Boris Alekseevich Kurakin

In Vienna in 1808 he married princess Elizaveta Borisovna Golicyna (1790-1871), daughter of Boris Andreevich Golitsyn, with whom he had three children: The marriage was not entirely successful.

In 1809 he was sent to review the Volga provinces and the following year his father (then Russian ambassador in Paris) invited him to carry congratulations to Napoleon on his marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria.

After his return to Russia he served in the Finance Ministry, but gained no promotion for the following eleven years, leading him to the conclusion that gossip had turned the Tsar against him.

[1] On 13 January 1822 he was made a senator with the rank of privy counsellor, becoming noted for his independence in resolving cases, sharp judgements, direct and firm convictions, integrity and honesty, all of which earned him the Tsar's favour.

At one of his favourites, the Stepanovsky estate in the Tver province, he carried out extensive construction work, building a whole town near the house with a theatre, tower, obelisks, gates, streets and avenues, in which he settled people.