterization of the British ambassador, who in his reports to his court stated that "he considers Olsufiev according to his abilities and education above all Russians with whom he dealt".

On March 20, 1764, Olsufiev resigned from the duties of accepting petitions submitted to the Highest Name, but retained all his other posts and continued to be among the closest persons to the empress.

Having begun his Senate practice in 1765 with the first report on the need to leave workers unnecessary at salt factories, Olsufyev in 1766 came up with a project on the collection, from 1767, of all Roma living in the Slobodsko-Ukrainian and other provinces, a tax of seven hryvnias.

Distracted by other studies from senatorial duties, Olsufiev, appointed December 6, 1767, to attend the 1st Department, although he continued to participate in Senate meetings, did not make major reports, and only in 1776, after a long break, in a thorough report The Senate outlined the unlawful actions of the Tobolsk Provincial Chancellery, which placed at the state-owned factories yasak Tatars, Ostyaks and other foreigners, without any right, and carried out other lawlessness.

However, disagreements and even clashes with some senior administrative officials (incidentally, with the prosecutor general, Prince Vyazemsky) led the unyielding Olsufiev to ask the empress to dismiss him from being in the Senate.

Contemporaries agree on the characterization of Adam Vasilyevich, portraying him as a very intelligent, sociable person who did not take an active part in the struggle of temporary workers and therefore did not inspire a hostile attitude towards himself.

In 1784, at the special request of Catherine II, Olsufiev published in Saint Petersburg the third part of Vasily Tatishchev's History of Russia, based on the Nikon Chronicle and bringing the story to 1462.